Patents by Inventor Ryota Inoue

Ryota Inoue 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: 20080280224
    Abstract: To provide a method for producing a carrier including treating a coating layer on a surface of a core material with a polymer precursor in a supercritical fluid and/or a subcritical fluid so as to add the polymer precursor to the coating layer, and subjecting the coating layer to oxidation treatment so as to form a polymer from the polymer precursor in the coating layer, and a carrier produced by the method.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 30, 2008
    Publication date: November 13, 2008
    Inventors: Ryota Inoue, Masayuki Ishii, Yoshihiro Moriya, Takuya Seshita, Shingo Sakashita, Chiaki Tanaka
  • Patent number: 7449273
    Abstract: A toner including a binder resin comprising a polyester resin in an amount of from 50 to 100% by weight, wherein the polyester resin includes an unsaturated polyester resin which is preferably a crystalline polyester resin; a colorant; and a fatty acid metal salt which is preferably microencapsulated. A method for preparing a toner including forming particles of a toner composition including at least a binder resin including a polyester resin in an amount of from 50 to 100% by weight and a colorant, in an aqueous medium to prepare a dispersion of a particulate material, wherein the polyester resin includes an unsaturated polyester resin; drying the particulate material; and mixing a fatty acid metal salt with the particulate material to subject double bonds of the unsaturated polyester resin to oxidation polymerization.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 4, 2005
    Date of Patent: November 11, 2008
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Limited
    Inventors: Masahiro Ohki, Naohiro Watanabe, Ryota Inoue, Akinori Saitoh, Sonoh Matsuoka, Masahide Yamada, Chiaki Tanaka
  • Publication number: 20080226998
    Abstract: The present invention provides an organic silicone fine particle for latent electrostatic image developing toners, wherein the organic silicone fine particle has a volume average particle diameter of 0.05 ?m to 6.0 ?m which is obtained by measurement based on Coulter principle, and has a hemispherical polysiloxane cross-linked structure. By mixing an appropriate amount of an organic silicone resin particle formed in a deformed shape (a hemispherical shape) in a toner or developer, the present invention prevents movement of the organic silicone resin particle from surface functional sites, the movement caused by a phenomenon such as detachment thereof from a toner surface or rolling movement on the toner surface, by the effect of its shape, and makes it possible to effectively achieve the expected function.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 12, 2008
    Publication date: September 18, 2008
    Inventors: Masayuki Ishii, Ryota Inoue, Yoshihiro Moriya, Shingo Sakashita
  • Publication number: 20080138734
    Abstract: The present invention provides a method for producing a carrier that includes dissolving at least a coating material in carbon dioxide in a liquid state, and forming a coating layer on a core material surface by reducing the solubility of the liquid with at least the coating material dissolved therein through control of at least any one of the pressure and temperature. The present invention also provides a carrier produced by the method for producing a carrier.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 23, 2007
    Publication date: June 12, 2008
    Inventors: Ryota Inoue, Chiaki Tanaka, Masayuki Ishii, Yoshihiro Moriya, Shingo Sakashita
  • Publication number: 20080090165
    Abstract: To provide a toner containing an ethyl acetate-soluble polyester component and an ethyl acetate-insoluble polyester component, wherein the toner is granulated in an aqueous medium, the ethyl acetate-insoluble polyester component is obtained by elongating and/or cross-linking a modified polyester resin during granulating and/or after granulating, the modified polyester resin is produced by condensation polymerization of an acid component and at least one type of diol compound selected from aliphatic diol and alicyclic diol in the presence of a catalyst, and the mass average molecular weight of the modified polyester resin is 10,000 to 100,000.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 12, 2007
    Publication date: April 17, 2008
    Inventors: Masahide YAMADA, Ryota Inoue, Naohiro Watanabe, Shigeru Emoto, Masahiro Ohki, Akinori Saitoh, Tsunemi Sugiyama, Shinichi Wakamatsu, Toshiki Nanya, Naohito Shimota, Hiroshi Yamada, Junichi Awamura, Tomomi Suzuki, Kazuyuki Hirai, Kazushige Yasumatsu
  • Publication number: 20080063972
    Abstract: To provide (1) a method for manufacturing a carrier, including: dissolving a coating material composed of a plurality of types of materials in a fluid containing at least one of a supercritical fluid and a subcritical fluid; and lowering the solubility of the solution by controlling at least one of pressure and temperature to form a coating layer on a core surface, or (2) a method for manufacturing a carrier, including: dispersing or dissolving a coating material in a fluid containing at least one of a supercritical fluid and a subcritical fluid; and lowering solubility of the solution by controlling at least one of pressure and temperature to form a coating layer on a core surface, wherein the coating material contains at least a silicone resin, and the silicone resin has a weight-average molecular weight (Mw) of 800 to 5,000.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 11, 2007
    Publication date: March 13, 2008
    Inventors: Ryota INOUE, Chiaki Tanaka, Shinichi Kuramoto
  • Publication number: 20070218382
    Abstract: A toner containing a toner particle containing a binder resin, a colorant, a releasing agent and a laminar inorganic mineral in which part or all ions present between layers are modified by organic ions. The toner particle has a structure such that when the particle is heated at a temperature ranging from 65 to 90° C. the releasing agent is melted on the outside of the toner particle to form a particle having a sea-island structure.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 16, 2007
    Publication date: September 20, 2007
    Inventors: Shigeru Emoto, Akinori Saitoh, Naohiro Watanabe, Masahide Yamada, Masahiro Ohki, Ryota Inoue
  • Publication number: 20070141500
    Abstract: A toner is provided including a colorant; a first binder resin; and a second binder resin, wherein an amount of the first binder resin and an amount of the second binder resin are phase separated from each other in the toner, and wherein a phase of the first binder resin is partially or completely covered with a phase of the second binder resin; and a method of preparing the toner, and a developer, an image forming method, an image forming apparatus, and a process cartridge using the toner.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 15, 2006
    Publication date: June 21, 2007
    Inventors: Tsuyoshi Sugimoto, Hiroshi Yamashita, Ryota Inoue, Yoshihiro Moriya, Shinichi Wakamatsu, Akihiro Kotsugai
  • Publication number: 20070059626
    Abstract: A toner is provided including a binder resin and a wax having primarily C—H and C—C bonds, and having a melting point of 50 to 90° C., wherein the wax is present in a surface portion of the toner in an amount of from 0.1 to 4.0% by weight, wherein the amount of the wax is determined by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy attenuated total reflectance (FTIR-ATR); and the use of the toner in an image forming method, image forming apparatus, developer and toner cartridge containing the toner.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 13, 2006
    Publication date: March 15, 2007
    Inventors: Ryota Inoue, Shigeru Emoto, Naohiro Watanabe, Masahide Yamada, Akinori Saitoh, Masahiro Ohki, Tsunemi Sugiyama, Shinichi Wakamatsu, Takayuki Yoshii, Eiji Sawamura
  • Publication number: 20070054210
    Abstract: A toner is provided including a binder resin including at least one polyester resin in an amount of from 50 to 100% by weight, and a colorant having a specific formula, wherein the toner has a shape factor SF-1 of from 120 to 150 and a shape factor SF-2 of from 125 to 180; and a developer using the toner.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 31, 2006
    Publication date: March 8, 2007
    Inventors: Masahiro Ohki, Naohiro Watanabe, Ryota Inoue, Masahide Yamada, Akinori Saitoh, Shigeru Emoto, Tsunemi Sugiyama, Shinichi Wakamatsu
  • Publication number: 20060251979
    Abstract: A toner manufacturing method is provided including emulsion-polymerizing monomers including an aromatic vinyl monomer, to prepare a particulate resin dispersion; mixing the particulate resin dispersion and a colorant dispersion including a black metallic material, to prepare an aggregation dispersion including aggregated resin particles including the colorant therein; heating the aggregation dispersion to a temperature of not less than a glass transition temperature of the particulate resin to unite each of the aggregated particles to prepare a toner dispersion; and washing the toner dispersion to obtain the toner; a toner manufactured by the above method, and a developer using the toner.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 9, 2006
    Publication date: November 9, 2006
    Inventors: Naohiro Watanabe, Shigeru Emoto, Chiaki Tanaka, Masahide Yamada, Akinori Saitoh, Masahiro Ohki, Ryota Inoue
  • Publication number: 20060210903
    Abstract: The present invention provides a toner and a developer which includes the toner. The toner is produced in an aqueous medium and includes at least a binding resin, a colorant and a dispersant which disperses the colorant. The binding resin contains 50% by mass to 100% by mass of a polyester resin, and the colorant is a pigment whose surface is given an acid treatment. The acid value of the dispersant is 1 mg KOH/g to 30 mg KOH/g, and the amine value of the dispersant is 1 mg KOH/g to 100 mg KOH/g.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 15, 2006
    Publication date: September 21, 2006
    Inventors: Masahiro Ohki, Naohiro Watanabe, Ryota Inoue, Akinori Saitoh, Shigeru Emoto, Masahide Yamada, Chiaki Tanaka, Tsunemi Sugiyama, Yohichiroh Watanabe
  • Publication number: 20060160011
    Abstract: The object of the present invention is to provide a toner having a uniform composition of toner materials among toner particles, excelling in charge stability, enabling high-quality images without substantially causing fog and toner scattering, and having a small diameter and a narrow particle size distribution. The present invention also provides an effective production method of the toner, and an image forming method and the like using the toner. For this end, the present invention provides a method for producing a toner in which a dissolved and dispersed solution of toner materials is dispersed as dispersion particles in an aqueous medium containing no organic resin fine particles to prepare an oil droplet-in-water dispersion, and organic resin fine particles are added to the oil droplet-in-water dispersion to thereby granulate a toner in the presence of the organic resin fine particles.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 22, 2005
    Publication date: July 20, 2006
    Inventors: Ryota Inoue, Shigeru Emoto, Yohichiroh Watanabe, Naohiro Watanabe, Masahide Yamada, Akinori Saitoh, Masahiro Ohki, Tsunemi Sugiyama
  • Publication number: 20060099529
    Abstract: There are provided a method for producing a toner which includes: emulsifying and dispersing an oil phase in an aqueous phase so as to form oil droplets; and aggregating the oil droplets so as to associate each other, wherein the oil droplets exhibit non-Newtonian viscosity at the time of aggregating, a method for producing a toner which includes: emulsifying and dispersing an oil phase in an aqueous phase so as to form oil droplets; and aggregating the oil droplets so as to associate each other, wherein the oil droplets exhibit non-Newtonian viscosity at the time of aggregating, as well as a toner obtained by such methods.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 15, 2005
    Publication date: May 11, 2006
    Inventors: Chiaki Tanaka, Shigeru Emoto, Masahide Yamada, Naohiro Watanabe, Masahiro Ohki, Akinori Saitoh, Ryota Inoue
  • Publication number: 20060068312
    Abstract: There are provided: a method for producing a toner containing to granulate a toner and to subjecting the granulated toner to at least washing with an alkali washing solution, in which the total organic carbon amount extractable from the alkali-washed toner is 200 ppm/g or less; a toner comprising polyester in which the total organic carbon amount extractable from the toner is 200 ppm/g or less, under the condition that the toner is subjected to washing with the alkali washing solution before extracting; and an image-forming method using such a toner.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 20, 2005
    Publication date: March 30, 2006
    Inventors: Hiroshi Yamashita, Chiaki Tanaka, Yohichiroh Watanabe, Tsunemi Sugiyama, Masahiro Ohki, Sonoh Matsuoka, Masahide Yamada, Naohiro Watanabe, Akinori Saitoh, Ryota Inoue
  • Publication number: 20060063089
    Abstract: An object of the present invention is to provide a toner having small-sized and potato-shaped particles created from multiple coherent spherical particles for excellent cleaning ability and high image quality, an image-forming method that realizes high image quality using the toner, and the like. To this end, there is provided a toner, which is produced by granulating toner materials as an organic phase comprising at least a binder resin and a colorant in an aqueous medium and has potato-shaped particles created from multiple coherent primary oil droplets of the organic phase in the aqueous medium.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 16, 2005
    Publication date: March 23, 2006
    Inventors: Chiaki Tanaka, Naohiro Watanabe, Masahiro Ohki, Masahide Yamada, Akinori Saitoh, Sonoh Matsuoka, Ryota Inoue, Shigeru Emoto
  • Publication number: 20060057488
    Abstract: A toner satisfying at least one of the following relationships: 10° C.<(T1?T2)<60° C. and 0<Q2/Q1<2/3 wherein T1 represents a glass transition temperature of the toner and Q1 represents an endothermic quantity at a melting point thereof before melting when heated from ?20° C. to 150° C. at a heating speed of 10° C./min, and T2 represents a glass transition temperature thereof and Q2 represents a an endothermic quantity at a melting point thereof after melting after heated from ?20° C. to 150° C. at a heating speed of 10° C./min, cooled to ?20° C. at a cooling speed of 10° C./min and heated again at a heating speed of 10° C./min.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 14, 2005
    Publication date: March 16, 2006
    Inventors: Ryota Inoue, Sonoh Matsuoka, Chiaki Tanaka, Naohiro Watanabe, Masahide Yamada, Masahiro Ohki, Akinori Saitoh
  • Publication number: 20060046174
    Abstract: A toner including a binder resin comprising a polyester resin in an amount of from 50 to 100% by weight, wherein the polyester resin includes an unsaturated polyester resin which is preferably a crystalline polyester resin; a colorant; and a fatty acid metal salt which is preferably microencapsulated. A method for preparing a toner including forming particles of a toner composition including at least a binder resin including a polyester resin in an amount of from 50 to 100% by weight and a colorant, in an aqueous medium to prepare a dispersion of a particulate material, wherein the polyester resin includes an unsaturated polyester resin; drying the particulate material; and mixing a fatty acid metal salt with the particulate material to subject double bonds of the unsaturated polyester resin to oxidation polymerization.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 4, 2005
    Publication date: March 2, 2006
    Inventors: Masahiro Ohki, Naohiro Watanabe, Ryota Inoue, Akinori Saitoh, Sonoh Matsuoka, Masahide Yamada, Chiaki Tanaka
  • Publication number: 20050164112
    Abstract: A toner including a binder resin including a polyester resin in an amount of from 50 to 100% by weight based on total weight of the binder resin; a colorant; and a resin dispersant selected from the group consisting of modified polyurethane dispersants and combinations of a basic copolymer dispersant with a pigment derivative. A developer including the toner and a carrier. A method for preparing the toner including dissolving or dispersing a toner composition including a modified polyester resin, a colorant, and a resin dispersant in an organic solvent; dispersing the toner composition liquid in an aqueous medium to prepare an emulsion while reacting the modified polyester resin with a compound having an active hydrogen atom; removing the solvent from the emulsion to prepare a toner particle dispersion; and washing and drying the toner particles. An image forming method and apparatus using the toner are also provided.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 21, 2004
    Publication date: July 28, 2005
    Inventors: Masahiro Ohki, Akinori Saitoh, Ryota Inoue, Naohiro Watanabe, Masahide Yamada, Chiaki Tanaka, Sonoh Matsuoka