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:
Jun. 12, 2018
Filed:
Oct. 04, 2016
Kyocera Document Solutions Inc., Osaka, JP;
Akifumi Seto, Osaka, JP;
KYOCERA Document Solutions Inc., Osaka, JP;
Abstract
An image forming apparatus includes a casing, a toner container, a latch mechanism, a toner sensor, a determination section, and a locking control section. The latch mechanism locks the toner container in the casing. When the determination section determines that a detection result of the toner sensor is greater than an amount range of remaining toner in a nearly empty state, the locking control section controls the latch mechanism to lock the toner container in the casing. When the determination section determines that a detection result of the toner sensor falls in the amount range of remaining toner in the nearly empty state, the locking control section controls the latch mechanism to unlock the toner container in the apparatus main body in response to an unlocking operation input through an operation input section.