Brother Kogyo Kabushiki-kaisha

Yusuke Mizuno

Shintaro Sakaguchi

Fumitake Tajiri

Sadaharu Kato

Tomonori Watanabe

Tokifumi Tanaka

Hirotaka Imaeda

Shunsuke Ueki

Shuhei Fukue

Mingguang Zhang

Kazuna Taguchi

Tatsuya Koyama

Noriaki Kishimoto

Hisashi Tsukawaki

Shuya Ichikawa

An image forming apparatus includes an image forming engine, a sheet tray, a discharge tray, a main body including the image forming engine, a feeding path, and a reconveying path configured to reconvey a sheet which an image has been formed on one side thereof to the feeding path, and a controller. The controller is configured to, when successively printing a preceding job whose page count is three or more and a successive job whose page count is two or more in duplex printing, feed a first sheet while printing the preceding job and print an image corresponding to the successive job on one side of the first sheet, and discharge a last sheet of the preceding job in a state where the first sheet which the image has been formed on the one side thereof is in the feeding or reconveying path.

Image forming apparatus

There is provided an image forming apparatus and method, in which performed are reading an image of an original document, converting a read image to raster data, raising a temperature of a fixing device to a fixing temperature, after raising the temperature of the fixing device, recording an image on the sheet on a sheet and causing the fixing device to fix the developing agent image onto the sheet. When a preview setting is enabled, after performing the converting, the preview image is displayed on the display and the raising is performed after the displaying and in response to an execution instruction of the forming. When the preview setting is not enabled, after performing a pre-heating of the fixing device so that the temperature of the fixing device is lower than the fixing temperature, performing the raising without displaying the preview image.

Image forming apparatus and image forming method including preview and pre-heating features

An image forming apparatus includes a main body housing, a first cartridge to store first developer, a second cartridge to store second developer, a first temperature sensor to detect an inside temperature as a temperature inside the main body housing, and a controller configured to calculate a first control temperature corresponding to the first cartridge, using the detected inside temperature and a first coefficient to be multiplied by the inside temperature, calculate a second control temperature corresponding to the second cartridge, using the detected inside temperature and a second coefficient to be multiplied by the inside temperature, the second coefficient being different from the first coefficient, and perform cooling control to cool an inside of the main body housing when at least one selected from the first control temperature and the second control temperature is higher than a particular threshold.

Image forming apparatus and method to determine control temperatures for cooling control of inside of the image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes a first fixing member, a second fixing member, a heater, a switching mechanism capable of switching a nip state of the first fixing member and the second fixing member between (i) a first nip state in which the belt is nipped between each of the first nip forming member and the second nip forming member, and the first fixing member, and (ii) a second nip state in which the belt is nipped between the first nip forming member and the first fixing member in a state in which the belt is not nipped between the second nip forming member and the first fixing member, and a controller configured to switch the nip state from the first nip state to the second nip state when a jam error occurs in the first nip state.

Image forming apparatus and method for controlling the same

In an image forming device, a first fixing member has a roller. A second fixing member has a belt to form a nip together with the first fixing member. A pressure modifying mechanism modifies a nip pressure at the nip to selected one of a first nip pressure and a second nip pressure smaller than the first nip pressure. A controller drives the first motor to drive the roller and fixes the developer image on a sheet in a state that the nip pressure is the first nip pressure. The controller modifies the nip pressure from the first nip pressure to the second nip pressure while driving the first motor in a case where a final sheet among one or more sheets fixed according to a print job has passed the nip, and halts the first motor after the nip pressure is modified to the second nip pressure.

Image forming device modifying nip pressure of nip formed in fixing device before motor is halted

In an image forming apparatus, a controller causes a first fixing member to heat up to a standby temperature Tr lower than a fixing temperature, through a control process executed from a state in which rotation of the first fixing member is stopped and a nip pressure is set at a second pressure smaller than a first pressure. The control process includes: a first process of activating and controlling a heater to cause the first fixing member to heat up toward a target temperature; a second process of starting the rotation of the first fixing member; a third process of changing the nip pressure from the second pressure to the first pressure; a fourth process of changing the nip pressure from the first pressure to the second pressure; and a fifth process of stopping the rotation of the first fixing member, executed in this sequence.

An image forming apparatus includes a roller, a heater configured to heat the roller, an endless belt, a nip forming member, a supply roller configured to supply a sheet, and a controller. The sheet is nipped between the endless belt and the roller. The endless belt is nipped between the nip forming member and the roller such that a nip portion is formed. The controller is configured to supply a plurality of first kind of sheets by the supply roller at a first interval when the plurality of first kind of sheets are sequentially conveyed and supply a plurality of second kind of sheets by the supply roller at a second interval greater than the first interval when the plurality of second kind of sheets belonging to a kind in which curl occurs more frequently than the plurality of first kind of sheets are sequentially conveyed.

An image forming apparatus includes a photoconductive drum, a developing roller, a sheet supplier, a fixing unit, and a controller. The fixing unit includes a heating roller, a first heater, a second heater, a first temperature sensor, and a second temperature sensor. The controller is configured to control the first heater so that a first detected-temperature becomes a target temperature at a central area, and control the second heater so that a second detected-temperature becomes a target temperature at an end area, and in accordance with a heat storage amount of the fixing unit stored by the heating of the second heater, change (i) a timing when supply of the sheet is started or (ii) the target temperature at the end area.

An image forming apparatus includes a fixing device including a heating roller configured to heat a sheet when the heating roller rotates, a temperature sensor configured to detect a temperature of the heating roller; and a controller configured to obtain a temperature detected by the temperature sensor at intervals of a predetermined sampling time, calculate, at the intervals of the predetermined sampling time, a temperature-decrease-amount of the detected temperature over a unit time that is longer than the predetermined sampling time, and stop rotation of the heating roller when the calculated temperature-decrease-amount is greater than a predetermined threshold value.

In an image forming device, a first fixing member has a roller. A second fixing member has a belt to form a nip together with the first fixing member. A first motor drives the roller. A pressure modifying mechanism modifies a nip pressure at the nip to selected one of a first nip pressure and a second nip pressure smaller than the first nip pressure. A controller starts driving the first motor to drive the roller in a case where a print command is received in a state that the nip pressure is the second nip pressure. The controller modifies the nip pressure from the second nip pressure to the first nip pressure after the driving is performed and fixes the developer image on the sheet in a state that the nip pressure is the first nip pressure.

Image forming device including pressure modifying mechanism modifying nip pressure of nip formed between first fixing member and second fixing member

In an image-forming apparatus, a fixing device includes first and second fixing members; and a pressure modifying mechanism. The first and second fixing members form a nip. The pressure modifying mechanism modifies a nip pressure at the nip to one of a first nip pressure and a second nip pressure smaller than the first nip pressure. A controller performs: a converting process to convert print data into raster image data; an image-forming process to form a developer image on a sheet using the raster image data; and a fixing process to fix the developer image to the sheet with the fixing device at the first nip pressure. When a second converting process is not completed before a prescribed time following completion of a first fixing process has elapsed, the controller further performs a nip pressure reducing process to modify the nip pressure from the first to the second nip pressure.

Image-forming apparatus performing converting process to convert print data, image-forming process to form developer image on sheet using converted data, and fixing process to fix developer image to sheet

In an image-forming apparatus, a fixing device includes: a first fixing member; a heater; a motor; a second fixing member; and a pressure modifying mechanism. The second fixing member forms a nip together with the first fixing member. The pressure modifying mechanism modifies a nip pressure at a nip to one of a first nip pressure and a second nip pressure smaller than the first nip pressure. In a first case where a sheet jam occurs in the image-forming apparatus and no sheet exists in the nip, a controller performs: reducing the nip pressure from the first nip pressure to the second nip pressure; and halting rotation of the first fixing member after completed the reducing. In a second case where a sheet jam occurs in the image-forming apparatus and a sheet exists in the nip, the controller performs: the halting; and the reducing after completed the halting.

Image-forming apparatus provided with fixing device including first fixing member, second fixing member, and pressure modifying mechanism modifying nip pressure of nip formed therebetween

A controller of an image forming apparatus executes acquisition processing of acquiring an area of an image which exists in a predetermined region of a first page where a developer image is first to be formed, heating processing of heating a heating member such that a temperature of the heating member reaches a fixing temperature, and feeding processing of starting feed of a sheet to a process unit after a predetermined period of time elapses from a predetermined timing after a start of print processing. The predetermined region is laid at both end portions in a width direction of the first page. In a case where the area of the image is equal to or smaller than a predetermined value, the controller sets the predetermined period of time in the feeding processing shorter as compared with a case where the area of the image is larger than the predetermined value.

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Nagoya, Japan

Yusuke Mizuno