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. 21, 2014
Filed:
Nov. 28, 2012
Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha, Osaka, JP;
Toshiki Takiguchi, Osaka, JP;
Hiroyuki Murai, Osaka, JP;
Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha, Osaka-shi, Osaka, JP;
Abstract
An image forming apparatus includes: an image bearing element that bears a toner image to be transferred to a sheet; an image forming portion that forms the toner image on the image bearing element; a cleaning element that cleans the surface of the image bearing element; a storage portion that stores a history of print coverage; a control portion that makes the image forming portion form a cleaning toner image to be supplied to the image bearing element at time of cleaning by the cleaning element; and a print coverage calculating portion that calculates the print coverage of the sheet. The control portion obtains an average value of the print coverage in a period from after a previous cleaning by the cleaning element until before a current cleaning, and determines an amount of toner for the cleaning toner image supplied to the image bearing element based on the average value.