Konica Minolta, Inc.

Masayuki Fukunaga

Takaki Kato

Yuji Kobayashi

Toshiaki Tanaka

Mineo Yamamoto

Satoshi Ogata

Masayuki Watanabe

Eiji Nishikawa

Isao Watanabe

Satoshi Miyajima

Toshinori Inomoto

Remi Ishikawa

A recording material conveying device includes: a first conveyor that conveys a recording material supplied from a recording material supply part; a second conveyor that branches from the first conveyor and conveys the recording material without passing through an image forming part; a third conveyor that branches from the first conveyor and conveys the recording material via the image forming part; and a detector that detects a recording material characteristic of the recording material, wherein the recording material whose recording material characteristic has been detected by the detector can be ejected from the second conveyor.

Recording material conveying device and image forming system

An image forming apparatus that has a transfer device that includes an intermediate transfer belt that is tensioned by a plurality of support rollers, a secondary transfer roller that faces one of the support rollers via the intermediate transfer belt, a cam that adjust a pressing force that presses the intermediate transfer belt by the secondary transfer roller, a motor that drives the cam, and a conveyor that conveys a recording medium to a transfer nip formed between the intermediate transfer belt and the secondary transfer roller is provided with a controller that controls an operation of the motor. The controller executes first control of operating the motor with a constant torque and stopping the motor when a rotation angular speed of the motor is less than or equal to a first threshold and second control of operating the motor at a predetermined timing to adjust a transfer nip amount.

Image forming apparatus, transfer method, and storage medium storing transfer control program

A movement amount detecting device performs discrete Fourier transform onto N-th image data and N+1-th image data, thereby generating N-th wave number space data and N+1-th wave number space data. The movement amount detecting device obtains a target speed of a sheet, and determines a cutoff value based on the obtained target speed and an exposure time in an image sensor. The movement amount detecting device calculates an amount of movement of the sheet based on a phase difference between the N-th wave number space data and the N+1-th wave number space data in a wave number component smaller than the cutoff value.

Movement amount detecting device, image forming apparatus, and movement amount detecting method

An image forming apparatus including: a fixer that fixes a toner image formed on a recording medium by pressing and heating the recording medium nipped in a nip portion formed by causing two rotating bodies to pressedly abut on each other, and conveying the recording medium by rotating the rotating bodies; a motor that drives the rotating bodies by transmitting a torque to at least one of the rotating bodies; a torque detector that detects the torque transmitted to the rotating body by the motor; a temperature detector that detects temperature of the rotating body; a speed detector that detects a conveyance speed for conveying the recording medium by the fixer; and a controller that corrects the detected torque based on at least any one of the detected temperature and the detected conveyance speed and predicts a life of the fixer based on the corrected torque.

Image forming apparatus which corrects torque based on temperature or conveyance speed and predicts a life of the fixer based on a corrected torque

An image formation apparatus includes a conveyor configured to convey a moving element on which an image is formed, a generator configured to generate a first image and a second image by shooting the conveyed moving element at different timing, a detector configured to sense a first distance between the generator and the moving element at the time of shooting of the first image and sense a second distance between the generator and the moving element at the time of shooting of the second image, and a hardware processor configured to calculate a speed of conveyance of the moving element based on the first image, the second image, the first distance, and the second distance, and output the speed of conveyance.

Image formation apparatus, control method, and control program for calculating a speed of conveyance

An image forming apparatus includes: a conveying path on which a recording medium is conveyed; an image capturer that includes a light source and radiates light from the light source to capture the recording medium being conveyed at different timings to generate at least two images including a first image and a second image; and a movement amount calculator that calculates a movement amount of the recording medium between capturing timings of the first and second images, wherein the movement amount calculator: calculates an index distance which is a distance in a conveying direction of a pattern formed by reflected light from the recording medium; calculates a ratio between the index distance and a reference distance used for comparison with the index distance; and calculates a movement amount of the recording medium between the capturing timings of the first and second images.

Image forming apparatus calculating movement of recording medium

A moving amount detector that sets a movable member included in a device of a mounting destination or an object conveyed by the device as a detection target and detects a moving amount of the detection target includes: an imaging unit that repeatedly captures images of the detection target at a constant sampling period while the detection target moves; and a moving amount calculating unit that selects two images to be compared with each other among a series of images of the detection target captured by the imaging unit such that an imaging time difference between the two images is increased as a difference due to moving of the detection target is further generated between the two images and calculates a moving amount of the detection target based on the difference.

Moving amount detector and image forming apparatus including the same

A device for detecting a travel distance of a sheet is provided. The device includes a light source for irradiating the sheet surface; an imaging sensor for capturing an image of a pattern of the sheet surface by light reflected from the sheet; a discrete Fourier transformation portion for performing discrete Fourier transformation on two patterns obtained by image capturing at a time interval by the imaging sensor; a high wave number component removal portion for using a threshold determined based on a cycle of concave-convex of the sheet surface to remove a high wave number component from the two patterns having been subjected to the discrete Fourier transformation; and a travel distance calculation portion for determining a travel distance of the sheet based on a phase relationship between the two patterns from which the high wave number component removal portion has removed the high wave number component.

Device for detecting travel distance, image forming apparatus, and method for detecting travel distance

An emission unit of a displacement detector emits laser light to a range in a space in which a target moves. A detection unit detects a distribution of amounts of light reflected from a capture region in the predefined range. Based on a shift of speckle pattern indicated by a difference between the distributions of amounts of reflected light that the detection unit detects at different times, a calculation unit calculates a displacement of the target. A correction unit measures a speckle contrast from the distribution of amounts of reflected light, and based on an error between the measured value and a reference value, corrects the amount of laser light. The reference value is set to the value of a speckle contrast in a case in which the amounts of reflected light fall within the detectable range of the detection unit.

Displacement detector and image forming device having the same

A multi-feed detection apparatus for detecting multi-feed of a sheet conveyed along a paper path is provided. The apparatus includes a first movement amount sensor disposed on the paper path to face a first surface of the sheet to detect a movement amount of the sheet; a second movement amount sensor disposed, on the paper path, in a position at which the first movement amount sensor is disposed to face a second surface of the sheet to detect a movement amount of the sheet; and a determination portion configured to determine that a conveyance state of the sheet is multi-feed when a difference between the movement amount of the sheet detected by the first movement amount sensor and the movement amount of the sheet detected by the second movement amount sensor is equal to or greater than a threshold.

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Toyohashi, Japan

Masayuki Fukunaga