Patents by Inventor Takuro Kusama

Takuro Kusama 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).

  • Patent number: 10054900
    Abstract: A developer cartridge includes a first gear rotatable about a first axis extending in an axial direction, and a second gear rotatable in a rotation direction about a second axis extending in the axial direction. The second gear includes: an engagement portion engageable with gear teeth of the first gear; a first protrusion and a second protrusion protruding in the axial direction. The first and second protrusions extend to be spaced apart from each other in the rotation direction. The first protrusion has first end and a second end defining a first angle therebetween about the second axis. The second protrusion has a third end and a fourth end farther away from the first protrusion than the third end is in the rotation direction. The second end and the third end define a second angle therebetween about the second axis. The first angle is smaller than the second angle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 9, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 21, 2018
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Takuro Kusama
  • Publication number: 20170248904
    Abstract: A developer cartridge includes a first gear rotatable about a first axis extending in an axial direction, and a second gear rotatable in a rotation direction about a second axis extending in the axial direction. The second gear includes: an engagement portion engageable with gear teeth of the first gear; a first protrusion and a second protrusion protruding in the axial direction. The first and second protrusions extend to be spaced apart from each other in the rotation direction. The first protrusion has first end and a second end defining a first angle therebetween about the second axis. The second protrusion has a third end and a fourth end farther away from the first protrusion than the third end is in the rotation direction. The second end and the third end define a second angle therebetween about the second axis. The first angle is smaller than the second angle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 9, 2017
    Publication date: August 31, 2017
    Inventor: Takuro Kusama
  • Patent number: 9008542
    Abstract: An image scanner section is disposed above a printer section. The image scanner section is supported by the printer section in such a manner as to be pivotable about a pivotal axis. The printer section has a lower housing having a substantially rectangular shape as viewed from above. The image scanner section has an upper housing having a substantially rectangular shape as viewed from above. The upper housing and the lower housing are configured such that a second upper corner portion, which is a corner portion of the upper housing, projects beyond a second lower corner portion, which is a corner portion of the lower housing and is located just under the second upper corner portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 15, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 14, 2015
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Sakae Ito, Takuro Kusama, Satoru Hattori
  • Publication number: 20140355079
    Abstract: An image scanner section is disposed above a printer section. The image scanner section is supported by the printer section in such a manner as to be pivotable about a pivotal axis. The printer section has a lower housing having a substantially rectangular shape as viewed from above. The image scanner section has an upper housing having a substantially rectangular shape as viewed from above. The upper housing and the lower housing are configured such that a second upper corner portion, which is a corner portion of the upper housing, projects beyond a second lower corner portion, which is a corner portion of the lower housing and is located just under the second upper corner portion.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 15, 2014
    Publication date: December 4, 2014
    Applicant: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Sakae Ito, Takuro Kusama, Satoru Hattori
  • Patent number: 8811855
    Abstract: An image scanner section is disposed above a printer section. The image scanner section is supported by the printer section in such a manner as to be pivotable about a pivotal axis. The printer section has a lower housing having a substantially rectangular shape as viewed from above. The image scanner section has an upper housing having a substantially rectangular shape as viewed from above. The upper housing and the lower housing are configured such that a second upper corner portion, which is a corner portion of the upper housing, projects beyond a second lower corner portion, which is a corner portion of the lower housing and is located just under the second upper corner portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 6, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 19, 2014
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Sakae Ito, Takuro Kusama, Satoru Hattori
  • Publication number: 20140003851
    Abstract: An image scanner section is disposed above a printer section. The image scanner section is supported by the printer section in such a manner as to be pivotable about a pivotal axis. The printer section has a lower housing having a substantially rectangular shape as viewed from above. The image scanner section has an upper housing having a substantially rectangular shape as viewed from above. The upper housing and the lower housing are configured such that a second upper corner portion, which is a corner portion of the upper housing, projects beyond a second lower corner portion, which is a corner portion of the lower housing and is located just under the second upper corner portion.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 6, 2013
    Publication date: January 2, 2014
    Applicant: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Sakae Ito, Takuro Kusama, Satoru Hattori
  • Patent number: 8532525
    Abstract: An image scanner section is disposed above a printer section. The image scanner section is supported by the printer section in such a manner as to be pivotable about a pivotal axis. The printer section has a lower housing having a substantially rectangular shape as viewed from above. The image scanner section has an upper housing having a substantially rectangular shape as viewed from above. The upper housing and the lower housing are configured such that a second upper corner portion, which is a corner portion of the upper housing, projects beyond a second lower corner portion, which is a corner portion of the lower housing and is located just under the second upper corner portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 10, 2013
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Sakae Ito, Takuro Kusama, Satoru Hattori
  • Patent number: 8237999
    Abstract: There is provided an automatic document feeder, comprising: a document tray; an output tray; a first rotating body that ejects the document to the output tray; a second rotating body that ejects the document to the output tray; a reversing mechanism that reverses a carrying direction of the document which passed the reading portion to carry again the document to the reading portion; a sinking mechanism that sinks the document into a position between a bottom of a document already stacked on the output tray and a surface of the output tray; and a switching mechanism configured to switch between a first motion of carrying the document to the first rotating body and a second motion of carrying the document to the second rotating body, in accordance with whether the reversing mechanism is activated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 7, 2012
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Takuro Kusama
  • Publication number: 20120099891
    Abstract: An image scanner section is disposed above a printer section. The image scanner section is supported by the printer section in such a manner as to be pivotable about a pivotal axis. The printer section has a lower housing having a substantially rectangular shape as viewed from above. The image scanner section has an upper housing having a substantially rectangular shape as viewed from above. The upper housing and the lower housing are configured such that a second upper corner portion, which is a corner portion of the upper housing, projects beyond a second lower corner portion, which is a corner portion of the lower housing and is located just under the second upper corner portion.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 28, 2011
    Publication date: April 26, 2012
    Applicant: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Sakae ITO, Takuro KUSAMA, Satoru HATTORI
  • Patent number: 8099016
    Abstract: An image scanner section is disposed above a printer section. The image scanner section is supported by the printer section in such a manner as to be pivotable about a pivotal axis. The printer section has a lower housing having a substantially rectangular shape as viewed from above. The image scanner section has an upper housing having a substantially rectangular shape as viewed from above. The upper housing and the lower housing are configured such that a second upper corner portion, which is a corner portion of the upper housing, projects beyond a second lower corner portion, which is a corner portion of the lower housing and is located just under the second upper corner portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 19, 2007
    Date of Patent: January 17, 2012
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Sakae Ito, Takuro Kusama, Satoru Hattori
  • Patent number: 7976008
    Abstract: A sheet feeder includes a feed tray receiving sheets, a catch tray receiving the sheets ejected thereon, a feeding mechanism conveying the sheets from the feed tray to the catch tray, an ejection mode switching mechanism switching an ejection mode between a first mode in which the sheets are sequentially ejected on a stack of sheets already ejected and a second mode in which the sheets are sequentially ejected and inserted under a stack of sheets already ejected, an ejection detecting sensor detecting a sheet ejected on the catch tray, and a controller configured to, in response to an instruction to start feeding the sheets, forbid driving of the feeding mechanism when determining that the ejection mode is set to the second mode and determining with the ejection detecting sensor that a sheet is on the catch tray.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 25, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 12, 2011
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Takuro Kusama
  • Patent number: 7931271
    Abstract: A document feeding device includes: a document placing tray; a document ejection tray disposed above the document placing tray; a feeding path; a separating mechanism; and ejection rollers. A nip position of the ejection rollers is arranged in a side opposite to a side where the document placing tray is arranged with reference to a vertical plane passing through a separation position of the separating mechanism.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 18, 2009
    Date of Patent: April 26, 2011
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Takuro Kusama
  • Patent number: 7740242
    Abstract: A document feeder includes a conveying path extended from a document supplying position to a reading position, a first conveying roller pair provided upstream from the reading position and nipping and conveying the document, a second conveying roller pair provided downstream from the reading position and nipping and conveying the document faster than the first conveying roller pair, a post-reading conveying path extended downstream from a nipping position of the second conveying roller pair, the post-reading conveying path being located above a plane tangent to the second conveying roller pair at the nipping position running in a reverse sheet feed direction, and a third conveying roller pair provided on the post-reading conveying path and nipping and conveying the document conveyed from the second conveying roller pair at a conveying force equivalent to that of the second conveying roller pair.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 22, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 22, 2010
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Takuro Kusama, Toshitaka Iwago, Yoichi Horaguchi, Ryoichi Matsushima
  • Patent number: 7720430
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes: an image carrier that carries a developer image; a transfer member that transfers the developer image carried on the image carrier onto an image forming surface of a recording medium being conveyed; a fixation member that is disposed downstream of the transfer member in a conveyance direction of the recording medium, and fixes the developer image transferred on the recording medium; a first member that is disposed between the transfer member and the fixation member to face the image forming surface of the recording medium; and a second member that is disposed between the transfer member and the fixation member to face a non-image forming surface that is opposite the image forming surface, wherein the first member is provided with a first electrically-conductive member having an electric conductivity and being grounded.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 20, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 18, 2010
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Makoto Hasegawa, Fumio Morita, Tomitake Aratachi, Masamitsu Ukai, Yoshinori Ito, Takashi Shimizu, Takuro Kusama
  • Patent number: 7708265
    Abstract: A sheet feeder includes a housing having a cassette housing part recessed horizontally from the front surface toward the depth direction and a sheet feed cassette that can be drawn from the cassette housing part. The sheet feed cassette has an open top for storing sheets of paper. The sheet feeder includes a pressure plate provided pivotably about a first pivot so as to be inclined downwardly toward the depth direction of the sheet feed cassette and a pressure mechanism that presses sheets of paper against a pick-up roller when the sheet feed cassette is pushed into the cassette housing part. The sheet feeder includes a pressure plate regulation mechanism that inclines the pressure plate downwardly toward the depth direction while separating sheets of paper on the pressure plate or the pressure plate from the pick-up roller when the sheet feed cassette is drawn from the cassette housing part.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 21, 2007
    Date of Patent: May 4, 2010
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Takuro Kusama
  • Patent number: 7703764
    Abstract: A document feeding device includes a document placing tray, a document ejection tray disposed above the document placing tray, a feeding path, a first reversal path, a second reversal path, and a reversing mechanism. The document ejection tray has a flap portion capable of rocking up and down to provide a first ejection mode and a second ejection mode. The reversing mechanism is configured to temporarily eject part of a document to the document ejection tray.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 23, 2009
    Date of Patent: April 27, 2010
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Takuro Kusama
  • Publication number: 20100078882
    Abstract: A sheet feeder includes a feed tray receiving sheets, a catch tray receiving the sheets ejected thereon, a feeding mechanism conveying the sheets from the feed tray to the catch tray, an ejection mode switching mechanism switching an ejection mode between a first mode in which the sheets are sequentially ejected on a stack of sheets already ejected and a second mode in which the sheets are sequentially ejected and inserted under a stack of sheets already ejected, an ejection detecting sensor detecting a sheet ejected on the catch tray, and a controller configured to, in response to an instruction to start feeding the sheets, forbid driving the feeding mechanism when determining that the ejection mode is set to the second mode and determining with the ejection detecting sensor that a sheet is on the catch tray.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 25, 2009
    Publication date: April 1, 2010
    Applicant: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Takuro KUSAMA
  • Patent number: 7665728
    Abstract: A document feeding device includes a document placing tray, a document ejection tray disposed above the document placing tray, a feeding path, a first reversal path, a second reversal path, and a reversing mechanism. The document ejection tray has a flap portion capable of rocking up and down to provide a first ejection mode and a second ejection mode. The reversing mechanism is configured to temporarily eject part of a document to a space portion between the document placing tray and the document ejection tray.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2009
    Date of Patent: February 23, 2010
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Takuro Kusama
  • Publication number: 20090322010
    Abstract: A document feeding device includes a document placing tray, a document ejection tray disposed above the document placing tray, a feeding path, a first reversal path, a second reversal path, and a reversing mechanism. The document ejection tray has a flap portion capable of rocking up and down to provide a first ejection mode and a second ejection mode. The reversing mechanism is configured to temporarily eject part of a document to the document ejection tray.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 23, 2009
    Publication date: December 31, 2009
    Applicant: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Takuro KUSAMA
  • Patent number: D865051
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 9, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 29, 2019
    Assignee: BROTHER INDUSTRIES, LTD.
    Inventors: Junichi Yokoi, Takuro Kusama, Hiromitsu Mizutani, Hiroki Mori