Minolta Company, Ltd.

Yasunori Nakayama

Kouji Matsushita

Kuniaki Kashiwakura

Takanobu Yamada

Noboru Yonekawa

Shizuo Yuge

Futoshi Okazaki

Yasuhiro Nakagami

Seiichi Munemori

Yuusuke Morikami

Shingo Hirota

Hidetoshi Noguchi

Four image forming units corresponding to yellow, magenta, cyan and black color toners are disposed in row along a rotatable intermediate transfer belt. Primary transfer rollers for primarily transferring images formed by respective image forming units to the intermediate transfer belt and a secondary transfer roller for secondarily transferring the images on the intermediate transfer belt to a paper sheet are also disposed. During the warm-up time, simultaneous controls for determining transfer voltages to be applied to those primary transfer rollers for yellow and cyan and the secondary transfer roller are performed first. Thereafter, simultaneous controls for determining transfer voltages to be applied to those primary transfer rollers for magenta and black are performed. The controls performed in such a manner make it possible to complete the determination of the primary transfer voltages in a shorter time, thereby shortening the warm-up time.

Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus comprising an intermediate transfer belt having a horizontal belt part , and a transfer section arranged opposite the horizontal belt part of the intermediate transfer belt for transferring to a sheet overlaid images formed on the intermediate transfer belt by a plurality of image forming sections Y, M, C, K for overlaying multiple images of respectively different color, wherein a belt unit comprises a frame , at least three rollers supported on frame , and the intermediate transfer belt supported on the exterior surface of these rollers, and wherein the belt unit can be installed and removed from the image forming apparatus body perpendicular to the shafts of the rollers , and parallel to the horizontal part

An image forming apparatus having a cleaner, which can be a cleaning blade, for removing residual toner from the surface of a rotatable image-bearing member, and a charger for imparting a charge to the residual toner before the residual toner is removed by the cleaner. The amount of charge imparted to the residual toner is less than 10 .mu.c/g.

Image forming apparatus wherein the residual toner is charged and cleaned

An image forming apparatus and a cleaning blade employed in the image forming apparatus which is operable to form an electrostatic latent image on an image carrying member, develop the latent image with toner into a visible toner image, transfer the toner image onto a record member and fix the same, and having an edge pressed against the image carrying member with a predetermined pressure for removing residual toner on the image carrying member after the transfer. A degree of toluene swelling of the cleaning blade is in a range from 20% to 100%, and the cleaning blade has an impact resilience in a range from 10% to 65%, a Young's modulus in a range from 30 to 120 kg/cm.sup.2, and a 300%-modulus in a range from 100 to 600 kg/cm.sup.2.

Image forming apparatus and cleaning blade

Grid wires arranged in an axial direction of a photoconductive drum have a positional relation with projecting electrodes arranged at regular intervals in an axial direction of the photoconductive drum at a position opposite to the surface of the photoconductive drum wherein the grid wires and the projecting electrodes positioned adjacent to each other are equally arranged in distance to uniformly discharge an electric charge to the surface of the photoconductive drum from each of the projecting electrodes so that uniform charging can be accomplished in an axial direction of the photoconductive drum.

Growing community of inventors

Gamagori, Japan

Yasunori Nakayama