Brother Kogyo Kabushiki-Kaisha

Bando Chemical Industries, Inc.

Kayaba Industry Company, Ltd.

Makoto Suzuki

Takemi Yamamoto

Kazunari Taki

Akihiro Suzuki

Tomoaki Hattori

Toshio Sakai

Hidenori Hisada

Kazunori Tanabe

Hitoshi Nakai

Hiroshi Taira

Susumu Kuzuya

Takakuni Sonoda

Hideo Ueno

Shigeyuki Hayashi

Yoichi Horaguchi

Mitsuyoshi Watanabe

Kazuo Sangyoji

Shoji Yamada

Satoshi Furukawa

Yasumichi Kojima

Yoshinari Okamoto

Masaki Takatsugi

Satoshi Fukao

Yasuhiro Hayashi

Shougo Sato

Osamu Takagi

Takeyuki Takagi

Masayuki Yoshida

Jun Sakai

Kenji Sakakibara

Naoto Iwao

Yasuhiro Hattori

Kazumasa Makino

Michitoshi Akao

Satoshi Watanabe

Kazuhito Ishida

Kiyoharu Hayakawa

Takashi Nakata

Yutaka Hattori

Yukichi Sawaki

Takeshi Miyabayashi

Mamoru Imaizumi

Kazuhiko Takagi

Mitsuo Yamane

Takashi Tomizawa

Tokunori Katoh

Mitsumasa Kako

Hiroshi Koie

Yasuo Kimura

Yoshinori Bessho

Yujiro Ishikawa

Eiji Shibata

Motoshi Ohno

Hikoharu Aoki

Kazuyuki Miyaki

Izumi Takagi

Shigeru Mizuno

Kuniyasu Makino

Rikuzou Kouzuki

Ding-Yu Chen

Shuzo Mizutani

Takaaki Suzuki

Hideo Gotoh

Yumiko Watanabe

Satoshi Urukawa

Kiyoshi Kani

Takauni Sonoda

Minoru Honda

Takashi Tsukamoto

Hitomi Ohri

Yukihiro Sako

Naohide Takimoto

Manabu Tobita

A sealing device for sealing between a tube member and an axial member movably inserted into the tube member includes a dust seal held on an opening end part of the tube member and including an annular dust seal lip held in sliding contact with the outer peripheral surface of the axial member, and a scraper arranged at an inner side of the dust seal and including an annular lip portion slidably pressed into contact with the outer peripheral surface of the axial member. The hardness of the lip portion is set to be higher than that of the dust seal lip.

Sealing device and suspension device with the sealing device

An image forming apparatus includes a plurality of functions including a function of executing an operation involving use of a consumable, a selecting unit that selects one function from the plurality of functions, a detector that detects a remaining level of the consumable and a controller. The controller is operable to switch displayed contents to information corresponding to the one function when the one function is selected, instruct execution of an operation corresponding to the changed displayed information, display a warning indication when the remaining level of the consumable is not more than a predetermined level, determine whether the selected one function is the function of executing the operation involving use of the consumable, and inhibit the switching the displayed contents when one function is selected and is determined to be the function of executing the operation involving use of the consumable while the warning indication is displayed.

Image forming apparatus

Image forming apparatus including information display for consumables

An image processing apparatus including an image reading portion operable to read an image on an original, to obtain image information, an image-information outputting portion operable to output the image information to an external device, an image recording portion operable to record an image on a recording medium, on the basis of the image information obtained by the image reading portion, an original-size specifying portion operable to specify a size of the original, a recording-medium-size obtaining portion operable to obtain a size of the, recording medium, and an image-reading-area setting portion operable to set an image reading area of the image reading portion, on the basis of the size of the original specified by the original-size specifying portion, upon operation of the image-information outputting portion, and to set the image reading area, on the basis of the size of the recording medium obtained by the recording-medium-size obtaining portion, upon operation of the image recording portion. Also disclosed is a method of setting the image reading area.

Image processing apparatus, and image reading area setting method

A recording device includes an image retrieval unit, a memory, an image forming unit, and a control unit. The image retrieval unit retrieves images of the document pages as document image data. The control unit begins retrieving document image data from the memory as the image retrieval unit is retrieving document image data and sends the document image data to the image forming unit. The image forming unit uses document image data to form images on recording sheets faster than the image data is retrieved. The control unit checks the memory to confirm whether document image data for a next document page is stored in the memory. The timing of the memory check is both after completion of forming an image of a present document page at the recording sheet transport speed and when storage of image data for the next document page is anticipated to start in the memory.

Recording device

A television conference system enables a plurality of participants to communicate with each other using terminal devices connected to a controller via information transfer system. Each of the terminal devices are provided with a display for displaying a participant making a remark. The television conference system includes a speech quantity information obtaining system that obtains speech quantity information related to quantity of speech of each of the plurality of participants during a conference, a terminal identifying system that identifies a terminal corresponding to a participant currently making a remark, and an image switching system that switches images displayed on the displays of the plurality of terminal devices from a previous participant to the participant currently making a remark by one of a plurality of different switching methods which is determined in accordance with the speech quantity information of the participant currently making a remark.

Television conference system

A hot melt ink which is applicable to an ink jet printing system where the hot melt ink is jetted out to a printing medium to form an image on the printing medium includes a binder which contains a hot melt composition; a coloring material which is dispersed in the binder; and a photo-curing composition. The binder as a dispersion medium is dispersed in the photo-curing composition in the form of grains and a surface of the hot melt ink is covered with the photo-curing composition when the hot melt ink is fixed on the printing medium. An ink jet printing apparatus includes a jetting device which jets the above hot melt ink melted by heat out to a printing medium to draw an image on the printing medium; and a light source for irradiating the hot melt ink on the printing medium which is jetted out from the jetting device to cure the photo-curing composition.

Hot melt ink and ink jet printing apparatus

An ink cartridge takes the form of a bag, and is formed out of a laminate which includes films laminated together. Compressive stress exists in one of the films. Therefore, when a hollow needle pierces the bag, the stress causes this film to function in such a manner as to block the pierced hole. This brings the film into close contact with the needle, preventing ink leakage securely. It is also possible to prevent the cracks developed in the laminate by external injuries from progressing. It is possible to form the laminate by bonding a plurality of films having different coefficients of thermal expansion together at high temperature, and cooling the bonded films. It is possible to form the bag by heat-sealing the laminate.

Ink cartridge, process for forming it and liquid ink feeder

In a toner-fixing heater device, a heater strip in a meandering pattern and a pair of heater electrodes are formed on an insulator film which is in turn fixed to a cylindrical roller body. Each heater electrode which slidably contacts a brush electrode has a leading and trailing edges formed inclinedly at an inclination angle .theta., e.g., 50.degree.. The axial width Wd of the heater electrode 14, the circumferential width Wg of a spacing between the leading and the trailing edges, and the circumferential width Wb of the brush electrode are determined to satisfy (Wd/tan .theta.+Wd).gtoreq.Wg. This arrangement assures a continuous sliding contact between the heater electrode and the brush electrode.

Toner fixing heater device having inclined heater electrode ends

An electronic pen has a body frame in a rod-like or pillar-like shape with an input mechanism and an output mechanism respectively on each end. A slope detecting mechanism changes a circuit system corresponding to the slant state of the body frame of the electronic pen, so that power is supplied from a battery to only either an input mechanism control circuit or an output mechanism control circuit. Consequently, power is supplied only to a circuit system in use. Thereby, unnecessary power consumption is prevented, and the device can be used for a long time.

Portable input/output device

An input device including a medium support for supporting a medium; a reading unit for reading an image from the medium and for generating image data accordingly; and a movement mechanism for generating relative movement between the medium support and the reading unit.

Device for inputting and outputting image data

A fixing unit for an image forming device such as a laser printer includes a heat roller and a heating member driving unit to drive the heat roller. The heat roller includes a hollow cylindrical tube and a resistance heating member to selectively heat portions of the tube along the axial length thereof. The resistance heating member includes an insulating layer and a conductive layer. The conductive layer is provided with a plurality of resistance heating patterns arranged along the axial length of the tube and connected to a plurality of electrode portions. The connections between the resistance heating patterns and the electrode portions are arranged such that applying a voltage across selected electrode portions causes selected resistance patterns to generate heat and thus, selectively heat a portion of the tube along the axial length thereof.

Fixing unit and heat roller for fixing unit

The present invention provides a life detecting system that accurately detects the end of the useful life of a process unit used in electrophotographic printers. The life detecting system comprises a RAM that stores a count of the number of driving pulses generated at an exposure unit and a ROM that stores a predetermined reference count that represents the useful life of the process unit in terms of a driving pulse count. The system indicates that the end of the useful life of the process unit has been reached when it determines that the count stored in the RAM is greater than or equal to the predetermined reference count stored in the ROM.

Life detecting system for detecting the useful life of a process unit

A printer and a toner cartridge detachably provided in a printer body. The toner cartridge is provided with a specific uneven pattern or logo mark at an outer surface thereof. The printer has first and second detection switches for identifying the uneven pattern. Co-relation is established between a specific position of the uneven pattern and height of the specific position, and each detection switch is set so as to confront with the specific position. The first and second detection switches serve to detect the projected part, and the recessed part, respectively. If the first detection switch detects the recessed part, or if the second detection switch detects the projected part, the installed cartridge is judged to be a pirated cartridge.

Image output device having function for judging installation of genuine

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Nagoya, Japan

Makoto Suzuki