Toner Consumption Estimation Using Sub-Line Weight Factors
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional electrophotographic systems face challenges in precisely calculating toner consumption due to deviations between calculated and actual toner usage, especially when varying exposure amounts are used for printing dots.
Innovation Solution
An image forming apparatus is designed with a dot counter, sub-line counter, sub-line weight factor memory, light emitting amount calculating section, and summation section to accurately calculate toner consumption by multiplying dot counter values with weight factors corresponding to periodically changing light emitting amounts across sub-lines.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If toner consumption is detected by counting up printing dots of image data, then the calculation process is simple, but the accuracy of toner consumption amount decreases due to deviations when exposure amounts vary
Solution Approach 1:
The image data is divided into multiple sub-lines, and the toner consumption calculation is performed separately for each sub-line by multiplying the dot count by the corresponding weight factor. This segmentation allows the system to account for variations in exposure amounts across different sub-lines, thereby improving calculation accuracy without significantly increasing overall system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces weight factors as a parameter to adjust the calculation based on the light emitting amount of each sub-line. By changing the calculation from a simple dot count to a weighted sum (dot count × weight factor), the system accurately reflects the actual toner consumption despite variations in exposure amounts across different sub-lines.
2Manufacturing precision
If exposure amounts are varied for different printing dots to optimize image quality, then image quality improves, but the accuracy of toner consumption calculation deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces weight factors corresponding to the light emitting amount of each sub-line to adjust the toner consumption calculation. This allows the system to maintain varied exposure amounts for different sub-lines to optimize image quality while accurately calculating toner consumption by accounting for these exposure variations through the weighted calculation method.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses the weight factors as feedback information about the light emitting amount of each sub-line to adjust the toner consumption calculation. This feedback mechanism ensures that the calculation accurately reflects the actual toner usage even when exposure amounts are optimized for image quality across different sub-lines.
Data Source
AI summary
An image forming apparatus capable of detecting a precise toner consumption amount has a system counting up a turned-on dot number of image data, outputting weight factors corresponding to the respective sub-line's numbers based on the respective sub-line numbers of the plural sub-lines at which a light emitting amount of each dot is varied periodically, and calculating the light emitting amount based on a dot counter value of the turned-on dot number and the weight factor corresponding to the respective sub-line's numbers, to summate the calculated light emitting amounts to estimate the toner consumption amount with high accuracy.