Printing Apparatus Thermal Management via Environmental Value Selection
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Solution Overview
Problem
In electrophotographic image formation apparatuses, trapped heat inside the printing apparatus leads to inaccurate environmental temperature and humidity readings by sensors, causing errors in printing operations due to delayed cooling and heat retention.
Innovation Solution
A printing apparatus with a cooling device, environmental value detector, and storage system that selects between real-time and stored environmental values to calculate parameters for printing, ensuring accurate operation even when heat is trapped, by using a controller to manage fan operation and store environmental values before and after printing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of energy
If a fan is provided to discharge heat from the fixation device, then heat discharge is improved, but after the fan stops, heat becomes trapped inside the apparatus causing sensor reading errors
Solution Approach 1:
The control unit stores the environmental value detected before the current printing operation starts. When the fan stops and heat becomes trapped, the system uses this stored pre-operation environmental value instead of the inaccurate post-heat-trap sensor reading, thereby maintaining measurement precision while allowing effective heat discharge during operation.
2Temperature
If the fan operates continuously to maintain cooling, then temperature control is improved, but energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The fan operates periodically during printing operations to manage heat generation, and the control unit uses stored environmental values from before operations started to maintain accurate temperature compensation without requiring continuous fan operation, thus reducing energy consumption while maintaining effective temperature control during active printing.
3Loss of time
If environmental sensor readings are used immediately after fan starts, then response time is improved, but measurement accuracy deteriorates due to trapped heat
Solution Approach 1:
The system stores the environmental value detected before the current printing operation begins. When the fan starts and heat becomes trapped, the control unit uses this pre-stored environmental value to calculate printing parameters, ensuring measurement accuracy is maintained while allowing immediate response without waiting for heat to dissipate.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach reduces errors in environmental value detection, allowing for appropriate parameter calculation and improved image formation results by correcting temperature and humidity values, thus preventing shifts in density and fixing performance degradation.
Implementation Method 1
a fan is provided to the fixation device to discharge the heat generated in the fixation device so as to cool the interior of the image formation apparatus
Implementation Method 2
the heat generated in the fixation device so as to cool the interior of the image formation apparatus
Data Source
AI summary
A printing apparatus according to an embodiment may include: a printing device; a cooling device; an environmental value detector configured to detect an environmental value in or around the printing apparatus; an environmental value storage storing the environmental value detected by the environmental value detector before a current printing operation starts; and a print controller configured, in response to starting the current printing operation, to select one of the environmental value stored in the environmental value storage before the start of the current printing operation and an environmental value detected by the environmental value detector after a start of cooling the printing device by the cooling device in the current printing operation, calculate, based on the selected environmental value, a parameter for the printing device to perform the current printing operation, and cause the printing device to perform the current printing operation based on the calculated parameter.