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. 15, 1992
Filed:
Sep. 05, 1991
Norihide Satoh, Chikushino, JP;
Yuzo Kawano, Oonojo, JP;
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., Osaka, JP;
Abstract
An electrophotographic system for use as a laser beam printer, a copying machine, or the like has an image carrier for receiving an electrostatic latent image, a developing device for developing the electrostatic latent image into a toner image with toner, and a toner hopper for storing into a toner, and a toner hopper for storing the toner. A plurality of toner feeders is disposed in the toner hopper, for supplying the toner from the toner hopper to the developing device. The toner feeders being successively arranged with respect to the developing device such that those toner feeders which are disposed more remotely from the developing device feed progressively smaller amounts of toner. The toner feeders are rotatable to feed the toner to the developing device, and the toner feeders which are disposed more remotely from the developing device rotate at progressively lower speeds or have progressively smaller areas of contact with the toner. Since the amounts of toner fed by the toner feeders are progressively smaller the more remotely disposed from the developing device they are, the amount of toner supplied to a toner feeder is smaller than the amount of toner fed by the toner feeder, which prevents the toner from being aggregated in the toner hopper.