US Patent Issued to CANON on March 11 for "Image forming apparatus including particular gear-shaft configuration" (Japanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,248,270, issued on March 11, was assigned to CANON K.K. (Tokyo).

"Image forming apparatus including particular gear-shaft configuration" was invented by Kazuki Takase (Shizuoka, Japan) and Sachiyori Shiina (Shizuoka, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An image forming apparatus includes: a driving source including an output shaft including a large diameter portion and a small diameter portion; a first gear including (i) a first portion provided with a first opening and (ii) a second portion provided with a second opening having a smaller diameter than that of the first opening, and (iii) gear teeth formed on an outer peripheral surfac...