Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Toshiba Tec Kabushiki Kaisha

Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.

Takashi Hatakeyama

Hiroshi Murata

Takao Izumi

Minoru Yoshida

Masashi Takahashi

Takeshi Watanabe

Shoko Shimmura

Toshihiro Kasai

Masashi Hiroki

Kiyoshi Hashimoto

Tadayoshi Ohno

Masafumi Kudo

Kazuhisa Kimura

Kunihiro Shibuya

Nobuhide Inaba

Shuhei Kobayakawa

An inspection information prediction apparatus includes an environment-information acquisition unit that acquires environment information of a routing step through which an inspection target has been routed before an inspection step of inspecting the inspection target, a manufacturing-information acquisition unit that acquires manufacturing information of the inspection target, and a prediction unit that predicts inspection information which indicates an inspection result of an inspection portion of the inspection target determined by the manufacturing information and is obtained by applying the environment information, based on the manufacturing information of the inspection target and the environment information of the routing step through which the inspection target has been routed.

Inspection information prediction apparatus, inspection apparatus, and non-transitory computer readable medium storing inspection information prediction program

A developing apparatus includes a tank configured to contain a developing agent including a toner and a carrier, the tank having a discharge port configured to discharge the developing agent overflowing from the tank, a supplier configured to develop a latent image by using the toner contained in the tank, a replenisher configured to contain the developing agent and to replenish the developing agent into the tank, and a controller configured to estimate an amount of the developing agent in the tank in according with the amount of the supplied developing agent and the amount of the replenished developing agent and to execute a forced discharge for forcibly discharging the developing agent contained in the tank from the discharge port based on the estimated amount of developing agent.

Developing apparatus

According to an embodiment, a developing device, comprising: a developing unit configured to store an initial two-component developer including an initial toner containing silica externally added and a carrier and to form a toner image on an image bearing member with the two-component developer; a discharging section configured to discharge a part of the initial developer from the developing unit; and a developer supplying unit configured to supply a supply developer including a supply toner containing silica externally added and the carrier to the developing unit, the amount of silica added to the supply toner being smaller than the amount of silica added to the initial toner.

Developing device and developing method for image forming apparatus

In an embodiment, a reducing plate that dams up a part of a developer scraped up by a blade is provided. The reducing plate suppresses swell of the developer held up by a discharge mixer from fluctuating according to the rotation of the blade. Fluctuation in an excess developer discharged from a discharge port is suppressed and replace a deteriorated carrier in a development container with a new carrier little by little.

Developing device

In an embodiment, a contact pivoting plate, which comes into contact with a developer swelled by a discharge mixer, is provided in a case. The contact pivoting plate is pivoted according to a detection result of a temperature and humidity sensor to change the magnitude of resistance by the contact pivoting plate with respect to a flow of the developer. The height of the swell of the developer is suppressed from fluctuating according to an environmental change. The fluctuation in an amount of an excess developer discharged from a discharge port is suppressed to replace a deteriorated carrier in a development container with a new carrier little by little.

There are provided a developing unit and a developer stirring and transporting method in which the amount of developer in the developing unit can always be kept at a specified amount without being influenced by a use environment. A developing unitincludes a developing roller, a containing unitto contain the developer and having a discharge portto discharge the overflown developer in its side wall, a stirring and transporting memberto stir and transport the developer along a passageformed in the containing unit, and a guide unitprovided in the passagecorrespondingly to the discharge portof the containing unitand to guide the developer transported in the passageby the stirring and transporting memberto the discharge portside.

Developing unit and developer stirring and transporting method

According to an embodiment of the invention, degradation of carrier in a case is detected from the number of rotations of a developing roller. A predetermined quantity of carrier is replenished every time the developing roller reaches a predetermined number of rotations. An excess developer caused by an increase in bulk through carrier replenishment is discharged from a developer discharge port. The degraded old carrier in the case is replaced by new carrier little by little.

Developing device of image forming apparatus using a toner and carrier mixture

A developing device includes a developer tank configured to contain a developer including a toner and a carrier, the developer tank having a discharge port which is provided in a lateral side surface of the developer tank and configured to discharge the developer, a developing agent supplier configured to develop a latent image by using the toner contained in the developer tank, and a plate-shaped member configured to be formed in a direction of height from a lower end of the discharge port and partially cover the discharge port to regulate the discharge of the developer.

A developing unit and a developer stirring and transporting method are provided that enable smooth discharge of a developer in the developing unit without being affected by the inclination of the developing unit. A developing unithas a developing roller, a housing unitconfigured to house a developer and having in its sidewall a discharge portwhich discharges overflowing developer, a stirring and transporting memberconfigured to stir and transport the developer along a passageformed in the housing unit, and a deposit structure unitprovided in the passageand configured to raise the height position of a bottom surfacepart of the passagecorresponding at least to the discharge portto a position higher than the other areas of the passage, and thereby deposit the developer near the discharge port

An image forming apparatus includes a charger to charge an image carrying member, an optical device to irradiate a light onto the image carrying member to form an electrostatic latent image, a developing device to develop the electrostatic latent image on the image carrying member to form a developed image and a transfer device to transfer the developed image on a sheet. The developing device includes a developer container to store a developer including toner and a carrier, a developer supply device to supply the developer to the developer container, a driver device to drive the developer supply device, a developer collection device installed in the developer container to interlock with the driver device and collect a surplus developer left over due to supply of the developer from the developer supply device to the developer container, and a collected developer container to contain the developer collected by the developer collection device.

Supplying and discharging developer in an image forming apparatus, process cartridge and developing device

Developing unit and developer stirring/transporting method

There are provided a developing apparatus and a developer collecting method, in which a collection unit to collect a developer discharged from a developing unit by overflow is disposed not to largely protrude to the outside of an installation space of the developing unit. There are included a developing unitincluding a discharge portto discharge a developer by overflow, and a developer collecting unitthat is disposed so that at least a part overlaps with the developing unitwhen the developing unitis viewed from above, and contains the developer discharged from the discharge portof the developing unit

Developing apparatus and developer collecting method

There is provided a technique in which in a development apparatus to perform replacement of developer, the amount of developer can be stably kept irrespective of a change in a physical property of the developer. There are included a development apparatus that circulates and conveys a developer supplied at a specified timing in a specified conveying chamber and causes the developer to overflow through a discharge port provided in the conveying chamber, a fluidity judgment unit to judge a degree of fluidity of the developer in the conveying chamber, and a speed control unit to control a conveying speed of the developer in a specified range near the discharge port in the conveying chamber to become low relative to an average value of a conveying speed of the developer in a conveying passage except the specified range when the fluidity judged by the fluidity judgment unit is low.

Growing community of inventors

Yokohama, Japan

Takashi Hatakeyama