Toner supplying apparatus and toner supplying method for image forming apparatus
AssigneesKabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Toshiba Tec Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorTomohiro Iino
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An image forming apparatus includes plural developing devices arranged at a fixed interval, plural toner cartridges arranged at an interval smaller than the interval among the developing devices, and plural sub-hoppers that receive toners stored in the toner cartridges and feed the toners to plural developing devices. The plural sub-hoppers respectively have toner receiving ports formed in positions opposed to toner discharging ports of the toner cartridges and have toner supply ports for feeding toners to the developing devices. The plural sub-hoppers are arranged at an interval same as an arrangement pitch of the developing devices.
Claims19
An image forming apparatus, comprising:
- plural developing devices that develop electrostatic latent images formed on image bearing members;
- plural toner cartridges that store toners to be fed to the plural developing devices and have toner discharging ports, at least one of the plural toner cartridges having a size larger than that of the other plural toner cartridges and the plural toner cartridges being arranged such that the toner discharging ports are adjacent to one another at a first interval smaller than an arrangement pitch of the plural developing devices;
- and
- plural sub-hoppers that respectively have toner receiving ports formed in positions opposed to the toner discharging ports of the plural toner cartridges and have toner supply ports for feeding the toners to the plural developing devices, the plural sub-hoppers being arranged such that the toner supply ports are adjacent to one another at a second interval same as the arrangement pitch of the plural developing devices.
A toner supplying apparatus that feeds toners to plural developing devices arranged at a fixed interval, the toner supplying apparatus comprising:
- plural toner cartridges that store toners of different colors, respectively, and have toner discharging ports, at least one of the plural toner cartridges having a size larger than that of the other plural toner cartridges and the plural toner cartridges being arranged such that the toner discharging ports are adjacent to one another at a first interval smaller than an arrangement pitch of the plural developing devices;
- and
- plural sub-hoppers that respectively have toner receiving ports formed in positions opposed to the toner discharging ports of the plural toner cartridges and have toner supply ports for feeding the toners to the plural developing devices, the plural sub-hoppers being arranged such that the toner supply ports are adjacent to one another at a second interval same as the arrangement pitch of the plural developing devices.
A toner supplying method for an image forming apparatus, comprising:
- providing plural sub-hoppers that supply toners to plural developing devices arranged at a fixed interval;
- arranging plural toner cartridges, which store toners of different colors and have toner discharging ports, such that the toner discharging ports are adjacent to one another at a first interval smaller than an arrangement pith of the plural developing devices, at least one of the plural toner cartridges having size larger than that of the other plural toner cartridges;
- providing toner receiving ports in the plural sub-hoppers to be opposed to the toner discharging ports;
- providing, in the plural sub-hoppers, toner supply ports for feeding the toners to the plural developing devices;
- arranging the plural sub-hoppers such that the toner supply ports are adjacent to one another at a second interval same as the arrangement pitch of the plural developing devices;
- feeding the toners from the plural toner cartridges to the plural sub-hoppers via the toner receiving ports;
- and
- supplying the toners from the plural sub-hoppers to the plural developing devices via the toner supply ports.
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- plural developing devices that develop electrostatic latent images formed on image bearing members;
- plural toner cartridges that store toners to be fed to the plural developing devices and have toner discharging ports, a toner cartridge for black having a size larger than that of the other plural toner cartridges and the plural toner cartridges being arranged such that the toner discharging ports are adjacent to one another at a first interval smaller than an arrangement pitch of the plural developing devices;
- and
- plural sub-hoppers that respectively have toner receiving ports formed in positions opposed to the toner discharging ports of the plural toner cartridges and have toner supply ports for feeding the toners to the plural developing devices, the plural sub-hoppers being arranged such that the toner supply ports are adjacent to one another at a second interval same as the arrangement pitch of the plural developing devices.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.