Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.

Konica-minolta Holdings, Inc.

Konica Corporation

Konica Minolta Technosearch Co., Ltd.

Akifumi Isobe

Yoshihito Sasamoto

Katsunori Takahashi

Kenji Tamaki

Akinori Kimata

Masashi Sugano

Tadayuki Ueda

Takashi Nara

Hiroyuki Watanabe

Satoshi Shimao

Yoshiki Katayama

Norio Joichi

Atsushi Takahashi

Akira Okamoto

Hiroyuki Futami

Kenji Yamamoto

Katsuyuki Ikuta

Hideki Nakamura

Eiji Nishikawa

Toshihiro Motoi

Satoshi Sakata

Youbao Peng

Kazumichi Yamauchi

Ryuji Okutomi

Hideo Yamane

Kosuke Masumoto

Shigeo Ogino

Hiroshi Matsumoto

Hideaki Tanaka

Jun Onishi

Masahito Takano

Naohiko Hanyu

Shinobu Kishi

Kiyoaki Kawamoto

Tetsuko Kurosu

Masaaki Goto

Yuhou Bou

An image forming apparatus includes first and second image-forming portions and an intermediate transporting portion. A control unit checks fixing units in the image-forming portions and determines whether or not the fixing unit in the first image-forming portion is a fixing unit for an envelope. If not, the control unit controls a manipulation and display unit to display guidance for urging a user to exchange the first fixing unit. If so, the control unit determines whether or not too fixing unit in the second image-forming portion is a fixing unit for an envelope. If not, the control portion controls a manipulation and display unit to display a guidance for urging a user to exchange the second fixing unit. If both of fixing units in the first and second image-forming portions are fixing units for the envelope, the control unit allows an envelope mode control operation.

Image forming apparatus

In a serial tandem image forming system having a plurality of image forming apparatuses, a double-side printing job can be performed in a way according to the needs of users by taking into consideration an adjustment operation. The serial tandem image forming system includes an upstream apparatusand a downstream apparatus, as the image forming apparatuses, each of which is capable of forming images on both sides of a sheet. When receiving a double-side printing job while one of the image forming apparatuses is performing the adjustment operation, a control unitdisplays information on a manipulation displaywhich prompts a user to select whether to immediately start the job by performing a single machine double-side printing process with the other image forming apparatus, or start the job by shifting to a tandem mode and performing a serial double-side printing process after the adjustment operation has finished.

Image forming system and method of controlling the same

An image forming system has a first image forming section to form an image on a sheet, wherein the first image forming section heats the sheet to fix the image on the sheet, a second image forming section to form an image to the sheet on which the image has been formed by the first image forming section, and a transporting section to transport the sheet from first image forming section to the second image forming section. The transporting section has a first transporting part to transport the sheet to a predetermined position, and a second transporting part to reverse a surface of the sheet which has been transported by the first transporting part as transporting the sheet from the predetermined position to an area below the predetermined position.

Image forming system

An image forming apparatus including, a photosensitive body for carrying toner images, a transfer section for nipping the recording sheet at a position facing the photosensitive body and transferring the toner images carried on the photosensitive body onto a recording sheet, a driving section for driving the photosensitive body, and a control section for giving instructions to the driving section to conduct a velocity control to rotate the photosensitive body at a predetermined velocity, wherein the control section sets a gain of velocity control to be greater than normal condition, at a time which is at least one of a time when the recording sheet enters the transfer section, or a time when the recording sheet separates from the transfer section.

Image forming apparatus with countermeasures against instantaneous fluctuation due to vibration

In order that the air surrounding a fixing member is prevented from entering a blowing section for blowing separation air, a wind speed setting section is provided with switchable control modes, namely, a first control mode (control mode for operating the blower fan at a wind speed for separation) and a second control mode (control mode for operating the blower fan at a low speed). This structure allows the blower fan to be controlled in conformity to any one of these first and second control modes.

Fixing device and image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus including: a photoreceptor for bearing a toner image; a transfer body onto which the toner image borne by the photoreceptor is transferred; a drive section for driving the photoreceptor and transfer body respectively, and a control section for controlling the drive section so as to drive the photoreceptor and transfer body at a predetermined driving speed, wherein the control section, under a state in which the control section controls to drive the transfer body at the predetermined driving speed, controls to: a) drive the photoreceptor while changing the driving speed of the photoreceptor within a range of driving speeds between low speed and high speed, including the predetermined driving speed, b) extract torque characteristics under the control which includes the change of driving speed of the photoreceptor, and c) determine the driving speed of the photoreceptor based on the extracted torque characteristics.

Disclosed is a fixing device, which makes it possible to prevent the air blasting section from deterioration, caused by heat transferred from the duct to the air blasting section. The fixing device includes a fixing section to fix the toner image onto the paper sheet; a heat source; and a separating section to separate the paper sheet from the pair of fixing members. On the other hand, the separating section includes: a gas blasting section to blast a gas; and a duct to guide the gas towards the pair of fixing members, and that is provided with a duct wall serving as a heat receiving surface to receive radiation heat irradiated from the fixing section, and at least one of the gas blasting section and the duct is provided with such a connection structure that suppresses heat transferring action from the duct to the gas blasting section.

Fixing device with a separation section configured to blast gas from a heat receiving duct, and image forming apparatus incorporating the same

Provided is an image forming apparatus which enables quick removal of remaining sheets in the image forming apparatus via an orthogonal reverse section in case a jam occurs inside the image forming apparatus. The image forming apparatus includes a main conveyance section to convey a sheet in the image forming apparatus and to convey the sheet to an ejected sheet section; an orthogonal reverse section to receive the sheet from the main conveyance section and turn over the sheet without swapping a front edge for a rear edge of the sheet by conveying the sheet in a direction perpendicular to a sheet conveyance direction of the main conveyance section and a sheet ejection section to eject the sheet in the orthogonal reverse section outside the orthogonal reverse section along a direction to turn over the sheet by the orthogonal reverse section.

A sheet reversing apparatus including: a right angle reversing conveyance section which reverses front/back sides of a sheet while changing a conveyance direction of the sheet, being conveyed in a first conveyance direction, to a second conveyance direction perpendicular to the first conveyance direction; a sheet skew sensor which detects a sheet skew of the sheet being conveyed by the right angle reversing conveyance section; and a sheet skew correction mechanism which corrects the sheet skew of the sheet while the sheet is being conveyed by the right angle reversing conveyance section.

Sheet reversing apparatus, image forming apparatus and sheet reversing method

An image forming apparatus including; an exposure section provided with, a light emitting element, a polygon mirror to receive light beams from the light emitting element, and to expose an image carrier using light beam via the polygon mirror based on image data; an image processing section to adjust image magnification by image processing of the image data; and, a control section configured to select at least either of a first magnification adjustment to change a rotation speed of the polygon mirror and a second magnification adjustment to carry out image processing of the image data by the image processing section, based on comparison results between a paper interval time during recording paper conveyance in image formation and the first magnification adjustment time required to stabilize polygon mirror rotation in the first magnification adjustment, when adjusting image magnification with respect to recording paper.

In an image forming apparatus that forms a color image by transferring toner images for respective colors formed on plural rotary photoreceptor drums onto a sheet through an intermediate transfer member, when a controller judges that magnification deviation is generated in a main-scanning direction in superposition of the toner images for respective colors, the controller forms a first color registration deviation detecting mark for detecting at least an amount of deviation in the main scanning direction on the intermediate transfer member, and when the controller judges that the magnification deviation is not generated in the main-scanning direction in the superposition of toner images for respective colors, the controller forms a second color registration deviation detecting mark for detecting only an amount of deviation in a sub scanning direction perpendicular to the main-scanning direction on the intermediate transfer member.

Image forming apparatus with temperature-based color control

A color image forming apparatus for forming toner images by carrying out charging, exposure, and development on at least one photoreceptor drum, and forming color images by transferring the toner images onto sheets, the color image forming apparatus including: a photoreceptor drum which rotates around an axis; an exposure section which intermittently emits a light beam onto the cylindrical surface of the rotating photoreceptor drum along scanning lines parallel to the axis of the photoreceptor drum; a calculation section which calculates a printing ratio of a color image to be formed on one sheet, wherein the printing ratio is the ratio of the area covered by toner in the color image; and a timing control section which controls a timing when the exposure section emits the light beam in a direction of rotation of the photoreceptor drum based on the printing ratio calculated by the calculation section.

Color image forming apparatus with exposure timing control based on printing ratio

Disclosed is an image forming apparatus, which makes it possible to appropriately conduct a controlling operation for eliminating the velocity fluctuation of the photoreceptor drum without generating any malfunction. The apparatus includes a photoreceptor member driven by a motor and a control section that is provided with a feed forward controlling section that stores parameters derived from driving errors for one revolution of the photoreceptor member to create a reverse-phase instruction value based on the parameters and a feedback controlling section that controls a velocity of the photoreceptor member, so as to keep the velocity of the photoreceptor member constant. During an initial operating time, the control section deactivates the feed forward controlling section, while only activates the feedback controlling section to drive the photoreceptor member so as to measure a driving toque of the driving motor, and selects a parameter from the parameters, corresponding to the driving toque measured.

An image forming apparatus having a color mode and a monochromatic mode, which includes: a transmission member, which can be switched between a transmitted state where a motor transfers a drive force to a single photoreceptor drum and a non-transmitted state where the motor does not transfer the drive force to the single photoreceptor drum; and a controller which switches to the non-transmitted state while executing an image formation in the monochromatic mode, and when a command to execute a next image formation is not instructed, switches to the transmitted state after a phase adjustment of each photoreceptor drum after the image formation in the monochromatic mode, and controls the motor to execute a slight rotation operation at every prescribed period of time by synchronizing plural drums including the single photoreceptor drum with each other through the transmission member.

A color image forming apparatus including: an image forming section which forms an image based on image information on an image carrier provided in the image forming section; a detection section which detects a print mark for color misalignment correction formed on the image carrier by the image forming section, and outputs print mark detection information; and a control section for executing color misalignment correction control based on the print mark detection information outputted from the detection section, wherein, the control section obtains a trend of a color misalignment amount of the print mark by statistically processing data of the result of the print mark detection, calculates an execution timing of color misalignment correction base on the obtained trend, and executes the color misalignment correction at the calculated execution timing.

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Hidaka, Japan

Akifumi Isobe