Brother Kogyo Kabushiki-kaisha

Brother Industries, Ltd.

Naoya Kamimura

Nao Itabashi

Hideshi Nishiyama

Shougo Sato

Fumikazu Sato

Ryuya Yamazaki

Atsuhisa Nakashima

Yasushi Okabe

Hiroshi Igarashi

Koji Abe

Takeyuki Takagi

Keita Shimizu

Takashi Shimizu

Tomonori Watanabe

Yasuo Fukamachi

Makoto Ishii

Masaaki Furukawa

Shinya Kusuda

Yoshiya Tomatsu

Isao Kishi

Hideaki Deguchi

Atsushi Fukaya

Mitsuru Horinoe

Tomoya Ichikawa

Masashi Imai

Kazuma Hinoue

Kazutoshi Nakamura

Ryosuke Hayashi

Tomitake Aratachi

Tomoya Yamamoto

Keita Hironaka

Misato Osuka

Shunji Yoshimoto

Junichi Hashimoto

Motoaki Mushika

Takuji Matsuno

Masashi Suzuki

Tomoaki Hattori

Atsushi Hayakawa

Masamitsu Ukai

Saya Minoshima

Shinji Kimura

Hotaka Kakutani

Kazushi Fukuta

Yoshito Takakuwa

Junya Sumida

Masaki Ueji

Yoshimitsu Doi

Masatoshi Shiraki

Yuwen Wang

Shigeharu Katayama

Noritsugu Ito

Keigo Nakajima

Yuichi Matsushita

Tsuyoshi Suzuki

Takashi Nakata

Takashi Yasuda

Hidenori Hisada

Yutaka Kakigahara

Masataka Kamiya

Masanari Yoshikawa

Kenta Tosuji

Satoshi Murata

Shogo Suzuki

Daisuke Maeta

Tsubasa Kiriyama

Mariko Mogi

Go Iwasa

Kazuya Asano

Kouichi Sugimoto

Hedeaki Deguchi

In a cartridge, a housing has a developer accommodating portion and includes a first side wall and a second side wall. A coupling member is disposed at a position opposite to the developer accommodating portion with respect to the first side wall. A detection body is disposed at a position opposite to the developer accommodating portion with respect to the second side wall. A first driving force transmission member is positioned at the same side with the coupling member with respect to the first side wall, and transmits driving force from the coupling member to a rotating member. A second driving force transmission member is positioned at the same side with the detection body with respect to the second side wall, and transmits driving force from the rotating member to the detection body.

Developing cartridge having coupling and developing roller

A process cartridge including: a photosensitive member cartridge including a photosensitive member; and a developing cartridge including a developer carrier. The developing cartridge further includes: an inputting portion; a first cover; and a second cover. The first cover has a first engagement portion configured to move the developer carrier away from the photosensitive member. The first engagement portion is positioned between an axis of the developer carrier extending in an axial direction and an axis of the inputting portion extending in the axial direction, when projected in the axial direction. The second cover has a second engagement portion configured to move the developer carrier away from the photosensitive member. The second engagement portion is positioned between the axis of the developer carrier and the axis of the inputting portion, when projected in the axial direction.

Developing cartridge provided with cover

A drum cartridge includes: a drum frame to which a developing cartridge is attachable; a photosensitive drum rotatable about an axis extending in a first direction; a memory having an electrical contact surface; and a resilient member positioned between the electrical contact surface and the drum frame. The resilient member is configured to expand and compress in a second direction crossing the electrical contact surface between a first state and a second state, the resilient member having a shorter length in the second state than in the first state. A distance between the drum frame and the electrical contact surface in the second direction when the resilient member is in the second state is smaller than a distance between the drum frame and the electrical contact surface in the second direction when the resilient member is in the first state.

Drum cartridge including electrical contact surface movable relative to drum frame

A drum cartridge includes: a drum frame to which a developing cartridge is attachable; a photosensitive drum; and a first storage medium. The drum frame has one end portion and another end portion spaced apart from the one end portion in a first direction. The photosensitive drum is rotatable about a first axis extending in a second direction and is positioned at the one end portion of the drum cartridge. The first storage medium includes a first electrical contact surface. The first storage medium is positioned at an outer surface of the drum frame, the outer surface being exposed in a state where the developing cartridge is attached to the drum frame.

Drum cartridge including electrical contact surface positioned at outer surface of drum frame

A developer cartridge may include: a first gear having a small-diameter gear portion and a large-diameter gear portion; and a second gear including: a first columnar portion centered on a second axis; a second columnar portion having a smaller diameter than the first columnar portion; a first engagement portion extending along a portion of a peripheral surface of the first columnar portion and engageable with the small-diameter gear portion; a second engagement portion extending along a portion of a peripheral surface of the second columnar portion and positioned closer to a housing than the first engagement portion in an axial direction and engageable with the large-diameter gear portion; and a protruding portion protruding in the axial direction and rotatable together with the first engagement portion and the second engagement portion. The second engagement portion may engage the large-diameter gear portion after the first engagement portion engages the small-diameter gear portion.

Developer cartridge provided with gear having engagement portions

A developing cartridge includes a casing, a developing roller rotatable about an axis extending in a first direction, a developing memory having an electrical contact surface, an agitator, an agitator gear rotatable about an agitator axis together with the agitator, a holder holding the electrical contact surface, and a plate movable between a first position and a second position in a second direction crossing the first direction relative to the casing. The holder is movable relative to the casing in a third direction crossing the first and second directions between a retracted position and an advancing position. The holder is movable from the retracted position to the advancing position in response to a movement of the plate from the first position to the second position. The plate is positioned farther away from the developing roller than the agitator gear and the holder are in the second direction.

Developing cartridge including movable plate for moving holder holding electrical contact surface

A developing cartridge includes: a casing configured to accommodate therein toner; a developing roller; a supply roller configured to supply the toner to the developing roller; a layer thickness regulation blade in contact with a circumferential surface of the developing roller; a developing electrode electrically connected to the developing roller; and a supply electrode electrically connected to the supply roller and the layer thickness regulation blade. The supply electrode includes: an electrode member electrically connected to a rotation shaft of the supply roller and movable in a direction perpendicular to the rotation shaft; and a connection member in contact with and electrically connecting the electrode member and the layer thickness regulation blade. The electrode member is movable relative to the connection member in the direction perpendicular to the rotation shaft in a state where the electrode member is in contact with the connection member.

Developing cartridge including supply roller, layer thickness regulation blade, and supply electrode electrically connected to both supply roller and layer thickness regulation blade

A toner cartridge includes: a casing having a first toner accommodating portion and a second toner accommodating portion; an agitator; an auger; a first protrusion positioned at one side in a first direction of the second toner accommodating portion; a second protrusion positioned at another side in the first direction of the second accommodating portion; a memory; and a toner-side electrical contact surface electrically connected to the memory. The toner cartridge is attachable to a drum cartridge by the casing pivotally moving from a first position to a second position relative to the drum cartridge about the first protrusion and the second protrusion. When the casing is at the first position, the toner-side electrical contact surface does not contact a first electrical contact surface of the drum cartridge. When the casing is at the second position, the toner-side electrical contact surface contacts the first electrical contact surface.

Toner cartridge having electrical contact surface that can contact electrical contact surface of drum cartridge in accordance with pivotal movement of casing

A process cartridge includes a drum cartridge that has a drum frame having a a second end portion spaced apart from a first end portion in a first direction and a fourth end portion spaced apart from a third end portion in a second direction, a photosensitive drum rotatable about a first axis extending in the second direction and positioned at the first end portion of the drum frame, and a first storage medium that includes a first electrical contact surface. A developing cartridge is detachably attachable to the drum frame and has a developing roller that is rotatable about a second axis extending in the second direction and a second storage medium including a second electrical contact surface. The first electrical contact surface is positioned closer to the second end portion of the drum frame than the photosensitive drum is to the second end portion of the drum frame in the first direction, and in a state where the developing cartridge is attached to the drum cartridge, the second electrical contact surface is positioned closer to the second end portion of the drum frame than the photosensitive drum is to the second end portion of the drum frame in the first direction.

Process cartridge having drum cartridge and developing cartridge including first and second electrical contact surfaces

An image forming apparatus includes a main housing, a drawer, and a cartridge. The drawer is movable between an inside position inside the main housing and an outside position outside the main housing. The cartridge is installable into and removable from the drawer. The cartridge includes a photosensitive drum configured to rotate about a drum axis. The drawer comprises a lock member movable between a lock position in which the drawer is locked to the main housing, and an unlock position in which the drawer is unlocked from the main housing. The cartridge installed in the drawer is rotatable about the drum axis between a first position and a second position. The lock member is positioned in the lock position when the cartridge is positioned in the first position, and positioned in the unlock position when the cartridge is positioned in the second position.

Image forming apparatus

The image forming apparatus includes a drum cartridge having a photosensitive drum and a drum drive input member; a developing cartridge configured to be movably mounted to the drum cartridge, the developing cartridge comprising a developing roller disposed so as to face the photosensitive drum and a developing drive input member; a drum drive transmission member configured to engage with the drum drive input member and configured to transmit drum driving force to the drum drive input member while permitting a positional gap of the drum drive input member within a predetermined range; and a developing drive transmission member configured to engage with the developing drive input member and configured to transmit developing driving force to the developing drive input member while permitting a positional gap of the developing drive input member within a predetermined range.

Process cartridge including frame having photosensitive drum, drum coupling and flanged fixed to photosensitive drum

Growing community of inventors

Ichinomiya, Japan

Naoya Kamimura