Image forming apparatus
AssigneeKonica Minolta, Inc.
InventorsAkihiko Ooishi, Motoji Kawamoto
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An image forming apparatus includes: a toner supply section that supplies toner to a plurality of developing sections; a carrier supply section that supplies carrier to the plurality of developing sections; and a control section that controls an operation of the carrier supply section. The carrier supply section includes: a carrier housing section; a carrier distributing section that receives a predetermined amount of carrier that has freely fallen from the carrier housing section and guides the predetermined amount of carrier to each of the plurality of developing sections; a support frame section that slidably supports the carrier distributing section; and a vibration exciter section that vibrates the carrier distributing section.
Claims6
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a plurality of developing sections that develop electrostatic latent images respectively formed on a plurality of photoconductors using a developer including a corresponding color toner and carrier to form a toner image;
- a toner supply section that supplies the corresponding color toner to the plurality of developing sections;
- a carrier supply section provided separately from the toner supply section, the carrier supply section supplying carrier to the plurality of developing sections;
- and
- a control section that controls an operation of the carrier supply section,
- wherein the carrier supply section includes:
- a carrier housing section that houses the carrier;
- a carrier distributing section that receives a predetermined amount of carrier that has freely fallen from a carrier supply port of the carrier housing section and guides the predetermined amount of carrier to each of the plurality of developing sections;
- a support frame section that slidably supports the carrier distributing section;
- and
- a vibration exciter section that vibrates the carrier distributing section.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.