Patent application number | Description | Published |
20090244571 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - An image forming apparatus includes: an image output unit that outputs an image; and an image processing unit that converts an input image signal to an output image signal and outputs the image signal to the image output unit, the image output unit having: an image carrier that carries at least a latent image; plural developer containers containing mutually different color developers used for developing the latent image carried on the image carrier; and a transport member for repeated operations of attachment of the developer contained in one of the plural developer containers, transport of the attached developer to the image carrier, and removal of remaining developer, and the image processing unit having a change unit that changes a color conversion characteristic of an image signal in correspondence with color mixture of the mutually different color developers. | 10-01-2009 |
20100124450 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - An image forming apparatus includes: an image carrier that rotates; a developing unit that visualizes an electrostatic latent image carried on the image carrier with a color developer into a developer image; a transfer unit that transfers the developer image carried on the image carrier to a sheet in a predetermined transfer position; a fixing unit that fixes the developer image transferred by the transfer unit to the sheet; a transport unit that transports the sheet to which the color developer image has been fixed by the fixing unit, and returns the sheet to the transfer position for transferring a developer image of another color developer to be superposed on the developer image having been fixed to the sheet; and an adjustment unit that performs adjustment to reduce a time difference between time for returning the sheet by the transport unit and time for an integer number of rotations of the image carrier. | 05-20-2010 |
20110052264 | DEVELOPING DEVICE AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - A developing device includes: plural developing units; a rotary body, where the plural developing units are attached, that rotates so as to place one of the plural developing units in a developing position to develop a subject of development; a first driving unit that drives the rotary body; a second driving unit that drives at least one of the plural developing units; and a regulatory mechanism that regulates a position of the rotary body using a rotational force caused in the rotary body in accordance with driving by the second driving unit. | 03-03-2011 |
20110194878 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - An image forming apparatus includes: an image carrier; a transfer member transfers the image carried on the outer circumferential surface of the image carrier onto a recording medium; a holding member that holds, on an outer circumferential surface of the transfer member, the recording medium fed to the transfer member; and a control unit that performs control so that in first image formation operation in which images of plural colors carried by the image carrier are sequentially transferred onto a single recording medium one color at a time, the holding member holds the recording medium on the transfer member, and in second image formation operation in which an image of a single color carried by the image carrier is transferred onto a single recording medium, the holding member does not hold, the recording medium on the transfer member. | 08-11-2011 |
20110236081 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - An image forming apparatus includes: an image carrier; a transfer member that transfers an image onto a recording medium; a leading-end holding member that holds a leading-end side of the recording medium, which is fed to the transfer member, between the leading-end holding member and an outer circumferential surface of the transfer member, in such a way to restrict displacement of the recording medium and to restrict movement of the recording medium in a direction away from the transfer member; and a rear-end holding member that holds a rear-end side of the recording medium, in the transporting direction thereof, between the rear-end holding member and the outer circumferential surface of the transfer member, in such a way to allow displacement of the recording medium in the transporting direction and to restrict movement of the recording medium in the direction away from the transfer member. | 09-29-2011 |
20120230739 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS AND TRANSFER DEVICE - An image forming apparatus includes: an image carrier that is rotatably arranged and carries an image on an outer circumferential surface thereof; a transfer member that is rotatably arranged to face the image carrier and transfers the image carried on the image carrier onto a sheet held between the transfer member and the image carrier; a leading edge gripping member that is secured to the transfer member and grips a leading edge side of the sheet in a transport direction thereof on an outer circumferential surface of the transfer member; and a trailing edge holding member that is arranged to be rotatable around the transfer member, holds a trailing edge side of the sheet in the transport direction thereof between the trailing edge holding member and the outer circumferential surface of the transfer member, and bends to release the trailing edge side of the sheet in the transport direction thereof. | 09-13-2012 |
20130209144 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - An image forming apparatus includes an image carrier, a transfer member, a leading end holding member, a trailing end holding member, and a movement mechanism. The trailing end holding member is disposed at a standby position such that there is a space between the trailing end holding member and the transfer member. The trailing end holding member is rotatable around the transfer member along a rotation path on which the standby position is located. In a multiple transfer operation, the trailing end holding member holds a trailing end of the recording medium after a leading end of the recording medium held by the leading end holding member has passed through the space. In a single transfer operation, the movement mechanism moves the trailing end holding member from the standby position to a position that is not on a transport path of the recording medium. | 08-15-2013 |
20130216256 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - An image forming apparatus includes an image carrier; a transfer body; a leading-end holding member that holds a leading-end portion of the recording medium so that the recording medium is wrapped around an outer circumferential surface of the transfer body; a trailing-end holding member that is movable in a circumferential direction of the transfer body, the trailing-end holding member holding a trailing-end portion of the recording medium wrapped around the transfer body such that the trailing-end portion lies along the outer circumferential surface of the transfer body by bringing a holding surface of the trailing-end holding member into contact with the trailing-end portion; and a cleaning portion that contacts the holding surface of the trailing-end holding member, which moves relative to the transfer body, in order to clean the holding surface. | 08-22-2013 |
20130234386 | TRANSPORT DEVICE, TRANSFER DEVICE, AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - A transport device includes a transporting member that transports an object that is wound around an outer peripheral surface thereof by rotating; a holding unit that is rotatably supported by the transporting member at a first end thereof, the holding unit holding a leading end of the object in a transport direction by gripping the leading end between a second end thereof and the outer peripheral surface when the object enters a space between the second end and the outer peripheral surface; and a positioning unit disposed on the transporting member or the holding unit so as to be movable downstream in a direction in which the object enters the space. The positioning unit contacts the leading end of the object that has entered the space and positions the object in the transport direction when the holding unit moves to hold the object. | 09-12-2013 |
Patent application number | Description | Published |
20100183339 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - An image forming apparatus includes: an image carrier that carries an electrostatic latent image; plural developing devices that store respective developers of different colors and visualize the electrostatic latent image with the developers; a developing device switching mechanism that switches among the developing devices to allow one of the developing devices to visualize the electrostatic latent image carried by the image carrier; a transfer unit that transfers a developer image visualized by the one of the developing devices to a recording medium; a fixing device that fixes the developer image transferred by the transfer unit onto the recording medium; a first transporter that transports in a first direction the recording medium with the developer image fixed thereon by the fixing device; a second transporter that transports in a second direction the recording medium with the developer image fixed thereon by the fixing device; and a transporter switching mechanism that switches between the first transporter and the second transporter in conjunction with an operation of the developing device switching mechanism for switching among the developing devices. | 07-22-2010 |
20100209135 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - An image forming apparatus includes: a first unit including at least a development unit that develops an electrostatic latent image and a first developer container containing a developer; an image carrier that holds an electrostatic latent image to be developed by the development unit; a transfer unit that transfers a developer image developed by the development unit onto a recording medium; a fixing device that fixes a developer image transferred to the recording medium by the transfer unit onto a recording medium; and an image forming apparatus main body in which the first unit is installed, the image forming apparatus main body being configured such that a second unit including at least plural second developer containers respectively containing developers of different colors and development units for respective colors is installable instead of the first unit and, when the second unit is installed, a loop transport path is provided to allow the recording medium having the developer image fixed thereon by the fixing device to be transported around the second unit and toward the transfer unit. | 08-19-2010 |
20100226667 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit that forms an image on a recording medium; a fixing unit that fixes the image formed on the recording medium by the image forming unit by applying heat; a first detector unit that detects a length of the recording medium in a transport direction, the first detector unit being disposed upstream of the fixing unit in the transport direction; and a second detector unit that detects the length of the recording medium in the transport direction, the second detector unit being disposed downstream of the fixing unit in the transport direction. | 09-09-2010 |
20100247177 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - An image forming apparatus includes: an image carrier; a development unit that develops an electrostatic latent image present on the image carrier with a developer; a transfer member that transfers a developer image developed by the development unit from the image carrier to a recording medium by transporting while nipping the recording medium in a transfer position in contact with the image carrier; a corrective guide member that contacts the recording medium which is simultaneously caught by the transfer member for a period and that corrects placement of the recording medium with respect to the transfer member, thus guiding the recording medium toward the transport position; and a transport unit that transports the recording medium toward the transfer position while exerting a force on the recording medium in a direction causing a side edge of the recording medium along a transport direction to abut the corrective guide member. | 09-30-2010 |
20100247197 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - An image forming apparatus includes: an image forming apparatus main body, an image forming unit that is provided in the image forming apparatus main body and forms an image on a recording medium, and a transport unit transporting the recording medium, wherein the image forming apparatus main body has a forward port for forwarding the recording medium having the image thereon by the image forming unit to outside of the image forming apparatus main body, and further has a guide unit by which the recording medium forwarded to the outside of the image forming apparatus main body is guided to be retrieved into the image forming apparatus main body, and to be led to the transport unit. | 09-30-2010 |
20110044744 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - An image forming apparatus includes an image carrier; a transferring unit; a fixing unit; a conveying unit; and a sheet shape detecting unit as defined herein, and a discharge position where the sheet is discharged from the conveying path, a feed position where the sheet is fed to the sheet conveying path and a detection position where the shape of the sheet is detected by the sheet shape detecting unit are arranged in this sequence along a sheet conveying direction to be close to one another, immediately downstream in the sheet conveying direction from a fixing position where the toner image is fixed to the sheet. | 02-24-2011 |
20110318067 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS AND METHOD OF IMAGE FORMING - An image forming apparatus includes an image carrier that is rotatable; a transfer member that is rotatably disposed so as to face the image carrier, the transfer member transferring an image carried by the image carrier to a sheet; a leading end gripping member that is attached to the transfer member, the leading end gripping member gripping a leading end of the sheet in the transport direction on an outer peripheral surface of the transfer member; a trailing end holding member that holds a trailing end of the sheet in the transport direction between the trailing end holding member and the outer peripheral surface of the transfer member; and a controller that changes a distance between the leading end gripping member and the trailing end holding member when holding the sheet on the basis of a length of the sheet in the transport direction. | 12-29-2011 |
20120251149 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS AND TRANSFER DEVICE - An image forming apparatus includes a main body portion including an image carrier, an image-carrier driving unit, a latent-image forming unit, a developing-unit attachment section, and a transfer-unit attachment section. The developing-unit attachment section receives a first developing unit having plural developing members or a second developing unit having a single developing member. The transfer-unit attachment section receives a first transfer unit, which includes a first transfer member capable of retaining a recording medium and a first transfer driving unit that rotates the first transfer member, and a second transfer unit, which includes a second transfer member that cannot retain the recording medium. When the first developing unit and the first transfer unit are attached to the developing-unit attachment section and the transfer-unit attachment section, respectively, the first transfer driving unit is mechanically connected to the first developing unit. | 10-04-2012 |
20130071151 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - An image forming apparatus includes an image carrying member, a transfer member, a leading-end holding member, and a trailing-end holding member. The leading-end holding member is mounted on the transfer member and holds, on an outer peripheral surface of the transfer member, a leading-end portion of a recording medium fed to a sheet feeding position that is further upstream than a transfer position in a rotation direction of the transfer member. The trailing-end holding member rotates along the outer peripheral surface. The trailing-end holding member presses the recording medium against the outer peripheral surface while waiting at a waiting position that is further upstream than the transfer position and downstream than the sheet feeding position, and holds a trailing end portion on the outer peripheral surface while rotating together with the transfer member when the trailing end portion of the recording medium arrives at the waiting position. | 03-21-2013 |
20130078012 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - An image forming apparatus includes an image carrier, a transfer member, a gripper that grips a leading end portion of a recording medium, and a restraining portion that is disposed so as to face an outer peripheral surface of the transfer member and that is movable relative to the transfer member. The restraining member restrains a trailing end portion of the recording medium that is gripped by the gripper from rising. The restraining portion has widths in a rotational axis direction of the transfer member and in a transport direction of the recording medium and is capable of facing the recording medium in a faceable region, and a part of the faceable region over which the restraining portion faces the trailing end portion of the recording medium is larger than a part of the faceable region over which the restraining member does not face the trailing end portion. | 03-28-2013 |
20130223863 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - An image forming apparatus includes an image carrier; a transfer body; a leading-end gripping member that grips a leading-end portion of the recording medium when the recording medium is transported and that releases the leading-end portion when the recording medium to which a final toner image starts being transferred is separated from the transfer body; and a controller that controls a peripheral velocity of the transfer body and a peripheral velocity of the image carrier to change a ratio between the peripheral velocity of the transfer body and the peripheral velocity of the image carrier from a first ratio for transferring a toner image that precedes the final toner image to the recording medium to a second ratio for transferring the final toner image to the recording medium by making the peripheral velocity of the transfer body higher than the peripheral velocity of the image carrier. | 08-29-2013 |
20130223895 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - In an image forming apparatus, the following inequalities (1) and (2) are satisfied: | 08-29-2013 |
20130223896 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - An image forming apparatus includes an image carrier, a transfer body, an elastic layer, a gripper, and a pressing member. The gripper is located in a cutout region in which a cutout is formed. The gripper grips a leading end portion of the recording medium wrapped around the transfer body and releases the leading end portion that is to be separated from the transfer body. At least part of the pressing member is located closer to a trailing-end side of the recording medium than the gripper. The pressing member presses a leading end side of the recording medium, whose leading end portion is gripped by the leading-end gripper, against the elastic layer. | 08-29-2013 |
20130223898 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - An image forming apparatus includes an image carrier that carries a developer image, a recording-medium transporting member that includes a holding portion that holds a leading end of a recording medium wrapped around the recording-medium transporting member, a retaining portion that switches between a state in which the retaining portion retains a trailing end portion of the recording medium and a state in which the retaining portion does not retain the trailing end portion, a position adjusting unit that adjusts the position at which the retaining portion retains the trailing end portion, a transfer unit that transfers the developer image onto the recording medium, a determination unit that determines a thickness of the recording medium, and a control unit that causes the retaining portion to retain the trailing end portion at a position adjusted by the position adjusting unit in accordance with the thickness of the recording medium. | 08-29-2013 |
20130223899 | RECORDING-MEDIUM TRANSPORTING BODY, TRANSFER DEVICE, AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - A recording-medium transporting body includes a cylindrical portion, a contact unit, and a holding portion. The cylindrical portion has a cut portion in an outer peripheral surface thereof and allows a recording medium to be wrapped around the outer peripheral surface. The contact unit is provided in the cut portion and includes first and second contact portions having first and second coefficients of friction with respect to the recording medium, the second coefficient of friction being higher than the first coefficient of friction. A leading end of the recording medium comes into contact with the first contact portion before coming into contact with the second contact portion. The holding portion holds the recording medium between the contact unit and the holding portion. | 08-29-2013 |
20130223900 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - An image forming apparatus includes an image carrier, a transfer member, a leading end holding member, a trailing end holding member, a detection unit, and a stopping unit. The trailing end holding member is disposed so as to be rotatable around the transfer member such that a gap is formed between the trailing end holding member and the transfer member. The trailing end holding member holds a trailing end of the recording medium after a leading end of the recording medium held by the leading end holding member has passed through the gap. The detection unit detects whether the leading end of the recording medium passes through the gap after the leading end holding member performed a holding operation on the leading end. The stopping unit stops rotation of the transfer member when the detection unit detects that the leading end does not pass through the gap. | 08-29-2013 |
20130223907 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - An image forming apparatus includes an image carrier that carries a developer image, a recording-medium transporting member that is movable between an opposing position at which the transporting member opposes the image carrier and a retracted position that is farther from the image carrier than the opposing position and includes a holding portion that holds a leading end of a recording medium, a retaining portion that is movable between a retaining position at which the retaining portion retains a trailing end of the recording medium and a separate position that is farther from the transporting member than the retaining position, a transfer unit that transfers the developer image onto the recording medium, and an allowing unit that allows the transporting member to be separated from the retaining portion when the transporting member is moved from the opposing position to the retracted position. | 08-29-2013 |
20130230343 | TRANSFER DEVICE AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - A transfer device includes a transfer body that transports a recording medium to a transfer position to transfer toner images to the recording medium; a leading-end gripping member that grips a leading-end portion of the recording medium when causing the recording medium to be wrapped around the transfer body and releases the leading-end portion when causing the recording medium that has been wrapped around the transfer body to become separated from the transfer body; and a moving member that moves, after a final toner image starts being transferred to the recording medium but before the leading-end gripping member releases the leading-end portion, the leading-end gripping member while the leading-end gripping member grips the leading-end portion in order to cause a leading-end side of the recording medium to become separated from the transfer body. | 09-05-2013 |
20130308989 | IMAGE RECORDING APPARATUS - An image recording apparatus includes a toner transporting member that transports a toner layer while carrying the toner layer on a first surface of the toner transporting member, the toner transporting member including the first surface and a second surface; a heating unit including heating elements that contact the second surface that is opposite to the first surface of the toner transporting member, and that generate heat in accordance with image information, the first surface contacting a recording medium and carrying the toner layer; and a transferring unit that selectively transfers toner at an image portion to the recording medium as a result of causing each heating element of the heating unit to generate the heat with a temperature of the heating elements at the image portion and a temperature of the heating elements at a non-image portion being different from each other. | 11-21-2013 |
20130308991 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS AND IMAGE FORMING METHOD - An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit that forms an image on a recording medium, a glossiness imparting unit that imparts glossiness to the image formed on the recording medium, and a glossiness reducing unit that reduces the glossiness of at least a part of the image to which the glossiness has been imparted by the glossiness imparting unit. | 11-21-2013 |
20130315641 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS AND IMAGE FORMING METHOD - An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit that forms an unfixed toner image on a recording medium; a transfer unit that carries a layer of the UV-curable resin thereon and transfers a UV-curable resin to the recording medium, on which the image forming unit has formed the unfixed toner image, by making the UV-curable resin contact the recording medium; and an irradiation unit that irradiates the UV-curable resin transferred to the recording medium with UV rays. | 11-28-2013 |