Image forming apparatus
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorMasatoshi Itoh
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An image forming apparatus includes a photosensitive member; a developing roller; a contact/separation mechanism configured to switch between a contact state in which the developing roller is brought into contact with the photosensitive member and a separation state in which the developing roller is separated from the photosensitive member; a photosensitive-member motor configured to rotate and drive the photosensitive member; and a control portion. The control portion is configured to determine that the contact/separation mechanism is in a failure state in a case where a torque of the photosensitive-member motor is not detected to have changed by at least a predetermined value within a predetermined time after a predetermined reference timing.
Claims13
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a photosensitive member;
- a developing roller;
- a contact/separation mechanism configured to switch between a contact state in which the developing roller is brought into contact with the photosensitive member and a separation state in which the developing roller is separated from the photosensitive member;
- a photosensitive-member motor configured to rotate and drive the photosensitive member;
- a developing motor configured to rotate and drive the developing roller;
- a driving train switchable to a driving transmission state in which a driving force is transmitted from the developing motor to the developing roller or a driving cut-off state in which the driving force is not transmitted from the developing motor to the developing roller;
- a stepping motor configured to perform switching of the developing roller between the contact state and the separation state and switching of the driving train between the driving transmission state and the driving cut-off state;
- and
- a control portion, wherein
- the control portion is configured to determine that the contact/separation mechanism is in a failure state in a case where a torque of the photosensitive-member motor is not detected to have changed by at least a predetermined value within a predetermined time after a predetermined reference timing, and
- the predetermined reference timing is a timing at which a torque of the developing motor has changed by at least a predetermined value.
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a photosensitive member;
- a developing roller;
- a contact/separation mechanism configured to switch between a contact state in which the developing roller is brought into contact with the photosensitive member and a separation state in which the developing roller is separated from the photosensitive member;
- a photosensitive-member motor configured to rotate and drive the photosensitive member;
- and
- a control portion, wherein
- the control portion is configured to determine that the contact/separation mechanism is in a failure state in a case where a difference between (i) a timing at which a torque of the photosensitive-member motor has changed by at least a predetermined value and (ii) a predetermined reference timing is less than a predetermined reference value.
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a photosensitive member;
- a developing roller;
- a contact/separation mechanism configured to switch between a contact state in which the developing roller is brought into contact with the photosensitive member and a separation state in which the developing roller is separated from the photosensitive member;
- a photosensitive-member motor configured to rotate and drive the photosensitive member;
- and
- a control portion, wherein
- the control portion is configured to provide notification of information associated with a state of the contact/separation mechanism by a notifier in a case where a difference between (i) a timing at which a torque of the photosensitive-member motor has changed by at least a predetermined value and (ii) a predetermined reference timing is less than a predetermined reference value.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.