Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd.

Oki Data Corporation

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation

Nippon Zeon Company, Ltd.

Minoru Isobe

Hiroshi Kikuchi

Tadasi Kodama

Noboru Otaki

Minoru Teshima

Yukio Nakamura

Katsuyuki Ito

Yoshinori Koshida

Shuichi Imai

Shigemi Hagiwara

Wataru Ohara

Mikio Yamamoto

Jiro Tanuma

Hisao Ono

Shigeki Nakajima

Yoshiharu Momiyama

Makoto Shimizu

Kazuyoshi Yoshida

Kuniharu Hayashi

Hiroshi Konishi

Masanori Maekawa

Haruo Kimura

Yasushi Hoshino

Yoshihiro Makuta

Kazuyoshi Tateishi

Shin-ichi Suto

Yoshitomo Koga

Eisho Sudoh

Shigemi Togashi

Mitsuo Iwama

Masato Kobayashi

Katunori Yuasa

Toru Hiroki

Waturu Ohara

Mitsuo Ueno

Koutaro Yoshimura

Akiumi Kuriyama

Etumi Ishii

A medium transporting mechanism is used in a color image forming apparatus and a color image reading apparatus. The medium transporting mechanism includes a medium holding section and a rotary transporting section. The medium holding section holds a print-medium by clamping the leading end of the print-medium. The rotary transporting section supports the medium holding section thereon and rotates so that the medium holding section travels around a platen in such a manner that the print-medium slides on at least a part of the platen and the medium holding section travels in a loop-like path which is shorter than a maximum dimension of the print-medium in a direction of travel of the print-medium. A color image recording section is located to oppose the platen so that a print-medium passes between the color image recording section and the platen. The color image recording section prints images of yellow, magenta, cyan in sequence and in register on the print-medium. A monochrome image recording section such as an electrophotographic printer may be provided in addition to the color image recording apparatus. The electrophotographic printer prints a black image only. When printing a color image, the electrophotographic printer prints a black image at a high speed and the color image recording section prints images of other colors such as yellow, magenta, and cyan at a slow speed, thereby speeding up overall printing speed in color printing operation.

Image forming apparatus

An ink ribbon-print paper cassette is used in a thermal printer. A paper tray accommodates a stack of single sheets of print paper. The paper tray has an opening through which the print paper is fed into a paper path on a sheet-by-sheet basis. An ink ribbon for thermal printing runs over a thermal head located adjacent the paper tray. A housing accommodates the paper tray, thermal head, and ink ribbon therein. When the cassette is loaded into the thermal printer, the outer surface of the cassette and an inner wall of the thermal printer cooperate to form a paper path therebetween through which each of the sheets of print paper is advanced from the paper tray to the thermal head.

Cassette for holding ink ribbon and print paper therein and printer

A copier, scanner, or printer has serial scanning and/or printing heads. A uniform relative motion is maintained in a longitudinal direction between the head(s) and the scanning and/or printing media. The head(s) move cyclically back and forth at an acute angle to the longitudinal direction, so that each scanning element and/or each printing element scans or prints a pixel line perpendicular to the longitudinal direction. The acute angle and the rate of relative uniform motion are preferably adjustable according to the width of the area to be scanned or printed. For color copying, scanning, or printing, the scanning and/or printing elements are grouped according to color, and are aligned so that the same pixel lines are scanned or printed in different colors.

Serial copier, scanner, and printer employing continuous media transport

A recording apparatus according to the invention includes a first recording device arranged in a first path and a second arranged upstream of the first recording device. A second path has a first end and a second end. A first feed-direction-switching device is arranged upstream of the first recording device and the second path, and downstream of the second recording device. The first feed-direction-switching device directs the medium either to the first recording device or into the first end of the second path. A second feed-direction switching device is arranged downstream of the first recording device and directs the leading end of the medium into the second end of the second path when the first and/or second recording device completes recording of the information on the first side of the medium. The medium is then transported face down through the second path back to the first path for recording on the second side thereof. A method of recording includes first, second, and third mode operations. A medium is printed in monochrome and/or in color in the first and/or second mode. The medium is then transported face down through the second path back to the first path for printing operation performed by the first and/or second recording devices.

Image forming apparatus having a plurality of image forming sections

A method for optically writing/reading information is disclosed, where information is written onto and read from an information recording medium. Light is emitted from a light emitting element and is split into a zero-order diffracted light and a first-order diffracted light by way of a diffraction grating. The zero-order diffracted light and the first-order diffracted light are focused from the diffraction grating onto the information recording medium such that at least a portion of at least the first-order diffracted light is reflected from the information recording medium. The reflected first-order diffracted light is focused from the information recording medium onto a light receiving element paired with and positioned adjacent the light emitting element.

Optical write/read device and an information recording media

The present invention comprises an optical write/read device including a light emitting/receiving portion having light emitting elements and light receiving elements which are arranged in parallel with one another, and a simple optical system. In the optical system, light emitted from the light emitting element is lead to an information recording medium, and light reflected on the information recording medium among lights emitted from the light emitting elements is lead to the light receiving element. Accordingly, the light emitting element can be used as a recording light source and a reading light source, and further the light receiving elements arranged in parallel with the light emitting elements can be used as an optical detector. The information recording medium employed by the optical write/read device includes a column of positional aligning marks.

A color printer arranges respective printing mechanisms for printing yellow, magenta, cyan, black and rotatably arranges below the respective printing mechanisms a carrier belt attaching a recording medium thereto and moving it. The carrier belt is formed with timing marks, and photointerrupters are provided to read the timing marks. DIP switches are formed for setting positional errors of the respective printing mechanisms. Printing timings of the respective printing mechanisms are controlled on the basis of the read outputs of the timing marks from the photointerrupters and the set values in the DIP switches.

Color printer correctable positional errors in respective printing

Upon writing, a portion of light emitted from light-emitting devices of a light-emitting and light-receiving head 2 is deflected by a half mirror and is then allowed to pass through a first lens array to achieve optical writing on a rotating or moving photoreceptor. Upon reading, on the other hand, light reflected by an original is allowed to pass through a second lens array and then to enter the half mirror. The light is then allowed to pass through the half mirror to the light-emitting and light-receiving head 2 and is hence read by reading devices of the light-emitting and light-receiving head. It is therefore possible to perform writing and reading while the light-emitting and light-receiving head and the optical system remain stationary. No mechanism is therefore needed for moving the light-emitting and light-receiving head, thereby making it possible to provide a scanner-equipped electrophotographic printing machine having small dimensions and high resolution.

Scanner-equipped electrophotographic printing machine

A resistance film which generates heat when a power is supplied is wound around a roller so that a roller may be rotated. An impression roller, which comes in contact under pressure with the resistance film, is provided and rotated synchronized with the resistance film an opposite direction. A printing form is transferred between and by the resistance film and the depression roller. In this case, toner delivered onto the printing form is fixed by supplying the power to the resistance film. The resistance film can be of an endless type or a web type.

Toner fixing apparatus using heat generating resistance film

A printer having a printer body and a print unit is disclosed. The printer body has an upper surface that supports a sheet in a horizontal plane and a drive roller below the horizontal plane. The print unit has a print head and a driven roller and rotates about the drive roller. The print unit is rotatable to printing and non-printing positions in which the printing unit is above and below the horizontal plane, respectively. A data processing apparatus having a printing unit with a print head, a display unit with a cover and display, and an input body with an upper surface that defines a horizontal plane is also disclosed. The display unit is rotatable to open and closed positions. The printing unit is above the horizontal plane in a printing position when the display unit is in the open position and below the horizontal plane in a non-printing position when the display unit is in the closed position. In the printing position, the print head is in a first orientation, and in the non-printing position, the print head is in a second orientation at about a right angle with respect to the first orientation.

Printer and data processing apparatus having printing unit

A multifunctional printer includes a printing portion for printing data on a print medium, a read head for reading data on a read medium, and an enclosed medium carrying passage. The printing portion comprises an electrophotographic record portion. The enclosed medium carrying passage is disposed so as to surround the printing portion and is capable of transferring both the print medium and the read medium. A reversing portion is disposed on the enclosed medium carrying passage to turn the medium upside down. With the arrangement of this multifunctional printer, it is possible to perform double-sided printing on the printed medium and to perform double-sided reading on the read medium. It is also possible to make a multifunctional small-sized printer.

Multifunctional printer

An electrophotographic recording apparatus containing a scanner is provided with a common medium receptacle unit adapted to insert media such as an original document and a print sheet, and/or a cassette for accommodating media, and a separator mechanism adapted for separating the media depending on whether they are to be fed between a light emitting/intercepting head and a photoconductor or between a transfer assembly and the photoconductor. The media may be selectively fed between the light emitting/intercepting head and the photoconductor or between the transfer assembly and the photoconductor in accordance with whether originals or printing sheets to be read.

Electrophotographic recording apparatus with a scanner for automatically

A read head incorporating an image pick-up function includes a photoelectric conversion type light receiving arrays arranged on a substrate, for reading a medium, a convergent rod lens array arranged adjacent the light emitting element arrays, and a solid light emitting element of a surface emission type arranged in the vicinity of the convergent rod lens array.

Read head incorporating an image pick-up function

An image forming apparatus includes a controller for controlling at least a photoconductor drum and a fuser to operate independently of each other. In such an apparatus, at least one of the photoconductor drum and the fuser is provided with an electrical or mechanical member, such as a clutch for selectively coupling a driving system and a rotary member, which is operative independently, and the controller provides such a control that the electrical or mechanical members of the photoconductor drum and the fuser are responsive to signals applied thereto to start or stop the operations independently in timing, respectively.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Minoru Isobe