Konica Minolta, Inc.

Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.

Shigeki Nozawa

Masazumi Ito

Masao Kondo

Takashi Honda

Toshiya Furubayashi

Yoshinori Maruyama

Satoshi Hasegawa

Masahiro Kamiya

Akiyoshi Johdai

Harumitsu Fujimori

Kunio Furukawa

Shinobu Seki

Yasuyuki Kamai

Ryo Morita

Kohei Hayashi

Yoshiki Nakazawa

Zen Kayaba

Riichi Hama

Hidehito Kishi

Naoya Nakayama

Tomoyoshi Yukimoto

Masaki Matsui

Yuji Toshinaga

Ryouta Shibayama

Yusuke Murakami

A posture determination method is to determine, based on an image acquired for a component having a plurality of surfaces, a posture of the component. This posture determination method includes recognizing an outer shape of the component from the image, detecting a feature amount of a surface shape in a determination area being a part of the component based on the outer shape of the component recognized in the recognizing, and determining. In the determining, the posture of the component is determined by comparing a first reference amount indicating a reference feature amount in the determination area of a first surface of the component and a second reference amount indicating a reference feature amount in the determination area of a second surface of the component with the feature amount detected in the detecting.

Posture determination method, computer-readable recording medium storing program, and component feeding apparatus

An image forming device that executes an image forming program for real-time mechanical control and another program, using a single cache memory for the image forming program and said another program. The image forming device includes: a cache lockdown unit that executes a cache lockdown to lock down a storage area of the cache memory that stores at least a portion of the image forming program necessary for image formation processing; and a print unit that executes the image formation processing while the storage area is locked down.

Image forming apparatus locks down storage area of cache memory stores portion of image forming program for executing real-time image forming process

The image formation apparatus includes: a multi-core processor having a plurality of cores; and an image forming mechanism configured to form an image on a recording medium. At least one of the plurality of cores includes a switching controller configured to switch a first OS run by the core for performing a mechanism controller processing to control the image forming mechanism and a second OS run by the core for performing a controller processing.

Image formation apparatus

A sheet post-processing device is mounted in an image forming apparatus that includes an image reading unit and an image forming unit. The image forming unit is located under the image reading unit with a space therebetween. The sheet post-processing device includes: a first tray that is located in the space and houses a sheet ejected from the image forming unit; a post-processing unit that is located in the space and performs post-processing on a sheet in the first tray; a transfer member that, after the post-processing is performed on a sheet in the first tray, transfers the sheet to a front side of the image forming apparatus; and a second tray that is located closer to the front side of the image forming apparatus than the first tray and houses a sheet transferred by the transfer member.

Sheet post-processing device and image formation system

In order to properly count the number of sheets printed which serves as the basis on which a charge is calculated, an MFP that acts as a designated printer includes a job accepting portion to accept a print job, a job executing portion to carry out printing based on the print job, a requesting portion to, when the job executing portion is not available for executing the print job, transmit an alternative instruction including the print job to an alternative printer, and an adding portion to add the number of alternative sheets printed by the alternative printer based on the print job included in the alternative instruction to the number of sheets printed by the job executing portion.

Image forming apparatus provided with function to calculate charge based on the number of sheets printed, print system including image forming apparatus, method for counting the number of sheets printed executed by image forming apparatus, and program for counting the number of sheets printed executed by image forming apparatus

The sheet processing apparatus processes a sheet having an image formed thereon by an image forming apparatus. The sheet processing apparatus includes a sheet folding unit for folding the sheet having an image formed thereon, a sheet tray loaded with the sheet folded by the sheet folding unit to be taken out, and a control unit for controlling the sheet processing apparatus as a whole. The sheet tray includes a mechanism capable of adjusting an angle with a virtual plane and a detection device detecting a change of the angle with the virtual plane. The control unit prohibits ejection from the sheet folding unit to the sheet tray, based on the detection result of the detection device and the content of the folding processing by the sheet folding unit.

Sheet processing apparatus

An image forming apparatus comprises: a pair of first sheet ejecting rollers and a pair of second sheet ejecting rollers that eject a sheet on which an image is formed; a guide member that guides the sheet to the pair of first sheet ejecting rollers or the pair of second sheet ejecting rollers; a controller that performs control so that, while a sheet that is to be ejected by the pair of first sheet ejecting rollers onto an ejected-sheet tray is being held by the pair of first sheet ejecting rollers in a stopped state, the pair of second sheet ejecting rollers is in a stopped state and hold an immediately subsequent sheet above the ejected-sheet tray; and a fan that moves air toward the sheet held by the pair of first sheet ejecting rollers and the immediately subsequent sheet held by the pair of second sheet ejecting rollers.

Image forming apparatus

In a printer, three toner patches are primary-transferred successively to an intermediate transfer belt. Here, after the first toner patch passes through a belt cleaner and before the second toner patch reaches the belt cleaner, and after the second toner patch passes through the belt cleaner and before the third patch reaches the belt cleaner, the belt cleaner is operated to change the state of contact to the intermediate transfer belt to a different state. A density sensor detects density of the toner image on the intermediate transfer belt, and presence/absence of the toner patch is detected. When presence/absence of the first to third patches is detected alternately, it is determined that the belt cleaner is performing the operation described above.

Image forming apparatus with contact/separation mechanism to/from intermediate transfer body

An image forming apparatus includes a cartridge loading portion removably loaded with a first cartridge containing therein a consumable but carrying no memory storing information on the consumable, or with a second cartridge containing therein the consumable and carrying a memory storing information on the consumable; a controller; and a first memory storing the information on the consumable contained in the first cartridge, and is characterized in that the controller includes: a first consumption calculating/storing portion operating when the first cartridge is loaded in the cartridge loading portion, calculating a consumption of the consumable in the first cartridge and storing the calculation result in the first memory; and a second consumption calculating/storing portion for calculating a consumable consumption of the second cartridge and for storing the calculation result in the memory installed in the second cartridge.

Image forming apparatus and control method for image forming apparatus

Growing community of inventors

Gifu, Japan

Shigeki Nozawa