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:
Aug. 03, 1999
Filed:
Jul. 10, 1998
Jinju Okuno, Toyokawa, JP;
Nozomu Kondo, Toyokawa, JP;
Minolta Co., Ltd., Osaka, JP;
Abstract
An image forming apparatus has a plurality of image holding components set along a transportation path of a recording sheet, each image holding component being operable at a full-color mode and a monochrome mode and an image holding component used for forming a black image being located nearest to the driving source. The image forming apparatus further has a worm shaft which is parallel to the transportation path of the recording sheet with one end being connected to a driving source, a worm wheel being attached to each image holding component and engaging with a corresponding worm, a clutch set to the worm shaft between the image holding component for black and an image holding component next to the image holding component for black, with the engagement and disengagement of the clutch being performed in synchronization with a switching operation to switch between the monochrome mode and the full-color mode, a rotational position detection unit for detecting a rotational position of the worm wheel set on the image holding component for black, and a storage unit for storing a rotational position of the worm wheels set on the image holding components when the clutch is disengaged. The clutch control unit engages the clutch when the rotational position detected by the rotational position detection unit is equal to the rotational position stored in the storage unit.