Abstract: A drying apparatus dries a recording medium on which an image is formed, under a high temperature atmosphere while conveying the recording medium, the drying apparatus includes an endless conveying belt, and a roller. The conveying belt supports and conveys the recording medium in a predetermined conveyance direction. The conveying belt is wound around the roller. The roller includes a cylindrical roller body, and flange bodies fitted into both ends of the roller body. In a fitting region between the roller body and the flange body, a thermal expansion coefficient of an inside fitted portion is higher than a thermal expansion coefficient of an outside fitted portion.

Abstract: An inkjet image forming apparatus include a head unit and a corona treatment unit. The head unit ejects ink on a printing base material conveyed in a predetermined conveyance direction. The corona treatment unit is disposed on an upstream side of the head unit in the conveyance direction and performs a corona discharge on the printing base material. The corona treatment unit includes a counter roller facing a corona discharge electrode. The counter roller has an inverted crown shape in which a diameter of a central portion is smaller than diameters of both end portions in a width direction crossing the conveyance direction.

Abstract: An inkjet recording apparatus includes a blade, a first supply member, and a second supply member. The blade performs a wiping operation along a nozzle surface of an inkjet head. The first supply member is provided on a rear side of the nozzle surface in a moving direction in the wiping operation, and supplies a cleaning liquid to the blade. The second supply member is provided on a front side of the nozzle surface in the moving direction in the wiping operation, and supplies the cleaning liquid to the blade.

Abstract: A drying apparatus includes a conveying unit, a heater unit, a casing, a lifting mechanism, and a closing member. The conveying unit supports and conveys the recording medium in a predetermined conveyance direction. The heater unit is disposed above the conveying unit, and blows a high temperature air to the conveyed recording medium. The casing houses the heater unit. The lifting mechanism is provided in the casing and supports the heater unit so as to be lifted and lowered. The closing member comes into contact with the heater unit when the heater unit is lowered, and separates a heating space below the heater unit from an internal space of the casing. The closing member is lifted and lowered within a predetermined range as the heater unit is lifted and lowered.

Abstract: An ink-jet recording apparatus includes: an ink-jet head with a nozzle plate; a blade that wipes the nozzle plate; a supply member provided upstream of the nozzle plate in a direction of wiping and capable of supplying a cleaning liquid to the blade upon contact with the blade; a link member that supports the supply member and rocks about a shaft below the supply member; a biasing member that biases the link member upstream in the wiping direction; and a pressing portion provided in conjunction with the ink-jet head and facing the supply member. While the ink-jet head is moved up, the supply member is kept away from the nozzle plate upstream in the wiping direction. When the ink-jet head moves down, the pressing portion presses down the supply member against a biasing force of the biasing member and, thus, the supply member moves downstream in the wiping direction.

Abstract: An ink-jet recording apparatus includes an ink-jet head, a head lift, a blade, and a supply member. The ink-jet head includes a nozzle plate. The head lift moves the ink-jet head up and down. The blade performs a wiping action along a nozzle surface of the nozzle plate. The supply member is provided upstream of the nozzle plate in a forward direction of the wiping action, has a dimension in a widthwise direction intersecting the forward direction smaller than the blade, and supplies a cleaning liquid to the blade upon contact with a top edge of the blade. A ridge of the supply member where a bottom surface of the supply member meets a side surface of the supply member is provided with a bevel tilted to the bottom surface and the side surface or a curve smoothly connecting the bottom surface and the side surface.

Abstract: A raster image processor (RIP) system is used in a printing system to process a variety of different jobs. A front end receives the jobs and determines the job type. The job types include a print job, a preview job, and an estimation job. Depending on the type of job, the front end configures the RIPs within RIP system accordingly to process the job. The RIPs may process the job in parallel, with a high performance RIP processing the first page of the job. If the job is not processed in parallel, then the front end assigns the job to a very high performance RIP. The front end also assigns the preview job to a preview RIP and the estimation job to an estimation RIP. The front end configures RIPs as needed.

Abstract: A detection system includes a detection target device and a detection device. The detection target device includes a first rotating member rotatable about a first axis, and repeats an operation corresponding to a rotation angle of the first rotating member every time the first rotating member makes a 1/N rotation, N being an integer of 2 or greater. The detection device includes a second rotating member rotatable about a second axis due to a driving force transmitted from the first rotating member. Every time the first rotating member makes a 1/N rotation, the second rotating member makes 1 rotation. Within a whole range of the output value of the detection device from a minimum value to a maximum value, a predetermined range where detection accuracy is guaranteed is assigned to a region corresponding to a 1/N rotation of the first rotating member.

Abstract: An inkjet recording apparatus includes a blade, a protruding member, a holder, a first biasing member, a supply member, and a second biasing member. The protruding member is provided integrally with the blade, and protrudes toward an inkjet head. The holder supports the protruding member and the blade. The first biasing member biases the protruding member and the blade toward the inkjet head around the shaft portion. The supply member is provided on a rear side of the nozzle surface in the moving direction, and is in contact with a tip end portion of the blade so that a cleaning liquid is supplied to the blade. The second biasing member biases the supply member toward the inkjet head. The blade is not in contact with the supply member when the protruding member and the supply member are not pushed from a side of the inkjet head.

Abstract: An ink jet image forming apparatus includes a head unit, a corona treatment unit, and a control part. The head unit ejects ink on a printing base material conveyed in a predetermined conveyance direction. The corona discharge treatment unit is disposed on an upstream side of the head unit in the conveyance direction and performs a corona discharge on the printing base material. The control part controls a discharge amount of the corona discharge performed by the corona discharge treatment unit. The control part controls the discharge amount based on a glossiness of the printing base material.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes a plurality of image carrying members, a charging device, an exposure device, a developing device, an intermediate transfer belt, and a plurality of transfer rollers. On the image carrying member disposed most downstream in the traveling direction of the intermediate transfer belt, a black tonner image is developed. The rotation shaft of at least one transfer roller located upstream of the transfer roller disposed most downstream in the traveling direction of the intermediate transfer belt is offset upstream from directly above the rotation shaft of the corresponding image carrying member.

Abstract: According to an ink replacement method in an ink-jet recording apparatus that includes a recording head having an ink ejection face in which a plurality of nozzles for ejecting ink onto a recording medium are arranged, a sub-tank that temporarily stores the ink fed from an ink container, and an ink flow passage through which the ink circulates from the sub-tank via the recording head to the sub-tank, gas is inserted between first ink present in the ink flow passage and second ink newly supplied to the recording head via the ink flow passage to form a gas-liquid interface between the first and second ink and gas, and then the first ink is replaced with the second ink.

Abstract: A toner concentration sensing apparatus includes a first acquisition processing portion, a second acquisition processing portion, and a third acquisition processing portion. The first acquisition processing portion acquires a first sensing value corresponding to light reflected by a first region of an image-carrying member where a toner image is not formed. The second acquisition processing portion acquires a second sensing value corresponding to light reflected by a second region of the image-carrying member where a toner image has been formed. The third acquisition processing portion acquires a component ratio of a component in the second sensing value, that corresponds to light reflected by toner adhered onto a surface of the image-carrying member, using a specific calculation formula determined based on a first relational expression based on the first sensing value and a second relational expression not based on the first sensing value, and the second sensing value.

Abstract: An optical scanning device irradiates an image carrier with laser light to form an electrostatic latent image. The optical scanning device includes a casing, a transmissive member, a wire-shaped member, a driving portion, a guide rail, a cleaning holder, a cleaning member, and a stopper. The cleaning member is fixed to the cleaning holder and cleans the transmissive member by sliding with respect to the transmissive member along with movement of the cleaning holder. The stopper is disposed on one side of the guide rail in an extending direction of the guide rail and restricts the movement of the cleaning holder. Another side of the guide rail in the extending direction of the guide rail is open in the extending direction of the guide rail.

Abstract: An inkjet includes a head unit, a blade, and a cleaning liquid supply member. The head unit is provided with a nozzle surface, and supported to be lifted and lowered. The blade is in contact with the nozzle surface and moves in a predetermined moving direction to wipe off the nozzle surface. The cleaning liquid supply member stores a cleaning liquid, and supplies the cleaning liquid between a moving start position of the blade and the nozzle surface. The cleaning liquid supply member has a plurality of supply ports provided between the moving start position of the blade and the nozzle surface. When a direction crossing to the moving direction is defined as a width direction, a width of the blade is set to “a”, and a width of a region where the supply ports are formed is set to “b”, then the next formula is established, a?b.

Abstract: A toner container includes a tank and a cap. The tank includes a cylindrical loading port, through which toner is to be loaded. The cap is formed of a flexible material, and configured to close the loading port. The cap includes a fitting portion, a bottom portion, and a flange portion. The fitting portion is formed in a cylindrical shape that fits an inner surface of the loading port. The bottom portion is located on a far side of the fitting portion, in a cap insertion direction. The flange portion is located on a near side of the fitting portion in the cap insertion direction, to be made to contact an edge of the loading port. The fitting portion includes a cut-away portion formed in an annular shape along a circumferential direction of the fitting portion.

Abstract: An ink jet recording apparatus includes a recording head, a blade, and a cleaning liquid dispensing unit. The recording head includes a nozzle surface including a plurality of nozzles each having an ink outlet oriented downward, and is supported so as to move in an up-down direction. The blade wipes the nozzle surface, by moving in a predetermined moving direction in contact with the nozzle surface. The cleaning liquid dispensing unit stores therein cleaning liquid supplied from a cleaning liquid supply source, and supplies the cleaning liquid between a travel start position of the blade and the nozzle surface. The cleaning liquid dispensing unit includes a receptacle in which the cleaning liquid that has been supplied is stored, the receptacle having a top face open upward.

Abstract: A device such as a color printer includes a main memory, a cache memory, and a convolutional neural network configured to convert pixels from a first color space to a second color space. The convolutional neural network is organized into execution-separable layers, and loaded one or more layer at a time (depending on cache size) from the main memory to the cache memory, whereby the pixels are processed through each of the layers in the cache memory, and layers that have completed processing are evicted to make room for caching next layer(s) of the network.

Abstract: A print job intended for subsequent printing operations includes complex and simple pages. Each page is analyzed for a page complexity determination. A base page weight related to engine speed of the print engine is compared against a page weight of the page to determine whether the page is complex. A complex page is one with a page weight equal to or greater than the base page weight. If the page is complex, then it is rendered by the RIP system and stored. If the page is simple, then it is not rendered but will be rendered when the job is printed as it can be rendered at engine speed. A complexity model and complexity rules also are used to enhance the determination process.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus (1) includes: a USB connector (7) capable of being connected through a cable to a terminal device (40); a FIFO (24); and a control device (10) capable of functioning as a controller (100) that selectively executes one of a normal mode and a power-save mode. When receiving data sent through the cable from the terminal device (40) while executing the power-save mode, the controller (100) temporarily stores the data in the FIFO (24) to temporarily hold execution of processing according to the data, checks for the data stored in the FIFO (24) at predetermined second-scale time intervals, and executes the processing based on the data.