Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Tomonori Shida

Masahiro Suzuki

Michio Uchida

Shun-ichi Ebihara

Keisuke Mitsuhashi

Akihiko Takeuchi

Hiroshi Kita

Atsuyoshi Abe

Kiyoharu Yoshioka

Takao Nada

Youhei Suzuki

Takuma Abe

Yoshiro Saito

Hisayuki Tomura

Michio Sugano

Hidetoshi Yamashita

Tetsuya Yamamoto

Masaaki Takahashi

Shinsuke Kobayashi

Takaaki Tsuruya

Kazuhiro Funatani

Hiroshi Hagiwara

Hiroyuki Seki

Masatoshi Itoh

Kazuo Kishino

Toshiaki Miyashiro

Ken Nakagawa

Akihiko Uchiyama

Hideyuki Yano

Tomoaki Nakai

Tomoya Tateishi

Noritomo Yamaguchi

Shoichi Zensai

Takeshi Shinji

Tomoyuki Araki

Yasutaka Yagi

Hirotaka Ishii

Tamotsu Kaneko

Isao Matsuoka

Toshiaki Sako

An image forming apparatus comprising a transfer means for transferring, a developer image onto a recording material; a discharging unit for discharging the recording material; a first circuit that applies a first voltage of reverse polarity to the developer to the transfer unit; a second circuit that applies a second voltage of identical polarity to the developer to the transfer unit and the discharging unit; and a control unit. The control unit applies a transfer voltage which is a superposition of the first and the second voltage to the transfer unit, and applies a discharging voltage which is a partial voltage from the second voltage. When the discharging voltage is set to the first value, the control unit reduces the discharging voltage in a case where the transfer voltage is lower than a target value.

Image forming apparatus having voltage control for improved image quality

An image forming apparatus includes a feeding unit for feeding a recording material, and a calculating unit for calculating a degree of deterioration of the feeding unit, while making correction depending on stiffness of the recording material and a content of a filler contained in the recording material.

Image forming apparatus and management system

Provided is an image forming apparatus including a process unit that is used for an image forming operation for forming an image on a sheet and detachable from a main body of the image forming apparatus, a storage unit that stores operation history information indicating an operation history of the process unit, a detection unit that detects that the process unit is replaced with a new process unit, and a determination unit that determines a replacement timing of the new process unit on a basis of the operation history information of the process unit.

Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes a stacking portion, a feeding unit, an image forming unit, a storing unit, an inputting unit for inputting paper kind information of the recording material, and a calculating unit. When the paper kind information of the recording material inputted by the inputting unit is different from paper kind information of the recording material stored in the storing unit, the image forming unit forms the image on the recording material in an image forming condition determined on the basis of the paper kind information of the recording material inputted by the inputting unit, and the calculating means calculates the degree of deterioration of the feeding unit depending on the paper kind information of the recording material stored in the storing unit.

Image forming apparatus and management system for calculating a degree of deterioration of a fixing portion

A fixing apparatus including: an acquiring portion that acquires a difference value between a detection temperature of a first temperature detecting member and a detection temperature of a second temperature detecting member; and an alarming portion that sends a notification of an abnormality in the apparatus. The alarming portion sends the notification of an abnormality in the apparatus according to an amount of change in the difference value acquired during a fixing process.

Fixing apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes first and second feeding units for feeding a recording material while nipping the recording material; a guiding member for guiding the recording material passed through the first feeding unit toward the second feeding unit; a measuring unit for measuring a time required for the recording material to pass from a first point to a second point provided downstream of the first point with respect to a recording material feeding direction; and a discriminating unit for discriminating stiffness of the recording material on the basis of a measurement result of the measuring unit. The guiding member is flexed and is in a non-overlapping state with a virtual line connecting a first nip where the first feeding unit nips the recording material and a second nip where the second feeding unit nips the recording material.

Image forming apparatus with function for determining recording material stiffness

An image forming apparatus includes a mounting portion to and from which a process cartridge including a photosensitive member and a developing roller is attachable and detachable, a separation mechanism that takes a first position to separate the developing roller from the photosensitive member and a second position to bring the developing roller into contact with the photosensitive member, an allowance mechanism that allows the process cartridge with the developing roller kept in contact with the photosensitive member to be mounted on the mounting portion when the separation mechanism is in the first position, an exposure device, and a control unit, wherein, when the developing roller and the photosensitive member are in contact with each other when the separation mechanism is in the first position, the control unit performs an exposure operation while keeping the separation mechanism in the first position during an initial operation of the image forming apparatus.

Included is an image bearing member; an exposure unit configured to form electrostatic latent images by scanning light on the image bearing member and to change the amount of light along the scanning direction of the light; a forming unit configured to form a toner patch on the basis of the electrostatic latent image formed by a plurality of different light amounts, to adjust the light amount of the exposure unit; a detection unit configured to detect the toner patch; and a control unit configured to adjust the light amount of the exposure unit along the scanning direction of the light depending on the detection result by the detection unit. The control unit changes the light amount of the exposure unit along the scanning direction of the light over a portion of regions rather than all regions in the scanning direction when forming the toner patch.

Image forming apparatus to adjust the amount of light exposed by an exposure unit

An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit, which forms a test pattern for density control on the image carrier; and first and second light receiving elements, which receive reflected light irradiated by a light emitting element. A spot diameter of a reflected light received by the first light receiving element is smaller than a spot diameter of a reflected light received by the second light receiving element, and a number of sampling of the test pattern in line with a movement direction of a surface of the image carrier by the first light receiving element is greater than that of the test pattern in line with the moving direction by the second light receiving element.

Image forming apparatus for performing control of image forming condition and density detection apparatus for detecting the density of test pattern

An image forming apparatus includes an image bearing member configured to bear an image with a toner, a transfer unit configured to transfer the image from the image bearing member onto a recording material, a conveying unit configured to convey the recording material having the image on a first side thereof to transfer the image onto a second side of the recording material, and a control unit configured to control an operation for forming a test image in an interval region between a first image, formed on the image bearing member, and a second image formed subsequently to the first image on the image bearing member. The control unit is configured to permit formation of the test image in the image interval region when the second image is an image to be transferred onto a first side of the recording material and configured to prevent formation of the test image in the image interval region when the second image is an image to be transferred onto a second side of the recording material.

Image forming apparatus having test image formation

The speed at which transfer-material enters a transfer region is controlled to prevent a phenomenon in which a toner image on an intermediate transfer belt is scraped by the leading edge of the transfer-material when the toner image is transferred onto the transfer-material. While the conveying speed of the transfer-material in a transfer nip coincides with the speed of the intermediate transfer belt, the transfer-material is conveyed at a speed lower than the peripheral speed of the intermediate transfer belt when the leading edge of the transfer-material comes into contact with the intermediate transfer belt, and the conveying speed of the transfer-material is increased by the time when the transfer-material enters the transfer nip.

An image forming apparatus includes an image bearing member on which a toner image is to be formed; a transfer device for transferring the toner image carried on the image bearing member; and a rotationally movable endless transfer belt onto which the toner image is to be transferred or on which a transfer material onto which the toner image is to be transferred is to be conveyed. The transfer device includes a sheet member contacted to an inner peripheral surface of the transfer belt while being supported by a supporting member at an end thereof and includes an urging member for urging the sheet member against the transfer belt in contact to the sheet member. The urging member includes a projected portion projected toward the transfer belt at its downstream end portion more than at its upstream end portion with respect to a movement direction of the transfer belt.

Image forming apparatus with urging member with projected portion to urge sheet against transfer belt

A toner image formed on an image bearing member is transferred onto a recording material so as to overflow from an edge portion of the recording material, thereby enabling the toner image to be formed so as to extend to the edge portion of the recording material. To suppress the deposition of the toner in the edge portion of the recording material, a cleaning member for cleaning the edge portion of the recording material obtained after the fixing is provided. In order to make a trailing edge of the recording material come into contact with the cleaning member, the recording material which has passed through a fixing apparatus is temporarily switched back, thereby allowing the trailing edge portion of the recording material to collide with the cleaning member.

Unit for cleaning edge portion of recording material or image forming apparatus

An image-forming apparatus includes an optical sensor including a light-receiving element that receives light reflected by a belt-like moving medium to produce an output corresponding to the amount of light received. This image-forming apparatus determines the density of a toner patch image formed by an image-forming unit by correcting an output produced when the optical sensor detects the toner patch image at a position on a roller disposed opposite the sensor on the basis of an output produced by the optical sensor in an area where no toner image is formed on the belt-like moving medium at the same position on the opposite roller as the position where the sensor detects the toner patch image.

Growing community of inventors

Mishima, Japan

Tomonori Shida