Brother Kogyo Kabushiki-kaisha

Borther Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Brother Kogyo Kaubshiki Kaisha

Shougo Sato

Hirotaka Mori

Kazuna Taguchi

Hiroshi Nakano

Hideshi Nishiyama

Naoya Kamimura

Yasushi Okabe

Yasuo Fukamachi

Motoaki Mushika

Atsushi Fukaya

Tsutomu Suzuki

Aya Adachi

Susumu Sakuma

Masashi Imai

Isao Fukuchi

Masahiko Hayakawa

Yoh Nishimura

Atsushi Fukui

Takeyuki Takagi

Makoto Souda

Miho Ishida

Noboru Suzuki

Yasumasa Fujii

Atsushi Miwa

Hiroshi Igarashi

Daisuke Maeta

Hikaru Yoshizumi

Shigeharu Katayama

Masaaki Furukawa

Ryosuke Hayashi

Nao Itabashi

Masashi Suzuki

Masahito Saeki

Masahiro Ishii

Keisuke Takahashi

Kazutoshi Kotama

Shunsuke Ishii

Junichi Yokoi

Makoto Ishii

Keiichiro Egami

Satoru Ishikawa

Tomoya Ichikawa

Yosuke Mase

Yusuke Nakata

Kayo Hasui

Takashi Arakawa

Yasutada Kato

Shintaro Fukuoka

Ryuya Yamazaki

Mitsuru Horinoe

Enao Yamada

Takashi Shimizu

Yasutake Yamaguchi

Saya Minoshima

Kensuke Miyahara

Naomichi Kobayashi

Kenichi Hirata

Hidenori Hisada

Masato Makino

Koji Ogawa

Mitsuko Hanai

Fumikazu Sato

Masatoshi Shiraki

Keigo Nakajima

Katsuyuki Yokoi

Fan Xu

Yoshihiro Okamoto

Takeshi Fuwazaki

Yosuke Aoi

Kiyotaka Ohara

Yukihiko Sato

Makoto Suzuki

Tsuyoshi Ohashi

Tomoaki Hattori

Hideaki Deguchi

Tomoyuki Nanno

Soichiro Nishimura

Hiroaki Yazawa

Kenjiro Nishiwaki

Yoshiteru Hattori

Satoru Hattori

Ryota Kato

Ryoichi Nakagawa

Soichiro Mase

Masanari Yoshikawa

Takehiro Masuda

Yukimasa Yoshida

Shinichi Hirahata

Aya Tamura

Masaki Ueji

Ding-Yu Chen

Yukiko Kitamura

Xu Fan

Masato Making

Shinji Ito

An image forming apparatus includes a main casing, a developing roller, a connecting tube, and a toner container. The main casing includes a sheet supply tray. The developing roller is provided in the main casing. The connecting tube has one end portion and another end portion inside the main casing. The toner container is for accommodating toner. The one end portion of the connecting tube is connected to the toner container. The toner container has an inlet opening for replenishing toner. The toner container is pivotally movable between a first position and a second position about the connecting tube. A position of the inlet opening at the second position is higher than a position of the inlet opening at the first position.

Image forming apparatus capable of facilitating toner replenishment to toner supply unit

A drum cartridge is configured to be detachably mounted on an apparatus main body in a state where a toner cartridge is mounted on the drum cartridge. A first shutter and a second shutter are configured such that: when the drum cartridge is mounted onto the apparatus main body in a state where the toner cartridge is mounted on the drum cartridge, the first shutter moves from a first closed position to a first open position and the second shutter moves from a second closed position to a second open position, and when the drum cartridge is detached from the apparatus main body in a state where the toner cartridge is mounted on the drum cartridge, the first shutter moves from the first open position to the first closed position and the second shutter moves from the second open position to the second closed position.

Image forming apparatus

An image-forming apparatus includes a housing, a cover, first and second drum cartridges, first and second exposing heads, first and second guides, a waste toner tube, a shutter driving member, and an interlocking mechanism. Each of the first and second drum cartridges includes: a photosensitive drum rotatable about an axis extending in a first direction; a drum cleaner; a discharging part; and a shutter. The first and second exposing heads are mounted on the cover. The first and second guides guide respective ends of the first and second exposing heads in the first direction while the cover is opened and closed. The shutter driving member is movable in a second direction in interlocking relation to the respective shutters through the interlocking mechanism. The shutter driving member is overlapped with at least one of the first and second guides in a third direction crossing both the first and second directions.

Image-forming apparatus including mechanism for opening and closing shutter of attached drum cartridge in interlocking relation to opening and closing movement of cover

A drum frame includes first and second frames supporting a photosensitive drum, and a support frame configured to support a toner cartridge. The support frame is not movable relative to the photosensitive drum. The support frame has a passage opening through which toner from the toner cartridge passes in a state where the toner cartridge is supported by the support frame. A development housing has a reception opening configured to receive toner that has passed through the passage opening. The reception opening is larger than the passage opening. The development housing supports a development roller. The development housing is movable relative to the photosensitive drum. A seal is located around the passage opening and away from the passage opening. The seal is in contact with the support frame and an edge of the reception opening. The seal seals between the support frame and the edge of the reception opening.

Process cartridge having support frame with passage opening, developing housing with reception opening, and seal

An image forming apparatus includes a photosensitive drum, a developing device, a toner container, a cleaner, a waste toner container, and a waste toner conveying pipe. The cleaner is configured to clean a peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum after a toner image has been transferred to the printing medium. The waste toner container is configured to accommodate therein waste toner removed from the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum by the cleaner. The waste toner conveying pipe is configured to convey the waste toner from the cleaner to the waste toner container. The cleaner is located between the photosensitive drum and the fixing device in a vertical direction. The developing device is located below the photosensitive drum. The waste toner container is located below the cleaner. The toner container covers at least a part of an upper surface of the waste toner container.

A process unit includes a photosensitive drum rotatable about a rotational axis extending in a first direction. A development unit includes a development roller configured to supply toner to the photosensitive drum. A scanner unit is configured to expose the photosensitive drum. A reception portion is configured to receive toner from a toner container for supplying toner into the development unit. The scanner unit and the photosensitive drum overlap each other as viewed from a second direction perpendicular to the first direction and a gravitational direction. The scanner unit is arranged at a center in the first direction in an apparatus main body. The reception portion is arranged on a same side as the scanner unit with respect to the photosensitive drum in the second direction. The reception portion is closer to an end of the apparatus main body in the first direction than the scanner unit is.

A toner housing extends in a first direction. The toner housing stores toner. The toner housing includes a reception portion and a discharge port. The reception portion is located at an end surface of the toner housing at one end in the first direction. The reception portion has a reception port for receiving toner into the toner housing. The discharge port is located between the one end of the toner housing and an other end of the toner housing in the first direction. The discharge port is located on a surface crossing the end surface. The discharge port is for discharging toner in the toner housing. A reception shutter is attached to the reception portion. The reception shutter is movable between a reception shutter closed position at which the reception port is closed and a reception shutter open position at which the reception port is open.

Cartridge having rotatable reception shutter, cartridge having lever for opening and closing reception shutter, and method of supplying toner

A developer cartridge includes a developing roller, a developer housing supporting the developing roller, and a toner storage unit including a first storage chamber capable of storing toner, and a second storage chamber storing the developer housing. The toner storage unit supports the developer housing such that the developer housing is movable with respect to the first storage chamber.

Developer cartridge and image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes a chassis having an opening, a cover, photosensitive members, an intermediate transfer belt, a primary-transfer member, a secondary-transfer roller, a cleaner device, an external-sheet inlet, a waste toner container, a connector, and a conveying roller, which is arranged within the feeding path to feed the recording sheet inserted through the external-sheet inlet in the feeding path. The conveying roller is mounted on the waste toner container and removable from the chassis along with the waste toner container.

Image forming apparatus with removable waste toner container and exposable feeding path

An image forming apparatus, including a casing, a toner cartridge, and a process cartridge, is provided. The toner cartridge detachably attached to the casing stores toner therein. The process cartridge detachably attached to the casing includes a developing unit and a drum unit. The developing unit includes a developer roller and a toner conveyer tube. The toner conveyer tube has a first opening, through which the toner from the toner cartridge is acceptable into the toner conveyer tube while the toner cartridge and the process cartridge are attached to the casing. The drum unit includes a photosensitive drum supporting the toner conveyer tube by contacting a circumferential surface of the toner conveyer tube. The developing unit is pivotable with respect to the drum unit with the toner conveyer tube and the drum unit being slidable on each other.

Image forming apparatus including LED array attached to top cover

A development unit includes a development housing configured to store toner and a development roller rotatable about a development axis extending in a first direction. The development roller supplies the toner in the development housing to a photosensitive drum. The development housing includes a reception port and a slope. The reception port receives toner from a toner container configured to store the toner to be supplied to the development housing. The reception port is located away from the development roller in a second direction crossing the first direction. The slope is located below the reception port in the development housing. The slope includes a first slope portion and a second slope portion. The first slope portion is inclined downward away from the reception port in the first direction. The second slope portion is inclined downward toward the development roller in the second direction.

Image forming apparatus and process cartridge including development housing at which slope for toner is provided

An image forming apparatus includes: a housing; a drum cartridge as a first cartridge including a photosensitive drum; a second cartridge accommodating toner; and a drawer movable between an inside position where the drawer in its entirety is positioned inside the housing and an outside position where at least a part of the drawer is positioned outside the housing. The drum cartridge is attachable to and detachable from the drawer. The drawer includes: a side plate configured to receive the photosensitive drum; and a locking member supported by the side plate. The locking member is movable relative to the side plate between a locking position where the locking member locks the photosensitive drum to the side plate and an unlocking position where the locking member unlocks the photosensitive drum from the side plate in an attached state of the drum cartridge to the drawer.

Image forming apparatus including locking member configured to lock photosensitive drum relative to drawer

A first cartridge is movable in a first direction through an opening between: a first position inside a housing; and a second position outside the housing. The first cartridge includes a photosensitive drum, a drum frame, and a first handle. The photosensitive drum is rotatable about an axis extending in the first direction. The drum frame supports the photosensitive drum. The first handle is located at a downstream end of the drum frame in a movement direction in which the first cartridge moves from the first position to the second position. A second cartridge is configured to contain toner. The second cartridge is unattachable to and undetachable from the first cartridge in a state where the first cartridge is located at the first position. The second cartridge is attachable to and detachable from the first cartridge in a state where the first cartridge is located at the second position.

An image forming apparatus, including a process cartridge and a main body with an opening and a cartridge supporter is provided. The process cartridge includes a drum cartridge; a toner cartridge attachable to the drum cartridge; and a switching member switchable states in the process cartridge between a first state, wherein detachment of the toner cartridge is restricted, and a second state, wherein the toner cartridge is released from the restriction. The cartridge supporter is movable between a first position, wherein the cartridge supporter supports the process cartridge to be placed entirely in an inner space in the main body on an inner side of the opening, and a second position, wherein the cartridge supporter supports the process cartridge to be at least partly placed outside the inner space. When the cartridge supporter is in the second position, the switching member is at least partly placed outside the inner space.

An image forming apparatus includes: a main casing; a first cover; a drum cartridge; and a toner cartridge. The main casing has a first opening. The first cover is movable between: a first closed position in which the first cover closes the first opening; and a first open position in which the first opening is opened. The drum cartridge includes a photosensitive drum. The drum cartridge is attachable to and detachable from the main casing through the first opening in a state where the first cover is in the first open position. The toner cartridge is configured to accommodate toner therein. The toner cartridge is attachable to and detachable from the drum cartridge. The first cover has a second opening smaller than the first opening. The second opening allows the toner cartridge to pass therethrough but does not allow the drum cartridge to pass therethrough.

Image forming apparatus including cover having opening that allows toner cartridge to pass therethrough but does not allow drum cartridge to pass therethrough

Growing community of inventors

Seto, Japan

Shougo Sato