Image-forming device having on-line image quality assessment and related method

Abstract

An electrophotographic (EP) image-forming device and related method are provided for on-line quantitative assessment of the image formation and development process. The EP image-forming device has a primary charger, an exposure device, a toning station, a transfer charger, a fusing station, and a cleaner operatively disposed about a photoconductor. A transmission densitometer is positioned adjacent to the photoconductor. The densitometer determines the successive tones corresponding to a plurality of step areas of a toner pattern for each image frame. The density readings are stored in memory. The photoconductor densities are subtracted from the combined densities to provide measured toner densities, which are then averaged for each step area. The average measured toner densities or voltage readings are compared to the aim toner densities or voltage readings for each step in the step tablet which are displayed in an output chart to quantitatively assess the image quality of the image-forming process. Preferably, every image frame on the photoconductor is assessed successively.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.