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:
Feb. 19, 2008
Filed:
Mar. 10, 2005
Applicant:
Shungo Miyata, Numazu, JP;
Inventor:
Shungo Miyata, Numazu, JP;
Assignees:
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Tokyo, JP;
Toshiba Tec Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo, JP;
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G03G 15/08 (2006.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
Abstract
In an image forming apparatus of a type wherein toner is replenished to a developing unit by turning or rotating a toner bottle, a phenomenon that a toner replenishment amount per turn of the bottle (replenishing rate) is decreased as the toner remaining quantity in the bottle is decreased, is utilized to provide a method and an apparatus for easily and reliably determining a toner near empty state when a number of the turns measured by counting a number of detection of an object to be sensed formed on an outer surface of the toner bottle.