Image forming apparatus having widthwise adjustment of endless belt

{
  "publication_number": "US9575437B2",
  "country": "US",
  "kind": "B2",
  "title": "Image forming apparatus having widthwise adjustment of endless belt",
  "abstract": "An image forming apparatus includes a toner image carrying drum; and an image transfer unit including an endless belt, first and second belt stretching rollers, and an adjusting unit for adjusting belt movement in a widthwise direction by inclining the first roller relative to the second roller. The adjusting unit includes a contacting member provided between the first roller and the drum and contacting with an inner surface of the belt. The contacting member contacts the inner surface of the belt at a position in a drum side across a common internal tangent between the drum and such a portion of a surface of the first roller as is moved closest to the drum by the adjusting unit, the common internal tangent being the one contacting a portion of the drum adjacent to a drum-belt contact position and contacting a portion of the first roller adjacent to a first-roller-belt contact position.",
  "claims": [
    "1. An image forming apparatus comprising: an image bearing member configured to carry a toner image; a transfer unit configured to transfer the toner image from said image bearing member onto a transfer material, said transfer unit including a movable endless belt, a first stretching roller configured to stretch said belt, a second stretching roller configured to stretch said belt, and an adjusting unit configured to adjust movement of said belt in a widthwise direction of said belt by inclining said first stretching roller relative to said second stretching roller, wherein said transfer unit further includes a contacting member provided between said first stretching roller and said image bearing member in a moving direction of said belt and contacting with an inner surface of said belt, said contacting member is supported such that said contacting member contacts the inner surface of said belt at a position in an image bearing member side across a common internal tangent between a surface of said image bearing member and such a portion of a surface of said first stretching roller as is moved closest to said image bearing member by said adjusting unit, the common internal tangent contacting a portion of said image bearing member where said image bearing member contacts said belt and contacting a portion of said first stretching roller where said first stretching roller contacts said belt, and wherein said contacting member is supplied with a voltage to transfer the toner image from said image bearing member toward said belt.",
    "2. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said contacting member is disposed at a position away from a contact region between said belt and said image bearing member with respect to the moving direction of said belt.",
    "3. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said contacting member contacts an entire widthwise area of said belt irrespective of an amount of inclination of said first stretching roller relative to said second stretching roller.",
    "4. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said contacting member includes a metal roller rotatable along with the movement of said belt.",
    "5. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said first stretching roller is a tension roller urged by urging means at the inner surface side of said belt toward an outer peripheral surface side thereof.",
    "6. An apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said second stretching roller is a driving roller configured to move the belt.",
    "7. An apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said driving roller and said tension roller provide a stretched belt surface contacted by said image bearing member.",
    "8. An apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising an additional image bearing member configured to carry a different color toner image, wherein said additional image bearing member contacts said stretched belt surface and is disposed at a position further from said tension roller than said image bearing member.",
    "9. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said adjusting unit synchronously moves opposite axial end portions of said first stretching roller in opposite directions from each other.",
    "10. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said belt is an intermediary transfer belt configured to receive the toner image from said image bearing member by primary-transfer.",
    "11. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said belt is a feeding belt configured to feed a transfer material for receiving the toner image from said image bearing member."
  ],
  "description_excerpt": "The present invention relates to a transfer unit which has an endless belt and multiple components by which the endless belt is suspended and kept tensioned, and which circularly moves the endless belt. It relates to also an image forming apparatus such as a printer, a copying machine, and a facsimile machine, which are equipped with the transfer unit.\n\nGenerally speaking, some image forming apparatuses such as printers and copying machines which use an electrophotographic image forming method, for example, are equipped with a transfer unit, which has an endless belt and multiple components by which the endless belt is suspended and kept tensioned, and which circularly moves the endless belt. Further, some transfer units are equipped with an intermediary transferring component for transferring (secondary transfer) a toner image onto a sheet of transfer medium, such as a sheet of recording paper, after the transfer (primary transfer) of the toner image onto the intermediary transferring component, or a belt, as a transfer medium bearing component which bears and conveys a sheet of transfer medium onto which a toner image is transferred from an image bearing component. Transfer units such as those described above form a transfer nip (transferring section), which is the area of contact between the image bearing component and belt, and in which a toner image is transferred onto the belt, or the transfer medium on the belt.",
  "cpc": [
    "G03G 15/1605",
    "G03G 15/1615"
  ],
  "ipc": [
    "G03G 15/01",
    "G03G 15/16"
  ],
  "assignees": [
    "Canon Inc"
  ],
  "inventors": [
    "Katsuhiko Oba",
    "Takeo Kawanami"
  ],
  "filing_date": "2015-12-11",
  "publication_date": "2017-02-21",
  "grant_date": "2017-02-21",
  "priority_date": "2014-12-11",
  "application_number": "US-201514966488-A",
  "family_id": "56111062",
  "cited_by_count": 4,
  "citations": [
    "JPH09160393A",
    "JPH11116089A",
    "US20020034400A1",
    "JP2008058560A",
    "US20080310891A1",
    "US20100310286A1",
    "US20120328337A1",
    "JP2014105105A"
  ]
}