The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 11, 2018
Filed:
Apr. 10, 2017
Naomi Sugimoto, Kanagawa, JP;
Hirokazu Ishii, Tokyo, JP;
Kenji Sugiura, Kanagawa, JP;
Atsushi Nagata, Kanagawa, JP;
Takehide Mizutani, Tokyo, JP;
Keigo Nakamura, Kanagawa, JP;
Yuuji Wada, Kanagawa, JP;
Naoto Kochi, Tokyo, JP;
Shinya Tanaka, Kanagawa, JP;
Naomi Sugimoto, Kanagawa, JP;
Hirokazu Ishii, Tokyo, JP;
Kenji Sugiura, Kanagawa, JP;
Atsushi Nagata, Kanagawa, JP;
Takehide Mizutani, Tokyo, JP;
Keigo Nakamura, Kanagawa, JP;
Yuuji Wada, Kanagawa, JP;
Naoto Kochi, Tokyo, JP;
Shinya Tanaka, Kanagawa, JP;
Ricoh Company, Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An image forming apparatus including an image bearer; a nip forming member, a nip width changing device, a power source; and a controller. The controller switches between a first mode and a second mode according to a predetermined condition. In the first mode, a duty of the transfer bias is a first duty and a width of a transfer nip is a first width. In the second mode, the duty of the transfer bias is a second duty lower than the first duty and the width of the transfer nip is a second width greater than the first width. The duty is (T−Tt)/T×100% where T denotes one cycle of the transfer bias, and Tt denotes a time period, in which the transfer bias is on a transfer-directional side relative to a time-averaged value of the transfer bias, in the one cycle.