IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS AND CONTROL PROGRAM OF IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS

• Main Authors: FUKUNAGA MASAYUKI, YAMAMOTO MINEO, TANAKA TOSHIAKI, WATANABE MASAYUKI
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; Japanese
• Published: 19.09.2019
• Subjects: CINEMATOGRAPHY; ELECTROGRAPHY; ELECTROPHOTOGRAPHY; HOLOGRAPHY; MAGNETOGRAPHY; PHOTOGRAPHY; PHYSICS

To provide an image forming apparatus capable of easily and efficiently improving the service life prediction accuracy of a fixing unit.SOLUTION: The image forming apparatus includes a fixing part which heats a recording medium held in a nip part formed by bringing two rotary bodies into press-contact with each other, while pressurizing the recording medium in the nip part and fixes a toner image formed on the recording medium by conveying the recording medium by the rotations of the rotary bodies, a motor which transmits torque to at least any one of the rotary bodies and rotationally drives the rotary bodies, a torque detection part which detects the torque transmitted to the rotary bodies by the motor, a temperature detection part which detects the temperature of the rotary bodies, a conveyance speed detection part which detects a conveyance speed at which the recording medium is conveyed by the fixing part, and a control part which corrects the detected torque on the basis of at least any one of the detected temperature and the detected conveyance speed and predicts the service life of the fixing part on the basis of the torque after the correction.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2 【課題】容易かつ効率的に定着器の寿命予測精度を向上可能な画像形成装置を提供する。【解決手段】２つの回転体が圧接されることで形成されたニップ部で挟持された記録媒体を、ニップ部において加圧しつつ加熱するとともに、回転体を回転させることで搬送することにより、記録媒体上に形成されたトナー像を定着する定着部と、回転体の少なくともいずれか一方にトルクを伝達して回転体を回転駆動するモーターと、モーターにより回転体に伝達されるトルクを検出するトルク検出部と、回転体の温度を検出する温度検出部と、定着部により記録媒体が搬送される搬送速度を検出する搬送速度検出部と、検出された温度および搬送速度の少なくともいずれか一方に基づいて、検出されたトルクを補正し、補正後のトルクに基づいて定着部の寿命を予測する制御部と、を有する。【選択図】図２