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:
Dec. 08, 2020
Filed:
Mar. 18, 2020
Shinya Nakayama, Shizuoka, JP;
Keiichiro Juri, Kanagawa, JP;
Yuka Aoyama, Kanagawa, JP;
Hiroshi Yamada, Shizuoka, JP;
Shinya Nakayama, Shizuoka, JP;
Keiichiro Juri, Kanagawa, JP;
Yuka Aoyama, Kanagawa, JP;
Hiroshi Yamada, Shizuoka, JP;
Ricoh Company, Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An image forming apparatus including an image bearer and a cleaning blade is provided. The cleaning blade comprises an elastic member configured to contact a surface of the image bearer to remove toner particles remaining thereon. The elastic member comprises a substrate and a surface layer comprising a cured product of a curable composition and a siloxane compound. The surface layer is disposed on at least a part of a lower surface of the substrate. The surface layer has a hardness gradient in which a Martens hardness HM measured using a nanoindenter decreases from a surface of the surface layer toward the lower surface of the substrate in a thickness direction, and the Martens hardness HM measured in a region extending from a vicinity of the surface (with a load of 1 μN) to a deepest part in the thickness direction (with a load of 1,000 μN) ranges from 2.5 to 32.5 N/mm. The toner has a tensile breaking force F of from 200 to 450 gf (from 1.96 to 4.41 N), measured using a powder layer compression/tensile strength measurement device under a load of 32 kgf (313.81 N).