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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8190040 | Developing cartridge including shutter maintained in a closed state by an electrically-releasing adhesive and image forming apparatus using the same A developing cartridge includes: a developing roller for developing an electrostatic latent image on a photoconductor with a toner; and a developing tank for storing the toner to be supplied to the developing roller, the developing tank including: a toner receiving ... | 05/29/2012 |
| 8190038 | Image formation apparatus capable of reducing the number of output signal lines In the image formation apparatus according to the present invention, a plurality of detection sections outputs binary signals to a detection identification control section, and an image formation control section for control of periphery of the engine of the apparatu... | 05/29/2012 |
| 8190039 | Image forming apparatus and control system An image forming apparatus includes a replaceable image formation unit. The image forming apparatus includes an input device for inputting a signal representing occurrence of abnormality in one of an output image and the image forming apparatus recognized by an oper... | 05/29/2012 |
| 8180229 | Apparatus and method of controlling interchange between component parts in the apparatus An apparatus which is capable of substantially prolonging the service live of each component part and preventing the degradation of apparatus specifications before and after parts interchange work by the user. A controller of the image forming apparatus detects a co... | 05/15/2012 |
| 8160460 | Image forming apparatus for storing information in memory on removable cartridge An image forming apparatus includes: an apparatus main body; a plurality of cartridges removably mounted to the apparatus main body and accommodating developer of respective colors, each of the cartridges including a nonvolatile memory; and a storing control unit pr... | 04/17/2012 |
| 8160461 | Toner container and image forming apparatus A toner container detachably attached to a toner-container holder of a main body of an image forming apparatus includes a container body that includes an opening, and discharges toner contained in the container body, from the opening; and a held portion that is held... | 04/17/2012 |
| 8160459 | Image forming apparatus, tray ID management method, and computer-readable recording medium An image forming apparatus includes an accumulating unit to accumulate a correspondence of tray classification information that represents a classification of sheet trays and tray identifiers including information for identifying the sheet trays, a determining unit ... | 04/17/2012 |
| 8150274 | Apparatus and method for image forming An image forming apparatus is provided with a process cartridge that is removable from the image forming apparatus. When the process cartridge is installed, the image forming apparatus automatically searches a print job that matches the process cartridge that is cur... | 04/03/2012 |
| 8150275 | Toner cartridge A toner cartridge comprises a toner container which contains toner, a driving member which rotationally drives a conveying member, an agitating member which agitates a toner in the toner container while being rotated, a driven member which rotates in association wit... | 04/03/2012 |
| 8145075 | Image forming apparatus in which genuine cartridge with and without memory device are usable In an image-forming apparatus for forming an image using toner contained in a toner cartridge, genuineness of the toner cartridge with or without a memory device is verified. A counter counts a value concerning image formation. A cartridge detector determines the pr... | 03/27/2012 |
| 8145076 | Print system with drop-in interchangeable modular accessory cartridge A print system with one or more interchangeable modular accessory cartridges that will interchange with conventional printer cartridges. The interchangeable modular accessory cartridges are mounted in the printer in fixed relation to an imaging area and are identifi... | 03/27/2012 |
| 8145074 | Method of controlling image forming apparatus using write protection A system and method are provided for controlling an image forming apparatus and include a supplies information storage unit, which is included in supplies of an image forming apparatus and which has a writable first storage area and a second storage area providing w... | 03/27/2012 |
| 8139960 | Image-forming device having belt cleaning unit An image-forming device includes an electrophotographic image-forming section, a receptacle, a detecting unit, a shielding member, a drive mechanism. The electrophotographic image-forming section transfers developer onto a recording sheet to form developer image the... | 03/20/2012 |
| 8135289 | Image formation apparatus, image formation system and component An image formation apparatus includes a receiving unit that is removably receiving a component, a determination unit that determines the acceptability of the component received in the receiving unit, and a control unit that, if the determination unit does not confir... | 03/13/2012 |
| 8131162 | Image forming apparatus for detecting a non-qualified developer cartridge In a case where a qualified cartridge is not mounted, a toner supply controller stops driving of a toner supply motor. A controller calculates the toner density in a toner tank in accordance with a detection signal of a TC sensor to determine whether the toner densi... | 03/06/2012 |
| 8131163 | Image forming apparatus for performing an MICR printing operation An image forming apparatus including an image forming unit configured to form an image onto an image forming medium based on received print data by using a cartridge removably provided, a cartridge determination unit configured to determine whether an MICR cartridge... | 03/06/2012 |
| 8131164 | Processing unit and image forming apparatus A processing unit according to this invention includes a photosensitive drum, an initial detection gear, a rotation stop, and a stopper arm. The photosensitive drum forms an electrostatic latent image on a surface thereof. The initial detection gear is a member whic... | 03/06/2012 |
| 8112006 | Image forming apparatus and method for distinguishing suitable parts in the same An image forming apparatus that can provide notification, so that maintenance personnel of a manufacturer or the like can be made aware of a usage condition in a case where an unsuitable toner cartridge is intermittently used. The image forming apparatus is equipped... | 02/07/2012 |
| 8107828 | Image forming apparatus and method Time required for setting a print mode in a print standby state is shortened, in performing recovering operation. In an attachment state of consumable units on an image forming apparatus, information of the consumable unit memorized in nonvolatile memories of consum... | 01/31/2012 |
| 8095021 | Image forming device determining refilled product An image forming device to which can be installed an image forming material cartridge which contains an image forming material, and which has a non-volatile memory from which data can be read and to which data can be written, includes a counter which approximately c... | 01/10/2012 |
| 8090272 | Image forming apparatus for detecting developer cartridge status An image forming apparatus according to one aspect comprises: a main unit; and a developer cartridge detachably attached to the main unit. The developing cartridge comprises: a rotation body having a rotational axis and rotatable in a rotation direction; and one rot... | 01/03/2012 |
| 8090274 | Consumable unit and method of managing consumable unit including memory storing consumable item information A consumable unit and an image forming apparatus for controlling a consumable include a first memory that stores consumable item information regarding the consumable and provides the consumable item information through password authentication, and a second memory th... | 01/03/2012 |
| 8090273 | Custom application fuser roller system A fuser roller system, utilized with electrographic or xerographic copying or printing devices, multiple fuser rollers, each of which includes a machine readable device (MRD) having identification data. The system also includes at least one MRD reader and at least o... | 01/03/2012 |
| 8068747 | Device and method for detecting position of unit mounted in image forming apparatus A device and a method for detecting the position of a developing unit mounted in an image forming apparatus are provided. The device includes an image forming controller outputting a clock signal for accessing first to Nth (N is a positive integer greater than 1) de... | 11/29/2011 |
| 8055142 | Replacement device of an image forming device that is determined to be a licensed product or a recycled product An image forming apparatus and a method of controlling the same are provided. The image forming apparatus includes a device information storage unit, a determiner and a controller. The device information storage unit is included in a replaceable device of the image ... | 11/08/2011 |
| 8041235 | Image forming apparatus, adjusting method thereof and replacement component thereof Disclosed is an image forming apparatus in which a replacement component is set including the replacement component in which a storage medium storing adjustment necessity information indicating whether an adjustment procedure is needed or not after the replacement c... | 10/18/2011 |
| 8036542 | Image forming apparatus and control method thereof Disclosed are an image forming apparatus and a control method thereof. The control method of an image forming apparatus includes mounting a cartridge including a status indicating element, determining whether the mounted cartridge is a new one based on identificatio... | 10/11/2011 |
| RE42796 | Developing cartridge, process unit, and image forming apparatus A developing cartridge removably set in a laser printer includes a drive gear that inputs a drive force thereto, a detection gear that irreversibly moves from a unused position where the detection gear does not engage with the drive gear, to a used position where th... | 10/04/2011 |
| 8032037 | Image forming apparatus, computer program product, and printing inhibiting method A cartridge used for image formation is detachably accommodated in a main body of an image forming apparatus. A cartridge determining unit determines a cartridge type, which is a type of the cartridge, and a print-job determining unit determines a print job type, wh... | 10/04/2011 |
| 8027596 | Image forming apparatus An image forming apparatus is disclosed. The image forming apparatus includes a toner supplying device, a toner container, and a developing device. The toner supplying device supplies toners stored in the toner container to the developing device. The toner supplying... | 09/27/2011 |
| 8027595 | Method and apparatus to store information on amount of toner used, and image forming device using the same A method and apparatus to store information on an amount of toner used. The method includes determining whether a customer replaceable unit monitor (CRUM) memory to store information on an amount of used toner is included in a cartridge of an image forming device; s... | 09/27/2011 |
| 8023836 | Supply item for laser printer including keying structure Supply items, such as toner bottles for laser printers, include substantially identical housings amongst the many different colors of toners. To distinguish the items and prevent improper installation, a keying structure attaches per each bottle and is indexed relat... | 09/20/2011 |
| 8019235 | Toner cartridge and image forming apparatus A toner cartridge includes a toner container which contains toner, the toner container having at one end portion thereof a discharge port which discharges the toner, and a member which is attached to an outer peripheral surface of the one end portion. The member has... | 09/13/2011 |
| 8019234 | Supply item for laser printer including keying structure Supply items, such as toner bottles for laser printers, include substantially identical housings amongst the many different colors of toners. To distinguish the items and prevent improper installation, a keying structure attaches per each bottle and is indexed relat... | 09/13/2011 |
| 8014687 | Image forming apparatus that determines when a life of a replacement unit has expired An image forming apparatus includes: a replaceable constituent element; an information storage unit that holds information indicating a type of the constituent element received by a user interface; and a life calculation controller that, when at least one piece of t... | 09/06/2011 |
| 8009996 | Image forming apparatus including unit for determining type of developer cartridge An image forming apparatus includes a main unit; and a developer cartridge detachably attached to the main unit. The developer cartridge includes a rotational body having a rotational axis and rotatable in a rotation direction; and an extended portion formed on the ... | 08/30/2011 |
| 8005376 | Image forming apparatus, cartridge and image forming method An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit to receive an image forming agent from a cartridge having a state indicating element to form an image, a state setting unit to open the state indicating element, and a controller to determine a usage amount o... | 08/23/2011 |
| 8000615 | Image forming apparatus and image forming method In an image forming apparatus, a timer unit measures a time interval between a current time and a time point when previous supply of toner to a developing unit ended and an adjusting unit adjusts an amount of toner to be supplied to the developing unit based on the ... | 08/16/2011 |
| 8000614 | Developer supply container and developer supply system A developer supply container detachably mounts to a developer receiving apparatus and supplies a developer by rotation and includes a regulation portion for determining whether or not the developer supply container should be mounted by being regulated by a regulatio... | 08/16/2011 |
| 7995931 | Image forming apparatus A image forming apparatus includes a photosensitive drum having a high-lubricity state layer. In an initial rotation operation performed after mounting a process cartridge, in a main assembly of the image forming apparatus, a process cartridge in which lubricating p... | 08/09/2011 |