Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha Corporation

Iwakazu Honda

Katsumi Adachi

Shirou Wakahara

Tomohiro Oikawa

Yukihito Nishio

Yoichi Yamamoto

Shiro Narikawa

Hideaki Hagihara

Yuhi Yui

Hirokazu Tanaka

Akira Haruna

Hiroe Ando

Formed between an opposing electrode and a toner support by a high voltage applied from a high-voltage power source is an electric field required for the toner carried on the toner support to jump toward the opposing electrode. A shield power source is provided to apply an identical voltage as the surface potential of the toner layer carried on the toner support.

Image forming apparatus that forms image on a medium by jumping developer

An image forming unit has a toner supplying section and a printing section, and directly forms an image with the developer, in accordance with the image signal, onto a sheet of paper as the recording medium. The control electrode has a shield electrode in which the positions of the openings, the applied voltage and the diameters of the openings are controlled so that the jumping of the toner passing through the gates can be controlled finely and uniformly without being affected by the distances from the toner support to the opposing electrode and control electrode. A further shield electrode can be provided to perform further precise toner control and hence produce highly qualified images.

Image forming apparatus forming images using jumping toner/developer

An image forming apparatus includes a photoreceptor allowing an electrostatic latent image to be formed by light exposure, a light source emitting light beams, a light deflecting device for deflecting light beams from the light source, an exposure controlling device for controlling deflecting actions of the deflecting device, and an image-forming optical device receiving light beams deflected by the light deflecting device and image-forming the light beams on the photoreceptor so as to create a latent image composed of a plurality of pixels thereon. In the configuration, the light deflecting device includes a micro-mirror array device which is composed of a multiple number of mirror facet elements arranged matrix-wise, in two-dimensions, and which is disposed so that each row of the mirror facet elements extends in parallel with the rotating axis of the photoreceptor and normals of the mirror facet elements are substantially perpendicular to the rotating axis of the photoreceptor. Each of the mirror facet elements in a single column can individually be controlled to be oriented at any angle to simultaneously deflect light to the same location on the photoreceptor to vary density of the image formed thereon.

Image forming apparatus with a light directing device for varying

An image forming apparatus is arranged so as to include an optical head unit constituted of exposing device and information reading device, one cylindrical white light source which is commonly used as a light source for the above both devices, liquid crystal shutter arrays for individually opening and closing optical paths of the light source in direction of a photoreceptor, and to control open/close operation of an exposure shutter array according to an image signal and to control the shutter arrays such that when the exposing device operates, the information reading shutter array closes and that when the information reading device operates, the exposure shutter array closes. As a result, in an arrangement which is carried out a simultaneous charge-expose-development process and has exposing function and information reading function, it is possible to sufficiently miniaturize an apparatus. Moreover, since the liquid crystal shutter array is used, open/close operation of the optical paths from the cylindrical white light source to the photoreceptor can be easily and securely control.

Image forming apparatus

The imaging apparatus which is provided with the image glossing device of the invention has a means for inputting or detecting a type of a receiver sheet. Transferring speed of the receiver sheet through a image glossing device after development process and temperature to which the receiver sheet is to be heated in the image glossing device are determined corresponding to the type of receiver sheet. For a receiver sheet which requires less quantity of heat for glossing, processing time can be reduced by setting relatively high heating temperature and high processing speed. For a receiver sheet which requires much quantity of heat for glossing, satisfactory glossing process can be performed without causing offset and other defects by setting relatively low heating temperature and low processing speed.

Imaging apparatus equipped with an image glossing

A waste toner collection container equipped with a corona charger for use in an electrophotographic arrangement, which includes a waste toner collecting box (11a) for accommodating residual toner scraped off a photosensitive surface of a photosensitive member (10) after transfer, and a corona charger adapted to charge the photosensitive surface of the photosensitive member (10) after charge erasing of the photosensitive surface, with the corona charger being provided on the waste toner collecting box (11a).

Waste toner collecting container provided with corona charger

A printing apparatus comprising a housing; a paper receiving member disposed within the housing for receiving printed copy sheets; a paper cassette for holding copy sheets to be printed, disposed on the back of the paper receiving member so that the copy sheets are covered with the paper receiving member; and a paper conveyor disposed below the paper cassette for transporting copy sheets from the paper cassette to the paper receiving member, an image forming means being placed between the paper cassette and the paper conveyor so that the toner image is transferred onto a copy sheet passing through the paper conveyor.

Printing apparatus

A light-accepting sheet with a transparent colorless base sheet coated with microcapsules encapsulating a colorless dye and a photopolymerizing agent which hardens upon exposure to light and an image transfer sheet coated with a developing agent having a chromogenic effect on this colorless dye are superposed together before exposed to an image forming beam of light. The microcapsules are selectable hardened to form an invisible image which turns into a visible image when the superposed sheets are pressed together to rupture only those of the microcapsules which were not hardened. The light-accepting sheet and image transfer sheet may be superposed from the beginning to be stored and delivered to be exposed together as a combined light and pressure sensitive image formation sheet.

Image formation method and apparatus using light and pressure sensitive

A printing machine comprises a platen roller opposed to a thermal head with transfer film therebetween, endless thermo-resist film extended around the platen roller and a transfer roller positioned in the printing block, and a heater provided in the vicinity of the printing block, for heating up the endless thermo-resist film.

Manually scanned copying and printing machine

A manually operated copier has an image reading apparatus which is manually operated for scanning a document to read an image on the document, a printer for printing the image which is thus read, a printer for printing an image on a given sheet of paper and a transportation roller for transporting the sheet out of the copier housing. The transportation roller is placed such that its surface touches the document, the transportation roller is longer than the width of the sheet of paper and the copier further includes a damper for causing the roller to rotate at a uniform speed.

Manually operated copier with a damper

A compact image reading apparatus such as a copier has a document table which can move reciprocatingly with respect to the top surface of its housing. A spiral spring is attached to the document table and as the user manually moves the document table from its initial position to a starting position for its operation, the spiral spring is wound up and stores energy as internal elastic energy. When the user releases the table, the spring releases its stored energy and the table moves across the top surface of the housing to effect the scan of a document set on the table.

Growing community of inventors

Nara, Japan

Iwakazu Honda