Back to results
US 10,649,388 B2Granted
Image forming apparatus
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsTsuguhiro Yoshida, Shinji Katagiri, Takayuki Tanaka, Shuichi Tetsuno, Takahiro Ikeda
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An intermediate transfer belt includes at least two layers which are a base layer and an inner surface layer having electric resistance lower than electric resistance of the base layer, and an end portion of the inner surface layer is positioned on an outside of an end portion of a development opening portion in a width direction as a direction orthogonal to a circumferential direction of the intermediate transfer belt.
Claims17
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- an image bearing member configured to bear a toner image;
- a rotatable endless intermediate transfer belt having electrical conductivity and configured to be in contact with the image bearing member;
- a current supply member configured to be in contact with the intermediate transfer belt to supply electric current to the intermediate transfer belt, wherein electric current supplied from the current supply member flows in a circumferential direction of the intermediate transfer belt to cause a toner image to be primarily transferred onto the intermediate transfer belt from the image bearing member;
- a power source configured to apply voltage to the current supply member;
- and
- a development unit including a development container for containing toner, an opening portion arranged on the development container, a development member for bearing toner contained in the development container, and configured to develop a toner image on the image bearing member in such a manner that the development member bearing toner supplied from the development container abuts on the image bearing member, a sealing member arranged on an inner face of a side wall of the development container to overlap with the development member in a width direction of the intermediate transfer belt orthogonal to the circumferential direction, and a toner supply member which abuts on the development member to supply toner to the development member,
- wherein the toner supply member is shorter than the development member in the width direction, and an empty space is formed between each of the end portions of the toner supply member and a corresponding one of the end portions of the sealing member, and
- wherein the intermediate transfer belt includes a plurality of layers including a first layer and a second layer, the first layer being a layer thickest among the plurality of layers in a thickness direction of the intermediate transfer belt, the second layer having electric resistance lower than electric resistance of the first layer and being formed at a position further away from the image bearing member than the first layer in the thickness direction, and both end portions of the second layer are positioned outside of both end portions of the opening portion in the width direction.
5 more elements
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- an image bearing member configured to bear a toner image;
- a rotatable endless intermediate transfer belt having electrical conductivity and configured to be in contact with the image bearing member;
- a current supply member configured to be in contact with the intermediate transfer belt to supply electric current to the intermediate transfer belt, wherein electric current supplied from the current supply member flows in a circumferential direction of the intermediate transfer belt to cause a toner image to be primarily transferred onto the intermediate transfer belt from the image bearing member;
- a power source configured to apply voltage to the current supply member;
- and
- a development unit including a development container for containing toner, an opening portion arranged on the development container, a development member for bearing toner contained in the development container, and configured to develop a toner image on the image bearing member in such a manner that the development member bearing toner supplied from the development container abuts on the image bearing member, a sealing member arranged on an inner face of a side wall of the development container to overlap with the development member in a width direction of the intermediate transfer belt orthogonal to the circumferential direction, and a toner supply member which abuts on the development member to supply toner to the development member,
- wherein the toner supply member is shorter than the development member in the width direction, and an empty space is formed between each of the end portions of the toner supply member and a corresponding one of the end portions of the sealing member, and
- wherein the intermediate transfer belt includes a plurality of layers including a first layer and a second layer, the first layer being a layer thickest among the plurality of layers in a thickness direction of the intermediate transfer belt, the second layer having electric resistance lower than electric resistance of the first layer and being formed at a position further away from the image bearing member than the first layer in the thickness direction, and the empty space is arranged between the both end portions of the second layer in the width direction of the intermediate transfer belt orthogonal to the circumferential direction.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.