Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Koichi Hiroshima

Masahiro Goto

Shinichi Tsukida

Takahiro Inoue

Koichi Suwa

Manabu Takano

Makoto Takeuchi

Junichi Kato

Yasushi Sato

Kimio Nakahata

Masahide Kinoshita

Yoji Serizawa

Yukihiro Ohzeki

Hironobu Isobe

Ryuichi Yoshizawa

Akio Noguchi

Yukihide Ushio

Junji Araya

Katsuhiko Nishimura

Tatsunori Ishiyama

Masaki Ojima

Seiji Uchiyama

Kazuro Yamada

Shimpei Matsuo

Akihiko Takeuchi

Koichi Tanigawa

Hideyuki Yano

Hiromichi Yamada

Takayasu Yuminamochi

Yasuo Yoda

Toru Kosaka

Toshio Miyamoto

Masahiro Suzuki

Tatsuya Kobayashi

Hiroshi Hashimoto

Jun Murata

Shunichi Masuda

Yasumasa Ohtsuka

Tomoaki Nakai

Takao Kume

Yuki Nishizawa

Shinji Hashiguchi

Takashi Nakahara

Yoichiro Maebashi

Kenjiro Hori

Hiroto Hasegawa

Haruo Fujii

Satoshi Akiyama

Norio Hashimoto

Yoshiro Tsuchiya

Yoshiaki Nishimura

Yozo Hotta

Toshio Yoshimoto

Yusuke Jota

Yoshimi Kuramochi

Tooru Saitou

Hiroyuki Takeda

Katsunori Takeuchi

Hiromiichi Yamada

An image heating apparatus for heating an image formed on a recording material includes: a cylindrical rotatable member including a base layer and an electroconductive layer; a core inserted into the rotatable member; and a coil wound helically around the core inside the rotatable member, wherein an AC magnetic field is formed by passing an AC current through the coil to generate heat in the electroconductive layer through electromagnetic induction heating. The base layer has a volume resistivity higher than a volume resistivity of the base layer. The electroconductive layer generates heat through a full circumference thereof by a current flowing in a circumferential direction of the rotatable member independently of rotation of the rotatable member.

Image heating apparatus and rotatable member for use with the image heating apparatus

Using two or more developer replenishing units, each of which has a first storage for storing identification information related to developer and a second storage for storing history information related to the developer, if the identification information read out from each developing replenishing unit accords with unique information stored in an image forming main body, the history information is read out from the developing replenishing unit and analyzed to judge whether the utilization amount of the developing replenishing unit is at the end of its life. If the developing replenishing unit is not at the end of its life, the discharge amount of the developer replenished from the developer replenishing unit is controlled according to the history information and image output results formed by means of the image forming main body.

Cartridge for replenishing developer including a memory device and a control system featuring the cartridge

An image forming apparatus includes an image bearing member; a developing device for developing a latent image formed on the image bearing member, the image bearing member and the developing means being detachably mountable to the apparatus as a process unit; a developer supply unit for supplying a developer to the developing means, the developer supply unit being detachably mountable to the apparatus; and a first memory mounted on the process unit. The first memory stores information relating to the developer supply unit.

Image forming apparatus capable of discriminating a service life of detachably mounted process unit

Image forming apparatus and process unit mountable to image forming apparatus

Image forming apparatus and image forming method

An image forming apparatus has an image bearing member, and a density detecting device for detecting the density of an image for density detection formed on the image bearing member. Image forming conditions are controlled on the basis of an output from the density detecting device. The density detecting device has a regular reflection type density detecting device for detecting the density by regular reflection light from a portion to be detected, and a diffuse reflection type density detecting device for detecting the density by diffuse reflection light from the portion to be detected. The output value from the diffuse reflection type density detecting device is corrected on the basis of the output value from the regular reflection type density detecting device which has detected a reference image, and the output value from the diffuse reflection type density detecting device which has detected the reference image.

Image forming apparatus having density detecting means

An image forming apparatus has a developing device for developing an electrostatic image formed on an image bearing member by a developer. A developer supplying unit is detachably attachable to a main body of the image forming apparatus and supplies the developer to the developing device. A density detecting device detects a density of the developer in the developing device. A developer remaining amount detecting device detects information regarding an amount of the developer in the developing supplying unit. A state of the developer supplying unit is judged on the basis of a result of the detection by the density detecting device and a result of the detection by the second detecting device.

Image forming apparatus with developer density and developer remaining amount detection features

A fixing apparatus for use in an image forming apparatus such as a copying apparatus or a laser beam printer is disclosed. The fixing apparatus has a heater, a rotatable member having the heater therein, and a pressing member forming a nip by coming into contact with the rotatable member. The rotatable member is provided with a core and an elastic layer formed on the core, and the elastic layer has a JIS-A Standard rubber hardness not more than 5.degree..

Rotatable member having elastic layer and fixing apparatus having said

The present invention provides an image forming apparatus which includes a movable image bearing member for bearing a toner image, a movable intermediate transfer member to which the toner image on the image bearing member is electrostatically transferred at a first transfer position, and a charger for charging residual toner remaining on the intermediate transfer member after the toner image on the intermediate transfer member has been electrostatically transferred onto a transfer material at a second transfer position with polarity opposite to charging polarity of the normal toner on the image bearing member. An electric field is formed so that the residual toner charged by the charger from the intermediate transfer member onto the image bearing member and a transfer of a next toner image from the image bearing member onto the intermediate transfer member are simultaneously performed at the first transfer position. Also included is a controller for controlling so that a relative position of a first toner image transferred to a first transfer material from the intermediate transfer member with respect to the intermediate transfer member and a relative position of a second toner image transferred to a second transfer material from the intermediate transfer member with respect to the intermediate transfer member are differentiated.

Simultaneous cleaning of residual toner and toner image formation

The present invention provides an image forming apparatus for forming an image on a transfer material by using an intermediate transfer member, having a first transfer bias power supply for applying transfer bias to a first transfer unit to generate first transfer bias between a photosensitive member and an intermediate transfer member, when toner images are successively firstly-transferred onto the intermediate transfer member, and a second transfer bias power supply for providing constant current to generate second transfer bias between the intermediate transfer member and the secondary transfer electrode, and wherein the second transfer bias power supply applies, in an overlap fashion, transfer bias of current having a current value greater than a current value of the transfer bias to be applied to an upstream image area of the transfer material and having the same polarity as that of the latter transfer bias to at least a non-image area of the transfer material at an end portion thereof in a transfer material conveying direction, thereby preventing the toner images from scattering.

Image forming apparatus using intermediate transfer member

An image forming apparatus has an image bearing member; toner image forming unit for forming a toner image with non-magnetic toner on an image bearing member; intermediate transfer member contactable to the image bearing member and movable along an endless path; primary transfer unit for effecting primary image transfer of the toner image formed on the image bearing member onto the intermediate transfer member at a first transfer position; secondary transfer unit for effecting a secondary image transfer of the toner image from the intermediate transfer member on the transfer material at a second transfer position; and a residual toner charger for charging the residual toner remaining on the intermediate transfer member to a polarity opposite from a regular polarity thereof. After the secondary image transfer, the residual toner remaining on the intermediate transfer member is charged by the residual toner charger to the opposite polarity, and is then passed through the first transfer position during the primary image transfer, so that the residual toner is transferred back to the image bearing member substantially simultaneously with a next primary image transfer, thus removing the residual toner from the intermediate transfer member.

Image forming apparatus which back-transfers residual toner from an

In an image forming apparatus a toner image is transferred onto a transfer material using an intermediate transfer member. The image forming apparatus has an image bearing member; a toner image forming unit for forming a toner image on the image bearing member; an intermediate transfer member movable along an endless path in contact with the image bearing member; a bias voltage applicator for applying a bias voltage to transfer the toner image from the image bearing member onto the intermediate transfer member at a first transfer position of the intermediate transfer member; and an image transfer device for transferring the toner image from the intermediate transfer member onto the transfer material at a second transfer position of the intermediate transfer member, a residual toner charge for charging residual toner remaining on the intermediate transfer member after image transfer therefrom, to a polarity opposite from a regular polarity of the toner to permit the residual toner to transfer back, simultaneously with a next image transfer at the first transfer position, to the image bearing member when the residual toner passes through the first transfer position.

Image forming apparatus having cleaning device for cleaning intermediate

An image forming apparatus includes a first image-bearing member such as an electrophotographic photosensitive member, an intermediate transfer member for receiving a transferable image formed on the first image-bearing member, and contact transfer device for transferring the transferable image from the intermediate transfer member to a transfer material. The first image-bearing member has a surface layer having a dielectric constant .epsilon..sub.d, the intermediate transfer member has a surface layer having a dielectric constant .epsilon..sub.ITD and the contact transfer device has a surface layer having a dielectric constant .epsilon..sub.tr satisfying a relationship of; .epsilon..sub.d .ltoreq..epsilon..sub.ITD .ltoreq..epsilon..sub.tr. The intermediate transfer member exhibits a volume resistivity of 10.sup.6 -10.sup.10 ohm.cm (at an applied voltage of 1 kV), and the contact transfer device exhibits a volume resistivity of 10.sup.8 -10.sup.15 ohm.cm (at an applied voltage of 1 kV). As a result, it is possible to obtain high transfer efficiencies in both primary and secondary transfer over a wide transfer bias application range.

Image forming apparatus having dielectric constant relationship between

An image forming apparatus which converts character or pattern information into bit map information (pixel information) and forms an image based thereon. The image forming apparatus includes a light-beam generator for generating a modulated light beam, a light-beam deflector for scanning an image carrier, a device for feeding a sheet to registration rollers and a driver for driving the image carrier. A time period is provided to operate the light-beam deflector and the feeding device before the driver starts to drive the image carrier to form an image.

Image forming apparatus with image carrier and sheet feed drive control

An image forming apparatus includes image forming device for forming an image on a recording material, the image forming device including an image bearing member, a charging member for charging the image bearing member and a voltage source for supplying a voltage to the charging member; and determining device for determining a substantial intersection between an actual voltage-current characteristic curve between the charging member and the image bearing member and a predetermined voltage-current curve predetermined for the charging member, and for determining a bias to be applied to the charging member during image forming operation of the basis of the intersection.

Image forming apparatus having charging member

Growing community of inventors

Yokohama, Japan

Koichi Hiroshima