Oblon, Spivak, McClelland, Maier & Neustadt, P.C.
Image forming apparatus including an image carrier and a polarization uniforming structure
An image forming apparatus of the present invention includes a latent image forming device for forming a latent image on an image carrier and a developing device for developing the latent image with toner to thereby form a corresponding toner image. The surface of an intermediate image transfer body is movable and includes an high-resistance layer having a volume resistivity of 1010 &OHgr;&middot;cm or above. A primary image transferring device transfers the toner image from the image carrier to the intermediate image transfer body. Secondary image transferring device transfers the toner image from the intermediate image transfer body to a sheet. A polarization uniforming device uniforms, at the beginning of an image forming operation, polarization left in the high-resistance layer while preserving the polarity of the polarization after the surface of the intermediate image transfer body has started moving, but before the toner image is transferred from the image carrier to the secondary image transfer body.
Ricoh Company, Ltd.
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additional inventional inventional
Takahiro Shinichi Shigeru
Tamiya Namekata Watanabe