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US 8,008,892 B2Granted
Image forming apparatus, power supply device, and control method
AssigneeRicoh Company, Ltd.
InventorHideo Kikuchi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A step-down circuit lowers a voltage outputted from a commercial power supply. A step-down-output control and charge control circuit controls a step-down voltage and charges a capacitor bank based on a step-down voltage outputted. A constant-voltage generating circuit generates a constant voltage based on an output of the capacitor bank or an output of the step-down circuit. An image-forming-apparatus control circuit supplies the constant voltage to a load that performs an image forming operation.
Claims8
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a step-down unit that steps down a voltage based on a commercial power supply;
- a charge accumulating unit that is chargeable and dischargeable and is charged by electric power output from the step-down unit;
- a load that one of electric power output from the charge accumulating unit and the electric power output from the step-down unit is supplied;
- a first switching unit that switches whether to supply the electric power output from the charge accumulating unit to the load or to supply the electric power output from the step-down unit to the load;
- a storing unit that stores a condition of an output sheet to which an image is formed and an accumulated power use time for a plurality of image forming operation modes or image forming operation conditions, the plurality of image forming operation modes or image forming operation conditions each requiring output of electric power from the charge accumulating unit;
- and
- a control unit that controls the load and the first switching unit based on the condition of the output sheet and the accumulated power use time corresponding to a predetermined image forming operation mode or image forming operation condition.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.