Image forming apparatus
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorYoichi Kimura
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An image forming apparatus includes an electrostatic latent image forming unit for forming an electrostatic latent image on a surface of an image carrier, a developing unit for developing the electrostatic latent image with toner, a transferring unit for transferring a toner image on the image carrier onto a transfer medium in a transfer area, a test pattern forming unit for forming a test pattern, which is made of toner and used for image control, on the transfer medium, and a control unit for detecting the test pattern and executing image control. The transferring unit transfers the test pattern on the transfer medium, which has been subjected to detection, onto the image carrier, and the developing unit recovers the test pattern having been transferred onto the image carrier.
Claims26
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- electrostatic latent image forming means for forming an electrostatic latent image on a surface of an image carrier;
- developing means for developing the electrostatic latent image with toner;
- transferring means for transferring a toner image developed by said developing means on the image carrier onto a transfer medium in a transfer area;
- test pattern forming means for forming a test pattern, which is made of toner and used for image control, on the transfer medium;
- and
- control means for detecting the test pattern and executing image control,
- wherein said transferring means transfers the test pattern on the transfer medium, which has been subjected to detection, onto the image carrier, and said developing means recovers the test pattern having been transferred onto the image carrier.
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a plurality of electrostatic latent image forming means for forming electrostatic latent images on respective surfaces of a plurality of image carriers;
- a plurality of developing means for developing the electrostatic latent images on respective ones of the plurality of image carriers with toners of different colors;
- a plurality of transferring means for transferring toner images on the respective ones of the plurality of image carriers onto a transfer medium in respective transfer areas;
- test pattern forming means for forming test patterns, which are made of toners of different colors and used for image control, on the transfer medium;
- and
- control means for detecting the test patterns and executing image control,
- wherein said plurality of transferring means transfer the test patterns on the transfer medium, which have been subjected to detection, onto respective ones of the plurality of image carriers corresponding to respective colors of the toners forming the test patterns, and said plurality of developing means associated with the plurality of image carriers, onto which the test patterns have been transferred, recover the corresponding test patterns.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.