Image forming apparatus and determination method
AssigneeKonica Minolta, Inc.
InventorJunji Murauchi
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Abstract
An electrophotographic image forming apparatus includes: a replacement detector that detects that a toner bottle has been replaced; a developer that develops an electrostatic latent image by using a toner supplied from the toner bottle and stored; a fog detector that detects a fog amount; and a determiner that determines whether or not the detected fog amount continuously exceeds a predetermined threshold value in a state where a toner supplied from a toner bottle before replacement and a toner supplied from a toner bottle after replacement are mixed in the developer.
Claims20
An electrophotographic image forming apparatus comprising:
- a replacement detector that detects that a toner bottle has been replaced;
- a developer that develops an electrostatic latent image by using a toner supplied from the toner bottle and stored;
- a fog detector that detects a fog amount;
- and
- a determiner that determines whether or not the detected fog amount continuously exceeds a predetermined threshold fog amount value in a state where a toner supplied from a toner bottle before replacement and a toner supplied from a toner bottle after replacement are mixed in the developer by determining whether or not a number of consecutive times that the detected fog amount exceeds the predetermined threshold fog amount value is greater than a predetermined count value.
A determination method that determines whether chargeability of a toner has changed in an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, the determination method comprising:
- detecting that a toner bottle has been replaced;
- developing an electrostatic latent image by using a toner supplied from the toner bottle and stored in a developer;
- detecting a fog amount;
- and
- determining that the chargeability of the toner has changed when the detected fog amount continuously exceeds a predetermined threshold fog amount value in a state where a toner supplied from a toner bottle before replacement and a toner supplied from a toner bottle after replacement are mixed in the developer by determining whether or not a number of consecutive times that the detected fog amount exceeds the predetermined threshold fog amount value is greater than a predetermined count value.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.