Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Osamu Inage

Satoshi Nakayama

Tatsuya Ishii

Masamoto Nakazawa

Daisuke Nikaku

Ryohma Ikemoto

Satoshi Iwanami

Shinichiroh Wada

Kazuyuki Shimada

Tohru Kanno

Takahiro Yagishita

Hideki Hashimoto

Hideyo Makino

Kimiharu Yamazaki

Kohta Aoyagi

Yoshinobu Kagami

Yoshihisa Soeda

Kenichi Satoh

Norio Yamada

Atsushi Ikeda

Yoshiko Niki

Tooru Kanno

A position detector includes a reading device, a position reference member having a mark opposite the reading device, and circuitry. The circuitry controls the reading device to detect the contour of the processing target and the position of the image pattern on the processing target and the position of the mark and corrects a processing position for the processing target to offset distortion of the reading device.

Position detector, image forming apparatus, position detecting method, and non-transitory recording medium storing position detecting program code

A reading device including a position reference member having a reference pattern having a line extending along a first direction of the position reference member, the position reference member movable in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction; a reader including a plurality of sensor chips arranged along the first direction, each of the sensor chips having a length defined by a plurality of pixels; and circuitry. The circuitry is configured to detect the reference pattern of the position reference member using the reader; determine coordinates of at least two sensor chips in the second direction, based on the detected reference pattern of the position reference member; and correct a position of a reading target in the second direction based on the coordinates determined for the at least two sensor chips of the reader in the second direction.

Reading device, image forming apparatus, correction value calculating method, and storage medium storing program code

A reading device includes a position reference member and a reader. The position reference member has a reference pattern that includes a line extending in a prescribed direction. The position reference member is configured to relatively move in a direction orthogonal to the prescribed direction. The reader includes a plurality of sensor chips, each of the sensor chips including a plurality of pixels. The reference pattern corresponds to each of the sensor chips of the reader.

Reading device, image forming apparatus, reference pattern reading method, and storage medium storing program code

An image reader includes a reading device to read an image on a recording medium, a first conveying roller pair upstream of the reading device in a conveyance direction of the recording medium, a second conveying roller pair downstream of the reading device in the conveyance direction, to hold the recording medium together with the first conveying roller pair to convey the recording medium, and a driver to drive the first conveying roller pair and the second conveying roller pair so that a relative relation between a reading position of the reading device and the recording medium held by the first conveying roller pair and the second conveying roller pair is constant. The reading device determines that the image read from the recording medium is effective in a period in which the relative relation is constant.

Image reader, image forming apparatus, and image density correcting method

In a first mode, an original is read with a first and a second carriages stopped. In a second mode, the original is read with the first and the second carriages moving in a sub-scanning direction with a distance between the original and an optical reading element kept constant. A control unit causes, if a predetermined condition is satisfied after reading the original in the first mode, the first and the second carriages to standby at a reading position of the first mode while keeping the light source turned on, and if a next read request is issued within a predetermined time, causes the first and the second carriages to move to a next reading operation.

Image reading device and image forming apparatus

An image processor includes a reading unit that moves a scanning optical system toward a reference white sheet to read the reference white sheet from a direction along which the scanning optical system returns to the carried document reading glass before reading one sheet of a document mounted on a carried document reading glass by an automatic document feeding unit in a sheet document reading mode of forming an image of the document carried by the automatic document feeding unit by an image sensor through the scanning optical system facing the carried document reading glass.

Image reader, image processor, and computer program product

A level detecting part detects image data levels for the respective output directions of the first half and the second half to be used for the linearity correction, which image data levels correspond to image data around a connection point between the first half and the second half and are obtained from respective combinations for the respective output directions of the first half and the second half. A calculating part calculates linearity correction values or correction value calculating parameters from the detected image data levels for any one of the first half and the second half; and a defect detection part detecting a defect in the image data levels thus detected around the connection point are provided.

Image reading apparatus, image forming apparatus, image inspecting apparatus and image forming system

An image reading apparatus includes a photoelectric transducer which reads an image of a document and outputs an analog image signal, an A/D converter which converts the analog signal to a digital image signal, and an offset level detecting circuit which determines an average value of output levels from picture elements in a predetermined range of the photoelectric transducer. Further, there is an offset setting unit which provides an offset in the analog image signal before the A/D conversion on the basis of the average value, a first comparing device which compares the average value to a predetermined target value, and an adjusting device which adjusts a size of the predetermined range of the photoelectric transducer on the basis of the result of the comparison.

Image reading apparatus with adjusting lines of image data taken

An image reading apparatus includes a frame, a light source, a photo-electronic converting element, and a flexible plate. The frame is activated for a reciprocating movement. The light source emits light to irradiate an image surface of an original and is held by the frame. The photo-electronic converting element receives the light emitted by the light source and which is reflected by the image surface of the original. In addition, the photo-electronic converting element converts the light to an analog image signal. The flexible plate includes a first printed wire for applying a driving voltage to the light source, and a second printed wire for establishing a ground to the frame.

Method and apparatus for image reading that includes an effective grounding

An image forming apparatus and a method of forming an image. A timing generating circuit is constructed without employing an exclusively used IC. A CCD can be easily replaced without performing any new designing. A timing signal is suitably delayed corresponding to a delay time between an input image signal and an output image signal per each of respective processing circuits sequentially connected. The apparatus enables high-speed image processing. The apparatus includes an optoelectric conversion element, a signal processing section, and a timing generating section. The timing generating section includes a first pattern signal generating section which generates a previously established pattern signal, a second pattern signal generating section which repeatedly generates the previously established pattern signal and stops the generation of the pattern signal only during a specified time period of one scanning, and a third pattern signal generating section for putting the previously established pattern signal in an active state only during the specified time period from the generation of a trigger signal in one main scanning.

Image forming apparatus

A variable gain amplifier has a large variable range of a gain with respect to an analog signal having a level changing at a high-speed. The variable gain amplifier is provided with a digital-setting-type signal attenuator having a resistor string including a plurality of resistors connected in series. A maximum attenuation-factor limiting resistor is connected between the resistor string and a ground. Each of the analog switches is connected to respective points of the resistor string. A decoder generates a control signal for selecting at least one of the analog switches, the control signal being generated based on setting data provided from an external device. A voltage across the resistor string is divided by the resistors included in the resistor string, and the divided voltage is output to an amplifier from at least one of the analog switches selected by the control signal generated by the decoder.

Variable gain amplifier having a maximum attenuation-factor limiting resistor

A first control device controls a temperature of an object so as to make it near a first predetermined temperature. A second control device stops heating the object if a temperature thereof reaches a second predetermined temperature as a result of a temperature thereof increasing because the first control device is substantially disabled. The second predetermined temperature is higher than the first predetermined temperature.

Temperature control having improved reliability as a result of having

A method of supplying recording sheets from a plurality of paper supplying units to a reference position within a main body of an image forming apparatus which forms an image on each of the sheets supplied successively from the paper supplying units via corresponding transport paths having different lengths comprises the steps of receiving from the units data related to the lengths of the transport paths between the units and the reference position, calculating from the received data a time when a supply of a second sheet is to start from a second unit which is designated relative to a time when a first sheet supplied from a first unit which is designated reaches the reference position when it is assumed that the length of the corresponding transport path from the first paper supplying unit is zero, and driving the first and second units with timings based on the calculated times, so that a recording speed of the image forming apparatus is maintained constant regardless of the length of the transport path used.

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Kanagawa, Japan

Osamu Inage