Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.

Konica Corporation

Konica Minolta, Inc.

Hideo Yamane

Eiji Sugimoto

Satoshi Sakata

Hiroyuki Watanabe

Akira Okamoto

Akifumi Isobe

Youbao Peng

Teruhiko Toyoizumi

Takeshi Tamada

Takumi Shirakuma

Kazuo Sato

Masayuki Watanabe

Hirofumi Nakajima

Yoshihito Sasamoto

Kazumichi Yamauchi

Ryuji Okutomi

Norio Joichi

Shougo Fukai

Kenji Kato

Shingo Sasami

Shinya Tanigami

An image forming apparatus of the present invention includes: an image forming unit for forming an image on a continuous paper; a fixing unit for fixing by heat the image which has been formed on the continuous paper by the image forming unit; conveyance units for conveying the continuous paper; and a control unit for controlling the conveyance units to convey the continuous paper in such a manner that, when an image forming operation by the image forming unit is stopped, the same portion of the continuous paper, on which the image is not formed, does not remain in the fixing unit for a predetermined period of time.

Image forming apparatus that controls movement of a continuous sheet through a fixing unit

A sheet discharging tray device includes: a discharging section from which a sheet is discharged; a discharging tray on which the sheet discharged from the discharging section is stacked sequentially; a tray drive section which drives the discharging tray in a tray shift direction that is perpendicular to a sheet discharging direction from the discharging section with reference to a sheet surface; a controller which conducts a tray shift operation that shifts a position of the discharging tray under a condition of the number of sheets stacked on the discharging tray, and a sheet detection section which detects an alignment deviation in the tray shift direction. The controller changes an operation status of the discharging tray when a tray shift operation is conducted and changes a discharging operation of a sheet to the discharging tray, based on a detected result of the sheet detection section.

Sheet discharging tray device and image forming system provided therewith

When a sheet is loaded to the sheet tray, the position of a trailing edge regulating section is set in response to the size of an insert sheet. Owing to this, the print sheet ejected from the ejection rollers onto the sheet tray falls onto the surface of the insert sheet. Further, when a booklet with an insert sheet placed therein is produced, an insert sheet is supplied to the sheet tray along the second conveying path. The shift amount of the execution position of center folding or the execution position of center stitching with respect to the sheet bundle is calculated in conformity to the finishing form of the booklet containing the insert sheet.

Post-processing apparatus, control method thereof and image forming system

A sheet finisher having a post-processing section that conducts post-processing on a sheet on which an image has been formed by an image forming apparatus, the sheet finisher comprising: an intermediate storing section in which a plurality of sheets conveyed from the image forming apparatus are superposed to be stored temporarily; a pair of conveyance rollers that convey the plurality of sheets stored in the intermediate storing section to the post-processing section while the plurality of sheets are superposed; each of two drive motors which drives one of the pair of conveyance rollers that comes in contact with one sheet of the plurality of sheets and the other of the pair of conveyance rollers that comes in contact with the other sheet of the plurality of sheets, separately; and a correction controller that controls a rotation speed of at least one of the two drive motors.

Sheet finisher and image forming system provided therewith

An image forming system includes an image forming device having an image forming section that forms image on a recording medium based on image information and ejects the recording medium; a post-processing device that performs post-processing on a recording medium, the post-processing device having a sheet feeding section to load the recording medium; a power switching device to turn on power to the image forming system; a post-processing operation setting device for setting post-processing dedicated mode to execute post-processing on the recording medium loaded on the sheet feeding section; and a controller that executes startup operation for setting only the post-processing device into an operable state and prohibits startup operation of the image forming section of the image forming device when power has been turned on via the power switching device and the controller has detected that the post-processing dedicated mode has been set via the post-processing operation setting device.

Image forming apparatus

Present invention uses the main power source and auxiliary power source to supply power to a load, makes them take partial charge of power supply, and when the load current reaches its peak, detects a current and a voltage generated by the auxiliary power source, and when the detected values are larger than set values or lower than the set values, controls the output current of the main power source.

Power unit and image forming system

An image forming apparatus has a transfer attitude correcting section for correcting a transfer attitude of the transfer sheet to receive the toner image and for conveying the corrected transfer sheet to the transfer section with a timing to match with the movement of the toner image. The transfer attitude correcting section includes a roller unit including a base board rotatable around a center of rotation and a registration roller mounted on the base board, a detecting section for detecting a position of the transfer sheet being conveyed by the registration roller; and a control section for control the roller unit based on detection data detected by the detecting section so as to correct a skew of the transfer sheet by rotating the base board and to correct a deviation of a transfer position of the transfer sheet by shifting the registration roller on the base board.

Image forming apparatus with transfer attitude correcting section

An image forming apparatus comprising: an image forming section which forms an image on a sheet material; a curl correcting mechanism which interposes and conveys the sheet material on which the image has been formed by the image forming section. Pressure applied to one surface of the sheet material during an interposing operation and a conveying speed of the sheet material can be changed, the curl correcting mechanism changes the conveying speed from an initial speed vs to a target speed vo higher than the initial speed (vo&#x3e;vs) while the sheet material is pressed, and the curl correcting mechanism changes the pressure to a high pressure in response to a change of the conveying speed, whereby a curl of the sheet material is reduced.

Image forming apparatus and sheet material conveyance device used therein

A sheet moisturizing device, including a moisturizing section which applies water on a sheet carrying a formed image and moisturizes the sheet, a switching section which switches whether a moisturizing process is to be conducted onto the sheet by the moisturizing section or not, and a control section which controls the switching section based on image information carried on the sheet.

Sheet moisturizing device and image forming apparatus

There is described an image forming apparatus, which forms high quality images free from a phenomenon of inter-sheet adhesion. The image forming apparatus includes a conveyance section to convey the transfer material along a conveying path; a cooling device disposed along the conveying path to cool the transfer material just after the toner image is fixed with heat; a controller-to control the conveyance section and the cooling device; and a first transfer-material detecting device disposed at a position adjacent to and upstream from the cooling device, in order to detect the transfer material coming into the conveying path. When the first transfer-material detecting device detects the transfer material coming, the controller controls the conveyance section to decelerate a conveyance velocity of the transfer material to a decelerated velocity lower than a normal conveyance velocity, so that the transfer material passes through the conveying path at the decelerated velocity.

There is described an image-forming apparatus for forming a toner image on a recording medium, a size of which is larger than that of the toner image being a fixed form size, based on image data corresponding to the fixed form size. The image-forming apparatus includes an image-forming section to form the toner image in a region of the fixed form size, based on the image data corresponding to the fixed form size, and to form a specific toner image in a specific region outside the fixed form size, both the region and the specific region being shared each other within a whole area of the recording medium; and a controlling section to control the image-forming section so as to form a predetermined patch image, serving as the specific toner image, in the specific region outside the fixed form size.

A heater control apparatus is provided for controlling a plurality of heaters used for fixing operations of an image forming apparatus, wherein each of the heaters is incorporated inside one of a plurality of rollers. The heater control apparatus includes: a plurality of switching elements to switch flowing paths of electronic currents supplied to the heaters from a common power source; a switching control section to control the switching elements so that a connecting mode of the heaters is changeable between a serial connection mode and a parallel connection mode; and a plurality of temperature detecting devices to detect temperatures of the rollers heated by the heaters, each of the temperature detecting devices corresponding to each of the rollers. The switching control section controls the switching elements so as to change the connecting mode of the heaters according to temperature conditions of the rollers.

Heater control apparatus and image forming apparatus having a plurality of heaters which are controlled to be changeably connected in a serial mode and a parallel mode so as to suppress flicker

An image forming apparatus includes: a sheet feeding member for feeding a recording material; an image recording member for recording an image on the recording material; a conveyance path connecting the sheet feeding member and the image recording member, along which the recording material is conveyed; a registration member which is provided in the conveyance path located at the upstream side of the image recording member in the conveyance direction for the recording material, and stops the leading edge of the recording material when being hit by the leading edge, and then, starts conveyance of the recording material; a loop forming member which is provided in the conveyance path located at the upstream side of the registration member in the conveyance direction for the recording material, and forms a loop on the recording material which is stopped by the registration member; a first driving source for driving the registration member; a second driving source for driving the loop forming member; and a drive controller for controlling the first driving source and the second driving source. The drive controller drives both the first driving source and the second driving source after the leading edge of the recording material hits the registration member.

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Hachioji, Japan

Hideo Yamane