Image forming apparatus and setting method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10029871-B2
Application number	US-201715590380-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 9, 2017
Priority date	May 20, 2016
Publication date	Jul 24, 2018
Grant date	Jul 24, 2018

Abstract

An image forming apparatus is provided that forms an image on a sheet material based on a sheet material setting relating to the sheet material. The image forming apparatus includes an accepting unit configured to accept a selection of a sheet material type, a thickness measurement unit configured to measure a thickness of the sheet material, and a setting determination unit configured to determine the sheet material setting that relates to the thickness of the sheet material based on the sheet material type accepted by the accepting unit and the thickness of the sheet material measured by the thickness measurement unit.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An image forming apparatus that forms an image on a sheet material based on a sheet material setting relating to the sheet material, the image forming apparatus comprising:
an accepting unit configured to accept a selection of a sheet material type;
a thickness measurement unit configured to measure a thickness of the sheet material; and
a setting determination unit configured to determine the sheet material setting that relates to the thickness of the sheet material based on the sheet material type accepted by the accepting unit and the thickness of the sheet material measured by the thickness measurement unit, wherein
the setting determination unit
refers to conversion information that is associated with the sheet material type accepted by the accepting unit, the conversion information including information for converting the thickness of the sheet material into the sheet material setting that relates to the thickness of the sheet material and information for converting the thickness of the sheet material into a paper weight for each sheet material type;
converts the thickness of the sheet material measured by the thickness measurement unit into the sheet material setting that relates to the thickness of the sheet material and into the paper weight using the conversion information that is associated with the sheet material type accepted by the accepting unit; and
determines the sheet material setting that relates to the thickness of the sheet material based on the paper weight.

2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a dimension measurement unit configured to measure a dimension of the sheet material; and
a size determination unit configured to determine the sheet material setting that relates to a size of the sheet material based on the sheet material type accepted by the accepting unit and the dimension of the sheet material measured by the dimension measurement unit.

3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the size determination unit
associates each sheet material type with one or more corresponding sizes of the sheet material based on type and size information, and acquires the one or more corresponding sizes associated with the sheet material type accepted by the accepting unit; and
refers to dimension information associating each corresponding size of the sheet material with a corresponding dimension and determines the sheet material setting that relates to the size of the sheet material by identifying, from among the acquired one or more corresponding sizes of the sheet material, a corresponding size with the corresponding dimension being within a predetermined range of the dimension of the sheet material measured by the dimension measurement unit.

4. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2 , further comprising:
a display control unit configured to display the sheet material setting relating to the thickness of the sheet material that is determined by the setting determination unit and the sheet material setting relating to the size of the sheet material that is determined by the size determination unit on a display unit.

5. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
when the accepting unit accepts the selection of a predetermined sheet material type as the sheet material type,
the setting determination unit determines the sheet material setting relating to the thickness of the sheet material that is associated with the accepted predetermined sheet material type by acquiring a preregistered sheet material setting relating to the thickness of the accepted predetermined sheet material.

6. The image forming apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein
the predetermined sheet material type is associated with one unique sheet material setting relating to the thickness of the sheet material.

7. The image forming apparatus according to claim 6 , further comprising:
a display control unit configured to display a list of sheet material types on a display unit for enabling the accepting unit to accept the selection of the sheet material type;
wherein the display control unit displays sheet material types that can be recognized by a user based on appearance of the sheet material including at least one of a shape, a color, and a glossiness of the sheet material, and the display control unit refrains from displaying sheet material types that cannot be selected without determining the size or the thickness of the sheet material.

8. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the thickness measurement unit is arranged in a conveying path for conveying the sheet material; and
the thickness measurement unit measures the thickness of the sheet material after stopping the sheet material that is being conveyed.

9. The image forming apparatus according to claim 8 , further comprising:
a control parameter change unit configured to change a control parameter for image formation;
wherein the thickness measurement unit stops the sheet material that is being conveyed to measure the thickness of the sheet material before image formation is started, and after image formation is started, the thickness measurement unit measures the thickness of the sheet material that is being conveyed taking into account an error of the thickness measurement unit;
wherein the control parameter change unit changes the control parameter for image formation based on the thickness of the sheet material measured taking into account the error of the thickness measurement unit; and
wherein image formation is performed on the sheet material based on the control parameter changed by the control parameter change unit.

10. The image forming apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein
the thickness measurement unit rotates a roller by one rotation cycle to detect an eccentricity component of the roller in response to detecting a change greater than or equal to a threshold value in the thickness of the sheet material being measured, and removes the eccentricity component from the thickness of the sheet material.

11. The image forming apparatus according to claim 10 , further comprising:
a failure detection unit configured to detects a failure of the thickness measurement unit upon determining that the eccentricity component measured after the start of image formation is greater than the eccentricity component measured before the start of image formation.

12. The image forming apparatus according to claim 11 , wherein
the failure detection unit continues image formation using the sheet material setting determined before the start of image formation upon detecting the failure of the thickness measurement unit.

13. The image forming apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein
when the thickness measurement unit measures the thickness of the sheet material after image formation is started, the control parameter change unit refrains from changing the control parameter while the image formation is performed on the sheet material.

14. The image forming apparatus according to claim 13 , wherein
the control parameter change unit refrains from changing the control parameter when a time period required for changing a current control parameter for a current image formation to a next control parameter for a next image formation is longer than a time period from an end of the current image formation to a start of the next image formation.

15. The image forming apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein the control parameter change unit
refers to page number registration information including a number of pages registered in associatio

Assignees

• Maejima Keita
• Nishizaki Shingo
• Ikeda Yuji
• Murata Takuya
• Satoh Kazuho
• Ricoh Co Ltd

Inventors

• Maejima Keita
• Nishizaki Shingo
• Ikeda Yuji
• Murata Takuya
• Satoh Kazuho

Classifications

• H04N1/00352 Primary

  Input means (H04N1/00411 takes precedence; input arrangements for computers G06F3/00) · CPC title

• G03G2215/00392

  Manual input tray · CPC title

• G03G2215/00751

  of sheet type, e.g. OHP · CPC title

• G03G15/6591

  characterised by the recording material, e.g. plastic material, OHP, ceramics, tiles, textiles (details transferring the toner pattern onto particular materials G03G15/1625) · CPC title

• B65H2511/13

  Thickness · CPC title