Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Kengo Kawamoto

Masaru Shimura

Hideo Nanataki

Kiyoto Toyoizumi

Yoshinori Ikeda

Toshio Honma

Masanori Miyata

Shigeru Ueda

Hiroaki Ishii

Hiroshi Omura

Toru Niki

Naoji Hayakawa

Kazuma Sato

Hirokazu Uchio

Masahiro Hayakawa

Hironobu Araki

Yuji Sakabe

Yuko Suzuki

An image forming apparatus including a control unit configured to cause the light irradiation unit to irradiate the photosensitive member at an image forming portion to which toner particles adhere with light emitted from the light source by a first light emission amount, and cause the light irradiation unit to irradiate the photosensitive member at a non-image forming portion to which no toner particles adhere with light emitted from the light source by a second light emission amount that is smaller than the first light emission amount. The image forming apparatus further includes an adjusting unit configured to adjust the first light emission amount and the second light emission amount, and an acquisition unit configured to acquire information relating to a speed of surface of the photosensitive member. The adjusting unit is configured to change the second light emission amount according to information acquired by the acquisition unit.

Image forming apparatus in which the light irradiated on a non-imaging portion is adjusted

A color image forming apparatus has a light emitting element emitting light, a laser driving unit causing the light emitting element to emit light of a light amount at a first emission level for visualizing a toner image onto a first area where the toner image is to be visualized on a charged photosensitive member and to emit light of a light amount at a second emission level for weak emission onto a second area where the toner is not to be adhered to the charged photosensitive member. In addition, an acquiring unit acquires information of an integrated number of rotations of the photosensitive member, a drive current adjusting unit adjusts the drive current for the second emission level, and changes a magnitude of the drive current for the second emission level in accordance with the information of the integrated number of rotations of the photosensitive member.

Color image forming apparatus having drive current adjustment

A color image forming apparatus has a plurality of photosensitive members, a light emitting element emitting light, a laser driving unit causing the light emitting element to emit light of a light amount at a first emission level for visualizing the toner image onto a first area where the toner image is to be visualized on the charged photosensitive member and to emit light of a light amount at a second emission level for weak emission onto a second area where the toner is not to be adhered to the charged photosensitive member. In addition, an acquiring unit acquires information associated with a remaining lifetime of each of the photosensitive members, a first drive current adjusting unit adjusts the first drive current, and a second drive current adjusting unit adjusts the second drive current, with the second drive current adjusting unit changing a magnitude of the second drive current in accordance with the information associated with the remaining lifetime of each of the photosensitive members.

There is disclosed an invention for generating contract information for an image forming apparatus for which the user is going to conclude a contract. The history information of an image forming apparatus used by the user and having a contract history is stored and managed in correlation with the user. Such management is executed in a center server capable communication with the image forming apparatus through a predetermined communication channel. The above-mentioned information includes contract term, machine type, number of print outputs etc. of the image forming apparatus. Also the image forming apparatus to be managed includes that currently contracted and that contracted in the past. In case the user wishes to conclude a new contract for an image forming apparatus, new contract information is generated according to the history information managed by the center server in correlation with the user. This invention provides a system capable of realizing the foregoing.

System, method, and program storage medium for managing printing apparatuses

When data of the number of printed paper sheets is transmitted from a user device to a service center, the service center charges on the basis of a unit price corresponding to the agreement contents of each user and the number of printed paper sheets and notifies the user of the payable amount. In addition, upon receiving toner low information from the user device, the service center predicts the toner out time and issues a notification of cartridge supply and empty cartridge collection to the user.

Method, system and medium for remotely managing plural image forming apparatuses and plural types of maintenance agreements relating to the apparatuses

Growing community of inventors

Irvine, CA, United States of America

Kengo Kawamoto