Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Junji Yamabe

Kenji Kikuchi

Seiji Terazawa

Shinji Tamaki

Hiroshi Hosokawa

Hiroshi Ikeguchi

Tsunehiro Watanabe

Kaori Mitsuishi

Shunji Kato

Shunji Katoh

Junichi Matsumoto

Atsushi Inoue

Yuji Suzuki

Masato Suzuki

Toshihide Tomotaka

Ryoichi Teranishi

Hideki Kimura

Masashi Hasegawa

Keinosuke Kondoh

Akihiro Kawakami

Hideo Ichikawa

Eisuke Hori

Takahiro Ikuma

Hiroshi Sano

Yutaka Takahashi

Masayoshi Suzuki

Nobuo Takami

Toshio Koike

Kiyonori Tsuda

Keiichi Yano

Noriyuki Kimura

Michiharu Suzuki

Hideki Zemba

Takashi Ono

Yusuke Uchida

Yuuta Tanaka

Kaori Ozeki

Tatsushi Umayahara

Teruo Shibata

Eiichi Masushio

A powder container including a nozzle receiving opening at one side of the powder container in a longitudinal direction of the powder container, a scoop, at the one side, to scoop up the powder, when the scoop is rotated about a rotational axis, and a holder, at the one side, which is rotatable around the rotational axis relative to the scoop. The holder includes an electrical terminal, facing the longitudinal direction, and the holder and the electrical terminal not intersecting the rotational axis. The electrical terminal is oblique to the rotational axis relative to a vertical direction when the powder container is in a mounted orientation.

Powder container with a nozzle receiver

A powder container includes a nozzle receiving opening, a container body, a nozzle receiver including the nozzle receiving opening; a gear, and two scoops. Further, there is a shutter to open and close the nozzle receiving opening, a spring to bias the shutter, two protrusions which protrude away from the nozzle receiving opening. The scoops extend in the longitudinal direction along a first length, the protrusions extend in the longitudinal direction along a second length, and a position of the first length and a position of the second length at least partly overlap along the longitudinal direction. The powder dropped from the higher position enters the region by passing between the protrusions when the scoops are rotated about the rotational axis, and the protrusions are rotated, due to the rotation of the gear, around the region when the scoops are rotated about the rotational axis.

A powder conveying device includes: a conveying nozzle, provided with a powder receiving opening; an open/close member to open/close the powder receiving opening; a flange provided to the open/close member; a biasing member to bias the open/close member; and a container setting section to which a part of a powder container is to be fit. The powder container includes: a conveyor to convey the powder from a second end of the powder container to a first end; a container opening protruding from the first end; a nozzle receiving opening into which the conveying nozzle is to be inserted; and a butting portion provided in the container opening, to butt against the flange. When the powder container is attached to the powder conveying device, the container opening is fitted to the container setting section, and the flange and the biasing member are housed in an inner space of the container opening.

Nozzle receiver for use with a toner container

A nozzle insertion member is in a powder container that includes a nozzle insertion opening into which a conveying nozzle is inserted. The nozzle insertion member includes an opening/closing structure to move to an opening position to open the nozzle insertion opening by being pressed by the inserted conveying nozzle, and to a closing position to close the nozzle insertion opening when the conveying nozzle is separated from the nozzle insertion member, and a seal arranged at the nozzle insertion opening and including a through hole into which the conveying nozzle is insertable. The opening/closing structure includes a front cylindrical portion to contact with an inner surface of the through hole, and a slide area formed on another side relative to the front cylindrical portion. W&#x3c;Wis satisfied, where Wis an inner diameter of the through hole, and Wis an outer diameter of the slide area.

Powder container including an opening and a shutter with a front end including a surface with lower friction

Powder container including a container body, nozzle receiver, and seal

Powder container including a nozzle receiving opening and scoop

Powder container and image forming apparatus

Nozzle insertion member, powder container, and image forming apparatus

A powder container is for use with an image forming apparatus, and the image forming apparatus includes a driving protrusion that is rotatable and that protrudes toward an upstream side in an insertion direction in which the powder container is inserted. The powder container includes a container body to store powder, a cap attached to the container body, and a transmitted structure provided on the cap to contact the driving protrusion. The transmitted structure extends outward from an outer circumference of the powder container. The cap is rotatable relative to the container body in a predetermined angular range. The rotation of the cap relative to the container body is restricted so that the container body rotates along with the rotation of the cap when the rotation of the cap exceeds the predetermined angular range.

A nozzle insertion member is in a powder container that includes a nozzle insertion opening into which a conveying nozzle is inserted. The nozzle insertion member includes an opening/closing structure to move to an opening position to open the nozzle insertion opening by being pressed by the inserted conveying nozzle, and to a closing position to close the nozzle insertion opening when the conveying nozzle is separated from the nozzle insertion member, and a seal arranged at the nozzle insertion opening and including a through hole into which the conveying nozzle is insertable. The opening/closing structure includes a front cylindrical portion to contact with an inner surface of the through hole, and a slide area formed on another side relative to the front cylindrical portion. W1&#x3c;W4 is satisfied, where W1 is an inner diameter of the through hole, and W4 is an outer diameter of the slide area.

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Shizuoka, Japan

Junji Yamabe