Patent ID: 9052663
Filing Date: 2015-06-09
Classification: G03G

Abstract:
1. An image forming apparatus comprising: an image carrier; a rotary member; an image forming unit to form a toner image on a surface of the image carrier to ultimately transfer the toner image onto a recording medium, wherein the image forming unit forms a toner pattern having a length greater than a circumference of the rotary member on the surface of the image carrier for use in detecting image density of a formed image; a processor for controlling the image forming unit using predetermined image forming condition setting data; an image density sensor to detect image density of the toner pattern formed on the surface of the image carrier; a reference rotary position detector to detect a reference rotary position of the rotary member of the image forming unit; an image density fluctuation data acquisition unit to obtain an image density fluctuation data of more than one circumferential length of the rotary member with reference to the reference rotary position detected by the reference rotary position detector based on the image density of the toner pattern formed on the image carrier detected by the image density sensor; and a correction data generator to generate correction data to correct reference image forming condition setting data by a correction amount corresponding to each rotary position of the rotary member to reduce image density fluctuation of one rotary cycle of the rotary member obtained by the image density fluctuation data with reference to the reference rotary position, wherein the processor starts to control image formation in accordance with the image forming condition setting data after correction by the correction data each time the reference rotary position detector detects the reference rotary position of the rotary member a predetermined number of times at a control start timing based on the detected timing, wherein, when the reference rotary position detector does not detect the reference rotary position of the rotary member by a time of a correction control stop timing to complete the image forming control arrives, the processor starts image forming control in accordance with the image forming condition setting data after correction following the control stop timing.