Konica Minolta, Inc.

Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.

Noritoshi Hagimoto

Eri Yoshida

Kentaro Katori

Yoshiki Nakane

Hiroaki Umemoto

Kuniya Matsuura

Naotoshi Kawai

Akira Hirota

Takuya Okada

Junji Murauchi

Kuniaki Kashiwakura

Kanji Nakayama

Yuusuke Okuno

Hokuto Hatano

Toshiya Aoki

Tomo Kitada

Eri Kusano

A cleaning blade is a contacting device abutting a photoconductor which is a rotating body. The cleaning blade includes a contacting member that abuts the photoconductor, a supporting member that supports the contacting member, and a holding member that holds the supporting member. The supporting member supports the contacting member in a part protruding from the holding member. The holding member includes an upper surface on the side where the contacting member abuts the photoconductor and a lower surface on the opposite side of the upper surface. The holding member holds the supporting member with a supporting region away from the tip portion to the read end side. It is possible to reduce the fluctuation of the contact pressure abutting the rotating body.

Contacting device to reduce fluctuation of contact pressure against rotating body

A cleaning blade that removes a foreign matter adhering to a rotational body includes: an abutment member; a supporting member that supports the abutment member; and a holding member that holds the supporting member, wherein the abutment member includes: an abutment layer abutting on the rotational body; and an adjustment layer that is a part other than the abutment layer, and an elongation percentage of the adjustment layer is larger than an elongation percentage of the abutment layer in a case where frictional force is applied from the rotational body to the abutment member during rotation of the rotational body.

Cleaning blade and image forming apparatus including cleaning blade

A cleaning blade that removes a substance adhering to a surface of a rotating image carrier, includes: a contact member having elasticity for removing the substance; a blade spring member that is provided with the contact member on a first end of the blade spring member and presses the contact member onto the surface of the image carrier; and a support member that fixes and supports a second end of the blade spring member, wherein the blade spring member protrudes from a first edge of the support member by a protrusion length of L (mm), and when a distance from the first edge to a fixed position at which the blade spring member is fixed on the support member is d (mm), the length L is equal to or longer than 10 mm and equal to or shorter than 20 mm and 1/10&#x2264;d/L&#x2264;&#x2153; (1) is satisfied.

Cleaning blade and image forming apparatus

A cleaning device scrapes off and removes toner that has adhered to a surface of a rotating photoreceptor, and includes: a cleaning member formed of an elastic body; a leaf spring member for pressing the cleaning member against the surface of the photoreceptor; and a support portion supporting the leaf spring member. The cleaning member is fixed to one end of the leaf spring member, and the other end of the leaf spring member is fixed to the support portion with a cushioning member formed of an elastic body interposed therebetween. The cushioning member is fixed to the other end of the leaf spring member by an adhesive.

Cleaning device and image forming apparatus including the same

A lubricant supply device for supplying lubricant to an image carrier of an image forming device, the lubricant supply device including: a block of solid lubricant; a lubricant supply member scraping lubricant from the block and supplying the lubricant to the image carrier; and a spring applying a biasing force to the block in a second direction inclined with respect to a first direction from the block towards the lubricant supply member, a component of the biasing force in the first direction pushing the block against the lubricant supply member. Positions of the spring and the block relative to each other are such that, as the block decreases due to the scraping by the lubricant supply member, the angle between the biasing force and the first direction decreases and the component of the biasing force in the first direction increases.

Lubricant supply device and image forming device

A cleaning apparatus includes a cleaning member having an abutment member being attached to a tip end portion of a support member. The support member includes a bent portion, an abutment-side support portion, and a fixed-side support portion. The abutment member abuts on a surface of an image carrying member. A point of fixation of the support member fixed to a fixing member is located downstream in a direction of movement relative to a normal at a point of abutment of the abutment member. With an angle of bending &#x3b1; at the bent portion being set to 90&#xb0;&#x3c;&#x3b1;&#x3c;180&#xb0;, the abutment-side support portion is curved in a form of a crest toward downstream in the direction of movement whereas the fixed-side support portion is curved in a form of a crest toward upstream in the direction of movement.

Cleaning apparatus and image formation apparatus

A cleaning device includes a cleaning member configured to move in the opposite direction from a moving direction of an image carrier and come into contact with a surface of the image carrier to remove residual matter from the surface of the image carrier, wherein the cleaning member includes a supporting member formed with a metallic plate spring and a contact member formed with an elastic material and bonded to an end of the supporting member, an edge portion at an end of the contact member being brought into contact with the surface of the image carrier, the end of the contact member protrudes from the end of the supporting member, and the end of the supporting member is located on an upstream side of a normal line of the image carrier at the contact position of the edge portion in the moving direction of the image carrier.

Cleaning device and image forming apparatus

An image forming device including a photoreceptor with a protective layer, a contact charger; and a metal cleaning blade, wherein the cleaning blade includes a first region and a second region facing the photoreceptor, the first region is of a predefined roughness, and J&#x3e;h&#xd7;(cos &#x3b1;/sin &#x3b2;)&#xd7;d, where &#x3b1; is an angle between the first region and a tangent plane of the second region, &#x3b2; is an angle between the first region and a tangent line of the surface of the photoreceptor at a point of contact with the cleaning blade, h is an amount of depletion of the cleaning blade in a direction perpendicular to the surface of the photoreceptor at the point of contact when the surface of the photoreceptor travels a unit of distance, and d is a predicted total travel distance of the surface of the photoreceptor in a defined time period.

Image forming apparatus

In an image forming apparatus, the charging bias supply circuit generates a second charging bias voltage that causes no positive discharge between the charging unit and the photoreceptor drum, during a recovery mode, the charging unit charges the surface of the photoreceptor drum upon application of the second charging bias voltage during the recovery mode, and the cleaning unit rubs the surface of the photoreceptor drum charged by the second charging bias voltage, during the recovery mode.

Image forming apparatus with a charging bias supply circuit

In case new and old toners may be mixed, a developing bias is set as follows. The time is first clocked. The number of times toner is replenished from a hopper into a buffer for a clocked period is counted. If a replenishment amount per clock time is a threshold value or higher, considering that new and old toners are mixed, the setting of the developing bias is changed. An electric field intensity between a developing roller and a photoconductor is set to cause normally-charged toner to fly in an image area but not to fly in a background area. No image fogging is therefore generated in the background area. Thus, an image forming apparatus and method capable of preventing low-charged toner and oppositely-charged toner generated by mixing of new and old toners from adhering to the background area of an electrostatic latent image on the photoconductor, thereby avoiding generation of image fogging.

Image forming apparatus and image forming method

A color printer including, a conductive brush roller to contact a photosensitive drum at a position downstream of a transferring apparatus and upstream of a charging apparatus, wherein at least part of residual toner is collected after temporarily transferring on the photosensitive drum, and the collected toner is expelled onto the photosensitive drum, a charge electrode facing the brush roller at a position other than the contact position of the photosensitive drum and the brush roller, and a power source to apply voltage to the charge electrode, wherein the polarity of the voltage applied from the power source to the charge electrode with respect to the average voltage of the surface of the photosensitive drum after transferring is the same as a charging polarity of the toner at developing.

Image forming apparatus, charge controlling apparatus, and image forming method

An image forming apparatus comprises: an image carrier driven into rotation; a charger for electrically charging a surface of the image carrier; a latent image forming unit for forming an electrostatic latent image on the charged image carrier surface; a developing unit for forming a toner image by supplying a toner to an area of the electrostatic latent image formed on the image carrier surface; a transferring unit for transferring the toner image formed on the image carrier surface to a transfer medium; and a non-rotary type polishing member employing a foamed elastic material, the polishing member contacted against the surface of the image carrier at place downstream from the transferring unit in a moving direction of the image carrier and between the transferring unit and the charger, and reciprocally moved in a direction intersecting with the moving direction of the image carrier.

Image forming apparatus and polishing method for image carrier

It is intended to provide an image forming apparatus capable of conducting charge adjustment of post-transfer residual toner appropriately by securing a contact area of a temporarily-collecting member and an electrode, without applying excessive deformation load to the temporarily-collecting member. There are arranged a brush roller for temporarily collecting post-transfer residual toner, and an electrode of which inwardly-curved face being in contact with the brush roller in a toner charge apparatus. Thereby, charged-in-opposite-polarity toner, out of post-transfer residual toner, is collected by the brush roller, polarity of the toner is reversed to original polarity, and then, returned to a photosensitive drum. The inner face of the electrode, i.e., a contact face of the electrode and the brush roller is formed in an inwardly-curved face. Thereby, a large contact area and light pushing force of the electrode to the brush roller can go together.

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Toyohashi, Japan

Noritoshi Hagimoto