	US 7,551,866 B2
	Image forming method and apparatus with improved conversion capability of amount of toner adhesion
Naoto Watanabe, Atsugi (Japan); Shin Hasegawa, Zama (Japan); Hideki Kamaji, Atsugi (Japan); Shinji Kato, Kawasaki (Japan); Hitoshi Ishibashi, Kamakura (Japan); Kohta Fujimori, Yokohama (Japan); Kayoko Tanaka, Edogawa-ku (Japan); Yuushi Hirayama, Sagamihara (Japan); Takashi Enami, Chigasaki (Japan); Shinji Kobayashi, Atsugi (Japan); Kazumi Kobayashi, Setagaya-ku (Japan); Fukutoshi Uchida, Kawasaki (Japan); and Noboru Sawayama, Yokohama (Japan)
Assigned to Ricoh Company, Ltd., Tokyo (Japan)
Filed on Jun. 30, 2006, as Appl. No. 11/477,673.
Claims priority of application No. 2005-193026 (JP), filed on Jun. 30, 2005.
Prior Publication US 2007/0019976 A1, Jan. 25, 2007
Int. Cl. G03G 15/00 (2006.01)

U.S. Cl. 399—49 [399/64; 399/72; 347/19]

9 Claims

1. A method of converting an amount of adhesion of powder patterns on a surface, said method comprising the steps of:

forming a plurality of gradation powder patterns continuously on a surface, the plurality of gradation powder patterns each having a different amount of adhesion to the surface;

optically detecting light incident upon each of the plurality of gradation powder patterns from a light emitting device with a sensor configured to simultaneously detect regular reflection light and diffuse reflection light to obtain a regular reflection output voltage and a diffuse reflection output voltage, respectively;

computing a normalization value as a relative output ratio of the regular reflection output voltage to a background regular reflection voltage component from the surface extracted from the regular reflection light;

obtaining a diffuse reflection output conversion factor by one of (1) subtracting the normalization value multiplied by the diffuse reflection output voltage from the diffuse reflection output voltage, and (2) subtracting the normalization value multiplied by a diffuse reflection output voltage increment, which is computed as a difference between the diffuse reflection output voltage and another diffuse reflection output voltage obtained when the light emitting device is turned off, from the diffuse reflection output voltage increment; and

subjecting a relation between the diffuse reflection output conversion factor and the amount of adhesion in an intermediate adhesion range to a polynomial approximation.