Patents Examined by Joseph S. Wong
  • Patent number: 11681250
    Abstract: A nip former that forms a nip between an endless belt and a pressure rotator includes a base that is made of aluminum and has a nip forming face disposed opposite the nip. An anodic oxidation coating is treated with sealing and coats at least the nip forming face. The anodic oxidation coating has a thickness that is not smaller than 22 ?m and is not greater than 45 ?m and a variation in thickness that is not greater than 20 percent. The base and the anodic oxidation coating define a nip forming portion that is disposed opposite the nip. The nip forming portion has a thickness that is not smaller than 0.40 mm and is not greater than 1.20 mm.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 1, 2022
    Date of Patent: June 20, 2023
    Assignee: RICOH COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventors: Toshiyuki Kabata, Yoshiki Yamaguchi, Takashi Seto, Hiroshi Yoshinaga, Kentaro Yamashita, Daisuke Inoue
  • Patent number: 11681245
    Abstract: A movable-member supporter includes: a first support member that includes a first support plate, a first guide unit provided at the first support plate, and a first connection section, the first guide unit guiding movement of a movable member and having one end that extends to one side surface of the first support plate, the first connection section being provided at the one side surface of the first support plate; and a second support member that includes a second support plate, a second guide unit provided at the second support plate, and a second connection section, the second guide unit guiding movement of the movable member and having one end that extends to one side surface of the second support plate, the second connection section being provided at the one side surface of the second support plate and being connected with the first connection section of the first support member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 20, 2023
    Assignee: FUJIFILM Business Innovation Corp.
    Inventors: Shoya Kinoshita, Jun Noguchi
  • Patent number: 11669027
    Abstract: An electrophotographic belt including at least a base layer and a surface layer on or above the base layer, the surface layer including a binder resin and perfluoropolyether (PFPE), having a thickness of 2 ?m or more. PFPE is removed to obtain a PFPE-removed surface layer, the PFPE-removed surface layer has pores having openings at an outer surface thereof. When assuming that the PFPE-removed surface layer is a solid-surface layer, a ratio of a total volume of the pores contained in the PFPE-removed surface layer to a volume of the solid-surface layer is 8 to 25%. A ratio of a sum of areas of the openings to a unit area (1 ?m2) of the outer surface of the PFPE-removed surface layer is 10 to 35%, and the number of the openings per unit area (1 ?m2) of the outer surface of the PFPE-removed surface layer is 10 to 500.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 1, 2022
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2023
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Keiji Karube, Keisuke Abe, Masahiro Takenaga, Kenji Onuma
  • Patent number: 11656575
    Abstract: An image forming device, including: a housing; a drawer movable between an inside position at which the drawer is located inside the housing and an outside position at which the drawer is located outside the housing; a drum cartridge including a photoconductive drum and a developer roller and mountable on the drawer; a toner cartridge storing toner to be supplied to the developer roller and mountable on the drawer, wherein the drawer includes a first guide that guides the toner cartridge in mounting the toner cartridge on the drawer, and wherein the drum cartridge includes a second guide connected to the first guide in a state in which the drum cartridge is mounted on the drawer, the second guide being configured to guide the toner cartridge in mounting the toner cartridge on the drawer in the state in which the drum cartridge is mounted on the drawer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 5, 2022
    Date of Patent: May 23, 2023
    Assignee: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Kazuna Taguchi, Shougo Sato
  • Patent number: 11656563
    Abstract: A jacket includes: a first layer that is on a cylinder body side when the jacket is attached to a rotating cylinder body; and a second layer that is a layer located on a side opposite to the cylinder body with respect to the first layer, has a hardness lower than that of the first layer, and does not exist at a position where at least one of end edges of the cylinder body in a rotation axis direction is located inward of the first layer in the rotation axis direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 23, 2023
    Assignee: FUJIFILM Business Innovation Corp.
    Inventors: Yoko Miyamoto, Hirotaka Tanaka, Kazuyoshi Hagiwara, Kei Tanaka, Tomoaki Yoshioka, Toshiaki Baba, Koichiro Yuasa
  • Patent number: 11650523
    Abstract: In a case where a transfer roller is viewed from a direction orthogonal to a rotation axis direction of a shaft, the shaft includes in a longitudinal direction a first contact portion which is provided on an end portion side of an elastic portion and in which the shaft and the elastic portion are in contact with each other and a second contact portion which is provided on a more inner side than the first contact portion and in which the shaft and the elastic portion are in contact with each other. The transfer roller includes a void between the first contact portion and the second contact portion in the longitudinal direction, and the void is arranged at least on a more inner side than an end portion of a transfer material having a maximum size.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 1, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 16, 2023
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Jun Asami, Taisuke Minagawa
  • Patent number: 11650516
    Abstract: Provided is a developing device including: a toner; and a developer carrying member. The developer carrying member includes an electroconductive substrate and a surface layer on the substrate, the surface layer being a single layer and including a matrix containing a crosslinked urethane resin as a binder, wherein E1 ?200 MPa and 10 MPa?E2 ?100 MPa, where E1 is an elastic modulus of the matrix in a first region from an outer surface of the surface layer to a depth of 0.1 and E2 is an elastic modulus of the matrix in a second region from a depth of 1.0 to 1.1 ?m from the outer surface. The toner includes a toner particle containing a binder resin and a colorant and having a Martens hardness of 85 to 1,100 MPa when measured under a condition of a maximum load of 2.0×10?4 N.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 15, 2022
    Date of Patent: May 16, 2023
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Tomoya Uesugi, Kazuaki Nagaoka, Toru Ishii, Ryo Sugiyama, Akio Nishi, Kentaro Yamawaki, Minoru Nakamura
  • Patent number: 11650514
    Abstract: An electroconductive roll includes a core member, a rubber base material disposed around the core member, and a surface layer disposed around the rubber base material. The surface area of the surface layer per unit projected area is equal to or greater than 1.255, and is equal to or less than 6.635.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 16, 2023
    Inventors: Kousuke Oura, Shogo Suzuki, Satoshi Fukuoka, Kenji Sasaki
  • Patent number: 11644782
    Abstract: To provide an image forming apparatus capable of achieving both correction accuracy of skew correction and minimization of a margin between images. A color shift amount calculator that calculates a color shift amount, and a first skew correction controller and a second skew correction controller that control skew correction of color shift are included. The first skew correction controller controls first skew correction by a mechanical operation by the image former on the basis of a first color shift residual target value set in advance. The second skew correction controller controls second skew correction, by image processing, of the color shift after the control by the first skew correction controller on the basis of a second color shift residual target value set in advance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 25, 2022
    Date of Patent: May 9, 2023
    Assignee: KONICA MINOLTA, INC.
    Inventor: Yuji Uchida
  • Patent number: 11644776
    Abstract: An endless belt includes a resin and an acicular filler of which a thermal conductivity is 220 W/mK or more and 320 W/mK or less, a volume resistivity is 1011 ?cm or more and 1016 ?cm or less, and a content with respect to the endless belt is 1% by mass or more and 30% by mass or less.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2022
    Date of Patent: May 9, 2023
    Assignee: FUJIFILM Business Innovation Corp.
    Inventors: Hideaki Ohara, Tomotake Inagaki, Ryohei Yoshikawa, Kenji Omori, Kenji Kajiwara, Junko Yamasaki
  • Patent number: 11640134
    Abstract: A server apparatus including a first communication device and a first computing device. The first communication device communicates with an image forming apparatus via a network. The first computing device includes a processor, and acts as a data acquirer, a dimension reduction processor, and a residual service life calculator, when the processor executes a first control program. The data acquirer acquires observation data of a first number of dimensions from the image forming apparatus, via the first communication device. The dimension reduction processor converts the observation data of the first number of dimensions into characteristic data of a second number of dimensions fewer than the first number of dimensions. The residual service life calculator calculates a residual service life of a replaceable unit in the image forming apparatus, on a basis of the characteristic data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 11, 2022
    Date of Patent: May 2, 2023
    Assignee: KYOCERA Document Solutions Inc.
    Inventor: Yuya Okazaki
  • Patent number: 11635730
    Abstract: In an image forming apparatus, a control device functions as a controller and a user presence/absence determiner. When accepting an instruction to execute a print job through a touch panel, the controller controls operations of a sheet feed device, a conveyance device, and an image forming device to allow a document image represented by image data generated by a document reading device to be formed on a sheet to make a printed matter and allow the printed matter to be discharged to a sheet output tray. When the user presence/absence determiner determines that a user is present, the controller controls, before printing for at least a last sheet in the print job, the operations of the sheet feed device and the conveyance device to allow a sheet to be discharged to the sheet output tray without allowing the image forming device to form the document image on the sheet.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 25, 2023
    Assignee: KYOCERA Document Solutions Inc.
    Inventor: Makoto Ochi
  • Patent number: 11635729
    Abstract: An image forming device, including: a housing; a drawer movable between an inside position at which the drawer is located inside the housing and an outside position at which the drawer is located outside the housing; a drum cartridge including a photoconductive drum and a developer roller and mountable on the drawer; a toner cartridge storing toner to be supplied to the developer roller and mountable on the drawer, wherein the drawer includes a first guide that guides the toner cartridge in mounting the toner cartridge on the drawer, and wherein the drum cartridge includes a second guide connected to the first guide in a state in which the drum cartridge is mounted on the drawer, the second guide being configured to guide the toner cartridge in mounting the toner cartridge on the drawer in the state in which the drum cartridge is mounted on the drawer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 5, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 25, 2023
    Assignee: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Kazuna Taguchi, Shougo Sato
  • Patent number: 11630404
    Abstract: A conductive roller includes a support member, an elastic layer disposed on an outer peripheral surface of the support member, and a surface layer disposed on an outer peripheral surface of the elastic layer. The elastic layer includes a cylindrical elastic foam and a conductive covering layer covering an exposed surface of the elastic foam and has a volume resistance value of 105? or less at an applied voltage of 10 V. The elastic foam has a conductive particle content of 1% by mass or less based on the total mass of the elastic foam.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 1, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 18, 2023
    Assignee: FUJIFILM Business Innovation Corp.
    Inventors: Minoru Rokutan, Shogo Hayashi, Takuro Hoshio
  • Patent number: 11619895
    Abstract: In an example of the disclosure, service rotation of a drum along a longitudinal axis of the drum is caused. The service rotation is to apply a centrifugal force upon a liquid held by the drum. The centrifugal force pushes gas bubbles in the drum away from a curved surface of the drum and towards the longitudinal drum axis. The gas bubbles evacuate from the drum via an outlet tube positioned adjacent to the longitudinal drum axis. A production rotation of the drum is caused after the service rotation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 4, 2023
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Ziv Seemann, Erez Heldy, Dror Halawa
  • Patent number: 11619893
    Abstract: An image forming device may comprise: an attaching unit to which a removable toner bottle is attached; a toner storage that stores toner supplied from the toner bottle attached to the attaching unit; a detector that detects an empty state of toner in the toner storage; and a hardware processor that: supplies toner to the toner storage from the toner bottle when the toner bottle attached to the attaching unit is new; and switches a state of the toner bottle to an old state from a new state if the empty state detected by the detector is released.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 11, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 4, 2023
    Assignee: Konica Minolta, Inc.
    Inventor: Junichi Arai
  • Patent number: 11614696
    Abstract: An image formation apparatus according to an embodiment may include: a first image formation section configured to form a first image of a developer containing a lustrous pigment; a second image formation section configured to form a second image of a dyeing developer; and a transfer section configured to transfer the first image and the second image on a medium such that the first image and the second image are stacked to each other on the medium.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 18, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 28, 2023
    Assignee: Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Shin Yamada, Takeshi Kojima
  • Patent number: 11614709
    Abstract: An accommodating device includes a device body, an accommodating unit that accommodates a medium in the device body, and an expanding and contracting member that expands and contracts to connect the accommodating unit to the device body so as to be pulled out and has a part fixed to the accommodating unit on an inner side with respect to a side surface of the accommodating unit in an intersecting direction with a pulling direction of the accommodating unit and on a lower side of the accommodating unit in a vertical direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 13, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 28, 2023
    Assignee: FUJIFILM Business Innovation Corp.
    Inventors: Kota Tomioka, Hiroyuki Tanaka, Yoichi Yamakawa, Shinya Hasegawa
  • Patent number: 11609517
    Abstract: A fixing device includes a tubular body in a tubular shape that forms a nip with a pressurizing member. The heater, disposed inside the tubular body, faces a part of the tubular body in a circumferential direction. The heat equalizing member is disposed on an opposite side of a side where the heater faces the tubular body. The heat equalizing member transfers heat from a place having a high temperature to a place having a low temperature in a second direction along an axial direction of the tubular body. The heat conductive member, disposed between the heater and the heat equalizing member, can conduct the heat in each of the second direction and a first direction in which the heater and the heat equalizing member face each other. A side portion of the heat conductive member in the second direction is divided into three or more portions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 4, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2023
    Assignee: TOSHIBA TEC KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Toshihiro Sone
  • Patent number: 11609527
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, an image processing apparatus includes an apparatus main body, a first rotating body, a second rotating body, and a connection member. The first rotating body is configured to be openable and closeable and provided in the apparatus main body. The second rotating body is provided in the first rotating body. The second rotating body is configured to be openable and closable from the first rotating body in the same direction as that of the first rotating body. The connection member is linear. The connection member is configured to connect the apparatus main body and the second rotating body to each other and to restrict a rotation angle of the second rotating body.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 3, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2023
    Assignee: TOSHIBA TEC KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Toshiaki Oshiro