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:
Nov. 19, 2013
Filed:
May. 18, 2011
Hiromichi Matsuda, Kanagawa, JP;
Katsuaki Miyawaki, Kanagawa, JP;
Tetsuo Watanabe, Kanagawa, JP;
Nobuo Iwata, Kanagawa, JP;
Hiromichi Matsuda, Kanagawa, JP;
Katsuaki Miyawaki, Kanagawa, JP;
Tetsuo Watanabe, Kanagawa, JP;
Nobuo Iwata, Kanagawa, JP;
Ricoh Company, Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A rotary drive device to drive a rotary body included in an image forming apparatus. The rotary drive device includes a drive source and a planetary gear mechanism to control torque from the drive source. The planetary gear mechanism includes a sun gear rotated by the torque, an annular gear coaxial to the sun gear and having inward-facing teeth, multiple planetary gears provided within the annular gear, and a carrier rotatable coaxially to the sun gear and the annular gear to rotatably support the multiple planetary gears. The annular gear is formed by injecting molten resin into a mold having a cylindrical cavity with teeth shapes along an inner circumference of the cavity from multiple pin gates provided to the mold at equal intervals along a circumference of the cavity. A number of pin gates is a non-integer multiple of a number of planetary gears.