Patent ID: 8634729
Filing Date: 2014-01-21
Classification: G03G

Abstract:
1. An image forming apparatus comprising: (a) a sheet conveyance section having a sheet storing member to store sheets that have been aligned in a prescribed placing direction, which conveys a sheet stored in the sheet storing member; (b) an image forming section having an image carrier, which forms an image on the image carrier; (c) an image transfer section which transfers the image formed on the image carrier onto a sheet conveyed by the sheet conveyance section; (d) a winding detecting section which detects whether or not the sheet conveyed by the sheet conveyance section is wound around the image carrier; (e) a display section which displays an image to instruct an operator; and (f) a controller which controls the display section to instruct the operator to conduct a change operation of a placing direction in a front and rear side direction or a leading and trailing edge direction of the sheets stored in the sheet storing member based on a sheet winding detection signal outputted from the winding detection section only after an accumulated number of times that sheets have been wound around the image carrier exceeds a reference number of times for comparison; wherein the controller receives an input of the sheet winding detection signal outputted from the winding detection section, accumulates a number of times that sheets have been wound around the image carrier by counting the sheet winding detection signal, compares the accumulated number of times with the reference number of times for comparison, and controls the display section to instruct the operator to conduct the change operation of the placing direction in the front and rear side direction or the leading and trailing edge direction of the sheets stored in the sheet storing member when the accumulated number of times exceeds the reference number of times for comparison; wherein a tray sensor section provided in the sheet storing member detects the change operation of the placing direction in the front and rear side direction or the leading and trailing edge direction of the sheets stored in the sheet storing member that has been conducted by the operator, and the controller resets the accumulated number of times of windings based on the change operation detected; and wherein when the sheet conveyance section has a plurality of sheet storing members, the controller accumulates the number of times that sheets that have been wound around the image carrier for each of the sheet storing members, the tray sensor section detects the change operation in the front and rear side direction or the leading and trailing edge direction of the placing direction of the sheets stored in the sheet storing member for each of the sheet storing members, and the controller resets the accumulated number of times based on the change operation detected for each of the sheet storing members.