Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Keiichiro Juri

Hideaki Yasunaga

Masahiro Ohmori

Makoto Matsushita

Akira Izutani

Hiroaki Takahashi

Yuka Aoyama

Ayano Momose

Yuri Haga

Yohta Sakon

Masanobu Gondoh

Hideki Kimura

Shinya Nakayama

Hiroshi Yamada

Chiyoshi Nozaki

Yuuki Mizutani

Yuta Nakamura

Tsuyoshi Nozaki

Yoshimichi Ishikawa

Kaori Toyama

Tomoharu Miki

Shohei Gohda

Shuuichi Nakagawa

Takuya Akiyama

Yosuke Suzuki

Yuta Takeuchi

Toshiki Mori

Yusuke Sasa

Naoko Shohji

Kazuma Tokai

Maho Shimokawa

Jun Yamashita

Makoto Watanabe

A cleaning blade includes an elastic member that includes a front edge surface extending in the longitudinal direction of the elastic member and the thickness direction orthogonal to the longitudinal direction and a bottom surface extending in the depth direction orthogonal to the longitudinal direction and the thickness direction, the bottom surface sharing a front edge ridge part with the front edge surface and facing a cleaning target, and a coating layer coating the front edge surface, the front edge ridge part, and the bottom surface, wherein the front edge ridge part coated with the coating layer is in contact with a surface of the cleaning target, and the coating layer has an average thickness that increases with an increase in a distance from the front edge ridge part in the thickness direction on the front edge surface.

Cleaning blade, method of manufacturing the same, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus

Provided is a cleaning blade including an elastic blade having a strip shape, and a supporting member supporting the elastic blade. The cleaning blade is configured to bring a leading end ridgeline portion of the elastic blade into contact with a cleaning target member that is moving, and remove a residual matter from a surface of the cleaning target member. At least a surface layer portion of the elastic blade including the leading end ridgeline portion is formed of a rubber having a hysteresis loss ratio of 15% or less.

Cleaning blade, image forming apparatus, and process cartridge

A cleaning blade for cleaning a rotating body is provided. The cleaning blade includes: an edge layer having a tip portion that comes into contact with the rotating body; and a coating layer on the tip portion of the edge layer. The coating layer contains a first fluorine-based resin and a second fluorine-based resin incompatible with the first fluorine-based resin. The cleaning blade has a Martens hardness of from 0.5 to 3 N/mmat a position 20 μm distant from a tip edge portion of the edge layer.

Cleaning blade, lubricant leveling blade, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus

A cleaning blade for an intermediate transfer medium is provided. A cleaning target of the cleaning blade is an intermediate transfer medium. The cleaning blade includes an edge layer and a coating layer. The coating layer provided on a forefront end of the edge layer at which the edge layer contacts the intermediate transfer medium contains a first fluorine-based resin and a second fluorine-based resin incompatible with the first fluorine-based resin. The cleaning blade for an intermediate transfer medium has a Martens hardness of 0.5 N/mmor greater and 3 N/mmor less at a location having a distance of 20 μm from a ridgeline of the forefront end of the edge layer.

Cleaning blade for intermediate transfer medium, and image forming apparatus

A cleaning blade is provided. The cleaning blade includes an elastic body having a contact edge to contact a surface of a cleaning target to remove a residue on the surface. The elastic body includes a coating layer on at least a part of the contact edge. The coating layer contains fluorine-based particles and a binder comprising a fluorine-based oil.

Cleaning blade, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus including an image bearer and a cleaning blade is provided. The cleaning blade comprises an elastic member configured to contact a surface of the image bearer to remove toner particles remaining thereon. The elastic member comprises a substrate and a surface layer comprising a cured product of a curable composition and a siloxane compound. The surface layer is disposed on at least a part of a lower surface of the substrate. The surface layer has a hardness gradient in which a Martens hardness HM measured using a nanoindenter decreases from a surface of the surface layer toward the lower surface of the substrate in a thickness direction, and the Martens hardness HM measured in a region extending from a vicinity of the surface (with a load of 1 &#x3bc;N) to a deepest part in the thickness direction (with a load of 1,000 &#x3bc;N) ranges from 2.5 to 32.5 N/mm. The toner has a tensile breaking force F of from 200 to 450 gf (from 1.96 to 4.41 N), measured using a powder layer compression/tensile strength measurement device under a load of 32 kgf (313.81 N).

Image forming apparatus, image forming method, and process cartridge

An image forming apparatus including developing unit to develop electrostatic latent image with toner to form visible image, and cleaning unit including elastic member including surface layer and configured to remove the toner, wherein Martens hardness A and Martens hardness B of the surface layer measured by applying load of 1 &#x3bc;N and load of 1,000 &#x3bc;N, respectively, to position of the surface layer in thickness direction thereof using nanoindenter are both 2.5 N/mmor greater but 32.5 N/mmor less, and Martens hardness A and Martens hardness B satisfy inequality,Martens hardness A&#x3e;Martens hardness Bwherein coefficient of dynamic friction of the surface layer against polycarbonate is 0.5 or less, and the toner includes polyester resin insoluble to THF and Tg of THF-insoluble component of the toner determined from DSC curve of first heating of DSC is &#x2212;60&#xb0; C. or higher but 20&#xb0; C. or lower.

Image forming apparatus and image forming method

A cleaning blade includes a support and an elastic member with a flat shape. The elastic member has a secured end secured to the support and a free end. A ridgeline of the free end contacts a cleaning target to remove substances adhering to a surface of the cleaning target. The elastic member includes a base and a surface layer made of a cured product of a curable composition. The surface layer is disposed on at least a part of an opposite face disposed to oppose a downstream side of the cleaning target downstream from a contact portion of the elastic member with the cleaning target in a direction of movement of the cleaning target. A thickness of the surface layer progressively decreases toward the secured end along a cross section perpendicular to a longitudinal direction of the surface layer.

A cleaning blade including an elastic member configured to be in contact with a surface of a cleaning-target member to remove deposited matter deposited on the surface of the cleaning-target in member, wherein the elastic member includes a base and a surface layer formed of a cured product of a curable composition, the surface layer is formed on at least part of a bottom surface of the base including a contact part to be in contact with the cleaning-target member, where the bottom surface of the base is a surface of the base facing a downstream side along a traveling direction of the cleaning-target member relative to the contact part, and an average film thickness of the surface layer at the contact part is 10 &#x3bc;m or greater but 100 &#x3bc;m or less.

A composition for seamless belt includes a thermoplastic resin; and a conductive agent. A liquid extracted from the composition with methanol has an intensity not greater than 7&#xd7;10in a total ion chromatogram.

Composition for seamless belt, and image forming apparatus using the belt

Provided is a developing roller including a shaft body, an elastic layer formed on an external circumference of the shaft body, and a surface layer formed on an external circumference of the elastic layer. The surface layer is formed of polyurethane containing a reaction product of a fluoroethylene vinyl ether copolymer and an isocyanurate form of isocyanate and having a film thickness of from 0.5 &#x3bc;m through 2.0 &#x3bc;m. The developing roller has grooves in a surface of the developing roller. The angle of the grooves from a circumferential direction is from 0 degrees through 30 degrees.

Developing roller, process cartridge, image forming apparatus and image forming method

A semiconductive resin composition includes at least two thermoplastic resins and a conductive filler. Each of the two thermoplastic resins has a sea-island structure, and 40% to 75% of the conductive filler are present in the thermoplastic resin in an island portion of the sea-island structure at an areal ratio of a cross section observed with a scanning electron microscope.

Semiconductive resin composition, member for electrophotography and image forming apparatus

A semiconductive resin composition includes a plurality of thermoplastic resins forming a sea-island structure including a sea portion and an island portion; and a plurality of conductive fillers. The sea portion includes at least two of the thermoplastic resins, at least one of the at least two of the thermoplastic resins is a copolymer, and the content of the copolymer is from 20% to 60% by weight per 100% by weight of the thermoplastic resins in the sea portion, and the following relation is satisfied:1.5&#x2266;&#x2266;10wherein A represents an average primary particle diameter of one of the conductive fillers having the smallest average primary particle diameter and B represents an average primary particle diameter of one of the conductive fillers having the largest average primary particle diameter.

A cleaning blade includes an elastic member including a contact portion to contact the surface of a member to be cleaned and remove an extraneous matter adhering to the surface of the member. The contact portion includes a modified portion including at least one of an impregnated portion including a first cured material formed of a first curing composition in a thickness direction from the surface of the contact portion; and a surface layer formed of a second curing composition on the surface of the contact portion. The surface of the modified portion has a tack maximum value not greater than 3.0 [gf/mm].

Cleaning blade including modified portion including impregnated portion and surface layer, and process cartridge and image forming apparatus including the cleaning blade

A developing roller includes a conductive axis body; a conductive elastic layer overlying the conductive axis body; and a toner bearing layer overlying the conductive elastic layer and having a surface dispersed with particles having an average particle diameter of from 11 nm to 40 nm. The rotary torque is from 2.5 N to 3.5 N.

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Kanagawa, Japan

Keiichiro Juri