Image forming apparatus suited for management of waste toner

An image forming apparatus, comprising:

• a plurality of toner containers,
• a toner detection sensor that detects a quantity of a toner in a toner container of the plurality of toner containers,
• a waste toner detection sensor that detects an accommodation quantity of a waste toner that has been accommodated in a waste toner container, the waste toner having been removed from a photosensitive medium,
• a waste toner container full-state forecasting part that, upon the toner detection sensor detecting an empty state of the toner container, forecasts whether or not the waste toner container will be filled up with the waste toner before a toner container that has been newly loaded is emptied, based on the result of detection by the waste toner detection sensor, and
• a system control part that, upon the waste toner container full-state forecasting part forecasting that the waste toner container will be filled up, notifies a replacement message that urges replacement of the waste toner container to a panel part,
• wherein
• the waste toner container full-state forecasting part forecasts whether or not the waste toner container will be filled up with the waste toner at the point in time when at least one specified toner container is emptied,
• the plurality of toner containers accommodate a black toner and a plurality of color toners, respectively, and
• the waste toner container full-state forecasting part
• counts a first number of times that the toner container that accommodates the black toner has been emptied, and a second number of times indicating a total number of times that the toner containers that accommodate the plurality of color toners have been emptied,
• in the situation where the first number of times is larger than the second number of times, forecasts whether or not the waste toner container will be filled up with the waste toner at the point in time when the toner container that accommodates the black toner has been emptied, and
• in the situation where the second number of times is larger than the first number of times, forecasts whether or not the waste toner container will be filled up with the waste toner at the point in time when the toner container that accommodates any one of the plurality of color toners has been emptied.

An image forming apparatus, comprising:

• a plurality of toner containers,
• a toner detection sensor that detects a quantity of a toner in a toner container of the plurality of toner containers,
• a waste toner detection sensor that detects an accommodation quantity of a waste toner that has been accommodated in a waste toner container, the waste toner having been removed from a photosensitive medium,
• a waste toner container full-state forecasting part that, upon the toner detection sensor detecting an empty state of the toner container, forecasts whether or not the waste toner container will be filled up with the waste toner before a toner container that has been newly loaded is emptied, based on the result of detection by the waste toner detection sensor, and
• a system control part that, upon the waste toner container full-state forecasting part forecasting that the waste toner container will be filled up, notifies a replacement message that urges replacement of the waste toner container to a panel part,
• wherein
• the waste toner container full-state forecasting part forecasts whether or not the waste toner container will be filled up with the waste toner at the point in time when at least one specified toner container is emptied,
• the plurality of toner containers accommodate a black toner and a plurality of color toners, respectively, and
• the waste toner container full-state forecasting part forecasts whether or not the waste toner container will be filled up with the waste toner at the point in time when the toner container of the plurality of toner containers with which the number of times that it was emptied is larger than a specific criterion value has been emptied.