Patent application number | Description | Published |
20090241830 | LUBRICANT APPLYING DEVICE, PROCESS CARTRIDGE, AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - A lubricant applying unit has a residual-toner collection rate X of 50% when the lubricant applying unit has not been used. The collection rate X is obtained by X=(Ta−Tb)/Ta×100, where Ta is weight per unit area of the residual toner on an area of the image carrier that has not come into contact with the lubricant applying unit, and Tb is weight per unit area of the residual toner on an area of the image carrier that has come into contact with the lubricant applying unit. | 10-01-2009 |
20110026992 | Image forming apparatus - In an image forming apparatus including a plurality of image forming devices, a first image forming device in which a leveling blade that functions as a lubricant leveling blade is easily worn away over time uses an obtuse-angle blade as a first leveling blade, and a second image forming device being other image forming device among the plurality of image forming devices uses a right-angle blade as a second leveling blade. | 02-03-2011 |
20120134725 | CLEANING DEVICE, PROCESS CARTRIDGE, AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - A cleaning device to remove untransferred toner from a surface of an image carrier rotatable in a predetermined direction. The cleaning device includes a lubricant supply roller contacting the surface of the image carrier to supply a lubricant carried thereon to the surface of the image carrier, a first blade provided upstream from the lubricant supply roller in the direction of rotation of the image carrier, and a second blade provided downstream from the lubricant supply roller. The first blade contacts the surface of the image carrier to level the untransferred toner attaching to the surface of the image carrier to a thin layer. The second blade contacts the surface of the image carrier to level the lubricant supplied to the surface of the image carrier by the lubricant supply roller to a thin layer and to remove the untransferred toner from the surface of the image carrier. | 05-31-2012 |
20120163837 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - An image forming apparatus includes an image carrier, a cleaning device that collects a waste toner attached to the surface of the image carrier using a cleaning member, a waste container that is removable from an image forming apparatus body, a temporary storage unit that is provided in the image forming apparatus body to temporarily store a waste including the waste toner collected in the cleaning device before the waste is transported to the waste container, and a waste transport unit that transports the waste to the temporary storage unit, wherein a discharge speed of the waste from the temporary storage unit by the waste discharge unit is lower than a transport speed of the waste to the temporary storage unit by the waste transport unit. | 06-28-2012 |
20120195664 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - When the acute angle between a normal line, oriented outward from a blade abutting portion of a photosensitive member over which a cleaning blade remains abutted before separation of the surface of the photosensitive member from the cleaning blade, and a horizontal plane, passing through the origin of the normal line, is expressed as a positive value when the normal line lies above the horizontal plane and expressed as a negative value when the normal line lies below the horizontal plane; an imaging unit frame so supports a photosensitive module that the photosensitive member can rotate to a specific rotational position having a greater angle than the angle at the time of separation of the surface of the photosensitive member from the cleaning blade. Until the photosensitive member rotates from a normal rotational position to the specific rotational position, the photosensitive module cannot be removed from the imaging unit frame. | 08-02-2012 |
20120315053 | LUBRICANT SUPPLY DEVICE, PROCESS CARTRIDGE, AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - A lubricant supply device including a solid lubricant, a lubricant supply roller, a detector, and a varying device is provided. The lubricant supply roller is adapted to supply the lubricant to a toner image bearing member and is rotatable in a predetermined direction while slidably contacting both the solid lubricant and the toner image bearing member. The detector is adapted to detect an absolute humidity around the lubricant supply device. The varying device is adapted to vary an amount of the lubricant to be supplied to the toner image bearing member based on the absolute humidity detected by the detector. | 12-13-2012 |
20120321330 | LUBRICANT SUPPLYING DEVICE, PROCESS CARTRIDGE, AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - A lubricant supplying device includes a lubricant supplying roller configured to rotate in a certain direction and makes a sliding contact with an image carrier on which a toner image is carried; a solid lubricant arranged to slide in contact with the lubricant supplying roller; a changing unit configured to change a revolution of the lubricant supplying roller to adjust an amount of the solid lubricant supplied onto the image carrier; and a calculation unit configured to obtain a product life or total consumption of the solid lubricant from a total running distance or total operating time of the image carrier or the lubricant supplying roller, the product life or the total consumption of the solid lubricant being corrected based on the amount of the solid lubricant supplied onto the image carrier. | 12-20-2012 |
20120328332 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS WITH NEUTRALIZER AND IMAGE FORMING METHOD - An image forming apparatus including an image bearing member, a charger, an irradiator, a developing device, a transfer device, a neutralizer, and a varying device is provided. The neutralizer is adapted to neutralize the image bearing member by emitting neutralization light thereto, after a toner image formed on the image bearing member is transferred therefrom. The varying device is adapted to vary an amount of the neutralization light to be emitted to the image bearing member by pulse-width modulation of a voltage to be supplied to the neutralizer. The image forming apparatus satisfies the following formula: | 12-27-2012 |
20140270881 | LUBRICANT SUPPLY DEVICE, PROCESS UNIT, IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS, AND PROCESS UNIT MANUFACTURING METHOD - A lubricant supply device includes a solid lubricant, a lubricant holder to hold the solid lubricant, a lubricant supply member to supply lubricant to a lubrication target, a pressing member to press the solid lubricant toward the lubricant supply member, and a pressing force adjuster to change an amount of pressing force exerted by the pressing member. | 09-18-2014 |
20140363178 | LUBRICANT SUPPLY SYSTEM, IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS, AND PROCESS CARTRIDGE - A solid lubricant supply system includes a solid lubricant supplier to receive and supply solid lubricant to a solid lubricant supplying target. A pair of first and second moveable planar electrodes is opposed to each other. The second moveable planar electrode is partially moved toward the first moveable planar electrode as the solid lubricant is consumed. A residual solid lubricant quantity detecting unit is provide to detect a quantity of the residual solid lubricant at a first stage, in which the residual solid lubricant quantity is below a given level, by detecting electric conduction between the pair of first and second moveable planar electrodes when the pair of first and second moveable planar electrodes contacts each other. The first moveable planar electrode is enabled to further move together with the second moveable planar electrode when it is contacted and pressed by the second moveable planar electrode. | 12-11-2014 |
20150078795 | WASTE-TONER CONVEYANCE DEVICE AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - 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. | 03-19-2015 |