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. 13, 2015
Filed:
Sep. 03, 2014
Ricoh Company, Ltd., Ohta-ku, Tokyo, JP;
Nobuo Kuwabara, Kanagawa, JP;
Shinichi Kawahara, Tokyo, JP;
Norio Kudoh, Kanagawa, JP;
Takeshi Shintani, Kanagawa, JP;
Kenji Honjoh, Kanagawa, JP;
Yasuhito Kuboshima, Tokyo, JP;
Yusuke Ishizuka, Kanagawa, JP;
Ricoh Company, Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An image forming apparatus including multiple image forming units; a waste-toner container; and a waste-toner conveyance device including a common conveyance channel member disposed in an arrangement direction of the image forming units and provided with toner inlets to receive the waste toner from toner outlets of the cleaning units, communicating channel members identical in structure and respectively disposed between the toner outlets and the toner inlets of the common conveyance channel member, and a rotatable conveying member to transport the waste toner inside the common conveyance channel member linearly along a rotation axis thereof. The common conveyance channel member is shaped to equalize relative positions of each of the toner outlets and a corresponding one of the toner inlets of the common conveyance channel member among the multiple image forming units among which a distance from the toner outlet to the rotation axis differs.