ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,498,664, issued on Dec. 16, was assigned to Ricoh Co. Ltd. (Tokyo).
"Intermediate transfer unit and image forming apparatus" was invented by Nobuo Kuwabara (Kanagawa, Japan) and Hiroaki Takagi (Kanagawa, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An intermediate transfer unit includes an intermediate transfer belt, a housing, a grip, and a cover. The housing supports a plurality of stretching rollers stretching the intermediate transfer belt and has a downstream plate in a pull-out direction of the intermediate transfer unit. The downstream plate is orthogonal to the pull-out direction. The grip is on the downstream plate. The cover covers the...