Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.

Konica Minolta, Inc.

Minolta Camera Kabushiki Kaisha

Minolta Company, Ltd.

Naotoshi Kawai

Noboru Oomoto

So Yano

Yoshiyuki Toso

Hiroaki Umemoto

Shoichi Yoshikawa

Kentaro Katori

Kuniya Matsuura

Tomohiro Kato

Tadayasu Sekioka

Noritoshi Hagimoto

Akira Hirota

Eri Kusano

Takao Miyamoto

Takashi Fujiwara

Naoyoshi Kinoshita

Kazunobu Maekawa

Hiroshi Hiraguchi

Toshikazu Kawaguchi

Takayuki Ito

Shigeru Tashiro

Hiroyuki Maeda

Suguru Hamamichi

Tomoyuki Imura

Shigeru Sawada

Naoki Miyagawa

Shingo Hirota

Yoshihito Aoki

A color correcting system mountable in an image forming apparatus comprises an imaging unit configured to perform image formation and a control unit configured to acquire a control parameter for use in image formation by the imaging unit and a status parameter indicating a status at the time of image formation. If a value for a color in an image formed by the imaging unit does not exceed a first threshold, and at least one member selected from the group consisting of adhering toner amount, gloss, line width, and line position for the image formed by the imaging unit does not exceed a second threshold, the control unit is configured to determine a control parameter on the basis of the acquired control parameter and the acquired status parameter, such that at least a color difference decreases.

Color correcting system and image forming apparatus including same

In an image forming apparatus, a sensor section which the printed sheets fed from an image forming section pass through or by in a first direction one by one, irradiates each of the passing printed sheets with light elongated in a second direction different, thereby sensing densities of the each of passing printed sheets, on a pixel basis. Further, a control section integrates densities of respectively corresponding line portions in respective non-image areas of sheets of the printed sheets, based on the densities obtained by the sensor section, each of the line portion extending substantially in the first direction and including pixels on substantially a same position in the second direction, thereby obtaining integrated density values, and predicts, based on the obtained integrated density values, that a noise will occur on a printed sheet to be made by the image forming section later on.

Image forming apparatus and image noise prediction method

A gloss measuring device that measures a gloss of an image formed on a sheet which is being transported, the gloss measuring device includes a light emission portion that emits light toward the sheet, a light reception portion that receives the light reflected specularly off the image formed on the sheet, and a position adjustment unit that performs adjustment such that the sheet being transported is in a measurement reference position.

Gloss measuring device and image forming device including same

A plurality of first viscoelastic bodies are disposed in insertion holes of a first rotary member. A plurality of second viscoelastic bodies are disposed in guide holes of a second rotary member. Each of the first and the second viscoelastic bodies has an elastic coefficient changing in accordance with aging due to use. A guide member moves a contact member along the insertion hole and the guide hole. The contact member applies a compressive load to the first viscoelastic body. The aging of the second viscoelastic body due to the compressive load applied thereto moves a position of the first viscoelastic body where the compressive load is received from the contact member toward a farther side from a rotational shaft side.

Rotary damper and image forming apparatus

When a sheet is transported as passed through a first roller pair equipped with a torque limiter and through a second roller pair, a loop formed in the sheet between the first roller pair and the second roller pair is cleared by a method wherein the amount of sheet loop is decreased by driving the second roller pair and disabling the first roller pair and wherein at the time when the sheet loop is decreased to a predetermined amount, a velocity of clearing the loop is lowered by rotating the first roller pair at a lower peripheral velocity than that of the second roller pair.

Sheet conveyor, image forming apparatus and image scanning apparatus

An image forming apparatus selects a screen from a plurality of screens corresponding respectively to a plurality of gradation values and each including a pattern in which a first region to which toner is to adhere and a second region to which toner is not to adhere are defined, and forms a toner image on media. The apparatus includes a storage device for storing a minimum formable distance between first regions or second regions adjacent to each other, and a controller calculating a distance between the first regions or second regions adjacent to each other in the screen and, when the distance of the region of a screen that corresponds to a gradation value of an input image and has a first pattern is smaller than the minimum formable distance, selecting a screen corresponding to the gradation value of the input image and having a second pattern.

Electrophotographic image forming apparatus that selects a screen from a plurality of screens based on distance between toner adhesion or non-adhesion regions

A first screen group and a second screen group are stored in an image forming apparatus. In the first screen group, the first region expands with increasing gradation value based on a first rule. In the second screen group, the first region expands with increasing gradation value based on an independent second rule different from the first rule. A screen selector relocates a first portion and a second portion such that the first portion and the second portion are joined by a second region that is not a toner adhesion control target, when the first portion and the second portion are adjacent as a result of the selection of the screen in each unit region of the input image. The first portion includes the screen included in the first screen group, and the second portion includes the screen included in the second screen group.

Image forming apparatus in which intermediate gradation reproducibility is enhanced

A color printer including, a conductive brush roller to contact a photosensitive drum at a position downstream of a transferring apparatus and upstream of a charging apparatus, wherein at least part of residual toner is collected after temporarily transferring on the photosensitive drum, and the collected toner is expelled onto the photosensitive drum, a charge electrode facing the brush roller at a position other than the contact position of the photosensitive drum and the brush roller, and a power source to apply voltage to the charge electrode, wherein the polarity of the voltage applied from the power source to the charge electrode with respect to the average voltage of the surface of the photosensitive drum after transferring is the same as a charging polarity of the toner at developing.

Image forming apparatus, charge controlling apparatus, and image forming method

It is intended to provide an image forming apparatus capable of conducting charge adjustment of post-transfer residual toner appropriately by securing a contact area of a temporarily-collecting member and an electrode, without applying excessive deformation load to the temporarily-collecting member. There are arranged a brush roller for temporarily collecting post-transfer residual toner, and an electrode of which inwardly-curved face being in contact with the brush roller in a toner charge apparatus. Thereby, charged-in-opposite-polarity toner, out of post-transfer residual toner, is collected by the brush roller, polarity of the toner is reversed to original polarity, and then, returned to a photosensitive drum. The inner face of the electrode, i.e., a contact face of the electrode and the brush roller is formed in an inwardly-curved face. Thereby, a large contact area and light pushing force of the electrode to the brush roller can go together.

Image forming apparatus

The temperature and humidity around a photoreceptor drum and the total number of copied sheets of the photoreceptor drum are detected. Data LDATA for setting the intensity of a laser beam and data BDATA for setting the beam diameter according to the detected results are provided from an image control circuit to a laser drive circuit and a collimator lens drive circuit. The laser drive circuit corrects the intensity of the laser beam output from an LD package according to LDATA, and the collimator lens drive circuit controls the position of the collimator lens according to BDATA to correct the beam diameter of the laser beam.

Image forming apparatus having circuits for adjusting light beam

A cleaning device for removing residual toner on the image bearing member includes a cleaning blade contacting with the surface of the image bearing member and sealing members provided on both end portions of the image bearing member and confronting the cleaning edge of the cleaning blade with a gap. The gap meets the following condition when the average particle diameter per unit volume of the toner used is between 4 .mu.m and 15 .mu.m and the level of condensation is between 5% and 40%, if the width and length of the gap between the cleaning edge and the sealing member are W and L, respectively:

Cleaning device for removing residual toner from an image carrier in an

An image forming apparatus having a developing device which accommodates a developer for developing an electrostatic latent image formed on the surface of a latent image carrier, a developing member provided in said developing device for supplying the developer to the electrostatic latent image formed on the surface of the latent image carrier and a mixing member provided in the developing device for mixing the developer accommodated within the developing device. In the above image forming apparatus, the operating time of the mixing member is determined prior to the start of operation of the developing member based on at least one value of a toner density at the end of developing, the developer standing idle time, and the total number of developing cycles with the same developer.

Electrophotographic image forming apparatus with controlled mixing of

An image forming apparatus comprising a rotatable transfer drum, chucking member provided at the transfer drum for chucking a transfer paper on the transfer drum and a sensor provided in the vicinity of the transfer drum for detecting the light passing through the transfer drum. In the image forming apparatus, the above single sensor is operable for detecting mischucking of the transfer paper and for detecting whether the transfer paper is a plain paper or OHP paper.

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Toyokawa, Japan

Naotoshi Kawai