Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.

Minolta Company, Ltd.

Hideyuki Kurahashi

Osamu Okada

Teruo Nagashima

Kenji Tsuru

Masanori Murakami

Mitsutoshi Yagoto

Hiroki Yamashita

Katsuhiro Nanba

Fumio Masuda

Masashi Kawai

Masamitsu Ishiyama

Tetsuya Onuki

Tatsuyuki Sasaki

Yoshiki Omichi

Takashi Gonda

Shigeo Nakamura

Kenji Okamoto

Masato Togami

Hiroshi Sendo

Toshikazu Suzuki

Masayasu Kato

Seiichi Munenori

An image forming apparatus includes a feeder having a longer side direction orthogonal to a conveyance direction of a recording medium, and feeds a maximum size recording medium with a longer side first, an image forming unit having a maximum sheet feed width corresponding to a longer side length of the maximum size recording medium, and prints a toner image onto the recording medium, and a sub feeder that can feed the maximum size recording medium to the image forming unit independently from the feeder. A post processing apparatus receives a printed recording medium and executes post processing on a side of the recording medium. A feeding source of the maximum size recording medium is selected from the feeder and the sub feeder for executing the post processing on the longer and shorter sides of the maximum size recording medium, respectively.

Image forming apparatus, image forming system, and post processing method

A feeder is configured to feed a recording medium. An image forming unit has a maximum sheet feed width corresponding to a longer side length of a maximum size recording medium to be accommodated in the feeder, and is disposed above the feeder in such a manner as to allow the maximum size recording medium to enter the image forming unit with a longer side first.

Image forming apparatus

A feeder has a longer side direction orthogonal to a conveyance direction of a recording medium, and is configured to feed a maximum size recording medium with a longer side first. An image forming unit has a maximum sheet feed width corresponding to a longer side length of the maximum size recording medium, and is configured to print a toner image corresponding to digital image data onto the recording medium. An electrical component unit is configured to control the feeder and the image forming unit. The image forming unit and the electrical component unit are respectively disposed on both sides of the feeder in a shorter side direction.

An image forming apparatus includes a developing device that uses a developer carrier to advance to an image carrier a developer including a toner and a carrier and supplies the toner to the image carrier by applying a developing bias between the developer carrier and the image carrier. In the image forming apparatus, the following operation is performed before the developer in the developing device is taken out. The toner is supplied to the image carrier by applying the developing bias between the developer carrier and the image carrier, the developing bias increased in a direction to supply the toner to the image carrier. The toner supplied onto the image carrier is not transferred to a transfer receiving material but is advanced into a toner recovery device for recovery. The recovered toner is prevented from being returned to the developing device.

Image forming apparatus and method

A belt drive used in image forming apparatuses which minimizes the transverse movement of the belt across the length of a roller and prevents the riding up of the belt onto the roller. The belt drive device has a belt equipped with elastic guide members mounted on each edge or on the back surface of the belt near each edge. The belt is suspended over two or more rollers and driven by the drive belt. At least one of the rollers is a drive roller having a rotating member mounted between the elastic guide member and the roller end area such that the rotating members rotate independently of the roller.

Belt drive device and image forming apparatus equipped with said device

A transfer belt device having a roller unit. The roller unit includes a drive roller, a transfer roller, and a continuous transfer belt that is suspended around the roller unit. The drive roller rotates at a peripheral speed and drives the transfer belt such that a toner image may be transferred to it from an image carrier. The image carrier moves at a speed by means of the transfer roller. The drive roller is composed of a hard core roller that is coated with an outer layer of elastic rubber having a thickness t.ltoreq.1 mm, and is located downstream from the transfer roller in terms of the direction of movement of the transfer belt.

Transfer belt device

The invention is directed to a linear motor and a image reading apparatus. The motor comprises a rod-like stator formed of a magnetizable rod-like member provided by magnetization with a drive field magnet and a plurality of magnet portions providing multiple kinds of position information; a movable piece being movable along said stator and having an armature coil opposed to said field magnet; and a sensor reading the position information from the plurality of magnet portions. The apparatus includes motors such as the foregoing linear motors as drive source for sliders to be driven for scanning a document image.

Linear motor and image reading apparatus

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Toyokawa, Japan

Hideyuki Kurahashi