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Image Forming Apparatus and Process Cartridge Therefor Europäisches Patentamt *EP001271259A1* (19) European Patent Office Office européen des brevets (11) EP 1 271 259 A1 (12) EUROPEAN PATENT APPLICATION (43) Date of publication: (51) Int Cl.7: G03G 15/01, G03G 21/18 02.01.2003 Bulletin 2003/01 (21) Application number: 02014163.6 (22) Date of filing: 25.06.2002 (84) Designated Contracting States: • Takahashi, Mitsuru, c/o Ricoh Co., Ltd. AT BE CH CY DE DK ES FI FR GB GR IE IT LI LU Tokyo 143-8555 (JP) MC NL PT SE TR • Katoh, Kohki, c/o Ricoh Co., Ltd. Designated Extension States: Tokyo 143-8555 (JP) AL LT LV MK RO SI • Kawagoe, Katsuya, c/o Ricoh Co., Ltd. Tokyo 143-8555 (JP) (30) Priority: 26.06.2001 JP 2001192317 • Ogiyama, Hiromi, c/o Ricoh Co., Ltd. Tokyo 143-8555 (JP) (71) Applicant: Ricoh Company, Ltd. • Tamiya, Takahiro, c/o Ricoh Co., Ltd. Tokyo 143-8555 (JP) Tokyo 143-8555 (JP) (72) Inventors: (74) Representative: Barz, Peter, Dr. • Sugino, Akihiro, c/o Ricoh Co., Ltd. Patentanwalt Tokyo 143-8555 (JP) Kaiserplatz 2 • Sawai, Yuuji, c/o Ricoh Co., Ltd. 80803 München (DE) Tokyo 143-8555 (JP) (54) Image forming apparatus and process cartridge therefor (57) An image forming apparatus (100) comprises recording medium. A transport unit (10) transports the a latent image support (40) which supports an electro- recording medium so that the image support surface is static latent image. A charging unit (60) charges a sur- countered to a surface of the recording medium. The face of the image support. A latent image formation unit surface of the image support has a coefficient of friction forms an electrostatic latent image on the image support ranging from 0.1 to 0.7 according to Euler belt method, surface. A developing unit (61) develops the latent im- and a difference between a speed of the image support age with toner to form a toner image. A transfer unit (62) and a speed of the recording medium is below 1%, and transfers the toner image from the image support to a the image support has an outermost surface containing a filler and a binder resin. EP 1 271 259 A1 Printed by Jouve, 75001 PARIS (FR) EP 1 271 259 A1 Description 1. Field of The Invention 5 [0001] The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, such as a copier, a printer or a facsimile, and relates to a process cartridge used for the image forming apparatus. More specifically, the image forming apparatus of the present invention includes a plurality of image formation units. Each image formation unit includes a latent image support for supporting an electrostatic latent image, and a charging unit for charging the latent image support surface. A latent image formation unit forms an electrostatic latent image on the latent image support. A developing unit develops 10 and forms the electrostatic latent image into a toner image. A transfer unit transfers the toner image on the latent image support to a recording medium. Moreover, the present invention relates to a process cartridge used for the image forming apparatus having the plurality of image formation units each equipped with the recording medium surface side the transfer unit to which the recording medium surface side is moved so that the surface of each latent image support of the image formation units is countered one by one. 15 2. Description of The Related Art [0002] With the electro-photographic equipment, color printers and color copiers performing color image formation are increasing with the demand from the market today. 20 [0003] Among the color electro-photographic equipment, there is a one-drum type image forming apparatus in which the surroundings of one photoconductor are equipped with the developing units of two or more colors, a toner is adhered with those developing units, a synthetic toner image is formed on the photoconductor, the toner image is transferred to a copy sheet, and it is fixed as a printed color image on the copy sheet. On the other hand, there is a tandem type image forming apparatus in which two or more photoconductors are equipped with individual developing units respec- 25 tively, a monochrome toner image is formed on each photoconductor respectively, those monochrome toner images are transferred one by one, a synthetic color image is printed on a copy sheet. [0004] A description will now be given of comparison between the one-drum type and the tandem type. In the one- drum type, the number of photoconductors is one, and the miniaturization can be easily attained and the one-drum type has the advantage that the cost reduction is possible. However, in order to repeat the image formation two or 30 more times (usually 4 times) using one photoconductor and to form a full color image, the improvement in the speed of image formation is difficult. [0005] On the other hand, in the case of the tandem type, the scale of the equipment becomes large, which causes a problem that the equipment becomes expensive. However, the tandem type image forming apparatus has an ad- vantage that the improvement in the speed of image formation is easy. 35 [0006] There is an increasing demand for a full color image being formed at a high speed that is the same as the speed of monochrome image formation, and the tandem type has attracted attention. [0007] In the case of the tandem type, four photoconductors are arranged in parallel for each color image formation of cyan, magenta, yellow and black, and the image forming apparatus of the tandem type needs to make smaller the diameter of each of the photoconductors and shorten the distances between the four photoconductors, in order to 40 create more space, reduce the equipment size, and achieve cost saving. [0008] As a transfer method to transfer a toner image from a photoconductor to a recording medium, there are an indirect transfer method in which a bias roller is arranged at a downstream portion of the photoconductor, and a direct impression method in which the pressure of an elastic roller as a bias roller on the photoconductor is directly applied to a recording medium between the elastic roller and the photoconductor. 45 [0009] FIG. 7 shows a direct transfer method in a conventional tandem type image forming apparatus. As shown in FIG. 7, in the direct transfer method, an image on each of photoconductors 1 is transferred to a recording sheet "s", which is transported by a sheet transport belt 3, by using a corresponding one of transfer units 2, respectively. [0010] In a conventional indirect transfer method, if the diameter of each of the photoconductors and the distances between the photoconductors are reduced in order for the miniaturization and cost saving, it becomes difficult to control 50 the electric current which flows from the bias roller into the photoconductor. [0011] FIG. 6 shows an indirect transfer method in a conventional tandem type image forming apparatus. In FIG. 6, reference numeral 40BK indicates a photoconductor for a black image, reference numeral 40Y indicates a photocon- ductor for a yellow image, and reference numeral 10 indicates an intermediate transfer belt which is brought into contact with these photoconductors in common. 55 [0012] As shown in FIG. 6, a bias roller 603BK pushes up the intermediate transfer belt 10 indirectly from the upstream side of the intermediate transfer belt 10 about the photoconductor 40BK in the conveyance direction. The pressure of the belt 10 is applied to the intermediate transfer belt 10 against the photoconductor 40BK. Reference numeral 603BK' indicates an auxiliary roller, and the auxiliary roller 603BK' currently pushes up the intermediate transfer belt 10 from 2 EP 1 271 259 A1 the downstream side of the intermediate transfer belt 10 about the photoconductor 40BK. [0013] Similarly, reference numeral 603Y indicates a bias roller for the photoconductor 40Y, and reference numeral 603Y' indicates an auxiliary roller. [0014] The auxiliary rollers 603BK and 603Y are grounded respectively, and the bias roller 603BK and 603Y are 5 connected to bias power supplies, respectively. For example, if the electric current i2 which flows to the ground side from the bias roller 603BK is larger than the electric current i1 which flows into the photoconductor 40BK, it becomes difficult to keep constant the electric current i1 which flows into the photoconductor 40BK. [0015] The intermediate transfer belt is usually made of a material with middle resistance, and when changes of resistance and electrostatic capacitance according to the environment cause the electric current i2 to fluctuate, it is 10 very difficult to maintain the transfer conditions of the intermediate transfer belt uniformly by keeping the electric current i1 constant. [0016] The ratio of the electric current i2 to the electric current i1 becomes large as the distance L between the photoconductor 40BK and the photoconductor 40Y becomes small. The electric current control will become more difficult in such a case. To avoid this, the bias roller is arranged at the downstream side of the photoconductor in the 15 rotation direction of the intermediate transfer belt 10. Moreover, to avoid the influences on the other photoconductors as much as possible, it is necessary to take a slightly large distance between the photoconductors and more space than the direct transfer method. [0017] For this reason, in order to attain the miniaturization of equipment, in the tandem type image forming apparatus having the four-drum photoconductors and the intermediate transfer mechanism, the direct transfer method is adopted 20 in many cases. By the direct transfer method, the bias roller serves as a configuration which counters a photoconductor from the front through the intermediate transfer belt, and the electric current which flows into the photoconductor de- creases very much, and it becomes possible to keep constant the electric current which flows into the photoconductor.
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