Lawrence Welk, the bandleader who entertained millions of Americans over a generation of broadcasting his TV show, once received a patent: for a music-themed design of an ashtray.
Make the Most of Our Site
See this month's Top Inventors and Most Cited Patents.
Stay on top of the latest innovations by subscribing to an RSS feed.
Registered users: Manage your profile.
| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8185027 | Image forming apparatus, method of allowing driven member to be mounted on apparatus body in image forming apparatus and method of allowing drive force to be transmitted to belt unit in image forming apparatus The image forming apparatus includes: an apparatus body including a drive source; a driven member detachably attachable to the apparatus body; a first transmission member in the apparatus body, including a base rotatable around a rotation axis, and transmitting driv... | 05/22/2012 |
| 8126380 | Image forming apparatus An image forming apparatus includes a plurality of image forming units forming a visible image by attaching charged developer to an electrostatic latent image, a transfer belt member being transferred the visible image formed by each of the plurality of image formin... | 02/28/2012 |
| 8099031 | Image forming apparatus, transfer unit thereof, and method of shifting transfer rollers thereof An image forming apparatus according to the present invention includes a first photoconductive member used during monochrome printing; a plurality of second photoconductive members used together with the first photoconductive member during full-color printing and ar... | 01/17/2012 |
| 8019261 | Image forming apparatus An image forming apparatus includes a first image carrying member for carrying a first toner image; a second image carrying member for carrying a second toner image in a maximum amount, of the second toner image carried on the second image carrying member, larger th... | 09/13/2011 |
| 7965966 | Transferring unit and image forming apparatus including the same Disclosed are a transfer unit and an image forming apparatus having the same. The apparatus can include multiple members configured to carry developer associated with color images. The transfer unit can include multiple rollers each disposed to opposingly face a res... | 06/21/2011 |
| 7957683 | Color image forming apparatus capable of suppressing mixture of colors and scattering of toner A color image forming apparatus comprising: a first development device which develops an electrostatic image on a first image bearing member with toner of color other than black; a first transfer member which forms a nip portion for nipping an image receiving member... | 06/07/2011 |
| 7937031 | Transfer belt device and image forming apparatus provided with the same An transfer belt device includes a roller support supporting transfer rollers, a cam driving shaft having a cam, the cam having capability of swinging the roller support to move the transfer rollers toward and apart from color photosensitive drums to thereby switch ... | 05/03/2011 |
| 7904010 | Belt unit, transfer belt unit, and image forming apparatus A belt unit includes a belt, a contact member, a movable member, an eccentric cam, a contact-separation mechanism, and a braking unit. The contact member is configured to come into contact with the belt. The contact-separation mechanism allows the movable member to ... | 03/08/2011 |
| 7890034 | Image forming apparatus Provided is an image forming apparatus, including: a first image bearing member; a first transfer member that comes into contact with the intermediate transfer member; a colored toner image forming portion; a second image bearing member; a second transfer member; an... | 02/15/2011 |
| 7877048 | Image forming apparatus, transfer unit thereof, and method of shifting transfer rollers thereof An image forming apparatus according to the present invention includes a first photoconductive member used during monochrome printing; a plurality of second photoconductive members used together with the first photoconductive member during full-color printing and ar... | 01/25/2011 |
| 7869750 | Image forming apparatus with a phase of a first load torque substantially opposite to a phase of a second load torque A reciprocating-motion converting mechanism includes a cam that rotates around a rotation center; a reciprocating member that is reciprocated due to rotation of the cam; and a pressing unit that presses the reciprocating member to the cam. A first load torque is gen... | 01/11/2011 |
| 7860438 | Image forming apparatus using toner including an external additive at an additive burial rate of not less than 40 percent An image forming apparatus includes an image carrier, an endless belt whose front surface contacts the image carrier to form a transfer nip, and a bias applying roller configured to apply a transfer bias to a back surface of the endless belt. An image is formed of a... | 12/28/2010 |
| 7844205 | Image forming apparatus A moving unit is made to perform a contacting operation at least two times. The contacting operation includes relatively moving an endless belt and an image carrier so that the endless belt and the image carrier to come in contact with each other. ... | 11/30/2010 |
| 7813682 | Image forming apparatus that smoothly conveys transfer medium while suppressing pre-transfer An image forming apparatus includes an apparatus main body and a plurality of sets each including a photosensitive member and a transfer member. The plurality of sets is disposed in a linear arrangement in the apparatus main body. The photosensitive member and the t... | 10/12/2010 |
| 7796927 | Color image forming apparatus capable of suppressing mixture of colors and scattering of toner A color image forming apparatus comprising: a first development device which develops an electrostatic image on a first image bearing member with toner of color other than black; a first transfer member which forms a nip portion for nipping an image receiving member... | 09/14/2010 |
| 7787809 | Image forming apparatus, transfer unit thereof, and method of shifting transfer rollers thereof An image forming apparatus according to the present invention includes a first photoconductive member used during monochrome printing; a plurality of second photoconductive members used together with the first photoconductive member during full-color printing and ar... | 08/31/2010 |
| 7769329 | Image forming apparatus that drives plural image forming stations with common motor An image forming apparatus has plural image forming stations along a travel direction of a transfer medium. Each image forming station has a latent image carrier that rotates in a sub scanning direction, an image writer that forms a latent image on the latent image ... | 08/03/2010 |
| 7769328 | Image forming apparatus including one or more transfer members for transferring color toner and transparent toner images An image forming apparatus, includes a first image bearing member; a first transfer member that comes into contact with either an intermediate transfer member or a recording material bearing member; a colored toner image forming portion; a second image bearing membe... | 08/03/2010 |
| 7756453 | Color printing apparatus having a transfer belt attaching/detaching mechanism A color printing apparatus having a plurality of photosensitive drums corresponding to each color, AND a transfer belt which is aligned with the plurality of photosensitive drums. An attaching/detaching mechanism which brings the transfer belt into and out of contac... | 07/13/2010 |
| 7756454 | Hybrid single pass, multi-pass full color printing system A hybrid single pass, multi-pass full color printing system is provided and includes (a) a moveable intermediate transfer belt (ITB) mounted within a machine frame and having a path of movement; (b) a plurality of single pass image output modules mounted along the p... | 07/13/2010 |
| 7751761 | Image forming apparatus An image forming apparatus includes a belt disposed diagonally with respect to a horizontal direction of the image forming apparatus, and plural image forming units disposed along the belt. Each of the plural image forming units includes a photosensitive drum that f... | 07/06/2010 |
| 7751762 | Transfer device and image forming apparatus including the same A transfer device including an intermediate transfer belt provided to extend in an arranged direction of a plurality of photosensitive drums, and primary transfer rollers each transferring a toner image formed on a corresponding one of the plurality of photosensitiv... | 07/06/2010 |
| 7742728 | Image forming apparatus with compactly arranged image forming devices An image forming apparatus includes a belt, plural photosensitive drums that face the belt, plural developing devices that develop plural latent images formed on the plural photosensitive drums using a developing agent, where the developing devices are disposed arou... | 06/22/2010 |
| 7729649 | Methods and devices for reducing wear on a print cartridge A system and method reduces wear on an image-forming device. The image-forming device includes one or more toner cartridges, each having an associated PC drum and transport member to transport toner images or media. Each of the PC drums maintain contact with a surfa... | 06/01/2010 |
| 7729650 | Image forming apparatus An image forming apparatus includes a first image carrying member for carrying a first toner image; a second image carrying member for carrying a second toner image in a maximum amount, of the second toner image carried on the second image carrying member, larger th... | 06/01/2010 |
| 7715767 | Image forming apparatus with extended image carrier life An image forming apparatus includes: plural image carriers that are disposed at intervals and in a line, and that are driven to rotate while carrying images; an intermediate transfer belt that have an endless shape, and that is disposed to be laid on plural rolls so... | 05/11/2010 |
| 7693466 | Method for arranging image forming sections A method of arranging a plurality of image forming sections, each of which includes a developing device and a cleaning device. The method includes arranging the plurality of image forming sections side by side along an inclined image carrier; and positioning the cle... | 04/06/2010 |
| 7657214 | Image forming apparatus Disclosed is an image forming apparatus, which comprises an intermediate transfer belt (15), and a plurality of image-forming units (11) to (14) disposed along the intermediate transfer belt (15) and adapted to form toner images of differ... | 02/02/2010 |
| 7639975 | Image forming apparatus including two development devices and transfer members A color image forming apparatus includes a first development device which develops an electrostatic image on a first image bearing member with toner of a color other than black so as to form a toner image; a first transfer member which forms a nip portion for nippin... | 12/29/2009 |
| 7636539 | Tandem intermediate-transfer type image forming apparatus An image forming unit includes four photoconductors, a belt extended around a driving roller and an extension-cum-primary transfer roller. Three primary transfer rollers sandwich the belt in association with a corresponding photoconductor. The extension-cum-primary ... | 12/22/2009 |
| 7610003 | Image forming apparatus for recycling toner In a tandem type color image forming apparatus having a function which collects a residual toner for recycle, a particle diameter distribution of a carrier is expressed as that a ratio of the number of carrier particles whose particle diameter is not smaller than φ... | 10/27/2009 |
| 7570906 | Tandem type color image forming machine A tandem type color image forming machine comprises a plurality of image forming units, a belt mechanism comprising an endless belt including a linear moving area, and a paper feed cassette in its image information machine body. The image forming units are arranged ... | 08/04/2009 |
| 7561840 | Transfer endless belt device applied to image forming apparatus First eccentric cams for abutting an inner circumferential surface of an intermediate image transferring belt, second eccentric cams for rotating as a unit with the first eccentric cams, cam followers for abutting a circumferential surface of the second eccentric ca... | 07/14/2009 |
| 7551880 | Image forming apparatus featuring a cleaning device including a conductive support member provided so as to intersect a line segment connected between rotational centers of a charge member of a first image forming unit and a developing member of a second image forming unit A support member for supporting a cleaning blade of an upstream side is arranged between a charging roller of an image forming unit of the upstream side and a developing sleeve of an image forming unit of a downstream side. The support member is formed using a condu... | 06/23/2009 |
| 7526240 | Image forming apparatus including a plurality of photoconductive elements developing devices and mirrors An image forming apparatus including a plurality of photoconductive elements arranged on an inclined plane with respect to the ground, a plurality of developing devices, each of the plurality of developing devices corresponding to one of the plurality of photoconduc... | 04/28/2009 |
| 7440720 | Image forming apparatus and image transferring unit for the same An image forming apparatus of the present invention includes a plurality of image carriers arranged side by side and a charging device, exposing device and developing device arranged around each image carrier. An image transferring unit includes an image transfer be... | 10/21/2008 |
| 7430382 | Color image forming apparatus, and program and method of controlling a color image forming apparatus In a color image forming apparatus, a color mode is switched from a full color mode to a single color mode as follows. When the length of an image of a last page in the full color mode is less than the distance from a first-transferring position of a most downstream... | 09/30/2008 |
| 7430391 | Image forming apparatus featuring a cleaning device including a conductive support member provided between a developing member and a charging member A support member for supporting a cleaning blade on an upstream side is arranged between a charging roller on an image forming unit of the upstream side and a developing sleeve of an image forming unit on a downstream side. The support member is formed using a condu... | 09/30/2008 |
| 7430389 | Image forming apparatus with transparent toner developer An image forming apparatus includes a first image bearing member; a first developing means forming a toner image of transparent toner on an electrostatic latent image formed on the first image bearing member; a second image bearing member having an electrostatic cap... | 09/30/2008 |
| 7424254 | Image forming apparatus The image forming apparatus having: a rotatable first image bearing member of bearing images; a rotatable second image bearing member of bearing images; and a transferring device for transferring images respectively born by the first image bearing member and the sec... | 09/09/2008 |