Patent ID: 11874613
Assignee: RICOH COMPANY, LTD.
Field: Optics (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 6:
7. A powder container, comprising:
a nozzle receiving opening at one side of the powder container in a longitudinal direction of the powder container;
a container body to contain powder;
a nozzle receiver, attached to the container body at the one side of the powder container, the nozzle receiver including the nozzle receiving opening;
two protrusions, at the one side and integrated with the nozzle receiver, which protrude away from the nozzle receiving opening toward another side which is opposite to the one side in the longitudinal direction;
a gear, at the one side, to rotate around a rotational axis extending in the longitudinal direction;
two scoops, at the one side, each of the scoops integrated with a corresponding one of the protrusions, to scoop up the powder when the scoops are rotated, due to rotation of the gear, about the rotational axis from a lower position within the powder container and to drop the powder from a higher position within the powder container which is higher than the lower position;
a shutter, at the one side, to open and close the nozzle receiving opening;
a spring to bias the shutter to close the nozzle receiving opening; and
a region, at the one side, which is closer to the rotational axis than the protrusions, the region including at least a portion of the spring when the shutter is at a closed position,
wherein:
the scoops extend in the longitudinal direction along a first length, the container body extends in the longitudinal direction along a second length, and a position of the first length and a position of the second length at least partly overlap along the longitudinal direction,
the powder dropped from the higher position enters the region by passing between the protrusions when the scoops are rotated about the rotational axis, and
the protrusions are rotated, due to the rotation of the gear, around the region when the scoops are rotated about the rotational axis.