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US 5,294,958 AGranted
Image forming apparatus having photoconductor drum and fuser independently operable in timing
AssigneeOki Electric Industry Co., Ltd.
InventorsMinoru Isobe, Eisho Sudoh
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An image forming apparatus includes a controller for controlling at least a photoconductor drum and a fuser to operate independently of each other. In such an apparatus, at least one of the photoconductor drum and the fuser is provided with an electrical or mechanical member, such as a clutch for selectively coupling a driving system and a rotary member, which is operative independently, and the controller provides such a control that the electrical or mechanical members of the photoconductor drum and the fuser are responsive to signals applied thereto to start or stop the operations independently in timing, respectively.
Claims20
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- electrostatic latent image forming means for illuminating an electrically charged photoconductor drum with a light source to form an electrostatic latent image on a surface of said photoconductor drum;
- developing means for providing adhesion of a toner to the electrostatic latent image to form a toner visible image;
- transfer means for transferring the toner image to a printing sheet transferred from a printing sheet feed unit;
- fuser means for heating and fusing the transferred toner image onto the printing sheet;
- printing sheet feeder means for feeding the printing sheet and delivering a printed sheet;
- printing sheet sensing means, including a printing sheet feed sensor, a platen sensor and a printed sheet output sensor disposed at respective positions along said printing sheet feeder means, for detecting a presence or absence of the printing sheet at said respective positions;
- means for driving said photoconductor drum, said fuser means and said printing sheet feeder means, said means for driving including a common driving motor for at least said photoconductor drum and said fuser means, and coupling means, including respective clutches for at least said photoconductor drum and said fuser means, for selectively coupling said common driving motor to a respective rotary member of at least said photoconductor drum and of said fuser means when the respective clutch is engaged;
- and
- control means, responsive to output signals from said printing sheet sensing means in accordance with a sensed position of the printing sheet, for selectively controlling engagement and disengagement of the respective said clutches to cause at least said photoconductor drum and said fuser means to operate independently of each other.
6 more elements
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a rotatably mounted photoconductor drum coupled with a respective clutch;
- electrostatic latent image forming means for illuminating said photoconductor drum with a light source having a plurality of light emitting diodes to form an electrostatic latent image, in accordance with a page of printing data received from a microprocessor, on a photoconductive surface of said photoconductor drum which has been electrically charged by an electrostatic charger;
- developer means for developing the electrostatic latent image formed on said electrically charged photoconductor drum by adherence of a toner, charged with a frictional electrostatic charge, to form a toner visible image;
- transfer means for transferring the toner image to a printing sheet of paper transferred from a printing sheet feeding unit by a hopping roller having a hopping roller clutch connected thereto;
- fuser means, including a fuser roller coupled with a respective clutch, for heating and fusing the transferred toner image onto the printing sheet;
- printing sheet feeder means, having a registering roller and a delivery roller each coupled with a clutch, for feeding the printer sheet and delivering a printed sheet;
- printing sheet sensing means, including a printing sheet feed sensor, a platen sensor and a printed sheet output sensor disposed at respective positions along said printing sheet feeder means, for detecting a presence or absence of the printing sheet at said respective positions;
- driving means for driving said photoconductor drum, said fuser means and said printing sheet feeder means, said driving means including a common driving motor for at least said photoconductor drum and said fuser means, and coupling means, including said clutches for at least said photoconductor drum and said fuser means and power transmission means, for independently transmitting driving power from said common driving motor to at least said photoconductor drum and said fuser means when the respective said clutches are engaged in accordance with detections by said sensors of said printing sheet sensing means;
- and
- control means, responsive to output signals from said sensors of said printing sheet sensing means in accordance with the sensed position of the printing sheet, for independently controlling said clutches of said coupling means so that the driving power of said common driving motor is transmitted selectively to at least said photoconductor drum and said fuser means.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.