Fujitsu Corporation

Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.

Fumihiro Itoh

Yoshihiro Watanabe

Takeo Kojima

Masahiro Wanou

Yoshio Yamaguchi

Kazuo Shimada

Hironori Kanno

Nobuyuki Hayashida

Katsuei Asano

In a image forming apparatus, a lifespan copy number (lifespan time period) previously determined for each component is added to the replacement schedule copy number (replacement schedule time) of respective components contained in the apparatus, in other words the total print number (total print time) at the time of replacement of a component, and the resulting value is recorded in a non-volatile memory. Therefore, it is judged that a component lifespan has expired, each time that the total print number (total print time) exceeds the replacement schedule copy number (replacement schedule time period). Thereby, since the amount of information required for component lifespan management is small, the capacity of the non-volatile memory can be reduced, and hence cost reductions in the image forming apparatus can be achieved.

Image forming apparatus

The ratio detecting unit detects, upon stoppage of printing, a fixing control ratio K which represents a ratio of time during which the fixing unit was controlled to the printing temperature in a certain period of time in the past. The predicting unit predicts a fan driving time Tf after stoppage of printing in response to the thus detected fixing control ratio K. The fan control unit rotation-controls the cooling fan,during printing, keeps the fan controlling status for printing for a fan driving time Tf upon stoppage of printing, and upon lapse of the fan driving time Tf, fan stoppage or high-speed rotation is switched over to low-speed rotation.

Cooling unit and method of cooling an electrophotographic apparatus

To provide an electrophotography apparatus with which the service life management of a printing unit can be carried out properly, a non-volatile memory for storing a count value for managing the service life of the printing unit is installed in both a main unit and the printing unit of the electrophotography apparatus. Then, the count value is written to the memory on the printing unit (PU) side (PU memory) when print processing is not in progress, and no power is supplied to the PU memory during print processing, so the correct count value is always stored in the PU memory. Therefore, the service life of the printing unit can be correctly evaluated.

Electrophotography apparatus

A unit which detects a discharged condition of each of media with a simple and low-cost structure. For this purpose, this unit is designed to output a signal indicative of the passage of the medium, a signal indicative of a full accumulated condition of the media within the medium discharged section and a signal representative of the occurrence of a jam condition of the medium during the passage of the medium. This unit is applicable to printers such as an electrophotographic type printer.

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Kawasaki, Japan

Fumihiro Itoh