US Patent Issued to Canon on March 11 for "Image forming apparatus configured to determine whether or not a roller member has been replaced" (Japanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,248,269, issued on March 11, was assigned to Canon K.K. (Tokyo).

"Image forming apparatus configured to determine whether or not a roller member has been replaced" was invented by Masaki Hirose (Kanagawa, Japan) and Masahide Hirai (Shizuoka, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An image forming apparatus includes a replaceable roller member, an applying unit that applies voltage to the roller member, a current detecting unit that detects a current flowing in the roller member to which the voltage is applied, and a controlling unit. The controlling unit calculates a value of a slope of a current-voltage characteristic of the roller membe...