Kyocera Document Solutions Inc.

Kyocera Mita Corporation

Yasuhiro Michishita

Takeshi Watanabe

Naoto Miyakoshi

Hiroatsu Tamai

Kenichi Satake

Shunsuke Yamasaki

Shinobu Ohata

Masato Usui

Yuzuru Yuasa

Hiroki Sakane

Yusuke Tamekuni

Koji Uno

Keisuke Oba

Satoshi Uemura

Hiroyuki Ueda

Noriaki Ozawa

Toyotsune Inoue

Yusuke Takano

Tetsuya Toichi

Masafumi Hashimura

Shinji Yamane

An image forming apparatus includes a plurality of image carriers, a charging device, an exposure device, a development device, and an intermediate transfer belt. The image carrier has a surface on which an amorphous silicon photosensitive layer is formed. The intermediate transfer belt is a plastic belt having a surface resistivity of 9.5 to 10.5 (log Ω/square). An offset amount of the primary transfer roller from the image carrier is 0 to 2 (mm), a contact surface pressure between the image carrier and the intermediate transfer belt is 0.5 to 1.5 (gf/mm), and a charge density of primary transfer current that flows when the primary transfer voltage is applied to the primary transfer roller is 0.016 to 0.040 (μC/cm).

Image forming apparatus

The intermediate transfer unit includes: an endless intermediate transfer belt which is turned around while carrying a toner image on its outer circumferential surface; and a plurality of rollers on which the intermediate transfer belt is turnably stretched, wherein the intermediate transfer belt has, on its inner circumferential surface, an information recording area in which belt information has been recorded, and the intermediate transfer belt has a mark at a position in the outer circumferential surface where a positional relationship between the mark and the information recording area comes to a specified relationship.

Intermediate transfer unit and image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes a plurality of image forming portions, an intermediate transfer belt, a primary transfer member, a secondary transfer roller, a counter roller, and a charge eliminating device. The counter roller is pressed against the secondary transfer roller via an intermediate transfer belt to thereby form a secondary transfer nip portion. The charge eliminating device includes a charge eliminating needle that is disposed with an end part thereof pointing to a downstream side in a conveyance direction of the recording medium, and that is grounded, and a charge eliminating needle protection cover that has a guide surface that is opposed to the recording medium having passed through the secondary transfer nip portion, and that maintains a constant interval between the recording medium and the charge eliminating needle, and eliminates residual charge on the recording medium having passed through the secondary transfer nip portion.

Image forming apparatus with charge eliminating needle protection cover that maintains constant interval between the needle and a sheet

An image forming apparatus includes a plurality of image forming portions, an intermediate transfer belt, a primary transfer member, a secondary transfer roller, a counter roller, and a charge eliminating device. The counter roller is pressed against the secondary transfer roller via an intermediate transfer belt to thereby form a secondary transfer nip portion. The charge eliminating device includes a charge eliminating needle that is disposed with an end part thereof pointing to a downstream side in a conveyance direction of the recording medium, and that is grounded, and a charge eliminating needle protection cover that has a guide surface that is opposed to the recording medium having passed through the secondary transfer nip portion. The guide surface is formed of a conductive material having a resistance value of 10Ω or lower, and is in a floating state.

An image forming apparatus includes an image carrying member, an intermediate transfer belt, a primary transfer roller, a first belt support roller, a secondary transfer roller, a second belt support roller, a current feeder, a controller, a current sensor, and a rectifier. The current sensor has a lead member. The rectifier shuts off a current passing from the second belt support roller to the ground if the voltage on the second belt support roller is less than a predetermined reference voltage. The controller controls the output current such that the secondary transfer current has a current value resulting from subtracting a leak current from the output current and, when the lead member is in a conducting state, keeps the voltage on the second belt support roller less than the reference voltage.

An image forming apparatus includes an image carrying member, an intermediate transfer belt, a primary transfer roller, a first belt support roller, a secondary transfer roller, a second belt support roller, a current output portion, a current sensing portion, and a control portion. The current output portion passes across the secondary transfer roller a secondary transfer current as part of an output current. The current output portion and the second belt support roller are electrically connected together. The current sensing portion senses a leakage current passing from the first belt support roller via the intermediate transfer belt to the second belt support roller. The control portion sets the output current such that the secondary transfer current has a value given by subtracting a leakage current from the output current and keeps the voltage on the second belt support roller between −50 V and 50 V, inclusive.

A cleaning device includes a cleaning unit, a movement mechanism, and a unit mounting portion. The cleaning unit includes a cleaning part having a contact surface brought into contact with a surface of a conveyance roller. The movement mechanism moves the cleaning unit between a cleaning position at which the cleaning part comes in contact with the conveyance roller, and a mounting and removing position at which the cleaning part is located below the conveyance roller in a separated manner and the cleaning unit is allowed to be mounted and removed on and from the apparatus body. The unit mounting portion houses the cleaning unit disposed at the mounting and removing position. The cleaning unit is configured such that the cleaning unit in a state of being housed in the unit mounting portion is mounted and removed, together with the processing unit, on and from the apparatus body.

Cleaning device and image forming apparatus

A cleaning device includes a separation and contact mechanism that separates a web from a conveyance roller and brings the web into contact with the conveyance roller, and a controller. The controller includes a conveyed sheet number determination unit and a separation and contact control unit. The conveyed sheet number determination unit monitors a conveyed sheet number of both-surface image forming sheets where image forming processing is applied to both a first surface and a second surface with respect to the sheets conveyed by the conveyance roller, and determines whether or not a cumulative value of the conveyed sheet number has reached a predetermined threshold value. The separation and contact control unit controls the separation and contact mechanism so as to allow the web to be pressed to the conveyance roller by a pressing roller when the cumulative value of the conveyed sheet number has reached the threshold value.

A cleaning device cleans a conveyance face of a conveyance member conveying a sheet. The cleaning device includes a delivery roller, a pressure roller, a fixed roller and a winding roller. The delivery roller supports a web roll that a belt shaped web is wound into a roll. The pressure roller brings the web delivered from the web roll into pressure-contact with the conveyance face. The fixed roller keeps an extending angle of the web passed from between the conveyance member and the pressure roller constant. The winding roller winds the used web passed the fixed roller into a roll.

A cleaning device cleans a surface of a sheet conveyance member that conveys a sheet in an image forming apparatus which executes image forming processing, using a liquid recording material. The cleaning device includes a cleaning member having a contact surface configured to be brought into contact with the surface of the sheet conveyance member. A contact angle of the contact surface with the recording material is smaller than a contact angle of the surface of the sheet conveyance member with the recording material.

A cleaning device includes a cleaning unit and a movement mechanism. The cleaning unit includes: a cleaning part that has a contact surface extending along an axial direction of the conveyance roller and cleans the surface of the conveyance roller by bringing the contact surface into contact with the surface of the conveyance roller from below, and a cleaning housing that supports the cleaning part. The movement mechanism moves the cleaning unit between a cleaning position and a mounting and removing position below the cleaning position. The movement mechanism allows the cleaning part to be brought into contact with the conveyance roller at the cleaning position, allows the cleaning part to be disposed below the conveyance roller in a separated manner at the mounting and removing position and allows the cleaning unit to be mounted on or to be removed from an apparatus body.

Cleaning device and image forming apparatus provided with the cleaning device

A cleaning device includes a cleaning unit and a unit moving mechanism. The cleaning unit brings a web into contact with a conveyance member rotating around an axis and removes foreign matter adhered to the conveyance member. The unit moving mechanism displaces the cleaning unit to a cleaning position where the web is brought into contact with the conveyance member and to a separation position where the web is separated away from the conveyance member. When the unit moving mechanism displaces the cleaning unit from the cleaning position to the separation position, the cleaning unit is displaced in a counter direction opposite to a rotational direction of the conveyance member on a contact face between the conveyance member and the web.

A cleaning device includes a separation and contact mechanism and a controller. The controller includes a separation and contact control unit, a conveyance roller rotation control unit, and a take-up control unit. The separation and contact control unit controls the separation and contact mechanism so as to allow the web to be pressed to the conveyance roller when the conveyance roller is in a non-conveyable state. The conveyance roller rotation control unit rotates the conveyance roller at a cleaning rotational speed lower than a conveyance-time rotational speed of the conveyance roller in a conveyance state. The take-up control unit allows the take-up roller to perform a take-up operation of taking up the web corresponding to a rotation of a take-up roller plural times at a predetermined time interval within a cleaning time in a state where the conveyance roller is being rotated at the cleaning rotational speed.

A cleaning device includes a cleaning unit which removes foreign matter adhered on a conveyance face of a conveyance member conveying a sheet, by using a belt shaped web; and a unit moving mechanism which displaces the cleaning unit to a cleaning position where the cleaning unit comes into contact with the conveyance face and to a separation position separated away from the cleaning position. The cleaning unit includes a delivery roller delivering the web, a pressure roller bringing the web pressure-contact with the conveyance face and a winding roller winding the web passed the conveyance face. The cleaning unit is tilted such that a cleaning face of the web between the pressure roller and the winding roller faces upward as the cleaning unit is displaced from the cleaning position to the separation position.

A cleaning device cleans a surface of a sheet conveyance member which conveys a sheet in an image forming apparatus that executes image forming processing using a recording material, the surface carrying a solid substance that originates from the recording material and that adheres to the surface. The cleaning device includes a cleaning member including a contact surface configured to come in contact with the surface of the sheet conveyance member. The contact surface is an irregular surface rougher than the surface of the sheet conveyance member. At cleaning of the surface, the cleaning member makes a relative movement to the surface of the sheet conveyance member. The irregular surface is an irregular surface configured to take away the solid substance adhering to the surface of the sheet conveyance member when the cleaning member makes the relative movement.

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Osaka, Japan

Yasuhiro Michishita