Patents by Inventor Toshiyuki Kabata

Toshiyuki Kabata 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: 11959039
    Abstract: A heating device includes a rotating body, a heating source, a rotating body holder, and a lubricant of liquid or semi-solid. The heating source heats the rotating body. The rotating body holder holds both longitudinal ends of the rotating body rotatably. The lubricant of liquid or semi-solid adheres to the rotating body holder. A temperature of the rotating body holder is lower than a generation temperature of fine particles of the lubricant.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 7, 2023
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2024
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Takayuki Andoh, Masahiro Samei, Kota Shiodera, Toshiyuki Kabata, Hiroshi Yoshinaga
  • Publication number: 20240036500
    Abstract: A heating device includes a rotator, a heater, a rotator holder, lubricant, and a shield. The heater heats the rotator in a heat generation range. The rotator holder holds an end of the rotator in a longitudinal direction of the rotator. The lubricant adheres to the rotator holder. The shield shields heat transferred from the heater. The shield includes a first shield, a second shield, and a heat transfer reducer. The first shield faces the heater and the rotator. The second shield faces the rotator holder. The second shield is outside the heat generation range in the longitudinal direction. The heat transfer reducer is disposed between the first shield and the second shield. The heat transfer reducer reduces the heat transferred from the first shield to the second shield.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 24, 2023
    Publication date: February 1, 2024
    Inventors: Masahiro SAMEI, Takayuki ANDOH, Kota SHIODERA, Hiroshi YOSHINAGA, Toshiyuki KABATA
  • Publication number: 20240004329
    Abstract: A heating device includes a rotator that rotates and a heater that is disposed opposite an inner circumferential face of the rotator. The heater heats the rotator. A rotator holder is disposed opposite the inner circumferential face of the rotator. The rotator holder holds a lateral end of the rotator in a longitudinal direction of the rotator. The rotator holder is adhered with a lubricating substance. A heat shield is disposed between the heater and the rotator and between the heater and the rotator holder. The heat shield blocks radiant heat radiated from the heater and is separated from the rotator holder. The heat shield includes a first portion and a second portion that is disposed outboard from the first portion in the longitudinal direction of the rotator. The second portion is separated from the inner circumferential face of the rotator farther than the first portion is.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 8, 2023
    Publication date: January 4, 2024
    Inventors: Hiroshi YOSHINAGA, Takayuki ANDOH, Masahiro SAMEI, Kota SHIODERA, Toshiyuki KABATA, Ryohhei SUGIYAMA
  • Publication number: 20230350329
    Abstract: A heating device includes a rotator that rotates and a heater that heats the rotator. A rotator holder holds each lateral end of the rotator in a longitudinal direction of the rotator. The rotator holder is adhered with one of silicone oil and silicone grease, that contains siloxanes that are not smaller than a dodecamer and not greater than a heptadecamer and have a concentration not greater than 1,250 ppm.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 20, 2023
    Publication date: November 2, 2023
    Inventors: Toshiyuki KABATA, Kota SHIODERA, Takayuki ANDOH, Masahiro SAMEI, Hiroshi YOSHINAGA
  • Publication number: 20230324838
    Abstract: A heating device includes a rotator, a heater heating the rotator, a rotator holder holding a longitudinal end of the inner peripheral surface of the rotator, and lubricant applied to the rotator holder. The rotator holder includes a holding portion contacting the end of the inner peripheral surface, a flange portion contacting a longitudinal end of the rotator and extending outward in a radial direction of a loop of the rotator, and an inclined surface. The inclined surface is inclined in a direction away from an inner peripheral surface of the rotator from the holding portion toward the flange portion.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 17, 2023
    Publication date: October 12, 2023
    Applicant: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Masahiro SAMEI, Takyuki Andoh, Kota Shiodera, Toshiyuki Kabata, Hiroshi Yoshinaga
  • Publication number: 20230297026
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes a heating device, a recording medium ejector, a recording medium tray, an outer wall having an intake, and a filter. The heating device heats a recording medium having an image on one side of the recording medium. The recording medium ejector ejects the recording medium with the one side facing downward. On the recording medium tray, the recording medium ejected by the recording medium ejector is stacked. The intake is open toward the recording medium tray and is disposed at a position below the recording medium ejector. At the position, a maximum amount of recording media placeable on the recording medium tray does not cover at least a part of the intake. The filter collects foreign substances in air sucked from the intake.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 2, 2023
    Publication date: September 21, 2023
    Applicant: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Takayuki ANDOH, Masahiro Samei, Kota Shiodera, Hiroshi Yoshinaga, Toshiyuki Kabata, Tomoyuki Nishikawa
  • Publication number: 20230297015
    Abstract: A heating device includes a rotator, a heating source, a rotator holder, and a liquid or semi-solid substance. The rotator is rotatably held. The heating source heats the rotator. The rotator holder holds a longitudinal end portion of the rotator. The rotator holder includes a reflector disposed at least at a portion to be irradiated with radiant heat emitted from the heating source to reflect the radiant heat. The reflector has a reflectance of not less than 60%. The liquid or semi-solid substance has lubricity and adheres to the rotator holder.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 1, 2023
    Publication date: September 21, 2023
    Applicant: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Hiroshi YOSHINAGA, Takayuki ANDOH, Masahiro SAMEI, Kota SHIODERA, Toshiyuki KABATA
  • Publication number: 20230297011
    Abstract: A fixing device includes a rotator, a heater, a rotator support, a nip formation pad, lubricant, and a pressure rotator. The heater heats an inner circumferential surface of the rotator. The rotator support supports an end of the inner circumferential surface of the rotator in an axial direction of the rotator. The rotator slides on the rotator support. The nip formation pad is in contact with the inner circumferential surface of the rotator. One end of the nip formation pad in a longitudinal direction of the nip formation pad is separated from the rotator support with a clearance of 2 mm or more. The lubricant is between the rotator and the nip formation pad. The pressure rotator presses the nip formation pad via the rotator to form a nip between the rotator and the pressure rotator.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 8, 2023
    Publication date: September 21, 2023
    Applicant: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Kota SHIODERA, Takayuki ANDOH, Masahiro SAMEI, Toshiyuki KABATA, Hiroshi YOSHINAGA
  • Publication number: 20230300269
    Abstract: A heating device includes a rotating body, a heating source, a rotating body holder, and a lubricant of liquid or semi-solid. The heating source heats the rotating body. The rotating body holder holds both longitudinal ends of the rotating body rotatably. The lubricant of liquid or semi-solid adheres to the rotating body holder. A temperature of the rotating body holder is lower than a generation temperature of fine particles of the lubricant.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 7, 2023
    Publication date: September 21, 2023
    Applicant: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Takayuki ANDOH, Masahiro SAMI, Kota SHIODERA, Toshiyuki KABATA, Hiroshi YOSHINAGA
  • Patent number: 11681250
    Abstract: A nip former that forms a nip between an endless belt and a pressure rotator includes a base that is made of aluminum and has a nip forming face disposed opposite the nip. An anodic oxidation coating is treated with sealing and coats at least the nip forming face. The anodic oxidation coating has a thickness that is not smaller than 22 ?m and is not greater than 45 ?m and a variation in thickness that is not greater than 20 percent. The base and the anodic oxidation coating define a nip forming portion that is disposed opposite the nip. The nip forming portion has a thickness that is not smaller than 0.40 mm and is not greater than 1.20 mm.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 1, 2022
    Date of Patent: June 20, 2023
    Assignee: RICOH COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventors: Toshiyuki Kabata, Yoshiki Yamaguchi, Takashi Seto, Hiroshi Yoshinaga, Kentaro Yamashita, Daisuke Inoue
  • Patent number: 11635724
    Abstract: A method for manufacturing a removable information sheet includes: forming a toner image on a recording medium; applying an energy-ray-curable pressure-sensitive composition precursor onto the medium to form an energy-ray-curable pressure-sensitive composition precursor layer; irradiating, with an energy ray, the medium to cure the layer and form an energy-ray-curable pressure-sensitive composition; and attaching faces with the composition and pressure-bonding the faces. A region size of a toner-image flat part is 200 ?m or less in the image, which is determined by a measurement method including: defining a site at a depth of 2 ?m or more from a surface of a solid part of the image as a recess; defining a site other than the recess as the flat part; acquiring and binarizing a micrograph of the solid part; drawing circles out of contact with the recess; and defining a largest circle diameter as the size of the flat part.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 8, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 25, 2023
    Assignee: RICOH COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventors: Toshiyuki Kabata, Kaori Hemmi, Akira Azami, Takahiro Suzuki
  • Patent number: 11618245
    Abstract: Metallic paper for electrophotography is provided. The metallic paper comprises a substrate, a metallic luster layer over the substrate, and a polyester at a surface of the metallic paper. A ratio B/A is 0.90 or less, where A and B respectively represent peak area A and a peak area B in an infrared spectrum of the metallic paper obtained by an ATR method with a crystal of Ge, an incident angle of 45°, and one time of reflection. The wavenumber range of peak area A ranges from 1709.586 to 1741.406 cm?1, the wavenumber range of peak area. B ranges from 1630,519 to 1670.052 cm1, and a baseline wavenumber range of the peaks ranges from 1593.878 to 1850.364 cm?1.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 21, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 4, 2023
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventor: Toshiyuki Kabata
  • Publication number: 20230093465
    Abstract: A nip former that forms a nip between an endless belt and a pressure rotator includes a base that is made of aluminum and has a nip forming face disposed opposite the nip. An anodic oxidation coating is treated with sealing and coats at least the nip forming face. The anodic oxidation coating has a thickness that is not smaller than 22 ?m and is not greater than 45 ?m and a variation in thickness that is not greater than 20 percent. The base and the anodic oxidation coating define a nip forming portion that is disposed opposite the nip. The nip forming portion has a thickness that is not smaller than 0.40 mm and is not greater than 1.20 mm.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 1, 2022
    Publication date: March 23, 2023
    Inventors: Toshiyuki KABATA, Yoshiki YAMAGUCHI, Takashi SETO, Hiroshi YOSHINAGA, Kentaro YAMASHITA, Daisuke INOUE
  • Publication number: 20220075310
    Abstract: A method for manufacturing a removable information sheet includes: forming a toner image on a recording medium; applying an energy-ray-curable pressure-sensitive composition precursor onto the medium to form an energy-ray-curable pressure-sensitive composition precursor layer; irradiating, with an energy ray, the medium to cure the layer and form an energy-ray-curable pressure-sensitive composition; and attaching faces with the composition and pressure-bonding the faces. A region size of a toner-image flat part is 200 ?m or less in the image, which is determined by a measurement method including: defining a site at a depth of 2 ?m or more from a surface of a solid part of the image as a recess; defining a site other than the recess as the flat part; acquiring and binarizing a micrograph of the solid part; drawing circles out of contact with the recess; and defining a largest circle diameter as the size of the flat part.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 8, 2021
    Publication date: March 10, 2022
    Inventors: Toshiyuki KABATA, Kaori HEMMI, Akira AZAMI, Takahiro SUZUKI
  • Publication number: 20220009210
    Abstract: Metallic paper for electrophotography is provided. The metallic paper comprises a substrate, a metallic luster layer over the substrate, and a polyester at a surface of the metallic paper. A ratio B/A is 0.90 or less, where A and B respectively represent a peak area A and a peak area B in an infrared spectrum of the metallic paper obtained by an ATR method with a crystal of Ge, an incident angle of 45°, and one time of reflection. The peak area A ranges from 1709.586 to 1741.406 cm?1, the peak area B ranges from 1630.519 to 1670.052 cm?1, and a baseline of the peaks ranges from 1593.878 to 1850.364 cm?1.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 21, 2021
    Publication date: January 13, 2022
    Applicant: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventor: Toshiyuki KABATA
  • Patent number: 11036168
    Abstract: An image forming method for an image forming apparatus having a fixing rotator and a pressure rotator opposite the fixing rotator includes transferring white toner and color toner onto a surface of a metallic sheet. The metallic sheet has a thermal conductivity of 0.34 W/m·K or less as measured by hot-wire method. The transferring process forms an unfixed color toner layer layered on an unfixed white toner layer on the metallic sheet. Further, the method includes conveying the metallic sheet, with the surface on which the white toner layer and the color toner layer being transferred facing the fixing rotator, between the fixing rotator heated and the pressure rotator to fix the white toner layer and the color toner layer onto the metallic sheet.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 11, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 15, 2021
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Toshiyuki Kabata, Megumi Arai, Akira Azami, Toshiaki Motohashi
  • Patent number: 10877436
    Abstract: A particle collecting device includes an ozone exhaust path and an electrostatic filter. The ozone exhaust path is configured to exhaust ozone generated by an ozone generation device. The electrostatic filter is in a course of the ozone exhaust path.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 2, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 29, 2020
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Toshiyuki Kabata, Shoji Sasaki
  • Publication number: 20200301328
    Abstract: An image forming method for an image forming apparatus having a fixing rotator and a pressure rotator opposite the fixing rotator includes transferring white toner and color toner onto a surface of a metallic sheet having a thermal conductivity of 0.34 W/m·K or less as measured by hot-wire method to form an unfixed color toner layer layered on an unfixed white toner layer on the metallic sheet and conveying the metallic sheet, with the surface on which the white toner layer and the color toner layer are transferred facing the fixing rotator, between the fixing rotator heated and the pressure rotator to fix the white toner layer and the color toner layer onto the metallic sheet.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 11, 2020
    Publication date: September 24, 2020
    Inventors: Toshiyuki KABATA, Megumi ARAI, Akira AZAMI, Toshiaki MOTOHASHI
  • Publication number: 20200050144
    Abstract: A particle collecting device includes an ozone exhaust path and an electrostatic filter. The ozone exhaust path is configured to exhaust ozone generated by an ozone generation device. The electrostatic filter is in a course of the ozone exhaust path.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 2, 2019
    Publication date: February 13, 2020
    Applicant: RICOH COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventors: Toshiyuki Kabata, Shoji Sasaki
  • Patent number: 10324388
    Abstract: A toner including base particles and external additives on the base particles, the toner satisfying Conditions 1 and 2 defined in the specification, when a number distribution D of particle diameters of powder particles B generated from one base particle A is calculated from a density a of the base particles A and a density b of the powder particles B, where the base particles A and the powder particles B are deposited on an adhesive area and mica respectively by feeding the toner into a vacuumed space from an inlet, and allowing the toner to crush against a surface of a substrate having the adhesive area composed of a carbon tape, and the mica disposed in a manner that the surface is orthogonal to a direction connecting between center of the vacuumed space and center of the inlet, Powder particles B: particles detached from the base particles.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 13, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 18, 2019
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Toshiyuki Kabata, Takashi Bisaiji, Maiko Koeda, Katsunori Kurose