Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Nobuo Takami

Yuji Suzuki

Hideki Kimura

Kenji Kikuchi

Eisuke Hori

Noriyuki Kimura

Junichi Matsumoto

Kiyonori Tsuda

Yutaka Takahashi

Junji Yamabe

Keinosuke Kondoh

Toshio Koike

Akihiro Kawakami

Atsushi Inoue

Naohiro Kawashima

Ryoichi Teranishi

Atsushi Nakamoto

Koichi Yamazaki

Shinnosuke Koshizuka

Kazunori Suzuki

Kentaro Mikuniya

Goro Katsuyama

Takeyoshi Sekine

Kikuchi Kenji

Hiroshi Hosokawa

Masato Suzuki

Tatsuya Kubo

Emi Kita

Tetsuro Hirota

Osamu Ariizumi

Tomohiro Kubota

Tsukuru Kai

Nobutaka Takeuchi

Kazuki Yogosawa

Noboru Sawayama

Yoshihiro Fujiwara

Kazuyuki Sugihara

Takayuki Maruta

Ryusuke Mase

Tetsuya Muto

Kazuo Nojima

Yuuki Tsuchiya

Takuji Yoneda

Keisuke Katoh

Hotaru Hashikawa

Katsuji Watabe

Kaoru Yoshimatsu

A shutter mechanism includes an opening, an opening and closing part attached to the opening and openable and closable, a first fitting part disposed at one end with reference to a center of the opening in an open direction of the opening and closing part to move in the open direction to make engagement, a second fitting part disposed at another end opposite the one end with reference to the center of the opening to move in the open direction to make engagement, the first fitting part and the second fitting part detachably attached to a powder container containing a powder used to form an image, the first fitting part and the second fitting part used for positioning in a direction intersecting with the open direction, and a butt face orthogonal to the open direction.

Shutter mechanism, powder container, and developing device

A system with a container including a protrusion, and a receiver to receive the container. The receiver includes a slide block that is movable relative to a body of the receiver, the slide block including two surfaces, a first surface, initially contacted by the protrusion of the container during insertion of the container into the receiver, having a first slope to resist movement of the container towards the receiver, and a second surface, subsequently contacted by the protrusion of the container during the insertion of the container into the receiver, having a second slope to interact with the protrusion of the container to assist movement of the container towards the receiver. This construction provides the user with a changing insertion force to indicate proper mounting of the container.

Toner container having protrusions projecting from opposite sides of the toner container

An image forming apparatus includes an image bearer, a rotation shaft, a developing device, and a supply portion. The developing device includes a developing device main portion that rotates around the rotation shaft between a developing position and a retracted position and includes a developer, a developer bearer to face or be away from the image bearer depending on whether the developing device main portion is at the developing position or the retracted position, a replenishment portion having a replenishment port with an opposite surface formed by an arc drawn around the rotation shaft to replenish the developer, and a non-rotating portion. The supply portion has a supply port with an opposite surface formed by an arc drawn around the rotation shaft and facing the opposite surface of the replenishment port. The supply port communicates the replenishment port and supplies the developer to the developing device through the replenishment port.

Image forming apparatus including a process cartridge that includes a developing device

A powder container is for use with an image forming apparatus, and the image forming apparatus includes a driving protrusion that is rotatable and that protrudes toward an upstream side in an insertion direction in which the powder container is inserted. The powder container includes a container body to store powder, a cap attached to the container body, and a transmitted structure provided on the cap to contact the driving protrusion. The transmitted structure extends outward from an outer circumference of the powder container. The cap is rotatable relative to the container body in a predetermined angular range. The rotation of the cap relative to the container body is restricted so that the container body rotates along with the rotation of the cap when the rotation of the cap exceeds the predetermined angular range.

Powder container and image forming apparatus

A powder supply device that includes a powder reservoir including a rotator having a rotation shaft, to store powder supplied from a powder container; and a powder amount detector. The powder amount detector includes a detected member disposed in the powder reservoir, a contact member attached to the rotation shaft, to contact the detected member to vibrate or move the detected member, a detector to detect vibration or a displacement of the detected member, and a detection result processor to detect the amount of the powder in the powder reservoir based on detection by the detector. The powder supply device further includes a controller to supply the powder from the powder container to the powder reservoir based on detection by the powder amount detector. The controller rotates the rotator in discharging the powder from the powder reservoir and supplying the powder from the powder container to the powder reservoir.

Powder supply device and image forming apparatus incorporating same

A powder container is insertable in an image forming apparatus. The powder container includes a plurality of transmitted surfaces, at least one of the transmitted surfaces being configured to contact a first protrusion of the image forming, apparatus, the first protrusion being rotatable and protruding toward an upstream side in an insertion direction in which the powder container is inserted. The transmitted surfaces stand outward from an outer circumference of the powder container so that one of the transmitted surfaces is connected to another transmitted surface adjacent to the one of the transmitted surfaces by an inclined surface.

A powder container includes a discharge port, and a container identifier shape portion provided on a front end surface of the powder container in an insertion direction and that functions to identify a type of the powder container, the insertion direction being a direction in which the container body is inserted. The powder container further includes a driven portion that interlocks with a first main-body interlocking portion of the image forming apparatus at the time of setting in the main body of the image forming apparatus, and an identifier opening group that starts to interlock with a second main-body interlocking portion of the image forming apparatus after the driven portion starts to interlock with the first main-body interlocking portion. A position of the identifier opening group relative to the driven portion in the circumferential direction varies depending on a type of the powder container to be identified.

A powder container is insertable in an image forming apparatus, and includes a main-body interlocking portion that is rotatable and protrudes toward an upstream side in an insertion direction in which the powder container is inserted, the image forming apparatus including an identifier protrusion that protrudes toward the upstream side in the insertion direction to identify a type of the powder container. The powder container includes a container interlocking portion configured to interlock with the main-body interlocking portion; and an interlocked portion configured to interlock with the identifier protrusion. The interlocked portion is provided in a front end of the powder container in the insertion direction. The container interlocking portion stands outward from an outer circumference of the powder container. The container interlocking portion and the interlocked portion are rotated integrally.

A developing device includes a developer bearer, a developer regulator disposed opposite the developer bearer across a first gap, and an opposing member having an opposing face disposed opposing the developer bearer across a second gap wider than the first gap. The opposing face is disposed adjacent to and upstream from the developer regulator in a direction of rotation of the developer bearer. The opposing face is inclined relative to an orthogonal plane direction orthogonal to a side face of the developer regulator. The opposing face is inclined to progressively reduce a distance from the developer bearer to the opposing face in a direction of rotation of the developer bearer. A difference between the second gap and the first gap is not greater than 1.75 times as large as the first gap.

Developing device and image forming apparatus incorporating same that reduce low-flow regions of toner within the developing device

A developing device includes a developer bearer to carry, by rotation, developer to a developing range, a casing including a developer container to contain the developer and housing the developer bearer, a gap retainer adjacent to the developer container and downstream from the developing range in a rotation direction of the developer bearer, an opposing wall opposing an end face of the gap retainer in an axial direction of the developer bearer, a first seal disposed between the end face of the gap retainer and the opposing wall, and a contact portion disposed adjacent to an end portion of the gap retainer in the axial direction of the developer bearer. The gap retainer secures a predetermined gap between the developer bearer and the gap retainer. The contact portion contacts, via a second seal, the gap retainer in a direction intersecting the axial direction of the developer bearer.

Developing device and image forming apparatus incorporating same

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Kanagawa, Japan

Nobuo Takami