Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Shuntaroh Tamaki

Yutaka Ikebuchi

Yoshiki Yamaguchi

Toshihiko Shimokawa

Hiroshi Yoshinaga

Naoki Iwaya

Kenji Ishii

Masaaki Yoshikawa

Ippei Fujimoto

Akira Shinshi

Kenichi Hasegawa

Takahiro Imada

Takamasa Hase

Kazuya Saito

Tetsuo Tokuda

Yuji Arai

Takayuki Seki

Shuutaroh Yuasa

Tadashi Ogawa

Kensuke Yamaji

Teppei Kawata

Akira Suzuki

Hiromasa Takagi

Arinobu Yoshiura

Ryuuichi Mimbu

Hajime Gotoh

Takuya Seshita

Tatsuya Kubo

Junichi Matsumoto

Takeshi Uchitani

Masahiko Satoh

Akiyasu Amita

Shinichi Namekata

Hiroyuki Kunii

Hiroaki Okamoto

Takeshi Yamamoto

Yoshihiro Fujiwara

Tetuso Tokuda

Tomohiro Kubota

Kenji Kikuchi

Seiji Terazawa

Hiroshi Seo

Noriyuki Kimura

Satoshi Ueno

Yuki Oshikawa

Masanao Ehara

Ryusuke Mase

Yuuki Tsuchiya

Teruo Shibata

Yosio Sano

A packing member, a toner container, and a packing method. The packing member contains the toner container, and the packing member includes a box containing the toner container with a gap between one side of the box and a container body and between the one side of the box and a large-dimension portion of the toner container, a first pressing portion that presses the container body, and a second pressing portion that presses the large-dimension portion. In the packing member, the large-dimension portion of the toner container is disposed at one end of the container body, and the large-dimension portion has a wider dimension than the container body in a direction orthogonal to a longitudinal direction of the toner container. In the packing member, the container body contacts, with first contact force, a first bearer inside the box to maintain the gap.

Packing member, toner container, and packing method

A developer accommodating device includes a rotator including a rotation shaft, a collar that rotates together with the rotation shaft, and a bearing rotatably supporting the rotation shaft via the collar. The rotation shaft includes a resin material, and collar including a metal material. The collar includes a collar main portion to be in sliding contact with the bearing, and a flange portion closer to a center of the rotator in an axial direction of the rotator than the collar main portion. The collar main portion has a first outer diameter, and the flange portion has a second outer diameter greater than the first outer diameter of the collar main portion.

Developer accommodating device with screw including screw blade as rotator, developing device, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus

A powder collection device includes a collection container configured to store powder collected and a powder amount detector including a pair of electrodes. The powder amount detector detects an amount of powder in the collection container based on capacitance between the pair of electrodes.

Powder collection device and image forming apparatus incorporating same

A powder amount detector detects an amount of powder in a powder container of a cylindrical shape arranged horizontally. The powder amount detector includes a pair of measuring electrodes configured to detect capacitance between the pair of measuring electrodes to detect the amount of powder. The pair of measuring electrodes is disposed around the powder container. One of the pair of measuring electrodes has a flat shape, and the other of the pair of measuring electrodes has an arc shape following a shape of the powder container.

Powder amount detector including a pair of measuring electrodes

A powder supply device includes a powder conveyance path and a pair of electrodes to supply powder from a powder container. The powder conveyance path is configured to transport the powder in the powder container. The pair of electrodes is disposed at least in part in or on the powder conveyance path. The powder supply device is configured to detect an amount of powder in the powder conveyance path based on change of capacitance between the pair of electrodes.

Powder supply device and image forming apparatus incorporating same

A fixing device includes a heat source; a fixing member looped into a generally cylindrical shape to rotate in a circumferential direction thereof and partially heated by the heat source and to heat a surface of a recording medium bearing an unfixed toner image to fix the unfixed toner image thereon in a fixing process; a rotary pressing member disposed facing the fixing member to form a nip therebetween, through which the recording medium is transported in a transport direction; and a rotation driver to rotate one of the fixing member and the pressing member. In a case in which the fixing member is halted for a reason other than the fixing process while power of the fixing device is on, electric power is not supplied to the heat source and the fixing member is rotated by a predetermined amount or more after the fixing member is halted.

Fixing device and image forming apparatus including same

A fixing device to fix a toner image on a sheet includes a first rotary member that rotates in a predetermined direction and a second rotary member that contacts an outer circumferential surface of the first rotary member. A stationary member is fixed inside the first rotary member to press the first and second rotary members together to form a nip portion between the rotary members. A reinforcement member is fixedly provided inside the first rotary member and pressed against the stationary member. The fixing device includes heat source to heat the first rotary member and a reflector to reflect heater light emitted from the heat source toward the first rotary member.

A developing device includes a developer bearer to carry developer to a developer range where the developer bearer faces a latent image bearer, a development casing forming a developer storing part storing the developer to supply to the surface of developer bearer, a developer through opening communicating a space in where the developer bearer is disposed and the developer storing part, a cover sheet covering the developer through opening at the developing casing, and when the cover sheet is removed, the developer pass through the developer through opening, a sheet collecting shaft to collect the cover sheet by rotating, and a transmitting mechanism to transmit a force for rotating to the sheet collecting shaft. The transmitting mechanism does not transmit the force to the collecting shaft after the cover sheet is collected.

Developing device, image forming apparatus, and process cartridge

A fixing device includes a fixing rotary body, a heat shield movably disposed opposite the fixing rotary body, an opposed body contacting the fixing rotary body to form a nip therebetween through which a recording medium is conveyed, and a temperature detector to detect a temperature of at least one of the fixing rotary body and the opposed body. A controller, operatively connected to the heat shield and the temperature detector, determines a rotation angled position to which the heat shield is moved based on a size of the recording medium and the temperature of the at least one of the fixing rotary body and the opposed body detected by the temperature detector.

Fixing device, image forming apparatus, and fixing method

A fixing device includes a fixing rotary body rotatable in a predetermined direction of rotation and a heater disposed opposite and heating the fixing rotary body. An opposed body contacts the fixing rotary body to form a fixing nip therebetween through which a recording medium is conveyed. A heat shield is movable in a circumferential direction of the fixing rotary body and interposed between the heater and the fixing rotary body to shield the fixing rotary body from the heater. A driver is connected to the heat shield to drive and move the heat shield between a shield position where the heat shield is interposed between the heater and the fixing rotary body to shield the fixing rotary body from the heater and a retracted position where the heat shield is retracted from the shield position. A reinforcement is mounted on a long edge of the heat shield.

Fixing device including a reinforced heat shield and image forming apparatus

A fixing device includes a fixing rotary body rotatable in a predetermined direction of rotation and a heater disposed opposite and heating the fixing rotary body. A heat shield is movable in a circumferential direction of the fixing rotary body and interposed between the heater and the fixing rotary body to shield the fixing rotary body from the heater. A driver is connected to the heat shield to drive and move the heat shield within a circumferential moving span in the circumferential direction of the fixing rotary body. An abnormal temperature detector detects an abnormal temperature of the fixing rotary body that is not lower than a predetermined temperature. The abnormal temperature detector is disposed opposite a circumferential outboard span outboard from the circumferential moving span of the heat shield in the circumferential direction of the fixing rotary body.

Fixing device and image forming apparatus

A fixing device includes a substantially cylindrical metal member, a heater, an endless, flexible fixing member, a rotary pressing member, and a stationary member. The heater heats the metal member. The fixing member is disposed rotatable around the metal member. An inner circumferential surface of the fixing member is heated by the metal member to heat and fix a toner image. The rotary pressing member is disposed opposite the metal member and pressed against an outer circumferential surface of the fixing member to form a nip between the rotary pressing member and the fixing member through which a recording medium bearing the toner image passes. The stationary member is disposed in pressure contact with the inner circumferential surface of the fixing member, and has an opposing face opposing the rotary pressing member and having a curvature smaller than a curvature of the rotary pressing member.

A fixing device includes a fixing rotary body and a heater disposed opposite the fixing rotary body. A heat shield is movable in a circumferential direction of the fixing rotary body and interposed between the heater and the fixing rotary body to shield the fixing rotary body from the heater. An overheating suppressor is interposed between the heater and the heat shield to shield the heat shield from the heater. The heat shield includes an intermediate portion spanning in the circumferential direction of the fixing rotary body and movable between a shield position where the intermediate portion is disposed opposite the heater directly and a retracted position where the intermediate portion is disposed opposite the heater via the overheating suppressor.

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Kanagawa, Japan

Shuntaroh Tamaki