Patent application number | Description | Published |
20110004419 | APPARATUS, SYSTEM, AND METHOD OF DETERMINING APPARATUS STATE - A state predicting apparatus collects internal information and usage information of an apparatus subjected for failure prediction determination, calculates a state index value using a regression model and the internal information of the apparatus, calculates a usage factor indicating a predicted remaining time period between a time when the state index value is calculated and a time when a failure is predicted to occur using the usage information of the apparatus, and calculates a failure risk based on the state index value and the usage factor. | 01-06-2011 |
20110007337 | APPARATUS, SYSTEM, AND METHOD OF PREDICTING FAILURE OF IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - An apparatus, system, and method of predicting failure of a fixing device of an image forming apparatus are provided. Based on a plurality of sheet transfer time values of the fixing device, a first characteristic value that is an average value of the plurality of sheet transfer time values, and at least one of a second characteristics value that indicates the variance of the plurality of sheet transfer time values and a third characteristics value that indicates the maximum value of the plurality of sheet transfer time values are calculated. Using a determination result generated based on the first characteristics value and the at least one of the second and third characteristics values, failure of the fixing device is predicted. | 01-13-2011 |
20110106489 | ROTATION MEASURING MECHANISM, SHEET CONVEYANCE APPARATUS, ORIGINAL READING APPARATUS, AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - A rotation measuring mechanism capable of measuring a rotation amount and a displacement amount of a rotary member in a direction perpendicular to the rotation axis is provided. An exemplary combination of the rotation measuring mechanism includes a detection target rotating in synchrony with the rotary member and range sensors. Each time the detection target rotates once, each sensor outputs one cycle of a sine wave. The amplitude of the sine wave output from the sensor varies in accordance with the displacement of the detection target together with the rotary member in the direction perpendicular to the axis, thereby obtaining the rotation amount and the displacement amount of the rotary member. | 05-05-2011 |
Patent application number | Description | Published |
20080199193 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS AND FAILURE DETECTION METHOD THEREFOR - An image forming apparatus includes toner image forming devices for forming toner images of a plurality of mutually different colors, a toner image carrying member for carrying thereon the toner images of the plurality of colors to be transferred onto a recording medium at one time, an adhesion amount detection device for detecting a toner adhesion amount of each of the toner images, and a failure determination device for determining the presence or absence of a sign of failure in the toner image forming devices. The failure determination device determines the presence or absence of the sign of failure in one of the toner image forming devices on the basis of information based on adhesion amount detection results obtained through detection by the adhesion amount detection device of toner adhesion amounts of toner images formed on the toner image carrying member by the other toner image forming devices. | 08-21-2008 |
20090148185 | DRIVE CONTROL DEVICE OF A ROTATION MEMBER, METHOD FOR DRIVE CONTROL OF A ROTATION MEMBER, AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS INCLUDING THE DRIVE CONTROL DEVICE - A drive control apparatus including a drive motor that transmits a rotation drive force to a rotation member in order to rotate the rotation member, a pulse signal outputting unit that outputs a pulse signal for each predetermined angle of rotation or a position for rotation of the rotation member, while the rotation member is rotating, a pulse cycle measuring unit that measures a pulse cycle of the pulse signal, where the pulse cycle is a cycle of a rising or falling edge, a computation processing unit that computes an angular error or a position error of the rotation member based on the pulse cycle and a desired pulse cycle, where the desired pulse cycle corresponds to a desired velocity of the rotation member and a drive control unit that controls the drive motor based on the angular error or the position error. | 06-11-2009 |
20090319827 | FAULT PREDICTION METHOD, FAULT PREDICTION SYSTEM, AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - A fault prediction method predicts a plurality of faults in a target device, and includes the steps of collecting internal information of the target device output from the target device, generating one or more criteria for defining a deviation from a normal state based on the collected internal information of the target device, incorporating the one or more criteria into a device state discriminator, identifying a deviation from a normal state in the target device according to the one or more criteria using the device state discriminator, and outputting a fault prediction as a result of the identifying step to a user. One or more of the steps are performed by a processor. | 12-24-2009 |
20090324259 | CONDITION DETERMINING SYSTEM, METHOD OF DETECTING ABNORMALITY OF CONDITION DETERMINING SYSTEM, AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - A system abnormality determining method comprises the steps of transmitting fake abnormal information representing an abnormal condition of the target instrument from the target instrument to a condition determination device via a network during a test operation of the target instrument instead of condition information, determining if the condition determination device can determine the target instrument as being abnormal based on the fake abnormal information, and operating the target instrument in a normal operation condition when the condition determination device can determine the target instrument as being abnormal. | 12-31-2009 |