Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.

Shigemi Murata

Yoshitaka Nakajima

Ryuji Hattori

Shinichi Kuramoto

Shigeru Inaba

Norihiro Tamazawa

Shinji Okuyama

Ryota Tomishi

Shintaro Kaneko

Takashi Ochi

Makoto Kanno

Yoshifumi Ozaki

Tomoyuki Yoshii

Yoshiyuki Takashima

Tetsuji Okamoto

Yu Tsuda

Masanori Kato

Yasutomo Ishii

Junichi Hama

Tomio Onuki

Satoru Yugeta

Hirohisa Kohno

Makoto Katayama

Teruaki Koizumi

A powder transport apparatus includes a first transport path disposed in the first transport path, a second transport path connected to the first transport path through a first connection port and a junction port, a third transport path connected to the second transport path through a second connection port, a second transport member that is disposed in the second transport path and includes a first shaft provided with a first spiral blade that transports powder toward the first connection port, a second spiral blade that is provided in a portion of the first shaft between the first connection port and the junction port and that has a transport force smaller than a transport force of the first spiral blade in the one direction, and a third transport member disposed in the third transport path. The third transport member transports the powder toward the second connection port.

Powder transport apparatus

Provided is an image forming apparatus including an image holding member that has an outer circumferential surface in which a radius length from a center in the image holding member varies to be the longest N times and the shortest N times during one rotation of the image holding member wherein N is an integer of 2 or more, and that holds a latent image while being rotated, a developing member that develops the latent image of the image holding member with a developer, a rotation unit that rotates the developing member by a number of an integer multiple of the N during the one rotation of the image holding member, and an output unit that outputs a developer image of the image holding member to a recording medium.

Image forming apparatus capable of reducing image banding

A developing device includes a developing housing that contains developer; a developer carrier that transports the developer; a layer-thickness regulating member that is provided for an upstream gap between the developer carrier and the developing housing and that regulates a layer thickness of the developer; and a sealing member that is provided for a downstream gap between the developer carrier and the developing housing. The sealing member is fixed to the developing housing at one side and is in contact with the developer on the developer carrier at the other side. The sealing member has cuts extending from a free end of the sealing member by approximately 60% or more of a dimension of the sealing member from the free end to a fixed end in the width direction, and is at an angle of approximately 30&#xb0; or less with respect to a reference line.

Developing device and image forming apparatus including the same

A developing device is provided. A rotating shaft of a first transporting member is positioned exactly below a developer carrier. A second virtual tangent to the first transporting member that extends vertically on a side of the first transporting member opposite an image carrier is farther from the image carrier than a first virtual tangent to the developer carrier that extends vertically on a side of the developer carrier opposite the image carrier. A distance between the two virtual tangents is shorter than a distance between the first virtual tangent and a developer container. A developer guiding member that guides a developer toward a downstream side in a direction of transport by the first transporting member is provided on a downstream side in a direction of rotation of the developer carrier with respect to the image carrier, with a gap provided with respect to the developer carrier.

Developing device, visible-image-forming device, and image forming apparatus

A developing device includes a developer container; a developer carrier; a first transport member having a rotation shaft and a transport blade; a second transport member having a rotation shaft and a transport blade; a partition member; a guide member; a first inflow portion; a second inflow portion; and a movement portion. The rotation shaft of the first transport member is located within a projection area of the developer carrier projected from above. A second imaginary tangent line extending vertically and touching an outer end of the transport blade of the first transport member is farther from the image carrier than a first imaginary tangent line extending vertically and touching an outer surface of the developer carrier. A first distance between the first and second imaginary tangent lines is smaller than a second distance between a rotation center of the image carrier and an inner surface of the developer container.

Developing device and image forming apparatus

A developer collecting device includes a collecting box that accommodates developer discharged from a developing unit, the developing unit accommodating developer including toner and a carrier, the developing unit developing an electrostatic latent image on a development member using the toner in the developer; a guide cylinder that connects the developing unit and the collecting box to each other, the guide cylinder guiding movement of the developer discharged from the developing unit to the collecting box; a transporting member that is disposed in the guide cylinder and extends in a developer transport direction, the transporting member transporting the developer towards the collecting box by rotation of the transporting member; and a rotation controller that controls rotation speed of the transporting member in accordance with conditions that affect a capability of developing the electrostatic latent image on the development member.

Developer collecting device and image forming apparatus

A developing device includes: a first transport member that transports developer in a developer container; a second transport member that transports the developer in a direction opposite to a direction of transport by the first transport member; an inflow portion provided at a downstream end in the direction of transport by the second transport member and on an outer side with respect to an end of a developer carrying body, the inflow portion allowing the developer to flow from a second housing into a first housing; a high-speed transport portion provided in a range corresponding to the inflow portion and that transports the developer at a higher speed; and a regulating member provided at a position corresponding to a downstream end of the high-speed transport portion in the direction of transport by the first transport member and that regulates a height of a mound of developer in the first housing.

An image forming apparatus includes an image forming device, a time detection unit, a humidity measurement unit and a controller. The image forming device includes a photoconductive body, a developing device and a transfer device. The time detection unit detects information concerning a stop time period of the developing device. The humidity measurement unit is provided in a casing in which the image forming device is provided and measures a humidity. The controller controls a developer supply member in the developing device based on the information concerning the stop time period detected by the time detection unit and information concerning the humidity measured by the humidity measurement unit, so as to rotate at a lower speed than a rotation speed at a normal time before the developing device starts a first developing operation after the developing device stopped.

Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus has a latent image writing device that writes an electrostatic latent image on an image bearing member, a developing device that develops a toner image based on the electrostatic latent image, a transferring device that transfers the toner image onto a recording material, a position correcting unit that corrects a position of the electrostatic latent image written by the latent image writing device, a recording material determining unit that determines whether or not the recording material has a long width, and a corrected amount changing unit that, when the recording material determining unit determines that the recording material has a long width, changes an amount of correcting the position of the electrostatic latent image to a value different from a set value for a recording material having a standard width.

An image forming apparatus includes plural toner image forming devices. Each of which has a rotating photoconductor, a charging device that uniformly charges a surface of the photoconductor, a latent image forming device that forms an electrostatic latent image on the surface of the charged photoconductor, a developing device that develops the electrostatic latent image on the surface of the photoconductor to a toner image, and a developing container that contains toner used by the developing device. A diameter of the photoconductor of at least one toner image forming device is formed larger than a diameter of the photoconductor of the other toner image forming devices. Each developing container of all the toner image forming devices is formed in equal-sized, and a center of rotation of a developing roll of each developing device is arranged in a position upper than a center of rotation of each photoconductor.

A rotary-type developing unit includes: a rotary holder mounting a plurality of developing devices; each of the developing devices having: a developing housing storing a two-component developer consisting of a toner and a carrier and including a developing opening formed in part thereof; a developer carrier disposed opposed to the developing opening of the developing housing and carrying the two-component developer thereon; and a developer delivery member stirring and delivering the developer existing within the developing housing so as to supply the developer to the developer carrier. The developer carriers of the respective developing devices are selectively arranged at a developing position facing a latent image carrier by rotating the rotary holder intermittently, whereby respective color component latent images on the latent image carrier are respectively developed by the respective corresponding developing devices. A developer storing recessed portion where a developer free from the operation of the developer delivery member is stored is formed downwardly of the developer delivery member of the developer housing, in a state in which each of the developing devices is set at the developing position.

Rotary-type developing unit

A drive device for a rotary developing unit of the type in which a plural number of developing subunits are mounted on a rotary body, and a drive means is provided outside the rotary body, and in operation the developing subunits are successively moved to their developing positions when the rotary body is turned, and the developing subunit is driven by the drive means at its developing position, is improved in that the drive means drives the developing subunit for a specific period of time from a time point just before the developing subunit is moved to a predetermined developing position and stops thereat to another time point immediately after the developing subunit leaves the developing position.

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Kanagawa, Japan

Shigemi Murata