Konica Minolta, Inc.

Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.

Yohei Ito

Yoshiki Nakane

Tsugihito Yoshiyama

Kuniaki Kashiwakura

Masanori Kawada

Hiroaki Umemoto

Toshiaki Shima

Tomohisa Yoshida

Hokuto Hatano

Kazuyoshi Ota

Shinya Tokutake

Hidetoshi Noguchi

Futoshi Okazaki

Shinichi Yoshimoto

In a method for cleaning an inkjet head, the inkjet head is cleaned using a first cleaning liquid capable of maintaining a dispersion state of ink and a second cleaning liquid having a solvent different from the ink.

Method for cleaning inkjet head and cleaning device

A head cleaning apparatus includes a cleaning unit that includes a cleaning member and a hardware processor. The head cleaning apparatus is configured to perform a cleaning operation of cleaning a nozzle surface of an inkjet head with the cleaning member, the nozzle surface having a water-repellent film. The cleaning operation is performed either in a rub mode or a stamp mode. In the rub mode, the cleaning member and the nozzle surface are brought into contact and relatively slid on each other. In the stamp mode, the cleaning member and the nozzle surface are brought into contact and kept still. The hardware processor determines which mode is performed, the rub mode or the stamp mode, in the cleaning operation based on a predetermined condition.

Head cleaning apparatus, inkjet recording apparatus, head cleaning method and storage medium

A transport member, that transports a developer by rotating in a rotation direction that is predetermined around a rotation axis, includes: a shaft part including the rotation axis; and a blade part spirally provided on an outer peripheral surface of the shaft part, wherein the blade part includes a transport surface that is a surface facing a downstream side in a transport direction of the developer along the rotation axis, and a non-transport surface that is a surface other than the transport surface, and the transport member further includes a fin protruding from the non-transport surface of the blade part, the fin being provided with an interval from the outer peripheral surface of the shaft part.

Transport member and developing device including the same

An image forming apparatus includes an image former which forms an image on an image carrying member with toner stored in a storage, a toner supplier which supplies toner to the storage by driving a conveyance member, a density measurer which causes the image former to form an image having a predetermined density at a predetermined timing and measures density of the formed image, a corrector which corrects a driving amount of the conveyance member based on the density measured by the density measurer, and a changer which changes a timing when the density measurer measures the density in response to an event that a predetermined condition is satisfied.

Image forming apparatus which determines a toner supplying amount based on predicted toner consumption and predicted density of stored toner, toner supply method, and non-transitory computer-readable recording medium encoded with toner supply program

A development device includes: a developer carrier including a magnet roller and a sleeve around the magnet roller; and a restriction member provided opposed to the sleeve surface. When a region on the surface opposed to the restriction member is defined as a first region and regions adjacent to the first region are defined as second and third regions, a magnetic flux density is largest in the second region. When a position where the density is largest in the second region is defined as a reference position, a position where the density is a predetermined value in the second region is defined as a downstream position, and a position where the density is the predetermined value in the third region is defined as an upstream position, the width between the reference position and the upstream position is longer than the width between the reference position and the downstream position.

Development device and image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus having: an image supporting member; a developing device configured to supply a developer to the image supporting member to develop a latent image; a transfer member configured to transfer the developed image from the image supporting member to a transfer medium; a blade configured to remove the developer left on the image supporting member after transfer therefrom; a storing member located downstream from the transfer member and upstream from the blade, the storing member configured to temporarily store a part of the developer left after transfer therein; and a control unit. The storing member is controlled by the control unit to release the temporarily stored developer therefrom toward the image supporting member after a lapse of a predetermined time from when an image density of an image to be formed becomes lower than a predetermined value.

Image forming apparatus with a structure for removing residual developer

A method applicable to an image forming apparatus with a lubricant to be applied to a surface of a photoreceptor for measuring surface roughness of the surface of the photoreceptor after lubricant application, the method including: a first step of measuring a surface profile of the photoreceptor and obtaining first data indicating the surface profile; a second step of generating second data on the basis of the first data, the second data indicating arithmetic mean roughness Ra within a predetermined range; and a third step of calculating a difference value &#x394;Ra between second data before lubricant application and second data after lubricant application obtained by performing the first and second steps both before and after the lubricant is applied to the photoreceptor.

Method for measuring lubricant-induced surface roughness and image forming apparatus

In an image forming apparatus, when some of a plurality of image supporters which are preceded by another image supporter on an upstream side of the carrying direction are referred to as downstream side image supporters, a control section derives a toner supply amount for each of positions in a main-scanning direction for each of downstream side image supporters based on image data for the downstream side image supporters and image data for an upstream side image supporter, and thereafter generates patch image data that represents the derived toner supply amount, and the exposure section further scans each of the downstream side image supporters in the main-scanning direction with an optical beam modulated according to the patch image data generated by the control section.

Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus for forming an image on a rotative image carrier and transferring the image onto an object, including: a cleaning unit removing a residual material from the image carrier; and a lubricant applying unit applying lubricant to a circumferential surface of the image carrier, the lubricant applying unit including: a rotative transporter picking up and retaining lubricant, transporting the lubricant to a lubricant application point, and supplying a portion of the lubricant to the image carrier at the lubricant application point; an ejector causing the transporter to eject a portion of the lubricant retained by the transporter; a collector collecting the portion of the lubricant ejected from the transporter; and a controller controlling ejection of the portion of the lubricant so as to maintain the amount of the lubricant retained by the transporter as no greater than a predetermined upper limit.

Image forming apparatus and lubricant application method

Fiber bundle forms loops protruding beyond a surface side of a base member with constant spaces therebetween, in at least one of opposite ends located in a direction perpendicular to a weaving direction (W) of a ribbon brush, a weft extending between neighboring loops passes under a warp, and a weft extending through the loop passes above the warp.

Loop brush roller and image forming apparatus

A blade member having; a contact layer in contact with a surface of an image carrier; and a support layer superimposed on the contact layer, wherein a first curve indicating a relation between loss tangent and temperature of the contact layer and a second curve indicating a relation between loss tangent and temperature of the support layer intersect with each other in a temperature range of not lower than 25&#xb0; C. and not higher than 45&#xb0; C.

Blade member, cleaner and image forming apparatus

In an image forming apparatus, a cleaning unit includes: a cleaning blade that scrapes off untransferred toner remaining on an image support; an application brush that contacts the image support on the downstream side in the rotational direction of the image support relative to the cleaning blade, the application brush rotating in a counter direction at a contact position with the image support, thereby scratching off lubricant particles from a solid lubricant provided at its periphery, and supporting and feeding the lubricant particles toward the contact position with the image support; and a moving force providing unit that provides the lubricant being fed by the application brush with an electrical moving force toward the image support, on the upstream side in the rotational direction of the application brush relative to the contact position of the image support and the application brush.

A loop brush includes a shaft and a ribbon having loop-shaped fiber bundles arranged regularly on a base cloth. The ribbon is wound around the shaft at a prescribed angle. An arrangement angle that is an angle of an arrangement line, which is a straight line connecting adjacent fiber bundles, with respect to a longitudinal direction of the ribbon differs from a winding angle that is an angle of the longitudinal direction of the ribbon with respect to a circumferential direction of the shaft.

Loop brush, lubricant application mechanism, and image forming apparatus

A cleaning blade, which is configured to be pressed against a toner image carrier that rotates in one direction, for removing residual toner from the toner image carrier, the cleaning blade having: a contact layer that is located in a side to come into contact with the toner image carrier; and a supporting layer that is located in a side not to come into contact with the toner image carrier, wherein tensile stress characteristic curves of a material of the contact layer and a material of the supporting layer intersect with each other. An image forming apparatus having a toner image carrier and the cleaning blade.

Growing community of inventors

Toyokawa, Japan

Yohei Ito