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:
Apr. 06, 2010
Filed:
Oct. 04, 2007
Kumiko Hatakeyama, Kanagawa, JP;
Toshiyuki Kabata, Kanagawa, JP;
Masahide Yamashita, Tokyo, JP;
Ricoh Company, Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An image forming apparatus includes a charger, a developing device, a cleaning device, a protective-agent bar, and a brush. The charger uniformly charges an image carrier. The developing device develops an electrostatic latent image formed on the image carrier to obtain a toner image as a visual image. The cleaning device removes toner remaining on the surface of the image carrier from which the toner image has been transferred onto a transfer material. The protective-agent bar contains a protective agent. The brush comes in contact with the protective-agent bar and the image carrier while rotating such that the protective agent adheres thereto and is supplied to the image carrier in an irregular form.