Toner replenishment device and image forming apparatus having the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-8929778-B2
Application number	US-201414298547-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 6, 2014
Priority date	Mar 22, 2011
Publication date	Jan 6, 2015
Grant date	Jan 6, 2015

Abstract

A toner replenishment device includes a toner receiving port, a toner feed unit feeding toner from the toner receiving port into the device, a toner detector detecting that the device has been filled with a specified amount of the toner, an agitating member having an agitating blade and rotating so as to agitate the toner in the device, a position detector detecting a rotational position of the agitating member and generating a signal indicative thereof, and a recognition unit recognizing the rotational position based on the signal output from the position detector. The toner feed unit feeds the toner into the device when an end edge of the agitating blade is within a specified range, in which a flow path of the toner from the toner receiving port to the toner detector is not blocked by the agitating blade, based on the recognition performed by the recognition unit.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A toner replenishment device for coupling to a toner containing body comprising:
a toner receiving port through which toner is selectively fed into the toner replenishment device;
a toner feed unit configured to feed the toner from the toner receiving port into the toner replenishment device;
a toner detector configured to is used for detecting, by interaction with the toner, whether the toner replenishment device has been filled with a specified amount…

Assignees

• Kyocera Document Solutions Inc

Inventors

• Sunayama Satoshi

Classifications

• G03G15/0856 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G03G15/0877

  Physics · mapped topic

• G03G21/1633

  Physics · mapped topic

• G03G15/0865 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic