Ricoh Company, Ltd.

The Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd.

Furukawa Automotive Systems Inc.

Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Kabushiki Kaisha Tokai Rika Denki Seisakusho

Shuji Hirai

Satoshi Kaneko

Shinji Kato

Hitoshi Ishibashi

Katsuaki Miyawaki

Shingo Suzuki

Yasushi Nakazato

Terumichi Ochi

Yoshinori Nakagawa

Osamu Satoh

Jun Yamane

Satoshi Ouchi

Nekka Matsuura

Hisashi Shoji

Yushi Hirayama

Masaaki Yamada

Koichi Kudo

Yuuichiroh Uematsu

Shin Hasegawa

Kayoko Tanaka

Nobutaka Takeuchi

Kohta Fujimori

Tetsuya Muto

Akira Yoshida

Takashi Seto

Hitoshi Shimizu

Tomoko Takahashi

Hideki Kosugi

Makoto Obu

Yusuke Takeda

Seiji Hoshino

Sadayuki Iwai

Shinichi Akatsu

Takeshi Iijima

Ryota Yamashina

Takumi Waida

Keita Gotoh

Hideo Muroi

Takeo Tsukamoto

Masahide Yamashita

Keitaro Shoji

Kohji Ue

Takenori Oku

Kentaroh Tomita

Kazutaka Kamiya

Naoto Watanabe

Hiroshi Okuda

Hiroyuki Kawamoto

Shinichi Namekata

Muneaki Iwata

Eiichi Ohta

Motoyoshi Yamano

Yoshiaki Miyashita

Kazunari Tonami

Nobuyuki Ishigure

Toshihiko Kosugi

Tadashi Usuya

Yoshio Chiba

Shigeo Shigeyama

Hideki Matsumura

Keita Goto

Kunihiko Ikegame

Chiemi Hirano

Looseness of a rotary connector and lifting of the rotary connector which occurs depending on a harness wiring state are prevented, to reduce inconvenience such as generation of an abnormal sound due to the rotary connector contacting a steering wheel. In a fixing structure of a rotary connector, which includes a projecting pieceto fix the rotary connector to a combination switch and a locked portionto be locked by the projecting pieceand in which a laterally protruding locking clawis formed in a tip portion of the projecting piece, the locking clawof the projecting pieceis integrally provided with a flexible urging portionthat displaces and urges the locking clawin a locking direction. A contact surfaceis formed on the locking claw, the contact surfaceobliquely coming into contact with a locking side cornerof the locked portionfrom the opposing side.

Rotary connector and fixing structure of rotary connector

An image forming apparatus includes a latent image bearer; a writing device configured to write a latent image onto the latent image bearer; a detection device configured to detect, at a plurality of positions, a density of a toner image obtained through development of the latent image; and a controller configured to correct a writing intensity of the writing device to correct an uneven density based on detection values of the detection device. The controller determines whether each of the detection values is pass or fail. In response to a determination that a detection value is fail, the controller corrects the wiring intensity based on another detection value determined to be pass at a position different from a position at which the detection value is determined to be fail, instead of correcting the writing intensity based on the detection value determined to be fail.

Image forming apparatus

A rotator, which is configured by an annular top plate and a cylindrically shaped inner peripheral portion, and a stator, which is configured by assembling an annular stator main body and a cylindrically shaped sub stator, are assembled to be relatively rotatable in both a clockwise direction and a counterclockwise direction. An SRC that houses a flat cable being wound inside of a housing space formed therein is provided with a stator locking portion that enables a frame-shaped locking portion that extends from the stator main body to lock with a protruding locking portion that is formed on the sub stator; and a recess-protrusion fitting portion that suppresses the entry of foreign matter into the housing space. The recess-protrusion fitting portion is disposed on an opposing portion that corresponds to the stator locking portion.

Rotary connector device

An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit and a controller. The image forming unit includes a latent image bearer, a charger to charge the latent image bearer, an exposure device to expose a latent image on the surface of the latent image bearer, and a developing device to develop the latent image with a developer. The controller executes an image forming process, a first fluctuation control that cyclically changes a developing bias supplied to the developing device based on predetermined first pattern data, and a second fluctuation control that cyclically changes a charging bias supplied to the charger based on predetermined second pattern data, in parallel. The controller executes a determination process to determine whether the controller executes the first fluctuation control. When the controller determines not to execute the first fluctuation control, the controller determines not to execute the second fluctuation control, too.

An image forming apparatus includes an image forming device, an image density detector, and an output change device configured to cause the image forming device to form a test toner image while cyclically changing a charging power based on a charging change pattern and a developing bias based on a developing change pattern, generate an image density fluctuation pattern of the test toner image in a rotation direction of a latent image bearer, generate a writing change pattern to cyclically change a power of latent image writing based on the image density fluctuation pattern of the test toner image and one of the charging change pattern and a correlative pattern correlated with the charging change pattern. The output change device is configured to cyclically change the power of latent image writing based on the writing change pattern during image formation according to a user command.

Image forming apparatus and image forming method which cyclically change a charging power and a developing bias applied to a developer bearer

An image forming apparatus that includes an imaging device, a transferrer, a rotator, a rotation position sensor, an adhesion amount sensor, a power supply, and a controller. The controller executes a construction process to construct output pattern data to change a voltage output from the power supply, according to a result obtained by detecting a toner adhesion amount of a toner image for density unevenness detection and a detection result from the rotation position sensor obtained when the toner image is formed, and an output change process to execute a predetermined process while changing the voltage according to the detection result and the output pattern data. The controller executes a determination process to determine propriety of an output range of the voltage output from the power supply by the output change process and a data process for a shift to shift the range when a determination result is inappropriate.

Image forming apparatus that adjusts a voltage output based on toner adhesion

An image forming apparatus includes an image forming section that includes a latent image bearer; a charger to charge a surface of the latent image bearer; and a latent image writer to write a latent image on the charged surface of the latent image bearer. The image forming apparatus further includes a developing device to develop the latent image with a developer borne on a developer bearer; and a cyclical changing device including a controller and a write controller, in combination. The cyclical changing device cyclically changes a developing bias to be applied to the developer bearer while cyclically changing a charge intensity of the charger during the image formation by the image forming section. The cyclical changing device cyclically changes the developing bias and the charge intensity, and a latent image write intensity of the latent image writer.

An image forming apparatus includes an image forming device, an electric current detector, and a controller. The image forming device includes a latent image bearer, a charging rotator, a charging power supply, a latent image writing unit, and a developing unit. The controller (i) determines an uneven electric resistance of the charging rotator in a direction of rotation of the charging rotator, based on a detection result by the electric current detector, (ii) perform, at a predetermined timing, data construction processing to construct change pattern data to change an output value of a voltage from the charging power supply according to a predetermined pattern, based on the uneven electric resistance, and (iii) perform, in a print job to form a toner image in response to an instruction, voltage changing processing to charge the latent image bearer while changing the output value of the voltage, based on the change pattern data.

Technique for reducing uneven image density in an image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes: a latent image forming unit that forms a latent image on a latent image bearer with light from a light source; and a correction data generating unit that includes: an acquiring unit that acquires, for each position, a correction value of an intensity of the light source to equalize a density distribution of a latent image; a quantizing unit that generates a correction data for each position by quantizing a correction value for each position; and an excessive correction suppressing unit that outputs the correction data after reducing an amount of change from an immediately preceding latent image formation position, with respect to a position at which an absolute value of a restored value indicating a correction amount and generated based on the correction data exceeds an absolute value of the correction value.

Image forming apparatus and correction data generation method which corrects the intensity of a light source which forms a latent image

A recording media smoothness detector includes a sensor and a calculator. The sensor includes a light source to emit light toward a recording medium and a light detector to detect an amount of light reflected by the recording medium. The calculator includes a first memory to store an initial output value of the sensor and a second memory to store a decreased output percentage of the sensor relative to the initial output value per number of recording media detected. The calculator is configured to calculate a decreased output amount of the sensor from the decreased output percentage of the sensor per number of recording media detected, according to a number of recording media detected by the sensor, to adjust a luminosity of the light source based on the calculated decreased output amount of the sensor and determine a type of the recording medium based on an output of the sensor after the adjustment of the luminosity of the light source and based on the number of recording media detected by the sensor.

Recording media smoothness detector and image forming apparatus incorporating same

An image forming apparatus includes an image bearer; a toner image forming device; a transfer rotator; a transfer device; a rotation position detector; an image density detector; a density data acquisition unit to causes the toner image forming device to form an adjustment toner image equal to or greater in length than a circumferential length of the image bearer, cause a linear velocity difference between the image bearer and the transfer rotator in transfer of the adjustment toner image, and acquires, from a detected image density of the toner image transferred from the image bearer, detected by the image density detector, image density unevenness data with reference to detection of a reference rotation position of one of the image bearer and a rotator; and a correction unit to adjust an image forming condition according to the reference rotation position, the image density unevenness data, and the linear velocity difference.

Image forming apparatus and method adjusting image forming condition

An image forming apparatus includes paper trays to contain and feed a recording sheet on which a toner image is transferred; status sensors to detect a storage status of the recording sheet contained in the paper trays; a sheet sensor to detect a smoothness of the recording sheet; a memory to store detection values of the smoothness detected by the sheet sensor; a fixing device to heat and press the toner image transferred onto the recording sheet and fix it onto the recording sheet; and a control circuit to determine a target fixing temperature of the fixing device based on the detection values stored in the memory. The control circuit determines the target fixing temperature for successive recording sheets depending on the detected smoothness, and resets the detection values stored in the memory to zero when the status sensors detect a change in the storage status of the paper trays.

An image forming apparatus includes a latent image carrier; a charger; a charging power supply; a latent image writer to write; a developing device; a rotary attitude sensor; a controller to perform a data formulating process to formulate a change pattern data and a bias changing process to cause the charging power supply to change the charging bias output based on readings from the rotary attitude sensor and the change pattern data, during a print job; and a surface potential sensor to detect a surface potential of the latent image carrier. In the data formulating process, the controller formulates the change pattern data based on the surface potential of the latent image carrier detected by the surface potential sensor, while the charging power supply outputting a constant charging bias, and based on readings from the rotary attitude sensor while the surface potential is being detected.

An image forming apparatus includes a latent image bearer, a toner image forming unit, and a transfer device. The toner image forming unit includes a charger, a latent image forming device, and a developing device, and is configured to form a test latent image pattern on a surface of the latent image bearer, and to develop the test latent image pattern into a test toner pattern. The test latent image pattern includes a plurality of test latent image parts partly offset from one another in a main scanning direction. The image forming apparatus also includes a developing current detector and a processor to detect uneven image density in the main scanning direction using the test latent image pattern, based on the developing current detected by the developing current detector, to adjust the uneven image density in the main scanning direction.

Image forming apparatus forming a plurality of displaced test latent image parts

An image forming apparatus includes a storage to store recording media, a smoothness detector to detect smoothness of the recording media, a memory unit to store smoothness values detected by the smoothness detector, a transfer device to transfer a toner image onto the recording media, a fixing device to fix the toner image onto the recording media, a temperature controller to determine a target fixing temperature for a second and subsequent recording media based on a predicted value calculated from the smoothness values, and a processor to reset the smoothness values in response to detection of an external factor that causes the smoothness detector to provide a smoothness value out of a predetermined range of the predicted value during an image forming operation from when the processor receives a sheet-feeding permission signal of one of the recording media stored in the storage until the recording medium is ejected.

Image forming apparatus having a smoothness detector

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Tokyo, Japan

Shuji Hirai