Konica Minolta, Inc.

Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.

Minolta Company, Ltd.

Hiroyuki Maeda

Miho Yamano

Dai Suwama

Midori Shimomura

Yoshiyuki Toso

Yuichi Yamamoto

Koji Uno

Hidetoshi Katayanagi

Naotoshi Kawai

Tadayasu Sekioka

Akihiro Kawasaki

Tamotsu Sakuraba

Naoki Nonoyama

Hirotaka Kanou

Yasuhiro Suzuki

Ryo Hirano

Hideki Mekada

Tomiko Imoto

Tsuyoshi Tamaru

Ryoichi Yamamoto

Taiichi Oominami

Hideo Yamaki

Seiji Shibata

Tomoya Sato

Yoshikazu Kuribayashi

Kuniaki Ohbayashi

Masashi Sonoyama

Hiromasa Ueno

An image forming apparatus includes: a fixing roller that fixes an unfixed image to a medium; a drive motor of the fixing roller, and a hardware processor that acquires information regarding a state of the image forming apparatus or information regarding a state of the medium, and controls a number of rotations of the drive motor between a preset upper limit value and a preset lower limit value, wherein the hardware processor changes the upper limit value and the lower limit value while maintaining a difference between the upper limit value and the lower limit value on a basis of the acquired information.

Image forming apparatus

A fixing device fixes a toner image onto a piece of paper by conveying the piece of paper formed with the toner image while nipping the piece of paper at a fixing nip, and includes: an endless belt that is rotated; a pressing member that presses the belt; a support member that supports the pressing member; a sheet wound around the pressing member along the conveyance direction; and a pressurizing member that forms the fixing nip with the belt, wherein a part of an upstream region of the sheet existing more on an upstream side in a winding direction than a contact region contacting the belt and the pressing member and a part of a downstream region of the sheet existing more on a downstream side in the winding direction than the contact region are interposed between the pressing member and the support member, and are fixed by pressing force.

Fixing device and image forming apparatus

A fixing device includes a fixing roller heated to a predetermined temperature by a heater; a pressure belt in pressure contact with the fixing roller; and a pressing part which presses the pressure belt toward the fixing roller. The fixing device adopts a belt-nip system and fixes a toner image formed on a recording medium to the recording medium by heat and pressure while the recording medium is nipped and conveyed through a nip part. The nip part is formed by the fixing roller and the pressure belt and includes an adhesion nip and a separation nip. The pressing part includes a pressing member, a sheet member which covers the pressing surface of the pressing member along a conveying direction of the recording medium, and a pressing fluid which is filled at the adhesion nip between the pressing member and the sheet member.

Fixing device and image forming apparatus that prevent local unevenness of a pressure force

A fixing apparatus includes the following. A heating unit includes an outer surface driven to rotate and heats a sheet on which color material is transferred. A reflecting unit reflects heat emitted from the heating unit. The reflecting unit further includes, a covering unit which covers at least a portion of the outer surface of the heating unit so that there is a predetermined space; and a movable unit which is provided in the covering unit and which can be switched between a first position and a second position in which air in the space can flow more easily than the first position. The fixing apparatus also includes, a switching unit which switches the movable unit between the first position and the second position; and a controller which controls the switching unit.

Fixing apparatus and image forming apparatus including a covering unit with a movable unit for effective heating

A fixing apparatus includes: a heating member that has an outer circumferential surface to be driven in a circulative manner and heats a sheet; a heat radiation suppression member that covers a part of an outer circumferential surface of the heating member to have a predetermined gap and suppresses heat radiation, wherein the heat radiation suppression member has a movable part capable of moving to a first position and a second position more distant than the first position from a part covered by the heating member; a moving unit that moves the movable part to the first position or the second position; a jam detection unit that detects a jam of a sheet in the vicinity of the downstream side end portion of the nip part; and a control unit that controls the moving unit such that the movable part is moved from the first position to the second position.

Fixing apparatus and image forming apparatus

In an image forming apparatus, a sensor section includes a sheet path through which the sheet passes in a sheet feeding direction. In the sensor section, a light source unit emits light to an irradiation area set in the sheet path. Here, the light is elongated in a main-scanning direction and has quantities of light varying according to positions in the main-scanning direction and according to positions in a height direction perpendicular to a sheet feed surface. In addition, in the sensor section, a light-receiving section receives light diffused in a predetermined diffusing direction among the light emitted from the light source and then irradiated to the sheet passing in the sheet path and outputs information representing quantities of the received light. In the image forming apparatus, a control section extracts a parameter from the information and derives an amount of curl of the sheet.

In an image forming apparatus, a sensor section which the printed sheets fed from an image forming section pass through or by in a first direction one by one, irradiates each of the passing printed sheets with light elongated in a second direction different, thereby sensing densities of the each of passing printed sheets, on a pixel basis. Further, a control section integrates densities of respectively corresponding line portions in respective non-image areas of sheets of the printed sheets, based on the densities obtained by the sensor section, each of the line portion extending substantially in the first direction and including pixels on substantially a same position in the second direction, thereby obtaining integrated density values, and predicts, based on the obtained integrated density values, that a noise will occur on a printed sheet to be made by the image forming section later on.

Image forming apparatus and image noise prediction method

An image formation device comprises imaging units creating toner images in a corresponding color; an intermediate transfer body where the toner images are overlaid in a primary transfer; a secondary transfer unit performing secondary transfers of the overlaid toner images onto a recording sheet; a first misregistration correction unit operable to cause each imaging unit to form a reference pattern, execute a first misalignment reading acquisition process of acquiring a misalignment reading for each pattern, and adjust the imaging units to correct the readings; a storage unit storing the readings; and a second misregistration correction unit operable to cause an imaging unit subset to form reference patterns, execute a second misalignment reading acquisition process of acquiring readings for the subset of patterns and estimating readings in colors for which no pattern is formed from the acquired readings and the stored readings, and adjust the imaging units to correct all readings.

Image formation device and image correction method

An image forming apparatus including first and second pairs of rollers for feeding a print medium; the second pair of rollers being disposed downstream from the first pair of rollers; a first detector for detecting the print medium slack in a specified degree by contact with the print medium, the first detector being disposed between the first pair of rollers and the second pair of rollers; a second detector for detecting either the first pair of rollers or the second pair of rollers need a specified value of driving torque; and a controller for controlling either a feeding speed at which the print medium is fed by the first pair of rollers or a feeding speed at which the print medium is fed by the second pair of rollers based on either outputs from the first detector or outputs from the second detector.

An image forming apparatus of the present invention includes a first identification section for identifying whether a print target page in a print target document is color or monochrome and its page attribute, a second identification section for identifying a system speed during printing of an immediately preceding page of the print target page, a third identification section for identifying a presence of a subsequent page of the print target page and its page attribute, and a system speed determination section for selecting a print mode in conformity to a monochrome/color discrimination result based on an identification result in the first identification section and determining a system speed of the print target page based on the page attribute identified by the first identification section and identification results in the second and third identification sections.

Image forming apparatus having monochrome and color print modes and a plurality of system speeds

An apparatus for removing developer from a developer carrier includes a developer-charge-eliminating means including a first elastic member. The first elastic member is electrically conductive and contacts the developer carrier with an uneven surface. Preferably, the uneven surface includes exposed cells of a foamed body. The uneven surface of the first elastic member insures that sufficient contact and frictional resistance is applied to excess developer on a developer carrier. Preferably, the first elastic body is backed by a backing member which is more flexible than the first elastic member. The flexible second elastic body further insures that the charge-eliminating member sufficiently contacts the developer carried by the developer carrier even with extended use.

Method and apparatus for removing developer from a developer carrier

Developer material remaining on an image bearing member after transfer are collected by a developer. A cleaning member is arranged between a charger and an exposure in contact with the image bearing member, for collecting the residual developer material. A bias controller controls biases to be applied to a cleaner, a charger, and a developer. During an image forming process, the biases are so determined that the residual toner on the image bearing member is collected by the cleaner. While the image forming process is not performed, the biases are so determined that the collected toner is removed from the cleaner to the image bearing member and then collected by the developer.

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Toyokawa, Japan

Hiroyuki Maeda