Abstract: An image forming system that includes an apparatus main body, equipped with an image forming portion, and a control portion that controls a fixing operation of fixing the image on a recording material is disclosed. A first fixing unit and a second fixing unit can be selectively mounted on the apparatus main body. The first fixing unit has a heater and a plurality of temperature detection elements that detect the temperature of the first heater. The second fixing unit has a second heater and a second plurality of temperature detection elements that detect the temperature of the second heater. The control portion controls the fixing operation based on first temperature information detected by the first temperature detection elements when the first fixing unit is mounted, and controls the fixing operation based on second temperature information detected by the second temperature detection elements when the second fixing unit is mounted.

Abstract: A developing device includes a plurality of conveyance passages, an opening portion, and a filter. Developer is conveyed in the plurality of conveyance passages in a longitudinal direction of the developing device. The opening portion is disposed in one conveyance passage of the plurality of conveyance passages and communicates with an outside of the developing device. The filter is fitted in the opening portion and has both a collecting ability to collect the developer and a ventilation ability to ventilate the one conveyance passage to the outside of the developing device. The collecting ability of the filter is higher in a high-bulk portion in which bulk of the developer increases in the one conveyance passage than in a low-bulk portion in which the bulk of the developer decreases in the one conveyance passage. The ventilation ability of the filter is lower in the high-bulk portion than in the low-bulk portion.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes an image bearing member, a transfer belt, a secondary transfer member, a voltage source, a current detecting portion, and a controller. The controller is operable in a first mode in which when a recording material is absent in a secondary transfer portion, a current flowing through the secondary transfer member under application of a first test voltage is detected by the current detecting portion and then information on a current-voltage characteristic of the secondary transfer member is acquired, and in a second mode in which a predetermined test image is transferred from the transfer belt onto the recording material under application of second test voltages and then a test chart for adjusting a transfer voltage set during transfer is outputted. On the basis of the information, the controller changes an interval of the second test voltages applied in the operation in the second mode.

Abstract: A fixing device includes a belt that rotates in a rotation direction and a heater that heats the belt. A conductive member contacts an inner face of the belt and pivots. The conductive member includes one end portion in the rotation direction of the belt, a contact portion that contacts the belt, and an outboard portion that is disposed outboard from the contact portion in the rotation direction of the belt. A holding portion holds the one end portion of the conductive member. A pivot restrictor contacts the outboard portion of the conductive member. The pivot restrictor restricts pivoting of the conductive member about the one end portion of the conductive member.

Abstract: A heating device includes a heat generation unit that has a heat generation portion generating heat along a longitudinal direction, and heats a heated body; a heat pipe that extends along the longitudinal direction of the heat generation portion by being in contact with the heat generation unit or the heated body; and a holding unit that holds the heat pipe, in which the holding unit has an accommodation receiving portion that accommodates the heat pipe, and a protective component that keeps an end portion on a sealing portion side of the heat pipe and an end portion of the accommodation receiving portion in a non-contact manner via a space portion.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus, having a housing, a photosensitive drum, an exposure head, and a positioning piece, is provided. The housing has a boss. The photosensitive drum is configured to be accommodated in the housing. The exposure head is configured to expose the photosensitive drum and is movable between an exposable position, at which the exposure head exposes the photosensitive drum, and a retracted position, at which the exposure head is separated farther from the photosensitive drum than the exposable position. The positioning piece is configured to locate the exposure head at a predetermined position in the housing. The positioning piece has a cylinder fitted around the boss and an arc surface extending concentrically with a circumferential surface of the cylinder. The arc surface is configured to contact the exposure head.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus, including a casing, a toner cartridge, and a process cartridge, is provided. The toner cartridge detachably attached to the casing stores toner therein. The process cartridge detachably attached to the casing includes a developing unit and a drum unit. The developing unit includes a developer roller and a toner conveyer tube. The toner conveyer tube has a first opening, through which the toner from the toner cartridge is acceptable into the toner conveyer tube while the toner cartridge and the process cartridge are attached to the casing. The drum unit includes a photosensitive drum supporting the toner conveyer tube by contacting a circumferential surface of the toner conveyer tube. The developing unit is pivotable with respect to the drum unit with the toner conveyer tube and the drum unit being slidable on each other.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus including a fixing unit that fixes a toner image on a recording material includes an acquisition unit configured to acquire grammage information about the recording material, and a temperature control unit configured to control a temperature of a heating rotary member of the fixing unit based on the grammage information. The temperature control unit changes the temperature control of the heating rotary member depending on the acquired grammage information about a predetermined number of recording materials within a predetermined time.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes a wireless communication board on which a communication circuit that wirelessly communicates image data with an external device is mounted. The wireless communication board includes a first surface to which a magnetic sheet including a magnetic layer containing metal powder is. The wireless communication board also includes an antenna provided on a second surface opposite to the first surface of the wireless communication board. The antenna is used by the communication circuit to transmit and receive wireless radio waves. A region of the magnetic sheet on the first surface and a region of the antenna on the second surface overlap with each other in a thickness direction of the wireless communication board.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes an image bearing member, a transfer device, a voltage applying portion, a fixing device, and a controller. During execution of an operation in an output mode, the controller is capable of selectively executing: an operation in which test images formed on a first side of a first recording material are fixed and then the first recording material is outputted without forming the test images on a second side of the first recording material and then in which a second recording material is passed through the fixing device without forming the test images on a first side of the second recording material and then the test images are transferred onto a second side of the second recording material.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes a powder holding member and a transfer member. The powder holding member holds a powder pattern constituted by powder on a surface. The transfer member constitutes a nip part for nipping a recording medium on which an image pattern is formed with the powder holding member, and pastes powder constituting the powder pattern to the image pattern at the nip part. The image forming apparatus also includes a powder supply member that supplies powder to the surface of the powder holding member, and an adhesion force of the powder to the conveyance member is smaller than an adhesion force of the powder to a part where the powder pattern is formed on the surface of the powder holding member.

Abstract: A cartridge includes a first unit including an image bearing member and a second unit including a developer bearing member. The second unit is swingable with respect to the first unit. The second unit includes a pressed portion to be pressed by a pressing member of the apparatus body. When viewed in an axial direction, (i) the swing axis and the pressed portion are arranged on opposite sides to each other with respect to a virtual straight line, (ii) the pressed portion, the swing axis, and the first axis are arranged in the named order in an interaxial direction, and (iii) a distance from the pressed portion to the swing axis in the interaxial direction is longer than a distance from the swing axis to the first axis in the interaxial direction.

Abstract: A developing cartridge includes a housing for accommodating a toner, a developing roller rotatably mounted in the housing, a doctor blade in contact with the developing roller, and a driving device located at a longitudinal end of the housing. The driving device includes a driving force receiving part for receiving a driving force from the outside of the developing cartridge, and is configured to drive the developing roller to rotate. The doctor blade is in contact with a surface of the developing roller to adjust a thickness of a toner layer on the surface of the developing roller. When viewed along a longitudinal direction of the developing cartridge, at least the driving force receiving part does not overlap with the doctor blade.

Abstract: An electrophotographic image forming apparatus, which utilizes a line head in which a plurality of light-emitting elements is arranged as a light source, includes at least one controller having at least one processor and at least one memory. The controller is configured to obtain print data to perform printing, perform halftone processing for the obtained print data, generate a plurality of pieces of correction information for correcting variations of light amount on a photosensitive body by light radiated from the plurality of light-emitting elements, and correct the print data for which the halftone processing has been performed by using the correction information. The correction information includes various profiles for correcting the variations of light amount.

Abstract: A heating device includes a cylindrical film a heater disposed inside the cylindrical film on an inner surface of the cylindrical film. The heater has a plurality of heating elements that are spaced from each other at intervals along an axial direction. A heat transfer member contacts the heater. The heat transfer member is arranged such that, in a first region of the heater that includes just a single one of the heating elements, contact between the heater and heat transfer member is greater than in a second region of the heater that includes an interval between a pair of adjacent heating elements.

Abstract: A powder collection container that is attachable to and detachable from a mount part of an apparatus and stores powder includes a plurality of walls that form a storage space to store the powder. The plurality of walls include a first wall that faces the mount part of the apparatus and a second wall that does not to face the mount part of the apparatus. A thickness of the first wall is smaller than a thickness of the second wall.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes a replaceable roller member, an applying unit that applies voltage to the roller member, a current detecting unit that detects a current flowing in the roller member to which the voltage is applied, and a controlling unit. The controlling unit calculates a value of a slope of a current-voltage characteristic of the roller member on the basis of a first current detected when a first voltage is applied to the roller member and a second current that is detected when a second voltage is applied, and determines whether or not the roller member has been replaced on the basis of an amount of change from a value of a first slope calculated at a first timing and a value of a second slope calculated at a second timing later than the first timing.

Abstract: A developing apparatus includes a sealing sheet to seal an opening portion in a developing container, an attaching portion provided on an accommodating chamber and to which the sealing sheet is attached, and a discharge portion through which the sealing sheet is discharged from inside of the developer container to outside of the developer container. The initial developer in the accommodating chamber moves to a second chamber through the opening portion by discharging the sealing sheet through the discharge portion from the inside of the developer container to the outside of the developer container. The discharge portion is disposed upstream from the opening portion and above the opening portion, and the discharge portion is disposed on a wall surface of the developer container intersected with a side wall of the developer container, the side wall having a through hole which a second conveyance screw penetrates.

Abstract: A cartridge includes: a housing; a storage medium including an electrical contact surface; and a storage medium holder holding the storage medium and movable relative to the housing. The storage medium holder is positioned at one end portion of the housing in a first direction and includes: a first holder holding the electrical contact surface; a second holder positioned spaced away from the first holder in a second direction crossing the first direction; and an elastic member expandable and shrinkable in the second direction between the first holder and the second holder. The first holder has a first hole penetrating the first holder in the second direction. The first hole is positioned farther from the housing in the first direction than the second holder and the elastic member are from the housing in the first direction and is overlapped with the electrical contact surface as viewed in the second direction.

Abstract: Presented is an image forming apparatus that includes a plurality of photoconductors, a sensor, a first memory, and a processor. The photoconductors include first and second photoconductors on which a toner image is formed in response to an image being formed. The sensor detects a physical amount that changes in response to a deterioration state of the first photoconductor. The first memory collects and stores a history of the physical amount and usage status information relating to a usage status of the first photoconductor. The processor performs a prediction of a lifespan of the second photoconductor and determination of a failure of the second photoconductor based on the history of the physical amount and the usage status information of the first photoconductor, and usage status information relating to a usage status of the second photoconductor.