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. 29, 2012
Filed:
Sep. 16, 2009
Kaoru Kataoka, Ebina, JP;
Shunichi Oohara, Yokohama, JP;
Hiroyuki Seki, Yokohama, JP;
Ricoh Company, Limited, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An image forming apparatus includes a controller, a database, an image carrier, a transfer unit, a fixing device including a temperature detector and a first drive device, a speed changer, and an electric-current detector. The controller calculates a toner adhesion amount of a recording medium, identifies a type of the recording medium, detects a temperature of the fixing device, determines a moisture content of the recording medium, calculates a reaction force of the recording medium, calculates a toner adhesion force, compares the reaction force and the toner adhesion force, determines a fixing nip angle, drives the first drive device to set the fixing device to the fixing nip angle, determines a target feed speed of the recording medium, and drives the speed changer to change a feed speed of the recording medium to match the target speed.