Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Yuuta Tanaka

Seiji Terazawa

Keiichi Yano

Ryoichi Teranishi

Junji Yamabe

Toshihide Tomotaka

Gen Kitamura

Teruo Shibata

Mai Suiseki

Masato Nomura

A powder container includes a container body, a spiral projection, and a convex portion. The container body stores powder and is rotatable around an axis of the container body. The spiral projection is inside the container body. The convex portion includes a flat surface portion and protrudes inward from an inner wall surface of the container body. A virtual plane including the flat surface portion passes through the axis.

Powder container and image forming apparatus

A powder container includes a powder container body having a cylindrical form to store powder. The powder container body includes a conveyer, a large diameter portion, a small diameter portion, and a boundary portion. The conveyer conveys the powder stored in the powder container body in a longitudinal direction of the powder container body. The large outer diameter portion has an outer diameter on a cross section orthogonal to the longitudinal direction. The small outer diameter portion has an outer diameter smaller than the outer diameter of the large outer diameter portion on the cross section. The boundary portion connects the large outer diameter portion and the small outer diameter portion.

Powder container, powder supply device, and image forming apparatus having large diameter and small diameter portions

A toner container includes a shutter to open and close an opening into which the nozzle is inserted, a guide rod provided together with the shutter, and a compression spring that urges the shutter in the closing direction. Further, the toner container includes a holder including a holding portion including at least two portions to support the guide rod movably in an opening and closing direction, a fitting portion having the opening, to fit into a container body, and a bridge portion to connect the holding portion and the fitting portion. A circumferential area around the guide rod and the compression spring that faces the bridge portion is smaller than a circumferential area around the guide rod and the compression spring that does not face the bridge portion. the shutter and the guide rod (or the nozzle) moves smoothly in the opening and closing direction.

Developer container and image forming apparatus incorporating same

An object of this disclosure is to reduce differences in the drawn amount of the parison around the mouth of the toner container, thereby reducing the amount of resin for the toner container and the weight thereof. A powder container includes a cylindrical container body to rotate in a horizontal posture, a cylindrical mouth at a first end of the container body, smaller in diameter than the container body, a conveyor to convey the powder inside the container body toward the mouth, a scooping portion deeper in the container body than the mouth, to lift the powder above a powder inlet of a conveying tube inserted from the mouth and drop the powder to the powder inlet, and a radially inner face continuous with an inner end of the scooping portion, extending in a direction crossing the scooping portion and disposed inward in the radial direction than an outermost face of the container body. The radially inner face extends from the mouth toward a second end of the container body and is not inner in the radial direction than an inner rim of the mouth.

Powder container and image forming apparatus incorporating same

According to an embodiment, when a nozzle insertion member is detached from a powder container, an engaging portion and an engaged portion are disengaged from each other by resiliently displacing the engaging portion in a direction in which the engaging portion is disengaged from the engaged portion. Therefore, it is possible to reduce a stress applied to the powder container and the nozzle insertion member at the time of attachment and detachment of the nozzle insertion member. Consequently, it becomes possible to easily detach the nozzle insertion member from the powder container.

Powder container, image forming apparatus, and nozzle receiver

A powder container includes a container body to contain a powder for use in image formation and a nozzle receiver disposed on one longitudinal end side of the container body. The nozzle receiver includes a shutter having a nozzle insertion opening, into which a conveying nozzle to convey the powder from an inside to an outside of the container body is inserted, and a shutter holder including an inclined face and an opening to communicate with a nozzle opening of the conveying nozzle. The inclined face guides the shutter to rotate around an axis of the conveying nozzle, and the shutter moves between an open position to open the opening of the shutter holder and a closed position to close the opening of the shutter holder in accordance with insertion and removal of the conveying nozzle into the nozzle insertion opening.

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Shizuoka, Japan

Yuuta Tanaka