Patent ID: 9298125
Filing Date: 2016-03-29
CPC Classification: G03G

Claim Text:
1. An image forming apparatus comprising: a latent image bearing member; a charging unit to charge a surface of the latent image bearing member; a charging power source to output a charging bias to be supplied to the charging unit; a latent image writing unit to write a latent image on the surface of the latent image bearing member charged by the charging unit; a development unit to develop the latent image to form a toner image; a transfer unit to transfer the toner image on the surface of the latent image bearing member to a transfer member; a toner detector to detect a toner adhesion amount on the surface of the latent image bearing member or a surface of the transfer member; a controller to gradually change a background potential serving as a potential difference between a background area of the latent image bearing member and a development member of the development unit while causing the latent image bearing member to rotate to form a background fog pattern, including only a blank area corresponding to the background area, on the surface of the latent image bearing member, and to adjust the charging bias from the charging power source based on a detection of the toner adhesion amount by the toner detector for each of sections of the background fog pattern in a direction of movement of the latent image bearing member; and an environment detector to detect environmental conditions, wherein the controller developing a latent image to form a toner image used for position identification on the surface of the latent image bearing member in addition to the background fog pattern, and identifying a time when the toner image used for position identification has entered a detection range of the toner detector based on a change in outputs of the toner detector to determine a time when each of the sections enters the detection range based on the identified time, wherein the controller determines an adjustment time when the charging bias according to the toner adhesion amount corresponding to each of the sections of the background fog pattern is adjusted based on cumulative travel distance of the latent image bearing member and a detection result acquired by the environment detector, and wherein the toner detector includes a plurality of sensors that are arranged in different positions in a transfer member width direction and at least one of the sensors detects only regular reflection light and the remaining sensors detect regular reflection light and diffuse reflection light.