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:
Mar. 04, 2014
Filed:
Jan. 20, 2012
Jun Nagai, Tokyo, JP;
Jun Nagai, Tokyo, JP;
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An image forming apparatus having a development unit which develops an electrostatic latent image formed on an image carrier to form a visible image and includes an input unit adapted to accept input of a print job, an analysis unit adapted to analyze the print job, and a prediction unit adapted to predict, based on an analysis result by the analysis unit, a consumption amount of a developing material for printing the print job. In addition, a generation unit generates a schedule for supplying the developing material to the development unit, based on the predicted consumption amount of the developing material, and a supply control unit controls, when a first image data included in the print job has been formed and a second image data included in the print job is formed using the development material having a higher density than a density of the development material needed for forming the first image data, a supply of the development material to the development unit to allow time for stabilizing a density of the development material before image forming of the second image data, based on the schedule generated by the generation unit.