Fujifilm Business Innovation Patente

An image forming apparatus includes an electrophotographic photoreceptor that has a photosensitive layer constituting a surface, a charging device that charges the surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor, an electrostatic charge image forming device that forms an electrostatic charge image on the charged surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor, a developing device that contains a developer and develops the electrostatic charge image formed on the surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor by the developer as a toner image, a transfer device that transfers the toner image formed on the surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor to a surface of a recording medium, and a cleaning device that has a cleaning blade coming into contact with the surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor and cleaning at least residual toner particles on the surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor, in which the photosensitive layer in the electrophotographic photoreceptor contains a polyester resin (1) that has a dicarboxylic acid unit (A) represented by Formula (A) and a diol unit (B) represented by Formula (B), a tip angle θ<1> of a contact portion of the cleaning blade coming into contact with the electrophotographic photoreceptor is 95° or more and 110° or less, a 100% modulus of the cleaning blade at the contact portion with the surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor at 23°C is 13 MPa or more and 22 MPa or less, and an action angle θ of the cleaning blade with respect to the surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor is 8° or more and 30° or less, <img class="EMIRef" id="a1d2d370-00e5-421d-bbee-189374f8300f-ia01" /> <img class="EMIRef" id="a1d2d370-00e5-421d-bbee-189374f8300f-ia02" /> in Formula (A), Ar<A1> and Ar<A2> are each independently an aromatic ring that may have a substituent, L<A> is a single bond or a divalent linking group, and n<A1> is 0, 1, or 2, in Formula (B), Ar<B1> and Ar<B2> are each independently an aromatic ring that may have a substituent, L<B> is a single bond, an oxygen atom, a sulfur atom, or -C(Rb<1>)(Rb<2>)-, and n<B1> is 0, 1, or 2, where Rb<1> and Rb<2> are each independently a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group having 1 or more and 20 or less carbon atoms, an aryl group having 6 or more and 12 or less carbon atoms, or an aralkyl group having 7 or more and 20 or less carbon atoms, and Rb<1> and Rb<2> may be bonded to each other to form a cyclic alkyl group.

An image forming apparatus includes an electrophotographic photoreceptor that has a photosensitive layer constituting a surface, a charging device that charges the surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor, an electrostatic charge image forming device that forms an electrostatic charge image on the charged surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor, a developing device that contains a developer and develops the electrostatic charge image formed on the surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor by the developer as a toner image, a transfer device that transfers the toner image formed on the surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor to a surface of a recording medium, and a cleaning device that has a cleaning blade coming into contact with the surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor and cleaning at least residual toner particles on the surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor, in which the photosensitive layer in the electrophotographic photoreceptor contains a polyester resin (1) that has a dicarboxylic acid unit (A) represented by Formula (A) and a diol unit (B) represented by Formula (B), and a contact portion of the cleaning blade with the electrophotographic photoreceptor has an impregnated cured layer of a composition that contains an isocyanate compound and at least one polymer selected from the group consisting of a fluorine-based polymer and a silicone-based polymer, <img class="EMIRef" id="0ec9dcc9-e131-4488-b75d-2aa6d3b9d065-ia01" /> <img class="EMIRef" id="0ec9dcc9-e131-4488-b75d-2aa6d3b9d065-ia02" /> in Formula (A), Ar<A1> and Ar<A2> are each independently an aromatic ring that may have a substituent, L<A> is a single bond or a divalent linking group, and n<A1> is 0, 1, or 2, in Formula (B), Ar<B1> and Ar<B2> are each independently an aromatic ring that may have a substituent, L<B> is a single bond, an oxygen atom, a sulfur atom, or -C(Rb<1>)(Rb<2>)-, and n<B1> is 0, 1, or 2, where Rb<1> and Rb<2> are each independently a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group having 1 or more and 20 or less carbon atoms, an aryl group having 6 or more and 12 or less carbon atoms, or an aralkyl group having 7 or more and 20 or less carbon atoms, and Rb<1> and Rb<2> may be bonded to each other to form a cyclic alkyl group.

An intermediate transfer body includes a semiconductive layer containing at least one resin selected from the group consisting of a polyimide resin, a polyamideimide resin, an aromatic polyether ether ketone resin, a polyphenylene sulfide resin, and a polyetherimide resin, conductive carbon particles, and at least one silicone oil selected from the group consisting of dimethyl polysiloxane and an organic group-substituted dimethyl polysiloxane, in which a number of conductive paths calculated based on three-dimensional structural analysis of a cross section of the semiconductive layer in a thickness direction is 110 or more, and a value obtained by subtracting a volume resistivity ρv (log Ω·cm) of the semiconductive layer from a surface resistivity ρs (log Ω/□) of the semiconductive layer is 1.5 or more and 2.0 or less.

A control panel cover includes an attachment member that allows the control panel cover to be attached to a control panel that at least includes an operable portion to be operated by a user and a light emitter that conveys information to the user with light emitted by the light emitter, a restrictor that restricts an operation to be performed on the operable portion when the control panel cover is attached to the control panel using the attachment member, and an expander that is located in an area irradiated by the light emitter with the light emitted from the light emitter when the control panel cover is attached to the control panel using the attachment member, to expand an area irradiated with the light.

A cleaning device includes a housing of the cleaning device that is moved to be inserted into and extracted from a cleaning mounting portion of an image forming apparatus including an image holding body that holds an image and rotates, and is attached to and detached from the cleaning mounting portion, a cleaning member that is provided in the housing and cleans the image holding body by bringing a part of the cleaning member into contact with the image holding body, a protective member that is provided to be movable in the housing, moves to a shielded position where the part of the cleaning member is shielded from an exposed position where the part is exposed, and protects the part, and a moving mechanism that is provided to be movable in the housing and moves the protective member between the exposed position and the shielded position in conjunction with an operation of moving the housing to be inserted into and extracted from the cleaning mounting portion.

A light emitting device includes multiple drive circuits provided between a light source and a power supply; a selector that selects any one of the multiple drive circuits; a switch element included in each of the multiple drive circuits and connected to the light source; multiple resistors that are included in each of the multiple drive circuits, connected in parallel to each other, and adjust a current flowing through the corresponding switch element; and a resistance controller that switches at least one of the multiple resistors to a conductive state or a nonconductive state.

A light emitting device includes a light source unit in which plural light emitting elements are arranged on a substrate along a main scanning direction, and a drive unit that drives the plural light emitting elements to cause the plural light emitting elements to emit light at different timings within a predetermined certain period while changing light emission time widths based on the amount of light to be emitted, in which the drive unit includes a correction unit that corrects the light emission time width within a range of a correctable width, which is a range in which the light emission time width is correctable, to make the correctable width vary for each light emitting element.

An information processing apparatus includes a processor configured to execute a control of displaying pseudo progress status related to measurement of a recording medium by a medium measuring device regardless of actual progress of measurement of the recording medium by the medium measuring device, and a control of displaying, then, progress status in accordance with actual measurement status of the medium measuring device.

An image forming system includes a processor configured to execute a control of storing a medium characteristic information group that is a set of medium characteristic information in which a physical characteristic of a recording medium and image forming control information for controlling image forming on the recording medium are associated with each other, a control of acquiring measurement information that is information related to a measured physical characteristic of the recording medium, and a control of determining, in newly adding the medium characteristic information to the medium characteristic information group based on the acquired measurement information, a characteristic of the recording medium related to the recording medium and the image forming control information based on the acquired measurement information, and displaying the characteristic of the recording medium related to the recording medium and the image forming control information as new medium characteristic information, while not displaying a recording medium brand.

Ans information processing device includes a processor configured to: receive information pertaining to properties of a recording medium; carry out control to determine, based on properties of the recording medium, characteristics of the recording medium and a print parameter that governs printing on the recording medium; and carry out control to register the determined characteristics of the recording medium and the determined print parameter in a medium information group.

An information processing system includes a processor configured to perform, in registering a recording medium in a medium information group that is a set of medium information in which a characteristic of the recording medium and image forming control information for controlling image forming on the recording medium are associated with each other, a control of acquiring measurement information that is information related to a measured physical property of the recording medium, a control of displaying a matching registration candidate based on the acquired measurement information, and a control of displaying, in displaying two or more registration candidates, a screen on which test printing of at least one of the two or more registration candidates is executable.

An information processing device includes a processor configured to: acquire a medium information group in which characteristics of a recording medium are associated with a print parameter that governs printing on the recording medium; and modify the medium information group using information pertaining to properties of the recording medium.

An information processing apparatus includes a processor configured to execute a control of displaying a registration screen for registering plural pieces of information on a recording medium, and a control of displaying a specific mark in association with an input item to be automatically input from a measurement result of a medium measuring device that measures the recording medium among input items related to the plural pieces of information on the recording medium.

An image forming control apparatus includes a processor configured to: acquire a measured value of characteristics of a recording medium used for image formation; acquire a predetermined reference value related to the characteristics of the recording medium; and execute control of outputting information corresponding to a difference between the measured value and the reference value.

An image forming system includes a processor configured to perform a control of acquiring measurement information of a first side of a measured recording medium that is information related to a physical characteristic of the first side, a control of outputting image forming control information of the first side that is information for controlling image forming on the first side, based on the measurement information of the first side, and a control of outputting image forming control information of a second side of the recording medium that is information for controlling image forming on the second side, based on the measurement information of the first side.

An information processing system includes a processor configured to perform a control of storing a medium information group that is a set of medium information in which a physical property of a recording medium and image forming control information for controlling image forming on the recording medium are associated with each other, a control of acquiring measurement information that is information related to a measured physical property of the recording medium, a control of determining that the image forming is unavailable for the recording medium based on the acquired measurement information, a control of registering, in registering the physical property of the recording medium in the medium information group, the unavailability of the image forming for the recording medium in the medium information, and a control of displaying, in displaying information on the registered recording medium from the medium information group, the unavailability of the image forming for the recording medium in association with the recording medium.

An image forming control apparatus includes a processor configured to: acquire image information to be formed on a recording medium; acquire a physical property value related to a physical property of the recording medium; and execute control of forming an image corresponding to a type of the recording medium based on the image information and the physical property value.

A toner accommodating container includes an accommodating member in which an opening portion for accommodating a toner is formed, a closing member that has a circular shape as viewed from an opening direction of the opening portion, that has an outer peripheral portion, on which an engaged portion which is engaged with an engaging portion formed along an inner peripheral edge of the opening portion is formed, and that closes the opening portion, and a grip portion that is provided at the closing member, that is grippable, and that is pulled in the opening direction to detach the closing member from the accommodating member.

An information processing system is disposed in an image forming apparatus (1), such as a printer, and includes: a processor (21b) configured to: check a fiber orientation indicating an orientation state of fibers in paper (10) from plural directions; and derive an expansion and contraction ratio of the paper (10) based on the checked fiber orientation.

A recording medium accommodating device (200) includes an opposing member (500) that is provided to be movable in an advancing and retracting manner with respect to a side portion of a recording medium to be loaded and that is disposed at a position facing the side portion, an acquisition unit (300) that acquires information regarding the recording medium to be loaded, the acquisition unit being supported by the opposing member and moving in accordance with advancement and retraction of the opposing member, and a support portion (700) that is disposed below a movement path of the acquisition unit and that is provided to be movable in an up-down direction and supports a part of the recording medium to be loaded from below, in which the support portion is configured such that a length of the support portion in a movement direction of the acquisition unit is changeable.

A fixing device includes a heating belt having a metal layer and a surface layer provided on the metal layer, a pressurizing roll that comes into contact with the heating belt and that pressurizes the heating belt, and a heating device that heats the heating belt at a position other than a contact portion between the heating belt and the pressurizing roll, in which the surface layer of the heating belt contains a polysiloxane compound having a T unit represented by a formula: [R<1>SiO<3/2>]<m> (in the formula, R<1> is an organic group, m is an integer of 2 or more, and at least one R<1> in the T unit is a group including at least one of an alkyl group or an aryl group).

An image forming unit includes a photoreceptor and a charging member that comes into contact with a surface of the photoreceptor to charge the photoreceptor, in which the photoreceptor includes a conductive substrate and a lamination-type photosensitive layer that has a charge generation layer and a charge transport layer disposed on the conductive substrate, the charge transport layer contains a polyarylate resin and does not substantially contain an organic fluorine compound, the charging member includes a support member, an elastic layer disposed on the support member, and a surface layer disposed on the elastic layer, and the surface layer contains a resin, conductive particles, and a silicon compound, and a silicon element concentration on a surface of the surface layer is 0.2 atm% or more and 1.2 atm% or less.

An electrophotographic member includes a surface layer that contains no fluorine material, in which, in a case where air is blown onto a surface of the surface layer from an upper side of the surface of the surface layer while a blowing pressure is increased after polyester resin particles having a volume average particle diameter of 4.7 µm are attached to the surface of the surface layer, all of the polyester resin particles attached to the surface of the surface layer are separated from the surface of the surface layer at a blowing pressure of 6 kPa or less.

A siloxane compound film contains a siloxane compound including Si, O, C, and H as constituent elements, in which the siloxane compound film has a peak in a range of 100 eV or more and 103 eV or less in a spectrum measured by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and a half-value width of the peak is 1.80 eV or more and 4.00 eV or less.

An image forming apparatus includes: an image holder; a charging unit that charges a surface of the image holder; an electrostatic image forming unit that forms an electrostatic image on the charged surface of the image holder; a developing unit that accommodates an electrostatic image developer containing a toner in which a number proportion of toner particles having a particle diameter of 4 µm or less is 15% by number or more, and that develops the electrostatic image formed on the surface of the image holder into a toner image with the electrostatic image developer; a transfer unit that transfers the toner image onto a recording medium; and a fixing device that includes a fixing member having a surface layer that contains no fluorine atom and is a cured product of a composition containing an organopolysiloxane (T type) having a silsesquioxane structure represented by Formula 1 and dimethyl organopolysiloxane (D type), in which a contained ratio (T type/D type) of the organopolysiloxane (T type) to the dimethyl organopolysiloxane (D type) is 1/9 or more and 9/1 or less, and a difference ΔH between a maximum value and a minimum value of an ultramicrohardness of the surface layer, that is measured at arbitrary 50 points by an ultramicrohardness test specified in JIS Z2255 (2003), is 0% or more and 50% or less, and that fixes the toner image onto the recording medium by bringing the surface layer of the fixing member into contact with the toner image on the recording medium and heating and pressurizing the recording medium. Formula 1 [R¹SiO_3/2]_m(in Formula 1, R¹'s each independently represent a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group, an alkenyl group, an alkynyl group, an aralkyl group, an aryl group, a group represented by -C(=O)-CR²₃, or a monovalent organic group having a reactive group, a plurality of R¹'s may be the same or different from each other, R² represents a hydrogen atom, a methyl group, or an ethyl group, in a case of a plurality of R²'s, the plurality of R²'s may be the same or different from each other, the monovalent organic group may be substituted with a halogen atom, a hydroxy group, an alkoxy group, an aryloxy group, an aralkyloxy group, or an oxy group, the alkyl group, the alkenyl group, the alkynyl group, the aralkyl group, and the aryl group may have a substituent, and m represents a positive integer)

An image forming apparatus includes: an image holder; a charging unit that charges a surface of the image holder; an electrostatic image forming unit that forms an electrostatic image on the charged surface of the image holder; a developing unit that accommodates an electrostatic image developer containing a toner that contains toner particles containing a metal pigment having an average equivalent circle diameter of 5 µm or more and 15 µm or less, in which an average value of ratios b/a between a major axis diameter a and a minor axis diameter b in a cross section of the toner particles is 0.5 or more and 0.8 or less, and an average value of areas of the metal pigment occupying a projected image of the toner particles in a case of being viewed in a thickness direction is 0.5 or more and 0.7 or less, the developing unit developing the electrostatic image formed on the surface of the image holder into a toner image with the electrostatic image developer; a transfer unit that transfers the toner image onto a recording medium; and a fixing device that includes a fixing member having a surface layer that contains no fluorine atom and is a cured product of a composition containing an organopolysiloxane (T type) having a silsesquioxane structure represented by Formula 1 and dimethyl organopolysiloxane (D type), in which a contained ratio (T type/D type) of the organopolysiloxane (T type) to the dimethyl organopolysiloxane (D type) is 1/9 or more and 9/1 or less, and a difference ΔH between a maximum value and a minimum value of an ultramicrohardness of the surface layer, that is measured at any 50 points by an ultramicrohardness test specified in JIS Z2255 (2003), is 0 or more and 15 or less, the fixing device fixing the toner image onto the recording medium by bringing the surface layer of the fixing member into contact with the toner image on the recording medium and then heating and pressurizing the recording medium. Formula 1 [R<1>SiO<3/2>]<m> (in Formula 1, R<1>'s each independently represent a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group, an alkenyl group, an alkynyl group, an aralkyl group, an aryl group, a group represented by -C(=O)-CR<2>3 , or a monovalent organic group having a reactive group, a plurality of R<1>'s may be the same or different from each other, R<2> represents a hydrogen atom, a methyl group, or an ethyl group, in a case of a plurality of R<2>'s, the plurality of R<2>'s may be the same or different from each other, the monovalent organic group may be substituted with a halogen atom, a hydroxy group, an alkoxy group, an aryloxy group, an aralkyloxy group, or an oxy group, the alkyl group, the alkenyl group, the alkynyl group, the aralkyl group, and the aryl group may have a substituent, and m represents a positive integer)

A fixing device includes a fixing member including a base material layer, an elastic layer disposed on the base material layer, and a surface layer that is disposed on the elastic layer and is a cured product of a composition containing a silsesquioxane compound, a heating member that is configured to heat the fixing member, and a pressurizing member disposed to be in contact with an outer peripheral surface of the fixing member, in which, in the surface layer of the fixing member, a ratio of an indentation depth B at a time of load release to an indentation depth A at a time of load application (= B/A × 100%) in an ultramicrohardness test (JIS Z 2255:2003) is 45% or less.

A fixing member includes a base material, and a release layer that is provided on the base material and contains a polysiloxane compound having a T unit represented by a formula: [R<1>SiO<3/2>]<m> (in the formula, R<1> represents an organic group, m represents an integer of 2 or more, and at least one R<1> among a plurality of R<1>'s present in the T unit is a group including at least one of an alkyl group or an aryl group) and inorganic particles having an average particle diameter of 0.5 µm or more and 15 µm or less.

A fixing device includes a heating roll, a pressurizing belt that is disposed in contact with the heating roll and has a surface layer that is a cured product of a composition containing a compound represented by Formula 1, a pressing member that is disposed on an inner peripheral surface of the pressurizing belt and presses the pressurizing belt against the heating roll from the inner peripheral surface of the pressurizing belt, a sliding member that is interposed between the inner peripheral surface of the pressurizing belt and the pressing member, and a lubricant that is interposed between the inner peripheral surface of the pressurizing belt and the sliding member, (R¹₃SiO_1/2)_a(R¹₂SiO_2/2)_b(R¹SiO_3/2)_c(SiO_4/2)_a(R²O_1/2)_e Formula 1,(in Formula 1,R¹ represents a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group, an alkenyl group, an alkynyl group, an aralkyl group, an aryl group, a group represented by -C(=O)-CR³₃, or a monovalent organic group having a reactive group, provided that a plurality of R¹'s may be the same or different from each other,R² represents a hydrogen atom or an alkyl group, provided that a plurality of R²'s may be the same or different from each other,R³ represents a hydrogen atom, a methyl group, or an ethyl group, provided that a plurality of R³'s may be the same or different from each other,the monovalent organic group may be substituted with a halogen atom, a hydroxy group, an alkoxy group, an aryloxy group, an aralkyloxy group, or an oxy group,the alkyl group, the alkenyl group, the alkynyl group, the aralkyl group, and the aryl group may have a substituent, anda, b, d, and e each independently represent 0 or more and 1 or less, c represents more than 0 and 1 or less, and a + b + c + d + e = 1).

A film contains a conductive material, and a polysiloxane compound that has a T unit represented by a formula: [R<1>SiO<3/2>]<m> (in the formula, R<1> represents an organic group, m represents an integer of 2 or more, and at least one R<1> among a plurality of R<1>'s present in the T unit is a group including at least one of an alkyl group or an aryl group), in which a surface resistivity is 1.0 × 10<3> Ω/sq or more and 1.0 × 10<8> Q/sq or less.

An electrophotographic member includes a foamed elastic layer and a surface layer that is provided on the foamed elastic layer, in which the surface layer contains a polysiloxane compound having a T unit represented by a formula: [R¹SiO_3/2]_m (in the formula, R₁ represents an organic group, m represents an integer of 2 or more, and at least one R₁ among a plurality of R¹'s present in the T unit is a group including at least one of an alkyl group or an aryl group).

A fixing device includes a heating member that has a base material and a surface layer provided on the base material, a pressurizing member that comes into contact with the heating member and applies pressure to the heating member, and a peeling claw that is provided on a downstream side of the heating member in a rotation direction of the heating member with respect to a contact portion between the heating member and the pressurizing member, and peels a recording medium that is passed through the contact portion between the heating member and the pressurizing member from the heating member by coming into contact with the heating member, in which the surface layer of the heating member is a layer having a T unit represented by a formula: [R<1>SiO<3/2>]<m> (in the formula, R<1> represents an organic group, and m represents an integer of 2 or more), and contains inorganic particles having an average particle diameter of 7.0 µm or less.

Provided is a discharge method for discharging a developer containing toner from a housing of a development device, the development device including the housing that accommodates the developer, a transporting member that transports the developer in the housing, and a development member that includes a receiving pole and a release pole, that receives the developer from the transporting member at the receiving pole with a magnetic force and develops a latent image on a photoconductor with the developer, and that releases a surplus developer into the housing at the release pole. The discharge method includes changing, while the development device is removed from an image forming apparatus body, a position of the development member with respect to the housing to a release position to direct the release pole toward an outside of the housing, and changing a position of the housing to direct the release pole downward while the development member is in the release position, and driving the transporting member to discharge the developer from the housing.

An information processing system includes a processor configured to: in a case of connecting a second serial interface provided in an electronic device to a first serial interface provided in the information processing system, execute verification of connection information, which is information used for connecting the second serial interface, in a predetermined order; recognize the connection information of the second serial interface based on a verification result of the connection information of the second serial interface; and in a case where the information processing system transitions to a power saving mode and then returns to a normal state and in a case where previous connection information of the second serial interface has been acquired, connect the electronic device using the previous connection information.

An image forming apparatus includes a photoreceptor (1), a charging device (2) that charges a surface of the photoreceptor, an electrostatic charge image forming device (3) that forms an electrostatic charge image on a charged surface of the photoreceptor, a developing device (4) that develops the electrostatic charge image formed on the surface of the photoreceptor with a developer containing a toner to form a toner image, an intermediate transfer member (20, 50) to which the toner image formed on the surface of the photoreceptor is transferred, a primary transfer device (5) that transfers the toner image formed on the surface of the photoreceptor to a surface of the intermediate transfer member, a secondary transfer device (26) that transfers the toner image transferred to the surface of the intermediate transfer member to a surface of a recording medium (P), and an intermediate transfer member cleaning device (30) that has a cleaning blade (60) coming into contact with the surface of the intermediate transfer member and cleans the surface of the intermediate transfer member, in which the intermediate transfer member has a surface layer (52) containing a resin, a conductive agent, and a silicone oil, a silicon element concentration on a surface of the surface layer is 0.5 atm% or more and 10.0 atm% or less, a tip angle of the cleaning blade is 95 degrees or more and 110 degrees or less, and a tip hardness of the cleaning blade is 86 degrees or more and 96 degrees or less.

A belt transport device includes a first rotator; an endless belt that is formed with a nip portion in contact with the first rotator and that transports an object to be transported by the first rotator while rotationally moving; a pressing member that is provided on an inner peripheral side of the belt and that forms the nip portion by pressing the belt against the first rotator from the inner peripheral side; one or more second rotators that are provided on the inner peripheral side of the belt and that stretch the belt together with the pressing member; and plural contact members that are provided on the inner peripheral side of the belt, that are disposed side by side in a rotational movement direction of the belt between the pressing member and the second rotator or between two of the second rotators, and that come into contact with an inner peripheral surface of the belt in a state of being supported by a support that supports the pressing member and the second rotator in different manners.

A developing device includes: a developing container that accommodates a developer; an agitating and transport member that includes a rotation shaft and a helical blade formed in a helical shape in an axial direction with respect to the rotation shaft and that transports the developer in the developing container while agitating the developer; a transport path that accommodates the agitating and transport member and includes a high-speed transport region in which the developer is transported at a high speed and a low-speed transport region that is arranged on a downstream side of the high-speed transport region in a transport direction of the developer and in which the developer is transported at a lower speed than in the high-speed transport region; and a volume detection unit that is installed within a range set in advance from a switching portion that switches from the high-speed transport region to the low-speed transport region to an upstream side in the transport direction or in the low-speed transport region and that detects a volume of the developer in the transport path.

A fixing device includes a heating member that includes a tube member that is cylindrical, extends in an axial direction, rotates, and has an internal circumferential surface to which grease is applied, and a heat generator that extends in the axial direction, that is in contact with the internal circumferential surface, and that generates heat to heat the tube member; and a pressing member that is disposed to face the heat generator with the tube member interposed therebetween, that forms a nip portion to hold a recording medium between the pressing member and the heating member, and presses the recording medium against the heating member, in which the heating member and the pressing member are disposed while allowing the internal circumferential surface and a member disposed inside the tube member to be in no contact with each other at at least one of portions upstream and downstream of the nip portion in a rotation direction of the tube member.

An information processing system includes a processor, in which the processor is configured to use an estimation model that is trained through machine learning, using plural training data that are generated based on each pair data in which a first image of a person before processing and a second image in which a feature portion of the person included in the first image is processed are associated with each other, and in which a type of processing performed on the first image to obtain the second image, processed positional information representing a position of the feature portion in the first image that is processed, and unprocessed positional information representing a position of a feature portion in the first image that is not processed are associated with the first image, to output the type of processing, the processed positional information, and the unprocessed positional information for the first image, to estimate the type of processing, the processed positional information, and the unprocessed positional information from a new image which is the first image not used in the machine learning of the estimation model and includes the person; and output the type of processing, the processed positional information, and the unprocessed positional information for the new image.

A fixation system includes a rotating body; a fixation belt that is formed in endless and forms a fixation nip where an image on a medium is fixed by making contact with the rotating body; a heater that makes contact with an inner circumference of a portion of the fixation belt where the fixation nip is formed with a lubricant interposed therebetween and heats the fixation belt; and a processor configured to: execute a leveling mode in which the fixation belt is rotated while causing the heater to heat the fixation belt at a temperature higher than a fixation temperature used during fixation of the image on the medium.