Patents by Inventor Kaoru Matsushita

Kaoru Matsushita 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).

  • Patent number: 11947304
    Abstract: A cleaning device includes: a cleaning brush that has bristles that rotate and contact a surface, to which toner has adhered, of a cleaning member to be cleaned, the cleaning brush removing the toner adhered to the surface of the cleaning member; a first contact member that contacts the bristles without a position of the first contact member relative to a position of the cleaning brush being changed; and a second contact member that contacts the bristles at a location downstream from the first contact member in a direction of rotation of the cleaning brush and without a position of the second contact member relative to the position of the cleaning brush being changed, and that is disposed on an extension line extended from a line between an axial center of the cleaning brush and a base of the bristles that move away from the first contact member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 20, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 2, 2024
    Assignee: FUJIFILM Business Innovation Corp.
    Inventors: Haruyuki Ideura, Daisuke Tanaka, Takeshi Yasuda, Kaoru Matsushita
  • Publication number: 20240002157
    Abstract: A belt unit includes a belt member to be caused to rotate, a stretching member that is rotatable about an axis and over which the belt member is stretched, and a rotatable member that is rotatable about the axis and relative to the stretching member and over which the belt member is stretched, the rotatable member including a receiving part configured to receive the belt member in an axial direction when the belt member is shifted in the axial direction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 9, 2023
    Publication date: January 4, 2024
    Applicant: FUJIFILM Business Innovation Corp.
    Inventors: Toshihiko KAMIYAMA, Kaoru MATSUSHITA
  • Publication number: 20230305480
    Abstract: A cleaning device includes: a cleaning brush that has bristles that rotate and contact a surface, to which toner has adhered, of a cleaning member to be cleaned, the cleaning brush removing the toner adhered to the surface of the cleaning member; a first contact member that contacts the bristles without a position of the first contact member relative to a position of the cleaning brush being changed; and a second contact member that contacts the bristles at a location downstream from the first contact member in a direction of rotation of the cleaning brush and without a position of the second contact member relative to the position of the cleaning brush being changed, and that is disposed on an extension line extended from a line between an axial center of the cleaning brush and a base of the bristles that move away from the first contact member.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 20, 2022
    Publication date: September 28, 2023
    Applicant: FUJIFILM Business Innovation Corp.
    Inventors: Haruyuki IDEURA, Daisuke TANAKA, Takeshi YASUDA, Kaoru MATSUSHITA
  • Patent number: 11726423
    Abstract: A medium transport device includes a transport belt that is disposed in such a manner as to face an image holding unit holding an image and that is capable of moving circularly so as to transport a medium, a first stretching roller that stretches a portion of the transport belt and that is disposed in such a manner as to face the image holding unit, the first stretching roller being configured to transport the medium by nipping the medium between the image holding unit and the transport belt and configured to transfer the image held by the image holding unit onto the medium, a second stretching roller that stretches a portion of the transport belt that is located downstream from the portion of the transport belt stretched by the first stretching roller in a transport direction of the medium, a contact adjusting unit that causes a second end of the first stretching roller in an axial direction of the first stretching roller to swing while a first end of the first stretching roller serves as a fulcrum and adjus
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 13, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2023
    Assignee: FUJIFILM Business Innovation Corp.
    Inventors: Kaoru Matsushita, Kiyotoshi Kaneyama, Koichi Sato, Kentaro Iwamoto, Hibiki Sasaki, Toshihiko Kamiyama
  • Patent number: 11474456
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes: a toner transport body that is an endless belt holding a toner image, or is a transfer member transferring the toner image to a recording medium nipped between the endless belt and the transfer member; a cleaning brush that has plural first bristle materials that rotate and come into contact with a surface of the toner transport body, and cleans a toner adhering to the surface of the toner transport body; and a removing brush that has plural second bristle materials in contact with the first bristle material of the cleaning brush and removes the toner adhering to the first bristle material.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 24, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2022
    Assignee: FUJIFILM Business Innovation Corp.
    Inventors: Takeshi Yasuda, Daisuke Tanaka, Kaoru Matsushita
  • Publication number: 20220308503
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes: a toner transport body that is an endless belt holding a toner image, or is a transfer member transferring the toner image to a recording medium nipped between the endless belt and the transfer member; a cleaning brush that has plural first bristle materials that rotate and come into contact with a surface of the toner transport body, and cleans a toner adhering to the surface of the toner transport body; and a removing brush that has plural second bristle materials in contact with the first bristle material of the cleaning brush and removes the toner adhering to the first bristle material.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 24, 2021
    Publication date: September 29, 2022
    Applicant: FUJIFILM Business Innovation Corp.
    Inventors: Takeshi YASUDA, Daisuke TANAKA, Kaoru MATSUSHITA
  • Patent number: 11204578
    Abstract: A cleaning device is provided with: a cleaning component that cleans waste toner from an image holder, the image holder holding, on a surface thereof, a toner image formed by an image forming component and moving in a circulating manner; and a waste toner conveying component that conveys the waste toner toward a waste toner storage unit. The cleaning device has a receiving opening through which waste powder recovered from the image forming component is received, and the waste powder received through the receiving opening is conveyed to the waste toner storage unit by being passed through inside the cleaning device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 1, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 21, 2021
    Assignee: FUJIFILM Business Innovation Corp.
    Inventors: Kazutoshi Sugitani, Koichi Sato, Masakazu Shirai, Hibiki Sasaki, Kaoru Matsushita, Kiyotoshi Kaneyama, Toshihiko Kamiyama
  • Patent number: 11188018
    Abstract: A medium transport device includes a transport member and a guide member. The transport member supports and transports a medium. The guide member is shifted from the transport member in a width direction of the medium to guide the medium. The guide member includes contact portions that come into contact with the medium. The contact portions are spaced apart from one another in a transport direction of the medium.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 9, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 30, 2021
    Assignee: FUJIFILM Business Innovation Corp.
    Inventors: Kentaro Iwamoto, Kiyotoshi Kaneyama, Koichi Sato, Kaoru Matsushita, Hibiki Sasaki, Toshihiko Kamiyama, Mabumi Kashihara, Daisuke Tanaka, Takeshi Yasuda, Hiromoto Yamaki
  • Patent number: 11188017
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes a first unit, a second unit, a first adjusting member, and a second adjusting member. The first unit includes an endless first belt member and a first rotating member that rotates while supporting the first belt member. The second unit includes a rotatable second rotating member that opposes the first rotating member with the first belt member interposed therebetween. The first adjusting member is disposed on either one of the first unit and the second unit to adjust a load between the first rotating member and the second rotating member. The second adjusting member is disposed on the other one of the first unit and the second unit to adjust parallelism between the first rotating member and the second rotating member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 16, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 30, 2021
    Assignee: FUJIFILM Business Innovation Corp.
    Inventors: Koichi Sato, Kiyotoshi Kaneyama, Hibiki Sasaki, Kaoru Matsushita, Kentaro Iwamoto, Toshihiko Kamiyama, Takaya Yokoyama
  • Publication number: 20210302890
    Abstract: A medium transport device includes a transport member and a guide member. The transport member supports and transports a medium. The guide member is shifted from the transport member in a width direction of the medium to guide the medium. The guide member includes contact portions that come into contact with the medium. The contact portions are spaced apart from one another in a transport direction of the medium.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 9, 2020
    Publication date: September 30, 2021
    Applicant: FUJIFILM Business Innovation Corp.
    Inventors: Kentaro IWAMOTO, Kiyotoshi KANEYAMA, Koichi SATO, Kaoru MATSUSHITA, Hibiki SASAKI, Toshihiko KAMIYAMA, Mabumi KASHIHARA, Daisuke TANAKA, Takeshi YASUDA, Hiromoto YAMAKI
  • Publication number: 20210302891
    Abstract: A medium transport device includes a transport belt that is disposed in such a manner as to face an image holding unit holding an image and that is capable of moving circularly so as to transport a medium, a first stretching roller that stretches a portion of the transport belt and that is disposed in such a manner as to face the image holding unit, the first stretching roller being configured to transport the medium by nipping the medium between the image holding unit and the transport belt and configured to transfer the image held by the image holding unit onto the medium, a second stretching roller that stretches a portion of the transport belt that is located downstream from the portion of the transport belt stretched by the first stretching roller in a transport direction of the medium, a contact adjusting unit that causes a second end of the first stretching roller in an axial direction of the first stretching roller to swing while a first end of the first stretching roller serves as a fulcrum and adjus
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 13, 2020
    Publication date: September 30, 2021
    Applicant: FUJIFILM Business Innovation Corp.
    Inventors: Kaoru MATSUSHITA, Kiyotoshi KANEYAMA, Koichi SATO, Kentaro IWAMOTO, Hibiki SASAKI, Toshihiko KAMIYAMA
  • Publication number: 20210302892
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes a first unit, a second unit, a first adjusting member, and a second adjusting member. The first unit includes an endless first belt member and a first rotating member that rotates while supporting the first belt member. The second unit includes a rotatable second rotating member that opposes the first rotating member with the first belt member interposed therebetween. The first adjusting member is disposed on either one of the first unit and the second unit to adjust a load between the first rotating member and the second rotating member. The second adjusting member is disposed on the other one of the first unit and the second unit to adjust parallelism between the first rotating member and the second rotating member.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 16, 2020
    Publication date: September 30, 2021
    Applicant: FUJIFILM Business Innovation Corp.
    Inventors: Koichi SATO, Kiyotoshi KANEYAMA, Hibiki SASAKI, Kaoru MATSUSHITA, Kentaro IWAMOTO, Toshihiko KAMIYAMA, Takaya YOKOYAMA
  • Patent number: 11067941
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes: a roller including a rotational shaft supported by a bearing; a support unit that movably supports the bearing and an attached component of the bearing between a use position of the roller and a retraction position away from the use position; and a contact portion that is provided in one or both of the bearing and attached component, and the support unit, and when the roller is moved to the retraction position, comes into contact with part of the support unit or the attached component opposed to the bearing and the attached component.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 12, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 20, 2021
    Assignee: FUJIFILM Business Innovation Corp.
    Inventors: Masakazu Shirai, Koichi Sato, Kazutoshi Sugitani, Hibiki Sasaki, Kaoru Matsushita, Kiyotoshi Kaneyama
  • Patent number: 11009813
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes: an intermediate transfer belt that carries a toner image first transferred and is rotated to transport the toner image to a second transfer position; a second transfer belt that is rotated to come into contact with the intermediate transfer belt and pass through the second transfer position of the intermediate transfer belt; a plate-like cleaning unit that comes into contact with an outer circumferential surface of the second transfer belt to clean the outer circumferential surface; and a dispersion unit that comes into contact with a portion of the outer circumferential surface of the second transfer belt to disperse toner which passes through the portion on a downstream side of the cleaning unit and on an upstream side of the second transfer position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2020
    Date of Patent: May 18, 2021
    Assignee: FUJI XEROX CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Kaoru Matsushita, Koichi Sato, Kazutoshi Sugitani, Masakazu Shirai, Hibiki Sasaki, Kiyotoshi Kaneyama
  • Publication number: 20210088943
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes: a roller including a rotational shaft supported by a bearing; a support unit that movably supports the bearing and an attached component of the bearing between a use position of the roller and a retraction position away from the use position; and a contact portion that is provided in one or both of the bearing and attached component, and the support unit, and when the roller is moved to the retraction position, comes into contact with part of the support unit or the attached component opposed to the bearing and the attached component.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 12, 2020
    Publication date: March 25, 2021
    Applicant: FUJI XEROX CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Masakazu Shirai, Koichi Sato, Kazutoshi Sugitani, Hibiki Sasaki, Kaoru Matsushita, Kiyotoshi Kaneyama
  • Publication number: 20210072670
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes: an intermediate transfer belt that carries a toner image first transferred and is rotated to transport the toner image to a second transfer position; a second transfer belt that is rotated to come into contact with the intermediate transfer belt and pass through the second transfer position of the intermediate transfer belt; a plate-like cleaning unit that comes into contact with an outer circumferential surface of the second transfer belt to clean the outer circumferential surface; and a dispersion unit that comes into contact with a portion of the outer circumferential surface of the second transfer belt to disperse toner which passes through the portion on a downstream side of the cleaning unit and on an upstream side of the second transfer position.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 30, 2020
    Publication date: March 11, 2021
    Applicant: FUJI XEROX CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Kaoru MATSUSHITA, Koichi SATO, Kazutoshi SUGITANI, Masakazu SHIRAI, Hibiki SASAKI, Kiyotoshi KANEYAMA
  • Publication number: 20210055685
    Abstract: A cleaning device is provided with: a cleaning component that cleans waste toner from an image holder, the image holder holding, on a surface thereof, a toner image formed by an image forming component and moving in a circulating manner; and a waste toner conveying component that conveys the waste toner toward a waste toner storage unit. The cleaning device has a receiving opening through which waste powder recovered from the image forming component is received, and the waste powder received through the receiving opening is conveyed to the waste toner storage unit by being passed through inside the cleaning device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 1, 2020
    Publication date: February 25, 2021
    Applicant: FUJI XEROX Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kazutoshi SUGITANI, Koichi SATO, Masakazu SHIRAI, Hibiki SASAKI, Kaoru MATSUSHITA, Kiyotoshi KANEYAMA, Toshihiko KAMIYAMA
  • Patent number: 10281874
    Abstract: A terminal contact structure includes a first terminal provided on a removable body; a second terminal provided on an apparatus body in which the removable body is inserted, the second terminal not being in contact with the first terminal when the removable body is in a removable state, the second terminal being in contact with the first terminal when the removable body is in a fixed state; and a guide member provided on the apparatus body and having a first surface and a second surface, the first surface guiding the first terminal in an insertion direction in which the removable body is inserted, the second surface guiding the second terminal in a contact direction in which the second terminal comes into contact with the first terminal, the contact direction being a crossing direction that crosses the insertion direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 23, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2019
    Assignee: FUJI XEROX CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Kohyu Shigemori, Tsutomu Komiyama, Kaoru Matsushita
  • Publication number: 20180267460
    Abstract: A terminal contact structure includes a first terminal provided on a removable body; a second terminal provided on an apparatus body in which the removable body is inserted, the second terminal not being in contact with the first terminal when the removable body is in a removable state, the second terminal being in contact with the first terminal when the removable body is in a fixed state; and a guide member provided on the apparatus body and having a first surface and a second surface, the first surface guiding the first terminal in an insertion direction in which the removable body is inserted, the second surface guiding the second terminal in a contact direction in which the second terminal comes into contact with the first terminal, the contact direction being a crossing direction that crosses the insertion direction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 23, 2018
    Publication date: September 20, 2018
    Applicant: FUJI XEROX Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kohyu SHIGEMORI, Tsutomu KOMIYAMA, Kaoru MATSUSHITA
  • Patent number: 9804536
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes an endless belt that is stretched around plural rollers; a driving unit that drives the belt to rotate; a contact member that is in contact with a part of a surface of the belt, the part being supported by one of the plural rollers; and a switching device that changes an image forming mode by displacing at least one of the plural rollers. When the image forming mode is changed by the switching device, the belt is rotated by the driving unit in a normal direction at a speed higher than a speed of reverse rotation of the roller that is in contact with the contact member with the belt interposed therebetween.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 31, 2017
    Assignee: FUJI XEROX CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Kaoru Matsushita