Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.

Fujifilm Business Innovation Corp.

Osamu Handa

Yoshihisa Kitano

Mitsuhiro Matsumoto

Masahiro Katahira

Takuro Hagiwara

Taku Aoshima

Takatoshi Ishikawa

Yusuke Kitagawa

Fumio Furusawa

Yukio Hayashi

Takashi Kawabata

Naoto Yoshino

Takashi Fuchiwaki

Tsutomu Komiyama

Junichi Ozawa

Masato Serizawa

Atsuhito Tokuyama

Masao Ohkubo

Kouji Hamabe

An image forming apparatus includes a revolving member, a transfer member, a guide member, and a controller. The revolving member revolves and retains a toner image on a peripheral surface thereof. The transfer member nips a transported recording medium and the revolving member at a nipping section and transfers the toner image retained by the revolving member onto the recording medium by receiving a voltage. The guide member is connected to ground, guides the recording medium to the nipping section, and is in contact with the recording medium nipped at the nipping section. The controller performs constant current control to transfer the toner image onto the recording medium if a print resistance is lower than or equal to a system resistance. The print resistance corresponds to when the voltage is applied to the transfer member in a state where the recording medium is nipped at the nipping section. The system resistance corresponds to when the voltage is applied to the transfer member in a state where the recording medium is not nipped at the nipping section.

Image forming apparatus

An image forming system includes first and second apparatuses. The first image forming apparatus includes a first image forming unit and a first transfer unit. The first image forming unit forms an image of at least one color. The first transfer unit transfers the formed image to a recording medium. The second image forming apparatus includes a second image forming unit and a second transfer unit. The second image forming unit forms an image different in at least a part of colors from the first image forming apparatus. The second transfer unit transfers the formed image to the recording medium on which the image has been formed by the first image forming apparatus. A total resistance of the second transfer unit along a direction in which a transfer current flows is larger than that of the first transfer unit.

Image forming system including a first transfer unit and a second transfer unit having a total resistance larger than that of the first transfer unit

An image forming apparatus includes a toner image carrier on which a toner image is formed, a transfer unit that transfers the toner image onto a continuous sheet of paper, a fixing machine that fixes the transferred toner image onto the continuous sheet of paper, a sheet transport unit that transports the continuous sheet of paper through a transport path passing through a transfer position and a fixing position, and an electric charge supply unit that is disposed at a position at which the continuous sheet of paper is placed between the toner image carrier and the electric charge supply unit and that supplies electric charge having an orientation, in which transfer by the transfer unit is prevented, to a toner image present in a region on the toner image carrier, which is out of the continuous sheet of paper.

A cleaning device includes: a brush that has numerous bristles rotating and contacting to the surface of an image carrier, a removing member disposed so as to contact to the numerous bristles and removes a developer adhering to the numerous bristles by elastically deforming the numerous bristles and further returning the numerous deformed bristles back to normal, and a transport member disposed lower than the removing member in the gravitational direction and transports the developer removed with the removing member by rotating on an axis, wherein at least a part of the developer removed from the numerous bristles falls to a farther position than the axis of the transport member from the brush in the horizontal direction.

Cleaning device, charging device, and image forming apparatus

An electrostatic charging apparatus, includes: an endless-shaped electrostatic charging belt having electrical conductivity, the electrostatic charging belt being arranged in a state of having a predetermined contact zone being in contact with a moving to-be-charged body and moving in the same direction as a moving direction of the to-be-charged body; and plural electrode members including at least a first electrode member and a second electrode member, the plural electrode members being provided inside the electrostatic charging belt, and the first and second electrode members being provided on both sides of the contact zone of the electrostatic charging belt in the moving direction thereof so as to press the electrostatic charging belt against the to-be-charged body and forming gaps that permit electric discharge between the to-be-charged body and the electrostatic charging belt, the gaps being adjacent to the respective sides of the contact zone of the electrostatic charging belt.

Electrostatic charging apparatus, and image forming assembly and image forming apparatus which employ the same

A charge device includes a charging belt, an electrode member, a bias supplying unit and a discharge region forming member. The belt comes into contact with a charged body. The electrode member is in contact with a part of an inner peripheral surface of the charging belt. The electrode member faces the charged body across the charging belt between the electrode member and the charged body. A downstream-side portion of the charging belt is located downstream of a position where the charged body faces the electrode member, in a moving direction of the charged body. The discharge region forming member brings the downstream-side portion into contact with the electrode member to form a discharge region in which discharge occurs between the downstream-side portion and the charged body.

Charge device, image formation assembly using the same, and image formation apparatus

An image forming apparatus including an image carrier that includes a photoconductive layer on which an electrostatic latent image is formed, a charging member that comes in contact with the image carrier and charges the photoconductive layer, and a feeding section that supplies a current to the charging member by applying a vibration voltage with an alternating current component superposed on a direct current component, wherein the alternating current component may contain a first amplitude that eliminates charging non-uniformity when the vibration voltage is applied with a uniform amplitude and a second amplitude that is smaller than the first amplitude.

Image forming apparatus with variable amplitude alternating current to mitigate image defects and photoconductor wear

The present invention provides a cleaning device including a cleaning member that cleans a surface of a rotating cylindrical element to be cleaned, and whose length in a longitudinal direction is longer than a length of the maximum operating region of the element to be cleaned, a length of a contact part of the cleaning member at which the cleaning member contacts with the element to be cleaned being shorter than the length in the longitudinal direction of the cleaning member, and the contact part being moved in the longitudinal direction of the element to be cleaned.

Cleaning device, process cartridge and image formation apparatus

An image formation apparatus includes: a photoconductor that has a photoconductive layer having a surface on which an electrostatic latent image is formed; a charging roll to which a bias with an AC component superposed on a DC component is applied for charging the photoconductor at a predetermined potential; a film thickness detector that detects a film thickness of the photoconductive layer of the photoconductor without applying the AC component; an environment measuring section that measures at least one of ambient temperature and humidity; an AC component setting section that sets a value of the AC component of the bias based on detection results of the film thickness detector and the environment measuring section; and a charging controller that controls at least one of voltage and current applied to the charging roll based on the value of the AC component set by the AC component setting section.

Image formation apparatus and charging control method of charging roll

An image forming apparatus includes: an image carrier that rotates; and a charging member that is provided opposingly to the image carrier, and that charges a surface of the image carrier, wherein a discharge inhibitor that suppresses a discharge in an axial end portion is interposed in a portion where the charging member is opposed to the image carrier.

Image forming apparatus, charger, and image carrier unit

An image forming apparatus includes a photoreceptor having on a surface thereof a photosensitive layer, in which an electrostatic latent image is formed, a contact charging roll applied with a bias containing a direct current component having superimposed thereon an alternating current component, the contact charging roll charging the photoreceptor to a predetermined potential, a film thickness detecting unit detecting a film thickness of the photosensitive layer of the photoreceptor, an environment detecting unit detecting environment, and a contact area changing unit changing a contact area between the contact charging roll and the photoreceptor based on detected results of the film thickness detecting unit and the environment detecting unit.

Image forming apparatus and charge control method

An image forming device includes a charging roller that charges a body-to-be-charged by press-contacting and is rotated by the rotating body-to-be-charged, a first receiving portion that supports a supporting portion provided at the charging roller, and causes the charging roller to press-contact the body-to-be-charged, a cleaning member that press-contacts a surface of the charging roller and cleans the charging roller, and a second receiving portion that supports a supporting portion provided at the cleaning member, and causes the cleaning member to press-contact the charging roller. At least one of the first and second receiving portions imparts a degree of freedom at a first receiving portion side to the supporting portion of the charging roller in a direction of press-contacting the body-to-be-charged, and imparts a degree of freedom at a second receiving portion side to the supporting portion of the cleaning member in a direction of press-contacting the charging roller.

Image forming device having charging roller and cleaning member

An image forming device has a charging roller including a shaft which is rotatably supported and a cleaning roller that abuts the charging roller. The cleaning roller includes a shaft that is rotatably supported and a porous elastic layer being provided around the shaft. The image forming device satisfies the relation T&#xd7;&#x3b1;/100&#x3e;(R1+R2)&#x2212;L&#x3e;B&#x3e;0, where L [mm] is a separation distance of axial centers of both end portions of the shaft of the cleaning roller and the shaft of the charging roller, R1 [mm] is a radius of the charging roller, T [mm] is a thickness of the porous elastic layer, R2 [mm] is a radius of the cleaning roller, B [mm] is a flexure amount of an axial direction central portion of the shaft of the cleaning roller, and &#x3b1; [%] is a maximum allowable compression rate in accordance with a stress-flexure curve.

Image forming device, charging device and cleaning device

There is described an image forming apparatus, wherein a visible image retained on an intermediate transfer belt is collectively transferred to recording material by means of a collective transfer device including a transfer roller and a back-up roller. The recording material that has passed through a transfer nipping region is guided by means of a recording material guide member. In such an image forming apparatus, the intermediate transfer belt is set at an angle of 50.degree. or less relative to the reference line passing through the exit of the transfer nipping region between the transfer roller and the back-up roller among normals orthogonal to a line passing through the center shafts of the transfer roller and the back-up roller, in the area downstream from the transfer nipping region, and the recording material guide member is provided downward at an angle of 5.degree. to 20.degree. relative to the reference line L.

A transfer apparatus for electrostatically transferring a toner image of a given polarity supported on an image support to a recording medium includes a transfer roll and a cleaning member. The transfer roll comes in rolling contact with the image support in synchronization therewith and has a transfer electric field of an opposite polarity to toner formed in a gap between the transfer roll and the image support. The cleaning member abuts the transfer roll to remove residues on the transfer roll. A charged property of a contact surface portion between the cleaning member and the transfer roll is set so that a charge polarity on a surface of the transfer roll produced as the cleaning member abuts the transfer roll becomes the same as a toner polarity on the image support.

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Osamu Handa