Image forming apparatus and control method of the image forming apparatus
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsKatsuhiro Kojima, Kenji Matsuda, Hideki Matsumoto, Masaki Ojima, Minoru Matsuguma
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Abstract
An image forming apparatus has: a photosensitive drum onto which images are formed; and a primary transfer roller which sequentially forms the color images onto the photosensitive drum by using a plurality of developing devices having different color developers and transfers the color images formed on the drum onto a transfer member or a recording medium. Order of forming the images onto an image bearing member on a photosensitive member is switched based on a use amount of each of the plurality of developing devices.
Claims11
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- an image bearing member onto which images are formed;
- a transfer unit which sequentially forms the images of respective colors onto the image bearing member by using a plurality of developing devices having developers of the different colors and transfers the images of the colors formed on the image bearing member onto a transfer member or a recording medium;
- and
- a control unit which switches order of forming the images onto the image bearing member by using the plurality of developing devices based on a use amount of each of the plurality of developing devices.
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- an image bearing member onto which images are formed;
- a transfer unit which sequentially forms the images of respective colors onto the image bearing member by using a plurality of developing devices having developers of the different colors and transfers the images of the colors formed on the image bearing member onto a transfer member or a recording medium;
- and
- a control unit which switches order of forming the images onto the image bearing member by using the plurality of developing devices based on a developer residual amount in each of the plurality of developing devices and a use amount of each of the plurality of developing devices.
A control method of an image forming apparatus having a first image forming mode in which images of respective colors are sequentially formed onto an image bearing member in first order by using a plurality of developing devices having developers of the different colors and the images of the colors formed on the image bearing member are transferred onto a transfer member or a recording medium and a second image forming mode in which the images of the colors are sequentially formed onto the image bearing member in order different from the first order and the images of the colors formed on the image bearing member are transferred onto the transfer member or the recording medium, comprising:
- detecting a use amount of each of the plurality of developing devices;
- and
- controlling so as to switch from the first image forming mode to the second image forming mode according to the detected use amount of each of the plurality of developing devices.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.