Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Kenzo Tatsumi

Yoshiyuki Shimizu

Tomofumi Yoshida

Hirobumi Ooyoshi

Tomohiro Kubota

Yoshihiro Kawakami

Koji Kato

Masaru Tanaka

Ken Amemiya

Haruji Mizuishi

Mayumi Ohori

Hiroshi Mizusawa

Toshitaka Yamaguchi

Masayuki Yamane

Kiyonori Tsuda

Seiji Terazawa

Kazuhisa Sudo

Nobuyuki Taguchi

Emi Kita

Takeroh Kurenuma

Satoshi Narumi

Fumio Ogata

Hideki Zenba

Takeo Suda

Hideki Zemba

Yutaka Naitoh

Fumio Kishi

Noriyuki Usui

Hiroyuki Ohkaji

Hiroshi Yoshinaga

Hiroshi Yamashita

Shigeru Watanabe

Osamu Saito

Shigeru Yoshiki

Noboru Kusunose

Keisuke Katoh

Hideo Yoshizawa

Nobutaka Takeuchi

Kazuyoshi Kondo

Shintaro Yamada

Kyohta Koetsuka

Noriyuki Kamiya

Tsuyoshi Imamura

Manabu Hamada

Sumio Kamoi

Mayumi Yoshida

Hiroyuki Okaji

Mieko Kakegawa

Kenji Narita

A seal member covers a space between a developing roller and a casing of a developing device. The seal member includes a flexible sheet and a reinforcing member fixed to the sheet. The reinforcing member is fixed to the casing. Notches are provided in the reinforcing member in a direction perpendicular to the length of the reinforcing member.

Seal member, developing device, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus

A process cartridge includes a photosensitive drum, a charging unit, a developing unit, and a cleaning unit, arranged opposite to each other along a rotating direction of the photosensitive drum in an enclosure that has an opening opposite to a developing roller of the developing unit. An extended line connecting a tangent line to an outer circumference of the developing roller and a wall of a first end of the enclosure in an axial direction of the developing roller does not intersect with a wall of a second end of the enclosure.

Process cartridge and image forming apparatus

A toner cartridge is configured by integrally arranging a fresh toner storing chamber and a residual toner collection chamber. Fresh toner is filled in the fresh toner storing chamber through a fresh toner filling opening. Residual toner is conveyed in the residual toner collection chamber through a residual toner conveying opening. Two residual toner discharging openings are created in the residual toner collection chamber through which the residual toner is discharged.

Toner cartridge with refillable fresh and residual toner chambers, process cartridge, and method of making toner cartridge reusable

A toner-collecting device includes a toner-collecting unit, a shaft member, and a guide member. The toner-collecting unit is configured to be detachably attachable. The shaft member is rotatably arranged in the toner-collecting unit. The guide member includes a sliding portion that allows the shaft member to slide while the shaft member is being inserted from one end to an opposite end of the toner-collecting unit.

Toner-collecting device and image forming apparatus

There is disclosed an image forming apparatus including: a latent image carrier; a latent image writing unit; a development unit; a latent image carrier unit having the latent image carrier; a first positioning protrusion disposed on the latent image carrier unit, the first positioning protrusion being engaged with a groove or a slit of an image forming apparatus body; an abutted portion disposed on the groove or the slit, the abutted portion abutting the first positioning protrusion in order to position the latent image carrier unit in an installation and removal direction; and a second positioning protrusion shifted in the installation and removal direction and disposed on the latent image carrier unit, the second positioning protrusion positioning the latent image carrier unit at a position different from a position of the first positioning protrusion in order to engage the groove or the slit.

Latent image carrier having pairs of first and second positioning protrusions and image forming apparatus

A toner transport screw that is capable of maintaining a smooth and stable transport function. The toner transport screw, in which a helical blade is disposed on the circumference of a rotating shaft, has at least one spiral direction reversal part formed by connecting the respective ends of a first blade part and a second blade part, the directions of spiral of the first blade part and the second blade part being in opposite directions. A passage, which allows the toner to pass through the blades in the circumferential direction of the rotating shaft, is formed in the spiral direction reversal part.

Powder transport screw, and development device, process unit and image-forming apparatus comprising this powder transport screw

A toner conveyer device for use din an image forming apparatus includes a toner conveyer belt conveys waste toner, a screw member that receives the waste toner from the toner conveyer belt and conveys the waste toner to a housing unit, and a scraping member that scrapes waste toner that adheres to the screw member.

Toner conveyer device, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus

A toner agitating unit is located in a toner hopper that houses toner used for developing a latent image. The toner agitating unit includes a rotary shaft and an agitating member. The agitating member is a flat plate made of resin. The agitating member has a plurality of slits extending from an outer edge of the agitating member toward the rotary shaft.

Toner agitating unit, toner hopper, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus

A developing device includes a main body that is arranged between a pair of supporting members and includes a developing roller. Both end portions of the developing roller are supported by the supporting members in a first direction in which the developing roller is movable toward and away from an image carrier. A groove is formed on each of the supporting members. Either one of an end portion of the developing roller and a bearing that supports the end portion is inserted into the groove. Either one of at least one of the end portions of the developing roller and at least one of the bearings is movable in the groove in a second direction that intersects the first direction.

Developing device, process unit, and image forming apparatus, with supporting members, grooves, and supported developing roller

An insertion passageY for inserting a suction nozzleY fixed to an image forming apparatus is provided on a holderY, and a connecting passageY that connects the insertion passageY and a toner storage sectionY of the holderY is provided. After the toner sent from bottleY to the holderY falls towards the connecting passageY, the toner flows into the suction nozzleY through the connecting passageY and is then discharged out of the holderY. An airtightness between the insertion passageY and the suction nozzleY inserted into the insertion passageY is superior than an airtightness between the bottleY and the holderY engaged with the bottleY.

Toner cartridge, image forming apparatus, method of recycling toner cartridge

A toner conveying device includes a toner hopper for containing unused toner, a waste-toner hopper for containing waste toner, and waste-toner conveying screws that convey waste toner in the waste-toner hopper. The waste-toner hopper is separated from the toner hopper by a flexible partition made of elastic material. The flexible partition is located near the conveying member, and includes a rigid body.

Toner conveying device, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus

A developing device that can be formed at low cost and without increasing the complexity of a die structure of a casing comprises a development roller, a supply roller, a developing portion having an agitating member, a toner hopper disposed above the developing portion, an agitating member in the toner hopper, a partitioning member provided between the developing portion and the toner hopper and having an opening portion, and a collected developer storage portion forming portion for forming a storage space for collected toner collected from the development roller by the supply roller within a fixed distance of the supply roller such that the collected toner moves to the vicinity of the agitating member in the developing portion in accordance with a developer flow generated by the rotation of the supply roller. A pre-incorporation component formed by integrating the partitioning member, the collected developer storage portion forming portion, and a bearing portion for supporting the agitating members is incorporated into the casing.

Developing device of image forming apparatus

A developing device configured such that the developing device or the like can be easily inserted and removed without increasing the size of the apparatus, and an image forming apparatus that uses this developing device as well as a process cartridge. The developing device is provided with a first rib formed projecting from a first main wall surface, which is the side surface with the maximum area in the chassis of the developing device, and a second rib formed projecting from a second main wall surface, which is the side surface in opposition to the first main wall surface, the first rib being disposed in a position higher than the second rib in the height direction.

Developing device and image forming apparatus that uses this developing device

A developing device that supplies developer to an image carrier. In a developing device having a developer carrier that is driven in rotation by drive force applied to a gear provided on the shaft section thereof, the developer carrier being pressed in the direction of the image carrier, the effect of the gear drive force on the pressing force of the developer carrier onto the image carrier can be eliminated. The bearing that supports the shaft section is made slidable and the sliding direction of the bearing with respect to the direction of the drive force is set at about 90&#xb0;.

Developing device, process cartridge and image forming apparatus

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Osaka, Japan

Kenzo Tatsumi