Kyocera Document Solutions Inc.

Kyocera Mita Corporation

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.

Jun Nakai

Katsuya Ota

Masahito Ishino

Yosuke Saito

Yoshinori Nakamura

Eiji Gyotoku

Hironobu Oi

Nobuhiro Fukuma

Issei Nakano

Takeshi Watanabe

Takashi Okohira

Shunsuke Sasanabe

Hideki Sugimura

Takuto Kunimasa

Tadashi Oba

Shoichi Ishikawa

Satoshi Tsuchiya

A motor that rotates a rotation shaft of a polygon mirror is mounted on a motor board. A first photoelectric conversion element senses beam light reflected by each of a plurality of mirror surfaces. A sensing target portion is provided to the rotation shaft. A light sensor is disposed apart from the motor board and includes a light emitting portion and a second photoelectric conversion element. An amplification circuit amplifies a sense signal of the second photoelectric conversion element. A control device controls a timing of starting to form an electrostatic latent image on the basis of a sense signal of the first photoelectric conversion element. The control device identifies a scanning surface that is scanning the beam light on the basis of the sense signal of the second photoelectric conversion element amplified by the amplification circuit, and adjusts a pixel pitch of the electrostatic latent image.

Laser scanning unit and image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes an image carrier, a developing device, a control unit, and a density measuring unit. An electrostatic latent image is formed on the surface of an image carrier. A developing device supplies toner to the image carrier and develops the electrostatic latent image formed on the image carrier to form a toner image. The density measuring unit measures the toner density of the plurality of first patch toner images formed by the developing device. The control unit calculates a relationship between the toner density of the plurality of first patch toner images measured by the density measuring unit and the applied voltage applied to the developing device when the plurality of first patch toner images are formed, and adjusts the applied voltage based on a calculation result.

Image forming apparatus with toner density adjustment control

An image forming apparatus includes: a developing roller; a photosensitive drum; a first measurement device that measures a blank portion current in a first line on the photosensitive drum which extends in a scanning direction of the photosensitive drum and on which no toner patch is formed; a second measurement device that measures a measuring development current in a second line on the photosensitive drum which extends in the scanning direction of the photosensitive drum and on which a toner patch is formed; and a control device that functions as a patch setter and a first calculator. The patch setter sets a patch width of the toner patch in the scanning direction of the photosensitive drum. The first calculator calculates an actual development current based on a developable width of the photosensitive drum in the scanning direction, the patch width, the blank portion current, and the measuring development current.

Image forming apparatus and image forming system capable of calculating actual development current using blank portion current and measuring development current

An image forming apparatus includes a developing roller, a photoconductor drum, a density detector, a current detector, and a controller. The developing roller carries a toner. The photoconductor drum carries a toner patch. The density detector detects toner density of the toner patch. The current detector detects developing current flowing to the toner patch. The controller calculates an inclination of an approximate straight line approximating a relation between the toner density and the developing current. The developing roller develops three or more toner patches, different in toner density and different in developing current from one another, on the photoconductor drum. The controller calculates the inclination, using different mathematical expressions depending on whether three toner patches or four toner patches are provided.

Image forming apparatus that calculates inclination of approximate straight line, approximating relation between toner density and developing current, using different mathematical expressions depending on whether three toner patches or four or more toner patches are provided

In one embodiment, an image forming apparatus includes an image region dividing portion which determines, within an image formable width, an image boundary position that matches with one of matrix boundaries corresponding to boundaries between dither matrices, and sets image adjustment regions. The image forming apparatus also includes a correction processing portion which uses common calibration data to determine imaginary adjustment regions positioned closest to the image adjustment regions, respectively, in a main scanning direction, and uses a correction amount for the determined imaginary adjustment region to correct the position in a sub-scanning direction, thereby reducing a color shift. The image region dividing portion determines the image boundary position by applying a rounding function to a value obtained by dividing the number of pixels constituting a width of the image adjustment region by the number of pixels in one cycle of the dither matrix in the main scanning direction.

Image forming method with calibration processing, and non-transitory computer-readable recording medium having stored thereon image forming program of the same

An image forming apparatus performs a halftone process using plural dither matrices. Generated is calibration data to calculate a color registration error amount corresponding to a primary scanning directional position of an image forming available width. An image area dividing unit determines an image boundary position that is identical to any of matrix boundaries of plural dither matrices arranged in an image forming target area, and divides the image forming target area into plural image adjustment areas using the image boundary position. A correction processing unit corrects secondary scanning directional positions of the plural image adjustment areas, using respective correction amounts calculated with the calibration data. Further, the image area dividing unit determines the image boundary position using a remainder left by dividing in the primary scanning direction the number of pixels of the image adjustment area by the number of pixels of the dither matrix.

Image forming apparatus, method, and computer program product correcting scanning directional positions of image adjustment areas to restrain color registration error

An optical scanning device has an optical housing. A coupled Helmholtz resonator having a first resonance space and a second resonance space therein is disposed in the optical housing. A translucent partition wall, a first partition wall, and a second partition wall which extend from a bottom wall to a top wall of the optical housing are arranged in this order from an upstream side toward a downstream side on an optical path between a light source and a rotary polygonal mirror. The first and second resonance spaces are separated from each other by the three partition walls. One of the first and second resonance spaces resonates at a frequency of a rotational speed of a motor, and the other of the first and second resonance spaces resonates at a generated frequency of a wind noise generated by the rotary polygonal mirror.

Optical scanning device and image forming apparatus including the optical scanning device

A light guide member has a transmitting/reflecting portion transmitting and reflecting light that is emitted from a light source, to enter one end of the light guide member in a longitudinal direction, and be guided to the other end of the light guide member so that the light is applied to: a position between the developing roller and the transfer roller on the image carrier on a downstream side in the traveling direction of the transfer target member; and a position between the transfer roller and the cleaning portion on the image carrier on an upstream side in the traveling direction of the transfer target member. Furthermore, the light guide member has a convex portion having an arc-shaped cross section and being formed outward at a position opposing the transmitting/reflecting portion in a part of a predetermined specific region at one end or both ends in the longitudinal direction.

Image forming apparatus and light guide member

An image forming apparatus includes: a speed setting portion configured to set a rotation speed of a drive motor to one of a plurality of predetermined specific speeds; a measurement processing portion configured to, in each of a plurality of detection cycles in which light is detected after scanning by a polygon mirror, measure an interval between a detection timing of the light and an output timing at which a drive signal input to the drive motor of the polygon mirror first after the detection timing, is output; and an identification processing portion configured to identify a reference reflection surface that corresponds to a reference interval, based on the measured interval and the reference interval corresponding to a specific speed at a time when the measured interval was measured, the reference interval being among reference intervals that have been set in advance for each of the specific speeds.

Laser scanning device, image forming apparatus, reflection surface identification method

A laser scanning device includes a rotary polygon mirror, a drive motor, a light detecting portion, a measurement processing portion, and an identification processing portion. The rotary polygon mirror has reflection surfaces and rotates such that light is scanned by the reflection surfaces in sequence. The light detecting portion detects the light scanned by the rotary polygon mirror. The measurement processing portion, in each of light detection cycles, measures an interval between a light detection timing and an output timing at which a drive signal that is to be input to a drive motor first after the detection timing, is output. The identification processing portion identifies a reflection surface corresponding to a standard interval, based on the standard interval and the measured interval, the standard interval being one of intervals acquired in the detection cycles that correspond to the reflection surfaces.

Laser scanning device, image forming apparatus and reflection surface identification method for identifying reflection surface of rotary polygon mirror

An image forming apparatus includes a charging roller, a temperature sensor, a humidity sensor, a sampling part, a life consumption degree calculating part and a warning processing part. The sampling part executes temperature/humidity inputting process inputting temperature of the temperature sensor and humidity of the humidity sensor. The life consumption degree calculating part calculates a life consumption degree of the charging roller from a last time to a present time in the temperature/humidity inputting process by applying respective representative values of last and present inputted temperature and humidity into a model formula. The warning processing part outputs a warning when an addition value of the life consumption degrees exceeds a predetermined threshold value. The life consumption degree calculating part uses the model formula deriving larger life consumption degree in a case where the representative value of the temperature and the representative value of the humidity are respectively larger.

Image forming apparatus and method of warning life of charging roller in image forming apparatus

In a light guide member included in an image forming apparatus, a transmitting/reflecting portion transmits and reflects light that is emitted from a light source to enter one end of the light guide member in a longitudinal direction and be guided to the other end thereof in the longitudinal direction. The light reflected by the transmitting/reflecting portion is emitted from a first optical surface. The light transmitted through the transmitting/reflecting portion is emitted from a second optical surface. At a cross section orthogonal to the longitudinal direction, a first outer peripheral surface has an arc shape including the first optical surface. Second outer peripheral surfaces expand from both ends of the first outer peripheral surface toward the second optical surface.

An image forming apparatus includes a light source, a cleaning portion, and a light guide member. The light source irradiates an image carrying member with light to remove electricity from a surface of the image carrying member after formation of an electrostatic latent image thereon. The cleaning portion cleans the surface of the image carrying member. The light guide member is disposed on an upstream side of the cleaning portion in a rotation direction of the image carrying member, forms a light guide path for guiding the light irradiated from the light source to the image carrying member, and includes at least one reflection surface, wherein an area of the reflection surface on the image carrying member side is lower in reflection ratio than an area of the reflection surface on the light source side.

Image forming apparatus, light guide member, and electricity removing device

An image forming apparatus includes a heating element, an interior temperature/humidity detection section, and a controller. The heating element is conducted during connection of the image forming apparatus to an external power source to heat an image bearing member. The interior temperature/humidity detection section detects temperature and humidity in the interior of the image forming apparatus. The controller performs a refresh operation when a relative humidity calculated on the basis of the temperature and humidity detected by the interior temperature/humidity detection section immediately after the image forming apparatus is connected to the external power source is higher than the preset value. The refresh operation is an operation for supply of developer from a development device to the image bearing member and for polish of the surface of the image bearing member with the use of a polishing member.

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Osaka, Japan

Jun Nakai