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. 27, 2018
Filed:
Sep. 09, 2016
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo, JP;
Yukio Kanakubo, Tsukubamirai, JP;
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
There is provided an image forming apparatus that can detect a replacement of toner cartridge and can accurately manage information after the replacement even if serial numbers of the toner cartridges before and after the replacement are identical to each other. Each toner cartridge is provided with a nonvolatile memory that can record cartridge information, such as printed page count value (i.e., total number of printed sheets) and beginning-of-use date and time. The image forming apparatus includes a device built-in memory that can store and update the cartridge information. The image forming apparatus refers to and compares the cartridge information about two cartridges that are likely to be replaced at arbitrary timing and identifies the replacement of the toner cartridge if any discordance is confirmed.