Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Sony Corporation

Nissan Motor Company Limited

Kenji Kikuchi

Shinji Tamaki

Hiroshi Hosokawa

Hideki Kimura

Nobuo Takami

Yuji Suzuki

Junichi Matsumoto

Masato Suzuki

Junji Yamabe

Eisuke Hori

Noriyuki Kimura

Shunji Katoh

Hiroshi Ikeguchi

Seiji Terazawa

Tsunehiro Watanabe

Kaori Mitsuishi

Shunji Kato

Toshihide Tomotaka

Michiharu Suzuki

Hideo Yoshizawa

Shingo Kuboki

Tetsuro Hirota

Makoto Komatsu

Tadashi Hayakawa

Tsukuru Kai

Yuzuru Ozawa

Junichi Awamura

Tatsuya Kubo

Atsushi Nakamoto

Shingo Sakashita

Koichi Yamazaki

Shinnosuke Koshizuka

Kazunori Suzuki

Naohiro Kawashima

Tomoki Murayama

Masaya Fukuda

Kayoko Tanaka

Satoshi Kojima

Koichi Sakata

Hitoshi Iwatsuki

Yutaka Mabuchi

Yoshitaka Sekiguchi

Shuntaroh Tamaki

Hisashi Nakajima

Masashi Nagayama

Hiroyuki Kishida

Yuki Oshikawa

Shigenori Yaguchi

Yoshihiro Fujiwara

Tsuneyasu Nagatomo

Toyoaki Tano

Hiroshi Tohmatsu

Saori Yamada

Mariko Takii

Masana Shiba

Shingo Nishizaki

Takahiro Nakahigashi

Kenichi Mashiko

Keita Sone

Hiroshi Kumagai

Shinya Hanatani

Ryoichi Teranishi

Ko Tokumaru

Takumaru Sagawa

Yoshifumi Aoki

Takafumi Kondo

Mitsufumi Yamamoto

Kazuho Satoh

Chihiro Kikuchi

Seiji Kamada

Midori Kondou

A powder container including a nozzle receiving opening at one side of the powder container in a longitudinal direction of the powder container, a scoop, at the one side, to scoop up the powder, when the scoop is rotated about a rotational axis, and a holder, at the one side, which is rotatable around the rotational axis relative to the scoop. The holder includes an electrical terminal, facing the longitudinal direction, and the holder and the electrical terminal not intersecting the rotational axis. The electrical terminal is oblique to the rotational axis relative to a vertical direction when the powder container is in a mounted orientation.

Powder container with a nozzle receiver

Portion of a powder container

A powder container includes a nozzle receiving opening, a container body, a nozzle receiver including the nozzle receiving opening; a gear, and two scoops. Further, there is a shutter to open and close the nozzle receiving opening, a spring to bias the shutter, two protrusions which protrude away from the nozzle receiving opening. The scoops extend in the longitudinal direction along a first length, the protrusions extend in the longitudinal direction along a second length, and a position of the first length and a position of the second length at least partly overlap along the longitudinal direction. The powder dropped from the higher position enters the region by passing between the protrusions when the scoops are rotated about the rotational axis, and the protrusions are rotated, due to the rotation of the gear, around the region when the scoops are rotated about the rotational axis.

A powder container contains powder and is attached to an image forming apparatus including: a conveying nozzle to convey the powder; a powder receiving hole of the conveying nozzle to receive the powder from the powder container; an apparatus main-body gear to transmit a driving force to the powder container; and a container receiving section including the conveying nozzle and receiving the powder container. The powder container includes: an opening at one end of the powder container in a longitudinal direction; a nozzle receiver at the opening to receive the conveying nozzle; a conveyor to convey the powder; and a container gear to drive the conveyor by meshing with the apparatus main-body gear. The container gear is to mesh with the apparatus main-body gear at a position closer to the opening than the powder receiving hole in the longitudinal direction. The opening is to mate with the container receiving section.

Powder container

A powder conveying device includes: a conveying nozzle, provided with a powder receiving opening; an open/close member to open/close the powder receiving opening; a flange provided to the open/close member; a biasing member to bias the open/close member; and a container setting section to which a part of a powder container is to be fit. The powder container includes: a conveyor to convey the powder from a second end of the powder container to a first end; a container opening protruding from the first end; a nozzle receiving opening into which the conveying nozzle is to be inserted; and a butting portion provided in the container opening, to butt against the flange. When the powder container is attached to the powder conveying device, the container opening is fitted to the container setting section, and the flange and the biasing member are housed in an inner space of the container opening.

Nozzle receiver for use with a toner container

A nozzle insertion member is in a powder container that includes a nozzle insertion opening into which a conveying nozzle is inserted. The nozzle insertion member includes an opening/closing structure to move to an opening position to open the nozzle insertion opening by being pressed by the inserted conveying nozzle, and to a closing position to close the nozzle insertion opening when the conveying nozzle is separated from the nozzle insertion member, and a seal arranged at the nozzle insertion opening and including a through hole into which the conveying nozzle is insertable. The opening/closing structure includes a front cylindrical portion to contact with an inner surface of the through hole, and a slide area formed on another side relative to the front cylindrical portion. W&#x3c;Wis satisfied, where Wis an inner diameter of the through hole, and Wis an outer diameter of the slide area.

Powder container including an opening and a shutter with a front end including a surface with lower friction

The powder container includes a container body containing a powder for image formation, the powder being to be supplied to a powder replenishing device; a conveyor configured to convey the powder from one end in a longitudinal direction to the other end at which a cylindrical container opening is formed, the conveyor being provided inside the container body; a gear configured to rotate the conveyor with an external driving force; a container cover configured to cover the gear, the container cover having a gear exposing hole for partially exposing a gear tooth; and a nozzle receiver configured to guide the conveying nozzle inside of the container body, the nozzle receiver being provided on the container opening. The container cover includes a container engaged portion provided outer than the tooth of the gear in a radial direction.

Powder container and image forming apparatus

Powder container including a container body, nozzle receiver, and seal

Powder container including a nozzle receiving opening and scoop

A system with a container including a protrusion, and a receiver to receive the container. The receiver includes a slide block that is movable relative to a body of the receiver, the slide block including two surfaces, a first surface, initially contacted by the protrusion of the container during insertion of the container into the receiver, having a first slope to resist movement of the container towards the receiver, and a second surface, subsequently contacted by the protrusion of the container during the insertion of the container into the receiver, having a second slope to interact with the protrusion of the container to assist movement of the container towards the receiver. This construction provides the user with a changing insertion force to indicate proper mounting of the container.

Toner container having protrusions projecting from opposite sides of the toner container

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Kenji Kikuchi