Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Yuuji Matsuda

Kazuhiko Kobayashi

Tadashi Shinohara

Toshiyuki Takahashi

Nobuto Yokokawa

Masato Yokoyama

Jun Hosokawa

Yohhei Miura

Toshiyuki Andoh

Hiromichi Matsuda

Tomohide Kondoh

Makoto Komatsu

Toshiyuki Ando

Yuji Ieiri

Yasumori Nagahara

Sumihiro Inokuchi

Shunta Yamahori

To inhibit toner bottle in which toner is remaining from being replaceable, image forming apparatus includes: bottle cover that can open/close insertion opening of toner bottle housing; locking mechanism to lock closed bottle cover; actuating mechanism including unlocking member to unlock locked bottle cover and open bottle cover, and actuator to actuate unlocking member; front cover situated in openable/closable manner in front of bottle cover to inhibit bottle cover from becoming open while front cover is closed; fault sensing unit to perform first fault sensing process in which actuator is sensed as having fault when failing to actuate unlocking member in spite of actuator being driven while image forming unit is non-operating; and condition sensing unit to sense presence of possibility that front cover is opened. Fault sensing unit is excluded from performing first fault sensing process while condition sensing unit is sensing the possibility as being present.

Image forming apparatus, fault sensing method, and non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing fault sensing program

An image forming apparatus includes a body, a toner container that is removably set in the body and contains toner, a toner supplier to supply the toner from the toner container to the body, a memory that stores container information that is information of the toner container, and circuitry. The circuitry is to determine, after the toner container is set in the body, based on the container information acquired from the memory, whether the toner container set in the body is same as a toner container set in the body in a past and the container information satisfies a predetermined condition, and to drive the toner supplier in a case where the toner container set in the body is determined to be same as the toner container set in the body in the past and the container information satisfies the predetermined condition.

Image forming apparatus, image forming method, and non-transitory recording medium

A method, apparatus, and program for driving a motor in a feedback control system, capable of suppressing oscillation of the motor are disclosed. A motor drive controller includes a drive motor, a detector, and a motor drive controller. The drive motor drives a moving body around a target moving speed. The detector detects a current moving speed of the moving body and output it as a detector pulse signal. The controller calculates a difference between the current moving speed and the target moving speed, calculates a control value based on the difference, calculates a pulse rate of a drive pulse signal based on the control value after having controlled the control value to be within a predetermined value, and feedback controls the drive motor based on the pulse rate.

Method, apparatus, and program for driving a motor in a feedback control system, capable of suppressing motor oscillation

An image forming apparatus including an image carrying member, a transfer member, support rollers, a detecting mechanism, and a controller. The image carrying member supported by the support rollers, forms a toner image on its surface facing a surface of the transfer member, which transfers the toner image to a recording medium. The detecting mechanism includes a detection roller, a roller shaft, a moving member, and a sensor, and detects a speed of the image carrying member. The detection roller includes one support roller selected from the support rollers, and is provided with the roller shaft. The moving member is directly fixed to the roller shaft and rotates with the detection roller. The sensor detects a moving speed of the detection roller with the moving member. The controller controls a traveling speed of the image carrying member to a target speed based on a detection result of the sensor.

Method and apparatus for image forming capable of effectively reducing unevenness of density and color displacement of images

A method, apparatus, and program for driving a motor in a feedback control system, capable of suppressing oscillation of the motor rotational speed are disclosed. A motor drive controller includes a drive motor, a detector, and a motor drive controller. The drive motor drives a moving body around a target speed. The detector detects a current moving speed of the moving body and outputs it as a detector pulse signal. The controller calculates a difference between the current moving speed and the target moving speed, calculates a control value based on the difference, calculates a pulse rate of a drive pulse signal based on the control value after having controlled the control value to be within a predetermined value, and controls the drive motor based on the pulse rate.

An image forming apparatus including an image carrying member, a transfer member, support rollers, a detecting mechanism, and a controller. The image carrying member forms a toner image on its surface facing a surface of the transfer member, supported by the support rollers, which transfers the toner image to a recording medium. The detecting mechanism includes a detection roller, a roller shaft, a moving member, and a sensor, and detects a speed of the transfer member. The detection roller includes one support roller selected from the support rollers, and is provided with the roller shaft. The moving member is directly fixed to the roller shaft and rotates with the detection roller. The sensor detects a moving speed of the detection roller with the moving member. The controller controls a traveling speed of the transfer member to a target speed based on a detection result of the sensor.

A belt driving controller includes a driving roller having a radius ra plurality of driven rollers that is driven by rotation of the driving roller, the driven rollers having a radius ran endless belt that is wound on the driving roller and the driven rollers and an encoder that is attached to one of the driven rollers, and that outputs a signal. The rotation of the driving roller is controlled based on the signal from the encoder, and ()&#xd7;(r/r)&#x2266;1 is satisfied where &#x3b1;is a correction coefficient for a fluctuation in thickness of the endless belt caused by a belt winding angle on the driving roller, and &#x3b1;is a correction coefficient for a fluctuation in the thickness on the driven roller.

Belt driving controller, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus

A drive control method includes detecting an angular displacement of a rotor driven by a pulse motor, calculating a difference between the detected angular displacement and a preset target value of the angular displacement, and calculating a drive pulse frequency of a drive pulse signal used to drive the pulse motor. The pulse motor is driven by the drive pulse signal having the drive pulse frequency to allow the rotor at a constant angular velocity.

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Tokyo, Japan

Yuuji Matsuda