Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.

Fujifilm Business Innovation Corp.

Takuya Iwamura

Takuji Matsumoto

Iori Togu

Shigemasa Nakaya

Naofumi Murayama

Yoshifumi Ozaki

Chihiro Hagiwara

Shinji Mitsui

Takashi Sato

Masakazu Okuda

Tomoyuki Yoshii

Chiseki Yamaguchi

Toshiya Kusayanagi

Takaaki Watanabe

A conveyance member includes: a shaft that is rotatably disposed in a passage through powder is conveyed; a first conveyance unit that is provided at the shaft to project in a direction away from the shaft, and includes a plurality of first slits obliquely extending toward the shaft and a first film having flexibility; and a second conveyance unit that is provided at the shaft to project in a direction opposite to the first conveyance unit from the shaft, and includes a plurality of second slits obliquely extending toward the shaft and a second film having flexibility.

Conveyance member, conveyance device, powder supply container, and powder utilization device

A developing device includes a rotating member that delivers developer to a latent image on an image carrier while rotating; a supplying member provided in a supply path extending in an axial direction of the rotating member; a stirring member including a stirring shaft extending in the axial direction and provided in a stirring path extending in the axial direction and arranged side by side with the supply path in a direction intersecting the axial direction, the stirring member stirring the developer while rotating by causing the developer to circulate between the supply path and the stirring path; and a preliminary member provided in a preliminary stirring path into which toner is supplied from an outside and provided by extending an end of the stirring path that is on a side where the developer delivered from the supply member is received by the stirring member, the preliminary member including an extension shaft as an extension of the stirring shaft and a helical transporting blade provided on the extension shaft, the transporting blade being divided into a first transporting blade and a second transporting blade provided across the first transporting blade from the stirring shaft, the preliminary member transporting the toner into the stirring path while rotating.

Developing device and image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes a latent image forming unit, a developing unit, replenishing unit, and a control unit. The latent image forming unit forms an electrostatic latent image corresponding to an image information signal on an image carrier. The developing unit develops the electrostatic latent image using a two-component developer in which magnetic carriers are mixed with toner to form a visible image. The replenishing unit replenishes the toner to the developing unit. The control unit controls switching between first processing, which includes idling processing for replenishing at least part of residual toner, which is to be replenished to the developing unit and remains without being replenished to the developing unit, to the developing unit and stirring the toner within the developing unit, and second processing, which includes the idling processing and density correction processing for correcting a density of the toner within the developing unit.

Image forming apparatus, image forming method, and non-transitory computer readable medium

A developing device includes a first transport path and a second transport path. In the first transport path, a developer containing toner and a magnetic material is transported in the axial direction of a first transport member that opposes a developer holding element by rotation of the first transport member. The second transport path includes plural flow paths that extend along the axial direction, and plural second transport members provided in the plural flow paths to transport the developer. The plural flow paths each have a length in the axial direction that is shorter than the length of the first transport path in the axial direction. Respective end portions of the first and second transport path are connected such that the developer which has flowed into the second transport path from one end of the first transport path flows into the other end of the first transport path.

Developing device including a first transport path and a second transport path including a plurality of flow paths and image forming apparatus

A powder accommodation container includes an accommodation container body, a regulation member, and a transport member. The accommodation container body has a hole portion to outside and accommodates powder. The regulation member is provided in the hole portion to regulate a passage of the powder accommodated in the accommodation container body. The transport member is arranged in an inside of the accommodation container body to rotate about a rotating shaft and to transport the powder in the inside of the accommodation container body. The transport member has one end side in a short direction that is arranged on the rotating shaft and the other end side that is a free end, the free end includes a flexible member that is in contact with the accommodation container body to be flexed. The flexible member is locatable to face the hole portion.

Powder accommodation container, image forming apparatus and manufacturing method of the image forming apparatus

A developing device includes a developing member including a scooping pole generating the magnetic lines of force to scoop up a developer, rotating while holding the developer scooped up by the scooping pole on a surface thereof, and supplying the developer to an image holding body to develop the electrostatic latent image, and an agitation transport unit that is disposed at a position where a developer used for development and separated and falling from the developing member is received, rotates about a rotating shaft extending along a rotating shaft of the developing member, agitates the developer, and transports the agitated developer to a scoop position, wherein the scooping pole is disposed on the downstream side of a line, which connects the rotating shaft of the developing member with the rotating shaft of the agitation transport unit, in a rotation direction of the developing member.

A developing device that includes a developing member, a cylindrical layer thickness regulation member and a guide surface. The developing member retains a developer supplied from a developer accommodation portion and, while rotating, supplies the developer to an image-bearing body. The layer thickness regulation member comes up against the developer retained at the surface of the developing member and regulates a layer thickness of the developer. The guide surface guides developer that has been rendered excess by the layer thickness being regulated by the layer thickness regulation member toward the developer accommodation portion. The guide surface is provided such that an angle that is formed between the guide surface and a tangent of the layer thickness regulation member at a point of intersection of a line of extension of the guide surface with the layer thickness regulation member is at least 90&#xb0;.

Developing device including a cylindrical layer thickness regulation member and image forming apparatus including the developing device

A developing device includes a conveyance path, a conveyance member, a return path, and a pre-agitation region. The conveyance path conveys a toner while agitating the toner. The conveyance member has a rotational shaft, which is rotatably disposed along an upstream end to a downstream end of the conveyance path, and conveys the toner toward the downstream end due to rotation of the rotational shaft. The return path communicates with the downstream end and an intermediate portion of the conveyance path, thereby forming a circulation path, and returns the toner from the downstream end to the intermediate portion. The pre-agitation region is formed at the upstream end side, extending from the intermediate portion and outside the circulation path, and pre-agitates the toner to be conveyed to the circulation path.

A developer transport device includes: a developer containing room for containing a developer; a developer transport member disposed in the developer containing room, the developer transport member transporting the developer in a developer transport direction; and a developer damming member disposed in the developer containing room over the developer transport member, the developer damming member damming up the developer located above the developer transport member.

Developer transport device, developing device, visible image forming device and image forming apparatus

An intermediate belt made of an endless belt is provided by 45 degrees inclined horizontally and looped over two rollers at both its ends, and four photosensitive drums are provided in contact with the top surface of this intermediate belt. A reflection mirror is provided over each photosensitive drum, and a single polygon mirror is provided on almost the same level as these reflection mirrors. The polygon mirror is provided on the side of the reflection mirror of which optical path to the corresponding photosensitive drum is the longest so that the optical path lengths from the polygon mirror to the respective photosensitive drums are equal to each other.

Color image forming device with simplified optical unit incorporating a laser source

Ink stored in an ink tank passes through a supply path and supply port and fills a pressure chamber A piezoelectric actuator vibrates a vibration plate by receiving a voltage from a driving voltage control unit The volume of the pressure chamber is changed by vibrating the vibration plate to eject the ink in the pressure chamber from a nozzle toward to the sheet The diameter of the nozzle is set within the range of 20 to 40 &mgr;m, and an ink viscosity is set within the range of 2 to 6 mPa&middot;s. With these settings, a fine droplet having the total diameter of 25 &mgr;m or less can be stably ejected, thereby obtaining high quality image. In addition, a driving waveform voltage is corrected in accordance with the ambient temperature detected by a temperature detection unit and the ink viscosity is set within the range of 2 to 15 mPa&middot;s, thereby keeping high image quality.

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Takuya Iwamura