Patents by Inventor Sadanori Kobashi

Sadanori Kobashi has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 8295719
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus having a collected toner container in which residual toner is accumulated is controlled by: obtaining a supplied toner amount, obtaining a total number of printed sheets, calculating an average number of printed sheets per image forming job, calculating an average printing ratio based on the supplied toner amount, the total number of printed sheets, and the average number of printed sheets per image forming job, calculating a collected toner amount based on the average number of printed sheets per image forming job and the average printing ratio, and comparing the collected toner amount with a threshold value to generate a comparison result.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 29, 2010
    Date of Patent: October 23, 2012
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Limited
    Inventors: Tsuyoshi Nagasu, Sadanori Kobashi
  • Publication number: 20110026948
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus having a collected toner container in which residual toner is accumulated is controlled by: obtaining a supplied toner amount, obtaining a total number of printed sheets, calculating an average number of printed sheets per image forming job, calculating an average printing ratio based on the supplied toner amount, the total number of printed sheets, and the average number of printed sheets per image forming job, calculating a collected toner amount based on the average number of printed sheets per image forming job and the average printing ratio, and comparing the collected toner amount with a threshold value to generate a comparison result.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 29, 2010
    Publication date: February 3, 2011
    Inventors: Tsuyoshi NAGASU, Sadanori Kobashi
  • Patent number: 7477869
    Abstract: In an electrophotographic printing apparatus for printing an image to an image transfer sheet medium by producing a latent image on a photosensitive unit and transferring the latent image to the image transfer sheet medium, a width-directional position of the image transfer sheet medium is detected before the latent image is produced and the same after the latent image is produced on the photosensitive unit by the width-directional positional sensor, and the detection results are compared with one another; and it is determined from the comparison result whether or not printing operation is continued.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 26, 2005
    Date of Patent: January 13, 2009
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Yoshinori Kawaai, Sadanori Kobashi, Kazutoshi Obara, Kiyoshi Suzuki
  • Patent number: 7369786
    Abstract: A sheet transporting apparatus includes: a heating roller and a pressure roller that heats and presses a toner image to fix the toner image onto the sheet; a pressure roller detection unit that detects a contact posture of the rollers; a sheet meander correction mechanism that corrects a meander of the sheet by varying a difference in pressures between the rollers at both ends of the rollers; and a microprocessor that computes and stores the amount of the meander and the amount of correction, wherein the toner is fixed on the sheet when the contact posture is within a fixable range, and wherein when the pressure roller detection unit detects that the contact posture is out of the fixable range during transport of the sheet, the contact posture is controlled to return to a predetermined fixable posture, and the microprocessor corrects an error in the amount of correction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 10, 2006
    Date of Patent: May 6, 2008
    Assignee: Ricoh Printing Systems, Ltd.
    Inventors: Tsuyoshi Nagasu, Sadanori Kobashi, Shinji Nagayama
  • Publication number: 20070014585
    Abstract: A sheet transporting apparatus includes: a heating roller and a pressure roller that heats and presses a toner image to fix the toner image onto the sheet; a pressure roller detection unit that detects a contact posture of the rollers; a sheet meander correction mechanism that corrects a meander of the sheet by varying a difference in pressures between the rollers at both ends of the rollers; and a microprocessor that computes and stores the amount of the meander and the amount of correction, wherein the toner is fixed on the sheet when the contact posture is within a fixable range, and wherein when the pressure roller detection unit detects that the contact posture is out of the fixable range during transport of the sheet, the contact posture is controlled to return to a predetermined fixable posture, and the microprocessor corrects an error in the amount of correction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 10, 2006
    Publication date: January 18, 2007
    Applicant: RICOH PRINTING SYSTEMS, LTD.
    Inventors: Tsuyoshi Nagasu, Sadanori Kobashi, Shinji Nagayama
  • Publication number: 20050265761
    Abstract: In an electrophotographic printing apparatus for printing an image to an image transfer sheet medium by producing a latent image on a photosensitive unit and transferring the latent image to the image transfer sheet medium, a width-directional position of the image transfer sheet medium is detected before the latent image is produced and the same after the latent image is produced on the photosensitive unit by the width-directional positional sensor, and the detection results are compared with one another; and it is determined from the comparison result whether or not printing operation is continued.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 26, 2005
    Publication date: December 1, 2005
    Inventors: Yoshinori Kawaai, Sadanori Kobashi, Kazutoshi Obara, Kiyoshi Suzuki
  • Patent number: 6669384
    Abstract: In a printing apparatus in which a sheet handling device for conducting plural kinds of post processing is connected to a subsequent stage of an image forming device, a plurality of sheet feeding apparatuses disposed in the sheet handling device have a sheet residual amount detecting sensor and a sheet exhaustion detecting sensor. When the sheet residual amount detecting sensor detects that the number of sheets in an inserter is smaller than a predetermined number, the image forming device transports a sheet after it is confirmed by the sheet exhaustion detecting sensor that a sheet remains in the inserter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 8, 2002
    Date of Patent: December 30, 2003
    Assignee: Hitachi Printing Solutions, Ltd.
    Inventors: Nobuyuki Furuya, Sadanori Kobashi, Yoshihiko Sano
  • Publication number: 20030063940
    Abstract: In a printing apparatus in which a sheet handling device for conducting plural kinds of post processing is connected to a subsequent stage of an image forming device, a plurality of sheet feeding apparatuses disposed in the sheet handling device have a sheet residual amount detecting sensor and a sheet exhaustion detecting sensor. When the sheet residual amount detecting sensor detects that the number of sheets in an inserter is smaller than a predetermined number, the image forming device transports a sheet after it is confirmed by the sheet exhaustion detecting sensor that a sheet remains in the inserter.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 8, 2002
    Publication date: April 3, 2003
    Applicant: Hitachi Koki Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Nobuyuki Furuya, Sadanori Kobashi, Yoshihiko Sano
  • Patent number: 6139012
    Abstract: In an image forming unit system, a sheet handling unit having a fixed sheet carrying-in rate is connected to an image forming unit having a sheet ejection rate controlled variably so that stable sheet carrying can be achieved. The sheet carrying rate (VF) of a sheet carrying-in roller pair (26) provided in a sheet handling unit (2) is defined to be higher than the sheet carrying rate (VU and VD) of a sheet ejection roller pair (16) provided in an image forming unit (1). The pressing force (F2) between the rollers of the sheet carrying-in roller pair is defined to be smaller than the pressing force (F1) between the rollers of the sheet ejection roller pair.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 13, 1999
    Date of Patent: October 31, 2000
    Assignee: Hitachi Koki Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Nobuyuki Furuya, Yoshihiko Sano, Sadanori Kobashi, Yoshinori Kawaai