Heater, fixing unit and image forming apparatus
AssigneeRicoh Company, Ltd.
InventorsKazuhito KISHI, Yasuhisa KATO, Masami OKAMOTO, Yasutada TSUKIOKA, Hiromasa TAKAGI, Susumu MATSUSAKA, Akiyasu AMITA
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A heater is operable with a main power supply unit and a chargeable auxiliary power supplying unit. The heater includes a heater part having one or a plurality of heater elements to receive power from the main and auxiliary power supplying units, a detecting part to detect information related to the heater part, and a controller to vary an amount of power supplied from the auxiliary power supply unit to the heater part per unit time based on the information detected by the detecting part.
Claims19
1-68. (canceled)
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a heater operable with a main power supply unit and a chargeable auxiliary power supplying unit, and comprising a heater part having one or a plurality of heater elements configured to receive power from the main and auxiliary power supplying units;
- a voltage detector configured to detect an output voltage of the main power supply unit;
- a controller configured to charge the auxiliary power supply unit by the power from the main power supply unit until an output voltage of the auxiliary power supply unit becomes greater than or equal to a target voltage;
- and
- a fixing part, heated by the heater part, and configured to fix an image on a recording medium that makes sliding contact with the heater part or pass close to the heater part, said controller increasing the target voltage when the output voltage of the main power supply unit detected by said voltage detector decreases.
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a heater operable with a main power supply unit and a chargeable auxiliary power supplying unit, and comprising a heater part having one or a plurality of heater elements configured to receive power from the main and auxiliary power supplying units;
- a voltage detector configured to detect an output voltage of the main power supply unit;
- a controller configured to change a total rated power of the heater part;
- and
- a fixing part, heated by the heater part, and configured to fix an image on a recording medium that makes sliding contact with the heater part or pass close to the heater part,
- said controller increasing the total rated power when the output voltage of the main power supply unit detected by said voltage detector decreases.
74-75. (canceled)
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a heater part configured to receive power from a commercial power supply;
- a fixing part, heated by the heater part, and configured to fix an image that is to be fixed and is formed on a recording medium;
- an auxiliary power supply unit, chargeable by the commercial power supply, and configured to supply power to the heater part;
- a voltage detector configured to detect an output voltage of the commercial power supply;
- and
- a controller configured to charge the auxiliary power supply unit by the power from the commercial power supply until an output voltage of the auxiliary power supply unit becomes greater than or equal to a target voltage,
- wherein, when the output voltage of the commercial power supply detected by the voltage detector is lower than a predetermined voltage, the controller varies the target voltage to a value higher than that at a time when the output voltage of the commercial power supply detected by the voltage detector is higher than or equal to the predetermined voltage.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.