Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Fujitsu Corporation

Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation

Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.

Sony Corporation

Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation

Sanoh Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Fuji Furukawa Engineering & Construction Co., Ltd

Other

Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

The Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd.

Nisca Corporation

Honda Giken Kogyo K.k.

Hideki Kimura

Eisuke Hori

Kenji Kikuchi

Yuji Suzuki

Nobuo Takami

Noriyuki Kimura

Hiroshi Kikuchi

Kunihiro Ohyama

Masaki Takahashi

Tadashi Ogawa

Masayuki Yamane

Hideo Yoshizawa

Yutaka Takahashi

Hiromitsu Fujiya

Junji Yamabe

Seiichi Kogure

Kazuhisa Sudo

Masahiko Kubo

Yoshihiro Fujiwara

Hiroyuki Nagashima

Masato Suzuki

Kazuyuki Sugihara

Seiji Terazawa

Yoshio Hattori

Ken Amemiya

Hideki Zemba

Masahiro Ohmori

Hideo Watanabe

Yuji Arai

Hiroshi Ono

Junichi Matsumoto

Takeshi Uchitani

Atsushi Suzuki

Junichi Terai

Yusuke Ishizuka

Hiroyuki Mabuchi

Yukio Otome

Hiroaki Okamoto

Katsumi Masuda

Toshiki Hayashi

Akira Fujimori

Takuya Akiyama

Tsuyoshi Imamura

Hiroyuki Uenishi

Yoichi Sato

Katsuhiko Nakata

Hiroshi Kawamoto

Keiichi Yano

Yoshiaki Watanabe

Michiharu Suzuki

Nobukazu Takahashi

Michiya Okamoto

Keiichiro Juri

Jun Koyatsu

Kazuhiro Shimada

Naoki Shinjo

Akihiro Yasuo

Tomoshi Hara

Eiji Makabe

Toshihiko Suzuki

Toshio Koike

Takashi Hirano

Satoshi Muramatsu

Kenji Mori

Tadashi Kasai

Masumi Suzuki

Shunji Katoh

Nobuo Kuwabara

Masahiko Shakuto

Michimasa Aoki

Shinji Tanaka

Takeshi Nishiyama

Makoto Watanabe

Jie Wei

Masayuki Watanabe

Yutaka Matsuda

Kazunori Suzuki

Junichi Ichikawa

Fumihiro Tawa

Fumihito Itoh

Takuma Iwasaki

Keiichi Yoshida

Shinya Karasawa

Akira Azami

Atsushi Ohta

Shinsuke Sugi

Yoshikazu Nobutoki

Takayuki Kawasumi

Hirotaka Hatta

Toyotaka Kataoka

Takuya Suganuma

Hiroaki Sakamoto

Atsushi Endo

Kazuhiko Tokunaga

Kota Tokuda

Yosuke Suzuki

An image forming apparatus includes an image bearer, a cleaning blade having an elastic member contacting a surface of the image bearer, the cleaning blade removing a residue on the surface of the image bearer, and a controller. In the image forming apparatus, the cleaning blade has a coating film of a lubricant formed on an edge contacting, at least, the image bearer, and the controller performs an initial coating film adjustment before an image is initially formed. In the image forming apparatus, the initial coating film adjustment includes driving the image bearer to rotate, sliding the image bearer and the cleaning blade, removing a portion of the coating film of the lubricant, which is formed on the cleaning blade, and exposing the edge of the cleaning blade.

Image forming apparatus and coating-film adjusting method

Provided is a light-emitting device that includes a light emission section, a separation groove, and a high reflectance region. The light emission section includes a stack structure including an active layer, a first reflector, and a second reflector. The active layer performs light emission by current injection. The first reflector and the second reflector are stacked in a first direction with the active layer interposed therebetween. The separation groove is provided symmetrically around the light emission section on an emission surface of light from the stack structure in the first direction. The separation groove is dug in the stack structure in the first direction. The high resistance region is provided in the stack structure on the outer side of an outermost shape of the separation groove on the emission surface. The high resistance region has electrical resistance higher than that of the light emission section.

Light-emitting device

A cleaning blade includes an elastic member that includes a front edge surface extending in the longitudinal direction of the elastic member and the thickness direction orthogonal to the longitudinal direction and a bottom surface extending in the depth direction orthogonal to the longitudinal direction and the thickness direction, the bottom surface sharing a front edge ridge part with the front edge surface and facing a cleaning target, and a coating layer coating the front edge surface, the front edge ridge part, and the bottom surface, wherein the front edge ridge part coated with the coating layer is in contact with a surface of the cleaning target, and the coating layer has an average thickness that increases with an increase in a distance from the front edge ridge part in the thickness direction on the front edge surface.

Cleaning blade, method of manufacturing the same, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes a toner image bearer, a transfer device, a cleaner, a bias power source, and circuitry. The toner image bearer bears a toner image. The transfer device performs a transfer process. The cleaner contacts the toner image bearer to remove transfer residual toner that is subject to the transfer process and remove untransferred toner that is not subject to the transfer process. The bias power source applies one of a first bias and a second bias different from the first bias to the cleaner. The circuitry controls the bias power source to output the first bias to the cleaner in response to a start of an image forming operation to remove the untransferred toner from the toner image bearer and control the bias power source to switch an output from the first bias to the second bias.

Image forming apparatus

A cleaning blade for cleaning a rotating body is provided. The cleaning blade includes: an edge layer having a tip portion that comes into contact with the rotating body; and a coating layer on the tip portion of the edge layer. The coating layer contains a first fluorine-based resin and a second fluorine-based resin incompatible with the first fluorine-based resin. The cleaning blade has a Martens hardness of from 0.5 to 3 N/mmat a position 20 μm distant from a tip edge portion of the edge layer.

Cleaning blade, lubricant leveling blade, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus

A powder conveying device includes a drop conveyance passage, an intersecting conveyance passage, a conveying screw, and a floating member. Powder entering from an inflow port drops in the drop conveyance passage. The intersecting conveyance passage communicates with a lower end of the drop conveyance passage and extends in an intersecting direction that intersects the drop conveyance passage. The conveying screw is disposed in the intersecting conveyance passage and rotates in a specified direction to convey the powder in the intersecting direction. The floating member is movably installed in the drop conveyance passage and floats in the drop conveyance passage to move by contact with the conveying screw. The inflow port and the floating member interfere with each other to prevent the floating member from coming out of the inflow port of the drop conveyance passage.

Powder conveying device and image forming apparatus incorporating same

According to one embodiment, a controller of a stepping motor includes a table generating unit and a current controlling unit. The table generating unit generates a data table of a threshold by using values of induced voltage at frequencies of switching signal that changes a set value of a drive current, the threshold being proportional to a frequency of the switching signal within an operation region in which the frequency of the switching signal is lower than a predetermined frequency, the values of the induced voltage including a first induced voltage generated at a first frequency of the switching signal and a second induced voltage generated at a second frequency of the switching signal. The current controlling unit controls a value of the drive current in accordance with a comparison result between the threshold and an induced voltage that is detected at a frequency lower than the predetermined frequency.

Controller of stepping motor, control method of stepping motor, and stepping motor drive controlling system

A method of manufacturing a surface emitting laser according to an embodiment of the present disclosure includes the following two steps:

Surface emitting laser and method of manufacturing the same

An image forming apparatus includes an image bearer; a nip forming member configured to form a transfer nip between the image bearer and the nip forming member; a nip pressure changer configured to change a nip pressure of the transfer nip; a transfer bias applier configured to apply, to the transfer nip, a transfer bias in which an AC component is superimposed on a DC component; and a DC component adjuster configured to adjust the DC component in the transfer bias, according to the nip pressure that is changed by the nip pressure changer.

Transfer bias and pressure in an image forming apparatus

According to an embodiment, a driving apparatus of a DC brush motor includes: a drive circuit that supplies motor current to a coil of a DC brush motor; and a control circuit configured to: after a predetermined time interval has elapsed since starting-up of the DC brush motor, drop down step-by-step a limit value that sets an upper limit of the motor current; and detect turning into a state where the motor current is limited by the limit value.

Driving apparatus and driving method of DC brush motor

A cleaning device cleans a discharge wire that discharges electric charge onto a discharge target. The cleaning device moves in a longitudinal direction oldie discharge wire. The cleaning device includes a first contact portion that contacts and cleans the discharge wire and a second contact portion that contacts and cleans the discharge wire. When the first contact portion and the second contact portion clean the discharge wire, the first contact portion and the second contact portion sandwich the discharge wire in a discharge direction in which the discharge wire discharges the electric charge onto the discharge target. The discharge direction is parallel to a radial direction of the discharge wire.

Cleaning device for cleaning a discharge wire, charger, and image forming apparatus

A semiconductor integrated circuit includes a control circuit that supplies, in accordance with a drive mode, drive signals to first to fourth switching elements connected to first and second output ends that supply excitation current and a power source and a ground therebetween, and the drive mode includes a discharge mode that turns ON the first and third switching elements on the power source side and a discharge mode that turns ON the second and fourth switching elements on the ground side.

Semiconductor integrated circuit, semiconductor integrated circuit device, and motor-drive control system

A system with a container including a protrusion, and a receiver to receive the container. The receiver includes a slide block that is movable relative to a body of the receiver, the slide block including two surfaces, a first surface, initially contacted by the protrusion of the container during insertion of the container into the receiver, having a first slope to resist movement of the container towards the receiver, and a second surface, subsequently contacted by the protrusion of the container during the insertion of the container into the receiver, having a second slope to interact with the protrusion of the container to assist movement of the container towards the receiver. This construction provides the user with a changing insertion force to indicate proper mounting of the container.

Toner container having protrusions projecting from opposite sides of the toner container

A developing device includes a developer bearer, a developer regulator, a developer supply passage, and a stopper. The developer bearer includes a magnetic field generator and is configured to bear a developer containing toner and magnetic carriers and conveys the developer to a developing area by rotation. A stopper prevents the developer blocked by the developer regulator from moving to a surface of the developer bearer, while securing a supply path for passing the developer in the developer supply passage to the developer bearer between the stopper and an upper end of a side wall of the developer supply passage that is opposite to the developing bearer. A width of the supply path in a direction perpendicular to a direction of a rotation axis of the developer bearer is in a range of 7%-10% of a circumference of an outer diameter of the developing bearer.

Developing device with a developer regulator and a stopper

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Hideki Kimura