Belt drive controlling method, belt drive controlling apparatus, belt apparatus, image forming apparatus, and computer product

A belt drive controlling apparatus that controls driving of an endless belt spanned around at least one driving member and at least one supporting member, the driving member being driven by a pulse motor, comprising:

• an angular displacement detecting unit that detects detecting angular displacement of at least one of the driving member and the supporting member;
• a difference calculating unit that calculates a difference between detected angular displacement and a target angular displacement, wherein the target angular displacement is set so as to cancel a specific velocity fluctuation component of a surface velocity of the belt produced when the drive member is rotated at a constant angular velocity and that is smaller than amount of surface movement of the belt in one driving pulse;
• a frequency calculating unit that calculates a frequency of a driving pulse used to drive the pulse motor based on the difference and a reference driving pulse frequency;
• and
• a driving unit that controls driving of the pulse motor based on a driving pulse with calculated frequency.

A belt apparatus comprising:

• an endless belt spanned around at least one driving member and at least one supporting member;
• a drive controlling apparatus that controls driving of the belt;
• and
• a pulse motor that drives the driving member under the control of the drive controlling apparatus, wherein the belt drive controlling apparatus includes
• an angular displacement detecting unit that detects detecting angular displacement of at least one of the driving member and the supporting member;
• a difference calculating unit that calculates a difference between detected angular displacement and a target angular displacement, wherein the target angular displacement is set so as to cancel a specific velocity fluctuation component of a surface velocity of the belt produced when the drive member is rotated at a constant angular velocity and that is smaller than amount of surface movement of the belt in one driving pulse;
• a frequency calculating unit that calculates a frequency of a driving pulse used to drive the pulse motor based on the difference and a reference driving pulse frequency;
• and
• a driving unit that controls driving of the pulse motor based on a driving pulse with calculated frequency.

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• a latent image carrier;
• a latent image forming unit that forms a latent image on the latent image carrier;
• a developing unit that develops the latent image formed on the latent image carrier;
• a recording member conveying member that conveys a recording member;
• and
• a transfer unit that transfers developed image from the latent image carrier to a recording member, wherein the recording member conveying member includes a belt apparatus and the belt apparatus includes
• an endless belt spanned around at least one driving member and at least one supporting member that conveys the recording member;
• a drive controlling apparatus that controls driving of the belt;
• and
• a pulse motor that drives the driving member under the control of the drive controlling apparatus, wherein the belt drive controlling apparatus includes
• an angular displacement detecting unit that detects detecting angular displacement of at least one of the driving member and the supporting member;
• a difference calculating unit that calculates a difference between detected angular displacement and a target angular displacement, wherein the target angular displacement is set so as to cancel a specific velocity fluctuation component of a surface velocity of the belt produced when the drive member is rotated at a constant angular velocity and that is smaller than amount of surface movement of the belt in one driving pulse;
• a frequency calculating unit that calculates a frequency of a driving pulse used to drive the pulse motor based on the difference and a reference driving pulse frequency;
• and
• a driving unit that controls driving of the pulse motor based on a driving pulse with calculated frequency.

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• a latent image carrier including an endless belt spanned around at least one driving member and at least one supporting member;
• a latent image forming unit that forms a latent image on the latent image carrier;
• a developing unit that develops the latent image formed on the latent image carrier;
• a transfer unit that transfers developed image from the latent image carrier to a recording member;
• and
• a belt apparatus that drives the belt and includes
• a drive controlling apparatus that controls driving of the belt;
• and
• a pulse motor that drives the driving member under the control of the drive controlling apparatus, wherein the belt drive controlling apparatus includes
• an angular displacement detecting unit that detects detecting angular displacement of at least one of the driving member and the supporting member;
• a difference calculating unit that calculates a difference between detected angular displacement and a target angular displacement, wherein the target angular displacement is set so as to cancel a specific velocity fluctuation component of a surface velocity of the belt produced when the drive member is rotated at a constant angular velocity and that is smaller than amount of surface movement of the belt in one driving pulse;
• a frequency calculating unit that calculates a frequency of a driving pulse used to drive the pulse motor based on the difference and a reference driving pulse frequency;
• and
• a driving unit that controls driving of the pulse motor based on a driving pulse with calculated frequency.

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• a latent image carrier;
• a latent image forming unit that forms a latent image on the latent image carrier;
• a developing unit that develops the latent image formed on the latent image carrier;
• an intermediate transfer member that includes a belt apparatus;
• a first transfer unit that transfers developed image from the latent image carrier to the intermediate transfer member;
• and
• a second transfer unit that transfers developed image from the intermediate transfer member to a recording member, wherein
• the belt apparatus includes
• an endless belt spanned around at least one driving member and at least one supporting member that conveys the recording member;
• a drive controlling apparatus that controls driving of the belt;
• and
• a pulse motor that drives the driving member under the control of the drive controlling apparatus, wherein the belt drive controlling apparatus includes
• an angular displacement detecting unit that detects detecting angular displacement of at least one of the driving member and the supporting member;
• a difference calculating unit that calculates a difference between detected angular displacement and a target angular displacement, wherein the target angular displacement is set so as to cancel a specific velocity fluctuation component of a surface velocity of the belt produced when the drive member is rotated at a constant angular velocity and that is smaller than amount of surface movement of the belt in one driving pulse;
• a frequency calculating unit that calculates a frequency of a driving pulse used to drive the pulse motor based on the difference and a reference driving pulse frequency;
• and
• a driving unit that controls driving of the pulse motor based on a driving pulse with calculated frequency.

A computer-readable recording medium that stores therein a computer program that causes a computer to implement method of controlling driving of an endless belt spanned around at least one driving member and at least one supporting member, the driving member being driven by a pulse motor, the computer program causing the computer to execute:

• detecting angular displacement of at least one of the driving member and the supporting member;
• calculating a difference between detected angular displacement and a target angular displacement, wherein the target angular displacement is set so as to cancel a specific velocity fluctuation component of a surface velocity of the belt produced when the drive member is rotated at a constant angular velocity and that is smaller than amount of surface movement of the belt in one driving pulse;
• calculating a frequency of a driving pulse used to drive the pulse motor based on the difference and a reference driving pulse frequency;
• and
• driving the pulse motor based on a driving pulse with calculated frequency.