Electrophotography – Diagnostics – Unit or part identification
Reexamination Certificate
2001-09-14
2004-01-06
Tran, Hoan (Department: 2852)
Electrophotography
Diagnostics
Unit or part identification
C399S050000, C399S053000, C399S066000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06674975
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an image forming apparatus using the electrophotographic process such as a laser beam printer, a copier or a facsimile apparatus, and a process cartridge mounted on the image forming apparatus.
Here, the process cartridge refers to at least one of charging means, developing means and cleaning means and an electrophotographic photosensitive body integrally made into a cartridge which is detachably attachable to the main body of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, or at least developing means and an electrophotographic photosensitive body integrally made into a cartridge which is detachably attachable to the main body of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus.
2. Related Background Art
In an image forming apparatus of the electrophotographic type such as a copier or a laser beam printer, light corresponding to image information is applied to an electrophotographic photosensitive body to thereby form an electrostatic latent image thereon, and a developer (toner) which is a recording agent is supplied to this electrostatic latent image by developing means to thereby visualize the latent image, and further the image is transferred from the electrophotographic photosensitive body to a recording medium such as recording paper to thereby form an image on the recording paper.
In such an image forming apparatus, with a view to achieve the simplicity of the interchange maintenance of expendables such as the electrophotographic photosensitive body and the toner, a toner containing portion, the developing means, the electrophotographic photosensitive body, charging means, cleaning means including a waste toner container, etc. are often made integral as a process cartridge which is made detachably attachable to the main body of the image forming apparatus.
Also, there is an apparatus like a color image forming apparatus which has developing means of a plurality of colors and in which, in order to cope with a case where the degrees of consumption of the respective developing means differ from one another or a case where the degree of consumption of the electrophotographic photosensitive body and the degrees of consumption of the developing means differ from each other, individual means are made into cartridges such as respective color developing cartridges, i.e., developing apparatuses made into cartridges, and a photosensitive body cartridge into which cleaning means and the electrophotographic photosensitive body are integrally made.
There is also an apparatus in which storing means (memories) are carried on these cartridges to thereby control cartridge information. As described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,272,503, there is also an apparatus in which the used amount of a cartridge is stored to thereby change various process conditions. For example, the charging current value is changed over or the exposure amount is adjusted. In these apparatuses, if in spite of the cartridges differing from one another, the used amounts thereof are the same the same control is done.
However, if the image forming apparatus becomes complicated, there will more or less come out the instability of the manufacturing lot, color difference, etc. of the electrophotographic photosensitive body and toners and the difference in characteristic due to the manufacturing lots of individual cartridges. Also, the characteristic is varied by a user's using state and images cannot be always outputted with the same quality. Also, according to the prior art, it has been insufficient to correct any variation in the quality of image in all cartridges.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an electrophotographic image forming apparatus and a process cartridge which can obtain images of a stable quality of image in conformity with the individual characteristic of the process cartridge by a simple and inexpensive construction.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an electrophotographic image forming apparatus and a process cartridge which can calculate the used amount of the process cartridge by obtaining the individual characterics of the process cartridge from the individual characteristic information of the process cartridge stored in storing means and the history information thereof accumulated with use, and obtain stable images of a high quality conforming to individual characteristics of the process cartridge.
In order to achieve the above objects, the image forming apparatus according to the present invention is an electrophotographic image forming apparatus permitting a process cartridge to be mounted thereon and for forming an image on a recording medium, comprising:
(a) a mounting means for detachably mounting a process cartridge having an electrophotographic photosensitive body, a process means for acting on the electrophotographic photosensitive body, and a storing means for storing the history information of the electrophotographic photosensitive body therein;
(b) a driving means for moving the surface of the electrophotographic photosensitive body;
(c) a charging voltage power supply for applying a voltage to charging means for uniformly charging the surface of the electrophotographic photosensitive body; and
(d) a transferring voltage power supply for applying a voltage to a transferring means for transferring an image formed on the electrophotographic photosensitive body by the process means to the recording medium;
(e) a reading means for reading out the history information stored in the storing means;
(f) a detecting means for detecting use information of the electrophotographic photosensitive body in the main body of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus subsequent to the time period of the stored history information;
(g) a calculating means for calculating the latest history information from the stored history information and the use information;
(h) a writing means for writing the latest history information into the storing means; and
(i) a control means for changing image forming process conditions on the basis of the history information in the storing means.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the storing means has individual information regarding the manufacturing lots or kinds of at least one of the process cartridge, a developer, the electrophotographic photosensitive body, the process means for acting on the electrophotographic photosensitive body, and functional members included in the process means.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, the electrophotographic image forming apparatus has a calculation means for calculating the frequency of use of the electrophotographic photosensitive body on the basis of the history information of the electrophotographic photosensitive body and the individual information of the process cartridge stored in the storing means, and a control means for changing the image forming process conditions according to the calculated frequency of use of the electrophotographic photosensitive body.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, the electrophotographic image forming apparatus has a calculation means for calculating the frequency in use of the electrophotographic photosensitive body, and a control means for changing the image forming process conditions on the basis of the calculated frequency in use of the electrophotographic photosensitive body and the individual information of the process cartridge.
According to another embodiment, the electrophotographic image forming apparatus has a conversion expression or a conversion table for converting each bit of individual information of the process cartridge into the frequency in use of the electrophotographic photosensitive body and image forming process conditions conforming to the used amount.
According to another embodiment, the process cartridge comprising a cartridge in which at least one of a charging means, a developing means and a cleaning means as the process means and the electrophotograph
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
Fitzpatrick ,Cella, Harper & Scinto
Tran Hoan
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