Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Hitachi Koki Co., Ltd.

Mamoru Takayama

Junji Shirakawa

Hiroshi Suzuki

Masami Takeshita

Masahiro Yamazaki

Hideki Ishida

Masayuki Ainoya

Yuuki Kikushima

Koji Kawahara

Satoshi Aizawa

Junichi Suzuki

A fixing unit includes: a heating roller; a pressing roller that is capable of being in pressure contact with the heating roller; a compressor that generates compressed air; an air tank that reserves therein the compressed air; a first pipe through which the compressed air generated by the compressor is fed into the air tank; an injection nozzle that is formed by the heating roller and the pressing roller and that causes the compressed air to blow a printing medium fed from the fixing nip; a second pipe through which the compressed air reserved in the air tank is fed into the injection nozzle; and a compressed air injection solenoid valve that is provided in middle of the second pipe. A droplet separator for separating a droplet from the compressed air is provided to the first pipe or to the second pipe.

Fixing unit and electrophotographic apparatus having the same

A disclosed cooling structure includes a casing including a bottom plate arranged in a bottom portion of the casing and having a through hole formed in the bottom plate; a heat source to be cooled accommodated in the casing; a suctioning unit configured to suction outer air from an outside of the casing to an inside of the casing via the through hole in the bottom plate; an open and close member including an outer air path for carrying the suctioned outer air and being capable of opening and closing relative to the casing; and an outer air applying unit configured to cool the heat source by the carried outer air received from the open and close member.

Cooling structure, image forming apparatus having cooling structure, and electronic apparatus having cooling structure

An image forming apparatus is disclosed that includes a fixing device including: a fixing member; and a pressure member configured to be pressed against the fixing member in order to form a nip portion, wherein a sheet configured to be fed into the nip portion in order to fix unfixed toner image thereon; a compressor configured to supply compressed air; a nozzle configured to be disposed at an outlet side of the nip portion and to blast the compressed air to an adhered portion of the sheet to the fixing member; and a controller configured to correct open-time of the nozzle based on image forming condition and to control number of times that the compressed air is blasted to the sheet in accordance with length of corrected open-time, wherein the open-time of the nozzle is determined in accordance with basis weight of the sheet.

Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus that can improve the workability during maintenance, and the compactness and neatness of the signal line and the power source line, and moreover can lower the cost by eliminating the fall preventing member. The image forming apparatus has: an engine main body which has an image forming device, a transfer device, a fixer, and a transporter. There is a rear surface unit which has housed items such as a power source device, a control device, and an exhaust device, and which is configured to be detachable from the engine main body. One end of the control device is rotatably linked to the engine main body while the other end thereof is rotatably linked to the unit main body.

Image forming apparatus having a control device which is rotatably linked

Printer for a computer

Growing community of inventors

Ibaraki, Japan

Mamoru Takayama