Konica Minolta, Inc.

Minolta Company, Ltd.

Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.

Katsuhide Sakai

Masahiro Kamiya

Junichi Masuda

Taku Kimura

Masahiro Nonoyama

Yasuhiro Koide

Takahiro Tsujimoto

Yuta Tachibana

Yasuhiro Ishihara

Yuhei Tatsumoto

Toshikazu Higashi

Akira Takasu

Shigetaka Kato

Akinori Kimata

Shinichi Yabuki

Tomonobu Tamura

Akihiro Hayashi

Harumitsu Fujimori

Toshiaki Tanaka

Hitoshi Asano

Yoshikazu Naito

Shigeo Ogino

Satoshi Chikazawa

Hiroyuki Yoshikawa

Noriyuki Jinbo

Hiromichi Toda

Kouji Ohara

Morio Kinoshita

An image forming apparatus includes: a sheet feeding conveyor that feeds and conveys a recording medium to a conveyance path; an image former that performs image formation on the recording medium; a medium sensor that is disposed on an upstream side of the recording medium from the image former on the conveyance path and measures one or more sheet physical properties regarding the recording medium conveyed; a first hardware processor that determines a type of the recording medium on a basis of the sheet physical properties measured by the medium sensor; a second hardware processor that determines conveyance performance for the recording medium; and a third hardware processor that determines whether or not to perform the image formation on a basis of the conveyance performance in a case where the type of the recording medium determined by the first hardware processor is a type out of product specifications.

Image forming apparatus and control program

An image formation apparatus includes: an image former that forms an image on a recording medium delivered along a predetermined delivery path and outputs the recording medium; a first hardware processor that judges whether or not the recording medium is an envelope; a second hardware processor that acquires a basis weight of the recording medium; a third hardware processor that determines control for when an image is formed on the recording medium on the basis of a judgment result from the first hardware processor and a basis weight acquired by the second hardware processor; and a fourth hardware processor that controls operation of the image former on the basis of a determination result from the third hardware processor.

Image formation apparatus and control method therefor

An image forming device includes: a sheet feeder that feeds a sheet; a controller that: discriminates a sheet type of the sheet, and receives a user input to specify a sheet type; and an image forming device that has two setting modes including an automatic discrimination mode in which an image is formed based on the discriminated sheet type and a user specified mode in which an image is formed based on the sheet type specified by the user input. The controller automatically switches one of the two setting modes to the other based on a defined condition.

Image forming device

An image formation apparatus includes: an image former that forms an image on a recording medium delivered along a predetermined delivery path; a first hardware processor that judges whether or not the recording medium is an envelope; a second hardware processor that acquires a basis weight of the envelope; a third hardware processor that determines, in case the first hardware processor judges that the recording medium is the envelope, control for forming an image on the envelope by the image former on the basis of the basis weight of the envelope acquired by the second hardware processor.

A recording medium conveyance device includes storage that stores a recording medium, a conveyer that takes out the recording medium stored in the storage and conveys the recording medium as a conveyed object, an ultrasonic sensor that outputs a value indicating an attenuation amount of an ultrasonic wave caused by the conveyed object and a hardware processor, wherein the hardware processor executes an overlay detection process of detecting whether the conveyed object is in an overlay state in which a gap is present based on a result of output by the ultrasonic sensor, and prevents execution of the overlay detection process with respect to a first conveyed object that is to be conveyed first by the conveyer.

Recording medium conveyance device, recording medium conveyance method and non-transitory computer-readable recording medium encoded with recording medium conveyance program

Provided is a sheet conveyance apparatus armored with a housing, the sheet conveyance apparatus includes: a sheet conveyor that feeds a sheet to a downstream side in a direction of conveyance; a conveyance guide that guides the sheet to be conveyed; an ultrasonic sensor that detects the sheet guided by the conveyance guide; and a shield member that is conductive, wherein the ultrasonic sensor includes: a transmitter that transmits an ultrasonic wave having a predetermined frequency; and a receiver that receives the ultrasonic wave, the transmitter and the receiver are arranged along the conveyance guide, and the shield member is disposed between the housing and the receiver in a sheet-face perpendicular direction at an ultrasonic-irradiation position of the sheet being conveyed, the shield member covering an entirety of the receiver in plan view in the sheet-face perpendicular direction.

Sheet conveyance apparatus, image reading apparatus, and image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus forms an image on a sheet, and includes: a rotator used to form the image; a motor that drives the rotator rotationally; a current measurer that measures motor current flowing through a current-carrying path including a winding of the motor, at measurement timing that is timing after the motor starts up; a torque acquirer that acquires a torque value of the motor based on a measured value of the motor current; and a corrector that performs correction for cancellation of an amount of error based on one or both of a variation in characteristic corresponding to motor speed of the motor and a variation in characteristic corresponding to the motor current at the measurement timing, at the acquisition of the torque value by the torque acquirer.

Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus that forms an image on a sheet includes: a rotating body that forms the image; a motor that rotationally drives the rotating body; a current measurer that measures a motor current flowing through a current supply path including a winding of the motor at a measurement timing that is a timing after the motor is started; a torque acquisitor that acquires a torque value of the motor, based on a measured value of the motor current; and a corrector that performs correction to cancel a current change amount based on a characteristic change depending on a temperature state of the motor at the measurement timing, in acquisition of the torque value by the torque acquisitor.

A reading apparatus that reads a sheet includes: a first light emitting diode (LED) configured to emit light with a specific wavelength; a light emitting element including a second LED configured to emit light with the specific wavelength and a phosphor configured to be excited by the light emitted from the second LED; a line sensor configured to generate a reference signal according to a quantity of received light emitted from the first LED and reflected off the sheet, and also generate an image signal according to a quantity of received light emitted from the light emitting element and reflected off the sheet; and a controller configured to generate an image representing the sheet from a differential result obtained by removing a component corresponding to the reference signal from the image signal.

Reading apparatus, reading method, and reading program

A control method for a three-phase DC brushless motor including a rotor that includes a plurality of magnetic poles and that is rotatable, a stator that includes a plurality of magnetic field generation parts to generate a magnetic field to be a driving source of the rotor, and a sensor to detect a magnetic pole of the rotor which pole passes through a first position in the stator is provided, the method including: detecting in which the sensor detects a first magnetic pole of the rotor which pole passes through the first position; estimating, based on a result of the detection of the first magnetic pole, time until the first magnetic pole reaches a second position in the stator; and controlling the plurality of magnetic field generation parts in such a manner that a suitable magnetic field is generated when the first magnetic pole passes through the second position.

Control method for three-phase dc brush less motor, control device, and image forming device

In a device for controlling a motor mounted on a system with different operation modes, a controller unit calculates an input value for the motor based on an output value of the motor and a target value depending on operation modes of the system, and instructs a driver circuit of the motor to apply the input value to the motor. An estimation unit estimates an amount of rise in temperature of the motor by applying the input value for the motor to a thermal model of the motor. A notification unit compares a value estimated by the estimation unit with a threshold value. When the estimated value exceeds the threshold value, the notification unit sends a request for change of operation mode to the system.

Motor control device and image forming apparatus including the same

An image forming apparatus includes: a photosensitive member rotated in a predetermined direction; a charging unit configured to charge a circumferential surface of the photosensitive member; a developing unit carrying a developer including toner and carriers, and including a developer bearing member configured to apply toner charged in a first polarity to the circumferential surface of the photosensitive member; a first voltage applying unit configured to apply a first voltage of the first polarity to the charging unit; a second voltage applying unit configured to apply a second voltage of the first polarity to the developer bearing member; a first voltage detecting unit configured to detect the first voltage; a second voltage detecting unit configured to detect the second voltage; and a controller, wherein the controller determines whether or not to make a second rate lower than a first rate according to the second voltage at a first timing.

Image forming apparatus having variable developing roller voltage change

A color printer of the invention is controlled to select DC motors needed to be newly activated according to a print mode when a print job occurs, determine an activation start time of each selected DC motor by sequentially going back activation times stored in relation to the selected DC motors from an image start reference time, activate one or ones of the DC motors to be activated according to the determined activation start times, measure an actual activation time of the activated DC motor and update a stored content about the activation time based on a measurement result of the actual activation time, and determine an activation start time of each DC motor based on the updated activation time. An image forming apparatus capable of preventing the motors from rotating more than necessary and effectively utilizing the life of components to be driven by the motors can be provided.

When a printing instruction is provided, a CPU causes a stepping motor M to drive a developer and calculates the value of a load of the stepping motor M before printing operations are performed. Then, CPU determines whether the value of the load is within a predetermined range stored in advance. If the value is not within the predetermined range, CPU causes a display to display an error message.

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Toyokawa, Japan

Katsuhide Sakai