Waste toner collecting apparatus and image forming apparatus
AssigneesKabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Toshiba Tec Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorKenichiro Shishikura
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Abstract
A tandem type image forming apparatus drives an agitation paddle when the waste toner defecated from a plurality of image forming units and flowed and collected in a single waste toner containing member by way of the first collection port thereof gets to a predetermined level in order to level the height of the waste toner in the waste toner containing member. The quantity of waste toner flowed by way of the first collection port is estimated from the quantity of the toners supplied from the toner cartridges of the development apparatus.
Claims16
A waste toner collecting apparatus comprising:
- a waste toner containing member extending in the direction of arrangement of a plurality of image forming units respectively having toner image forming members arranged around image carriers so as to receive and contain a waste toner defecated from the image carriers and a waste toner defecated from transfer mediums on which images are formed:
- and
- a leveling member arranged in the waste toner containing member and adapted to rotate according to the quantity of waste toner in the waste toner containing member, wherein
- the toner image forming members are provided respectively with development sections for applying toner to the image carriers and the quantity of waste toner is detected from the quantity of the toners supplied respectively to the development sections.
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a plurality of image forming units respectively having toner image forming members for forming toner images on respective toner image carriers;
- a waste toner containing member extending in the direction of arrangement of the plurality of image forming units so as to receive and contain a waste toner defecated from the image carriers and a waste toner defecated from transfer mediums on which toner images are formed;
- and
- a leveling member arranged in the waste toner containing member and adapted to rotate according to the quantity of waste toner in the waste toner containing member, wherein
- the toner image forming members are provided respectively with development sections for applying toner to the image carriers and the quantity of waste toner is detected from the quantity of the toners supplied respectively to the development sections.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.