Minolta Camera Kabushiki Kaisha

Minolta Company, Ltd.

Other

Lexmark International, Inc.

Minolta Camera Co., Ltd.

Hirofumi Hasegawa

Naoto Ohmori

Yukio Yamada

Narutaka Yoshida

Yasuhiro Matsuura

Hiroaki Kojima

Akio Nakajima

Kaoru Hashimoto

Toshikazu Kawaguchi

Takayuki Ariyama

Takashi Gonda

Motohiro Yamada

Tateki Oka

Masamichi Sugiura

Hiroshi Goto

Naoki Toyoshi

Hitoshi Sekino

Hiroshi Mizuno

Akihito Ikegawa

Munehiro Nakatani

Tatsuya Eguchi

Tetsumaru Fujita

Yuji Enoguchi

Shuichi Nakagawa

Kazuyoshi Hara

Shinichi Takemoto

Tamotsu Sakuraba

Masaaki Oyabu

Shin Miyata

Katsuyuki Taima

John E Passafiume

Satoshi Yoshida

Yoshio Tohyama

Takayuki Ogawa

Yasushi Tsuda

Norio Tamada

Thomas Howard Miller

Paul Allen Rooke

Joho Katsuo

Kenji Miyashita

In a charging device used in a cleanerless image forming apparatus and including a charging brush in contact with an image bearing member, a scraping member is provided which is in contact with the charging brush with a predetermined amount of indentation overlap on an upstream side of a contact portion between the charging brush and the image bearing member with respect to a rotational direction of the charging brush. With such an arrangement, the developer, which is scraped from the charging brush by the scraping member and then adheres onto the image bearing member, is recharged by the charging brush so as to be collected by a developing-cleaning device.

Charging device

An image forming apparatus includes a photosensitive member, a developing unit which is removably installed in a body of the image forming apparatus, a shutter covering a developing region of the photosensitive member when the developing unit is removed from the body of the image forming apparatus and a cleaning member capable of cleaning the surface of the photosensitive member in accordance with rotation of the photosensitive member by making contact with the photosensitive member in conjunction with the shutter covering operation, but which does not contact the photosensitive member when the shutter is open. During a control operation, foreign matter such as used developer adhered to the photosensitive member is removed when the photosensitive member is rotated with the shutter closed.

Image forming apparatus having process cartridge with shutter and

An image forming apparatus having a sheet storing unit for storing sheets therein along a bottom of a body of the apparatus, a sheet feeding mechanism for feeding the sheets stored in the sheet storing unit one by one toward a rear side of the body, a sheet path for leading each sheet fed by the sheet feeding mechanism upward, an image forming unit for forming an image on the sheet traveling in the sheet path, and a sheet ejecting unit for ejecting the image-formed sheet toward a front side of the body onto a sheet receiving portion disposed on an upper side of the body. The image forming unit is made as a cartridge containing a photosensitive member, a developing device, a transferring device and a cleaner. The cartridge is mounted in a holder which is movable between a cartridge exchange position and a set position.

Image forming apparatus

A paper feed path is formed along a substantially vertical plane whereby a transfer sheet is subsequently passed through image forming units vertically stacked for subsequent image forming process in each image forming unit. An opening and closing portion of each image forming unit is separated from a main body portion by the paper feed path and is arranged to move about the vertical rotating axis on one side of the paper feed path to open and close the paper feed path in the horizontal direction irrelevant to the vertical stack of the image forming units.

Image forming apparatus having a plurality of vertically stacked image

A developing device for developing an electrostatic latent image formed on an electrostatic latent image support member comprises a developer supplying member for supplying a developer to the electrostatic latent image support member, a developer containing portion containing the developer to be supplied to the developer supplying member, a conveying member provided in the developer containing portion for conveying the developer above the bottom part of the developer containing portion to the developer supplying member with the developer in the bottom part of the developer containing portion being left, and an agitating member provided in the developer containing portion for agitating in the developer containing portion the developer remaining in the bottom part of the developer containing portion without being conveyed by the conveying member.

Device for conveying developer in a developing device

An image-forming apparatus includes an image-forming unit detachably attached to a body of the apparatus, a holding member attached to the unit, and an engaging member attached to the body. The unit has a photosensitive member rotatably in a first rotary axis, and a roller member rotatably in a second rotary axis. The holding member has a first holding portion for holding the first rotary axis, a second holding portion for holding the second rotary axis, and a positioning member, whereby the photosensitive member and the roller member is held at specific intervals in the image-forming unit. The engaging member brings into engagement with the positioning member when the image-forming unit is attached to the body, whereby the image-forming unit is positioned to the body. A method, in the apparatus, includes the steps of attaching the holding member to the unit; holding the photosensitive member and the roller in the unit at specific intervals by the holding member; attaching the positioning member to the body; and contacting the positioning member with the holding member when the unit is attached to the body, whereby the unit is positioned to the body.

An upper unit relative to a unit positioned lower than the upper unit is movably supported between an operating position above the lower unit and a non-operating position retracted from the lower unit.

A document scanning device includes an index lever for indicating a boundary between a plurality of areas dividing a document on a platen and a photoelectric detector for detecting the position of the boundary. The index lever includes a marker which gives information about the boundary to the detector and a lever which moves the marker between a detectable position where the detector can detect the marker and a non-detectable position where the detector cannot detect the marker. The document scanning device is effective to be applied to a copying machine equipped with an editing function of the document.

Position indexing indicators for editing an image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus having a plurality of image forming units and a sheet transporting unit for transporting sheets discharged from an arbitrary one of the image forming units to a discharge portion of its own or to that of other image forming unit. When one of the image forming units is incapable of continuous operation during the execution of an operation thereof, another image forming unit is operated in place thereof which feeds recording sheets of the same size as those of the former image forming unit and forms images with toner of the same color as that of the former image forming unit, and the image bearing sheets discharged from the latter image forming unit are discharged onto the same discharge portion as that of the former image forming unit.

An image forming system for copiers, printers and the like having a main body which forms images on sheets of paper inserted therein and a plurality of sheet feeding units selectively attachable to the main body. The main body has a timing roller set which transports the papers to an image forming position with an appropriate timing, and each of the sheet feeding units has a paper feeding system with a take-up roller for supplying papers from the unit directly to the timing roller set without intermediate rollers in the main body. The system further includes side and bottom sheet feeding units selectively attachable to the main body and the side unit includes a guide for guiding sheets from the bottom unit into the main body. The system further includes a separate sheet guide mountable on the bottom unit for guiding sheets into the main body when the side unit is absent from the system. The invention permits the paper feeding construction of the image forming systems to be easily and freely changed as a whole.

Image forming system including attachable sheet supplying units for

An image forming apparatus comprising a laser beam radiating unit utilized as a light source, and an optical system that the surface of an original reflects a laser beam radiated from the radiating unit to project an image reflected from the original onto a photosensitive member. In this apparatus, an image is formed selectively in a print mode so that an image results from turning on and off the laser beam, in a copy mode that a copy of an original results from exposure of the photosensitive member to the laser beam reflected from the surface of an original or in a composite mode that a composite image is formed of a copy of an original and an image resulting from turning on and off the laser beam. Further, this apparatus comprises a projection lens unit for projecting an image reflected from an original onto the photosensitive member. The laser beam transmitting through the lens unit is scanned in the direction perpendicular to the main scanning direction, and altering the scanning speed and position of the lens unit results in various magnifications of an image.

Electrophotographic recorder using a modulated laser beam to scan the

A plurality of index members movable in a scanning direction of a scanner are arranged at desired positions on a front portion of a platen glass. A black mark is applied on the rear surface of each of the index member and the original as well as the mark are read by an image reader, so that the position of the index member is detected. When the index member is detected as the scanner moves, the image data of the original included in the scanning area scanned by the scanner are not stored in the bit map memory until the next index member is detected. When the scanning is completed, the desired edited images are formed on a paper whose size is determined based on the amount of the stored image data.

Copying machine providing copy paper corresponding to read image area

A developing apparatus having a sealing mechanism for preventing a toner leakage is disclosed. A sealing member has a recess for receiving one end of a scraper rod. In the recess, an elastic sealing plate presses the end of the scraper rod against the peripheral surface of a thin film sleeve and seals the recess. Toner transported along the inner side face of the sealing member is scraped by the end of the scraper rod. The elastic member prevents the leakage of toner which has penetrated into the contact face between the inner peripheral surface of the sealing member and the outer peripheral surface of the thin film sleeve.

Developing apparatus having a sealing construction for preventing a

An optical scanning image forming apparatus having a photoreceptor member, an irradiating optical unit for modulating an optical beam from a beam source in accordance with image information and then for forming an image by scanning this modulated optical beam on the photoreceptor member, and an optical beam passing slit plate disposed in a path of the optical beam between the photoreceptor member and the irradiating optical unit, and a cylindrical lens having a positive power in one direction of a width of the optical beam passing slit plate. The cylindrical lens is disposed adjacent the slit plate and is capable by means of its converging effect of offsetting beam spreading-out due to diffraction of the slit plate. By impressing the slit plate with an electric potential of the same polarity as that of toner adhered to the photoreceptor member, it is possible to prevent adhesion of the toner to the slit plate.

Optical scanning with cylindrical lens and beam slit

A developing device having a toner carrying member for transporting toner to a photosensitive member, a toner supplying member facing to the toner carrying member with an opening therebetween for supplying toner to the toner carrying member and a seal member for substantially closing a toner path. In the developing device a scraping member is further provided in contact with the toner supplying member to scrape the toner therefrom and an accommodating space is formed by the toner carrying member, toner supplying member, seal member and scraping member. Thus the toner transported by the toner supplying member is accommodated in the accommodating space and then supplied to the toner holding member under pressure accompanied by the increase of the toner accommodated therein, whereby an adequate quantity of toner is supplied for development.

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Osaka, Japan

Hirofumi Hasegawa