Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Fuji Spinning Co., Ltd.

Yoshihide Kawamura

Fumio Ogata

Masato Suzuki

Masahiro Nakayama

Kiyonori Tsuda

Yoshiyuki Kimura

Tomoji Ishikawa

Kazuyuki Sugihara

Kenji Maeda

Masashi Hasegawa

Hiroaki Tanibe

Seiji Terazawa

Hideo Ichikawa

Makoto Kawaguchi

Shigeyuki Imamura

Nobuhiro Makita

Tetsuya Kusano

Shigemi Kanda

Itsuo Kurahashi

Hiroshi Seo

Tomoe Sasaki

Junko Harada

Saburo Nakajima

A toner cartridge contains a toner container including an opening and configured to contain a toner. An engaging member includes a ring-shaped seal member disposed on a seal member installation surface. The engaging member is engaged with the toner container to cover the opening and rotatably mounted to the toner container while an edge of the opening is frictionally slid on a surface of the seal member. The toner container is configured to convey the toner into the engage member through the opening and discharge the toner therefrom as the toner container is rotated. The seal member includes a non-contact portion at a surface thereof facing the installation surface and being free from any contact with the installation surface so that the engage member includes a space extending from the surface of the seal member where the edge of the opening is frictionally slid to the non-contact portion.

Toner cartridge

A toner container that can pass not only air but a toner, has toner sealing ability, and does not allow toner leakage even during transportation and an inner pressure change of the container, by placing an air permeable member at the fitting part in the casing part. An inner cap including at least the air permeable member is placed in the casing part of the inner cap, wherein the inner cap is used for a toner container that is detachably mounted to a developing unit in an image forming apparatus using an electrophotographical method, and the toner container includes at least a container main body, the inner cap, and an outer cap.

Inner cap for toner container and toner container

The present invention relates to a container containing a toner that exhibits sufficient sealing effects and prevents leakage of the content in the container body. The container according to the present invention comprises a container body having a pipe-like aperture, an inner cap fitted to inner side of the aperture in an attachable and detachable fashion, and an outer cap fitted to outer side of the aperture in an attachable and detachable fashion, wherein the aperture is equipped with a first convex that projects ring-wise from the inner side of the aperture and a sealing face that is situated at tip side of the aperture, the inner cap is equipped with a second convex and a resilient sealing portion, the second convex projects ring-wise from the outer side of the inner cap and has an outer diameter larger than the inner diameter of the first convex, the resilient sealing portion contacts with the sealing face resiliently from outside of the aperture to urge the inner cap in a direction so that the second convex presses the first convex, and wherein the outer cap is equipped with a pressing portion that presses the resilient sealing portion so as to move the inner cap to a position where the pressing are released between the first convex and the second convex.

Container, toner container, image forming apparatus, and image forming process

The object of the present invention is to provide toner bottles and the like in which the possibility to damage the ring gear, in particular the teeth of the ring gear, is remarkably suppressed at processing the toner bottle such as handling, packaging, and transporting, thus packaging and transporting are principally possible without cushioning materials. Accordingly, provided is a toner bottle comprising a cylindrical bottle having a bottom, a cylindrical aperture for supplying a toner, and a ring gear, wherein a helical concave is formed on the side wall of the cylindrical bottle along the axis of the cylindrical bottle, the cylindrical aperture is disposed at one end of the cylindrical bottle, the cylindrical aperture is concentric with the cylindrical bottle, and the outside diameter of the cylindrical aperture is smaller than the outside diameter of the cylindrical bottle, the ring gear is disposed on the cylindrical aperture, the ring gear is concentric with the cylindrical aperture, and the tip circle diameter of the ring gear is smaller than the outside diameter of the cylindrical bottle.

Toner container and image forming apparatus

The present invention relates to a container containing a toner that exhibits sufficient sealing effects and prevents leakage of the content in the container body. The container according to the present invention comprises a container body having a pipe-like aperture, an inner cap fitted to inner side of the aperture in an attachable and detachable fashion, and an outer cap fitted to outer side of the aperture in an attachable and detachable fashion,

A developer container for use in an image forming apparatus including a supporting member rotating around a rotation shaft thereof. A plurality of developing devices are arranged on the supporting member, each developing device including a developer supplying device. A plurality of cylindrically-shaped developer containers containing developer are provided, each developer container having an opening and a guide, and each developer container being detachably mounted on the developer supplying device. A container rotating device rotates the developer container, in which the guide is arranged that when one of the developing devices needs to be filled with the developer, the container rotating device rotates the developer container to transfer the developer in the developer container to the opening in accordance with a rotating movement of the developer container.

Image forming apparatus having an improved developer-supplying mechanism and method thereof

A toner container for replenishing toner stored therein to a developing section included in an image forming apparatus includes a body formed with a spiral groove in its inner periphery and coaxially rotatably supported by a replenishing portion via a seal member. The replenishing portion has a toner outlet in its circumferential wall that is selectively blocked or unblocked. While the body is in rotation, the spiral groove conveys toner toward the replenishing portion with the result that the toner is replenished to the developing section via the toner outlet.

Toner container for an image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus including a supporting member rotating around a rotation shaft thereof. A plurality of developing devices are arranged on the supporting member, each developing device including a developer supplying device. A plurality of cylindrically-shaped developer containers containing developer are provided, each developer container having an opening and a guide, and each developer container being detachably mounted on the developer supplying device. A container rotating device rotates the developer container, in which the guide is arranged that when one of the developing devices needs to be filled with the developer, the container rotating device rotates the developer container to transfer the developer in the developer container to the opening in accordance with a rotation movement of the developer container.

Image forming apparatus having an improved developer-supplying mechanism

A toner cartridge includes a container body for holding toner therein, at least one rotatable member including a rotation center shaft, for discharging the toner outside from the container body, disposed in the container body, the container body having an opening at one end thereof in the axial direction of rotation of the rotatable member, and a cap member for opening and closing the opening formed in the container body, which is capable of serving as a bearing member for the rotatable member thereon and is detachable through the opening in the direction of the axis of rotation of the rotatable member. This toner cartridge is available with toner loaded therein, and can be recycled when the toner is used up. A method of recycling this toner cartridge is provided. In addition, an image formation apparatus including this toner cartridge is proposed.

Toner cartridge, image formation apparatus comprising toner cartridge,

An enzyme immobilizing carrier is produced by dissolving low-molecular weight chitosan in an aqueous acid solution and dropping the solution into a basic solution to produce regenerated porous chitosan in particles, reacting the regenerated porous chitosan in particles with the glycidyl ether of an aliphatic polyalcohol, and reacting further the resulting chitosan with the acid halide or acid anhydride of a higher fatty acid in a polar organic solvent. An enzyme and a polyfunctional cross-linking agent are reacted with the carrier to covalently immobilize the enzyme on the carrier. In a preferred embodiment, the enzyme is lipase and the carrier is produced by introducing the glycidyl ether of an aliphatic polyalcohol at 0.01 to 0.4 mole to 1 mole of the pyranose ring residue of the chitosan and by introducing a higher fatty acid having a total carbon number of 6 to 20 at 0.05 to 1 mole to 1 mole of the pyranose ring residue of the chitosan.

Lipase immobilized on a chitosan carrier

A process for producing granular porous chitosan of extremely uniform particle size and having uniform fine pores on the spherical surface and cut cross sectional face. The process comprises dissolving a low molecular weight chitosan into an aqueous acidic solution, pouring the solution into a basic solution and thereby coagulating the product to precipitate porous chitosan.

Growing community of inventors

Numazu, Japan

Yoshihide Kawamura