Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Naoki Nakatake

Tomohiro Kubota

Yoshiyuki Shimizu

Shoh Tsuritani

Masato Tsuji

Masanari Fujita

Atsushi Takehara

Emi Kita

Tetsumaru Fujita

Tomoya Adachi

Yasuhiro Fujiwara

Yuji Nagatomo

Yoshihiro Mikuriya

Kazuoki Fuwa

Kazuki Matsumoto

Tomofumi Yoshida

Tsuyoshi Nozaki

Yoshimichi Ishikawa

Junichi Yamazaki

Tomohiro Fukao

Atsushi Yamamoto

Kenji Nakamura

Takeshi Sakashita

Hideaki Yasunaga

Masayuki Hagi

Yoshie Iwakura

Takuya Kadota

Hirobumi Ooyoshi

Yoshitaka Sekiguchi

Hitoshi Fujiwara

Takayuki Nakamura

Manabu Hamada

Takeshi Yamashita

Yasuhide Matsuno

Sho Tsuritani

Takahiro Sanada

Kyoko Abe

Hidekazu Shono

Kohta Sakaya

Takafumi Miyazaki

Rumi Miyazaki

Mitsutoshi Kichise

Minoru Toyoda

Tomoharu Miki

Hiroaki Katoh

Kiyoshi Taniguchi

Tetsuya Kusano

Takato Kiyohara

Satoshi Hasegawa

Hajime Suzuki

Akinori Yamaguchi

Yutaka Naitoh

Tomohiko Fujii

Keiji Kunimi

Takuya Akiyama

Yasuharu Kawarasaki

Tetsushi Sakuma

Toshiaki Takane

Tadayoshi Uchida

Mizuho Imaruoka

Yuta Takeuchi

Toshihiko Koizumi

Tsuyoshi Ueda

A toner cartridge include a convex portion and a conveyance drive gear. There is a protrusion which protrudes from the center of the conveyance drive gear. Further, there is a hole at a rear side of the convex portion. The protrusion is to be inserted into the hole which is at the rear side of the convex portion.

Toner cartridge including a protrusion protruding from a center of a conveyance drive gear

A removable device detachably attachable to a receiving structure includes a convex to be inserted into a groove of the receiving structure, a rotator to rotate around a rotational shaft, a recess at a rear side of the convex, a gear attached to the rotational shaft, and a gear cover to cover at least a part of the gear. Further, an end of the rotational shaft is inserted into the recess, part of the gear is exposed from the gear cover, and a peripheral of the end of the rotational shaft is surrounded by the gear cover.

Developer container for image forming apparatus

The developer container includes a rotator that is rotated in the container body, a sequence of gears disposed outside the developer container that transmits a torque to the rotator, and a container guiding portion that fits with a main body side guiding portion and guides the developer container in a direction in which the developer container is attached to a mounting portion of an image forming device main body. A first gear included in the sequence of the gears is movable between an operating position where the first gear engages with a second gear and a retracted position where the first gear is retracted. On a surface on which the container guiding portion is disposed, a part of the container guiding portion is disposed within a projected area of the first gear being disposed at the operating position.

Downsized developer container with higher degree of freedom

A developing device is provided which includes: a developing roller in contact with or facing an image bearer; a supply roller to supply toner to the developing roller; a casing; a first conveyer disposed within the casing and above the supply roller to supply toner stored in the developing device to the supply roller, while forming a first conveyance path; a second conveyer disposed within the casing with an upper end thereof positioned below that of the first conveyer, while forming a second conveyance path forming a toner circulation path together with the first conveyance path; a partition wall separating the first conveyance path and the second conveyance path in a longitudinal direction within a range excluding both longitudinal end portions; and a toner supply port, at a ceiling of the casing above the second conveyance path, through which toner is supplied to an inside of the developing device.

Developing device, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus

A removable device is to be detachably attached to an apparatus main body. The removable device includes a conveying drive gear attached to a first rotational shaft, an agitating drive gear attached to a second rotational shaft, and a torque transmission gear attached to a third rotational shaft. When an addendum circle diameter of the conveying drive gear is A, and an addendum circle diameter of the agitating drive gear is B, B&#x3e;A is satisfied. The torque transmission gear moves around the conveying drive gear to access the agitating drive gear.

Developer container, developing device, process unit, and image forming apparatus

A removable developer container includes a convex portion to be inserted into a groove of an apparatus main body, a rotator to rotate around a rotational shaft, and a recess convex portion to be inserted into a groove of an apparatus main body, at a rear side of the convex portion. One end of the rotational shaft is inserted into the recess.

Developer container including a convex portion, a rotator, and a recess

A developing device includes: a toner detection unit that detects whether there is toner that is stored; a stirring unit that stirs toner in a toner container; a calculation unit that calculates an output duty by comparing an output voltage of the toner detection unit representing whether there is toner after the stirring, with a predetermined voltage value; and a remaining amount detection unit that detects an amount of remaining toner at the output duty from a correspondence relationship between the output duty and an amount of remaining toner that is previously set.

Developing device, image forming apparatus, and toner detection method

A process unit includes a rotatable image bearer, an optical writing head to expose the image bearer within an maximum exposure range in an axial direction of the image bearer, a developer bearer, spacers disposed in axial end portions of the image bearer to determine a position of the optical writing head relative to the image bearer and slidingly contact the image bearer, a cleaner disposed downstream from the developer bearer in an image bearer rotation direction, and a remover to slidingly contact the axial end portion of the image bearer to remove a substance adhering thereto. In the axial direction, inner ends of the spacers are positioned inside a toner layer range of the developer bearer extending beyond a largest sheet width. The remover is disposed downstream from the cleaner and crossing a line extending from the inner end of the spacer perpendicularly to the axial direction.

Image forming apparatus and process unit

A cleaning device in accordance with the present disclosure includes a cleaning member to clean toner on an image bearer, a toner conveyor that rotates to convey toner cleaned by the cleaning member, and an agitator that includes a bent portion that is in contact with the toner conveyor, and the agitator vibrates due to the rotation of the toner conveyor. The agitator includes a plurality of arm members, and a first end of a first arm member of the plurality of arm members is attached to a second end of a second arm member of the plurality of arm members.

Toner conveyance device and image forming apparatus

A removable device to be detachably attached to an apparatus main body includes a container body to store developer; a discharge opening to discharge the developer inside the container body; an internal shutter to open and close the discharge opening; an external shutter to open and close the discharge opening, the external shutter being disposed at an outer side with respect to the internal shutter, wherein the internal shutter and the external shutter are configured to be driven separately.

An image forming apparatus is provided which includes an image bearer, a charger, an irradiator, a developing device to develop an electrostatic latent image on the image bearer with a toner to form a toner image, a transfer device to transfer the toner image onto a transfer medium, and a cleaner to remove toner particles remaining on the image bearer without being transferred. The toner includes a mother particle including a binder resin and a colorant and one or more external additives. At least one of the external additives includes primary particles having a number average particle diameter in the range of 0.05 to 0.30 &#x3bc;m. The cleaner includes an elastic body blade having a contact part with the image bearer. The contact part has a surface elastic modulus in the range of 15 to 25 N/mmand a surface friction coefficient in the range of 0.5 to 0.7.

Image forming apparatus and process cartridge

A developer container includes: a container body that stores a developer and includes a filling port for the developer; and a container terminal that is attachable to and detachable from the container body. The container body is provided with an identifier that engages with the container terminal and is caused to change own form that can be identified from an outside, by an external force that is applied to detach the container terminal from the container body. The container body is provided with a flow preparation part that separates an inside and outside of the container body before changing the form of the identifier and that allows the air to flow between the inside and outside of the container body after changing the form of the identifier.

Developer container, developing device, processing unit, image forming device, and method of manufacturing developer container

Image forming apparatus, image forming method and process cartridge

Growing community of inventors

Hyogo, Japan

Naoki Nakatake