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:
Jul. 30, 2013
Filed:
Mar. 20, 2008
Yutaka Shoji, Ibaraki-Pref, JP;
Junji Shirakawa, Ibaraki-Pref, JP;
Takayuki Muneyasu, Ibaraki-Pref, JP;
Yutaka Shoji, Ibaraki-Pref, JP;
Junji Shirakawa, Ibaraki-Pref, JP;
Takayuki Muneyasu, Ibaraki-Pref, JP;
Ricoh Company, Limited, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An image forming apparatus includes a belt-shaped image carrier that carries an image, an image transfer unit that transfers the image onto a recording medium, and a conveying unit that conveys the recording medium to the image transfer unit. The image carrier has a sloping surface that slopes down from an upstream of the image transfer unit in a conveying direction. The conveying unit includes a linear conveying path that is arranged an upstream of the image transfer unit in the conveying direction, below the sloping surface and above a horizontal line passing through the image transfer unit.