Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Canon Aptex

Kazunari Nishimoto

Fumiki Inui

Mitsuru Kurata

Kazushi Nishikata

Hideyuki Matsubara

Yoji Misao

Tsutomu Harada

Yasushi Miura

Yasuyuki Takanaka

Tokihide Ebata

Shigeo Murayama

Shotaro Yoshimura

Katsumi Sugiyama

Satoshi Koga

Takao Kawazu

Yoshiko Miyashita

Tomoya Kuruma

Takeshi Irizawa

Tatsuya Fukushima

Yutaka Kubochi

Shinichi Iwasaki

Yuichi Watanabe

Yuzo Wada

Shigeru Inose

Kohei Ishikawa

In an image forming apparatus including a fixing unit having a film and a heater in contact with the inner surface of the film, an electrical breakdown may occur in the protection layer of the heater, when a surge voltage is applied to a power supply line connected to the heater. An arrester is provided on a power supply line connected to the heater of the image forming apparatus.

Image forming apparatus that protects a heater from electrical breakdown

An image forming apparatus includes a main body, a sheet conveyance apparatus, and a control unit. The main body includes an image forming unit to form an image on a sheet. The sheet conveyance apparatus and the main body are detachable from each other and the sheet conveyance apparatus may convey the sheet to the image forming unit. The sheet conveyance apparatus includes a sheet conveyance path through which the sheet passes and a detection unit. The detection unit includes light emitting and receiving units that transmit light across the sheet conveyance path therebetween. The detection unit detects a reference and an edge position of the conveyed sheet in a width direction of the sheet orthogonal to a sheet conveyance direction. The control unit determines a position of the sheet based on detections of the reference and the edge position of the conveyed sheet by the detection unit.

Image forming apparatus

Positioning in the width direction of a sheet is performed by a skew correcting unit which is provided on a re-conveying path for reversing the sheet and conveying it again to an image forming unit and which has a reference surface that is come into contact with a side edge of the sheet and a plurality of diagonal feed units which obliquely convey the sheet so as to be come into contact with the reference surface. The pressures in nip portions of the other diagonal feed units excluding one of the plural diagonal feed units are reduced or cancelled by a reducing/cancelling unit according to a length in the sheet conveying direction of the sheet which is conveyed.

Sheet conveying apparatus and image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus has a movable member including a first shaft, a second shaft, a main assembly electrical contact, and a second contact portion for being contacted by the first contact portion when a cartridge is mounted to the apparatus. There is also a first guide portion, for guiding the first shaft such that the movable member is rendered movable in the inserting direction by the second contact portion being pushed by the first contact portion when the cartridge is mounted to the main assembly of the apparatus, and a second guide portion for guiding the second shaft by the second contact portion being pushed by the first contact portion when the cartridge is mounted to the main assembly of the apparatus, such that the movable member is rotated about the first shaft in a direction of electrically connecting the main assembly electrical contact to the cartridge electrical contact.

Image forming apparatus and cartridge therefor

An image forming apparatus includes a photosensitive member and a transfer roller that are brought into pressure contact with each other by a force of a transfer spring to define a nip section therebetween. The transfer roller is movable between a first position at which the transfer roller is in pressure contact with the photosensitive member and a second position at which the pressure is eliminated or reduced. When the transfer roller is pushed to the second position, the transfer roller is latched at the second position and the apparatus can be carried in this state. When the apparatus is activated and the photosensitive member is driven, the transfer roller is unlatched and is returned to the first position by the force of the transfer spring, so that the nip section is formed again between the transfer roller and the image bearing member and an image forming process is enabled.

Image forming apparatus having mechanism for reducing pressing force between image bearing member and transferring member

An image heating device includes a pressure-changing mechanism configured to change pressure applied to a heating nip. A cam of the pressure-changing mechanism acting on a pressure-applying mechanism is attached to a rotating shaft of a conveying roller that conveys recording materials. With this, an increase in the cost of the device can be regulated.

Image heating device capable of changing pressure applied to heating nip

The image heating apparatus for heating an image formed on a recording material includes a flexible sleeve and a regulating member disposed at a position opposed to an end surface of the sleeve for regulating the movement of the sleeve in a generatrix direction thereof, the regulating member having a first surface opposed to the end surface of the sleeve, and a second surface opposed to the inner peripheral surface of the end portion of the sleeve in the generatrix direction thereof, wherein the regulating member is a combination of a first part having the first surface and a second part having the second surface. Thereby, the damage of the end portion of the flexible sleeve can be suppressed.

Image heating apparatus using a flexible sleeve

A label printer performs recording on a roll label comprising a number of label sheets bonded in succession on a release sheet. The printer utilizes an ink jet method to attain a smaller size and to print information accurately. The printer comprises a conveyance section for conveying the label roll to an ink jet print head, an ink supply section for supplying ink to the head, and a recovery unit for making the head performance stable. A conveyance surface of the label roll is made substantially horizontal, with the ink jet print head and the recovery unit disposed above the surface and the ink supply section disposed underneath the surface.

Printer and printing method

An image forming apparatus includes conveying device for conveying a printing medium in the substantially horizontal direction in the printing range where a printing agent is applied to the printing medium while a printing plane of the printing medium orients in the upward direction, a printer section including a plurality of printing heads located opposite to a platen portion of the printing range for applying the printing agent to the printing medium in the downward direction so as to form printed images on the printing medium by activating the printing heads, and supporting device for slidably displacing the printer section relative to the platen portion in the conveying direction of the printing medium conveyed by the conveying device, between the position where the printer section is located opposite to the platen portion and the non-opposing position spaced away from the preceding position. With such construction, a maintenance service can easily be conducted for the conveying device.

An image forming apparatus includes at least one set of printing heads each adapted to print a printing medium with ink, and plural sets of ink feeding systems changeably or exchangeably usable for feeding ink to the one sent of printing heads. In addition, according to another aspect, an image forming apparatus includes a plurality of printing heads each adapted to print a printing medium with ink and a plurality of ink feeding systems changeably or exchangeably usable for feeding ink to the printing heads. In this case, each of the ink feeding systems includes an ink storing tank, a head connecting capable of detachably holding a printing head thereon, and an ink feeding passage by way of which the ink storing tank and the head connecting portion are connected to each other. A jointing portion at which the ink storing tank and the ink feeding passage are connected to each other and a jointing portion at which the ink feeding passage and the head connecting portion are connected to each other are constructed as a detachably connectable joint member.

Upon adjustment of an ink level of an air buffer in an ink supply system supplying an ink to a printing head via the air buffer from a sub-tank, by driving a pressuring motor of the sub-tank, the ink is fed under pressure. When the ink is reached at the position of a connection opening of the air buffer, the excess amount of ink is discharged for adjustment of the ink level. At this time, the ink discharged through the connecting opening is returned to the sub-tank via the ink tube. Thus, the ink consumed during the ink level adjustment can be avoided. With a construction set forth above, the shown case, the in the ink-jet cloth printing apparatus, in which the ink is supplied to the printing head via the air buffer, the ink amount to be consumed during the ink level adjustment of the air buffer is eliminated so that the ink consumption of the overall can be reduced.

Growing community of inventors

Numazu, Japan

Kazunari Nishimoto