Patent application number | Description | Published |
20120020684 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS, AND IMAGE FORMING METHOD AND PROGRAM USING THE SAME - Provided are an image forming apparatus that, when a difference between a developing bias in correcting an image density and a reference developing bias has a value not less than a prescribed value that is set preliminarily, replenishes or consumes a toner forcibly, executes correction of the image density again, and controls the developing bias in such a manner that a toner density is controlled to fall within an appropriate range, and an image forming method using the same. When a difference between a developing bias value after correction of the image density and the reference developing bias becomes larger than the prescribed value to the plus side or the minus side, a toner density control portion performs control to consume or replenish a toner forcibly. | 01-26-2012 |
20120207490 | METHOD FOR JUDGING TONER SHORTAGE AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - The image forming apparatus carries out a monitoring operation in which (i) sensor outputs of the magnetic permeability sensor are periodically sampled, (ii) a time period, corresponding to one (1) circulation period which is required for the developer to be circulated once in the circulation carrying path, is evenly divided into a plurality of blocks, and (iii) an average of the sensor outputs in one (1) block time period corresponding to one (1) block is calculated for each of the plurality of blocks; and determines that toner has run short, in a case where the number of times that the averages of the sensor outputs consecutively exceed a threshold, set to be higher than a reference value of the sensor outputs, becomes not less than the number of the plurality of blocks which correspond to the time period corresponding to one (1) circulation period. | 08-16-2012 |
Patent application number | Description | Published |
20090010662 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - An image forming apparatus that includes: an image forming portion for forming an image in accordance with image data contained in an input command; and a controller for controlling the image forming portion, and is constructed such that the controller includes: a mode switch for switching the image forming portion from a standby mode in which image forming is instantly enabled into a power-saving mode in which power supply to the image forming portion is partially stopped when no subsequent command has been received after a predetermined period elapsed from when image forming portion was operated last; a mode restoring portion for restoring the image forming portion from power-saving mode to standby mode when a subsequent command is received; and an image quality controller for performing image quality control of the image every time a predetermined time elapsed from when the image forming portion was last operated, and the image quality controller starts execution of the image quality control before the mode restoring portion restores the image forming portion from the power-saving mode to the standby mode. | 01-08-2009 |
20090010683 | DEVELOPING DEVICE AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - A developing device includes a developing roller and a blade. The developing roller includes: a developing sleeve which rotates while holding two-component developer composed of toner and magnetic carrier on the outer surface having a plurality of grooves extending in parallel to an axis of the rotation; and a magnetic member, provided inside the developing sleeve in such a manner as to be unrotatable, for attracting the two-component developer onto the outer surface of the developing sleeve. The blade is provided outside the rotating sleeve with a gap from the outer surface of the developing sleeve for scraping off a part of the two-component developer on the outer surface of the developing sleeve. Also, the magnetic member includes a magnet for controlling magnetic flux density in the gap to range from 70 mT to 150 mT. This allows preventing image degradation caused by generation of development memory. | 01-08-2009 |
20090175635 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS AND DRIVE CONTROL METHOD OF THE SAME - An image forming apparatus capable of performing monochrome printing and color printing in which all the developing units share a single development transformer is constructed such that at the time of monochrome printing the photoreceptor drums for colors are stopped rotating while all the developing units are constantly applied with a high voltage. Further, the cumulative operation time in which the black photoreceptor drum has been operated for monochrome printing is calculated so that the color-printing photoreceptor drums which are stopped during monochrome printing are rotationally driven by a predetermined angle when the cumulative operation time exceeds predetermined fixed time. Thus, the surface of each color-printing photoreceptor drum that is being worn is restored by making the fresh surface of the drum oppose the associated color developing unit, whereby it is possible to prevent occurrence of defects on the surface of each photoreceptor drum. | 07-09-2009 |
Patent application number | Description | Published |
20110123204 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS AND TONER SUPPLY METHOD - An image forming apparatus includes a developing device having a toner supply sensor, a toner supply device supplying toner to the developing device, a toner supply controller controlling toner supply from the toner supply device to the developing device based on predetermined conditions, a toner empty determiner determining whether toner is present inside the toner supply device. In the image forming apparatus, the toner supply device includes a storage for recoding multiple measured values of toner supply detected by the toner supply sensor, and the toner supply controller corrects the amount of toner supply, based on the moving average of multiple measured values of the amount of toner supply. | 05-26-2011 |
20110222872 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - An image forming apparatus includes: a developing device; a toner supply device that supplies toner to the developing device; and a toner supply detecting sensor that detects whether toner is supplied into the developing device; and a toner empty determination controller for determining that the toner inside the toner supply device is used up. Toner empty determination controller, based on the output result from the toner supply detecting sensor, modifies the toner empty determining threshold, based on which toner empty is determined. | 09-15-2011 |
20110262155 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS AND IMAGE FORMING METHOD USING THE SAME - An image forming apparatus can prevent printed images from being degraded in image quality due to failure of the toner concentration to fall within a proper range, by correcting the deviations of the amount of toner consumption and the amount of toner supply depending on the individuality of each image forming apparatus and that enables exact identification of the cause of a fault associated with toner concentration, as well as providing an image forming method using the apparatus. A toner supply device supplies toner to a developing vessel through an opening in accordance with an instruction from a controller. The presence or absence of toner falling is detected based on the variation of the output from a magnetic permeability sensor when toner is supplied. The controller monitors the output voltage level of the magnetic permeability sensor and adjusts the input gain in accordance with the output voltage level to thereby control toner concentration. | 10-27-2011 |
Patent application number | Description | Published |
20090214895 | Magnetic recording medium and manufacturing method thereof - Embodiments of the present invention produce discrete track media and bit patterned media having both excellent read/write performance and reliability. According to one embodiment, the medium comprises a magnetic layers formed by at least two ferromagnetic alloy layers with different compositions on a substrate. The ferromagnetic alloy layer located closest to the medium surface has more concentrated parts and less concentrated parts of nonmagnetic element in the in-plane direction. The more concentrated parts of the nonmagnetic element contain more nonmagnetic elements than the other parts except for an intermediate layer in the magnetic recording layer. The more concentrated parts and the less concentrated parts of the nonmagnetic element in the ferromagnetic alloy layer located closest to the medium surface are formed substantially concentric. The more concentrated parts of the nonmagnetic element is formed by being doped with ions of nonmagnetic element. | 08-27-2009 |
20090214898 | MAGNETIC RECORDING MEDIUM AND MANUFACTURING METHOD THEREOF - Embodiments of the present invention help to produce discrete track media and bit patterned media having both excellent recording and reproducing performance and reliability. According to one embodiment, a manufacturing method forms a nonmagnetic layer mainly composed of the same element as a nonmagnetic element contained in magnetic recording layers and on the magnetic recording layers and a mask layer having apertures for forming more concentrated parts of the nonmagnetic element in the magnetic recording layers on the nonmagnetic layer. The method implants ions of the nonmagnetic element through the nonmagnetic layer masked by the mask layer to form the more concentrated parts of the nonmagnetic element in the magnetic recording layer. | 08-27-2009 |
20090258253 | Magnetic recording medium for high density recording and magnetic storage device using same - In one embodiment, a magnetic recording medium comprises an underlying film, a magnetic film and a protective film formed in this order on a substrate. The magnetic film is a cobalt-base alloy film containing chromium and has a plurality of magnetic layers stacked without interposition of any non-magnetic layer. The plural magnetic layers comprise first, second and third magnetic layers. The first magnetic layer is disposed between the underlying film and the second magnetic layer. The second magnetic layer is disposed between the first magnetic layer and the third magnetic layer. The third magnetic layer is disposed between the second magnetic layer and the protective film. The concentration of chromium contained in the first magnetic layer is lower than that of chromium contained in the second magnetic layer. The thickness of the first magnetic layer is smaller than that of the second magnetic layer. The magnetic layers which overlie the first magnetic layer further contain platinum and boron. The concentration of chromium contained in the third magnetic layer is lower than that of chromium contained in the second magnetic layer. | 10-15-2009 |
20150085401 | RECORDING MEDIUM HAVING RECORDING ASSIST - An HDD includes a magnetic head, and a magnetic recording medium. The recording medium includes a recording magnetic layer, and a recording assist magnetic layer, the recording assist magnetic layer generates a high-frequency magnetic field by means of a recording field from the magnetic head, and a recording assist action acts on the recording magnetic layer. | 03-26-2015 |
Patent application number | Description | Published |
20100302682 | Magnetic Recording Media Having Recording Regions and Separation Regions That Have Different Lattice Constants and Manufacturing Methods Thereof - According to one embodiment, a magnetic recording medium includes a magnetic recording layer formed above a substrate, the magnetic recording layer being comprised of an alloy having a crystal structure, recording tracks formed on the magnetic recording layer in nearly concentric circular shapes, wherein the recording tracks are comprised of a first alloy composition having a crystal structure, and track separation regions formed between the recording tracks on the magnetic recording layer, wherein the track separation regions are comprised of a second alloy composition having a crystal structure, the second alloy composition comprising the first alloy composition and a non-magnetic element, wherein a lattice constant of the second alloy composition is greater than a lattice constant of the first alloy composition. In other embodiments, methods of manufacturing magnetic recording media and systems using magnetic recording media are described. | 12-02-2010 |
20120140357 | MAGNETIC RECORDING MEDIUM HAVING RECORDING REGIONS AND SEPARATING REGIONS AND METHODS OF MANUFACTURING THE SAME - In one embodiment, a method for forming a magnetic recording medium includes forming a protective layer above reading regions of a patterned magnetic recording layer and separating regions between the recording regions, wherein the protective layer forms on sides of the recording regions and partially fills the separating regions, and forming a filler layer on the protective layer, wherein the filler layer completely fills the separating regions, wherein the filler layer has an uneven upper surface. In another embodiment, a medium includes a patterned magnetic recording layer, a protective layer above the patterned magnetic recording layer and on sides of the patterned magnetic recording layer, and a filler layer positioned between the patterned magnetic recording layer in separating regions, wherein DLC of the filler layer is a lower density than DLC of the protective layer. Other systems and methods are described according to more embodiments. | 06-07-2012 |
20150062745 | GRANULAR MEDIA WITH A HIGH-HK ASSIST LAYER FOR MICROWAVE-ASSISTED MAGNETIC RECORDING - In one embodiment, a magnetic storage device includes at least one microwave assisted magnetic recording (MAMR) head, each MAMR head including a spin torque oscillator (STO), a magnetic recording medium, a drive mechanism for passing the magnetic medium over the at least one MAMR head, and a controller electrically coupled to the at least one MAMR head for controlling operation of the at least one MAMR head, wherein the magnetic recording medium includes a recording layer positioned directly or indirectly above a substrate and an assist layer positioned above the recording layer, wherein the recording layer includes at least Co, Pt, and an oxide or oxygen, wherein the assist layer is positioned closer to the at least one MAMR head and includes at least Co and Pt, and wherein at least a portion of the recording layer has a smaller anisotropic magnetic field than the assist layer. | 03-05-2015 |
Patent application number | Description | Published |
20130235195 | IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, AND IMAGE PROCESSING PROGRAM - An image processing device has an image input part to which a frame image of an imaging area taken with an infrared camera is input, a background model storage part in which a background model is stored with respect to each pixel of the frame image input to the image input part, a frequency of a pixel value of the pixel being modeled in the background model, a background difference image generator that determines whether each pixel of the frame image input to the image input part is a foreground pixel or a background pixel using the background model of the pixel, which is stored in the background model storage part, and generates a background difference image, and an object detector that sets a foreground region and detects an imaged object based on the foreground pixel in the background difference image generated by the background difference image generator. | 09-12-2013 |
20130236098 | IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, AND IMAGE PROCESSING PROGRAM - An image processing device has an image input part to which a frame image of an imaging area taken with an infrared camera is input, a background model storage part in which a background model is stored with respect to each pixel of the frame image input to the image input part, a frequency of a pixel value of the pixel being modeled in the background model, a background difference image generator that determines whether each pixel of the frame image input to the image input part is a foreground pixel or a background pixel using the background model of the pixel, which is stored in the background model storage part, and generates a background difference image, and a threshold setting part. | 09-12-2013 |