Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Norio Kudo

Takeshi Shintani

Yasuo Miyoshi

Daisuke Tomita

Yoshihiro Fujiwara

Kenji Honjoh

Hiroshi Hosokawa

Hiroaki Okamoto

Tsukuru Kai

Kohsuke Yamamoto

Hiroyuki Uenishi

Akio Kosuge

Nobuo Kuwabara

Shinichi Kawahara

Shinya Karasawa

Takuya Seshita

Nobuo Iwata

Naohiro Kumagai

Hisashi Kikuchi

Satoshi Hatori

Kaoru Yoshino

Akira Fujimori

Hideyasu Seki

Yuta Azeyanagi

Ryohta Gotoh

Kenji Sugiura

Nobuyuki Taguchi

Kazuki Yogosawa

Makoto Yasuda

Toshiya Sato

Akira Asaoka

Hiromichi Ninomiya

Yusuke Ishizuka

Hirotaka Hatta

A lubricant applicator includes a lubricant, a supply member contactable against the lubricant to supply the lubricant to a target, and a lubricant gauge to detect whether an amount of lubricant remaining is less than a threshold value. The lubricant gauge includes a rotary member rotatable about a shaft, a pressing member to press and rotate the rotary member as the lubricant is consumed, a contact part of the rotary member pressed by the pressing member, and a detection part of the rotary member opposite to the contact part across the shaft of the rotary member.

Lubricant applicator, image forming apparatus, and process cartridge

A lubricant supplying device used with a solid lubricant, includes a supplying member to supply lubricant taken from the solid lubricant to an object to be supplied with the lubricant, and a remaining amount detecting section to detect a remaining amount of the solid lubricant becoming below a predetermined value. A detection of the remaining amount of the solid lubricant is executed when an operation to supply the lubricant to the object to be supplied with the lubricant stops.

Lubricant supplying device, image forming apparatus and process cartridge

An image forming apparatus includes an image carrier, a toner-image forming unit, a transfer unit, a cleaner, a plurality of cylindrical transport path forming members, a falling transport path forming member, and a discharge port. The falling transport path forming member has through holes in a side wall thereof. A second end of each of the transport path forming members is inserted into a corresponding one of the through holes. The falling transport path forming member forms a falling transport path that causes toner ejected from an ejection port disposed in the second end to fall. The discharge port is disposed in a lower part of the falling transport path forming member to discharge the toner to a discharge destination. The second ends of the transport path forming members are disposed offset from each other in a horizontal direction on the side wall of the falling transport path forming member.

Image forming apparatus

In an embodiment, provided is a lubricant supplying device that includes: a solid lubricant; a supplying member that supplies lubricant of the solid lubricant to a lubricant supplying target; and a remaining amount detecting unit that detects an amount of the solid lubricant being at a given amount or less. The remaining amount detecting unit is provided on a downstream side in a rubbing direction of the supplying member with respect to the solid lubricant.

Lubricant supplying device, image forming apparatus, and process cartridge

A lubricant applicator includes a block of lubricant, a supply member contactable against the block of lubricant to scrape the block of lubricant, and a lubricant gauge including a first electrode and a second electrode. The lubricant gauge is electrically connected to the first electrode and the second electrode to detect whether an amount of lubricant remaining is less than a threshold value based on establishment of electrical continuity between the first electrode and the second electrode. One of the first electrode and the second electrode includes a projection projecting toward the other one of the first electrode and the second electrode.

An image carrier surface treatment device is disposed opposite an image carrier rotatable in a first rotation direction and carrying a toner image. The image carrier surface treatment device includes a roller rotatable in a second rotation direction while contacting an outer circumferential surface of the image carrier. The roller includes a shaft projecting from each lateral end of the roller in an axial direction thereof. A rolling-element bearing is fitted on the shaft of the roller to support and position the roller inside the image carrier surface treatment device.

Image carrier surface treatment device, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus

A development device can include a developer containing part containing developer, a carrier to carry developer that is supplied from the developer containing part to a development range, a partition dividing the developer containing part into a supply part and a circulation part beneath the supply part to collect developer from the carrier, a first transport member in the supply part of the developer containing part to supply developer from the supply part to the carrier, and a second transport member in the circulation part to transport developer in the circulation part in an axial direction of the carrier. The device can also include a removable seal member, which seals a supplied-developer and/or a collected-developer communicating area.

Development device including a removable seal to seal a supplied-developer and/or a collected-developer communicating area

An image forming apparatus including an image bearing member, a charger, an irradiator, a developing device, a transfer device, a neutralizer, and a varying device is provided. The neutralizer is adapted to neutralize the image bearing member by emitting neutralization light thereto, after a toner image formed on the image bearing member is transferred therefrom. The varying device is adapted to vary an amount of the neutralization light to be emitted to the image bearing member by pulse-width modulation of a voltage to be supplied to the neutralizer. The image forming apparatus satisfies the following formula:&#x3e;5wherein f (Hz) represents a frequency of the pulse-width modulation and V (mm/s) represents a linear speed of the image bearing member.

Image forming apparatus with neutralizer and image forming method

A lubricant supply device including a solid lubricant, a lubricant supply roller, a detector, and a varying device is provided. The lubricant supply roller is adapted to supply the lubricant to a toner image bearing member and is rotatable in a predetermined direction while slidably contacting both the solid lubricant and the toner image bearing member. The detector is adapted to detect an absolute humidity around the lubricant supply device. The varying device is adapted to vary an amount of the lubricant to be supplied to the toner image bearing member based on the absolute humidity detected by the detector.

Lubricant supply device, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus

A lubricant supplying device includes a lubricant supplying roller configured to rotate in a certain direction and makes a sliding contact with an image carrier on which a toner image is carried; a solid lubricant arranged to slide in contact with the lubricant supplying roller; a changing unit configured to change a revolution of the lubricant supplying roller to adjust an amount of the solid lubricant supplied onto the image carrier; and a calculation unit configured to obtain a product life or total consumption of the solid lubricant from a total running distance or total operating time of the image carrier or the lubricant supplying roller, the product life or the total consumption of the solid lubricant being corrected based on the amount of the solid lubricant supplied onto the image carrier.

Lubricant supplying device, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus

A development device includes a developer bearer to carry by rotation two-component developer to a development range to develop a latent image formed on a latent image bearer, a magnetic field generator disposed inside the developer bearer, a developer regulator for adjusting an amount of the developer on the developer bearer, positioned upstream from the development range in a rotational direction of the developer bearer and facing the developer bearer across a regulation gap, a supply compartment from which the developer is supplied by a developer agitator to the developer bearer, a collection compartment, a pre-regulation portion adjacent to and upstream from the developer regulator in the rotational direction of the developer bearer, and a developer mobility adjuster that makes mobility of the developer in the pre-regulation portion higher on an upstream side in a developer conveyance direction in the supply compartment.

Development device, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus including same

A development device includes a developer containing part containing two-component developer, a cylindrical developer carrier to carry by rotation the developer to a development range, a first developer transport member disposed in the developer containing part, to supply the developer to the developer carrier while transporting the developer in an axial direction of the developer carrier, and a magnetic field generator disposed inside the developer carrier, having three developer-carrying magnetic poles, consisting of a development pole to generate a first magnetic field in the development range, a pre-development pole to generate a second magnetic field to transport the developer supplied from the developer containing part to the development range, and a post-development pole to generate a third magnetic field disposed between the first magnetic field and the second magnetic field, to transport the developer to a release position where the developer is separated from the developer carrier.

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Kanagawa, Japan

Norio Kudo