Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Junpei Fujita

Seiichi Kogure

Kazuki Yogosawa

Kenji Sugiura

Yuuji Wada

Naohiro Kumagai

Kenji Sengoku

Hiroyoshi Haga

Takehide Mizutani

Osamu Ichihashi

Tatsuya Ohsugi

Hirokazu Ishii

Yusuke Mitani

Yasunobu Shimizu

Ryuuichi Mimbu

Hiromi Ogiyama

Tomokazu Takeuchi

Shinya Tanaka

Naoto Kochi

Junichi Ichikawa

Toshitaka Yamaguchi

Yasufumi Takahashi

Atsushi Nagata

Jyunya Sakuraba

Takahiro Suzuki

Mitsuru Takahashi

Yuji Kato

Masayoshi Nakayama

Katsuya Kawagoe

Katsuhito Haruno

Hiroki Nakamatsu

Ryuichi Minbe

Keigo Nakamura

Atsushi Nakamoto

Ryo Hasegawa

Masaharu Furuya

Kunio Hasegawa

Takuya Sekine

Masakazu Imai

Ryoh Tanoue

Kenji Sugirua

Ryuichi Minbu

A belt device includes an endless belt, a support shaft, a contact member, a frame, and a regulating member. The contact member is configured to contact the belt. The support shaft is configured to support the contact member and rotate together with the contact member. The frame is configured to support the support shaft. The regulating member is configured to regulate movement of the contact member. The regulating member is configured to move relative to the frame, in a direction that crosses an axial direction of the support shaft, from a regulating position to regulate movement of the support shaft in an axial direction of the support shaft.

Belt device and image forming apparatus incorporating same

An improved image forming apparatus includes an image bearer, a nip forming member, a transfer power source, and a controller. The controller switches a transfer mode between a first mode to transfer the toner image onto a first type sheet having a surface smoothness higher than a surface smoothness of a second type sheet and a second mode to transfer the toner image onto the second type sheet. The controller controls the transfer power source to output the transfer bias having an opposite-peak duty of greater than or equal to 50% that is a duty on the side of the opposite-peak value in the first mode. The controller controls the transfer power source to output the transfer bias having an opposite-peak duty of less than 50%, which is different from the opposite-peak duty of the first mode, in the second mode.

Image forming apparatus and image forming method

An image forming apparatus includes a belt-shaped image bearer, a transferer, a guide, two rotators, and a support. The image bearer has an image bearing surface to bear an image thereon. The transferer forms a transfer section between the transferer and the image bearer, to transfer the image onto a recording medium. The guide is disposed upstream from the transfer section in a delivery direction of the recording medium, to guide the recording medium toward the transfer section. The two rotators are disposed upstream from the transfer section in a moving direction of the image bearer and in contact with a non-image bearing surface of the image bearer opposite to the image bearing surface, a first rotator being closer to the transfer section than a second rotator. The support supports the first rotator and the guide and adjusts a position of the first rotator and a position of the guide.

Image forming apparatus with a support to adjust a rotator and a guide

An image forming apparatus includes an image bearer to bear a toner image, a nip forming member contacting the image bearer to form a transfer nip, and a transfer power source. The transfer bias has a transfer peak value to electrostatically move toner from the image bearer to the recording sheet and an opposite-peak value to electrostatically move less toner from the image bearer to the recording sheet than the transfer peak value. An opposite-peak duty of the transfer bias is less than 50%. The opposite-peak duty is tr/T&#xd7;100% where T is one cycle of the transfer bias and tr is a time period during which the transfer bias is on a side of the opposite-peak value relative to an offset voltage of the transfer bias in the one cycle T.

Image forming apparatus and image forming method for controlling a secondary transfer bias according to recording sheet type

An image forming apparatus includes an image bearer, an intermediate transferor, a secondary transferor, a plurality of rotators including a secondary driving rotator, and a detector. The image bearer bears a detection image. The detection image is transferred from the image bearer to the intermediate transferor at a primary transfer position. The secondary transferor is looped around the plurality of rotators and disposed in contact with the intermediate transferor at a secondary transfer position where the detection image is transferred from the intermediate transferor to the secondary transferor. The secondary driving rotator drives the secondary transferor. The detector detects the detection image on the secondary transferor at a detection position. With this configuration, a distance from the secondary transfer position to the detection position on the secondary transferor is an integral multiple of a circumference of the secondary driving rotator.

Image forming apparatus

A belt device includes a belt unit including a plurality of rotators and a belt looped around the plurality of rotators. The belt device further includes a frame including a plurality of support portions to support the belt unit, a biasing member to bias the belt unit supported by the frame in a predetermined direction, and an adjuster to adjust a position of at least one of the plurality of support portions.

Belt device including support portions and an adjuster to adjust positions of the support portions

A transfer device includes an image bearer, a rotatable body, a solid lubricant assembly, and a guide. An image bearer bears an image. The rotatable body forms a transfer nip with the image bearer to rotate in contact with a recording medium. An image on the image bearer is transferred onto the recording medium at the transfer nip. The solid lubricant assembly includes a solid lubricant and extends in a longitudinal direction of the rotatable body. The solid lubricant assembly applies a solid lubricant to at least one of the rotatable body and the image bearer. The guide guides the recording medium and positions the solid lubricant assembly.

Transfer device and image forming apparatus incorporating same

An image forming apparatus includes an image bearer including a first image portion to bear a first toner image, a second image portion to bear a second toner image, and a non-image portion to bear an adjustment pattern. A transferor forms a transfer nip with the image bearer. A controller controls the power source to output an image bias as a transfer bias to transfer the first toner image and the second toner image onto a first recording medium and a second recording medium, respectively, in the transfer nip when the first image portion and the second image portion pass through the transfer nip and output a non-image bias as the transfer bias when the non-image portion passes through the transfer nip. The controller performs a constant current control on the image bias and performs a constant voltage control when the image bias switches to the non-image bias.

A belt device includes an endless belt, a support shaft, a contact member, and a regulating member. The support shaft supports the contact member. The contact member rotates together with the support shaft and contacts the belt. The regulating member moves between a regulating position to regulate movement of the support shaft and a releasing position to allow movement of the support shaft, thereby regulating movement of the contact member in an axial direction of the support shaft.

A belt unit is detachably attachable to a body of an image forming apparatus. The belt unit includes a belt, a pressing member, and a frame. The belt is wound around a plurality of supports to travel in a belt travel direction. The belt includes a base layer and an elastic layer. The pressing member presses warping on an edge of the belt. The frame supports the plurality of supports. The pressing member is positioned on the frame.

Belt unit, transfer unit, and image forming apparatus including a pressing member that presses an edge of a belt

An image forming apparatus includes an image bearing member to bear a toner image charged with a predetermined polarity, and a power source to apply a bias to a transfer portion to transfer the toner image from the image bearing member to a recording medium, a polarity of the bias being changed alternately. The toner image formed with toner of a plurality of colors is transferred in a color mode and the toner image formed with toner of a single color is transferred in a monochrome mode. The bias includes a peak voltage with a polarity that returns toner from the recording medium to the image bearing member. An absolute value of the peak voltage in the color mode is equal to or greater than an absolute value of the peak voltage in the monochrome mode.

Image forming apparatus with a controller to set transfer bias

An image forming apparatus includes an image bearer; a toner image forming device; an intermediate transferor; a primary transfer power source; a secondary transfer nip forming device; and a secondary transfer power source to output a secondary transfer bias. One of two peak values of the secondary transfer bias is a transfer peak value to provide a greater transfer-directional force to move toner from the intermediate transferor toward the recording medium in the secondary transfer nip. An absolute value of the transfer peak value is greater than an absolute value of the primary transfer bias.

Image forming apparatus and transfer bias control

An image forming apparatus includes a plurality of image bearers, a transfer bias member, and a power source. When the transfer bias member transfers a color toner image onto a recording sheet, a second peak value of a peak-to-peak of a transfer bias, which is smaller than a first peak value of the peak-to-peak in an electrostatic force to move toner from the image bearers or an intermediate transfer body to the recording sheet, is zero or has a first polarity to generate the electrostatic force in a transfer direction to move toner from the image bearers or the intermediate transfer body to the recording sheet. When the transfer bias member transfers a monochromatic toner image including only black toner onto the recording sheet, the second peak value is zero or has a second polarity to generate an electrostatic force in an opposite direction to the transfer direction.

An endless rotatable belt device including an endless rotatable belt, a scale tape bonded on the belt, at least one optical sensor to detect a scale pattern, and auxiliary tape to cover at least one of the first end and the second end of the scale tape of the belt. The scale tape has a first end and a second end and includes at least one scale pattern. The auxiliary tape has a lower surface friction coefficient than the surface friction coefficient of the scale tape.

Belt device and image forming apparatus including same

An image forming apparatus includes a rotatable image bearer, a toner image forming device, a transfer device, a transfer bias power source, and a cleaner. The toner image forming device is to form a toner image on the image bearer. The transfer device contacts a surface of the image bearer to form a transfer nip between the transfer device and the image bearer. The transfer bias power source is to output a transfer bias to transfer the toner image from the image bearer onto a recording medium in the transfer nip. The cleaner is disposed downstream from the transfer nip in a direction of rotation of the image bearer, to electrostatically attract and remove toner from the surface of the image bearer to a surface of the cleaner. The transfer bias includes an alternating current component.

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Kanagawa, Japan

Junpei Fujita