Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Atsushi Nakamoto

Makoto Fukatsu

Manami Haraguchi

Kazunari Hagiwara

Koichi Yamazaki

Shuhei Tokiwa

Masayoshi Kato

Tatsuaki Orihara

Shinnosuke Koshizuka

Kazunori Suzuki

Takeshi Yamamoto

Kazuhiro Doda

Satoshi Nishida

Yoshio Hattori

Nobuo Takami

Tsuguhiro Yoshida

Seiichi Kogure

Tatsuya Kubo

Isamu Takeda

Takahiro Kawamoto

Yoshiyuki Fukuda

Takuya Akiyama

Naohiro Kawashima

Daisuke Hamada

Yuuki Aoki

Yutaka Goto

Tadashi Ogawa

Toshio Koike

Kazuhisa Kemmochi

Hiroaki Okamoto

Kenji Kikuchi

Hideo Nanataki

Yasunori Chigono

Takanori Mitani

Tetsuro Hirota

Kazuyuki Sato

Takehide Mizutani

Akimichi Suzuki

Osamu Ichihashi

Shoichiro Ikegami

Naoto Kochi

Masakazu Imai

Katsuhito Haruno

Hironori Ohshima

Hiroshi Hosokawa

Masao Suzuki

Junpei Fujita

Hideki Kosugi

Kohei Wakatsu

Toshihiko Takayama

Toshiyuki Watanabe

Takeshi Shinji

Teppei Kikuchi

Kei Inoue

Masahito Omata

Yasuhito Minamishima

Nozomu Nakajima

Taro Minobe

Maki Okajima

Naoki Kanno

Keizo Kojima

Yasuhiro Horiguchi

Yasuyuki Matsumoto

Shohei Fukuya

An image forming apparatus includes first and second rotatable members forming a nip therebetween, a heater disposed in inside of the second rotatable member, a first temperature sensor provided on a center of the heater, a second temperature sensor provided on an end side of the heater. A controller controls a feeding interval in which a trailing edge of a preceding sheet passes through the nip until a leading edge of a subsequent sheet reaches the nip. The controller controls the feeding interval to be a first interval in a case which a feeding speed of the sheet is a first speed and a detected temperature by the second sensor is a first temperature, and to be a second interval shorter than the first interval in a case which the feeding speed is a second speed lower than the first speed and the detected temperature is the first temperature.

Image forming apparatus that forms images on a recording material

A heating apparatus includes a tubular film, a heater, a first support member including a first regulation surface, and configured to rotatably support a first end of the film, a second support member including a second regulation surface, and configured to rotatably support a second end of the film, and a holding unit configured to hold the heater and determine a position of the heater in the longitudinal direction. Either one of the first support member and the second support member includes a positioning portion configured to determine a position of the holding unit in the longitudinal direction.

Heating apparatus and image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes a first rotating member, a heater, a second rotating member, a detecting unit, a switching unit, a controlling unit, and a power source device. In a first period, a resultant current of first and third currents is supplied to a first heat generating element, and the resultant current in a unit cycle of a first period is a current at which a first current supplying timing and timings of a maximum and a minimum of the third current do not overlap with each other. In a second period, a resultant current of second and third currents is supplied to a second heat generating element, and the resultant current in a unit cycle of the second period is a current at which a second current supplying timing and the timings of the maximum and the minimum of the third current overlap with each other.

Image forming apparatus including heater powered with cycle-switched current and fixing device including the heater

A fixing apparatus including a heat generating element having a first area, a second area, and a third area, the first area being located on an end portion side in an orthogonal direction orthogonal to a conveyance direction of a recording material and having a first heat generation amount per unit length in the orthogonal direction, the second area being located on an inner side than the first area in the orthogonal direction and having a second heat generation amount per unit length in the orthogonal direction, the third area being located on the inner side than the second area in the orthogonal direction and having a third heat generation amount per unit length in the orthogonal direction. The second heat generation amount is larger than the third heat generation amount, and the third heat generation amount is larger than the first heat generation amount.

Fixing apparatus including heat generating element, and image forming apparatus

A fixing device includes a heater, a first rotatable member, a second rotatable member, and a heat equalizing member. In a case that a region including a center of the heat equalizing member with respect to a longitudinal direction is a first region, a region closer to an end of the heat equalizing member than the first region is with respect to the longitudinal direction is a second region, and a region closer to the end of the heat equalizing member than the second region is with respect to the longitudinal direction is a third region. When the heat equalizing member has thermal capacities per unit length in the first region, the second region, and the third region are C&#x3b1;, C&#x3b2; and C&#x3b3;, respectively, C&#x3b1;, C&#x3b2; and C&#x3b3; satisfy the following relationship:&#x3b2;, and

Fixing device including heat equalizing member and image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes a rotatable image bearer, a transfer rotator, a detector, and circuitry. The image bearer bears an image. The transfer rotator transfers the image from the image bearer onto a recording medium sandwiched and conveyed between the image bearer and the transfer rotator. The detector detects length information indicating a length, in a direction of conveyance of the recording medium, of the image on the recording medium. The circuitry corrects a correction value, based on the length information detected by the detector and a target value of the length information, to correct an image magnification, in the direction of conveyance of the recording medium, of the image to be formed on the recording medium. The circuitry controls an image forming operation of forming the image on the recording medium with the correction value.

Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes an image bearer, a transfer rotator, an adjuster, and circuitry. The image bearer bears a toner image. The transfer rotator contacts the image bearer to form a transfer nip between the transfer rotator and the image bearer. The transfer rotator transfers the toner image from the image bearer onto a sheet conveyed to the transfer nip. The adjuster adjusts at least one of a relative difference in linear velocity of the transfer rotator to the image bearer at the transfer nip and a relative contact pressure of the transfer rotator to the image bearer at the transfer nip. Based on a difference in image magnification, in a direction of conveyance of the sheet, of toner images transferred onto surfaces of one or more sheets conveyed to the transfer nip, the circuitry causes the adjuster to reduce the difference in image magnification.

Image forming apparatus and adjusting method

A roller unit includes a roller, an arm, a holder, a tension spring, and a restriction member. The arm rotatably holds the roller. The holder swingably holds the arm. The tension spring includes a first hook at one end of the tension spring and a second hook at another end of the tension spring. The first hook is hooked on an arm-side hook of the arm. The second hook is hooked on a holder-side hook of the holder. The restriction member is configured to restrict movement of the tension spring in a state in which the first hook or the second hook is unhooked.

Roller unit, belt device and image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus, including: a fixing, onto a recording material, a toner image that is formed in accordance with image data, and constituted of a first image that is formed by a toner of a first color and a second image that is formed by a toner of a second color which is different from the first color, and that is superimposed on the first image; an acquiring a gradation value of the first image and a gradation value of the second image based on the image data; a determining a target temperature and target speed based on the gradation value of the first image and the gradation value of the second image; a controlling power to be supplied to the fixing unit based on the target temperature; and a controlling conveying speed of the recording material based on the target speed.

Image forming apparatus, image forming method, and computer readable recording medium for recording program

A belt running device includes a plurality of rollers, a belt, a guide, a regulating member, and an abutting member. The belt is wound around the plurality of rollers and configured to rotate. The guide is provided at an end of an inner peripheral surface of the belt. The regulating member is provided at an end of at least one roller of the plurality of rollers in the axial direction of the at least one roller and configured to contact the guide and regulate a movement of the belt in the axial direction of the at least one roller. The abutting member is configured to contact an outer peripheral surface of the belt to press the belt inward in a vicinity of a contact start point at which the guide and the regulating member start to contact when the belt runs.

Belt running device, transfer device, and image forming apparatus

A controller can select and execute a full color mode of performing image formation in a first state in which each primary transfer member is in contact with an intermediate transfer belt, and a monochrome mode of performing image formation in a second state in which only a primary transfer member is in contact with the intermediate transfer belt. The controller determines which state of the first state and the second state is formed, based on a detection result obtained by a current detection circuit when a photosensitive drum is charged by a charging roller, and voltage is applied to the primary transfer member from a primary transfer power source.

A fixing device includes a first rotatable member, a second rotatable member, a heat generating member that heats the first rotatable member, and a temperature detecting member that detects a temperature of the heat generating member. A motor drives one of the first rotatable member and the second rotatable member. In addition, a controller controls the fixing device by causing the motor to rotate in a state in which a predetermined amount of electrical power is supplied to the heat generating member, and then, supply of the electrical power to the heat generating member is stopped. On the basis of a temperature lowering rate of a detected temperature of the temperature detecting member during rotation of said motor, the controller detects, after stopping supply of the electrical power to the heat generating member, a rotational state of the one of the first rotatable member and the second rotatable member.

Fixing device that detects a rotational state of a rotatable member based on a temperature lowering rate of a detected temperature of a temperature detecting member

A powder supply device that includes a powder reservoir including a rotator having a rotation shaft, to store powder supplied from a powder container; and a powder amount detector. The powder amount detector includes a detected member disposed in the powder reservoir, a contact member attached to the rotation shaft, to contact the detected member to vibrate or move the detected member, a detector to detect vibration or a displacement of the detected member, and a detection result processor to detect the amount of the powder in the powder reservoir based on detection by the detector. The powder supply device further includes a controller to supply the powder from the powder container to the powder reservoir based on detection by the powder amount detector. The controller rotates the rotator in discharging the powder from the powder reservoir and supplying the powder from the powder container to the powder reservoir.

Powder supply device and image forming apparatus incorporating same

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Tokyo, Japan

Atsushi Nakamoto