Image forming apparatus
AssigneeMinolta Co., Ltd.
InventorsYukinobu Iguchi, Fumio Maekawa
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An image forming apparatus such as a copier and an air conditioner communicate with one another in a network. The air conditioner provides information regarding ambient temperature and/or humidity to the image forming apparatus. Based upon this information, the image forming apparatus selectively activates systems within the apparatus that regulate its internal temperature and humidity levels, to thereby achieve power savings. The image forming apparatus provides information regarding its operation state to the air conditioner. The air conditioner uses this information to adjust its heating or cooling operations to compensate for the heat generated by the image forming apparatus when it is operating.
Claims10
An image forming apparatus which is connected to a network, comprising:
- a communication unit which receives information from an air conditioner unit about an ambient condition of an area in which the image forming apparatus is installed, the air conditioner unit being external to the image forming apparatus;
- and
- an adjusting unit which controls internal devices located only inside the image forming apparatus in accordance with the received information and a threshold value, independently of an image-forming operation, wherein the internal devices adjust environmental temperature and/or environmental moisture content inside the image forming apparatus.
A method of controlling an image forming device that is operatively coupled to communicate with an air conditioner, comprising the following steps:
- receiving information from said air conditioner regarding at least one ambient condition in an area external to the image forming device;
- determining whether said ambient condition is greater than a threshold value;
- and
- activating a system located within said image forming device that only regulates an environmental internal condition of said image forming device in dependence upon whether said ambient condition is greater than said value, wherein the activating step is independent from an image-forming operation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.