Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Isao Ikemoto

Kazushi Watanabe

Shinichi Sasaki

Tadayuki Tsuda

Shinya Noda

Toshiyuki Karakama

Yoshikazu Sasago

Kazumi Sekine

Kazunori Kobayashi

Akira Higeta

Hiroyuki Shirai

Atsushi Numagami

Yoshiya Nomura

Morikazu Mizutani

Akihiro Toma

Makoto Tanaka

Shinji Kanemitsu

Shigeyoshi Onoda

Kazuyoshi Odagawa

Kazuhiko Ishiwata

Hajime Kitajima

Masahiko Yashiro

Kazuo Shishido

Kanji Yano

Katsunori Yokoyama

Takeo Shoji

Haruhisa Oshida

Yasushi Shimizu

Minoru Sato

Yoshiyuki Batori

Hiroyuki Adachi

Shigeo Miyabe

Nobuharu Hoshi

Atsushi Kubota

Hideki Matsumoto

Fumito Nonaka

Kazushige Sakurai

Koji Miura

Atsushi Nishibata

Toshiaki Nagashima

Yusuke Yamada

Kazuo Chadani

Hiroomi Matsuzaki

Tsutomu Nishiuwatoko

Masanobu Saito

Toshiyuki Yoshihara

Hiroo Kobayashi

Yoshimasu Yamaguchi

Satoshi Kurihara

Norio Hikake

Sumitoshi Sootome

Takao Nakagawa

Ichiro Terada

Mitsuru Miyamoto

Toshiyuki Karkama

A process cartridge is detachably mountable to a main assembly of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus. The main assembly includes a motor, a gear receiving a driving force from the motor, a hole defined by twisted surfaces substantially coaxial with the gear and having a grounding contact. The cartridge includes an electrophotographic photosensitive drum, and a projection engageable with the twisted surfaces. The projection is provided at a longitudinal end of the drum. When the gear rotates with the hole and projection engaged with each other, a rotational driving force is transmitted from the gear to the drum through engagement between the hole and the projection. The cartridge also includes a grounding contact electrically connected with the drum, for electrically grounding the drum when the cartridge is mounted to the main assembly, and provided on the projection to be electrically connectable with the main assembly grounding contact.

Coupling part, photosensitive drum, process cartridge and electrophotographic image forming apparatus

A process cartridge detachably mountable to a main assembly of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, wherein the main assembly includes a motor, a main assembly side gear for receiving driving force from the motor, a hole defined by twisted surfaces, the hole being substantially coaxial with the gear, and a main assembly side grounding contact provided in the hole, the process cartridge includes an electrophotographic photosensitive drum; process mechanisms actable on the photosensitive drum; and a projection engageable with the twisted surfaces, the projection being provided at a longitudinal end of the photosensitive drum, wherein when the main assembly side gear rotates with the hole and projection engaged with each other, rotational driving force is transmitted from the gear to the photosensitive drum through engagement between the hole and the projection; and a cartridge side grounding contact electrically connected with the electrophotographic photosensitive drum for electrically grounding the electrophotographic photosensitive drum when the process cartridge is mounted to the main assembly of the apparatus, the cartridge side grounding contact being provided on the projection so as to be electrically connectable with the main assembly side grounding contact

A process cartridge detachably mountable to a main assembly of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, wherein the main assembly includes a motor, a main assembly side gear for receiving driving force from the motor, a hole defined by twisted surfaces, the hole being substantially coaxial with the gear, and a main assembly side grounding contact provided in the hole, the process cartridge includes an electrophotographic photosensitive drum; process mechanisms actable on the photosensitive drum; and a projection engageable with the twisted surfaces, the projection being provided at a longitudinal end of the photosensitive drum, wherein when the main assembly side gear rotates with the hole and projection engaged with each other, rotational driving force is transmitted from the gear to the photosensitive drum through engagement between the hole and the projection; and a cartridge side grounding contact electrically connected with the electrophotographic photosensitive drum for electrically grounding the electrophotographic photosensitive drum when the process cartridge is mounted to the main assembly of the apparatus, the cartridge side grounding contact being provided on the projection so as to be electrically connectable with the main assembly side grounding contact.

A process cartridge detachably mountable to a main assembly of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, wherein the main assembly includes a motor, a main assembly side gear for receiving driving force from the motor, a hole defined by twisted surfaces, the hole being substantially coaxial with the gear, and a main assembly side grounding contact provided in the hole, the process cartridge includes an electrophotographic photosensitive drum; process mechanisms actable on the photosensitive drum; and a projection engageable with the twisted surfaces, the projection being provided at a longitudinal end of the photosensitive drum, wherein when the main assembly side gear rotates with the hole and projection engaged with each other; rotational driving force is transmitted from the gear to the photosensitive drum through engagement between the hole and the projection; and a cartridge side grounding contact electrically connected with the electrophotographic photosensitive drum for electrically grounding the electrophotographic photosensitive drum when the process cartridge is mounted to the main assembly of the apparatus, the cartridge side grounding contact being provided on the projection so as to be electrically connectable with the main assembly side grounding contact.

A developing device includes a developer container which is mountable to an electrophotographic image forming apparatus main body, contains a developer for developing an electrostatic latent image formed on an electrophotographic photosensitive member, and includes a developer bearing member for carrying the developer to the electrophotographic photosensitive member, and a plurality of developer remaining amount detectors for successively detecting the remaining amount of developer within the developer container, wherein regions detected by the plurality of developer remaining amount detectors are overlapped with each other, and in the overlapped regions, a detected value by a previous developer remaining amount detector is changed over to a detected value by a succeeding developer remaining amount detector, and the apparatus main body detects the detected value to detect the remaining amount of developer.

Developer amount detecting method, developing device, process cartridge and electrophotographic image forming apparatus

In a developer amount successively indicating method used in an electrophotographic image forming apparatus capable of detachably mounting a plurality of types of cartridges differing in the fill amount of a developer, an indicating portion selected in conformity with the type of one of the plurality of types of cartridges which is mounted in the main body of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus is indicated, and the detected amount of developer in the cartridge mounted in the main body of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus is successively indicated by the use of the indicating portion.

Developer amount indicating method, electrophotographic image forming apparatus and process cartridge

A process cartridge detachably mountable to a main assembly of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, wherein said main assembly includes a motor, a main assembly side gear for receiving driving force from said motor and a hole defined by twisted surfaces, said hole being substantially coaxial with said gear, said process cartridge includes an electrophotographic photosensitive drum; process means actable on said photosensitive drum; a projection engageable with said twisted surfaces, said projection being provided at a longitudinal end of said photosensitive drum, wherein said projection is non-twisted, and when said main assembly side gear rotates with said hole and projection engaged with each other, rotational driving force is transmitted from said gear to said photosensitive drum through engagement between said hole and said projection; and a resilient member for urging said process cartridge in a longitudinal direction of said photosensitive drum when said process cartridge is mounted to the main assembly.

Process cartridge and electrophotographic image forming apparatus

A process cartridge detachably mountable to a main assembly of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, wherein the main assembly includes a motor, a main assembly side gear for receiving driving force from the motor and a hole defined by twisted surfaces, the hole being substantially coaxial with the gear, the process cartridge includes an electrophotographic photosensitive drum; process means actable on the photosensitive drum; and a projection engageable with the twisted surfaces, the projection being provided at a longitudinal end of the photosensitive drum, wherein the projection is non-twisted, and when the main assembly side gear rotates with the hole and projection engaged with each other, rotational driving force is transmitted from the gear to the photosensitive drum through engagement between the hole and the projection.

An electrophotographic image forming apparatus onto which a process cartridge is detachably mountable, for forming an image on a recording medium, has (a) a mounting member for detachably mounting a process cartridge having an electrophotographic photosensitive member, a charging member for charging the electrophotographic photosensitive member, a cartridge charge bias contact for receiving a charging bias to be impressed on the charging member from the main body of the apparatus when the process cartridge is mounted on the main body of the apparatus, and a cartridge-earth contact for connecting the electrophotographic photosensitive member to ground with the main body of the apparatus when the process cartridge is mounted on the main body of the apparatus, (b) a main-body-charge bias contact to be electrically connected to the cartridge-charge-bias contact when the process cartridge is mounted on the mounting member, (c) a main-body earth contact to be electrically connected to the cartridge-earth contact when the process cartridge is mounted on the mounting member, (d) a detecting member for detecting that the process cartridge is not mounted in a cartridge-mounting position by detecting that at least one of the cartridge-charge-bias contact and the cartridge-earth contact is not electrically connected to a corresponding one of the main-body-charge bias contact and the main-body earth contact and (e) a conveying member for conveying the recording medium.

Electrophotographic image forming apparatus, electrophotographic image forming system, and process cartridge

A process cartridge detachably mountable to a main assembly of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, wherein the main assembly includes a motor, a main assembly side gear for receiving driving force from the motor, a main assembly positioning member, a hole which is substantially coaxial with the gear, and a process cartridge mounting portion for mounting the process cartridge, the process cartridge includes an electrophotographic photosensitive drum; process mechanism(s) actable on the photosensitive drum; and a projection engageable with the hole, the projection being provided at a longitudinal end of the photosensitive drum; wherein when the main assembly side gear rotates with the hole and projection engaged with each other, the rotational driving force is transmitted from the gear to the photosensitive drum through engagement between the hole and the projection; a cartridge positioning portion for abutting to the main assembly positioning portion to stop a movement of the process cartridge beyond a predetermined distance in a direction substantially perpendicular to an axis of the photosensitive drum, when the process cartridge is mounted to the cartridge mounting portion, and the photosensitive drum receives the rotation driving force through the hole and the projection.

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Kawasaki, Japan

Isao Ikemoto