In one aspect an apparatus (200) for use in an electrographic printer (100) is described. The apparatus includes a housing (210) defining a cavity (220), a developer roller (250), a developer electrode (240) for developing printing substance onto the developer roller, the electrode being arranged within the cavity, and a heater (260) for heating printing substance to be developed onto the developer roller, the heater being arranged in the cavity.

A printing device having a heating apparatus arranged to heat an image substrate, a temperature sensor associated with the image substrate, and a processor communicatively coupled to the heating apparatus. During a simulation mode of the printing device, the processor determines the heating power of the heating apparatus, predicts a temperature of the image substrate based on the heating power, compares the predicted temperature to a measured temperature of the image substrate by the temperature sensor, determines a calibration offset when the measured temperature deviates from the predicted temperature, and selectively generates a control signal for use in calibrating the temperature sensor based on the calibration offset.

An image forming apparatus which includes a motor, a first power supply unit that supplies a first voltage to the motor, and a second power supply unit that supplies a second voltage, which is higher than the first voltage, to the motor, and a central processing unit (CPU) that controls supply of the second voltage from the second power supply unit to the motor while maintaining supply of the first voltage from the first power supply unit to the motor.

An image forming apparatus includes a plurality of temperature-influence members, a first-point temperature acquisition unit, a second-point temperature estimation unit, and a controller. The plurality of temperature-influence members have influence on a temperature of a recording medium on which an image is formed. The first-point temperature acquisition unit is configured to detect or estimate a temperature of the recording medium at a first point. The second-point temperature estimation unit is configured to estimate a temperature of the recording medium at a second point, based on a detection result of at least one of a temperature of the recording medium at a point different from the second point and a temperature of a member or atmosphere. The controller is configured to control the plurality of temperature-influence members, based on an acquisition result from the first-point temperature acquisition unit and an estimation result from the second-point temperature estimation unit.

According to one embodiment, an image forming apparatus includes an image carrier, an exposing apparatus, a developing device, a transfer device, a fixing device, a history acquisition unit, an estimation unit, and an output unit. The exposing device exposes the image carrier to form an electrostatic latent image on the image carrier. The developing device includes a layer forming member to form a toner layer on a developing roller and forms a toner image by developing the electrostatic latent image. The transfer device transfers the toner image to a sheet. The fixing device fixes the toner image to the sheet. The history acquisition unit acquires a history regarding a temperature around the developing device. The estimation unit estimates a possibility that an image defect caused by the layer formation may occur on the basis of the history. The output unit outputs estimation results of the estimation.

In an image forming apparatus of a direct transfer system, when in a region where a transfer nip portion of a photosensitive drum is formed, a region in which the toner image can be formed is defined as a first region, and a region where the recording medium does not pass while the recording medium is conveyed by the transfer nip portion is defined as a second region, in forming the toner image on the recording medium, the photosensitive drum enters the transfer nip portion in a state where the second region of the photosensitive drum includes a region in which an absolute value of a surface potential is smaller than an absolute value of a surface potential of a region in which the toner image is not formed in the first region.

A machine learning device generates a control parameter of image formation in an image forming device including an image forming part that forms an image on a paper sheet and an image reading part that reads the image formed on the paper sheet, and the machine learning device includes: a first hardware processor that generates the control parameter on the basis of machine learning; a second hardware processor that receives input of an image including a read image that is formed by the image forming part according to the control parameter and read by the image reading part, the second hardware processor making a determination relating to the read image on the basis of machine learning; and a third hardware processor that causes the first hardware processor and/or the second hardware processor to learn oil the basis of a determination result by the second hardware processor.

An image forming apparatus includes a temperature sensor, a memory, a fixing device, and a controller. The temperature sensor is configured to detect a temperature of an inside of the image forming apparatus. The memory is configured to store temperature history information regarding a history of the temperature of the inside of the image forming apparatus detected by the temperature sensor. The fixing device is configured to fix a toner image onto the paper sheet by heating the paper sheet to a fixing temperature. The toner image is transferred to the paper sheet using a toner stored in a toner cartridge of the image forming apparatus. The controller is configured to control a fixing temperature at the fixing device based on the temperature history information stored in the memory.

An image forming apparatus includes a heater, a fixing device, and a controller. The heater includes a heat generator that generates heat when the heater is turned on. The fixing device may fix a developer image on a surface of an image forming medium using the heat from the heat generator. The controller detects a voltage of a power supply for supplying electric power to the heater, and determines an occurrence of an abnormality in the heater if a voltage drop amount at the time the heater is turned on as compared to a case in which the heater is turned off is smaller than a first threshold value.

An image forming apparatus is configured to execute image forming processing of forming an image on a sheet. The apparatus includes a photosensitive drum, a fixing device including a heater and a roller, a main motor configured to generate a driving force, a driving mechanism having a connected state in which the driving force is transmittable to both the roller and the photosensitive drum, and a disconnected state in which the driving force is transmittable to the roller but is not transmitted to the photosensitive drum, a temperature sensor configured to detect a temperature of the fixing device, and a controller. In a case where the image forming processing is started, the controller sets the driving mechanism into the disconnected state, rotates the main motor at a preheating speed, and executes preheating processing in which the fixing device is heated by the heater.