Image forming apparatus for enabling to selectively apply a setting voltage or other voltages to a transferring material

• US 6,456,804 B2
• Filed: 12/29/2000
• Issued: 09/24/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 01/05/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Canon Ayutthaya Limited (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Ayutthaya Limited (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Naito, Norihito, Tanaka, Yuko, Izawa, Satoru
• Primary Examiner(s): Chen, Sophia S.
• Application Number:
  US09/749,933
• Publication Number:
  US 20010021316A1
• Time in Patent Office: 634 Days
• Field of Search: 399/66, 399/45, 399/81, 399/389, 430/126
• US Class Current: 399/66
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 15/1675 with means for controlling the bias applied in the transfer nip

Abstract

In the conventional types of Active Transfer Voltage Control (ATVC) system, it is assumed that transferring material has definite impedance. When a toner image is transferred to the transferring material which is in a condition where only the top of the transferring material has high impedance, the conventional ATVC system maintains a transferring current higher than the critical transferring current value with the top of the transferring material and applies a bias voltage at a corrected level, whereby the ATVC system may supply an excessive current to a portion of the photosensitive drum corresponding to a location which is other than the top having the high impedance and at which a toner image is not formed. Therefore, it is provided, an image forming apparatus which is capable of favorably transferring a toner image regardless of impedance of a transferring material.

Claims

1. An image forming apparatus comprising:

an image bearing body for bearing a toner image;

a transferring member for forming a nip with said image bearing body and transferring a toner image on said image bearing body to a transferring material;

detecting means for applying a predetermined voltage to said transferring member and detecting a supplied current when a leading end portion of the transferring material is inserted in the nip;

setting means for setting a transferring voltage to be applied to said transferring member at an area successive to the leading end portion of the transferring material on the basis of an output from said detecting means; and

selecting means for selecting a transferring voltage to be applied to said transferring member at the area out of a voltage set by said setting means and other voltages not set by said setting means.

2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said selecting means includes a manual designation switch to designate the other voltages.

3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the other voltages include a user-designated voltage.

4. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said selecting means makes selection in accordance with a signal received from a computer.

5. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said detecting means detects a current in the leading end portion except an edge of the transferring material.

6. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the other voltages are predetermined voltages.

7. An image forming apparatus comprising:

an image bearing body for bearing a toner image;

a transferring member for forming a nip in cooperation with said image bearing body and transferring a toner image on said image bearing body to a transferring material;

detecting means for applying a predetermined voltage to said transferring member and detecting a supplied current when a leading end portion of the transferring material is inserted in the nip;

setting means for setting a transferring voltage to be applied to said transferring member at an area successive to the leading end portion of the transferring material on the basis of an output from said detecting means; and

modifying means for modifying a current range within which a current is to be detected by said detecting means.

8. The image forming apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said modifying means comprises a user-operable switch for modifying the current range.

9. The image forming apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said modifying means modifies the range in accordance with a signal received from a computer.