Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Masato Tanabe

Hideki Maeshima

Hiroki Shimizu

Tsukasa Abe

Kazutaka Sueshige

Osamu Anan

Keisuke Nomura

Teruhiko Sasaki

Susumu Nittani

Tomofumi Kawamura

Kazuo Chadani

Takatoshi Hamada

Yasunori Toriyama

Shinjiro Toba

Tomio Noguchi

Yuuki Nakamura

Shuichi Gofuku

Kuniaki Hirukawa

Sadaaki Tani

Tatsuro Harada

Tomonori Mori

Tadayuki Tsuda

Daisuke Abe

Tetsuo Uesugi

Daisuke Makiguchi

Hideshi Kawaguchi

Shinichi Ueda

Shuji Nishitani

Yusuke Atsu

Takahito Ueno

Kazunari Murayama

Akihiro Fujiwara

Isao Koishi

Toshiaki Takeuchi

Naoya Asanuma

Hideki Kakuta

Yuichiro Hirata

Satoshi Tsuda

Kodai Hayashi

Masahito Kato

Takuya Oka

Koichi Ooishi

Masakazu Tatsumi

Yu Akiba

Harunobu Maeda

Takashi Yano

Kazushi Nishikata

Kazushi Nishitaka

A toner cartridge includes a toner accommodation chamber containing toner, a toner discharging chamber having a discharge opening for discharging the toner, and a passage for fluid communication between the toner accommodation chamber and the toner discharging chamber. The toner cartridge also includes a screw, with at least a part of the screw being positioned in the passage. In a first cross-sectional plane perpendicular to a toner feeding direction of the screw, a minimum cross-sectional area of the passage is Asmin, and in a second cross-sectional plane perpendicular to the toner feeding direction, the toner accommodation chamber has a cross-sectional area Cs that is larger than Asmin.

Toner cartridge having feeding member and pump for discharging toner

A toner cartridge includes a casing, a feeding member, and a pump. The casing includes a toner accommodation chamber accommodating toner, a toner discharging chamber having a discharge opening for discharging the toner, and a communication passage for fluid communication between the toner accommodation chamber and the toner discharging chamber such that the toner can move from the toner accommodation chamber to the toner discharging chamber. A part of the feeding member is positioned inside the communication passage. In a first cross-sectional plane perpendicular to a toner feeding direction of the feeding member, a minimum cross-sectional area of the communication passage is Asmin, in a second cross-sectional plane perpendicular to the toner feeding direction, the toner discharging chamber has a cross-sectional area Bs that is larger than Asmin, and in a third cross-sectional plane perpendicular to the toner feeding direction, the toner accommodation chamber has a cross-sectional area Cs that is larger than Asmin.

Toner cartridge having feeding member and pump for discharging pump

A second unit includes a restricted portion that comes into contact with a restricting portion provided to a body of an apparatus, the restricted portion coming into contact with the restricting portion, in order to restrict the movement of a developer carrier in a direction to make contact with an image carrier, when a developing cartridge has not reached a predetermined attachment position, and not coming into contact with the restricting portion when the developing cartridge is in the predetermined attachment position.

Developing cartridge including a member configured to be pressed by a member of an image forming apparatus

A cartridge includes a casing including a toner storage chamber storing toner and a toner discharge chamber having an outlet, a conveyance member conveying the toner from the toner storage chamber to the toner discharge chamber, an action member attached to the conveyance member and repeating an action of shifting between an entering state of entering the outlet and a retraction state of retracting from the outlet, and a pump expanding and contracting to be shifted between a first state and a second state in which the internal space is smaller in volume than in the first state, the pump putting air into the toner discharge chamber by being shifted from the first state to the second state, thereby discharging the toner from the toner discharge chamber through the outlet, and the pump taking in air by being shifted from the second state to the first state.

Toner cartridge and image forming apparatus including a screw to convey toner in the cartridge, an elastic member to loosen the toner, and a means to discharge toner together with air to the outside of the cartridge

A developing device includes a stirring member including a flexible sheet member having a first sheet portion and a second sheet portion overlapping each other with respect to a thickness direction of the sheet member. With respect to a lateral direction of the sheet member which is a direction from a fixed end fixed to a rotating shaft portion to the free end, a length of the first sheet portion is longer than a length of the second sheet portion, and when the stirring member is rotated, a free end of the first sheet portion is capable of contacting an inner wall surface of a toner accommodation chamber. The sheet member is provided with a through hole penetrating in a thickness direction of the sheet member in a region where the first sheet portion and the second sheet portion overlap each other.

Developing device, cartridge, image forming apparatus

Disclosed is a developing apparatus including: a developer bearing member that bears a developer; a developing frame body that rotatably supports the developer bearing member; a one-end side end member that supports one-end side in an axis direction of the developer bearing member of the developing frame body; and another-end side end member that supports the other-end side in the axis direction of the developer bearing member of the developing frame body. Each of the one-end side end member and the other-end side end member is independently movable with respect to the developing frame body.

Developing apparatus, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus

Developing cartridge having a guide projecting from a frame body

An image forming apparatus including a photosensitive member, a developing cartridge that has a developing member, a developing frame, an end member attached to the developing frame, and a restricting portion restricting a swing movement of the end member, and an apparatus body to which the developing cartridge is attachable. The apparatus body includes a movement unit moving the developing cartridge from a first position to a second position, a positioning portion engaging with the end member when the developing cartridge is located at the second position, and a restriction releasing portion acting on the restricting portion with a movement of the developing cartridge from the first position to the second position and releasing restriction of the swing movement of the end member, the restriction releasing portion being provided at a part of the apparatus main body excluding the movement unit.

Image forming apparatus and developing cartridge

Toner cartridge for an image forming apparatus including a pump to discharge toner by putting air into the toner discharge chamber

A drum unit detachably mountable to a main assembly of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus includes a photosensitive drum and a coupling member provided on the photosensitive drum. The coupling member includes a driving force receiving portion and a supporting portion movably supporting the driving force receiving portion. The supporting portion includes a first extended portion and a second extended portion which extend at least in an axial direction of the photosensitive drum.

Drum unit, cartridge, electrophotographic image forming apparatus and coupling member

A process cartridge includes a photosensitive drum and a first casing rotatably supporting the photosensitive drum. The process cartridge also includes a developing roller configured to develop an electrostatic latent image formed on the photosensitive drum with toner, a supplying roller configured to supply the developing roller with the toner, and a second casing rotatably supporting the developing roller and the supplying roller and containing the toner. A rotatable coupling is provided with a projection and operatively connected to the supplying roller and the developing roller so that the coupling can transmit a rotational force to the supplying roller and the developing roller, and at least a part of the coupling being movable in a direction perpendicular to a rotational axis of the coupling. Rotatable gears are configured to transmit the rotational force from the coupling to the developing roller, and a spring urges the at least part of the coupling toward the first casing in the direction perpendicular to the rotational axis of the coupling.

Process cartridge and image forming apparatus

A developing cartridge includes a developing frame body rotatably supporting a developing roller. A first end member is attached to the first end of the developing frame and a second end member is attached to the second end of the developing frame body. The first end member and the second end member are rotatable independently of each other and relative to the developing frame body about a rotational axis common to the first end member and the second end member, and with rotation of the developing frame body relative to the first end member and the second end member, the developing roller moves from a first position to a second position in a direction that crosses a position of an axis of the developing roller when the developing roller is in the first position.

A developing device includes a frame having an accommodation chamber where a developer is accommodated, and a replenishing port replenishing a developer to the accommodation chamber from outside, and a stirring member stirring the developer in the accommodation chamber. The stirring member includes a rotating shaft portion rotatably supported by the frame and a sheet member having one end fixed to the rotating shaft portion and another end as a free end and being rotatable with the rotating shaft portion. When the stirring member is rotated, the free end of the sheet member is capable of contacting an inner wall surface of the accommodation chamber in which the replenishing port is formed, and a through hole penetrating in a thickness direction of the sheet member is provided in a region of the sheet member that comes into contact with the inner wall surface of the accommodation chamber.

A toner transport apparatus includes a toner, a transport container having a transport path for transporting the toner toward the developing apparatus, and a pipe through which the toner is transported from the toner container to the transport container, with the pipe having an outlet hole from which the toner is discharged into the transport container. An air pump transports the toner from the toner container to the transport container, and an optical sensor includes a light-emitting element to emit a light and a light-receiving element to receive the light so that an optical path from the light-emitting element to the light-receiving element intersects with a passage area of the toner through which the toner passes after being discharged from the outlet hole of the pipe and before landing at a landing point of the transport container.

Toner transport apparatus

A developing cartridge includes a frame rotatably supporting a developing roller. The developing cartridge also includes a first supporting member attached to a first end of the frame, with the first supporting member being movable relative to the frame. The developing cartridge further includes a second supporting member attached to a second end of the frame, with the second supporting member being movable relative to the frame and the first supporting member.

Developing cartridge having a frame and supporting members that are movable relative to the frame

Growing community of inventors

Susono, Japan

Masato Tanabe