Image forming apparatus with two coloring material supplying sections
AssigneeKonica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.
InventorsKen Ohmura, Akihiro Nakamura, Makoto Furuichi, Hayato Konishi
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Toners of the same color but with different characteristics are stored in the toner cartridges. For example, toners for high image quality (High Grade) with small particle diameter are stored in some toner cartridges and toners for low image quality (Low Grade) are stored in other toner cartridges. In this case, case, the mode of forming images using small particle diameter toner for high image quality using an image forming engine and the mode of forming images using a toner for low image quality using another image forming engine are executed by the image forming apparatus.
Claims16
An image forming apparatus for forming an image on a sheet by using a first coloring material for image formation or a second coloring material for image formation having a same color as a color of the first coloring material and a different characteristic from a characteristic of the first coloring material, the image forming apparatus comprising:
- a first supplying section to supply the first coloring material;
- a second supplying section to supply the second coloring material;
- a switching section to switch between a first image forming mode for forming an image by using the first coloring material and a second image forming mode for forming an image by using the second coloring material;
- and
- a storing device to store registration data in which correlation between an attribute of a print job and an image forming mode to be executed is established,
- wherein the switching section conducts a mode switching operation based on the attribute of a print job;
- and
- wherein the attribute of a print job is at least one of copying, printing, fax reception, mail reception, a type of a data file and a size of a data file.
The image forming apparatus of claim further comprising:
- a first container to store the first coloring material;
- and
- a second container to store the second coloring material,
- wherein the first container and the second container are detachably loaded on the first supplying section and the second supplying section, respectively.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.