Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Toyo Ink Manufacturing Company

Ube Industries, Inc.

Yokogawa Hokushin Electric Corp.

Ricoh Corporation

Iwatani & Co., Ltd.

Lec Kabushiki Kaisha

Lec, Inc.

Ricoii Company, Limited

Tadashi Ogawa

Takamasa Hase

Shuutaroh Yuasa

Teppei Kawata

Kensuke Yamaji

Kenji Ishii

Takahiro Imada

Takeshi Uchitani

Toshihiko Shimokawa

Hiromasa Takagi

Kazuya Saito

Arinobu Yoshiura

Masaaki Yoshikawa

Hajime Gotoh

Akira Suzuki

Hiroshi Yoshinaga

Takuya Seshita

Naoki Iwaya

Masahiko Satoh

Satoshi Ueno

Hiroshi Seo

Masanao Ehara

Shinichi Namekata

Yuji Arai

Yoshiki Yamaguchi

Shuntaroh Tamaki

Akiko Ito

Yutaka Ikebuchi

Takayuki Seki

Hiroshi Kikuchi

Hideki Kimura

Hiroyuki Mabuchi

Yukio Otome

Junichi Terai

Hiroaki Okamoto

Yasunori Ishigaya

Ryuuichi Mimbu

Ryota Yamashina

Toshiaki Higaya

Atsushi Nakamoto

Takeshi Yamamoto

Hiroyuki Shimada

Hiroshi Koide

Motokazu Yasui

Keiki Yamaguchi

Toshio Enokida

Hirofumi Ogawa

Koichi Yamazaki

Hironori Ohshima

Ippei Fujimoto

Hideo Yoshizawa

Toshio Koike

Shuichi Kimura

Akira Fujimori

Michiharu Suzuki

Teppei Kikuchi

Jun Shiori

Kazunori Suzuki

Keinosuke Kondoh

Michiko Tamano

Eiichi Kamei

Yasushi Shimomura

Toshikazu Onikubo

Kazuhiro Aso

Toshiyuki Uemura

Hideaki Uno

Makoto Sakamoto

Katsuya Akiba

Yasumasa Suda

Seiichi Arakawa

Yasuo Kanda

Masayoshi Mitamura

Tooru Shimizu

Kenji Ishi

Shuutaro Yuasa

Ippel Fujimoto

A fixing device includes an endless belt rotatable in a predetermined direction of rotation and a nip formation assembly disposed opposite an inner circumferential surface of the endless belt. An opposed rotary body is pressed against the nip formation assembly via the endless belt to form a fixing nip between the endless belt and the opposed rotary body through which a recording medium bearing a toner image is conveyed. A belt holder contacts and supports each lateral end of the endless belt in an axial direction thereof. The belt holder is isolated from the opposed rotary body with a first interval interposed therebetween in the axial direction of the endless belt.

Fixing device capable of enhancing durability of endless belt and image forming apparatus incorporating the same

An image forming apparatus includes an intermediate transferor to rotate in a predetermined rotation direction, a plurality of image bearers disposed along the intermediate transferor to bear latent images, a plurality of developing devices to develop the latent images, a plurality of developer containers to contain developers, and a plurality of conveyance paths each corresponding to a respective one of the plurality of developing devices and a respective one of the plurality of developer containers to supply the developers to the plurality of developing devices respectively. An arrangement of the plurality of developing devices in the predetermined rotation direction is configured to be changed without changing an arrangement of the plurality of developer containers. A layout of the plurality of conveyance paths is configured to be changed without changing connections between a supply source and a supply destination of the plurality of conveyance paths.

Image forming apparatus including developing devices, developing containers, and changeable conveyance paths between the developing devices and the developing containers

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

An image forming apparatus includes a fixing device. The fixing device includes a rotatable endless fixing member, a nip forming member arranged inside the fixing member, a pressing member in contact with the nip forming member via the fixing member, and a heating source configured to heat the fixing member. When an abnormality occurs in at least one of the fixing device and other devices included in the image forming apparatus, a rotation of the fixing member is stopped prior to stopping a rotation driving of a discharging unit and, after stopping, the fixing member is controlled to rotate.

Image forming apparatus

A fixing device includes: a rotatable endless fixing belt; a nip forming member arranged inside the fixing belt; a facing rotating body that abuts the nip forming member via the fixing belt to form a nip portion with the fixing belt; a heat source that directly heats up the fixing belt at a portion other than the nip portion; and a supporting member that supports the nip forming member. The fixing device conveys a recording medium carrying an unfixed image to the nip portion to fix the unfixed image to the recording medium, and the supporting member includes a rising portion extending in an abutting direction of the facing rotating body against the fixing belt and having a tip close to an inner circumferential surface of the fixing belt, and is set to have a section modulus of 200 mmor higher.

Fixing device and image forming apparatus

A fixing device for fixing an image on a recording medium includes an endless fixing rotary member which is formed into a loop and comes into contact with the image on the recording medium, an opposed rotary member which is in contact with the fixing rotary member, a nip forming member provided inside the loop of the fixing rotary member to be in contact with the opposed rotary member via the fixing rotary member to form a nip portion to which the recording medium is fed in a feeding direction, a support member which supports the nip forming member, and a heating source which heats the fixing rotary member. The nip forming member includes a downstream portion extending downstream in the feeding direction from a center of the nip portion and an upstream portion extending upstream in the feeding direction from the center and longer than the downstream portion.

Fixing device and image forming apparatus including the fixing device

Image forming apparatus including a fixing device that includes a radiant heat heating source and a fixing member that rotates before an abnormality solved

A developing device includes a developer bearer, a developer regulator, a casing including an opposing face to oppose the developer bearer upstream from a developing range in a direction of rotation of the developer bearer, and first, second, and third seals. The first seal includes a first end secured to the casing and a second end to contact a latent image bearer upstream from the developing range in a direction of rotation of the latent image bearer. The second seal includes a first end secured to the opposing face of the casing, and a second end to contact the first seal upstream from the developing range. The third seal includes a first end secured to the opposing face of the casing, and a second end to contact developer on the developer bearer between the developer regulator and the developing range in the direction of rotation of the developer bearer.

Developing device, and process cartridge and image forming apparatus incorporating same

A developing device to develop a latent image on a rotatable image bearer includes an upstream developing roller disposed opposite the image bearer at a first developing position, and a downstream developing roller disposed adjacent to and downstream from the upstream developing roller in a direction of rotation of the image bearer, disposed opposite the image bearer at a second developing position. Each of the upstream developing roller and the downstream developing roller has a most approachable surface that approaches closest to the image bearer and a most withdrawn surface that withdraws farthest from the image bearer. In a state in which a reference surface point of the image bearer is disposed opposite the most approachable surface of the upstream developing roller at the first developing position, the reference surface point opposes the most withdrawn surface of the downstream developing roller at the second developing position.

Developing device, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus including same

A fixing device for fixing an unfixed image onto a recording medium includes a fixing belt, a nip forming member, an opposing rotary member, a heater, and a temperature detector. The fixing belt is formed into a loop to move endlessly and fix the unfixed image on the recording medium. The nip forming member is disposed inside the loop formed by the fixing belt. The opposing rotary member contacts the nip forming member via the fixing belt to form a nip portion therebetween while rotating. The heater heats the fixing belt at a place other than the nip portion. The temperature detector detects a temperature of the surface of the fixing belt. The temperature detector detects the temperature near a place of the fixing belt that easily deforms as the fixing belt is heated by the heater.

Fixing device with a temperature detector adjacent an easily deformable location and image forming apparatus including same

An image forming apparatus includes a removable unit to be removably installed in the image forming apparatus, having a unit-side opening, a connectable device having an apparatus-side opening to be connected to the unit-side opening to send developer from one of the removable unit and the connectable device to the other, a receptacle disposed below the unit-side opening and the apparatus-side opening to receive and store developer dropping from above, and a drawer unit to be retractably drawn out from the image forming apparatus. The receptacle is united with the drawer unit to be drawn out from the image forming apparatus together with the drawer unit.

Image forming apparatus with removable unit and a connectable device to connect to the removable unit

A fixing device including a fixing member, an opposing member, a plurality of heat sources, and a voltage detector. The opposing member is disposed opposite the fixing member to contact the fixing member to form a nip portion at which an unfixed image on a recording medium is fixed. The plurality of heat sources heats the fixing member. The voltage detector detects an applied voltage of at least one of the plurality of heat sources. Upon detection of the applied voltage of the heat sources by the voltage detector, a voltage is applied to at least one of the heat sources.

A fixing device capable of incorporating in an image forming apparatus includes a belt unit including a rotatable elastic endless belt having a sleeve shape without a driving shaft and a nip forming member disposed contactable against an inner surface of the endless belt, and a pressing member to form a nip contact portion through which a recording medium passes by pressing against the nip forming member via the endless belt. The endless belt is configured to be removable from the fixing device without contacting the endless belt.

Fixing device and image forming apparatus incorporating same

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Tadashi Ogawa