Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Starlite Co., Ltd.

Junichi Terai

Hiroshi Kikuchi

Hiroshi Kato

Hideki Kimura

Tadashi Ogawa

Hiroyuki Mabuchi

Yukio Otome

Hiroaki Okamoto

Kiyonori Tsuda

Emi Kita

Kazuhisa Sudo

Koichi Kato

Keiko Matsumoto

Hideo Yoshizawa

Masayuki Yamane

Satoru Yoshida

Kohichi Utsunomiya

Tsuyoshi Imamura

Mugijirou Uno

Kentaroh Tomita

Maiko Koeda

Hiroyuki Nagashima

Shinji Tamaki

Shunji Katoh

Shinichi Kawahara

Satoru Miyamoto

Hidetoshi Yano

Koichi Sakata

Makoto Obu

Yuki Oshikawa

Hisashi Shoji

Kazuyuki Sugihara

Akira Fujimori

Takashi Tanaka

Maiko Kondo

Ken Onodera

Kazunori Suzuki

Mikio Ishibashi

Katsumi Masuda

Tokuya Ohjimi

Kiyotaka Sakai

Shinsuke Kikui

Yoshitaka Akiyama

Katsuya Akiba

Tomoko Ogawa

Yasuyuki Horie

Shinya Kikutani

Masaki Kitamura

Kentaro Tomita

Klyonori Tsuda

Ichiroh Komuro

A conveyor includes a conveyance roller to convey a conveyed object, a pair of roller supports opposing to each other and supporting both ends of the conveyance roller in an axial direction thereof, a position sensor to detect a position of the conveyed object, and a sensor support supporting the position sensor. Each of the pair of roller supports has an insertion hole into which the sensor support is inserted. The insertion hole determines a position of the sensor support in a direction intersecting an insertion direction of the sensor support. The sensor support includes a positioning portion determining the position of the sensor support with respect to at least one of the pair of roller supports. The positioning portion determines the position of the sensor support in the insertion direction, a direction opposite to the insertion direction, and a rotational direction about an axis along the insertion direction.

Conveyor and liquid discharge apparatus

A developing device includes a developer bearer, a developer regulator, a casing including an opposing face to oppose the developer bearer upstream from a developing range in a direction of rotation of the developer bearer, and first, second, and third seals. The first seal includes a first end secured to the casing and a second end to contact a latent image bearer upstream from the developing range in a direction of rotation of the latent image bearer. The second seal includes a first end secured to the opposing face of the casing, and a second end to contact the first seal upstream from the developing range. The third seal includes a first end secured to the opposing face of the casing, and a second end to contact developer on the developer bearer between the developer regulator and the developing range in the direction of rotation of the developer bearer.

Developing device, and process cartridge and image forming apparatus incorporating same

A developing device to develop a latent image on a rotatable image bearer includes an upstream developing roller disposed opposite the image bearer at a first developing position, and a downstream developing roller disposed adjacent to and downstream from the upstream developing roller in a direction of rotation of the image bearer, disposed opposite the image bearer at a second developing position. Each of the upstream developing roller and the downstream developing roller has a most approachable surface that approaches closest to the image bearer and a most withdrawn surface that withdraws farthest from the image bearer. In a state in which a reference surface point of the image bearer is disposed opposite the most approachable surface of the upstream developing roller at the first developing position, the reference surface point opposes the most withdrawn surface of the downstream developing roller at the second developing position.

Developing device, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus including same

An image forming apparatus includes a removable unit to be removably installed in the image forming apparatus, having a unit-side opening, a connectable device having an apparatus-side opening to be connected to the unit-side opening to send developer from one of the removable unit and the connectable device to the other, a receptacle disposed below the unit-side opening and the apparatus-side opening to receive and store developer dropping from above, and a drawer unit to be retractably drawn out from the image forming apparatus. The receptacle is united with the drawer unit to be drawn out from the image forming apparatus together with the drawer unit.

Image forming apparatus with removable unit and a connectable device to connect to the removable unit

A developing unit includes a developer bearer to bear developer on a surface thereof, first and second developer conveyors each having a spiral blade mounted on a rotary shaft thereof parallel to a rotary axis of the developer bearer to convey developer in opposite directions to each other. A developer drain hole is provided at a given height in a side wall of a second developer conveyance channel to face a communication opening across the second developer conveyor. The first developer conveyor rotates in a direction with its spiral blade rising between the rotary shaft of the first developer conveyor and the communication opening. Rotational phases of the first developer conveyor and the second developer conveyor are fixed and synchronized with each other to weaken momentum of developer flow generated by the first developer conveyor toward the developer drain hole via the second developer conveyor.

Developing unit, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus

A toner bottle driving device control method includes driving one of multiple toner bottle driving devices connected to a single toner container at a time, detecting abnormality of a toner bottle driving device being driven, determining a first abnormality phase of the toner bottle driving device being driven when a number of times the abnormality is detected exceeds a threshold, inhibiting the toner bottle driving device being in the first abnormality phase from driving until the first abnormality phase is resolved, driving a drivable toner bottle driving device containing a non-empty toner bottle when the toner bottle contained in the toner bottle driving device being driven is determined as empty, determining that the multiple toner bottle driving devices are in a second abnormality phase when each of the multiple toner bottle driving devices is determined as being in the first abnormality phase, and inhibiting image formation.

Toner bottle driving device control method and image forming apparatus

A powder supply device to supply powder to a supply destination includes a body, a single holder including multiple mounts on which multiple powder containers are removably mounted respectively, and a reservoir disposed in the body and below the single holder to store powder discharged from the multiple powder containers; and the single holder is removably attachable to the body of the powder supply device including the reservoir.

Powder supply device and image forming apparatus incorporating same

A developing system includes a first developer carrier to carry and supply two-component developer including toner and carrier to a latent image formed on an image bearer. A first magnetic field generator having plural first magnetic poles is rotatably installed in the first developer carrier and causes the two-component developer to put forth ears and conveys the two-component developer on the developer carrier. A cross-sectional center of the first magnetic field generator is deviated from that of the first developer carrier toward the image bearer by a prescribed length. A developer peel-off device including a second magnetic field generator is provided in the vicinity of the surface of the first developer carrier to peel off the developer not supplied to the image bearer and remaining on the surface of the first developer carrier.

Developing device, image forming apparatus, and process cartridge

A developing device capable of preventing scattered developer from being discharged and of stably supplying a developer to a latent image carrier by preventing the developer from being discharged despite that the amount of developer within the developing device is not increased, and an image forming apparatus including the developing device. When the bulk of the developer existing in the vicinity of the downstream end in the conveyance direction of the supply conveyance path exceeds the height level of the developer discharge port, the developer that has reached the height level of the developer discharge port is discharged to the outside of the developing device by the developer discharge port and developer conveyance path serving as the developer discharge device.

Developing device and image forming apparatus using same

A method for loading a replenishment developer into a developer accommodating container such that when the replenishment of the replenishment developer inside the loaded developer accommodating container is started, the developer composed of a toner and a carrier, or a toner is discharged from a developer discharge port of the developer accommodating container, wherein when a premix toner that is a replenishment developer composed of a replenishment toner and a replenishment carrier is loaded into a toner bottle serving as the developer accommodating container, the replenishment carrier is loaded and then the replenishment toner is loaded.

Developer loading method, loaded developer accommodating container, developer replenishment device, and image forming apparatus

A developing device capable of conveying discharged developer to the outside of the device well by preventing developer from firmly adhering within a discharge conveyance path, as well as an image forming apparatus and a process cartridge having this developing device. A developing device, having: a developing roller; a developer conveyance path having a supply screw and a supply conveyance path; a toner replenishment controller for replenishing the developer to the developer conveyance path; a discharge conveyance path for conveying the developer to the outside of the developing device; a discharge screw serving as a discharge conveying member for applying a conveying force to the developer within the discharge conveyance path; and a developer discharge port serving as developer discharge means for discharging the developer to the discharge conveyance path, wherein the conveying force is applied to the discharged developer intermittently by the discharge screw serving as a discharge conveying member, whereby a shock is applied intermittently to the discharged developer within the discharge conveyance path.

Developing device, image forming apparatus and process cartridge in which a shock is applied intermittently to the discharged developer

A toner supply device includes a toner container, a transport-path forming member, an opening, a shutter member, and a first seal member. The opening is provided at a side wall of the transport-path forming member. The shutter member is movable between a closed position to close the transport path by being inserted in the opening and an open position. The first seal member fills a gap between an inner wall of the opening and the shutter member in a toner transport direction in which the toner is transported through the transport path. When the shutter member is inserted in the opening, the shutter member is elastically deformable in a deformation direction perpendicular to both the toner transport direction and a moving direction of the shutter member, and when the shutter member is not inserted in the opening, the shutter member is wider than the opening in the deformation direction.

Toner supply device and image forming apparatus that prevents toner from being scattered from the device

A developing device includes a developer bearing member and a shock absorbing member. The developer bearing member includes a developing region across from an image bearing member including an image forming region, and a center portion including an image creating region corresponding to the image forming region on the image bearing member. The developer bearing member is configured to bear the developer on the surface thereof and transport the developer to the developing region while moving the surface. The shock absorbing member is provided to each of both ends of the developer bearing member in a width direction thereof across from the image bearing member. Each of both ends of the developer bearing member is provided outside the center portion of the developer bearing member, and an outer diameter of each of both ends of the developer bearing member is substantially smaller than an outer diameter of the center portion.

Developing device, process cartridge including developing device, and image forming apparatus including process cartridge

A developing agent storage device for storing a refill developing agent includes toner particles, carrier particles, an inner layer of the developing agent storage device. The toner particles and carrier particles compose the refill developing agent. The inner layer is provided as a wall contacting the refill developing agent. An electrostatic chargeability level of the toner particles, the carrier particles, and the inner layer is set in an order of toner, inner layer, and carrier from any one of a negative charge side and a positive charge side.

Developing agent storage device and image forming apparatus having same in which the chargeability level of the toner, storage device, and carrier have a specific relationship

A developing device includes a rotator that rotates around a shaft, and a bearing element that supports the shaft to a housing. A sliding element formed of a composite material that contains self-lubricating thermoplastic olefin resin as a base material is used as the bearing element. The sliding element formed of the composite material has at least a ratio of numerical values of 'Rockwell hardness'/'bending elastic modulus' in a range from 25 to 45, and provides a sliding surface of which a frictional coefficient is lower than that of the sliding element formed of the base material.

Developing device and image forming apparatus

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Junichi Terai