Patents by Inventor Junichi Awamura
Junichi Awamura has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
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Publication number: 20150104739Abstract: A toner, containing: toner base particles; and an external additive, the toner base particles each including a binder resin and a releasing agent, wherein the external additive includes non-spherical coalesced particles in each of which primary particles are coalesced together, and wherein the coalesced particles satisfy the following formula (1): Nx/1,000×100?30% where Nx is a number of the primary particles present alone relative to 1,000 of the coalesced particles, as observed under a scanning electron microscope after stirring 0.5 g of the coalesced particles and 49.5 g of a carrier placed in a 50 mL bottle for 10 minutes by means of a mixing and stirring device at 67 Hz.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 7, 2013Publication date: April 16, 2015Inventors: Tsuneyasu Nagatomo, Satoshi Kojima, Syouko Satoh, Kiwako Hirohara, Osamu Uchinokura, Junichi Awamura, Satoshi Ogawa, Takahiro Honda
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Patent number: 9005864Abstract: A toner including: toner base particles; and an external additive, the toner base particles each comprising a binder resin and a colorant, wherein the external additive comprises non-spherical particles and spherical particles, wherein the non-spherical particles are each a secondary particle in which spherical primary particles are coalesced together, and wherein the non-spherical particles and the spherical particles in the external additive satisfy a relationship expressed by the following formula (1): 3Ca(%)<Cb(%)??Formula (1) where Ca is greater than 10% but smaller than 20% and Cb is greater than 40% but smaller than 70%, and Ca and Cb are values given by: Ca = ( an ? ? amount ? ? of ? ? the ? ? non ? - ? spherical ? ? particles ? ? ( % ? ? by ? ? mass ) / 100 ) × ( a ? ? projected ? ? area ? ? of ? ? the ? ? non ? - ? spherical ? ? particles ? ? ( cm 2 ? / ? g ) ) ( an ? ? amount ? ? of ? ? theType: GrantFiled: March 8, 2013Date of Patent: April 14, 2015Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.Inventors: Syouko Satoh, Tsuneyasu Nagatomo, Satoshi Kojima, Osamu Uchinokura, Junichi Awamura, Daisuke Ito, Satoshi Ogawa, Kiwako Hirohara, Takahiro Honda, Daisuke Inoue
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Patent number: 8956795Abstract: A toner for developing an electrostatic image, including: toner base particles each including a binder resin and a releasing agent; and inorganic fine particles, wherein the toner includes the inorganic fine particles as an external additive on a surface of the toner base particle, wherein the toner base particles have a BET specific surface area of 2.5 m2/g to 5.0 m2/g, and wherein the inorganic fine particles comprise inorganic fine particles (A) which are each a secondary particle where a plurality of primary particles are coalesced together.Type: GrantFiled: March 11, 2013Date of Patent: February 17, 2015Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.Inventors: Satoshi Kojima, Tsuneyasu Nagatomo, Syouko Satoh, Osamu Uchinokura, Junichi Awamura, Satoshi Ogawa, Takahiro Honda, Daisuke Ito, Teruki Kusahara, Masaki Watanabe, Daisuke Inoue, Kiwako Hirohara
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Publication number: 20140348546Abstract: Toner housing container includes: container body mountable on toner conveying device and housing toner supplied into toner conveying device; conveying portion provided in container body and conveying toner from longer direction one end of container body to other end at which container opening portion is provided; pipe receiving port provided at container opening portion and receiving conveying pipe fixed to toner conveying device; and uplifting portion to move toner conveyed by conveying portion toward toner receiving port of conveying pipe. Toner has loose apparent density of 0.28 g/cm3 to 0.53 g/cm3. Container body includes protruding portion protruding from container body interior side of container opening portion toward one end. Uplifting portion includes uplifting wall surface extending from internal wall surface of container body toward protruding portion, and curving portion curving to conform to protruding portion.Type: ApplicationFiled: May 20, 2014Publication date: November 27, 2014Applicant: RICOH COMPANY, LTD.Inventors: Satoshi Kojima, Junichi Awamura, Tsuneyasu Nagatomo, Shingo Sakashita, Tomoki Murayama, Masaya Fukuda, Hiroshi Hosokawa, Shunji Katoh, Shinji Tamaki, Hiroshi Ikeguchi, Kenji Kikuchi, Michiharu Suzuki
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Publication number: 20140348545Abstract: A toner housing container includes: a container body housing a toner; a conveying portion; a pipe receiving port; and an uplifting portion. Flow rate index of the toner measured by powder rheometer and represented by “flow rate index=(total energy at a rotation speed of 10 mm/s)/(total energy at a rotation speed of 100 mm/s)” is in a range of “1.8?flow rate index?6.5”. Container body includes protruding portion protruding from container body interior side of container opening portion toward one end of container body. Uplifting portion includes: uplifting wall surface extending from container body internal wall surface toward protruding portion; and curving portion curving to conform to protruding portion. When the toner housing container is mounted on the toner conveying device, the protruding portion is present between the curving portion and the toner receiving port of the conveying pipe being inserted.Type: ApplicationFiled: May 20, 2014Publication date: November 27, 2014Applicant: RICOH COMPANY, LTD.Inventors: Masana Shiba, Shingo Sakashita, Junichi Awamura, Tomoki Murayama, Chihiro Kikuchi, Masaya Fukuda, Hiroshi Hosokawa, Shunji Katoh, Shinji Tamaki, Hiroshi Ikeguchi, Kenji Kikuchi, Michiharu Suzuki
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Patent number: 8846289Abstract: A method of manufacturing toner including melting, mixing, and kneading a releasing agent and a coloring agent with at least part of a polyester binder resin, and suspending and granulating an oil phase comprising the binder resin, the coloring agent, and the releasing agent in an aqueous medium.Type: GrantFiled: September 24, 2010Date of Patent: September 30, 2014Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.Inventors: Satoshi Ogawa, Tsuyoshi Sugimoto, Naohito Shimota, Hiroshi Yamashita, Masana Shiba, Junichi Awamura
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Publication number: 20140234767Abstract: Provided is an electrostatic charge image developing toner, including: toner base particles including a polyester resin as a binder resin; and an external additive on the surface of the toner base particles. The external additive includes silica. The silica is produced by sol-gel method, and is aspherical. The percentage of change in the specific surface area of the toner when it is stored under high-temperature, high-humidity conditions is from 25% to 45%.Type: ApplicationFiled: February 18, 2014Publication date: August 21, 2014Inventors: Junichi AWAMURA, Tsuneyasu Nagatomo, Satoshi Kojima, Shingo Sakashita, Tomoki Murayama, Masaya Fukuda
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Publication number: 20140220485Abstract: To provide a toner, which contains silica particles containing first silica particles, and second silica particles, wherein the toner is a toner produced by depositing the silica particles on surfaces of base particles, the first silica particles have an average primary particle diameter of 75 nm to 250 nm, the second silica particles have an average primary particle diameter of 10 nm to 50 nm, a mass ratio of the first silica particles to the base particles is 0.010 to 0.040, a mass ratio of the second silica particles to the base particles is 0.005 to 0.030, a liberation ratio of the silica particles from the toner by a ultrasonic vibration method is 5% by mass to 20% by mass, and an amount of particles having primary particle diameters of 30 nm or smaller in the silica particles librated from the toner by the ultrasonic vibration method is 20% by number or less.Type: ApplicationFiled: January 30, 2014Publication date: August 7, 2014Inventors: Satoshi KOJIMA, Junichi Awamura, Tsuneyasu Nagatomo, Shingo Sakashita, Tomoki Murayama, Masaya Fukuda
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Patent number: 8778588Abstract: To provide a toner, which contains a binder resin, a colorant, and a releasing agent, wherein the binder resin contains a low molecular weight resin component, where the low molecular weight resin component has a resin softening coefficient (A), represented by the following formula (1), satisfying A>0.165, and has storage elastic modulus (dyne/cm2) G?(Tfb) satisfying G?(Tfb)?1×104 where Tfb is a flow onset temperature (° C.) of the low molecular weight resin component as measured by a capillary rheometer: A=|[(r1)?ln G?(r2)]/(T1?T2)|??Formula (1) (where T1 is temperature (° C.) at which storage elastic modulus G?(r1) is 1×105 (dyne/cm2) and T2 is temperature (° C.) at which storage elastic modulus G?(r2) is 1×103 (dyne/cm2) as measured by means of a viscoelasticity measuring device with measuring frequency of 1 Hz, and measuring distortion of 1 deg; and | | represents an absolute value.).Type: GrantFiled: October 12, 2011Date of Patent: July 15, 2014Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.Inventors: Teruki Kusahara, Junichi Awamura, Tsuyoshi Sugimoto, Hyo Shu, Tomomi Suzuki, Osamu Uchinokura, Takahiro Honda, Satoshi Kojima, Satoshi Ogawa, Daisuke Inoue, Koshi Sato, Daisuke Ito, Ryuuta Yoshida, Syouko Satoh
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Publication number: 20140140731Abstract: A toner including: a binder resin; a releasing agent; and a colorant, wherein the binder resin contains a crystalline polyester resin and a non-crystalline polyester resin, wherein the releasing agent has an endothermic peak temperature of 60° C. to 80° C. at the second temperature rising in differential scanning calorimetry, and wherein the releasing agent is an ester wax which satisfies the following expressions (1) and (2): 1.1 Pa·s??*a?2.0 Pa·s . . . Expression (1) 0.001??*b/?*a?1.00 . . . Expression (2) where in Expressions (1) and (2), ?*a denotes a complex viscosity (Pa·s) determined by measuring a dynamic viscoelasticity of the releasing agent at a measurement frequency of 6.28 rad/s, and ?*b denotes a complex viscosity (Pa·s) determined by measuring a dynamic viscoelasticity of the releasing agent at a measurement frequency of 62.8 rad/s.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 3, 2012Publication date: May 22, 2014Inventors: Mamoru Hozumi, Junichi Awamura, Teruki Kusahara, Daisuke Ito, Satoshi Ogawa, Takahiro Honda, Kiwako Hirohara, Osamu Uchinokura, Satoshi Kojima, Syouko Satoh, Tsuneyasu Nagatomo, Masaki Watanabe, Masaaki Oka, Yasuaki Ohta
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Patent number: 8673528Abstract: A toner including at least one polyester resin serving as a binder resin, a colorant, a releasing agent, and a fixing aid, wherein the fixing aid includes a fatty acid amide-based compound, and the fatty acid amide-based compound is at least one of a fatty acid amide compound having a mono- or higher valent amide bond and a fatty acid amide-based compound having a mono- or higher valent amino group or a hydroxyl group.Type: GrantFiled: May 22, 2009Date of Patent: March 18, 2014Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.Inventors: Tsuyoshi Sugimoto, Hiroshi Yamashita, Naohiro Watanabe, Shinichi Wakamatsu, Masaki Watanabe, Satoshi Ogawa, Masana Shiba, Junichi Awamura, Naohito Shimota
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Publication number: 20140072349Abstract: A developing device, including: a developer bearing member, which is disposed opposite to an electrostatic latent image bearing member and which bears thereon a developer for developing an electrostatic latent image formed on the electrostatic latent image bearing member and conveys the developer to a developing region, wherein the developer includes a toner and a carrier, the toner containing: a toner base containing a binder resin and a colorant; and an external additive, wherein the external additive contains coalescent particles each made up of a plurality of coalescing primary particles, and wherein a work function Wc of the carrier and a work function Ws of the developer bearing member satisfy a relationship of the following formula (1): Ws?Wc?0.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 10, 2013Publication date: March 13, 2014Inventors: Shingo SAKASHITA, Junichi AWAMURA, Tsuneyasu NAGATOMO, Satoshi KOJIMA, Tomoki MURAYAMA
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Patent number: 8652719Abstract: A set of toners including yellow, cyan, magenta, and black toner, each of which containing a binder resin containing a crystalline resin and a non-crystalline resin, a releasing agent, and a corresponding coloring agent, wherein the following relationship is satisfied: 0.8<EBk/EFc<0.95, where EBk represents the amount of heat of melting (mJ/mg) for the black toner and EFc represents the average amount of heat of melting (mJ/mg) of the yellow toner, magenta toner, and cyan toner from 50° C. to 100° C. at the first temperature rising in differential scanning calorimetry (DSC).Type: GrantFiled: April 18, 2012Date of Patent: February 18, 2014Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.Inventors: Osamu Uchinokura, Satoshi Ogawa, Junichi Awamura, Teruki Kusahara, Daisuke Ito, Daisuke Inoue
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Patent number: 8614043Abstract: A toner including a core particle, an inner shell layer covering the core, and an outer shell layer covering the inner shell layer is provided. The core particle includes a resin P. The inner shell layer includes fine particles of a resin A. The outer shell layer includes fine particles of a resin B. The toner satisfies the following formulae (1) to (3): 4.5?T½(P)?Tfb(P)?14??(1) 20?T½(A)?Tfb(A)?40??(2) 23.5?T½(B)?Tfb(B)?40??(3) wherein T½(P), T½(A), and T½(B) represent ½ method temperatures of the resins P, A, and B, respectively, and Tfb(P), Tfb(A), and Tfb(B) represent flow beginning temperatures of the resins P, A, and B, respectively, and wherein the ½ method temperatures and the flow beginning temperatures are measured by a flowtester.Type: GrantFiled: November 1, 2012Date of Patent: December 24, 2013Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.Inventors: Masaki Watanabe, Osamu Uchinokura, Junichi Awamura, Takahiro Honda, Satoshi Ogawa, Tsuneyasu Nagatomo, Hiroshi Yamashita
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Patent number: 8546053Abstract: The present invention provides a method for producing a toner, the method including: preparing a wax dispersion liquid by cooling a wax solution, in which a wax is heated and dissolved or dispersed in an organic solvent, in a container so that a standard deviation ? of a temperature distribution between a center portion of the container and an inner wall of the container is 0.5 or less and the cooling rate is 2.0° C./min or more, to precipitate wax particles in the wax solution; forming toner base precursor particles by adding an aqueous phase containing resin fine particles into an oil phase containing at least the wax dispersion liquid, a colorant and a binder resin and mixing the oil phase and the aqueous phase with each other; and preparing toner base particles by removing the solvent from the toner base precursor particles.Type: GrantFiled: September 8, 2009Date of Patent: October 1, 2013Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.Inventors: Teruki Kusahara, Junichi Awamura, Tomomi Suzuki, Toshihiko Karato
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Publication number: 20130244156Abstract: A toner for developing an electrostatic image, including: toner base particles each including a binder resin and a releasing agent; and inorganic fine particles, wherein the toner includes the inorganic fine particles as an external additive on a surface of the toner base particle, wherein the toner base particles have a BET specific surface area of 2.5 m2/g to 5.0 m2/g, and wherein the inorganic fine particles comprise inorganic fine particles (A) which are each a secondary particle where a plurality of primary particles are coalesced together.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 11, 2013Publication date: September 19, 2013Inventors: Satoshi KOJIMA, Tsuneyasu Nagatomo, Syouko Satoh, Osamu Uchinokura, Junichi Awamura, Satoshi Ogawa, Takahiro Honda, Daisuke Ito, Teruki Kusahara, Masaki Watanabe, Daisuke Inoue, Kiwako Hirohara
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Publication number: 20130243488Abstract: A toner including: toner base particles; and external additive, the toner base particles each comprising binder resin and colorant, wherein the external additive comprises coalesced particles, the coalesced particles are each a non-spherical secondary particle in which primary particles are coalesced together, and an index of a particle size distribution of the coalesced particles is expressed by Formula (1): Db 50 Db 10 ? 1.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 8, 2013Publication date: September 19, 2013Inventors: Satoshi KOJIMA, Tsuneyasu NAGATOMO, Syouko SATOH, Osamu UCHINOKURA, Junichi AWAMURA, Satoshi OGAWA, Takahiro HONDA, Daisuke ITO, Teruki KUSAHARA, Masaki WATANABE, Daisuke INOUE
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Publication number: 20130244158Abstract: A toner set, including: a transparent toner including a binder resin a, a releasing agent a and no colorant; and one or more color toners, each including a binder resin b, a colorant b and a releasing agent b, wherein the binder resin a includes a non-crystalline resin ? and a crystalline resin ?, the binder resin b includes a non-crystalline resin ? and a crystalline resin ?, the releasing agent a has an average particle diameter as a long diameter of 0.2 ?m to 2.0 ?m, and there is a relationship of 1<A/B<1.5, where A is an area of the releasing agent a in a transparent toner cross-section from a surface thereof to a ?-depth of a volume-average particle diameter, and B is an area of the releasing agent b in a color-toner cross-section from a surface thereof to a ?-depth of a volume-average particle diameter.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 13, 2013Publication date: September 19, 2013Inventors: Junichi AWAMURA, Teruki Kusahara, Satoshi Ogawa, Daisuke Ito, Daisuke Inoue, Osamu Uchinokura, Satoshi Kojima, Tsuneyasu Nagatomo, Mamoru Hozumi, Syouko Satoh
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Publication number: 20130244155Abstract: A toner including: toner base particles; and an external additive, the toner base particles each comprising a binder resin and a colorant, wherein the external additive comprises non-spherical particles and spherical particles, wherein the non-spherical particles are each a secondary particle in which spherical primary particles are coalesced together, and wherein the non-spherical particles and the spherical particles in the external additive satisfy a relationship expressed by the following formula (1): 3Ca(%)<Cb(%)??Formula (1) where Ca is greater than 10% but smaller than 20% and Cb is greater than 40% but smaller than 70%, and Ca and Cb are values given by: Ca = ( an ? ? amount ? ? of ? ? the ? ? non ? - ? spherical ? ? particles ? ? ( % ? ? by ? ? mass ) / 100 ) × ( a ? ? projected ? ? area ? ? of ? ? the ? ? non ? - ? spherical ? ? particles ? ? ( cm 2 ? / ? g ) ) ( an ? ? amount ? ? of ?Type: ApplicationFiled: March 8, 2013Publication date: September 19, 2013Inventors: Syouko Satoh, Tsuneyasu Nagatomo, Satoshi Kojima, Osamu Uchinokura, Junichi Awamura, Daisuke Ito, Satoshi Ogawa, Kiwako Hirohara, Takahiro Honda, Daisuke Inoue
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Publication number: 20130224648Abstract: Electrostatic image developing toner particles including: a crystalline polyester resin; a non-crystalline polyester resin; a releasing agent; and a colorant, wherein the electrostatic image developing toner particles have a glass transition temperature of 40° C. to 60° C. where the glass transition temperature is measured with a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), and wherein the electrostatic image developing toner particles have an adhesive force between the toner particles of 1.4 mN to 2.2 mN where the adhesive force between the toner particles is measured after the electrostatic image developing toner particles have been stored at 50° C.Type: ApplicationFiled: November 9, 2011Publication date: August 29, 2013Inventors: Takahiro Honda, Osamu Uchinokura, Junichi Awamura, Satoshi Ogawa, Satoshi Kojima, Teruki Kusahara, Daisuke Inoue, Daisuke Ito, Tsuneyasu Nagatomo, Masaki Watanabe