Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Yasushi Nakazato

Osamu Satoh

Jun Yamane

Kohji Ue

Kazuyuki Shimada

Masahide Yamashita

Tomohiro Nakajima

Mikiko Imazeki

Shuji Hirai

Nekka Matsuura

Hisashi Shoji

Yoshinori Nakagawa

Katsuaki Miyawaki

Seiji Hoshino

Satoshi Ouchi

Takashi Seto

Masaaki Yamada

Takenori Oku

Akira Takehisa

Hitoshi Shimizu

Kenji Sugiura

Tomoko Takahashi

Hidetoshi Yano

Yasuo Suzuki

Takahiko Tokumasu

Masaichi Sawada

Masahiko Banno

Hiroaki Kotabe

Makoto Tanaka

Tsukuru Kai

Masahiko Shakuto

Takayuki Kimura

Shigeru Yamazaki

Hidetake Tanaka

Mitsugu Sugiyama

Hiroyuki Okamoto

Nobuo Iwata

Satoshi Muramatsu

Naomi Sugimoto

Hiroshi Nishida

Tadashi Shinohara

Tetsuo Yamanaka

Takeo Suda

Osamu Naruse

Kenji Ueda

Nobuto Yokokawa

Kazuhito Watanabe

Hiroyuki Shibaki

Takeyoshi Sekine

Tohru Nakano

Masakazu Muranaka

Osamu Endo

Takashi Taruki

Masako Yoshii

Takeshi Saitou

Yoshiko Ishii

Tetsuroh Miura

Satoshi Hatanaka

Hiroshi Hosokawa

Kazuhiko Watanabe

Hiroyuki Takahashi

Hiroshi Nakai

Kazumi Suzuki

Nozomu Tamoto

Masanori Horike

Hideo Nakagawa

Masanori Suzuki

Hiromichi Matsuda

Noriyoshi Tarumi

Yukiko Iwasaki

Ryota Yamashina

Yusuke Takeda

Akihiro Sugino

Koji Sakamoto

Katsuo Sakai

Shigeru Horiguchi

Kei Yasutomi

Yoshiaki Kawasaki

Takaaki Ikegami

Toshiya Sato

Nobuaki Kondoh

Ryusuke Mase

Daichi Yamaguchi

Takeo Yamaguchi

Masaru Kaneko

Kohichi Ohshima

Hideo Nakamori

Kiyoshi Ohshima

Michio Kimura

Akio Kutsuwada

Masashi Kohchi

Shinichiro Wada

Rikio Kasahara

Kazuya Iwasaki

Akihiko Motegi

Yukitoshi Kiya

Yohichiroh Miyaguchi

Kouji Yamanobe

Shintaroh Takahashi

A system includes a device and one or more information processing apparatuses. The device includes a device-information generator configured to generate device information on the device; and an analyzer determining unit configured to determine any one of the device and the one or more information processing apparatuses as an analyzer for the device information. The one determined as the analyzer includes an analysis unit configured to perform an analysis based on the device information; and a service determining unit configured to determine a service to the device based on a result of the analysis.

System, service determining method, and computer program product

An information processing system includes one or more information processing apparatuses for determining lifetimes of components, to be replaced by preventive maintenance, of respective electric devices. The information processing system includes a leading variable specifying unit configured to specify, based on variables that represent use states of the electric devices and failure data of the electric devices which have been obtained from the electric devices, a plurality of leading variables relevant to the lifetimes of the components; a lifetime matrix creating unit configured to classify a plurality of values of each of the leading variables into sections to create a lifetime matrix in which the lifetimes of the components are set with respect to combinations of the sections each of which relates to a different leading variable; and a lifetime outputting unit configured to determine the lifetimes of the components with respect to the respective electric devices.

System, method, and non-transitory recording medium for determining lifetimes of components of multifunction peripherals

A cleaning blade failure prediction processor for an image forming apparatus includes a pixel count acquisition circuit to acquire pixel count data of a cleaning target of a cleaning blade. The cleaning target is divided into a plurality of areas in a main scanning direction of the cleaning target. The pixel count acquisition circuit acquires a pixel count for each of the plurality of areas of the cleaning target. The cleaning blade failure prediction processor also includes a first cumulative pixel count calculation circuit to calculate a cumulative pixel count for each of the plurality of areas of the cleaning target, a second cumulative pixel count calculation circuit to calculate a cumulative pixel count per distance traveled of the cleaning target, and a deformation identification circuit to determine whether or not the cleaning blade shows signs of deformation according to the cumulative pixel count per distance traveled.

Cleaning blade failure prediction processor and image forming apparatus incorporating same

An image forming apparatus includes a deterioration determining device to determine a deterioration degree of a latent image bearer based on a potential detected by a surface potential detector. The deterioration determining device calculates a relative value indicating the deterioration degree based on the aggregated number of pixels and a time value for each of virtually divided regions. The deterioration determining device determines a deterioration degree of a detecting target region of the virtually divided region based on a potential detected by the surface potential detector. The deterioration determining device further determines deterioration degrees of non-detecting target respective regions of the virtually divided regions based on the relative values of the non-detecting target respective regions, the relative value of the detecting target region, and the deterioration degree of the detecting target region.

Image forming apparatus and method

A device failure predictor includes data acquisition unit to acquire internal data of a target device, a peak value calculator to calculate a plurality of peak values of the internal data for a prescribed period of time, and a failure sign identification unit to set individual criteria for the plurality of peak values and determine whether or not the target device shows signs of failure according to the plurality of peak values and the individual criteria.

Device failure predictor and image forming apparatus incorporating same

An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit including a latent image carrier, a charging device, a latent image writing device, and a development device; a cumulative value calculation device that calculates, for each of regions of a surface of the image carrier, a cumulative value of the area of a latent image formed in the region; a surface potential detector that detects the surface potential of the image carrier in one of the regions as a detection region; and a determination device that determines the deterioration degree of the detection region on the basis of the detected potential, and determines the deterioration degree of a region other than the detection region on the basis of the detected potential, the cumulative value for the detection region, and the cumulative value for the region other than the detection region.

Image forming apparatus including a surface potential detector

An image forming system includes an image forming apparatus, a physical property detector, a data storage device, and a latent image carrier replacement time detector. The image forming apparatus includes a replaceable latent image carrier, forms a latent image on a surface of the latent image carrier, develops the latent image into a visible image, and transfers the visible image onto a recording medium. The physical property detector detects predetermined physical properties of the image forming apparatus in a continuous manner or an intermittent manner. The data storage device stores, as a specific physical property, data on at least one of the detected physical properties, which changes before and after replacement of the latent image carrier. The latent image carrier replacement time detector detects, on the basis of changes over time of the stored specific physical property, a latent image carrier replacement time.

Image forming system and latent image carrier replacement time detection method

A management apparatus communicates, via a communication network, with image forming apparatuses, and includes an information reception device that receives, from each of the image forming apparatuses via the network, prediction-use information useful for predicting a latent image carrier surface contamination level due to discharge products generated during charging, a contamination level prediction device that, on the basis of the received prediction-use information, predicts the latent image carrier surface contamination level of the image forming apparatus corresponding to the prediction-use information, and an instruction transmission device that, if the predicted latent image carrier surface contamination level exceeds a predetermined allowable range, transmits an execution instruction to execute a contamination reduction operation of reducing the contamination of the surface of the latent image carrier due to the discharge products to the image forming apparatus corresponding to the latent image carrier surface contamination level via the network.

Management apparatus, image forming apparatus maintenance system including the same, and management method

An area calculating unit calculates an image area of a toner image formed on a sheet recording member. A behavior detecting unit detects behavior of the recording member fed out of a conveying nip formed by a pair of conveying members. A thickness obtaining unit obtains thickness information of the recording member. An index calculating unit calculates an index value indicating windability of the recording member with respect to the conveying members based on the image area, the behavior, and the thickness information.

Image forming apparatus

An apparatus, system, and method of predicting failure of a fixing device of an image forming apparatus are provided. Based on a plurality of sheet transfer time values of the fixing device, a first characteristic value that is an average value of the plurality of sheet transfer time values, and at least one of a second characteristics value that indicates the variance of the plurality of sheet transfer time values and a third characteristics value that indicates the maximum value of the plurality of sheet transfer time values are calculated. Using a determination result generated based on the first characteristics value and the at least one of the second and third characteristics values, failure of the fixing device is predicted.

Apparatus, system, and method of predicting failure of image forming apparatus

A management apparatus includes: a receiver that receives, via a network, status data based on control system data for stabilizing image forming from an image forming apparatus formed by image forming units; an inference unit that determines abnormality occurrence symptom, and calculates an index of the abnormality occurrence symptom, of the image forming units based on the received status data; a replacement part information acquisition unit that acquires information including a replacement date from a maintenance management system via the network when receiving a diagnosis request from a terminal of a maintenance person; a judgment table generator that calculates weight information of the symptom determination index value; a integrated diagnostic information generator for the image forming units based on the symptom determination index value and the weight information; and a integrated diagnostic information notification unit transmitting the integrated diagnostic value information to the terminal of the maintenance person.

Management apparatus, management system, and management method

A rotation measuring mechanism capable of measuring a rotation amount and a displacement amount of a rotary member in a direction perpendicular to the rotation axis is provided. An exemplary combination of the rotation measuring mechanism includes a detection target rotating in synchrony with the rotary member and range sensors. Each time the detection target rotates once, each sensor outputs one cycle of a sine wave. The amplitude of the sine wave output from the sensor varies in accordance with the displacement of the detection target together with the rotary member in the direction perpendicular to the axis, thereby obtaining the rotation amount and the displacement amount of the rotary member.

Rotation measuring mechanism, sheet conveyance apparatus, original reading apparatus, and image forming apparatus

An image carrier deterioration degree evaluating apparatus for evaluating a degree of deterioration of an image carrier of an image forming apparatus, the image carrier deterioration degree evaluating apparatus including: an image deletion detecting unit that detects image deletion by obtaining latent image information written on the image carrier; an image deletion reducing unit that performs a process of reducing image deletion when the image deletion detecting unit detects image deletion, and an image carrier deterioration degree evaluating unit that drives the image deletion detecting unit and the image deletion reducing unit alternately one or more times each, and evaluates a degree of deterioration of the image carrier by using the latent image information obtained one or more times by the image deletion detecting unit.

Image carrier deterioration degree evaluating device, image carrier failure predicting device, and image forming apparatus

A first feature quantity computing unit that computes a first feature quantity representing an average of a plurality of driving loads recorded by a driving load of a fixing section recording unit of an image forming device that records the driving load acquired by a driving load acquiring unit that acquires the driving load, a second feature quantity computing unit that computes a second feature quantity representing a deviation of the plurality of the driving loads, and a diagnosis unit that performs failure diagnosis including estimation of a cause of a failure of the fixing section using the first feature quantity and the second feature quantity are used.

Failure diagnosis device, failure diagnosis method, image forming device, and recording medium

A management device for an image forming apparatus including a status data collection unit where multiple types of status data are received from the image forming apparatus and stored in a status database, a target data creation unit where multiple types of target data are created based upon the multiple types of status data, a first stage determination unit where the multiple types of target data are identified as being above or below reference values set for each type, and a second stage determination unit where a weight value set for each status data type is attached to the determination results of the multiple types of status data of the first stage determination unit and as a whole of the multiple types of status data determined with majority logic for abnormal occurrence prediction.

Management device of an image forming apparatus

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Tokyo, Japan

Yasushi Nakazato