Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Takeroh Kurenuma

Masayuki Yamane

Nobuyuki Taguchi

Hideo Yoshizawa

Goro Katsuyama

Seiji Terazawa

Takayasu Nakao

Masashi Hasegawa

Takayuki Tamaki

Fumie Satoh

Teruo Hitosugi

Takashi Hisazumi

Kiyonori Tsuda

Kazuhisa Sudo

Kenzo Tatsumi

Emi Kita

Satoshi Narumi

Shin Hasegawa

Shigeru Horiguchi

Hiroyuki Uenishi

Akira Yoshida

Yuji Suzuki

Shinji Kato

Masahiro Watanabe

Fumio Ogata

Makoto Kawaguchi

Masateru Kohno

Daisuke Hamada

Keisuke Katoh

Nobutaka Takeuchi

Hitoshi Ishibashi

Yoshio Hattori

Noriyuki Kimura

Kohta Fujimori

Tomoji Ishikawa

Yushi Hirayama

Kyohta Koetsuka

Takamasa Ozeki

Keiichi Yoshida

Akira Azami

Masayuki Ohsawa

Yoshiyuki Takano

Yoshiaki Miyashita

Tetsuya Muto

Hideyuki Takemoto

Katsumi Masuda

Nobuhiko Umezawa

Makoto Yoshioka

Seiji Terasawa

A toner container detachably attached to a toner-container holder of a main body of an image forming apparatus includes a container body that includes an opening, and discharges toner contained in the container body, from the opening; and a held portion that is held by the toner-container holder in a non-rotating manner. The held portion includes an open/close member for opening/closing the toner outlet in synchronization with an attachment/detachment operation of the held portion to/from the toner-container holder.

Toner container and image forming apparatus

A powder container includes a rotatable powder storage to store powder for image formation, a conveyor to transport the powder inside the powder storage, and a scooping portion to scoop the powder inside the powder storage. The conveyor transports the powder in a powder conveyance direction parallel to a rotation axis of the powder storage toward an opening at one end of the powder storage. The scooping portion causes the powder to flow to the opening. The scooping portion includes a scooping face extending from an inner face of the powder storage toward the rotation axis of the powder storage, and a rim disposed along an inner end of the scooping face in a diameter direction of the powder storage, and at least a portion of the rim protruding downstream beyond the scooping face in a rotation direction of the powder storage.

Powder container and image forming apparatus incorporating same

Powder container

A process cartridge for use in an image forming apparatus includes an image bearing member and a developing unit. The developing unit includes a developer bearing member to bear developer including toner and carrier, a casing forming a developer container containing the developer, a screw having a shaft with a spiral screw blade, a toner density sensor to detect a density of the toner on a detection surface, and a detection surface agitating member fixedly mounted on the shaft of the screw at a position facing a detection surface to scrape away the developer accumulated on the detection surface as the screw rotates. The detection surface agitating member includes an elastic sheet elastically deformable to scrape away the developer accumulated on the detection surface and disposed at a substantially same angle to an axial direction of the shaft of the screw as the spiral screw blade.

Process cartridge including developing unit and incorporated in image forming apparatus

A developing unit includable in a process cartridge and in an image forming apparatus includes a developer bearing member including a magnetic field generator and a nonmagnetic hollow member, a developer container, an agitation/conveyance member, a developer regulating member to regulate the thickness of a layer of the two-component developer. The magnetic field generator has first and second magnetic poles to generate respective magnetic forces for removing the developer from the developer bearing member after the developer passes the development region. The second magnetic pole generates a magnetic force to attract the developer to form a magnetic brush on the developer bearing member. The developer regulating member includes a magnetic member outwardly disposed on an exterior perimeter surface of the developer bearing member upstream from the developer regulating member, and one planar surface of the magnetic member faces the second magnetic pole across an effective development region.

Developer regulating member in a developing unit, process cartridge including same, and image forming apparatus incorporating same

A toner container includes a longitudinal container body and a held portion. The longitudinal container body has a first end and a second end distal to the first end in a length direction of the container body. The container body includes a gear configured to engage with a drive gear provided in the main body. The held portion is attached to the first end of the container body and configured to be detachably attached to the toner-container holder. The held portion includes a toner outlet, is configured to be held by the toner-container holder in non-rotating manner, and is biased downwardly by a force applied from the drive gear to the gear when the drive gear rotates.

An insertion passageY for inserting a suction nozzleY fixed to an image forming apparatus is provided on a holderY, and a connecting passageY that connects the insertion passageY and a toner storage sectionY of the holderY is provided. After the toner sent from bottleY to the holderY falls towards the connecting passageY, the toner flows into the suction nozzleY through the connecting passageY and is then discharged out of the holderY. An airtightness between the insertion passageY and the suction nozzleY inserted into the insertion passageY is superior than an airtightness between the bottleY and the holderY engaged with the bottleY.

Toner cartridge, image forming apparatus, method of recycling toner cartridge

An insertion passageY for inserting a suction nozzleY fixed to an image forming apparatus is provided on a holderY, and a connecting passageY that connects the insertion passageY and a toner storage sectionY of the holderY is provided After the toner sent from bottleY to the holderY falls towards the connecting passageY, the toner flows into the suction nozzleY through the connecting passageY and is then discharged out of the holderY An airtightness between the insertion passageY and the suction nozzleY inserted into the insertion passageY is superior than an airtightness between the bottleY and the holderY engaged with the bottleY.

Toner container, image forming apparatus, method of recycling toner container

Toner container and image forming apparatus having first and second biasing elements that bias the toner container

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Kanagawa, Japan

Takeroh Kurenuma