Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha Corporation

Kenichi Isomi

Norio Tomita

Yoshikazu Harada

Tetsushi Ito

Yoshiteru Kikuchi

Noriaki Taguchi

Tetsuya Yamaguchi

Shuichi Mochizuki

Yasuhiro Takai

Takashi Yamanaka

Kimihide Tsukamoto

Hiroshi Tachiki

Shinji Nakazawa

Shinichi Takeda

Tatsuya Shinkawa

Kohichi Yamauchi

Kan Mukai

Takahiko Yoshida

Showtaro Okamoto

Hirotsugu Akamatsu

An image forming apparatus of the present invention includes a resin frame composed of a resin and an image forming unit that is removably inserted in the resin frame. The resin frame includes a base having a supporting surface that supports the image forming unit, a guide portion that extends in the base in an insertion direction in which the image forming unit is inserted along the supporting surface and that guides the image forming unit in the insertion direction while limiting movement of the image forming unit in an orthogonal direction that is orthogonal to the insertion direction, and a side plate portion that is provided at a peripheral edge of the base so as to extend in a direction perpendicular to the supporting surface, the base, the guide portion, and the side plate portion being integrally molded from a resin. A mold opening direction of a mold for molding the guide portion is set to a direction parallel to the orthogonal direction, and downstream end portions of the side plate portion in the mold opening direction are integrally connected to each other and extend essentially parallel to the perimeter of the base.

Image forming apparatus with resin frame and method for molding the resin frame

In an embodiment of the present invention, an image forming apparatus includes a transfer belt that primarily transfers a toner image formed on a photosensitive drum; a secondary transfer unit including a transfer mechanism portion that secondarily transfers the primarily transferred toner image to a paper; an optical sensor that detects a reference toner image on the transfer belt; and a shutter that protects a detection face of the optical sensor, wherein a separation/contact mechanism portion disposed so as to be brought into contact with both of the shutter and the secondary transfer unit is provided, and the separation/contact mechanism portion allows the shutter to move so as to open and allows the secondary transfer unit to move so as to separate from the transfer belt when the reference toner image is detected by the optical sensor, and allows the shutter to move so as to separate from the transfer belt when the secondary transfer unit is drawn out from an apparatus main body.

Intermediate transfer-type image forming apparatus with separation/contact mechanism

An image forming apparatus includes a controller for detecting the opening and closing of a shutter from the output from an optical sensor and controlling the opening and closing operation of the shutter based on the detected result. The controller determines that if the optical sensor is turned 'ON' within a predetermined period of time from when the shutter begins opening, the operation of the shutter from the closed state to the open state is correctly detected. When no reflected light is detected by the optical sensor even after a predetermined time has elapsed, the controller determines that an anomaly has occurred and closes the shutter and repeat another detecting process.

Image forming apparatus

Image forming apparatus having phase control of photoconductor groups

An image forming apparatus include: a plurality of photosensitive drums; a latent image forming unit for forming an electrostatic latent image on each photosensitive drum; a developing unit for developing each electrostatic latent image; a transferring unit for superimposing and transferring the developed images onto a moving record medium; a measurement unit for measuring positions of the transferred images on the record medium; and a control unit for controlling the photosensitive drums, the latent image forming unit, the developing unit, and the transferring unit. The control unit includes: a calculating unit for calculating a value related to alignment errors in the positions measured by said measurement unit in accordance with a sine-curve fitting method; and a correcting unit for correcting the alignment errors by the calculated value.

Alignment error correcting unit for image forming apparatus

It is an object to prevent distortions and deviations of images caused by the eccentricity of a driven gear mounted to a rotational shaft of a photosensitive drum. There are provided a driving gear which is secured to a rotational shaft of a rotational driving power source and is rotated at a constant peripheral speed, a driven gear secured coaxially to a rotational shaft of a cylindrical-shaped photosensitive member, a phase control gear having the same diameter as that of the driven gear and having the same rotational speed variation characteristic as that of the driven gear, and a transmission gear, and a driving force from the driving gear is transmitted to the driven gear through the phase control gear and the transmission gear.

Photosensitive-member driving mechanism

One embodiment of the present invention involves a roller drive control method for a fixing apparatus in which a separation claw for separating a recording paper and a cleaning unit for removing toner that has become residual on a surface of a heat roller are arranged near a surface of the heat roller that fixes toner onto the recording paper, wherein a predetermined period different from a fixing process period in which fixing of toner onto the recording paper is carried out is set as a toner removal period for removing toner that has adhered to the separation claw, and the heat roller is rotationally driven so that the rotation velocity of the heat roller is different in the fixing process period and the toner removal period.

Roller drive control method for fixing apparatus

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Nara, Japan

Kenichi Isomi