Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Taro Terashi

Shigeru Fujita

Tomoaki Sugawara

Masaru Shinkai

Masatoshi Saito

Hisao Watanabe

Tohru Maruyama

Toshiyuki Kawanishi

Masato Igarashi

Tooru Maruyama

Iwao Takahashi

In a method and an apparatus for removing an image forming substance such as toner from an image holding member such as a transfer paper sheet, the toner on the transfer paper sheet is heated to be melted or softened. An offset belt having adhesive force stronger than that between the transfer paper sheet and the toner comes in contact with the toner. The toner is separated and removed from the transfer paper sheet when the offset belt and the transfer paper sheet are separated from each other. Heating of the toner is maintained until the transfer paper sheet is separated from the offset belt. The transfer paper sheet is separated from the offset belt before the toner is cooled and solidified. A toner heating maintaining device is constructed by using a heating-supporting member having a heater therein and arranged such that the transfer paper sheet and the offset belt are supported between the heating-supporting member and a heating roller. The heating-supporting member has a bent portion on a downstream side in a conveying direction of the transfer paper sheet.

Method and apparatus for removing image forming substance from image

Apparatus for removing image forming substance from image holding member

An apparatus capable of surely removing a toner or similar image forming substance stably cohered to a sheet, and an apparatus for processing a sheet are disclosed. A liquid supply unit uniformly supplies a liquid to a toner carried on the sheet. The sheet infiltrated with the liquid is heated by a toner removing unit to have to the toner thereof softened. As a result, the toner adheres to the surface of an offset member implemented as a belt or a drum. The sheet containing the liquid therein is conveyed to the toner removing unit without creasing, breaking or folding.

Apparatus for removing image forming substance from sheet and sheet

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Sagamihara, Japan

Taro Terashi