Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Ntt Docomo, Inc.

Yuji Nakayama

Masaya Kawada

Toshiyuki Ehara

Hironori Owaki

Koji Yamazaki

Takaaki Kaya

Tetsuya Karaki

Hironori Ohwaki

Norihiko Kubo

Hisataka Hisakuni

Shuichi Tamura

Jiro Ishizuka

Junji Ito

Koji Amemiya

Toru Otsu

Yuji Aburakawa

Toru Kabashima

Shuhei Takahashi

Toshihiko Sugimoto

Shinichirou Yoshikawa

Koichiro Yamaguchi

Erito Machida

Provided is a recorded material in which a recording liquid is satisfactorily fixed to a recording medium and which has a sufficient chroma and a sufficient lightness, in high-speed printing. The recorded material comprises a recording medium, a toner particle including colorant particles, and a cured resin including the toner particle and fixing a toner image formed of the toner particle onto the recording medium, wherein an average circularity of the toner particle is not less than 0.70 and not more than 0.99, the toner particle is not exposed from a surface of the cured resin, and an average distance between wall surfaces of the adjacent toner particles is not less than 10 nm and less than 125 nm.

Recorded material and image forming method

A reception side radio station has a notification signal generatorwhich transmits a notification signal for notifying information of a frequency of a radio link being used at the radio station, and a transmitterwhich transmits information indicating a reception power level and its frequency as radio signal data. On the other hand, a transmission side radio station has a notification signal measurerwhich measures a reception power level of the notification signal and detects the frequency notified by the signal, and a frequency band controllerwhich determines an assignable frequency band for a radio link between the transmission side radio station and the reception side radio station based on the radio signal data and the notification signal.

Communication control method and communication control system

An image forming apparatus includes an image bearing member on which a toner image is formed and a blade retained so as to be capable of coming into contact with and separating from the image bearing member and adapted, when in contact with the image bearing member, to remove residual toner remaining on the image bearing member after image transfer, the blade being brought into contact with or separated from the image bearing member during movement of the image bearing member, wherein the blade includes an edge portion to be brought into contact with the image bearing member and a support portion causing the edge portion to come into contact with the image bearing member, and wherein the hardness of the edge portion is higher than the hardness of the support portion, the hardness of the edge portion being not less than 75 degrees but not more than 100 degrees (JIS-A), the hardness of the support portion being not less than 60 degrees but not more than 85 degrees (JIS-A).

Cleaning blade for an image forming apparatus featuring a supporting portion and a cleaning portion having specified hardness and friction properties for the portions

In a cleaning blade and an image-forming apparatus using a cleaning means having the cleaning blade, the cleaning blade is composed of an edge portion which is brought into contact with the image-bearing member and a support portion which brings the edge portion into contact with the image-bearing member, where the value at a peak temperature (t1) of a loss tangent of the edge portion, tan &dgr;1, is smaller than the value at a peak temperature (t2) of a loss tangent of the support portion, tan &dgr;2, and a curve which represents the temperature dependence of the loss tangent of the edge portion and a curve which represents the temperature dependence of the loss tangent of the support portion intersect at t1&deg; C. or above to t1&plus;40&deg; C. or below. These can maintain the surface state of a photosensitive member that does not cause any smeared images or melt adhesion of toner even when non-magnetic toners are used, promising a great improvement in reliability, and also can deal with any situations even when the productivity has dramatically been advanced.

Image-forming apparatus and cleaning blade

Provided are an electrophotographic method and an electrophotographic apparatus that can reduce ghost memory latent in an a-Si photosensitive member, relieve potential unevenness, and provide image copies with high quality. In an electrophotographic process of forming a toner image at least through decharging of a photosensitive member as a recording element, charging, exposing, developing, and transferring, at least a light-receiving layer of the photosensitive member is comprised of an amorphous material; a latent image is formed by the exposing with a light; the light has such a peak wavelength in an emission spectrum as to make minimum a value of optical memory at a unit contrast potential; and the decharging is implemented by use of a light having a full width at half maximum of a peak in an emission spectrum of not more than 50 nm.

Electrophotographic method and electrophotographic apparatus

An image forming apparatus has a first image bearing body for bearing an image formed by a substantially spherical toner, transferring belt for transferring a toner image formed on the first image bearing body onto a second image bearing body, and a cleaning member, abutting on the first image forming body, for sweeping away the toner remaining on the first image bearing body after a transferring operation by the transferring belt, wherein the first image bearing body contains a fluororesin on its surface, a content ratio F (% by weight) of the fluororesin is in a range of 10&lE;F&lE;50, a surface roughness Rz (&mgr;m) of the first image bearing body is Rz<5.0, and a dynamic friction coefficient &mgr; between the first image bearing body and the cleaning member is in a range of 0.5&lE;&mgr;&lE;2.5.

Electrophotographic image forming apparatus

Electrophotographic apparatus and electrophotographic method featuring a photosensitive member having a linear EV characteristic

An image forming apparatus provided with an image forming portion for forming an image by a developer, a bearing and conveying member capable of bearing thereon and conveying a transfer material on which the developer image is formed, or the developer image directly transferred thereto, and a cleaning portion for cleaning the bearing and conveying member, the cleaning portion has a cleaning blade abutting against the bearing and conveying member, and a holding member holding the cleaning blade and swingable about a rotary shaft, wherein the angle formed by a tangential line on the abutting portion of the cleaning blade against the bearing and conveying member with a line connecting the center of the rotary shaft and the abutting portion is designed to be equal to or greater than 0&deg; and equal to or smaller than 15&deg;, and the abrasion wear of the surface of the bearing and conveying member when in use of the apparatus, the bearing and conveying member has made 10,000 revolutions is designed to be equal to or greater than 0.01 &mgr;m and equal to or less than 1.0 &mgr;m.

Image forming apparatus including bearing and conveying member with excessive-wear prevention properties

Electrophotographic apparatus

An electrophotographic image forming apparatus includes an image-bearing member for bearing a toner image thereon, a transfer device for transferring the toner image from the image-bearing member to a recording medium at a transfer position, a drive mechanism for moving the image-bearing member, and a cleaning blade abutted against the image-bearing member for removing a transfer residual toner remaining on the image-bearing member after the transfer of the toner image to the recording medium in accordance with the movement of the image-bearing member. The image forming apparatus is operated effectively for a long period by cleaning the image-bearing member according to a method wherein cleaning aid particles having a volume-average particle size of 0.1-3 &mgr;m smaller than that of the toner are caused to be resident in a width of 50-100 &mgr;m along an upstream side of the cleaning blade with respect to the moving direction of the image-bearing member.

Image-bearing member cleaning method and electrophotographic image forming apparatus

An electrophotographic process is implemented with improved ghost memory and with high chargeability even under circumstances of increased process speed or compactified structure and the electrophotographic process forms an image on a photosensitive member having a photosensitive layer through a series of steps including steps of charge elimination, charging, latent image exposure, and development to form a toner image, wherein light used in the latent image exposure step is light of a wavelength within such a range that a value of (optical memory before charging)/(sensitivity) of the photosensitive layer is not more than 1.5 times a minimum value. The optical memory before charging means lowering in chargeability due to light irradiation before charging.

Image forming apparatus having a photosensitive member of amorphous silicon base and system for exposing and charging the photosensitive member

An image forming apparatus which largely improves the reliability of electrophotographic apparatuses and can accommodate their extremely large productivity comprises an image forming part which forms toner images on an image carrying member, an image transfer part which transfers the toner images on the image carrying member onto a transfer material, and a cleaning part which removes post-transfer residual toner left on the image carrying member after the images are transferred onto the transfer material by the image transfer part, wherein the image carrying member is an amorphous silicon photosensitive member and an initial average gradient &Dgr;a of the photosensitive member is 0.0001 to 0.005.

Image forming apparatus

An electrophotographic amorphous silicon photosensitive member is used for an electrophotographic apparatus that forms images by the electrophotographic method, and an image forming apparatus uses this photosensitive member, which includes a drum-shaped cylindrical conductive substrate, and a photosensitive layer that contains amorphous silicon, thus structuring an electrophotographic photosensitive drum. Then, the outer diameter of this photosensitive drum is configured to be gradually smaller from the vicinity of the central portion thereof in the generatrix direction to both ends in the longitudinal direction, hence making it possible to enhance the cleaning effect on residual toner.

Electrophotographic photosensitive member and image forming apparatus

In order to reduce the cost of a photosensitive member and to prevent the fluctuation in image density and the image smear by highly precise temperature control, the image forming apparatus of the present invention includes: a cylindrical photosensitive member with a conductive substrate having a thickness not smaller than 0.1 mm and smaller than 2.5 mm, and a light-receiving layer having a photoconductive layer on the conductive substrate, the light-receiving layer containing at least amorphous silicon; and a charging device for charging the photosensitive member, wherein the photoconductive layer has a thickness not smaller than 5 .mu.m and smaller than 20 .mu.m, and wherein the charging device is a device for contacting a charging member with the surface of the photosensitive member and applying a voltage to the charging member to charge the photosensitive member.

Growing community of inventors

Chiba, Japan

Yuji Nakayama