Image forming apparatus enabling circuit-cycling time of image carrier included in transfer unit to be found accurately

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9300836-B2
Application number	US-201414474137-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 30, 2014
Priority date	Aug 30, 2013
Publication date	Mar 29, 2016
Grant date	Mar 29, 2016

Abstract

An image forming apparatus includes: a transfer unit, a reflectance sensor, a time-series data acquiring unit, and a transfer-unit rotation-time calculating unit. The time-series data acquiring unit is configured to acquire time-series data with respect to the image carrier background-portion reflectance, measured by the reflectance sensor, as reference data over a time period twice longer than a time period that by design the image carrier requires for one cycle, and as advance/delay data over a time period twice longer than a time period longer or shorter in multiples of a predetermined time interval than the by-design time period. The transfer-unit rotation-time calculating unit is configured to calculate a one-cycle-time calculation value that is the time actually required for one cycle of the image carrier, based on the reference data and the advance/delay data acquired by the time-series data acquiring unit.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An image forming apparatus, comprising:
a transfer unit including a rotating image carrier onto which a toner image formed by developing an exposure-formed electrostatic latent image is transferred, the rotating image carrier by design having a single-circuit cycling time;
a reflectance sensor configured to measure reflectance of a background portion of the image carrier;
a time-series data acquiring unit configured to acquire, at predetermined time intervals, and independent of rotational position of the image carrier, time-series data with respect to the image carrier background-portion reflectance, measured by the reflectance sensor, as reference data over a time period twice longer than the by-design single-circuit cycling time of the image carrier, and as advance/delay data over a time period twice longer than a time period longer or shorter in multiples of a predetermined time interval than the by-design single-circuit cycling time; and
a transfer-unit rotation-time calculating unit configured to calculate an actual single-circuit cycling time that is the time actually required for the image carrier to rotate through one cycle, based on the reference data and the advance/delay data acquired by the time-series data acquiring unit.

2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the transfer-unit rotation-time calculating unit is configured to:
calculate differences between respective reflectances included in data A and respective reflectances included in data B, the data A and the data B being included in each of the reference data and the advance/delay data, the data A being time-series data obtained in first measurement, the data B being time-series data obtained in second measurement; and
select the reference data and each of the advance/delay data in which an average value of the calculated differences of the reflectances becomes minimum so as to calculate a half time of a time used for measuring the selected reference data or each of the selected advance/delay data as the one-cycle-time calculation value.

3. An image forming method performed by an image forming apparatus with a transfer unit including a rotating image carrier onto which a toner image formed by developing an exposure-formed electrostatic latent image is transferred, the rotating image carrier by design having a single-circuit cycling time, the image forming method comprising:
acquiring, at predetermined time intervals, and independent of rotational position of the image carrier, time-series data with respect to reflectance of a background portion of the image carrier, as reference data over a time period twice longer than the by design single-circuit cycling time of the image carrier, and as advance/delay data over a time period twice longer than a time period longer or shorter in multiples of a predetermined time interval than the by-design single-circuit cycling time; and
calculating an actual single-circuit cycling time that is the time actually required for the image carrier to rotate through one cycle, based on the acquired reference data and the acquired advance/delay data.

4. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing an image forming program executed by an image forming apparatus with a transfer unit including a rotating image carrier onto which a toner image formed by developing an exposure-formed electrostatic latent images is transferred, the rotating image carrier by design having a single-circuit cycling time, the image forming program causing the image forming apparatus to function as:
a time-series data acquiring unit configured to acquire, at predetermined time intervals, and independent of rotational position of the image carrier, time-series data with respect to reflectance of a background portion of the image carrier, as reference data over a time period twice longer than the by-design single-circuit cycling time of the image carrier, and as advance/delay data over a time period twice longer than a time period longer or shorter in multiples of a predetermined time interval than the by-design single-circuit cycling time; and
a transfer-unit rotation-time calculating unit configured to calculate an actual single-circuit cycling time that is the time actually required for the image carrier to rotate through one cycle, based on the acquired reference data and the acquired advance/delay data.

Assignees

• Kyocera Document Solutions Inc

Inventors

• Kokomoto Mari
• Miyamoto Kenji
• Honda Takahiro

Classifications

• G03G15/169

  with means for preconditioning the toner image before the transfer (G03G15/095 and G03G15/11 take precedence) · CPC title

• H04N1/29 Primary

  involving production of an electrostatic intermediate picture · CPC title

• H04N2201/0094

  Multifunctional device, i.e. a device capable of all of reading, reproducing, copying, facsimile transception, file transception · CPC title

• G03G15/5054 Primary

  by measuring the characteristics of an intermediate image carrying member or the characteristics of an image on an intermediate image carrying member, e.g. intermediate transfer belt or drum, conveyor belt · CPC title

• G03G15/5016 Primary

  User-machine interface; Display panels; Control console · CPC title