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:
Jan. 15, 2013
Filed:
Sep. 03, 2010
Masaya Okamoto, Yokohama, JP;
Hideaki Tanaka, Yokohama, JP;
Masaya Okamoto, Yokohama, JP;
Hideaki Tanaka, Yokohama, JP;
Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An image-forming apparatus includes: image-forming units arranged along a direction inclined at an acute angle relative to a horizontal direction, each of the image-forming units forming an image with developer; developer-containing units positioned above the image-forming units and arranged along the horizontal direction or along a direction inclined relative to the horizontal direction at an angle smaller than the acute angle; and developer conveyance paths that connect the image-forming units to respective developer-containing units, each developer conveyance path having a tubular passage that defines a space through which the developer contained in the developer-containing unit is conveyed to the image-forming unit, wherein the tubular passage of a developer conveyance path connected to an image-forming unit located at a position higher than that of another image-forming unit has a vertically extending portion shorter than that of the tubular passage of a developer conveyance path connected to the another image-forming unit.