Process cartridge and image forming apparatus
AssigneeRicoh Company, Ltd.
InventorsYoshihiro Kawakami, Koji Kato, Hirobumi Ooyoshi, Tomofumi Yoshida, Kenzo Tatsumi, Yoshiyuki Shimizu, Tomohiro Kubota
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A process cartridge includes a photosensitive drum, a charging unit, a developing unit, and a cleaning unit, arranged opposite to each other along a rotating direction of the photosensitive drum in an enclosure that has an opening opposite to a developing roller of the developing unit. An extended line connecting a tangent line to an outer circumference of the developing roller and a wall of a first end of the enclosure in an axial direction of the developing roller does not intersect with a wall of a second end of the enclosure.
Claims11
A process cartridge configured to be attached to a main body of an image forming apparatus in a detachable manner, the image forming apparatus including an exposing unit that forms an electrostatic latent image by irradiating a pattern light, and an intermediate transfer unit onto which a toner image is transferred, the process cartridge comprising:
- a photosensitive drum that is rotatably supported;
- a charging unit that uniformly charges the photosensitive drum;
- a developing unit that develops the electrostatic latent image formed on the photosensitive drum with toner to form a toner image on the photosensitive drum;
- a cleaning unit that cleans residual toner around the photosensitive drum after transferring the toner image onto the intermediate transfer unit;
- and
- a projection at a side of the process cartridge which guides the process cartridge in a vertical direction during insertion into the image forming apparatus,
- wherein the charging unit, the developing unit, and the cleaning unit are arranged next to the photosensitive drum in an enclosure,
- the enclosure has an opening through which a developing roller of the developing unit can be seen,
- an extended line passing through a tangent line to an outer circumference of the developing roller and a wall of a first end of the enclosure in an axial direction of the developing roller does not intersect with a wall of a second end of the enclosure,
- the opening extends to a top of the enclosure, and
- a first concave portion is formed on a first surface of the enclosure extending upwards next to the opening and a second concave portion is formed on a second surface of the enclosure on a side opposite to the first surface to be used as a handle.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.