| 摘要 |
PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image forming apparatus that does not absorb heat needed to heat a recording material and a toner, and has high efficiency of saving energy. SOLUTION: The image forming apparatus includes an image forming means of forming an image on the recording medium, a heat generating means for heating and fixing the formed image, a thermoelectric converting means of converting heat energy of the heat generating means into electric energy, an electric storage means of charging the electric energy converted by the thermoelectric converting means, an electric discharging means of discharging the electric energy charged in the electric storage means, a thermal energy amount control means of controlling the amount of heat energy generated by the heat generating means, a monitoring means of monitoring the state of the image forming means, and an electric storage indicating means of indicating timing of charging of the electric energy in the electric storage means. When the monitoring means determines that the thermal energy amount control means is controlling the amount of thermal energy when the image forming means does not perform an image forming operation, the thermoelectric converting means converts the thermal energy into the electric energy and the electric storage means charges the electric energy. COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT |
