Patents by Inventor Eiji Kurimoto

Eiji Kurimoto 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).

  • Publication number: 20150309430
    Abstract: An electrophotographic photoconductor including a support, an undercoat layer overlying the support, and a photosensitive layer overlying the undercoat layer is provided. The undercoat layer includes zinc oxide particles and a binder resin. The undercoat layer has a voltage (V)-current (I) characteristics such that, when S1 is a value obtained by integrating current (I[A]) in terms of voltage (V[V]) from 0 to a distribution voltage VUL[V] distributed to the undercoat layer, and S2 is a value obtained by integrating a line connecting two points at a voltage (V[V]) of 0 and the distribution voltage VUL[V] in terms of voltage (V[V]) from 0 to the distribution voltage VUL[V], S1 is within a range of from 1.0×10?4 to 1.0×10?2 and a ratio (S1/S2) of S1 to S2 is 0.50 or less.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 26, 2015
    Publication date: October 29, 2015
    Inventors: Daisuke NII, Eiji Kurimoto, Tetsuro Suzuki, Tomoharu Asano, Toshihiro Ishida
  • Publication number: 20150168856
    Abstract: A photoconductor is provided. The photoconductor includes an electroconductive substrate; an intermediate layer located overlying the electroconductive substrate; and a photosensitive layer located overlying the intermediate layer. The intermediate layer includes at least a resin, and a particulate zinc oxide that includes sodium, sulfur and calcium in amounts of from 10 ppm to 200 ppm, from 50 ppm to 500 ppm, and from 10 ppm to 200 ppm, respectively.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 2, 2014
    Publication date: June 18, 2015
    Inventors: Eiji KURIMOTO, Tetsuro SUZUKI, Tomoharu ASANO, Daisuke NII, Toshihiro ISHIDA
  • Patent number: 8932787
    Abstract: An electrophotographic photoconductor including: an electroconductive substrate; an intermediate layer; and a photoconductive layer, the intermediate layer and the photoconductive layer being on the electroconductive substrate, wherein the intermediate layer includes an inorganic pigment and a binder resin, wherein a volume ratio of the inorganic pigment in the intermediate layer is 30% by volume to 50% by volume, wherein the inorganic pigment comprises titanium oxide and a content of the titanium oxide in the inorganic pigment is 70% by mass to 90% by mass, wherein the inorganic pigment has a specific surface area of 70 m2/g to 140 m2/g, and wherein the intermediate layer has a volume resistivity at an electrical field intensity of 2.5×105 V/cm of 5×1011 ?·cm to 1×1013 ?·cm.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 2012
    Date of Patent: January 13, 2015
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Eiji Kurimoto, Tadayoshi Uchida, Hideki Nakamura
  • Patent number: 8727592
    Abstract: A light source module of the present invention is configured such that there is a through hole (23) in one longitudinal end portion of a light guide (21) that constitutes a light guide plate, into which through hole (23) a positioning pin (24) for positioning an LED light source (12) and the light guide (21) fits. Further, a guide (9) is provided to the other end portion of the light guide (21), which guide (9) restrains the light guide (21) in a direction of a short side but does not restrain the light guide (21) in a direction of a long side. This makes it possible to provide a light source module that can reduce warping and cracking caused by expansion of a light guide, and an electronic apparatus including the light source module.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 4, 2010
    Date of Patent: May 20, 2014
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Takuya Ishizaka, Kazuya Ikuta, Eiji Kurimoto, Sumito Nishioka, Keiji Sakai, Hirotsugu Matoba, Takeshi Takayama
  • Patent number: 8659709
    Abstract: An object of the present invention is to obtain a display device having excellent display quality by appropriately modifying the chromaticity of images. In this display device, a correction processing part (CPU 30) determines a first chromaticity change amount stored in memory (31) on the basis of a first cumulative usage amount, which is the cumulative usage amount of an LED (17) up to a present time, the cumulative value having been measured by a counter (32), and the correction processing part also determines a second chromaticity change amount stored in the memory (31) on the basis of a second cumulative usage amount, which is the cumulative usage amount of the LED (17) up to a time when the chromaticity of a pixel is adjusted by a chromaticity adjusting part (CPU 30), the cumulative value having been measured by the counter (32).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 24, 2011
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2014
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Tohru Hanaoka, Fumio Kokubo, Eiji Kurimoto, Ryoji Ishimura, Shota Inoue, Fumiaki Yamada
  • Patent number: 8599447
    Abstract: In a light source unit (210) serving as an embodiment of an illuminating apparatus, when P is a light-emitting element pitch [mm], and H is an optical axis distance [mm] between light-emitting elements (212) and an original (G), and when, in an illuminance cycle (T) representing repetition of bright and dark areas in a main scanning direction (X) on a light-irradiated face (Gs) of the original (G) caused by the light-emitting elements (212), the light-emitting element pitch (P) and the optical axis distance (H) are set such that unevenness [%] (M) (=(L1?L2)/L3 [%]) obtained by dividing a value obtained by subtracting a minimum illuminance value (L2) from a maximum illuminance value (L1) by an average illuminance value (L3) and an inter-unevenness distance [mm] (N) which is a half cycle of the illuminance cycle (T) satisfy the relation M?N/2?5.5, and more preferably, M?N/2?7.5.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2009
    Date of Patent: December 3, 2013
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Yasuhiro Suto, Tomohiko Okada, Shohichi Fukutome, Hisashi Yamanaka, Kenji Nakanishi, Yoshihisa Yamada, Mitsuharu Yoshimoto, Eiji Kurimoto, Keiji Sakai
  • Patent number: 8588630
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus having a rotary image bearing member, a charging device to charge the image bearing member. an irradiator to irradiate the image bearing member to form a latent electrostatic image thereon, a developing device to develop the latent electrostatic image with a developing agent containing toner to obtain a visible image, a transfer device to transfer the visible image to a recording medium, a first cleaner that slidably contacts the image bearing member to remove toner remaining thereon, a driving mechanism to drive the image bearing member at different linear speeds, a noise detector provided in the vicinity of the image bearing member to detect noise, and an abnormal noise predictor device to predict whether abnormal noise hear during image formation based on noise detected by the noise detector when the image bearing member is driven not during image formation at a linear speed different from that during image formation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 5, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2013
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Eiji Kurimoto, Hiroshi Ikuno, Keisuke Shimoyama
  • Publication number: 20130250187
    Abstract: An object of the present invention is to obtain a display device having excellent display quality by appropriately modifying the chromaticity of images. In this display device, a correction processing part (CPU 30) determines a first chromaticity change amount stored in memory (31) on the basis of a first cumulative usage amount, which is the cumulative usage amount of an LED (17) up to a present time, the cumulative value having been measured by a counter (32), and the correction processing part also determines a second chromaticity change amount stored in the memory (31) on the basis of a second cumulative usage amount, which is the cumulative usage amount of the LED (17) up to a time when the chromaticity of a pixel is adjusted by a chromaticity adjusting part (CPU 30), the cumulative value having been measured by the counter (32).
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 24, 2011
    Publication date: September 26, 2013
    Applicant: SHARP KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Tohru Hanaoka, Fumio Kokubo, Eiji Kurimoto, Ryoji Ishimura, Shota Inoue, Fumiaki Yamada
  • Publication number: 20130157181
    Abstract: An electrophotographic photoconductor including: an electroconductive substrate; an intermediate layer; and a photoconductive layer, the intermediate layer and the photoconductive layer being on the electroconductive substrate, wherein the intermediate layer includes an inorganic pigment and a binder resin, wherein a volume ratio of the inorganic pigment in the intermediate layer is 30% by volume to 50% by volume, wherein the inorganic pigment comprises titanium oxide and a content of the titanium oxide in the inorganic pigment is 70% by mass to 90% by mass, wherein the inorganic pigment has a specific surface area of 70 m2/g to 140 m2/g, and wherein the intermediate layer has a volume resistivity at an electrical field intensity of 2.5×105 V/cm of 5×1011 ?·cm to 1×1013 ?·cm.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 14, 2012
    Publication date: June 20, 2013
    Inventors: Eiji Kurimoto, Tadayoshi Uchida, Hideki Nakamura
  • Patent number: 8380109
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus including at least an image bearing member having a substrate having a photosensitive layer thereon, the image bearing member to bear a latent electrostatic image on a surface thereof, a charging device to the surface of the image bearing member, an irradiation device to irradiate the surface of the image bearing member with light to form a latent electrostatic image thereon, a development device to develop the latent electrostatic with toner to obtain a developed image, a transfer device to transfer the developed image to a recording medium, and a cleaning device to clean the surface of the image bearing member, wherein the photosensitive layer includes naphthalene tetracarbonic acid diimide derivative as a charge transport material represented by the following Chemical Structure (1): In the Chemical Structure (1), Z represents a group represented by the following Chemical Formula (1): or the following Chemical Formula (2): —R9??Chemical Formula (2).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 9, 2009
    Date of Patent: February 19, 2013
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Eiji Kurimoto, Keisuke Shimoyama, Tomoyuki Shimada, Masafumi Ohta, Yuuji Tanaka
  • Patent number: 8349529
    Abstract: An electrophotographic photoconductor including a conductive substrate and a photoconductive layer thereover, wherein the photoconductive layer contains a charge generation agent and a charge transport agent represented by General Formula (A-I), (B-I) or (C-I), and an amine compound represented by General Formula (II): where R1-3 each represent hydrogen, halogen or (un)substituted C1-6 alkyl, and n is 1 or 2, where R1-2 each represent C1-6 alkyl and R3-6 each represent hydrogen, halogen or (un)substituted C1-6 alkyl, where R8-33 each represent hydrogen, C1-4 alkyl, C1-4 alkoxy, or (un)substituted phenyl, and may be identical or different, where A and B each represent a group represented by formula (i) or (ii), and may be identical or different: —CH2X??formula (i) —CH2CH2Y??formula (ii) where X and Y each represent an (un)substituted aromatic group.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 12, 2010
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2013
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Keisuke Shimoyama, Takaaki Ikegami, Eiji Kurimoto, Kohsuke Yamamoto, Tetsuya Sakuma, Toshihiko Koizumi, Hajime Suzuki, Hideki Nakamura
  • Publication number: 20120287670
    Abstract: A light source module of the present invention is configured such that there is a through hole (23) in one longitudinal end portion of a light guide (21) that constitutes a light guide plate, into which through hole (23) a positioning pin (24) for positioning an LED light source (12) and the light guide (21) fits. Further, a guide (9) is provided to the other end portion of the light guide (21), which guide (9) restrains the light guide (21) in a direction of a short side but does not restrain the light guide (21) in a direction of a long side. This makes it possible to provide a light source module that can reduce warping and cracking caused by expansion of a light guide, and an electronic apparatus including the light source module.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 4, 2010
    Publication date: November 15, 2012
    Applicant: SHARP KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Takuya Ishizaka, Kazuya Ikuta, Eiji Kurimoto, Sumito Nishioka, Keiji Sakai, Hirotsugu Matoba, Takeshi Takayama
  • Publication number: 20120275188
    Abstract: In order to suppress spread of light in a direction (shorter side direction) perpendicular to a direction (longer side direction) in which a light source is directed, the light source module of the present invention includes a light guide plate (20), an LED (12) for emitting light toward at least one edge surface in the longer side direction of the light guide plate (20), and a microlens group (20b) which (i) is provided on a lower surface (20c) opposite to an emission surface (20d) of the light guide plate (20) and (ii) causes light guided in the light guide plate (20) to be extracted through the emission surface (20d). The light source module further includes curved plane structures (20a) which are (i) made up of curved planes whose ridges (20e) extend in the longer side direction and (ii) provided in the emission surface (20d).
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 8, 2011
    Publication date: November 1, 2012
    Applicant: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Eiji Kurimoto, Takuya Ishizaka, Kazuya Ikuta, Sumito Nishioka, Fumio Kokubo, Keiji Sakai
  • Patent number: 8278016
    Abstract: An electrophotographic photoconductor including an electroconductive support and a photoconductive layer provided thereon, wherein the photoconductive layer includes a charge generating material, an electron transporting material and a hole transporting material, the electron transporting material being a diphenoquinone compound represented by formula (1) described herein, the hole transporting material being a compound represented by formula (2) described herein.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 9, 2009
    Date of Patent: October 2, 2012
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Keisuke Shimoyama, Eiji Kurimoto, Takaaki Ikegami, Kohsuke Yamamoto, Tadayoshi Uchida, Takumi Shinohara, Hajime Suzuki
  • Patent number: 8263297
    Abstract: An electrophotographic photoconductor including a conductive support and a photosensitive layer, wherein the photosensitive layer contains a charge generation agent, a charge transport agent and a binder resin, and wherein the charge generation agent contains an asymmetric disazo pigment represented by General Formula (I), the charge transport agent contains a triphenylamine compound represented General Formula (IX), and the mass ratio of the charge transport agent to the binder resin is 0.3 to 2.0, where R1 and R2 each represent a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl group, alkoxy group, aryl group or heterocyclic group, provided that R1 and R2 are different, where R3 to R5 each represent hydrogen, a halogen atom, an alkyl group having 1 to 6 carbon atoms, which may have a substituent, an alkoxy group having 1 to 6 carbon atoms, which may have a substituent, or a substituted or unsubstituted aryl group having 6 to 12 carbon atoms.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 25, 2008
    Date of Patent: September 11, 2012
    Assignees: Ricoh Company, Ltd., Yamanashi Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Takaaki Ikegami, Takeshi Takada, Toshihiko Koizumi, Hideki Nakamura, Hajime Suzuki, Keisuke Shimoyama, Kohsuke Yamamoto, Eiji Kurimoto
  • Patent number: 8252499
    Abstract: A high-quality, stable image forming apparatus and method which are free from abnormal images, particularly afterimages, after prolonged repeated use by using a photoconductor a conductive substrate and a single-layered photosensitive layer which contains a charge generating material, an electron transporting material, a positive-hole transporting substance and a binder resin, wherein the charge generating material contains crystalline titanyl phthalocyanine having a maximum diffraction peak of at least 27.2° as a diffraction peak ±0.2° of the Bragg angle 2? with respect to the Cu-K? line of the wavelength of 1.542?, further having major peaks at 9.4°, 9.6°, 24.0°, and also having a peak at 7.3° as a diffraction peak on the lowest angle side but not having a peak between the peak of 7.3° and that of 9.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 28, 2012
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Eiji Kurimoto, Keisuke Shimoyama
  • Publication number: 20120195071
    Abstract: A light source module (1) capable of preventing LED light from leaking from a gap between light-guiding members includes: light-guiding members (3) aligned in parallel with each other in a long side direction of the light-guiding members (3) with a gap between adjacent light-guiding members (3), and LEDs (4) each for causing light to be incident to at least one end face (8) of the light-guiding member (3) in the long side direction. A cross section of the light-guiding member (3) taken along a direction perpendicular to the long side direction of the light-guiding member (3) is designed such that a side edge (7) of the cross section is thinner than a central portion (9) of the cross section, and between adjacent light-guiding members (3), there is provided a light-shielding member (2) for preventing light from the LED (4) from leaking into a gap between said adjacent light-guiding members (3).
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 28, 2010
    Publication date: August 2, 2012
    Applicant: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Sumito Nishioka, Eiji Kurimoto, Kazuya Ikuta
  • Patent number: 8232031
    Abstract: The present invention provides a naphthalenetetracarboxylic acid diimide derivative represented by the following general formula (1): wherein R1 and R2, which are identical or different, each represent a substituted or non-substituted alkyl group or a substituted or non-substituted aromatic hydrocarbon group; R3 represents an alkyl group having 1 to 8 carbon atoms or an aromatic hydrocarbon group; R4, R5, R6 and R7, which are identical or different, each represent a hydrogen atom, a substituted or non-substituted alkyl group, or a substituted or non-substituted aromatic hydrocarbon group; and R1 and R2 may be linked to form a substituted or non-substituted heterocyclic group including a nitrogen atom; with compounds where all of R1, R2 and R3 are a methyl group, and compounds where both of R1 and R2 are a methyl group and R3 is a 1-octyl group being excluded.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 5, 2008
    Date of Patent: July 31, 2012
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Masafumi Ohta, Tomoyuki Shimada, Yuuji Tanaka, Eiji Kurimoto, Keisuke Shimoyama
  • Patent number: 8227156
    Abstract: To provide an electrophotographic photoconductor that has a layer containing a compound represented by the following general formula (1), and an image forming apparatus using the electrophotographic photoconductor. where R1 and R2 independently represent any one of a hydrogen atom, substituted or unsubstituted alkyl group, substituted or unsubstituted cycloalkyl group and substituted or unsubstituted aralkyl group, and R3, R4, R5, R6, R7, R8, R9 and R10 independently represent any one of a hydrogen atom, halogen atom, cyano group, nitro group, amino group, hydroxyl group, substituted or unsubstituted alkyl group, substituted or unsubstituted cycloalkyl group and substituted or unsubstituted aralkyl group.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 5, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 24, 2012
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Keisuke Shimoyama, Eiji Kurimoto, Tatsuya Niimi, Shinichi Kawamura, Yoshiki Yanagawa
  • Publication number: 20120183313
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus having a rotary image bearing member, a charging device to charge the image bearing member, an irradiator to irradiate the image bearing member to form a latent electrostatic image thereon, a developing device to develop the latent electrostatic image with a developing agent containing toner to obtain a visible image, a transfer device to transfer the visible image to a recording medium, a first cleaner that slidably contacts the image bearing member to remove toner remaining thereon, a driving mechanism to drive the image bearing member at different linear speeds, a noise detector provided in the vicinity of the image bearing member to detect noise, and an abnormal noise predictor device to predict whether abnormal noise hear during image formation based on noise detected by the noise detector when the image bearing member is driven not during image formation at a linear speed different from that during image formation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 5, 2012
    Publication date: July 19, 2012
    Applicant: RICOH COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventors: Eiji Kurimoto, Hiroshi Ikuno, Keisuke Shimoyama