IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS, DECOLORING APPARATUS AND METHOD OF EVALUATING A CONDITION OF A HEATING PORTION OF AN IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS

摘要

According to one embodiment, an image forming apparatus includes a heating section that heats an image on a sheet formed of decolorable color material; an image forming section that transfers the image formed of the decolorable color material to the sheet; a diagnosis image generating section that instructs the image forming section to generate a diagnosis image formed of a predetermined image on a sheet; a control section that controls the heating section to switch a fixing temperature for fixing the image formed of the decolorable color material on the sheet to a decoloring temperature for decoloring the image formed of the decolorable color material on the sheet; and a first transporting route that transports the sheet on which the diagnosis image of the decolorable color material is formed through the image forming section to the heating section maintained at the decoloring temperature.

主权项

1. An image forming apparatus comprising:
an image forming section configured to form an image on a sheet with decolorable color material; a heating section configured to heat the sheet; a first transporting section configured to transport the sheet from the image forming section to the heating section; a second transporting section configured to transport the sheet from the heating section to the first transporting section; and a control section configured to control the image forming section to forma diagnosis image having a predefined pattern on a sheet, control the first transporting section to transport the sheet to the heating section, and control the heating section to set a temperature thereof to a fixing temperature to fix the diagnosis image formed of the decolorable color material on the sheet, and thereafter to control the second transporting section to transport the sheet on which the diagnosis image is fixed by the heating section to the first transporting section, and control the heating section to set the temperature thereof to a decoloring temperature for the decolorable color material to decolor the diagnosis image fixed on the sheet.