Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Marehiko Hirajima

Hidehiro Wakamiya

Kenji Watanabe

Masanobu Saito

Junichi Sekiyama

Takao Kume

Masaru Ohno

Keisuke Fujita

Hiromi Fujinaka

Shimpei Ishikawa

A transmission unit transmits driving force to be supplied from a motor to a roller pair. A switching unit acts on the transmission unit to switch a rotation direction of the roller pair by the driving force between a normal rotation and a reverse rotation. A control unit controls a rotation speed of the motor to convey the sheet at a second conveyance speed in a part of a first time period. The second conveyance speed is lower than a first conveyance speed. The first conveyance speed is a conveyance speed when the sheet is conveyed in the image forming unit. In the first time period the sheet having the image formed on the first surface is conveyed in a first direction. In a second time period the sheet is conveyed in a second direction.

Image forming apparatus that can form images on both sides of sheet by inverting sheet

An image forming apparatus obtains an evaluation value correlating to an internal temperature, decreases the internal temperature by temporarily stopping an image forming unit based on the evaluation value, continuously runs the image forming unit based on the evaluation value, and controls the image forming unit such that the image forming unit intermittently forms an image on a sheet by repeatedly starting and stopping the image forming unit in a temperature rising suppression period.

Technique for cooling heating element provided in image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes an image bearing member, a transfer member, a power source, a detection unit, and a fixing unit. The transfer member transfers a toner image to a transfer material from the image bearing member. The detection unit detects electric current flowing in the transfer member when the power source applies voltage to the transfer member. The fixing unit fixes a toner image to a transfer material by heat. The heat to the fixing unit is controlled where a subsequent transfer material conveyance stops after the transfer material is discharged from the fixing unit, in a case where a second current value, detected when voltage is applied to the transfer member contacting the fixing unit and the transfer member, is greater than a first current value detected when voltage is applied to the transfer member before the transfer material reaches the fixing unit.

Image forming apparatus

A sheet feeding device includes a raising and lowering portion, a first detecting portion, a feeding portion, a second detecting portion, and a controller. When a change in a state of the feeding roller from a state of being in an uppermost sheet feedable position to a state of being not in the uppermost sheet feedable position is detected by the second detecting portion and then a change in a state of the uppermost sheet from a state of being in a feeding position to a state of being not in the feeding position is detected by the first detecting portion, the controller controls the raising and lowering portion to raise the stacking member on the basis of a correction amount determined based on a time from change timing of the second detecting portion to change timing of the first detecting portion.

Sheet feeding device and image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes first through third control units, with the first for processing input image information and each of the second and third for controlling an operation of an image forming unit by communication with the first. In a first mode, in which power is supplied to the first through third control units, the first and third control units communicate via the second control unit. In a second mode, in which the first control unit does not communicate with the second control unit, the first and third control units communicate via a communication line without communicating via the second control unit. The power consumption of the second mode is lower than that of the first mode. In the second mode, the first and third control units can transmit information for transition from the second mode to the first mode to each other via the communication line.

An image forming apparatus includes an image controller that performs processing of input image information, an engine controller into which a first processing part and a second processing part are combined, and a power supply that supplies power to the engine controller. A mode of the image forming apparatus is switchable from a first mode that is a state of image formation or a stand-by state, to a second mode whose power consumption is smaller than a power consumption of the first mode. In addition, a switch unit switches between the first mode in which power is supplied to the second processing part from the power supply. The image controller and the first processing part communicate with each other through the second processing part in the first mode, or the image controller and the first processing part communicate with each other through a communication line but not through the second processing part in the second mode. In the second mode the first processing part controls the switch unit to start supplying power to the second processing part when the image controller orders transition from the second mode to the first mode through the communication line.

In a sheet feeding cassette which lifts up and lifts down a bottom plate each time when a paper is fed, a recording material sensor detects that no recording materials exist when the bottom plate rises over a predetermined position. Accordingly, by measuring a period of time when it is detected that no recording materials exist during a sheet feeding operation, a stacking amount of the recording materials in a sheet feeding cassette can be detected.

Recording material feeding apparatus and image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus in which information regarding used amounts in image forming apparatus main bodies of different features is stored in the storage part of a cartridge, and the interchange time of the cartridge is judged by the use of the information. Thereby, even if a cartridge having interchangeability between a plurality of kinds of image forming apparatus main bodies of different features is mounted on each of the main bodies of different features, an interchange time corresponding to the main body can be grasped accurately.

STORAGE AREA STORING INFORMATION OF THE AMOUNT OF USE OF EACH FEATURE OF DIFFERENT IMAGE FORMING APPARATUSES, A CARTRIDGE HAVING SUCH A STORAGE AREA, AND AN IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS MOUNTING SUCH A CARTRIDGE

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Chigasaki, Japan

Marehiko Hirajima