Toshiba Tec Kabushiki Kaisha

Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Other

Toshiba America Business Solutions, Inc.

Noriyuki Umezawa

Osamu Takagi

Satoshi Kinouchi

Kazuhiko Kikuchi

Hiroshi Nakayama

Masahiko Ogura

Kenji Takano

Taizo Kimoto

Hisaaki Kawano

Shinichi Itoh

Yoshiharu Taniyama

Takayuki Nishi

A method and apparatus for discriminating bottle types, for stirring the toner, and for detecting the amount of toner remaining in the toner bottle. A toner bottle is adapted to fit the apparatus for discriminating toner bottle types, and a toner bottle is adapted for the apparatus for stirring toner. The genuineness of the toner bottle product is checked by sensing a rib assumed to be formed with a predetermined length on the outer surface of the toner bottle. Toner is stirred by continuously rotating the toner bottle in forward and reverse directions. The toner bottle can be easily rotated in the forward and reverse directions by sensing the rib of the toner bottle by using the sensor. Since the load of rotation of the toner bottle changes in accordance with the amount of remaining toner, the rotational speed of the toner bottle is sensed by using the sensor to check whether toner is close to empty.

Toner bottle having rib

A decoloring apparatus comprises a decoloring unit configured to carry out a decoloring processing which decolors the color of an image formed on a paper with a decolorable color material; a scanner configured to scan the papers to which the decoloring processing is carried out; a memory configured to store data of a predetermined image indicating a predetermined form formed on the paper; a conveyance section configured to convey the paper scanned by the scanner to a plurality of paper discharging positions; and a control section configured to determine whether or not the scan image generated by the scanner is consistent with the predetermined image, and to drive the conveyance section to respectively convey the papers on each of which the scan image is consistent with the predetermined image and the papers on each of which the scan image is not consistent with the predetermined image to different positions.

Decoloring apparatus and paper conveyance method

According to one embodiment, an image forming apparatus includes: a toner cartridge which includes a storage section; a toner motor; a toner-motor driving section; a count measuring section configured to measure a driving time of the toner motor and calculate a consumption count value of the toner; an event detecting section configured to detect operation events; a main body counter configured to sequentially update a main body counter value with the consumption count value and stores the main body counter value; a toner counter configured to store a toner counter value in the storage section; a counter comparing section configured to perform counter comparison of the main body counter value and the toner counter value; and an event processing section configured to perform processing for keeping consistency of the main body counter value and the toner counter value on the basis of the counter comparison.

Image forming apparatus and control method therefor

Toner bottle having rib away from discharge port

TONER BOTTLE HAVING RIB BEING SENSED FOR BEING DISCRIMINATED, METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DISCRIMINATING TONER BOTTLE TYPES ACCORDING TO A SENSED OBJECT ON THE TONER BOTTLE, STIRRING TONER, AND DETECTING THE AMOUNT OF REMAINING TONER

TONER BOTTLE CAPABLE OF BEING DISCRIMINATED, METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DISCRIMINATING TONER BOTTLE TYPES ACCORDING TO A SENSED OBJECT ON THE TONER BOTTLE STIRRING TONER, AND DETECTING THE AMOUNT OF REMAINING TONER

The present invention provides a fixing device and a digital photocopier which can shorten the time from an instruction of starting image formation to end of fixing. The fixing device is provided in a cylinder made of metal and having a small thickness, and includes a magnetic excitation coil. When the power source is turned on, all the electric power defined by subtracting an electric power amount consumed by components other than the fixing device is supplied to the magnetic excitation coil to perform heating. As the structural components of the photocopier and auxiliary devices added to the photocopier operate, the electric power defined by subtracting, from the maximum input electric power, the electric power consumed by the structural components of the photocopier and the auxiliary devices is supplied to perform heating. In this manner, the heat roller of the fixing device is heated, in a short time, to a temperature which enables fixing, so that the time required for first copying can be shortened.

Image forming apparatus and fixing device

A fixing device for an image forming apparatus includes a heating roller and a press roller. The press roller is pressed against the heating roller, and the heating roller and the press roller operate to fix an image on a document. The fixing device also includes a heat source that heats the heating roller. The heat source is configured to activate to heat the heating roller substantially when the heating roller and the press roller start to rotate, independent of a temperature of the heating roller.

Image forming apparatus including temperature sensor and method thereof

If, in a standby state, no operation is executed for a control panel () or ADF () before the elapse of a predetermined time measured by a timer (), the set temperature of a fixer () is reduced. After that, if an operation of for the control panel () or ADF () is executed, the set temperature of the fixer () is raised. The set temperature at this time is higher than the fixing temperature in the normal standby state. When the set temperature of the fixer () is set to be higher than that in the normal standby state to temporarily increase the heat amount of the fixer (), the heat amount is hardly absorbed by transfer paper sheets at the time of copy. In addition, since the fixing power increases, the time until a fixing set temperature is obtained can be shortened. Accordingly, power consumption can be reduced without any decrease in operability, productivity, and copy quality.

Image forming apparatus and method for controlling fixing temperature of the same

An electrophotographic fixing device allowing a flow of an AC current through an electromagnetic induction coil arranged close to a heating roller having a metal layer formed of a conductor and allowing the heat generation of the heating roller to heat a to-be-fixed member, in which the fixing device comprises a circuit board for outputting the AC current from an output terminal and passing the current through the electromagnetic induction coil, a conductive plate metal having one end side fixed by a fastening screw to the output terminal of the circuit board, a male-side connection terminal provided on the other end of the plate metal, and a female-side connection terminal provided at an end of a leader line of the electromagnetic induction coil and detachably connected to a male-side connection terminal.

Fixing device that is detachable from an image forming apparatus

A system and method for copying a plural-page document with an image forming apparatus, the image forming apparatus including a scanner for scanning each page of the document and a fixing unit for fixing images of each page of the document to a respective sheet, includes scanning each page of the document with the scanner, and determining whether the scanner is scanning any page of the document. A copy rate for copying the document is set to a first level if the scanner is scanning any page of the document, the copy rate corresponding to a number of pages copied in a set period of time. The copy rate is set to a second level higher than the first level if the scanner is not scanning any pages of the document.

Growing community of inventors

Yokohama, Japan

Noriyuki Umezawa