Seiko Epson Corporation

Toshihiko Yamazaki

Hiroshi Ito

Tatsuro Osawa

Takehiko Okamura

Toshiya Takahata

Nobumasa Abe

Tahei Ishiwatari

Akira Kubota

Shigeo Fujita

Shinichi Kamoshida

Keiichi Taguchi

Saburo Furukawa

Hiroshi Ue

Makoto Sato

Minoru Kozaki

Takashi Abe

William Alan Marritt

Koji Motohashi

Jun Sakurada

Karen Hasebe

A fibrous body processing apparatus includes a coarsely-crushed-pieces reservoir unit; a humidifying unit that generates humidified air and supplies the humidified air to the coarsely-crushed-pieces reservoir unit; a weight measurement unit that measures a weight of the coarsely crushed pieces let out of the coarsely-crushed-pieces reservoir unit; a fixed amount supplying unit that supplies a fixed amount of the coarsely crushed pieces measured by the weight measurement unit; a defibrating unit that defibrates the coarsely crushed pieces supplied from the fixed amount supplying unit; a first transportation portion through which the coarsely crushed pieces are sent from the coarsely-crushed-pieces reservoir unit to the weight measurement unit; a second transportation portion through which the coarsely crushed pieces are sent from the fixed amount supplying unit to the defibrating unit; and a generated at the humidifying unit is supplied to the defibrating unit while bypassing the weight measurement unit.

Fibrous body processing apparatus

A transfer device includes a pair of transfer frames, a belt member, a pair of transfer roller levers which are respectively arranged on inner sides of the transfer frames pivotably, a transfer roller which is provided between first ends of the transfer roller levers rotatably, a pair of first urging members, which are respectively provided on second ends of the transfer roller levers to energize the transfer roller toward the belt member, and a pair of transfer pressure controlling members which are respectively provided on the transfer frames movably to control urging power of the first urging members.

Waste toner transporting device with screw for transporting waste toner to waste toner discharge port

An image forming apparatus includes a belt-shaped image carrier adapted to support a toner image: a transfer roller; a contact/separation mechanism, operable to bring the transfer roller into contact with the image carrier to transfer the toner image from the image carrier onto a recording medium and operable to separate the transfer roller from the image carrier after the toner image is transferred onto the recording medium; and a rotation applier, operable to apply a first rotation to the transfer roller in a state that the transfer roller is separated from the image carrier. The rotation applier and the transfer roller are mechanically separated from each other when the transfer roller is in contact with the image carrier. When the contact/separation mechanism brings the transfer roller into contact with the image carrier, a circumferential speed of the transfer roller is made coincident with a circumferential speed of the image carrier.

Image forming apparatus with contact/separation mechanism

A belt member is seamed to form an endless belt which is stretched by a plurality of roller members and circulated in a first direction. The belt member is provided with an electrode portion at a first end portion thereof in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction. A cleaning member is abutted against the belt member. A seam of the belt member extends obliquely relative to the first direction such that an end of the seam confronting the electrode portion is situated in an upstream side of the first direction.

Image forming apparatus having a medium transporting belt formed in an endless shape and having a first and second region

A recording medium carrier system of an image forming apparatus is constituted by independent units as a paper supply cassette, a paper feed unit, a transfer unit, a fixing unit, and a paper ejecting unit. An intermediate transfer unit in the transfer unit is provided with an intermediate transfer belt to which a toner image formed on a photoconductive drum is primarily transferred at a primary transfer position and which secondarily transfers the toner image on a recording medium at a secondary transfer position, and a driving roller for circulating the intermediate transfer belt. The primary transfer position is arranged close to the driving roller.

Image transfer unit having an intermediate transfer belt to which a toner image is applied

Transfer device, with transfer pressure control

An image forming apparatus includes a belt member, a secondary transfer member which is abutted against the belt member to secondary transfer a toner image to a recording medium and a contact/separation mechanism which brings the secondary transfer member into contact with a first widthwise end portion in the belt member first.

Image forming apparatus with moveable cleaning or transfer member

Image forming apparatus having a medium transporting belt formed in an endless shape

An intermediate transfer belt having a plurality of layers including a conductive layer, and having a transfer area and a transfer protection area. A CPU sends a control signal to a primary transfer bias generating circuit, and applies a primary transfer bias upon the conductive layer of the intermediate transfer medium through a bias applying member. The CPU changes an output value of the primary transfer bias in accordance with a predetermined bias change condition when a secondary transfer is not ongoing and when a non-image area, in which there is no toner image transferred on the intermediate transfer belt, such as the transfer protection area is passing the primary transfer part.

Image forming apparatus and image forming method

Intermediate transfer unit having a primary transfer member and a secondary transfer roller

Intermediate transfer unit having a primary and a secondary transfer member

An intermediate transfer belt having a plurality of layers including a conductive layer, and having transfer area and a transfer protection area. A CPU sends a control signal to a primary transfer bias generating circuit, and applies a primary transfer bias upon the conductive layer of the intermediate transfer medium through a bias applying member. The CPU changes an output value of the primary transfer bias in accordance with a predetermined bias change condition when a secondary transfer is not ongoing and when a non-image area, in which there is no toner image transferred on the intermediate transfer belt, such as the transfer protection area is passing the primary transfer part.

Intermediate transfer unit

Recording medium carrier system intermediate transfer unit

Growing community of inventors

Nagano, Japan

Toshihiko Yamazaki