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:
Nov. 03, 1992
Filed:
Mar. 14, 1991
Yoshio Shiina, Kanagawa, JP;
Akihiko Kato, Kanagawa, JP;
Toru Isosu, Kanagawa, JP;
Makoto Kanno, Kanagawa, JP;
Akihiko Sato, Kanagawa, JP;
Fuji Xerox Corporation, Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
In a apparatus for detecting toner shortage in a developing unit for use in an image recording system which forms a latent electrostatic image on a carrier by exposure based on an image signal and which develops the latent image to record the image, provided are a toner shortage sensor in a container for checking as to the presence or absence of a toner in the container at the location of the toner shortage sensor, a counter section for counting in a cumulative manner the number of image prints and the number of pixels produced by the image recording system when the toner shortage sensor detects a toner shortage, the counter section for successively subtracting the number of image prints and the number of pixels from the associated cumulative totals when the sensor detects the presence of toner in the container, and a control section for stopping at least the operation of the image recording system when the sumulative counting value of either the number of image prints or the number of pixels has reached a predetermined value.