Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Toshihiro Sugiyama

Hiroshi Saitoh

Eisaku Murakami

Tetsuo Yamanaka

Kazuhiro Yuasa

Satoru Komatsubara

Hiroshi Hosokawa

Yoshiaki Tanaka

Eiji Takenaka

Iwao Matsumae

Shuichi Endoh

Mugijiroh Uno

Hiroshi Ishii

Jun Shiori

Yuji Arai

Yutaka Takahashi

Hirokazu Ishii

Satoshi Takano

Yukiko Iwasaki

Kazuhisa Sudo

Shinichi Kawahara

Takashi Sakamaki

Masafumi Yamada

Nobuyuki Koinuma

Mikio Ishibashi

Reki Nakamura

Megumi Ohtoshi

Toshihiko Takaya

Kazuaki Kamihara

Masayoshi Nakayama

Shigeru Yoshiki

Masaki Sukesako

Takuma Higa

Yuji Suzuki

Satoshi Muramatsu

Nobuo Kasahara

Tadashi Kasai

Koji Suzuki

Takeo Suda

Takehide Mizutani

Hiroyuki Kunii

Takashi Hodoshima

Kohei Matsumoto

Masakazu Terao

Atsushi Tano

Yuichi Aizawa

Wakana Itoh

Masahiro Katoh

Mugijiro Uno

Kouji Sakamoto

Atsuko Miyashita

Ichirou Komuro

Hiroyuki Kunil

Naomi Fukagawa

Eizi Takenaka

Mugiziroh Uno

An image forming apparatus includes a first electric charging unit having an electric discharge wire to uniformly electrify a surface of the electrostatic latent image bearer, a second electric charging unit having a second electric discharge wire to execute a pre-electric charge removal electric charging process by electrifying the surface of the electrostatic latent image bearer subsequent to a transfer process to transfer a toner image, and a first electric charge removing device to diselectrify the surface of the electrostatic latent image bearer by irradiating it with electric charge removing light subsequent to the pre-electric charge removal electric charging process. The first electric charge removing device is disposed within an electric discharge region of the second electric discharge wire on a downstream side of an extreme upstream edge of the electric discharge region of the second electric discharge wire in a rotational direction of the electrostatic latent image bearer.

Image forming apparatus including electric charge removing device and method of forming image

An image forming apparatus includes multiple image forming units each including a latent image bearer and a developing device, a transfer device to transfer toner images from the latent image bearers onto a surface of endless rotary member, a cleaner to clean the surface of the endless rotary member, and a control unit to execute a forcible toner consumption process to forcibly consume degraded toner stored in applicable one or more developing devices. The forcible toner consumption process includes a step of forming a toner image formed for forced consumption in a non-image region of the latent image bearer with an amount of toner corresponding to a difference between an image area ratio of a developed image and a prescribed threshold when the image area ratio of the developed image is lower than the prescribed threshold.

Image forming apparatus and method having a forcible toner consumption process

A control unit controls a device that executes an image forming process, compares changes of each toner adhesion amount in an image-density-detection pattern image when a developing-bias control condition is changed, with respect to a toner adhesion amount in an image-density-detection pattern image in a normal status, performs a malfunction-occurrence prediction process according to the degree of each change of the densities, and displays the result.

Image forming apparatus

In an image forming apparatus including an image forming unit that forms an image on a recording medium conveyed from a sheet feeding unit to obtain an image with photographic quality, at least a part of the recording medium has a transparent portion. When an image obtained by reversing an original image is transferred onto the transparent part, sheet-delivery rollers are operable in a direction in which a pressure onto the recording medium is reduced immediately after fixing of the image.

An image forming apparatus that includes an image bearing member to bear a latent electrostatic image, a charging device to charge a surface of the image bearing member, an irradiating device to irradiate the surface of the image bearing member to form the latent electrostatic image thereon, a developing device to develop the latent electrostatic image, an optional cleaning unit to clean the surface of the image bearing member, a transfer device to transfer the developed image to an opaque medium, an optional cleaning device to clean a surface of the transfer device, a fixing device to fix the transferred image on the opaque medium, and an attachment device to attach the fixed image to a transparent medium after the opaque medium is overlaid with the transparent medium, and

Image forming apparatus and recording medium

A pair of registration rollers align a leading edge of a recording medium having a transparent section and a non-transparent section. A boundary sensor detects a boundary between the transparent section and the non-transparent section. The boundary sensor is provided on a downstream side of a direction of conveying the recording medium by the registration rollers.

Image recording medium, sheet feeding device, and image forming apparatus

An image forming system includes an image forming apparatus that includes process units for different colors and a lifetime management device that manages lifetime information on each unit of the image forming apparatus. The lifetime management device counts the number of prints produced by the image forming apparatus with respect to each of photoconductor units and developing units in the process units, and measures an operation amount unique to the respective units. Based on the number of prints, service life of each unit and operation amount, the lifetime management device calculates the remaining lifetime of each unit.

Lifetime management device and image forming system

In an image forming system, a lifetime management device calculates remaining lifetime of process units, a transfer unit, a secondary transfer unit, a belt cleaning unit and a fixing unit mounted on an image forming apparatus based on an operation amount thereof and a predetermined lifetime index. Based on the remaining lifetime and a predetermined replacement index, the lifetime management device determines whether any unit needs to be replaced, and, if any, transmits a replacement request signal to an external information processor together with a signal indicating remaining lifetime of other units via a communication line.

Process units, a transfer unit, a belt cleaning unit, a secondary transfer unit and a fixing unit each include a storage unit that stores therein information on the operation amount thereof measured by a controller as operation record with respect to each unit. The controller updates the information stored in the storage unit after each time the controller measures the operation amount. The controller calculates remaining lifetime of the units based on the operation amount and a predetermined lifetime index.

Image forming apparatus and image forming system that calculate operation amount of components thereof

An image forming apparatus including a cleaning device for removing toner, paper dust and other impurities left on an image carrier after image transfer with a cleaning member is disclosed. The cleaning member contacts the surface of the image carrier with variable pressure and remains, about the time when the image carrier stops moving after image formation, in contact with the surface with pressure lower than pressure capable of scrapping off the impurities. Before movement for image formation, the image carrier is driven in a reverse direction opposite to a forward direction assigned to image formation, stopped, and again moved in the forward direction and then in the reverse direction at least one time.

A cleaning device for cleaning an image carrier by removing toner and other residues left thereon of the present invention includes a brush having tips, which contact the surface of the image carrier, provided with a loop configuration and a contact pressure of 50 g/cm. A toner collecting space is located at a position adjacent to the brush and at which the tips of the brush contacted the surface of the image carrier arrive in accordance with the movement of the brush.

Cleaning device and image forming apparatus using the same

An image forming apparatus includes an image bearing member, a latent image writing device that emits a plurality of laser beams, two adjacent laser beams of the plurality of laser beams partially overlapping in a sub-scanning direction, respectively, and forming a reference latent image on a surface of the image bearing member by performing repeated scanning of each laser beam on the surface of the image bearing member, a developing device that develops the reference latent image with toner into a reference toner image, and a detecting device that detects the density of the reference toner image. The quantity of light of each laser beam forming a subsequent latent image is adjusted according to the density of the reference toner image detected by the detecting device.

Image forming apparatus with accurate image formation

A toner recycling device of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus conveys collected used toner to a developing device of the image forming apparatus. The toner recycling device includes a powder conveying pump that is driven to convey the collected used toner to the developing device of the image forming apparatus when an integrated value of predetermined numerical values, each based on a number of picture elements of an image to be formed, is equal to or greater than a constant value, and an adding device that adds a predetermined constant value to the integrated value when driving of an image bearing member of the image forming apparatus is detected.

Toner recycling device and method, and image forming apparatus and method using the toner recycling device

An image transferring device for transferring a toner image from an image carrier to a recording medium includes a belt passed over a plurality of rotary bodies for supporting and conveying the recording medium and a cleaning member for cleaning the surface of the belt in contact therewith. A dielectric layer forms the surface of the cleaning member. An image forming apparatus including the above image transferring device is also disclosed.

Image transferring device and image forming apparatus including the same

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Tokyo, Japan

Toshihiro Sugiyama