Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Hisashi Yamauchi

Bunro Noguchi

Masahiro Yoshida

Kazunori Hashimoto

Masahiro Shibata

Kazuhiro Okubo

Norihito Naito

Kosuke Ikada

Keitaro Nakata

Shinji Katagiri

Yoshihiro Mitsui

Kentaro Yamawaki

Yuichiro Hirata

Masahito Kato

Go Shindo

Shinichi Agata

Masato Koyanagi

Yasukazu Ikami

An image forming apparatus is capable of performing a second image forming operation in which a peripheral velocity ratio of a developer bearing member to an image bearing member becomes greater than that in a first image forming operation, and in which a potential difference between a developing bias applied to the developer bearing member and a supply bias applied to a supply member becomes a potential difference at which a urging force causing a developer at the contact portion between the developer bearing member and the supply member to move from the supply member to the developer bearing member becomes smaller than that in the first image forming operation, or becomes a potential difference at which a urging force causing the developer to move from the developer bearing member to the supply member is generated.

Image forming apparatus having developer transporting member that transports developer toward a developer bearing member

An image forming apparatus that executes an image forming operation for forming a toner image on a recording material and an application operation of applying a metal soap to a surface of an image bearing member by supplying a toner stored in a toner storing unit to the surface of the image bearing member from the developing member. A surficial moving speed of the image bearing member during the application operation is lower than the surficial moving speed of the image bearing member during the image forming operation, and a speed difference between the surficial moving speed of the developing member and the surficial moving speed of the image bearing member during the application operation is larger than that during the image forming operation.

Image forming apparatus that suppresses occurrence of image smearing by maintaining a metal soap on a surface of a photoconductor

An image forming apparatus including: an image bearing member; a developing member to supply a developer to the image bearing member; and a cleaning member to clean a peripheral surface of the image bearing member in contact with the peripheral surface, wherein a plurality of grooves extend in a circumferential direction on the peripheral surface, and have a width in a generatrix direction of the peripheral surface within a range of at least 0.5 &#x3bc;m and not more than 40 &#x3bc;m, and are formed to be side by side in the generatrix direction; the number of the grooves is at least 20 and not more than 1000 per a width of 1000 &#x3bc;m in the generatrix direction of the peripheral surface; and an average depth (Rvk) of a valley of a projection under a core section of a roughness curve of the peripheral surface is 0.08 &#x3bc;m or less.

Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes an image bearing member on which an electrostatic latent image is formable, and a developing device including a developer carrying member, a container, and a supply roller. When the developing device including the developer carrying member, to which a lubricant different from the developer is applied, is used for the first time, a first initial operation of transferring the lubricant from the developer carrying member to the image bearing member together with the developer is performed. The image forming apparatus further includes a storage unit configured to store a suspension state when suspension is detected before the initial operation completes, and a controller configured to execute a second initial operation as an operation of resuming the suspended first initial operation on the basis of the stored suspension state.

An image forming apparatus includes: an image bearing member; a developer carrying member configured to contact with the image bearing member and to be separated from the image bearing member; a control unit for controlling the image bearing member and the developer carrying member; and a contact member disposed in contact with the image bearing member. The control unit is configured to sequentially execute: (1) rotating the image bearing member at a first speed in a separated state; (2) switching the image bearing member and the developer carrying member from the separated state to a contact state in a state in which the image bearing member rotates at the first speed; and (3) rotating the image bearing member by decreasing a rotation speed of the image bearing member from the first speed to a second speed smaller than the first speed in the contact state.

Image forming apparatus including developer carrying member

An image forming apparatus includes: an image bearing member; a developer carrying member for carrying developer; a cartridge detachably mountable to a main assembly of the image forming apparatus, the cartridge includes a cleaning means for removing the developer remaining on the developer carrying member after a developer image is transferred onto a transfer material, a developer buffering portion for accommodating the developer removed by the cleaning portion, and a feeding member driven for feeding the developer from the developer buffering portion to a developer container provided in the main assembly; a storing portion for storing cartridge operation information; and a controller for controlling the feeding member to stop drive of the feeding member on the basis of the cartridge operation information stored in the storing portion.

An image forming apparatus includes first and second developer carrying members and a control device. The apparatus is operable in a first mode where an image of a single color is formed using the first developer carrying member and is operable in a second mode, wherein an image of a plurality of colors is formed using the first and second developer carrying members. The control device controls a first discharging operation for discharging developer from the first developer carrying member and a second discharging operation for discharging developer from each of the first and second developer carrying members. When the apparatus executes only the first mode, the control device performs more image formations, in a period between completion of the second discharging operation and start of the first discharging operation, compared to a period between completion of the first discharging operation and start of a subsequent first discharging operation.

Image forming apparatus featuring a control device for controlling a developer discharge operation in first and second modes

An image forming apparatus includes a toner carrying member for supplying toner to an image bearing member to visualize the latent image; a rotatable toner supply member, contacted to the toner carrying member, for supplying toner to the image bearing member; a voltage applying device for applying voltages to the toner carrying member and the toner supply member; and a controller for controlling the voltage applying device to control voltages applied to the toner carrying member and the toner supplying member.

A toner supplying roller which is used in a developing apparatus and has the following characteristics: (1) an average diameter of a foam cell opening portion on a surface of a foam elastic member is 100 to 800 &#x3bc;m, (2) an unopened cell closed by a skin layer of a film thickness of 50 &#x3bc;m or less is present in the surface of the foam elastic member, and (3) assuming that a surface area of the foam elastic member is A, a total area of the foam cell opening portions is B, and a surface area of the unopened cell is C, the following relationship is satisfied: 

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Numazu, Japan

Hisashi Yamauchi