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:
Feb. 27, 2007
Filed:
Dec. 17, 2004
Hirokazu Ishii, Tokyo, JP;
Satoshi Takano, Tokyo, JP;
Hiroshi Saitoh, Chiba, JP;
Ryoh Tanoue, Kanagawa, JP;
Itaru Matsuda, Kanagawa, JP;
Yuji Suzuki, Tokyo, JP;
Eiji Shimojo, Tokyo, JP;
Noboru Onodera, Tokyo, JP;
Hidenori Nihei, Tokyo, JP;
Hirokazu Ishii, Tokyo, JP;
Satoshi Takano, Tokyo, JP;
Hiroshi Saitoh, Chiba, JP;
Ryoh Tanoue, Kanagawa, JP;
Itaru Matsuda, Kanagawa, JP;
Yuji Suzuki, Tokyo, JP;
Eiji Shimojo, Tokyo, JP;
Noboru Onodera, Tokyo, JP;
Hidenori Nihei, Tokyo, JP;
Ricoh Company, Limited, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An image forming apparatus in which a visible image is transferred to a transfer material includes a pre-transfer exposing unit that makes only a portion of a latent image carrier that corresponds to a leading edge of the transfer material expose, and a transfer-bias applying unit that applies a bias for transferring the visible image. The transfer-bias applying unit starts applying the bias to the transfer material, at least step-by-step, when a predetermined time is passed from a point of time at which the leading edge of the transfer material comes into a contact with the latent image carrier by controlling the pre-transfer exposing unit and a bias applying timing of the transfer-bias applying unit.