Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.

Shota Oba

Shigeru Inaba

Takashi Ochi

Yoshitaka Nakajima

Makoto Hirota

Makoto Kanno

Norihiro Tamazawa

Seigo Shinozaki

Ayumi Noguchi

Kiyoshi Shigehiro

Yoshiro Yamaguchi

Motohiko Sakamaki

Nobuyuki Nakayama

Yoshinori Machida

Minoru Koshimizu

Takeo Kakinuma

Jun Abe

Shinichi Kuramoto

Akihiko Noda

Keisuke Kubo

Toshihiro Kanematsu

Shinichiro Fujimori

Kiyohito Horii

Takashi Yamamuro

Ryota Tomishi

Takeshi Matsunaga

Yoshifumi Ozaki

Miho Ikeda

Akihisa Maruyama

Masahiro Andoh

Yasufumi Suwabe

Masaaki Yamaura

Sakae Yoshioka

Tomio Onuki

Kazunaga Horiuchi

Noriaki Yamazaki

Provided is a powder containing device including a powder container that contains powder, that has a first end which is closed, that has a second end which is opened, that includes a main body section and a tapered section which is disposed on the second end side from the main body section and has a diameter reduced as close to the second end side, and that has an inner circumferential surface on which a protruding ridge is formed to convey the powder to the second end side by rotating around a rotation axis extending in a direction in which the first end and the second end is connected, and a lid member that is provided with an outlet of the powder, is maintained in a non-rotating state, and causes the powder flowing from the opening to flow out from the outlet.

Powder containing device and image forming apparatus

A container for developer detachably mountable to an image forming apparatus body includes a container body, a discharge member, a resistive member, and a resistance reduction mechanism. The container body contains developer and is rotated when drive is transmitted from the image forming apparatus body. The discharge member supports the container body rotatable relative to the discharge member and has a discharge port through which the developer is discharged. The resistive member is brought into contact with the container body so as to apply resistance to the rotation of the container body. The resistance reduction mechanism changes a contact state between the resistive member and the container body so as to reduce the resistance between the resistive member and the container body when the container is mounted to the image forming apparatus body.

Image forming apparatus and container for developer

An image forming apparatus includes an accommodation container, a storage medium, and a controller. The accommodation container includes a rotational portion and outflow portion. The rotational portion accommodates a developer therein and has a helical-shaped transport section formed in an inner surface thereof. The outflow portion rotatably supports the rotational portion and has an outflow port through which the developer transported during rotation of the rotational portion flows out. The storage medium stores use state information of the developer accommodated in the rotational portion. The controller controls a driving source which drives the rotational portion. When a use state of the accommodation container for the developer is a use state which is set in advance, the controller intermittently drives the rotational portion by performing driving at a rotation angle of (n+&#xbd;)&#x3c0;&#xb1;18 degrees or less than 90 degrees and stopping.

Image forming apparatus having a rotational portion which accommodates a developer

A detachable body includes an opening portion, an opening and closing member, a sealing member, a sealing member, and a protrusion portion. The opening and closing member is movable between an open position and a closed position. The opening and closing member includes a facing portion that faces the opening portion with a gap when the opening and closing member is located at the closed position. When the opening and closing member is moved to the open position, the sealing member has a thickness that is thicker than a gap between the opening portion and the facing portion. When the opening and closing member is moved to the closed position, the sealing member elastically deforms to seal the opening portion. The protrusion portion protrudes from one of a frame portion around the opening portion and the facing portion toward the other.

Detachable body and image forming apparatus

A transporting member includes multiple helical blades that helically extend around a rotation shaft and that have an upstream-side blade and a downstream-side blade, an end portion of the upstream-side blade and an end portion of the downstream-side blade overlapping in a direction perpendicular to an axial direction of the rotation shaft, the multiple helical blades transporting an object in the axial direction via rotation of the rotation shaft; a gap portion that divides the upstream-side blade and the downstream-side blade, the upstream-side blade and the downstream-side blade being arranged at a certain angular interval in a circumferential direction of the rotation shaft; and a regulating portion that regulates an amount of the object that passes through a space between the upstream-side blade and the downstream-side blade in a direction in which the object is transported.

Transporting member, developing device, and image forming apparatus

A powder storage device includes a powder container that has an opening at one end, stores powder therein, and has, on an inner peripheral surface, a rib configured to transport the powder toward the opening with rotation of the powder container, a lid member that is configured to cover the opening, has an outflow opening through which the powder flows, and is held in a non-rotatable state, and a driving-force transmission member interposed between the powder container and the lid member and having a driving-force receiving portion penetrating the lid member in a rotation axis direction, the driving-force transmission member transmitting a rotating force to the powder container.

Rotatable powder storage container

A container for developer detachably mountable to an image forming apparatus body includes a rotating body that contains developer and is rotated about a rotational center when drive is transmitted from the apparatus body, a discharge member that supports the rotating body such that the rotating body is rotatable relative to the discharge member and has a discharge port through which the developer is discharged, an anti-leakage member that is disposed in one of the rotating body and the discharge member and suppresses leakage of the developer, and a compressing portion that has a first side and a second side farther from the rotational center than the first side, is disposed in the other of both, and is pressed against the anti-leakage member to compress the anti-leakage member such that a compressing amount is larger on the second side than on the first side.

An image forming apparatus includes: a developer container having a containing portion which contains developer and is rotated when a driving force is transmitted to the containing portion from an image forming apparatus body, a discharge portion that rotatably supports the containing portion and has a discharge port through which the developer is discharged, and a restricting member provided at the discharge portion and movable between a restricting position where the restricting member restricts rotation of the containing portion and a releasing position where the restricting member releases the restriction of rotation of the containing portion, the developer container being removably attached to the image forming apparatus body; and a releasing member that is supported on the image forming apparatus body and moves the restricting member to the releasing position when the developer container is attached to the image forming apparatus body.

Image forming apparatus and developer container

An image forming apparatus includes an image carrier, a developer container, a moving mechanism that moves a toner of a developer to the image carrier, a stirring and transporting member that transports the developer in the developer container to the moving mechanism, a layer thickness regulating member that regulates the layer thickness of the developer held by a developer holder of the moving mechanism, and a movement regulating unit that regulates movement of the developer. An end of the movement regulating unit at a stirring and transporting member side is located at the stirring and transporting member side with respect to a tangent line tangent to the outer circumference of the stirring and transporting member and passing through a position where the density of magnetic flux of an attraction magnetic pole of a magnet member of the moving mechanism on the surface of the developing holder is the highest.

Image forming apparatus and developing device

A developing device includes a sleeve and a magnet roller having first and second magnetic poles, the second magnetic pole being disposed downstream of the first magnetic pole. A magnetic attraction distribution on the sleeve in a region from the first magnetic pole to the second magnetic pole is such that the magnetic attraction decreases from a position of the first magnetic pole toward the downstream side, a gradient of change in the magnetic attraction decreases in a region downstream of a region in which a gradient of reduction in the magnetic attraction temporarily increases, thereby forming an attraction reduction region in which the magnetic attraction is reduced so that developer cannot be held on the sleeve, and the gradient of change in the magnetic attraction increases in a region downstream of the attraction reduction region so that the magnetic attraction increases to a position of the second magnetic pole.

Developing device and image forming apparatus

A developer-agitating transporter includes helical blades that helically extend around a rotation shaft, the helical blades being arranged at different positions in a direction perpendicular to a longitudinal direction of the rotation shaft; and a gap portion that divides each helical blade into a first blade portion and a second blade portion, which oppose each other across the gap portion, so that the helical blade is discontinuous in a direction in which the helical blade extends. The gap portion causes the first blade portion and the second blade portion to be arranged at a certain angular interval in a circumferential direction of the rotation shaft, and at least one surface of adjacent ones of the helical blades that are adjacent in the circumferential direction of the rotation shaft has a sloped area that is sloped at an angle that changes with respect to an axial direction of the rotation shaft.

Developer-agitating transporter, developing device, and image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes a latent image carrier, a container that contains a developer including a toner, developer transport members disposed so that peripheral surfaces thereof face the latent image carrier, a power supply that supplies voltages to the developer transport members, a detector that detects a toner concentration of the developer, and a controller. The controller performs control so that the power supply supplies to the developer transport members, when the toner concentration detected by the detector is higher than a predetermined upper limit, voltages having waveforms that generating a potential difference therebetween that causes the toner concentration of the developer distributed to a most downstream developer transport member to decrease and the toner concentration of the developer distributed to at least one of the developer transport members that is disposed upstream of the most downstream developer transport member to increase.

Image forming apparatus

A developing device includes: a developing member including a magnetism-generating member having plural magnetic poles polarized in a circumferential-direction thereof, and a rotating member that is rotated about the magnetism-generating member; a developer-pumping pole provided in the magnetism-generating member, and that pumps up the developer, which is supplied from a developer accommodating portion, to the rotating member surface; a developer-peeling-off pole provided in the magnetism-generating member below a rotation axis of the rotating member in a vertical direction on an upstream side of the developer-pumping pole in a rotational-direction of the rotating member, that peels off the developer from the rotating member surface; and a magnetic body provided in at least a portion between a facing position facing the developer-peeling-off pole in a circumferential-direction of the rotating member and an intermediate position between the developer-peeling-off pole and the developer-pumping pole in the circumferential direction, facing the rotating member surface.

An image forming apparatus includes a rotating image carrier, a charging device, a latent image forming device, a developing device having a developer holder and developing a latent image as a visible image, a voltage application unit that generates a potential difference between the image carrier and the developer holder to form an electric field, by which toner is directed toward the latent image, in a developing region, and a transfer device that transfers the visible image of the image carrier to a medium, wherein the developer holder having a concavo-convex portion having a convex portion and a concave portion is provided in an outer surface thereof and formed such that the volume resistivity of a portion corresponding to the convex portion is set to be larger than the volume resistivity of a portion corresponding to the concave portion.

Image forming apparatus having a developer holder with a concavo-convex outer surface

A developing device includes a first developing member rotating such that a moving direction of a portion opposing the image carrier is opposite a moving direction of the image carrier. A second developing member is provided on a downstream side of the first developing member in a rotating direction of the image carrier rotating such that a moving direction of a portion opposing the image carrier is the same as the moving direction of the image carries. A distributing member is supported movably relative to a proximal portion where the first developing member is closest to the second developing member so as to distribute developer to the first and second developing members by contact with the developer, and a biasing member biases the distributing member upstream in the rotating direction of the first developing member.

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Shota Oba