Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Manabu Nonaka

Yoshikuni Ishikawa

Hajime Nishida

Shun Kobayashi

Jumpei Aoyama

Satoshi Kuno

Hideki Tobinaga

Junpei Kamichi

Taku Kudoh

Hideto Higaki

Tsugunao Toyooka

Toshiaki Takahashi

Yasuhiro Kawashima

Toshifumi Togashi

Hidehiko Fujiwara

Akihiro Fujita

Yu Wakabayashi

Kazumasa Ishikawa

Yohzoh Dohki

Kazunori Bannai

Shinichiro Naruse

Eiki Yoshimizu

Shoji Asanuma

Shigeyuki Ito

Aki Ikeda

Koji Watanabe

Yasunobu Youda

Shintaroh Yamada

Tetsutaro Yasuda

Kenji Kameyama

Shuji Tanaka

Kenji Ueda

Tetsu Morino

Yosuke Eguchi

Masatoshi Sakakitani

Hideki Sueoka

Junichi Sugita

Osamu Takehira

Kaoru Shoji

Yohzoh c/o Ricoh Elemex Corp Dohki

Shigeyuki c/o Ricoh Elemex Corp Ito

An image forming apparatus includes a sheet container accommodating a recording medium therein, a sheet separating feeder including a sheet feeding body and a sheet separating body, an image forming part, and a bend applier. The sheet feeding body feeds the recording medium along with a surface movement thereof while the recording medium contacting the surface thereof. The sheet separating body forms a sheet separation nip region with the sheet feeding body and sandwiches the recording medium in the sheet separation nip region. The sheet separating feeder separates and feeds the recording medium contacting the sheet feeding body. The image forming part forms an image on the recording medium. The bend applier having a leading end of an elastic material contacts and bends the recording medium before the sheet separation nip region and generates a wrinkle extending on the recording medium in a sheet conveying direction.

Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit, a paper loading base on which manual-feed paper is loaded, a manual-feed paper conveying unit, and a dustproof cover which covers the paper loading base being in the overhang state. The paper loading base has a lower end rotatably supported on one outer surface portion of the device main body, and is opened from an upper end thereof and disposed at a predetermined oblique angle or in a horizontal overhang state such that an overhang side becomes an upper side in an oblique direction. The manual-feed paper conveying unit is conveys the manual-feed paper on the paper loading base onto a paper conveyance path one by one. The dustproof cover includes a base which engages with the paper loading base, and an opening-and-closing cover which is rotatably connected to the base and is opened upwardly on the overhang side.

Image forming apparatus and dustproof cover

A sheet feeder, which is incorporated in an image forming apparatus, includes an endless attraction belt that is rotatably disposed facing a top surface of a sheet stack, a belt charger to attract an uppermost sheet of the sheet stack, and a sheet separator to press the attraction belt against the sheet stack, bend a contact region to which the uppermost sheet is attracted and contacted to the attraction belt, and separate the uppermost sheet from a subsequent sheet or other sheet of the sheet stack. In this configuration, a curvature of a contact surface of the sheet separator with respect to the attraction belt is changeable.

Sheet feeder and image forming apparatus incorporating same

An image forming apparatus includes an apparatus body, a sheet container, an image forming part to form an image, a sheet feeding rotary body to feed the recording medium, a sheet separating rotary body to contact the sheet feeding rotary body and rotate with the sheet feeding rotary body with a sheet separation nip region formed therebetween, a rotation adjusting unit to adjust rotation of the sheet separating rotary body, a sheet containing unit to contain the recording media therein, a sheet separating body storing unit disposed at one end of the sheet containing unit to store the sheet separating body therein, and a load resistance applying mechanism to apply a rotational load resistance different from a contact force generated by contacting of the sheet separating rotary body with the sheet feeding rotary body, to the sheet feeding rotary body with no rotation driving force applied thereto.

A sheet feeder, which is included in an image forming apparatus, includes a sheet feeding unit to feed a sheet, a sheet separating unit disposed opposite the sheet feeding unit to separate the sheet together with the sheet feeding unit, a bottom plate on which the sheet is loaded, a pressing unit having a leading end and movably disposed between the bottom plate and the sheet separating unit, and a support to rotatably support the pressing unit such that the leading end of the pressing unit contacts and separates from the sheet feeding unit.

Sheet feeder and image forming apparatus incorporating the sheet feeder

A sheet feeder, which is incorporated in an image forming apparatus, includes an attraction body disposed facing a bundle of sheets, a charger to charge the attraction body to electrostatically attract an uppermost sheet of the bundle of sheets to the attraction body, a liquid supplier to supply a liquid to dissolve discharge products to the attraction body, and a liquid remover to remove the liquid from the attraction body. Further, a method of removing discharge products includes counting the number of sheets fed from a sheet container, determining that the number of sheets reaches a predetermined threshold value, confirming that a current time falls within a predetermined period of time or receiving a turn off signal to turn off a power supply, removing the discharge products from a surface of an attraction body, and resetting the number of sheets or further turning off the power supply.

Sheet feeder, image forming apparatus incorporating the sheet feeder, and method of removing discharge products in the image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes an apparatus body, a sheet container detachably attachable to the apparatus body and accommodating recording media therein, an image forming part to form an image on each of the recording media, a sheet separating part to separate the recording media one by one, feed the recording medium toward the image forming part, and include a sheet feeding body and a sheet separating body to rotate in contact with the sheet feeding body and form a sheet separation nip region with the sheet feeding body, a sheet containing unit to contain the recording media therein, and a sheet separating body storing unit disposed at one end of the sheet containing unit to store the sheet separating body therein. The sheet container being pulled out from the apparatus body by moving from the sheet containing unit to the sheet separating body storing unit.

A sheet conveyor incorporated in an image forming apparatus includes an attraction/separation unit including an attraction belt, a first tension roller, and a second tension roller, a support member to support the attraction/separation unit, a roller drive unit to rotate one of the first and second tension rollers, a charging member to uniformly charge a surface of the attraction belt, a mechanism to swing the attraction/separation unit to move the attraction belt reciprocally about the support member between a sheet attraction position and a sheet conveyance position being located farther from the sheet stack than the sheet attraction position, and a pressing member disposed inside a loop of the attraction belt to press the attraction belt at the sheet attraction position toward the sheet stack and separating from the attraction belt at the sheet conveyance position.

Sheet conveyor and image forming apparatus incorporating same

A sheet separation/conveyance device that is included in an image forming apparatus includes an attraction/separation unit including an endless belt on which a region of attraction and a region of no attraction that divides the region of attraction are aligned in a sheet conveying direction, the endless belt configured to hold an uppermost sheet placed on top of a sheet stack contained in an image forming apparatus by using electrostatic attraction, a charger configured to charge a surface of the endless belt, the charger including an electrode configured to contact the surface of the endless belt due to a supply of a voltage and a detector configured to detect a charged condition on the surface of the endless belt based on a detection result obtained when the electrode contacts the endless belt, and a sheet conveying unit configured to convey the uppermost sheet held by the electrostatic attraction.

Sheet separation/conveyance device and image forming apparatus incorporating same

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Kanagawa, Japan

Manabu Nonaka