Patent 7546068 was granted and assigned to Konica Minolta on June, 2009 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A resin-made holding member made of an integrally built spring and holder wherein the spring is made up of a plurality of ring-shaped elastic pieces connected with one another, and the average wall thickness of each elastic piece at the end in the longest axial direction of inner diameter of the ring shape is greater than the average wall thickness of other portions.