Image forming device that determines when to fill toner for forming images
AssigneeSharp Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsMotoyuki Itoyama, Masayasu Narimatsu, Shohei Fukumoto
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Abstract
An image forming device forms an image using toner contained in an attached cartridge, and includes: a development unit that forms a toner image on a photoreceptor drum; a conveyor that receives the toner from the cartridge and conveys the toner to the development unit; a toner sensor that detects the amount of toner stored in the development unit; an attachment/detachment detector that detects attachment and detachment of the cartridge; and a controller including a storage, the controller determining whether to perform a filling operation to fill the conveyor with the toner based on a filling determination variable stored in the storage when attachment of the cartridge is detected.
Claims8
An image forming device that forms an image using toner contained in an attachable cartridge, the image forming device comprising:
- a development unit that forms a toner image on an image carrier;
- a conveyor that receives the toner from the cartridge and conveys the toner to the development unit;
- a toner sensor that detects an amount of the toner stored in the development unit;
- an attachment/detachment detector that detects attachment and detachment of the cartridge;
- and
- a controller including a storage, the controller determining, in a case that the attachment/detachment detector detects the attachment of the cartridge, whether to perform a filling operation to fill the conveyor with the toner, based on a filling determination variable stored in the storage, wherein:
- the filling determination variable is settable to an initial value or a value different from the initial value, and
- in a case that the filling operation is not performed, the filling determination variable is set to the initial value.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.