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:
Feb. 03, 2015
Filed:
Aug. 23, 2011
Yuji Ishikura, Kanagawa, JP;
Yasuyuki Ishii, Tokyo, JP;
Hideki Kosugi, Kanagawa, JP;
Tetsuro Hirota, Kanagawa, JP;
Masaaki Yamada, Tokyo, JP;
Yoshiko Ogawa, Tokyo, JP;
Atsushi Kurokawa, Kanagawa, JP;
Hideyasu Seki, Tokyo, JP;
Masanori Horike, Kanagawa, JP;
Shin Kayahara, Kanagawa, JP;
Yuji Ishikura, Kanagawa, JP;
Yasuyuki Ishii, Tokyo, JP;
Hideki Kosugi, Kanagawa, JP;
Tetsuro Hirota, Kanagawa, JP;
Masaaki Yamada, Tokyo, JP;
Yoshiko Ogawa, Tokyo, JP;
Atsushi Kurokawa, Kanagawa, JP;
Hideyasu Seki, Tokyo, JP;
Masanori Horike, Kanagawa, JP;
Shin Kayahara, Kanagawa, JP;
Ricoh Company, Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An image forming apparatus includes a latent image carrier; a latent image writer to write a latent image on the latent image carrier; a developing unit including a toner carrier having first and second electrodes insulated via an insulator member and a voltage applying unit to apply voltages to the first and second electrodes having a potential difference to generate first electric fields to cause the toner to hop from the toner carrier to the latent image carrier to develop a toner image; and a transfer unit to transfer the developed toner image to a transferring member. When alternating voltages having a same phase and same amplitude are applied to the first and second electrodes to form second electric fields between the latent image carrier and the toner carrier, the toner is discharged from the toner carrier to the latent image carrier in a toner discharge mode.