Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Rioch Company, Limited

Norikazu Okada

Tomoyuki Yamashita

Takuma Kasai

Keita Maejima

Takaaki Shirai

Homare Ehara

Ryohta Kubokawa

Eiji Nemoto

Kiriko Chosokabe

Satoru Tao

Atsuki Iwata

Tetsuya Yano

Osamu Kizaki

Takeshi Sano

Hiroshi Adachi

Toshimasa Aoki

Yuusuke Kohri

Hiroaki Umezawa

Shiho Shimosaka

Katsunori Kume

Junpei Hosoya

Shunta Yamahori

Shuntaroh Nakayama

Koh Tokumaru

Noboru Sugiura

Takaaki Hirasawa

Kasai Takuma

A power supply controlling apparatus includes a first power supply unit that supplies DC power to a load using power supplied from a commercial power supply, a power detecting unit that detects an input voltage and an input current input from the commercial power supply to the first power supply unit, and a control unit that controls the input current to be a constant current having an upper limit current value in response to the input voltage by controlling DC power supplied to the load from the first power supply unit based on the input voltage and the input current which are detected by the power detecting unit.

Power supply controlling apparatus and image forming apparatus

An electric power supplying device includes a main power supply that supplies electric power to each component of an apparatus, an auxiliary power supply that supplies electric power to an assisted component in the apparatus, the assisted component requiring power supply during start-up time of the apparatus and having a whose start-up time being equal to or longer than a predetermined period of time, a discharging control circuit that controls the auxiliary power supply to cause the auxiliary power supply to output a voltage, the output voltage being lower than a voltage output by the main power supply and being equal to or more than a lower limit voltage of a voltage range that the assisted component is operable, and a power supply prevention circuit that prevents the auxiliary power supply from supplying power to a component other than the assisted component in the apparatus.

Electric power supplying device and image processing apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes a fixing device to fix an image on a recording medium by heating the recording medium, multiple heat storing devices to store heat generated at the fixing device, an electric generating element to generate power by converting the heat into power, and a switch to switch connection and disconnection between the electric generating element and at least one of the multiple heat storing devices.

Apparatus, method, and non-transitory recording medium for power generation using heat in image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes a heat-generating component, a power generation device including a thermoelectric element, a heat radiation device, a cooling device, a temperature detector that detects a temperature increase of the heat-generating component, and a controller. The heat radiation device includes a first radiator plate interposed between the heat-generating component and a surface of the thermoelectric element and a second radiator plate attached to another surface of the thermoelectric element. The cooling device cools the first radiator plate. The controller controls operations of the cooling device and the power generation device by operating the cooling device if the detected temperature increase reaches at least a predetermined threshold value, and causing the power generation device to generate power without operating the cooling device to cool the first radiator plate passively if the detected temperature increase falls below the predetermined threshold value.

Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes a heat generator configured to generate heat in the image forming apparatus; a converter including a capacitor to convert AC power supplied from an external power supply into DC power for a load unit; a thermoelectric transducer configured to convert the generated heat into DC power for the load unit; a detector configured to detect a voltage of the AC power; and a controller configured to cause the converter to continue supplying the DC power to the load unit when a first elapsed time elapsed since the detected voltage drops below a rated voltage is shorter than a first time period shorter than an upper limit of a period of time over which the capacitor is dischargeable, and cause the thermoelectric transducer to supply the DC power to the load unit when the first elapsed time exceeds the first time period.

Image forming apparatus, image forming method, and computer-readable storage medium

A fixing control device includes an image detection unit that determines presence of an image in each of areas obtained by division of an image formation region in which the image is formed, a heater selection unit that selects from heaters of a fixing device heaters at positions corresponding to areas in which the presence of the image is determined, a heating amount computation unit that computes a heating amount of a heating area heated by each of the selected heaters in a fixing region corresponding to the image formation region, a change amount computation unit that computes an amount of change of the heating amount between adjoining ones of the heating areas, and a heating amount correction unit that corrects one of the heating amounts of the adjoining heating areas so that the amount of change after the correction is less than a predetermined threshold.

Fixing control device, fixing control method, and image forming apparatus

A power source device includes: a first voltage generating unit that includes a power storage unit storing power based on power supplied from a power source and generates a voltage to be supplied to a first load based on the power supplied from the power source; and a second voltage generating unit that generates a voltage to be supplied to a second load based on the power stored in the power storage unit when the first voltage generating unit is controlled to stop generation.

Power source device, electronic device, image forming apparatus, and power source control method

An image forming apparatus and a method of monitoring power consumption of the image forming apparatus are provided. For each one of parts of the image forming apparatus selected for monitoring, part-specific power consumption information is obtained based on accumulated operation amount information. The obtained part-specific power consumption information is used to generate power consumption information indicating an amount of electric power consumed by at least a portion of the image forming apparatus.

Image forming apparatus and method of monitoring image forming apparatus power consumption

A heater control device includes a temperature detector that detects a temperature of a heated object heated by a heater; an alternating-current power supply for applying an alternating current voltage to the heater; a turn-on ratio decision unit that determines a turn-on ratio of the heater based on the temperature and a target temperature; a turn-on pattern decision unit that determines a partial turn-on pattern, as the turn-on pattern of the heater, which is a pattern of a turn-on ratio higher than the determined turn-on ratio in terms of a control-period, and to which a partial turn-on instead of a full turn-on is allocated on a half-wavelength basis of the alternating current voltage within the control period based on the turn-on ratio of the heater; and a turn-on controller that controls turn-on of the heater based on the determined turn-on pattern.

Heater control device, image forming apparatus, and computer program product

An image forming apparatus includes a halogen heater in a fixing unit; an AC source applying an alternating voltage to the halogen heater; a half-wave control unit that performs the heater half-wave control to control the halogen heater on the half-wavelength basis, according to a heater-on/off pattern set for each control cycle having a predetermined length; a heater-off-time measuring unit that measures heater-off period of time; a phase-control-execution determining unit that determines, based on the measured heater-off period of time, whether the heater phase control is to be performed on the alternating voltage, the phase control being performed by shifting phase of the alternating voltage; and a phase control unit that performs, when the phase control is determined to be performed, the phase control only for a period of time depending on the measured heater-off period of time after switch-on of the heater and before execution of the half-wave control.

Image forming apparatus and heater control method

A heater controlling apparatus for controlling supply of alternating current power to at least one heater that heats a heating object includes a detection unit configured to detect a temperature of the heating object, a determining unit configured to determine a proportion of lighting time for lighting the heater based on the detected temperature and a preset target temperature of the heating object, and a control unit configured to control the supply of alternating current power to the heater based on both a control cycle and one or more lighting patterns, the heater being lit according to the one or more lighting patterns defined for each control cycle, and both the control cycle and the lighting pattern varying in response to the determined proportion of lighting time.

Heater control with varying control cycle and lighting pattern

A control unit controls supply of power to a plurality of heating units at predetermined control period Tthat is set by a first unit. A second unit sets power supply time tfor a first heating unit having largest power consumption within the control period Tand power supply time tfor a second heating unit having second largest power consumption. A third unit controls to supply the power to the first heating unit for the power supply time tfrom beginning of the control period Tand to supply the power to the second heating unit from a point obtained by subtracting the power supply time tfrom end of the control period Tto the end of the control period T

Image forming apparatus including a plurality of heating units and method of controlling the same

In a fixing device, a fixing unit fixes a toner image transferred onto a recording medium by a heating target unit heated by a plurality of heating units each of which is grouped as a first heating unit to which power is selectively supplied or a second heating unit to which power is supplied in priority to the first heating unit, and a supply control unit supplies power to a heating unit grouped as the second heating unit and selectively supplies power to a heating unit grouped as the first heating unit, among the heating units that heat the heating target unit of which detected temperature by a detecting unit is lower than a target temperature.

Fixing device, image forming apparatus, and fixing-device control method

An image forming apparatus includes a cover, a switch that opens or closes in conjunction with the cover, a load unit, a load power supply device that supplies power to the load unit, a relay that passes power from the load power supply device to the load unit in conjunction with the switch, and a controller that detects opening or closing of the switch and controls the load power supply device according to a detection result. When opening of the switch is detected, the load power supply device is controlled to interrupt supplying power to the load unit until closing of the switch is detected.

Image forming apparatus and power supply control method

An AC power source supplies power to a switching power source and a fixing heater. A power source waveform detecting circuit obtains a voltage waveform of the AC power source at a predetermined timing after the main power switch is turned on. A processor derives zero crossing information concerning zero crossing such as a zero crossing point based on the obtained voltage waveform. The processor controls power supply to the fixing heater based on the derived zero crossing information.

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Kanagawa, Japan

Norikazu Okada