Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Ryohichi Kitajima

Eiji Kurimoto

Yoshiaki Kawasaki

Takaaki Ikegami

Akihiro Sugino

Tatsuya Niimi

Hiroshi Tamura

Tetsuro Suzuki

Nozomu Tamoto

Akihiko Matsuyama

Yohta Sakon

Hidetoshi Kami

Hiroshi Ikuno

Narihito Kojima

Hiroshi Nagame

Katsuichi Ohta

Yuka Miyamoto

Naohiro Toda

Yasuyuki Yamashita

Shinji Okada

Shohei Gohda

Motoo Tasaka

Hiroyuki Ina

Isao Washio

A toner bearer including an electroconductive substrate; an insulating layer located on the electroconductive substrate; multiple electrodes located on the insulating layer at regular intervals; an outermost layer located on the multiple electrodes; and a voltage applicator to apply a voltage between the electroconductive substrate and the multiple electrodes to form a periodically reversed electric field therebetween so that toner particles on the outermost layer hop, thereby forming a toner cloud above the outermost layer. The insulating layer includes a crosslinked material having a unit obtained from a fluorine-containing resin and a crosslinking agent. The fluorine-containing resin is selected from the group consisting of copolymers having a unit obtained from fluoroethylene having at least three fluorine atoms and a unit obtained from a vinyl ether monomer and copolymers including a unit obtained from tetrafluoroethylene and a unit obtained from a vinyl monomer.

Toner bearer, and developing device and image forming apparatus using same

An electrophotographic photoconductor includes an electroconductive substrate, a charge generation layer, and a charge transport layer formed by using a halogen-free solvent, arranged in this order, in which the charge generation layer contains a charge generation material having an average particle diameter smaller than a surface roughness of a plane where the electroconductive substrate is arranged, and a polyvinyl acetal resin having a ratio Mw/Mn of a weight-average molecular weight Mw to a number-average molecular weight Mn is 2.2 or more.

Electrophotographic photoconductor and process for manufacturing the same, and image forming apparatus and process cartridge containing the same

An image forming apparatus including a photoreceptor having an electroconductive substrate, a photosensitive layer overlying the electroconductive substrate, and a protection layer including an inorganic filler in an amount of from 3 to 25% by weight based on total weight of the protection layer and a binder resin, and overlying the photosensitive layer. The apparatus further including a charger, an irradiator, an image developer, and a transferer transferring a toner image onto a transfer material. The apparatus also includes a cleaner cleaning the photoreceptor, including a rotatable core and a looped brush fiber provided on the surface of the rotatable core so as to contact the photoreceptor. A top of the looped brush fiber is positioned on an upstream side from a root of the looped brush fiber relative to a rotating direction of the rotatable core.

Image forming apparatus and copier

An electrophotographic photoreceptor includes an electroconductive substrate. A charge generation layer overlies the electroconductive substrate. A first charge transport layer overlying the charge generation layer includes a first charge transport material (D) and a first binder resin (R). A second charge transport layer overlying the first charge transport layer includes a filler, a second charge transport material (D) and a second binder resin (R). The first and second charge transport layers have a total thickness of from 5 to 25 &#x3bc;m. A weight ratio (D/R) of the first charge transport material (D) to the first binder resin (R) in the first charge transport layer is greater than a weight ratio (D/R) of the second charge transport material (D) to the second binder resin (R) in the second charge transport layer.

Electrophotographic photoreceptor and image forming apparatus using the photoreceptor

An electrophotographic photoreceptor including an electroconductive substrate; a photosensitive layer located overlying the electroconductive substrate and including a resin; and a surface layer including a filler and a binder resin, wherein the surface layer and the photosensitive layer have a continuous structure, and wherein the surface layer satisfies the following relationship: &#x3c3;&#x2266;D/5, wherein D represents an average of maximum thicknesses of the surface layer in units of micrometers in 20 segments of 5 &#x3bc;m wide when a portion of a cross section of the photoreceptor of 100 &#x3bc;m wide is divided into the 20 segments, and &#x3c3; represents a standard deviation of the 20 maximum thicknesses.

Electrophotographic photoreceptor, method for manufacturing the photoreceptor, and image forming method and apparatus using the photoreceptor

An image forming apparatus including a photoreceptor which includes an electroconductive substrate, a photosensitive layer including a charge generation material and a charge transport material and located overlying the electroconductive substrate, and a protective layer including an inorganic filler having an average particle diameter (d) and a binder resin; and an imagewise light irradiator configured to irradiate the photoreceptor with a laser light beam having a wavelength of (&lgr;) to form a light spot having a diameter (L) in the minor axis direction thereof on a surface of the photoreceptor, wherein the relationship 0.1<3.75&times;10 L/&lgr;<d/&lgr;<0.5 is satisfied. An image forming method is also provided which includes irradiating a surface of the photoreceptor with a laser beam such that the above-mentioned relationship is satisfied.

Electrophotographic image forming method and apparatus

An electrophotographic photoreceptor including an electroconductive substrate; a photosensitive layer located overlying the electroconductive substrate and including a resin; and a surface layer including a filler and a binder resin, wherein the surface layer and the photosensitive layer have a continuous structure, and wherein the surface layer satisfies the following relationship: &sgr;&lE;D/5, wherein D represents an average of maximum thicknesses of the surface layer in units of micrometers in 20 segments of 5 &mgr;m wide when a portion of a cross section of the photoreceptor of 100 &mgr;m wide is divided into the 20 segments, and &sgr; represents a standard deviation of the 20 maximum thicknesses.

A thermosensitive recording medium capable of forming a visible image thereon when subjected to thermal printing, which has a transparent support, a thermosensitive recording layer provided on the transparent support, containing a dye and a color developer capable of inducing a color in the dye upon the application of heat thereto in the course of the thermal printing, and a mat layer, containing a granular thermosensitive recording layer, containing a granular filler and a binder resin, the mat layer having a surface smoothness of 100 to 2000 sec before subjected to the thermal printing, and a portion of the mat layer subjected to the thermal printing having a surface smoothness of 5,000 sec or less at most.

Thermosensitive recording medium

Growing community of inventors

Numazu, Japan

Ryohichi Kitajima