Abstract: Systems, apparatuses and methods are provided to allow for detection of an impact to an output apparatus. Such impact may be caused by a sudden force applied to one or more points on the apparatus housing or another part of the apparatus accessible from outside the apparatus housing. An impact detector outputs to an apparatus controller an impact report including impact time and impact data corresponding to the detected impact event.

Abstract: An electrophotographic photosensitive member includes a support, an undercoat layer which contains a metal oxide particle and is formed on the support, a charge generating layer formed on the undercoat layer, and a charge transporting layer formed on the charge generating layer. Either or both of the undercoat layer and the charge generating layer contain a compound represented by formula (1).

Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit including an image carrier; a transfer unit including a transfer belt that is in contact with the image carrier in a transfer region, a transfer roller that presses the transfer belt against the image carrier, and a press-contact member that presses the transfer belt toward the image carrier; and a fixing unit including a pair of fixing members that form a fixing region and fix the toner image onto the sheet by nipping the sheet. The transfer roller and the press-contact member are disposed at positions such that a part of the transfer roller and a part of the press-contact member are on the image carrier side of a tangent plane that is tangent to the image carrier in the transfer region and that passes through an upstream edge of the fixing region in a sheet transport direction.

Abstract: A brilliant toner includes toner particles that include a binder resin having a ratio (Mz/Mn) of a Z average molecular weight (Mz) to a number average molecular weight (Mn) of 5 to 20 and a peak top molecular weight (Mp) of 3,000 to 10,000, and a flake-shaped brilliant pigment.

Abstract: A drive element for a rotatable component of an electrophotographic image forming device according to one example embodiment includes a body having a center hole for receiving a drive shaft therein. The center hole defines a rotational axis of the body. A drive coupler is positioned on the body and centered around the rotational axis. A drive slot on the body extends radially relative to the rotational axis and is sized to receive a cross pin. The drive slot includes one or more snap features formed on the body that are positioned to retain the cross pin axially in the drive slot and that permit the cross pin to snap axially into and out of the drive slot.

Abstract: The present invention is to provide a charge transport substance having high resistance to stress within electrophotographic processes, an electrophotographic photoreceptor which has excellent high-speed responsiveness, shows a sufficient residual potential, and has high resistance to stress within electrophotographic processes, an electrophotographic cartridge, and an image-forming apparatus. The invention provides a charge transport substance having a specific structure. The invention further provides an electrophotographic photoreceptor including a photosensitive layer which contains the charge transport substance having a specific structure, an electrophotographic cartridge, and an image-forming apparatus, equipped with this electrophotographic photoreceptor.

Abstract: An electrophotographic photoreceptor includes a conductive substrate, an undercoat layer provided on the conductive substrate and including metal oxide particles, and a photosensitive layer provided on the undercoat layer, wherein, at the time of performing Cole-Cole plot analysis with respect to the undercoat layer, an angular frequency ?max, at which a maximum complex impedance component is obtained, falls within a range of 2 (rad)??max?10 (rad).

Abstract: A support member is supported in a cylinder included in an image carrier and includes a separation-space-defining portion that is arranged at a certain position in a circumferential direction and extends in an axial direction of the cylinder so that the support member has an arc shape; and a groove-defining portion having a groove depth that changes along the axial direction. A bottom plate of the groove-defining portion is elastically deformed so that the support member presses an inner peripheral surface of the cylinder at least at both ends in the axial direction and is thereby supported in the cylinder.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes an image carrying member, a driving device, a charging member, a cleaning member, a voltage applying device, a torque detector for detecting the torque of the driving device, a storage for storing a predetermined torque value Tc, and a control portion. The control portion obtains as Ton the torque when the charging voltage is applied to the charging member and obtains as Toff the torque when no charging voltage is applied to the charging member. Let the torque observed when no charging voltage is applied at an early stage of use of the image carrying member be represented by Toff(0), then, when the relations Toff(0)<Toff and Tc<Ton/Toff hold, the control portion determines that the degree of smoothness of the surface of the image carrying member is equal to or higher than a predetermined degree of smoothness.

Abstract: A support member supported in a cylinder includes six or more contact portions that are in contact with an inner peripheral surface of the cylinder. The support member is arc-shaped and has a gap extending in an axial direction of the cylinder. When the support member is viewed in the axial direction, a groove is formed in the support member such that the groove and the gap are on opposite sides of a center of the cylinder, and the contact portions are symmetrical with respect to a straight line that passes through the centers of the gap and the cylinder. Of the contact portions on one side of the straight line, the farthest contact portions are separated from each other by approximately 90 degrees or more, and the adjacent contact portions are separated from each other by approximately 20 degrees or more in the circumferential direction.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes an image carrying member, a driving device, a charging member, a cleaning member, a voltage applying device, a braking distance detector, a storage for storing a predetermined braking distance value Lc, and a control portion. The control portion obtains as Lon a braking distance when a charging voltage is applied to the charging member and obtains as Loff a braking distance when no charging voltage is applied to the charging member. Let the braking distance observed when no charging voltage is applied at an early stage of use of the image carrying member be represented by Loff(0), then, when the relations Loff<Loff(0) and Lc<Loff/Lon hold, the control portion determines that the degree of smoothness of the surface of the image carrying member is equal to or higher than a predetermined degree of smoothness.

Abstract: An image forming device includes: an image carrier on which a toner image is formed; and a cleaning blade which removes a residual material on the image carrier after the toner image is transferred to a transferred body, wherein the image carrier includes an elastic layer, the cleaning blade is a metallic plate spring, and a tip end of the cleaning blade is pressed against the image carrier by restoring force of the plate spring.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes a toner containing portion, a first conveying member, an image conveying portion, and an image forming portion. The first conveying member is configured to convey the toner in a conveyance direction within the toner containing portion. The image conveying portion includes a surface layer portion having a first end portion located at an upstream side in the conveyance direction and a second end portion located at a downstream side in the conveyance direction. The first end portion has a larger layer thickness than second end portion. The image conveying portion is configured to convey a toner image formed on a surface of the surface layer portion at a predetermined image forming position, to a transfer position for transfer to a transfer target medium. The image forming portion is configured to form the toner image on the surface layer portion by using the toner being conveyed.

Abstract: A projection image correction system includes a section that detects intersection coordinates in a corrected sheet image, a section that calculates a first projective transformation matrix for transformation of the detected intersection coordinates into intersection coordinates stored in advance, a section that generates two spatial code images from the corrected positive and negative images of Gray code patterns, a section that acquires intersections of brightness profiles in the positive and negative images, a section that acquires coordinates of an intersection of boundary lines in the two spatial code images, a section that calculates a second projective transformation matrix by which transformation is performed so that the acquired intersection coordinates, transformed by the first projective transformation matrix, are distributed over the entire region, and a section that transforms, using the second projective transformation matrix, image data to be outputted to a projector.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes an electrophotographic photoreceptor, a charging unit; an electrostatic latent image forming unit, a developing unit that stores a developer containing a toner, a transfer unit, a cleaning unit and a fixation unit, wherein the toner has a sea and island structure of a sea portion containing the binder resin and an island portion containing the release agent, a maximum frequent value of the eccentricity B of the island portion containing the release agent is in a range of from 0.75 to 0.95, and a skewness of the eccentricity B is in a range of from ?1.10 to ?0.50.

Abstract: An improved overcoat layer for an organic photoconductor drum of an electrophotographic image forming device is provided. The overcoat layer is prepared from a curable composition including a triphenylamine charge transport containing two ethyl acrylate functional groups and a urethane resin containing six radical polymerizable functional groups. The amount of the triphenylamine charge transport containing two ethyl acrylate functional groups in the curable composition is about 20 to about 80 percent by weight. The amount of the urethane resin containing six radical polymerizable functional groups in the curable composition is about 20 to about 80 percent by weight. This overcoat layer improves wear resistance of the organic photoconductor drum without negatively altering the electrophotographic properties, thus protecting the organic photoconductor drum from damage and ultimately providing a photoconductor with a longer useful life when compared to other organic photoconductors commercially available.

Abstract: The present invention provides an electrophotographic photoreceptor comprising a multilayered photosensitive layer or a monolayer photosensitive layer, wherein the multilayered photosensitive layer comprises at least a charge generation layer containing a charge generation material and a charge transport layer containing a charge transport material that are stacked on a conductive substrate in this order, and the monolayer photosensitive layer contains a charge generation material and a charge transport material that is stacked on a conductive substrate, wherein the electrophotographic photoreceptor contains 5 to 17 wt % of fluorine resin fine particles and their aggregates with respect to all photoreceptor components in a surface layer of the photoreceptor, wherein the fluorine resin fine particles are 0.1 to 0.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an electrophotographic photoreceptor comprising an electroconductive support and at least a photosensitive layer formed on the support, wherein the photosensitive layer contains a specific charge transport substance.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes: a rotatable image carrier; an image forming unit configured to form a plurality of divided patch images, which is obtained by dividing a patch image for detecting a concentration of an image in a rotation direction of the image carrier, on the image carrier at regular intervals and form an image to be formed on a paper sheet on the image carrier; a concentration detecting unit configured to detect the concentration of the plurality of divided patch images formed by the image forming unit; and a controller configured to combine the concentration of divided patch images detected by the concentration detecting unit in chronological order and detect concentration unevenness of the image in the vertical scanning direction which is a paper sheet conveying direction of the paper sheet.

Abstract: A support member supported in a cylinder included in an image carrier includes a separation-space-defining portion that is arranged at a certain position in a circumferential direction and extends in an axial direction of the cylinder so that the support member has an arc shape; and a groove-defining portion that extends in the axial direction. An outer diameter of the support member in a central region in the axial direction is smaller than an outer diameter of the support member at both ends in the axial direction. In a state in which the support member is supported in the cylinder, the groove-defining portion is elastically deformed such that elastic restoring force generated in the central region is greater than elastic restoring force generated at the ends.

Abstract: Provided is an electrophotographic photosensitive member, a process cartridge and an electrophotographic apparatus each having the electrophotographic photosensitive member that can output an image having less image defects due to a ghost phenomenon not only under a normal-temperature, normal-humidity environment but also under a low-temperature, low-humidity environment as a particularly severe condition. The electrophotographic photosensitive member includes a support and a photosensitive layer formed on the support, in which the photosensitive layer includes a gallium phthalocyanine crystal containing a specific amine compound in itself.

Abstract: A cartridge drive gear assembly for holding a drum coupling includes a drive gear having an outer surface and an inner surface, the inner surface including inner projections which extend into the interior of the drive gear and includes at least two voids disposed on opposing sides of the inner projections, and at least one slot disposed in the inner surface

Abstract: The invention provides an image formation method, a toner set, and a white toner, by which a masking function of an image layer formed by a white toner on a recording medium can be developed efficiently, and low temperature fixability can be improved. An image formation method for fixing an image forming layer (A) to be formed using a white toner, and an image forming layer (B) to be formed adjacent to the image forming layer (A) using a toner different from the white toner on a recording medium; wherein the following relational expressions (1) and (2) are satisfied: 1.000<Dw/Dc<1.300?? (1); and 1.000<Sc/Sw<1.060??(2).

Abstract: Provided is a charging member capable of suppressing adhesion of smear on its surface and suppressing generation of a C set image as well. The charging member includes: an electroconductive support; and an elastic layer as a surface layer, in which: the elastic layer has at least one local maximum value in a distribution of Young's modulus at respective positions in a depth direction thereof; and “a”, “Tmax” and “b” satisfy the following expressions (1) to (3): (1) 0.8 ?m?Tmax?2.5 ?m, (2) 0.6 MPa?b?1.2 MPa, (3) (a?b)/b?0.40.

Abstract: A cleaner is provided. The cleaner includes at least two cleaning brush members to electrostatically remove residual toner on an object; a memory; a voltage applicator to apply a voltage to the cleaning brush members based on the setup voltage values stored in the memory; a current detector to detect the amounts of currents flowing through contact portions of the object with the cleaning brush members; and a setup voltage changing device to change the setup voltage values based on the amounts of currents detected by the current detector. The setup voltage changing device performs change of the setup voltage values for the cleaning brush members at a time.

Abstract: Disclosed are an electrophotographic photoreceptor which has high durability and high potential characteristics and can suppress the occurrence of stick-slip and turning up of a blade and the abrasion of the blade even when the blade is used as a cleaning unit. The surface layer contains barium sulfate composite fine particles, in which a conductive metal oxide is adhered to the surface of a core material made from barium sulfate, in a cured resin. The 10 point average roughness RzJIS of the surface layer is not less than 0.2 ?m and not more than 1.5 ?m, and a value obtained by an equation n×d, wherein n represents the peak count of the surface layer and d represents the number average primary particle diameter of the barium sulfate composite fine particles, is not less than 10,000 (pieces·nm) and not more than 200,000 (pieces·nm).

Abstract: An electrophotographic photosensitive member includes a support and a photosensitive layer formed on the support. A surface layer of the electrophotographic photosensitive member contains a polymerized product of a composition that contains a charge transporting compound having a particular group (chain polymerizable functional group).

Abstract: An electrophotographic photoreceptor includes a conductive substrate and a photosensitive layer provided on the conductive substrate, wherein an outermost surface layer of the electrophotographic photoreceptor is composed of a cured film of a composition containing a reactive charge transport material, a zinc stearate coverage of the surface of the outermost surface layer is 5.0% or more, and an oxygen permeability coefficient of the outermost surface layer before coating with zinc stearate is 2.0×1012 fm2/Pa·s or more.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes a slidingly-rubbing roller abutting a surface of a photoconductive drum; a temperature detection section; a humidity detection section; and a heating control section. When the humidity detected by the humidity detection section is equal to or higher than a first threshold humidity and the temperature detected by the temperature detection section is equal to or higher than a threshold temperature, the heating control section heats and dries the surface of the photoconductive drum by a heat generator, while in a case when the humidity is equal to or higher than the first threshold humidity and the temperature is less than the threshold temperature, the heating control section polishes the surface of the photoconductive drum by the slindingly-rubbing roller with a polishing agent contained in a toner and heats and dries the drum surface by frictional heat generated from the polishing.

Abstract: An electrophotographic photosensitive member includes a laminated body including a conductive support, a first intermediate layer on the conductive support, and a second intermediate layer on the first intermediate layer, the first intermediate layer containing a binder resin and a metal oxide particle whose surface have been treated with an organic compound, and the second intermediate layer containing a cured product having electron transportability, in which the laminated body satisfies the following expression (1): R—nV/R_0V?0.80??(1).

Abstract: Provided is an electrophotographic photoreceptor including a conductive substrate and a photosensitive layer provided on the conductive substrate, wherein an outermost surface layer includes a cured film of a composition containing inorganic particles having polymerizable groups and at least one selected from the reactive compounds represented by the following formulae (I) and (II): wherein F represents a charge transporting skeleton; L represents a divalent linking group; and m represents an integer of 1 to 8, wherein F represents a charge transporting skeleton; L? represents an (n+1)-valent linking group; m? represents an integer of 1 to 6; and n represents an integer of 2 to 3.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes a main assembly; a fixing unit including a fixing rotatable member for fixing an unfixed image formed on a recording material, and a frame for accommodating the fixing rotatable member, the fixing unit is detachably mountable to the main assembly; and an air feeding member for feeding air to the fixing rotatable member provided in the main assembly, wherein the frame is provided with an opening for applying the air fed from the air feeding member to the fixing rotatable member, and an openable member movable between a first position for closing the opening and a second position for opening the opening, wherein the openable member moves from the second position to the first position in response to an operation of taking the fixing unit out of the main assembly.

Abstract: A cleaner is provided. The cleaner includes a cleaning blade having an edge to be contacted with a surface of a member to be cleaned while moving relative to the member to clean the surface of the member. The cleaning blade includes the edge, and first and second side surfaces, wherein the edge is disposed between the first and second side surfaces. When the cleaning blade is not contacted with the surface of the member to be cleaned, the first side surface is opposed to the surface of the member, and when the cleaning blade is contacted with the surface of the member, the edge, and the first and second side surfaces of the cleaning blade are contacted with the surface of the member.

Abstract: An electrophotographic photoreceptor includes an electroconductive substrate, a photosensitive layer provided on the electroconductive substrate, and an outermost surface layer, wherein the outermost surface layer is a layer constituted with a cured product of a composition including at least one of non-charge transporting compounds represented by formulae (I) and (II), and at least one non-reactive charge transporting material:

Abstract: An image forming apparatus is provided. The image forming apparatus includes a photoreceptor; a charger to charge a surface of the photoreceptor; a circulating agent applicator to apply a circulating agent to the surface of the photoreceptor while contacting the surface of the photoreceptor to form a film of the circulating agent on the surface of the photoreceptor; and a contact member contacted with the surface of the photoreceptor. The acting force, which is generated by contact of the contact member with the photoreceptor and includes a tangential force Ft, which is a force in a tangential direction at a contact portion of the contact member with the surface of the photoreceptor, and a normal force Fn, which is a force in a normal direction at the contact portion, satisfies the following relationships, 0.90?Ft/Fn?0.96, and 1.15 kgf?Ft?1.35 kgf.

Abstract: A photosensitive layer of an electrophotographic photosensitive member contains a hydroxygallium phthalocyanine crystal of a crystalline form having peaks at Bragg angles 2?±0.2° of 7.0°, 16.6°, 20.8°, and 26.9° in X-ray diffraction with CuK? radiation.

Abstract: To provide an amine compound, represented by General Formula (I) below: [In General Formula (I), R1 and R2 represent a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl group, a substituted or unsubstituted aralkyl group, or a substituted or unsubstituted aromatic hydrocarbon group, which may be identical or different; m and n are an integer of 1 or 0; Ar1 represents a substituted or unsubstituted aromatic hydrocarbon group; Ar2 and Ar3 represent a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl group, a substituted or unsubstituted aralkyl group, or a substituted or unsubstituted aromatic hydrocarbon group; and Ar1 and Ar2 or Ar2 and Ar3 may bind to each other to form a substituted or unsubstituted heterocyclic group including a nitrogen atom.

Abstract: It is an object of the present invention to provide an electroconductive member for electrophotography capable of suppressing image density unevenness caused by the adhesion of foreign matter. Provided is an electroconductive member for electrophotography, including at least: an electroconductive support, and a surface layer formed on an outer side of the electroconductive support, in which the surface layer includes a porous body, and in which the porous body satisfies the following conditions (1) to (3): (1) the porous body has a co-continuous structure including at least a skeleton that is three-dimensionally continuous and a pore that is three-dimensionally continuous; (2) the porous body has electroconductivity; and (3) an average diameter of a maximum inscribed circle of an opening of the pore on a surface of the porous body is 3 ?m or more and 8 ?m or less.

Abstract: The presently disclosed embodiments are directed generally to an electrostatographic imaging member having low surface energy and is wear resistant. The imaging members include a charge transport layer that comprises a silicone ester additive that provides these beneficial properties.

Abstract: An electrophotographic photoconductor including a metal tube and a photoconductive layer on the metal tube, wherein the metal tube has an outer diameter of 40 mm to 300 mm, and has a total runout of 5 ?m to 70 ?m relative to a driving axis thereof.

Abstract: The presently disclosed embodiments relate in general to flexible electrophotographic imaging members, such as layered photoreceptor structural simplification, and material reformulation for making and using the same. More particularly, the embodiments pertain to the incorporation of a plasticizer or mixture of plasticizers into the charge transport layer for rendering flatness such that an anticurl back coating is no longer needed to counteract and control the layered photoreceptor curling.

Abstract: The presently disclosed embodiments are directed to flexible imaging members used in electrophotographic imaging apparatuses. More particularly, the embodiments pertain to electrophotographic imaging members which have imaging layer(s) formulated to comprise of a novel polymer blended binder comprising a bisphenol type polycarbonate and an organic acid-containing copolyester doped into the polycarbonate which provides improved properties and performance to the resulting imaging member. The formulated imaging layer(s) may further include a plasticizer.

Abstract: A bearing member is configured to be arranged in an end portion of a columnar rotary body, in which a shaft member is attached to the bearing member. The bearing member includes a body which includes a cylindrical body and a holding portion which is arranged inside the cylindrical body, and an intermediate member which is held by the holding portion of the body. The holding portion includes an intermediate member guide which guides the intermediate member so that the intermediate member rotates. The intermediate member includes a portion in which the shaft member is arranged.

Abstract: The presently disclosed embodiments are directed to charge transport layers useful in electrostatography. More particularly, the embodiments pertain to an electrostatographic imaging member having imaging layers that exhibit improved electrical performance. In these embodiments, both the charge generation layer and charge transport layer comprise a tetra-aryl polycarbonate copolymer.

Abstract: A process unit includes an image carrier having a surface which includes a main surface and a projection portion, and a cleaning member to remove developer on the surface of the image carrier. The projection portion is provided at least at one end portion of the main surface and includes a rising surface rising up from the main surface. The cleaning member is in contact with the main surface, the rising surface, and a border between the main surface and the rising surface.

Abstract: An undercoat layer of an electrophotographic photosensitive member includes a cured product having electron transportability and a particle including titanium oxide, and a surface layer of the electrophotographic photosensitive member includes a cured product of a composition including a hole transporting substance having a polymerizable functional group and a photopolymerization initiator.

Abstract: Disclosed is an electrophotographic photoreceptor including a conductive support, a photosensitive layer on the conductive support and a surface layer on the photosensitive layer. The surface layer includes a cured resin prepared by polymerization of a compound having two or more radically polymerizable functional groups per molecule, the cured resin containing an organic resin fine particle and a metal oxide fine particle, and the organic resin fine particle comprising a resin containing a structural unit derived from at least one of melamine and benzoguanamine, the organic resin fine particle having a number average primary particle size of 0.01 to 3.00 ?m.

Abstract: Embodiments pertain to a novel imaging member, namely, an electrostatic latent image generating member, and methods for using the same, that can generate an electrostatic latent image through charge acceptance control and without the need for conventional post charging photodischarge, eliminating process steps and avoiding limitations in system speed due to the transit time of charge carriers after light exposure.

Abstract: An interior member of a print cartridge gear including one or more slots in the interior member for receiving a pin, the one or more slots including a first portion extending from a distal end of the interior member towards a base end of the interior member, the one or more slots including a second portion that extends horizontally outward.

Abstract: An electrophotographic photoreceptor, an electrophotographic photoreceptor cartridge, and an image forming apparatus, which are excellent in electrical characteristics such as a responsivity and at the same time, excellent in the crack resistance, are provided. Two kinds of charge transport substances each having a specific structure and a polycarbonate resin having a specific structure are combined, whereby the electrical characteristics such as responsivity and the crack resistance can be improved at the same time.