Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Nec Corporation

Masayuki Yamane

Nobuyuki Taguchi

Kunihiro Ohyama

Takeroh Kurenuma

Takeshi Uchitani

Masaki Takahashi

Yasufumi Takahashi

Tadashi Hayakawa

Akira Shinshi

Takuji Takahashi

Hideo Yoshizawa

Goro Katsuyama

Seiji Terazawa

Kiyonori Tsuda

Shunji Katoh

Hideki Kimura

Kazuhisa Sudo

Takuya Seshita

Atsushi Kurokawa

Satoru Yoshida

Ichiro Kadota

Kenzo Tatsumi

Emi Kita

Yoshihiro Fujiwara

Hiroshi Hosokawa

Toshio Koike

Shinji Tamaki

Hiroto Higuchi

Fumihiro Sasaki

Shinichi Kawahara

Shigeru Horiguchi

Yuji Arai

Hiroshi Ono

Hiroyuki Nagashima

Masahiro Watanabe

Yuuki Satoh

Yuichiro Ueda

Shouji Okabe

Toshiki Hayashi

Takayasu Nakao

Masashi Hasegawa

Takayuki Tamaki

Fumie Satoh

Teruo Hitosugi

Takashi Hisazumi

Satoshi Narumi

Keiichi Yoshida

Fumio Ogata

Tatsuya Ohhira

Tetsuro Hirota

Tsuyoshi Imamura

Shingo Nishizaki

Tokuya Ohjimi

Yuuki Tsuchiya

Atsushi Sampe

Maiko Kondo

Junichi Terai

Takeyoshi Sekine

Masateru Kohno

Keisuke Katoh

Junichi Sano

Masaaki Yamada

Ken Amemiya

Hirobumi Ooyoshi

Nobuo Kuwabara

Katsuhiro Aoki

Masahiko Shakuto

Eisuke Hori

Hiroshi Mizusawa

Michiya Okamoto

Fumihito Itoh

Mikio Ishibashi

Yuuji Ishikura

Kenji Mochizuki

Keiji Iijima

Masashi Iida

Tomokazu Mochizuki

Seiji Terasawa

A toner container includes a container body, an opening, a cover, a toner discharge port, a shutter, a cylindrical structure, protrusions, and an identifier. The shutter is attached to the cover and includes a main shutter covering the toner discharge port. The main shutter moves between a closed position to close the toner discharge port and an open position to open the toner discharge port. The protrusions are on both sides of the cover and protrude in a direction orthogonal to a toner container mounting direction. The identifier is on the cover to indicate a toner color. The cylindrical structure's leading end is downstream of leading ends of the protrusions in the mounting direction. The main shutter's leading end is downstream of the protrusions' leading ends in the mounting direction when the main shutter is in the closed position. The protrusions are downstream of the identifier in the mounting direction.

Information storage system including a plurality of terminals

Developer container which discharges toner from a lower side and includes a box section

Apparatus and method for preventing an information storage device from falling from a removable device

Developer container having a cap with three portions of different diameters

A developing device includes a casing to contain developer, a developer bearer, an upper and lower developer conveyors to convey the developer to one side in an axial direction of rotation shafts thereof, a communicating portion disposed on a first end side on which an input gear is disposed, to fall the developer from the upper developer conveyor to the lower developer conveyor, bearings to receive end portions the upper and lower developer conveyors, and first and second end seals to seal gaps in the bearings on the upper and lower developer conveyors, respectively. The first end seals and the second end are disposed on the first end side and a second end side, respectively. A sliding friction between the rotation shaft and at least one of the first end seals is smaller than a sliding friction between the rotation shaft and the second end seal.

Vertical biaxial developing device and image forming apparatus and process cartridge incorporating same

A developing device includes upper and lower developer containing portions to contain developer, arranged in a vertical direction, a first developer conveyor to convey developer in the upper developer containing portion to a first side in an axial direction of the first developer conveyor, a second developer conveyor to convey developer in the lower developer containing portion to a second side opposite the first side, a developer-lifting area in which the developer is lifted from the lower developer containing portion to the upper developer containing portion, a first lifting area gear to rotate the first developer conveyor, a second lifting area gear to rotate the second developer conveyor, and a lifting area input gear to input a driving force to the developing device. The lifting area input gear is coupled to the first lifting area gear and coupled via the first lifting area gear via to the second lifting area gear.

Developing device and image forming apparatus and process cartridge incorporating same

A developing device includes a developer bearer, a casing defining an upper compartment to contain the developer and a lower compartment disposed lower than the upper compartment, to contain the developer, and a first conveyor and a second conveyor disposed in the upper compartment and the lower compartment, respectively, to convey the developer in a longitudinal direction of the developer bearer and circulate the developer between the upper compartment and the lower compartment through a first communicating opening, through which the developer is conveyed upward, and a second communicating opening. A developer-lifting range of the upper compartment, which opposes the first communicating opening, is larger in volume than a developer-lifting range of the lower compartment. One of the upper compartment and the lower compartment is disposed adjacent to the developer bearer to supply the developer to the developer bearer.

Developing device with casing having upper and lower compartments

A toner container detachably attached to a toner-container holder of a main body of an image forming apparatus includes a container body that includes an opening, and discharges toner contained in the container body, from the opening; and a held portion that is held by the toner-container holder in a non-rotating manner. The held portion includes an open/close member for opening/closing the toner outlet in synchronization with an attachment/detachment operation of the held portion to/from the toner-container holder.

Toner container and image forming apparatus

An information storage device installed in a removable device configured to be removably installed in an image forming apparatus body, includes: an information storage unit that stores information communicated between the image forming apparatus body and the removable device; a terminal that comes in contact with a body side terminal; and a substrate that holds the information storage unit and the terminal and includes a hole configured to be engaged with a protruding section installed in the image forming apparatus body. The terminal includes a plurality of terminals each including one of a plurality of metallic plates arranged in a transverse direction thereof. An earth terminal, which comes in contact with a body side earth terminal formed in the protruding section, is formed in the hole. The hole is disposed at a position sandwiched between two metallic plates among the plurality of metallic plates.

A developing device includes a developer bearer, a magnetic field generator, a casing having an opening, a developer conveyor to rotate inside a developer containing compartment below the developer bearer, and a developer regulator. A side wall of the casing defines a bottom end of the opening, and the developer regulator is disposed on the side wall. The side wall includes an upper end face facing the developer bearer below an axis of the developer bearer and a curved inner face along an orbit of rotation of the developer conveyor, extending from below the developer conveyor toward the upper end face. On a virtual plane perpendicular to the axis of the developer bearer, an intersection between a tangent line to an upper end of the curved inner face and the surface of the developer bearer is in a range from a tangential magnetic-flux peak and a closest approach point.

A powder container includes a rotatable powder storage to store powder for image formation, a conveyor to transport the powder inside the powder storage, and a scooping portion to scoop the powder inside the powder storage. The conveyor transports the powder in a powder conveyance direction parallel to a rotation axis of the powder storage toward an opening at one end of the powder storage. The scooping portion causes the powder to flow to the opening. The scooping portion includes a scooping face extending from an inner face of the powder storage toward the rotation axis of the powder storage, and a rim disposed along an inner end of the scooping face in a diameter direction of the powder storage, and at least a portion of the rim protruding downstream beyond the scooping face in a rotation direction of the powder storage.

Powder container and image forming apparatus incorporating same

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Masayuki Yamane