Image forming apparatus that detects deterioration of a spring used to bias a sheet locking member

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• a conveyance path that conveys a sheet;
• registration rollers that are arranged across the conveyance path and each comprise a nip part;
• a rotator that is rotatably attached to at least one of the registration rollers and that comprises a sheet contact part locking a front end of a sheet conveyed in the conveyance path, wherein
• the rotator swings between a first attitude and a second attitude,
• in the first attitude the sheet contact part locks the sheet on an upstream side of the nip part, and
• in the second attitude the sheet contact part is retracted to a downstream side of the nip part and allows the sheet to pass through the nip part;
• an energizer that energizes the sheet contact part to maintain the first attitude;
• and
• a hardware processor that determines deterioration of the energizer, wherein
• the hardware processor determines a displacement time that the sheet contact part requires to be displaced from the first attitude to the second attitude.

An image forming system comprising an image forming apparatus and a server that communicate with each other,

• wherein the image forming apparatus comprises:
• a conveyance path that conveys a sheet;
• registration rollers that are arranged across the conveyance path and each comprise a nip part;
• a rotator that is rotatably attached to at least one of the registration rollers and that comprises
• a sheet contact part locking a front end of a sheet conveyed in the conveyance path, wherein
• the rotator swings between a first attitude and a second attitude,
• in the first attitude the sheet contact part locks the sheet on an upstream side of the nip part, and
• in the second attitude the sheet contact part is retracted to a downstream side of the nip part and allows the sheet to pass through the nip part;
• an energizer that energizes the sheet contact part to maintain the first attitude;
• and
• a first hardware processor that acquires deterioration determination information determining a deterioration state of the energizer;
• and
• a transmitter that transmits the deterioration determination information to the server, and the server comprises:
• a second hardware processor that determines deterioration of the energizer based on the deterioration determination information;
• and
• a notifier that notifies the deterioration of the energizer when the second hardware processor determines the deterioration of the energizer, wherein
• the first hardware processor determines a recovery time that the sheet contact part requires to recover from the second attitude to the first attitude.

A deterioration detection method using an image forming apparatus comprising:

• a conveyance path that conveys a sheet;
• registration rollers that are arranged across the conveyance path and each comprise a nip part;
• a rotator that is rotatably attached to at least one of the registration rollers, comprises a sheet contact part locking a front end of a sheet conveyed in the conveyance path, and swings between a first attitude and a second attitude;
• an energizer that energizes the sheet contact part to maintain the first attitude;
• and an attitude detector that is disposed in a vicinity of the sheet contact part and detects whether the sheet contact part is in the first attitude or the second attitude, the deterioration detection method comprising:
• determining a recovery time that the sheet contact part requires to recover from the second attitude to the first attitude, or a displacement time that the sheet contact part requires to be displaced from the first attitude to the second attitude, based on a detection result by the attitude detector;
• and
• determining deterioration of the energizer based on the recovery time or the displacement time, wherein
• in the first attitude the sheet contact part locks the sheet on an upstream side of the nip part, and in the second attitude the sheet contact part is retracted to a downstream side of the nip part and allows the sheet to pass through the nip part.