Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Motoki Adachi

Masahide Kinoshita

Yasunari Watanabe

Masao Uyama

Masanori Tanaka

Hideo Kihara

Masaki Ojima

Shuhei Kawasaki

Kazuhiro Okubo

Hideaki Hasegawa

Yuji Kawaguchi

Takayoshi Kihara

Takanori Watanabe

Motonari Ito

Takayuki Kanazawa

Shunsuke Mizukoshi

Yusuke Usui

Takuya Kitamura

Yusuke Shimizu

Seiji Yamaguchi

Akimichi Suzuki

Satoshi Sunahara

Yuichiro Hirata

Yuta Isobe

Naoki Fukushima

Takashi Mukai

Kuniaki Tamagaki

Kentaro Kawata

Kouki Yano

Tadanobu Yoshikawa

Shuichi Tetsuno

Kenichi Iida

Hiroshi Sasame

Tomoo Akizuki

Shinya Yamamoto

Daisuke Aoki

Hiroaki Ogata

Shinichi Agata

Kentarou Kawata

A developing apparatus includes a developer bearing member bearing a developer on a surface in a developing operation, a regulating member configured to regulate layer thickness of the developer borne on the developer bearing member, a development chamber provided with the developer bearing member and the regulating member and having an opening, a storage chamber to store the developer, and a conveying member to convey the developer stored in the storage chamber to the development chamber through the opening. When the developing operation is performed, a bottom section of the development chamber is located above a bottom section of the storage chamber in a vertical direction, and a contact region of the developer bearing member in contact with the regulating member is located directly above the opening in the vertical direction.

Developing apparatus having a layer thickness regulating member, cartridge, and image forming apparatus

A developing apparatus includes a developer bearing member configured to bear a developer on a surface, a regulating member that regulates layer thickness of the developer on the developer bearing member, and a developer conveying member. In addition, a frame has a development chamber in which the developer bearing member and the regulating member are provided, a storage chamber in which the conveying member is provided and the developer is stored, and an opening through which the developer passes into the development chamber. The developing apparatus collects the developer remaining on the developer bearing member into the storage chamber after the developer on the developer bearing member is transferred onto a transfer material. The regulating material includes a step portion that forms a gap between the regulating member and the developer bearing member.

Developing apparatus having a layer thickness regulation member, cartridge, and image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus is provided that includes a light-emitting unit which emits light to an image bearing member which bears a developer image and that detects presence or absence of a developer container storing developer or a shape of the developer container on the basis of the number of electrons discharged from or received by the image bearing member when the light-emitting unit emits the light.

Image forming apparatus capable of detecting presence or absence of a cartridge or a shape of the cartridge without increasing the number of components

When an outer diameter of a charging member is defined as Hc, a ratio of the circumferential velocity of the charging member to the circumferential velocity of an image bearing member is defined as Rc, an outer diameter of a developer bearing member is defined as Hd, and a ratio of the circumferential velocity of the developer bearing member to the circumferential velocity of the image bearing member is defined as Rd, the relationship Hc/Rc&#x2267;Hd/Rd is satisfied.

Image forming apparatus having simultaneous development and cleaning

A developing apparatus includes a developer bearing member configured to bear a developer on a surface, a regulating member that regulates layer thickness of the developer on the developer bearing member, and a development chamber provided with the developer bearing member and the regulating member and having an opening. A storage chamber stores the developer, and a conveying member in the storage chamber conveys the stored developer to the development chamber through the opening. The developing apparatus collects, after the developer on the image bearing member is transferred onto a transfer material, the developer remaining on the image bearing member into the storage chamber, wherein a bottom section of the development chamber is located above a bottom section of the storage chamber in a vertical direction. A contact region of the developer bearing member in contact with the regulating member is located directly above the opening in the vertical direction.

Developing apparatus, cartridge, and image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes an exposure device configured to expose image bearing members charged by charging devices to form latent images on the image bearing members, and a control unit configured to, in ether one or both of an image forming unit A and an image forming unit B, adjust an amount of exposure by which the image bearing member is exposed and a charging voltage based on information about the image bearing members of the image forming units A and B. The control unit is configured to make the charging voltage and the amount of exposure in the image forming unit A different from the charging voltage and the amount of exposure in the image forming unit B.

Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus including: image forming stations each including: a photosensitive drum; a charger configured to charge the drum; a transfer device configured to transfer a developer image on the drum onto an intermediate transfer member; and a cleaner configured to remove developer from the drum; an exposure device configured to expose the drum to form a latent image; the intermediate transfer member; a memory storing information on the drum; and a controller configured to control at least one of the charger, transfer device, and exposure device in the station based on the information in the memory to provide a predetermined potential difference between the drum and the transfer device to form an electric field therebetween in a reverse direction to that in an image formation in order to move the developer from the intermediate transfer member to the drum to collect the developer by the cleaner.

Image forming apparatus with developer collecting operation

An image forming apparatus includes an image bearing member, a charging apparatus, an exposure apparatus configured to expose the image bearing member charged by the charging apparatus to form an electrostatic latent image, a developing apparatus provided with a developer accommodation section and configured to develop the electrostatic latent image, a signal output unit configured to output a first signal for exposing a printing part of the image bearing member and a second signal for exposing a non-printing part of the image bearing member, a counting apparatus configured to receive the electric signal output from the signal output unit and count the first signals and the second signals, and a calculation apparatus configured to obtain a use amount of the developer by the developing apparatus from count values of the first signals and the second signals counted by the counting apparatus.

An image forming apparatus includes photosensitive drums, charging devices, an exposure unit configured to expose surfaces of photosensitive drums to generate a non-image portion potential and expose the surfaces to generate an image portion potential, developing members configured to make a developer adhere to an area where the image portion potential is generated to form a developer image on the photosensitive drums, a control unit configured to control an intensity of the charging voltage, and an acquisition unit configured to acquire thicknesses of photosensitive layers of the respective plurality of photosensitive drums, wherein the control unit is configured to set the intensity of a charging voltage applied to the common charging devices according to a maximum thickness among the thicknesses acquired by the acquisition unit, and individually control the output of the first laser power for the photosensitive drum according to surface potentials of the charged photosensitive drums.

A developing device usable with an image forming apparatus includes a developer carrying member for carrying a developer, a developer accommodating portion for accommodating a developer, and a guiding member having an inclined surface contacting the developer carrying member. The inclined surface guides a developer to a contact portion where the inclined surface contacts the developer carrying member to cause the developer to be carried on the developer carrying member. A regulating member regulates an amount of the developer carried on the developer carrying member. An inclination angle of the inclined surface is in a range not less than an angle of rest of the developer and less than 90 degrees.

Developing device, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus

A developing device includes a developer carrying member, rotatable while carrying a developer, for supplying developer to an image bearing member, a developer supplying member, which is provided with a foam layer at its surface and is rotatable in contact with the developer carrying member, for supplying the developer to the developer carrying member, and a first gear for transmitting a driving force to the developer supplying member. The first gear is movable to a first position where the driving force is not transmitted to the developer supplying member and to a second position where the driving force is transmitted to the developer supplying member. During initial drive of the developer carrying member, the developer supplying member is rotated by a frictional force generated between the developer supplying member and the developer carrying member, with the first gear to be moved from the first position to the second position.

Developing device and image forming apparatus

The image forming apparatus is capable of executing a color mode for forming images of a plurality of colors using the plurality of developer bearing members, and a mono-mode for forming images of mono color using one developer bearing member of the plurality of developer bearing members. The control unit, when the color mode is executed, determines the charging bias and, the first laser power and the second laser power for respective image bearing members, based on information about the plurality of image bearing members. The control unit, when the mono-mode is executed, determines the charging bias and, the first laser power and the second laser power to image bearing member for mono-mode, based on information about image bearing member for mono-mode.

Image forming apparatus including control unit for controlling charging bias and laser power

An image forming apparatus can switch between a color mode, in which an image is formed by sequentially transferring color toner images formed by developing members in an overlapping manner, and a mono mode, in which an image is formed by using one developing member. The developing member used in the mono mode develops the toner image to be transferred secondly or thereafter in the color mode, an exposure device exposes a non-image portion where the toner image is not formed on the surface of an image carrier at an exposure amount smaller than an exposure amount for an image portion where the toner image is formed, and, in the mono mode, the exposure amount at which the exposure device exposes the non-image portion of the image carrier in the case the image is formed in the mono mode is smaller than the color mode.

Image forming apparatus having non-image portion exposure amount that is lower in mono mode than in color mode

An image forming apparatus includes a rotatable photosensitive member, an exposure unit for exposing a surface of the photosensitive member to light, and a detecting portion for detecting a lifetime of the photosensitive member on the basis of a thickness of a charge transporting layer of the photosensitive member and an amount of the light received by the charge transporting layer of the photosensitive member.

Growing community of inventors

Ashigarakami-gun, Japan

Motoki Adachi