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, 2009
Filed:
May. 15, 2006
Michael William Craig, Frankfort, KY (US);
Steven Michael Turney, Lexington, KY (US);
Danny Keith Chapman, Sadieville, KY (US);
Michael William Craig, Frankfort, KY (US);
Steven Michael Turney, Lexington, KY (US);
Danny Keith Chapman, Sadieville, KY (US);
Abstract
An image forming apparatus includes a waste toner system that collects waste toner in a waste toner container. An amount of waste toner collected in the container is increased by using a driven toner distributing member that distributes accumulated toner within the container. The toner distributing member may be driven by a shared speed-controlled motor that further drives an image forming process member. The waste toner system may detect the accumulation of waste toner by monitoring a drive control circuit while the toner distributing member is being driven. For example, a logic circuit may detect the accumulation of waste toner based on monitoring a predetermined frequency of interest of a frequency domain transform of a motor control signal, the frequency of interest associated with the shared motor driving the toner distributing member.