Brother Kogyo Kabushiki-kaisha

Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd.

National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology

Wataru Yamaguchi

Yohei Hashimoto

Daisuke Ishizuka

Kenta Takagi

Yasuhiro Hosokawa

Kotaro Takifuji

Takaaki Yokoyama

Nao Itabashi

Hideshi Nishiyama

Hiroshi Nakano

Yasuhiro Suzuki

Yusuke Ikegami

Yuichi Ikeno

Shuhei Hatano

Ryosuke Sakai

Kazuya Kamikawa

Takehiro Masuda

Kenji Sakaguchi

Yoshiyuki Tsujimoto

Masao Ichiyanagi

Nobuyuki Tanaka

Shigeki Hayakawa

Wen Chen

Kazuhiro Yoshii

Yuji Yokoyama

Yosuke Sato

Ryoichi Yamagata

A Sm—Fe—N-based magnet powder that includes a Sm—Fe—N-based magnetic material powder, wherein an average particle size of the Sm—Fe—N-based magnetic material powder is not larger than 5 μm, and a full width at half maximum of a diffraction peak of a (220) plane in an X-ray diffraction profile of the Sm—Fe—N-based magnetic material powder is not larger than 0.0033 Å. Also disclosed is a Sm—Fe—N-based sintered magnet that includes a sintered body of a Sm—Fe—N-based magnetic material, wherein an average grain size of crystal grains of the Sm—Fe—N-based magnetic material is not larger than 5 μm, and a full width at half maximum of a diffraction peak of a (220) plane in an X-ray diffraction profile of the Sm—Fe—N-based magnetic material is not larger than 0.0033 Å.

Sm—Fe—N-based magnet powder, Sm—Fe—N-based sintered magnet, and production method therefor

An image forming apparatus includes a main body housing, a main body connector, a fuser having a fuser connector, a power supply board, and a main board. The fuser connector is disposed at a first end section in the main body housing with the fuser attached to the main body housing. The main board is disposed at a second end section opposed to the first end section in the main body housing. The power supply board is connected with the main board via a first connection line disposed close to and along a ceiling surface or a bottom surface in the main body housing, and is connected with the main body connector via a second connection line. The main board is connected with the fuser via the first connection line, the power supply board, the second connection line, the main body connector, and the fuser connector.

Image forming apparatus with reduced number of connection lines

An image forming apparatus, having a cartridge and a main body, is provided. The cartridge has a cartridge-side coupling to transmit a driving force to a drivable member in the cartridge. The cartridge is detachably attached to the main body. The main body includes a body-side coupling movable between a connecting position, at which the body-side coupling is connected with the cartridge-side coupling, and a separated position, at which the body-side coupling is separated from the cartridge-side coupling; a joint cam movable between a first position, at which the joint cam locates the body-side coupling at the connecting position, and a second position, at which the joint cam locates the body-side coupling at the separated position; and a rotator having a dent. The dent allows entry of an end portion of the joint cam there-into when the joint cam is located at the first position.

Image forming apparatus with movable joint cam, and rotator

A sintered magnet contains Sm&#x2014;Fe&#x2014;N-based crystal grains and has high coercivity; and a magnetic powder is capable of forming a sintered magnet without lowering the coercivity even if heat is generated in association with the sintering. A sintered magnet comprises a crystal phase composed of a plurality of Sm&#x2014;Fe&#x2014;N-based crystal grains and a nonmagnetic metal phase present between the Sm&#x2014;Fe&#x2014;N crystal grains adjacent to each other, wherein a ratio of Fe peak intensity Ito SmFeN peak intensity Imeasured by an X-ray diffraction method is 0.2 or less. A magnetic powder comprises Sm&#x2014;Fe&#x2014;N-based crystal particles and a nonmagnetic metal layer covering surfaces of the Sm&#x2014;Fe&#x2014;N crystal particles.

Magnetic powder containing Sm&#x2014;Fe&#x2014;N-based crystal particles, sintered magnet produced from same, method for producing said magnetic powder, and method for producing said sintered magnet

An image forming apparatus includes a housing, a drum cartridge, a developing cartridge including a developing roller and movable between a contact position and a spaced position, a first spacing member configured to move the developing cartridge between the contact position and the spaced position, a first cam configured to move the first spacing member, and a lock member movable between a lock position at which the photoconductive drum is locked to the housing and a lock releasing position at which the lock of the photoconductive drum with respect to the housing is released. The lock member is configured to move from the lock releasing position to the lock position by being pushed by the first spacing member.

Image forming apparatus including developing cartridge

A developing cartridge includes: a developing roller rotatable about an axis extending in a first direction; a casing having a first outer surface and a second outer surface spaced apart from each other in the first direction; a first separation member positioned at the first outer surface; and a second separation member positioned at the second outer surface. The second separation member has a first end portion configured to contact a body-side cam of an image-forming apparatus. In a state where a drum cartridge is attached to an apparatus body of the image-forming apparatus in an attached state of the developing cartridge to the drum cartridge, the first separation member is pressed by a drum cam of the drum cartridge, and the first end portion of the second separation member is pressed by the body-side cam to move the developing roller from a contacting position to a separated position.

Developing cartridge including first separation member at first outer surface of casing, and second separation member at second outer surface of casing

An image forming apparatus includes a housing, a toner image forming portion, a foil transfer unit, a sheet tray, and a discharge portion. The toner image forming portion is provided in the housing and configured to form a toner image on a sheet. The foil transfer unit is configured to superpose a foil with a surface of the sheet. The sheet tray is installable in the housing in an inserting direction and configured to accommodate a sheet to be supplied to the toner image forming portion. The first discharge portion is configured to discharge the sheet from the foil transfer unit to the outside of the housing in a discharging direction opposite to the inserting direction. The second discharge portion is configured to discharge the sheet from the toner image forming portion to the outside of the housing without passing through the foil transfer unit in the discharge direction.

Image forming apparatus capable of inserting sheet tray in one direction and discharging printed sheet in opposite direction

A cam transmits and blocks light emitted from a light emitting portion. The cam moves to: a first position at which first and second cartridges are attachable to and detachable from a housing; a second position at which a first development roller contacts a first photosensitive drum, the second position being a position at which the cam has moved in a first direction from the first position; and a third position at which the first development roller is separated from the first photosensitive drum and a second development roller is separated from a second photosensitive drum, the third position being a position at which the cam has moved in the first direction from the second position. During an initial operation, based on a detection result of the sensor, a controller determines which of the first position, the second position, and the third position the cam is located at.

Image forming apparatus configured to determine position of cam based on detection result of sensor

A belt unit includes: a drive roller; a drive shaft having an axis defining an axial direction and rotatable together with the drive roller about the axis; a bearing rotatably supporting one end portion of the drive shaft; a driven shaft; a driven roller rotatable together with the driven shaft; an endless belt looped over the drive roller and the driven roller under tension; a first frame; and a second frame spaced away from the first frame in the axial direction. The first frame includes: a facing section supporting one end portion of the driven shaft; and a bearing holder holding the bearing. The second frame rotatably supports another end portions of the drive shaft and the driven shaft. The bearing holder is positioned closer to the second frame than the facing section is to the second frame in the axial direction.

Belt unit including first frame provided with bearing holder positioned closer to second frame, and image-forming apparatus provided with the belt unit

A first cam moves between: a first position at which the first cam causes a development frame to be located at a contact position; and a second position at which the first cam causes the development frame to be located at a separation position. A second cam moves between: a third position at which the second cam, in cooperation with the first cam, causes the development frame to be located at the contact position in a state where the first cam is located at the first position; and a fourth position at which the second cam, in cooperation with the first cam, causes the development frame to be located at the separation position in a state where the first cam is located at the second position. The first cam is located at a higher position than the second cam in a vertical direction.

Image forming apparatus including cam configured to move development roller

An image forming apparatus, having a first developing roller, a second developing roller, a third developing roller, a fourth developing roller, a first photosensitive drum, a second photosensitive drum, a third photosensitive drum, a fourth photosensitive drum, a motor, a first output gear, a first gear train, and a second gear train, is provided. The first output gear is arranged coaxially with the motor and outputs a driving force from the motor. The first gear train includes a first intermediate gear meshing with the first output gear and transmits the driving force from the motor through the first output gear to the first, second, third, and fourth developing rollers. The second gear train includes a second intermediate gear meshing with the first output gear and transmits the driving force from the motor through the first output gear to the first, second, third, and fourth photosensitive drums.

Image forming apparatus with a gear train for developing rollers and a gear train for photosensitive drums

An image forming apparatus having a cartridge, a driver unit, a first universal joint, and a second universal joint, is provided. The cartridge is detachably attached to the image forming apparatus and has a first joint to receive a driving force from the image forming apparatus. The driver unit is configured to supply the driving force to the cartridge. The first universal joint is rotatable about a first axis and extends in a first direction based on the driving force. The second universal joint is coupled with the first universal joint and is rotatable along with the first universal joint. The second universal joint has a second joint coupled with the first joint and is rotatable along with the first joint.

Image forming apparatus having coupling structure between cartridge and driver unit

An image-forming apparatus includes a main body, a belt unit detachably attachable to the main body, a coupling and a restricting part. The belt unit includes: a first roller defining an axis extending in an axial direction, a second roller opposing the first roller in a first direction perpendicular to the axial direction, and a belt looped over the first roller and the second roller. The coupling is configured to move in the axial direction to come into engagement with the first roller for inputting a drive force into the first roller. The restricting part is provided on the main body and is configured to restrict the first roller from moving in a second direction perpendicular to the axial direction and the first direction when the belt unit is attached to the main body.

Image-forming apparatus having structure for stably supporting belt unit

An image-forming apparatus includes a main body, a drive source, an image forming section, a coupling and an interlocking mechanism. The image forming section includes a trigger part and a belt unit including: a belt; and a drive roller and a follow roller opposing each other in a first direction perpendicular to an axial direction of the drive roller. The belt is stretched over the drive roller and the follow roller to extend in the first direction. The coupling includes a movable part movable between a transmitting position transmitting a drive force from the drive source to the drive roller and an interrupting position interrupting transmission of the drive force from the drive source to the drive roller. The interlocking mechanism is configured to interlock movement of the movable part between the transmitting position and the interrupting position with movement of the trigger part.

Image-forming apparatus provided with interlocking mechanism for inputting drive force to drive roller of belt unit

An image forming apparatus including a driving source, a planetary gear mechanism including first, second and third elements, a rotation restraint member configured to switch the planetary gear mechanism between a locked state where rotation of the second element is locked and a released state where the second element is capable of rotating, and a switching mechanism configured to switch the planetary gear mechanism between a first state where any two elements of the first, second and third elements are separated and a second state where the two elements are coupled, wherein the third element is configured to rotate in a first direction when the planetary gear mechanism is in the locked state and first state and to rotate in a second direction opposite to the first direction when the planetary gear mechanism is in the released state and second state.

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Nisshin, Japan

Wataru Yamaguchi