Seiko Epson Corporation

Masahiro Maeda

Yoichi Yamada

Takatomo Fukumoto

Masaru Kobashi

Tomohiro Aruga

Isao Inaba

Junichi Suzuki

Masanori Nakata

Keiichi Taguchi

Daisuke Matsumoto

Yoshiyuki Kurebayashi

Atsunori Kitazawa

Tatsuro Osawa

Mikio Furumizu

Mamoru Mizunokura

Fuyuto Yamashita

A method of manufacturing a developing roller, including: a first rolling process for forming a first inclined groove which is continuous in a helical shape, by rotating a first die having blades inclined with respect to an axial direction and a circumferential direction, and a non-bladed die, and feeding an unprocessed developing roller between the first die and the non-bladed die; and a second rolling process for forming a second inclined groove which is continuous in a helical shape and intersects with the first inclined groove, by rotating a second die having blades inclined with respect to an axial direction and a circumferential direction in the direction opposite to that of the first die, and the non-bladed die in the same direction opposite to that in the first rolling process, and feeding the developing roller between the second die and the non-bladed die.

Developing roller manufacturing method, developing roller, developing device, and image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes an image carrier that carries an electrostatic latent image on a surface thereof, a toner carrying roller that is disposed to face the image carrier and rotates in a predetermined rotation direction with charged toner carried on a surface thereof so as to transport the toner in an opposing position for facing the image carrier, and a bias applying unit that develops the electrostatic latent image with the toner by applying an AC voltage as a developing bias to the toner carrying roller. In addition, periodical concavo-convexes that are formed of a plurality of convex portions arranged at a constant pitch in a circumferential direction and concave portions that surround the plurality of convex portions are formed on the surface of the toner carrying roller. When the arrangement pitch is denoted by P, the frequency of the developing bias is denoted by F, and the moving speed of the surface of the toner carrying roller for the circumferential direction is denoted by V, a quotient acquired from dividing V by F is a value acquired from multiplying P by a natural number or an approximately natural number.

Image forming apparatus and image forming method

Provided is an image forming apparatus including: a rotatable image carrier; a protective agent supplying unit supplying a protective agent to the image carrier; a first charging unit charging the image carrier to the same polarity as a regular charging polarity of a toner; a second charging unit charging the protective agent supplied to the image carrier to the opposite polarity to the regular charging polarity of the toner; an exposure unit forming an electrostatic latent image on the image carrier; a development unit developing the electrostatic latent image of the image carrier; and a transfer unit transferring the image of the image carrier, wherein the second charging unit is disposed between the protective agent supplying unit and the development unit.

Image forming apparatus applying protective agent

A developing device, includes: a housing that stores toner inside; a toner carrier roller that is shaped approximately like a cylinder, is mounted to the housing rotatably about a rotational axis, rotates while carrying the toner on a surface thereof to convey the toner to outside of the housing, and is provided, on the surface thereof, with a plurality of convex sections which are regularly arranged and a concave section which surrounds the convex sections, the convex sections including top surfaces that coincide with a part of a curved surface of single cylinder and have electrical conductivity; and a seal member that is arranged in abutting contact with the surface of the toner carrier roller moving from the outside the housing toward the inside the housing at a position downstream of the opposed position in a rotation direction of the toner carrier roller to prevent toner leakage from the housing, a contact surface of the seal member being made of a material located at a position to charge the toner with a polarity opposite to its charging polarity in triboelectric series.

Developing device with seal member that abuts toner carrier roller

A development roller includes a base unit having a base recess and a base projection formed in a predetermined area of a circumference surface of the base unit, and a surface layer formed on the circumference surface of the base unit and having a recess and a projection formed respectively in accordance with the base recess and the base projection of the base unit.

Development roller, development device, and image forming apparatus

A developer apparatus includes a toner carrier roller with plural rows of convex sections arranged in width and circumferential directions of the roller. Top surfaces of the convex sections coincide with a curved surface of a single cylinder shaped like the roller. Convex section extending surfaces obtained by extending the top surfaces of the convex sections in the width direction overlap between convex sections belong to the same row and do not overlap between convex sections belonging to different rows. A width in the circumferential direction of a restriction nip formed by contact of an elastic abutting member of a restriction member with the roller is smaller than a spacing between two convex sections belonging to convex section rows that are adjacent in the circumferential direction.

Developer apparatus, an image forming apparatus and an image forming method

A development roller includes a base unit having a base recess and a base projection that are formed in a predetermined area of a circumference surface of the base unit by pressing a regular pattern in pressure machining, and a surface layer formed on the circumference surface of the base unit and having a recess and a projection formed respectively in accordance with the base recess and the base projection of the base unit. A thickness of the surface layer is larger than a maximum height of a base swollen portion close to the side edge of the base projection from a regular surface of the base projection.

In an image forming apparatus, a toner carrier roller rotatably mounted to a housing that stores toner rotates to convey toner to an opposed position facing a latent image carrier outside the housing. A plurality of convex sections are regularly arranged on a surface of the roller in an axial direction parallel to the rotational axis and in a circumferential direction orthogonal to the axial direction and parallel to a circumferential surface of the roller and a concave section surrounds the convex sections. A seal member abuts the surface of the roller moving from the outside toward the inside of the housing at a position downstream of the opposed position in a rotation direction of the roller to prevent toner leakage from inside the housing. The roller moves relative to the seal member in the axial direction.

Image forming apparatus with seal member that abuts surface of toner carrier roller having convex and concave sections

Provided is a development device including: a development roller in which continuous spiraling inclined grooves having different inclinations with respect to an axial direction are formed so as to cross each other; and a feed roller which is in contact with the development roller and feeds toner to the development roller, wherein transportation force, which is used for transporting the toner on the development roller from one side to the other side of the axial direction of the development roller, is generated by the rotation of the feed roller.

Development device and image forming apparatus

A method of manufacturing a toner carrier roller that is shaped like a cylinder on an outer circumferential surface of which concave and convex sections for carrying toner are provided, includes: preparing a roller base member which is shaped like a cylinder; forming helix-like first grooves on the outer circumferential surface of the roller base member; and forming helix-like second grooves, which cross the first grooves, on the outer circumferential surface of the roller base member, wherein a pitch ratio of the first grooves and the second grooves is a non-integer ratio.

Method of manufacturing toner carrier roller, developer apparatus, and image forming apparatus

A development roller includes a base unit having a base recess and a base projection that are formed in a predetermined area of a circumference surface of the base unit, and a surface layer formed on the circumference surface of the base unit and having on the circumference thereof a recess and a projection formed respectively in accordance with the base recess and the base projection of the base unit. Surface hardness of the projection is higher than surface hardness of the recess.

Development roller, development device, image forming apparatus, and method of manufacturing development roller

An image carrier cleaning device includes: a first charging member which charges an image carrier to the same polarity as that of a toner after a transfer operation of a toner image formed by the toner charged to a predetermined polarity and having an external additive added thereto; a cleaning member which comes into contact with the image carrier charged by the first charging member; and a second charging member which applies an electric charge having a polarity opposite to a polarity of the toner to the image carrier having passed through the cleaning member.

Image carrier cleaning device, image carrier cleaning method, and image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus comprises: a latent image carrier which carries an electrostatic latent image; a developing unit which visualizes with toner the electrostatic latent image carried by the latent image carrier and forms a toner image; an intermediate transfer medium to which the toner image is transferred from the latent image carrier and which rotates and transports the toner image to a predetermined transfer position and transfers the toner image to a recording medium; a cleaner which abuts on the surface of the intermediate transfer medium and removes toner which adheres to the surface of the intermediate transfer medium after the transfer to the recording medium; and a controller which, assuming that the direction which is orthogonal to the travel direction in which the intermediate transfer medium moves is a width direction, executes toner accumulating processing during which predetermined toner images are formed as end patch images in end areas of the surface of the intermediate transfer medium which are located on outer side along the width direction relative to an image forming region in which a toner image corresponding to size of the recording medium is formed and the cleaner then removes the end patch images.

Image forming apparatus with cleaner that removes toner from intermediate transfer medium

An image forming apparatus and an image forming method, which are capable of forming images at stable image quality by executing adjustment of operating conditions at appropriate timings, are provided. When a Vsync count corresponding to an integrated value of a rotation count of an intermediate transfer belt reaches a predetermined value Vor V, a charging current Iw is increased by one level and an adjusting operation of a developing bias is executed (at a time tor t), to thereby stabilize an image density. Further, when remaining service life of a developer reaches a predetermined value (50%) (at a time t), if the Vsync count at that moment suggests that the time to change the charging current Iw is drawing near, the change thereof is executed ahead of the schedule, whereby the adjusting operation of the developing bias, which should otherwise be executed at the time t, is omitted.

Image forming apparatus that adjusts operating conditions based on a density detection result of a patch image

An image forming apparatus is operable to form an image on a recording medium. An image carrier is adapted such that a toner image is formed thereon by developing an electrostatic latent image. An intermediate transfer member is adapted such that the toner image is primarily transferred thereto. In a transfer device, a roller member is adapted to come in contact with the intermediate transfer member. A first bias voltage applier is operable to provide a transfer voltage, thereby applying a first bias voltage between the roller member and the intermediate transfer member to secondarily transfer the toner image onto the recording medium in order to obtain the image. A charge eliminator is disposed in the vicinity of the roller member. A second bias voltage applier is operable to apply a second bias voltage to the charge eliminator to eliminate charges on the recording medium which has been subjected to the application of the first bias voltage. A controller is operable to vary the second bias voltage in accordance with a deviation amount of the first bias voltage.

Image forming apparatus that performs charge elimination after secondary transfer to prevent winding of recording medium on intermediate transfer member

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Matsumoto, Japan

Masahiro Maeda