Konica Minolta, Inc.

Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.

Asahi Kasei Chemicals Corporation

Toshiya Aoki

Hidenori Hinago

Hajime Nagahara

Ryohei Matsuo

Jinju Okuno

Kanji Nakayama

Noritoshi Hagimoto

Yuusuke Okuno

Yasunori Nakayama

Tomo Kitada

Shinji Ogawa

A fuser for thermally fixing a toner image on a recording medium includes: an endless fusing belt configured to transfer heat to the toner image; a heat source configured to heat the fusing belt; a detection unit configured to detect peripheral inward deformation of the fusing belt; and a power cut-off unit configured to cut off power supplied to the heat source upon detection of the peripheral inward deformation of the fusing belt by the detection unit.

Fuser and image forming apparatus

An image forming device includes: a developing device which includes a developing unit storing a developer containing a first carrier and a toner and a toner concentration detection unit detecting a toner concentration within the developing unit; and a supply container which stores a supply developer containing a second carrier and the toner, and supplies, based on a detection value by the toner concentration detection unit, the supply developer to the developing unit and discharges an excessive amount of the developer within the developing unit from the developing unit. Then, the setting value of the toner concentration detection unit is corrected based on the presence proportion of the second carrier within the developing unit detected by a calculation unit.

Image forming device

Provided is a production method of glycolic acid having a first step of preparing glycolonitrile from formaldehyde and hydrocyanic acid and a second step of hydrolyzing the glycolonitrile into glycolic acid directly or via a glycolate salt, which method can produce glycolic acid in easy production and purification steps while consuming less energy. In the production method, by carrying out the first and second steps continuously or by storing the glycolonitrile obtained in the first step at pH 4 or less and carrying out a hydrolysis reaction of the second step at from pH 5 to 9, a production yield of glycolic acid, activity for the production of glycolic acid and accumulated concentration of glycolic acid are improved, resulting in the production of glycolic acid having an improved purity and quality.

Method for producing glycolic acid

A fixing device for performing a thermal fixing for fixing an unfixed image onto a recording sheet by passing the recording sheet through a fixing nip formed by a fixing rotator and a pressing member pressing the fixing rotator. The fixing device obtains a value indicating an amount of paper dust attached to the fixing rotator, and when the amount of paper dust indicated by the obtained value is equal to or larger than a permissible amount, performs a control so that a larger amount of heat is supplied to the recording sheet in the thermal fixing than when the amount of paper dust indicated by the obtained value is smaller than the permissible amount.

Image forming apparatus and fixing device having paper dust amount obtaining unit

An image forming apparatus includes an image forming section, a heat source, a fixing rotating body, a pressurizing rotating body, a feeding section for feeding a medium, a temperature adjusting section for controlling an amount of heat generated by the heat source, and a control section. The control section switches between a first mode in which the fixing rotating body and the pressurizing rotating body rotate at a first circumferential speed and the medium is fed to the image forming section at a first distance interval, and a second mode in which the fixing rotating body and the pressurizing rotating body rotate at a second circumferential speed higher than the first circumferential speed and the medium is fed to the image forming section at a second distance interval longer than the first distance interval.

Image forming apparatus and image forming method

In case new and old toners may be mixed, a developing bias is set as follows. The time is first clocked. The number of times toner is replenished from a hopper into a buffer for a clocked period is counted. If a replenishment amount per clock time is a threshold value or higher, considering that new and old toners are mixed, the setting of the developing bias is changed. An electric field intensity between a developing roller and a photoconductor is set to cause normally-charged toner to fly in an image area but not to fly in a background area. No image fogging is therefore generated in the background area. Thus, an image forming apparatus and method capable of preventing low-charged toner and oppositely-charged toner generated by mixing of new and old toners from adhering to the background area of an electrostatic latent image on the photoconductor, thereby avoiding generation of image fogging.

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Toyokawa, Japan

Toshiya Aoki