5154 results about "Latent image" patented technology

A process cartridge detachably mountable to a main assembly of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, includes a first frame; a second frame coupled with the first frame for rotation about a shaft; an electrophotographic photosensitive drum provided in the first frame; a developing member, provided in the second frame, for developing an electrostatic latent image formed on the photosensitive drum with a developer; a developing member, provided in the second frame, for developing an electrostatic latent image formed on the photosensitive drum with a developer; an elastic member for applying an elastic force between the first frame and the second frame to urge the developing member to the photosensitive drum; a force receiving portion, provided downstream of the shaft with respect to a mounting direction in which the process cartridge is mounted to the main assembly of the image forming apparatus, for receiving a force from the main assembly of the image forming apparatus to keep the developing member away from the photosensitive drum when the process cartridge is mounted to the main assembly of the image forming apparatus; and a limiting portion for limiting upward movement of the first frame.

A process cartridge detachably mountable to a main assembly of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, the main assembly including an opening, a door movable between a close position for closing the opening and an open position for opening the opening, a first force application member movable with movement of the door from the open position to the closing position and a second force application member movable by a driving force from a driving source, the process cartridge includes an electrophotographic photosensitive drum; a developing roller for developing an electrostatic latent image formed on the electrophotographic photosensitive drum; a drum unit containing the electrophotographic photosensitive drum; a developing unit which contains the developing roller and which is movable relative to the drum unit such that developing roller is movable between a contact position in which the developing roller is contacted to the electrophotographic photosensitive drum and a spaced position in which the developing roller is spaced from the electrophotographic photosensitive drum; and a force receiving device including a first force receiving portion for receiving a force from the first force application member by movement of the door from the open position to the close position in the state that process cartridge is mounted to the main assembly of the apparatus through the opening, and a second force receiving portion movable from a stand-by position by movement of the first force receiving portion by a force received from the first force application member, wherein the second force receiving portion takes a projected position for receiving a force from the second force application member to move the developing unit from the contact position to the spaced position, the projected position being higher than the stand-by position.

A remote diagnostic device for medical testing includes a kit dispenser (315), a sampling device (85) contained in the kit (59), a receiving web (62) for receiving a sample (64) after use by a user (305), a processor for developing the latent image, a scanner (195) for detecting a developed image, and a microprocessor (205) for analyzing the scanned image for pathogens. The receiving web forms a latent image of any pathogens present in the sample.

The present invention relates to a developing apparatus for developing an electrostatic latent image formed on an electrophotographic photosensitive drum using a developing agent, including a developing agent carrier for supplying the developing agent to the photosensitive drum to develop the electrostatic latent image formed on the photosensitive drum, a layer thickness limiting member for limiting the layer thickness of the developing agent carried on a surface of the developing agent carrier, the layer thickness limiting member being disposed with a gap to the developing agent carrier, a sealing member for restricting the developing agent from leaking out of an end in a longitudinal direction of the developing agent carrier, and an elastic member arranged in contact with the developing agent carrier to prevent the gap between the developing agent carrier and the layer thickness limiting member from changing upon bending of the developing agent carrier. The elastic member is in contact with the developing agent carrier at an outer position with respect to a position at which the sealing member is disposed.

A cartridge for use with a main assembly of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, the main assembly including a driving shaft having a rotational force applying portion, wherein the cartridge is dismountable from the main assembly in a direction substantially perpendicular to an axial direction of the driving shaft, the cartridge including i) a developing roller for developing an electrostatic latent image formed on an electrophotographic photosensitive drum, the developing roller being rotatable about an axis thereof; and ii) a coupling member engageable with the rotational force applying portion to receive a rotational force for rotating the developing roller, the coupling member being capable of taking a rotational force transmitting angular position for transmitting the rotational force for rotating the developing roller to the developing roller and a disengaging angular position in which the coupling member is inclined away from the rotational force transmitting angular position, wherein when the cartridge is dismounted from the main assembly of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus in a direction substantially perpendicular to the axis of the developing roller, the coupling member moves from the rotational force transmitting angular position to the disengaging angular position.

An electrophotographic image forming apparatus for forming an image on a recording material includes an electrophotographic photosensitive drum, a charger for charging the photosensitive drum, a developer for developing a latent image formed on the photosensitive drum into a toner image, a transferrer for transferring the toner image onto the recording material, a fixer for fixing the toner image on the recording material, a motor, a main assembly side gear for receiving a driving force from the motor, and a hole formed substantially at a center of the gear. The hole has a polygonal cross-section. The apparatus also includes a projection provided at a longitudinal end of the photosensitive drum. When the main assembly side gear rotates with the hole and projection engaged with each other, a rotational driving force is transmitted from the gear to the photosensitive drum through the hole and the projection with the projection is pulled into the hole. An end portion of the gear having the projection and a end surface defining the hole contact each other so that the process cartridge is positioned in place in a longitudinal direction of the photosensitive drum relative to the main assembly. The apparatus also includes a mover for imparting relative movement between the hole and the photosensitive drum to engage the projection with the hole.

An electrophotographic image forming apparatus to which a plurality of process cartridge are detachably mountable, the cartridge including an electrophotographic photosensitive drum, a developing roller for developing, with a developer, an electrostatic latent image formed on the drum, a first frame supporting the drum, and a second frame supporting the developing roller which is movable between a contact position where the developing roller contacts the drum and a spacing position where the developing roller is spaced from the drum, the apparatus including a drawing member to which the plurality of cartridges are detachably mountable, the drawing member being movable substantially horizontal direction crossing with an axial direction of the drum between a mount position where the cartridges are mounted in a main assembly of the apparatus and a drawn position where the drawing member is drawn out of the main assembly; a spacer member movable between a retracted position where the drawing member is retracted from a movement path of the cartridge to permit movement of the cartridge mounted on the drawing member and an operating position where the drawing member is in the movement path to move the second frame between the contact position and the spacing position.

A process cartridge transportable when mounted in a main assembly of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus. The cartridge includes an electrophotographic photosensitive drum, a developing roller for developing an electrostatic latent image on the drum when in contact with the drum, a drum unit supporting the drum, a developing unit supporting the roller and connected with the drum unit for rotation between a contact position in contact with the drum and a separated position, a force receiving portion for receiving, from the main assembly, a force for moving the developing unit from the contact to the separated position, with the cartridge mounted in the main assembly, a separation member for maintaining the developing unit at a position where the developing roller and the drum are separated from each other, and a detection portion to detect the mounting of the separation member when the cartridge mounted in the main assembly.

An electrophotographic image forming apparatus includes an electrophotographic photosensitive drum; a developing cartridge including a developing roller for developing a latent image formed on the drum, a developer accommodating portion for accommodating a developer to be used by the developing roller to develop the electrostatic latent image, and a developing roller shutter movable between a protecting position for covering a part of a peripheral surface of the developing roller and a retracted position, retracted from the protecting position, for exposure the part of the peripheral surface of the developing roller, wherein the developing cartridge is detachably mountable to a main assembly of the apparatus; a cartridge supporting member movable, while detachably mounting the developing cartridge, between an inside position which is inside of the main assembly of the apparatus to Mount the developing cartridge to the main assembly of the apparatus and an outside position which is outside of the main assembly of the apparatus to remove the developing cartridge from the main assembly of the apparatus; a force receiving portion, provided on the developing cartridge, for receiving a force for moving the developing roller shutter from the protecting position to the retracted position; and a force applying portion provided in the main assembly of the apparatus, wherein when the cartridge supporting member is moved from the outside position to the inside position, the force receiving portion contacts to the force applying portion to move the cartridge supporting member from the outside position to the inside position, in interrelation with which the force receiving portion contacted to the force applying portion receives the force from the force applying portion, thus moving the developing roller shutter from the protecting position to the retracted position.

A process cartridge which is detachably mountable to a main assembly of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus and which is transportable in a state of being mounted to the main assembly of the apparatus, an electrophotographic photosensitive member; a developing roller for developing an electrostatic latent image formed on the photosensitive member with a developer; a developer accommodating portion accommodating the developer and having a developer supply opening for permitting passage of the developer to supply the developer to the developing roller; a sealing member unsealably sealing the developer supply opening; and a grip member, provided on the sealing member, for being gripped to unseal the developer supply opening when the sealing member is removed from the developer supply opening, wherein the grip member is movable between a first position where the process cartridge is permitted to move to a predetermined position in the main assembly of the apparatus to permit transportation of the process cartridge in the state of being mounted to the main assembly, and a second position where the process cartridge is prevented from moving to the predetermined position from the first position when the process cartridge is dismounted from the predetermined position.

An electrophotographic image forming apparatus to which a process cartridge including an electrophotographic photosensitive drum is detachably mountable, the electrophotographic image forming apparatus includes a main assembly frame having an opening; a main assembly door movable between a closing position for closing the opening and an opening position for opening the opening; a tray for carrying the cartridge, the tray is movable among a latent image formation position which is inside the main assembly frame and is taken when the main assembly door is at the closing position and in which a latent image can be formed on the drum, a mounting and demounting position which is taken when the main assembly door is at the opening position in which the tray is protruded out of the main assembly frame through opening to permit mounting and demounting of the cartridge thereto, and a movable position which is between the mounting and demounting position and the latent image formation position in which the tray is movable to the latent image formation position in interrelation with movement of the main assembly door from the opening position to the closing position; a regulating member movable between a regulating position for regulating movement of the main assembly door from the opening position to the position when the tray is a mounting and demounting position side beyond the movable position, and a permitting position for permitting movement of the main assembly door from the opening position to the closing position when the tray is at the movable position.

Toner for electrostatic charge development wherein no scumming occurs, and toner leakage caused by charge defect of the toner on a developing roller can be inhibited, and an excellent image stability is obtained is provided.The toner used for an image forming method having a latent electrostatic image forming step of forming a latent electrostatic image on a latent electrostatic image bearing member primarily charged, a developing step of developing the latent electrostatic image by each toner which multiple developing devices have to form a toner image on the latent electrostatic image bearing member, a transferring step of transferring the toner image with respective colors formed on the latent electrostatic image bearing member onto a recording material and a fixing step of fixing the toner image transferred onto the recording material, wherein the toner comprises a colorant and a resin and contains an organic boron compound represented by a following chemical formula (A) as a charge controlling agent, further the toner is treated with an inorganic fine particle and at least one of the inorganic particles is a magnesium silicate compound represented by a following general formula [2] is provided.wherein X is an alkali metal, R1, R2, R3 or R4 each represents a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group having 1 to 4 carbon atoms, an alkoxy group having 1 to 4 carbon atoms, or a halogen atom.MgxSiyO(x+2y) [2]wherein x and y are integers.

A process cartridge detachably mountable to a main assembly of an image forming apparatus includes an electrophotographic photosensitive drum; a developing roller for developing an electrostatic latent image formed on the drum; a first frame supporting the drum; a second frame supporting the developing roller; a coupling member for coupling the first frame and the second frame such that developing roller and the drum contact each other or are spaced from each other; an urging member for urging the drum and the developing roller toward each other; a spacer member for maintaining the drum and the developing roller spaced from each other or the distance between centers of the drum and the developing roller to be larger than the distance therebetween during an image forming operation. The spacer member supports the first frame and second frame at least at longitudinally extending surfaces of the process cartridge, and is detachable from the process cartridge.

An image forming apparatus includes an image bearing member with a recirculatively movable peripheral surface; and a device for forming electrostatic latent images on the peripheral surface of the image bearing member, the device including a charging member to which voltage is applicable to charge the image bearing member. The charging member includes a flexible member capable of forming a nip between itself and the image bearing member; a developer for developing the latent image with the use of developer composed of toner particles and electrically conductive particles. The developer is capable of cleaning the residual toner particles from the image bearing member. The electrically conductive particles transferred onto the image bearing member by the developer are delivered to the nip by the image bearing member. The flexible member is moved so that it maintains a peripheral velocity difference relative to the image bearing member.

A method of modeling dose and focus response in lithographic imaging to simulate an optical critical dimension (OCD) metrology system creates simulated aerial images of the object pattern to be transferred to a resist film on the substrate at different focus settings of the metrology imaging system. The method then successively creates simulated images, at different exposure dose and focus settings of the metrology imaging system, of the latent and developed image of the object pattern in the resist film on the substrate, and the etched image of the object pattern in the substrate. The method converts the simulated images into polygons having more than four sides and determines the Fourier spectrum of the polygons simulating the images of the object pattern. Using the spectrum of the polygons simulating the images of the object pattern, the method then creates simulated aerial images of the object pattern developed in the resist film, at different dose and focus settings, as viewed by the OCD metrology system.

The present invention provides a developing apparatus that can effectively prevent generation of a ghost due to poor detachment of a developer after development, and generation of unevenness in density between a left part and a right part of an image region due to lack of an amount of the developer transported. The developing apparatus satisfies the relationship r+R≦d≦3r+R where r denotes a rotational radius of a second developer transporting screw, R denotes a rotational radius of a development roller, and d denotes a center distance between the second developer transporting screw and the development roller. The developing apparatus also satisfies the relationship M0≧(mg0×v×l) / 0.02 where mg0 (g / mm2) denotes an amount of a toner per unit area that is supplied from the development roller to an electrostatic latent image having 100% image coverage which is formed on a photosensitive drum, v (mm / s) denotes a rotational peripheral velocity of the photosensitive drum, l (mm) denotes a maximum printing width on the photosensitive drum, and M0 (g / s) denotes an amount of the developer transported per unit time by the second developer transporting screw in a second developer transport direction.

An image forming apparatus including a development mechanism for developing an electrostatic latent image formed on an image carrying member into a visual image, a toner storage detachably installed and provided for storing toner therein, a toner transporting mechanism for transporting the toner from the toner storage to the development mechanism, and a supporting device for detachably supporting the toner storage therein and moving between a set position at which the toner storage is engaged with the toner transporting mechanism and a tilt position at which the toner storage is disengaged from the toner transporting mechanism.

A process cartridge detachably mountable to a main assembly of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, includes a first frame; a second frame coupled with the first frame for rotation about a shaft; an electrophotographic photosensitive drum provided in the first frame; a developing member, provided in the second frame, for developing an electrostatic latent image formed on the photosensitive drum with a developer; a developing member, provided in the second frame, for developing an electrostatic latent image formed on the photosensitive drum with a developer; an elastic member for applying an elastic force between the first frame and the second frame to urge the developing member to the photosensitive drum; a force receiving portion, provided downstream of the shaft with respect to a mounting direction in which the process cartridge is mounted to the main assembly of the image forming apparatus, for receiving a force from the main assembly of the image forming apparatus to keep the developing member away from the photosensitive drum when the process cartridge is mounted to the main assembly of the image forming apparatus; and a limiting portion for limiting upward movement of the first frame.

The present invention provides an image-forming apparatus containing an image bearing member, a latent electrostatic image forming unit, a developing unit, in which the developing unit contains an image developing unit, a developer supplying unit, and a developer container, the mass abundance ratio of the toner to the carrier is 80:20 to 95:5 in the developer container, the developer container contains a flexible pouched member which reduces its volume by reducing the internal pressure and a developer outlet to discharge the developer contained therein, the developer satisfies a relation of formula (1) where A denotes a percentage of voids calculated from a tap density of the toner and B denotes a degree of fluidity (sec / 50g) of the developer at a toner coverage ratio of the carrier being 50%: A≦0.01×B−0.2  (1)

A process cartridge is detachably mountable to a main assembly of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus that includes a cam movable between first and second positions. The cartridge includes an electrophotographic photosensitive drum, a developing roller developing an electrostatic latent image formed on the drum, a first frame for supporting the drum, a second frame for supporting the roller and connected with the first frame for relative rotation about a shaft disposed downstream of the roller with respect to a cartridge mounting direction, an entering portion at one end of the second frame with respect to a drum longitudinal direction and downstream of the shaft with respect to the mounting direction, permitting at least a part of the cam to enter when the process cartridge is mounted to the apparatus, and a cam engaging portion engaging the cam to receive a force for spacing the drum and the roller from each other.

A combination of a latent-image pattern which forms a latent-image part and a background pattern that forms a background-image part is determined so that the latent-image part and background-image part have equal print densities. The determined latent-image pattern and background pattern, color information used to determine a color of the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image, input image information as an image to be processed, copy-forgery-inhibited pattern basic information used to designate the latent-image part and background-image part, and camouflage region designation-image information used to designate a camouflage region are input. A copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is generated on the basis of the input information.

A process cartridge detachably mountable to a main assembly of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, includes an electrophotographic photosensitive drum; developing roller for developing an electrostatic latent image formed on the electrophotographic photosensitive drum; drum frame supporting the electrophotographic photosensitive drum; a developing frame supporting the developing roller, the developing frame is movable relative to the drum frame and is capable of taking a contacting position in which the developing roller is in contact with the electrophotographic photosensitive drum; and a force receiving device including a first force receiving portion for receiving a first external force and a second force receiving portion for receiving a second external force, wherein the second force receiving portion is movable relative to the developing frame, wherein the second force receiving portion is placed in a stand-by position retracted from an operating position by the first force receiving portion receiving the first external force, and is movable from the stand-by position to the operating position for moving the developing frame from the contacting position to the spacing position, wherein a distance through which the second force receiving portion moves from the stand-by position to the operating position is larger than a distance through which the first force receiving portion is moved by the first external force.

A toner which is negatively charged to develop an electrostatic latent image is provided that contains a colorant; and a binder resin, wherein the toner has an acid value of from 5 to 20 mg KOH / g and an amine value of from 0.5 to 10 mg KOH / g.