Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Nobuhito Komoda

Junji Nakai

Masato Kobayashi

Kazushi Takei

Atsuo Tokunaga

Norikazu Taki

An image forming apparatus includes a scanning device and a printing device. The scanning device and the printing device are configured to be separately arranged when the image forming apparatus is in use. The printing device includes a control unit that transmits and receives signals to and from a plurality of units included in the scanning device, and a power supplying unit that supplies electric power to the units. The scanning device includes a first relay substrate that receives electric power from the power supplying unit and distributes the electric power to the units, and relays signals between each of the units and the control unit.

Image forming apparatus

An interface device includes a parallel-to-serial converting unit, a driver, a receiver, and a serial-to-parallel converting unit. The parallel-to-serial converting unit converts parallel signals into a single-ended signal. The driver converts the single-ended signal from the parallel-to-serial converting unit into a differential signal and transmits the differential signal to an external device via signal lines. The receiver converts a differential signal received via the signal lines from an external device into a single-ended signal. The serial-to-parallel converting unit converts the single-ended signal from the receiver into parallel signals. A direction in which the differential signal is to be transmitted is determined based on a control signal.

Interface device and image forming apparatus

A pair of resist rollers, a transferring device, a fixing device, a recording medium discharging device, and a recording medium reversing device are integrated into a recording medium conveying unit. The recording medium conveying unit can be drawn out of a main unit of an image forming apparatus.

Recording medium conveying unit and image forming apparatus having recording medium reversing unit

Recording medium conveying unit and image forming apparatus, including recording medium reversing unit

A stepping motor controller is disclosed that is capable of reducing power consumption of a stepping motor. The stepping motor controller includes a storage unit to store object values of a driving current of the stepping motor, an accumulation unit to accumulate an amount of operation of the stepping motor, and a driving current setting unit to read out an object value corresponding to the amount of operation from the storage unit and set the driving current to the object value. Alternatively, the stepping motor controller includes an accumulation unit that calculates a cumulative amount of operation of the stepping motor, and a driving current setting unit that, when the amount of operation is greater than a predetermined value, determines a critical out-of-step current of the stepping motor by changing in increments the value of the driving current of the stepping motor, and sets the critical out-of-step current with a predetermined margin added as an object driving current of the stepping motor.

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Tokyo, Japan

Nobuhito Komoda