Image forming apparatus and method to form an invisible image and a visible image in a multi-pass simplex manner

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11754959-B2
Application number	US-202117504501-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 19, 2021
Priority date	Oct 29, 2020
Publication date	Sep 12, 2023
Grant date	Sep 12, 2023

Abstract

An image forming apparatus includes an image forming device that forms an image on a recording medium and circuitry that controls the image forming device. The image forming device forms an invisible image with an invisible material on the recording medium and forms a visible image with a visible material on the invisible image. Each of first and second adhesion amounts includes respective adhesion amounts of the visible material and the invisible material per unit area in a portion, in which the visible image is formed on the invisible image, of the composite image. The second adhesion amount is smaller than the first adhesion amount. The controller adjusts the amount of the invisible material included in the second adhesion amount to be smaller than that included in the first adhesion amount, to cause the image forming device to form the image according to the second adhesion amount.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An image forming apparatus, comprising:
an image forming device configured to form an image on a recording medium; and
circuitry configured to control the image forming device, wherein
the image forming device is configured to form, on the recording medium, an invisible image with an invisible material and a visible image with a visible material on the invisible image to form a composite image in which the invisible image is closer to the recording medium than the visible image is, and
the circuitry is configured, in a case in which a first adhesion amount includes respective adhesion amounts of the visible material and the invisible material per unit area in a portion, in which the visible image is formed on the invisible image, of the composite image and a second adhesion amount is smaller than the first adhesion amount and includes the respective adhesion amounts of the visible material and the invisible material per unit area in the portion, to adjust an amount of the invisible material included in the second adhesion amount to be smaller than an amount of the invisible material included in the first adhesion amount, to cause the image forming device to form the image according to the second adhesion amount.

2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the circuitry is configured, in a case in which the image forming device forms the invisible image according to the second adhesion amount, to adjust a size of the invisible image to be greater than another size of the invisible image having been formed according to the first adhesion amount.

3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the image forming device includes:
an image bearer;
a charger configured to charge the image bearer;
an exposure device configured to expose the image bearer to form an electrostatic latent image on the image bearer;
a developing device configured to visualize, with a developer, the electrostatic latent image formed on the image bearer to form a visual image on the image bearer; and
a transfer device including an intermediate transferor to transfer the visual image from the image bearer onto the intermediate transferor and transfer the visual image from the intermediate transferor onto the recording medium,

wherein the developing device is configured to visualize:
the electrostatic latent image with a visible developer as the visible material to form the visual image with the visible developer; and
the electrostatic latent image with an invisible developer as the invisible material to form the visual image with the invisible developer,

wherein the transfer device is configured to transfer the visual image formed with the visible developer as the visible image and the visual image formed with the invisible developer as the invisible image to form the composite image including the visible image formed on the invisible image on the recording medium, and
wherein the circuitry is configured, in a case in which the image forming device forms the invisible image according to the second adhesion amount, to adjust an amount of the invisible developer on the intermediate transferor to be smaller than the amount of the invisible developer on the intermediate transferor in a case in which the image forming device forms the invisible image according to the first adhesion amount.

4. The image forming apparatus according to claim 3 , further comprising a plurality of image forming stations each including:
the image bearer;
the charger; and
the developing device,
wherein one of the plurality of image forming stations includes the developing device that is configured to visualize the electrostatic latent image with the invisible developer, and
wherein the one of the plurality of image forming stations is disposed downstream from any other one of the plurality of image forming stations in a direction of rotation of the intermediate transferor.

5. The image forming apparatus according to claim 4 ,
wherein the plurality of image forming stations includes:
a first image forming station that employs a black developer as the visible developer;
a second image forming station that employs a cyan developer as the visible developer;
a third image forming station that employs a magenta developer as the visible developer; and
a fourth image forming station that employs a yellow developer as the visible developer,

wherein the first image forming station is disposed downstream from any other one of the plurality of image forming stations in the direction of rotation of the intermediate transferor, and
wherein the black developer and the invisible developer are replaceable.

6. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the image forming device includes:
a first discharger configured to discharge an invisible ink as the invisible material onto the recording medium; and
a second discharger configured to discharge a visible ink as the visible material onto the recording medium onto which the invisible material is discharged,

wherein the image forming device is configured to form, on the recording medium, the invisible image with the invisible ink and the visible image with the visible ink on the invisible image to form the composite image in which the invisible image is closer to the recording medium than the visible image is, and
wherein the circuitry is configured, in a case in which the image forming device forms the invisible image according to the second adhesion amount, to adjust an amount of the invisible ink to be discharged by the first discharger to be smaller than the amount of the invisible ink to be discharged by the first discharger in a case in which the image forming device forms the invisible image according to the first adhesion amount.

7. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the circuitry is configured to change a position at which the invisible image is formed, according to information of the visible image.

8. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the circuitry is configured to change the amount of the invisible material per unit area in the invisible image on the recording medium, according to one of a brightness of the visible image and a color difference between the visible image and the invisible image.

9. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a display configured to present at least one of positional information of the invisible image and a size of the invisible image before the image forming device forms the invisible image on the recording medium.

10. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the invisible material is transparent and includes a near-infrared absorbing material.

11. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the invisible material is black and includes a near-infrared absorbing material.

12. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a reconveying device disposed downstream from the image forming device in a direction of conveyance of the recording medium to reconvey the recording medium to the image forming device,
wherein the circuitry is configured to cause:
the image forming device to form an image including the invisible image on the recording medium;
the reconveying device to reconvey a surface bearing the image including the invisible image of the recording medium to the image forming device; and
the image forming device to form the visible image on the recording medium, in this order.

13. The image forming apparatus according to claim 12 ,
wherein the reconveying device includes a duplex device, and

Assignees

• Fujiwara Yasuhiro
• Ricoh Co Ltd

Inventors

• Fujiwara Yasuhiro

Classifications

• G03G15/50 Primary

  Machine control of apparatus for electrographic processes using a charge pattern, e.g. regulating differents parts of the machine, multimode copiers, microprocessor control (sequencing control G03G21/14) · CPC title

• G03G15/5095 Primary

  Matching the image with the size of the copy material, e.g. by calculating the magnification or selecting the adequate copy material size · CPC title

• H04N1/00838

  Preventing unauthorised reproduction · CPC title

• G03G15/0189

  primary transfer to an intermediate transfer belt (G03G15/0184 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G03G15/6585

  by using non-standard toners, e.g. transparent toner, gloss adding devices · CPC title