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:
May. 08, 1990
Filed:
Oct. 27, 1988
Mineyuki Sako, Osaka, JP;
Tateki Oka, Osaka, JP;
Yasuyuki Hiromoto, Osaka, JP;
Tomoaki Yokoyama, Osaka, JP;
Kunio Toda, Osaka, JP;
Minolta Camera Kabushiki Kaisha, Osaka, JP;
Abstract
A toner supply device including a hopper for containing the toner; a toner supply roller rotatably disposed below the hopper so as to fill an opening formed in a lower section of the hopper; a charging blade which is disposed so as to be in close contact under pressure with the toner supply roller to electrically charge the toner which is transported on the toner supply roller; a toner scraping mechanism having a toner scraping blade arranged at a position located downstream to the charging blade with respect to a rotational direction of the toner supply; a sensor for detecting the toner density; and a control unit for controlling the toner scraping mechanism depending on signals from the sensor so as to make the toner scraping blade move to one of a first position at which it comes in close contact under pressure with the toner supply roller and a second position at which the blade stands apart from the toner supply roller. When the toner supply roller is driven, a charged toner layer is formed on the peripheral surface of the roller by the charging blade. And the toner scraping blade is positioned at the first position by the control unit in the case of a low density of the toner, so that the charged toner layer thereon may be scraped off to be supplied to the developing device.