Minolta Camera Kabushiki Kaisha

Konica Minolta, Inc.

Minolta Company, Ltd.

Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.

Other

Minolta Camera Co., Ltd.

Tsugihito Yoshiyama

Masazumi Ito

Hiroyuki Ideyama

Tadafumi Shimizu

Yoshihiko Hatta

Yoshiki Nakane

Yohei Ito

Masayasu Haga

Yoshiaki Hata

Yoshiaki Takano

Yoshifumi Shibata

Manabu Kamitamari

Masataka Oda

Kadotaro Nishimori

Yasuhiro Nakagami

Kunitomo Sasaki

Sayaka Morita

Tomohisa Yoshida

Hokuto Hatano

Masanori Kawada

Akira Hirota

Moriyoshi Matsushiro

Masami Matsuura

Kadotari Nishimori

Hiroshi Okamoto

Narutaka Yoshida

Naoki Toyoshi

Kouji Matsushita

Kuniaki Kashiwakura

Hisashi Myochin

Munenori Nakano

Masayuki Nishi

Tetsumaru Fujita

Tamotsu Sakuraba

Masataka Yagi

An image forming apparatus includes a latent image carrier whose rotational speed changes depending on a printing speed of an image onto a sheet, an applicator that applies a lubricant to a surface of the latent image carrier, and a hardware processor that causes a surface of the applicator to move such that a difference between a first moving speed and a second moving speed is within a certain range, the first moving speed being a speed at which the surface of the latent image carrier moves, the second moving speed being a speed at which the surface of the applicator moves.

Image forming apparatus, lubricant application method, and computer program

An image forming apparatus includes: a photoreceptor; a charging member that charges the photoreceptor; a charging power supply that outputs an AC bias as a charging bias to be applied to the charging member during image formation, and outputs a DC bias as the charging bias during a non-image forming operation, the AC bias being obtained by superimposing an alternating current voltage and a direct current voltage, the image formation forming a latent image, the DC bias being a direct current voltage, the non-image forming operation rotating and driving the photoreceptor; a processor that performs predetermined processing on the photoreceptor; and a controller that controls the charging power supply and the processor such that a value of a potential difference of the photoreceptor before and after being charged by the DC bias is a value equal to or less than a setting value during the non-image forming operation.

Image forming apparatus with a charging power supply that outputs an AC bias and a DC bias

An image forming apparatus includes: an image carrier; a charging roller that charges the image carrier; a power supply part that applies a charging voltage to the charging roller; a current measurement part that measures a value of a DC component of a current flowing between the image carrier and the charging roller at at least two timings having mutually different elapsed times; and a hardware processor that measures an elapsed time from a start of application of the charging voltage by the power supply part, calculates a coefficient of an approximate expression indicating a relationship between the value of the DC component of the current flowing between the image carrier and the charging roller, and the elapsed time, and performs judgment related to life of the charging roller on the basis of the coefficient and a predetermined threshold.

Image forming apparatus, image forming apparatus control method, and image forming apparatus control program

An image forming apparatus having: an image supporting member; a developing device configured to supply a developer to the image supporting member to develop a latent image; a transfer member configured to transfer the developed image from the image supporting member to a transfer medium; a blade configured to remove the developer left on the image supporting member after transfer therefrom; a storing member located downstream from the transfer member and upstream from the blade, the storing member configured to temporarily store a part of the developer left after transfer therein; and a control unit. The storing member is controlled by the control unit to release the temporarily stored developer therefrom toward the image supporting member after a lapse of a predetermined time from when an image density of an image to be formed becomes lower than a predetermined value.

Image forming apparatus with a structure for removing residual developer

A method applicable to an image forming apparatus with a lubricant to be applied to a surface of a photoreceptor for measuring surface roughness of the surface of the photoreceptor after lubricant application, the method including: a first step of measuring a surface profile of the photoreceptor and obtaining first data indicating the surface profile; a second step of generating second data on the basis of the first data, the second data indicating arithmetic mean roughness Ra within a predetermined range; and a third step of calculating a difference value &#x394;Ra between second data before lubricant application and second data after lubricant application obtained by performing the first and second steps both before and after the lubricant is applied to the photoreceptor.

Method for measuring lubricant-induced surface roughness and image forming apparatus

In an image forming apparatus, when some of a plurality of image supporters which are preceded by another image supporter on an upstream side of the carrying direction are referred to as downstream side image supporters, a control section derives a toner supply amount for each of positions in a main-scanning direction for each of downstream side image supporters based on image data for the downstream side image supporters and image data for an upstream side image supporter, and thereafter generates patch image data that represents the derived toner supply amount, and the exposure section further scans each of the downstream side image supporters in the main-scanning direction with an optical beam modulated according to the patch image data generated by the control section.

Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus for forming an image on a rotative image carrier and transferring the image onto an object, including: a cleaning unit removing a residual material from the image carrier; and a lubricant applying unit applying lubricant to a circumferential surface of the image carrier, the lubricant applying unit including: a rotative transporter picking up and retaining lubricant, transporting the lubricant to a lubricant application point, and supplying a portion of the lubricant to the image carrier at the lubricant application point; an ejector causing the transporter to eject a portion of the lubricant retained by the transporter; a collector collecting the portion of the lubricant ejected from the transporter; and a controller controlling ejection of the portion of the lubricant so as to maintain the amount of the lubricant retained by the transporter as no greater than a predetermined upper limit.

Image forming apparatus and lubricant application method

A cleaning blade, which is configured to be pressed against a toner image carrier that rotates in one direction, for removing residual toner from the toner image carrier, the cleaning blade having: a contact layer that is located in a side to come into contact with the toner image carrier; and a supporting layer that is located in a side not to come into contact with the toner image carrier, wherein tensile stress characteristic curves of a material of the contact layer and a material of the supporting layer intersect with each other. An image forming apparatus having a toner image carrier and the cleaning blade.

Cleaning blade and image forming apparatus

In a rotary type image developing apparatus that has a rotary rack accommodating a plurality of developer units and drives the rotary rack to rotate in a predetermined rotational direction so as to bring a targeted one of the developer units to a developing position, each developer unit includes a toner storage in which a first slope is disposed. As the rotary rack rotates, toner that remains upstream of a toner supply opening in a toner flowing direction in the toner storage is guided by a slope surface of the first slope, which enables the toner to be smoothly supplied to a developing chamber. Thus, even when the toner gets low, the toner can be efficiently supplied from the toner storage to the developing chamber with the aid of the first slope.

Rotary developing apparatus rotatably accommodating a plurality of developer units, developer unit and image forming apparatus including rotary developing apparatus

One of aspects of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus includes an intermediate transfer member rotating at a first circumferential speed, and an image carrier capable of having a plurality of toner images formed thereon in turn, each of the toner images having a color different from one another, for transferring the toner images onto the intermediate transfer member, the image carrier rotating at a second circumferential speed. At least one of the first and second circumferential speeds are adjustable in accordance with a driving mode selected from a group consisting of a monochrome mode and a color mode. Also, a first difference between the first and second circumferential speeds in the monochrome mode is greater than a second difference between the first and second circumferential speeds in the color mode.

An image forming apparatus with a charging member that allows easy removal of smears from an image forming drum. The apparatus removes smears from the image forming drum by placing a different portion of the charging member in contact with the drum. The apparatus uses a cam or a solenoid to press on the charging member to cause a different portion of the charging member to come into contact with the image forming drum.

Image forming apparatus with a charging member which removes smears on

Applied voltage to the contact charging sheet 71 has been controlled in the following various ways: a) the voltage at the photosensitive layer 10 at a point of time whereat it has passed the contact charging sheet 71 is caused to interlock with grid voltage so as not to exceed predetermined voltage to be electrified by the Scorotron charger 2; b) the applied voltage is caused to interlock with the output from the transfer unit 5 so that there is no portion which reaches the Scorotron charger 2 while the potential polarity has been reversed at the transfer unit 5; c) reduction in the film thickness of the photosensitive layer 10 is corrected in consideration of the cumulative number of sheets for image formation; d) the size of printing sheet is added; e) at the time of termination, a portion of the photosensitive layer 10, into which current has flowed at the transfer unit 5, is caused to stop always after passing the contact charging sheet 71; f) the contact charging sheet 71 is cleaned by means of AC component; and g) the applied voltage is switched while formation of an electrostatic latent image and the like are not performed. Thereby, the surface potential at the photosensitive drum 1 is prevented from becoming ununiform.

Image forming apparatus and method using charge control means

An apparatus for controlling an exposure in an image forming apparatus includes an exposure unit which varys the illumination from an exposure light source in accordance to photoreceptor sensitivity and projects the light reflected onto a photoreceptor, and a light reducing filter adjusting a quantity of light to be projected according to the sensitivity of the photoreceptor. The neutral-density filter may be employed as the reducing filter. Preferably, this filter is movable between a first position in a path of the reflected light and a second position out of the path. The photoreceptor having a thicker photosensitive layer may be used to its long life period.

Apparatus for controlling an exposure

The image forming apparatus according to the present invention is connectable to an external device through a communication line, and includes an image forming device for forming an image on paper and a device for setting specified set conditions in the image forming device. The image forming apparatus performs image forming operation corresponding to the set conditions, and further includes a receiving device for receiving a control signal from the communication line and a transmission device for transmitting the set conditions through the communication line in response to reception of the control signal.

Image forming apparatus with improved efficiency of maintenance control

A control system of image forming apparatus in accordance with the present invention includes a plurality of image forming apparatus and a control unit connected to each of the image forming apparatus through a communication line, and each of the image forming apparatus includes a data transmitting device for transmitting information related to a consumption amount of consumable products to the control unit through the communication line, and the control unit includes a receiving device receiving the information transmitted from the image forming apparatus and determines a stock amount of the consumable products which a user of the image forming apparatus has on the basis of the information received by the receiving device.

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Toyohashi, Japan

Tsugihito Yoshiyama