Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Rioch Company, Limited

Ryohta Kubokawa

Norikazu Okada

Takaaki Shirai

Tomoyuki Yamashita

Takuma Kasai

Homare Ehara

Keita Maejima

Satoru Tao

Tetsuya Yano

Toshimasa Aoki

Atsuki Iwata

Shuntaroh Nakayama

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

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Ryohta Kubokawa