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:
Sep. 07, 2010
Filed:
Jun. 21, 2007
Shinichi Akatsu, Tokyo, JP;
Takashi Suzuki, Tokyo, JP;
Tsutomu Nakagawa, Tokyo, JP;
Shigeru Tosa, Tokyo, JP;
Shinichi Akatsu, Tokyo, JP;
Takashi Suzuki, Tokyo, JP;
Tsutomu Nakagawa, Tokyo, JP;
Shigeru Tosa, Tokyo, JP;
Ricoh Company, Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An image formation apparatus is disclosed. The image formation apparatus includes a transfer effectiveness detector that further includes a computing unit for converting a sensor output voltage into a toner adhesion amount, and a transfer effectiveness detecting unit for obtaining transfer effectiveness by comparing a toner adhesion amount Td on a photo conductor with a toner adhesion amount Tb on a middle transfer object. Here, the toner adhesion amount Td is obtained by the computing unit converting an output of a photo conductor image detection unit, and the toner adhesion amount Tb is obtained by the computing unit converting an output of a middle transfer object image detection unit. When the transfer effectiveness detection unit determines that an abnormality is present in the transfer, whether the abnormality is due to decreased development capacity or due to decreased transfer effectiveness can be determined. If it is determined that the transfer effectiveness is less than a threshold value, a printing operation of the image formation apparatus is stopped given that the transfer effectiveness compensation is not possible.