Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes: a fixer that includes a first heater group including first heaters and a second heater group including second heaters; a first power cord that supplies AC power to the first heater group; a second power cord that supplies AC power to the second heater group; first switches that switch a power supply state to the first heaters; second switches that switch a power supply state to the second heaters; and a hardware processor that independently controls the lightings of the first and second heater groups by controlling the first and second switches based on an array pattern for turning on or off the first and second heaters, wherein the array pattern includes an on period and an off period whose lengths are both a half wave cycle of an AC power supply, and is set to satisfy a flicker regulation value.

Abstract: A moving mechanism of a reading unit includes a driving pulley, a plurality of driven pulleys which are rotatably driven, an endless belt which is engaged and rotates between the driving pulley and the plurality of driven pulleys, and attracts the reading unit, and a biasing unit which applies tension to the endless belt, in the endless belt, an attraction section which is a belt section that extends along the auxiliary scanning direction, and which attracts the reading unit, is formed between a first driven pulley and a second driven pulley, the driving pulley is provided at a position separated from the attraction section in the main scanning direction, and a biasing force of the biasing unit is applied to the belt section excluding the attraction section in the endless belt.

Abstract: An example device, for sealing an ink developer unit in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure includes a rigid plate. The device also includes a first compliant sealing member disposed on a first side of the rigid plate to form a seal between the number of rollers of the ink developer unit and the rigid plate. The device also includes a second compliant sealing member disposed on a second side of the rigid plate to form a seal between the rigid plate and an end cap of the ink developer unit. The first compliant sealing member, the second compliant sealing member, or combinations thereof include a developer roller arm aligned with an interior portion of a developer roller face and to allow ink to contact the developer roller face.

Abstract: A developing device includes a developer bearer, a casing defining an upper compartment to contain the developer and a lower compartment disposed lower than the upper compartment, to contain the developer, and a first conveyor and a second conveyor disposed in the upper compartment and the lower compartment, respectively, to convey the developer in a longitudinal direction of the developer bearer and circulate the developer between the upper compartment and the lower compartment through a first communicating opening, through which the developer is conveyed upward, and a second communicating opening. A developer-lifting range of the upper compartment, which opposes the first communicating opening, is larger in volume than a developer-lifting range of the lower compartment. One of the upper compartment and the lower compartment is disposed adjacent to the developer bearer to supply the developer to the developer bearer.

Abstract: A fixing apparatus includes a fixing belt and an induced current generation section. The fixing belt includes a conductive layer. The induced current generation section faces the fixing belt. The induced current generation section includes a coil and a magnetic body. The coil generates a magnetic flux. The magnetic body faces the fixing belt across the coil. In the magnetic body, a part facing an end in a width direction of the fixing belt is set as a movable magnetic body capable of moving in a width direction.

Abstract: A fixing device includes: a fixing member; a pressurizing member provided in contact with the fixing member and configured to pressurize a sheet passing through a contact portion between the fixing member and the pressurizing member, against the fixing member; and a heater configured to heat the fixing member to provide heat to the sheet passing through the contact portion. The fixing member includes a heat storage material having a property that changes, by external energy, from a first solid phase to a second solid phase whose internal energy is higher than that of the first solid phase, and a property that changes from the second solid phase to the first solid phase by pressure and radiates heat during the phase change. The external energy includes thermal energy of the fixing member heated with the heater. The pressure includes a contact pressure between the fixing member and the pressurizing member.

Abstract: A fixing apparatus for fixing a toner image to a recording material includes a cylindrical film, a heater configured to make contact with the film, the heater including a substrate and a heat generation resistor formed on the substrate, and a heat conduction member configured to make contact with a surface of the heater opposite to a surface thereof being in contact with the film, the heat conduction member having a higher thermal conductivity than that of the substrate, and being divided into parts in a generatrix direction of the film. The toner image formed on the recording material is fixed on the recording material by using heat of the film, and one of the parts of the heat conduction member is configured to make contact with the heater continuously from a center to an end of a heat generation region of the heater in the generatrix direction.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes a movable endless belt, an image forming unit forming a developer image, a transfer unit transferring the developer image to a medium on a downstream side of the image forming unit in a belt moving direction, a belt cleaning unit cleaning the belt on a downstream side of the transfer unit in the belt moving direction, a detection unit detecting a surface state of the belt on a downstream side of the transfer unit and on an upstream side of the belt cleaning unit in the belt moving direction, and a control unit stopping move of the belt based on a result detected at the detection unit before any foreign object on the belt reaches the belt cleaning unit or the image forming unit.

Abstract: In an example, a method of controlling the temperature of a print blanket within a printing device includes printing a print job. During the printing, a pause phase start trigger is sensed. In response to sensing the pause phase start trigger, a set-point of a print blanket heating lamp is changed from a print set-point to a pause set-point to control the print blanket temperature during the pause phase.

Abstract: A developing apparatus includes a developer carrying roller rotatable in a first rotating direction, and a developer regulating member which controls a thickness of a developer layer carried on a surface of the developer carrying roller. The developer regulating member has a developer layer thickness regulating part abutting with the surface of the developer carrying roller and a projecting part. The projecting part extends towards an upstream side in the first rotating direction from the abutting part, and a non-contacting gap is formed between the projecting part and the surface of the developer carrying roller. The projecting part has a concave shape at a side facing the developer carrying roller that follows an arc-shaped surface of the developer carrying roller and forms a portion having a gap width H and a continuous length L.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes an image forming portion to form a toner image on a recording material on the basis of image information, a fixing portion to fix the toner image on the recording material, fixing portion including a heating member and an opposing member to form a nip, a temperature detecting member to detect a temperature of the heating member, a controller to control electrical power supplied to the heating member so that the temperature detected by the temperature detecting member is a target temperature, and an acquiring portion to acquire density information of the toner image from the image information. The controller sets the target temperature depending on the density information.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes an apparatus main body and a feed device. The feed device is detachably attached to the apparatus main body and feeds a recording medium. The apparatus main body includes an image forming section and a main body frame. The image forming section forms an image on the recording medium. The main body frame supports the image forming section. The main body frame has a first positioning hole and a second positioning hole. The feed device includes positioning protrusions. When the respective positioning protrusions are fitted into the first and second positioning holes, a relative positional relationship between the main body frame and the feed device is determined.

Abstract: A second unit includes a restricted portion that comes into contact with a restricting portion provided to a body of an apparatus, the restricted portion coming into contact with the restricting portion, in order to restrict the movement of a developer carrier in a direction to make contact with an image carrier, when a developing cartridge has not reached a predetermined attachment position, and not coming into contact with the restricting portion when the developing cartridge is in the predetermined attachment position.

Abstract: An image forming system includes an image forming apparatus and a discharging device. The image forming apparatus includes a first rotatable member, a second rotatable member positioned downstream of the first rotatable member, a first driving portion for driving the first and second rotatable members, and a first controller for controlling the first driving portion. The discharging device includes a third rotatable member, a second driving portion for driving the third rotatable member, and a second controller for controlling the second driving portion. The first controller controls a driving speed of the second rotatable member depending on a driving speed of the first rotatable member and feeds the driving speed of the first rotatable member to the second controller. The second controller controls a driving speed of the third rotatable member depending on the driving speed fed from the first controller.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes first and second image forming portions. A first conveying pipe conveys a first developer discharged from a first developing unit to a collection portion, and a second conveying pipe conveys a second developer discharged from a second developing unit to the collection portion. A first detection unit detects a toner content of the first developer in the first conveying pipe, and a second detection unit detects a toner content of the second developer in the second conveying pipe. The first developing unit can be removed from the image forming apparatus in a state that the first conveying pipe and the first detection unit remain in the image forming apparatus, and the second developing unit can be removed from the image forming apparatus in a state that the second conveying pipe and the second detection unit remain in the image forming apparatus.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes halogen lamp heaters, an AC power supply, a temperature detection unit and a control unit. The heaters have a same light distribution and heat a fixing member of an image fixing unit. The detection unit detects a temperature of the fixing member. The control unit determines a combination of the heaters based on output of the detection unit and applies a drive voltage of a half-wave of an AC waveform of the AC power supply to a heater of the heaters. The half-wave is selected based on an application pattern having a duty cycle of a predetermined value or more. The heaters include at least one heater which generates a heat amount being a minimum heat amount required for fixing or less when turned on with the application pattern having the duty cycle of the predetermined value.

Abstract: A developing blade has a protrusion that protrudes toward a developing roller in an opposing portion facing the developing roller. The potential difference between a supply bias and a developing bias is denoted by ?(V), a contact pressure of the developing blade with respect to the developing roller is denoted by X (gf/cm), a height of the protrusion from the opposing surface that faces the developing roller at a position further toward a tip side than the protrusion is denoted by H (mm), and a length of the opposing surface in the rotation direction of the developing roller is denoted by L (mm). When viewing a cross-section perpendicular to the rotation axis of the developing roller, 0.05?H?0.1, 0.15?L?1.0, and 15?X?60 are established, and at least ???5*X?125 is satisfied.

Abstract: A belt conveying device is configured such that if belt deviation in which a belt moves in a direction separated from a predetermined position is detected by a belt position detection mechanism, a control unit controls a driving unit to make a steering roller to be tilted intermittently in a direction to correct the belt deviation and, if it is detected by the belt position detection mechanism that a moving direction of the belt has changed to a direction to approach the predetermined position in a suspension period between the intermittent tilting operation, suspends the subsequent tilting of the steering roller.

Abstract: A lighting device includes a light source, a board, and a light guide. The light source emits light. The board mounts the light source on a mount surface perpendicular to a light emission surface of the light source. The light guide has an incident surface which the light emitted from the light source enters. The incident surface is opposed to the light emission surface. The light guide extends from the incident surface in a direction of the emitted light and is bent toward an irradiated surface of an irradiation target on a way of the light guide. The board is disposed such that an opposite surface of the board opposite the mount surface is opposed to the irradiated surface of the irradiation target.

Abstract: A belt unit includes an endless belt, a plurality of support rotators, a pair of supports, and a stopper. The endless belt is wound around the plurality of support rotators. The pair of supports extend in a direction intersecting an axial direction of each of the plurality of support rotators. The pair of supports are disposed opposite to and spaced away from each other, to rotatably support both ends of each of the plurality of support rotators in the axial direction. The stopper is disposed at at least one end of at least one support rotator of the plurality of support rotators and outside from a corresponding one support of the pair of supports in the axial direction, to restrict movement of the corresponding one support in the axial direction.