Brother Kogyo Kabushiki-Kaisha

Haruyuki Shimomura

Kiyoshi Muto

Hiroshi Koie

Toshiki Narukawa

Kiyoshi Takahashi

Masaru Mizuno

An image forming apparatus having a photosensitive member, an exposure device having a laser emitting element that irradiates a laser beam, the laser beam being scanned on the photosensitive member line by line to form an electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive member, a developing device that supplies a developing agent to the electrostatic latent image to form a visible image, and a controller that controls the laser emitting element to irradiate the laser beam in a predetermined light amount. The controller further controls the laser emitting element to irradiate the laser beam in a reduced light amount every at least one line.

Image forming apparatus with end of operating lifetime controller

An image forming apparatus having a photosensitive member, an exposure device having a plurality of laser emitting elements that each irradiate a laser beam onto the photosensitive member to form an elactrostatic latent image on the photosensitive member, a developing device that supplies a developing agent to the electrostatic latent image to form a visible image, and a controller that controls the irradiation of the plurality of laser emitting elements. The controller includes a determining device that determines which laser emitting element from the plurality of laser emitting elements is closest to reaching its end of operating life and a restricting device that restricts the irradiation of the laser emitting element determined closest to reaching its end of operating life.

An n-byte buffer is able to store n bytes of data. A interrupt request signal generating circuit interrupts the processor of the peripheral apparatus after receiving the nth byte of the data. Accordingly, only one interrupt operation is needed to receive and input n bytes of data. Consequently, the number of interrupt operations is reduced and the data processing speed is improved.

Parallel interface circuit having a n-byte buffer and tansmitting the n

A printer with a paper supplying device having a printing section that includes a photosensitive drum for printing on a paper, a manual supplying path for guiding a paper inserted manually, a manual insertion tray for receiving a paper in order to insert the paper into the printing section through the manual supplying path, a manual supplying means for supplying the paper from the insertion member to a printing section through the manual supplying path, an automatic supplying path for guiding a paper inserted automatically, a paper cassette for storing plural papers, an automatic insertion means for supplying a paper from the paper cassette to the printing section through the automatic supplying path, a manual insertion paper detecting sensor for detecting whether or not the paper inserted from the manual insertion tray is in the manual supplying path, an automatic insertion paper detection sensor for detecting whether or not the paper supplied from the paper cassette is in the automatic insertion path, and a LED for informing the operator of the time when the insertion member may receive a following sheet of paper. The LED is activated when no paper is detected by both the manual insertion paper detecting sensor and the automatic insertion paper detection sensor. An automatic insertion controller controls supply of the paper from the paper cassette to the automatic supplying path if there is no paper on the manual insertion tray when the printing of the paper previously inserted from either of the manual insertion tray and the paper cassette has been processed and the LED indicated such to the operator, and a manual insertion controller controls supply of the paper from the manual insertion tray to the manual supplying path if there is a paper on the manual insertion tray when a paper previously inserted from either of the manual insertion tray and the paper cassette has been processed and the paper cassette has been processed and operator informed by means of LED.

Printer with paper supplying device

In a printing apparatus, a control unit receives a next page printing data during the printing operation of the present paper. When the time needed for developing the printing data is shorter than the predetermined time, the control unit is controlled to drive a paper feeding delivery mechanism, and during the printing operation, the next paper is delivered to a print waiting position on a delivery path for waiting for printing.

Printing apparatus

A carriage drive unit for a printer includes a typewheel and a printing hammer for striking a type element of the typewheel against a ribbon to reproduce the type element on a printing paper, both of which are provided on a carriage. The carriage is driven by a carriage drive motor in response to a drive control signal SG2 output by a CPU, before the printing hammer, which is driven by a hammer drive motor in response to a drive control signal SG5, reaches a printing position, for avoiding a loss time period due to a carriage response delay upon a start of the carriage drive motor.

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Nagoya, Japan

Haruyuki Shimomura