Image forming apparatus and unit, and storage medium mounted in the unit
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorMotoki Adachi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An image forming apparatus which forms an image by using a unit having at least a member associated with image formation and storage unit storing information, comprising, an image carrier, developing unit for developing a latent image formed on said image carrier by supplying toner to said image carrier and controller for controlling image formation operation on the basis of the information stored in said storage unit, wherein said storage unit stores information for controlling toner consumption operation in accordance with a characteristic of the toner, and said controller controls the toner consumption operation on the basis of the information stored in said storage unit without printing any image on a print medium.
Claims17
An image forming apparatus which forms an image by using a unit including a member associated with image formation and a storage portion storing information, the apparatus comprising:
- an image carrier;
- a developing unit for developing a latent image formed on said image carrier by supplying toner to said image carrier;
- and
- a controller for controlling a toner consumption operation without printing any image on a print medium,
- wherein said storage portion stores a control information according to a kind of the toner, and
- wherein said controller determines a timing to execute the toner consumption operation or whether or not to execute the toner consumption operation, based on the control information stored in said storage operation.
An image forming apparatus which forms an image by using a unit including a member associated with image formation and a storage portion storing information, the apparatus comprising:
- an image carrier;
- a developing unit, including a developer containing toner and carrier, for developing a latent image formed on said image carrier by supplying the toner to said image carrier;
- and
- a controller for controlling toner consumption operation without printing any image on a print medium,
- wherein said storage portion stores a control information according to a kind of the carrier, and
- wherein said controller determines a timing to execute the toner consumption operation or whether or not to execute the toner consumption operation, based on the control information stored in said storage portion.
A unit detachable from an image forming apparatus having a developer consumption mode in which developer is consumed without printing any image on a print medium, the unit comprising:
- a member associated with image formation;
- and
- a storage unit having a storage area which stores a control information according to a kind of the developer, and
- wherein said control information is used to determine a timing to execute the developer consumption operation or whether or not to execute the developer consumption operation.
A storage medium which is mounted in a unit used in an image forming apparatus operable in developer consumption mode in which developer is consumed without printing any image on a print medium,
- wherein the image forming apparatus comprises an image carrier, charging unit for charging a surface of the image carrier, and developing unit for developing a latent image formed on the image carrier by supplying the developer,
- wherein the storage medium has a storage area which stores control information according to a kind of the developer, and
- wherein the control information is used to determine a timing to execute the developer consumption operation or whether or not to execute the developer consumption operation.
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- an image carrier;
- a developing unit for developing a latent image formed on said image carrier by supplying toner;
- and
- a controller for controlling toner consumption operation of consuming the toner without printing any image on a print medium,
- wherein said controller determines whether a consumption amount of the toner obtained based on an image coverage rate and a print count, fall within a certain range and if not, executes the toner consumption operation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.