IMAGE FORMATION APPARATUS

• US 20080075488A1
• Filed: 11/16/2007
• Published: 03/27/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/24/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Moriyama, Tsuyoshi, Fukushi, Kenji, Mizuno, Yoshio, Hashimoto, Tatsuaki
• Granted Patent: US 7,440,706 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 399/43
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 15/556 for toner consumption, e.g. pixel counting, toner coverage detection or toner density measurement
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 2215/0119 Linear arrangement adjacent plural transfer points
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00002 Diagnosis, testing or measuring; Detecting, analysing or monitoring not otherwise provided for error detection, error correction or monitoring in digital computers or digital computer components G06F11/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00045 using a reference pattern designed for the purpose, e.g. a test chart
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00055 automatically on a periodic basis
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00087 Setting or calibrating picture signal circuits H04N1/40

Abstract

An image formation apparatus comprises: an automatic adjustment unit for automatic adjustment of the apparatus; a job queuing unit for queuing image formation jobs; a counting unit for counting the number of pages from the previous automatic adjustment, for each automatic adjustment item; a determining unit for determining whether the number of image formation pages for automatic adjustment will be reached during execution of the image formation queued job; and a control unit wherein, in the event that the determining unit determines that the number of image formation pages for automatic adjustment will be reached during execution of the image formation job queued by the job queuing unit, automatic adjustment is performed before starting executing of the image formation queued job even though the number of image formation pages counted by the counting unit has not reached the number for the automatic adjustment is to be performed.

Claims

1-27. -27. (canceled)

28. An image formation apparatus for forming images based on input image data, comprising:

an automatic adjustment portion adapted to perform automatic adjustment of said image formation apparatus for each of a plurality of adjustment items;

a counting portion adapted to count the number of image formation pages from a last automatic adjustment, for each automatic adjustment item which said automatic adjustment portion performs;

a control portion adapted to effect automatic adjustment by an automatic adjustment portion, in response to the number of image formation pages counted by said counting portion reaching a first threshold value;

a setting portion adapted to set, for each of said plurality of adjustment items, a second threshold value smaller than said first threshold value; and

a determining portion adapted to determine, for each of said plurality of adjustment items, whether or not the number of image formation pages counted by said counting portion has reached said second threshold value set by said setting portion before starting execution of the next image formation job;

wherein, in the event that said determining portion determines that there is at least an adjustment item for which the number of image formation pages counted by said counting portion has reached said second threshold value, said control portion effects automatic adjustment by said automatic adjustment portion before starting executing of the next image formation job even though the number of image formation pages counted by said counting portion has not reached said first threshold value.

29. The image formation apparatus according to claim 28, wherein said second threshold value is a user-settable value.

30. The image formation apparatus according to claim 28, wherein said second threshold value is automatically determined based on image formation job contents executed within a predetermined period or within a predetermined number of times of image formation jobs.

31. The image formation apparatus according to claim 30, wherein said image formation job contents are the average number of image formation sheets per job within a predetermined period or within a predetermined number of times of image formation jobs.

32. The image formation apparatus according to claim 28, wherein said plurality of adjustment items includes at least one of density adjustment, which forms an image for density detection and determines density of said image for density detection and registration adjustment, which forms an image for position detection and determines position of said image for position detection.