Image recording apparatus having a toner supply tank and a toner recovery tank configured into a unitary, disposable magazine

A xerographic image recording apparatus for recording an image on a sheet, comprising:

• a photosensitive body moved along a circuitous path, said photosensitive body forming thereon an electrostatic latent image upon irradiation of an optical beam;
• electric discharging means provided at a part of the circuitous path of the photosensitive body for eliminating electric charges therefrom;
• precharging means provided at a downstream side of the circuitous path in a moving direction of the photosensitive body with respect to the electric discharging means, for charging the photosensitive body electrically;
• image writing means provided at a downstream side of the circuitous path in the moving direction of the photosensitive body with respect to the precharging means, for writing an image thereon by an optical beam to form an electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive body;
• image developing means provided at a downstream side of the circuitous path in the moving direction of the photosensitive body with respect to the image writing means, said image developing means having an inlet for receiving a toner and coating the photosensitive body by the toner supplied thereto via the inlet, to form a toner image on the photosensitive body;
• recording sheet feeding means for feeding a recording sheet along a sheet path such that a part of the sheet path coincides with the circuitous path of the photosensitive body at a downstream side of the photosensitive body with respect to the image developing means;
• image transfer means provided at the part of the circuitous path of the photosensitive body that coincides with the sheet path, for transferring the toner image on the photosensitive body onto [a] the recording sheet passing through the sheet path;
• cleaning means provided at the downstream side of the circuitous path of the photosensitive body with respect to the image transfer means for removing the toner remaining on the photosensitive body therefrom, after the transfer of image on the recording sheet;
• a toner supply tank for accommodating a toner and for supplying the toner to the image developing means, said toner supply tank having a toner outlet for discharging the toner therefrom;
• and
• a toner recovery tank for collecting the toner removed by the cleaning means from the photosensitive body, said toner recovery tank having an inlet for receiving the toner supplied thereto;
• said cleaning means, said toner supply tank and said toner recovery tank being assembled into a unitary body to form a detachable magazine excluding said photosensitive body , in said detachable magazine, said cleaning means being connected to said toner recover tank such that the toner removed from the photosensitive body by the cleaning means is received by said toner recovery tank via said inlet of said toner recovery tank , said toner recovery tank and said toner supply tank are assembled to share a compartment wall that separates the toner supply tank and the toner recovery tank from each other, said detachable magazine being mounted detachably on the xerographic image recording apparatus.