Patent ID: 8132049

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: a conveyance section that conveys a member to be conveyed and comprises a drive mechanism having a drive member that receives power supply to operate and a power transmission member that transmits drive force of the drive member to another member; an image formation section that forms an image on the member to be conveyed that is conveyed by the conveyance section to a predetermined position; an operation state signal acquisition section that acquires by a sensor an operation state signal indicating an operation state during the drive mechanism operating for a predetermined period, the operation state signal acquisition section including a drive mechanism vibration detection section that detects a signal indicating vibration of the drive mechanism as the operation state signal; an environment information acquisition section that acquires by a sensor environment information relating to an operation of the drive mechanism; and a failure diagnosis apparatus further comprising: a failure diagnosis section that includes a failure judgment section, a failure probability estimation section and a notification section, wherein the failure diagnosis section analyzes an operation state signal based on a failure probability model, to calculate failure probabilities of constituent members of the drive mechanism, the failure probability model obtained by modeling a cause of failure occurring in the image forming apparatus using previously measured failure probabilities of the constituent members of the drive mechanism, and the failure diagnosis section analyzes the environment information based on the failure probability model to execute the failure diagnosis, executing failure diagnosis with respect to the image forming apparatus based on the calculated probabilities of the constituent members of the drive mechanism, wherein: the operation state signal indicates at least one of (x) a conveyance timing of the member to be conveyed and (y) a conveyance time of the member to be conveyed; and at a point in time within the period, the failure probability model is adapted to values of other operating states automatically acquired before the point in time, wherein the failure probability model is a Bayesian network model, the Bayesian network utilizes a stochastic model genetic algorithm for generating searching points using statistical information of preferable individuals in a population, the failure diagnosis section executes the failure diagnosis based on a reference characteristic amount, calculated by an average value, standard deviation, and dispersion and an adjustment of the failure probability model, the failure diagnosis section divides the drive mechanism into a plurality of blocks, the failure diagnosis section executes the failure diagnosis with respect to each of the blocks, each of the blocks has a single motor as the drive member, and a transmission member of each block transmits a drive force of the single motor within each of the blocks.