IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS, TONER SUPPLY METHOD, AND NON-TRANSITORY COMPUTER-READABLE RECORDING MEDIUM ENCODED WITH TONER SUPPLY PROGRAM

• US 20180088508A1
• Filed: 09/14/2017
• Published: 03/29/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/23/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Konica Minolta Inc.
• Original Assignee: Konica Minolta Inc.
• Inventors: KAWADA, Masanori, UMEMOTO, Hiroaki, ITO, Yohei, SHIMA, Toshiaki, OTA, Kazuyoshi, TOKUTAKE, Shinya, NOGUCHI, Hidetoshi, YOSHIMOTO, Shinichi, OKAZAKI, Futoshi
• Granted Patent: US 10,185,270 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 15/0879 for dispensing developer from a developer cartridge not directly attached to the development unit
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 15/556 for toner consumption, e.g. pixel counting, toner coverage detection or toner density measurement

Abstract

An image forming apparatus includes an image former which forms an image on an image carrying member with toner stored in a storage, a toner supplier which supplies toner to the storage by driving a conveyance member, a density measurer which causes the image former to form an image having a predetermined density at a predetermined timing and measures density of the formed image, a corrector which corrects a driving amount of the conveyance member based on the density measured by the density measurer, and a changer which changes a timing when the density measurer measures the density in response to an event that a predetermined condition is satisfied.

Claims

1. An image forming apparatus comprising:

a storage that stores toner;

an image former that forms an image on an image carrying member with toner stored in the storage;

a toner supplier that supplies toner to the storage by driving a conveyance member;

a density measurer that causes the image former to form an image having a predetermined density at a predetermined timing, and measures density of the formed image;

a corrector that corrects, in response to measurement of density by the density measurer, a driving amount of the conveyance member based on the measured density; and

a changer that changes, based on satisfaction of a predetermined condition, a timing when the density measurer measures density.

2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the changer changes to a timing when a frequency with which the density measurer measures density is increased.

3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising

a consumption predictor that predicts toner consumption by the image former based on image data targeted for image forming, wherein:

the toner supplier determines a driving amount of the conveyance member based on a standard driving amount determined for per unit amount of toner as well as on the predicted toner consumption, and supplies toner to the storage by driving the conveyance member according only to the determined driving amount; and

the corrector predicts toner density in the storage based on the measured density, and corrects the standard driving amount based on the predicted toner density.

4. The image forming apparatus according to claim 3, wherein:

the predetermined timing is a timing when the toner consumption predicted by the consumption predictor after the density measurer has detected density becomes equal to or more than a first threshold value;

the predetermined condition is a case where a correction amount of the standard driving amount corrected by the corrector becomes equal to or more than a second threshold value; and

the changer changes the first threshold value.

5. The image forming apparatus according to claim 4, wherein

the changer changes the first threshold value to a smaller value in a case where the correction amount becomes equal to or more than the second threshold value.

6. The image forming apparatus according to claim 4, wherein

the predetermined timing is a timing when an accumulation of predicted toner consumption becomes equal to or more than the first threshold value.

7. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the predetermined condition includes a case where a non-operation period during which the image former is not driven becomes greater than a predetermined period.

8. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising

an environment variable detector that measures an environment variable including a temperature and/or a humidity, wherein

the predetermined condition includes a case where a change amount of the measured environment variable becomes greater than a predetermined value.

9. A toner supply method performed by an image forming apparatus comprising:

a storage that stores toner;

an image former that forms an image on an image carrying member with toner stored in the storage; and

a toner supplier that supplies toner to the storage by driving a conveyance member,

the toner supply method comprising;

a density measuring step of causing the image former to form an image having a predetermined density at a predetermined timing, and measuring density of the formed image;

a correction step of correcting, in response to measurement of density in the density measuring step, a driving amount of the conveyance member based on the measured density; and

a change step of changing, based on satisfaction of a predetermined condition, a timing when density is measured in the density measuring step.

10. The toner supply method according to claim 9, wherein

the change step includes a step of changing to a timing when a frequency with which density is measured in the density measuring step is increased.

11. The toner supply method according to claim 9, comprising:

a consumption predicting step of predicting toner consumption by the image former based on image data targeted for image forming; and

a driving control step of determining a driving amount of the conveyance member based on a standard driving amount determined for per unit amount of toner as well as on the predicted toner consumption, and driving the conveyance member according only to the determined driving amount in order to cause the toner supplier to supply toner to the storage, wherein

the correction step includes a step of predicting toner density in the storage based on the measured density, and correcting the standard driving amount based on the predicted toner density.

12. The toner supply method according to claim 11, wherein:

the predetermined timing is a timing when the toner consumption predicted in the consumption predicting step after density has been detected in the density measuring step becomes equal to or more than a first threshold value;

the predetermined condition is a case where a correction amount of the standard driving amount corrected in the correction step becomes equal to or more than a second threshold value; and

the change step includes a step of changing the first threshold value.

13. The toner supply method according to claim 12, wherein

the change step includes a step of changing the first threshold value to a smaller value in a case where the correction amount becomes equal to or more than the second threshold value.

14. The toner supply method according to claim 12, wherein

the predetermined timing is a timing when an accumulation of predicted toner consumption becomes equal to or more than the first threshold value.

15. The toner supply method according to claim 9, wherein

the predetermined condition includes a case where a non-operation period during which the image former is not driven becomes greater than a predetermined period.

16. The toner supply method according to claim 9, further comprising

an environment variable detecting step of measuring an environment variable including a temperature and/or a humidity, wherein

the predetermined condition includes a case where a change amount of the measured environment variable becomes greater than a predetermined value.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium encoded with a toner supply program executed by a hardware processor that controls an image forming apparatus,

the image forming apparatus comprising:

a storage that stores toner;

an image former that forms an image on an image carrying member with toner stored in the storage; and

a toner supplier that supplies toner to the storage by driving a conveyance member;

the toner supply program causing the hardware processor to perform;

a density measuring step of causing the image former to form an image having a predetermined density at a predetermined timing, and measuring density of the formed image;

a correction step of correcting, in response to measurement of density in the density measuring step, a driving amount of the conveyance member based on the measured density; and

a change step of changing, based on satisfaction of a predetermined condition, a timing when density is measured in the density measuring step.