Patents by Inventor Kunihiko Sato

Kunihiko Sato 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: 20140140739
    Abstract: A developing device includes a first developer holder and a second developer holder. The first developer holder is disposed so as to face an image holding member and rotates so as to move in a direction opposite to a direction of movement of the image holding member at a first facing portion. The second developer holder is disposed downstream from the first developer holder in the direction of movement of the image holding member so as to face the image holding member and rotates so as to move in the same direction as the image holding member moves at a second facing portion. A value obtained by dividing an amount of developer per unit area held on the first developer holder by a shortest distance between the image holding member and the first developer holder is approximately in a range from 1.00×103 kg/m3 to 1.60×103 kg/m3.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 4, 2013
    Publication date: May 22, 2014
    Inventors: Kunihiko SATO, Yoko MIYAMOTO, Yoshiya MASHIMO, Masaaki TAKAHASHI, Sakon TAKAHASHI, Nobumasa FURUYA, Kazuhiko ARAI
  • Publication number: 20140126927
    Abstract: A developer contains a toner having an external additive deposited thereon. The developer is used with an image-forming apparatus including an image carrier including a surface layer in which fluoropolymer resin particles are dispersed and a cleaning member disposed in contact with an outer surface of the image carrier. The external additive is a nonspherical external additive whose volume average particle size is smaller than the average particle size of exposed portions of the fluoropolymer resin particles in the surface layer of the image carrier.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 14, 2013
    Publication date: May 8, 2014
    Applicant: FUJI XEROX CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Shinichi KAWAMATA, Kunihiko SATO, Sakon TAKAHASHI, Nobumasa FURUYA, Kazuhiko ARAI, Masaaki TAKAHASHI, Koji NISHIMURA, Daisuke HARUYAMA
  • Patent number: 8676098
    Abstract: A developing device includes a developer carrier that holds a developer on a surface thereof, rotates around a rotation axis, and supplies the developer to an image carrier at a facing portion at which the developer carrier faces the image carrier; a transport member that transports the developer in a transport direction along the rotation axis while supplying the developer to the surface of the developer carrier; and a guide member that includes a guide portion that guides, toward downstream in the transport direction, the developer that has passed the facing portion without being supplied to the image carrier, the guide member making an amount of the developer that reaches the transport member on an upstream side of the guide portion in the transport direction be smaller than an amount of the developer that reaches the transport member in on a downstream side of the guide portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 26, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 18, 2014
    Assignee: Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kazuhiko Hirokawa, Kunihiko Sato
  • Patent number: 8660470
    Abstract: A developing device includes first and second developer carriers facing each other in a facing region, a regulating member that regulates a layer thickness of developer, and a separation member. The first and second developer carriers respectively include first and second magnetic members that are respectively magnetized with first and second facing magnetic poles having opposite polarities. The separation member separates the developer so that the developer is supplied toward the first and second developer carriers. The separation member is disposed such that distances between the separation member and the first and second developer carriers are the smallest in a region in which a magnitude of a combined magnetic field of the first and second magnetic poles locally decreases as compared with a case where at least one of the first and second developer carriers is independently disposed due to interaction between the first and second facing magnetic poles.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 7, 2012
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2014
    Assignee: Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Yoichi Watanabe, Makoto Hirota, Tomoyuki Yoshii, Jun Abe, Yasuaki Watanabe, Shinichi Kuramoto, Kunihiko Sato
  • Publication number: 20130164042
    Abstract: A developing device includes first and second developer carriers facing each other in a facing region, a regulating member that regulates a layer thickness of developer, and a separation member. The first and second developer carriers respectively include first and second magnetic members that are respectively magnetized with first and second facing magnetic poles having opposite polarities. The separation member separates the developer so that the developer is supplied toward the first and second developer carriers. The separation member is disposed such that distances between the separation member and the first and second developer carriers are the smallest in a region in which a magnitude of a combined magnetic field of the first and second magnetic poles locally decreases as compared with a case where at least one of the first and second developer carriers is independently disposed due to interaction between the first and second facing magnetic poles.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 7, 2012
    Publication date: June 27, 2013
    Applicant: FUJI XEROX CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Yoichi WATANABE, Makoto HIROTA, Tomoyuki YOSHII, Jun ABE, Yasuaki WATANABE, Shinichi KURAMOTO, Kunihiko SATO
  • Patent number: 8402713
    Abstract: To include a lower foundation 30 provided on a ground 7 and an upper foundation 31 provided above the lower foundation 30 with a base isolating device 32 interposed therebetween. The upper foundation 31 includes a bottomed steel-plate form 40, a hull structure 41 arranged in the steel plate form 40, and a concrete part 46 filled in the steel plate form 40. The hull structure 41 is constituted in a lattice shape by a plurality of transverse reinforcing ribs 42 that extend on a bottom steel plate 40a of the steel plate form 40 and a plurality of longitudinal reinforcing ribs 43 that extend on the bottom steel plate 40a of the steel plate form 40 so as to be orthogonal to the transverse reinforcing ribs 42.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 19, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 26, 2013
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.
    Inventors: Kunihiko Sato, Hiroshi Shimizu, Takeo Baba
  • Publication number: 20120288054
    Abstract: To provide a lower foundation 30 provided on a ground 7 and an upper foundation 31 provided above the lower foundation 30 via a seismic isolator 32. A machine room S in which a machine K can be arranged is provided in the upper foundation 31. A foundation-side hull structure unit that is configured in a reticular pattern by horizontal reinforcing ribs extended in one direction and vertical reinforcing ribs extended to cross the horizontal reinforcing ribs is provided in the upper foundation 31, and the machine room S is provided in a space in the foundation separated by the horizontal reinforcing ribs and the vertical reinforcing ribs.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 5, 2010
    Publication date: November 15, 2012
    Applicant: MITSUBISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES, LTD.
    Inventors: Kunihiko Sato, Kenichi Sakurai
  • Publication number: 20120195648
    Abstract: A developing device includes a developer carrier that holds a developer on a surface thereof, rotates around a rotation axis, and supplies the developer to an image carrier at a facing portion at which the developer carrier faces the image carrier; a transport member that transports the developer in a transport direction along the rotation axis while supplying the developer to the surface of the developer carrier; and a guide member that includes a guide portion that guides, toward downstream in the transport direction, the developer that has passed the facing portion without being supplied to the image carrier, the guide member making an amount of the developer that reaches the transport member on an upstream side of the guide portion in the transport direction be smaller than an amount of the developer that reaches the transport member in on a downstream side of the guide portion.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 26, 2011
    Publication date: August 2, 2012
    Applicant: FUJI XEROX CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Kazuhiko HIROKAWA, Kunihiko SATO
  • Publication number: 20120110937
    Abstract: To include a lower foundation 30 provided on a ground 7 and an upper foundation 31 provided above the lower foundation 30 with a base isolating device 32 interposed therebetween. The upper foundation 31 includes a bottomed steel-plate form 40, a hull structure 41 arranged in the steel plate form 40, and a concrete part 46 filled in the steel plate form 40. The hull structure 41 is constituted in a lattice shape by a plurality of transverse reinforcing ribs 42 that extend on a bottom steel plate 40a of the steel plate form 40 and a plurality of longitudinal reinforcing ribs 43 that extend on the bottom steel plate 40a of the steel plate form 40 so as to be orthogonal to the transverse reinforcing ribs 42.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 19, 2010
    Publication date: May 10, 2012
    Applicant: MITSUBISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES, LTD.
    Inventors: Kunihiko Sato, Hiroshi Shimizu, Takeo Baba
  • Publication number: 20120107739
    Abstract: The present invention provides an electrostatic latent image developer used in an image forming apparatus including: an image holding member; a charging unit; a latent image forming unit; a developing unit which stores the electrostatic latent image developer and includes a developer holding member, wherein the developing unit develops the electrostatic latent image formed on the image holding member by bringing a magnetic brush, which is formed on a surface of the developer holding member by the electrostatic latent image developer, into contact with the image holding member, to form a toner image; a transfer unit; a cleaning unit; and a lubricant applying unit, wherein the electrostatic latent image developer contains a toner having a 50% integrated volume particle diameter of from 3.0 to 6.0 ?m, and a carrier having a mean magnetization of 5.0×10?16 to 4.0×10?15 AM2/particle in an applied magnetic field of 1 kilo-oersted.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 26, 2011
    Publication date: May 3, 2012
    Applicant: FUJI XEROX CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Takayuki YAMASHITA, Kazuhiko ARAI, Kunihiko SATO, Haruhide ISHIDA, Michio TAKE, Sakon TAKAHASHI, Fusako KIYONO, Yoshifumi IIDA, Mona TASAKI
  • Publication number: 20120093543
    Abstract: An electrostatic latent image developer contains a toner having a volume-average particle diameter of about 2.0 ?m to about 6.5 ?m, and a carrier whose average magnetization per carrier particle at an applied magnetic field of 1 kilooersted is about 3.0×10?16 Am2/particle to about 3.0×10?15 Am2/particle, wherein the electrostatic latent image developer is used in an image forming apparatus including an image-carrying member having a top surface layer composed of a cured film containing fluorocarbon resin particles, a developing unit that develops an electrostatic latent image formed on the image-carrying member to form a toner image by bringing a magnetic brush formed of the electrostatic latent image developer and having a brush roughness of about 300 ?m to about 850 ?m into contact with the image-carrying member, and a cleaning unit that includes a cleaning blade.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 5, 2011
    Publication date: April 19, 2012
    Applicant: FUJI XEROX CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Miho IKEDA, Sakon TAKAHASHI, Kazuhiko ARAI, Haruhide ISHIDA, Michio TAKE, Kunihiko SATO, Yoshinori KUBO, Fusako KIYONO
  • Patent number: 7905537
    Abstract: A harness installation structure, includes a link arm that pivotally supports a movable body to a fixed body; a wire harness that is installed to extend from the fixed body to the movable body along the link arm. The wire harness has an upwardly-extending portion which is arranged to extend vertically upwardly at an end portion of the link arm. The upwardly-extending portion is twisted in its peripheral direction while the movable body is moved between an opened position and a closed position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 27, 2006
    Date of Patent: March 15, 2011
    Assignee: Yazaki Corporation
    Inventors: Kunihiko Sato, Takehiko Uehara
  • Patent number: 7873313
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus that includes an image forming component, a flash fixing component and a control component is provided. The image forming component forms toner images using at least two toners respectively having different colors and transfers the formed toner images onto a recording medium. The flash fixing component emits a flash light onto the recording medium onto which the toner images have been transferred by the image forming component and fixes the toner images. The control component that controls the image forming component to form the toner images so that, among the toner images, a second color toner is adhered to a surface of a toner layer formed by a first toner color at a region at which the toner layer formed by the first toner color is formed, the absorbance of the second color toner being lower than that of the first color toner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 8, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 18, 2011
    Assignee: Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hiroshi Nou, Akira Iwaishi, Mitsuhiro Mori, Kunihiko Sato
  • Patent number: 7530825
    Abstract: A harness installation structure includes a link arm (2) that pivotally supports a movable body (1) to a fixed body (4), a wire harness (14) that is installed to extend from the fixed body (4) to the movable body (1) along the link arm (2). The wire harness (14) is fixed without looseness at a region between one end of the link arm (2) and the movable body (1) and through a tubular protector (11). The wire harness (14) is installed to extend in a bendable manner from the other end of the link arm (2) to the fixed body (4). While the movable body (1) is moved between an opened position and a closed position, a protector (15) with a flexible portion (18) is used to tighten the wire harness portion (14a2) adjacent to the movable body (1) and surplus length of the wire harness adjacent to the fixed body (4) is absorbed by forming a bent portion (26) of the wire harness.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2006
    Date of Patent: May 12, 2009
    Assignee: Yazaki Corporation
    Inventors: Kunihiko Sato, Takehiko Uehara
  • Publication number: 20090097889
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus that includes an image forming component, a flash fixing component and a control component is provided. The image forming component forms toner images using at least two toners respectively having different colors and transfers the formed toner images onto a recording medium. The flash fixing component emits a flash light onto the recording medium onto which the toner images have been transferred by the image forming component and fixes the toner images. The control component that controls the image forming component to form the toner images so that, among the toner images, a second color toner is adhered to a surface of a toner layer formed by a first toner color at a region at which the toner layer formed by the first toner color is formed, the absorbance of the second color toner being lower than that of the first color toner.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 8, 2008
    Publication date: April 16, 2009
    Applicant: FUJI XEROX CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Hiroshi NOU, Akira Iwaishi, Mitsuhiro Mori, Kunihiko Sato
  • Patent number: 7438048
    Abstract: An object is to prevent deterioration in both exhaust emission and fuel efficiency by suitably combining OTP boosting with power boosting. An electronic control unit (ECU) 30 of the present invention is arranged to control a fuel injection amount of an injector 7 to an engine 1 according to an operating condition of the engine 1, and perform OTP boosting of the fuel injection amount to prevent overheating of a discharge passage 3 and a catalyst converter 11 when the engine 1 comes into a high load and high rotation operating condition and perform power boosting that increases the fuel injection amount to enrich an air-fuel ratio to an output air-fuel ratio when the engine 1 comes into a high load operating condition. The ECU 30 executes the power boosting when the engine 1 comes into the high load and high rotation operating condition and executes the OTP boosting later from the start of the power boosting, delayed by a period attributable to at least an increased amount of fuel by the power boosting.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 22, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 21, 2008
    Assignees: Aisan Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha, Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Minoru Onobayashi, Hirokazu Konohara, Nobuhiro Ogasawara, Kunihiko Sato
  • Patent number: 7430395
    Abstract: A flash fixing device is disclosed. The flash fixing device has a group of main flash lamps which emit main flash light for fixing a toner image on a recording medium; an auxiliary flash lamp provided at a position corresponding to between a pair of flash lamps of the group of main flash lamps; and a light-emission control unit controlling light-emission of the group of main flash lamps and light-emission of the auxiliary flash lamp by using a predetermined relationship. Also disclosed is an image forming device having the flash fixing device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 13, 2006
    Date of Patent: September 30, 2008
    Assignee: Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Akira Iwaishi, Mitsuhiro Mori, Hiroshi Nou, Kouichi Sanpei, Kunihiko Sato
  • Patent number: 7369381
    Abstract: A wiring harness holding device for holding a wiring harness laid between a stationary structure and a movable structure slidably provided to the stationary structure, includes a movable side holding portion that holds one portion of the wiring harness on the movable structure, and a stationary side holding portion that holds another portion of the wiring harness on the stationary structure. The movable side holding portion holds the wiring harness so that the wiring harness derived from the movable side holding portion towards the stationary side holding portion swivels around the movable side holding portion in association with the sliding movement of the movable structure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 8, 2006
    Date of Patent: May 6, 2008
    Assignee: Yazaki Corporation
    Inventors: Masashi Tsukamoto, Kunihiko Sato, Masahiro Ito
  • Publication number: 20080095548
    Abstract: A flash fixing apparatus including a plurality of lamp groups each comprising at least one lamp, and an emission controller. The lamp groups illuminate flashes at a recording medium to fix a toner image which has been transferred to the recording medium. The emission controller causes the respective lamp groups to emit light with different emission timings, and alters the emission timings in accordance with the toner of the toner image and physical characteristics of the recording medium.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 17, 2007
    Publication date: April 24, 2008
    Inventors: Akira Iwaishi, Kunihiko Sato, Hiroshi Nou, Mitsuhiro Mori, Yoshikazu Yamamoto
  • Publication number: 20080077305
    Abstract: An object is to prevent deterioration in both exhaust emission and fuel efficiency by suitably combining OTP boosting with power boosting. An electronic control unit (ECU) 30 of the present invention is arranged to control a fuel injection amount of an injector 7 to an engine 1 according to an operating condition of the engine 1, and perform OTP boosting of the fuel injection amount to prevent overheating of a discharge passage 3 and a catalyst converter 11 when the engine 1 comes into a high load and high rotation operating condition and perform power boosting that increases the fuel injection amount to enrich an air-fuel ratio to an output air-fuel ratio when the engine 1 comes into a high load operating condition. The ECU 30 executes the power boosting when the engine 1 comes into the high load and high rotation operating condition and executes the OTP boosting later from the start of the power boosting, delayed by a period attributable to at least the power boosting.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 22, 2007
    Publication date: March 27, 2008
    Applicants: AISAN KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA, TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Minoru Onobayashi, Hirokazu Konohara, Nobuhiro Ogasawara, Kunihiko Sato