Patents Assigned to Konica Minolta Business Technology, Inc.
  • Image forming apparatus
    Patent number: 9042762
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus has an image forming section configured to form an image on a recording sheet, a controller to execute a job, and an adjustment section configured to adjust a density of the image formed on the recording sheet by the image forming section during execution of the job. The controller discharges an inserting sheet onto the recording sheet having the image formed during the execution of the job when a value of the adjustment is larger than a predetermined value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 26, 2015
    Assignee: KONICA MINOLTA BUSINESS TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    Inventor: Takamitsu Satsukawa
  • Non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing distributed printing control program
    Patent number: 9041958
    Abstract: A non-transitory computer readable storage medium stores therein a distributed printing control program executed in a system to perform distributed printing by outputting a specified number of sets of paper sheets by using plural image forming apparatuses, where the number of the sets is instructed by a job. The program causes an apparatus belonging to the system to function as a control section. The control section divides the job into plural jobs, where each of the jobs causes one of the image forming apparatuses to eject plural sets of paper sheets shifted in alternate directions such that, when sets of paper sheets ejected by the plural image forming apparatuses are stacked up together, all the sets of paper sheets are shifted in alternate directions to enable each of the sets to be separated from others. The control section further subjects the divided jobs to the plural image forming apparatuses.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 26, 2015
    Assignee: KONICA MINOLTA BUSINESS TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    Inventors: Kazuhisa Kishimoto, Yasuyuki Kamai
  • Image forming apparatus storing a stylus pen
    Patent number: 9036168
    Abstract: Disclosed is an image forming apparatus provided with an operation panel receiving instructions from a user by touch operations, a stylus pen used to perform the touch operations, and a pen holder holding the stylus pen, the pen holder including an opening for insertion of the stylus pen from outside of the pen holder, and a storage section storing the stylus pen. The storage section includes a first hollow portion with a first bottom and a second hollow portion with a second bottom lower than the first bottom. The stylus pen is stored in the storage section by being inserted through the opening, proceeding along the first bottom to enter the second hollow portion, and slanting, upon a center of gravity of the stylus pen passing a boundary between the first bottom and the second bottom, so that a tip of the stylus pen points downwards.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 19, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2015
    Assignee: KONICA MINOLTA BUSINESS TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    Inventor: Satomi Uchida
  • Image forming apparatus communicable with remote display apparatus
    Patent number: 9036176
    Abstract: An MFP (Multifunction Peripheral) receives, from a remote terminal, information on a first operation to request the MFP to execute processing. The MFP transmits, to the remote terminal, information on a screen in accordance with the information on the first operation, and receives, from the remote terminal, a report that a screen in accordance with the transmitted information is displayed on the remote terminal. The MFP receives, from the remote terminal, information on a second operation to request the MFP to execute processing, after receipt of the information on the first operation and before receipt of the report, and decides whether to execute or cancel the processing in accordance with the information on the second operation, depending on the type of the information on the second operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2015
    Assignee: KONICA MINOLTA BUSINESS TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    Inventors: Hiroshi Iwamoto, Kenichi Sawada, Takatsugu Kuno, Koichi Amiya, Yusaku Tanaka, Hiroshi Murakami
  • Image forming apparatus having exhaust treatment system
    Patent number: 9037034
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus having; a fusing unit that heats and presses a recording medium with an image transferred thereto, thereby fixing the image thereon; a first duct section in which air that contains emissions generated by the fusing unit flows; an ion generation unit provided away from the first duct section to generate ions; a second duct section in which air that contains the ions generated by the ion generation unit flows; a third duct section connected to the first and second duct sections, such that air flows in from the first and second duct sections, whereby the emissions are charged by the ions; a filter unit provided in the third duct section to trap the charged emissions; and a blowing unit that generates air flows from the connections with the first and second duct sections in the third duct section toward the filter unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 20, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2015
    Assignee: KONICA MINOLTA BUSINESS TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    Inventors: Tomofumi Ikeda, Shoichi Yoshikawa, Kuniya Matsuura, Masayuki Satou, Ryo Oshima, Noboru Oomoto
  • Human body sensing device and image forming apparatus having the same
    Patent number: 9035257
    Abstract: A human body sensing device comprises: an infrared sensor which detects a human body; a rotatable group of lenses having a plurality of lenses arranged around the sensor, the lenses being configured to: generate unit sensing zones defined by a sensing distance extending radially outwardly from the group and a small width extending in a rotation direction of the group; and form a plurality of alternating layers of a regional sensing zone including one or more than one of the unit sensing zones and a non-sensing zone not including any of the unit sensing zones, in a rotation direction of the group; a rotary drive which rotates the group; a rotation position sensor which detects a rotation position of the group; and a recognizer which recognizes the location and/or movement of a human body based on the output level indicated by the infrared sensor and the rotation position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 21, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2015
    Assignee: KONICA MINOLTA BUSINESS TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    Inventors: Kosuke Masumoto, Shiro Umeda, Toshiaki Tanaka
  • Image forming apparatus and method for driving and controlling fans in the apparatus
    Patent number: 9037033
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes a plurality of fans, a drive part and a controller. The drive part drives each of the fans. The controller controls the drive part in such a way that while the apparatus is operated, a part of the plurality of fans are stopped and the fan to be stopped is changed and the amount of change in a noise level of all the fans before and after the change of the fan to be stopped is limited to within a specified range.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 27, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2015
    Assignee: KONICA MINOLTA BUSINESS TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    Inventor: Yoshinori Ohno
  • Image processing apparatus, image processing system, and recording medium
    Patent number: 9032286
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus can conduct communication with a terminal through a network, and includes a storage, a communication unit, and a changing unit. The storage stores a setting Web page which is of a Web page used to change a setting of the image processing apparatus. The communication unit transmits the setting Web page to the terminal on a request from the terminal. The changing unit changes the setting of the image processing apparatus when a request is made to the setting Web page from the terminal. The setting Web page includes a description that notifies another image processing apparatus, which can conduct communication with the terminal, of a setting content of the image processing apparatus, the setting content being input to the setting Web page from the terminal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 14, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 12, 2015
    Assignee: Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Takashi Sugaya
  • Wet-type image forming apparatus and method of setting transfer bias in wet-type image forming apparatus
    Patent number: 9031432
    Abstract: In a wet-type image forming apparatus, a plurality of patch images are successively transferred to a recording medium corresponding to a plurality of transfer biases obtained as bias value of the transfer bias is changed; density detecting unit measures image density of each of the plurality of patch images on the recording medium and detects a range of bias values of transfer bias in which the image density of patch image is substantially saturated; and the bias value of transfer bias when a normal image is formed on the recording medium is set to be within the range of bias values of transfer bias in which the image density of patch image is substantially saturated and to be not larger than absolute value of the bias value at which the image density of patch image is substantially saturated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 4, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 12, 2015
    Assignee: Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Yasuo Shirodai, Masahiko Matsuura, Takeshi Maeyama
  • Heat storage microcapsules and manufacturing method thereof
    Patent number: 9028965
    Abstract: Disclosed are heat storage microcapsules encapsulating a water-soluble heat storage material stably and certainly, heat storage microcapsules with high durability which prevent phase separation of an inorganic salt hydrate latent heat storage material, heat storage microcapsules which prevent supercooling of a latent heat storage material to exhibit stable heat history and a manufacturing method thereof. The heat storage microcapsules comprise a core covered with a shell, wherein the core contains (a) at least one water-soluble latent heat storage material selected from a salt hydrate and a sugar alcohol and (b) a polymer derived from a water-soluble monomer mixture of a water-soluble monofunctional monomer and a water-soluble multifunctional monomer, and the shell is composed of a hydrophobic resin.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 6, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 12, 2015
    Assignee: Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Mikio Kouyama, Ken Ohmura
  • Image processing device, job processing method, and program
    Patent number: 9026576
    Abstract: Each of a plurality of image processing devices (MFPs) included in an image processing system which includes a storage as well. (1) When the user requests processing a job, (2) the job data is stored in the storage. (3) Each MFP confirms that there is an unprocessed job to be executed, and (4) judges whether the own device can process the job. (5) MFPs that have judged that the own device can process the job stores information of the own device into the storage, and (6) check information stored by other MFPs. (7) One of the MFPs judges that the own device is the most suitable MFP, (11) obtains the job data, and (12) processes the job.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 25, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 5, 2015
    Assignee: Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Kenichi Sawada, Tomoko Maruyama, Kazuhiro Tomiyasu, Taisuke Akahori, Yasuhiro Yamauchi, Eiichi Yoshida
  • Instruction input device and recording medium
    Patent number: 9024897
    Abstract: An instruction input apparatus comprising: a display being provided with a display screen; an electrostatic touch panel being deposited on the front of the display screen on the display, the touch panel being configured to input instructions to the instruction input apparatus; an approach sensor being configured to detect a user's hand approaching to a part of frame of the touch panel; a coordinate identification portion being configured to identify the coordinate of a contact position at which the user touches on the touch panel; and a controller being configured to, if the approach sensor detects the user's hand approaching to the part of frame of the touch panel, change a contact detectable area of the touch panel so that the contact detectable area will exclude the coordinate of the user's contact position which is identified by the coordinate identification portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 25, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 5, 2015
    Assignee: Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Tomoji Tanaka
  • Solid-state image pickup device, image pickup apparatus, and driving method
    Patent number: 9024242
    Abstract: A solid-state image pickup device which is configured not to require transfer of signal charges between pixels performs TDI. An output control section 5 sequentially assigns a pixel signal output processing period to each pixel array group 10 in the order of the vertical direction at an interval of one horizontal processing period H obtained by dividing one frame period T into three. The one frame period T is a period when each pixel array 100 is moved in the vertical direction. An adder 50 sums up a pixel signal held in a signal holding portion 41_X, and a pixel signals held in a signal holding portion 41_R, 41_G, 41_B corresponding to the pixel signal under the control of the output control section 5, and outputs the summation result to an A/D converter 60.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 15, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 5, 2015
    Assignee: Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Satoshi Masuda
  • Electrophotographic toner
    Patent number: 9017911
    Abstract: In the present invention, provided is an electrophotographic toner in which low temperature fixing is achieved, and high storage stability is obtained without generating tacking with respect to fixed images to be formed. It is a feature that this electrophotographic toner possesses at least a binder resin, a colorant and a releasing agent, wherein the releasing agent comprises an ester compound and an aliphatic hydroxycarboxylic acid compound.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 2009
    Date of Patent: April 28, 2015
    Assignee: Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Mikio Kouyama, Yasuhiko Muramatsu, Kenji Hayashi, Hiroaki Obata, Noriyuki Kimpara, Hiroshi Nagasawa
  • Halftone image generation device that generates a blended halftone image of an image by partially selecting and blending a first halftone image obtained by halftone processing the specific image using a first method and a second halftone image obtained by halftone processing the specific image using a second method, associated halftone image generation method, and computer-readable storage medium for computer program
    Patent number: 9019563
    Abstract: A halftone image generation device is provided that, by partially selecting and blending a first halftone image obtained by halftone processing a specific image using a first method and a second halftone image obtained by halftone processing the specific image using a second method different from the first method, generates a third halftone image of the specific image. The device includes a detector detecting, from the first halftone image, a dot pixel in which a dot is disposed, and a blender blending the first halftone image and the second halftone image by, when a dot is not disposed in any of neighboring pixels in the first halftone image that neighbor the dot pixel, employing, as binary values of isolated-point related pixels in the third halftone image that are in a same position as the dot pixel and the neighboring pixels, binary values of the dot pixel and the neighboring pixels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2011
    Date of Patent: April 28, 2015
    Assignee: Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Tomohiro Yamaguchi
  • Production process of toner for electrostatic image development
    Patent number: 9012120
    Abstract: The production process is a process for producing a toner for electrostatic image development. The process has an aggregating step of adding an aggregating agent composed of a compound having a divalent or trivalent metal element into a dispersion with fine particles of a binder resin dispersed in an aqueous medium, and an aggregation terminating step of adding an aggregation terminating agent into the dispersion. The aggregation terminating agent is composed of a compound having at least one of a structure (1) represented by a formula (1) and a structure (2) represented by a formula (2). In the formulae (1) and (2), R1 to R9 each independently represent a hydrogen atom, a hydroxy group or an organic group. At least one of R1 and R4 or at least one of R5 and R6 represents a hydroxy group.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 4, 2012
    Date of Patent: April 21, 2015
    Assignee: Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Tomomi Oshiba, Tomoko Mine, Hitomi Motani, Saburou Hiraoka
  • Image processing system, portable terminal, information processing apparatus, and display method
    Patent number: 9013723
    Abstract: When a portable terminal shoots a photo of a plurality of image processing apparatuses, a maintenance order is decided based on the respective states of a plurality of image processing apparatuses in a shooting range of the portable terminal. A tag representing the maintenance order is combined with the shot image and displayed on the portable terminal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 16, 2012
    Date of Patent: April 21, 2015
    Assignee: Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Shoji Imaizumi, Katsuhiko Akita, Hiroki Tajima, Kenro Hama, Yuji Okamoto
  • Image processing apparatus having a thinning unit and a smoothing unit, and image processing method
    Patent number: 9008456
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes a smoothing processing unit which performs smoothing processing, a thinning processing unit which performs thinning processing, an edge direction determination unit which determines an edge direction with respect to each pixel of the image data and a blending processing unit which decides a pixel value of each pixel of when the thinning processing and the smoothing processing are realized at same time. In the image processing apparatus, the blending processing unit decides a pixel value of a target pixel of when the thinning processing and the smoothing processing are realized at the same time depending on a combination of whether the thinning processing is performed or not and whether the smoothing processing is performed or not on the target pixel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2012
    Date of Patent: April 14, 2015
    Assignee: Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Koji Washio
  • Image forming apparatus with control section to control contact pressure between heating member and pressure member and control method thereof
    Patent number: 9002228
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus is provided that includes: a heating member that heats a recording sheet; a pressure member that presses the recording sheet between the heating member and the pressure member; an adjustment mechanism that causes the heating member and the pressure member to contact or to separate; and a control section that, at a time of a warm-up operation or an idling operation, based on a predetermined condition, controls the adjustment mechanism so as to cause the heating member and the pressure member to contact at a contact pressure that is lower than a contact pressure between the heating member and the pressure member at a time of image formation or is approximately identical to the contact pressure at a time of image formation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 18, 2013
    Date of Patent: April 7, 2015
    Assignee: Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Tsutomu Sakamaki, Takashi Yamada
  • Rotary damper and image forming apparatus
    Patent number: 9002238
    Abstract: A plurality of first viscoelastic bodies are disposed in insertion holes of a first rotary member. A plurality of second viscoelastic bodies are disposed in guide holes of a second rotary member. Each of the first and the second viscoelastic bodies has an elastic coefficient changing in accordance with aging due to use. A guide member moves a contact member along the insertion hole and the guide hole. The contact member applies a compressive load to the first viscoelastic body. The aging of the second viscoelastic body due to the compressive load applied thereto moves a position of the first viscoelastic body where the compressive load is received from the contact member toward a farther side from a rotational shaft side.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 13, 2013
    Date of Patent: April 7, 2015
    Assignee: Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Naoki Miyagawa, Shoichi Yoshikawa, Noboru Oomoto, Naotoshi Kawai, So Yano, Takao Miyamoto