Image formation apparatus

Abstract

To enable execution of an image formation job only when the power use amount of an electrical instrument including an image formation apparatus does not exceed the available power amount even if the image formation job is executed.SOLUTION: The current power use amount is acquired from a HEMS (S1). If the current power use amount is equal to or less than a first threshold obtained by subtracting the predicted power use amount (S3) in a case of executing an image formation job at a first temperature from the available power amount (NO in S4), the image formation job is executed at the first temperature (S9). If the current power use amount exceeds the first threshold (YES in S4), and further exceeds a second threshold obtained by subtracting the predicted power use amount (S6) in a case of executing the image formation job at a second temperature lower than the first temperature from the available power amount (YES in S7), the image formation job is not executed, and a message indicating standby status is displayed (S8). If the current power use amount is equal to or less than the second threshold (NO in S7), the image formation job is executed at the second temperature (S9).SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 4

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a printer, a copier, a facsimile machine, or a multifunction peripheral.

Background Art

[0002] In recent years, it has become increasingly common for individuals working for companies to work from home, or for sole proprietors to use their homes as offices. There is a demand from such users to use image forming apparatuses such as business-use copiers and multifunction peripherals at home. However, business-use image forming apparatuses consume more power than home-use image forming apparatuses. Therefore, when a user executes an image forming job, the power consumption of electrical equipment including the image forming apparatus may exceed the amount of power available for use in each house (hereinafter referred to as the available power amount), causing the breaker (wiring breaker) to trip and forcibly cutting off the power supply to all electrical equipment including the image forming apparatus in the house. Conventionally, an image forming apparatus in which a power saving mode can be selected by the user has been proposed, such as the apparatus described in Patent Document 1, and by the user selecting the power saving mode, the power consumption of the image forming apparatus can be suppressed and the image forming job can be executed.

Prior Art Documents

Patent Documents

[0003]

Patent Document 1

Summary of the Invention

Problems to be Solved by the Invention

[0004] However, when actually using an image forming apparatus with high power consumption in a house, even though the user selects the power saving mode and executes an image forming job, the frequency of the breaker tripping has increased. This is because the power consumption (instantaneous value) of the image forming apparatus greatly increases with the execution of the image forming job, and the power consumption of the electrical equipment including the image forming apparatus often exceeds the available power. Therefore, there has been a long-standing desire for an image forming apparatus that can actually execute an image forming job when the power consumption of the electrical equipment including the image forming apparatus does not exceed the available power even when the image forming job is executed, but such an apparatus has not yet been proposed.

[0005] The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide an image forming apparatus that can actually execute an image forming job when the power consumption of the electrical equipment including the image forming apparatus does not exceed the available power even when the image forming job is executed.

Means for Solving the Problems

[0006] An image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention is an image forming apparatus, comprising: an image forming unit that forms an image on a recording material; a fixing unit that fixes the image formed on the recording material to the recording material by heat; an acquisition unit that acquires the power consumption of a plurality of electrical equipment including the image forming apparatus from a power management device that manages the power used by the plurality of electrical equipment; and an execution unit that, when an image forming job for forming an image on the recording material using the image forming unit and the fixing unit is input, executes the image forming job by setting the target temperature of the fixing unit to a first temperature when the current power consumption acquired by the acquisition unit is equal to or lower than a threshold value, and executes the image forming job by setting the target temperature of the fixing unit to a second temperature lower than the first temperature when the current power consumption acquired by the acquisition unit is greater than the threshold value.

[0007] An image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention is an image forming apparatus, comprising: an image forming unit that forms an image on a recording material; a fixing unit that fixes the image formed on the recording material to the recording material by heat; an acquisition unit that acquires the power consumption of a plurality of electrical devices including the image forming apparatus from a power management device that manages the power used by the plurality of electrical devices; and an execution unit that, when an image forming job for forming an image on the recording material using the image forming unit and the fixing unit is input, executes the image forming job if the current power consumption acquired by the acquisition unit is equal to or less than a predetermined consumption, and waits for the execution of the image forming job if the current power consumption acquired by the acquisition unit is greater than the predetermined consumption, and a notification unit that notifies that it is waiting for the execution of the image forming job.

Advantages of the Invention

[0008] According to the present invention, when an image forming job is input, if the power consumption of a plurality of electrical devices including the image forming apparatus does not exceed the available power even if the image forming job is executed, the input image forming job is actually executed.

Brief Description of the Drawings

[0009]

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

Embodiments for Carrying Out the Invention

[0010] <Image forming apparatus> Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. First, the image forming apparatus of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. 1. The image forming apparatus 100 shown in FIG. 1 is a laser printer capable of forming a black single-color image on a recording material P using an electrophotographic method, and can be operated by being supplied with power from a commercial power supply 601 via a power cord 610 plugged into an outlet provided indoors.

[0011] As shown in FIG. 1, the image forming apparatus 100 includes an operation unit 75, an image reading unit 76, an image forming unit 50, a conveyance unit 90, and a paper feed cassette 11. The operation unit 75 as an informing unit or a display unit has, for example, an operation panel configured by overlapping a liquid crystal display type display panel and a touch panel of a resistive film type or a capacitive type. The user can perform operations such as setting the type of the recording material P displayed on the display panel and inputting an image forming job by operating the operation unit 75 via the touch panel based on the display on the display panel.

[0012] Although not shown in the figure, the image reading unit 76 has a document conveyance device that automatically conveys a document and a document reading device that reads an image. The document reading device includes a scanner having a CCD (Charge Coupled Device), a CIS (Contact Image Sensor), etc., and the scanner reads an image of a document conveyed by the document conveyance device. The image of the document read by the scanner is converted into an electrical signal, and the converted electrical signal is transmitted as image information (also referred to as image data) to an image processing unit 73 (see FIG. 2 described later). The image forming unit 50 can form an image on the recording material P based on the image data transmitted to the image processing unit 73.

[0013] The image forming unit 50 includes a photosensitive drum 19, a charging roller 16, an exposure device 21, a developing device 17, a cleaning member 18, a transfer roller 20, and a fixing device 200. When the image forming unit 50 receives image data from the image processing unit 73, the exposure device 21 emits laser light modulated according to the received image data, and the surface of the photosensitive drum 19 charged to a predetermined polarity by the charging roller 16 is scanned. Thereby, an electrostatic latent image is formed on the surface of the photosensitive drum 19. By supplying toner from the developing device 17 to this electrostatic latent image, a toner image is formed on the photosensitive drum 19.

[0014] The recording material P is loaded in the paper feed cassette 11, and the recording material P is conveyed by the conveying unit 90. The conveying unit 90 includes a pickup roller 12, conveying rollers 13, a registration roller 14, and conveying rollers 26 and 27, and can convey the recording material P by appropriately changing the conveying speed by the drive motor 30. The recording material P loaded in the paper feed cassette 11 is fed one by one into the conveyance path by the pickup roller 12 and conveyed along the conveyance path by the conveying roller 13 toward the registration roller 14. Then, the recording material P is conveyed from the registration roller 14 to the transfer position at the timing when the toner image on the photosensitive drum 19 reaches the transfer position formed by the photosensitive drum 19 and the transfer roller 20. During the process in which the recording material P passes through the transfer position, the toner image on the photosensitive drum 19 is transferred to the recording material P. Thereafter, the recording material P is heated by the fixing device 200 and the toner image is heat-fixed to the recording material P. The recording material P carrying the heat-fixed toner image is discharged to the discharge tray 95 by the conveying rollers 26 and 27. In addition, the residual toner remaining on the photosensitive drum 19 after the transfer of the toner image to the recording material P is removed from the photosensitive drum 19 by the cleaning member 18.

[0015] The fixing device 200 as the fixing unit includes a fixing roller 201 and a pressure roller 202. The pressure roller 202 abuts against the fixing roller 201 to form a fixing nip portion that applies heat and pressure while sandwiching and conveying the recording material S. The toner image is fixed to the recording material P when the recording material P passes through the fixing nip portion between the fixing roller 201 and the pressure roller 202. Inside the fixing roller 201, a heater 203 for heating the fixing roller 201 is arranged. The heater 203 is, for example, a halogen heater or the like.

[0016] Note that the image forming apparatus 100 of the present embodiment is compatible with a plurality of paper sizes, and can perform image formation on each recording material P of Letter paper (about 216 mm × 279 mm), Legal paper (about 216 mm × 356 mm), A4 paper (210 mm × 297 mm), B5 paper (182 mm × 257 mm), A5 paper (148 mm × 210 mm), and A6 paper (105 mm × 148 mm) set in the paper feed cassette 11. The above-mentioned printable paper sizes are merely examples and are not limited thereto, and can be arbitrarily changed according to the specifications of the image forming apparatus 100.

[0017] Next, the control system of the image forming apparatus 100 will be described with reference to FIG. 2. FIG. 2 is a control block diagram showing the control system of the image forming apparatus 100 of the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 2, the image forming apparatus 100 includes a main body processing unit 70 and a main control unit 80 as a control system for controlling the image forming apparatus 100.

[0018] The main body processing unit 70 includes a communication unit 71 and an image processing unit 73. The communication unit 71 is communicably connected to an external information device 74 such as a personal computer, an operation unit 75, and an image reading unit 76. The communication unit 71 receives, for example, an execution instruction of an image formation job transmitted from the external information device 74 or the operation unit 75, or receives image data transmitted from the image reading unit 76 or the external information device 74. The image processing unit 73 performs conversion processing to convert the image data transmitted from the image reading unit 76 or the external information device 74 into a signal in a format suitable for image formation by the image forming unit 50, and performs processing such as noise removal, color space conversion, rotation, and compression on the image data read by the image reading unit 76.

[0019] The main control unit 80 includes, for example, a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 105, an ASIC (Application specific Integrated Circuit) 101, a ROM (Read Only Memory) 102, and a RAM (Random Access Memory) 103. The main control unit 80 also has a network interface (I / F) 220 for receiving a signal from a residential energy management system (hereinafter referred to as HEMS) 230, which will be described later. The CPU 105 is a processor that controls the entire image forming apparatus 100. The ASIC 101 receives the image data processed by the image processing unit 73 under the control of the CPU 105 when an image forming process (program) is executed by the CPU 105, and controls the image forming unit 50 to perform image formation on the recording material P based on the received image data.

[0020] At that time, the CPU 105 can control the temperature of the heater 203 so as to maintain the temperature of the heater 203 at a preset target temperature for fixing the toner image on the recording material P. Further, the CPU 105 can control the speed of the conveyance unit 90 so as to convey the recording material P at a conveyance speed corresponding to the target temperature. For example, when the target temperature is the first temperature, the conveyance speed of the conveyance unit 90 is set to the first speed, and when the target temperature is set to a second temperature lower than the first temperature, the conveyance speed of the conveyance unit 90 is set to a second speed slower than the first speed. By adjusting the conveyance speed of the recording material P according to the target temperature in this way, heat sufficient to fix the toner image can be added to the recording material P when the recording material P passes through the fixing nip portion.

[0021] Here, the temperature control of the heater 203 will be described. A thermistor 204 is disposed near the heater 203. The thermistor 204 detects the temperature of each heating block in the heater 203, and the detection result is input to the CPU 105 in the main control unit 80 and converted into temperature information. The CPU 105 has a fixing temperature control unit 112, and the fixing temperature control unit 112 controls the power supplied to the heater 203 by, for example, PI control or the like based on a preset target temperature and the detected temperature of each thermistor 204, thereby maintaining the temperature of the heater 203 at the target temperature.

[0022] <Heater control circuit> FIG. 3 shows a heater control circuit for controlling the temperature of the heater 203. As shown in FIG. 3, power is supplied to the heater 203 by a commercial power source 601. The temperature control of the heater 203 is performed by adjusting the power supplied through the electrodes E1, E2, and E3 of each heater 203 by energizing and cutting off the triacs 602 and 603. The relay 606 operates when a thermistor (not shown) detects that the heater 203 has overheated, and energizes and cuts off the commercial power source 601.

[0023] The operation of the triac 602 will be described. The photo triac coupler 607 is a device for ensuring the creepage distance between the primary and secondary sides. Then, by energizing the light-emitting diode of the photo triac coupler 607, the triac 602 is turned on. The photo triac coupler 607 is turned on / off by the transistor 611. The transistor 611 is energized according to the H1_ON signal from the CPU 105. When the triac 602 is in the energized state, power is supplied to the heating element H1 of the heater 203 via the electrodes E1 and E3, and the heating resistance layer of the heating element H1 generates heat. Note that the operation of the triac 603 is the same as that of the triac 602 described above, so the description thereof is omitted.

[0024] The image forming apparatus 100 can operate in a power supply-receiving state by receiving power from the commercial power supply 601 when the main power supply is turned on with the power cord 610 plugged into an outlet provided indoors. As shown in FIG. 2, a distribution board 232 connected to an external power transmission network 234 is installed in the house, and a plurality of electrical wirings 235 for distributing the power supplied from the power transmission network 234 to each room and location in the house are connected to the distribution board 232. The commercial power supply 601 that supplies power to the image forming apparatus 100 and other electrical devices 233 installed indoors is provided by the distribution board 232 via a plurality of electrical wirings 235 branched from the distribution board 232 and leading to the outlets. Examples of the other electrical devices 233 include those with relatively large power consumption such as air conditioners, microwave ovens, dryers, and electric stoves.

[0025] The distribution board 232 and the external power transmission network 234 are connected via an external power measurement device (hereinafter, smart meter) 231. The smart meter 231 is installed in the house and measures the power consumption (instantaneous value, integrated value) of the electrical devices in use among various electrical devices including the image forming apparatus 100 that receives power supply from the distribution board 232. Note that the power consumption of the image forming apparatus 100 is measured if the main power supply of the image forming apparatus 100 is in the on state. Also, "in use" of an electrical device means a state in which power is being consumed, and includes, for example, standby power.

[0026] In addition, a HEMS 230 is installed in the house as a tool for visualizing the power consumption in the house. As a power management device, the HEMS 230 can acquire and display the instantaneous value and integrated value of the electrical appliances in use measured by the smart meter 231 via the network in the house (so-called B-route communication). And the image forming apparatus 100 has a function of communicating with the HEMS 230 via the network interface 220. The network interface 220 as an acquisition unit is connected to the HEMS 230 by, for example, wireless LAN so that it can acquire the instantaneous value among the power consumption (instantaneous value, integrated value) measured by the smart meter 231 via the HEMS 230 as the current power consumption in use in the house.

[0027] In this embodiment, a breaker (wiring breaker) (not shown) is provided in either the distribution board 232 or the smart meter 231. As the breaker, there is an ampere breaker that operates when the power consumption in the whole house exceeds the available power consumption that can be used at one time, making the electrical appliances in the whole house unusable. Alternatively, there is a safety breaker that is connected to the electrical wiring distributed to each room in the house and operates when the available power consumption determined for each corresponding room is exceeded, making the electrical appliances in the corresponding room unusable.

[0028] As described above, when the image forming apparatus 100 for business use with high power consumption is used in a house, the frequency of the breaker tripping has been high. Most of the power consumption of the image forming apparatus 100 is occupied by the power when heating the heater 203 to the target temperature. Therefore, when heating the heater 203 with the execution of an image forming job, the power consumption amount of the image forming apparatus 100 increases significantly, and the power consumption amount of the electrical equipment including the image forming apparatus 100 exceeds the available power amount, resulting in the breaker tripping. If the user knows in advance that the current power consumption amount of the electrical equipment including the image forming apparatus 100 exceeds the available power amount, the user will not execute the image forming job. However, the power consumption of the image forming apparatus 100 varies according to the target temperature of the heater 203. Although the user can grasp the power consumption amount of the electrical equipment in use from the HEMS 230, since the user does not know how much the power consumption amount of the image forming apparatus 100 will increase with the execution of the image forming job, in the conventional case, the user had no choice but to execute the image forming job.

[0029] Therefore, in the present embodiment, based on the current power consumption amount that can be acquired from the HEMS 230, when the power consumption amount of the electrical equipment including the image forming apparatus 100 does not exceed the available power amount even if an image forming job is executed, the image forming job is actually made executable. Hereinafter, the image forming process of the present embodiment for realizing this will be described with reference to FIG. 4 while referring to FIG. 2. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the image forming process of the present embodiment. This image forming process is executed by the main control unit 80 (specifically, the CPU 105) as an execution unit in response to the main power supply of the image forming apparatus 100 being turned on.

[0030] As shown in FIG. 4, the main control unit 80 acquires the current power consumption (instantaneous value) of the electrical equipment including the image forming apparatus 100 from the HEMS 230 connected via the network interface 220 (S1). The main control unit 80 acquires the current power consumption from the HEMS 230 at a predetermined interval and stores it in the RAM 102. This is because the current power consumption acquired from the HEMS 230 varies depending on the operating status of other electrical equipment 233 other than the image forming apparatus 100. The main control unit 80 determines, for example, whether an image forming job has been input from the operation unit 75 or the like (S2). The main control unit 80 waits for processing until an image forming job is input (NO in S2). When an image forming job is input (YES in S2), the main control unit 80 calculates the predicted power consumption (S3). The predicted power consumption here is the power value (instantaneous value) required to heat the heater 203 when the target temperature is set to the first temperature, and is calculated by the power calculation unit 111 of the main control unit 80. The power calculation unit 111 calculates the predicted power consumption based on the heater temperature detected by the thermistor 204, the target temperature, the type and number of sheets of the recording material P to be image-formed, and the like.

[0031] Next, the main control unit 80 determines whether the current power consumption acquired from the HEMS 230 is greater than a first threshold value described later (S4). The first threshold value is a threshold value determined when the target temperature is set to the first temperature as described later. When the current power consumption is equal to or less than the first threshold value (NO in S4), the main control unit 80 sets the target temperature to the first temperature and executes the image forming job (S9). In this case, as the heater 203 is heated to the first temperature, the current power consumption acquired from the HEMS 230 does not exceed the available power amount, so the breaker does not trip. Note that the available power amount may be acquired from the HEMS 230 or may be registered in the image forming apparatus 100 in advance by the user.

[0032] On the other hand, when the current power consumption is greater than the first threshold (YES in S4), the main control unit 80 changes the target temperature from the first temperature to a second temperature lower than the first temperature (S5). Then, the main control unit 80 calculates the predicted power consumption at the changed target temperature (S6). The predicted power consumption here is the power value required to heat the heater 203 when the target temperature is the second temperature. The predicted power consumption may be obtained, for example, by referring to a table as shown in Table 1 pre-stored in the ROM 102 and determining the power value according to the excess power amount exceeding the available power amount when the target temperature is the first temperature. As shown in Table 1, the greater the excess power amount, the smaller the power value. That is, the predicted power consumption at the changed second temperature is smaller than the predicted power consumption at the previous first temperature.

Table 1

[0033] The main control unit 80 determines whether the current power consumption acquired from the HEMS 230 is greater than a second threshold described later (S7). The second threshold is a threshold determined when the target temperature is set to the second temperature as described later, and is greater than the first threshold.

[0034] When the current power consumption is equal to or less than the second threshold (NO in S7), the main control unit 80 sets the target temperature to the second temperature and executes the image forming job (S9). In this case, as the heater 203 is heated to the second temperature, the current power consumption obtained from the HEMS 230 does not exceed the available power amount, so the breaker does not trip. On the other hand, when the current power consumption is greater than the second threshold (YES in S7), the main control unit 80 causes the display panel of the operation unit 75 to display that it is waiting to execute the image forming job (e.g., "waiting") (S8). In this case, since the image forming job is not executed and the heater 203 is not heated, the current power consumption obtained from the HEMS 230 does not exceed the available power amount, and the breaker does not trip. Note that, to notify the user that it is waiting to execute the image forming job, it is not limited to displaying on the display panel, and for example, a warning sound may be generated from a sound generation unit provided in the operation unit 75, or a light emitting unit such as an LED provided in the operation unit 75 may be blinked.

[0035] In this embodiment, when the heater 203 is heated in accordance with the execution of an image forming job, if the power consumption of the image forming apparatus 100 increases significantly, the breaker trips. This is because the current power consumption acquired from the HEMS 230, that is, the power consumption of the electrical equipment including the image forming apparatus 100 exceeds the available power consumption. Therefore, before executing the image forming job, the predicted power consumption of the image forming apparatus 100 that would increase if the image forming job were executed is calculated, and if the "sum of the current power consumption and the predicted power consumption" (the power consumption of the electrical equipment including the image forming apparatus 100 when the image forming job is executed) does not exceed the available power consumption (available power consumption < current power consumption + predicted power consumption), the breaker will not trip even if the image forming job is actually executed. In this embodiment, before executing the image forming job, the predicted power consumption of the image forming apparatus 100 that increases with the execution of the image forming job is calculated, and "available power consumption - predicted power consumption" is compared with the current power consumption as a "threshold value" (available power consumption - predicted power consumption < current power consumption, refer to S3 to S7). The above "first threshold value" is a value obtained by subtracting the predicted power consumption when the image forming job is executed at the first temperature from the available power consumption. The "second threshold value" is a value obtained by subtracting the predicted power consumption when the image forming job is executed at the second temperature, which is lower than the first temperature, from the available power consumption. The predicted power consumption when the image forming job is executed at the second temperature is smaller than the predicted power consumption when the image forming job is executed at the first temperature. Therefore, the second threshold value is larger than the first threshold value.

[0036] Next, the effects of the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 5(a) to 5(c). FIG. 5(a) shows a case without temperature control of the heater as a comparative example, where the sum of the current power consumption and the predicted power consumption exceeds the available power amount. Therefore, if the image forming job is executed as it is, the breaker will trip. FIG. 5(b) shows a case with temperature control of the heater in the present embodiment, where the sum of the current power consumption and the predicted power consumption does not exceed the available power amount. In this case, even if the image forming job is executed at the first temperature without changing the target temperature to the second temperature, the available power amount is not exceeded, so the breaker does not trip. Therefore, the target temperature is changed from the first temperature to the second temperature and the image forming job is executed. FIG. 5(c) shows a case with temperature control of the heater in the present embodiment, where the target temperature is changed from the first temperature to the second temperature, but the sum of the current power consumption and the predicted power consumption exceeds the available power amount. Therefore, even if the target temperature is changed from the first temperature to the second temperature and the image forming job is executed, the breaker will trip. In this case, without executing the image forming job, the user is notified that the image forming job is on standby.

[0037] As described above, in this embodiment, before executing an image forming job, when the power consumption of the electrical equipment including the image forming apparatus 100 does not exceed the available power amount even if the image forming job is executed, based on the current power consumption that can be obtained from the HEMS 230, the image forming job can be actually executed. Specifically, as described above, when "the sum of the current power consumption and the predicted power consumption" does not exceed the available power amount (available power amount < current power consumption + predicted power consumption), the image forming job is actually executed. Thereby, the image forming apparatus 100 used for business use can be used without tripping a breaker in an environment where there is a limit on the available power amount such as in a house. Further, even if the target temperature of the heater 203 is lowered, when "the sum of the current power consumption and the predicted power consumption" is equal to or greater than the available power amount, the image forming job is not executed and the apparatus waits, and notifies the user that it is waiting, for example, by displaying a message. In this way, the user can reduce the current power consumption by turning off other electrical equipment other than the image forming apparatus 100 in order to cause the image forming apparatus 100 to execute an image forming job.

[0038] [Other Embodiments] Note that, in the above-described embodiment, the execution of the image forming job is determined by comparing the current power consumption with thresholds (first and second thresholds) that change according to the target temperature, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, when the current power consumption is equal to or less than a predetermined consumption amount, the image forming job may be executed, and when the current power consumption is greater than the predetermined consumption amount, the execution of the image forming job may be waited for. The "predetermined consumption amount" mentioned here is a value obtained by subtracting the maximum power consumption that can be used by the image forming apparatus 100 from the available power amount. However, it is preferable to determine the execution of the image forming job by comparing the current power consumption with thresholds (first and second thresholds) that change according to the target temperature as in the above-described embodiment, because the electrical equipment including the image forming apparatus 100 can effectively use power within the range of available power in a house.

[0039] In the above-described embodiment, a monochrome printer that forms a monochrome image using one color toner is taken as an example of the image forming apparatus 100, but the present invention is not limited thereto. The image forming apparatus 100 may be a color printer that forms a color image using a plurality of colors of toner of two or more colors. Further, the present invention is not limited to an image forming apparatus of a direct transfer system that directly transfers a toner image from a photosensitive drum that carries and rotates a toner image to a recording material P. After the toner image is primarily transferred from the photosensitive drum to an intermediate transfer body, an image forming apparatus of an intermediate transfer system that secondarily transfers the toner image from the intermediate transfer body to the recording material P may also be used.

Explanation of Signs

[0040] 50…Image forming unit, 75…Display unit (notification unit, operation unit), 80…Execution unit (main control unit), 90…Conveying unit, 100…Image forming apparatus, 200…Fixing unit (fixing device, electrical device), 220…Acquisition unit (network interface), 230…Power management device (home energy management system, HEMS), 233…Electrical device, P…Recording material

Claims

1. An image forming apparatus, comprising: an image forming unit that forms an image on a recording material; a fixing unit that fixes the image formed on the recording material to the recording material by heat; an acquisition unit that acquires the power consumption of a plurality of electrical devices including the image forming apparatus from a power management device that manages the power used by the plurality of electrical devices; when an image forming job for forming an image on a recording material using the image forming unit and the fixing unit is input; if the current power consumption acquired by the acquisition unit is equal to or less than a threshold value, setting the target temperature of the fixing unit to a first temperature and executing the image forming job; an execution unit that, if the current power consumption acquired by the acquisition unit is greater than the threshold value, sets the target temperature of the fixing unit to a second temperature lower than the first temperature and can execute the image forming job. An image forming apparatus characterized by the above.

2. The threshold value is a first threshold value determined when the target temperature of the fixing unit is set to the first temperature, and the execution unit, based on a second threshold value greater than the first threshold value determined when the target temperature of the fixing unit is set to the second temperature, executes the image forming job if the current power consumption acquired by the acquisition unit is equal to or less than the second threshold value, and waits without executing the image forming job if the current power consumption acquired by the acquisition unit is greater than the second threshold value. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, characterized by the above.

3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising a display unit that displays that the image forming job is waiting. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2, characterized by the above.

4. The execution unit determines the first threshold value based on the predicted power consumption used by the fixing unit when the target temperature of the fixing unit is the first temperature, and determines the second threshold value based on the predicted power consumption used by the fixing unit when the target temperature of the fixing unit is the second temperature. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2, characterized by the above.

5. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a transport unit that transports the recording material to the fixing unit, wherein the execution unit sets the transport speed of the transport unit to a first speed when setting the target temperature of the fixing unit to the first temperature and executing the image forming job, and sets the transport speed of the transport unit to a second speed slower than the first speed when setting the target temperature of the fixing unit to the second temperature and executing the image forming job. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, characterized by the above.

6. An image forming apparatus, an image forming unit that forms an image on a recording material, a fixing unit that fixes the image formed on the recording material to the recording material by heat, an acquisition unit that acquires the power consumption of a plurality of electrical devices including the image forming apparatus from a power management device that manages the power used by the plurality of electrical devices, when an image forming job for forming an image on a recording material is input using the image forming unit and the fixing unit, if the current power consumption acquired by the acquisition unit is equal to or less than a predetermined consumption, the image forming job is executed, an execution unit that waits for the execution of the image forming job if the current power consumption acquired by the acquisition unit is greater than the predetermined consumption, and a notification unit that notifies that it is waiting for the execution of the image forming job. The image forming apparatus is characterized by the above. An image forming apparatus characterized by the above.

7. The notification unit is a display unit that displays that it is waiting for the execution of the image forming job. The image forming apparatus according to claim 6 is characterized by the above. An image forming apparatus according to claim 6, characterized by the above.

Images