Minolta Camera Kabushiki Kaisha

Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.

Konica Minolta, Inc.

Other

Minolta Company, Ltd.

Lexmark International, Inc.

Narutaka Yoshida

Hirofumi Hasegawa

Naoto Ohmori

Takeshi Hashimoto

Yukio Yamada

Hiromi Mizuguchi

Masayasu Haga

Hitoshi Sekino

Noboru Ito

Kanji Nakayama

Tomohisa Yoshida

Keizo Nishiguchi

Wataru Onoda

Hiroshi Mizuno

Tateki Oka

Naoki Toyoshi

Hiroshi Goto

Tsugihito Yoshiyama

Hitoshi Saito

Tomohiro Kato

Shinichi Takemoto

Yuusuke Okuno

Yasuhiro Nakagami

Hisashi Myochin

John E Passafiume

Akira Hirota

Satoshi Yoshida

Yoshinori Inoue

Tomo Kitada

Kazuo Matsuura

Takashi Akazawa

Masami Matsuura

Yasushi Tsuda

Yuzuru Sugimoto

Akira Kobayashi

Yasuki Shirakawa

Kiyoshi Hirose

Masakazu Ideno

Masao Itoh

Tomoyuki Imaizumi

Thomas Howard Miller

Masahiro Arisawa

Paul Allen Rooke

Joho Katsuo

Tetsumaru Fujita

Tamotsu Sakuraba

Masataka Yagi

Kazuo Matuura

A cushioning member includes a cushioning material arranged between a side surface of an object and an exterior box and a positioning member for positioning of the cushioning material with respect to the object. The positioning member includes a holding portion that holds the cushioning material, an engagement portion engaged with an upper surface of the object while the cushioning material held by the holding portion is located at a position set in advance in the side surface of the object, and a coupling portion that couples the holding portion and the engagement portion to each other.

Cushioning member, packing body, and packing method

A cushioning member includes: an accommodating bag portion that accommodates a medium; a first fusing portion that defines the accommodating bag portion such that the accommodating bag portion is provided with an opening; a check valve having a first end located inside the accommodating bag portion and a second end located outside the accommodating bag portion, and provided at the opening; a second fusing portion that is immediately adjacent to the first fusing portion on those external sides of the check valve which are opposite in a direction intersecting a direction in which the check valve protrudes from the accommodating bag portion, and defines a channel that communicates with the opening; and a third fusing portion that is connected to the second fusing portion and seals the channel, the third fusing portion being provided across a portion of the check valve that protrudes from the accommodating bag portion.

Cushioning member and method for manufacturing cushioning member

A cushioning member includes a medium-filled cushioning component and a surrounding member. The medium-filled cushioning component includes a first cushioning portion and a second cushioning portion. The surrounding member includes a first tubular portion, a second tubular portion, and a connecting portion that connects an end of the first tubular portion in a direction parallel to a first central axis and an end of the second tubular portion in a direction parallel to a second central axis. The connecting portion is bendable such that a posture of the first tubular portion and the second tubular portion is changed between a parallel posture in which the first central axis is parallel to the second central axis and an intersecting posture in which the first central axis intersects the second central axis.

Cushioning member, method for manufacturing cushioning member, and packing body

A buffer member includes: a resin sheet welded in a bag-like shape; and a medium sealed in the resin sheet, wherein the resin sheet includes a plurality of buffer areas each having a shape extending longitudinally in a first direction and arranged adjacent to each other in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction, each buffer area of the plurality of buffer areas includes a first buffer chamber having a shape extending in the first direction, a second buffer chamber having a shape extending in the first direction and formed at a position separated from the first buffer chamber in the first direction, and a connecting flow passage connecting the first buffer chamber and the second buffer chamber.

Buffer member and buffer member forming material

A packaging material includes: an outer box that accommodates an article to be packaged; and a cushioning material including: a sealed bag body with gas confined inside; a partition that divides an inside of the bag body into a first chamber and a second chamber each in an equal volume; and a ventilation passage communicating the first and second chambers, the cushioning material being disposed in a gap between an outer surface of the article and an inner wall of the outer box.

Packaging material

An image forming apparatus, wherein the packing density at a closest point where the first peripheral surface and the second peripheral surface are the closest to each other is within a range from 0.3 to 0.4; wherein a maximum magnetic flux density of a principal magnetic pole for generating the magnetic field for development is located in an upstream side from the closest point with respect to the specified direction and at a point where the packing density is equal to or greater than 0.2; and wherein a magnetic flux density of the principal magnetic pole at a point where the packing density is 0.2 in a downstream side from the closest point with respect to the specified direction is equal to or less than &#xbd; of a magnetic flux density of the principal magnetic pole at a point where the packing density is 0.2 in the upstream side.

Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus for forming a toner image on a print medium with a developer composed of toner and carriers, wherein when the first distance is longer than the second distance, an average gap between the first peripheral surface and a member that faces to the first peripheral surface in an area with a length of the first distance extending upstream from the closest point with respect to the specified direction is smaller than an average gap between the first peripheral surface and a member that faces to the first peripheral surface in an area with a length of the first distance extending downstream from the closest point with respect to the specified direction.

A developing device has a bearing member that can bear a toner, a storing chamber for storing the toner, a waiting chamber disposed below the storing chamber for receiving the bearing member that can be filled with the toner and a buffer chamber positioned between the storing chamber and the waiting chamber for storing the developer material. A first horizontal connecting path connects upper portions of the storing and buffer chambers, and two second connecting paths connect lower portions of the buffer chamber and the waiting chamber. A feed member feeds toner from the storing chamber through the first connecting path into the buffer chamber. A first conveying member in the buffer chamber conveys the toner from one of the connecting paths to the other of the connecting paths, and a second conveying member in the waiting chamber conveys the toner within the waiting chamber in the opposite direction.

Developing device and image forming apparatus

To provide an image forming apparatus that prevents generation of image noise by recovering a movable member having flexibility from creep deformation. The image forming apparatus for forming images on a recording medium includes a movable member having flexibility, a detection section for detecting temperature of the movable member directly, a storage section for storing the temperature detected by the detection section when the apparatus is powered off, and a control section for changing a duration of time during which the movable member is in a preparatory operation corresponding to the detected temperature read from the storage section when the apparatus is powered on.

It is intended to provide an image forming apparatus that surely notifies a user of unit replacement timing and strongly urges the user to replace units without additional apparatus being applied thereto. A color printerdetects remaining life of each replaceable unit. When a certain replaceable unit nearly reaches its replacement timing, the color printerindicates that fact in an operation panel. When the remaining life lowers improvement prohibiting level, in other words, when the unit reaches its replacement timing, the color printerindicates a name of the unit to be replaced and necessity of replacement in the operation paneland prohibits image improvement operation. That is, an image is formed without image quality improvement operation. Thereby, image quality deteriorates. Image deterioration can surely notify a user of replacement timing of the unit and urge the user to replace the unit with a new one.

Image forming apparatus with notification of remaining life of image forming unit and prohibition of image improvement operation

In order to prevent generation of image noise by controlling creep of a movable member having flexibility an image forming apparatus for forming images in a recording medium includes a movable member having flexibility, a detection section for detecting temperature of the movable member directly, and a control section for executing control so that when image forming is not conducted, the movable member is temporarily operated at predefined intervals if a temperature detected by the detection section is equal to or above a specified temperature, and the movable member is not operated if a temperature detected by the detection section is below the specified temperature.

Image forming apparatus that prevents generation of image noise by controlling creep of a flexible movable member

An image forming apparatus with a charging member that allows easy removal of smears from an image forming drum. The apparatus removes smears from the image forming drum by placing a different portion of the charging member in contact with the drum. The apparatus uses a cam or a solenoid to press on the charging member to cause a different portion of the charging member to come into contact with the image forming drum.

Image forming apparatus with a charging member which removes smears on

A fixed frame includes a photosensitive drum and a developing unit, and a movable frame is openable with respect to the fixed frame. The developing unit, which has two pairs of protrusions thereon, is detachably mounted to the fixed frame by engaging the protrusions with two pairs of guides provided on the fixed frame. One pair of guides includes a portion for momentarily catching one pair of the protrusions as the developing unit is being mounted to the apparatus, and each of the other pair of guides includes a inclined portion having the shape of an arc centered on the momentarily catching portion, whereby an impact to the developing unit is alleviated. The developing unit has a shutter which moves to a position for covering a peripheral surface of a developing sleeve when the developing unit is being dismounted, and which retracts from the developing sleeve covering position and moves to a position for covering the photosensitive drum when the developing unit is being mounted. The movable frame accommodates a fixing device to move the fixing device rearwardly together with the movable frame when the movable frame is opened, whereby the danger of an operator touching the fixing device when the apparatus is opened is reduced.

Process unit having mounting guides and protective covers

An image forming apparatus includes a photosensitive member, a developing unit which is removably installed in a body of the image forming apparatus, a shutter covering a developing region of the photosensitive member when the developing unit is removed from the body of the image forming apparatus and a cleaning member capable of cleaning the surface of the photosensitive member in accordance with rotation of the photosensitive member by making contact with the photosensitive member in conjunction with the shutter covering operation, but which does not contact the photosensitive member when the shutter is open. During a control operation, foreign matter such as used developer adhered to the photosensitive member is removed when the photosensitive member is rotated with the shutter closed.

Image forming apparatus having process cartridge with shutter and

The present invention provides an image forming apparatus comprising a main assembly and an imaging cartridge detachable from the main assembly. The imaging cartridge includes a first unit and a second unit, both of which are separable form each other, a toner image carrier provided in the first unit, and a charging device provided in the second unit for transferring a toner image on the toner image carrier onto a copy sheet, wherein the charging device includes a charging roller. The present invention also provides an imaging cartridge detachable from the main assembly of an image forming apparatus. The imaging cartridge comprises a first unit and a second unit wherein the second unit is separable from the first unit, a toner image carrier provided in the first unit, and a charging device provided in the second unit for transferring a toner image on the toner image carrier onto a copy sheet.

Electrophotographic image forming apparatus with detachable imaging

Growing community of inventors

Toyokawa, Japan

Narutaka Yoshida