Patent ID: 8081891
Filing Date: 2011-12-20
Classification: G03G,H04N

Abstract:
1. An image quality adjustment method for adjusting a quality of an image recorded on a recording sheet by an image forming apparatus having: an image forming unit that forms an image on an image carrier using image forming materials; a transfer unit, that transfers the image formed on the image carrier by the image forming unit onto a recording sheet; a conveyor unit that conveys the recording sheet having the transferred image; a density detecting unit that detects a density of the image formed on the image carrier; an image quality adjustment unit that adjusts a quality of the image recorded on the recording sheet, an accumulation unit that calculates an accumulated value by accumulating each absolute value of difference between an image quality adjustment value calculated by a second calculating unit at a predetermined time and an image quality adjustment value calculated by a first calculating unit after the second calculating unit has calculated the image quality adjustment value at the predetermined time; and, a practice determination unit that determines weather an additional image quality adjustment should be carried out in accordance with whether the accumulated value calculated by the accumulation unit is no less than a predetermined value or not, the image quality adjustment method comprising: a completion determination step that determines whether a conveyance of recording sheet by the conveyor unit is completed or not; a sheet number determination step that determines whether a number of recording sheet having the image transferred by the transfer unit after an image quality adjustment performed by the image quality adjustment unit is no less than a given number or not; a first image quality adjustment step that makes the image forming unit form a predetermined number of patch images on the image carrier using a predetermined amount of image forming materials; adjusts an image quality adjustment value for adjusting a quality of the image recorded on a recording sheet, in accordance with densities of the formed patch images; and forms an image on the image forming unit using the adjusted image quality adjustment value; when the completion determination step determines that a conveyance of recording sheet by the conveyor unit is completed and the sheet number determination step determines that a number of recording sheet having the image transferred by the transfer unit after an image quality adjustment performed by the image quality adjustment unit is no less than a given number; a second image quality adjustment step that makes the image forming unit form a larger number of patch images than the predetermined number on the image carrier using a larger amount of image forming materials than the predetermined amount; and adjusts an image quality adjustment value for adjusting quality of image recorded on a recording sheet, in accordance with densities of the patch images formed by the second image quality adjustment step; an accumulation step that calculates an accumulated value by accumulating each absolute value of difference between an image quality adjustment value calculated by a second calculating unit at a predetermined time and an image quality adjustment value calculated by a first calculating unit after the second calculating unit has calculated the image quality adjustment value at the predetermined time; a practice determination step that determines whether an additional image quality adjustment should be carried out, in accordance with whether the accumulated value calculated by the accumulation unit is no less than a predetermined value or not, and a forming step that forms an image on the image forming unit using the image quality adjustment value adjusted by the second image quality adjustment step, when the practice determination step determines that an additional image quality adjustment should be carried out.