Minolta Company, Ltd.

Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.

Hiroyuki Yamasaki

Tomoo Izumi

Masami Yamada

Masahiko Matsuura

Eiichi Sano

Atsuto Hirai

Satoshi Deishi

Masahide Ueda

Yoshihisa Terasaka

Akihito Ikegawa

Katsuhiko Takeda

Yasushi Kobayashi

Manami Kuiseko

Masahiro Anno

Yoshitaka Sekiguchi

Takashi Kondo

Chiyoshi Nozaki

Tomoko Miyaura

Satoshi Yoshida

An optical head which has a prism with an incident section, an internal reflective surface and an emergent surface, and an optical head device which employs the optical head. Light emitted from a light source is incident to the prism through the incident section, reflects at least once on the internal reflective surface and is converged in the vicinity of the emergent surface. Then, the light effuses through the emergent surface as near field light.

Optical head and optical head device

The present invention provides a resin particle for toner, which is allowed to contain colorant particles and/or charge-controlling agent particles through a miniemulsion method, and a toner prepared with the resin particles aggregated/fused.

Resin particles for toner and toner prepared therewith

Near-field light is generated from a fine opening formed in a silicon substrate to thereby record information on a recording layer of a recording medium. When the information is read out, reflected light from the recording layer is detected by a photodiode. The photodiode is formed by providing a boron-implanted layer around the fine opening in the silicon substrate. The detection signal of the reflected light is derived from the electrode. By this photodiode, the reflected light for reading is efficiently detected.

Optical head

An image forming apparatus has an image carrying member having a movable surface and an electrostatic latent image carried thereon, a release agent application device for applying a release agent to the surface of the image carrying member, and an ink developing device for bringing an ink into contact with the image carrying member having the electrostatic latent image formed thereon and the release agent applied thereto, to form an ink image corresponding to the electrostatic latent image. The ratio (Ti/To) of the tack value Ti of the ink to the tack value To of the release agent is not less than 2.

Image forming apparatus and image forming method

An image forming apparatus includes an image carrying member having an electrostatic latent image carried on its surface, a release agent application device for applying a release agent to the surface of the image carrying member, an ink developing device for bringing an ink into contact with the image carrying member having the electrostatic latent image formed thereon and the release agent applied thereto, to form an ink image corresponding to the electrostatic latent image, and an ink supplying device for supplying a replenishing ink to the ink developing device when the release agent is mixed with the ink in the ink developing device to control the viscosity of the ink, wherein the replenishing ink differs in viscosity from the ink in the ink developing device. And, the supply of ink is varied as a function of the environmental conditions, such as temperature. Image forming methods are disclosed for using the disclosed image forming apparatuses.

Image forming apparatus and method using a developing device relating to

In the present invention, in forming an electrostatic latent image on the surface of an image carrying member, holding ink in an ink carrying member in an ink developing device, and supplying the ink to the electrostatic latent image formed on the surface of the image carrying member, to form an ink image on the image carrying member, the critical surface tension on the surface of the image carrying member is larger than the surface tension of the ink.

Method and apparatus for depositing ink on an image carrying member

An image forming method according to the present invention comprises the steps of forming an electrostatic latent image on an image carrying member by a latent image forming device, applying a release agent to the surface of the image carrying member by an application device, and bringing an ink carried on an ink carrying member into contact with the surface of the image carrying member coated with the release agent to form an ink image corresponding to the electrostatic latent image on the surface of the image carrying member.

Image forming method and apparatus transferring an ink image

An image forming apparatus includes a first developing device, accommodating a first kind of toner without an offset preventing agent, a second developing device accommodating a second kind of toner containing an offset preventing agent, and a roller fixing device having a supply portion for supplying an offset preventing agent. The image forming apparatus changes the amount of the offset preventing agent to be supplied to the fixing roller between the case of fixing a copy image formed with the first kind of toner and the case of fixing a copy image formed with the second kind of toner.

Image forming apparatus provided with mold releasing agent coating

An image forming apparatus for forming an image onto a sheet includes a sheet supporting member; a charger which is positioned in a vicinity of the sheet supporting member; and a device for controlling the charger so that the charger charges a specific portion of the sheet supporting member corresponding to a leading edge portion of the sheet to an electrostatic potential higher than that of a remaining portion of the sheet supporting member. A method of adhering a sheet to a sheet supporting member during an image forming process includes charging a specific portion of the sheet supporting member corresponding to a leading edge portion of the sheet to a first electrostatic potential; charging a remaining portion of the sheet supporting member to a second electrostatic potential that is lower than the first electrostatic potential; and delivering the sheet to the sheet supporting member so that a leading edge portion of the sheet is aligned with the specific portion of the sheet supporting member.

Image forming apparatus including an endless transfer member

The present invention relates to a method of producing a plurality sets of prints from a plural-page original in an image forming apparatus having an endless transfer member onto which images are transferred from an image retaining member. The endless transfer member is operable to support a predetermined number (X) of images during one cyclic movement thereof. In this method, a first printing operation is executed in which the predetermined number (X) of images of a first page of the original are formed on the endless transfer member during one cyclic movement thereof when a desired number (Y) of sets of prints exceeds said predetermined number (X). Second, the first printing operation is repeated until a remaining number (M) of image(s) of the first page becomes less than said predetermined number (X). Third, a second printing operation is executed in which the remaining number (M) of image(s) of the first page and a calculated number (X-M) of image(s) of a second page of the original are formed on said endless transfer member during one cyclic movement thereof after the remaining number (M) of image(s) of the first page becomes less than the predetermined number (X).

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Amagasaki, Japan

Hiroyuki Yamasaki