Image forming apparatus and image forming method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10686959-B2
Application number	US-201816021451-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 28, 2018
Priority date	Jul 12, 2017
Publication date	Jun 16, 2020
Grant date	Jun 16, 2020

Abstract

An image forming apparatus includes a rotating body to form an image, a sensor to detect a home position of the rotating body, a processor to acquire image density data of the image formed by the rotating body in odd-numbered rotation and even-numbered rotation of the rotating body separately based on a rotation home position signal output by the sensor, extract an image density fluctuation caused by a rotation of the rotating body, and correct an image forming condition based on the image density fluctuation.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An image forming apparatus comprising:
a rotating body to form an image;
a sensor to detect a home position of the rotating body; and
a processor configured to
acquire image density data of the image formed by the rotating body in odd-numbered rotation and even-numbered rotation of the rotating body separately based on a rotation home position signal output by the sensor,
extract an image density fluctuation caused by a rotation of the rotating body based on the image density data, and
correct an image forming condition based on the image density fluctuation, wherein , in a first rotation and a second rotation of the rotating body determined by the home position, when a number of the image density data acquired by the processor in the first rotation is less than a predetermined number, the processor continues to acquire the image density data in the second rotation as the image density data in the first rotation.

2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the processor comprises:
a first data processor for even-numbered rotation to calculate the image density fluctuation in the even-numbered rotation based on the image density data in even-numbered rotation; and
a second data processor for odd-numbered rotation to calculate the image density fluctuation in the odd-numbered rotation based on the image density data in odd-numbered rotation.

3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2 ,
wherein the first data processor for even-numbered rotation calculates an average in each even-numbered rotation by sequentially adding the image density data in one memory address, and
the second data processor for odd-numbered rotation calculates an average in each odd-numbered rotation by sequentially adding the image density data in one memory address.

4. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein, in a first rotation and a second rotation of the rotating body determined by the home position, when a number of the image density data acquired by the processor in the first rotation is more than the predetermined number, the processor acquires the predetermined number of the image density data in the first rotation and does not acquire the image density data in the second rotation as the image density data in the first rotation.

5. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein, in a first rotation and a second rotation of the rotating body determined by the home position, the processor generates an interrupt signal to read the image density data each time a number of the image density data acquired in the first rotation reaches a read level and, after start of the second rotation, when sum of a number of the image density data acquired after the start of the second rotation and a number of the image density data acquired in the first rotation after last generation of the interrupt signal in the first rotation reaches the read level, the processor generates the interrupt signal to read the image density data.

6. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a memory,
wherein the processor stores in the memory data generated in an intermediate stage of a process of calculating the image density fluctuation caused by the rotation of the rotating body based on the image density data, and
the data stored in the memory is accessible from an external device.

7. An image forming method comprising:
detecting a home position of a rotating body that forms an image;
acquiring image density data of the image formed by the rotating body in even-numbered rotation and odd-numbered rotation separately while counting a number of rotations of the rotating body based on the home position detected;
calculating an image density fluctuation of the image formed by the rotating body based on the image density data; and
correcting an image forming condition based on the image density fluctuation,
wherein , in a first rotation and a second rotation of the rotating body determined by the home position, when a number of the image density data acquired in the first rotation is less than a predetermined number, the method further comprises continuing to acquire the image density data in the second rotation as the image density data in the first rotation.

Assignees

• Iwasaki Mitsutaka
• Suzuki Hidetoshi
• Ricoh Co Ltd

Inventors

• Iwasaki Mitsutaka
• Suzuki Hidetoshi

Classifications

• H04N1/0473 Primary

  in subscanning direction, e.g. picture start or line-to-line synchronisation · CPC title

• H04N1/0614

  with main-scanning by rotation of the picture-bearing surface · CPC title