Developer unit for an image forming apparatus
AssigneeBrother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorShougo Sato
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A developer unit for an image forming apparatus is provided. The image forming apparatus includes a developer device having a developer agent carrier and a developer agent supplier, a developer agent container arranged in an upper position with respect to the developer device, and a curved wall, which separates the developer device from the developer agent container; is curved toward the developer agent container; and is formed to have a feeding opening and a collecting opening, and a conveyer, which is arranged along the developer agent supplier and conveys the developer agent toward the collecting opening. The curved wall is arranged to be in proximity to the conveyer and to fit with outlines of the conveyer.
Claims12
A developer unit for an image forming apparatus to form an image on a recording sheet, comprising:
- a developer device having a developer agent carrier, which carries a developer agent on a surface thereof, and a developer agent supplier, which supplies the developer agent to the developer agent carrier;
- a developer agent container, which contains the developer agent to be supplied to the developer device and is arranged in an upper position with respect to the developer device;
- and
- a curved wall that is configured to separate the developer device, which is disposed downward from the curved wall, from the developer agent container, which is disposed upward from the curved wall;
- the curved wall being curved toward the developer agent container and formed to have a feeding opening, through which the developer agent from the developer agent container is supplied to the developer device, and a collecting opening, through which the developer agent in the developer device is retrieved in the developer agent container;
- and
- a conveyer, which is arranged along the developer agent supplier and rotated about a rotation axis to convey the developer agent supplied to the developer device through the feeding opening toward the collecting opening,
- wherein the curved wall is arranged to be in proximity to the conveyer and to fit with outlines of the conveyer.
A developer unit for an image forming apparatus to form an image on a recording sheet, comprising:
- a developer device having a developer agent carrier, which carries a developer agent on a surface thereof, and a developer agent supplier, which supplies the developer agent to the developer agent carrier;
- a developer agent container, which contains the developer agent to be supplied to the developer device and is arranged in an upper position with respect to the developer device;
- and
- a curved wall, which:
- separates the developer device from the developer agent container;
- is curved toward the developer agent container;
- and is formed to have a feeding opening, through which the developer agent from the developer agent container is supplied to the developer device, and a collecting opening, through which the developer agent in the developer device is retrieved in the developer agent container;
- and
- a conveyer, which is arranged along the developer agent supplier and rotated about a rotation axis to convey the developer agent supplied to the developer device through the feeding opening toward the collecting opening,
- wherein the curved wall is arranged to be in proximity to the conveyer and to fit with outlines of the conveyer;
- wherein the curved wall is formed in an arc in cross-section to center around a reference line, which extends in parallel with the rotation axis of the conveyer;
- wherein the developer agent container is detachable from the developer device;
- wherein the curved wall is provided to the developer device;
- wherein the developer agent container is formed to have a fitting wall, which is formed separately from the curved wall, at a position to be adjacent to and to fit with the curved wall of the developer device, the fitting wall being curved inward in an arc in cross-section to center around the reference line, which extends in parallel with the rotation axis of the conveyer;
- wherein the fitting wall is formed to have a container-side feeding opening, which is communicated with the feeding opening of the curved wall to supply the developer agent in the developer agent container to the developer device, and a container-side collecting opening, which is communicated with the collecting opening of the curved wall to retrieve the developer agent from the developer device;
- wherein the developer agent container is provided with a shutter, which is movable along curvature of the fitting wall to cover and expose the container-side feeding opening and the container-side collecting opening formed in the fitting wall.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.