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:
Nov. 23, 2001
Yasushi Akiba, Tokyo-to, JP;
Fumihito Itoh, Tokyo-to, JP;
Ricoh Company, Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A method and apparatus for electrophotographic image forming are provided incorporating an improved toner recycling unit. This recycling unit is devised such that the selectable switching between toner recycling and non-recycling modes be continually carried out according to the decision based on the present amount of paper dusts measured by a paper dust measuring unit provided in a paper dust removal unit. The image forming apparatus incorporating the toner recycling unit is therefore capable of efficiently recycling the toner recovered from a cleaning unit without removing contaminants such as paper dusts and toner aggregates included in the recycled toner, thereby preventing the emergence of undesirable picture image anomalies such as whisker images and black dots.