Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Hideo Ichikawa

Sunao Ikeda

Nobuhiro Makita

Takeshi Saito

Takaaki Yanagisawa

Shigeru Yoshiki

Seiji Terazawa

Toshinobu Nishizaki

Atsushi Inoue

Masato Suzuki

Seiji Ozawa

Masashi Hasegawa

Junji Yamabe

Michiharu Narushima

Hiroshi Sano

Masayoshi Suzuki

Masakazu Nakada

Tatsushi Umayahara

Kaori Ozeki

Takashi Ono

Kazuhiko Umemura

Keiichi Yano

Makoto Kawaguchi

Masanori Rimoto

Toshihide Tomotaka

Yoshihide Kawamura

Shigemi Kanda

Yusuke Uchida

Hiroaki Sugiyama

Kotaro Koide

Tetsuya Yoshida

Teruo Shibata

Eiichi Masushio

Masaki Serizawa

Tomokazu Saitoh

A sieving system includes a filter; a blade stirring a powder accumulated on the filter; a driver driving the blade; a notifier notifying predetermined information of a status of the filter, based on a load of the driver while driving the blade.

Sieving system, and methods of notifying information, driving and feeding

A sieving device including a hollow cylindrical body, a filter disposed at a bottom portion of the hollow cylindrical body, and a blade configured to rotate in close proximity to the filter around a rotation axis thereof crossing the filter to thereby stir powder supplied to the hollow cylindrical body.

Sieving device, sieving device for developing device, and powder-charging device

A sieve device is provided. The sieve device includes a sieve body and an inlet unit. The sieve body includes a cylinder, a filter, and a blade. The cylinder is adapted to be supplied with a powder. The filter is disposed at a bottom of the cylinder. The blade is adapted to agitate the powder within the cylinder to allow the powder to pass through the filter. The blade is rotatable about a rotation axis that intersects with the filter in proximity to the filter. The inlet unit is adapted to introduce the powder into the sieve body.

Sieve device, powder transporting unit, image forming apparatus, and method of transporting powder

A nozzle is provided. The nozzle includes a gas injection unit, a sieve body, and a derivation unit. The gas injection unit is adapted to inject a gas into a powder container containing a powder. The sieve body includes a cylinder, a filter, and a blade. The cylinder has a communication aperture for communicating the cylinder with the powder container. The filter is disposed at a bottom of the cylinder. The blade is adapted to agitate the powder introduced into the cylinder from the powder container through the communication aperture upon injection of the gas into the powder container to allow the powder to pass through the filter. The blade is rotatable about a rotation axis that intersects with the filter in proximity to the filter. The derivation unit is adapted to derive the powder passed through the filter out of the powder container.

Nozzle, image forming apparatus, and method of deriving powder

A sieve device is provided. The sieve device includes a sieve body and an introduction unit. The sieve body includes a cylinder, a filter, and a blade. The cylinder is adapted to be supplied with toner particles. The filter is disposed at a bottom of the cylinder. The blade is adapted to agitate the toner particles within the cylinder to allow the toner particles to pass through the filter. The blade is rotatable about a rotation axis that intersects with the filter in proximity to the filter. The introduction unit is adapted to introduce the toner particles passed through the filter outside the sieve body.

Sieve device, supply unit, developing unit, image forming apparatus, and method of supplying toner particles

A stretch label attaching device for attaching a stretch label on a good, including an adapter supporting the label from the inside thereof and has an opening into which the good is inserted; an adapter support member configured to support a lower portion of the adapter and has an opening into which the good is inserted; and an adapter fixing member configured to fix the lower portion of the adapter together with the adapter support member. A method for attaching a stretch label on a good including setting a stretch label on the adapter mentioned above; inserting the good into the openings of the adapter and adapter support member while extending the label at a ratio not greater than 5 %; and releasing the stretch label attaching device from the good while holding the label, to attach the label to the predetermined position of the good.

Stretch label attaching device

A toner container has a hollow body having a small diameter mouth portion, a ramp surface at one end and a spiral. A removable lid is positioned at the mouth portion so as to close the mouth portion and a lug is provided at the lid.

Toner container having lid including lug

A powder filling apparatus includes a first container configured to contain a powder. A weighing tank is configured to receive the powder from the first container and discharge a predetermined amount of the powder to a second container, which includes an opening configured to discharge the powder into the second container and a regulator configured to open and close the opening to discharge the predetermined amount of the powder into the second container. A connector is configured to feed the powder from the first container into the weighing tank.

Apparatus and method of filling microscopic powder

A developer replenishing device for replenishing a developing device with a developer, and a developer container for use therewith. The developer container, or toner bottle, includes a shoulder portion adjoining a first end of a hollow body. The body is formed with a spiral guide for guiding a developer stored in the developer container. The shoulder portion forms a wall and includes an engaging portion engageable with driver that causes the body to rotate. The engaging portion includes a lug protruding from the shoulder portion which allows a characteristic of toner to be identified. The engaging portion has an outside surface of a guide portion that guides a developer stored in the developer container. Two engaging portions may be angularly spaced from each other by 180 degrees. The developer container also includes a discharge mouth, which adjoins the first end of the body, which is smaller in diameter than the shoulder portion, and which includes an annular collar protruding outwardly, and a positioning portion positioned on a holder for the developer container. The positioning portion includes a lug protruding from an outside surface of the body. The holder for the developer container includes a hitting member which hits against the outside surface when the body is caused to rotate. A plurality of lugs are formed on an outside circumferential surface of the collar of the discharge mouth.

Developer replenishing device and developer container for use therewith

A developer replenishing device for replenishing a developing device with a developer, and a developer container for use therewith. The developer container, or toner bottle, has a mouth portion at one end thereof which is smaller in diameter than a hollow cylindrical main body. At the end of the bottle provided with the mouth portion, a shoulder has the inner periphery thereof partly raised to the edge of the mouth portion to form a raised portion for scooping up a toner. In addition, a part of the inner periphery of the circumferental wall of the bottle, which is contiguous with the raised portion, is also raised toward the axis of the bottle, about which the bottle is rotatable, thereby forming another raised portion. When the bottle is mounted on a bottle holder, which is included in the replienishing device, substantially horizontally with the mouth portion oriented sideways, the bottle is rotated to raise the toner from the bottom of the main body to the mouth portion. As a result, the toner is discharged to the outside via the mouth portion smoothly.

A toner cartridge includes a container body for holding toner therein, at least one rotatable member including a rotation center shaft, for discharging the toner outside from the container body, disposed in the container body, the container body having an opening at one end thereof in the axial direction of rotation of the rotatable member, and a cap member for opening and closing the opening formed in the container body, which is capable of serving as a bearing member for the rotatable member thereon and is detachable through the opening in the direction of the axis of rotation of the rotatable member. This toner cartridge is available with toner loaded therein, and can be recycled when the toner is used up. A method of recycling this toner cartridge is provided. In addition, an image formation apparatus including this toner cartridge is proposed.

Toner cartridge, image formation apparatus comprising toner cartridge,

A developer replenishing device for replenishing a developing device with a developer, and a developer container for use therewith. The developer container, or toner bottle, has a mouth portion at one end thereof which is smaller in diameter than a hollow cylindrical main body. At the end of the bottle provided with the mouth, a shoulder has the inner periphery thereof partly raised to the edge of the mouth portion to form a raised portion for scooping up a toner. In addition, a part of the inner periphery of the circumferential wall of the bottle which is contiguous with the raised portion is also raised toward the axis of the bottle about which the bottle is rotatable, thereby forming another raised portion. When the bottle is mounted to a bottle holder, which is included in the replenishing device, substantially horizontally with the mouth portion oriented sideways, the bottle is rotated to raise the toner from the bottom of the main body to the mouth portion. As a result, the toner is discharged to the outside via the mouth portion smoothly.

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Numazu, Japan

Hideo Ichikawa