US 6,584,291 B1 · IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS FOR CALCULATING A PRINTABLE NUMBER OF SHEETS AND A CARTRIDGE DETACHABLY MOUNTABLE TO THE APPARATUS COMPRISING A MEMORY FOR STORING DATA REPRESENTING A PRESENT AMOUNT OF DEVELOPER

Abstract

An image forming apparatus is provided, which comprises a developer container for containing developer, a developer amount detector for detecting an amount of the developer contained in the developer container, a pixel number counter for counting the number of pixels required for forming an image, a sheet number counter for counting the number of sheets of a recording material on which an image is formed and a calculator for calculating the printable number of sheets from the present onward using the developer amount detected by the detector, the number of pixels counted by the pixel number counter and the number of sheets counted by the sheet number counter.

Claims28

Dependent claims

An image forming apparatus comprising:

a developer container for containing a developer;
developer amount detecting means for detecting an amount of the developer contained in said developer container;
a pixel number counter for counting the number of pixels required for forming an image;
a sheet number counter for counting the number of sheets on which the image is formed;
and
calculating means for calculating a printable number of sheets in accordance with the amount of the developer detected by said developer amount detecting means, an amount of developer required per unit pixel, and a number of pixels required per unit sheet, wherein the amount of developer required per unit pixel is variable.

3 more elements

An image forming apparatus comprising:

a developer container for containing a developer;
developer amount detecting means for detecting an amount of the developer contained in said developer container;
a pixel number counter for counting a number of pixels required for forming an image;
estimating means for estimating an amount of developer required per unit pixel on the basis of the amount of the developer detected by said developer amount detecting means and a pixel count number counted in each used period in which the developer is used by said pixel number counter;
and
control means for outputting a printable number of sheets from the present onward on the basis of the amount of developer required per unit pixel estimated by said estimating means.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application

09/656,475Filed 6 Sep 2000

Priority

JP 11-2549078 Sep 1999

Granted

24 Jun 2003

Term ends

Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification8 codes

G03G 15/553
Self-diagnostics; Malfunction or lifetime display: monitoring or warning means for exhaustion or lifetime end of consumables, e.g. indication of…
G03G 15/556
Monitoring or warning means for exhaustion or lifetime end of consumables, e.g. indication of insufficient copy sheet quantity for a job: for…
G03G 2215/0888
Details of powder developing device not concerning the development directly: arrangements for detecting toner level or concentration in the…
G03G 2221/1663
Mechanical means for facilitating the maintenance of the apparatus, e.g. modular arrangements and complete machine concepts: having lifetime…

Image forming apparatus for calculating a printable number of sheets and a cartridge detachably mountable to the apparatus comprising a memory for storing data representing a present amount of developer

Life of this patent

Image forming apparatus for calculating a printable number of sheets and a cartridge detachably mountable to the apparatus comprising a memory for storing data representing a present amount of developer

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims28