US 8,014,701 B2Granted

Contacting and separating mechanism and image forming apparatus

AssigneeRicoh Company, Ltd.

InventorsMakoto Nakura, Junji Shirakawa, Hiroshi Suzuki

Life of this patent

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Abstract

A contacting and separating mechanism which causes a first member to contact a second member and separates the first member contacting the second member from the second member is disclosed. The contacting and separating mechanism includes a pressure applying member which is rotated together with the first member by using a force of a first force applying member with a first supporting point as the center and causes the first member to contact the second member and separates the first member contacting the second member from the second member, and separates the first member contacting the second member from the second member by rotating with the first member with a second supporting point as the center by changing the position of the first supporting point.

Claims13

Dependent claims

An image forming apparatus including a contacting and separating mechanism which causes a first member to contact a second member and separates the first member contacting the second member from the second member, comprising:

a pressure applying member that supports the first member and that is pushed by a force applying member to cause the first member to contact the second member;
a first contacting and separating unit that separates the first member from the second member by changing a position of a first supporting point and by rotating the pressure applying member around a second supporting point corresponding to the position of the force applying member while changing the position of the second supporting point;
and
a second contacting and separating unit that separates the first member from the second member by rotating the pressure applying member around the first supporting point.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 12/334,803Filed 15 Dec 2008
Priority: JP 2007-32523617 Dec 2007
Published: US 2009/0162114 A125 Jun 2009
Granted: 6 Sep 2011
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification4 codes

G03G 15/162
Using at least one intermediate support: details of the the intermediate support, e.g. chemical composition
G03G 2215/0193
Structural features of the multicolour image forming apparatus: transfer member separable from recording member
G03G 2215/1614
Main transfer electrode: transfer roll
G03G
Electrography