Abstract: An optical guide to be used for detecting the remaining amount of developer contained in a developer containing portion includes a blocking portion for blocking an opening formed in the developer containing portion when the optical guide is fitted to the developer containing portion, an optical guide portion for guiding light, which is formed on a side to be positioned on the outside of the developer containing portion with respect to the blocking portion when the optical guide is fitted to the developer containing portion, an outside inclining surface inclining toward the side, on which the optical guide portion is formed, with respect to the blocking portion, the outside inclining surface being formed at an end portion of the optical guide portion on the blocking portion side in a lengthwise direction of the optical guide portion, and an inside inclining surface portion inclining toward a direction intersecting the lengthwise direction of the optical guide portion, the inside inclining surface portion being

Abstract: A space securing member defines a predetermined space between the first rotary member and the second rotary member which is arranged apart from the first rotary member with the predetermined space. The space securing member is provided with a circular hole that is rotatably supported by one of the first and second rotary members, and an arc-shaped portion that is in area contact with an outer peripheral surface of the other rotary member. The space securing member is used to provide a predetermined space between a charging roller and a photosensitive drum and/or a developing roller and the photosensitive drum.

Abstract: The present invention provides a developing apparatus comprising a developer containing container, an agitating member for agitating developer contained in the developer containing container, a drive transmitting member for transmitting a power to the agitating member by engaging a rotary shaft of the agitating member, and a bearing adapted to rotatably hold the drive transmitting member and attached to the developer containing container, and wherein the bearing has a dislodgment preventing member with respect to the developer containing container.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a developing apparatus in which a developer bearing body is provided at its longitudinal part with a roughness formed surface, and a leakage preventing member contacts with the developer bearing body outside of the roughness formed surface in a longitudinal direction.

Abstract: A developing apparatus includes a seal member, which is sandwiched between a developer bearing body and a leakage preventing member in an end portion, and in a lengthwise direction, a length of a free end of the seal member is greater than a length by which the seal member is supported. A contacting width between the seal member and the leakage preventing member in the lengthwise direction is smaller toward the free end.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a developing apparatus which has a developer container, a developer bearing member and a developer sealing member. Also, it is mainly featured that at least a part of the developer sealing member is a conductive portion, and the developer bearing member and the conductive portion have a same potential when a voltage is applied to the developer bearing member.

Abstract: An encoder includes a code plate, a detector, a transformer, and first and second calculators. The code plate is formed with an absolute pattern including a plurality of bit patterns, each bit pattern formed by a predetermined number of bits and representing one absolute position. The detector moves relatively with respect to the code plate, has a plurality of detecting elements arranged to be opposed to the predetermined number of bits, and reads the bit pattern from the absolute pattern to output a bit pattern signal representing the bit pattern. The transformer can transform only specific bit pattern signals corresponding to specific bit patterns out of a plurality of the bit pattern signals corresponding to the plurality of bit patterns, into the absolute positions. The first calculator calculates a relative, positional relation between the bit pattern corresponding to the bit pattern signal, read from the detector, and the specific bit pattern.