Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Osamu Takehira

Hirokazu Ikenoue

Manabu Nonaka

Yoshiki Yanagawa

Satoshi Kitaoka

Katsuhiko Miki

Yoshiaki Hoshino

Amika Sagara

Toshifumi Togashi

Yuko Hayama

A drying device includes one or more first heating bodies configured to heat a drying target object conveyed with liquid applied on the drying target object, and a second heating body configured to heat the drying target object after the drying target object is heated by the one or more first heating bodies. The one or more first heating bodies include at least one heating body configured to heat the drying target object at a heating temperature greater than a heating temperature of the second heating body.

Drying device and printer incorporating the drying device

A drying device includes a plurality of guide rollers and a heater. The plurality of guide rollers is configured to contact a liquid applied face of a drying target object that is conveyed with liquid applied to the liquid applied face, while the drying target object is dried. The plurality of guide rollers includes at least one guide roller having a surface roughness of from 2 to 8. The heater is configured to heat the drying target object while the plurality of guide rollers guides the drying target object. A printer includes a liquid application device configured to apply liquid to a drying target object, and the drying device.

A sheet conveying apparatus, an automatic draft conveying apparatus, a paper feeding apparatus, and an image forming apparatus capable of preventing self-oscillation of a conveying roller. When rigidity of an oscillation system of the conveying roller is K [N/m], the distance between a supporting point of an arm and a section of the arm to which an axis of the conveying roller is attached is L [mm], and arm angle, which is formed between a sheet and a line segment connecting the supporting point of the arm to the section of the arm to which the axis of the conveying roller is attached on an assumed plane perpendicular to a direction of the axis of the conveying roller, is &#x3b8; [deg], &#x3b8;&#x2266;(Pse&#xd7;K)&#xd7;(1/L) is satisfied, where Pse=37500.

Image forming apparatus

A method for feeding sheet materials is disclosed, which is implemented by forwarding a plurality of sheet materials loaded on a loading plate with a rotating feeding roller toward a separation unit, for the leading edge of the sheet materials to be collided with a tapered face of taper member, and subsequently separating the uppermost of the loaded sheet materials through frictional force from the feeding roller after climbing over the taper member to be forwarded further to an image forming unit by way of a nip forming portion, while other underlying sheet materials are halted by the taper member owning to smaller frictional forces there between, thereby obviating the multiple feeding. In addition, the conditions suitable for sheet feeding can be satisfied for various sheet materials different in size and thickness by adjusting the distance between the point of contact of the uppermost sheet material with the feeding roller and that of nip formation, such that modulus values are equated to various sheet materials. As a result, considerably high sheet separation qualities are obtained obviating undue non-feeding or multiple feeding, and various kinds of sheet materials different in size, thickness and coefficient of friction, can be forwarded sheet by sheet securely to image forming unit, thereby achieving satisfactory image formation by means of image forming apparatuses incorporating the sheet feeding apparatuses disclosed herein.

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Osamu Takehira