Minolta Company, Ltd.

Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.

Eiji Nakane

Hideaki Kodama

Futoshi Hamada

An image forming apparatus includes: an intermediate transfer belt for, by rotation thereof, transferring a toner image on a surface thereof; a cleaner for removing toner particles after the transfer by rotation of a cleaning brush which touches the surface of the intermediate transfer belt and rotates during the transfer; a current supplier for supplying a cleaning current having a predetermined value (I) to the cleaning brush in accord with the transfer; and a controller for controlling the intermediate transfer belt, cleaner and current supplier. The controller obtains a current time Tand a previous rotation end time Tof the cleaning brush, and when a time period during which the cleaning brush has not rotated, which is calculated from the current time Tand the rotation end time T, is equal to a predetermined time period or longer, sets the cleaning current to 'I

User-friendly image forming apparatus with current supplier for supplying cleaning current, image forming method and recording medium

An image forming apparatus includes a transfer belt unit having a driving roller, a follower roller whose outer peripheral portion is formed of an elastic material and a transfer belt which is made of a resin and stretched between the driving roller and the follower roller. The elastic modulus of the outer peripheral portion of the follower roller is lower than that of the driving roller. The transfer belt unit is configured to be bent in the middle, or to change its direction in the longitudinal direction thereof.

Image forming apparatus with simple transfer belt tension mechanism

The system speed of the image forming apparatus is controlled to operate in one of two modes. In one embodiment, a controller coordinates the operation of a plurality of image forming units and the transporter. The controller sets a system speed of the image forming apparatus at a first speed when a first mode is set to form a color image using the plurality of image forming units and sets the system speed of the image forming apparatus at a second speed which is faster than the first speed when a second mode is set to form a single-color image using only an image forming unit provided at a most downstream position in a transportation direction of the transporter. In another embodiment, a controller coordinates the operation of the plurality of image forming units and the transporter, and sets a system speed at a first speed when a first mode is set to form a color image using the plurality of image forming units and sets the system speed at a second speed which is slower than the first speed when a second mode is set to form a single-color image using only one of the plurality of image forming units and a special sheet different from plain paper is used as the recording sheet.

Tandem-type image forming apparatus having full-color print mode and single-color print mode

A transfer voltage applying method in an image forming apparatus for transferring toner images formed respectively on a plurality of image carriers onto an image transfer target member to be moved successively through positions where a plurality of transfer members are respectively opposed to the image carriers by applying transfer voltages to the transfer members, respectively. The transfer members are supplied with predetermined AC voltages so as that the successively neighboring at least two transfer members are supplied with the AC voltages having phases shifted from each other, respectively, and the successively neighboring at least two transfer members are not simultaneously supplied with the maximum voltages, each in absolute value, of the AC voltages. The image forming apparatus has a plurality of image carriers, a plurality of image forming devices a plurality of transfer devices each including a transfer member opposed to the corresponding image carrier and each provided for transferring to the toner image on the corresponding image carrier onto an image transfer target member, and a transfer power source. The transfer power source device supplied the AC voltages having phases shifted from each other to the successively neighboring at least two transfer members, respectively, so as that the successively neighboring at least two transfer members are not simultaneously supplied with the maximum voltages, each in absolute value, of the AC voltages.

Image forming apparatus and transfer voltage applying method

A color image forming apparatus having a plurality of image forming units, a first attraction unit and a second attraction unit for attracting a recording sheet to a transport belt, and a controller for operating the first attraction unit when a first mode is set for forming a color image using all of the plurality of image forming units, and for operating the second attraction unit when a second mode is set for forming a single-color image using only one of the image forming units. In another embodiment, a controller sets a transfer pressure at a first pressure for each of the plurality of image forming units when the first mode is set and at a second pressure, which is higher than the first pressure, for the image forming units not being used to form the single-color image when the second mode is set. In another embodiment, a controller controls each transfer component for each image forming unit to change an electric field so that an area that is acted upon by the electric field is a first area when the first mode is set and to change the electric field to a second area that is larger than the first area when the second mode is set.

Tandem-type image forming apparatus having full-color print mode and

A pressing force adjusting mechanism decreases a pressing force of a pressing member 16 when a leading edge or a rear edge of a transfer material P passes through a transfer point P1 based on the detection signals from a transfer material position sensor 57 and/or a transfer material type sensor 58.

Growing community of inventors

Okazaki, Japan

Eiji Nakane