Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Masaki Karakawa

Hiroshi Adachi

Kengo Tanaka

Shingo Nishizaki

Masashi Hommi

Naohiro Funada

Norio Muraishi

Sumihiro Inokuchi

A powder detector includes a driver to drive a motor, a stirrer to stir powder in a vessel, a vibration plate disposed in the vessel and vibrated by a flip of the stirrer rotated by the motor, and circuitry. The circuitry detects a vibration of the vibration plate, estimates an amount of powder based on a detection result of the vibration, and causes the driver to drive the motor from a starting point, so as to move the stirrer to a preset halt position. The starting point is a rotation angle of the motor on detection of the vibration.

Powder detector, control method of same, and image forming apparatus incorporating same

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Masaki Karakawa