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US 2007/0166087 A1Published application
Lubricant applying unit, process cartridge, image forming apparatus, and image forming method
AssigneeRicoh Company, Ltd.
InventorsDaichi YAMAGUCHI, Kenji Sugiura, Takahiko Tokumasu, Takuya Seshita, Katsuhiko Tani, Yumiko Yagi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A lubricant applying unit includes a lubricant composed of metal salt of fatty acid; an applying member that applies the lubricant on a subject under lubricant application; and a spreading member that forms a thin layer of the lubricant applied on the subject. The spreading member spreads the lubricant in such a manner that a thickness of the thin layer is in a range of 8 nanometers to 12 nanometers.
Claims16
A lubricant applying unit comprising:
- a lubricant applying member;
- and
- a lubricant that is disposed at a position to be applied to a surface of an image carrier by the lubricant applying member, the image carrier being charged by a charging unit, and the charging unit being applied with a voltage including an AC voltage, wherein
- the lubricant applying member applies an amount of the lubricant no less than an amount calculated by
- 3.75×10<SUP>−4</SUP>×A×f×(Vpp/2−Vth)/L [mg/s]
- to the surface of the image carrier, where
- f is a frequency [kHz] of an AC component of the AC voltage,
- Vpp [kV] is a peak-to-peak voltage of the AC voltage,
- L [mm] is a circumference of the image carrier in a direction of movement,
- A [cm<SUP>2</SUP>] is a total area of a portion of image formation on the image carrier, and
- Vth [kV] is a starting voltage calculated by
- 312+6.2×(d/εopc+Gp/εair)+√(7737.6×d/εopc), where
- d is a film-thickness [μm] of a portion subjected to charging of the image carrier,
- εopc is a specific inductive capacity of the portion subjected to charging of the image carrier,
- εair is a specific inductive capacity in space between the image carrier and the charging unit, and
- Gp is a shortest distance [μm} between the charging unit and the surface of the image carrier.
13 more elements
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- an image carrier on which an electrostatic latent image is formed;
- a charging unit that charges the image carrier;
- a latent-image forming unit that forms a latent image on the image carrier by exposing the image carrier;
- a developing unit that supplies toner to the latent image on the image carrier to form a toner image that is visible;
- a transferring unit that transfers the toner image to a recording medium directly or via an intermediate transfer body that moves on a surface of the image carrier while being in contact with the image carrier;
- a cleaning unit that includes a cleaning blade that gathers the toner remained on the surface of the image carrier after transferring the toner image to the recording medium;
- and
- a lubricant applying unit that includes
- a lubricant applying member;
- and
- a lubricant that is disposed at a position to be applied to the surface of the image carrier by the lubricant applying member, the image carrier being charged by the charging unit, and the charging unit being applied with a voltage including an AC voltage, wherein
- the lubricant applying member applies an amount of the lubricant no less than an amount calculated by
- 3.75×10<SUP>−4</SUP>×A×f×(Vpp/2−Vth)/L [mg/s]
- to the surface of the image carrier, where
- f is a frequency [kHz] of an AC component of the AC voltage,
- Vpp [kV] is a peak-to-peak voltage of the AC voltage,
- L [mm] is a circumference of the image carrier in a direction of movement,
- A [cm<SUP>2</SUP>] is a total area of a portion of image formation on the image carrier, and
- Vth [kV] is a starting voltage calculated by
- 312+6.2×(d/εopc+Gp/εair)+√(7737.6×d/εopc), where
- d is a film-thickness [μm] of a portion subjected to charging of the image carrier,
- εopc is a specific inductive capacity of the portion subjected to charging of the image carrier,
- εair is a specific inductive capacity in space between the image carrier and the charging unit, and
- Gp is a shortest distance [μm] between the charging unit and the surface of the image carrier.
21 more elements
A lubricant applying unit comprising:
- a lubricant applying member;
- and
- a lubricant that is disposed at a position to be applied to a surface of an image carrier by the lubricant applying member, the image carrier being charged by a charging unit, and the charging unit being applied with a voltage including an AC voltage, wherein
- the lubricant applying member applies an amount of the lubricant no less than an amount calculated by
- 25×f×(Vpp/2−Vth)/L [nm/s]
- to the surface of the image carrier, where
- f is a frequency [kHz] of an AC component of the AC voltage,
- Vpp [kV] is a peak-to-peak voltage of the AC voltage,
- L [mm] is a circumference of the image carrier in a direction of movement, and
- Vth [kV] is a starting voltage calculated by
- 312+6.2×(d/εopc+Gp/εair)+√(7737.6×d/εopc), where
- d is a film-thickness [μm] of a portion subjected to charging of the image carrier,
- εopc is a specific inductive capacity of the portion subjected to charging of the image carrier,
- εair is a specific inductive capacity in space between the image carrier and the charging unit, and
- Gp is a shortest distance [μm] between the charging unit and the surface of the image carrier.
12 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.