Patents Represented by Attorney Gerald E. Hespes
  • Patent number: 7558508
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes: a plurality of rollers; and an endless belt wound around said rollers, said rollers including: a driving roller which drives said belt wound around said rollers and a driven roller set which is driven by said driving roller via the movement of the endless belt, said driven rollers having one or more metal rollers. At least one of said metal rollers is a smooth roller which satisfies following conditions (i) and (ii); (i) a surface roughness Rz?2 ?m; and (ii) an arithmetic inclination average ?a?0.06; where said ?a is obtained from an equation (1) below: ? ? ? a = 1 L ? ? 0 L ? ? ? ? x ? f ? ( x ) ? ? ? x ( 1 ) where L=a reference length taken from a roughness curve; f (x)=a height of the roughness curve at a position x within said reference length L along a lengthwise direction of the roller.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 8, 2008
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2009
    Assignee: Kyocera Mita Corporation
    Inventors: Hiroshi Yamazaki, Tomohide Hozono, Mitsuhiro Hashimoto, Takeshi Watanabe