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:
Apr. 23, 2013
Filed:
Oct. 14, 2010
Daisuke Tomita, Tokyo, JP;
Shinichi Kawahara, Tokyo, JP;
Takeshi Shintani, Kawasaki, JP;
Nobuo Kuwabara, Yokohama, JP;
Akio Kosuge, Yokohama, JP;
Daisuke Tomita, Tokyo, JP;
Shinichi Kawahara, Tokyo, JP;
Takeshi Shintani, Kawasaki, JP;
Nobuo Kuwabara, Yokohama, JP;
Akio Kosuge, Yokohama, JP;
Ricoh Company, Ltd, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A waste toner container that collects waste toner that is not used to form an image in an image forming unit of an image forming apparatus, and includes a waste toner collection opening to receive the waste toner output from the image forming unit, a toner amount detector to detect toner amount in the waste toner container, and a waste toner conveyance member disposed inside the waste toner container to convey the waste toner in the waste toner container. The waste toner conveyance member defines a waste toner conveyance direction exchange point, which is a boundary between two different toner conveyance direction regions in which the waste toner is conveyed in opposite directions, and the waste toner conveyance direction exchange point is disposed closer to the toner amount detector than is the waste toner collection opening.