US Patent Issued to RICOH on July 1 for "Developing device, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus" (Japanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 3 -- United States Patent no. 12,346,060, issued on July 1, was assigned to RICOH COMPANY LTD. (Tokyo).

"Developing device, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus" was invented by Taira Otsuka (Kanagawa, Japan), Hiroshi Hosokawa (Kanagawa, Japan), Kazuki Matsumoto (Kanagawa, Japan) and Hiroyuki Sugiyama (Kanagawa, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A developing device includes a plurality of conveyance passages, an opening portion, and a filter. Developer is conveyed in the plurality of conveyance passages in a longitudinal direction of the developing device. The opening portion is disposed in one conveyance passage of the plurality of conveyance passages and c...