Konica Minolta, Inc.

Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.

Shinichi Yabuki

Akihiro Honya

Noboru Oomoto

Shinichi Hamaguchi

Teruo Sasaki

Takashi Honda

Tadayasu Sekioka

Koji Ohara

Masazumi Ito

Junichi Masuda

Masao Kondo

Atsuhiko Shimoyama

Keita Saito

Junji Kanda

Ryo Oshima

Takeshi Nomura

Takeshi Ishida

Tomoo Sakimura

Shoichi Yoshikawa

Takahiro Tsujimoto

Takeshi Tamada

Fumitaka Mochizuki

Katsuhide Sakai

Shigeru Tashiro

Kunihiro Ogura

Shigeaki Tokutake

Tetsuhiro Shibata

Yuya Sato

Yoshiki Nakazawa

Akihito Takada

Kouji Ohara

Chigusa Yamane

Kimiyuki Itou

Masahiro Ishie

Hidaya Miwa

A cleaning blade includes a contact layer that is in contact with a toner image carrier, and a support layer that joins to a support member, wherein the contact layer does not contain an inorganic filler, the support layer contains an inorganic filler having a thermal conductivity (λ) of 30 W/mK or more, and the average particle diameter of the inorganic filler is in a range of 0.1 to 5.0 μm.

Cleaning blade, method for manufacturing cleaning blade, and image forming apparatus

A fixing device includes a pressure roller and a pressure pad that form a nip portion, and a nip member disposed opposite to the pressure roller as viewed from the pressure pad. The pressure pad is formed of an elongated flat-plate member and includes a first main surface located on a pressure roller side and a second main surface located on a nip member side. The nip member includes a receiving portion abutting against the pressure pad in a pressed state. A portion of the second main surface which corresponds to a passage region of the recording material provided at the nip portion is provided with a plurality of recesses, and the entire perimeter of each of the plurality of recesses is surrounded by projections. Top surfaces of the projections are in close contact with the receiving portion in the pressed state.

Fixing device and image forming apparatus

A fixing device fixes a toner image onto a recording material by applying heat and pressure to the toner image formed on the recording material at a nip provided in a conveyance path of the recording material, and includes: a heating source; a pressure roller and a pressure pad; and a sandwiching member, wherein the pressure pad includes a first main surface and a second main surface, and the first main surface is formed of a long plate-like member, the sandwiching member includes a long plate-like abutting part, and a width-direction center in an area included in the second main surface and corresponding to a recording material passing region provided in the nip bulges toward the abutting part side more than width-direction both ends of the area included in the second main surface and corresponding to the recording material passing region provided in the nip.

An endless intermediate transfer belt includes a substrate layer, and a surface layer to be disposed on the substrate layer. The surface layer is configured by a polymerized cured product of a radical polymerizable composition including a radical polymerizable monomer having a radical polymerizable functional group, an oxime ester-based photopolymerization initiator having a carbazole structure, and a metal oxide particle subjected to surface treatment. The radical polymerizable functional group corresponds to one or both of an acryloyl group and a methacryloyl group. The metal oxide particle subjected to surface treatment includes a metal oxide particle, and a substance for support, to be supported on a surface of the metal oxide particle.

Intermediate transfer belt, image forming apparatus, and method for producing intermediate transfer belt

An intermediate transfer member includes a resin substrate layer and a surface layer disposed on the substrate layer. The surface layer is a cured product of a resin composition containing a polyfunctional (meth)acrylate, a photopolymerization initiator, and a tertiary amine compound having a melting point of 30&#xb0; C. or more. In the tertiary amine compound, at least one hydrogen atom is bonded to one carbon atom out of three carbon atoms bonded to a nitrogen atom.

Intermediate transfer member, method for producing intermediate transfer member, and image forming apparatus

Inside the body of an image forming device, first to fifth electric charge providers are mounted in a first location out of a path of an air flow to the suction unit caused by the action of the suction unit, and a sixth electric charge provider is mounted in a second location through which external air flows in the body caused by the action of the suction unit. Each electric charge provider emits charges in ambient air to cause ultrafine particles floating in the ambient air to clump together.

Image forming device preventing escape of ultrafine particles into air

The present invention relates to an intermediate transfer member and an image forming apparatus. The intermediate transfer member is an intermediate transfer member having a resin-made base material layer and a surface layer; the surface layer is a cured substance of a composition containing a radically polymerizable vinylic compound and a metal oxide fine particle; and the vinylic compound has a structural unit represented by the following formula (1): 

Intermediate transfer member and image forming apparatus

An intermediate transfer member includes a resin substrate layer and a surface layer containing a cured product of a composition including a specific polyfunctional (meth)acrylic monomer and a specific fine particle of metal oxide.

Intermediate transfer member and image forming apparatus having the same

According to the present invention, increase in a dynamic friction force can be suppressed and cleaning performance of a cleaning member can be improved under any operating environment without additionally providing a special mechanism. An intermediate transfer member includes a substrate layer and a surface layer, the surface layer contains a cured product of a polymerizable monomer, and the monomer contains a compound represented by the following formula (1):A-[(L-B)-D](D)&#x2003;&#x2003;(1)

Intermediate transfer member, image forming apparatus and image forming method

In a fixing device for fixing a toner image to a recording medium by heating and pressing the recording medium with transferred toner image between a heat fixing member and a pressure member, a fixing-member housing is disposed on an outer peripheral side of the heat fixing member, while a reflection member is attached to an inner side of the fixing-member housing opposed to the heat fixing member. Air blown by an air blower is circulated through space between the fixing-member housing and the heat fixing member.

An image forming apparatus includes: a fixing unit receiving through an inlet a recording medium with a transferred toner image and heat fixing the toner image to the recording medium before discharging the recording medium from an outlet; a suction part for sucking the recording medium through a recording-medium suction opening, the recording medium conveyed on a recording medium conveyance path leading to the inlet; an exhaust passage for discharging to the outside a gas sucked by the suction part; and a filter disposed in the exhaust passage and serving to capture fine particles generated from the fixing unit and sucked in by the suction part.

Image forming apparatus having fixing unit with suction part

A sheet conveying device that passes a sheet to a nip portion formed between first and second rotating bodies, and conveys the sheet, the sheet conveying device includes a separation state determining unit configured to determine a separation state between the sheet having passed the nip portion and a surface of the first rotating body, a sheet separating unit configured to allow force to act on the sheet, and a control unit configured to control the force acting on the sheet by the sheet separating unit according to a result of the separation state determining unit, wherein the separation state determining unit includes an illumination unit, an imaging unit, and an acquisition unit, and the separation state between the sheet and the first rotating body is determined based on the acquired positional information of a tip of the sheet.

Sheet conveying device and image forming apparatus

A sheet feeder having: a base portion configured to support thereon a stack of sheets piled on top of another; a blower configured to blow air to the stack of sheets supported on the base portion so as to float one or more sheets in an uppermost portion of the stack of sheets; a suction/feed system located above the base portion, the suction/feed system configured to suck the sheet floated by the blower and to feed the sheet in a predetermined feeding direction; a photographic device configured to take a picture of the one or more sheets floated by the blower; and an illuminating device configured to emit light to the one or more sheets floated by the blower a plurality of times during one exposure process carried out by the photographic device.

Sheet feeder and image forming apparatus

An image reading apparatus includes a carriage having mounted thereon a linear light source and an image sensor and a reference pattern member disposed at a reference position located toward the first direction from a home position. The current location of the carriage is judged relatively to first and second areas that are divided by a boundary defined in advance at a location toward the first direction from the reference position. The first area is located toward the first direction and the second area is located toward the second direction. Immediately after the power is turned ON, current location information indicating whether the carriage is currently located in the first area or the second area is read from the nonvolatile memory. The carriage is first moved to the reference position and then moved a predetermined distance in the second direction, so that the carriage is duly positioned at the home position.

Image reading apparatus, image forming apparatus, and carriage positioning method

A facsimile apparatus includes one or a plurality of connecting portions configured to connect an external storage, a communication portion having a plurality of different facsimile lines, a line specifying portion configured to specify a facsimile line which received data, a detecting portion configured to detect that an external storage is connected to the connecting portion, and a control portion configured to store the data received by a predetermined facsimile line in an external storage connected to the connecting portion in cases where a facsimile line specified by the line specifying portion is a predetermined line and a connection of the external storage is detected by the detecting portion.

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Toyokawa, Japan

Shinichi Yabuki