Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Yamanashi Electronics Co., Ltd.

Takaaki Ikegami

Akihiro Sugino

Eiji Kurimoto

Takeshi Takada

Tomoyuki Shimada

Yasuo Suzuki

Yoshiaki Kawasaki

Hidetoshi Kami

Ryohichi Kitajima

Nozomu Tamoto

Hideo Nakamori

Hajime Suzuki

Keisuke Shimoyama

Kohsuke Yamamoto

Yasuyuki Yamashita

Shinji Nohsho

Michio Kimura

Takashi Rokutanzono

Hideki Nakamura

Toshihiko Koizumi

Masaomi Sasaki

Kazukiyo Nagai

Hiroshi Nakai

Yasushi Nakazato

Masahide Yamashita

Naohiro Toda

Jun Yamane

Yoshiki Yanagawa

Makoto Yasuda

Masayuki Koyano

Kohji Ue

Masanobu Gondoh

Tomoharu Asano

Katsuichi Ohta

Takeshi Orito

Kaoru Tadokoro

Mikiko Imazeki

Megumi Kawahara

Shinji Nousho

Tadayoshi Uchida

Tetsuya Sakuma

Yuuji Takana

Koji Kishida

Takumi Shinohara

Takeshi Kishinekoen Southern Hills 2-102 Takada

An image forming apparatus having an image bearing member, a charger to charge the surface of the image bearing member, an irradiator to irradiate the image bearing member to form the latent image, a developing device to develop the latent electrostatic image with toner to obtain a visible image, a transfer device to transfer the visible image to a transfer medium by a transfer bias applied to a transfer area between the image bearing member and the transfer member, and a voltage detector to measure a first surface voltage and a second surface voltage under different conditions, and a life expectancy identification device to identify whether or when the expected working life of the image bearing member has come to the end based on a comparison of the first surface voltage and the second surface voltage.

Image forming apparatus

An image carrier deterioration degree evaluating apparatus for evaluating a degree of deterioration of an image carrier of an image forming apparatus, the image carrier deterioration degree evaluating apparatus including: an image deletion detecting unit that detects image deletion by obtaining latent image information written on the image carrier; an image deletion reducing unit that performs a process of reducing image deletion when the image deletion detecting unit detects image deletion, and an image carrier deterioration degree evaluating unit that drives the image deletion detecting unit and the image deletion reducing unit alternately one or more times each, and evaluates a degree of deterioration of the image carrier by using the latent image information obtained one or more times by the image deletion detecting unit.

Image carrier deterioration degree evaluating device, image carrier failure predicting device, and image forming apparatus

An electrophotographic photoconductor including a conductive substrate and a photoconductive layer thereover, wherein the photoconductive layer contains a charge generation agent and a charge transport agent represented by General Formula (A-I), (B-I) or (C-I), and an amine compound represented by General Formula (II):    

Electrophotographic photoconductor, and electrophotographic method, electrophotographic apparatus and process cartridge containing the electrophotographic photoconductor

An electrophotographic photoconductor including an electroconductive support and a photoconductive layer provided thereon, wherein the photoconductive layer includes a charge generating material, an electron transporting material and a hole transporting material, the electron transporting material being a diphenoquinone compound represented by formula (1) described herein, the hole transporting material being a compound represented by formula (2) described herein.

Electrophotographic photoconductor

An electrophotographic photoconductor including a conductive support and a photosensitive layer, wherein the photosensitive layer contains a charge generation agent, a charge transport agent and a binder resin, and wherein the charge generation agent contains an asymmetric disazo pigment represented by General Formula (I), the charge transport agent contains a triphenylamine compound represented General Formula (IX), and the mass ratio of the charge transport agent to the binder resin is 0.3 to 2.0,  where Rand Reach represent a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl group, alkoxy group, aryl group or heterocyclic group, provided that Rand Rare different,  where Rto Reach represent hydrogen, a halogen atom, an alkyl group having 1 to 6 carbon atoms, which may have a substituent, an alkoxy group having 1 to 6 carbon atoms, which may have a substituent, or a substituted or unsubstituted aryl group having 6 to 12 carbon atoms.

Electrophotographic photoconductor and electrophotographic apparatus

An image forming apparatus at least containing an electrophotographic photoconductor, a latent electrostatic image forming unit, a developing unit, a transferring unit, and a fixing unit, wherein a glass transition temperature of an outermost layer of the electrophotographic photoconductor is 100&#xb0; C. or more, wherein the toner is obtained by dissolving and/or dispersing the toner material containing at least an active hydrogen group-containing compound and a polymer reactive with the active hydrogen group-containing compound in an organic solvent to form a solution and/or a dispersion, emulsifying and/or dispersing the solution and/or the dispersion in an aqueous medium containing resin fine particles, allowing the active hydrogen group-containing compound and the polymer reactive with the active hydrogen group-containing compound to react in the aqueous medium, and removing the organic solvent, wherein a glass transition temperature of the resin fine particles is 65&#xb0; C. to 85&#xb0; C.

Image forming apparatus and image forming method

An electrophotographic photoreceptor, including an electroconductive substrate; and a photosensitive layer, located overlying the electroconductive substrate, wherein an outermost layer of the electrophotographic photoreceptor includes an amine compound and a charge transport material, and wherein the amine compound includes an amine site having an electrostatic potential with a dimensionless unit not greater than &#x2212;0.27.

Electrophotographic photoreceptor and method of preparing the photoreceptor, and image forming apparatus, image forming method and process cartridge using the photoreceptor

This invention relates to image bearing member and an image forming apparatus that employs the image bearing member. The image bearing member contains an electroconductive substrate; a charge generation layer; a charge transport layer; a cross-linking surface protective layer, and a monomer having one radical polymerizable functional group with a charge transport structure. The cross-linking surface protective layer is formed by curing a monomer having at least three radical polymerizable functional groups without a charge transport structure. For the image bearing member, the ratio of the layer thickness of the cross linking surface protective layer to the layer thickness of the charge transport layer is from 0.7 to 1.3.

Image bearing member and image forming apparatus using the same

An electrostatic latent image bearing member is provided including a substrate and a photosensitive layer located overlying the substrate, wherein the outermost layer of the electrostatic latent image bearing member includes a cross-linked resin formed from a cross-linking reaction between a charge transport polyol having a specific formula and an isocyanate compound; and the use of the electrostatic latent image bearing member in an image forming apparatus, a process cartridge, and an image forming method.

Electrostatic latent image bearing member, and image forming apparatus, process cartridge, and image forming method using the same

A photoreceptor is provided having an electroconductive substrate and a photosensitive layer located overlying the electroconductive substrate, wherein an outermost layer of the photoreceptor contains a binder resin, wherein the binder resin solution satisfies the following relationship 2&#x2266;(T&#x2212;T)/C wherein Trepresents a initial transmittance (%) at 400 nm of the binder resin solution; Trepresents a transmittance (%) at 400 nm of the binder resin solution which has been allowed to settle for 400 hours under conditions of 23&#xb0; C. and 40% RH; and C represents the concentration of the binder resin solution; and an image forming method, an image forming apparatus and a process cartridge including the photoreceptor.

Electrophotographic photoreceptor, image forming method, image forming apparatus and process cartridge for the image forming apparatus

Disclosed is an image forming apparatus for lowering friction coefficient and lowering surface energy of photoconductor surface in particular, which comprises an electrophotographic photoconductor, charging unit, light exposure unit, developing unit, transferring unit, and fixing unit,

Image forming apparatus, image forming process, and process cartridge for image forming apparatus

A photoreceptor including an electroconductive substrate; a photosensitive layer; and optionally a protective layer, wherein an outermost layer thereof includes a filler, an organic compound having an acid value of from 10 to 700 mg KOH/g and at least one compound selected from the group consisting of compounds having the following formulae (1) and (2): wherein R(R) and R(R) independently represent a substituted or an unsubstituted aromatic hydrocarbon group, or a substituted or an unsubstituted alkyl group, and optionally share bond connectivity to form a heterocyclic group including a nitrogen atom; Ar(Ar) and Ar(Ar) independently represent a substituted or a unsubstituted aromatic ring group; k (K) and m (M) independently represent 0 or an integer of from 1 to 3, wherein k (K) and m (M) are not 0 at the same time; and n (n') represents an integer of from 1 to 3.

Photoreceptor, image forming method and image forming apparatus using the photoreceptor, process cartridge using the photoreceptor and coating liquid for the photoreceptor

The present invention relates to an electrophotographic photoconductor comprising a photoconductive layer, a protective layer, and a conductive support, wherein the protective layer is disposed as the outermost layer of the photoconductive layer, and 20% by volume to 60% by volume of fine particles of fluorine-contained resin and at least one compound selected from amine aromatic compounds and hydroxy aromatic compounds are incorporated into the protective layer. According to the present invention, high durability may be achieved, image degradation such as lags may be controlled from the increase of residual potential and decrease of charging, and high quality images may be formed stably even after the prolonged and repeated usage. The present invention also relates to an electrophotographic process, an electrophotographic apparatus and a process cartridge for the electrophotographic apparatus which utilize the electrophotographic photoconductor respectively.

Electrophotographic photoconductor, electrophotographic process, electrophotographic apparatus, and process cartridge

An electrophotographic photoreceptor including an electroconductive substrate and a photosensitive layer located overlying the electroconductive substrate, wherein an outermost layer of the electrophotographic photoreceptor includes a particulate fluorine-containing resin, and wherein a primary particle of the particulate fluorine-containing resin and a secondary particle formed of agglomerated primary particles thereof, which are projected from a surface of the outermost layer and have an average particle diameter of from 0.15 to 3 &#x3bc;m, are present in an area ratio not less than 10% based on total surface area of the outermost layer.

Electrophotographic photoreceptor, and image forming method, image forming apparatus and process cartridge therefor using the electrophotographic photoreceptor

A photoreceptor including a photosensitive layer including a specific diamine compound, or a photoreceptor including an electroconductive substrate; a photosensitive layer located overlying the electroconductive substrate; and optionally a protective layer located overlying the photosensitive layer, wherein an outermost layer of the photoreceptor includes a filler, an organic compound having an acid value of from 10 to 700 mgKOH/g and a specific diamine compound. An image forming method, an image forming apparatus and a process cartridge using the photoreceptor are also provided. A method for manufacturing the photoreceptor including the steps of preparing a coating liquid including the filler, the organic compound, the specific diamine compound and an antioxidant; and coating the coating liquid is also provided.

Electrophotographic photoreceptor, method for manufacturing the electrophotographic photoreceptor, and image forming method, image forming apparatus and process cartridge using the electrophotographic photoreceptor

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Susono, Japan

Takaaki Ikegami