Image forming method
AssigneeRicoh Company, Ltd.
InventorsShinji Kato, Yasushi Koichi, Shin Hasegawa
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In an image forming method using an electrophotographic process, an amount of toner to be supplemented for maintaining a desired image density is estimated in response to input data which are a ratio of reflection densities produced by an optical sensor responsive to a pattern for control and an estimated toner consumption signal. Toner supplement control is executed on the basis of the result of estimation. The method sharply responds to a change in environment due to aging and a change in the kind of documents to thereby insure stable image density, compared to a conventional method relaying on an optical sensor or a toner sensor.
Claims17
In an image forming method using an electrophotographic process, an estimated amount of toner to be supplemented for maintaining a desired image density is estimated in response to input data which are a ratio of reflection densities produced by an optical sensor responsive to a pattern for control, and an estimated toner consumption signal;
- and wherein toner supplement control is executed based on said estimated amount of toner to be supplemented.
In an image forming method using an electrophotographic process, an estimated amount of toner to be supplemented for maintaining a desired image density is estimated in response to input data which are a ratio of reflection densities produced by an optical sensor responsive to a pattern for control, history data of said ratio, and an estimated toner consumption signal;
- and wherein toner supplement control is executed based on said estimated amount of toner to be supplemented.
In an image forming method using an electrophotographic process, an amount of toner to be supplemented for maintaining a target toner concentration is estimated in response to input data which are a ratio of reflection densities produced by an optical sensor responsive to a pattern for control, a difference between a toner concentration at a time when the pattern is formed and a previous target toner concentration, and history data of at least one of said ratio and said difference;
- and wherein toner supplement control for maintaining the target toner concentration is executed based on a difference between the toner concentration and the target toner concentration.
In an image forming method which controls supplement of a toner in response to an output of a toner sensor, an estimated target toner concentration is totally estimated in response to a ratio of reflection densities produced by an optical sensor responsive to a pattern for control, and history data of said ratio, and a target toner concentration is set or changed based on the estimated target toner concentration.
In an image forming method which controls supplement of a toner in response to an output of a toner sensor, an estimated target toner concentration is totally estimated in a response to a ratio of reflection densities produced by an optical sensor responsive to a pattern for control and a difference between a toner concentration at a time when the pattern for control is formed and a previous target toner concentration, and a target toner concentration is set or changed based on the estimated target toner concentration.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.