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:
Dec. 31, 2002
Filed:
Nov. 02, 2000
Kazunori Karasawa, Tokyo, JP;
Ricoh Company, Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An image forming apparatus including a photoconductive member, a charging mechanism, an optical writing mechanism, a development mechanism, a sensing mechanism, and a controlling mechanism. The charging mechanism charges a surface of the photoconductive member at a charge voltage. The optical writing mechanism writes latent images including first and second latent images on the surface of the photoconductive member. The development mechanism develops the first latent image into a first toner pattern at a solid toner density and the second latent image into a second toner pattern at a half-tone tone density. The sensing mechanism detects reflection densities of the first and second toner patterns and generates output signals representing detection results detected by the sensing mechanism. The controlling mechanism adjusts values of the solid toner density, the charge voltage, and the half-tone toner density based on the output signals. The controlling mechanism adjusts the value of the charge voltage by changing a voltage to be applied to the charging mechanism at intervals of a predetermined time period and adjusts the value of the half-tone toner density by controlling the optical writing mechanism to change a light amount.