Image forming apparatus including a blower to blow air on a roller not used in conveyance of a recording medium in simplex printing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11226587-B2
Application number	US-202017028220-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 22, 2020
Priority date	Sep 30, 2019
Publication date	Jan 18, 2022
Grant date	Jan 18, 2022

Abstract

An image forming apparatus includes a housing, a conveying member not used in simplex printing, a duct, a blower, and control circuitry. The duct includes an intake and an opening. The intake is disposed at a first end of the duct. The intake sucks air from outside of the image forming apparatus. The opening is disposed at a second end of the duct different from the first end of the duct. The duct is disposed opposite the conveying member. The blower is disposed in the duct. The blower blows air sucked from the intake to the conveying member through the opening. The control circuitry controls the blower to blow air to the conveying member at least in the simplex printing.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An image forming apparatus for performing simplex printing and duplex printing on a recording medium, comprising:
a housing;
a conveyance roller disposed on a conveyance path not used in conveyance of the recording medium in simplex printing;
a duct including:
an intake disposed at a first end of the duct, the intake being configured to suck air from outside of the image forming apparatus; and
an opening disposed at a second end of the duct different from the first end of the duct, the duct being opposite the conveyance roller;

a blower disposed in the duct, the blower being configured to blow air sucked from the intake to the conveyance roller through the opening; and
control circuitry configured to control the blower to blow air to the conveyance roller at least in the simplex printing.

2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the conveyance roller includes a pair of rollers, and the opening is disposed at a position enabling the blower to blow air to at least one roller of the pair of rollers through the opening.

3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2 ,
wherein the control circuitry is configured to rotate at least one of the pair of rollers in the simplex printing without conveyance of the recording medium.

4. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the intake of the duct is disposed on a side of the image forming apparatus.

5. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the control circuitry is configured to stop the blower when a recording medium passes the conveyance roller.

6. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the control circuitry is configured to set the blower to a stop state at a start of printing, and to set the blower to an operating state after a preset time has elapsed from the start of printing.

7. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the control circuitry is configured to set the blower to a stop state at a start of the simplex printing, and to start an operation of the blower after a preset time has elapsed from the start of the simplex printing.

8. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the control circuitry is configured to set the blower to an operating state after a preset number of sheets is printed from the start of the simplex printing.

9. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the control circuitry is configured to stop the blower when a recording medium passes the conveyance roller.

10. The image forming apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein the control circuitry is configured to stop the blower when a recording medium passes the conveyance roller.

11. The image forming apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the control circuitry is configured to stop the blower when a recording medium passes the conveyance roller.

Assignees

• Ishikawa Taisuke
• Murano Junichi
• Ishimitsu Hiroki
• Ricoh Co Ltd

Inventors

• Ishikawa Taisuke
• Murano Junichi
• Ishimitsu Hiroki

Classifications

• G03G21/206 Primary

  Conducting air through the machine, e.g. for cooling, filtering, removing gases like ozone · CPC title

• G03G15/80

  Details relating to power supplies, circuits boards, electrical connections · CPC title

• G03G21/203 Primary

  Humidity · CPC title

• G03G15/234

  by inverting and refeeding the image receiving material with an image on one face to the recording member to transfer a second image on its second face, e.g. by using a duplex tray; Details of duplex trays or inverters · CPC title