Konica Minolta, Inc.

Akimasa Ishikawa

Yumiko Izumiya

Hitoshi Asano

Hirotada Seki

Junichi Masuda

Kazutoshi Yoshimura

Masahiro Nonoyama

Yasuo Koyanagi

Tatsuya Eguchi

Atsushi Takahashi

Kouei Cho

Yohei Yamada

Hideki Nakamura

Takeshi Ishida

Satoshi Ogata

Masahiro Kamiya

Takahiro Tsujimoto

Toru Kasamatsu

Yuta Tachibana

Taku Kimura

Mikiyuki Aoki

Yuhei Tatsumoto

Hiroshi Eguchi

Makoto Shimazoe

Naoto Sugaya

Natsuyo Ida

A sheet characteristic detection device includes: a detector that is disposed on a sheet ejection path through which a sheet is ejected and that detects an electrical resistance value of the sheet; and a charge neutralizer that is disposed on a downstream side of the detector on the sheet ejection path and that neutralizes electric charge on the sheet.

Sheet characteristic detection device, image forming system including the same, and image forming apparatus

Provided is an image forming system capable of accurately detecting the resistance of a recording material. The image forming system includes an application roller that applies a voltage to a recording material on a conveyance path, and a controller that calculates the electric resistance of the recording material from a relationship between the voltage applied to the application roller and a current. The controller calculates the resistance of the recording material based on first profile information that is acquired by changing the applied voltage and corresponds to a change in the resistance of the application roller, and second profile information that is acquired by changing the applied voltage in a state where the recording material is sandwiched and corresponds to the change in the resistance of the application roller.

Image forming system, resistance detection device, resistance detection method, and program

An image forming apparatus includes an image former that forms an image on a sheet of paper, a detector that detects a physical property of a sheet of paper, a receiver that receives paper identification information used in identification of a sheet of paper designated by a user, and a hardware processor. The hardware processor performs: first judgement of judging whether or not there is a correspondence between the paper identification information received by the receiver and a detection result by the detector, second judgement of judging whether or not there is a correspondence between a detection result by the detector of a first sheet of paper conveyed and a detection result by the detector of a second sheet of paper conveyed; and operation control of the image former based on a first judgement result in the first judgement and a second judgement result in the second judgement.

Image forming apparatus

Provided are an image forming system and a method for detecting glossiness capable of accurately detecting glossiness in various media having different conditions. The image forming system includes a sensor unit including a light source that irradiates a medium being conveyed with light and a gloss sensor that receives light emitted from the light source and specularly reflected on the medium and detects a diffusion distribution of light in the medium, and a detection condition setting unit that identifies a type of the medium being conveyed and sets a light amount of the light source and/or exposure time of the gloss sensor at the time of glossiness detection in accordance with the type of the medium. The image forming system further includes a glossiness detector that detects glossiness of the medium from a diffusion distribution of light detected by the gloss sensor under the detection condition set by the detection condition setting unit.

Image forming system and method for detecting glossiness

To provide a sheet conveyance device capable of preventing degradation in quality of conveying a sheet and image quality even when a stiffness of the sheet is different between a sheet conveyance direction and a sheet width direction. A sheet conveyance device of an image forming apparatus includes an image forming part that conveys a sheet along a conveyance path; and a stiffness acquisition part that acquires a stiffness of the sheet in a first direction including a component in the sheet conveyance direction by bending the sheet in the first direction, and acquires a stiffness of the sheet in a second direction including a component in the sheet width direction orthogonal to the sheet conveyance direction by bending the sheet in the second direction.

Sheet conveyance device and image forming apparatus

A glossiness inspection device includes an illumination device that emits irradiation light to a glossiness detection target and a light receiving device that receives reflected light of the irradiation light reflected by the glossiness detection target and outputs a light reception detection signal according to an amount of the received light. A dimmer of the device adjusts an amount of the irradiation light, and a detection signal adjuster of the device adjusts a gain for amplifying the light reception detection signal. An irradiation position controller of the device selectively irradiates a first gloss region and a second gloss region of a correction plate with the irradiation light. A hardware processor of the device adjusts at least one of the amount of the irradiation light, an offset of the detection signal adjuster, a characteristic straight line for calculating a glossiness, or a calculated glossiness.

Glossiness inspection device, glossiness inspection method, and image forming apparatus

A measuring device, includes a physical property value detector and a push contact member that pushes to bring a sheet material in contact with the physical property value detector; and further includes a first processor that stops conveyance of the sheet material, pushes to bring the sheet material in contact with the physical property value detector, and detects a physical property value of the sheet material; a second processor that, after having detected the physical property value, cancels the pushing by the push contact member, separates the sheet material from the physical property value detector, and starts conveyance of the sheet material; and a physical property value specifier that specifies the physical property value on a basis of physical property values of a plurality of positions within a surface of the sheet material detected by executing the first processing and the second processing repeatedly.

Measuring device, image forming apparatus, and measuring method

An image forming apparatus includes: a conveyance path that conveys a sheet; registration rollers that are arranged across the conveyance path and each comprise a nip part; a sheet locking member that locks a front end of a sheet conveyed in the conveyance path, where the sheet locking member swings between a first attitude and a second attitude, in the first attitude the sheet locking member locks the sheet on an upstream side of the nip part, and in the second attitude the sheet locking member is retracted to a downstream side of the nip part and allows the sheet to pass through the nip part; an energizer that energizes the sheet locking member to maintain the first attitude; and a hardware processor that detects deterioration of the energizer.

Image forming apparatus that detects deterioration of a spring used to bias a sheet locking member

An image forming apparatus includes: a first rotor and a second rotor that are each a rotatable member; a first movable member including the first rotor or a transferer that transfers power of the first rotor to another member; a second movable member including the second rotor or a transferer that transfers power of the second rotor to another member; a hardware processor that drives simultaneously the first rotor and the second rotor at mutually different numbers of revolutions or speeds, and performs abnormality diagnosis on the first movable member and the second movable member, based on the sounds of operation acquired by the sound acquirer; and a sound acquirer that acquires sounds of operation of the first movable member and the second movable member with the first rotor and the second rotor being driven by the hardware processor.

Image forming apparatus with abnormality diagnosis, image forming system with abnormality diagnosis, and control program of image forming apparatus with abnormality diagnosis

A phase control device includes: at least one switching element connected to an AC power source, the switching element being capable of: turning on and off at specified timings; delivering AC power to a load upon turn-on and cutting it off upon turn-off; and keeping an on-time from the start to the end of turn-on and an off-time from the start to the end of turn-off, the on-time and off-time being variable; a timing setting portion that sets a turn-on and turn-off timing for turning on and off the switching element; a judgment portion that judges whether or not the turn-on and turn-off timing are on at a phase within a first or second phase range; and a processor that starts turning on and off the switching element at the turn-on and turn-off timing, the processor being capable of adjusting the on-time and off-time depending on the judgment result.

Phase control device, image forming apparatus, and recording medium

An image forming apparatus drives and rotates at least one of a photosensitive drum and a transport roller with use of a stepping motor in a multi-phase excitation mode. The image forming apparatus includes: a constant-voltage control unit controlling the stepping motor by applying a constant voltage for each phase; a constant-current control unit controlling the stepping motor by regulating an amount of current for each phase by a chopping control; a measuring unit measuring a chopping count of each phase on a per-step basis; a chopping count determination unit determining whether the chopping count of each phase is less than or equal to a predetermined count; and a control switching unit causing the constant-voltage control unit to control the stepping motor when the chopping count determination unit determines affirmatively, and causing the constant-current control unit to control the stepping motor when the chopping count determination unit determines negatively.

An image forming apparatus for performing laser exposure is provided. The image forming apparatus includes a driving circuit for supplying drive current to a laser light source in accordance with an image pulse signal; a pulse width expansion portion for expanding a pulse width of the image pulse signal supplied to the driving circuit; and an adjustment control portion for setting, based on state data indicating a state related to light emission start characteristics of the laser light source, a value of the bias current supplied as a part of the drive current to the laser light source and an amount of expansion of the pulse width in such a manner that laser light emission occurs in a period of time having a length equal to a length of a pulse width of each pulse in the image pulse signal.

Image forming apparatus that matches laser light emission time to pulse width of image pulse signal

An image forming apparatus that forms a color image by layering toner images of different colors includes: a photoreceptor on which an electrostatic latent image is formed through charging and exposure; an exposure unit performing exposure-scanning on the photoreceptor in accordance with image signal; an intensity determination unit determining exposure intensity according to image forming condition; and a timing determination unit determining a timing of inputting image signal for each scanning line, wherein the exposure unit has a delay duration differing depending on the exposure intensity and being from input of image signal of each pixel to be exposed to exposure of the pixel at the exposure intensity, and the timing determination unit obtains the delay duration corresponding to the exposure intensity, and determines the timing such that image signal of an initial pixel to be initially exposed is input the delay duration before the initial pixel is exposed.

Growing community of inventors

Toyokawa, Japan

Akimasa Ishikawa