Did You Know...
...that the inventor of the electric motor was a blacksmith named Thomas Davenport? Described as "a brilliantly unsuccessful inventor", Davenport invented the first rotary electric motor. In 1836 he headed out -- on foot -- from his Vermont home to file a patent application at the Patent Office in Washington, D.C. By the time he got there, he had squandered away his money and couldn't afford the $30 filing fee so he turned around and went home. When he later mailed in his application with money he'd raised, the Patent office was destroyed in a fire. He did finally get credit for his invention on Feb. 5, 1837.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8184998 | Image forming apparatus, and method and program for determining timing to execute image adjusting processing An image forming apparatus includes a toner replenishing device that supplies toner, based on a detection result from a sensor that detects a toner density in a developing device that develops an electrostatic latent image based on an image signal with toner, so tha... | 05/22/2012 |
| 8175471 | Image forming apparatus and image density control method An image forming apparatus is disclosed that includes an image density control unit that performs control operations based on an image density control condition that is adjustably set to control an output image to have a predetermined image density, an image density... | 05/08/2012 |
| 8145078 | Toner concentration system control with state estimators and state feedback methods The present disclosure provides for an imaging machine having an imaging member including a method for maintaining a toner concentration. The method for maintaining the toner concentration comprises: determining a toner concentration (TC) measurement using a sensor;... | 03/27/2012 |
| 8139962 | Image forming apparatus for maintaining a uniform toner concentration An image forming apparatus includes a latent image carrier, a latent image forming unit, a developing unit, a toner supplier, a toner concentration detector, a prediction calculator, and a toner supply controller. The toner supplier includes a single driving source ... | 03/20/2012 |
| 8121500 | Image forming apparatus, method of determining amount of developer supply, and program of determining amount of developer supply To provide a technology that can realize appropriate developer supply processing according to conditions within a developing unit by a simple method. In an image forming apparatus that visualizes an electrostatic latent image formed on a photoconductor with a develo... | 02/21/2012 |
| 8086118 | Image forming apparatus In accordance with an embodiment of the embodiment of the invention, an image forming apparatus includes: an electrostatic image-bearing member; and a developing device. The developing device includes a developer-carrying member disposed to face the electrostatic im... | 12/27/2011 |
| 8045866 | Hard imaging methods, liquid marking agent monitoring methods, and hard imaging devices Hard Imaging Methods, Liquid Marking Agent Monitoring Methods, and Hard Imaging Devices are described. According to one embodiment, a hard imaging method includes forming a plurality of latent images using a hard imaging device, using the hard imaging device, develo... | 10/25/2011 |
| 8023839 | Developing apparatus and image forming machine The developing apparatus, having stirring members for conveying and stirring developer-tank-contained developer and a developer holder, comprises a developer replenishing tank; a toner concentration detecting sensor; a trickle-type discharging mechanism; a developer... | 09/20/2011 |
| 7995935 | Developer device, image forming apparatus, and toner replenishment method A differential sensitivity calculation portion calculates the differential sensitivity D of a toner concentration sensor, using an output voltage V1 and V2 of the toner concentration sensor when a toner chamber is in a state of toner concentration T... | 08/09/2011 |
| 7995934 | Developing device, image forming apparatus, and process unit An information attaching unit attaches either one of carrier density information of initial developer and loose apparent density information of toner in the initial developer to a housing of a developing device. A density-information storage unit stores therein eith... | 08/09/2011 |
| 7953331 | Developer carrying device, developing device, process unit, and image forming apparatus A pressing wall is provided in a part of the entire area of the first carrying chamber in which a first screw member is housed. The area is opposed to a bottom wall of the first carrying chamber on the lower side in the gravity direction of the first screw member an... | 05/31/2011 |
| 7929873 | Image forming apparatus and image density control method An image forming apparatus includes an image carrier configured to carry an electrostatic latent image, a developing device configured to develop the electrostatic latent image with a two-component developer including toner and magnetic carrier, a toner supplier con... | 04/19/2011 |
| 7912386 | Systems and methods for determining a charge-to-mass ratio, and a concentration, of one component of a mixture Systems and methods are provided for using a sensor to determine a charge-to-mass ratio, and a concentration, of a mixture including a first component and a second component. A base resonance frequency of the sensor in an unloaded state is measured. A surface of a v... | 03/22/2011 |
| 7912387 | Screen configuration for use in a toner concentration field measurement tool A kit used in TC measurement in the field includes a sandwich of 3 screens used for filtration of carrier beads from toner particles within a container. An upper 400 mesh screen has die-cut holes around its edges to allow removal of any beads trapped between the upp... | 03/22/2011 |
| 7840146 | Developing device and image forming apparatus A developing device has stirring members for conveying and stirring a developer-tank-contained developer and a developer holder, and has a developer replenishing tank for replenishing a replenishment developer to a developer tank; a toner concentration detecting sen... | 11/23/2010 |
| 7835653 | Developing device and image forming apparatus A developing device includes a developing unit, a developer agitating unit, a developer conveying unit, and a toner supplementing unit. The developing unit develops an electrostatic latent image on an image carrier with a developer containing toner and carrier. The ... | 11/16/2010 |
| 7751731 | Image forming apparatus having a toner concentration sensor An image forming apparatus includes an image carrier on which an electrostatic latent image is formed, a rotary developing device having N developer carriers, where N defines a total number of developer carriers, the N developer carriers carrying developers to devel... | 07/06/2010 |
| 7751730 | Developing device, process unit, and image forming apparatus developer A black developer is conveyed in a first conveyance chamber in a rotation axis direction while agitating with rotation of a first screw member. A black-toner-concentration detecting sensor detects a toner concentration of the black developer by having contact with t... | 07/06/2010 |
| 7747182 | Image forming apparatus with toner density control An image forming apparatus in which a predetermined image density can be obtained by correcting a toner density control target value without consuming toner. The toner density of the developer is controlled so that an output value Vt of a magnetic permeability senso... | 06/29/2010 |
| 7668471 | Image forming apparatus and image forming method An image forming apparatus including a latent image bearing member; a developing device configured to develop a latent image on the image bearing member with a two-component developer; a development potential forming device configured to form a development potential... | 02/23/2010 |
| 7664409 | Image forming device A control device executes toner concentration control that controls an operation of a developing device such that a value of detection output detected by a concentration detecting device falls within a predetermined range. Moreover, when controlling drive of a first... | 02/16/2010 |
| 7657194 | Image forming apparatus and toner supply control program for the same A digital color copier includes: a toner concentration storage which stores a detected toner concentration of each developer block of multiple developer blocks across an image forming width; a toner consumption predictor for predicting a first predicted toner consum... | 02/02/2010 |
| 7639957 | Image forming apparatus including controller to detect condition of image developer An image forming apparatus includes an image carrier, a developing unit, a concentration sensor, a toner supplying unit, a developer supplying unit, an ejector, and a condition detector. The image carrier forms a latent image thereon. The developing unit develops th... | 12/29/2009 |
| 7620334 | Image forming apparatus having disablement of image formation based on detection of developer An image forming apparatus includes a developing device configured to develop an electrostatic image on an image carrier with developer, and a developer container detachably attachable to the image forming apparatus and configured to store developer to be supplied t... | 11/17/2009 |
| 7583906 | Image forming apparatus An image forming apparatus includes a plurality of development units each using a developer including a toner and a carrier, a density detection unit configured to perform a density detection operation for detecting a density of a detection toner image formed by eac... | 09/01/2009 |
| 7570893 | Methods of monitoring a marking liquid, apparatuses for monitoring a marking liquid, and image transfer devices A method and apparatus for monitoring marking liquid including a carrier liquid having solid particles therein. A transmitter emits an ultrasonic signal into the marking liquid. The ultrasonic signal is received by a receiver and processed by a controller to determi... | 08/04/2009 |
| 7551862 | Developing device, and process unit and image forming apparatus using the developing device A developing device including a developer bearing member configured to configured to bear thereon a developer including a toner and a magnetic carrier to develop an electrostatic image on an image bearing member with the developer; a developer container configured t... | 06/23/2009 |
| 7539426 | Image forming apparatus having a toner concentration sensor An image forming apparatus includes an image carrier on which an electrostatic latent image is formed, a rotary developing device having N developer carriers on a rotation orbit and moving the N developer carriers to a development position opposite to the image carr... | 05/26/2009 |
| 7433613 | Method and device for setting the toner concentration in the developer station of an electrophotographic printer or copier In a method and system for setting toner concentration of a toner particle-carrier particle mixture in a developer station for development of a latent charge image on a carrier, a sensor is arranged in the developer station measuring the toner concentration. Toner f... | 10/07/2008 |
| 7428399 | Toner supply device and image forming apparatus A toner supply device is equipped with a coupling that has a toner supply opening on the side wall, a partition wall provided in this coupling integrally with a specific space provided on the inner wall and a hole larger than a toner supply opening on the side wall.... | 09/23/2008 |
| 7415214 | Image forming apparatus and method for detecting amount of remaining toner The image forming apparatus according to the present invention detects the amount of remaining toner by using (i) the result of calculation carried out by a toner supply amount calculation section based on an accumulated rotational time measurement section in a regi... | 08/19/2008 |
| 7409170 | Developing apparatus, image forming apparatus and density detection method To provide a technology capable of realizing high-accuracy detection of toner density. A developing apparatus includes: a partition plate provided within the developing apparatus for partitioning an interior of the developing apparatus into a plurality of spa... | 08/05/2008 |
| 7400838 | Image forming apparatus with toner concentration detection unit An image forming apparatus includes: an image carrier on which an electrostatic latent image is to be formed; a rotary development unit having a plurality of developer carriers that carry a developer used for developing the electrostatic latent image, the developer ... | 07/15/2008 |
| 7394999 | Image forming apparatus and image control method for controlling image density An image forming apparatus includes devises for performing a detection method which detects an image characteristic of an image formed on an image bearing member; a first control method which controls a toner concentration in a developer, based on a detection result... | 07/01/2008 |
| 7394998 | Image forming apparatus and developer cartridge A developer cartridge is configured to be detachably mounted in an apparatus main body and to accommodate developer. The developer cartridge includes a drive member and a display portion. The drive member is configured to be driven to move by a driving force when th... | 07/01/2008 |
| 7389060 | Image forming apparatus for controlling variation of image density and toner concentration An image forming apparatus includes an image carrying member, a developing unit, an image density detector, a toner concentration detector, a toner concentration controller, and an output adjustment unit. The image carrying member forms a reference latent image patt... | 06/17/2008 |
| 7356268 | Developing device A controller determines the degree of acuteness of the resonant oscillation of a piezoelectric oscillator, based on the developer's fluidity detection data detected by the piezoelectric oscillator. The toner density output data detected by a toner density sensor is ... | 04/08/2008 |
| 7352977 | Toner level detection method and image forming apparatus employing such toner level detection method Forced supply of toner(s) from toner hopper(s) to developer storage container(s) is executed while interrupting and/or prohibiting image forming operation(s) so as to prevent consumption of toner(s), toner level(s) within toner hopper(s) being determined to be low a... | 04/01/2008 |
| 7333739 | Toner near empty state detection system In an image forming apparatus of a type wherein toner is replenished to a developing unit by turning or rotating a toner bottle, a phenomenon that a toner replenishment amount per turn of the bottle (replenishing rate) is decreased as the toner remaining quantity in... | 02/19/2008 |
| 7324127 | Image forming apparatus and method thereof An image forming apparatus for recording an image on a recording medium according to an inputted diagnostic image signal, including: a recording medium loading section capable of loading plural types of recording media; an exposing device for forming latent images b... | 01/29/2008 |
