Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Masanori Kusunoki

Tadashi Hayakawa

Akiko Bannai

Tomomi Katoh

Masahiro Kuwata

Toshiroh Tokuno

Shotaro Takeuchi

Ikoh Soh

Mitsuru Shingyohuchi

Makoto Tanaka

Tamotsu Aruga

Hiroshi Adachi

Noriyasu Takeuchi

Kiyoshi Yamaguchi

Hirotoshi Eguchi

Shuzo Matsumoto

Kunihiro Yamanaka

Toshitaka Osanai

Kenichi Ogata

Takayuki Hiyoshi

Nobuyuki Akaishi

Tetsuya Hiruma

Noboru Hiramatsu

Michio Yamamoto

An ink cartridge attachable to and detachable from an imaging apparatus, and including an ink accommodating unit; and a cartridge casing having an opening, whereby the ink accommodating unit includes: an ink accommodating body; and an ink supplying portion including a nozzle insertion path and connected to the ink accommodating body, whereby the ink supplying portion is held by the cartridge casing so that the ink supplying portion is rotatable between a position where the nozzle insertion path faces the opening and a position where the nozzle insertion path faces an inner wall surface of the cartridge casing, and when the ink cartridge is attached to the imaging apparatus the ink supplying portion is rotated to direct the nozzle insertion path toward the opening, and when the ink cartridge is detached the ink supplying portion is rotated to direct the nozzle insertion path toward the inner wall surface.

Ink cartridge and an imaging apparatus

An ink cartridge includes a flexible container containing ink; and a restriction mechanism allowing the flexible container to deform only in the direction to decrease the volume of the flexible container. The ink cartridge is used for an image forming apparatus including an inkjet head for jetting ink from nozzles.

Ink cartridge and image forming apparatus including the same

An ink cartridge removably mountable in an image forming apparatus includes a flexible storage member, a pressurization-space formation member, an output port, and an opening-and-closing assembly. The flexible storage member stores ink. The pressurization-space formation member hermetically houses the storage member and forms a pressurization space to which a fluid is supplied between the pressurization-space formation member and the storage member. The output port is connected to the storage member, through which the ink is supplied from the storage member to the image forming apparatus. The opening-and-closing assembly opens and closes between the output port and the storage member by the fluid supplied into the pressurization space.

Ink cartridge and image forming apparatus employing the ink cartridge

A liquid carrying container which is removably mounted to a body of an image forming device is disclosed. The liquid carrying container includes a liquid containing bag which contains liquid; and a supply port section which has an elastically deformable portion through which a hollow nozzle member is pierced from the side of the image forming device, wherein the supply port section is directly held within a recess section formed on the liquid containing bag, and the hollow nozzle member penetrates through the supply port section and the liquid containing bag to face inside the liquid containing bag.

Liquid carrying container and image forming device

An imaging-material container that stores imaging material to be supplied to an image forming device includes a flexible storage member, a pressure unit, a regulation member, and a pushing unit. The flexible storage member stores imaging material. The pressure unit applies pressure on the flexible storage member. The regulation member contacts the flexible storage member to deform the flexible storage member. The pushing unit moves the regulation member as the imaging material is consumed.

Imaging-material container, ink cartridge, and image forming apparatus

A liquid discharging-type image forming apparatus capable of securely eliminating mixed air bubbles from the ink liquid and forming a stable image. The apparatus includes: a sub tankof which negative pressure amount is detected; a pumpsucking ink when the detected amount of the sub tankis lower than a predetermined amount so that the sub tankand recording headshave negative pressure; a second backflow prevention unitto stop the sent ink to be reserved in a second liquid containerwhich is pressurized as ink increases. When the ink is again filled in the sub tankthe ink is sent from the second liquid containerbefore being sent from the first liquid container. Accordingly, ink is not accumulated in the second liquid containerallowing the second liquid containerto be smaller and the image forming apparatus as a whole to be more compact.

Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus for forming an image includes a recording head, a nozzle, an ink repellent layer, and an elastic wiper blade. The nozzle is provided in the recording head and includes an ink discharge surface including a substantially elongated discharge opening from which ink is ejected. The ink repellent layer is formed on the ink discharge surface of the nozzle. The elastic wiper blade moves over the ink discharge surface to wipe away ink adhering to the ink discharge surface while slidably contacting the ink discharge surface. The wiper blade moves in a long axis direction of the ink discharge opening as the wiper blade wipes away ink adhering to the ink discharge surface of the nozzle.

A liquid container is detachably mountable in an image forming apparatus having a liquid introducing member. The liquid container includes a storage unit, a supply port assembly, and an elastic seal member. The storage unit is disposed in the liquid container to store a liquid usable for image formation. The supply port assembly is mounted in the storage unit and has a supply channel therein. The liquid introducing member of the image forming apparatus is inserted into the supply port assembly. The elastic seal member is disposed in the supply port assembly. When penetrated by the liquid introducing member, the elastic seal member moves together with the liquid introducing member relative to the supply port assembly to open and close the supply channel.

Liquid container and image forming apparatus employing the liquid container

A head capping member for capping an ejection face of a liquid ejecting head which face is provided with a nozzle for ejecting a liquid drop is provided, which includes a contact part which contacts the ejection face of the head and is made of an elastic member and a recess which forms a closed space together with the ejection head when the contact part contacts the ejection head, wherein a flat part is formed around the recess and an absorbing member is provided on the flat part so as to cover the recess.

Head capping member, head maintenance or recovery device, device for ejecting a liquid drop, and image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus having a recording head for discharging an ink includes a fuel cell unit and a water supply unit. The fuel cell unit generates power for the image forming apparatus and water when the power is generated in the fuel cell unit. The water supply unit supplies the water, generated by the fuel cell unit, to an ink accumulation area in the image forming apparatus.

Image forming apparatus having improved capability for maintaining ink delivery

In a maintenance/recovery device for a liquid discharging device, a cap member covers a surface of a nozzle of a liquid discharging head, the liquid discharging head discharging a droplet of a recording liquid from the nozzle. A resilient contact member is provided in the cap member to come in contact with the surface of the nozzle. A recess-forming member is providing in the cap member to form a recess for receiving the recording liquid attracted from the nozzle. The contact member and the recess-forming member are integrally formed by molding, the recess-forming member is made of a resin material containing a water repellent agent, and the recess-forming member is provided to have at least two slopes being inclined toward an outlet at a bottom of the recess.

Maintenance/recovery device for liquid discharge device and image forming device

A head driving control apparatus for driving a pressure generation part in a droplet discharging head outputs a driving signal including: a first waveform element for contracting the volume of a pressurizing chamber without discharging a droplet; a second waveform element for keeping a contracted state until a meniscus in a nozzle moves toward the pressurizing chamber; a third waveform element for expanding the volume of the pressurizing chamber from the contracted state; a fourth waveform element for keeping an expanded state; and a fifth waveform element for contracting the volume of the pressurizing chamber to discharge a droplet.

Image recording apparatus and head driving control apparatus

A liquid drop jet head includes a nozzle, a liquid room, a vibration board forming a wall surface of the liquid room, driving element, a support substrate to which an end part of the driving element is connected without connecting to the vibration board, and a gap between the support substrate and the vibration board at a position corresponding to a partition of the liquid room, wherein the vibration board includes a thin part and a thick part and the area of the thin part is divided by the thick part with which the driving element comes in contact.

Liquid drop jet head and ink jet recording apparatus

Methods of fabricating electrically alterable non-volatile semiconductor memory cells are provided. The methods include the steps of forming consecutively two paris of side walls defined at least partially by a floating gate, a control gate and dielectric layers to which dopant implantation into source region is self-aligned. Using such side walls provides accurate channel lengths of select gate transistors for uniform memory cell characteristics.

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Tokyo, Japan

Masanori Kusunoki