Minolta Company, Ltd.

Konica Minolta, Inc.

Other

Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.

Hiroshi Hiraguchi

Koji Uno

Hirokatsu Shimada

Yoshifumi Shibata

Toshio Yamaki

Yasutaka Tanimura

Tomonobu Tamura

Yuhei Tatsumoto

Mineo Yamamoto

Takashi Hasebe

Nobuo Kanai

Jun Kohsaka

Hiroshi Yamaguchi

Kenji Takeshita

Yasushi Nagasaka

Isao Watanabe

Toshinori Inomoto

Keiji Ogoh

Yuji Kobayashi

Toshikazu Kawaguchi

Harumitsu Fujimori

Hiroshi Eguchi

Naotoshi Kawai

Takaki Kato

Takatoshi Hamada

Satoshi Chikazawa

Shigeru Sawada

Takeshi Satake

Masaaki Goto

An image forming apparatus that transfers an image from an image carrier onto a sheet passing between the image carrier rotating and a transfer member includes a fixing unit configured to thermally fix the image on the sheet while nipping and conveying the sheet with a pair of fixing members after the transfer, at least one of the fixing members rotating; a measuring unit configured to measure surface movement speed of the sheet in a non-contact manner while the sheet is being conveyed by the fixing members; and a control unit configured to control rotation speed of the fixing members in accordance with a result of the measurement, to adjust speed of conveyance of the sheet to a target speed determined beforehand for peripheral speed of the image carrier, the control being performed while the sheet being conveyed is in contact with the transfer member and the fixing members.

Image forming apparatus controlling recording sheet conveyance speed

A fixing device includes: a plurality of heating units which individually heat a plurality of areas of a fixing member; an acquisition unit which acquires information on an image forming range and a non-image forming range of the recording sheet for each of the plurality of divided heating areas; and a control unit which performs first control for controlling the corresponding heating unit such that a contact portion of the image forming range of the recording sheet has a target fixing temperature when the image forming range contacts the fixing member at the contact portion of the image forming range, and second control for controlling the corresponding heating unit such that a contact portion of the non-image forming range of the recording sheet has a temperature lower than the fixing temperature when the non-image forming range contacts the fixing member at the contact portion of the non-image forming range.

Fixing device and image forming apparatus

A magnesium cell includes a positive electrode, a negative electrode including a magnesium alloy, and a separator disposed between the positive electrode and the negative electrode to hold an electrolytic solution, in which a contact area between the negative electrode and the separator is variable.

Magnesium cell and magnesium cell system

Electronic device comprising: processing unit including accepting part accepting processing request from external device and executing process specified by request; secondary battery connected with external power source; and power-source device transitioning to operating state when request is accepted in waiting state, and transitioning to waiting state when processing unit completes executing process, wherein, in waiting state, power supply from external power source to processing unit is stopped and secondary battery supplies power to accepting part, and in operating state, power is supplied from external power source to processing unit. Power-source device includes controller executing first charge control operation to cause external power source to charge secondary battery when, in operating state, voltage of secondary battery is not higher than threshold, and end executing first charge control operation when transitioning to waiting state, controller updating threshold in response to increase in number of times first charge control operation is executed.

Electronic device and power-source device

A fixing device thermally fixes an unfixed image onto a sheet through heat of a heating body that is heated through electromagnetic induction, the fixing device including an excitation coil generating flux for heating the heating body; one or more core members disposed opposite the heating body with respect to the excitation coil; a thermo-electric conversion element disposed farther from the excitation coil than the core members; and a thermally conductive member connected to the excitation coil and to a heat-absorbing face of the thermo-electric conversion element, transferring heat from the excitation coil to the thermo-electric conversion element.

Fixing device having thermally-conductive member connected to thermo-electric conversion element, image forming device, and induction heating device

The image forming device includes a reception unit, an image forming unit, a switching unit, a detection unit, and a charging unit. The switching unit switches the image forming device between a first mode in which the reception unit is not supplied a voltage from a power source, is supplied power from a secondary battery, and receives image forming requests, and a second mode in which the image forming unit is supplied the voltage and performs image forming. The detection unit detects a value of an amount of energy of the secondary battery. In the second mode, the charging unit charges the secondary battery by supplying the voltage to the secondary battery when the value is equal to or less than a threshold value, and the charging unit boosts the voltage and supplies the boosted voltage to the secondary battery when the value is greater than the threshold value.

Image forming device and charging method for secondary battery

An image forming apparatus includes a functional unit, a first power supply circuit supplying electric power to the functional unit from a commercial power supply, a second power supply circuit including a self-generation power supply, and a third power supply circuit including a power storage unit storing electric power and a charging circuit charging the power storage unit upon receipt of supply of electric power from at least one of the commercial power supply and the self-generation power supply. In accordance with the amount of power supply from the self-generation power supply, higher priority is given to supply of electric power to the functional unit from at least one of the second and third power supply circuits than to supply of electric power from the first power supply circuit.

Image forming apparatus having plurality of power supplies to control power provided from a commercial power supply

An electronic apparatus comprising: a main body including a reception unit and a processing unit; and a power supply device switches between an operation state for supplying power from an external power source to the main body and a standby state for supplying power from a secondary battery to the reception unit without supplying power from the power source to the main body. Charging of the battery with power from the power source is performed during the operation state and is terminated when a value indicating power level of the battery reaches a threshold value Vt satisfying (discharge lower limit VL+Vs)&#x2266;Vt&#x3c;charge upper limit VH, Vs denoting a decrease in power level occurring when power from the battery is supplied to the reception unit for an estimated maximum duration of the standby state within a time period having a unit time length.

Electronic apparatus and image forming apparatus

A multi-beam image recording apparatus changes a diameter of a laser beam using a beam diameter changing board, an order in which the line data is to be read from the memory unit, a rotational speed of a polygon mirror, and a clock frequency employed when the image data is read in units of pixels, in accordance with the specified resolution. Accordingly, the multi-beam image recording apparatus can switch between the resolutions without changing a distance between the centers of two laser beams emitted from an optical system. The resolution switching can be achieved with high accuracy at low costs.

Multi-beam image recording apparatus

A recording apparatus of the present invention includes a bearing member for bearing a recording medium having toner and carrier and a backing electrode opposing to the bearing member for electrically attracting the toner on the bearing member. The toner and carrier are charged to opposite polarities. A substrate having a plurality of apertures is provided between the bearing member and the backing electrode. This allows the toner to propel from the bearing member toward the backing electrode. Further, both the toner and carrier have respective volume mean diameters smaller than a diameter of the apertures, and the volume mean diameter of the toner is larger than that of the toner. With the arrangement, the toner will propel through each aperture to form a corresponding image portion, i.e., dot, thereby forming a high quality image without any dot-defect.

Apparatus for propelling toner through apertures to form images on a recording medium

A tandem type direct printing apparatus,comprising a plurality of printing stations,and,for depositing printing particles,on a print medium,. The plurality of printing stations,and,are positioned in a moving direction of the print medium,. Each printing station,comprises a bearing member,for bearing charged printing particles,thereon, a backing electrode,opposed to the bearing member,, a printing head,disposed between the bearing member,and the backing electrode,, the printing head,having a plurality of apertures,through which the printing particles,can propel and a plurality of electrodes,disposed around the plurality of apertures,. Each of the plurality of apertures,of the printing head,in any one of the printing stations,corresponds to the aperture,of the printing head,in another printing station,so that the latter is closest to a line along the moving direction of the printing medium which passes through the center of the former.

Tandem type of direct printing apparatus using gating apertures for supplying toner

A printing device includes a bearing member for bearing printing particles each having an electric charge, a backing electrode for forming an electric field between the bearing member and the backing electrode, and a substrate located between the bearing member and the backing electrode. The substrate includes a plurality of apertures. For each aperture, the substrate includes an attracting electrode and a plurality of converging electrodes. When, a first voltage is applied to the attracting electrode, the printing particles are attracted and then separated from the bearing member. Then, a second voltage is applied to the converging electrodes, the printing particles propelling in the aperture are converged. The converged printing particles are then deposited onto a recording sheet being transported to form a dot having a clear contour.

Printing device for propelling printing material onto a recording medium to form images

A tandem type direct printing apparatus,comprising a plurality of printing stations,and,for depositing printing particles 38 on a print medium,to form a layer of printing particles. The plurality of printing stations,and,are positioned in a moving direction of the print medium,. The printing station positioned downstream with respect to the moving direction of the print medium forms a layer of printing particles on the layer of printing particles formed by the printing station positioned upstream. At least any one of the printing stations,and,is different in intention of the electric field from another by changing the voltage applied to the backing electrode,or the distance between the backing electrode,and the printing head,in accordance with a charge quantity of printing particles or the number of the layer of printing particles in the one of the printing stations.

The tandem type direct printing apparatus,comprises a plurality of printing stations,and,for propelling printing particles,born on a bearing member,through a plurality of apertures,formed on a printing head,and for depositing the printing particles,on a print medium,to form an image. The plurality of printing stations,and,are positioned in the moving direction of the print medium,to form the composite image on the print medium,. The method of the present invention comprises providing a control electrode for deflecting printing particles,in adjacent to each aperture,in at least one of the plurality of printing stations,and,, the control electrode,being positioned at least one side of a direction different from the moving direction of the print medium,; and applying a voltage to the control electrode,so that the printing particles,passing through the aperture,are deflected to adjust the position of the image formed on the print medium in the perpendicular direction to the moving direction of the print medium

Tandem type of direct printing apparatus and method for making a registration of composite image therein

A direct printing apparatus,for depositing printing particles,on a print medium,comprises a sleeve,for bearing charged printing particles,thereon, a drive roller,provided in the sleeve,, the drive roller,having a smaller outside diameter than an inside diameter of the sleeve,, a backing electrode,opposed to the sleeve,, a printing head,disposed between the sleeve,and the backing electrode,, the printing head,having a plurality of apertures 56 through which the printing particles,can propel and a plurality of electrodes,disposed around the plurality of apertures,. A spacer,is provided between the sleeve,and the printing head,. The sleeve,has a slack,through which the sleeve,comes into contact with the spacer

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Toyokawa, Japan

Hiroshi Hiraguchi