Electrophotography – Control of electrophotography process – Control of fixing
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-26
2001-10-23
Brase, Sandra (Department: 2852)
Electrophotography
Control of electrophotography process
Control of fixing
Reexamination Certificate
active
06308022
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electro-photographic type image forming apparatus and a method of warming up the image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
When power is turned on in an electro-photographic type image forming apparatus, the apparatus performs a warm-up operation (forwardly rotating a photosensitive drum, and raising the temperature of a fuser. The warm-up operation continues until the fuser reaches a certain stand-by temperature.
However, it may take a long time for the fuser to reach the stand-by temperature during the warm up operation. This generally results in having to wait for a long time before the apparatus can begin printing. Consequently, the user has to wait for a long time until the printing out is complete.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide an image processing apparatus capable of reducing the warm up period.
In order to accomplish this object, according to one aspect of the present invention, an electro-photographic type image processing apparatus includes a heating unit that heats a fuser, a detection unit that detects the temperature of the fuser, and a control unit that stops performing the warm-up operation when the fuser reaches a warm up completion temperature that is lower than the stand-by temperature. Since the warm up operation is terminated at a temperature lower than the stand-by temperature, the warm-up period of the image forming apparatus can be reduced. The conventional image forming apparatus stops the warm up operation when the fuser temperature reaches the stand-by temperature.
The control unit may heat the fuser to the stand-by temperature after the fuser reaches the warm up completion temperature. Accordingly, it is possible to heat the fuser unit to the fusing temperature in a relatively short period. Therefore, even if a start key is pressed while the image forming apparatus is in a stand-by condition, the fuser unit is heated to the fusing temperature before the recording paper reaches the fusing unit, whereby printing can be reliably enabled.
The control unit may cause the heating unit to heat the fuser such that the temperature of the fuser becomes the fusing temperature in the period of time between the receiving of a print command signal and the moment the front end of the recording paper reaches the fuser. Accordingly, the fuser is brought into a “printing ready” condition. Thus, the transferred toner image can be reliably fused/fixed on the recording paper.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image forming device including a photosensitive body, an exposure unit that forms an electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive body, a developer that forms a toner image by applying toner to the electrostatic latent image, a transfer that transfers the toner image onto a recording sheet, a fuser that fuses/fixes the transferred image onto the recording sheet, a heater that heats the fuser, a temperature detector that detects the temperature of the fuser, and a controller that adjusts the heater based on the temperature detected by the temperature detector, wherein the controller ends a warm-up operation when the detected fuser unit temperature reaches a warm-up completion temperature that is lower than a stand-by temperature. This arrangement also reduces the length of the warm-up period.
In the detailed description, the heating unit is embodied as a heat lamp
101
a
, the temperature detection unit is embodied as a temperature sensor
110
, and the control unit is embodied as MPU
11
, ROM
12
, and RAM
13
.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4745436 (1988-05-01), Matsuura
patent: 5109255 (1992-04-01), Nishikawa et al.
patent: 5280328 (1994-01-01), Goto et al.
patent: 5489935 (1996-02-01), Dornier
patent: 5694226 (1997-12-01), Yokoyama
patent: 5729789 (1998-03-01), Tamaki
patent: 5897242 (1999-04-01), Hosoi
patent: 5899599 (1999-05-01), Kato
patent: 04-250484 (1992-09-01), None
Brase Sandra
Hogan & Hartson L.L.P.
Murata Kikai Kabushiki Kaisha
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