Patents Examined by Christopher Rodee
  • Patent number: 9594325
    Abstract: A two-component developer includes a toner and a carrier. The toner includes a plurality of toner particles. The carrier includes a plurality of carrier particles. Each of the toner particles includes a toner core and a shell layer disposed over the surface of the toner core. The toner has a charge decay constant of at least 0.020 and no greater than 0.050 as measured with the toner particles in an external additive-free state. The carrier has a volume resistivity of at least 1.0×1012 ?·cm.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 18, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 14, 2017
    Assignee: KYOCERA Document Solutions Inc.
    Inventor: Yusuke Kurano
  • Patent number: 9594320
    Abstract: Provided is a toner, including a toner particle having a core particle containing a binder resin and a colorant. The toner particle has a protrusion on a surface thereof, and the protrusion contains an olefin-based polymer having a cyclic olefin structure. When an average radius of curvature of the protrusion, an average particle diameter of the core particle, a projected area of the toner particle, and a projected area of the protrusion that are calculated from a planar projected image of an image of the toner particle photographed with a scanning electron microscope are represented by Rs (?m), Rc (?m), S, and S1, respectively, the average radius of curvature Rs of the protrusion is 0.004Rc ?m or more and 0.100Rc ?m or less, and an average of a surface coverage “100×S1/S” % is 5% or more and 90% or less.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 12, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 14, 2017
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Makoto Fukatsu, Manami Haraguchi, Atsushi Nakamoto, Kazunari Hagiwara, Tatsuaki Orihara, Shuhei Tokiwa
  • Patent number: 9588451
    Abstract: A toner, wherein an amount of Al detected in the toner is 0.7% to 1.3%, where the amount of Al detected is determined based on quantitative analysis of Al by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic analysis (XPS), and wherein [Tg2nd (THF insoluble matter)] is ?40° C. to 30° C., where the [Tg2nd (THF insoluble matter)] is a glass transition temperature measured in second heating of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) of THF insoluble matter of the toner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 7, 2017
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Akihiro Takeyama, Shinya Nakayama, Akinori Saitoh, Shinsuke Nagai, Hiroyuki Takeda
  • Patent number: 9575424
    Abstract: A toner particle production method has an annealing step that is performed after the preparation of a resin solution by the dissolution or dispersion, in an organic solvent, of a binder resin having a polyester resin as its major component and a block polymer having a polyester segment and a vinyl polymer segment, and the preparation of a resin particle dispersion in which resin particles are dispersed by a dissolution suspension method, wherein, in this annealing step, the temperature of the obtained resin particle dispersion is held for at least 60 minutes in the temperature range from TgA-15 (° C.) to TmA (° C.), and under the conditions of a temperature variation range of not more than 20° C. and a temperature variation rate of not more than 0.35° C./minute.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 5, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2017
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Yoshihiro Nakagawa, Masatake Tanaka, Naoya Isono, Tsutomu Shimano, Shintaro Noji, Yu Yoshida
  • Patent number: 9575423
    Abstract: An electrophotographic photosensitive member has a photosensitive layer. The photosensitive layer is a multi-layer photosensitive layer having a charge transport layer being an outermost layer or a single-layer photosensitive layer. The amount of silica particles contained in the photosensitive layer is at least 0.5 parts by mass and no greater than 15 parts by mass relative to 100 parts by mass of a binder resin contained in the photosensitive layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2017
    Assignee: KYOCERA Document Solutions Inc.
    Inventors: Jun Azuma, Kensuke Okawa, Akihiko Ogata, Takahiro Oki
  • Patent number: 9568850
    Abstract: A positively chargeable toner includes at least a binder resin, and toner particles of which surfaces are modified by a polyvinylamine compound.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 12, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2017
    Assignee: FUJI XEROX CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Masahiro Oki, Akira Imai, Yoshihiro Inaba, Takako Kobayashi, Daisuke Yoshino, Hiroyuki Moriya, Koji Horiba
  • Patent number: 9557682
    Abstract: Object of the present invention is to provide a resin-coated carrier for an electrophotographic developer with reduced carrier weight, carrier beads carry over is prevented, and further, excellent in carrier strength and stable charging property in endurance printing. To achieve the object, the carrier having a coated resin layer on the surface of a porous ferrite core material and the pore volume and the peak pore size of the porous ferrite core material are 55 to 160 mm3/g and 0.2 to 0.7 ?m, respectively, and an electrophotographic developer using the resin-coated carrier is adopted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2012
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2017
    Assignee: POWDERTECH CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Takao Sugiura, Tetsuya Igarashi
  • Patent number: 9557668
    Abstract: The present invention is to provide a toner which has an excellent balance between heat-resistant storage stability and low-temperature fixability and which is excellent in printing durability even under a wide range of temperature and humidity environments from a low temperature and low humidity environment to a high temperature and high humidity environment. Disclosed is a toner for developing electrostatic images, containing colored resin particles containing a binder resin, a colorant, a softening agent and a retention aid, and an external additive, wherein the retention aid is a copolymer of at least one of acrylic acid ester and methacrylic acid ester and at least one of acrylic acid and methacrylic acid, and wherein the copolymer has an acid value of 0.5 to 7 mgKOH/g, a weight average molecular weight Mw of 6,000 to 50,000, and a glass transition temperature of 60 to 85° C.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 26, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2017
    Assignee: ZEON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Azusa Masuda, Ryuji Ohta
  • Patent number: 9535347
    Abstract: In order to provide an electrophotographic photosensitive member with which a ghost is suppressed even under a low temperature and low humidity environment, and a process cartridge and an electrophotographic apparatus having the electrophotographic photosensitive member, the electrophotographic photosensitive member has a support, an undercoat layer formed on the support, and a photosensitive layer formed on the undercoat layer and comprising a charge generating material and a hole transporting material, wherein the undercoat layer comprises a particular amine compound.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 25, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 3, 2017
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Kaname Watariguchi, Takeshi Murakami, Masataka Kawahara, Masato Tanaka, Akira Yoshida
  • Patent number: 9535346
    Abstract: An electrophotographic photosensitive member has an undercoat layer containing a polymerized product of a composition including electron transporting substance having a polymerizable functional group and a crosslinking agent, and resin particles. The content of the electron transporting substance is 30% by mass or more and 70% by mass or less based on the total mass of the composition. Protrusions derived from the resin particles in the undercoat layer are formed at an interface between the undercoat layer and the charge generating layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 12, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 3, 2017
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Michiyo Sekiya, Yota Ito, Nobuhiro Nakamura
  • Patent number: 9523934
    Abstract: A part material for printing three-dimensional parts with an electrophotography-based additive manufacturing system, the part material including a composition having an engineering-grade thermoplastic material and a charge control agent. The part material is provided in a powder form having a controlled particle size, and is configured for use in the electrophotography-based additive manufacturing system having a layer transfusion assembly for printing the three-dimensional parts in a layer-by-layer manner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 16, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 20, 2016
    Assignee: Stratasys, Inc.
    Inventors: James E. Orrock, Steven A. Chillscyzn, Trevor I. Martin
  • Patent number: 9523928
    Abstract: A method of forming an overcoat layer. The method comprises providing a substrate having an imaging structure formed thereon, the imaging structure comprising (i) a charge transport layer and a charge generating layer, or (ii) an imaging layer comprising both charge generating material and charge transport material. An overcoat composition is deposited on the imaging structure, the overcoat composition comprising a charge transport molecule, a fluorinated building block, a leveling agent, a liquid carrier and optionally a first catalyst. The fluorinated building block is a fluorinated alkyl monomer substituted at the ? and ? positions with a hydroxyl, carboxyl, carbonyl or aldehyde functional group or the anhydrides of any of those functional groups. The overcoat composition is cured to form an overcoat layer that is a fluorinated structured organic film, the curing comprising treating an outer surface of the overcoat composition with at least one cross-linking process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 26, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 20, 2016
    Inventors: Gregory McGuire, Adrien P. Cote, Richard A. Klenkler, Yvan Gagnon
  • Patent number: 9519235
    Abstract: A toner including at least a crystalline resin as a binder resin, wherein a tetrahydrofuran soluble content of the toner includes 5.0% or more as a peak area of a component having a molecular weight of 100,000 or greater in a molecular weight distribution measured by gel permeation chromatography, and the tetrahydrofuran soluble content of the toner has a weight-average molecular weight of 20,000 to 60,000.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 23, 2015
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2016
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Shingo Sakashita, Shinya Nakayama, Masahide Yamada, Atsushi Yamamoto, Hideyuki Santo, Yukiko Nakajima, Suzuka Amemori
  • Patent number: 9507282
    Abstract: The present invention provides an electrophotographic photoreceptor comprising a multilayered photosensitive layer or a monolayer photosensitive layer, wherein the multilayered photosensitive layer comprises at least a charge generation layer containing a charge generation material and a charge transport layer containing a charge transport material that are stacked on a conductive substrate in this order, and the monolayer photosensitive layer contains a charge generation material and a charge transport material that is stacked on a conductive substrate, wherein the electrophotographic photoreceptor contains 5 to 17 wt % of fluorine resin fine particles and their aggregates with respect to all photoreceptor components in a surface layer of the photoreceptor, wherein the fluorine resin fine particles are 0.1 to 0.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 18, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 29, 2016
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Akiko Kihara, Kotaro Fukushima, Masaki Hashimoto, Koichi Toriyama, Takahiro Kurauchi, Rikiya Matsuo, Tomoko Kanazawa, Chikako Iibachi
  • Patent number: 9500968
    Abstract: An overcoat layer comprises a structured organic film (SOF) comprising a plurality of segments and a plurality of linkers including a first fluorinated segment and a second electroactive segment, and an antioxidant is present in the SOF; and a hole transport molecule which does not form a network with the SOF.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 11, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 22, 2016
    Assignee: XEROX CORPORATION
    Inventors: Gregory McGuire, Richard A. Klenkler, Adrien P. Côté, Yvan Gagnon
  • Patent number: 9482970
    Abstract: An organic photoconductor includes: a conductive substrate; a charge generation layer formed on the conductive substrate; a charge transport layer formed on the charge generation layer; and a protective coating formed on the charge transport layer. The protective coating comprises nanoparticles incorporated in an in-situ cross-linked polymer matrix. A process for increasing mechanical strength in an organic photoconductor is also provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 1, 2016
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Krzysztof Nauka, Zhang-Lin Zhou, Lihua Zhao
  • Patent number: 9470995
    Abstract: To provide an azo compound which improves the dispersibility of an azo pigment in a non-water soluble solvent. The purpose is achieved by an azo compound having a specific structure in which a high molecular weight polymer unit is bonded.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 20, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2016
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Masanori Seki, Yuki Hasegawa, Waka Hasegawa, Masashi Kawamura, Taiki Watanabe, Chiaki Nishiura, Takayuki Toyoda, Ayano Mashida, Yasuaki Murai, Masashi Hirose
  • Patent number: 9470989
    Abstract: A conductive layer of an electrophotographic photosensitive member contains a first metal oxide particle, a second metal oxide particle, and a binder material. The first metal oxide particle is a zinc oxide particle or tin oxide particle coated with tin oxide doped with phosphorus, tungsten, fluorine, niobium, or tantalum, and the second metal oxide particle is a tin oxide particle doped with an element selected from the group consisting of phosphorus, tungsten, fluorine, niobium, and tantalum, the element being the same as the element with which the tin oxide of the first metal oxide particle is doped. The conductive layer satisfies formulae (1) and (2) 2?{(V2/VT)/(V1/VT)}×100?25??formulae (1): 15?{(V1/VT)+(V2/VT)}×100?45??formulae (2).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 23, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2016
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hiroyuki Tomono, Haruyuki Tsuji, Atsushi Fujii, Kazuhisa Shida, Nobuhiro Nakamura, Hideaki Matsuoka, Takashi Anezaki
  • Patent number: 9465309
    Abstract: An electrostatic latent image developing toner includes a plurality of toner particles. Each of the toner particles includes a toner mother particle and an external additive. The external additive includes cores and coating layers that are each disposed over a surface of a corresponding one of the cores. The cores contain silica. The coating layers contain a nitrogen-containing resin and a water-soluble positive charge control agent. The nitrogen-containing resin is a thermosetting resin.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 10, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2016
    Assignee: KYOCERA Document Solutions Inc.
    Inventor: Ryota Kobayashi
  • Patent number: 9465310
    Abstract: A liquid toner dispersion provided with marking particles comprising a pigment and a polyester based resin, the dispersion comprising a nonpolar organic carrier liquid and a hyperdispersant comprising a graft copolymer provided with an anchor group comprising an amine-functionalized polymer onto which at least one stabilizing group is grafted, wherein a first stabilizing group and a second stabilizing group are coupled to the anchor group, wherein the first stabilizing group is a polyolefin and the second stabilizing group is hydroxylated fatty acid compound.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 12, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2016
    Assignee: Xeikon IP BV
    Inventors: Geert Gaston Paul Deroover, Lode Erik Dries Deprez, Werner Jozef Johan Op de Beeck