Minolta Camera Kabushiki Kaisha

Minolta Company, Ltd.

Yoshikazu Naito

Yoshihiro Hattori

Kazuyuki Fukui

Takanobu Yamada

Takahiro Tsujimoto

Kenichi Takahashi

Takeru Kinoshita

Keiji Nakatani

Akinori Kimata

Shigeru Moriya

Katsuhide Sakai

Akira Takasu

Suguru Hamamichi

Hideaki Kodama

Kiyohito Tsujihara

Shigeo Ogino

Kanji Wada

Hiroyuki Yoshikawa

Takayoshi Hayashi

An induction heating and fixing device includes a hollow cylindrical fixing member, a core for forming a closed magnetic circuit, a ring member formed of magnetic material and provided on the core in the vicinity of the bilateral ends of the fixing member, a coil wound around the core, and a pressure member disposed so as to press against the fixing member. This device suppresses temperature drop at the bilateral ends of the fixing roller and maintains uniform temperature distribution in the axial direction of the fixing roller by leaving the device open at both bilateral ends.

Induction heating and fixing device for fixing toner on a recording medium in an image forming apparatus

A recycle information system for recycling reusable parts from machines and equipment such as image forming apparatus, and reutilize the recovered member as a manufacturing material. A recycle information system utilizing a production control computer to manage information on production parts being used or scheduled for use in manufacturing and maintenance services, is linked by a communications line with a control device for machines and equipment scheduled for recycling, monitors information on parts of machines and equipment capable of recycling, and when a machine is recovered from a user, compares production part information stored in the production control computer with recovered part information stored in the recovered device, and acquires information on whether individual parts used in the recovered machine are capable of being recycled, and information on a factory destination address.

Recycle information system and image forming apparatus for recycling

A port diagnosing device capable of diagnosing normal or abnormal ports provided with a single input terminal and a plurality of output terminals comprising a signal generator for outputting predetermined signals to an optional output terminal from among a plurality of output terminals, a feedback signal for feeding back to the single input terminal predetermined signals output from the signal generator, and determining changes detected in the level of the signal fed back to the input terminal in correspondence to changes in the level of the predetermined signal, and determining the normal or abnormal operation of the optional output terminal.

Input/output port fault diagnosing device

A chromatic color pattern and a monochromatic color pattern are read by an image sensor. A masking coefficient in a color masking portion or a gamma conversion characteristic of a gamma correction portion are selected in accordance with the ratio V1/V0 of a read value V1 of the chromatic color pattern and a read value V0 of the monochromatic color pattern. An output of an image data is corrected by masking processing with the selected masking coefficient and the like.

Image reading apparatus having color correction according to tempeature

In an electrophotographic image forming apparatus including a charger for electrically charging the photoconductor to a predetermined initial electric potential, a laser projects a light onto the photoconductor so as to form an electrostatic latent image thereon, and a developing device develops the latent image with toner so as to form a toner image thereon. Further, a charger controller controls the charger based on a detection result of a detector for detecting a state of the photoconductor so that the initial electric potential of the photoconductor changes in a predetermined range, and a selection controller selects one of the plurality of gradation correction data stored in a storage unit based on the detection result of the detector when the initial electric potential of the photoconductor is an upper or lower limit value of the predetermined range. Moreover, a light projecting controller controls the laser to change a light amount of the light projected, based on the gradation correction data selected by the selection controller, according to an image density signal for representing densities of respective pixels of an image to be formed.

Electrophotographic image forming apparatus comprising means for

In an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, a charger sensitizes the photoconductor at a desired initial potential and the photoconductor is exposed to form an electrostatic latent image, which is developed by a developer to form a toner image. A gradation correction table on the relation of the input image signal to the exposure amount is provided in a memory, and it is amended by adding a common amendment value to the image density signal in the gradation correction table. The common amendment value is determined according to the density of a standard toner image. If a plurality of gradation correction tables are stored in a memory, one of them is selected according to the output voltage of the charger or the bias potential of the developer. The selected gradation correction table is amended according to the surface potential of the photoconductor, the temperature of the photoconductor or the humidity of the photoconductor. Alternately, the detection value of the surface potential, the temperature or the humidity may be used to select the gradation correction table. The gradation table may be amended according to the state of the photoconductor. The amplification factor of the exposure amount for the photoconductor can be changed according to the state of the photoconductor, the temperature or the humidity of the photoconductor. The bias voltage of the developer or the output voltage of the charger may also be changed according to the state of the photoconductor.

Image forming apparatus having correction means for modifying image

An electrophotographic image forming apparatus which comprises a photoreceptor medium including a substrate and a photosensitive layer formed on the substrate, and a photo-electric toner sensor assembly for measuring the amount of rays of light undergoing a diffuse reflection from the photoreceptor medium. The substrate has a regularly developed pattern of grooves formed thereon. The photoelectric toner sensor assembly comprises a light emitting element for projecting the rays of light onto the photoreceptor medium so as to reflect therefrom and a light receiving element for detecting the rays of light undergoing the diffuse reflection. The light emitting and receiving elements are so positioned that a common plane containing respective optical axes of those light emitting and receiving elements can lie substantially parallel to any one of the grooves on the substrate.

Image forming apparatus with toner detection

In an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, a corona charger electrically charges the photoconductor to a predetermined initial electric potential so as to supply an amount of electric charge thereto, and a laser projects a light onto the charged photoconductor so as to form an electrostatic latent image thereon. A light projecting controller controls the laser to change a light amount of the projected light according to an image density signal, and a developing device develops the formed electrostatic latent image with toner so as to form a toner image thereon. Then, a voltage generator applies a developing bias voltage to the developing device. Moreover, a density controller controls the corona charger and the voltage generator to change the amount of supplied electric charge and the developing bias voltage, and further controls the voltage generator so that a difference between the initial electric potential and the developing bias voltage becomes larger and a minimum light amount of first starting reproducing an image becomes smaller as the amount of supplied electric potential becomes larger.

A method of detecting the toner density of a standard test toner image which comprises the steps of forming on the photosensitive drum a saturated test toner image from which the amount of diffused light is to be measured as a saturation level as well as the standard test toner image, and evaluating the measurement of the amount of diffused light from the standard test toner image in accordance with the measurement of the amount of diffused light from the saturated test toner image. In an image forming method or image forming apparatus which employs this toner density detecting method, the standard test toner image is formed on the photosensitive drum with a specified voltage of developing bias impressed, and an optimum developing bias voltage is calculated from the measurement of the amount of diffused light from the saturated test toner image and the measurement of the amount of diffused light from the standard test toner image. Such a process is carried out prior to an image forming operation.

Toner density detecting method, and image forming method and apparatus

A digital color copying apparatus for forming a color copy in which an arbitrary color in a color original image is replaced by a desired color comprises bar codes for determining whether the desired color is a color in the original image or a color in the copy image and designating the desired color, and a bar code reading pen. When the bar code reading pen reads the bar codes, it is determined whether the designated color is a color in the original or not and the color is definitely specified.

Digital image forming apparatus

An exposure control system includes (a) a first detecting unit for detecting the original image density of an original document and producing a first signal variable with the detected original image density, (b) a control unit for regulating the quantity of light with which the image-carrying document is to be irradiated by the exposure lamp, the quantity of light being regulated on the basis of the signal from the first detecting unit, (c) a reference pattern located to be irradiated with light from the exposure lamp, (d) a second detecting unit for detecting the visualized image density of the reference pattern and producing a second signal variable with the detecting visualized image density, (e) a modifying unit for modifying the quantity of the light from the exposure lamp so that the value represented by the second signal falls within a predetermined range, and (f) a correcting unit for correcting the quantity of light controlled by the control unit, so that the controlled quantity of light is corrected by the correcting unit on the basis of the second signal from the second detecting unit and the quantity of light dictated by the second signal.

Exposure control system of image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus of a visible image transfer type provided with a standard pattern which is disposed at a position where it can be illuminated by a lamp for illuminating an original, a first sensor for detecting the density of the original and a second sensor for detecting the density of a visible image of a standard pattern. The light amount of the lamp is varied so as to make the density of the visible image detected by the second sensor fit a fixed value or fall within a fixed range, and is designated as a corrective data. The light amount of the lamp, which corresponds with the original density, is corrected in accordance with the corrective data by shifting a characteristic curve which shows the relation between the density of the original and the light amount of the lamp used for the original density measurement.

Exposure control device and method

A multi-functional imaging apparatus being operable in either one of various office automation modes such as copy mode, facsimile mode, printer mode and the like is disclosed. The multi-functional imaging apparatus is comprised of an image reading section, an image forming section and a communication section for transmitting and receiving image data. Plural card-like memory elements are provided for designating individual office automation modes. When a desirable card-like memory element is set into the imaging apparatus, the apparatus becomes operable in an office automation mode corresponding to the inserted memory element.

Growing community of inventors

Gamagori, Japan

Yoshikazu Naito