Kyocera Document Solutions Inc.

Kyocera Mita Corporation

Satoshi Uemura

Yasuhiro Michishita

Koji Uno

Tetsuya Toichi

Masafumi Hashimura

Takahiko Murata

Issei Nakano

Kenji Miyamoto

Keisuke Oba

Yuta Kitabayashi

Hideya Muramoto

Tomohiko Kubo

An image forming apparatus of the present disclosure includes a plurality of image forming portions, an intermediate transfer unit, a secondary transfer member, a belt cleaning device, and a control portion. The intermediate transfer unit includes an intermediate transfer belt, a plurality of primary transfer members, a drive roller, a tension roller, and a contacting/separating mechanism. The belt cleaning device includes a cleaning member which faces the tension roller with the intermediate transfer belt therebetween. In a withdrawal mode, the cleaning member is moved by pressing force of the tension roller further into a housing from an opening portion as compared with in a printing mode. The control portion is capable of executing, while image formation is not being performed, a transfer toner collection mode in which the intermediate transfer belt and the belt cleaning device are driven in the withdrawal mode.

Image forming apparatus including cleaning member to remove residual toner remaining on surface of intermediate transfer belt

An image forming apparatus includes an image carrier, a conveyance belt, a transfer roller, a suspension roller, and a conductive opposed member. The conveyance belt is in contact with the image carrier to form a nip and conveys a sheet via the nip position. A voltage of reversed polarity to a charge polarity of toner forming the toner image is applied to the transfer roller to transfer the toner image to the sheet at the nip position. A suspension roller suspends the conveyance belt at a separation position. The separation position is downstream with respect to the nip position in a sheet conveyance direction. The separation position is positioned where the sheet separates from the conveyance belt. The voltage of reversed polarity to the charge polarity of the toner is applied to the suspension roller. The conductive opposed member is arranged opposed to the suspension roller across the conveyance belt.

Image forming apparatus that restrains scattered toner particles

An image forming apparatus includes an image carrier, a cleaning member, a rotation controlling part, a first obtaining part and a mode changing part. The image carrier has a surface to carry a toner image transferred onto a sheet. The cleaning member contacts the surface of the image carrier at a downstream side in a rotating direction of the image carrier from a transferring position transferring the toner image to collect a toner from the image carrier and to hold the toner. The rotation controlling part has a first speed control mode rotating the cleaning member at a first rotational speed and a second speed control mode rotating the cleaning member at a second rotational speed faster than the first rotational speed and switches from the first speed control mode to the second speed control mode at predetermined switch timing.

Image forming apparatus having a cleaning member that controls rotation speed according to sheet thickness and number of sheets

An image forming apparatus includes an intermediate transfer belt, a plurality of belt rollers, a plurality of transfer rollers, a cleaning member, a first driving portion, a second driving portion, and a running control portion. The first driving portion is capable of causing the respective transfer rollers to come into contact with or separate from the intermediate transfer belt. The second driving portion is capable of changing orientation of predetermined one or a plurality of movable rollers among the plurality of belt rollers. The running control portion executes a running process including: causing the first driving portion to separate the respective transfer rollers from the intermediate transfer belt; causing the second driving portion to change the orientation of the movable roller to orientation different from that during execution of an image forming process; and causing the intermediate transfer belt to run.

Image forming apparatus having a driving mechanism that displaces transfer rollers

A transfer device () includes a conveyance belt (), a transfer roller (), and a stretch roller (). The conveyance belt () is in contact with an image carrier () that carries a toner image, and conveys a sheet via a contact position with the image carrier (). A voltage having a polarity opposite to a charging polarity of toner that forms the toner image is applied to the transfer roller (), and the transfer roller () transfers the toner image carried by the image carrier () onto the sheet at the contact position. The stretch roller () is in an insulated state, and stretches the conveyance belt () at a separation position in which the sheet is separated from the conveyance belt () and which is downstream of the contact position in a conveyance direction in which the sheet is conveyed by the conveyance belt ().

Transfer device, image forming apparatus

In printing, a first power supply unit applies a transfer current with a polarity opposite to a charged polarity of toner to the transfer roller. A second power supply unit applies a toner scattering suppression current with a polarity opposite to the charged polarity of the toner to a stretching roller until a rear end of a sheet passes through a separation position after a front end of the sheet reaches the separation position. The first power supply unit applies a post-transfer current, which has a polarity opposite to the charged polarity of the toner and has an absolute value equal to or more than an absolute value of the toner scattering suppression current, to the transfer roller until the rear end of the sheet passes through the separation position after the rear end of the sheet passes through the nip position.

Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus () includes an image forming section (), an intermediate transfer belt (), a drive roller (A), a secondary transfer roller (), a brush section (), a cleaning device (), a power supply device (), and a ground portion (). The brush section () is disposed at a location downstream of the secondary transfer roller () in a direction of travel of the intermediate transfer belt () and facing the drive roller (A) with the intermediate transfer belt () in between. A potential difference is applied between the brush section () and the secondary transfer roller () by the power supply device () and the ground portion (), so that an electric current having the same polarity as a normal charge polarity flows from the brush section () through the drive roller (A) to the secondary transfer roller ().

Image forming apparatus having cleaning section for removing residual toner on intermediate transfer belt

An image forming apparatus includes: a photosensitive drum; a transfer belt configured to be charged to an opposite polarity to the surface of the photosensitive drum to electrostatically attract a recording paper sheet and convey the sheet while pressing the sheet against the photosensitive drum, thereby transferring a toner image formed on the surface of the photosensitive drum to the sheet; a fixing section configured to apply heat to the recording paper sheet having the toner image transferred thereto and thus fix the toner image on the sheet; a toner collecting member disposed to face a separating position where the recording paper sheet is separated from the transfer belt and extending in a width direction of the sheet being conveyed, the toner collecting member being electrically grounded; and a thermally conductive member configured to collect heat near the fixing section and conduct the collected heat to the toner collecting member.

An image forming apparatus includes an image formation portion forming an image onto a recording medium in an electro-photographic process. An acquisition portion acquires image data and a storage portion stores in advance first and second image formation conditions for the electro-photographic process. A condition setting portion sets the first image-formation condition for an image formation operation, if data indicating a bar code is not included in image data acquired by the acquisition portion, and sets the second image formation condition for an image formation operation if image data indicating a bar code is included in image data acquired by the acquisition portion. A control portion allows the image formation portion to execute an image formation operation based on image data acquired by the acquisition portion according to the image formation condition set by the condition setting portion.

Image forming apparatus capable of improving an image quality of a barcode while suppressing deterioration in a quality of an image

A developing device includes a developing container that accommodates toner particles, a developing roller that supplies the toner particles to an image carrier on which an electrostatic latent image is formed, and a stirring and transporting member that transports the toner particles inside the developing container toward the developing roller with stirring by rotating around a shaft axis. The stirring and transporting member includes a shaft portion serving as a rotation center and sheet-shaped first stirring blade and second stirring blade fixed to the shaft portion so as to extend outward in a radius direction from the shaft portion. The first stirring blade transports the toner particles in a first transportation direction. The second stirring blade transports the toner particles in a second transportation direction different from the first transportation direction.

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Osaka, Japan

Satoshi Uemura