Brother Kogyo Kabushiki-kaisha

Brother Industries, Ltd.

Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.

Kyocera Corporation

Motoaki Mushika

Yasuo Fukamachi

Kazuna Taguchi

Shougo Sato

Koji Abe

Fumikazu Sato

Masamitsu Ukai

Hikaru Yoshizumi

Tsutomu Suzuki

Takahiro Nishimoto

Takuya Kanda

Shota Shinoya

Keita Hironaka

Nao Itabashi

Naoya Kamimura

Hideaki Deguchi

Yusuke Ozaki

Masahiro Ishii

Shinichi Yamamoto

Kenjiro Nishiwaki

Hiroyuki Konishi

Masayuki Tanaka

Yasuhiro Kishimoto

Takehiro Masuda

Masateru Kawamura

Takuya Amaike

Kiyotada Kawakami

Takanori Uno

Koji Ogawa

Shunji Yoshimoto

Atsumi Okamoto

Kenichi Noma

Masato Sone

Minoru Taneda

Nobuaki Kobayashi

Masuo Tanaka

An image forming apparatus, including a process cartridge and a main body with an opening and a cartridge supporter is provided. The process cartridge includes a drum cartridge; a toner cartridge attachable to the drum cartridge; and a switching member switchable states in the process cartridge between a first state, wherein detachment of the toner cartridge is restricted, and a second state, wherein the toner cartridge is released from the restriction. The cartridge supporter is movable between a first position, wherein the cartridge supporter supports the process cartridge to be placed entirely in an inner space in the main body on an inner side of the opening, and a second position, wherein the cartridge supporter supports the process cartridge to be at least partly placed outside the inner space. When the cartridge supporter is in the second position, the switching member is at least partly placed outside the inner space.

Image forming apparatus

An image-forming device includes a main casing, a belt accommodated in the main casing, developing units arranged along the belt, a drawer configured to detachably support the developing units, the drawer configured to move to a position inside the main casing and to a position outside the main casing, and the drawer having a leading end and a trailing end in a pulling direction from the inside position to the outside position; and a guide configured to guide the drawer and to move between a first position and a second position when the drawer is at the inside position, the second position being farther from the belt than the first position from the belt. When the guide is at the second position, the guide is configured to be tilted downward relative to a horizontal direction such that the leading end is lower than the trailing end.

Image-forming device having guide to guide drawer supporting developing units in main casing

An image forming apparatus, including a process cartridge and a main body with an opening and a cover, is provided. The process cartridge includes a drum cartridge, a toner cartridge, and a switching member. The switching member switches states in the process cartridge between a first state, wherein the toner cartridge is restricted from being detached, and a second state, wherein the toner cartridge is released from the restriction. The process cartridge is movable between an attached position to be placed entirely inside the main body and a detached position to be entirely outside the main body. The main body includes a restrictor to restrict the process cartridge from moving from an intermediate position toward the detached position. While the process cartridge is restricted by the restrictor, a supportive part in the cover supports the process cartridge with the switching member being at least partly placed outside the main body.

Image forming apparatus including process cartridge having a toner cartridge detachably attached to a drum cartridge

A developing cartridge may include a housing including an outer surface, a small-diameter gear, a large-diameter gear, a first gear, and a moving member. The small-diameter gear may include a first engaging portion positioned on at least a portion of a peripheral surface of the small-diameter gear. The large-diameter gear may be positioned farther from the outer surface than the small-diameter gear from the outer surface. The large-diameter gear may be rotatable together with the small-diameter gear. The first gear may include a second engaging portion, a first end surface, a second end surface, and at least one protrusion. The moving member may include a contact portion configured to move the moving member from one position to another position in a state where the contact portion is in contact with the protrusion.

Developing cartridge comprising mechanism for information detection

A developer cartridge comprises a first gear. The first gear may include a first protrusion extending in a radial direction of the first gear. The first protrusion may be positioned at a circumference of a column of the first gear. The first protrusion may be spaced apart from a second end face opposite to a first end face facing an exterior surface of a casing configured to accommodate developer therein. The first protrusion may be further from the second end face than a large-diameter gear in an axial direction. A rotational circumference of the first protrusion defined by rotation of the first protrusion and a portion of the large-diameter gear are aligned in the axial direction.

Developer cartridge provided with gear including protrusion

Growing community of inventors

Hashima, Japan

Motoaki Mushika