...that the Eveready Battery began as an invention called the "electric flowerpot," which was a tube with a battery and light bulb inside? The idea was to fasten this gizmo to the side of a flowerpot so it would illuminate the flowers from the bottom. The idea died on the vine and the businessman who licensed the flower pot, Conrad Huber, was left with a pile of useless tubes -- until he found a way to market them as batteries to light the world!
Make the Most of Our Site
See this month's Top Inventors and Most Cited Patents.
Stay on top of the latest innovations by subscribing to an RSS feed.
Registered users: Manage your profile.
| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7995944 | Fusing device and image forming apparatus having the same A fusing device includes a heating unit which provides heat for fixing toner on paper, a pressure unit which is aligned with the heating unit, and which provides pressure for fixing the toner onto the paper. The fusing device further includes a heat applying unit th... | 08/09/2011 |
| 7991316 | Fixing device There is provided a fixing device 6 including a heating body 22 which has a heating heat generation section 24 subjected to induction heating upon application of alternating magnetic fields generated by a exciting coil 27, a pressure roll... | 08/02/2011 |
| 7983581 | Fixing method and fixing device with specified temperature relationships for recording medium A fixing method and a fixing device is provided in which an unfixed toner image formed on a recording medium is heat-pressure-fixed by using a fixing unit, wherein the unfixed toner image is fixed when the recording medium passes through at least two fixing units ar... | 07/19/2011 |
| 7983582 | Image forming apparatus and control method therefor An image forming apparatus includes an image carrier, a developing unit, a transfer unit, and a fixer to fix an image formed on a sheet and includes a rotary heat generator including a heat generation layer, a pressure member to form a nip with the rotary heat gener... | 07/19/2011 |
| 7970309 | Image forming apparatus including a power-control feature for flicker suppression The image forming apparatus includes an image forming part, a fixing part including a heater and a temperature detection element; and a power-control part that controls power to be supplied to the heater according to the detection temperature of the temperature dete... | 06/28/2011 |
| 7965955 | Image forming apparatus An image forming apparatus is operable in a speed priority mode in which a temperature range that permits a fixing operation via a pressure belt is wide and an image-quality priority mode in which a temperature range that permits a fixing operation via the pressure ... | 06/21/2011 |
| 7957661 | Control of overheating in an image fixing assembly An image fixing assembly includes a heating unit having a heating element and a fusing member enclosing the heating element; a backup member; and a heat conducting member. The fusing member is configured to rotate around the heating element. Further, the fusing memb... | 06/07/2011 |
| 7957662 | Fixing apparatus and image processing apparatus According to an embodiment, a heating device having a plurality of heating members which heat the heating roller, a first thermoelectric converting section having a plurality of thermoelectric converting elements, each of which has a heat-absorbing surface and a coo... | 06/07/2011 |
| 7957663 | Heater, fixing unit and image forming apparatus A heater is operable with a main power supply unit and a chargeable auxiliary power supplying unit. The heater includes a heater part having one or a plurality of heater elements to receive power from the main and auxiliary power supplying units, a detecting part to... | 06/07/2011 |
| 7949274 | Fixing apparatus and temperature control method In a fixing apparatus having a first roller which includes a first heater and a second heater arranged in difference ranges from each other in the direction of rotation axis and an auxiliary heater arranged in a range including the ranges where the first and second ... | 05/24/2011 |
| 7949273 | Fixing device, fixing device temperature control method and image forming apparatus A fixing device has a heating roller and a pressurizing belt which convey the a recording material in mutual contact while fixing a toner on the recording material, a heater which heats the heating roller, a noncontact first thermister which detects a surface temper... | 05/24/2011 |
| 7945181 | Fixing device, image forming apparatus, and fixing-device control method In a fixing device, a fixing unit fixes a toner image transferred onto a recording medium by a heating target unit heated by a plurality of heating units each of which is grouped as a first heating unit to which power is selectively supplied or a second heating unit... | 05/17/2011 |
| 7941066 | Image heating device with duct for air blowing and suction An image forming apparatus comprising a heating rotating body which heats a toner image while nipping and conveying a recording material bearing the toner image, a fan which cools down the heating rotating body, and a duct adapted in such a manner that air which is ... | 05/10/2011 |
| 7933530 | Fuser assembly fan control A printer is provided including a reference edge, a fuser assembly, a cooling apparatus and a controller. The reference edge is adapted to be contacted by a substrate as the substrate moves along a substrate path through the printer. The fuser assembly includes a he... | 04/26/2011 |
| 7933529 | Image forming apparatus, method for controlling image forming apparatus, fixing apparatus An image forming apparatus includes a fixing apparatus for fixing a toner image onto a recording medium by applying pressure and heat to toner provided on the surface of the recording medium. The fixing apparatus includes a fixing member, a pressing member for press... | 04/26/2011 |
| 7920802 | Heating control device, fixing device, image forming apparatus, heating control method, and computer program product A fixing device fixes an image on a recording medium by allowing the recording medium to pass through a nip between a pair of rotating members at least one of which is heated. The fixing device includes heaters that heat rotating members, temperature sensing element... | 04/05/2011 |
| 7912392 | Image forming apparatus with glossy image printing mode An image forming apparatus includes an image forming part, a fixer including a heating member and a pressure member, a reverse transport part to forward a recording medium transported from the fixer to the image forming part, a toner image sensor to detect presence ... | 03/22/2011 |
| 7912391 | Image-heating device with a first heating member and an adjustable second heating member An image-heating device has a detector for detecting the state of a recording medium at a position between a first fixing unit and a second fixing unit along a conveying path of the recording medium and a controller for controlling a fixing condition of the second f... | 03/22/2011 |
| 7907861 | Image heating apparatus for heating an image on a recording material to different temperatures in different modes An image heating apparatus includes a heating rotatable member for heating, in a nip, an image on a recording material; a heater for heating the image heating member; a cooling device for cooling the image heating member, wherein when a target temperature of the ima... | 03/15/2011 |
| 7899350 | Fixing device and image forming apparatus using the same A fixing device including a fixing member to melt a toner so as to fix a toner image onto a recording medium, a temperature sensor to detect a temperature of the fixing member, and a heater to heat the fixing member based on the temperature detected by the temperatu... | 03/01/2011 |
| 7894735 | Fixing device of image forming apparatus The fixing device of the image forming apparatus of the present invention is provided with a heat transfer probe which contacts the heat roller and a surface temperature of the heat roller is transferred thereto. The erroneous detection of the surface temperature of... | 02/22/2011 |
| 7890008 | Image forming apparatus and recording medium on which interrupt control program is recorded An image forming apparatus is provided having a fixing device which heats a fixing roller from the surface thereof by means of an external heating device, which image forming apparatus is capable of improving fixability immediately just after a start-up and enhancin... | 02/15/2011 |
| 7890010 | Fixing device for color image forming apparatus and control method A fixing device switches ON a heater lamp of the press roller in a fixing device in a color print mode. In a monochromatic mode, power comparable to the power consumption of the heater lamp can be supplied additionally to an exciting coil on the heat roller side whe... | 02/15/2011 |
| 7890009 | Image forming apparatus with a presence or absense sensor The image forming apparatus has a heat member for heating an unfixed image and is configured so that a longitudinal center of the heat member becomes a conveyance center of the recording material, the image forming apparatus including a central portion temperature d... | 02/15/2011 |
| 7885567 | Printing apparatus and a method of controlling a power supply to a heating roller and to a phase control circuit A method and an apparatus to control power supplied to a heating roller and a phase control circuit corresponding to the method or the apparatus. The phase control circuit may include an examination unit to compare levels of a sine wave having a predetermined first ... | 02/08/2011 |
| 7885568 | Image forming device with improved fixing temperature control and method An image forming device that uses only one temperature sensor to detect temperatures of the recording sheet and a rotation member for fixing, and can perform the temperature adjustment control carefully in detail during the image forming operation. The CPU 61... | 02/08/2011 |
| 7885569 | Heater, fixing unit and image forming apparatus operable with a main and auxiliary power supply unit A heater operable with main and auxiliary power supply units. A controller selects a first mode to permit discharge of the auxiliary power supply unit when a voltage or power from the auxiliary power supply unit is a startable value or greater without making referen... | 02/08/2011 |
| 7881630 | Temperature control device, temperature control method, fixing device, image forming apparatus, temperature control program, computer-readable recording medium, and computer data signal The present invention carries out temperature detection and temperature control accurately in a temperature control device using a noncontact-type temperature detecting section. The temperature control device obtains the surface temperature of a fixing roller by usi... | 02/01/2011 |
| 7881631 | Fixing unit and fixing temperature control method An image forming apparatus contains an image forming section; a fixing unit configured to heat the toner image by a heater to fix on the sheet; a power source section; an acquisition section configured to acquire a voltage value of the input power source; a sensor c... | 02/01/2011 |
| 7873293 | Image heating apparatus and heater for use in image heating apparatus The heater includes an elongated substrate, two electrodes disposed along a longitudinal direction of the substrate, and a heat generation resistive member connected between the two electrodes. The heat generation resistive member is formed on the substrate by one o... | 01/18/2011 |
| 7869730 | Image forming apparatus heat control An image forming apparatus and method includes a controller to set a reference fusing temperature according to the print pattern of an input image received from an image input unit. The input image is converted to bitmap data to recognize the print pattern. The refe... | 01/11/2011 |
| 7865100 | Fixing apparatus and image forming apparatus A paper separation claw is separated from a surface of a pressure roller by a drive source being turned ON at a time t2 before commencement of rotation of the pressure roller, and the paper separation claw is made to contact the surface of the pressure roller... | 01/04/2011 |
| 7865101 | Fusing system and control method thereof A fusing system includes: a fusing unit which comprises a fusing belt which rotates around outer surfaces of at least two rollers which are distanced from each other, and a pressing roller which presses a printing medium together with the fusing belts and fuses an i... | 01/04/2011 |
| 7860418 | System and method for cooling a roller having multiple heating zones A printer includes a system for cooling an image receiving member. The image receiving member cooling system includes an image receiving member having a first end and a second end, a first heater mounted within the image receiving member for heating the image receiv... | 12/28/2010 |
| 7853165 | Apparatus and method for a multi-tap series resistance heating element in a belt fuser A segment and heater fuser roll is disposed for a printing device including a plurality of heating elements in a preselected order relative to a voltage return. A plurality of voltage taps are disposed for applying selected power to ones of the plurality of heater e... | 12/14/2010 |
| 7853164 | Image forming apparatus and power control method A plurality of heating units generates a heat by an alternating-current power supplied from a corresponding alternating-current power supply unit through a corresponding input terminal and supplying the heat to a fixing unit that fixes a toner image transformed on a... | 12/14/2010 |
| 7840150 | Image forming apparatus having a plurality of heating devices for heating recording sheet An image forming apparatus has: a first heating device which heats recording sheet formed with a developer image; a cooling device which cools the recording sheet passing through the first heating device; a second heating device which heats the recording sheet coole... | 11/23/2010 |
| 7831164 | Fuser with gloss feedback control A method of controlling gloss in a printing system having a fuser. The method includes: creating a gloss look-up table for temperature settings; using the look-up table for temperature settings to determine a desired gloss range; measuring an actual gloss range on a... | 11/09/2010 |
| 7831165 | Fixing device and image forming apparatus equipped with the fixing device Provided is a fixing device including: a first mode which is a combination mode of the heating of the heating belt and the rotation stop of the heating belt and a second mode which is a combination mode of the heating of the heating belt and the rotation of the heat... | 11/09/2010 |
| 7831163 | Heat device and image forming apparatus including the same Provided is a heat device which heats and fixes a developed image onto a recording material while nipping and conveying the recording material bearing the developed image by a nip portion, in which even when a turn-on duty ratio between at least two heat generation ... | 11/09/2010 |