US 6,212,338 B1Granted

Image forming device with communication to supplementary toner container

AssigneeSharp Kabushiki Kaisha

InventorsHideaki Hagihara, Haruo Nishiyama, David Isner, Kenichi Nagata

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Abstract

Bidirectional communication is carried out between a toner bottle end communication device disposed in a toner bottle and a main body end communication device disposed in a device main body while the toner bottle is moved from a first position where the toner bottle starts being attached to the device main body to a second position where the toner bottle is completely attached. The CPU provided in the main body end communication device decides whether or not the information on the toner bottle received from the toner bottle end communication device matches the device main body, and notifies prior to toner refilling. If the toner bottle is not suitable, the CPU specifies a lower quality image forming condition under which operation conditions for the main charging device, exposure device, and fixing device are changed so as to produce an image of relatively low quality in comparison to normal quality. The user can single out a bogus product among unsuitable toner bottles by identifying a degradation in the quality of the image produced by that condition.

Claims14

Dependent claims

An image forming device, comprising a device main body to which a supplementary toner container for supplying supplementary toner is attached in a freely attachable and detachable manner, wherein

the supplementary toner container, includes container end communication means, having a memory function to store information at least on the supplementary toner container, for contactlessly communicating with main body end communication means disposed in the device main body to transmit the information, and
at least a portion, of the supplementary toner container, including the container end communication means is movable from a first position where the supplementary toner container starts being attached to the device main body to a second position where the supplementary toner container is completely attached in readiness for toner refilling, and is able to carry out the communication at least somewhere between the first position and the second position,
said image forming device comprising control means for deciding from a result of the communication whether or not the information on the supplementary toner container matches the device main body, and for specifying an image forming condition that varies depending on the decision whether or not the supplementary toner container is suitable.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.