Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Hitachi, Ltd.

Brother Kogyo Kabushiki-kaisha

Ricoh Printing Sysetms, Inc.

Katsumi Kumada

Chikara Hiraoka

Kazuhiro Wakamatsu

Haruo Hashimoto

Takamitsu Ikematsu

Isamu Terashima

Nobuhiko Kita

Sei Onuma

Mitsuo Suzuki

Yuichiro Suzuki

Katsuyoshi Onose

Kouichi Oomori

Akira Sasaki

Toshiya Satoh

Kaoru Tada

Kenji Nakamura

Masahiko Saito

Genta Hagiwara

Toshio Ogiso

Masafumi Takahira

Tadashi Okano

Yoshitaro Ishii

Tsuneaki Kawanishi

Masashi Yamamoto

Minoru Toyoda

Akira Shimada

Tatsuo Fukushima

Masaru Nakano

Ryuuichi Shimizu

Kazuo Kikuchi

Atsushi Onose

Katsumasa Mikami

Seiji Okunomiya

Shoji Takeya

Hiromitsu Fukuda

Masato Moribe

Hisao Suka

Yoshio Ohuchi

Tetsunori Kaneko

Shizuo Tsuruta

Takashi Kakuhashi

Hitoshi Furuyama

Yoshitaka Omori

Akio Miyauchi

Mitsuhiro Furuse

Kazuhiro Wakamatus

An image forming apparatus has a high-speed mode and a low-speed mode and includes a speed switch unit configured to select the high-speed mode or the low-speed mode by switching a rotation direction of a drive source. The speed switch unit includes a drive gear attached to a rotating shaft of the drive source; a first drive gear series transmitting a rotating power of the drive source upon rotation in a first direction to an image carrier; and a second drive gear series transmitting a rotating power of the drive source upon rotation in a second direction to the image carrier, the second drive gear series having a larger reduction ratio than the first drive gear series. The speed switch unit causes the drive gear to be selectively connected to the first drive gear series or the second drive gear series depending on the rotating direction of the drive source.

Swing-gear mechanism and image forming apparatus having multiple speed modes

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a fixing device including: a heating roller that generates a heat and is formed to have a mold releasing property; a pressure belt that is brought into contact with the heating roller and is driven according to a rotation of the heating roller; an arm that presses the pressure belt toward the heating roller; and a belt regulating member that contacts an end face of the pressure belt to regulate a shift thereof and is configured to be swingable with respect to the arm.

Fixing device and electro photographic apparatus using the same

A fixing unit where an operating force for releasing a nip can be reduced with a small-sized configuration. The fixing unit has a heating roller including a heating element, a pressure belt, pressure arms, pressure springs, and nip load releasing units. The pressure belt is supported in an intermediate position between the pressure arms. One end portions of the pressure arms are brought into contact with the pressure springs respectively. The other end portions of the pressure arms are brought into contact with the nip load releasing units respectively. When a load applied to the pressure belt is released by the nip load releasing units, the other end portions of the pressure arms move away from the heating roller.

Fixing unit and image forming apparatus having the same

A housing structure includes a first structure, which has body frames and a first shaft supported by the body frames, a second structure to be movably supported between an opened position and a closed position by the first shaft, and a positioning device to position the second structure in relation to the first structure in the closed position. The positioning device includes a first engagement portion provided on the first structure, a second engagement portion provided on the second structure and engaged with the first engagement portion in the closed position, a first biasing device to bias the second engagement portion toward the second structure, and a second biasing device to bias the second engagement portion toward the first structure. The positioning device positions the second structure in relation to the first structure by biasing forces of the first biasing device and the second biasing device.

Housing structure and image forming apparatus

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a developing device including: a roller that develops an electric latent image formed on an image holding body; a chamber that stores a toner; a case that houses the roller and the chamber; a concave portion that is inwardly concaved from the case and that includes: a sidewall, a bottom, and a filling port formed in the bottom; and a first lid that closes the filling port.

Developing device and image forming apparatus using the same

A rotary member includes a rotating main body, and support members that are formed to be supported by bearings. Each of the support members includes a spindle core formed of a first metal, and a cylindrical sheath that sheathes a portion of the spindle core where slidably contacting respective one of the bearings and that is formed of a second metal different from the first metal.

Rotary member, developing device, and image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes: an image forming unit that forms an image on a recording sheet; an image reading unit provided above the image forming unit so as to open and close with respect to the image forming unit; an automatic document feeder provided above the image reading unit so as to open and close with respect to the image reading unit; and an open-close regulation mechanism that regulates opening and closing movements of the automatic document feeder so that when the image reading unit is closed with respect to the image forming unit, the automatic document feeder is capable of opening with respect to the image reading unit, and when the image reading unit is opened with respect to the image forming unit, the automatic document feeder is prevented to open with respect to the image reading unit.

Image forming apparatus with an open-close regulation mechanism of the automatic document feeder

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a sheet feed cassette including: a main container on which sheets are mounted; a sub container slidably attached to the main container; and first slidable portions that are arranged on sidewalls of each of the main container and the sub container, and that are formed in a U-shape.

Sheet feed cassette and image forming apparatus using the same

According to an aspect of the invention, an image forming apparatus comprises: a manuscript reading device reading a manuscript and converting the manuscript into an image signal; a recording device printing on paper; at least one rotating support member connecting the manuscript reading device and the recording device, and a wiring housing member housing the electrical wiring. The recording device is electrically connected to the manuscript reading device by an electrical wiring. The rotating support member is configured so as to rotate the manuscript reading device relative to the recording device. The wiring housing member is positioned different from the rotating support member.

Image forming apparatus including a wiring housing member

An electrophotographic image forming system having a form cassette for storing forms, a transfer unit for forming an image, a feeder for feeding the forms to the transfer unit and a fusing device for fusing transferred image of the form. The electrophotographic image forming system provides in a path for feeding the form with unfused colored particles (toner) deposited thereon, a form guide so as to contact the non-printing area of the surface of the form with unfused colored particles (toner) deposited thereon.

Electrophotographic image forming system

A fixing device in an image formation apparatus has a heating roller and a backup roller. These rollers are each coated with single silicone rubber layers around the respective peripheries of their core bars. This silicone rubber has a volume resistance value of 10 &OHgr;&middot;cm or more. The heating roller is charged with electricity of the same polarity as the polarity of toner particles due to frictional electrification caused at the time of feeding of a recording medium. The heating and the backup roller are polarized reverse to the polarity of the recording medium. A quantity of charged electricity on the backup roller is made larger than that on the heating roller. This permits the image formation apparatus to prevent offset from occurring at the time of fixing a toner image onto the recording medium to cope with various types of recording media.

Fixing device improved in offset-prevention

An electrograph apparatus includes a photoconductor, a charging device for uniformly charging the surface of the photoconductor, a developing device, a charge extinguishing device functioning so that a sheet of printed paper can be easily released, and a fixing device in which denatured silicone oil having a mercapto-group as a functional group is used as a releasing agent, for fixing a toner image copied on a printing paper, in which the fixing device is provided above the charging device and the charge extinguishing device. Further, a deodorizing device having a suction fan and a catalyst filter, at least the surface of which has a catalyst of metal oxide, is provided above the fixing device, the deodorizing device promoting reaction of ozone generated at the charging device and the charge extinguishing device with offensive substances containing mercaptan and further decomposing the ozone and the offensive substances, wherein exhaust gas containing the decomposed ozone and offensive substances is expelled in a direction opposite to the direction of the arrangement of the photoconductor and the developing device.

Electrograph apparatus enabling removal of offensive substances

A developing magnet roller is provided on a developing frame, and a developing agent accommodating cartridge and a toner accommodating cartridge member are fitted detachably into the developing frame. The toner accommodating cartridge member is fitted detachably into the developing agent accommodating cartridge. A developing agent is recovered in the developing agent accommodating cartridge. The developing agent and the developing agent accommodating cartridge are exchanged together from a developing apparatus. The new developing agent accommodated in the exchanged new developing agent accommodating cartridge is circulated by the developing magnet roller. The exchange for the developing agent in the developing apparatus can be realized without the lowering of the developing performance.

Developing apparatus having developing agent accommodating cartridge and

A developing magnet roller is provided on a developing frame and a developing agent accommodating cartridge is fitted detachably into the developing frame. A toner accommodating cartridge unit is fitted detachably in the developing agent accommodating cartridge. A developing agent is recovered in the developing agent accommodating cartridge. The developing agent and the developing agent accommodating cartridge are exchanged together from a developing apparatus. The new developing agent accommodated in the exchanged new developing agent accommodating cartridge is circulated by the developing magnet roller. The exchange for the developing agent in the developing apparatus can be realized without the lowering of the developing performance.

A electrophotographic image fixing device fixes a toner image on a substrate. The substrate is passed between two pressing rollers disposed in opposition to each other to fix toner images on the substrate. The pressing rollers includes a surface constructed from an elastic material layer such that the elastic material layer can be deformed approximately 0.5-1.5% in terms of thickness. The pressing force against the toner applied side of the substrate is adjusted to 0.3-1 kg/cm.sup.2. As a result, an image with excellent toner fixing strength can be formed on a substrate such as an envelope without wrinkling the substrate during the fixing operation.

Image fixing device and electrophotographic apparatus incorporated with

Growing community of inventors

Osaka, Japan

Katsumi Kumada