Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Osamu Naruse

Naomi Sugimoto

Kenji Sugiura

Hidetoshi Yano

Masahiko Shakuto

Kazuhiko Watanabe

Hisashi Kikuchi

Yoshiki Hozumi

Masanori Horike

Hiroki Nakamatsu

Hiromichi Komai

Tohru Nakano

Yuu Sakakibara

Yasuyuki Yamashita

Minoru Ameyama

Sadao Kakeno

Syuzo Matsumoto

Yasushi Nakazato

Tatsuya Furukawa

Tomoaki Nakano

Michio Umezawa

Chuji Ishikawa

Masahiko Katoh

Kouji Izumi

Tositaka Hirata

Hidetosi Yano

Tsutomu Sasaki

Yutaka Ebi

Tetsuro Hirota

Kyuhachiro Iwasaki

Takahiko Tokumasu

Yoshihisa Ohta

Shuzo Matsumoto

Toshio Inada

Masami Kadonaga

Toshitaka Hirata

Tamio Ohori

Hideyuki Makita

Kenichi Ichikawa

Isokazu Furukawa

Taeko Murai

Masayuki Iwase

Yasayuki Yamashita

Satoshi Sekimoto

A belt device incorporatable in an image forming apparatus includes an endless belt, multiple belt tension rollers disposed in contact with an inner surface of the endless belt, a rotary cleaning member to contact a belt wound area of the endless belt facing an opposing roller to form a cleaning nip between the rotary cleaning member and the endless belt and rotate the rotary cleaning member in a direction opposite the belt moving direction within the cleaning nip, and a voltage applier. The cleaning nip is formed by offsetting a center of the cleaning nip upstream from a center of the belt wound area of the endless belt in the belt moving direction and by at least contacting the rotary cleaning member in a range from the belt wound area to a tensioned belt area located upstream from the belt wound area in the belt moving direction.

Belt device and image forming apparatus incorporating same having a cleaning device which cleans utilizing different polarities

A cleaning device disposed downstream from a transfer position in a direction of rotation of the image carrier to remove toner from the image carrier. The cleaning device includes a normally-charged toner cleaning member to electrostatically remove normally-charged toner from the image carrier, one of a polarity controller to control the toner on the image carrier to have a normal charging polarity and a reversely-charged toner cleaning member to electrostatically remove reversely-charged toner from the image carrier, a pre-cleaning member to electrostatically remove normally-charged toner from the image carrier, a pre-collection member to electrostatically collect the toner from the pre-cleaning member, and a control unit to reduce a voltage applied to the pre-cleaning member immediately after an untransferred toner image is removed from the image carrier by the pre-cleaning member below a voltage applied to the pre-cleaning member during removal of the untransferred toner image.

Cleaning device and image forming apparatus including same

There is provided a pre-cleaning brush roller being a pre-cleaning member which is disposed on an upstream of a normally-charged-toner cleaning brush roller and an oppositely-charged-toner cleaning brush roller in a surface moving direction of an intermediate transfer belt, is applied with a voltage having a polarity opposite to a normal charge polarity of toner, and electrostatically removes the toner having the normal charge polarity.

Cleaning device and image forming apparatus

A cleaning apparatus including: a normally-charged toner cleaning member that receives a voltage having a polarity reverse to a normal charging polarity of a toner and electostatically removes a toner having the normal charging polarity on a cleaning target; a reversely-charged toner cleaning member that receives a voltage having the same polarity as the normal charging polarity of a toner and electrostatically removes a toner having a polarity reverse to the normal charging polarity on the cleaning target; and a pre-cleaning member that is disposed at an upstream side of the normally-charged toner cleaning member and the reverse-charged toner cleaning member in a surface moving direction of the cleaning target, receives a voltage having a polarity reverse to the normal charging polarity of the toner, and electrostatically removes a toner having the normal charging polarity on the cleaning target, is provided.

Cleaning apparatus and image forming apparatus

A cleaning device includes a normally charged toner cleaning unit, a reversely charged toner cleaning unit, and a pre-cleaning unit. The normally charged toner cleaning unit has a normally charged toner cleaning member, a normally charged toner recovery member, and a normally charged toner scraping member. The reversely charged toner cleaning unit has a reversely charged toner cleaning member, a reversely charged toner recovery member, and a reversely charged toner scraping member. The pre-cleaning unit has a pre-cleaning member, a pre-recovery member, and a pre-scraping member.

A cleaning unit that can remove particles of residual toner remaining on an image carrier after transfer and be incorporated in a process cartridge removably installable to an image forming apparatus, includes a brush roller disposed in contact with the image carrier to remove the residual toner remaining on the image carrier from the image carrier, and a polarity control member disposed in contact with the image carrier to control charge polarities of the residual toner remaining on the image carrier before the residual toner is removed by the brush roller. The polarity control member includes a first surface where the polarity control member contacts the image carrier, a second surface where the polarity control member does not contact the image carrier, and a conductive filler that is not exposed on the first surface that contacts the image carrier.

Cleaning unit for an electrophotographic image forming apparatus having a polarity control member

A cleaning device includes a cleaning member, a collection member, an electrical field generator, and a separation member. The cleaning member has a surface capable of moving while contacting a surface of a cleaning target to remove toner on the surface of the cleaning target. The collection member has a surface capable of moving while contacting the surface of the cleaning member to collect the toner on the surface of the cleaning member. The electrical field generator generates an electrical field to move the toner from the cleaning member to the collection member. The separation member contacts the surface of the collection member to separate the toner on the surface of the collection member. The collection member has a centerline average surface roughness of not more than 0.1 &#x3bc;m and shows a surface hardness rank of B or higher in a steel-wool scratch test.

Cleaning device, image forming apparatus including the device, and process cartridge including the device

A cleaning devicefor removing a toner remaining on an image bearing memberA after transfer, including: a polarity control memberconfigured to unify polarities of the remaining toner on the image bearing memberA, a cleaning memberconfigured to remove the remaining toner having a polarity unified by the polarity control member, a collecting memberconfigured to collect the remaining toner transferred to the cleaning member, a bladeconfigured to remove the remaining toner from the collecting member, and a brush rollerconfigured to sweep the remaining toner on the image bearing memberA and inject charge, disposed upstream of the polarity control memberin the traveling direction of the image bearing memberA.

A cleaning device removes residual toner particles from a cleaning target, such as a photoconductor, which has a moving surface. The cleaning device includes a cleaning brush, a power circuit, and a cleaning member. The cleaning brush includes a brush rotation shaft, and the power circuit applies a first voltage of a first polarity to the brush rotation shaft. The cleaning member applies a second voltage of the first polarity to the cleaning brush. If the first polarity is negative, the cleaning member electrostatically removes toner particles having a positive polarity from the cleaning target. Then, the cleaning brush is triboelectrically charged to a second polarity, which is opposite to the first polarity, by contacting the cleaning target. Accordingly, the cleaning brush also removes residual toner particles having a negative polarity. Thus, the cleaning device removes both positively and negatively charged toner particles to clean the cleaning target.

Cleaning device, image forming apparatus, and process cartridge

A blade, including: a cut surface provided by obliquely cutting a part of a tip surface to set an angle forming a tip ridge portion of the blade as an obtuse angle, wherein the tip ridge portion is configured to be pressed to a surface to be cleaned.

Cleaning device, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus

A polarity controlling device for controlling polarity of residual material on an image bearing member, including a blade, to which a first voltage is applied and which has a contact edge contacted with the surface of the image bearing member to charge the residual material, wherein the contact edge is covered with a resin layer including an electroconductive material. A cleaner including the polarity controlling device; a brush contacting the image bearing member to electrostatically collect the charged residual material utilizing potential difference; a collection member contacting the brush to collect the residual material; and a cleaning blade contacting the collection member to scrape the residual material therefrom. An image forming apparatus including an electrostatic image bearing member; a developing device developing the electrostatic image using a developer including a toner to form a toner image; a transfer device transferring the toner image onto a receiving material; and the cleaner.

Polarity controlling device, and cleaner and image forming apparatus using the polarity controlling device

A cleaning apparatus for removing charged particles includes a cleaning brush and a recovery unit. The cleaning brush removes the charged particles from an object by attracting the charged particles having positive and negative polarity. The recovery unit for recovering the charged particles from the cleaning brush includes a recovery member, a first charge applicator, a second charge applicator, and a voltage control unit. The recovery member is supplied with a voltage to attract the charged particles. The recovery member has a core and a surface layer. The first charge applicator applies a voltage to the surface layer of the recovery member. The second charge applicator applies a voltage to the core of the recovery member. The voltage control unit controls a polarity of the voltage to be applied by the first and second charge applicators depending on a polarity of the charged particles to be recovered.

Cleaning unit, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus using the same

A cleaning device including a conductive member configured to charge powder remaining on a member to be cleaned so as to have a single polarity and configured to scrape off at least part of the powder, and disposed to contact with the member to be cleaned; a cleaning member configured to electrically adsorb the powder present on the member to be cleaned, disposed to contact with the member to be cleaned and located downstream of the conductive member in a direction in which the powder is conveyed thereon; a first recovering member configured to electrically adsorb the powder present on the cleaning member and disposed to contact with the cleaning member; and a second recovering member configured to scrape off the powder from the first recovering member and disposed to contact with the first recovering member, wherein the conductive member is constant-current controlled.

A cleaning unit, providable to an image carrier unit or an image forming apparatus, includes a cleaning member disposed in contact with a target member to electrically remove residual toner from the target member, an elastic blade disposed in contact with the target member upstream from the cleaning member, a blade supporting member, a blade power source, and a conductive member that is more conductive than the elastic blade, and electrically connects the blade supporting member and the elastic blade. The conductive member is disposed so that an edge part of the conductive member is closer to where the elastic blade contacts the target member than an edge part of the blade supporting member.

Cleaning unit, image carrier unit including same, and image forming apparatus including same

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Yokohama, Japan

Osamu Naruse