Maintenance management system and image forming apparatus

• US 7,865,090 B2
• Filed: 05/21/2008
• Issued: 01/04/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/14/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Katoh, Eiichi
• Primary Examiner(s): TRAN, HOAN H
• Application Number:
  US12/124,650
• Publication Number:
  US 20080310864A1
• Time in Patent Office: 958 Days
• Field of Search: 399/9, 399/24, 399/26, 399/111, 399/116
• US Class Current: 399/24
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 15/5079 for maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 15/553 Monitoring or warning means for exhaustion or lifetime end of consumables, e.g. indication of insufficient copy sheet quantity for a job
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 2221/1606 for the photosensitive element

Abstract

A disclosed maintenance management system includes an upper-limit information storage unit configured to store an upper limit of usage for each component identifier of a component, which upper limit is expressed by using an accumulated number of revolutions of a photoconductive drum in an image forming apparatus; a revolution number information acquiring unit configured to acquire a number of revolutions of the photoconductive drum used in the image forming apparatus; and an alarm output unit configured to calculate the accumulated number of revolutions of the used photoconductive drum, calculate a component service life predictive value by using the upper limit stored in the upper-limit information storage unit for each component identifier, and output an alarm including component information pertaining to the corresponding component identifier in the event that the component service life predictive value is less than or equal to a remainder day reference value.

Claims

1. A maintenance management system comprising:

an upper-limit information storage unit configured to store an upper limit of usage of at least one component identifier of a component, which upper-limit is expressed by using an accumulated number of revolutions of a photoconductive drum in an image forming apparatus;

a revolution number information acquiring unit configured to acquire a number of revolutions of the photoconductive drum used in the image forming apparatus;

an alarm output unit configured to calculate the accumulated number of revolutions of the photoconductive drum, calculate a component service life predictive value by using the upper limit stored in the upper-limit information storage unit for each of the at least one component identifier, and output an alarm comprising component information pertaining to the corresponding component identifier in the event that the component service life predictive value is less than or equal to a remainder day reference value; and

a controller which determines the remainder day reference value by determining an average usage length day for each of the at least one component identifier, and dividing the component service life predictive value by the average usage length per day.

2. The maintenance management system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a wear-out rate reference information storage unit configured to store, for each of the at least one component identifier, a reference wear-out rate with respect to the upper limit of the number of revolutions of the photoconductive drum, wherein;

the alarm output unit calculates a wear-out rate by using the calculated accumulated number of revolutions and the upper-limit, and outputs the alarm in the event that the wear-out rate exceeds the reference wear-out rate stored in the wear-out rate reference information storage unit.

3. The maintenance management system according to claim 1, wherein:

the alarm output unit executes an alarm necessity determination process for determining whether output of the alarm is necessary for each output job.

4. The maintenance management system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a maintenance plan information storage unit configured to store a maintenance plan comprising the component information of maintenance target components; and

a maintenance plan management unit configured to additionally record, in the maintenance plan information storage unit, a maintenance plan pertaining to a certain component in the event that the component identifier of the certain component included in the alarm is not recorded in the maintenance plan stored in the maintenance plan information storage unit.

5. The maintenance management system according to claim 4, wherein:

in the event of additionally recording the maintenance plan pertaining to the certain component in the maintenance plan information storage unit, the maintenance plan management unit calculates the component service life predictive values for other components included in the image forming apparatus based on the accumulated number of revolutions of the photoconductive drum, and additionally records, in the maintenance plan as a simultaneous replacement component, any of the other components for which the component service life predictive value is less than or equal to an addition reference value.

6. The maintenance management system according to claim 4, further comprising:

a component relationship information storage unit configured to store, for components included in the image forming apparatus, component identifiers of parent components including child components, wherein;

the maintenance plan management unit identifies parent-child relationships of the components included in the maintenance plan stored in the maintenance plan information storage unit by referring to the component relationship information storage unit, and in the event that a parent component and a child component having a parent-child relationship are registered as the maintenance target components, the maintenance plan management unit deletes the component identifier of the child component from the maintenance plan.

7. An image forming apparatus comprising:

a photoconductive drum configured to form images;

a detection unit configured to detect a number of revolutions of the photoconductive drum;

an upper-limit information storage unit configured to store an upper limit of usage of at least one component identifier of a component, which upper limit is expressed by using an accumulated number of revolutions of the photoconductive drum in the image forming apparatus; and

an alarm output unit configured to calculate the accumulated number of revolutions of the photoconductive drum, calculate a component service life predictive value by using the upper limit stored in the upper-limit information storage unit for each of the at least one component identifier, and output an alarm comprising component information pertaining to the corresponding component identifier in the event that the component service life predictive value is less than or equal to a remainder day reference value, wherein

the remainder day reference value is determined by calculating an average usage length per day for each of the at least one component identifier, and dividing the component service life predictive value by the average usage length per day.

8. The image forming apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising:

a wear-out rate reference information storage unit configured to store, for each of the at least one component identifier, a reference wear-out rate with respect to the upper limit of the number of revolutions of the photoconductive drum, wherein;

the alarm output unit calculates a wear-out rate by using the calculated accumulated number of revolutions and the upper limit, and outputs the alarm in the event that the wear-out rate exceeds the reference wear-out rate stored in the wear-out rate reference information storage unit.

9. The image forming apparatus according to claim 7, wherein:

the alarm output unit executes an alarm necessity determination process for determining whether output of the alarm is necessary for each output job.