Konica Minolta, Inc.

Minolta Company, Ltd.

Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.

Minolta Camera Kabushiki Kaisha

Konica-minolta Holdings, Inc.

Naoki Yoshie

Chiaki Yamada

Masahiro Anno

Satoshi Matsumoto

Keiko Momotani

Yukiko Uno

Kenji Hayashi

Miyuki Hotta

Junji Machida

Kazuko Taniguchi

Makoto Kobayashi

Yuji Kamoda

Toshimitsu Fujiwara

Hirofumi Nakagawa

Masaaki Oka

Yuya Kubo

Tatsuya Fujisaki

Masazumi Yoshida

Eiji Tabata

Kunitomo Sasaki

Nofumi Mizumoto

Yasuo Shirodai

Junichi Furukawa

Kazuko Fukumoto

Toru Kikuchi

Yuya Iwagoe

Sho Kim

Keyaki Yogome

Keiichiro Higashi

Chiaki Yamaoka

Makoto Ban

Tetsushi Ikoma

Ichirou Sekine

Yuka Suhara

A fixing device includes: a fixing member that heats a toner image formed on a recording sheet in order to fix the toner image on the recording sheet; a pressurizing member that nips the recording sheet together with the fixing member to pressurize the toner image on the recording sheet; a heater that heats the pressurizing member; and a hardware processor that controls a heating temperature of the pressurizing member by the heater, wherein the hardware processor acquires setting of glossiness of the toner image and controls the heating temperature to be higher as the glossiness in the setting is lower.

Fixing device for setting the glossiness of the toner image

An image forming device includes: a fixing unit that fixes an image formed on a recording medium; a heating unit that heats a recording medium that has been subjected to a fixing process by the fixing unit; and a controller that sets a glossiness of an image on a recording medium, wherein the controller controls a heating amount with the heating unit depending on the set glossiness.

Image forming device and method for controlling the same

A liquid developer in which toner particles are dispersed in an insulating liquid, the toner particles having such a core-shell structure that shell particles containing a shell resin are attached to or cover surfaces of core particles containing a core resin, the core resin having an acid group and an acid dissociation constant not smaller than 2.90 and not greater than 8.00, and a method for manufacturing the same are provided. The toner particles can have a volume average particle size not smaller than 0.01 &#x3bc;m and not greater than 100 &#x3bc;m and a coefficient of variation of volume distribution not lower than 1% and not higher than 100%. This liquid developer has excellent fixability which allows adaptation to various recording materials, can be fixed in a wide temperature range, and is extremely low in deterioration in fixability during storage.

Liquid developer and method for manufacturing the same

A control unit is configured to control torque of a fixing motor and torque of a pressing motor such that tangential force at a part holding paper in cooperation with a fixing member in a pressing member is equal to or greater than tangential force at a part holding paper in cooperation with the pressing member in the fixing member, and that the relation between the tangential force at the part of the pressing member and the tangential force at the part of the fixing member changes in accordance with the smoothness of paper.

Fixing device, image forming apparatus, and method of controlling image forming apparatus

A toner for developing an electrostatic image includes a toner particle. The toner particle includes a binder resin and a black colorant. The binder resin includes a crystalline resin component. A toner layer formed through a deposition of the toner on a glass sheet in an amount of 6.5 g/mexhibits a light transmittance of 1 to 3% at a wavelength of 690 nm after applying heat at a temperature of 185&#xb0; C. for five seconds to the toner layer from a position 100 &#x3bc;m away from a surface of the toner layer.

Toner for developing electrostatic image

A liquid developer set of the present invention includes a first liquid developer including an insulating liquid and first toner particles and a second liquid developer including an insulating liquid and second toner particles, the first toner particles include carbon black and a first resin, the second toner particles include a coloring agent other than carbon black and a second resin, without including carbon black, the first resin and the second resin each include a hydrocarbon long chain which is a hydrocarbon group having a carbon number of 8 to 30, and a mass ratio of the hydrocarbon long chain to the first toner particles is higher than a mass ratio of the hydrocarbon long chain to the second toner particles.

Liquid developer set

A liquid developer contains an insulating liquid and toner particles dispersed in the insulating liquid. The toner particles have a resin and a coloring agent. The resin contains at least 10 mass % and at most 40 mass % of an aliphatic polyester resin and at least 60 mass % and at most 90 mass % of an aromatic polyester resin. The resin has an acid value not less than 20 mgKOH/g and not more than 100 mgKOH/g. A difference in acid value between the aliphatic polyester resin and the aromatic polyester resin is not less than 0 mgKOH/g and not more than 10 mgKOH/g.

Liquid developer

A liquid developer contains an insulating liquid and toner particles dispersed in the insulating liquid. The toner particles have a resin and a coloring agent. The resin contains at least 5 mass % and at most 30 mass % of an aliphatic polyester resin and at least 70 mass % and at most 95 mass % of an aromatic polyester resin. A difference in acid value between the aliphatic polyester resin and the aromatic polyester resin is not less than 15 mgKOH/g and not more than 100 mgKOH/g.

Toner particles have a core-shell structure that first resin particles containing a first resin are attached to or cover surfaces of second resin particles containing a second resin. Heat of fusion with differential scanning calorimetry of the second resin satisfies Equations (1) to (2) below. In Equations (1) to (2) below, H1 and H2 represent heats of fusion (J/g) at initial temperature increase and second temperature increase with differential scanning calorimetry of the second resin, respectively.5&#x2266;1&#x2266;70&#x2003;&#x2003;Equation (1)0.2&#x2266;2/1&#x2266;1.0&#x2003;&#x2003;Equation (2)

An image formation method includes a step of preparing an electrostatic latent image developer, a transferring step, and a fixation step. The step of preparing an electrostatic latent image developer includes a step of preparing an electrostatic latent image developer containing toner particles having prescribed viscoelasticity characteristics. The fixation step includes steps of heating a recording medium and fixing the toner particles to the recording medium at a pressure not lower than 200 kPa and not higher than 800 kPa.

Image formation method and image formation apparatus

A resin in a liquid developer contains a first resin which is a urethane-modified polyester resin resulting from increase in chain length of a component derived from a polyester resin by a compound containing an isocyanate group and a second resin. The first resin is contained by not lower than 70 mass % with respect to a total of the first resin and the second resin. The component derived from the polyester resin includes a constitutional unit derived from an acid component and a constitutional unit derived from an alcohol component. A ratio of a constitutional unit derived from an aliphatic monomer occupied in the constitutional unit derived from the acid component and the constitutional unit derived from the alcohol component is not lower than 80 mass %. Relation of 2.3&#x2266;Mw/Mn&#x2266;4 (10000&#x2266;Mn&#x2266;50000) is satisfied.

A liquid developer includes an insulating liquid and toner particles dispersed in the insulating liquid. The insulating liquid has a flash point not lower than 100&#xb0; C. The toner particles contain a resin, and the resin contains 80 mass % or more of a first resin containing a component derived from a polyester resin. A solid content of the liquid developer corresponding to a portion of the liquid developer excluding the insulating liquid satisfies relation of G'(T)/G&#x2032;(T+10)&#x2267;10 (50&#xb0; C.&#x2266;T&#x2266;70&#xb0; C.), where G&#x2032;(T) represents a storage elastic modulus at a temperature T(&#xb0; C.) and G&#x2032;(T+10) represents a storage elastic modulus at a temperature (T+10) (&#xb0; C.).

A resin in a liquid developer contains 80 mass % or more of a urethane-modified polyester resin. A component derived from a polyester resin contains a constitutional unit derived from an acid component and a constitutional unit derived from an alcohol component. A ratio of a constitutional unit derived from an aliphatic monomer occupied in the constitutional unit derived from the acid component and the constitutional unit derived from the alcohol component is not lower than 90 mass %. Relation of |T&#x2212;T|&#x2267;20&#xb0; C. 70&#xb0; C.&#x2266;T&#x2266;170&#xb0; C., 60&#xb0; C.&#x2266;T&#x2266;120&#xb0; C.) is satisfied, where T(&#xb0; C.) represents a softening temperature Tof toner particles measured with a flow tester under a load of 1 kg and T(&#xb0; C.) represents a softening temperature Tof toner particles measured with a flow tester under a load of 5 kg.

Liquid developer and image formation method

A liquid developer is obtained by dispersing toner particles containing a core resin, a shell resin different from the core resin, and a coloring agent in an insulating liquid. The core resin contains a crystalline urethane-modified polyester resin. A solid content of the liquid developer corresponding to a portion of the liquid developer excluding the insulating liquid has a storage elastic modulus at 80&#xb0; C., not lower than 1&#xd7;10Pa and not higher than 5&#xd7;10Pa. A lowest temperature at the time when an absolute value of an amount of change in a logarithmic value (log(G')) of a storage elastic modulus (G&#x2032;) of the solid content of the liquid developer with respect to a temperature T (&#xb0; C.) (|&#x394; log(G&#x2032;)/&#x394;T|) satisfies an Equation (1) below is not lower than 45&#xb0; C.:|&#x394; log(&#x2032;)/&#x394;|&#x3e;0.1&#x2003;&#x2003;Equation (1).

Toner particles contained in a liquid developer have a core-shell structure that first resin particles containing a first resin are attached to or cover surfaces of second resin particles containing a second resin. The second resin satisfies Equations (1) to (2) below. In Equations (1) to (2) below, x represents a number average molecular weight of the second resin and y represents a urethane group concentration (mass %) in the second resin.&#x2212;0.00003+2.03&#x2266;&#x2266;&#x2212;0.00003+6.95&#x2003;&#x2003;Equation (1)10000&#x2266;&#x2266;50000&#x2003;&#x2003;Equation (2)

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Ibaraki, Japan

Naoki Yoshie