Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Ricoh Corporation

Seiji Ozawa

Takeshi Saito

Hideo Ichikawa

Sunao Ikeda

Takaaki Yanagisawa

Shigeru Yoshiki

Nobuhiro Makita

Hisashi Sakai

Masanaga Imamura

Hiroaki Sugiyama

A toner container has a hollow body having a small diameter mouth portion, a ramp surface at one end and a spiral. A removable lid is positioned at the mouth portion so as to close the mouth portion and a lug is provided at the lid.

Toner container having lid including lug

A developer replenishing device for replenishing a developing device with a developer, and a developer container for use therewith. The developer container, or toner bottle, includes a shoulder portion adjoining a first end of a hollow body. The body is formed with a spiral guide for guiding a developer stored in the developer container. The shoulder portion forms a wall and includes an engaging portion engageable with driver that causes the body to rotate. The engaging portion includes a lug protruding from the shoulder portion which allows a characteristic of toner to be identified. The engaging portion has an outside surface of a guide portion that guides a developer stored in the developer container. Two engaging portions may be angularly spaced from each other by 180 degrees. The developer container also includes a discharge mouth, which adjoins the first end of the body, which is smaller in diameter than the shoulder portion, and which includes an annular collar protruding outwardly, and a positioning portion positioned on a holder for the developer container. The positioning portion includes a lug protruding from an outside surface of the body. The holder for the developer container includes a hitting member which hits against the outside surface when the body is caused to rotate. A plurality of lugs are formed on an outside circumferential surface of the collar of the discharge mouth.

Developer replenishing device and developer container for use therewith

A developer replenishing device for replenishing a developing device with a developer, and a developer container for use therewith. The developer container, or toner bottle, has a mouth portion at one end thereof which is smaller in diameter than a hollow cylindrical main body. At the end of the bottle provided with the mouth portion, a shoulder has the inner periphery thereof partly raised to the edge of the mouth portion to form a raised portion for scooping up a toner. In addition, a part of the inner periphery of the circumferental wall of the bottle, which is contiguous with the raised portion, is also raised toward the axis of the bottle, about which the bottle is rotatable, thereby forming another raised portion. When the bottle is mounted on a bottle holder, which is included in the replienishing device, substantially horizontally with the mouth portion oriented sideways, the bottle is rotated to raise the toner from the bottom of the main body to the mouth portion. As a result, the toner is discharged to the outside via the mouth portion smoothly.

A developer replenishing device for replenishing a developing device with a developer, and a developer container for use therewith. The developer container, or toner bottle, has a mouth portion at one end thereof which is smaller in diameter than a hollow cylindrical main body. At the end of the bottle provided with the mouth, a shoulder has the inner periphery thereof partly raised to the edge of the mouth portion to form a raised portion for scooping up a toner. In addition, a part of the inner periphery of the circumferential wall of the bottle which is contiguous with the raised portion is also raised toward the axis of the bottle about which the bottle is rotatable, thereby forming another raised portion. When the bottle is mounted to a bottle holder, which is included in the replenishing device, substantially horizontally with the mouth portion oriented sideways, the bottle is rotated to raise the toner from the bottom of the main body to the mouth portion. As a result, the toner is discharged to the outside via the mouth portion smoothly.

A toner vessel for use in a copying machine includes a square dish-shaped vessel body which is open at the upper part, is provided with an outwardly projecting flange at the peripheral edge of said opening and receives the toner therein. A cover sheet is folded on itself to define an upper part and a lower part. The opening of the vessel body is covered with the lower part of the folded cover sheet and the latter's periphery is fitted on said flange. The surface of the upper part, in the vicinity of the fore end of the upper part, is adhered to the back surface of a cover plate arranged movably in the horizontal direction on the surface of the cover sheet upper part.

Toner vessel for copying machine

A cap with a supply stopper for use with ordinary containers comprising a detachable double cap, that is, an outer cap and an inner cap which is used as a supply cap having a supply opening and a supply stopper. By an engagement mechanism of the upper cap and the inner cap, when the upper cap is fastened, the supply stopper is firmly pressed against the supply opening so that the leakage of contents in the container during storage or transportation is completely prevented.

Growing community of inventors

Numazu, Japan

Seiji Ozawa