Nissan Motor Company Limited

Hitachi, Ltd.

Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Nippon Air Brake Co., Ltd.

Renesas Technology Corp.

Tokico, Ltd.

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation

Nec Corporation

Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha

Hitachi-high-technologies Corporation

Unisia Jecs Corporation

Jidosha Kiki Co., Ltd.

Hitoshi Kubota

Shunji Maeda

Takashi Hiroi

Yutaka Kaneko

Minoru Yoshida

Maki Tanaka

Hiroyuki Shinada

Yusuke Yajima

Mari Nozoe

Haruo Yoda

Yasutsugu Usami

Katsuhiro Kuroda

Toshiyuki Takahashi

Aritoshi Sugimoto

Kenji Oka

Atsuko Takafuji

Katsuya Sugiyama

Kimiaki Ando

Hiroshi Makihira

Yasuhiko Nakayama

Kazushi Yoshimura

Hiroshi Tooyama

Tadao Ino

Hiroshi Saito

Keiko Fujita

Hideki Mori

Satoru Fushimi

Teluo Yambe

Takashi Kobayashi

Akira Ishii

Jun Kubo

Yoshihiro Hayashida

Yasuo Nakagawa

Yoshio Tobisawa

Keiji Nakagawa

Hironori Kutsuma

Katuhiro Morita

Sachio Ohno

Hideaki Oda

Makoto Ono

Atsushi Tanaka

Yukihiro Shibata

Takanori Ninomiya

Yoshinori Nakayama

Yukio Honda

Sumio Hosaka

Hiromasa Katayama

Asahiro Kuni

Akira Shimase

Tsuyoshi Hasegawa

Mikio Ichihashi

Yasuki Ishikawa

Masatoshi Nakamura

Koji Suzuki

Shigeyuki Hosoki

Yohei Gamo

Norio Fujiki

Susumu Aiuchi

Satoshi Haraichi

Tohru Nakaegawa

Fumitaka Ono

Fumikazu Itoh

Shinji Katayose

Daijiro Kato

Hisafumi Iwata

Mitsuasa Takahashi

Yukio Matsuyama

Satoshi Kurosawa

Morihiko Shimamura

Kunio Ueda

Kazuaki Shimizu

Masafumi Takahashi

Masakazu Ichikawa

Masamichi Imamura

Koichi Ishibashi

Hiroya Koshishiba

Mitsunobu Isobe

Yasuhiro Shimoi

Mitsunobu Abe

Hiroki Takayama

Yoshihiro Ashizaki

Koji Kaneko

Hironobu Matsui

Shoji Suzuki

Yoshimasa Kondo

Toshihiro Inoue

Kazuyoshi Fukawa

Fumiaki Endo

Nobumitsu Takahashi

Katsuyuki Yoshizawa

Seiji Hamamatsu

Takayuki Nishi

Junichi Sadamatsu

Akira Kotani

Yoichi Tenda

Shiji Okazaki

Tatsuo Uchihara

Tadao Takimoto

Tsuyoshi Mikoda

Junichi Fujimoto

An image forming apparatus includes an image forming portion, an intermediary transfer unit mountable in and dismountable from a main assembly and including a belt onto which the toner image is transferred from an image bearing member, a cleaning unit mountable to and dismountable from the intermediary transfer unit and including a cleaning member for cleaning a surface of the belt, a fuse provided on the cleaning unit and and being rendered non-conductible by energization, a detecting portion for detecting whether or not a current has flowed through the fuse, and a controller for controlling the image forming portion so as to carry out an operation in which, in a case that the detecting portion detects that the current has flowed through the fuse, a predetermined toner image is formed on the belt and is supplied to a contact portion between the cleaning member and the belt.

Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes a belt unit including an endless belt, a supporting unit and a steering unit, and further includes a cleaning unit, a receiving opening and a communicating portion. The communicating portion includes a tube-shaped portion constituted by a bellows-shaped elastic member capable of expansion and contraction with movement of the steering unit.

Image forming apparatus with belt unit having cleaning unit

A belt unit removably attached to an apparatus body includes a cleaning unit configured to clean a belt, and a sheet metal configured to hold a blade for cleaning the belt is fixed to the cleaning unit. The sheet metal is in contact with a supporting portion of the apparatus body, whereby vibrations of the sheet metal is reduced.

A developing apparatus includes a developer bearing member bearing and feeding developer including toner and carrier, a first feeding screw arranged in a first chamber and feeding the developer in a first direction, and a second feeding screw arranged in a second chamber and including a first blade portion feeding the developer in a second direction, a second blade portion arranged downstream of the first blade portion and feeding the developer in the first direction, and a third blade portion arranged downstream of the second blade portion. A sealing sheet is arranged upstream of a developer discharging portion and seals initial developer contained in a developing container; and an unsealing mechanism unseals the sealing sheet sealing the initial developer, wherein the sealing sheet is arranged downstream of the second blade portion and upstream of the third blade portion in the second direction.

Developing apparatus having a sealing sheet and unsealing mechanism

A cleaning device includes a cleaning member including a cleaning blade and a supporting plate for supporting the cleaning blade; a frame; first and second fixing portions, provided on the frame, for fixing the supporting plate in one end side and the other end side with respect to a longitudinal direction of the cleaning blade; a recessed portion provided on the frame at a position between the first and second fixing portions with respect to the longitudinal direction and recessed more than the first and second fixing portions in a direction away from the supporting plate; and a sealing material, applied onto the recessed portion within a range of the first and second fixing portions with respect to a perpendicular direction to the longitudinal direction, for sealing between the supporting plate fixed on the first and second fixing portions and the recessed portion.

Cleaning device with sealing of supporting plate

A communication system according to the present invention includes a plurality of ad hoc communication networks each formed by one or more communication units and one gateway and includes a monitoring server that monitors the ad hoc communication networks. The monitoring server determines on the basis of a monitoring result of load states of the gateways and a monitoring result of a congestion state of radio traffic whether it is necessary to carry out load distribution control for moving a communication unit subordinate to a first gateway to be subordinate to a second gateway set around the first gateway and, when determining that it is necessary to carry out the load distribution control, instructs at least one gateway of the first gateway and the second gateway to broadcast-deliver a signal including control information and instructing reselection of a gateway set as a participation destination.

Communication system and automatic metering system

An image forming apparatus is provided that can surely position a unit in an apparatus body with a simple configuration where the number of components is small. A drawing apparatus, which draws a sheet feeding cassette as a unit to a predetermined position of the apparatus body to position it, includes : a leaf spring that is an elastic member to jump-buckle; an engaging unit disposed in the leaf spring; and an engaged unit engaged with the engaging unit. When the unit is loaded on the apparatus body, the engaging unit engages the engaged unit, the elastic member jump-buckles, and accordingly the unit is drawn to the predetermined position of the apparatus body.

Drawing apparatus

A wireless communication device in a data collection system starts measuring a time when the wireless communication device receives a wireless signal from a data collection device. The wireless communication device changes the wireless channel, transmits a detection signal for detecting the data collection device, and starts measuring a time after transmitting the detection signal when the wireless communication device is unable to receive a next wireless signal from the data collection device even after passage of a predetermined time since the wireless communication device has previously received the wireless signal. The wireless communication device changes the wireless channel to be used, depending on whether the wireless communication device has received a response signal from the data collection device in response to the detection signal within a predetermined time.

Data collection system, data collection device, wireless communication device, and communication method for collecting data

In a constitution provided with no primary-transfer roller, in order to ensure a contact length between each of photosensitive drums and an intermediary transfer belt, the photosensitive drums are disposed with projecting amounts of a plurality of levels with respect to a stretching surface of the intermediary transfer belt, and therefore an apparatus is liable to be increased in a height direction. In order to avoid this, four image bearing members are arranged, along the intermediary transfer belt, with the same projection amount with respect to the stretching surface of the intermediary transfer belt, and a depressing member for depressing a belt surface between two central image bearing members toward an outside is provided.

An image forming apparatus includes a fixing unit heating an image formed on a recording medium and disposed along a conveying path conveying the recording medium. The conveying path includes a first guide plate, discharge guide plate portions and second guide plate portion as conveyance guide plates guiding the recording medium. Partition walls and vertical walls are disposed at positions facing these guide plate portions. The air current guide portion guides air taken in from intake ports through an intake guide portion between the respective guide plate portions and each walls.

An image forming apparatus includes: image bearing members; a belt unit including an endless belt; a slackness forming unit for performing a first function of forming a belt slacking region, at least at a portion where the belt opposes the image bearing members, by causing the slackness forming unit to act on the belt unit and for performing a second function of eliminating the belt slacking region; and a guiding unit for guiding the belt unit so that the slackness forming unit performs the first function in a state in which the belt is spaced from the image bearing members and so that the slackness forming unit performs the second function in a state in which the belt slacking region contacts the image bearing members.

A circuit pattern inspection method and an apparatus therefore, in which the whole of a portion to be inspected of a sample to be inspected is made to be in a predetermined changed state, the portion to be inspected is irradiated with an image-forming high-density electron beam while scanning the electron beam, secondary charged particles are detected at a portion irradiated with the electron beam after a predetermined period of time from an instance when the electron beam is irradiated, an image is formed on the basis of the thus detected secondary charged particle signal, and the portion to be inspected is inspected by using the thus formed image.

Method and apparatus for inspecting integrated circuit pattern

The present invention relates to a high-sensitivity inspection method and apparatus adapted for the fine-structuring of patterns, wherein defect inspection sensitivity is improved using the following technologies: detection optical system is improved in resolution by filling the clearance between an objective lensand a sample, with a liquid, and increasing effective NA (Numerical Aperture); and when a transparent interlayer-insulating film is formed on the surface of the sample, amplitude splitting at the interface between the liquid and the insulating film is suppressed for reduction in the unevenness of optical images in brightness due to interference of thin-film, by immersing the clearance between the objective lens and the sample, with a liquid of a refractive index close to that of the transparent film.

Method and its apparatus for inspecting defects

A method of inspecting a specimen, including: emitting a light from a lamp of a light source; illuminating a specimen on which plural patterns are formed with the light emitted from the light source and, passed through an objective lens; forming an optical image of the specimen by collecting light reflected from the specimen by the illuminating and passed through the objective lens and a image forming lens; detecting the optical image with a TDI image sensor; and processing a signal outputted from the TDI image sensor and detecting a defect of a pattern among the plural patterns formed on the specimen, wherein the image detected by the TDI image sensor is formed with light having a wavelength selected from the wavelengths of the light emitted from the light source.

Manufacturing method of semiconductor substrate and method and apparatus for inspecting defects of patterns of an object to be inspected

A circuit pattern inspection method and an apparatus therefor, in which the whole of a portion to be inspected of a sample to be inspected is made to be in a predetermined charged state, the portion to be inspected is irradiated with an image-forming high-density electron beam while scanning the electron beam, secondary charged particles are detected at a portion irradiated with the electron beam after a predetermined period of time from an instance when the electron beam is irradiated, an image is formed on the basis of the thus detected secondary charged particle signal, and the portion to be inspected is inspected by using the thus formed image.

Growing community of inventors

Fujisawa, Japan

Hitoshi Kubota