Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Toshihiko Kudo

Yuji Sakaegi

Shigeo Yamagata

Tsutomu Takayama

Kenichi Kondo

Masahiko Yokota

Hiroshi Nakahata

Tetsuya Nagase

Yukihiro Fujiwara

Kazuhiro Matsunaga

Takao Kinoshita

Makoto Kondo

Wataru Kawata

Kazushi Kitajima

A process cartridge detachably mountable to a main assembly of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus includes a rotatable photosensitive drum; a charging roller for contacting and electrically charging the drum; a spacer for supporting a rotation shaft of the charging roller to space the drum from the charging roller; and an urging member for contacting the spacer to urge the charging roller toward the drum; wherein the spacer is movable between a first position for spacing the charging roller from the drum and a second position for contacting the charging roller to the drum, and an urging force of the urging member applied to the spacer is smaller when the spacer is in the second position than when the spacer is in the first position.

Process cartridge

An image forming apparatus having a high toner containing efficiency of a waste toner-collecting container is provided. Piled toner is broken by an vibrating imparting operation and at the same time, a toner feeding member such as a feeding screw disposed inside the toner-collecting container is rotated by changing a reciprocating operation by the vibrating impartment to a rotational operation in a direction. As a result, the piled toner which cannot be completely broken by the vibrating imparting operation is broken and fed, so that driving noise is reduced and the toner containing efficiency is improved.

Cleaning apparatus having a feeding member and a driving mechanism and image forming apparatus using same

Cleaning apparatus and image forming apparatus

The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus comprising: an exposing means and a developing means. The developing means comprises a plurality of developing devices, a rotating member rotatable while supporting the plurality of the developing devices, and a driving means for the rotation drive of the rotating member for selectively moving the plurality of the developing devices to the developing position such that the driving means transmits driving force to the rotating member via a gear at a drive transmitting position. An angle &#x3b8;e(&#xb0;) formed by a straight line linking the rotation center of the rotating member and the drive transmitting position and the tangent of the image bearing member at an exposing position in the image bearing member moving direction satisfies the following relationship with the premise that an pressure angle of the gear is &#x3b1;(&#xb0;) and the image bearing member rotating direction is positive:&#x2212;&#x3b1;&#x2266;&#x3b8;e&#x2266;&#x3b1;.

Image forming apparatus configured so that an angel is formed by straight line connecting a rotation center of a rotary and a drive transmitting position, and a tangent line at a transfer position of an image bearing member

The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus comprising: an exposing means and a developing means. The developing means comprises a plurality of developing devices, a rotating member rotatable while supporting the plurality of the developing devices, and a driving means for the rotation drive of the rotating member for selectively moving the plurality of the developing devices to the developing position such that the driving means transmits driving force to the rotating member via a gear at a drive transmitting position. An angle &#x3b8;e(&#xb0;) formed by a straight line linking the rotation center of the rotating member and the drive transmitting position and the tangent of the image bearing member at an exposing position in the image bearing member moving direction satisfies the following relationship with the premise that an pressure angle of the gear is &#x3b1;(&#xb0;) and the image bearing member rotating direction is positive: &#x2212;&#x3b1;&#x2266;&#x3b8;e&#x2266;&#x3b1;.

Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus has an image forming section for forming images on sheets; a sheet supply section for holding the sheets and supplying them to the image forming section; and a reverse section, disposed between the sheet supply section and the image forming section, for selectively reversing the sheets from the sheet supply section. An inserter set holds and supplies sheets for insertion between sheets having images formed thereon by the image forming section.

Image forming apparatus with reversing section for selective sheet reversal and sheet inserter

An image-forming device includes a control panel having a display function. The control panel is supported by a support member which is provided either on an original-sheet discharge-tray or on a main body and the original-sheet discharge-tray of the image-forming device. The control panel is separate from the main body and positioned toward a front side of the original-sheet discharge-tray.

Image forming device with independent control panel

An image sensing apparatus is provided with a solid-state image sensor which is capable of sweeping out electric charges therefrom, a mechanical shutter and a control circuit for controlling the time period from the time point at which the electric charges of the solid-state image sensor are swept out when the mechanical shutter is in its open state to the time point at which the mechanical shutter is closed.

Image sensing apparatus with control of charge storage time

In an image sensing apparatus having a solid-state image sensor provided with an antiblooming gate and an electronic flash device, a clock signal generating circuit is arranged to apply to the gate a clock signal at a given frequency during the flashing period of the flash device and at a lower frequency than the given frequency during a period immediately before the flashing period and a period after completion of flashing by the flash device. The device includes a rotary encloder with light transmitting, blocking and semi-transmitting sections. The position of the encoder is used in an exposure means for controlling an exposure condition of a photoconverting member.

Rotary encoder for detecting a rotating position of a motor

An image sensing apparatus for picking up images having a solid-state image sensor provided with an antiblooming gate. The antiblooming gate removes unnecessary electric charge at a given frequency rate during a period of time at which an exposure shutter reaches a desired aperture diameter. The antiblooming gate removes unnecessary charge at a lower frequency rate before and/or after the exposure shutter reaches the desired aperture diameter. Thus it is possible to provide a highly efficient antiblooming system that minimizes the duration in which the antiblooming gate operates at the higher frequency rate, thereby minimizing undesirable conditions associated with operating the gate at the higher frequency rate.

Growing community of inventors

Toride, Japan

Toshihiko Kudo