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:
Dec. 11, 2007
Filed:
Aug. 17, 2006
Nobuhiro Miyakawa, Suwa, JP;
Nobuhiro Miyakawa, Suwa, JP;
Seiko Epson Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
The present invention provides toners of different colors in which coloring agents of at least four unicolors are internally added to, respectively, and hydrophobic silica particles and metallic soap particles are externally added to toner mother particles, wherein color superposition of the toners is conducted during development of latent images on a latent image carrier or during transfer to a recording medium after the development, being characterized in that the difference (absolute value) between the work functions of two of said toners is 0.02 eV or more, the color superposition is conducted with the toners sequentially from the toner having the largest work function in descending order of work function of the toners, and the difference (absolute value) between the work function of the toner mother particles and the work function of the metallic soap particles is 0.15 eV or less, thereby improving the transfer efficiency, enabling the extreme reduction in amount of waste toner, and enabling the reduction in apparatus size, and provides a production method of the toners and an image forming apparatus employing the toners.