Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Shogo Sakamoto

Masahiro Ishida

Naoki Matsuda

Takuya Murata

Takeo Seki

Narumi Sugita

Hiroshi Ishii

Keisuke Shimizu

Kohta Takenaka

Kenji Tomita

Hiroyuki Kiguchi

Takayuki Isaka

Hiroaki Takagi

Kimiharu Yamazaki

Shogo Nakamoto

Naoyuki Suido

A drive transmitter includes a connector, an electromagnetic clutch, a shaft, and a restriction member. The electromagnetic clutch includes the connector as a single unit. The shaft serves as a rotation axis of the electromagnetic clutch. The restriction member restricts a position of the connector in an axial direction of the shaft.

Drive transmitter, drive device, and image forming apparatus

An electrical apparatus includes a housing, a blower, and a duct. The housing covers a plurality of electrical components. The blower blows air. The duct guides the air that has cooled one of the plurality of electrical components to another one of the plurality of electrical components. The duct includes a fire wall.

Electrical apparatus with a duct having a fire wall

A sound absorber includes at least one cavity and at least one mouth to communicate the at least one cavity with an outside of the sound absorber. The at least one cavity includes a top surface, a bottom surface, and a side wall. The top surface includes the mouth. The bottom surface opposes the top surface. The side wall is extended to connect the top surface with the bottom surface. At least one of the top surface and the bottom surface is inclined with respect to the side wall.

Sound absorber, electronic device with sound absorbing device, and image forming apparatus with sound absorber

A fire-spread prevention member is interposed between an electrical component and a combustible member. The fire-spread prevention member includes a bent portion that is disposed outside an outer edge of the electrical component and bent to a side on which the electrical component is disposed. The fire-spread prevention member is made of non-combustible material.

Fire-spread prevention member, electrical device, and image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes a housing, a unit including a drive member and being positioned to the housing, and a drive device configured to rotate the drive member in a normal direction and a reverse direction. The drive device includes a housing-side gear mounted on the housing, and a unit-side gear mounted on the unit, the unit-side gear being configured to mesh with the housing-side gear. The drive device transmits a driving force to the drive member, the driving force causes a force from the housing-side gear to the unit-side gear, the force includes a component force in a direction to detach the unit from the housing, and the component force is smaller than a static friction force between the unit and the housing.

Image forming apparatus including a drive device transmitting a driving force to a drive member to detach a unit from a housing

A drive transmitter includes an internally toothed gear, a first support shaft to rotatably support the internally toothed gear without using a bearing, a drive source to apply a driving force to the internally toothed gear, a rotary body to which the driving force is transmitted via the internally toothed gear, and a grease retainer disposed on the first support shaft and to retain grease on at least one of a portion of the first support shaft facing the internally toothed gear and a portion of the internally toothed gear facing the first support shaft. An image forming apparatus includes the drive transmitter.

Drive transmitter and image forming apparatus incorporating the drive transmitter

A contact-and-separation system includes a first roller, a second roller, and a contact-and-separation device. The first roller contacts a belt. The second roller is opposed to the first roller. The contact-and-separation device contacts or separates the belt to or from the second roller via a sheet conveyed. The contact-and-separation device includes an eccentric cam, a motor, and a circuitry. The eccentric cam is mounted on an end of a rotation shaft of the first roller. The motor rotates the eccentric cam. The circuitry controls the motor to rotate the eccentric cam to contact or separate the belt to or from the second roller via the sheet conveyed. The circuitry controls the motor to decelerate a rotation speed of the motor on contact or separation of the belt to or from the second roller between the first roller and the second roller.

Contact-and-separation system, image forming apparatus, and contact-and-separation method

A drive transmission device includes a rotation shaft, a drive transmitter attached to the rotation shaft to slide in an axial direction and including an engaging portion extending in the axial direction, and a coil spring to bias the drive transmitter to one side in the axial direction, and a shaft-side drive transmitter disposed on the rotation shaft. The coil spring includes a sparse portion and a dense portion. The shaft-side drive transmitter engages the engaging portion to prevent the drive transmitter from disengaging from the rotation shaft. The coil spring and the engaging portion satisfy

Drive transmission device and image forming apparatus including same

An electric motor system includes a brushless direct-current motor, a driver circuit, a position sensor, and a control circuit. The motor has an output shaft for transmitting torque. The driver circuit supplies power to the motor according to a control signal input thereto. The position sensor measures an angular, rotational position of the motor shaft. The control circuit controls operation of the motor. The control circuit includes a position sensor terminal, a reference terminal, a differential calculator, a controller, and a gain adjuster. The position sensor terminal receives a feedback signal. The reference terminal receives a reference signal. The differential calculator generates an error signal representing a difference between the measured and targeted rotational positions. The controller generates the control signal based on the error signal through a combination of control actions. The gain adjuster is connected to the controller to adjust a gain of each control action.

Electric motor system and motor control method

A drive unit, which can be included in an image forming apparatus with peripherals disposed thereto and use a control method therefore, includes an inner rotor brushless DC motor, a driver, a rotation detector, and a controller. The driver supplies power to drive the brushless DC motor. The rotation detector detects an amount and direction of rotations of an output shaft. The controller controls the rotations of the brushless DC motor and obtains a target drive signal of the brushless DC motor externally and a detection signal from the rotation detector and outputs a signal to the driver. The controller controls a speed of rotation of the brushless DC motor by varying the signal output to the driver based on the target drive signal and the detection signal.

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Kanagawa, Japan

Shogo Sakamoto