Brother Kogyo Kabushiki-kaisha

Jtekt Corporation

Osamu Takahashi

Masaaki Wakizaka

Keita Inoue

Shinta Sugiura

Toshinori Araki

Kentaro Murayama

Koji Akagi

Seiya Sato

Tatsuro Yokoi

Tetsuya Okano

Masahito Hamaya

Tasuku Sugimoto

Yoshifumi Kajikawa

Kentaro Sugiyama

Yasuhiro Shimamura

Kentaro Aoyama

Noritaka Iwama

Jie Zheng

Marika Ogiso

Ryo Ito

Toshie Hibi

Michihiro Shimadu

Shunsuke Hachiya

Kenji Kanazawa

An image forming apparatus includes a main body, a drum cartridge removably attached to the main body, and a belt unit removably attached to the main body. The main body includes a drum power supply, a belt power supply, and a controller configured to start supplying power from the drum power supply to a drum memory of the drum cartridge, start supplying power from the belt power supply to a belt memory of the belt unit, stop supplying the power from the drum power supply to the drum memory after starting supplying the power from the drum power supply to the drum memory, and stop supplying the power from the belt power supply to the belt memory after starting supplying the power from the belt power supply to the belt memory.

Image forming apparatus, method, and computer-readable medium for preventing failures and errors in drum memory and belt memory due to hot-swapping

A high-voltage electrical circuit board is located in a first region that is a region at one side of photosensitive drums in a first direction and outside of the photosensitive drums in the first direction. A first motor drives a conveyance mechanism. A second motor is located in a second region and drives each photosensitive drum. A third motor is located in the second region and drives each developing roller to rotate and to drive a separation mechanism configured to individually move the developing rollers between a contact position and a separation position. A control board is located in the second region. The control board includes a controller configured to control a first applying circuit, the first motor, the second motor, and the third motor. The first motor, the second motor, the third motor, and the control board are located at different positions from one another in the second region.

Image forming apparatus in which high-voltage electrical circuit board is located in first region and motors and control board are located in second region

An image forming apparatus includes a controller, a main body frame, a cartridge and a display. The cartridge includes a memory, a cartridge data terminal and a cartridge detection terminal. The controller includes a main body data terminal and a main body detection terminal. The main body data terminal is electrically connected to the cartridge data terminal. The main body detection terminal is electrically connected to the cartridge detection terminal in the case where the cartridge is attached to the main body frame. The controller is configured to perform determining whether the main body detection terminal and the cartridge detection terminal are electrically connected with each other. The controller is configured to perform displaying a determination result of the determining whether the main body detection terminal and the cartridge detection terminal are electrically connected with each other on the display.

Image forming apparatus to which cartridge is attachable and including controller capable of determining whether cartridge is attached to image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus comprising: an exposing unit including: a first light source comprising a first light emitter and a first light receiver including a first electric output responsive to a received light quantity of the first light emitter; a second light source comprising a second light emitter and a second light receiver including a second electric output responsive to a received light quantity of the second light emitter; and a first light-source driver electrically connected to the first light source and the second light source. The first light-source driver includes: a first output terminal electrically connected to the first light emitter; a second output terminal electrically connected to the second light emitter; and an input terminal electrically connected to both the first electric output and the second electric output.

Image forming apparatus

To detect humidity, used are a first series connection circuit connecting a thermistor and a fixed resistor via a node, a second series connection circuit connecting a resistance change type humidity sensor and the thermistor via the node, and a third series connection circuit connecting the humidity sensor and the fixed resistor via the node. A predetermined voltage is applied across the first circuit to detect a first voltage indicating temperature through the node, and secondly across the second circuit to detect a second voltage indicating a first humidity through the node, and finally across the third circuit to detect a third voltage indicating a second humidity through the node. Then, the first voltage is compared with a reference voltage and judgment is made, based on a comparison result, to determine which of the second voltage and the third voltage is relevant to use as a basis for outputting the humidity as detected.

Sensor device having plural resistance change sensors and method of using the same

There is provided an image forming apparatus including: a forming section having an image holding member and an developing portion, and configured to apply a developing bias voltage to the developing portion to develop an electrostatic latent image on the image holding member; a sensor configured to detect a mark formed by the forming section; a storage; and a controller configured to perform: forming first and second marks, obtaining the densities of the first and second marks, obtaining a slope, and determining a target bias voltage value, and storing the target bias voltage value in the storage.

Image forming apparatus for determining a target bias voltage value

In an image forming apparatus, an error detection mark is formed by using an image forming unit on the surface of a carrier along a detection line passing through an exposure position in a carrier moving direction. The error detection mark includes a first mark and a second mark spaced from each other by a fixed distance in the carrier moving direction. The error detection mark is measured by the sensor. A measurement error of the sensor for a registration mark is determined based on the measured values for the first mark and second mark. A registration mark is formed by using the image forming unit on the surface of the carrier on the detection line. The registration mark is measured using the sensor. Offset of an image-forming position is corrected based on the determined measurement error and a measured value for the registration mark.

Image forming apparatus, inspection apparatus, and inspection method

An image forming apparatus includes: rotators; a drive motor configured to drive the plurality of rotators and including a hall element configured to output a hall signal according to a change of a magnetic field; a counter configured to count the hall signal; an image forming unit forming a color image on a recording medium; and a controller configured to function as: an acquiring unit controlling the image forming unit to form a test pattern on the recording medium, and acquiring correction information based on the formed test pattern; a phase managing unit managing the phases of the rotators based on a count value of the counter from the formation start timing; and a correcting unit correcting the positional deviation based on the phases which are managed by the phase managing unit, and the correction information acquired by the acquiring unit.

A printing apparatus to print an image on a sheet is provided. The printing apparatus includes a photosensitive member, a contiguous member arranged to contact the photosensitive member, and a protection sheet configured to protect the photosensitive member from the contiguous member. The protection sheet is arranged in an intervening position between the photosensitive member and the contiguous member but configured to be removed from the intervening position by a user before using the printing apparatus. The protection sheet interferes with at least one of the user's behavior conducted on the printing apparatus in order to use the printing apparatus and a detecting behavior of a sensor which is arranged in the printing apparatus to detect a condition of the printing apparatus.

Printing apparatus

A torque sensor includes a first resolver that outputs a signal corresponding to a rotation angle of a first rotor fitted on an outer periphery of a first rotary shaft, and a second resolver that outputs a signal corresponding to a rotation angle of a second rotor fitted on an outer periphery of a second rotary shaft coupled to the first rotary shaft via a torsion bar. The torque sensor detects a torque exerted on the first rotary shaft or the second rotary shaft based on the signals output from the first resolver and the second resolver. A first junction between the first rotary shaft and the first rotor, and a second junction between the second rotary shaft and the second rotor are formed so as to have different shapes or different sizes.

Torque sensor

An image forming apparatus includes an automatic acquiring unit which is configured to form a mark for detecting at least one of positional deviation and density deviation and acquire an amount of deviation by measuring the mark, an image forming unit which is configured to form an image while adjusting at least one of positional deviation and density deviation based on a correction value specified by the amount of deviation, and an output unit which is configured to execute at least one of a pattern printing process and a notifying process when an amount of deviation within a permissible range is not acquired by the automatic acquiring unit. The pattern printing process includes printing a pattern image for specifying a correction value on a recording sheet. The notifying process includes making notification for prompting execution of the pattern printing process.

An image forming apparatus includes an automatic acquiring unit which forms a mark for detecting at least one of positional deviation and density deviation and acquire a degree of deviation by measuring the mark, a manual acquiring unit which receives a user input to acquire a correction value; an image forming unit which forms an image based on an actual correction value determined by an automatic correction value specified based on the degree of deviation and a manual correction value which is the correction value acquired by the manual acquiring unit, and a changing unit which executes at least one of a first changing process of applying a weight to at least one of the automatic correction value and the manual correction value and the second changing process of changing at least one of the automatic correction value and the manual correction value into a past correction value.

A rolling bearing apparatus capable of restraining the residence of air bubbles in the water-cooling jacket while curbing the running cost and the production cost is provided. A rolling bearing apparatus is configured to include a rolling bearing, and a housing which houses the rolling and in which a water-cooling jacket into which cooling water is introduced. By forming the bottom portion of the water-cooling jacket by an inclined surface in the axial direction, it is possible to preferably rectify the cooling water in the water-cooling jacket and therefore effectively restrain the residence of air bubbles without increasing the amount of water supplied to the water-cooling jacket.

Rolling bearing apparatus

An image forming apparatus is provided. The image forming apparatus includes: a manual acquiring unit which is configured to receive a user input to acquire a correction value; an image forming unit which is configured to form an image while adjusting at least one of positional deviation and density deviation of the image based on the correction value; and a changing unit which is configured to execute at least one of a first changing process of changing a permissible range of a correction value for positional deviation according to a status of a factor causing a change in a position of an image, and a second changing process of changing a permissible range of a correction value for density deviation according to a status of a factor causing a change in a density of an image.

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Nagoya, Japan

Osamu Takahashi