| CPC G01N 27/20 (2013.01) | 7 Claims |
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1. A heating device state monitoring method for a heating device, the heating device including a conductive path that electrically series-connects heating elements and a power supply that supplies power to the conductive path, the method comprising:
an initial potential difference acquisition step including:
determining a first initial potential difference of a first conductive path portion of a plurality of conductive path portions that includes at least one of the heating elements;
determining a second initial potential difference of a second conductive path portion of the plurality of conductive path portions;
comparing the first initial potential difference with the second initial potential difference to determine a first comparison information;
after the initial potential difference acquisition step, a later potential difference acquisition step that obtains a potential difference of the plurality of conductive path portions, including:
a first potential difference acquisition step that obtains a first potential difference of the first conductive path portion; and
a second potential difference acquisition step that obtains a second potential difference of the second conductive path portion that differs from the first conductive path portion;
a monitoring information acquisition step that obtains monitoring information used to monitor a state of the heating elements, wherein the monitoring information includes a second comparison information obtained by comparing the first potential difference and the second potential difference; and
an anomaly determination step that determines occurrence of an anomaly in the plurality of conductive path portions based on the monitoring information obtained in the monitoring information acquisition step, and a comparison between the first comparison information and the second comparison information.
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