Apparatus, method, and non-transitory recording medium for power generation using heat in image forming apparatus
AssigneeRioch Company, Ltd.
InventorsHomare Ehara, Takaaki Shirai, Norikazu Okada, Tomoyuki Yamashita, Ryohta Kubokawa, Takuma Kasai, Keita Maejima
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An image forming apparatus includes a fixing device to fix an image on a recording medium by heating the recording medium, multiple heat storing devices to store heat generated at the fixing device, an electric generating element to generate power by converting the heat into power, and a switch to switch connection and disconnection between the electric generating element and at least one of the multiple heat storing devices.
Claims11
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a fixing device configured to fix an image on a recording medium by heating the recording medium;
- an electric generating element configured to generate power by converting the heat into power;
- multiple heat storing devices configured to store heat generated at the fixing device and configured to supply the heat stored to the electric generating element;
- and
- a switch configured to switch connection and disconnection between the electric generating element and at least one of the multiple heat storing devices.
An image forming method, comprising:
- acquiring setting information indicating a content of image forming conducted by an image forming apparatus including a fixing device to heat a recording medium to fix an image thereon, an electric generating element to generate power by converting the heat into power, multiple heat storing devices to store heat generated at the fixing device and supply the heat stored to the electric generating element, and a switch to switch connection and disconnection between the electric generating element and at least one of the multiple heat storing devices;
- and
- controlling switching the connection and the disconnection by a switch based on the setting information acquired in the step of acquiring setting information.
A non-transitory recording medium which, when executed by one or more processors, perform an image forming method, comprising the steps of:
- acquiring setting information indicating a content of image forming conducted by an image forming apparatus including a fixing device to heat a recording medium to fix an image thereon, an electric generating element to generate power by converting the heat into power, multiple heat storing devices to store heat generated at the fixing device and supply the heat stored to the electric generating element, and a switch to switch connection and disconnection between the electric generating element and at least one of the multiple heat storing devices;
- and
- controlling switching the connection and the disconnection by a switch based on the setting information acquired by the step of acquiring setting information.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.