Patents by Inventor Tsunemi Sugiyama

Tsunemi Sugiyama 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: 8187784
    Abstract: A toner composition including toner particles, wherein the toner particles are prepared by a method in which toner constituents including at least a binder resin and a colorant are kneaded upon application of heat to prepare a toner constituent mixture; the toner constituent mixture is dissolved or swelled in an organic solvent capable of dissolving or swelling at least the binder resin to prepare an oil phase liquid; the oil phase liquid is emulsified in an aqueous liquid to prepare an emulsion; the emulsion is coagulated; and then the coagulated emulsion is dried to prepare the toner particles.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 29, 2010
    Date of Patent: May 29, 2012
    Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
    Inventors: Hiroshi Yamashita, Masami Tomita, Shigeru Emoto, Tsunemi Sugiyama
  • Patent number: 8137883
    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: Grant
    Filed: May 20, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 20, 2012
    Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
    Inventors: Ryota Inoue, Shigeru Emoto, Naohiro Watanabe, Masahide Yamada, Akinori Saitoh, Masahiro Ohki, Tsunemi Sugiyama, Shinichi Wakamatsu, Takayuki Yoshii, Eiji Sawamura
  • Patent number: 8124308
    Abstract: Toner and a developer which are excellent in cleaning property and fixing property at low temperature, and capable of forming images with high quality are provided, along with a method for their production. A toner producing method involves dispersing and/or emulsifying an oil phase or a monomer phase containing a toner composition and/or a toner composition precursor in a water-based medium to granulate, wherein the toner has an average circularity of 0.925 to 0.970, and the toner composition and/or the toner composition precursor has a layered inorganic material in which at least a part of interlayer ions in the layered inorganic material has been exchanged with organic ions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2010
    Date of Patent: February 28, 2012
    Assignee: Ricoh Company. Ltd.
    Inventors: Naohiro Watanabe, Shigeru Emoto, Yohichiroh Watanabe, Masahide Yamada, Tsunemi Sugiyama, Masahiro Ohki, Akinori Saitoh, Ryota Inoue, Osamu Uchinokura, Junichi Awamura
  • Patent number: 8026031
    Abstract: Toner and a developer which are excellent in cleaning property and fixing property at low temperature, and capable of forming images with high quality are provided. A toner prepared by dispersing and/or emulsifying an oil phase or a monomer phase comprising a toner composition and/or a toner composition precursor in a water-based medium to granulate, wherein the toner has an average circularity of 0.925 to 0.970, and the toner composition and/or the toner composition precursor has a layered inorganic material in which at least a part of interlayer ions in the layered inorganic material has been exchanged with organic ions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 5, 2007
    Date of Patent: September 27, 2011
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Naohiro Watanabe, Shigeru Emoto, Yohichiroh Watanabe, Masahide Yamada, Tsunemi Sugiyama, Masahiro Ohki, Akinori Saitoh, Ryota Inoue, Osamu Uchinokura, Junichi Awamura
  • Publication number: 20110223530
    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: May 20, 2011
    Publication date: September 15, 2011
    Inventors: Ryota Inoue, Shigeru Emoto, Naohiro Watanabe, Masahide Yamada, Akinori Saitoh, Masahiro Ohki, Tsunemi Sugiyama, Shinichi Wakamatsu, Takayuki Yoshii, Eiji Sawamura
  • Patent number: 7989131
    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: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 2006
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2011
    Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
    Inventors: Ryota Inoue, Shigeru Emoto, Naohiro Watanabe, Masahide Yamada, Akinori Saitoh, Masahiro Ohki, Tsunemi Sugiyama, Shinichi Wakamatsu, Takayuki Yoshii, Eiji Sawamura
  • Patent number: 7939238
    Abstract: A dry toner for developing an electrostatic image, including a toner binder containing a urea-modified polyester. The toner has an average sphericity of 0.96 or more and contains no more than 30% by weight of particles having a sphericity of less than 0.95.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 12, 2009
    Date of Patent: May 10, 2011
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Hiroshi Yamashita, Tsunemi Sugiyama, Shigeru Emoto, Masami Tomita
  • Patent number: 7932007
    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: Grant
    Filed: September 20, 2005
    Date of Patent: April 26, 2011
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Hiroshi Yamashita, Chiaki Tanaka, Yohichiroh Watanabe, Tsunemi Sugiyama, Masahiro Ohki, Sonoh Matsuoka, Masahide Yamada, Naohiro Watanabe, Akinori Saitoh, Ryota Inoue
  • Publication number: 20110086308
    Abstract: Toner and a developer which are excellent in cleaning property and fixing property at low temperature, and capable of forming images with high quality are provided, along with a method for their production. A toner producing method involves dispersing and/or emulsifying an oil phase or a monomer phase containing a toner composition and/or a toner composition precursor in a water-based medium to granulate, wherein the toner has an average circularity of 0.925 to 0.970, and the toner composition and/or the toner composition precursor has a layered inorganic material in which at least a part of interlayer ions in the layered inorganic material has been exchanged with organic ions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 13, 2010
    Publication date: April 14, 2011
    Inventors: Naohiro WATANABE, Shigeru Emoto, Yohichiroh Watanabe, Masahide Yamada, Tsunemi Sugiyama, Masahiro Ohki, Akinori Saitoh, Ryota Inoue, Osamu Uchinokura, Junichi Awamura
  • Publication number: 20110045403
    Abstract: A toner composition including toner particles, wherein the toner particles are prepared by a method in which toner constituents including at least a binder resin and a colorant are kneaded upon application of heat to prepare a toner constituent mixture; the toner constituent mixture is dissolved or swelled in an organic solvent capable of dissolving or swelling at least the binder resin to prepare an oil phase liquid; the oil phase liquid is emulsified in an aqueous liquid to prepare an emulsion; the emulsion is coagulated; and then the coagulated emulsion is dried to prepare the toner particles.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 29, 2010
    Publication date: February 24, 2011
    Inventors: Hiroshi Yamashita, Masami Tomita, Shigeru Emoto, Tsunemi Sugiyama
  • Publication number: 20110033203
    Abstract: An image forming method including forming an electrostatic latent image on an image bearing member; developing the electrostatic latent image with a developer including a toner to prepare a toner image on the image bearing member; transferring the toner image onto a receiving material; and cleaning the surface of the image bearing member with a cleaning blade; wherein a surface of the image bearing member has a friction coefficient of from 0.10 to 0.40, and wherein the toner has an average circularity of from 0.97 to 1.00 and includes toner particles and a particulate material having an average particle diameter of from 0.03 to 1 ?m, wherein the particulate material is externally added to the toner particles by a wet method.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 20, 2010
    Publication date: February 10, 2011
    Inventors: Yohichiroh WATANABE, Hiroshi Yamashita, Tsunemi Sugiyama, Shinji Ohtani, Takuya Saito, Hidetoshi Kami
  • Patent number: 7879523
    Abstract: A toner composition including toner particles, wherein the toner particles are prepared by a method in which toner constituents including at least a binder resin and a colorant are kneaded upon application of heat to prepare a toner constituent mixture; the toner constituent mixture is dissolved or swelled in an organic solvent capable of dissolving or swelling at least the binder resin to prepare an oil phase liquid; the oil phase liquid is emulsified in an aqueous liquid to prepare an emulsion; the emulsion is coagulated; and then the coagulated emulsion is dried to prepare the toner particles.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 12, 2009
    Date of Patent: February 1, 2011
    Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
    Inventors: Hiroshi Yamashita, Masami Tomita, Shigeru Emoto, Tsunemi Sugiyama
  • Patent number: 7695883
    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: Grant
    Filed: December 24, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 13, 2010
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    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
  • Patent number: 7666563
    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: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2006
    Date of Patent: February 23, 2010
    Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
    Inventors: Masahiro Ohki, Naohiro Watanabe, Ryota Inoue, Masahide Yamada, Akinori Saitoh, Shigeru Emoto, Tsunemi Sugiyama, Shinichi Wakamatsu
  • Patent number: 7666566
    Abstract: A method of preparing a toner in an aqueous medium, including: preparing a dispersion or an emulsion of a toner composition comprising a resin including a carboxyl group and a colorant; and mixing an aromatic compound having a carboxyl group with the dispersion or emulsion, such that the carboxyl group on a surface of the toner is connected with the carboxyl group of the aromatic compound by hydrogen bonding.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 6, 2005
    Date of Patent: February 23, 2010
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Shinji Ohtani, Hiroshi Yamashita, Yohichiroh Watanabe, Tsunemi Sugiyama, Takuya Saito
  • Patent number: 7563555
    Abstract: A toner composition including toner particles including a binder resin including a modified polyester resin, and a second resin having a weight average molecular weight of from 2,000 to 10,000; a colorant; a release agent; and a particulate material which is present at least a surface portion of the toner particles while embedded into the surface portion, wherein the binder resin has a glass transition temperature not lower than 35° C. and lower than 55° C., and wherein the particulate material has an average particle diameter of from 0.002 to 0.2 times that of the toner particles. A developer including the toner composition and a carrier having a layer thereon which includes at least an acrylic resin and a silicone resin, and a method for fixing an image of the toner composition are also provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2006
    Date of Patent: July 21, 2009
    Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
    Inventors: Yohichiroh Watanabe, Masanori Suzuki, Tsunemi Sugiyama, Hiroshi Yamashita, Takuya Saito, Naohiro Watanabe, Masami Tomita, Shigeru Emoto, Shinichiro Yagi, Hiroshi Yamada, Toshiki Nanya, Tadao Takigawa
  • Patent number: 7560216
    Abstract: An image-fixing method contains: passing a recording medium bearing an image through a nip between two or more fixing members to fix the image onto the recording medium; and ejecting the recording medium along with the fixing member contacting with a non-image-bearing surface of the recording medium, wherein the fixing member contacting with an image-bearing surface of the recording medium has a lower surface hardness than that of the fixing member contacting with the non-image-bearing surface, the image is comprised of a toner containing toner particles, each toner particle contains wax having an aliphatic hydrocarbon chain, and polyester resin having an aromatic ring, a total amount of the wax in the toner particle is 1 to 20 mass %, determined by DSC, an amount of the wax located in the specific region of the toner particle is 0.05 to 0.40 that is an intensity ratio (P2850/P828) determined by FTIR-ATR, and the wax is partially or entirely encapsulated in the toner particle as dispersed particles.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 7, 2005
    Date of Patent: July 14, 2009
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Tsunemi Sugiyama, Yohichiroh Watanabe, Hiroshi Yamashita
  • Publication number: 20090162780
    Abstract: A dry toner for developing an electrostatic image, including a toner binder containing a urea-modified polyester. The toner has an average sphericity of 0.96 or more and contains no more than 30% by weight of particles having a sphericity of less than 0.95.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 12, 2009
    Publication date: June 25, 2009
    Inventors: Hiroshi Yamashita, Tsunemi Sugiyama, Shigeru Emoto, Masami Tomita
  • Patent number: 7550245
    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: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2005
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2009
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Ryota Inoue, Shigeru Emoto, Yohichiroh Watanabe, Naohiro Watanabe, Masahide Yamada, Akinori Saitoh, Masahiro Ohki, Tsunemi Sugiyama
  • Publication number: 20090155709
    Abstract: Toner and a developer which are excellent in cleaning property and fixing property at low temperature, and capable of forming images with high quality are provided. A toner prepared by dispersing and/or emulsifying an oil phase or a monomer phase comprising a toner composition and/or a toner composition precursor in a water-based medium to granulate, wherein the toner has an average circularity of 0.925 to 0.970, and the toner composition and/or the toner composition precursor has a layered inorganic material in which at least a part of interlayer ions in the layered inorganic material has been exchanged with organic ions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 5, 2007
    Publication date: June 18, 2009
    Applicant: RICOH COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventors: Naohiro Watanabe, Shigeru Emoto, Yohichiroh Watanabe, Masahide Yamada, Tsunemi Sugiyama, Masahiro Ohki, Akinori Saitoh, Ryota Inoue, Osamu Uchinokura, Junichi Awamura