Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Takahiro Ushiro

Kazuki Miyamoto

Naoyuki Ohki

Shinichi Takata

Atsushi Chaki

Masaki Nakano

Hideto Kohtani

Yasuo Fukazu

Tomoyuki Takeda

Shigeo Miura

Takeharu Uchizono

Kazuhiro Ohyoshi

Tadashi Suzuki

Keizo Isemura

Izuru Horiuchi

Kenji Hiromatsu

Tomohiro Tamaoki

Isamu Sato

Yoshinobu Aiba

Shunichi Komatsu

Teruo Mitsui

Masahiro Tomosada

Tatsuya Shiratori

Masashi Ohashi

Masao Watanabe

Kazuo Kagiura

Koki Kuroda

Saijiro Endo

A power supply control circuit includes: a power supply unit that outputs the DC voltage for the load operation; a first switch of which opening/closing is controlled by applying the DC voltage from the power supply unit; a second switch which is manually operated to switch over the power supply; and a control unit. The second switch achieves a first state when not manually operated, and achieves a second state when manually operated. The control unit closes the first switch, if the second switch is changed to the second state and thereafter changed to the first state, when the second switch is in the first state and the DC voltage output from the power supply unit is not less than a predetermined value.

Power supply control for an image forming apparatus

This invention allows completely cutting power supply to a circuit that has become dysfunctional because of blowout of a fuse. To accomplish this, a circuit includes a fuse connected to one supply line of an AC power supply, a switching unit connected to the other supply line of the AC power supply, a detection unit configured to detect blowout of the fuse, and a control unit configured to turn off the switching unit when the detection unit detects blowout of the fuse.

Circuit and heating apparatus that completely cuts power to a supply circuit due to blowout of a fuse on a single supply line

The conventional techniques cannot set optimal energy saving modes separately for a plurality of loads and can hardly attain further suppression of power consumption. To accomplish this, in an image forming apparatus including a main circuit board which has a master CPU and controls the operation of the entire image forming apparatus, and a plurality of sub circuit boards each have a slave CPU and control each corresponding control target, the operating condition of each slave CPU is stored in correspondence with the operation mode of the image forming apparatus, and, upon being notified of the operation modes of the image forming apparatus, the slave CPU of each of the plurality of sub circuit boards sets the operation status of the slave CPU by referring to the table of the operation modes.

Power management of image forming apparatus and control method therefor

When the image forming apparatus shifts to the reduced power consumption mode, the image forming apparatus transmits an agency request command for requesting the server apparatus to respond to a status request, on behalf of the image forming apparatus, and the latest status thereof to the server apparatus. When there is a change in the status of the image forming apparatus in the reduced power consumption mode, the image forming apparatus transmits a changed status thereof to the server apparatus. The server apparatus receives a status request sent from an information processing apparatus connected to the network to the image forming apparatus, on behalf of the image forming apparatus. The server apparatus responds to the information processing apparatus in response to the status request, based on the status received beforehand from the image forming apparatus.

Image forming apparatus having energy-saving mode, control method therefor, network system including the image forming apparatus, and control method therefor

An image heating apparatus includes a coil for generating a magnetic flux; an endless belt having an electroconductive layer for generating heat by the magnetic flux of the coil wherein a recording material carrying image is heated by heat of the belt; a magnetic flux detecting means disposed opposed to the coil with the belt interposed therebetween and capable of detecting the magnetic flux from the coil, the magnetic flux detecting means including a detection portion capable of detecting such a part of the magnetic flux of the magnetic flux generated by the coil as is from a region corresponding to not less than one half of a heat generating region of the belt with respect to a widthwise direction of the recording material; and prohibition means for prohibiting electric power supply to the coil when an amount of the magnetic flux detected by the magnetic flux detecting means reaches a predetermined amount.

Image forming apparatus with magnetic flux detection

A control board includes a main-board and a plurality of sub-boards which control loads. The sub-boards each include a providing unit which provides a board type ID, a read unit which reads an installation location ID, and a transmission unit which transmits the board type ID and the installation location ID to the main-board. The main-board includes a communication control unit, a configuration information acquisition unit which acquires configuration information expressed by a combination of the board type ID and the installation location ID, an analysis unit which analyzes the configuration information, and a control unit which controls the sub-unit on the basis of information analyzed by the analysis unit.

Control board, image forming apparatus having the same, control board management method, computer program, and computer-readable storage medium

A sub-CPU copes with a status obtaining request from a network in a sleep mode. Further, necessary least power control for updating a status in an image forming apparatus in the sleep mode is realized by the sub-CPU.

Image forming apparatus and power control method

There is provided an image forming apparatus which is capable of responding to a status request with the minimum possible energy consumption even when the image forming apparatus is in a sleep state, to thereby achieve energy conservation. A main-chip microcomputer Qresponds to an externally input status request when the image forming apparatus is in a normal standby mode, and enters an inoperative state where it does not respond to the externally input status request when the image forming apparatus is in a reduced power consumption mode. A 1-chip microcomputer Qresponds to the externally input status request on behalf of the main-chip microcomputer Qwhen the image forming apparatus is in the reduced power consumption mode.

Image forming apparatus having reduced power consumption mode and control method therefor

An image retrieving apparatus having a reading unit for reading the image of an original, a comparing unit for comparing the image data of the original outputted from the reading unit with a plurality of image data stored in a storage medium, and a retrieving unit for outputting one of the image data generally coincident with the image data of the original from the storage medium, and the discrimination information for discriminating the image data generally coincident, in accordance with the comparison result by the comparing unit.

Image retrieving apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes a heater for generating heat upon reception of electric energy; a film movable with a recording material having an unfixed image; and a pressure roller for forming a nip with the heater, with the film interposed therebetween; wherein the pressure roller starts to rotate at the same time as a main power switch of the apparatus is turned on.

Image forming apparatus with control coordinating pressure roller and

A film type fixing device includes a rotatable endless film; film position detecting device for detecting a position, in a direction perpendicular to a rotational direction, of the film; error detecting device for detecting error of a position of the film when the output of the film position detecting device is out of a predetermined range; and discriminating device for discriminating whether to back up error information or not on the basis of the output of the film position detecting device, when the error detecting device detects the error.

Film type fixing device

An image forming apparatus such as a copier with a detachable process cartridge is provided with a first memory for storing the number of copying operations; a count renewing unit for increasing the count of the first memory and a second memory in the process cartridge, at each copying operation, a comparator for comparing the counts in the first and second memories, and a controller for determining a process condition specific to the process cartridge in case the counts do not mutually coincide. The service life of the process cartridge can be more precisely judged, and the process condition can be more appropriately determined for each process cartridge.

Image forming apparatus with detachable process unit

When the user depresses a soft key SW in an on-state of a door switch DSW in which a door is closed, a transistor Tr1 is turned on, a transistor Tr4 is turned on, a relay RL1 is turned on, and an AC power source is supplied to an image forming apparatus. When a jam occurs, a CPU 2 turns on a transistor Tr5 for a predetermined time and a latching relay RL2 is driven to the holding side. When the door is opened for a jam process, the door switch DSW is opened and the AC power drops. When the door is closed after the jam process, the door switch DSW is closed. In this instance, since the latching relay RL2 is in a holding state, the AC power is again supplied in a manner similar to the case where the soft key SW is depressed. When the jam cancellation is confirmed, the holding of the latching relay RL2 is cancelled and the ordinary operation is started.

Power switch control apparatus of equipment

A fluorescent lamp controller for an original-document exposing apparatus includes a detection circuit for detecting the quantity of light emitted by a fluorescent lamp, an actuator for applying between filaments of the fluorescent lamp a voltage having a duty that is determined in accordance with the quantity of light detected, and a preheating circuit for preheating each of the filaments of the fluorescent lamp by applying a preheating voltage. According to the present invention, the actuator applies, between the filaments of the fluorescent lamp, a voltage having a duty which is smaller than the full duty regardless of a result of the quantity of light detected in a predetermined period at a start of turning the fluorescent lamp on, and the preheating circuit applies the preheating voltage to each of the filaments of the fluorescent lamp simultaneously with the application of the turning on voltage.

Fluorescent lamp controller and original-document exposing apparatus a

An image fixing apparatus includes a resistor for generating heat upon electric energy supply thereto; a temperature sensor for sensing a temperature of the resistor; and a control unit for controlling the electric energy supply to the resistor so that the temperature sensor detects a target temperature, in accordance with both of a temperature of the resistor and a resistance of the resistor.

Growing community of inventors

Kawasaki, Japan

Takahiro Ushiro