Konica Corporation

Konishiroku Photo Industry Co., Ltd.

Tadashi Miwa

Masakazu Fukuchi

Kiyoshi Kimura

Noriyoshi Tarumi

Toru Makino

Yukio Okamoto

Satoshi Haneda

Kunio Ito

Yozo Fujii

Isao Matsuoka

Masato Ueda

Yasushi Yamada

Tadayoshi Ikeda

Ken Nonaka

Naoto Tokutake

Atsushi Ogane

Fumiyuki Hirota

Hidehiro Kanda

Yukiharu Komiya

Shizuo Morita

Takashi Tamura

Masahiko Matsunawa

Hiroyuki Takagiwa

Hiroshi Fuma

Yasuhiko Tanaka

Yoshihide Fujimaki

Hisao Satoh

Akihiko Tamura

Tadao Kishimoto

Kazuo Yasuda

Masahiro Shigetomi

Toshinori Yamazaki

Mitsuo Uzuka

Kiyoaki Kawamoto

Yoshikazu Ikunami

Satoshi Hamaya

Masahiro Makita

Tetsuko Omoto

Tatsumi Horiuchi

Takayuki Miyamoto

Hiroyuki Moriguchi

Akira Tai

Hideo Satoh

Naoki Watanabe

Sakaho Matsunaga

Wang Zhoa Yan

Ryoko Yoshikawa

Sadatoshi Inoue

A clutch is provided with an input section for inputting driving force in to the clutch, an output section for outputting driving force from the clutch, a shifting device for shifting one of the input section and the output section against the other one between an engaging position where the driving force is transmitted by the engagement of the input section with the output section and a releasing position where the driving force is intercepted by releasing the one from the other; and a shock easing member provided to at least one of the input section and the output section, for ease shock caused by the shifting.

Electromagnetic clutch

In a rotation detection apparatus, a magnetism pattern section provided with plural magnetic poles and a FG (frequency generating) pattern section provided with plural toothed wire circuits are located so as to face each other. When either one of the magnetism pattern section and the FG pattern section is rotated together with a rotating member, plural wave signals are electrically induced in the plural toothed wire circuits. A signal processing cicuit synthesizes the plural wave signals so as to output a multiplication signal and detects the rotation of the rotating member based on the multiplication signal.

Rotation control device

An image forming apparatus having a rotational body. The apparatus includes: the rotating body such as a photoreceptor drum; a driver for driving the rotating body; the first member, provided in a driving transmission path of the driving force, for transmitting the driving force from the driving source to the rotating body, and for elastically deforming itself so as to control a natural frequency value of a driving system including the rotating body and driving source; and the second member, provided in the driving transmission path of the driving force, for controlling damping characteristics of the driving system.

Rotational body driving apparatus and an image forming apparatus in use

A developer in use with an image forming apparatus. The developer includes: a developing sleeve which rotates and holds toner on itself so as to develop a latent image on a photoreceptor with the toner; a driving motor for generating a rotational driving force; a drive transmission for transmitting the rotational driving force of the driving motor to the developing cartridge in which the drive transmission has a transmitting state and an untransmitting state; and a shock easing controller or member for easing a shock of transmission of the rotational driving force to the developing sleeve in the transmitting state, in which the shock easing controller or member is provided in at least one of the driving means and the drive transmission means.

Developing apparatus in use with an image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus for forming an image on an image forming body by scanning a plurality of modulated laser beams is disclosed. The apparatus is provided with a generator to generate a plurality of reference signals each with a differrent phase from other reference signals, a detector for detecting the difference of image density between two adjacent image pixels, combined modulator to generate a modulated laser beam by combining a selected laser beam, a selected reference signal and the image density. The detector classifies each pixel as one of an edge starting pixel, an edge ending pixel, and a non-edge pixel based on the value of image density difference relative to positive and negative threshold values. The selection of the laser beam and the reference signal is based on the image density difference detected by the detector and the class of the pixel.

Image forming apparatus with edge point detector based on image density

An image forming apparatus for forming a toner image. The apparatus includes: a photoreceptor drum, having a side surface and a circumferential surface, for forming an image on the circumferential surface: a driving means for driving the photoreceptor drum; a sliding member for decreasing steady state speed fluctuations of the photoreceptor drum; and an elastic member for pressing the sliding member onto the side surface of the photoreceptor drum.

Image forming apparatus having a rotatable photoreceptor

A proper frequency of a driving system is shifted to a high frequency side by increasing the rigidity of a photoreceptor drum or the proper frequency of the driving system is shifted to a low frequency side by reducing the rigidity of the photoreceptor drum so that the proper frequency of the driving system is made so as not to conform with a frequency of a speed fluctuation component transmitted to the driving system. With this construction, the photoreceptor drum is prevented from causing the resonance and the speed fluctuation is reduced so that an image quality can be improved.

Damping device for rotating members

In a color image forming apparatus, an image retainer, a charger, a plurality of developing devices and a cleaner are made in one unit. The unit is dismountably supported in a housing so that the unit can be moved out from a first position at which the unit is set in the housing to a second position at which jam disposition is conducted. When the unit means is placed at the second position, a part of the apparatus is used to cover the image retaining surface at the transfer section.

Color image forming apparatus with photoreceptor protector

A driving mechanism for rotating a rotary body in use with an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine or a printer. The mechanism includes: a rotary body having an axis on a driving shaft; a driving mechanism, including a gear chain, for rotating the rotary body; a first dynamic damper, located at a first side of the rotary body on the axis, having a first specific frequency band for absorbing a vibration of the rotary body; and a second dynamic damper, located at a second side which is opposite to the first side on the axis, having a second specific frequency band for absorbing the vibration of the rotary body.

Driving apparatus for a rotary body in use with an image forming

A color image forming machine includes a plurality of exposure units for irradiating an image carrier movable in a secondary scanning direction of the exposure units by primary scanning beams, at a plurality of irradiation positions to form latent images, a plurality of charging units for charging the image carrier corresponding to the irradiation positions of the exposure units and a plurality of developing units to form toner images corresponding the latent images. The plurality of toner images are superimposed on the image carrier to obtain a multi-color or full-color images trough transferring and fixing. A light-reflective registration mark is provided to a non-image area on one side of the image carrier. Employing at least two exposure units, irradiation by each primary scanning beam is conducted to the light-reflective registration mark moving in the secondary scanning direction. Each reflected beam from the registration mark is received by a plurality of photoreceptor sensors and then detection signals of a registration mark position are generated. Timing of writing by the primary scanning beam and a distance between bright lines formed on the image carrier by primary scanning beams of at least two exposure units are detected. The detected result is fed back to control the start timing of image writing and the driving of the image carrier.

Color image forming apparatus

The invention provides a method of forming an image on an imaging surface of a photoreceptor having a light decay characteristic so that the potential of the imaging surface is slowly decayed in an initial period of exposure and the potential of the imaging surface is sharply decayed in a middle period of exposure. The imaging surface is charged to an electric potential, exposed with a light beam, wherein the light beam has the maximum light amount I.sub.0 in the light amount distribution thereof on the imaging surface so as to satisfy following condition:

Image forming apparatus

An apparatus for rotating a photoreceptor of a given length in its axial direction, comprises a driven system including the photoreceptor and a shaft provided at the axis of the photoreceptor and a driving system including a driving source and a transmission mechanism. The driven system and the driving system are arranged so that the proper oscillation frequency of the driven system is made lower than both the frequency of fluctuation component caused per one rotation of the driving system and the frequency of fluctuation component caused per one tooth of the transmission mechanism.

Photoreceptor for a copier having suppressed fluctuation component

A driving device for a rotational photoreceptor drum for use in an image forming machine, in which a rotational drive from a motor is supplied through a gear train to the axial shaft of the drum. The shaft is connected to the drum only at the side farthest from the gear train. An inertia member is provided within the drum. A rotational member having a rotational resistance is brought in contact with a non-image region of the drum.

Driving device of rotational body for use in image forming apparatus

An exposure device includes a polygon mirror to scan a photoreceptors with a plurality of laser beams to write plural color component latent images. The polygon mirror receives two laser beams at its two mirrors which are arranged diagonal to each other and reflects the two laser beams in the opposite directions to each other so that a first laser beam scans from the first side to the second side of the photoreceptor. On the photoreceptor are provided sensors to output first and second position signals independently when the first and second laser beams pass respectively the reference position mark disposed at one side on the photoreceptor. The exposure device is controlled in accordance with the position signals so that the start timing of the first laser beam is determined on the basis of the first position signal which is obtained in the current scanning line of the first laser beam and that the start timing of the second laser beam is determined on the basis of the second position signal which has been obtained in the previous scanning line of the second laser beam.

Exposure unit for a multicolor image forming apparatus capable of better

The invention provides a method of forming a color image on a recording material by transferring a toner image formed on an image carrying means to the recording material and by fixing the toner image on the recording material. The method further includes adhering a transparent toner layer onto the recording material, and fixing the transparent toner layer together with the toner image on the recording material.

Color image forming method

Growing community of inventors

Hachioji, Japan

Tadashi Miwa