ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,578,667, issued on March 17, was assigned to Sumitomo Riko Co. Ltd. (Aichi, Japan).
"Charging roll for electrophotographic machine" was invented by Yoshihiro Saito (Aichi, Japan), Junichiro Suenaga (Aichi, Japan) and Manami Murai (Aichi, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "In a charging roll, at least one groove extending in a direction within plus-minus46deg relative to a circumferential direction is regularly formed in an axial direction on an outer peripheral surface of an elastic body layer. The groove has a width of 4 to 30 micro metre and a depth of 2 to 12 micro metre. A planar part being a portion of the outer peripheral surfac...