Image forming apparatus for agitating toner before image forming operation is performed

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9304443-B2
Application number	US-201514628813-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 23, 2015
Priority date	Mar 26, 2014
Publication date	Apr 5, 2016
Grant date	Apr 5, 2016

Abstract

In an image forming apparatus, an agitator agitates the toner in a target agitation amount before the image forming portion forms the image. The target agitation amount represents an amount of actions of agitation imparted upon the toner by the agitator. A processor is configured to: obtain at least one of a degradation level of the toner, the image to be formed, a non-agitation time period during which the agitator has not agitated the toner; set the target agitation amount based on the at least one of the degradation level of the toner, the image to be formed, and the non-agitation time period; perform agitating the toner in the target agitation amount by the agitator; and control the image forming portion to form the image after the agitator agitates the toner in the target agitation amount.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An image forming apparatus comprising:
a container accommodating toner;
an image forming portion configured to form a mark for a correction process by using the toner in the container and an image based on a print instruction by using the toner in the container;
an agitator configured to agitate the toner in a target agitation amount before the image forming portion forms the mark, the target agitation amount representing an amount of actions of agitatio…

Assignees

• Brother Ind Ltd

Inventors

• Murayama Kentaro

Classifications

• G03G2215/00084

  Physics · mapped topic

• G03G21/20

  Physics · mapped topic

• G03G15/0266

  Physics · mapped topic

• G03G21/203

  Physics · mapped topic

• G03G15/0865

  Physics · mapped topic