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:
Oct. 04, 2011
Filed:
Jun. 04, 2009
Kanji Nakayama, Toyokawa, JP;
Noritoshi Hagimoto, Toyohashi, JP;
Yuusuke Okuno, Toyokawa, JP;
Tomo Kitada, Toyokawa, JP;
Toshiya Aoki, Toyokawa, JP;
Kanji Nakayama, Toyokawa, JP;
Noritoshi Hagimoto, Toyohashi, JP;
Yuusuke Okuno, Toyokawa, JP;
Tomo Kitada, Toyokawa, JP;
Toshiya Aoki, Toyokawa, JP;
Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc., Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
In case new and old toners may be mixed, a developing bias is set as follows. The time is first clocked. The number of times toner is replenished from a hopper into a buffer for a clocked period is counted. If a replenishment amount per clock time is a threshold value or higher, considering that new and old toners are mixed, the setting of the developing bias is changed. An electric field intensity between a developing roller and a photoconductor is set to cause normally-charged toner to fly in an image area but not to fly in a background area. No image fogging is therefore generated in the background area. Thus, an image forming apparatus and method capable of preventing low-charged toner and oppositely-charged toner generated by mixing of new and old toners from adhering to the background area of an electrostatic latent image on the photoconductor, thereby avoiding generation of image fogging.