Toshiba Tec Kabushiki Kaisha

Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Toshiba Tec Corporation

Koji Imamiya

Takayasu Aoki

Tsuyoshi Itou

Noboru Furuyama

Masato Ogasawara

Yasuhito Noda

Hideo Aoki

Chiaki Takubo

Toshiaki Yamauchi

Naoko Yamaguchi

Hiroshi Hashizume

Masayuki Kasukawa

Toshiro Honda

Katsunori Mizuta

Hiromichi Mitamura

Kei Onishi

Shigenobu Osawa

Tamiko Nakajo

Takao Izumi

Masahiro Ikuta

Goro Oda

Sunao Takenaka

Chie Miyauchi

Nobuaki Takahashi

Takashi Shimazaki

Katsutoshi Mita

Yuka Yamaguchi

Minoru Tezuka

According to one embodiment, an image forming apparatus includes a photoreceptor, a charging member, an application unit, and a control unit. An image is formed on the photoreceptor. The charging member is in contact with or close to a surface of the photoreceptor. The application unit applies a voltage to the charging member. The control unit performs control so that a current flowing through the charging member and the photoreceptor becomes a constant current when the photoreceptor is in an unused state, measures a voltage when the constant current flows and stores the measured voltage as a reference voltage, and controls the application unit to apply a voltage obtained by adding correction according to a value indicating a usage amount of the photoreceptor to the reference voltage.

Image forming apparatus and charging method

In one embodiment, a heating device to be used in a fixing device to fix a toner image to a medium has a heat pipe, a heater, and a heat conductive layer. The heater has a heating portion, and heats the medium via the heat pipe. The heat conductive layer is provided between the heating portion and the heat pipe, and conducts heat from the heating portion to the heat pipe.

Heating device, fixing device and image forming apparatus

A developing device includes a housing having an opening in a wall thereof, a developing roller rotatably arranged within the housing, and a magnetic pole structure, wherein the developing roller is configured to carry a developer on an outer surface thereof using the magnetic force of the magnetic pole structure. The developing device further includes a gap forming member located within, and spaced from, the housing at a location downstream, in the rotation direction of the developing roller, of the opening in the wall of the housing, forming a first gap with respect to the developing roller and forming a second gap with respect to the housing, a blocking member arranged in the first gap, and a guide section configured to guide airflow passing through the second gap in a general direction toward the developing roller.

Airflow guides in developing device

A developing device includes first and second chambers, a developing roller, first and second mixers, and one or more removable seals. The developing roller is in the first chamber. The first mixer is in the first chamber and configured convey developer in a first direction along a rotational axis of the developing roller. The second chamber is connected to the first chamber via a first port and a second port that are spaced apart from each other in the first direction. The second mixer is in the second chamber and configured to convey developer in a second direction opposite to the first direction. The one or more removable seals cover the first and second ports. A developer is contained in one of the first or second chambers. A developer discharge port is provided on the other one of the first or second chambers.

Developing device with removable seal closing port and image forming apparatus having the same

In accordance with an embodiment, an image forming apparatus comprises a first cassette configured to accommodate a first sheet; a second cassette configured to accommodate a second sheet different from the first sheet in at least one of a size and an orientation; a controller configured to perform control to feed the first sheet to a conveyance path from the first cassette and feed the second sheet to the conveyance path from the second cassette to insert the second sheet between respective copies if a printing instruction for a plurality of copies is issued; and a sheet discharge section configured to stack the first sheet and the second sheet.

Image forming apparatus and sheet conveyance method

A developing device includes a housing having an opening in a wall, a developing roller having a hollow interior portion, a magnetic pole structure disposed within the hollow interior portion of the roller, a gap forming member, and a blocking member. The gap forming member is located within, and spaced from, the housing at a location downstream, in the rotation direction of the developing roller, of the opening in the wall of the housing, forms a first gap with respect to the developing roller and forms a second gap with respect to the housing. The gap forming member has a first side facing the opening in the wall of the housing and a second side spaced inwardly of the housing, from the first wall. The blocking member is located in the first gap and at one of the first and second sides of the gap forming member.

Developing device with a gap forming member and image forming apparatus having the same

An image forming apparatus of an exemplary embodiment includes a temperature sensor, a developing unit, a supply unit, and a control unit. The temperature sensor detects a temperature. The developing unit supplies developer to an image carrier and performs development. The supply unit contains developer and supplies the contained developer to the developing unit. The control unit executes developer replacement processing including discharging the developer from the developing unit and supplying the developer contained in the supply unit to the developing unit based on a first ratio which a ratio of a developer supply time during which the supply unit performs supply of the developer for the developing unit and a drive time during which the developing unit is driven and a threshold value obtained based on a detected temperature of a temperature sensor.

Image forming apparatus and developer replacement method of image forming apparatus

The image forming apparatus of the present embodiment has two limiters composed of a conventional high order limiter and a low order limiter, and carries out control to switch the limiter according to a temperature and a humidity so as not to reach a image contrast potential equal to or greater than those limiters. Carrier development can occur if image formation is performed in a state where the image contrast potential is high. Therefore, by providing a low order limiter as in the present embodiment and carrying out control so as not to exceed the low order limiter at the time of the image formation, an occurrence of the carrier development can be suppressed, and an image density can also be within a prescribed range.

Image forming apparatus using humidity and temperature detection

According to one embodiment, a method for erasing an image includes erasing an image formed using a toner containing at least a binder resin, an electron donating color developable agent, and an electron accepting color developing agent by heating for 10 seconds or less. A color difference &#x394;E between a region where the image is erased and a paper is 5 or less.

Method for erasing image

According to one embodiment, an image processing apparatus includes a heating unit configured to heat an image formed on a sheet, and a control unit configured to control a temperature of the heating unit to be (i) above a first temperature when performing an image erasing operation on a first sheet supplied thereto, and (ii) below a second temperature that is lower than the first temperature when performing an image fixing operation on a second sheet supplied thereto. The control unit permits a first type of job to interrupt a currently-executing job while the image erasing operation is being performed and prohibits a second type of job from interrupting the currently-executing job while the image erasing operation is being performed.

Image processing apparatus and method for operating image processing apparatus

An electrophotographic toner contains an electron donating color former compound, an electron accepting color developing agent, and a binder resin, wherein a toluene insoluble content in the electrophotographic toner is 10% by mass or more and 40% by mass or less, and the toner is decolorized by heating.

Electrophotographic toner

An electrophotographic toner contains an electron donating color developable agent, an electron accepting color developing agent, and a polyester resin binder which is a polyester resin obtained by polycondensation of a carboxylic acid component and an alcohol component and has a crosslinked structure formed of a crosslinking component including at least either one of a trivalent or higher valent carboxylic acid and a trihydric or higher hydric alcohol, and is decolorized by heating.

An image forming apparatus including: a heating member which heats a toner image on a recording medium using a decolorizable toner containing a coloring agent containing a color developable compound and a color developing agent and having a capsule structure covered with an outer shell; a pressing member which is in press contact with the heating member to form a nip portion and nips and conveys the recording medium in cooperation with the heating member; a temperature control section which controls the temperature of the heating member to a temperature not higher than the density maintaining threshold temperature and not lower than the melting threshold temperature; and a conveyance control section which controls the conveying speed of the recording medium such that a time required for the recording medium to pass through the nip portion is 100 msec or more.

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa-ken, Japan

Koji Imamiya