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US 6,192,207 B1Granted
Image forming apparatus provided with a plurality of image holding components
AssigneeMinolta Co., Ltd.
InventorsKoji Yamamoto, Tetsuya Onuki
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An image forming apparatus is provided with a plurality of image forming units along a transportation path of a recording sheet transported by a revolving transport belt, each image forming unit including an image holding component. The image forming apparatus is further provided with a transport belt moving unit for moving the transport belt between a first state and a second state by changing a form of a revolution of the transport belt, the first state being where the transport belt does not touch at least one of the image holding components and the second state being where the transport belt touches the image holding components not touched in the first state.
Claims27
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a sheet feeding unit for feeding a recording sheet;
- a transportation unit for transporting the recording sheet;
- a plurality of image forming units which are set along a transportation path of the recording sheet and each include an image holding component;
- a separating unit for moving the transportation unit away from at least one of the image holding components;
- and
- a guiding unit which shifts in accordance with movement of the transportation unit by the separating unit to guide the recording sheet fed by the sheet feeding unit to the transportation unit.
3 more elements
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a transport belt for transporting a recording sheet;
- a plurality of image forming units which are set along a transportation path of the recording sheet and in which each image forming unit comprises an image holding component;
- a plurality of members, each member being provided positionally opposite a different one of the image holding components, with the transport belt running between the plurality of members and the image holding components;
- a member moving unit for moving a member selectively between a first position where the moved member presses the transport belt against the positionally opposite image holding component and a second position where the moved member is not in contact with the transport belt;
- and
- an extending unit which, when the moved member is in the second position, extends the transport belt to prevent the transport belt from touching the image holding component positionally opposite the moved member.
3 more elements
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a transport belt for transporting a recording sheet;
- a plurality of image forming units which are set along a transportation path of the recording sheet and in which each image forming unit comprises an image holding component;
- a plurality of members, each member being provided positionally opposite a different one of the image holding components, with the transport belt running between the plurality of members and the image holding components;
- a member moving unit for moving a member selectively between a first position where the moved member presses the transport belt against the positionally opposite image holding component and a second position where the moved member is not in contact with the transport belt;
- and
- the image forming apparatus selectively operating in one of a full-color mode and a reduced-color mode,
- the full-color mode being where an image for a different color is formed on each image holding component and the formed images on the image holding components are successively transferred onto the recording sheet transported by a transportation unit, and
- the reduced-color mode being where an image is formed on at least one but not all of the image holding components and the formed images are transferred onto the recording sheet transported by the transportation unit, and
- wherein the member moving unit moves a member positionally opposite an image holding component that does not have an image formed thereon to the second position when the image forming apparatus is operating in the reduced-color mode.
6 more elements
An image forming apparatus, comprising:
- a transport belt that revolves to transport a recording sheet;
- a plurality of image forming units which are set along a transportation path of the recording sheet, each comprising an image holding component;
- a transport belt moving unit for moving the transport belt between a first state and a second state by changing a form of a revolution of the transport belt, the first state being where the transport belt does not touch at least one of the image holding components and the second state being where the transport belt touches the image holding components not touched in the first state.
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a transportation unit for transporting a recording sheet;
- a plurality of image forming units which are set along a transportation path of the recording sheet, each of which comprises an image holding component;
- a plurality of cleaning components, each contacting with an image holding component and cleaning a surface of the image holding component;
- a first unit for sequentially transferring an image respectively formed on all the image holding components onto the transported recording sheet;
- a second unit for transferring an image formed on an image holding component onto the transported recording sheet;
- a disengaging unit for disengaging a cleaning component of an image holding component which is not used for an image formation performed by the second unit;
- and
- a prohibiting unit for prohibiting disengagements of the cleaning components from the image holding components when the image formation is performed by the first unit.
5 more elements
An image forming apparatus which selectively operates in either a full-color mode or a reduced-color mode,
- the full-color mode being where each different color of an image is formed on each image holding component and the formed images on the image holding components are successively transferred onto a recording sheet transported by a transportation unit, and
- the reduced-color mode being where an image is formed on at least one but not all of the image holding components and the formed images are transferred onto the recording sheet transported by the transportation unit, the image forming apparatus comprising:
- a separating unit for separating the transportation unit from at least one image holding component that does not have an image formed thereon when the image forming apparatus is operating in the reduced-color mode;
- and
- a maintaining unit for maintaining a transportation path of the recording sheet relative to each image holding component used for an image formation regardless of whether an image formation is performed in the full-color mode or the reduced-color mode.
2 more elements
An image forming apparatus which is capable of switching between a full-color mode and a monochrome mode, the image forming apparatus comprising:
- a black image forming unit, including an image holding component, for forming a black toner image on the image holding component;
- a plurality of color image forming units, each including an image holding component;
- a transport belt for transporting a recording sheet to have the recording sheet pass under all the image holding components;
- a separating unit for separating the transport belt from the plurality of image holding components of the plurality of color image forming units when an image formation is performed in the monochrome mode;
- and
- a running path maintaining unit for maintaining a running path of the transport belt in proximity to the image holding component of the black image forming unit, regardless of whether the image formation is performed in the monochrome mode or in the full-color mode.
3 more elements
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a transport belt for transporting a recording medium;
- a plurality of image forming units which are set along a transportation path of the recording medium and in which each image forming unit comprises an image holding component;
- a plurality of members, each member being provided positionally opposite a different one of the image holding components, with the transport belt running between the plurality of members and the image holding components;
- a member moving unit for moving a member selectively between a first position where the moved member presses the transport belt against the positionally opposite image holding component and a second position where the moved member is not in contact with the transport belt, and
- an extending unit which, when the moved member is in the second position, extends the transport belt to prevent the transport belt from touching the image holding component positionally opposite the moved member.
2 more elements
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a transport belt for transporting a recording medium;
- a plurality of image forming units which are set along a transportation path of the recording medium and in which each image forming unit comprises an image holding component;
- a plurality of members, each member being provided positionally opposite a different one of the image holding components, with the transport belt running between the plurality of members and the image holding components;
- a member moving unit for moving a member selectively between a first position where the moved member presses the transport belt against the positionally opposite image holding component and a second position where the moved member is not in contact with the transport belt;
- and
- the image forming apparatus selectively operating in one of a full-color mode and a reduced-color mode,
- the full-color mode being where an image for a different color is formed on each image holding component and the formed images on the image holding components are transferred onto the recording medium, and
- the reduced-color mode being where an image is formed on at least one but not all of the image holding components and the formed images are transferred onto the recording medium, and
- wherein the member moving unit moves a member positionally opposite an image holding component that does not have an image formed thereon to the second position when the image forming apparatus is operating in the reduced-color mode.
6 more elements
An image forming apparatus, comprising:
- a transport belt that revolves to transport a recording medium;
- a plurality of image forming units which are set along a transportation path of the recording medium and each comprising an image holding component, the image holding component forming;
- a transport belt moving unit provided inside of the path of travel of the transport belt for moving the transport belt between a first state and a second state by changing a form of a revolution of the transport belt, the first state being where the transport belt does not touch at least one of the image holding component and the second state being where the transport belt touches the image holding components not touched in the first state;
- and
- an image being formed on at least one image holding component and the formed image on the at least one image holding components is transferred onto the recording medium.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.