Image forming apparatus including plural developers and image forming method
AssigneeSeiko Epson Corporation
InventorKeiichi Taguchi
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An image forming apparatus which includes: a plurality of developers each of which stores therein a toner of the same color and includes a toner carrier structured to rotate while carrying the toner on its surface; and a controller which executes an image forming operation using the developer in accordance with an image forming command, wherein the controller selects a developer from the plurality of developers based on a length of shutdown time from the end of use in the previous image forming operation and executes the image forming operation using the selected developer.
Claims45
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a plurality of developers each of which stores therein a toner of the same color and includes a toner carrier structured to rotate while carrying the toner on its surface;
- and
- a controller which executes an image forming operation using the developer in accordance with an image forming command, wherein
- the controller selects a developer from the plurality of developers based on a length of shutdown time from the end of use in the previous image forming operation and executes the image forming operation using the selected developer.
An image forming method comprising:
- selecting a developer to use from a plurality of developers, each of which stores therein a toner of the same color and includes a toner carrier structured to rotate while carrying the toner on its surface, based on a length of shutdown time from the end of use in a previous image forming operation;
- and
- forming an image corresponding to an image forming command using the selected developer.
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a plurality of developers each of which stores therein a toner of the same color;
- and
- a controller which executes an image forming operation using any one of the developers selectively, wherein
- the controller classifies the plurality of developers into quality ranks based on information on the respective operation histories thereof, the quality rank corresponding to an expected image quality when the developer is used in the image forming operation, and varies a mode of the image forming operation according to the classification results.
An image forming method comprising:
- executing an image forming operation using selectively any one of a plurality of developers each of which stores therein a toner of the same color;
- and
- classifying the plurality of developers into quality ranks based on information on the respective operation histories thereof, the quality rank corresponding to an expected image quality when the developer is used in an image forming operation, wherein
- the image forming operation is executed in a mode according to the classification results.
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a rotary development section which is structured to mount N developers which store a toner therein, wherein N indicates an integer of not less than 3, and to rotate freely about a predetermined rotary axis;
- and
- a controller which rotates the rotary development section to selectively position any one of the developers mounted on the rotary development section at a predetermined development position and executes an image forming operation of forming an image with the toner stored in the developer, wherein
- in a case where M usable developers are mounted in adjoining relation on the rotary development section, wherein M indicates an integer of not less than 2 and less than N, the controller executes the image forming operation while sequentially switching the developers from the one located at the most-downstream-position toward the one located at the most-upstream-position with respect to a rotational direction of the rotary development section.
An image forming method for an image forming apparatus which comprises a rotary development section which is structured to mount N developers which store a toner therein, wherein N indicates an integer of not less than 3, and to rotate freely about a predetermined rotary axis, the method comprising:
- positioning, at a predetermined development position, M usable developers mounted in adjoining relation on the rotary development section sequentially from the one located at the most-downstream-position toward the one located at the most-upstream-position with respect to a rotational direction of the rotary development section, wherein M indicates an integer of not less than 2 and less than N;
- and
- forming an image with the toner stored in the developer positioned at the development position.
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a positioning unit which is structured to mount a plurality of developers each of which stores therein a toner of the same color and which selectively transfers and positions any one of the plurality of developers at a predetermined development position;
- and
- an image forming unit which executes an image forming operation of forming an image on a recording material according to an image forming command from an external source with the toner stored in the developer positioned at the development position, wherein
- the positioning unit varies a mode of a positioning operation according to contents of the image forming command, the positioning operation performed to transfer and position the developer at the development position.
An image forming method for an image forming apparatus which comprises a positioning unit which is structured to mount a plurality of developers each of which stores therein a toner of the same color, the method comprising:
- transferring and positioning selectively at a predetermined development position any one of the developers mounted on the positioning unit in a mode according to a content of an image forming command from an external source, and
- executing an image forming operation of forming an image on a recording material according to the image forming command with the toner stored in the developer positioned at the development position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.