ELECTRONIC DEVICE, IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS, ELECTRONIC POWER CONTROL METHOD, AND ELECTRONIC POWER CONTROL PROGRAM

• Main Authors: IWATA ATSUTAKA, OGAWA SEIYA, YANO TETSUYA, ENDO TAKESHI, NAGATSUKA SHINGO, NAKAYAMA SHUNTARO, SAITO TAKANOBU, AOKI TOSHIMASA
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; Japanese
• Published: 25.04.2016
• Subjects: CINEMATOGRAPHY; ELECTROGRAPHY; ELECTROPHOTOGRAPHY; HOLOGRAPHY; MAGNETOGRAPHY; PHOTOGRAPHY; PHYSICS

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To generate electric power using excess heat of a component the temperature of which overshoots after operation stop, promptly transition into a power saving mode, and appropriately cool the component.SOLUTION: In an image forming apparatus 1, a thermoelectric element 26 thermoelectrically generates electric power using heat the temperature of which overshoots after driving of a heating section 23 of a fixing unit 6 is stopped, and a switching circuit 33 performs a switching operation to supply the power to a storage battery 36 and a switching circuit 34. A control unit 32 determines total power-generation electric energy by adding a power storage amount of the storage battery 36 when the driving of the heating section 23 is stopped to the electric power generated by the thermoelectric element 26 during cooling, and also calculates necessary driving electric energy necessary to drive a cooling fan 25 to cool the heating section 23 down to a predetermined temperature. If the total power-generation electric energy is lower than the necessary driving electric energy by insufficient electric energy, the control unit 32 controls the cooling fan 25 to be driven by external power generated by a power supply circuit 31 at earlier timing corresponding to the insufficient electric energy, and the image forming apparatus 1 transitions into a power saving mode and the cooling fan 25 is driven using the total power-generation electric energy.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2 【課題】本発明は、動作停止後にオーバーシュートする部品の余剰熱を利用して発電して、速やかに省電力モード平行するとともに、該部品を適切に冷却する。【解決手段】画像形成装置１は、定着部６の発熱部２３が、駆動停止後にオーバーシュートする熱を利用して熱電素子２６が熱電発電し、切換回路３３の切換動作によって、蓄電池３６と切換回路３４に供給する。制御部３２は、発熱部２３の駆動停止時の蓄電池３６の蓄電量と、冷却中の熱電素子２６の発電電力を加算した総発電電力量を求め、また、冷却ファン２５を駆動させて発熱部２３を所定温度まで冷却するのに必要な必要駆動電力量を算出する。制御部３２は、総発電電力量が必要駆動電力量に対して不足電力量があると、その分だけ、先に、電源回路３１の生成する外部電力によって冷却ファン２５を駆動させ、その後、省電力モードへ移行するとともに、総発電電力量を使用して冷却ファン２５を駆動させる。【選択図】 図２