Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Masanori Horike

Nobuaki Kondoh

Yutaka Ebi

Kyuhachiro Iwasaki

Koichiro Jinnai

Tomoko Takahashi

Katsuo Sakai

Yutaka Kodama

Masaaki Yamada

Yohichiro Miyaguchi

Yoshinori Nakagawa

Hideki Kosugi

Shin Kayahara

Tatsuya Furukawa

Yasuyuki Ishii

Osamu Naruse

Takuro Sekiya

Masanori Saitoh

Ichiro Kadota

Tetsuro Hirota

Takeshi Takemoto

Osamu Endou

Chuji Ishikawa

Yohichiroh Miyaguchi

Takeo Tsukamoto

Masumi Sato

Motokazu Yasui

Masato Yokoyama

Tohru Nakano

Tsumori Sato

Atsushi Kurokawa

Masahiko Shakuto

Takashi Kimura

Seiichi Katoh

Hiromichi Komai

Takeshi Nanjyo

Kouichi Ohtaka

Eiichi Ohta

Yoshiko Ogawa

Masami Kadonaga

Masahiko Katoh

Shuji Motomura

Yuji Ishikura

Masaaki Tachiki

Toshiroh Higuchi

Tsutomu Sato

Hiroshi Yamazaki

Yasushi Nakazato

Yasuo Katano

Katsuhiro Aoki

Hideki Zemba

Ikuo Maeda

Yoshio Watanabe

Hideyasu Seki

Takuro Isayama

Michio Umezawa

Toshio Kawakubo

Fuyuhiko Matsumoto

Isamu Shibata

Takayuki Yamaguchi

Tadashi Fujii

Osamu Endo

Takao Fukazawa

Sadao Kakeno

Eiko Suzuki

Kouji Izumi

Toshitaka Hirata

Yutaka Yoshiba

Youichiroh Miyaguchi

Satoshi Sekimoto

Yoichiro Miyaguchi

An image forming apparatus includes a latent image carrier; a latent image writer to write a latent image on the latent image carrier; a developing unit including a toner carrier having first and second electrodes insulated via an insulator member and a voltage applying unit to apply voltages to the first and second electrodes having a potential difference to generate first electric fields to cause the toner to hop from the toner carrier to the latent image carrier to develop a toner image; and a transfer unit to transfer the developed toner image to a transferring member. When alternating voltages having a same phase and same amplitude are applied to the first and second electrodes to form second electric fields between the latent image carrier and the toner carrier, the toner is discharged from the toner carrier to the latent image carrier in a toner discharge mode.

Image forming apparatus

A disclosed developing device includes a toner carrying member having electrodes, a toner supply unit supplying the toner to the toner carrying member, and a hopping electric field generator unit generating electric field to cause the toner hopping on the toner carrying member by applying a pulse voltage to the electrodes. The hopping electric field generator unit includes a pulse voltage generator circuit generating the pulse voltage, a first direct-current power source supplying bias to the pulse voltage generator circuit for regulating a peak value of the pulse voltage, and a second direct-current power source having a same polarity with a toner charging polarity, and outputting a variable voltage level. The hopping electric field generator unit controls the peak value of the pulse voltage by changing an output of the first power source and a mean thereof by changing an output of the second power source.

Developing device, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus

An image forming device, including a toner bearer including plural linear electrodes located at a first regular pitch in a crosswise direction thereof, flying a toner on the surface thereof between the plural linear electrodes with a pulse voltage thereto to form a floating toner layer; and a substrate including plural hole-electrode combinations arranged in a longitudinal direction of the linear electrodes, each formed of a through-hole and a hole-adjacent electrode located close to the through-hole, wherein the floating toner layer is formed in an area facing the through-hole, and a toner passes through only the through-holes facing a desired image from the floating toner layer with a record on or off voltage, and the plural hole-electrode combinations are lined at a second regular pitch in a crosswise direction of the toner bearer, and the second regular pitch is an integral multiple of the first regular pitch.

Image forming device and image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus comprises a toner-bearing member that bears toner and makes the toner clouded thereon. A toner passage control device including plural widthwise lines of toner passage holes in a printing medium conveyance direction is provided. Each of the toner passage holes includes a control electrode that controls passage of the toner through each of the toner passage holes toward a printing medium. a control pulse proving device provides a control pulse to the control electrode to operate. The control pulse applied to the control electrode of the one of the plural lines is different from that applied to the control electrode of the other one of the plural lines.

Image forming apparatus with developer passage amount control electrodes

An image creating apparatus includes a casing that stores therein an agent, an agent carrier rotatably supported by the casing, a hole defining member defining a plurality of holes therein and opposed to the agent carrier, a plurality of spray electrodes provided on the hole defining member respectively corresponding to the holes and forming an electric field for selectively causing the agent to be sprayed from the agent carrier towards the holes, and a positioning member provided on the casing to cover the agent carrier and positioning the hole defining member with respect to the agent carrier so that the agent carrier and the hole defining member are in a predetermined positional relationship. The angle of the positioning member is adjustable relative to the casing about a rotation shaft that is coaxial with the agent carrier.

Image forming device based on direct recording method and image forming apparatus including the same

The present invention provides an image forming apparatus, which is able to prevent the adherence of toner on the surface of toner controlling means and around a toner passage hole, and to stably carry out toner passage ON/OFF control when forming an image using the direct recording method. This image forming apparatus includes: a toner carrier; recording medium means; toner controlling means, disposed between the toner carrier and recording medium means, and having a plurality of toner passage holes; and cloud electrode means disposed between the toner carrier and toner controlling means, a toner cloud being formed by applying an AC bias between the toner carrier and cloud electrode means. A control electrode and a common electrode are disposed in toner controlling means, and when the toner of the toner carrier is able to pass through the toner controlling means toward recording medium means, a loop-shaped line of electric force is formed between the recording medium means side and the toner controlling means common electrode, the loop-shaped line by-passing the control electrode.

The development device includes a toner carrier, a toner supplier, and a surface electrical potential controller. When the toner supplier supplies toner particles to the toner carrier, the toner carrier carries toner particles to adhere to a latent image formed on the latent image carrier and has a time constant &#x3c4;of a surface electrical potential change of the toner carrier. The surface electrical potential controller has a time constant &#x3c4;of a surface electrical potential change of the toner carrier smaller than the time constant &#x3c4;. The toner carrier includes a plurality of electrodes aligned in parallel and electrically insulated from each other on the surface thereof, and a voltage supplier for supplying each of the plurality of electrodes with a voltage to periodically switch electrical fields therebetween, so that the toner particles form a cloud on the surface of the toner carrier while hopping.

Development device and image forming apparatus having electrodes that cause toner particles to form a toner cloud on the surface of the toner carrier

An apparatus for developing a latent image on a latent image carrier includes a toner carrier and multiple electrodes arranged at intervals on a surface of the toner carrier. A potential difference is formed between even-numbered electrodes and odd-numbered electrodes of the electrodes by applying a first pulse voltage to the even-numbered electrodes and a second pulse voltage to the odd-numbered electrodes so that toner on the surface of the toner carrier moves back and forth between the electrodes, where the first and second pulse voltages are in different phases, and the toner moving back and forth between the electrodes is conveyed to a position facing the latent image carrier by movement of the surface of the toner carrier and thereby caused to adhere to the latent image on the latent image carrier.

Development apparatus and image forming apparatus using toner carrier with a plurality of electrodes

An image forming apparatus, which reduces toner spatter and produces a good quality image when forming a toner image using the direct recording method. An image forming part includes: a toner carrier for carrying toner; and toner controlling means, which is disposed between the toner carrier and recording paper on which the toner is made to adhere, and which has a plurality of toner passage holes, the toner controlling means having a control electrode for controlling the passage of toner on the toner carrier side surface in the area around the toner passage hole, and forming a toner image by causing the toner to fly to the recording paper, and the image forming apparatus having liquid applying/humidifying means for either applying a liquid to or humidifying the imaging surface of the recording paper prior to forming a toner image.

A direct image-recording device in which a predetermined gap set between an image carrier and a hole forming member can be maintained, and an image forming apparatus provided with the direct image-recording device. In the direct image-recording device including: housing that accommodates an agent; an agent carrier that is rotatably supported by the housing and faces outside from an opening formed in the housing; a sheet-like hole forming member having a plurality of holes formed therein and facing the agent carrier at a predetermined distance therefrom; and a plurality of electrodes, by which the agent flies, provided at the hole forming member correspondingly to each of the plurality of holes and form an electric field causing the agent to fly selectively from the agent carrier toward the hole, a positioning member is provided at the housing so as to cover the agent carrier, the positioning member being configured to hold the hole forming member along the axial direction of the agent carrier by a side wall of the positioning member that has open portions formed in locations at least opposing the plurality of holes formed in the hole forming member, and configured to position the holes relative to the agent carrier so that the relative positions of the agent carrier and the holes are in a predetermined positional relationship.

Direct image-recording device and image forming apparatus equipped therewith

A development apparatus using a hopping method and an image formation apparatus including the development apparatus are disclosed. The development apparatus includes

Hopping toner development apparatus and image formation apparatus

A disclosed development device includes: a latent image carrier; a conveying member disposed so as to face the latent image carrier, the conveying member having plural electrodes insulated from one another and arranged at predetermined intervals so as to generate an electric field for moving toner on the conveying member; a voltage application unit applying a voltage of n phases (n is a positive integer not less than one) to the electrodes so as to form a cloud of the toner and the toner is adhered to the latent image carrier so as to form a visualized toner image; a toner supply unit supplying the toner to the conveying member; and a height adjusting member adjusting a uniform height for a toner layer of the toner immediately before a development area on the conveying member in which development is performed.

Development device, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus

An ink jet recording apparatus performs a print operation by controlling an ink jet recording head to eject ink drops there from against front and back surfaces of a recording sheet at a print position. The apparatus includes a transporting mechanism for transporting a portion of the recording sheet to a location outside of the apparatus after a completion of the print operation on the front surface of the recording sheet and just before printing of the back surface of the recording sheet.

Ink jet recording apparatus capable of performing a duplex print operation

An image forming apparatus having a developing apparatus using a development system in which toner is moved by means of a traveling wave electric field. The image forming apparatus comprises a plurality of developing apparatuses having toner conveyance members which convey toner by means of a phase-shift electric field created by voltages of n phases applied to a plurality of electrodes, to a region opposing an image carrier on which an electrostatic latent image is formed; and a voltage application device which applies a voltage having an average potential value between the potential of the image portions of the latent image on the image carrier and the non-image portions of same, to the electrodes of the toner conveyance members of the respective developing apparatuses.

Image forming apparatus and image forming method using electrostatic transport and hopping

A powder transferring apparatus provided with a powder electrostatic transferring device includes a plurality of transferring electrodes configured to generate an electric field for transferring the powder by an electrostatic force including a powder transferring amount detecting device to detect an amount of powder on a surface of the powder electrostatic transferring device.

Powder transferring device capable of detecting an amount of the powder

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Kanagawa, Japan

Masanori Horike