Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Fujitsu Corporation

Other

Fijitsu Limited

Hidetoshi Yano

Hidekiyo Ozawa

Mitsuo Saeki

Osamu Naruse

Kenji Sugiura

Naomi Sugimoto

Makoto Obu

Tsukuru Kai

Kouichi Matsuda

Masahiko Shakuto

Nobuto Yokokawa

Hiroki Nakamatsu

Mituo Saeki

Kazuhiko Watanabe

Yasushi Nakazato

Takashi Matsumoto

Yasuyuki Yamashita

Hisashi Shoji

Kyuichi Takimoto

Yoshiaki Sano

Seiya Kitagawa

Toshiyuki Matsuyama

Shigeo Tanaka

Noriyoshi Tarumi

Katsuhiro Echigo

Kei Yasutomi

Takayuki Kimura

Yasuhiro Kawashima

Fumio Kishi

Yasuo Kawada

Masafumi Okumura

Ryubun Seimiya

Shigeaki Nakazawa

Masako Yoshii

Hiromi Demizu

Yoshiko Ishii

Hidenori Sakai

Masako Suzuki

Nobuo Kasahara

Yukiko Iwasaki

Hiromitsu Takagaki

Shigeru Yoshiki

Seiji Oka

Osamu Endo

Tosio Nakahara

Takeshi Saito

Yutaka Koizumi

Nobuo Iwata

Shigeru Watanabe

Chiaki Tanaka

Satoshi Muramatsu

Nobutaka Takeuchi

Toshihiko Baba

Hiroshi Ikuno

Koji Sakamoto

Shinichi Kawahara

Tomoji Ishikawa

Naoki Iwata

Tetsuo Yamamoto

Hirokatsu Suzuki

Kiyoshi Tanikawa

Junichi Terai

Masumi Ikesue

Nobuaki Tomidokoro

Takahiko Tokumasu

Hisashi Ishijima

Ichiro Komuro

Hideaki Matsui

Tsuyoshi Deki

Aino Noguchi

Toshiro Obitsu

Shinsuke Kikui

Kazuhiro Nishido

Naomi Misago

Hideki Akiyoshi

Nobuhiro Shima

Tomoko Ogawa

Hiroyasu Itou

Shigeki Sawa

Akira Takeuchi

Oasamu Naruse

Yasayuki Yamashita

A battery unit includes: a battery having cell units connected in parallel, in which one or a plurality of battery cells is connected in series; an external terminal provided for the battery; a switching element provided between each internal terminal and the external terminal of the cell unit; a protection circuit monitoring whether or not a fault occurs in each of the plurality of cell units and cutting off, through the switching element, a connection between the internal terminal and the external terminal of the cell unit with the fault detected; and an informing signal output terminal notifying an external device that the connection with the external terminal with respect to at least one of the cell units is cut off.

Battery unit, battery system, electronic device, charging control method of battery, and discharging control method of battery

A cleaning unit that can remove particles of residual toner remaining on an image carrier after transfer and be incorporated in a process cartridge removably installable to an image forming apparatus, includes a brush roller disposed in contact with the image carrier to remove the residual toner remaining on the image carrier from the image carrier, and a polarity control member disposed in contact with the image carrier to control charge polarities of the residual toner remaining on the image carrier before the residual toner is removed by the brush roller. The polarity control member includes a first surface where the polarity control member contacts the image carrier, a second surface where the polarity control member does not contact the image carrier, and a conductive filler that is not exposed on the first surface that contacts the image carrier.

Cleaning unit for an electrophotographic image forming apparatus having a polarity control member

A cleaning device includes a cleaning member, a collection member, an electrical field generator, and a separation member. The cleaning member has a surface capable of moving while contacting a surface of a cleaning target to remove toner on the surface of the cleaning target. The collection member has a surface capable of moving while contacting the surface of the cleaning member to collect the toner on the surface of the cleaning member. The electrical field generator generates an electrical field to move the toner from the cleaning member to the collection member. The separation member contacts the surface of the collection member to separate the toner on the surface of the collection member. The collection member has a centerline average surface roughness of not more than 0.1 &#x3bc;m and shows a surface hardness rank of B or higher in a steel-wool scratch test.

Cleaning device, image forming apparatus including the device, and process cartridge including the device

A cleaning devicefor removing a toner remaining on an image bearing memberA after transfer, including: a polarity control memberconfigured to unify polarities of the remaining toner on the image bearing memberA, a cleaning memberconfigured to remove the remaining toner having a polarity unified by the polarity control member, a collecting memberconfigured to collect the remaining toner transferred to the cleaning member, a bladeconfigured to remove the remaining toner from the collecting member, and a brush rollerconfigured to sweep the remaining toner on the image bearing memberA and inject charge, disposed upstream of the polarity control memberin the traveling direction of the image bearing memberA.

Cleaning device and image forming apparatus

A cleaning device removes residual toner particles from a cleaning target, such as a photoconductor, which has a moving surface. The cleaning device includes a cleaning brush, a power circuit, and a cleaning member. The cleaning brush includes a brush rotation shaft, and the power circuit applies a first voltage of a first polarity to the brush rotation shaft. The cleaning member applies a second voltage of the first polarity to the cleaning brush. If the first polarity is negative, the cleaning member electrostatically removes toner particles having a positive polarity from the cleaning target. Then, the cleaning brush is triboelectrically charged to a second polarity, which is opposite to the first polarity, by contacting the cleaning target. Accordingly, the cleaning brush also removes residual toner particles having a negative polarity. Thus, the cleaning device removes both positively and negatively charged toner particles to clean the cleaning target.

Cleaning device, image forming apparatus, and process cartridge

A polarity controlling device for controlling polarity of residual material on an image bearing member, including a blade, to which a first voltage is applied and which has a contact edge contacted with the surface of the image bearing member to charge the residual material, wherein the contact edge is covered with a resin layer including an electroconductive material. A cleaner including the polarity controlling device; a brush contacting the image bearing member to electrostatically collect the charged residual material utilizing potential difference; a collection member contacting the brush to collect the residual material; and a cleaning blade contacting the collection member to scrape the residual material therefrom. An image forming apparatus including an electrostatic image bearing member; a developing device developing the electrostatic image using a developer including a toner to form a toner image; a transfer device transferring the toner image onto a receiving material; and the cleaner.

Polarity controlling device, and cleaner and image forming apparatus using the polarity controlling device

A cleaning apparatus for removing charged particles includes a cleaning brush and a recovery unit. The cleaning brush removes the charged particles from an object by attracting the charged particles having positive and negative polarity. The recovery unit for recovering the charged particles from the cleaning brush includes a recovery member, a first charge applicator, a second charge applicator, and a voltage control unit. The recovery member is supplied with a voltage to attract the charged particles. The recovery member has a core and a surface layer. The first charge applicator applies a voltage to the surface layer of the recovery member. The second charge applicator applies a voltage to the core of the recovery member. The voltage control unit controls a polarity of the voltage to be applied by the first and second charge applicators depending on a polarity of the charged particles to be recovered.

Cleaning unit, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus using the same

A cleaning device including a conductive member configured to charge powder remaining on a member to be cleaned so as to have a single polarity and configured to scrape off at least part of the powder, and disposed to contact with the member to be cleaned; a cleaning member configured to electrically adsorb the powder present on the member to be cleaned, disposed to contact with the member to be cleaned and located downstream of the conductive member in a direction in which the powder is conveyed thereon; a first recovering member configured to electrically adsorb the powder present on the cleaning member and disposed to contact with the cleaning member; and a second recovering member configured to scrape off the powder from the first recovering member and disposed to contact with the first recovering member, wherein the conductive member is constant-current controlled.

A cleaning device including a polarity control unit to control a charge polarity of residual toner particles, a cleaning member, a surface of which is movable, to electrostatically remove the residual toner particles, provided on a downstream side from the polarity control unit relative to a surface moving direction of an image bearing member, a toner collecting unit to collect the residual toner particles on the cleaning member, and a neutralizing member to neutralize the image bearing member, provided on a downstream side from the polarity control unit and an upstream side from the cleaning member relative to the surface moving direction of the image bearing member.

Cleaning device, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus

A cleaning unit, providable to an image carrier unit or an image forming apparatus, includes a cleaning member disposed in contact with a target member to electrically remove residual toner from the target member, an elastic blade disposed in contact with the target member upstream from the cleaning member, a blade supporting member, a blade power source, and a conductive member that is more conductive than the elastic blade, and electrically connects the blade supporting member and the elastic blade. The conductive member is disposed so that an edge part of the conductive member is closer to where the elastic blade contacts the target member than an edge part of the blade supporting member.

Cleaning unit, image carrier unit including same, and image forming apparatus including same

A cleaning brush configured to remove toner from a surface of a member of an image forming apparatus; wherein the cleaning brush includes a plurality of fibers having an inside part formed from a conductive material and a surface part formed by an insulating material.

Cleaning device, process cartridge and image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus of the present invention includes a cleaning brush positioned upstream of a blade nip in the direction of movement of the surface of a photoconductive drum. To prevent toner from accumulating at the blade nip, the surface of the photoconductive drum is moved in the direction opposite to the regular direction for image formation, conveying toner accumulated in a wedge-shaped space upstream of the blade nipto a position where the cleaning brush removes it. With this configuration, the image forming apparatus can stably clear spherical toner particles left on the drum over a long period of time.

Image forming apparatus with obtuse-edge cleaning blade

A cleaning device including an elastic blade whose tip is contacted with a surface of a rotating member in such a manner as to counter the rotated member to remove particles of a toner on the rotated member; and a holder configured to support the elastic blade, wherein a nip formed by longitudinal end portions of the tip of the blade and the surface of the rotated member has a first nip width in a rotation direction of the rotated member, and a nip formed by a central portion of the blade and the surface of the rotated member has a second nip width, and wherein the first nip width is less than the second nip width.

Cleaning device, and process unit and image forming apparatus including the cleaning device

A cleaner for cleaning a surface of a rotating material, including an elastic blade arranged to counter the rotating material while a tip of the elastic blade is contacted with the surface of the rotating material to clean the surface of the rotating material, wherein the elastic blade has a first surface facing the rotating material, and a second surface opposite to the first surface thereof, and wherein the elastic blade has a recessed portion, which has a bottom surface and a wall, in a rear portion of the second surface; and a support plate configured to support the elastic blade, wherein the support plate has a first surface facing the rotating material, a second surface opposite to the first surface and a tip surface, wherein the elastic blade is connected with the support plate in such a manner that the bottom surface and the wall of the recessed portion of the blade are contacted with the first surface and the tip surface of the support plate, respectively.

Cleaner, and process cartridge and image forming apparatus using the cleaner

A cleaning device and process cartridge including the same for an image formation apparatus, which prevents cleaning failures due to toner slipping past a blade, based on an equation for the force of toner particle rotation and the restraining force. Toner on an image carrier is removed by a blade. The relation between the blade and the image carrier satisfies the equation f(&#x3b8;)=&#x3bc;&#x2212;&#x3bc;&#xd7;(N/N+cos&#x3b8;)&#x3e;0. Here &#x3bc;is the friction coefficient between toner and image carrier, &#x3bc;is the friction coefficient between toner and blade, Nis the adhesive force between toner and image carrier, Nis the force received by the toner from the blade, and &#x3b8; is the angle formed by the blade and image carrier (the cleaning angle).

Cleaning blade for image formation apparatus

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Yokohama, Japan

Hidetoshi Yano