Abstract: A seal member is injection-molded with a simple structure that needs no complicated assembling process. An optical scanning device 21 includes a light source unit 202 from which a light beam is emitted; a rotating polygon mirror 203 that deflects the light beam such that the light beam emitted from the light source unit 202 is scanned over a photosensitive member; an optical component that directs the light beam deflected by the rotating polygon mirror 203 onto the photosensitive member; an optical housing 20 that contains the light source unit 202, the rotating polygon mirror 203, and the optical component; and a cover 30 that covers an opening of the optical housing 20.

Abstract: An upper cover attached to an optical box included in an optical scanning device includes a flow path in which a sealing member is injection-molded. The flow path includes a first bottom portion, a second bottom portion, and a step. The step is formed between the first bottom portion and the second bottom portion, and the area where the sealing member and the upper cover adhere to each other increases by an amount corresponding to the provided step so that adhesiveness between the sealing member and the upper cover is enhanced.

Abstract: A chassis structure includes: a chassis that houses a component used for an image forming apparatus inside and that includes an opening; a cover member that covers the opening of the chassis; and a seal member that is provided between the cover member and the chassis and that, when the cover member is attached to the chassis, is compressed and deformed so as to seal a gap between the cover member and the chassis. An attached section of the cover member to which the seal member is attached is provided with a hole.

Abstract: A transfer apparatus includes a transfer roller which transfers developer on an image carrier onto a recording medium conveyed along a conveyance path, a supporting frame which is provided at an upstream of a transferring portion where the image carrier and the transfer roller are closest, in the conveyance path, and is provided at a side of the transfer roller with respect to the conveyance path, a flexible guide member which has a thin plate shape, and is attached to the supporting frame at an upstream of the transferring portion in the conveyance path to guide the record medium to the transferring portion, and a inflexible protrusion supporting member which is provided on the supporting frame between the transferring portion and the guide member in the conveyance path, and which protrudes toward the conveyance path to support a trailing edge of the record medium after passing the guide member.

Abstract: Provided is a method for forming an image containing the sequential steps of: forming a foil adhesion toner image on an image supporting substrate with a foil adhesion toner (?) which comprises at least a binder resin containing a thermoplastic resin using an electrophotographic method; forming a foil image on the foil adhesion toner image by contacting a transfer foil on the foil adhesion toner image with applying heat; and forming a visible toner image on the image supporting substrate which has been formed with the foil image with at least one image forming toner (?) using an electrophotographic method, followed by fixing the visible toner image by applying heat and pressure thereto, wherein ?(Tsp(?)?Tsp(?)) is 5 to 50° C., provided that Tsp (?) is a softening point of the foil adhesion toner (?) and Tsp (?) is a softening point of the image forming toner (?).

Abstract: A method for determining a location on an image bearing surface of an image printing system where a toner image is to be printed is provided. The method comprises generating a first signal from a detector that is configured to detect a reference mark on the image bearing surface, and a second signal from a clock system that counts incremental movements of the image bearing surface, determining a first value that correlates the first signal and the second signal, where the first value corresponds to a value of the second signal at a start of characterization of the image bearing surface, and determining a second value using the first value, where the second value provides the location on the image bearing surface where the toner image is to be printed.

Abstract: A scanning optical apparatus includes an optical box accommodating a deflection device for scanningly deflecting a laser beam emitted by a light source and an optical part for directing the laser beam toward a member-to-be-scanned; a cap mounted to the optical box; a sealing member extending from the cap, wherein the sealing member is made of a material exhibiting easier deformation than the cap, and is contacted to a wall of the optical box in a deformed state.

Abstract: A fixing step before smoothing by a smoothing device causes the phenomenon that a photo-medium is not properly separated from a fixing device due to a toner receiving layer of the photo-medium. Therefore, in order to prevent the occurrence of defective separation in the fixing device, a predetermined image pattern is formed using a toner containing a wax component in a margin, i.e., a non-image forming region, at the leading end of the photo-medium.

Abstract: In an electrophotographic device, a method is provided in which laser power is regulated at two predetermined points of gradation. More specifically, a first laser power regulating means which regulates the magnitude of a laser power output and a second laser power regulating means which regulates the slope of laser power gradation characteristic are provided. Thereby, stabilization of the laser power output value is realized at any stage of the gradation, and an electrophotographic device can be provided which reduces variability in image quality between electrophotographic devices.

Abstract: Thermal transfer articles of the invention comprising a carrier, optionally a release layer, a color layer releasably adhered thereto, and optionally an adherence layer on the bottom side of the color layer. Also graphic imaging compositions and methods for thermal transfer using such articles and compositions and graphic articles made by such methods. The transfer articles 1) exhibit thermoplastic, low cohesive properties during transfer such that good image resolution and transfer is achieved and 2) are radiation crosslinked after transfer such that a durable image is formed.

Abstract: In an electrophotographic apparatus, regions having at least three different potential levels Vc, Vw, and Vr are formed on a photosensitive member by using an exposing device, and developing processes respectively using colored particles of different kinds are performed by normal development and reversal development on two potential levels Vc and Vr excluding the intermediate potential level Vw. The apparatus has an auxiliary exposing unit for forming a fringe development preventing potential in an edge of an image forming region in order to prevent fringe development from occurring. The auxiliary exposing unit sets an auxiliary exposure amount by performing pulse-width modulation on a laser driver.

Abstract: An electrode 2c and a pinene polymer recording layer 2a with a molecular weight of 500 to 10000 are successively stacked on a substrate 2c, as shown in FIG. 3. By carrying out thermal development, information electric charge that is formed on the resin surface is formed into a thermally stable frost image without decay of the information electric charge. Since no photoconductive layer is needed, when transmitted or reflected light is used to reproduce the frost image, there is no effect of the coloring of a photoconductive layer. If exposure is effected under the application of a voltage, since the depth of dimple patterns of a frost image varies in accordance with the quantity of exposure energy, tonal reproducibility is obtained. In addition, it is possible to obtain high resolution and make an original for OHP, a microfilm, a slidefilm, etc. which is of good quality and has high fidelty to the original document.