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).

  • Publication number: 20090226836
    Abstract: A method of manufacturing a toner including granulating mother toner particles in an aqueous medium to obtain a slurry containing the mother toner particles and adjusting a size distribution of the mother toner particles by screening coarse mother toner particles from the slurry with a screen to obtain the toner containing mother toner particulates.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 6, 2009
    Publication date: September 10, 2009
    Inventors: OSAMU UCHINOKURA, AKINORI SAITOH, JUNICHI AWAMURA, MASAHIDE YAMADA, HIROSHI YAMADA
  • Patent number: 7587161
    Abstract: A fixer fixing a toner including a binder resin and a colorant on a recording medium upon application of at least one of heat and pressure, including: a fixing member fixing the toner on the recording medium; a pressurizing member pressurizing the toner thereon; and a cleaning member collecting the toner from the fixing member or the pressurizing member onto the cleaning member, wherein a storage modulus of the toner collected on the cleaning member is larger than a storage modulus thereof before fixed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 2, 2005
    Date of Patent: September 8, 2009
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Hiroshi Yamada, Junichi Awamura, Tomomi Suzuki, Hiroto Higuchi, Naohito Shimota, Masami Tomita, Fumihiro Sasaki, Toshiki Nanya
  • Publication number: 20090214975
    Abstract: A toner prepared by a method including dissolving or dispersing at least at least one member selected from the group consisting of binder resins and precursors thereof, a colorant, a release agent, and a layered inorganic mineral in which ions between its layers are at least partially modified with an organic ion in an organic solvent to prepare a solution or a dispersion which is an oil phase; and dispersing the oil phase in an aqueous medium to prepare an emulsified dispersion in which parent toner particles are granulated, wherein the aqueous medium includes a tertiary amine compound.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 12, 2009
    Publication date: August 27, 2009
    Inventors: Junichi AWAMURA, Akinori Saitoh, Osamu Uchinokura, Masahide Yamada, Tomomi Suzuki
  • Publication number: 20090155709
    Abstract: Toner and a developer which are excellent in cleaning property and fixing property at low temperature, and capable of forming images with high quality are provided. A toner prepared by dispersing and/or emulsifying an oil phase or a monomer phase comprising a toner composition and/or a toner composition precursor in a water-based medium to granulate, wherein the toner has an average circularity of 0.925 to 0.970, and the toner composition and/or the toner composition precursor has a layered inorganic material in which at least a part of interlayer ions in the layered inorganic material has been exchanged with organic ions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 5, 2007
    Publication date: June 18, 2009
    Applicant: RICOH COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventors: Naohiro Watanabe, Shigeru Emoto, Yohichiroh Watanabe, Masahide Yamada, Tsunemi Sugiyama, Masahiro Ohki, Akinori Saitoh, Ryota Inoue, Osamu Uchinokura, Junichi Awamura
  • Publication number: 20090142680
    Abstract: A full-color image forming method, including: developing an electrostatic latent image with a two-component developer, including: a toner including: a binder resin, a colorant, and a layered inorganic mineral in which ions between its layers are at least partially modified with an organic ion; and a carrier, wherein the toner includes a black, a yellow, a magenta and a cyan toner and the carrier is formed of a magnetic particulate material coated with a resin, wherein each of the toners are contained in each toner cartridge comprising the carrier, from which the two-component developer is fed into each image developer developing each of the electrostatic latent image and discharging the extra developer therefrom, and wherein each of the toners has a aerated apparent density not greater than 0.40 and a difference of the aerated apparent density between each of the toners is not greater than 0.10.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 14, 2008
    Publication date: June 4, 2009
    Inventors: Naohito SHIMOTA, Junichi Awamura, Masahide Yamada
  • Publication number: 20090142094
    Abstract: A toner including a binder resin and a colorant which produces a torque of from 1.4 to 2.0 mNm, when a cone rotor having a vertical angle of 60° and grooves on a surface thereof intrudes into a bulk of the toner at an intrusion speed of 5 mm/min for a depth of 20 mm while rotating at a rotation speed of 1 rpm. The bulk of the toner is formed by consolidating 30 g of the toner in a cylindrical container having an internal diameter of 60 mm for 60 seconds with a consolidation load of 585 g.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 14, 2008
    Publication date: June 4, 2009
    Inventors: Toyoshi Sawada, Tomomi Suzuki, Tsuneyasu Nagatomo, Takuya Seshita, Satoshi Kojima, Junichi Awamura
  • Publication number: 20090142682
    Abstract: A toner including a binder resin, a coloring agent, a releasing agent and a modified laminar inorganic mineral, wherein the toner is granulated by dispersing the coloring agent, the releasing agent, the modified laminar inorganic mineral and at least one of the binder resin and a precursor thereof in an organic solvent to form an oil phase, dispersing the oil phase in an aqueous medium to obtain a dispersion emulsion and removing solvents therefrom, and the toner satisfies the following relationship (1): 0.2?{1/Dv (?m)}×Sb (m2/g)?1.4, where Dv represents a volume average particle diameter of the toner, and Sb represents a BET specific surface area of the toner.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 1, 2008
    Publication date: June 4, 2009
    Inventors: Akinori Saitoh, Osamu Uchinokura, Masahide Yamada, Tomomi Suzuki, Junichi Awamura
  • Publication number: 20090142690
    Abstract: A method of manufacturing a toner including forming a wax liquid dispersion in which a wax is dispersed in an organic solvent (A1), mixing an organic layer including the wax liquid dispersion, a binder resin and an organic solvent (A) to form an oil phase and dispersing and emulsifying the oil phase in an aqueous medium to obtain an emulsified liquid dispersion, wherein the aspect ratio average of the wax in the wax liquid dispersion is from 0.3 to 0.7 and the toner includes toner particles satisfying the following relationship (1) in an amount of 20% by number or smaller based on all toner particles: 0.5<D2/D1, relationship (1), where D1 represents the major diameter (D1) of the toner and D2 represents the major diameter of the wax.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 28, 2008
    Publication date: June 4, 2009
    Inventors: Junichi AWAMURA, Akinori Saitoh, Masahide Yamada, Osamu Uchinokura, Tomomi Suzuki
  • Publication number: 20090117480
    Abstract: To provide a toner containing an ethyl acetate-soluble polyester component and an ethyl acetate-insoluble polyester component, wherein the toner is granulated in an aqueous medium, the ethyl acetate-insoluble polyester component is obtained by elongating and/or cross-linking a modified polyester resin during granulating and/or after granulating, the modified polyester resin is produced by condensation polymerization of an acid component and at least one type of diol compound selected from aliphatic diol and alicyclic diol in the presence of a catalyst, and the mass average molecular weight of the modified polyester resin is 10,000 to 100,000.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 24, 2008
    Publication date: May 7, 2009
    Inventors: Masahide Yamada, Ryota Inoue, Naohiro Watanabe, Shigeru Emoto, Masahiro Ohki, Akinori Saitoh, Tsunemi Sugiyama, Shinichi Wakamatsu, Toshiki Nanya, Naohito Shimota, Hiroshi Yamada, Junichi Awamura, Tomomi Suzuki, Kazuyuki Hirai, Kazushige Yasumatsu
  • Patent number: 7521164
    Abstract: A toner which includes a toner material, wherein the toner satisfies the following formula: 0° C.??Tm?20° C. where ?Tm represents Tma (° C.)?Tmb (° C.), Tma (° C.) is ½ flown-out temperature of the toner by a capillary type flow tester, and Tmb (° C.) is ½ flown-out temperature of a melt kneaded mixture of the toner by the capillary type flow tester, and wherein Tma is from 130° C. to 200° C.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 21, 2009
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Shinya Nakayama, Satoshi Mochizuki, Yasuaki Iwamoto, Yasuo Asahina, Akihiro Kotsugai, Masayuki Ishii, Osamu Uchinokura, Hisashi Nakajima, Tomoyuki Ichikawa, Tomoko Utsumi, Koichi Sakata, Hideki Sugiura, Shigeru Emoto, Junichi Awamura, Masami Tomita, Takahiro Honda, Shinichiro Yagi, Tomomi Suzuki, Hiroshi Yamada, Toshiki Nanya, Hiroto Higuchi, Fumihiro Sasaki, Naohito Shimota
  • Patent number: 7504188
    Abstract: To provide a toner containing an ethyl acetate-soluble polyester component and an ethyl acetate-insoluble polyester component, wherein the toner is granulated in an aqueous medium, the ethyl acetate-insoluble polyester component is obtained by elongating and/or cross-linking a modified polyester resin during granulating and/or after granulating, the modified polyester resin is produced by condensation polymerization of an acid component and at least one type of diol compound selected from aliphatic diol and alicyclic diol in the presence of a catalyst, and the mass average molecular weight of the modified polyester resin is 10,000 to 100,000.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 12, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 17, 2009
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Masahide Yamada, Ryota Inoue, Naohiro Watanabe, Shigeru Emoto, Masahiro Ohki, Akinori Saitoh, Tsunemi Sugiyama, Shinichi Wakamatsu, Toshiki Nanya, Naohito Shimota, Hiroshi Yamada, Junichi Awamura, Tomomi Suzuki, Kazuyuki Hirai, Kazushige Yasumatsu
  • Publication number: 20090061345
    Abstract: A toner including a binder resin, a colorant, and a release agent is provided. The difference in absorbance ratio between the toner heated for 1 minute in an atmosphere of 100° C. and the toner stored in an atmosphere of 23° C. is from 0.1 to 0.2. The absorbance ratio is a ratio of an absorbance specific to the release agent (such as at 2850 cm?1 for a wax) to an absorbance specific to the binder resin (such as at 828 cm?1 for a polyester based binder resin), as measured by a Fourier transform infrared-total reflectance (FTIR-ATR) method.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 3, 2008
    Publication date: March 5, 2009
    Inventors: Masahide YAMADA, Akinori Saitoh, Osamu Uchinokura, Junichi Awamura
  • Publication number: 20090017392
    Abstract: A toner composition including toner particles including at least a binder resin; and a colorant, wherein the toner composition satisfies at least one of the following relationships (1) and (2): B?14 when 155<A?180; and B?0.6A?79 when 145?A?155,??(1) wherein A represents a shape factor SF-1 of the toner composition and B represents a content of toner particles having a particle diameter not greater than 3 ?m; and B?14 when 0.920?A??0.950; and B?394?400A? when 0.950<A??0.965??(2) wherein A? represents an average circularity of the toner composition and B represents a content of toner particles having a particle diameter not greater than 3 ?m.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 17, 2008
    Publication date: January 15, 2009
    Inventors: Hiroto HIGUCHI, Fumihiro SASAKI, Shinichiro YAGI, Shigeru EMOTO, Junichi AWAMURA, Naohito SHIMOTA, Masami TOMITA, Toshiki NANYA, Takahiro HONDA, Maiko KONDO
  • Publication number: 20090010687
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus including an image bearing member; a charger; a light irradiator; a developing device; a transfer device; an image bearing member's cleaner; and a fixing device, wherein the fixing device includes a fixing member configured to fix a toner image upon application of heat and pressure thereto; a pressing member configured to press the recording material toward the fixing member; and a cleaning member configured to clean a surface of the fixing member and/or the pressing member, wherein the cleaning member has an outermost layer including a reactive material which increases viscoelasticity of a binder resin of the toner by reacting with the binder resin.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 4, 2008
    Publication date: January 8, 2009
    Inventors: Hiroshi YAMADA, Fumihiro Sasaki, Shigeru Emoto, Jun Okamoto, Shlnji Ohtani, Hiroto Higuchi, Naohito Shimota, Shinichiro Yagi, Junichi Awamura, Tomomi Suzuki, Masami Tomita, Toshiki Nanya, Yoshiki Yamaguchi
  • Patent number: 7473508
    Abstract: A toner composition including toner particles including at least a binder resin; and a colorant, wherein the toner composition satisfies at least one of the following relationships (1) and (2): B?14 when 155<A?180; and B?0.6A?79 when 145?A?155,??(1) wherein A represents a shape factor SF-1 of the toner composition and B represents a content of toner particles having a particle diameter not greater than 3 ?m; and B?14 when 0.920?A??0.950; and B?394?400A? when 0.950<A??0.965??(2) wherein A? represents an average circularity of the toner composition and B represents a content of toner particles having a particle diameter not greater than 3 ?m.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 5, 2004
    Date of Patent: January 6, 2009
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Hiroto Higuchi, Fumihiro Sasaki, Shinichiro Yagi, Shigeru Emoto, Junichi Awamura, Naohito Shimota, Masami Tomita, Toshiki Nanya, Takahiro Honda, Maiko Kondo
  • Publication number: 20080311500
    Abstract: A toner including toner particles including a binder resin; a colorant, a release agent, and a modified layered inorganic material in which at least part of interlayer ions is modified with an organic ion, wherein the toner includes the release agent in an amount of from 3 to 6% by weight based on the total weight of the toner, and concentration of the modified layered inorganic material in a surface portion of the toner is greater than the average concentration thereof in the toner, and wherein the toner is subjected to FTIR-ATR, the ratio (P2850/P828) of the strength of the peak at 2850 cm?1 to that of the peak at 828 cm?1, is from 0.03 to 0.10. An image forming apparatus and a process cartridge which form a toner image using the toner.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 4, 2008
    Publication date: December 18, 2008
    Inventors: Masahide YAMADA, Osamu Uchinokura, Akinori Saitoh, Junichi Awamura, Tomomi Suzuki
  • Publication number: 20080292361
    Abstract: The present invention provides an image forming apparatus capable of stably producing high quality images with time, without causing missing a central part of a thin line, however, with keeping an appropriate flowability of a toner. The toner used in the image forming apparatus is a toner which contains a binder resin, a colorant, and a laminar inorganic mineral in which at least part of an ion in layers is modified with an organic ion, the toner is granulated in an aqueous system, the volume average particle diameter Dv of the toner is in the range of 3.0 ?m<Dv<6.5 ?m, the aspect ratio of the toner is 0.81 to 0.89, and the surface of the toner is externally added with a plurality of types of fine particles.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 6, 2008
    Publication date: November 27, 2008
    Inventors: Takuya SESHITA, Junichi Awamura, Tomomi Suzuki, Toyoshi Sawada, Masahide Yamada
  • Publication number: 20080280219
    Abstract: The present invention provides a toner containing at least a binder resin, a releasing agent, and a colorant, wherein the binder resin contains at least a polyester resin (A) having a softening point Tm(A) of 120° C. to 160° C., a polyester resin (B) having a softening point Tm(B) of 80° C. or more and less than 120° C. and a composite resin (C) containing a condensation polymerization monomer and an addition polymerization monomer, at least any one of the polyester resins (A) and (B) is a polyester resin prepared by condensation-polymerizing an alcohol component substantially composed of only aliphatic alcohol with a carboxylic acid component, and 65% or more of the alcohol component is 1,2-propanediol.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 9, 2008
    Publication date: November 13, 2008
    Inventors: Shinya Nakayama, Akihiro Kotsugai, Akiyoshi Sabu, Hiroshi Yamashita, Hiroshi Yamada, Junichi Awamura, Tsuyoshi Sugimoto
  • Publication number: 20080280218
    Abstract: To provide a toner produced by emulsifying or dispersing in an aqueous medium particles containing at least polyester resin particles and by aggregating the polyester resin particles, wherein the polyester resin particles contain a polyester resin, the polyester resin is produced by condensation polymerization of an alcohol component containing 65 mol % or more 1,2-propanediol in a dihydroxy alcohol component and a carboxylic acid component containing purified rosin, and the softening point of the polyester resin is 80° C. or more and less than 120° C., and wherein the toner comprises a colorant and a releasing agent.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 30, 2008
    Publication date: November 13, 2008
    Inventors: Akiyoshi Sabu, Akihiro Kotsugai, Shinya Nakayama, Hiroshi Yamashita, Tsuyoshi Sugimoto, Hiroshi Yamada, Junichi Awamura
  • Publication number: 20080268366
    Abstract: A toner which includes a toner material, wherein the toner satisfies the following formula: 0° C.??Tm?20° C. where ?Tm represents Tma (° C.)?Tmb (° C.), Tma (° C.) is ½ flown-out temperature of the toner by a capillary type flow tester, and Tmb (° C.) is ½ flown-out temperature of a melt kneaded mixture of the toner by the capillary type flow tester, and wherein Tma is from 130° C. to 200° C.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 31, 2008
    Publication date: October 30, 2008
    Inventors: Shinya Nakayama, Satoshi Mochizuki, Yasuaki Iwamoto, Yasuo Asahina, Akihiro Kotsugai, Masayuki Ishii, Osamu Uchinokura, Hisashi Nakajima, Tomoyuki Ichikawa, Tomoko Utsumi, Koichi Sakata, Hideki Sugiura, Shigeru Emoto, Junichi Awamura, Masami Tomita, Takahiro Honda, Shinichiro Yagi, Tomomi Suzuki, Hiroshi Yamada, Toshiki Nanya, Hiroto Higuchi, Fumihiro Sasaki, Naohito Shimota