PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15986611
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-05
Publication Date: 2018-11
Patent Classification: ["399", "055000"]

Abstract:
An AC measuring circuit measures a magnitude of an alternating current flowing through a bias applying circuit synchronized with a cycle of an AC voltage in a developing bias voltage. A control unit changes a level of the AC voltage in the developing bias voltage, and executes a developing bias adjustment process for setting a level of the AC voltage based on the level of the AC voltage when the leakage current detecting circuit detects the direct current. The control unit, when a measurement by the AC measuring circuit during execution of a developing process exceeds a predetermined allowable value, executes a warning process to prompt execution of the developing bias adjustment process, or the control unit executes the developing bias adjustment process to update the level of the AC voltage.

Claim (Index 1):
An image forming apparatus comprising:\n a photoconductor on whose surface an electrostatic latent image is formed; a developing device configured to execute a developing process that develops the electrostatic latent image on the photoconductor using toner on a developing body, the developing device including the developing body and a bias applying circuit, wherein the developing body, disposed across a gap from the photoconductor, rotates while carrying toner, and the bias applying circuit applies, between the photoconductor and the developing body, a developing bias voltage in which an AC voltage and a DC voltage are superimposed; a leakage current detecting circuit configured to detect a direct current that flows through the bias applying circuit when aerial discharge occurs between the developing body and the photoconductor; an AC measuring circuit configured to measure a magnitude of an alternating current that flows through the bias applying circuit in synchronization with a cycle of the AC voltage in the developing bias voltage; and a control device configured to execute a developing bias adjustment process for controlling the bias applying circuit to change a level of the AC voltage in the developing bias voltage, then, based on the level of the AC voltage when the leakage current detecting circuit detects the direct current, setting a developing bias AC level that is a level of the AC voltage in the developing bias voltage during execution of the developing process, wherein the control device, when a measurement by the AC measuring circuit during the execution of the developing process exceeds a predetermined allowable value, executes a warning process to prompt execution of the developing bias adjustment process, or the control device executes the developing bias adjustment process to update the level of the AC voltage in the developing bias voltage during execution of the developing process.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 3.0
- Percentile: 93.0
- Lexical Diversity: 2.46429
- Patent Class: 399.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: True
- Related Applications: ['15367166', '15428240', '11163550', '14559106', '12056671']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.8078487760218812
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.4729156172407807
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.7743554601437712
- Mean Citation Score: 211.508426
- Max Citation Score: 233.62547
- Similarity Product: 191.310756457848

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 0
- Claim Label 103: 1
- Claim Label 112: 1
- Combined Label: 0
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test