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:
Jul. 13, 1999
Filed:
Mar. 20, 1998
Ryou Tanoue, Yokohama, JP;
Shin-ichi Kawahara, Tokyo, JP;
Ricoh Company, Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An image forming apparatus which utilizes an intermediate transfer belt. A cleaning device is provided to remove residual toner, etc., from the intermediate transfer belt and the cleaning device includes a cleaning blade, a bias roller, and a bias roller cleaning blade. The bias roller rotates in a same direction as that of the image transfer belt. Further, the cleaning blade and the bias roller cleaning blade can be of a same length and can be mounted to a same holder. The positioning of the bias roller and the bias roller cleaning blade can be offset towards a front portion of the image forming device relative to the image transfer belt cleaning blade, to ensure that toner which deposits on a front end of the image transfer belt, even if outside of an effective image area on the image transfer belt, is removed.