The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 29, 2020
Filed:
Dec. 23, 2019
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo, JP;
Teruhito Kai, Abiko, JP;
CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A screw is rotated to replenish toner from a hopper to a developing device. Rotation of the screw, toner stored in the hopper, and a toner density in the developing device are detected. Whether or not to replenish toner from the hopper to the developing device is controlled based on a detection result of rotation of the screw. The number of rotations of the screw during a predetermined time period is acquired. The predetermined time period corresponds to a time period during which the replenishment processing is being executed and over which a state in which toner in the hopper is detected is changed to a state in which toner in the hopper is not detected. An abnormality of the hopper is detected if the number of rotations in the predetermined time period is larger than a predetermined number.