Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha Corporation

Matsushita Electric Industrial

Matsushita Electric Ind. Co., Ltd.

Kenichi Nagata

Noboru Yamada

Eiji Ohno

Nobuo Akahira

Kenichi Nishiuchi

Yoshitaka Sakaue

Shigeaki Furukawa

Hisashi Kunihiro

Hideaki Hagihara

Masahide Yokoyama

Hiroshi Hayata

Kazuhisa Ide

Rie Kojima

Masanori Matsumoto

Hiroshi Sugimura

Kunio Kimura

Fumito Mizoguchi

Katsumi Kawahara

Yoshimi Kojima

Yoshiki Ichikawa

Masatoshi Takao

Toshihide Morimoto

Akira Nakakuma

Toshimitsu Kurumizawa

Toshiaki Fujisawa

Haruo Nishiyama

Mayumi Otoba

David Isner

A cartridge capable of preventing careless damage or the like of a memory unit and an image forming apparatus including the cartridge are provided. A toner cartridge (to) which stores toner used for image formation and which is detachably attached to an attachment portion () of an image forming station (Pa to Pd) includes: a cartridge body (); and a memory unit () which is rotatably attached to the cartridge body (), wherein before the toner cartridge is attached to the attachment portion () of the image forming station (Pa to Pd), an electrode terminal portion () of the memory unit () is protected from the outside by a distal end in an attachment direction C of the cartridge body (), when the toner cartridge is attached to the attachment portion () of the image forming station (Pa to Pd), the memory unit () rotates approximately 90 degrees whereby an electrode terminal (to) of the electrode terminal portion () is electrically connected to an electrode terminal (to) of the connecting portion () of the attachment portion ().

Cartridge and image forming apparatus

A toner cartridge for an image forming apparatus includes: a toner container; a toner feed port for supplying toner to a developing device; a toner feeding blade structure for feeding the toner from the toner container to the developing device; and a recording chip for recording history information on the toner container. The toner container includes a toner feed motor for rotationally driving the toner feeding blade structure. The recording chip includes a supplied toner quantity totalizer for summing the amounts of toner supplied and a residual toner quantity display controller for displaying the residual toner quantity in the toner container on a display portion of the image forming apparatus.

Toner cartridge and control method of displaying the residual toner quantity in the same toner cartridge

An image forming apparatus of the present invention includes an image supporting body, a developing device, a cleaning device, an input device, a recycling mechanism, and a controller. The image supporting body is for having a latent image based on image data formed on a surface thereof. The developing device applies a developer to the image supporting body to develop the latent image. The cleaning device eliminates developer remaining on the surface of the image supporting body, after a developer image formed by the developing has been transferred to paper. The input device receives a setting input related to a type of paper for use in image forming. The recycling mechanism transports the developer eliminated by the cleaning device to the developing device as recycled developer. The controller is configured to selectively operate the recycling mechanism based on the type of paper set by the input device.

Image forming apparatus controlling the recycling of toner based on paper quality

An object of the present invention is to provide an electrophotographic photoreceptor capable of recording management information for managing the electrophotographic photoreceptor in a noncontact manner, and improving management of the electrophotographic photoreceptor. An electrophotographic photoreceptor includes a conductive base, a photosensitive layer and a flange portion, wherein a noncontact information medium provided with an antenna part which communicates in a noncontact manner with a reader/writer of a main body of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus and a control part which stores management information for managing the electrophotographic photoreceptor and controls the antenna part so as to communicate with the reader/writer is disposed onto the conductive base.

Electrophotographic photoreceptor and management system of the same

A shutoff lid of a toner hopper is formed with locking elements for locking the lid and a fixing element for fixing the locking elements. In the front face of a bottle slider, a pair of projected abutments abutting the fixing element are arranged on the left and right sides and a pair of switching portions for moving the locking elements are formed. The rear face of the fixing element is shaped with a stepped face which corresponds to the projected abutments. As the bottle slider moves forwards, each projected abutment abuts the stepped face of the fixing element and moves the fixing element, to thereby cancel restraint of the fixing element on the locking elements. A further advancement of the bottle slider causes the locking elements to move and release the locked state. If a projected abutment does not match the fixing element, the fixing element cannot be moved thus making release of the lock impossible. On the other hand, when the bottle slider has reached the toner supply position, contact portions of the releasing elements oppose a guide frame. When the releasing element is rotated about bridges by holding its handle, the contact portions abut the guide frame and function as the fulcrum so as to act a leverage force on the bridges, whereby it is possible to break off the bridges by a weak force. Thus, the releasing element is separated from the bottle slider and then a sealing element is peeled off.

Toner supply system and toner cartridge

To meet a main unit downsized and provided with a lot of functions and an interchangeable part made to be versatile by simplification of manufacturing work, thereby preventing increase of the manufacturing cost and decrease of practical utility. When a toner cartridge is mounted to a developing section, a detecting electrode contacts the surface of a first dielectric layer at a position opposed to a pattern electrode of a recognizing portion, and a return electrode of a detecting section contacts the surface of the first dielectric layer at a position opposed to an entire electrode of the recognizing portion. The first dielectric layer is interposed between the detecting electrode and the pattern electrode, and the first dielectric layer and a second dielectric layer are interposed between the return electrode and the entire electrode. When an AC voltage is applied from an AC power source to the detecting electrode, an AC current passes from the detecting electrode to the pattern electrode through the first dielectric layer. The AC current having passed to the pattern electrode passes to the entire electrode through the second dielectric layer, and returns to the return electrode after passing through the second dielectric layer and the first dielectric layer in this order.

Interchangeable part recognizing apparatus and image forming apparatus

Bidirectional communication is carried out between a toner bottle end communication device disposed in a toner bottle and a main body end communication device disposed in a device main body while the toner bottle is moved from a first position where the toner bottle starts being attached to the device main body to a second position where the toner bottle is completely attached. The CPU provided in the main body end communication device decides whether or not the information on the toner bottle received from the toner bottle end communication device matches the device main body, and notifies prior to toner refilling. If the toner bottle is not suitable, the CPU specifies a lower quality image forming condition under which operation conditions for the main charging device, exposure device, and fixing device are changed so as to produce an image of relatively low quality in comparison to normal quality. The user can single out a bogus product among unsuitable toner bottles by identifying a degradation in the quality of the image produced by that condition.

Image forming device with communication to supplementary toner container

In a phase-change recording medium, a recording medium is provided with a barrier layer including Ge--N, Ge--N--O between a recording layer and a dielectric protective layer in order to prevent a chemical reaction and an atom diffusion between the recording layer and the dielectric protective layer. A barrier material can be also applied to the protective layer itself. Thereby, it is possible to considerably suppress a reduction of a reflectivity and a reduction of a signal amplitude due to the repeat of recording and erasing, such reductions being observed in a conventional phase-change optical information recording medium, and thereby the number of overwriting times can be increased.

Optical information recording medium, producing method thereof and

The present invention is to provide a method for manufacturing the PCE optical information recording disk under control of not only the crystallization velocity but also the complex index of refraction and thus the reflectance on the disk surface. The PCE optical information recording disk is suitable to be used under the constant angular velocity (the constant rotational numbers wherein the disk has a characteristic that the crystallization velocity is designed to become faster from inside area of the disk to outside area in the radical direction thereof under control of not only the crystallization velocity but also the complex index of refraction and thus the reflectance on the disk surface. In the case of mass production and high film formation to be required, the present invention provides an effective method for manufacturing the optical disk by means of sputtering from at least two targets at the same time in a manner that the crystallization velocity is increased in a radial direction from inside area to outside area in the disk.

Optical recording disk and method for manufacturing the same

Optical information recording disk and method for manufacturing the same

A track on the disk is divided into plural concentric zones on the radial position thereof. During recording, the angular velocity varies according to the zones accessed for recording, and the disk is driven at a rotational velocity whereby the angular velocity is constant within any single zone but decreases as the radial position of the zone of the accessed track approaches the outside circumference of the disk. During reproducing, the disk is driven at a rotational velocity whereby the angular velocity is constant in all zones. The range of change in the relative linear velocity of the head to the track is thus smaller and the change in the recording conditions is less during recording. During reproducing, there is no delay time required for rotational control of the disk, and the desired track can be more quickly accessed.

Data storage apparatus

An optical information recording medium, which includes a substrate, and a recording thin film layer provided on the base material and adapted to form variation in an amount optically detectable by absorbing at least laser light so as to record information by partially varying the recording thin film layer and to reproduce the information by optically detecting the variation amount. The optical information recording medium further includes transparent layers each provided in contact with the recording thin film layer, and each of the transparent layers has optical thickness in which, in at least two different wavelengths .lambda., integral multiple of .lambda./2 is added to the thickness giving the large laser light absorption and large optical variation amount, respectively. More specifically, the optically detectable amount is of a reflectance factor variation, and in the different wavelengths .lambda.1 and .lambda.2, with respect to the thicknesses d1 and d2 of the transparent layers which give the optical characteristic more than 60% in the absorption, and more than 20% in the reflectance factor variation, the thickness of each transparent layer is arranged to be the thickness d having relation as represented by a following equation.

Optical information recording medium and optical information

Data storage apparatus for recording and reproducing information on a

An optical information storage medium includes a multilayer structure formed on a substrate. The multilayer structure is formed by a sputtering process in a discharge gas and includes at least a first dielectric layer, a recording layer which shows reversible phase change between an amorphous phase and a crystal phase, and a second dielectric layer. The multilayer structure contains sufficiently small amount of the discharge gas so that a limited amount or less of voids of the discharge gas generates in the recording layer during repeated overwrite operations.

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Nishinomiya, Japan

Kenichi Nagata