Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Katsuhito Haruno

Masakazu Imai

Masaharu Furuya

Osamu Ichihashi

Takuya Sekine

Seiichi Kogure

Tsutomu Kato

Hiroki Nakamatsu

Ryoh Tanoue

Junpei Fujita

Atsushi Nakamoto

Takehide Mizutani

Takahiro Konishi

Naoto Kochi

Kazuki Yogosawa

Toshitaka Yamaguchi

Tatsuya Ohsugi

Takuya Sekina

A roller member includes a cored bar, an elastic layer, and a non-conductive member. The elastic layer is disposed on an outer circumferential face of the cored bar. The cored bar has a projecting portion projecting beyond a range in which the elastic layer is disposed, toward an axial end of the cored bar. The non-conductive member is made of a non-conductive material. The non-conductive member is disposed on the projecting portion. The non-conductive member bites into an end face of an axial end of the elastic layer.

Roller member and image forming apparatus including the roller member

An image forming apparatus includes a developing device, an image bearer, a transfer rotator, a blade contacting a surface of the transfer rotator, and a controller to control the developing device, the image bearer, and the transfer rotator. A first toner pattern image is formed on the image bearer, transferred onto the transfer rotator, and passed past the blade at least twice together with rotation of the transfer rotator in at start-up of the image forming apparatus. A second toner pattern image is formed on the image bearer after the start-up and during passage of a non-image area in which toner images are not formed. A range of the first toner pattern image is wider than a range of the second toner pattern image in a width direction perpendicular to a direction of travel of the image bearer.

Transfer rotator and image forming apparatus comprising the same

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

A roller member includes a cored bar, an elastic layer, a first high resistance member, and a second high resistance member. The elastic layer is disposed on an outer circumferential face of the cored bar. The cored bar has a projecting portion projecting beyond a range in which the elastic layer is disposed, toward an axial end of the cored bar. The first high resistance member is made of a high-resistance material having a higher electrical resistance than an electrical resistance of the cored bar. The first high resistance member is fitted to the projecting portion. The second high resistance member is made of a high-resistance material having a higher electrical resistance than an electrical resistance of the cored bar. The second high resistance member fills a space between the first high resistance member and the elastic layer.

Roller member including a first and second high resistance member and image forming apparatus including the roller member

A transfer device includes an image bearer and a transfer rotator. The transfer device further includes an adjuster including a rotatable cam and an opposed member opposed to the cam. The cam alternately contacts and separates the transfer rotator against and from the image bearer, having a continuous sloped surface with a plurality of positions, each position to contact the opposed member to obtain a different amount of separation between the image bearer and the transfer rotator. The transfer device further includes a controller to control the adjuster to adjust the amount of separation between the transfer rotator and the image bearer according to thickness or type of the recording medium when the recording medium starts to enter the transfer nip.

An image forming apparatus includes a plurality of image carriers that carries toner images, a belt that is supported by a plurality of rollers including a support roller and an opposing roller, a transfer roller disposed opposed to the opposing roller via the belt, and a bending roller that bends the belt from outside toward inside and is disposed downstream from the opposing roller and upstream from support roller. The belt is stretched between the support roller and the bending roller in a first area. The plurality of image carriers contacts the belt in a second area other than the first area. A surface of the belt in the first area is parallel to that of the belt in the second area.

Transfer unit and image forming apparatus employing the transfer unit

An image forming apparatus includes a housing and a transfer unit. The transfer unit detachably attachable relative to the housing includes a drive roller, a driven roller disposed opposite the drive roller, a belt formed into a loop and entrained around the drive roller and the driven roller, a frame to support the shaft of the drive roller, and a support member to movably support the shaft of the driven roller to be parallel to an axial direction of the drive roller and movable in a first direction different from the axial direction. A positioning member disposed in the housing holds the shaft of the drive roller parallel, and a restriction member restricts movement of the driven roller in the first direction to keep the shaft of the driven roller parallel to the shaft of the drive roller as the transfer unit is mounted in the image forming apparatus.

Transfer belt device and image forming apparatus including the same

A transfer unit includes a belt member, a bending roller, a transfer section, and a bias application unit. The belt member is extended between rollers and has a movable surface on which a toner image is transferred from an image carrier. The bending roller externally contacts the surface of the belt member to bend the belt member and rotates in conjunction with the belt member. The transfer section includes one of the rollers and a surface moving member. The surface moving member rotates at least one full turn while cleaning is performed on the surface moving member and the bending roller. A surface moving speed of the bending roller is equal to or greater than a surface moving speed of the surface moving member. A circumferential length Lof the surface moving member and a circumferential length Lof the bending roller satisfy L&#x2267;L

The image forming apparatus includes an image bearing member bearing a toner image; a driving roller and a tension roller movable in such a direction that the interval between the rollers changes; a transfer belt stretched by the rollers to feed a receiving material so that the toner image on the image bearing member is transferred onto the receiving material or to directly receive the toner image from the image bearing member; a detector opposed to the tension roller with the belt therebetween to optically detect a mark on the belt, wherein the detector is movably supported while biased toward the tension roller, and the moving direction of the tension roller is substantially the same as an optical axis of light emitted by the detector; and a regulator to regulate movement of the tension roller and the detector in a direction perpendicular to the moving direction of the tension roller.

Image forming apparatus having a movably supported transfer belt detector

A transfer device includes a rotatable intermediate transfer belt wound around and stretched between a pair of rollers, facing a plurality of image bearing members bearing toner images, a plurality of transfer members facing the image bearing members through the intermediate transfer member, to transfer overlappingly the toner images onto the intermediate transfer member forming a composite toner image, a lubricant applicator disposed upstream from the image bearing members in a direction of rotation of the intermediate transfer belt and on the same plane as the image bearing members, to apply a lubricant on the intermediate transfer member, an opposing member disposed opposite the lubricant applicator, to contact the lubricant applicator through the intermediate transfer member, and a pressure member disposed upstream from the image bearing members and downstream from the lubricant applicator in the direction of rotation of the intermediate transfer belt, to press against the intermediate transfer member.

Transfer device and image forming apparatus including same

An image forming apparatus includes a toner image carrying member, an image transfer device, a fixing device, a registration unit, a guide member, an upstream-side transportation unit, and a downstream-side transportation unit. The image transfer device transfers a toner image from the toner image carrying member to a recording medium. The fixing device fixes the toner image. The registration unit transports the recording medium. The guide member guides the recording medium. The upstream-side transportation unit includes an upstream-side transportation member, disposed at an upstream side in the transport direction of the recording medium. The downstream-side transportation unit includes the downstream-side transportation member, disposed at a downstream side in the transport direction of the recording medium. The upstream-side transportation unit includes an upstream-side positioning member to position the guide member to the upstream-side transportation member. The downstream-side transportation unit includes a downstream-side positioning member to position the guide member to the downstream-side transportation member.

Image forming apparatus

In an image forming apparatus, a moving member is provided with a first engagement member. A lever is provided with a second engagement member to engage and disengage the first engagement member provided in the moving member. The lever moves between a predetermined first position and a second position different from the first position to move the moving member in such a manner that when the lever is at the first position, a transfer member reaches a contact position at which the transfer member is pressed against an image carrier via a belt, and when the lever is at the second position, the transfer member reaches a separation position at which the transfer member separates from the image carrier.

Image forming apparatus with improved housing panel structural strength

A powder container includes a first container to contain powder falling from an opening located in an upper portion of the powder container, a second container that contains the powder and is located in the first container, on a route through which the powder that falls from the opening, a powder transport mechanism to transport the powder from the first container to the second container, and a detection mechanism to detect whether or not the first container is completely or nearly filled with the powder based on a load to the powder transport mechanism.

Powder container, cleaning device, and image forming apparatus

A turnable transfer unit, including a transfer member forming a transfer nip while contacting an image bearer installed in an image forming apparatus; and a pressurizer pressurizing the transfer member to the image bearer, wherein the turnable transfer unit further includes a turnable lever member, including an engaging part engaging with a positioning part of the image forming apparatus; and a contact part contacting an opening and closing body openable and closable in the image forming apparatus, wherein the lever member turns in conjunction with a closing operation of the opening and closing body to position the transfer unit in the image forming apparatus.

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Katsuhito Haruno