Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Takatsugu Fujishiro

Takaaki Tawada

Koichi Suzuki

Ken Amemiya

Noriyuki Kimura

Yuji Arai

Toshio Koike

Hitoshi Ishibashi

Hiroshi Ono

Masami Tomita

Masumi Sato

Yukiko Iwasaki

Masanori Kawasumi

Takeo Suda

Shinichi Kawahara

Katsuhiro Aoki

Hiroshi Yoshinaga

Shuji Tanaka

Kazuhiko Watanabe

Hisashi Kikuchi

Yoshio Hattori

Eiichi Sasaki

Hideki Zemba

Koji Suzuki

Yutaka Takahashi

Naohiro Kumagai

Naomi Sugimoto

Akira Sawada

Yoshiki Hozumi

Koji Sakamoto

Hiroshi Hosokawa

Takeshi Uchitani

Hajime Oyama

Hiroyuki Nagashima

Takeshi Shintani

Satoshi Hatori

Hiroshi Saitoh

Kaoru Yoshino

Yoshiyuki Kimura

Nobuo Kuwabara

Tokuya Ojimi

Haruji Mizuishi

Takuzi Yoneda

Hiroyuki Matsushiro

Masami Hiramatsu

Hiroomi Harada

Teruyuki Kasuga

Akira Fujimori

Yuichi Ueno

Hiromichi Ninomiya

Hisao Murayama

Takeshi Tabuchi

Tsuyoshi Deki

Hiroko Hirano

Chiyako Kobayashi

Masato Yanagida

Naoki Iwata

Koichi Noguchi

Keiichi Yoshida

Shinya Karasawa

Yuu Sakakibara

Nobuhiko Umezawa

Chiyako Hatsuyama

Tomoji Ishikawa

Masayuki Ueda

Takaya Muraishi

Atsushi Takehara

Nobuto Yokokawa

Michiya Okamoto

Takuma Iwasaki

Yuta Azeyanagi

Tokuya Ohjimi

Eiji Shimojo

Kouichi Noguchi

Motonori Hanada

Chohtaroh Kataoka

Masaharu Yokono

Kouji Sakamoto

Shigeki Sawa

Hiroshi Yosinaga

Hidemasa Sato

Shuji Wf Research Center Ricoh Company Ltd Tanaka

A lubricant supply device includes a solid lubricant, a supply member contacting and rubbing the solid lubricant and thereby scraping a lubricant off the solid lubricant and supplying the lubricant to a lubricant supplying target, and a pressing mechanism pressing the solid lubricant against the supply member. The pressing mechanism includes a biasing device, and a plurality of pressing members receiving a biasing force of the biasing device and thereby pressing places of the solid lubricant at symmetrical positions with respect to a center of a contact part of the solid lubricant contacting the supply member, respectively.

Lubricant supply device, image forming apparatus, and pressing device

An image forming apparatus includes a rotatable image bearer, a charging member to contact a surface of the image bearer and charge the image bearer, an exposure device to expose the image bearer and form a latent image, a developing device to develop the latent image on the image bearer into a toner image, a transfer device to transfer the toner image from the image bearer onto a transfer medium, and a cleaning blade to contact the surface of the image bearer and remove toner from the image bearer after image transfer. The charging member has surface unevenness created by projections and recesses extending in a direction of rotation of the image bearer. The cleaning blade is configured to abrade projections formed on the surface of the image bearer.

Image forming apparatus and process cartridge therefor

A cleaning blade includes a blade member formed of a strip-shaped rubber material and having a leading-edge ridge line portion to contact a moving surface of a cleaning target member and remove adhering matter from the surface of the cleaning target member. The blade member has a Martens hardness of 1.0 N/mmor more in a vicinity of the leading-edge ridge line portion measured from an opposing surface of the blade member, the opposing surface including the leading-edge ridge line portion and opposing the cleaning target member, or measured from a leading-edge surface of the blade member, the leading-edge surface including the leading-edge ridge line portion and disposed adjacent to the opposing surface of the blade member.

Cleaning blade, image forming apparatus, and process cartridge

A cleaner is provided. The cleaner includes a cleaning blade having an edge to be contacted with a surface of a member to be cleaned while moving relative to the member to clean the surface of the member. The cleaning blade includes the edge, and first and second side surfaces, wherein the edge is disposed between the first and second side surfaces. When the cleaning blade is not contacted with the surface of the member to be cleaned, the first side surface is opposed to the surface of the member, and when the cleaning blade is contacted with the surface of the member, the edge, and the first and second side surfaces of the cleaning blade are contacted with the surface of the member.

Cleaner, and process cartridge and image forming apparatus using the cleaner

A lubricant applicator includes a lubricant and a rotatable lubricant application member. The rotatable lubricant application member contacts the lubricant and an application target to apply the lubricant to the application target while rotating. The lubricant application member includes a core member, a first wound portion including a bristle member wound spirally around the periphery of the core member in a first direction, and a second wound portion including a bristle member wound spirally around the periphery of the core member in a second direction opposite the first direction in an axial direction of the core member. A process unit includes the lubricant applicator. A transfer device includes the lubricant applicator. An image forming apparatus includes at least one of the process unit and the transfer device and the lubricant applicator.

Lubricant applicator, process unit including the lubricant applicator, transfer unit including the lubricant applicator, and image forming apparatus including the process unit or the transfer unit

A cleaning member includes a core bar, an elastic coating layer, and high-friction coefficient parts provided on both ends of the cleaning member. The high-friction coefficient parts include an elastic material. Outer peripheries of the high-friction coefficient parts are inclined with respect to an axial direction of the core bar. The cleaning member is roller-shaped and is configured to clean a surface of a roller member to be cleaned in contact therewith. A charging device and a process cartridge also include the cleaning member.

Cleaning member, charging device, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus

A charging device includes a charging roller, a drive transmission device, and a charging roller cleaner. The charging roller opposes an image carrier driven to rotate and rotates to charge the image carrier. The charging roller cleaner contacts the charging roller to clean the charging roller. The drive transmission device transmits torque from the image carrier to the charging roller, and includes an image carrier gear and a driven gear. The image carrier gear and the driven gear form a gear train to drive the charging roller in response to rotation of the image carrier. The charging roller cleaner is disposed facing a rear surface of the charging roller to prevent displacement of the charging roller due to a force generated by a pressure angle formed between the image carrier gear and the driven gear when the charging roller rotates in response to rotation of the image carrier.

Charging device capable of efficiently charging image carrier

A lubricant application apparatus including a lubricant application member and an elastic member. The lubricant application member applies lubricant to a lubricant receiving member moving in a given surface movement direction. The elastic member contacts the lubricant receiving member in a counter direction with respect to the surface movement direction of the lubricant receiving member, and smoothes the lubricant applied on the lubricant receiving member. The elastic member is in contact with the lubricant receiving member at a contact area of the elastic member, in the counter direction. The elastic member is positioned in a downstream side of the surface movement direction of the lubricant receiving member with respect to the contact area of the elastic member. The elastic member is in contact with the lubricant receiving member at the contact area with a contact angle of 85 degrees or more.

Lubricant application apparatus, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus using same

A lubricant applicator, which is included in a process cartridge, and an image forming apparatus, includes a fur brush disposed downstream from a cleaning member in a direction of rotation of the image carrier that moves in the direction of rotation of the image carrier, scrape a solid lubricant disposed opposite to the image carrier while rotating, and apply powder scraped from the solid lubricant to the surface of the image carrier; a lubricant fixing member to fix the powder to the surface of the image carrier; and a first guide member disposed between the lubricant fixing member and the fur brush to convey the powder scattered from the fur brush to the surface of the image carrier.

Lubricant applicator, process cartridge including same, and image forming apparatus including same

In an image forming apparatus, an area applied with a lubricant, i.e., an area of a lubricant layer having a uniform thickness, is obtained by spreading the lubricant by a lubricant smoothing blade. The area applied with a lubricant covers an area cleaned by a cleaning blade, i.e., a contact portion of the cleaning blade with a photoconductor.

Image forming apparatus, lubricant applying device, transfer device, process cartridge, and toner

A structure which increases positioning precision of a blade member to a rotating member, an image forming apparatus, and a method of manufacturing a unit frame. A first reference surface of a boss provided on a surface of a frame to which a blade is contacted is formed by a first mold that forms a positioning hole for positioning a rotating member. The first reference surface supports the blade member to prevent the blade member from moving to a weight direction. With this arrangement, there is no manufacturing error of the first reference surface due to a mold assembling error. As a result, precision of positioning the blade member to the rotating member can be increased.

Unit, image forming apparatus, and method of manufacturing unit frame

A lubricant supplying device including a molded lubricant having a Martens hardness of about 40 N/mmto about 70 N/mmmeasured with a test force of 50 mN and a load-applying period of 30 seconds, a rotative member including a fibrous brush of a thickness of about 5 deniers to about 15 deniers in a circumference of a rotative supporting axis of the rotative member with a density of about 20,000 fibers to about 100,000 fibers per square inch, and configured to apply lubricant shavings of the molded lubricant to an image bearing member held in contact with a cleaning member and to remove the lubricant shavings remaining on the surface of the image bearing member, and a pressing member configured to press the molded lubricant against the rotative member at a pressure force ranging from about 2 N/m to about 12 N/m.

Method and apparatus for image forming and effectively applying lubricant to an image bearing member

A latent image carrier includes a thin-walled cylinder with a chargeable photosensitive layer. The latent image carrier is configured to form an electrostatic latent image corresponding to an optically written image. A cylindrical damper including an elastic body disposed inside the latent image carrier. A first end of the cylindrical damper includes a wall extending inward toward an axis of the damper. A second end of the damper, opposite the first end along the axis of the damper, includes an opening, which is open in an axial direction. The wall includes a through-hole connecting an internal cavity and an outside of the damper. An outer diameter of an outermost part of the first end of the damper along the axis of the damper is smaller than an outer diameter of an outermost part of the second end of the damper along the axis of the damper.

Image forming apparatus, drum unit, image forming module, and method of insertion and removal of a damper into and from an image carrier drum

A process cartridge including an image bearing member; a lubricant applicator, which includes a lubricant application member configured to apply a solid lubricant to the surface of the image bearing member; and a smoothing member configured to smooth the applied solid lubricant, and at least one of a charging device, a developing device and a cleaning device, wherein the amount of the solid lubricant present on a portion of surface of the image bearing member, which is located between the lubricant application member and the smoothing blade, is from 0.11 to 1.2 mg/m. The smoothing member is preferably a blade having a JIS-A hardness of not less than 79&#xb0;. The process cartridge is preferably assembled by a method including setting the lubricant smoothing member, the lubricant and the lubricant application member to a housing of the process cartridge; and then setting the image bearing member to the housing.

Lubricant applicator, and image forming apparatus and process cartridge using the lubricant applicator, and method for assembling the process cartridge

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Tokyo, Japan

Takatsugu Fujishiro