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US 6,795,671 B2Granted
Image forming apparatus featuring switchable, contact and spaced, clutch-operated developing units
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorIsao Matsuoka
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An image forming apparatus includes a plurality of image forming portions, and a first switching device and a second switching device that act on a plurality of clutch devices. The second switching device communicates with the first switching device and operates in association with an operation of the first switching device. This makes it possible to simplify the construction of the image forming apparatus and to suppress reduction of the service life of an image bearing member.
Claims8
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a plurality of image forming portions, each image forming portion including an image bearing member, developing means that is capable of contacting and being spaced from the image bearing member and supplies developer to the image bearing member, a motor that drives the developing means, and clutch means that is provided between the motor and the developing means;
- a first switching means for acting on the plurality of clutch means;
- and
- a second switching means for having the developing means contact and spaced from the image bearing member, the second switching means communicating with the first switching means and operating in association with an operation of the first switching means.
1 more element
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a first image forming portion for forming a black image, the first image forming portion including a first image bearing member and a first developing means that is capable of contacting and being spaced from the first image bearing member and supplies developer to the first image bearing member;
- second image forming portions for forming images in colors other than black, each of the second image forming portions including a second image bearing member and a second developing means that is capable of contacting and being spaced from the second image bearing member and supplies developer to the second image bearing member;
- and
- switching means for switching contact/space operations of the first developing means and the second developing means, the switching means being capable of moving the first developing means and the second developing means to a full-color image forming state in which the first developing means and the second developing means are respectively abutted against the first image bearing member and the second image bearing members, a mono-color image forming state in which only the first developing means is abutted against the first image bearing member, and a standby state in which all of the developing means are spaced from the image bearing members.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.