Brother Kogyo Kabushiki-kaisha

Atsushi Fukui

Isao Fukuchi

Shougo Sato

Akihiro Kobayashi

Masanori Tsuruko

An image forming apparatus has a main body, a belt unit configured to accommodate a belt, a belt cleaning member and an accommodating unit. The belt cleaning unit is configured to remove waste toner adhered on the belt. The accommodating unit is configured to accommodate the toner removed by the belt cleaning unit. The apparatus further includes a drum unit having a drum cleaning member, and a waste toner conveying mechanism configured to convey the waste toner to the collecting unit. The conveying mechanism has a drum-side conveying unit configured to be connected with the drum cleaning member. Communication between the drum-side conveying unit and the collecting unit is enabled in association with movement of the drum unit from the outside position to the inside position, and disabled in association with movement of the drum unit from the inside position to the outside position.

Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes a main frame, a plurality of process cartridges, a cartridge-supporting body, a belt, a waste toner cartridge, a contact-separation mechanism, and a collective conveying unit. Each process cartridge includes a photosensitive drum and a drum cleaning unit collecting waste toner on the drum. The cartridge-supporting body is movable between an internal position inside the frame and an external position outside the frame. The belt confronts the process cartridges in the internal position. The waste toner cartridge accommodates the waste toner collected from the drums. The contact-separation mechanism moves the cartridge-supporting body between a contact position where the drums are in contact with the belt and a separated position where the drums are out of contact with the belt. The collective conveying unit aggregates waste toner collected from drums and conveys collectively the aggregated waste toner to the waste toner cartridge.

Image forming apparatus having waste toner collecting function from a plurality of photosensitive drums

An image forming apparatus includes: a casing, a first process cartridge including a first photosensitive drum and a first drum-cleaning unit configured to collect waste toner on the first photosensitive drum, a second process cartridge including a second photosensitive drum and a second drum-cleaning unit configured to collect waste toner on the second photosensitive drum, a cartridge-supporting body movable between an internal position inside the casing and an external position outside of the casing, a conveying unit conveying the waste toner collected by the first and second drum-cleaning units, and a waste toner cartridge accommodating the conveyed waste toner. The casing includes a first positioning plate receiving one end portion of the first and second process cartridges, and a second positioning plate receiving another end portion of the first and second process cartridges. The conveying unit is disposed between the first positioning plate and the second positioning plate.

Image forming apparatus having waste toner container commonly used for photosensitive drums and transfer belt

An image forming apparatus, including a body with an aperture, a processing unit movable between an inside position and an outside position, and a transfer unit, is provided. The processing unit includes first and second drum cleaners to remove waste toner from first and second photosensitive drums respectively; and a waste toner conveyer including a conveyer tube longitudinally extending in a movable direction of the processing unit, a port, a conveyer screw located inside the conveyer tube, and a shutter movable between an opening position and a closed position to open and close the port. The transfer unit includes a belt unit with a belt arranged to contact the first photosensitive drum and the second photosensitive drum, and a belt cleaner including a container with an opening which communicates with the port of the conveyer tube when the processing unit is in the inside position.

An image forming apparatus includes a main frame, a plurality of process cartridges, a cartridge-supporting body, a belt, a belt cleaning unit, a waste toner cartridge, and a collective conveying unit. Each drum-cleaning unit collects waste toner on a corresponding photosensitive drum. The cartridge-supporting body supports the process cartridges and is movable between an internal position inside the main frame and an external position outside of the main frame. The belt cleaning unit collects waste toner on the belt. The waste toner cartridge accommodates both waste toner collected from the photosensitive drums by the drum-cleaning units and waste toner collected from the belt by the belt cleaning unit. The collective conveying unit aggregates both waste toner collected from the photosensitive drums by the drum-cleaning units and waste toner collected from the belt by the belt cleaning unit and conveys the aggregated waste toner to the waste toner cartridge.

An image forming apparatus includes a cartridge-supporting body, a belt, a belt cleaning unit, a waste toner cartridge, and a collective conveying unit. The cartridge-supporting unit supports a plurality of process cartridges. Each process cartridge includes a photosensitive drum and a drum-cleaning unit for collecting waste toner on the photosensitive drum. The belt confronts the plurality of process cartridges when the cartridge-supporting body is in an internal position. The belt cleaning unit collects waste toner on the belt. The waste toner cartridge accommodates both waste toner collected from the plurality of photosensitive drums by the plurality of drum-cleaning units and waste toner collected from the belt by the belt cleaning unit. The collective conveying unit aggregates waste toner collected from the plurality of photosensitive drums by the plurality of drum-cleaning units and conveys collectively the aggregated waste toner to the waste toner cartridge.

Image forming apparatus provided with cartridge for accommodating waste toner therein

An image forming apparatus includes a first process unit and a second process unit. The first process unit includes: a first photosensitive member configured to carry a first developer image to be transferred onto a transfer medium; and a blade member configured to scrape substances attached to a surface of the first photosensitive member off the surface of the first photosensitive member. The second process unit includes: a second photosensitive member configured to carry a second developer image to be transferred onto the transfer medium having the first developer image transferred thereon; and a holding member configured to remove substances attached to a surface of the second photosensitive member from the surface of the second photosensitive member, temporarily hold the substances and return the substances to the surface of the second photosensitive member.

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Toyota, Japan

Atsushi Fukui