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:
Oct. 29, 2013
Filed:
Mar. 30, 2011
Takuya Sekine, Kanagawa, JP;
Takuya Sekine, Kanagawa, JP;
Ricoh Company, Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An image forming apparatus includes a belt member bearing a toner image, a contact member disposed inside loop formed by the belt member, a rotary pressing member to contact the contact member through the belt member and form a nip between the contact member and the rotary pressing member via the belt member through which a recording medium is conveyed, and a transfer device to transfer the toner image onto the recording medium. An amount of winding of the belt member around the rotary pressing member is changeable between a first state in which the belt member is wound around the rotary pressing member upstream from the nip in the direction of move to the nip and a second state in which the amount of winding of the belt member around the rotary pressing member is reduced from the first state while contacting the belt member.