Mita Industrial Co., Ltd.

Minoru Kishigami

Masahiro Sako

Masahiro Higashitani

Shingo Mori

Yasuyuki Hirai

Kuniaki Nakano

Yasuhiro Matsuo

Hiromi Sakata

Toshinori Nishimura

Shigeo Kurando

Tsugio Nakanishi

Kunio Nakai

An opening for discharging toner is formed in a lower part of a cartridge body containing toner. A shutter mounting body is mounted on the opening. A first shutter is slidably mounted on the shutter mounting body. A second shutter is slidably mounted on the first shutter. A front end of a sealing member for sealing the opening is extended, the extended front end being inserted through a seal traction opening formed in a front end of the second shutter, and fixed to a front end of the first shutter. When the second shutter is pulled out of the shutter mounting body, the sealing member is towed by the seal traction opening. In addition, the first shutter is further towed by the sealing member, to be also pulled out. Consequently, nearly half of the sealing member from its front end is stripped. When the second shutter is further pulled out after the movement of the first shutter is regulated, the seal traction opening in the second shutter tows the sealing member while allowing the insertion of the sealing member. At this time, the sealing member is stripped while being so folded that a toner adhering surface is located in its inside. In this construction, the stroke for stripping is decreased, thereby to make it possible to prevent contamination by toner as well as prevent a large part of the sealing member from being ineffective.

Method of stripping a sealing member from a toner cartridge

It is a major object of the present invention to break down and level a heap-up of toner built in the hopper through dropping from the cartridge when feeding toner into the hopper and to prevent toner from leakage from the cartridge due to erroneous operation with a remarkably simple and cheap construction. Namely, the leveling member moves a plurality of number of times in line with engaging and disengaging operation of the cartridge for the hopper and opening and closing operation of the cartridge in the same direction of the shutter, thereby causing a heap-up of toner built in the hopper housing of the hopper to be effectively broken down and leveled. Furthermore, only when the shutter is in its closed status for the cartridge, the cartridge can be removed from the opening of the hopper.

Toner feeding device

Toner cartridge having opening for discharging toner sealed with sealing

Growing community of inventors

Osaka, Japan

Minoru Kishigami