Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.

Konica Minolta, Inc.

Masashi Kawai

Yasuaki Tomoda

Takeshi Hashimoto

Syuichi Katogi

Noboru Oomoto

Shoichi Yoshikawa

Takayuki Ito

Fuminori Moro

Fumio Masuda

Naoki Nonoyama

Koji Soda

Junichi Tanimoto

Shigeru Sawano

Hideyuki Kurahashi

Tatsuyuki Sasaki

Yoshiki Omichi

Takashi Gonda

An image forming apparatus orientatable in either a first position or a second position, the second position being different from the first position in inclination with respect to a horizontal plane, comprising: a fixing device including a heating roller and a pressurizing member, pressing the pressurizing member against a surface of the heating roller to form a fixing nip, and thermally fixing a toner image on a recording sheet passing through the fixing nip; at least one temperature detector detecting surface temperature of the heating roller without contact with the surface; a heater heating the heating roller; a controller controlling the heater according to the surface temperature, thereby controlling the surface temperature; and a switcher switching a detection point of the temperature detector between a first and a second detection point according to whether the image forming apparatus is in the first or the second position.

Image forming apparatus capable of stably detecting temperature of fixing device regardless of orientation of the image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus that is orientatable in either a first position or a second position, the second position being different from the first position in inclination with respect to a horizontal plane, comprising: a platform configured to be stacked with a plurality of recording sheets used for image formation; a pickup roller in contact with the recording sheets and configured to pick up the recording sheets one at a time; a pressing member applying pressure to the platform against the pick-up roller; and a pressure changer causing the pressing member to change an amount of the pressure according to whether the image forming apparatus is in the first position or in the second position.

Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes a developing device that uses a developer carrier to advance to an image carrier a developer including a toner and a carrier and supplies the toner to the image carrier by applying a developing bias between the developer carrier and the image carrier. In the image forming apparatus, the following operation is performed before the developer in the developing device is taken out. The toner is supplied to the image carrier by applying the developing bias between the developer carrier and the image carrier, the developing bias increased in a direction to supply the toner to the image carrier. The toner supplied onto the image carrier is not transferred to a transfer receiving material but is advanced into a toner recovery device for recovery. The recovered toner is prevented from being returned to the developing device.

Image forming apparatus and method

In a single-body type imaging unit including a toner bottle provided with a drive shaft, and a print unit provided with a drive shaft, the toner bottle and the print unit are coupled to each other via an elastic member.

Imaging unit and image formation apparatus provided with the same

Image forming apparatus with toner cartridge

In a beltless tandem-type image forming apparatus, a plurality of pairs of transfer rollers are placed side by side at intervals along a conveying direction of sheets. A control section independently conveys sheets in sequence through nip sections of respective pairs of transfer rollers driven by a driving section while sequentially transferring images formed by an imaging section onto the sheets. Conveying speeds of the respective pairs of transfer rollers controlled by the driving section are gradually decreased for every pair of transfer rollers from an upstream side toward a downstream side along a conveying direction of the sheets, and consequently, a driving period for driving the respective pairs of transfer rollers to convey each sheet is gradually increased for every pair of transfer rollers from the upstream side toward the downstream side along the conveying direction of the sheets.

Beltless tandem-type image forming apparatus

Toner cartridge

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Toyohashi, Japan

Masashi Kawai