The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 25, 2020
Filed:
Dec. 04, 2018
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo, JP;
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
Consumption of toner can be minimized in a method of performing dew condensation elimination through toner application to a photosensitive drum. To this end, an image forming apparatus includes a plurality of photosensitive drums; an intermediate transfer belt to which toner images are transferred from the plurality of photosensitive drums; a controller configured to determine whether or not a dew condensation occurrence condition is met; and a dew condensation elimination unit configured to perform a dew condensation elimination operation by applying toner to at least one of the plurality of photosensitive drums in a case in which the controller determines that the dew condensation occurrence condition is met and when a start instruction for image formation is received. When the image formation is started in a color image formation mode, the dew condensation elimination unit executes a first dew condensation elimination mode of applying toner to all of the plurality of photosensitive drums. When the image formation is started in a monochromatic image formation mode, the dew condensation elimination unit executes a second dew condensation elimination mode of applying toner to only the black photosensitive drum.