Abstract: An image forming apparatus having a main body with an opening portion provided in one face of the main body, and a thermal transfer printer. The thermal transfer printer records desired information additively on paper on which a toner image has been fixed. The printer uses a thermal head to press an ink-ribbon on the paper. The thermal transfer printer includes a casing in which a cassette for housing the ink-ribbon is detachably mounted, a thermal head support for supporting the thermal head, and an interlocking mechanism. The interlocking mechanism retracts the thermal head with the thermal head support in response to retraction of the casing. Thus, it is possible to detach the cassette from the main body through the opening portion. This facilitates replacement of cassettes and clearing of paper jams.

Abstract: An image-forming apparatus is provided with a bookbinding device having a binder receiving portion. The binder receiving portion is provided with a heat source for heating an adhesive or with an electrode for electrifying the electric heating member on a bottom portion thereof so that a plurality of papers disposed in a binder can be adhered to the inner surface of the back cover of the binder by heating and melting the adhesive with the heat source or the electric heating member. A binder-insertion hole of the binder receiving portion is provided with a cover to prevent foreign matter from entering the binder receiving portion.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus can be achieved as, for example, a copying machine. The copying machine according to the present invention includes a handy scanner provided detachably from the main body of the copy machine and an additional data recording device for recording data read by the handy scanner as additonal data in addition to a mechanism for reading an image of a document disposed on an original glass plate to copy the same onto recording paper. The handy scanner can read arbitrary image data such as a figure, a designed character or a logotype. The image data read by the handy scanner is applied to the additional data recording device. If the paper on which the document image has been copied is provided to the additional data recording device, the additional data recording device records the additonal data at the rear of the paper on which the document image has been copied.

Abstract: A system for controlling the driving of a stepper motor which is rotated by the driving pulses generated based on the two-phase excitation system for rotating a driven system is disclosed herein comprises when the frequency of said driving pulses is outside of the resonance ranges of said stepper motor and some predetermined component parts of said driven system, respectively, the driving pulses generated based on said two-phase excitation system are applied to said stepper motor to rotate the same, but when the frequency of said driving pulses is within said resonance ranges, a brake pulse and a power suppression portion are added to said driving pulses so that said stepper motor is caused to rotate without causing resonance and can be stopped at a predetermined position with a high degree of accuracy and furthermore noise can be suppressed to a minimum.

Abstract: Disclosed is a centralized home appliances simultaneous control system consisting of controller(s) and terminal units associated with home electric appliances. Setting of batch control is done in a centralized manner on the controller(s) and it is stored in the memory provided in the controller(s), instead of being done on the individual terminal units. The settings stored in the controller's memory are sent via a communication medium to the memory in each terminal unit, and the setup status of each terminal unit is sent back to the controller(s) for the purpose of monitoring with reference to the contents of the controller's memory. A batch control command signal is issued from the controller(s) to the terminal units, which then responds to control the operation of the associated electric appliances in accordance to the batch control plan corresponding to the command held in the memory of the terminal units.