Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Ichiro Tsuruoka

Tsuneo Kurotori

Manabu Mochizuki

Katsuhiro Echigo

Kenzo Ariyama

Mayumi Miyao

Kenji Kojima

Itsuo Ikeda

Hiroshi Tanabe

Minoru Iwamoto

Hiroaki Takenouchi

Mitsuru Takahashi

Setsuo Soga

Yuichi Kobayashi

In a wet-type electrophotographic image formation method using an organic electrophotographic photoconductor constituted of an electroconductive support and a photoconductive layer formed thereon, the steps of (1) forming a latent electrostatic image on the photoconductive layer, and (2) developing the latent electrostatic image to a visible toner image with a developer comprising toner particles and a carrier liquid constituted of or including a silicone oil in which the toner particles are dispersed.

Wet-type electrophotographic image formation method

A wet-type image formation apparatus comprising a latent electrostatic image formation unit capable of forming on a latent-electrostatic-image-bearable photoconductive member a latent electrostatic image corresponding to an original image; and a wet-type development unit capable of developing the latent electrostatic image into a visible toner image with a liquid developer composed of (i) a carrier liquid comprising a petroleum aliphatic hydrocarbon and a silicone oil with a siloxane structure, and (ii) toner particles comprising a coloring agent and a binder resin, which are dispersed in the above-mentioned carrier liquid.

Wet-type image formation apparatus

A liquid developer for developing latent electrostatic images comprises (i) a carrier liquid comprising at least one component selected from the group consisting of a phenylmethyl silicone oil and a cyclic dimethyl polysiloxane, and (ii) toner particles dispersed in said carrier liquid, and images are formed by a wet-type electrophotographic image formation method using the liquid developer and thermally fixed to a transfer sheet.

Liquid developer for latent electrostatic images

An image forming apparatus which uses a liquid developer to produce a visible image from an image carrier is provided with a movable cleaning unit. This movable cleaning unit is moved in and out of contact with the image carrier. A tank stores the liquid developer which is fed to both the developing unit and to the cleaning unit and is provided with a mechanism for feeding the developing unit and the cleaning unit with the liquid developer which is so stored.

Electrophotographic copier with a developing device using a liquid

A control device for image forming equipment capable of reducing ozone ascribable to an image forming process and detecting failures of the equipment caused by the ozone. Mists are produced from a liquid developer which is a toner-dispersed carrier liquid containing silicone oil during developing, image transferring and fixing steps. The mists and the ozone are discharged to the outside of the equipment by a fan. A filter liquifies the mists and ozone by mixing them together. Errors are detected on the basis of ozone concentration which is sensed by an ozone concentration sensor.

Image forming apparatus with ozone detection and deodorizer

An image formation apparatus including a latent electrostatic image formation unit for forming on a latent-electrostatic-image-bearable photoconductive member a latent electrostatic image corresponding to an original image; a development unit for developing the latent electrostatic image into a visible toner image with a developer; an image-transfer unit for transferring the visible toner image from the photoconductive member to a transfer sheet; an image-fixing unit for fixing the visible toner image to the transfer sheet, including an image fixing roller, the surface of which is coated with a release agent comprising a silicone oil; a solvent mist generation unit for generating a solvent mist; and an ozone decomposing unit for trapping and decomposing ozone generated in the image formation apparatus by mixing the ozone with the solvent mist.

Apparatus for decomposing ozone by using a solvent mist

In a wet-type image formation apparatus, a latent electrostatic image formation unit; a wet-type development unit for developing a latent electrostatic image into a visible toner image with a liquid developer constituted of (a) a carrier liquid constituted of or including a silicone oil with a siloxane structure and (b) toner particles constituted of or including a coloring agent and a binder resin, which are dispersed in the carrier liquid; an image-transfer unit; and an image-fixing unit including a heat-application roller, the surface of which is coated with a release agent constituted of or including silicone oil with a siloxane structure.

Apparatus for forming and developing latent electrostatic images with

A fixing method for a wet process copier which develops an electrostatic latent image by using a heat-bridging type toner, transfers the resulting toner image to a paper sheet, and fixes the toner image transferred on the paper sheet by transporting the paper sheet through a nipping section defined by a heating roller and a pressing roller such that the side of the paper sheet carrying the toner image directly contacts the heating roller. At least a surface portion of the heating roller is made of either one of monomeric, additive-free RTV (Room Temperature Vulcanized) and LTV (Low Temperature Vulcanized) silicone rubbers. The heating roller has average surface roughness of less than 3 microns.

Fixing method for a wet process copier

An image fixing unit for a wet-type electrophotographic copying machine capable of forming a latent electrostatic image on a photoconductor element, developing the latent electrostatic image to a visible toner image by a developer comprising a carrier liquid and toner particles and transferring the visible toner image to a transfer sheet, is disclosed, which comprises (a) a non-thermal carrier liquid content reduction device for reducing the content of the carrier liquid in the developer deposited imagewise on the transfer sheet without application of heat thereto; and (b) a thermal image fixing device for fixing the toner image to the transfer sheet by directly heating the toner image formed on the transfer sheet after the reduction of the content of the carrier liquid in the imagewise deposited developer by the non-thermal carrier liquid content reduction device.

Image fixing unit for use in wet-type electrophotographic copying machine

An apparatus for automatically compensating for irregularities of illumination on a photoconductive element of a slit exposure type copier in which a lens is selectively movable along its optical axis and perpendicularly thereto. The apparatus has a simple construction.

Apparatus for compensating for irregularities of illumination for a

One or two auxiliary rollers of relatively small diameter are pressed against the peripheral surface of a main rotatable body which is heated. Where the two auxiliary rollers are employed, they are spaced apart from each other and are rotated in one direction at the same peripheral speed as that of the main rotatable body. A sheet carrying an unfixed toner image is fed by being gripped between the main rotatable body and the auxiliary rollers, during which the toner is heated and dried, and fixed to the sheet with the solvent evaporated. Thereafter, the sheet is discharged toward a next process. The sheet auxiliary sheets are relatively disposed under certain positional conditions for keeping the sheet in intimate contact with the main rotatable body to achieve proper toner fixing and sheet feeding operations.

Fixing device for copying machine

A heat-fixing device includes a heat plate along which a transfer medium bearing thereon a toner image is advanced during which the toner image becomes fixed to the transfer medium by fusing, the heat plate including a plurality of heating sections arranged along the direction of advancement of said transfer medium each of the heating sections being provided with at least one electrical heater. The device also includes a control circuit for controlling the operation of the heaters such that, under a non-steady-condition, only selected ones of the heaters are set in operation thereby only the corresponding heating sections are positively heated; whereas, under a steady-state condition, all of the heaters are operated at the same time thereby maintaining all of the heating sections at a predetermined temperature.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Ichiro Tsuruoka