Brother Kogyo Kabushiki-Kaisha

Shunsuke Aiba

Keita Inoue

Shinta Sugiura

Masaaki Wakizaka

Seiya Sato

Kentaro Aoyama

Yoshiyuki Tsujimoto

Nobuyuki Tanaka

Yutaro Kuge

An image-forming apparatus includes: a main casing; a drawer movable in a first direction between a first position inside the main casing and a second position outside the main casing; process cartridges attachable to and detachable from the drawer; a controller; and a device-side terminal connected to the controller. The process cartridges are arranged in the first direction in an attached state to the drawer. Each process cartridge includes a photosensitive drum, a magnetic roller, a developing container for storing carrier, a conveying member, a toner sensor, a process memory, and a process-side terminal. The toner sensor is configured to output a detection signal corresponding to a concentration of toner in the developing container. The process-side terminal is for both outputting the detection signal of the toner sensor and outputting information about the process cartridge stored in the process memory. The device-side terminal is configured to contact the process-side terminal.

Image-forming apparatus including process cartridge and device-side terminal configured to contact process-side terminal

An image forming system includes an image forming apparatus including an AC-DC converter and a main board, and a sub board having a sub connector connectable with a main connector of the main board. When the sub board is not connected with the main board, a main DC-DC converter on the main board converts a DC voltage from the AC-DC converter into a first DC voltage and output the first DC voltage to a circuit element for image formation. When the sub board is connected with the main board, the AC-DC converter outputs the DC voltage to a sub DC-DC converter on the sub board via the main connector and the sub connector, and the sub DC-DC converter converts the DC voltage from the AC-DC converter into a second DC voltage and output the second DC voltage to the circuit element via the sub connector and the main connector.

Image forming system for supplying voltage to image forming apparatus even when DC-DC converter on main board fails

A drum unit detachably attachable to an image forming apparatus includes: a frame; a photosensitive drum; a toner cartridge including a toner casing and a toner memory; a connector electrically connected to the image forming apparatus; and a relay board electrically relaying the toner memory and the connector. The toner memory performs communication according to a standard that sets a value of data on a basis of a voltage for data communication at a timing when a prescribed period of time has elapsed since the voltage has made a prescribed change. The toner memory consists of three terminals as electrical contacts. The three terminals are a power supply terminal for supplying a supply voltage to the toner memory, a ground terminal, and a data terminal for communication of data to be written into the toner memory and data to be read from the toner memory.

Drum unit attachable to image forming apparatus and including toner cartridge having toner memory including three terminals

Growing community of inventors

Toyoake, Japan

Shunsuke Aiba