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:
May. 26, 1998
Filed:
Jan. 29, 1997
Toshiaki Motohashi, Sohka, JP;
Ricoh Company, Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An image forming apparatus including a charger to charge an intermediate transfer member uniformly after a toner image is transferred from the intermediate transfer member to a transfer sheet or before a toner image is transferred onto the intermediate transfer member from an image carrier, and a controller which, when the intermediate transfer member is being charged with the charger, reduces a circumferential speed of the intermediate transfer member to a speed which is slower than when transferring the toner image from the image carrier to the intermediate transfer member. Nonuniformity of charge on the surface of the intermediate transfer member is eliminated and thereby the occurrence of unsatisfactory transfer of the toner image from the image carrier to the intermediate transfer member is avoided and, consequently, the occurrence of an untransferred streak across an image transferred on a transfer sheet is avoided.