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US 2013/0170846 A1Published application
Image forming apparatus
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorHideaki Kosasa
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An image forming apparatus capable of reading a unique pattern of a toner bottle without using an expensive device, and of preventing the delay of the toner replenishment. A control unit controls a driving unit to rotate a toner bottle for replenishing toner and controls a reading unit to read a unique pattern of the toner bottle in conjunction with the rotation of the toner bottle, when receiving a toner replenishment signal in N-th time from a toner remaining amount detection unit after receiving the bottle detection signal from a bottle mounting detection unit.
Claims4
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a toner replenishment unit to which a toner bottle containing toner is mounted detachably;
- a bottle mounting detection unit configured to give means that gives a bottle detection signal when detecting a mounting of the toner bottle;
- a rotational driving configured to rotate the toner bottle in order to replenish the toner into said toner replenishment unit;
- a reading unit configured to read a unique pattern attached onto an outer surface of the toner bottle during the rotation of the toner bottle;
- a toner remaining amount detection unit configured to give a toner replenishment signal when detecting a state where the amount of toner in said toner replenishment unit reaches a predetermined level that needs to replenish the toner;
- and
- a control unit configured to receive the bottle detection signal from said bottle mounting detection unit and the toner replenishment signal from said toner remaining amount detection unit, and controls said rotational driving unit and said reading unit,
- wherein said control unit causes the toner bottle to rotate in accordance with the bottle detection signal from said bottle mounting detection unit, and causes said reading unit to read the unique pattern after the toner bottle rotates until a toner replenishing amount corresponding to a predetermined rotation amount of the toner bottle becomes smaller than a predetermined threshold.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.