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. 25, 2014
Filed:
Aug. 31, 2011
Tetsuro Hirota, Kanagawa, JP;
Hideki Kosugi, Kanagawa, JP;
Masaaki Yamada, Tokyo, JP;
Atsushi Kurokawa, Kanagawa, JP;
Hideyasu Seki, Tokyo, JP;
Yasuyuki Ishii, Tokyo, JP;
Tetsuro Hirota, Kanagawa, JP;
Hideki Kosugi, Kanagawa, JP;
Masaaki Yamada, Tokyo, JP;
Atsushi Kurokawa, Kanagawa, JP;
Hideyasu Seki, Tokyo, JP;
Yasuyuki Ishii, Tokyo, JP;
Ricoh Company, Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An image forming apparatus includes a latent image carrier to carry a latent image, a developing device having a toner carrier with first and second electrodes to develop the latent image by transferring the toner to a developing region between the toner carrier and the latent image carrier while causing the toner to hop between the first and second electrodes and attaching the hopping toner to the latent image, a pulsed power supply to output a first periodic pulse voltage having a mean potential the same as a normal toner charge and a second periodic pulse voltage, a smoothing circuit to make the first periodic pulse voltage smooth to generate a direct voltage, and a toner layer thickness regulator member to regulate, on receiving the direct voltage, a thickness of the toner layer in a region between a toner supply position at which toner is supplied and the developing region.