Image forming apparatus and power supply method
AssigneesKabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Toshiba Tec Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorTetsuo Kato
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Abstract
An image forming apparatus having a plurality of functional units includes a power failure detection circuit configured to detect a power failure of an external power supply for the image forming apparatus, a rechargeable battery unit, and a control unit. The control unit switches the power supply source of the image forming apparatus from the external power supply to the rechargeable battery unit, and selects one or more of the functional units to power through the rechargeable battery unit based on a remaining capacity of the rechargeable battery unit, when the power failure of the external power supply is detected.
Claims12
An image forming apparatus having a plurality of functional units, comprising:
- a plurality of rechargeable batteries, each one of the plurality of rechargeable batteries having a different capacity from the other;
- and
- a control unit configured to
- detect a remaining capacity of each of the plurality of rechargeable batteries;
- select a rechargeable battery with the largest capacity of the plurality of rechargeable batteries to power each of the plurality of functional units;
- and
- when the remaining capacity of the rechargeable battery with the largest capacity is discharged below a threshold value, switch to a rechargeable battery of the plurality of rechargeable batteries with a capacity that is smaller than the rechargeable battery with the largest capacity, and supply power to at least one of the functional units with the rechargeable battery with the smaller capacity.
A power supply method performed by an image forming apparatus including a plurality of rechargeable batteries, each one of the plurality of the rechargeable batteries having a different capacity from the other, the method comprising:
- detecting a remaining capacity of each of the plurality of rechargeable batteries;
- selecting a rechargeable battery with a largest capacity of the plurality of rechargeable batteries to power each of the plurality of functional units;
- and
- when the remaining capacity of the rechargeable battery with the largest capacity is discharged below a threshold value, switching to a rechargeable battery of the plurality of rechargeable batteries with a capacity that is smaller than the rechargeable battery with the largest capacity, supplying power to at least one of the functional units with the rechargeable battery with the smaller capacity.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.