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:
Jul. 28, 2020
Filed:
Dec. 20, 2018
Masato Tanaka, Tokyo, JP;
Keiji Kunimi, Kanagawa, JP;
Masaki Yoshino, Kanagawa, JP;
Kazumi Suzuki, Shizuoka, JP;
Masato Tanaka, Tokyo, JP;
Keiji Kunimi, Kanagawa, JP;
Masaki Yoshino, Kanagawa, JP;
Kazumi Suzuki, Shizuoka, JP;
RICOH COMPANY, LTD., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An image forming apparatus including an image forming unit, a fixing device, and circuitry is provided. The image forming unit is configured to perform a special image forming operation that forms a color toner image and a special toner image with a color toner and a special toner, respectively, on a recording medium and a normal image forming operation that forms the color toner image without forming the special toner image on the recording medium. The fixing device is configured to fix the color toner image and the special toner image on the recording medium. The circuitry is configured to perform, in the special image forming operation, a toner amount suppression control that makes an amount of the color toner on the recording medium per unit area smaller than that in the normal image forming operation.