High-frequency dielectric heating device and image forming apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9770921-B2
Application number	US-201615254872-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 1, 2016
Priority date	Sep 3, 2015
Publication date	Sep 26, 2017
Grant date	Sep 26, 2017

Abstract

A high-frequency dielectric heating device includes: a high-frequency generating unit to generate a high-frequency electric field; multiple power amplifiers configured to amplify the high-frequency electric field; multiple electrode sections to apply the amplified high-frequency electric field to each of divided areas on a heated material; multiple matching units to detect an incident wave and a reflected wave between the power amplifiers and the electrode sections, respectively, and conduct impedance matching; multiple voltage detecting units to detect a voltage of each of the electrode sections; and a controller to control at least any of the high-frequency generating unit and the power amplifiers in accordance with a voltage, detected by the voltage detecting units, and control a setting for the matching unit such that a reflected wave, detected by the matching unit, is zero in accordance with an incident wave and a reflected wave that are detected by the matching unit.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A high-frequency dielectric heating device comprising:
a high-frequency generating unit configured to generate a high-frequency electric field;
multiple power amplifiers configured to amplify the high-frequency electric field, generated by the high-frequency generating unit;
multiple electrode sections configured to apply the high-frequency electric field, amplified by the power amplifiers, to each of divided areas on a heated material;
multiple matching units configured to detect an incident wave and a reflected wave between the power amplifiers and the electrode sections, respectively, and conduct impedance matching;
multiple voltage detecting units configured to detect a voltage of each of the electrode sections; and
a controller configured to control at least any of the high-frequency generating unit and the power amplifiers in accordance with a voltage, detected by each of the voltage detecting units, and control a setting for the matching unit such that a reflected wave, detected by the matching unit, is zero in accordance with an incident wave and a reflected wave that are detected by the matching unit.

2. The high-frequency dielectric heating device according to claim 1 , wherein
the electrode sections are provided such that a linear space is not formed in a predetermined direction.

3. The high-frequency dielectric heating device according to claim 1 , wherein
each of the electrode sections includes electrodes in pairs and is provided such that a heated material may be passed between the electrodes in pairs.

4. The high-frequency dielectric heating device according to claim 1 , wherein
the controller controls at least any of the high-frequency generating unit and the power amplifiers such that an amplitude of a voltage, detected by each of the voltage detecting units, has a predetermined value.

5. The high-frequency dielectric heating device according to claim 1 , wherein
the controller determines whether an electric discharge occurs in any of the electrode sections in accordance with a voltage, detected by each of the voltage detecting units and, if it is determined that an electric discharge occurs, controls at least any of the high-frequency generating unit and the power amplifiers so as to stop.

6. The high-frequency dielectric heating device according to claim 1 , wherein
the controller controls at least any of the high-frequency generating unit, the power amplifiers, and the matching units by using correspondence information that corresponds to a distribution of different relative permittivity of a heated material.

7. An image forming apparatus comprising:
an image forming unit configured to form an image on a recording medium by using ink; and
the high-frequency dielectric heating device according to claim 1 , where the heated material is a recording medium on which an image is formed by the image forming unit.

Assignees

• Inoue Yukie
• Ozasa Dan
• Ricoh Co Ltd

Inventors

• Inoue Yukie
• Ozasa Dan

Classifications

• H05B6/54

  Electrodes · CPC title

• H05B6/50

  for monitoring or control · CPC title

• H05B6/60

  Arrangements for continuous movement of material · CPC title

• H05B6/62

  Apparatus for specific applications · CPC title

• B41J11/002 Primary

  Curing or drying the ink on the copy materials, e.g. by heating or irradiating · CPC title