Patents by Inventor Masahiro Ikuta

Masahiro Ikuta 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: 8227167
    Abstract: The method for producing a developing agent according to the invention contains subjecting the toner material dispersion liquid to mechanical shearing to make the granular mixture into fine particles, thereby providing a dispersion liquid containing fine particles having a smaller particle diameter than a particle diameter of the granular mixture. The toner material dispersion liquid is subjected to mechanical shearing under a temperature of a glass transition point Tg of the binder resin or more and a pressure of 10 MPa or more, and the resulting dispersion liquid containing the fine particles is depressurized with two or more stages while maintaining the temperature of a glass transition point Tg of the binder resin or more and then cooled to a temperature of a glass transition point Tg of the binder resin or less.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 9, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 24, 2012
    Assignees: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Toshiba Tec Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Tsuyoshi Itou, Takayasu Aoki, Takashi Urabe, Yasuhito Noda, Motonari Udo, Satoshi Araki, Masahiro Ikuta, Takafumi Hara, Asumi Matsumoto
  • Publication number: 20120082928
    Abstract: Disclosed is a decolorizable electrophotographic toner, including: a binder resin; and a colorant which contains at least a color developable compound and a color developing agent and is covered with an outer shell so as to have a capsule structure, wherein the number ratio of particles having an equivalent circle diameter of 0.6 ?m or more and 2.5 ?m or less of the toner when measured using a flow particle image analyzer after the toner is dispersed in an aqueous medium at a ratio of 0.08% by weight and the resulting dispersion is subjected to a stirring treatment in which stirring is performed at 5000 rpm for 30 minutes using a homogenizer (T-25 digital ULTRA-TURRAX (manufactured by IKA Japan K.K., provided with a shaft generator S25N-10G)) is 30% by number or less.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 3, 2011
    Publication date: April 5, 2012
    Applicants: TOSHIBA TEC KABUSHIKI KAISHA, THE PILOT INK CO., LTD., KABUSHIKI KAISHA PILOT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Masahiro Ikuta, Takahito Kabai, Takayasu Aoki, Tsuyoshi Itou
  • Publication number: 20120082931
    Abstract: Disclosed is a producing method of a decolorizable toner, comprising dispersing a mixed composition containing encapsulated colorant particles which are particles containing a color developable compound and a color developing agent and coated with an outer shell, a polymerizable monomer, and a release agent in an aqueous medium, and subjecting the polymerizable monomer to suspension polymerization in the aqueous medium.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 31, 2011
    Publication date: April 5, 2012
    Applicant: TOSHIBA TEC KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Tsuyoshi Itou, Takahito Kabai, Takayasu Aoki, Masahiro Ikuta
  • Publication number: 20110262850
    Abstract: There is provided a method for producing a toner that includes encapsulated erasable colored fine particles aggregated with fine particles that contain at least a binder resin and a release agent. The method includes: mixing a dispersion of erasable fine particles with an aggregating agent to form an aggregating agent-containing colored fine particle dispersion; and mixing the aggregating agent-containing colored fine particle dispersion with a fine particle dispersion that contains at least a binder resin and a release agent, so as to aggregate the aggregating agent-containing colored fine particles with the fine particles that contain at least a binder resin and a release agent. In this way, the encapsulated colored fine particles are prevented from being released from the resultant toner particles, and an erasable toner can be obtained that has a narrow particle size distribution and that produces less fogging.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 14, 2011
    Publication date: October 27, 2011
    Applicant: TOSHIBA TEC KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Tsuyoshi Itou, Takayasu Aoki, Koji Imamiya, Masahiro Ikuta
  • Publication number: 20110262854
    Abstract: Disclosed is a toner having a controlled micro/semimacro roughness ratio, such that the toner surface has a ratio of {an average of an arithmetic average height (Ra) in a 0.5 ?m-square region} to {an average of an arithmetic average height (Ra) in a 1 ?m-square region} of 0.5 or more. As a result, the toner is provided with improved electrophotographic performances, including low environmental variation, less toner scattering, and improved image quality.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 12, 2011
    Publication date: October 27, 2011
    Applicant: TOSHIBA TEC KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Masahiro Ikuta
  • Patent number: 8029962
    Abstract: A developing agent including a core containing an amorphous polyester resin and a fatty acid ester based wax, a shell provided on the surface of the core and containing a copolymer of an aromatic vinyl monomer and acrylic acid or an acrylic ester, and a coloring agent.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 13, 2008
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2011
    Assignees: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Toshiba Tec Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Takayasu Aoki, Motonari Udo, Masahiro Ikuta, Tsuyoshi Itou, Takashi Urabe, Takafumi Hara, Satoshi Araki, Yasuhito Noda
  • Patent number: 8012661
    Abstract: A method for producing a developing agent contains mechanically shearing a mixture containing a polyester resin, a colorant and a releasing agent to form first fine particles, aggregating the first fine particles to form aggregated particles as a core, aggregating second fine particles containing a polyester resin onto the core to form a shell.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 29, 2008
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2011
    Assignees: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Toshiba Tec Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Motonari Udo, Takayasu Aoki, Takashi Urabe, Tsuyoshi Itou, Yasuhito Noda, Satoshi Araki, Masahiro Ikuta, Takafumi Hara
  • Patent number: 8003290
    Abstract: A method for manufacturing a developing agent by mixing a resin having a dissociable functional group and an aqueous medium, subjecting the mixture to mechanical shearing, finely pulverizing the pulverized mixture to form resin microparticles, adding a dispersion of colorant particles, causing the resin microparticles and colorant particles to agglomerate, and forming toner particles.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 16, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 23, 2011
    Assignees: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Toshiba Tec Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Takashi Urabe, Tsuyoshi Ito, Motonari Udo, Masahiro Ikuta
  • Patent number: 7985525
    Abstract: A method for producing a developing agent, includes preparing a dispersion of particles containing a binder resin and a coloring agent and forming toner particles by aggregating and fusing the particles, in which the number of coarse particles having a particle size of 0.6 ?m or larger after the solid concentration of the dispersion of particles is adjusted to 1 ppm is less than 3,000 per ?L.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 16, 2008
    Date of Patent: July 26, 2011
    Assignees: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Toshiba Tec Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Masahiro Ikuta, Takayasu Aoki, Takashi Urabe, Tsuyoshi Ito, Motonari Udo, Satoshi Araki
  • Patent number: 7981587
    Abstract: A method for producing a developing agent including heating a dispersion of a toner particle material containing a binder resin fine particle, a coloring agent particle and a dispersion medium at a temperature of a glass transition point of the binder resin or higher and adding a coagulating agent in the heated dispersion of a toner particle material to coagulate a toner material containing the binder resin fine particle and the coloring agent particle, thereby forming a coagulated particle is disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 26, 2007
    Date of Patent: July 19, 2011
    Assignees: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Toshiba Tec Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Takayasu Aoki, Masahiro Ikuta, Tsuyoshi Itou, Takashi Urabe, Motonari Udo, Satoshi Araki
  • Patent number: 7960086
    Abstract: A coarse particle containing a polyester based resin and a coloring agent is added in an aqueous medium containing a surfactant, a basic substance and an inorganic water-soluble electrolyte, and dispersion and coagulation are carried out to form a toner particle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 6, 2008
    Date of Patent: June 14, 2011
    Assignees: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Toshiba Tec Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Takayasu Aoki, Takashi Urabe, Takafumi Hara, Tsuyoshi Itou, Masahiro Ikuta, Motonari Udo, Yasuhito Noda, Satoshi Araki, Asumi Matsumoto
  • Publication number: 20110123923
    Abstract: A method for producing a decolorable toner comprising: forming particles containing a color former compound, a color developing agent, and a binder resin; forming first aggregated particles by aggregating and fusing the particles containing the color former compound, the color developing agent, and the binder resin in a dispersion medium; and forming second aggregated particles by aggregating and fusing the first aggregated particles and a binder resin in a dispersion medium.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 19, 2010
    Publication date: May 26, 2011
    Applicant: TOSHIBA TEC KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Masahiro Ikuta
  • Patent number: 7901862
    Abstract: It is intended to provide a method includes the step of forming agglomerated particles by agglomerating fine particulate mixture containing a binder resin and a colorant. In the step of forming agglomerated particles, a cationic organic coagulating agent having an average molecular weight of from 1000 to 100000 is added to a liquid dispersion containing fine particles.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 2, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 8, 2011
    Assignees: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Toshiba Tec Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Tsuyoshi Itou, Takayasu Aoki, Takashi Urabe, Motonari Udo, Yasuhito Noda, Satoshi Araki, Masahiro Ikuta, Takafumi Hara
  • Publication number: 20110014558
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, a method for producing a developing agent including aggregating fine particles of a toner material containing a binder resin and a coloring agent in a dispersion liquid in which the fine particles are dispersed in an aqueous medium to form aggregated particles, and washing the aggregated particles and drying the washed aggregated particles, forming toner particles is provided. An electrical conductivity of the toner particles is measured by a toner electrical conductivity evaluation method. A sample toner is prepared by adhering an additive to surfaces of the toner particles, and a content ratio of a sodium element to a carbon element in a region to which the additive is not adhered of the toner is measured. The washing of the toner particles is repeated until each of the measurement values becomes a predetermined reference value or less.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 8, 2010
    Publication date: January 20, 2011
    Applicants: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA, TOSHIBA TEC KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Masahiro Ikuta, Takayasu Aoki, Takashi Urabe, Tsuyoshi Itou, Motonari Udo, Satoshi Araki, Takafumi Hara, Yasuhito Noda, Taishi Takano, Yasuo Goto, Junichi Ishikawa
  • Patent number: 7851120
    Abstract: The dispersion liquid including toner material particles is introduced into a mechanical shearing device including a heating unit, a mechanical shearing unit, and a cooling unit, heated to a temperature not lower than the glass transition temperature of the polyester resin under a condition that satisfies the following relationship (1), subjected to mechanical shearing, and thereafter cooled, whereby fine particles are obtained. ?2<log ((A+B)/C)<2??(1) With the proviso that a volume of a portion in which the dispersion liquid flows in the heating unit and the mechanical shearing unit is expressed as A cc, a volume of a portion in which the dispersion liquid flows in the cooling unit is expressed as B cc, and a flow rate of the dispersion liquid is expressed as C cc/min.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 14, 2010
    Assignees: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Toshiba Tec Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Takashi Urabe, Takayasu Aoki, Tsuyoshi Itou, Yasuhito Noda, Motonari Udo, Satoshi Araki, Masahiro Ikuta, Takafumi Hara, Asumi Matsumoto
  • Publication number: 20100310981
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, a method for producing a developing agent includes pulverizing a mixture in the form of coarse particles of a toner material including a coloring agent and a binder resin by mechanical shearing, aggregating and fusing the resulting fine particles. The solid content concentration in a dispersion liquid including the aggregated particles is from 5.0% to 40.0%, the volume average particle diameter of the aggregated particles is from 1.0 ?m to 10.0 ?m, and the ratio of the standard deviation to the volume average particle diameter is 30.0% or less.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 2, 2010
    Publication date: December 9, 2010
    Applicants: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA, TOSHIBA TEC KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Junichi Ishikawa, Takayasu Aoki, Tsuyoshi Itou, Yasuhito Noda, Motonari Udo, Satoshi Araki, Masahiro Ikuta, Takafumi Hara, Takashi Urabe, Taishi Takano, Yasuo Goto
  • Patent number: 7846634
    Abstract: A developing agent including a toner particle obtained by using a dispersion containing a solvent, a granular mixed compound having a binder resin and a coloring agent dispersed in the solvent, and, as an additive to disperse a compound, a combination of a surfactant and a basic compound or a combination of a sulfone-based surfactant and a polycarboxylic acid-based surfactant, wherein the additive remaining in the developing agent is within a predetermine range.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 7, 2010
    Inventors: Takashi Urabe, Satoshi Araki, Takayasu Aoki, Tsuyoshi Ito, Yasuhito Noda, Motonari Udo, Masahiro Ikuta, Takafumi Hara
  • Patent number: 7794912
    Abstract: A mixture containing a binder resin and a colorant is mixed with an aqueous medium, the resulting mixture liquid is mechanically sheared to finely granulate the mixture, fine particles are formed as cores, and a coating resin layer is formed on core surfaces, to obtain toner particles.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 16, 2007
    Date of Patent: September 14, 2010
    Assignees: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Toshiba Tec Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Takashi Urabe, Tsuyoshi Ito, Motonari Udo, Masahiro Ikuta
  • Publication number: 20100209840
    Abstract: As a first dispersion liquid containing first fine particles and a second dispersion liquid containing second fine particles, those satisfy the relationship represented by the following formula (1) are used, and these two dispersion liquids are mixed with each other, and an aggregating agent and a pH adjusting agent are added thereto in sequence, whereby encapsulation is achieved by selective formation of core particles through aggregation of the first fine particles and shells through aggregation of the second fine particles. 15 mV?|Z2?Z1|?5 mV??(1) In the formula, Z1 and Z2 represent zeta potentials of the first dispersion liquid and the second dispersion liquid, respectively, measured when aluminum sulfate is added to each dispersion liquid in an amount of 1% by weight based on the solid content in each dispersion liquid.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 15, 2009
    Publication date: August 19, 2010
    Applicants: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA, TOSHIBA TEC KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Masahiro Ikuta, Takayasu Aoki, Takashi Urabe, Tsuyoshi Itou, Satoshi Araki, Motonari Udo, Takafumi Hara
  • Patent number: 7763408
    Abstract: A dispersion containing a coloring agent particle is mixed in a dispersion of a radical polymerizable monomer, and a reducing agent containing an iron(II) salt is added in the presence of a polymerization initiator to polymerize the dispersed radical polymerizable monomer by the action of a generated radical, thereby not only forming a binder resin fine particle but coagulating the binder resin fine particle and the coloring agent particle to form a coagulated particle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 29, 2007
    Date of Patent: July 27, 2010
    Assignees: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Toshiba Tec Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Motonari Udo, Takashi Urabe, Tsuyoshi Itou, Masahiro Ikuta