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:
Nov. 19, 2002
Filed:
Jun. 14, 2001
Naoto Tokutake, Tokyo, JP;
Susumu Tashiro, Tokyo, JP;
Motozi Kawamoto, Tokyo, JP;
Masakazu Fukuchi, Tokyo, JP;
Kazuyoshi Kimura, Tokyo, JP;
Susumu Okui, Tokyo, JP;
Masahiro Shigetomi, Tokyo, JP;
Kosuke Minoshima, Tokyo, JP;
Konica Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
The present invention concerns a color image forming apparatus wherein toner images formed on a plurality of image carriers are primarily transferred onto an intermediate transfer object, and then, are secondarily transferred onto a recording sheet. The color image-forming apparatus includes a plurality of image carriers; a plurality of latent image forming devices to form electrostatic latent images on the image carriers; a plurality of developing devices to develop the electrostatic latent images with toner to form visible toner images on the image carriers; an intermediate transfer member, a longitudinal direction of which is arranged at substantially a vertical direction, and onto which the toner images formed on the image carriers are sequentially transferred in such a manner that the toner images overlap relative to each other so as to form a color toner image on the intermediate transfer member; and a transferring device to transfer the color toner image formed on the intermediate transfer member onto a transfer sheet. The intermediate transfer member and the image carriers are integrated into a rack, and the rack is drawable in substantially a horizontal direction in respect to a mainframe of the color image-forming apparatus.