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. 02, 2006
Filed:
Feb. 08, 2005
Tsutomu Sasaki, Kanagawa, JP;
Mie Yoshino, Kanagawa, JP;
Yusuke Takeda, Kanagawa, JP;
Tsuneo Kurotori, Tokyo, JP;
Tohru Nakano, Kanagawa, JP;
Noriyasu Takeuchi, Kanagawa, JP;
Tsutomu Sasaki, Kanagawa, JP;
Mie Yoshino, Kanagawa, JP;
Yusuke Takeda, Kanagawa, JP;
Tsuneo Kurotori, Tokyo, JP;
Tohru Nakano, Kanagawa, JP;
Noriyasu Takeuchi, Kanagawa, JP;
Ricoh Company, Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An image forming apparatus configured to use a highly viscous, dense developing liquid including a carrier liquid and toner. The apparatus includes a developing unit with a developer carrier and a coating member for coating the developing liquid on the developer carrier. The developer carrier conveys the liquid to a developing zone where it faces an image carrier to develop a latent image on the image carrier. In the developing zone, the toner is caused to move toward the image by electrophoresis to form a toner layer in which the toner is present in the carrier liquid and a carrier layer in which the toner is absent. When the developer carrier and image carrier are moved from each other, the toner moves toward the image such that the developing liquid separates at the boundary between the toner and carrier layers.