Image forming apparatus and image forming unit
AssigneeRicoh Company, Ltd.
InventorsSatoshi Hatori, Kiyonori Tsuda, Naoto Watanabe, Takeo Suda, Yuji Arai, Tomoji Ishikawa, Atsushi Sampe
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Abstract
An image forming apparatus including at least two image forming units arranged side by side in an arrangement direction and each of the image forming units contains a photoconductor configured to bear a latent electrostatic image thereon and at least one process device configured to form a toner image on the photoconductor, and a unit case having a notch thereon to grasp the unit case.
Claims20
An image forming apparatus, comprising:
- at least two image forming units arranged side by side in an arrangement direction, wherein each of the at least two image forming units comprises:
- a photoconductor configured to bear a latent electrostatic image thereon;
- at least one process device configured to form a toner image on the photoconductor;
- and
- a unit case having a notch thereon to grasp the unit case, the notch being disposed on a corner formed by an intersection of a top surface and a side surface of said unit case.
An image forming unit, comprising:
- a photoconductor configured to bear a latent electrostatic image thereon;
- at least one process device configured to form a toner image on the photoconductor;
- and
- a unit case having a notch thereon to grasp the unit case, the notch being disposed on a corner formed by an intersection of a top surface and a side surface of said unit case.
An image forming apparatus, comprising:
- means for forming a latent electrostatic image on a photoconductor;
- means for converting the latent electrostatic image into a toner image;
- and
- means for grasping, removing, and replacing the means for forming a latent electrostatic image.
A method for removing an image forming unit from an image forming apparatus comprising:
- pulling out a supporting device comprising at least two slidably supported image forming units arranged side by side from the image forming apparatus;
- grasping at least one of the at least two slidably supported image forming units using at least one notch formed on an upper part of each image forming unit on a corner formed by an intersection of a top surface and a side surface of the image forming unit;
- and
- lifting any one of the at least two image forming units from the supporting device in the image forming apparatus.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.