Patent ID: 6385417
Filing Date: 2002-05-07
Classification: G03G

Abstract:
An image forming system comprising: an image forming unit for forming an image by using a developing material; a medium supplying portion for supplying an image forming medium to the image forming unit; a medium conveying portion for conveying said supplied image forming medium; a medium supplying/conveying controller for controlling the supplying/conveying of the image forming medium to said image forming unit by said medium supplying portion and the medium conveying portion; a transferring portion for transferring said image developed by said image forming unit to said image forming medium; and a fixing portion for fixing the transferred image,wherein said image forming unit comprises: an image holding member for converting an optical image formed via an optical system into a latent image and subsequently depositing said developing material thereon to hold the image on an image holding surface, said image holding member being provided with a support shaft movably fixed to a main body frame of said system; a developing roller disposed in a developing portion for supplying said developing material to develop said latent image held on said image holding surface as the image with said developing material, said developing roller being provided with a rotation drive shaft for supplying said developing material to said image holding surface; and a gap regulating mechanism which includes at least a first bearing for holding said support shaft of said image holding member, a gap setting portion, disposed at a predetermined distance from the first bearing in a direction of said image holding member, for holding said support shaft in the vicinity of said image holding member in an assisting manner, and a second bearing for rotatably holding said rotation drive shaft of said developing roller from the side of a developer and maintaining a distance between the image holding surface of said image holding member and the peripheral surface of said developing roller between said second bearing itself and said gap setting portion, said gap regulating mechanism setting a gap between two surfaces in such a manner that a constant fine gap is always continued to be maintained between said gap setting portion and said second bearing, and wherein at least one of said first and second bearing is formed by a positioning collar which is fitted into an attachment place of the frame of an image forming unit fixed on a main body side of said image forming system and which loosely supports the support shaft of said photosensitive drum inside its diametric direction to regulate a large displacement alone of the support shaft.