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:
Jun. 10, 2003
Filed:
Oct. 15, 2001
Shinichi Itoh, Yokohama, JP;
Tetsuo Katoh, Kunitachi, JP;
Tatsuyuki Miura, Yokohama, JP;
Seiji Tsuzuki, Kawaguchi, JP;
Other;
Abstract
An image forming apparatus and method cause a connecting/conveying device to convey a recovered toner from a cleaner part to a recovered toner housing to house therein the recovered toner, and cause a control device to separately control a recovered toner supply device and a new toner supply device to supply the recovered toner, which is stored in the recovered toner housing, and/or a new toner, which is stored in a new toner housing, to a developing device. The control device restricts the supply of the recovered toner from the recovered toner housing to the developing device when a no-residual-amount detecting device detects no residual amount of the new toner in the new toner housing.