Seiko Epson Corporation

Keiichi Taguchi

Ken Yoshizuka

Kuniaki Tanaka

Hiroshi Nakazato

Hiroshi Tanaka

Hidetsugu Shimura

Osamu Ishibashi

Ken Ikuma

Yoichi Yamada

Nobuyuki Mizushima

Takashi Hama

Hidenori Kin

Nozomu Inoue

Hiroshi Miyazawa

Yoshio Nakazawa

Tsuyoshi Kowari

Toshiya Takahata

Masahiro Maeda

Toshihiko Yamazaki

Katsumi Okamoto

Akinobu Nakahata

Tatsuro Osawa

Shigeo Fujita

Naoyuki Okumura

Tomoyuki Shiiya

Isao Inaba

Shinsuke Yokote

Yuki Kuwahara

Kazuyoshi Utsumi

Takefumi Inui

Shigeru Tsuji

The invention relates to a method of charging for ink in an ink container consumed by a printing unit during printing. The method of charging includes obtaining information on an amount of the ink consumed; and implementing charging on the basis of the information. Before the amount of the ink in the ink container consumed reaches a predetermined value, first charging is implemented according to a charging basis in which usage-based charging is implemented on the basis of the amount of the ink consumed. After the amount of the ink consumed reaches the predetermined value, second charging is implemented according to a charging basis different from the charging basis applied to the first charging.

Charging method and charging system

An image forming apparatus comprises: a latent image carrier which carries an electrostatic latent image; a developing unit which visualizes with toner the electrostatic latent image carried by the latent image carrier and forms a toner image; an intermediate transfer medium to which the toner image is transferred from the latent image carrier and which rotates and transports the toner image to a predetermined transfer position and transfers the toner image to a recording medium; a cleaner which abuts on the surface of the intermediate transfer medium and removes toner which adheres to the surface of the intermediate transfer medium after the transfer to the recording medium; and a controller which, assuming that the direction which is orthogonal to the travel direction in which the intermediate transfer medium moves is a width direction, executes toner accumulating processing during which predetermined toner images are formed as end patch images in end areas of the surface of the intermediate transfer medium which are located on outer side along the width direction relative to an image forming region in which a toner image corresponding to size of the recording medium is formed and the cleaner then removes the end patch images.

Image forming apparatus with cleaner that removes toner from intermediate transfer medium

An image It is formed as a patch image which includes a header image portion Ih of a solid image having a length of a circumferential length of a developing roller or more, and a gradation image portion Ig progressively varied in the tone level thereof from the maximum level to the minimum level. The densities of the patch image on an intermediate transfer belt are sampled. However, the sampling results contain errors resulting from noises or variations and hence, are subjected to a noise removal process, a periodical variation correction process and a reverse correction process. The results detected on the intermediate transfer belt do not always coincide with image densities (OD values) on a recording material. Therefore, the detection results are converted into the OD values, based on which tone characteristics of an apparatus is estimated. Then a tone correction table is updated in a manner to compensate for the tone characteristics. This approach is taken to improve image quality on the recording material.

Image forming apparatus and method for controlling tone characteristics based on tone-control patch image

An image forming apparatus and an image forming method, which are capable of forming images at stable image quality by executing adjustment of operating conditions at appropriate timings, are provided. When a Vsync count corresponding to an integrated value of a rotation count of an intermediate transfer belt reaches a predetermined value Vor V, a charging current Iw is increased by one level and an adjusting operation of a developing bias is executed (at a time tor t), to thereby stabilize an image density. Further, when remaining service life of a developer reaches a predetermined value (50%) (at a time t), if the Vsync count at that moment suggests that the time to change the charging current Iw is drawing near, the change thereof is executed ahead of the schedule, whereby the adjusting operation of the developing bias, which should otherwise be executed at the time t, is omitted.

Image forming apparatus that adjusts operating conditions based on a density detection result of a patch image

An image forming apparatus for forming an image corresponding to an image signal on a recording material, comprising: a signal processor which generates an image-formation control signal by subjecting the image signal to a signal processing process including a screening process selectively using one of plural types of different processing screens; an image forming unit which includes an intermediate transfer medium, and which forms the image by forming a toner image on the intermediate transfer medium corresponding to the image-formation control signal and transferring and fixing the toner image to a recording material; and a detector which detects a quantity of the toner carried on the intermediate transfer medium as the toner image, wherein the signal processing process performed by the signal processor includes a tone correction process for compensating for a gamma characteristics of the apparatus based on a detection result given by the detector detecting a toner image formed as a patch image by using the processing screen and a transferring/fixing characteristics, which represents a relation between a quantity of toner constituting a toner image carried on the intermediate transfer medium and a density of an image formed on the recording material as a result of transferring and fixing the toner image to the recording material, previously determined in correspondence to the processing screen.

Image forming apparatus and control method thereof

An object of the present invention is to simplify management of the amount of recording agent used by multiple users, by allocating a recording agent cartridge to a user in advance. In a printing device of the present invention, a primary user and a secondary user are set as active user information for each of multiple recording agent cartridges in a printing device connected to a network. When a print job with user identification information is received via the network, the printing device specifies a cartridge of which the primary user is the user who sent the job, based on the user identification information and the active user information, and determines whether the residual amount in the specified cartridge is sufficient (S). When the residual amount is not sufficient, the procedure specifies another cartridge for which the user is set as the secondary user, based on the user identification information and the active user information, and set the specified cartridge as a active cartridge to be used for printing (S).

Printing device with multiple recording agent cartridges and corresponding print management method

An image-forming apparatus has a limitation padand a retard roller, which separately feed recording paper P on an elevation trayin an MPT coverby bringing the recording paper P against an outer peripheral surfaceof the feeding roller. In this image-forming apparatus (paper feeder), when the feeding roller is stopped by passing recording paper to be separately fed to a pair of relay transport rollers, the elevation tray is lowered before stoppage of the feeding roller, thereby separating an extremity of the recording paper from the outer peripheral surface of the feeding roller.

Paper feeding method and paper feeder

An image forming apparatus which includes: a plurality of developers each of which stores therein a toner of the same color and includes a toner carrier structured to rotate while carrying the toner on its surface; and a controller which executes an image forming operation using the developer in accordance with an image forming command, wherein the controller selects a developer from the plurality of developers based on a length of shutdown time from the end of use in the previous image forming operation and executes the image forming operation using the selected developer.

Image forming apparatus including plural developers and image forming method

The present invention provides a printing device whereby a recording agent cartridge that pertains to recording agent cartridge-related information can easily be identified. The printing device of the present invention stores cartridge identification information including user information on each user allocated to one of the multiple recording agent cartridges. When a print job with user identification information is received via the network (S), the printing device identifies a recording agent cartridge corresponding to a user of the print job and sets the identified recording agent cartridge to an active recording agent cartridge for executing the print job (S), based on the user identification information received with the print job and the user information. The printing device executes the print job and outputs output information with respect to a specified recording agent cartridge selected among the multiple recording agent cartridges, together with a specific piece of the cartridge identification information regarding the specified recording agent cartridge, which is selected out of the cartridge identification information stored in said cartridge identification information storage module (S).

Printing device and print management method

An image forming apparatus adapted for a smooth mounting/dismounting of a process unit and for the reduction of wasteful power consumption is provided. Unless a new image signal is applied after completion of an image forming operation, the apparatus starts a clocking operation by an internal timer (Step S). If the apparatus is left standstill for a predetermined length of time (Step S), a sleep process (Step S) is executed to shift the apparatus to a power save mode to consume less power. When an outside cover is opened (Step S), on the other hand, the apparatus is shifted to a replacement operation mode (Step S) in which only the rotation of a development rotary is permitted. However, if the apparatus is left with the outside cover opened (Step S), the sleep process is executed.

Image forming apparatus and control method of that apparatus

Image forming apparatus and method including canceling a power save mode

In a case where there are developers belonging to Life Rankrepresenting a service life substantially as long as that of a fresh developer (Step S), and the developers includes one which is ready to print (Step S), it is determined that image formation can be performed without performing a preparatory operation (Step S). In a case where there is no print-ready developer but a developer which requires an agitation operation of rotating a developing roller by a predetermined quantity (Step S), the agitation operation is performed on the developer (Step S) so as to make the developer in a print-ready state. In a case where the developer cannot be made print-ready by the agitation operation, a density control operation for adjusting operating conditions of an apparatus is performed (Step S). Thus is obviated an unnecessary operation. The developer subjected to a predetermined print preparatory process is used in a printing operation so that an image of good quality may be formed. In a case where no Rank-developer is available but a Rank-developer, deteriorated to a degree, is available, the same procedure is taken.

Image forming apparatus and method with plural developers each storing toner of the same color

An electrostatic latent image associated with image data is formed on an image carrier. A developer includes a container containing toner a roller facing the image carrier and causing the toner to adhere onto the image carrier to develop the electrostatic image with the toner as a image, and an applier applying the toner to the roller. A controller is operable to receive the image data and to control the roller in correspondence to the image data. The image data includes first image data corresponding to a first image and second image data corresponding to a second image. The first image is formed onto a trailing end portion of the medium. The controller receives the second image data after the formation of the first image. After the formation of the first image and before the formation of the second image, the controller causes the roller to rotate without causing the toner to adhere onto the image carrier.

Image forming apparatus with developing roller that rotates during standby to ensure toner uniformity

An image forming apparatus comprises a rotatable rotating body to and from which a plurality of developer containers can be attached and detached, each of the developer containers being capable of containing developer of a different color. When the image forming apparatus continuously forms images on a plurality of number of sheets of media using the developer of a single color contained in one of the developer containers attached to the rotating body, the image forming apparatus causes rotational movement of the rotating body at least once at least either when the image forming apparatus starts to continuously form the images, or when the image forming apparatus ends the continuous formation of the images.

Image forming apparatus and system containing detachable developer containers

The image forming device enables adequate density adjustment control, regardless of which toner cartridge is mounted. The image forming device for conducting image formation by using a toner has a development device having detachably mounted thereon a development unit for accommodating the toner, a discrimination unit discriminating whether or not the development unit mounted on the development device is a product of guaranteed quality, and a control unit that controls the density adjustment processing of the development unit mounted on the development device and serves to execute different control with respect to the density adjustment processing when the development unit was identified as a product of guaranteed quality and when the development unit was not identified as a product of guaranteed quality by the discrimination unit.

Growing community of inventors

Nagano-ken, Japan

Keiichi Taguchi