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:
May. 08, 2012
Filed:
Apr. 29, 2011
Yasushi Nakazato, Tokyo, JP;
Kohji Ue, Kanagawa, JP;
Osamu Satoh, Kanagawa, JP;
Masahide Yamashita, Tokyo, JP;
Jun Yamane, Kanagawa, JP;
Hitoshi Shimizu, Kanagawa, JP;
Shuji Hirai, Tokyo, JP;
Takenori Oku, Saitama, JP;
Yasushi Nakazato, Tokyo, JP;
Kohji Ue, Kanagawa, JP;
Osamu Satoh, Kanagawa, JP;
Masahide Yamashita, Tokyo, JP;
Jun Yamane, Kanagawa, JP;
Hitoshi Shimizu, Kanagawa, JP;
Shuji Hirai, Tokyo, JP;
Takenori Oku, Saitama, JP;
Ricoh Company, Limited, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An image forming apparatus is provided. The image forming apparatus includes an acquiring unit that acquires a plurality of types of operation control information of the image forming apparatus that indicate deterioration of a toner in the image forming apparatus or deterioration of a component of the image forming apparatus. An index value calculating unit calculates an index value indicating a state of the image forming apparatus based on the acquired operation control information. An abnormality judging unit judges whether the image forming apparatus abnormality has occurred and predicts an occurrence of a failure that requires maintenance of the image forming apparatus due to deterioration of the toner in the image forming apparatus or deterioration of the component of the image forming apparatus based on the index value.