SMOOTHNESS DETECTOR AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS

• Main Authors: WAIDA TAKUMI, KATO SHINJI, HIRAI SHUJI, YAMASHINA RYOTA, SHOJI KEITARO, OCHI TERUMICHI
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; Japanese
• Published: 05.11.2015
• Subjects: CINEMATOGRAPHY; ELECTROGRAPHY; ELECTROPHOTOGRAPHY; HOLOGRAPHY; MAGNETOGRAPHY; PHOTOGRAPHY; PHYSICS

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a smoothness detector configured to compensate temporal reduction in output of detection means due to paper dust, and an image forming apparatus.SOLUTION: A smoothness detector includes: a sensor having a light source, and a photo detector which irradiates a recording medium with light emitted from the light source, to detect the quantity of light reflected by the recording medium; and a calculation section which calculates smoothness of the recording medium by means of a sensor output of the sensor. The calculation section includes a first memory which stores an initial value in the sensor output with respect to the recording medium, and a second memory which stores a ratio of reduction in sensor output per detection quantity which is set for the initial value. The calculation section calculates the amount of reduction in sensor output from the ratio of reduction in sensor output per detection quantity, according to the number of recording media detected, and adjusts the quantity of light emitted from the sensor on the basis of the calculation result, to calculate smoothness of the recording medium on the basis of the adjusted sensor output. 【課題】紙粉による経時的な検出手段の出力の低下を補償することができる平滑度検出装置及び画像形成装置を提供する。【解決手段】光源と、該光源より出射された光を記録媒体に照射し該記録媒体によって反射された光量を検出する光検出素子とを有するセンサと、該センサのセンサ出力により前記記録媒体の平滑度を演算する演算部とを備えて構成される平滑度検出装置において、前記演算部が、記録媒体に対する前記センサ出力における初期値を記録した第１のメモリと、前記初期値に対して設定される検知枚数あたりのセンサ出力の低下割合を記録した第２のメモリとを有し、前記演算部が、検知された記録媒体の枚数に応じて、前記検知枚数あたりのセンサ出力の低下割合からセンサ出力の低下量を計算し、この演算結果を基に前記センサの発光量を調整し、調整後のセンサ出力に基づいて前記記録媒体の平滑度を演算する。【選択図】図８