Abstract: A powder collecting device for conveying toner, a developer, waste toner and/or a waste developer in a conveyance pipe in one direction and for dropping it into a container through an opening made at an end of the conveyance pipe. The container is mountable in a body of an image forming apparatus such that the end of the conveyance pipe is inserted into the container, and is dismountable therefrom. An elastic sealing member, which has a larger area than a cross-sectional area of the end of the conveyance pipe, is attached to a portion of the container through which the end of the conveyance pipe is inserted into the container. A plurality of cuts are made in the sealing member such that the sealing member has at least an upper flap having a longer elastically deformable portion and a lower flap having a shorter elastically deformable portion.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit, a sheet conveying unit, a TOD (Top of Data) control module for instructing the image forming unit to start generation of a toner image, a timing roller driving module for instructing the sheet conveying unit to start driving of the timing roller, an image synchronization module designed depending on the sheet conveying unit and the image forming unit, and a sheet information module for generating an image synchronization identifier for designating a pattern of image synchronization control related to printing of the toner image on the sheet, depending on a type of the sheet designated. The image synchronization module is activated when the formation of the toner image on the sheet has become possible, and activate each of the TOD control module and the timing roller driving module, with a relative time lag based on the image synchronization identifier.

Abstract: A radiation image capturing apparatus is provided with a scanning drive unit which sequentially applies ON voltage to respective scanning lines during a readout process to read out image data from radiation detection elements. From the time before radiation imaging, a controller controls the scanning drive unit to sequentially apply the ON voltage to the respective scanning lines and executes the readout process for the image data from the radiation detection elements. The controller detects start of the radioactive irradiation when the image data exceeds a threshold value, and controls that ON time, during which the ON voltage is applied to the scanning lines from the scanning drive unit during the readout process for the image data before radiation imaging, becomes longer than ON time during a readout process for the image data after finishing the radioactive irradiation.

Abstract: An operation panel includes an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) screen, a touch panel sensor unit for accepting touch input to the LCD screen concerning operation, a hardware key, and a touch panel control microcomputer for detecting a position of touch input accepted by the touch panel sensor unit. An operation panel control unit allocates the operation accepted by the touch panel sensor unit to the hardware key when detecting a runway which is a state in which the touch panel control microcomputer cannot detect a position of touch input. Accordingly, the user's convenience can be improved.

Abstract: A fixing device includes a heating rotating body driven by a motor, a pressing member, a biasing unit, a switching unit that receives rotational power of the motor in order to either separate the pressing member and the heating rotating body or to allow the biasing unit to press the pressing member and the heating rotating body together, a power transmission mechanism that transmits the rotational power of the motor to the switching unit over a first path or a second path, the first path having a larger reduction ratio, and a transmission control unit that establishes and cuts off transmission of rotational power of the motor to the switching unit by the power transmission mechanism and that includes a path selection unit that selects the first path during separation and the second path during pressing by the switching unit.

Abstract: A sheet feeder includes a feed roller for feeding a sheet and a lifting plate for lifting the sheet to be fed to a feeding height of the feed roller. This sheet feeder further includes a wire for raising the lifting plate and a winding member formed with a winding configuration section for winding the wire. This winding configuration section is provided with a high-position winding section for a high-position side in a lifting height of the lifting plate and a low-position winding section for a low-position side. The high-position winding section is larger in winding radius than the low-position winding section. Accordingly, a sheet feeder having a simple structure capable of rapidly moving down the lifting plate and preventing impact of the lifting plate and an image forming apparatus incorporating the sheet feeder can be provided.

Abstract: A power control method for supplying AC power to a first load and a second load is provided. The method includes supplying, to the first load, AC power corresponding to a range of a phase angle 0 to a phase angle ?1 in each half cycle; and supplying, to the second load, AC power corresponding to a range of a phase angle ?2 to a phase angle ? in each half cycle, wherein ?1 is larger than 0 and not more than ?, ?2 is not less than 0 and smaller than ?, and ?1 is larger than ?2.

Abstract: A zoom lens system used in a spectrum region including visible light has movable lens groups moved for zooming, and has, in a movable lens group, a negative lens element made of a material fulfilling the conditional formulae Vd<55 and 0.0018×Vd+P<0.65 and, in a movable lens group, a positive lens element made of a material fulfilling the conditional formulae 60<Vd, 0.645<0.0018×Vd+P, and 9×10?6<dN/dT, where Vd is the Abbe number for a d-line; P=(Ng?NF)/(NF?NC); Ng, NF, and NC are the refractive indices for the g-, F-, and C-lines respectively; and dN/dT is the variation rate in refractive index accompanying variation in room temperature. The negative and positive lens elements move in the same direction during zooming.

Abstract: A subsystem of a first kind includes a first fee table receiving portion for receiving a first fee table, a user-restricted provision portion for providing a service, and an uncollected history record transmitting portion to transmit to a summation server an uncollected history record including a history record of providing a service. A subsystem of a second kind includes a post-collection provision portion for providing a service if a fee defined by a second fee table is collected, a collected history record transmitting portion to transmit to the summation server a collected history record including a history record of providing a service, a proxy provision portion for providing a service before a fee for the service is collected, and a switch control portion for comparing the first fee table with the second fee table and allowing the post-collection provision portion or the proxy provision portion to provide a service.

Abstract: A fixing device includes a heating rotating body driven by a motor, a pressing member, a biasing unit, a switching unit that receives rotational power of the motor in order to either separate the pressing member and the heating rotating body or to allow the biasing unit to press the pressing member and the heating rotating body together, a power transmission mechanism that transmits the rotational power of the motor to the switching unit over a first path or a second path, the first path having a larger reduction ratio, and a power transmission targeting unit that switches the target of transmission of rotational power of the motor between the heating rotating body and the switching unit depending on the rotational direction of the motor and that includes a path selection unit that selects the first path during separation and the second path during pressing by the switching unit.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes a functional unit, a first power supply circuit supplying electric power to the functional unit from a commercial power supply, a second power supply circuit including a self-generation power supply, and a third power supply circuit including a power storage unit storing electric power and a charging circuit charging the power storage unit upon receipt of supply of electric power from at least one of the commercial power supply and the self-generation power supply. In accordance with the amount of power supply from the self-generation power supply, higher priority is given to supply of electric power to the functional unit from at least one of the second and third power supply circuits than to supply of electric power from the first power supply circuit.

Abstract: A lens barrel and a lens unit of the present invention each include a cam drum having a cam groove, a lens holding frame for holding a moving lens group, and a cam follower installed on an outer periphery of the lens holding frame. The cam groove has two groove side walls, and an inclined wall that extends outward in a radial direction of the cam drum from one of the two groove side walls to the other thereof, and the cam follower has a contact member that contacts the inclined wall and a cam follower main unit respectively, and a biasing member that biases the contact member outward in the radial direction.

Abstract: A flat panel radiation detector is disclosed, comprising a scintillator panel provided on a support with a phosphor layer comprising columnar crystals and a protective layer sequentially in this order, and the scintillator panel being coupled with a planar light receiving element having plural picture elements which are arranged two-dimensionally, in which the difference between to average void fraction of an edge portion of the phosphor layer and the average void fraction of a base portion is not less than 5% and not more than 25%, and the void fraction decreases from the base portion to the edge portion. There is provided a flat panel radiation detector with a phosphor layer which exhibits enhanced physical resistance to shock and is superior in sharpness and emission efficiency.

Abstract: Disclosed is an image processing apparatus including: an operation pixel arrangement unit to arrange the operation pixels to be inserted or deleted in a staggered form from one end of the image to the other end of the image in the second direction, so as to satisfy a first condition in which a distance in the first direction between the operation pixels adjacent in the second direction is 2 pixels or more and less than the predetermined number of pixels, and a second condition in which a direction in which the operation pixels adjacent in the second direction are apart from each other is reversed at intervals of not more than 2 pixels which are consecutive in the second direction; and an image enlargement/reduction unit to enlarge or reduce the image by inserting or deleting the operation pixels arranged by the operation pixel arrangement unit.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus contains a first printer forming a first image on a surface of the sheet member, a reversing section reversing a surface of the sheet member and a second printer forming a second image on a back of the sheet member. The second printer contains a correction section correcting a deflection of the sheet member. A straight sheet-member-transporting path extends from the reversing section to the second printer. A distance between a position at which the sheet member enters the sheet-member-transporting path and a position at which the correction section corrects the deflection of the sheet member is set so as to be not smaller than a length of the sheet member having the largest size among the sheet members to be handled.

Abstract: A zoom lens system has, in order from the enlargement side, a first lens group that remains stationary during zooming and that has a negative optical power and a plurality of lens groups that move during zooming. The first lens group includes three lens groups each having a negative optical power, namely a 1a-th lens group, a 1b-th lens group, and a 1c-th lens group. The 1a-th lens group remains stationary during focusing and includes at least one positive lens element. The 1b-th lens group moves toward the reduction side during focusing from infinity to a close distance. The 1c-th lens group moves toward the enlargement side during focusing from infinity to a close distance.

Abstract: A method of rasterizing a print image plane for a multiple beam printer engine, which comprises the steps of receiving an image having a plurality of lines of print data for processing by the printer engine, and performing a print image plane rasterization. The print image plane rasterization includes (a) calculating a first line destination for a first line of print data; (b) moving the first line of print data to the first line destination; and (c) calculating a displaced line destination for a displaced line of print data, and continually moving the displaced line of print data to the displaced line destination until the displaced line of print data is moved to the first line and forms a loop. The process is repeated until each line of the plurality of lines has been moved to a line destination associated with each line of the image.

Abstract: Disclosed is a cleaning apparatus including: a blade and a roller to remove the residual toner on the image carrier, the blade and the roller provided on a downstream side of a rotating direction of the image carrier than a transfer position of the toner image; a scraper to remove toner attached to the roller; and a first controlling section to control movement of the residual toner removed by the blade and the roller, the first controlling section is provided on an upstream side of the rotating direction of the image carrier than the blade and on a downstream side of the rotating direction of the image carrier than the roller and the scraper, and the first controlling section is provided facing the image carrier with a certain area provided in between to form an accumulating section to accumulate residual toner in the certain area.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes: a fixing apparatus having: a heating section and a pressing section that forms a fixing-nip portion by being in pressure contact with the heating section, wherein at least one of the heating section and the pressing section having: an endless fixing belt that is trained about a plurality of rollers, a pressure applying member that causes the fixing belt to be in pressure contact with a side of the fixing-nip portion from an inner circumferential surface thereof, and a lubricant supplying member that supplies lubricant to the inner circumferential surface of the fixing belt; and a supplying amount change section that changes a supplying amount of the lubricant by the lubricant supplying member based on an amount used coming from a part replacement of at least one of the fixing belt, the pressure applying member and the lubricant supplying member.

Abstract: The present invention realizes an image forming apparatus which is equipped with a carrier recovery section of simple configuration and for which maintenance is not required, the apparatus includes: a photoconductive drum; a developing device to develop a latent image formed on the photoconductive drum by a two-component developer containing a toner and a magnetic carrier, and a carrier recovery section which is equipped with a recovery roller, wherein the carrier recovery roller includes a rotatable sleeve, and a magnet roller that is installed inside the sleeve and provided with a plurality of fixed magnetic poles including a main pole to recover the magnetic carrier adhered onto the photoconductive drum and a separating pole to separate the magnetic carrier from the recovery roller, wherein a separating member is disposed at such a position that is opposite to the sleeve at a prescribed distance in a non-contact state.