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:
Mar. 01, 2011
Filed:
Feb. 05, 2008
Soichiro Mase, Handa, JP;
Soichiro Mase, Handa, JP;
Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha, Nagoya-shi, JP;
Abstract
An image forming apparatus includes a first cabinet, a toner carrier, an image carrier, a second cabinet disposed adjacent to the first cabinet, a toner amount detector and an empty decision unit. An inside of the first cabinet is communicated to an inside of the second cabinet through a plurality of openings. A spacing between one outer edge of one opening provided in one end side and another outer edge in a direction opposite to the longitudinal direction of another opening provided in another end side has a width not less than a width of an image forming region. The empty decision unit decides that a remaining state of a suspension polymerization toner in the second cabinet is the empty state before the amount of suspension polymerization toner in the second cabinet becomes smaller than the amount of suspension polymerization toner in the first cabinet.