Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Kayoko Ikegami

Noboru Sawayama

Naoto Watanabe

Shinji Kato

Shin Hasegawa

Shinji Kobayashi

Hitoshi Ishibashi

Kohta Fujimori

Kazumi Kobayashi

Yushi Hirayama

Takashi Enami

Fukutoshi Uchida

Masaichi Sawada

Katsuo Hatase

Ryohichi Ishikawa

An optical sensor includes at least one light emitting unit that emits a light, a first light receiving unit that receives specular reflection light from an illumination object when the light is incident on the illumination object with an incidence angle and specularly reflected with a reflection angle, and a second light receiving unit that receives diffuse reflection light from the illumination object when the incident light is diffusely reflected at the illumination object. The sum of the incident angle and the reflection angle is 25 degrees or less.

Optical sensor and image forming apparatus that processes specular reflection light

An image forming apparatus includes an image forming mechanism and a process controller. The process controller is configured to instruct the image forming mechanism to perform an image forming operation and a control operation of image forming process conditions. The control operation includes at least two phases each executable at an individual time. The process controller instructs the image forming mechanism to perform the control operation by executing the at least two phases in order of execution frequency from the highest execution frequency to the lowest execution frequency, and discontinue sequential execution of the at least two phases in accordance with an image output command to preferentially perform the image output operation in accordance with the image output command. An image forming method is also described.

Method and apparatus for image forming capable of controlling image-forming process conditions

An image forming apparatus includes an operation management part managing the operation of the image forming apparatus. A first operation information storing part accumulates in chronological order operation information relating to the operation managed by the operation management part. An external output part refers to cumulative results accumulated in the first operation information storing part and outputs, to the outside, the operation information according to the cumulative results.

Image forming apparatus

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Saitama, Japan

Kayoko Ikegami