Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.

Konica Minolta, Inc.

Konica Corporation

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation

Nec Corporation

Nec Toshiba Space Systems, Ltd.

Akira Okamoto

Kazutoshi Yoshimura

Kazumichi Yamauchi

Hideki Nakamura

Kenji Yamamoto

Satoshi Sakata

Hiroyuki Futami

Akifumi Isobe

Keigo Ogura

Katsuyuki Ikuta

Masatoshi Ogawa

Yoshiki Katayama

Hideo Yamane

Katsunori Takahashi

Toru Mori

Takashi Nara

Yasuyuki Nakamura

Youbao Peng

Teruhiko Toyoizumi

Yoshimi Kubo

Hiroyuki Watanabe

Norio Joichi

Kenji Kato

Takahiro Yokoya

Tatsuo Ishizuka

Wataru Hamamoto

Akihisa Sato

A stacker device includes: a discharger that discharges sheets in response to a print job; a first tray on which the discharged sheets are stacked; a second tray that serves as a delivery destination of the sheets stacked on the first tray; a shutter that covers an opening on a front side of a housing; a driver that moves the first tray in an up-down direction; and a hardware processor that shuts off power to the driver based on a height position of the shutter and a position of the second tray in a front-rear direction.

Stacker device and image forming system

An air conditioner includes an indoor equipment, a wiring connected to the indoor equipment at one end, and a communication interface connected to another end of the wiring and electrically connected to the indoor equipment via the wiring. The communication interface includes a housing made of resin, an insertion hole formed in the housing and into which a communication module of a cartridge type is inserted, and a control board provided inside the housing. The communication interface includes a first connector provided on a board surface of the control board and electrically connected to the communication module. The communication interface includes a pattern wiring provided on the board surface and discharging static electricity from the communication module before the communication module is electrically connected to the first connector.

Air conditioner

An image forming system includes: a first image forming apparatus; and a second image forming apparatus connected on a downstream side of the first image forming apparatus in a paper conveying direction, wherein the first image forming apparatus includes: a first expander that expands a first image having image expansion time per page including first time; and a first image former that forms the first image expanded by the first expander, onto a first face of paper, and the second image forming apparatus includes: a second expander that expands a second image having image expansion time per page including second time longer than the first time; and a second image former that forms the second image expanded by the second expander, onto the first face on which the first image has been formed.

Image forming system including a first image forming apparatus and a second image forming apparatus connected on a downstream side of the first image forming apparatus

An image formation apparatus having a recording medium held between a photosensitive drum and a transfer belt and transferring a toner image from the photosensitive drum to the recording medium includes: a first heating unit to which power is supplied directly from outside when power of the apparatus is off; a second heating unit used in heating control when the power of the apparatus is on; a humidity detection unit configured to detect humidity inside the apparatus; and a control unit configured to, when the power of the apparatus is on, heat the transfer belt by controlling the first heating unit and the second heating unit on the basis of output of the humidity detection unit, wherein the transfer belt is heated by the first heating unit when the power of the apparatus is off.

Image formation apparatus

An air conditioner includes an indoor device that is controlled by a remote controller and an outdoor device that is connected to the indoor device. The outdoor device is configured to include an outdoor-device state-quantity acquisition unit (a compressor-data acquisition unit and a heat-exchanger-data acquisition unit) that acquires an outdoor-device state quantity indicating a state quantity, acquired during maintenance and during a test run, of a component included in the outdoor device. The indoor device is configured to include an indoor-device state-quantity acquisition unit (a heat-exchanger-data acquisition unit) that acquires an indoor-device state quantity indicating a state quantity, acquired during maintenance and during a test run, of a component included in the indoor device, and a storage unit that stores therein the outdoor-device state quantity and the indoor-device state quantity.

An image forming apparatus includes a processor and heaters which heat a fixing member of an image fixing device. The processor calculates an application pattern for the heaters based on a temperature of the fixing member and generates a drive voltage by suitably selecting half waves from an AC waveform of an AC power supply according to the application pattern. When a duration of time the drive voltage is applied to a first heater in the application pattern having a duty cycle of a predetermined level or less exceeds a predetermined period of time, (i) the processor turns off the first heater and turns on a second heater with a different distribution, or (ii) the processor increases the duty cycle of the first heater and decreases a duty cycle of the second heater.

Image forming apparatus

A fixing device includes a roller, a plurality of heaters, a temperature detection unit, and a control unit, wherein when the temperature detection unit detects that the temperature of longitudinal end portions of the roller is lower than a preset reference temperature, the control unit performs full-lighting control on the heater with the largest amount of heat supply to the end portions of the roller, out of the plurality of heaters, and performs lighting control on the heater with the second largest amount of heat supply to the end portions of the roller in a pattern at a predetermined duty ratio, or performs lighting control on the heater with the largest amount of heat supply to the end portions of the roller in a pattern at a predetermined duty ratio, and turns off the heater with the second largest amount of heat supply to the end portions of the roller.

Fixing device and image forming apparatus

An image forming system having a preceding stage apparatus for forming a toner image on a paper sheet, and a subsequent stage apparatus, connected downstream of the preceding stage apparatus, for forming a toner image on the paper sheet ejected from the preceding stage apparatus, includes: a first maintenance counter correlating with a part, subject to maintenance, in the preceding stage apparatus; a second maintenance counter correlating with a part, subject to maintenance, in the subsequent stage apparatus, in response to the first maintenance counter; a counter control section for increasing a count value of the first and the second maintenance counters by a first and a second designated value, respectively, in response to formation of a toner image on the paper sheet; and a setting section for setting the first and second designated values individually based on an operation mode of the image forming system.

Image forming system and maintenance method of image forming system

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.

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 includes: a sheet conveyance section having a sheet storing member to store sheets that have been aligned in a prescribed placing direction, which conveys a sheet stored in the sheet storing member; an image forming section having an image carrier, which forms an image on the image carrier; an image transfer section which transfers the image formed on the image carrier onto a sheet conveyed by the sheet conveyance section; a winding detection section which detects whether or not the sheet conveyed by the sheet conveyance section is wound around the image carrier; and a controller which controls to instruct an operator to conduct a change operation of the placing direction of the sheets stored in the sheet storing member based on a sheet winding detection signal outputted from the winding detection section.

Image forming apparatus and image forming system with winding detection

An image forming apparatus provided with a sheet feeding tray to store sheets for image forming; a sheet feeding section to feed the sheets form the sheet feeding tray so as to supply the sheets for the image forming; and a control section to individually administer remaining sheets stored in the sheet feeding tray in advance and replenishment sheets replenished when the sheet feeding tray is replenished with the sheets in a state where the sheets stored in the sheet feeding tray in advance is remaining. Whereby, a JOB can be continued or aborted appropriately with reference to information and remaining amounts of remaining sheets and replenishment sheets in one sheet feeding tray, since the information and the remaining amounts are administered individually.

There are provided a plurality of sheet feed trays in which sheets are stored, a sheet feeding section which enables a continuous sheet feeding of sheets stored in the above sheet feed tray, and a control section which controls the above sheet feeding section and has an auto tray switch function, and the aforesaid control section obtains information on an amount of sheets stored in the above sheet feed tray, during a continuous sheet feeding from the above sheet feed tray, and judges whether or not the amount of the remaining sheets in the above sheet feed tray satisfies the prescribed condition. In the case where the above prescribed condition is satisfied, the control section stops motion of sheet feeding from the above sheet feed tray while leaving sheets in the above sheet feed tray.

Sheet feeding device and image forming apparatus with a plurality of sheet feed trays

A sheet supply device including an elevation section for up and down movement of the sheet bundle accommodated on the sheet placement table, blow sections for blowing air to the upper side surface of the sheet bundle to float up the sheet from the aforementioned sheet bundle, and a non-contact sheet detection sensor for detecting the existence or nonexistence of a sheet at the predetermined position of the aforementioned sheet placement table. The elevation drive motor is controlled in such a way as to move the sheet bundle up and down, based on the frequency or ratio of the sheet existence in the detection result of the sheet detection sensor in the operation mode of the blow section.

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Hino, Japan

Akira Okamoto