Toshiba Tec Kabushiki Kaisha

Other

Michiteru Oono

Yukie Kobayashi

An image carrier is provided with a support base that has the photosensitive layer, an image forming area for forming an electrostatic latent image and an information recording layer formed in an area except the image forming area on the surface for reading/writing of information by a beam. An image forming apparatus is provided with a detecting unit for optically detecting information recorded on the information recording layer and a controller for identifying the status of the image carrier from the detection result by the detecting unit.

Image carrier and image forming apparatus

An image forming device is proposed in which a photoreceptor can be replaced easily, and in which it is unlikely that an image problem is caused by a grounding failure of a photoreceptor. The image forming device includes a driving unit including a first coupling member having a groove or a projection for transmitting a rotating force, the driving unit being made of a conductive material, electrically grounded, and rotatable; and a photoreceptor assembly as a driven section rotated by said driving unit, the photoreceptor assembly including a photoreceptor and a second coupling member, and being attachable to/detachable from said driving unit, the second coupling member having a projection or a groove for engaging with the groove or the projection of the first coupling member, rotation of said driving unit being transmitted to the photoreceptor by the engagement of the first coupling member and the second coupling member. When the photoreceptor is being rotated by the driving unit, the projection or the groove of the second coupling member and the groove or the projection of the first coupling member are electrically connected by pressured contact with each other, thereby grounding said photoreceptor with an electrical resistance value of 1,000 &OHgr; or less.

Image forming device having grounded photoreceptor

Cleaning apparatus and cleaning method

An image forming apparatus includes an image carrier that includes a tube, a photosensitive layer provided at a part of the tube for forming an image forming area, and a magnetic recording layer provided at a part of the tube that is outside of the image forming area. The image forming apparatus also includes a writing/reading device that writes a using history of the image carrier on the magnetic recording layer. An information processing method includes recording a measured time information of a photosensitive drum on a magnetic recording layer on the photosensitive drum.

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Kanagawa-ken, Japan

Michiteru Oono