Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Hewlett-packard Development Company, L.p.

Ricoii Company, Limited

Takeshi Uchitani

Takamasa Hase

Shuutaroh Yuasa

Takuya Seshita

Hiroshi Yoshinaga

Tadashi Ogawa

Teppei Kawata

Kensuke Yamaji

Kazuya Saito

Masahiko Satoh

Kenji Ishii

Toshihiko Shimokawa

Masaaki Yoshikawa

Takahiro Imada

Hiromasa Takagi

Arinobu Yoshiura

Hajime Gotoh

Akira Suzuki

Naoki Iwaya

Masayuki Yamane

Kunihiro Ohyama

Masanori Kawasumi

Eisaku Murakami

Toshio Koike

Yasufumi Takahashi

Masami Tomita

Takeshi Shintani

Masato Yanagida

Naohiro Kumagai

Tadashi Hayakawa

Hiroyuki Nagashima

Akira Shinshi

Masaki Takahashi

Takuji Takahashi

Yuuki Satoh

Yuichiro Ueda

Shouji Okabe

Shinichi Namekata

Yutaka Ikebuchi

Atsushi Sampe

Yuji Arai

Satoshi Ueno

Ryota Yamashina

Hideki Zemba

Yasunori Ishigaya

Satoru Yoshida

Ken Amemiya

Yoshiyuki Kimura

Shunichi Hashimoto

Ichiro Kadota

Katsushi Higashida

Eiji Shimojo

Yutaka Takahashi

Nobuyuki Taguchi

Shin Kayahara

Tokuya Ohjimi

Takuji Yoneda

Takayuki Wakai

Ippei Fujimoto

Yoshiki Yamaguchi

Takayuki Seki

Hiroshi Seo

Ryuuichi Mimbu

Shuntaroh Tamaki

Takaaki Tawada

Takumi Waida

Hiroshi Ono

Shin Hasegawa

Masanao Ehara

Jun Yura

Haruji Mizuishi

Mugijiroh Uno

Masaki Sukesako

Tokuya Ojimi

Takeshi Tabuchi

Kazunori Karasawa

Takuya Suganuma

Hiroya Hirose

Hironobu Takeshita

Hiroki Ishii

Kentaroh Matsumoto

Tsutomu Yamakami

Atsuhsi Sampe

Hiroyuki Sugiyama

Hideo Yoshizawa

Hideki Kimura

Eiji Kurimoto

Takatsugu Fujishiro

Nobuo Kuwabara

Masahiko Shakuto

Eisuke Hori

Michiya Okamoto

Fumihito Itoh

Takuzi Yoneda

Yutaka Narita

Kenichi Taguma

Shogo Kezuka

Tetsuya Senoh

Nobuo Kuwahara

Tomokazu Mochizuki

An imaging system includes a lubricant roller to transfer a lubricant to the image carrier, a solid lubricant in contact the lubricant roller to supply the lubricant to the lubricant roller, and a pressing member to urge the solid lubricant against the lubricant roller. The lubricant roller includes a foam that is in contact with the image carrier. The foam is selected to have a permeability of approximately 0.15 dm/s to 1.4 dm/s.

Imaging system with foam material for lubricant roller

An example lubricant coating device includes a rotatable applicator to apply lubricant from a solid lubricant source to a member to be coated, and a supporting device to support the solid lubricant source in a contact state with the rotatable applicator. The supporting device changes a supporting angle of the solid lubricant source relative to the rotatable applicator when a consumption of the solid lubricant source reaches a consumption threshold.

Lubricant coating with reduced lubricant remnant

A toner container includes a container body, an opening, a cover, a toner discharge port, a shutter, a cylindrical structure, protrusions, and an identifier. The shutter is attached to the cover and includes a main shutter covering the toner discharge port. The main shutter moves between a closed position to close the toner discharge port and an open position to open the toner discharge port. The protrusions are on both sides of the cover and protrude in a direction orthogonal to a toner container mounting direction. The identifier is on the cover to indicate a toner color. The cylindrical structure's leading end is downstream of leading ends of the protrusions in the mounting direction. The main shutter's leading end is downstream of the protrusions' leading ends in the mounting direction when the main shutter is in the closed position. The protrusions are downstream of the identifier in the mounting direction.

Information storage system including a plurality of terminals

A lubricant replacement case for an image forming apparatus includes a housing including a plurality of storage compartments to accommodate at least one lubricant unit. The plurality of storage compartments include at least one storage compartment for unused lubricant to be inserted into the image forming apparatus and at least one storage compartment for used lubricant to be retrieved from the image forming apparatus.

Lubricant replacement case

An example lubricant application device includes a rotatable applicator to apply a lubricant from a solid lubricant source to a rotating member, a support member to support the solid lubricant source in contact with the rotatable applicator, a near-end detection member and an end detection member coupled to the support member. The near-end detection member is coupled to the support member such that it comes in contact with the rotatable applicator after a first amount of the solid lubricant source has been consumed. The end detection member is coupled to the support member such that it comes in contact with the rotatable applicator after a second amount of the solid lubricant source has been consumed.

Lubricant application device capable of detecting near-end and end of lubricant

A lubricant application device for an image forming apparatus includes a grinding roller that is rotatable to scrape off a lubricant from a solid lubricant source, and a scattering member to scatter the lubricant from the grinding roller toward a separate rotating member.

Lubricant application device for non-contact applying of lubricant

A fixing device includes a rotary endless fixing belt; a nip forming member disposed in an interior of the fixing belt; a rotary opposed member to contact the nip forming member via the fixing belt to form a nip together with the fixing belt; a heat source to directly heat the fixing belt at a portion other than the nip, including at lease one heat-generation part disposed outside lateral ends of a maximum area of the fixing belt where a recording medium passes through, wherein a recording medium carrying an unfixed image is conveyed to the nip and the fixing device fixes the unfixed image onto the recording medium; and a shielding member disposed between the fixing belt and the heat generation part of the heat source and configured to shield heat from the heat source at least at an area outside the maximum passing area of the recording medium.

Fixing device and image forming apparatus

Developer container which discharges toner from a lower side and includes a box section

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

Apparatus and method for preventing an information storage device from falling from a removable device

Developer container having a cap with three portions of different diameters

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Takeshi Uchitani