Seiko Epson Corporation

Kazuhiro Ichikawa

Yoichi Yamada

Hiroshi Ito

Nobumasa Abe

Tomoe Aruga

Tahei Ishiwatari

Hidenori Kin

Yoshihiro Nakashima

Yukio Takayama

Osamu Ishibashi

Hideki Okada

Toshiya Takahata

Kaneo Yoda

Yoshiro Koga

Katsumi Okamoto

Yoichi Miyasaka

Toshiaki Yamagami

Akira Arai

Seiichi Taniguchi

Shigeo Fujita

Yuki Oguchi

Yoshiyuki Nagai

Teruaki Oguchi

Takatomo Fukumoto

Akira Maruyama

Hidehiro Takano

Toshiaki Oshima

A sheet manufacturing apparatus is an apparatus that heats a material containing fibers to form a sheet, and includes a heating portion that heats the material, and a control portion that controls a temperature at which the heating portion heats the material. The control portion sets a temperature of the heating portion to a first temperature in a first state where the sheet manufacturing apparatus manufactures the sheet, and sets the temperature of the heating portion to a second temperature lower than the first temperature at a predetermined timing in a second state where the sheet is not manufactured, or at a predetermined timing when a state of the sheet manufacturing apparatus is shifted to the state where the sheet is not manufactured.

Sheet manufacturing apparatus and control method of sheet manufacturing apparatus

Provided is technology improving the efficiency (productivity) of a sheet manufacturing apparatus. A sheet manufacturing apparatusmanufactures sheets S by heating with heatersanda mixture (second web W) of resin and fiber produced by defibrating feedstock MA. The heatersandeach have a first roller, a second rollerthat holds the second web Wwith the first roller, and a moving mechanism. The moving mechanismcan switch the first rollerand second rollerto a position holding the second web W, and a first rollerand second rollerare separated and do not hold the second web W. The heatersandare configured as units that can removably installed to the sheet manufacturing apparatus

Sheet manufacturing apparatus, sheet manufacturing system, control method of a sheet manufacturing apparatus, and sheet manufacturing method

A developer cartridge, including: a container for containing developer; a shutter that is supported so that the shutter can linearly move relative to the container, and that opens and closes by moving linearly; a handle member that is supported so that the handle member can rotationally move relative to the container, and that includes a handle; and a conversion mechanism by which rotational-movement force that rotationally moves the handle member is converted into linear-movement force that linearly moves the shutter.

Developer cartridge, image forming apparatus, and shutter device

A color laser printercompares a pervious printer, which a toner cartridgehas been attached to immediately before attachment to the current printer, with the current printer. In the case where the previous printer is different from the current printer, the color laser printerobtains setting information on the previous printer, which is stored in a storage elementof the toner cartridgeand applies the obtained setting information for the current printer. The various settings in the previous printer are thus turned over to the current printer, when the toner cartridgeis detached from the previous printer and is attached to the current printer. This arrangement ensures smooth printing operations without requiring any troublesome settings to use the current printer.

Printer, printer setting method and corresponding program, and cartridge

A color laser printer of the invention identifies each object image to be printed as a color image or a monochromatic image. When the object image to be printed is identified as a color image, the control procedure of the invention rotates a developer unit with multiple color toner cartridges to sequentially move positions of the respective color toner cartridges to a development position and forms respective color toner images on a photoreceptor. When the object image to be printed is identified as a monochromatic image, on the other hand, the control procedure fixes a specific toner cartridge filled with black toner to the development position and forms a black toner image on the photoreceptor. A counter counts up consecutive monochromatic printing operations. After a preset number of the consecutive monochromatic printing operations in the fixed state of the developer unit, the developer unit is rotated to return and fix the specific toner cartridge filled with black toner to the development position for monochromatic printing.

Printing device and printing method

Toner cartridgesC,M,Y, andK have storage elementsC,M,Y, andK mounted thereon to transmit information carried on electromagnetic wave in a predetermined frequency band. An information receiver transmitter unitis located in a neighborhood of an end of a developer unitwith the toner cartridgesC,M,Y, andK attached thereto to transmit information carried on the electromagnetic wave in the predetermined frequency band to and from a color laser printer. While the developer unitis rotated to develop each color component image with a supply of toner from the corresponding one of the toner cartridgesC,M,Y, andK, the information receiver transmitter unitis controlled to write a cumulative toner consumption and a cumulative number of printed sheets into the corresponding one of the storage elementsC,M,Y, andK.

Image formation device and recording agent cartridge attached thereto

The process of the invention determines whether toners of cyan (C), magenta (M), and yellow (Y) are all included in toner filled in a toner cartridge, based on color information of the toner read from a storage elementof the toner cartridge(Sand S). When the toners of all these colors are included in the toner cartridge, the process sets parameter values for a color image to control parameters (a fixation temperature T, a fixation pressure P, and a preliminary revolving frequency R) of a fixation process (S). When the toners of all these colors are not included in the toner cartridge, on the other hand, the process specifies formation of a monochromatic image and sets parameter values for the monochromatic image to the control parameters (S). This arrangement effectively ensures adequate formation of a color image and a monochromatic image and desirably prevents excessive deterioration of constituents of an image formation device.

Image formation device and image formation method that selectively adapts a process of fixing an image on a medium

A toner cartridgehas a storage elementthat stores recycling information. A cartridge recycling information apparatus of the invention outputs a recycling request form based on the recycling information stored in the storage elementat a specified output timing of the recycling information. This arrangement desirably saves the user's labor and time of searching for the recycling request form and enables the user to be readily notified of the recycling information.

Cartridge recycling information apparatus, corresponding method, and cartridge to be recycled

The process of the invention determines whether the value of a color mode CMode represents a color image formation mode or a monochromatic image formation mode (S, S). The process forms test toner images of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black in the case of the color image formation mode (S), while forming a test toner image of only black in the case of the monochromatic image formation mode (S). The process detects a toner density of each test toner image formed with a toner density sensor (S), and sets control parameters used for controlling toner image formation, based on the detected toner densities (S).

Image formation device and image formation method

A toner comprising: a plurality of mother particles; and a plurality of external additive particles to be attached to the mother particles, the external additive particles including external additive particles attached to the mother particle and external additive particles liberated from the mother particles, wherein an inclination (particle sizes of the external additives/particle sizes of the mother particles) of an approximation straight line obtained by approximating distribution of particle sizes of the external additives with respect to the particle sizes of the mother particles by a least-square method is not larger than 0.6. Also, disclosed is an image forming apparatus using the toner.

Toner and development unit and image forming apparatus using the same

A developing unit of the present invention includes a case which accommodates toner containing pigment, a developing roller, a supply roller formed of an elastic member arranged to be pressed against a surface of the developing roller in such a manner as to supply toner to the surface of the developing roller. The toner is mixed by conveying fins which have phases that are different in such a manner that the loads are uniform in rotation

Developing unit

A developing unit of the present invention includes a case which accommodates toner containing pigment, a developing roller, a supply roller formed of an elastic member arranged to be pressed against a surface of the developing roller in such a manner as to supply toner to the surface of the developing roller. A conveying fin is supported by the case so as to convey toner to the surface of the supply roller wherein the developing roller, the supply roller, and the conveying fin are sequentially disposed in a horizontal direction. The number of revolutions of the conveying fin per unit time is between {fraction (1/50)} and {fraction (1/20)} of the supply roller.

Developing unit having a conveying fin for loading a supply roller with toner

A developing unit of the present invention includes a case which accommodates toner containing pigment, a developing roller, a supply roller formed of an elastic member arranged to be pressed against a surface of the developing roller in such a manner as to supply toner to the surface of the developing roller. The toner contains a first and second additive having a specific covering ratio to the surface matrices in the toner.

Developing unit using specific developer composition

A plurality of developing units each includes a case which accommodates toner containing pigment, a developing roller, a supply roller formed of an elastic member arranged to be pressed against a surface of the developing roller in such a manner as to supply toner to the surface of the developing roller and a conveying fin. The developing roller, supply roller, and conveying fin for each developing unit are angularly arranged in a particular manner.

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Nagano-ken, Japan

Kazuhiro Ichikawa