Abstract: A developer collecting device includes a housing provided with an opening opposed to a developer carrying member, a collecting member provided along an edge of the opening at a downstream end of the opening in a transporting direction in which the developer carrying member transports the developer, a sealing member provided along an edge of the opening at an upstream end of the opening in the transporting direction, a suction path that extends along a longitudinal direction of the housing and that is connected to a suction unit for sucking the developer into the housing, a developer transporting unit that is provided between the opening and the suction path and that transports the developer collected in the housing, a filter member disposed between the developer transporting unit and the suction path, and a hood member disposed between the opening and the filter member and separated from the filter member.

Abstract: There is provided an apparatus for supplying a hydrogen gas to a quartz glass manufacturing apparatus including a burner that generates an oxyhydrogen flame when supplied with the hydrogen gas, where the apparatus includes: a first hydrogen supply system that supplies a hydrogen gas in which isomers are in equilibrium; a second hydrogen supply system that supplies a hydrogen gas in which isomers are out of equilibrium; a flow rate control section that includes: a valve that changes a flow rate of the hydrogen gas to be supplied to the burner; a first flow rate measuring section that measures the flow rate of the hydrogen gas to be supplied to the burner by measuring a heat capacity; and a control section that controls the valve in such a manner that a measured value obtained by the first flow rate measuring section approaches a set value input from outside; a second flow rate measuring section that measures the flow rate of the hydrogen gas to be supplied to the burner by measuring a different factor than the

Abstract: A method of manufacturing an optical fiber base material includes: forming a porous glass base material by depositing glass particles; providing a vessel which employs a composite tube, the composite tube including a portion formed by jacketing a first quartz glass containing aluminum equal to or less than 0.01 ppm with a second quartz glass containing aluminum equal to or more than 15 ppm; introducing dehydration reaction gas and inert gas into the vessel; heating the jacketed portion in the vessel which contains the dehydration reaction gas and the inert gas; and inserting the porous glass base material into the heated vessel to dehydrate and sinter the porous glass base material.

Abstract: A method of manufacturing an optical fiber base material includes: forming a porous glass base material by depositing glass particles; providing a synthetic quartz glass vessel at least partly made of quartz glass which contains aluminum equal to or less than 0.01 ppm; introducing dehydration reaction gas and inert gas into the vessel; heating a portion made of quartz glass which contains aluminum equal to or less than 0.01 ppm in the vessel that contains the dehydration reaction gas and the inert gas; and inserting the porous glass base material into the heated vessel to dehydrate and sinter the porous glass base material.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes a transfer member onto a front side of which an image is transferred, a rotary member around which the transfer member is wrapped, a guide member provided at an end portion of an axial direction of the rotary member, a regulating member, a first reference mark, a second reference mark, a first detector, a second detector, and a controller. The regulating member is located on a reverse side of the transfer member, and restricts skew of the transfer member by contacting the guide member. The first and second reference marks are on edge sides of the transfer member in the axial direction of the rotary member. The first and second detectors detect the first and second reference marks, respectively. The controller controls alignment of the image on the transfer member in accordance with a detection result of the first and second detectors.

Abstract: Provided is hydrogen supply equipment that, when switching hydrogen supplied to equipment using hydrogen from (i) hydrogen produced at a normal temperature or hydrogen stored at a normal temperature to (ii) hydrogen stored at a low temperature, supplies the equipment using hydrogen with normal hydrogen obtained by returning the hydrogen at the low temperature to a normal temperature and then passing this hydrogen through equipment for accelerating a conversion from parahydrogen to orthohydrogen.

Abstract: A transfer assembly includes a support member having a side wall that extends in such a direction as to intersect a line extending from the rotation axis of a transfer roller and that has a hole through which a support shaft is inserted with some play being present. The hole has such a shape that, at the beginning of a period when a door is rotated from an open state to a closed state and a positioned portion is in contact with a positioning member, gaps are formed between the support shaft and a wall surface of the hole on both sides of the support shaft in a radial direction crossing an arc that is drawn from a center of the arc at the center line of rotation of the door and that passes through the support shaft.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes a body frame, a transport unit, an image carrier, a transfer device, a fixing device, a guide member assembly, a door, and a positioning member. The guide member assembly includes a guide member, a positioned portion, and a support member. The support member supports the guide member and has a side wall that extends in such a direction as to intersect a line drawn in the width direction and that has a hole through which the support shaft is inserted with some play being present. The guide member assembly is supported by the door with some play being present between the guide member assembly and the base plate and is urged by the urging member. The hole is a long hole having a major axis extending in an opening direction of the door away from the center line of rotation of the door.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes a housing provided with an opening opposed to a developer carrying member that carries developer; a collecting member provided along a downstream edge of the opening in a transporting direction of the developer and capable of coming into contact with and separating from the developer carrying member; a sealing member provided along an upstream edge of the opening in the transporting direction; a suction member that sucks air from the opening; a suction path provided between the opening and the suction member; an opening-closing unit that opens or closes the suction path; and a controller that controls the opening-closing unit so as to open the suction path at a time that is before separation of the collecting member from the developer carrying member and a predetermined time period after the time of contact between the collecting member and the developer carrying member.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes a transfer member onto a front side of which an image is transferred, a rotary member around which the transfer member is wrapped, a guide member provided at an end portion of an axial direction of the rotary member, a regulating member, a first reference mark, a second reference mark, a first detector, a second detector, and a controller. The regulating member is located on a reverse side of the transfer member, and restricts skew of the transfer member by contacting the guide member. The first and second reference marks are on edge sides of the transfer member in the axial direction of the rotary member. The first and second detectors detect the first and second reference marks, respectively. The controller controls alignment of the image on the transfer member in accordance with a detection result of the first and second detectors.

Abstract: A developer collecting device includes a housing provided with an opening opposed to a developer carrying member, a collecting member provided along an edge of the opening at a downstream end of the opening in a transporting direction in which the developer carrying member transports the developer, a sealing member provided along an edge of the opening at an upstream end of the opening in the transporting direction, a suction path that extends along a longitudinal direction of the housing and that is connected to a suction unit for sucking the developer into the housing, a developer transporting unit that is provided between the opening and the suction path and that transports the developer collected in the housing, a filter member disposed between the developer transporting unit and the suction path, and a hood member disposed between the opening and the filter member and separated from the filter member.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes: an image holding body that is rotatable, and holds a first toner image and a second toner image; an image forming unit that forms the first toner image and the second toner image on the image holding body; a transfer unit that transfers the first toner image onto a transfer medium; a cleaning unit that has a cleaning member for freely coming into contact with and separating from the image holding body, and that brings the cleaning member into contact with the image holding body so as to clean a residual toner remaining on a surface of the image holding body; and a cleaning control unit that controls forming the second toner image for cleaning the cleaning member, opposing between the cleaning member and the second toner image, and cleaning of the second toner image by the cleaning member that is in a contact state with the image holding body.

Abstract: An exposure apparatus includes an original stage including a first mark, a substrate stage including a second mark and a photoelectric conversion device configured to detect light having passed through the second mark, a projection optical system, a measurement device configured to measure a position of at least one stage of the substrate stage and the original stage, and a controller configured to detect a positional relationship between the first mark and the second mark based on a signal output from the photoelectric conversion device and a measurement result output from the measurement device, wherein the controller cyclically samples a measurement result output from the measurement device, corrects the measurement result based on a time interval between a light emission timing of the pulsed light source and a sampling timing of the measurement result.

Abstract: An optical fiber base material manufacturing method includes: supplying oxygen, hydrogen, and silicide to a core deposition burner; depositing silicon dioxide; adjusting a drawing up speed so that a deposition tip position remains at the same position in accordance with growth of a porous base material; calculating an average of the drawing up speed at each preset time interval; calculating a difference of the calculated average from a preset value of the drawing up speed; correcting a flow rate of silicon tetrachloride when the supplied hydrogen is hydrogen produced or stored at normal temperature, and correcting a flow rate of hydrogen when the supplied hydrogen is hydrogen obtained by vaporizing liquid hydrogen, where when correcting the flow rate of hydrogen, a flow rate of hydrogen supplied to a cladding deposition burner is also corrected in a ratio of before and after the correction of the flow rate of the hydrogen.

Abstract: An article transport apparatus is provided with a path that is arranged along a plurality of article transferring locations and that has a first end and a second end, a plurality of article transporting vehicles that run along the path, and a controller that controls movement of the plurality of article transporting vehicles, and that processes transport request data that includes information specifying an article transfer location for transfer among the plurality of article transfer locations. The controller selects an article transporting vehicle for a transport process from the plurality of article transporting vehicles based on the transport request data, and moves the selected article transporting vehicle for a transport process to the article transferring location for transfer.

Abstract: There is provided an apparatus for supplying a hydrogen gas to a quartz glass manufacturing apparatus including a burner that generates an oxyhydrogen flame when supplied with the hydrogen gas, where the apparatus includes: a first hydrogen supply system that supplies a hydrogen gas in which isotopes are in equilibrium; a second hydrogen supply system that supplies a hydrogen gas in which isotopes are out of equilibrium; a flow rate control section that includes: a valve that changes a flow rate of the hydrogen gas to be supplied to the burner; a first flow rate measuring section that measures the flow rate of the hydrogen gas to be supplied to the burner by measuring a heat capacity; and a control section that controls the valve in such a manner that a measured value obtained by the first flow rate measuring section approaches a set value input from outside; a second flow rate measuring section that measures the flow rate of the hydrogen gas to be supplied to the burner by measuring a different factor than t

Abstract: When transmitting serial data from a master device to a slave device, it is possible to promptly detect a communication error if any occurs. Serial data transmitted from the master device to the slave device has two or more continuous bytes of dummy data having an identical structure. When the slave device recognizes the dummy data, communication error processing is executed. Assume that the serial data is shifted by an affect of a noise. In this case, “a text end control code (ETX)” is also shifted and the serial data cannot be recognized and no data reception end process is executed. However, during a period after this, a part of the first dummy data and a part of the second dummy data are received and one dummy data is recognized. Thus, the slave device can promptly execute the communication error processing.

Abstract: An article transporting facility includes: a single predetermined path disposed along a plurality of article transfer locations and having a first end and a second end; a predetermined number of article transporting carriages traveling on the predetermined path; controlling means for controlling traveling of the predetermined number of article transporting carriages; wherein based on article transport request information for transporting an article from an original article transfer location to a destination article transfer location among the plurality of article transfer locations, the controlling means controls the traveling of the transporting carriages such that the controlling means selects an article transporting carriage from the plurality of article transporting carriages for causing the selected carriage to transfer the article from the original article transfer location to the destination article transfer location; and when a multiple request condition exists wherein a plurality of transport re

Abstract: Provided is hydrogen supply equipment that, when switching hydrogen supplied to equipment using hydrogen from (i) hydrogen produced at a normal temperature or hydrogen stored at a normal temperature to (ii) hydrogen stored at a low temperature, supplies the equipment using hydrogen with normal hydrogen obtained by returning the hydrogen at the low temperature to a normal temperature and then passing this hydrogen through equipment for accelerating a conversion from parahydrogen to orthohydrogen.

Abstract: Provided is a quartz glass manufacturing method that involves using one or more burners, supplying hydrogen and oxygen to the one or more burners to generate an oxyhydrogen flame, introducing a silicide into the oxyhydrogen flame, forming a porous base material by depositing silicon dioxide generated from a flame hydrolysis reaction with the silicide, and heating and sintering the porous base material to form transparent glass, the method comprising supplying hydrogen that is stored or made at a normal temperature to the one or more burners; controlling a hydrogen flow rate using a measurement apparatus or control apparatus that performs measurement based on heat capacity of a gas; vaporizing liquid hydrogen stored in a low-temperature storage chamber, and supplying the vaporized liquid hydrogen to the one or more burners as backup hydrogen; switching from the hydrogen to the backup hydrogen; and when switching, adjusting the hydrogen flow rate to a value obtained by multiplying the hydrogen flow rate immedia