JP2006072181A - Image forming apparatus and adjustment method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image forming apparatus having a rotary developing unit with an appropriate adjustment operation sequence corresponding to the disposition of developing cartridges. <P>SOLUTION: The rotary developing unit 4 is rotated to position a developing unit 4a in a developing position, where a patch image is formed to adjust operating conditions for the apparatus. Next, the rotary developing unit 4 is rotated 180° to position the developing unit 4c in the developing position, where the developing unit 4c is similarly subjected to the adjustment of operating conditions for the apparatus. Subsequently, the rotary developing unit 4 is rotated 90° to position the developing unit 4c to an access position allowing a memory access, then subjected to memory update, and returned to a home position. Memory update for the developing unit 4a is carried out after the subsequent image forming operation. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus including a rotary developing unit that can be mounted with a developing cartridge having a storage unit and rotatable in a predetermined direction, and an adjustment method for adjusting operating conditions of the apparatus in the apparatus. .

  Conventionally, in an image forming apparatus including a rotary developing unit capable of mounting a plurality of developing cartridges, an operation sequence has been established on the assumption that all the cartridges that can be mounted are mounted at predetermined positions. However, in recent years, in order to meet a wider range of user requirements, there is an apparatus capable of forming an image even when some of the developing cartridges are not installed or when the developing cartridges are installed in a different arrangement from the original arrangement. Has been proposed.

  For example, in the image forming apparatus described in Patent Document 1, when a development unit corresponding to a monochrome color is mounted among four development units (development cartridges) corresponding to four toner colors, the presence or absence of other units is present. Regardless of this, monochrome printing can be executed. Further, in the image forming apparatus described in Patent Document 2, monochrome image formation is possible in a state where a developing cartridge of the same color is attached to a developing rotary to which a developing cartridge of a different toner color should be originally attached.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-50495 (FIG. 6) JP 2002-351190 A (paragraph 0042)

  In this type of image forming apparatus, in order to appropriately manage the usage status of each developing cartridge, the developing cartridge may be provided with storage means (such as a memory) for storing information indicating the usage status of the cartridge. . The operation sequence in such an apparatus is configured such that the information stored in the storage means is updated after each developer cartridge is used. However, as described above, when the arrangement of the developing cartridge is irregular, such an operation sequence may not be optimal.

  In particular, in the adjustment operation of the operation condition of the apparatus that is performed at any time corresponding to each developing cartridge, the required time affects the throughput of image formation. Therefore, in order to improve the throughput, the arrangement of the developing cartridge at that time is required. It is desirable that an optimal operation sequence is executed. However, such an operation sequence has not been studied in detail conventionally.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide an appropriate adjustment operation sequence according to the arrangement of the developing cartridge in an image forming apparatus including a rotary developing unit.

  In order to achieve the above object, the image forming apparatus according to the present invention is configured to be capable of mounting three or more developing cartridges having storage means for storing information on the usage status of the developing cartridge, and is rotatable in a predetermined direction. An image forming operation for forming a toner image using a rotary developing unit and a developing cartridge positioned at a predetermined developing position among the developing cartridges mounted on the rotary developing unit, and a developing positioned at a predetermined access position And a control means for executing an update operation for accessing the storage means provided in the cartridge and updating the stored contents, wherein the development position and the access position are the same as the one of the developments attached to the rotary development unit. When the cartridge is positioned at the developing position, the other developing cartridge is The control means executes an image forming operation for forming a toner image as a patch image, and the image forming operation is performed based on the density detection result of the patch image. An adjustment operation for adjusting an operation condition when the operation is executed is further executed, and the adjustment operation is performed for the two developing cartridges attached to the rotary developing unit. When the second developing cartridge is positioned at the developing position, the first developing cartridge is different from the first developing cartridge that is used first in the next image forming operation of the two developing cartridges. When the second developing cartridge is positioned so that it is positioned at a position other than the access position, While performing the update operation after the serial adjustment operation, for the first developer cartridge is characterized in that to perform the adjustment operation without execution of the update operation.

  In the image forming apparatus adjusting method according to the present invention, it is possible to mount three or more developing cartridges including a storage unit that stores information on the usage status of the developing cartridge, and the rotary developing that is rotatable in a predetermined direction. An image forming operation for forming a toner image using a developing cartridge positioned at a predetermined developing position among the developing cartridges mounted on the rotary developing unit, and the developing cartridge positioned at a predetermined access position An image forming operation for forming a toner image as a patch image is performed in an image forming apparatus capable of executing an update operation for accessing and updating the storage contents provided in the storage unit, and the density of the patch image An adjustment method for adjusting an operating condition when executing the image forming operation based on a detection result. In order to achieve the above object, the adjustment operation is performed on the two developing cartridges attached to the rotary developing unit, and the two developing cartridges are the next of the two developing cartridges. The positional relationship is such that the first developing cartridge is positioned at a position other than the access position when a second developing cartridge different from the first developing cartridge that is used first in the image operation is positioned at the developing position. Sometimes, the second developing cartridge performs the updating operation after adjusting the operating condition, while the first developing cartridge performs the operating condition adjustment without performing the updating operation. It is characterized by.

  The operation sequence according to these inventions is optimal when the two developing cartridges to be adjusted are in a specific positional relationship. The reason is as follows. In order to shorten the time required for the adjustment operation, it is desirable to minimize the number of times that the rotary developing unit is stopped during the adjustment operation. Therefore, the development position and the access position are determined so that when one developer cartridge is positioned at the development position, the other developer cartridge is positioned at the access position. By doing so, the image forming operation by one developing cartridge and the updating operation to the storage means provided in the other developing cartridge can be performed in parallel. However, depending on the positional relationship of the developing cartridge, the image forming operation and the updating operation may not be performed in parallel. That is, when the developing cartridge that has been subjected to the adjusting operation is positioned at the access position, the developing cartridge that is to perform the adjusting operation next is not disposed at the developing position. In such a case, the updating operation for the previous developing cartridge and the adjusting operation for the next developing cartridge cannot be performed simultaneously. Therefore, the positioning operation of the previous developing cartridge to the access position and the positioning operation of the next developing cartridge to the developing position must be performed separately, and the number of stops of the rotary developing unit increases.

  Therefore, in the present invention, the number of stops of the rotary developing unit is reduced by not performing the update operation after the adjustment operation for the previous developer cartridge. As a result, an increase in processing time accompanying an increase in the number of stops of the rotary developing unit can be suppressed, and throughput can be improved. Further, if the developing cartridge that does not perform the updating operation is the developing cartridge (first developing cartridge) that is first used in the subsequent image forming operation, the updating operation to the first developing cartridge is performed after the image forming operation. Therefore, there is no problem in managing the cartridge.

  In particular, it is effective to execute the adjusting operation for the first developing cartridge, the adjusting operation for the second developing cartridge, and the updating operation for the second developing cartridge in this order. That is, it is reasonable that the order of use of each cartridge determined based on the rotation direction of the rotary developing unit and the arrangement of the developing cartridge is also applied when the adjustment operation is executed. By doing so, the rotation operation sequence of the rotary developing unit is optimized, and the required time can be shortened. On the other hand, if the execution order of the adjustment operations is changed, it takes time due to the rotational movement of the rotary developing unit.

  Further, when the one developing cartridge attached to the rotary developing unit is positioned at the developing position, the developing cartridge is attached at a position adjacent to the one rotary developing unit on the downstream side in the rotation direction of the rotary developing unit. It is desirable that the developing position and the access position are determined so that the developing cartridge comes to the access position. Thus, when the image forming operation is completed for one developing cartridge at the developing position and the next developing cartridge is moved to the developing position, the previous developing cartridge is positioned at the access position. As a result, it is possible to update the storage contents of the storage unit for the developing cartridge that has just performed the image forming operation while executing the image forming operation for one developing cartridge. Further, with respect to one developing cartridge, after performing the image forming operation at the developing position, the developing cartridge can be moved to the access position with the minimum movement amount.

  Further, when the image forming operation by the first developing cartridge is performed after the adjustment operation is performed, it is preferable that the update operation of the first developing cartridge is performed following the image forming operation. By doing so, information on changes in the usage status of the first developing cartridge accompanying the adjustment operation and the image forming operation is updated, and the life management of the cartridge can be appropriately performed.

  FIG. 1 is a view showing an embodiment of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of the image forming apparatus of FIG. This apparatus forms a full color image by superposing four color toners (developers) of yellow (Y), cyan (C), magenta (M), and black (K), or only black (K) toner. The image forming apparatus forms a monochrome image using In this image forming apparatus 1, when an image signal is given to the main controller 11 from an external device such as a host computer, the engine controller 10 that functions as a “control unit” of the present invention is in response to a command from the main controller 11. A predetermined image forming operation is executed by controlling each part of the engine unit EG, and an image corresponding to the image signal is formed on the sheet S.

  In the engine unit EG, the photosensitive member 22 is provided to be rotatable in the arrow direction D1 in FIG. A charging unit 23, a rotary developing unit 4 and a cleaning unit 25 are arranged around the photosensitive member 22 along the rotation direction D1. The charging unit 23 is applied with a predetermined charging bias, and uniformly charges the outer peripheral surface of the photoconductor 22 to a predetermined surface potential. The cleaning unit 25 removes the toner remaining on the surface of the photosensitive member 22 after the primary transfer, and collects it in a waste toner tank provided inside. The photosensitive member 22, the charging unit 23, and the cleaning unit 25 integrally constitute the photosensitive member cartridge 2, and the photosensitive member cartridge 2 is detachably attached to the apparatus main body as a whole.

  Then, the light beam L is irradiated from the exposure unit 6 toward the outer peripheral surface of the photosensitive member 22 charged by the charging unit 23. The exposure unit 6 exposes the light beam L onto the photoconductor 22 in accordance with an image signal given from an external device to form an electrostatic latent image corresponding to the image signal.

  The electrostatic latent image thus formed is developed with toner by the developing unit 4. That is, in this embodiment, the developing unit 4 is configured as a support frame 40 that is rotatably provided about a rotation axis center orthogonal to the paper surface of FIG. A yellow developing device 4Y, a cyan developing device 4C, a magenta developing device 4M, and a black developing device 4K are provided. The developing unit 4 is controlled by the engine controller 10. Based on the control command from the engine controller 10, the developing unit 4 is driven to rotate, and the developing units 4Y, 4C, 4M, and 4K are selectively brought into contact with the photoreceptor 22 or have a predetermined gap. When positioned at a predetermined developing position facing each other, the photosensitive member 22 is provided from the metal developing roller 44 which is provided in the developing unit and carries charged toner of a selected color and to which a predetermined developing bias is applied. Toner is applied to the surface. As a result, the electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive member 22 is visualized with the selected toner color.

  Each of the developing devices 4Y, 4C, 4M, and 4K includes nonvolatile memories 91 to 94 for storing information related to the developing devices, and wireless communication antennas 49Y, 49C, and 49M that are electrically connected to the memories, and 49K. On the apparatus main body side, a wireless communication antenna 109 connected to the CPU 101 via the transmitter 105 is provided near the outer periphery of the rotary developing unit 4. Then, the rotary developing unit 4 is positioned so that one of the antennas 49Y, 49C, 49M, and 49K provided in each developing device is arranged close to the antenna 109 provided on the main body side. Then, wireless communication is performed between the CPU 101 of the engine controller 10 and the memories 91 to 94. In this way, information about each developing device is transmitted to the CPU 101, and information in each of the memories 91 to 94 is updated and stored. The memory update operation will be described in detail later.

  The toner image developed by the developing unit 4 as described above is primarily transferred onto the intermediate transfer belt 71 of the transfer unit 7 in the primary transfer region TR1. The transfer unit 7 includes an intermediate transfer belt 71 stretched between a plurality of rollers 72 to 75, and a drive unit (not shown) that rotates the intermediate transfer belt 71 in a predetermined rotation direction D2 by rotationally driving the roller 73. It has. When a color image is transferred to the sheet S, each color toner image formed on the photosensitive member 22 is superimposed on the intermediate transfer belt 71 to form a color image and taken out from the cassette 8 one by one. Then, the color image is secondarily transferred onto the sheet S conveyed along the conveyance path F to the secondary transfer region TR2.

  At this time, in order to correctly transfer the image on the intermediate transfer belt 71 to a predetermined position on the sheet S, the timing of feeding the sheet S to the secondary transfer region TR2 is managed. Specifically, a gate roller 81 is provided on the transport path F on the front side of the secondary transfer region TR2, and the gate roller 81 rotates in accordance with the timing of the circumferential movement of the intermediate transfer belt 71. S is sent to the secondary transfer region TR2 at a predetermined timing.

  Further, the sheet S on which the color image is thus formed is conveyed to the discharge tray portion 89 provided on the upper surface portion of the apparatus main body via the fixing unit 9, the pre-discharge roller 82 and the discharge roller 83. Further, when images are formed on both sides of the sheet S, when the rear end portion of the sheet S on which the image is formed on one side as described above is conveyed to the reversal position PR behind the pre-discharge roller 82. The rotation direction of the discharge roller 83 is reversed, whereby the sheet S is conveyed in the direction of the arrow D3 along the reverse conveyance path FR. Then, the sheet is again placed on the transport path F before the gate roller 81. At this time, the surface of the sheet S to which the image is transferred by contacting the intermediate transfer belt 71 in the secondary transfer region TR2 is first transferred. It is the opposite surface. In this way, images can be formed on both sides of the sheet S.

  In addition, as shown in FIG. 2, this apparatus includes a display unit 12 that is controlled by the CPU 111 of the main controller 11. The display unit 12 is constituted by, for example, a liquid crystal display, and in accordance with a control command from the CPU 111, the operation guidance to the user, the progress of the image forming operation, the occurrence of an abnormality in the apparatus, the replacement time of any unit, etc. A predetermined message for notification is displayed.

  In FIG. 2, reference numeral 113 denotes an image memory provided in the main controller 11 for storing an image given from an external device such as a host computer via the interface 112. Reference numeral 106 is a ROM for storing a calculation program executed by the CPU 101, control data for controlling the engine unit EG, and the like. Reference numeral 107 is a RAM for temporarily storing calculation results in the CPU 101 and other data. is there.

  A cleaner 76 is disposed in the vicinity of the roller 75. The cleaner 76 can be moved toward and away from the roller 75 by an electromagnetic clutch (not shown). Then, the blade of the cleaner 76 abuts on the surface of the intermediate transfer belt 71 that is stretched over the roller 75 while moving to the roller 75 side, and the toner that remains on the outer peripheral surface of the intermediate transfer belt 71 after the secondary transfer. Remove.

  Further, a density sensor 60 is disposed in the vicinity of the roller 75. The density sensor 60 is provided to face the surface of the intermediate transfer belt 71 and measures the image density of the toner image formed on the outer peripheral surface of the intermediate transfer belt 71 as necessary. Based on the measurement results, this apparatus uses the operating conditions of each part of the apparatus that affect the image quality, such as the developing bias applied to each developing device, the intensity of the exposure beam L, and the tone correction characteristics of the apparatus. Adjustments are being made.

  The density sensor 60 is configured to output a signal corresponding to the density of a predetermined area on the intermediate transfer belt 71 using, for example, a reflective photosensor. The CPU 101 can detect the image density of each part of the toner image on the intermediate transfer belt 71 by periodically sampling the output signal from the density sensor 60 while rotating the intermediate transfer belt 71.

  The image forming apparatus configured as described above is an apparatus capable of forming a full-color image, but also functions as a monochrome-only machine that forms only a monochrome image at the request of the user. That is, in this apparatus, instead of the four developing devices corresponding to the Y, M, C, and K toner colors, only one developing device or two or more developing devices of the same toner color are arranged in the rotary developing unit 4. The image forming operation with the toner color can be performed in the state of being attached to the printer. Therefore, in the following, the toner colors of the developing devices mounted on the rotary developing unit 4 are not particularly distinguished, and the four developing devices are represented by reference numerals 4a, 4b, 4c, and 4d in accordance with the order of use. Each developing device is used in order along the rotation direction of the rotary developing unit 4 and is used by sequentially switching to a developing device located upstream one of the currently used developing devices as necessary. And In this way, switching of the developing device in the image forming operation can be performed only by rotating the rotary developing unit 4 by 90 degrees in the rotation direction. However, which developing unit is to be used first is determined in advance. Here, the developing device 4a is used first, but is not limited to this.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a stop position of the rotary developing unit. As shown in FIG. 3, the rotary developing unit 4 can be positioned and stopped at (a) the home position and (b) the image forming position. FIG. 3B shows an example of the image forming positions. Actually, there are four image forming positions corresponding to each of the four developing devices and having angles different from each other by 90 degrees. To do. Among these, the home position is a standby position of the rotary developing unit 4 when no image signal is given to the apparatus. At this home position, as shown in FIG. 3A, the developing rollers 44a, 44b, 44c and 44d provided in the developing units are all separated from the photosensitive member 22.

  In the state where the rotary developing unit 4 is stopped at the image forming position, the developing roller 44a provided in one of the developing devices (the developing device 4a in the example of FIG. 3B) is connected to the photosensitive member 22. Opposed. In this state, the electrostatic latent image formed on the surface of the photoconductor 22 can be visualized with the toner stored in the developing device 4a (image forming operation). That is, the position of the developing device 4a in FIG. 3B corresponds to the “developing position” in the present invention.

  On the other hand, in the developing device 4d that is one downstream of the developing device 4a in the rotation direction of the rotary developing unit 4, the antenna 49d provided in the developing device 4d is disposed opposite to the main body side antenna 109. Become. Therefore, it becomes possible to access the memory provided in the developing device 4d by wireless communication from the CPU 101. In this state, information on the usage status of the developing device stored in the memory is updated (update operation). That is, the position of the developing device 4d in FIG. 3B corresponds to the “access position” in the present invention.

  As described above, the developing position and the access position are arranged so that the other developing device is positioned at the access position in a state where the developing device mounted on the rotary developing unit 4 is positioned at the developing position. Thus, while the image forming operation is executed on the one hand, the memory update operation can be executed on the other hand simultaneously, and the processing time can be shortened.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an operation sequence of the full-color image forming operation. More specifically, it is a schematic diagram showing the rotational movement and stop position of the rotary developing unit 4 in the image forming operation. In the full color image forming operation, the rotary developing unit 4 is first rotated 135 degrees from the home position. In this state, an image forming operation is performed by the developing device 4a positioned at the developing position. Next, the rotary developing unit 4 is rotated 90 degrees. In this state, the developing device 4a is positioned at the access position, and the developing device 4b is positioned at the developing position. Then, the updating operation of the developing device 4a and the image forming operation of the developing device 4b are performed in parallel. Similarly, while rotating the rotary developing unit 4 by 90 degrees, the updating operation of the developing device 4b and the image forming operation of the developing device 4c, and the updating operation of the developing device 4c and the image forming operation of the developing device 4d are performed in parallel. . Further, the rotary developing unit 4 is rotated 90 degrees, the developing unit 4d is positioned at the access position, the updating operation is performed, and then the home position is returned again.

  As described above, since the development position and the access position are provided at positions shifted by 90 degrees, in the full-color image forming operation using all the developing devices, the updating operation is performed on the developing device that has performed the image forming operation first. At the same time, the image forming operation can be executed for the developing device mounted on the upstream side one by one, and the time required for the entire processing is shortened.

  Such an operation sequence can also be applied when executing an adjustment operation for adjusting the operation conditions of the apparatus corresponding to each developing device. That is, when the adjustment operation is completed for one developing device, the rotary developing unit 4 is rotated 90 degrees. Then, the developing unit positioned at the access position is updated, and the next developing unit positioned at the developing position is adjusted. Thereby, the time required for the entire adjustment operation can be shortened. Here, the adjustment operation is an operation of forming a toner image as a patch image and adjusting the operation conditions (development bias, exposure power, etc.) of each part of the apparatus based on the density detection result. At this time, since the usage status of each developing device fluctuates, for example, the toner remaining amount decreases due to the formation of the patch image, the memory is updated after the adjustment operation in the same manner as after the normal image forming operation. It is desirable to keep it. Note that many known techniques have been proposed for such an adjustment operation, and these known techniques can be applied to the present embodiment, and thus the description thereof is omitted here.

  By the way, when the number of developing devices to be subjected to the adjustment operation is a part of the four, it may not be said that such an operation sequence functions effectively. Here, the principle of the operation sequence suitable for such an operation will be examined by taking as an example the case where the adjustment operation is performed for two of the four developing devices.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a first example of an adjustment operation sequence for two developing devices arranged diagonally. Here, consider the case where the adjustment operation is performed for two of the four developing devices 4a and 4c. It does not matter whether the other two developing devices are installed. In this case, since one developer cannot be positioned at the development position and the other at the access position at the same time, the adjustment operation and the update operation cannot be performed simultaneously.

  If the adjustment operation is performed in the same procedure as described above, the following sequence is obtained. First, in order to move the developing device 4a to the developing position, the rotary developing unit 4 is rotated 135 degrees. In this state, the adjusting operation of the developing device 4a is executed. When the adjustment operation is completed, the rotary developing unit 4 is further rotated 90 degrees to move the developing device 4a to the access position, and the information in the memory is updated. Similarly, the rotary developing unit 4 is further rotated by 90 degrees, and the adjusting operation and the updating operation are sequentially performed on the developing device 4c. Thereafter, the rotary developing unit 4 is rotated 315 degrees to return to the home position. In this series of operations, the rotary developing unit 4 stops four times except for the stop at the home position, and the total rotation amount is 720 degrees.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a second example of an adjustment operation sequence for two developing devices arranged diagonally. The technical idea according to the present invention is applied to this sequence. In this sequence, after the adjusting operation of the developing device 4a is performed, the rotary developing unit 4 is rotated by 180 degrees instead of 90 degrees. That is, the update operation of the developing device 4a is omitted. By doing so, the total rotation amount 720 degrees of the rotary developing unit 4 is the same as in the above example, but the number of stops is three times, which is one less than the above example. For this reason, the processing time required for the entire sequence is shorter than the sequence in the above example.

  As described above, in the adjustment operation sequence to which the present invention is applied, the update time for the developing device 4a is omitted to shorten the processing time. This is because the developing device 4a is specified to be used first in the image forming operation, and the use state stored in the memory can be updated after the next image forming operation. . That is, the update operation for the developing device 4a is performed after the image forming operation performed after the adjustment operation is performed, and at this time, the information on the usage status of the developer is updated including the amount changed by the adjustment operation. By doing so, the life management of the developing device 4a can be appropriately performed.

  Next, consider a case where two developing devices that are to perform the adjusting operation are arranged adjacent to each other. As such an arrangement, there can be considered a case where the developer used earlier in the image forming operation is in an upstream adjacent position with respect to another developer and a case in which it is in a downstream adjacent position.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a first example of an adjustment operation sequence for two adjacently arranged developing devices. Here, consider a case where the adjusting operation is performed for the developing devices 4a and 4b. In this case, the developing device 4a used first in the image forming operation is positioned downstream of the developing device 4b in the rotation direction of the rotary developing unit 4. In this case, as shown in FIG. 7, when the update operation is performed after the adjustment operation of the developing device 4a, the adjustment operation of the developing device 4b can be performed at the same time. The time required for the adjustment operation is relatively short.

  FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a second example of an adjustment operation sequence for two adjacently arranged developing devices. In this arrangement, the developing device 4a used first in the image forming operation is positioned upstream of the developing device 4d in the rotation direction of the rotary developing unit 4. In the case of such an arrangement, as shown in FIG. 8, when the adjustment operation and the update operation are performed for each of the developing devices, the number of stops of the rotary developing unit 4 is four.

  FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a third example of an adjustment operation sequence for two adjacently arranged developing devices. This sequence applies the technical idea according to the present invention, and the update operation for the developing device 4a is omitted. By doing so, the number of stops of the rotary developing unit 4 is 3, and the time required for the adjustment operation can be shortened compared to the case of FIG.

  As described above, among the four developing devices that can be attached to the rotary developing unit 4, two developing devices are adjusted, and both developing devices are used later in the image forming operation. When the developing device is positioned at the developing position, if the developing device used earlier is positioned at the access position, the updating operation of the preceding developing device and the adjusting operation of the subsequent developing device are performed simultaneously. Can be done. On the other hand, when the developing device used later in the image forming operation is positioned at the developing position, if the developing device used earlier is not in the access position, the adjusting operation and the updating operation are performed simultaneously. I can't. Therefore, in this embodiment, an adjustment operation that does not involve an update operation is executed for the developer that is used first. By doing so, the number of stops of the rotary developing unit 4 can be reduced and the processing time can be shortened.

  Further, since the order in which the adjustment operations are performed is determined along the rotation direction of the rotary developing unit 4, the amount of rotation of the rotary developing unit 4 when the developing device is switched can be reduced.

  In this embodiment, since the access position is provided 90 degrees downstream of the development position in the rotation direction of the rotary development unit 4, an image forming operation or an adjustment operation is performed by arranging one developer at the development position. In the meantime, it is possible to execute the update operation for the developing unit used for the image forming operation or the adjustment operation immediately before the operation.

  Although the configuration is different from that of the apparatus of the present embodiment, the case where the access position is at a position rotated by 180 degrees with respect to the development position will also be considered here.

  FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a third example of an adjustment operation sequence for two developing devices arranged diagonally. In such an arrangement, it is possible to simultaneously position the developing device 4a used first in the access position and the developing device 4c used later in the development position. Therefore, the adjustment operation and the update operation can be performed for both of the two developing devices 4a and 4c by stopping the rotary developing unit 4 three times.

  FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a fourth example of an adjustment operation sequence for two adjacently arranged developing devices. As described above, when the developing operation is performed for the developing devices 4a and 4b, if the opening between the developing position and the access position is 90 degrees, the two developing devices 4a can be stopped by stopping the rotary developing unit 4 three times. 4c can be adjusted and updated. However, when the opening between the development position and the access position is 180 degrees, four stops are required. Therefore, in such a positional relationship, as shown in FIG. 11, the number of stops of the rotary developing unit 4 can be suppressed to three by omitting the update operation for the developing device 4a.

  FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing an adjustment operation sequence in this embodiment. Here, the case where the adjusting operation is performed for the two developing devices 4a and 4c mounted at the diagonal positions will be described as an example. In this adjustment operation, the development bias and the exposure power are adjusted among the operation conditions of the apparatus.

  The actual adjustment operation is performed as follows when the CPU 101 executes a program stored in the ROM 106 in advance. First, the rotary developing unit 4 is rotated to sequentially position the developing devices 4c and 4a at the developing positions, and the developing rollers 44c and 44a provided in the developing devices are rotated (steps S1 and S2). This rounding operation is an operation of rotating the developing roller of the developing device positioned at the developing position several times, whereby fresh toner is supplied to the surface of the developing roller and a new toner layer is formed. The reason why the rotating operation of the developing device 4c is performed first is to rotate the rotary developing unit 4 greatly to stir the toner in the developing device in advance.

  Next, the developing bias is sequentially adjusted for the developing devices 4a and 4c (steps S3 and S4), and the exposure power is adjusted for each of them (steps S5 and S6). Here, the adjustment of the developing bias and exposure power for one developing device is not continued, and the developing device is switched during that time. This is because the development bias optimized by the development bias adjustment operation is applied when adjusting the exposure power. That is, in the developing bias adjustment operation, it takes a certain amount of time to detect the density of the formed patch image and calculate the optimum value of the developing bias from the detection result. For this reason, since the exposure power cannot be adjusted immediately after the adjustment of the developing bias, the entire required time can be shortened by forming a patch image by the next developing device during this time.

  After adjusting the two developing units in this way, the developing unit 4c is moved to the access position and the updating operation is executed (step S7), and then the rotary developing unit 4 is returned to the home position (step S8). As described above, the update operation for the developing device 4a is executed after the image forming operation by the developing device 4a. As information to be stored in the memory regarding the usage status of the developing device, for example, the number of toner dots formed using the developing device, the amount of toner used, or the rotation amount of the developing roller can be used.

  The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various modifications other than those described above can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention. For example, in the above description, the case where the adjusting operation is performed for two developing devices including the developing device 4a has been described. However, the same consideration can be made when the adjusting operation is performed for two developing devices not including the developing device 4a. it can.

  Further, for example, in the above embodiment, the memory contents are read and written by performing wireless communication between the memory provided in each developing device and the CPU 101, but between the apparatus main body and the developing device. You may connect with a connector and you may comprise so that reading / writing may be performed by wired communication.

  In the above embodiment, four toner colors of yellow (Y), cyan (C), magenta (M), and black (K) are used. However, the number and types of toner colors are limited to this. It is not something. The present invention can also be applied to an apparatus provided with a plurality of developing devices of the same toner color. Furthermore, the present invention is not limited to the printer as in the above-described embodiment, and can be applied to other image forming apparatuses such as a copying machine and a facsimile machine.

1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of the image forming apparatus in FIG. 1. The figure which shows the stop position of a rotary image development unit. The figure which shows the operation | movement sequence of full color image formation operation | movement. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a first example of an adjustment operation sequence for developing units arranged diagonally. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a second example of an adjustment operation sequence for the developing devices arranged diagonally. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a first example of an adjustment operation sequence for adjacently arranged developing devices. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a second example of an adjustment operation sequence for adjacently arranged developing devices. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a third example of an adjustment operation sequence for adjacently arranged developing devices. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a third example of an adjustment operation sequence for the developing devices arranged diagonally. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a fourth example of an adjustment operation sequence for adjacently arranged developing devices. The flowchart which shows the adjustment operation | movement sequence in this embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

  4 ... Rotary developing unit, 4a to 4d, 4C, 4K, 4M, 4Y ... Developing device (developing cartridge), 11 ... Engine controller (control means)

Claims (5)

A rotary developing unit configured to be capable of mounting three or more developing cartridges having storage means for storing information on the usage status of the developing cartridge, and rotatable in a predetermined direction;
Of the developing cartridges mounted on the rotary developing unit, an image forming operation for forming a toner image using a developing cartridge positioned at a predetermined developing position and a developing cartridge positioned at a predetermined access position are provided. Control means for accessing the storage means and executing an update operation for updating the stored contents,
The development position and the access position are such that when one development cartridge mounted on the rotary development unit is positioned at the development position, another development cartridge is positioned at the access position. While placed in
The control means includes
An image forming operation for forming a toner image as a patch image is executed, and an adjustment operation for adjusting an operation condition when executing the image forming operation based on a density detection result of the patch image is further executed. ,
An adjustment operation is performed on the two developing cartridges mounted on the rotary developing unit, and the two developing cartridges are first used in the next image forming operation of the two developing cartridges. When the second developing cartridge different from the first developing cartridge is positioned at the developing position, the first developing cartridge is positioned at a position other than the access position.
The image forming is characterized in that the update operation is executed after the adjustment operation is performed for the second developing cartridge, while the adjustment operation is executed for the first developer cartridge without the execution of the update operation. apparatus.   2. The image according to claim 1, wherein the control unit executes the adjustment operation for the first development cartridge, the adjustment operation for the second development cartridge, and the update operation for the second development cartridge in this order. Forming equipment.   When one developing cartridge mounted on the rotary developing unit is positioned at the developing position, the developing cartridge mounted at a position adjacent to the one rotary developing unit on the downstream side in the rotation direction of the rotary developing unit. 3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the developing position and the access position are determined such that the first position is at the access position.   The control means executes the update operation of the first developing cartridge following the image forming operation when the image forming operation by the first developer cartridge is performed after the adjustment operation is performed. The image forming apparatus according to claim 3. A developing cartridge equipped with a rotary developing unit which is configured to be capable of mounting three or more developing cartridges having storage means for storing information relating to the usage status of the developing cartridge and which is rotatable in a predetermined direction, and is mounted on the rotary developing unit Image forming operation for forming a toner image using a developing cartridge positioned at a predetermined developing position, and access to the storage means provided in the developing cartridge positioned at a predetermined access position to store the stored contents. In an image forming apparatus capable of executing an update operation for updating the image, an image forming operation for forming a toner image as a patch image is executed, and the image forming operation is executed based on a density detection result of the patch image. In the adjustment method for adjusting the operating conditions,
An adjustment operation is performed on the two developing cartridges mounted on the rotary developing unit, and the two developing cartridges are first used in the next image forming operation of the two developing cartridges. When the second developing cartridge different from the first developing cartridge is positioned at the developing position, the first developing cartridge is positioned at a position other than the access position.
The update operation is performed after adjusting the operating condition for the second developing cartridge, and the operating condition is adjusted without executing the updating operation for the first developing cartridge. An image forming apparatus adjustment method.

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