Development of Paper Temperature Prediction Method in Electrophotographic Processes by Using Machine Learning and Thermal Network Model.

Since the fusing process in electrophotography has a significant impact not only on printing quality but also on machine internal temperature and toner blocking on outlet tray, accurate paper temperature prediction for various types of papers is essential, especially in the production printing. To develop the thermophysical model of fusing process to predict the paper temperature after the fusing process, thermal properties such as thermal conductivity, specific heat, and thermal contact resistance of several types of papers are necessary. However, paper is composed of complex fiber, surface coating, filler, and moisture, making it difficult to measure thermophysical properties of paper accurately. This work developed a machine learning (ML) model that can predict the thermophysical properties of paper based on a conventionally used 1D thermal network model of the fusing process and experiment results. The thermophysical properties of each paper obtained by ML and the thermophysical properties obtained by the conventional method were input to the thermal network model to predict the paper temperature after the fusing process and compared with the measured paper temperatures of the experiment. The results showed that the paper temperature was predicted with higher accuracy by using thermophysical properties obtained by ML than that by the conventional method. Although the method for predicting paper temperature by using only ML had been proposed, it had the disadvantage of requiring a large number of training experiments. In contrast, this method trained under the conditions of one fusing temperature and two printing speeds, and was able to predict under five fusing temperatures and four printing speeds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]