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:
Mar. 23, 2010
Filed:
Dec. 14, 2007
Tetsumaru Fujita, Nishinomiya, JP;
Yoshio Sakagawa, Ashiya, JP;
Yuji Nagatomo, Minoo, JP;
Ricoh Company, Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An image forming apparatus includes at least a latent image carrier, a latent image forming mechanism, a developing mechanism and a charger. The latent image carrier bears a latent image. The latent image forming mechanism forms the latent image on the latent image carrier. The developing mechanism develops the latent image on the latent image carrier with toner. The charger includes a conductive member supplied with a bias voltage while contacting a surface of the latent image carrier, and charges at least one of the surface of the latent image carrier and a toner adhering to the surface thereof through the conductive member. A tensile strength of the conductive member at break is no less than 10 MPa and no more than 40 MPa, and a contact pressure between the conductive member and the latent image carrier is no less than 4 kN/mand no more than 15 kN/m.