JP2010054951A - Image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image forming apparatus having a toner remainder detecting section which realizes double check more reliably in a simple configuration. <P>SOLUTION: A received light beam 18A can detect toner feeding apparatuses 13Y and 13M, a received light beam 18B can detect toner feeding apparatuses 13C and 13B, a received light beam 18C can detect toner feeding apparatuses 13M and 13C, and a received light beam 18D can detect toner feeding apparatuses 13Y and 13B. Therefore, by determining detected patterns at light receiving sections 17Ab, 17Bb, 17Cb and 17Db, it is possible to determine which toner feeding apparatus is in a near end state. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a facsimile machine, a printer, or the like on which toner images of a plurality of colors are formed, and more particularly to a toner remaining amount detecting means for detecting the end of the remaining amount of toner.

In a conventional image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a facsimile, or a printer in which a toner image of a plurality of colors is formed, the toner is supplied to an electrostatic latent image formed on the surface of an image carrier such as a photosensitive member. A developing device for imaging is used. In order to replenish toner to the developing device, a toner replenishing device that accommodates toner of each color is provided. A transmission type photosensor is used as one of the methods for detecting that the toner remaining amount in these toner replenishing devices has decreased and has reached the end, that is, the state approaching the replacement time (hereinafter referred to as the near-end state). A method for detecting the remaining amount of toner has been proposed.
For example, as described in Patent Document 1, in order to accurately determine the presence or remaining amount of toner in the developing device at low cost, a toner including a light emitting unit and a light receiving sensor that receives a light beam from the light emitting unit. It is proposed to use the remaining amount detection means. Then, the light emitting means and the light receiving sensor are arranged opposite to each other via the developing device, the transmitted light transmitted through the developing device is detected by the light receiving sensor, and the presence or the remaining amount of the developer is judged by the output of the light receiving sensor. A configuration has been proposed in which a dose amount determining means is provided.

In each of the conventionally proposed methods, one toner remaining amount detecting means is provided for each of the developing devices of a plurality of colors. For this reason, if a failure of the light emitting means or the light receiving sensor occurs while the image forming apparatus is used for a long period of time, there is a risk that the backup function is not provided and this cannot be detected even in the near end state. There is. In this case, since the near-end state of the toner cannot be detected correctly, a toner is not supplied from the toner replenishing device, causing a phenomenon that the toner in the developing device is depleted, and an abnormal image such as faint printing is generated. At the same time, when toner is supplied to the sliding part as a lubricant, the toner depletion may cause abnormal wear or deformation on the sliding part, and the damaged developing device needs to be replaced. The loss at the time of occurrence is large.
Even when the toner end cannot be detected due to the malfunction of the toner remaining amount detecting means by such a transmission type photo sensor, the toner remaining amount detecting sensor and the number of pixels are There has been proposed a method using toner remaining amount detection based on counting (see, for example, Patent Document 2).
JP 2000-347494 A JP 2005-134794 A

However, in the device described in Patent Document 2, a double check of the light transmission type toner remaining amount detection sensor and the toner remaining amount detection by counting the number of pixels is performed. However, it is necessary to always count the number of pixels. In addition, the configuration is not only complicated, but false detection is likely to occur due to variations in pixel detection accuracy.
An object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus provided with a toner remaining amount detecting unit that solves these problems and enables a double check more reliably with a simple configuration.

In order to solve the above problems, the invention of claim 1 is directed to a plurality of photosensitive members on which electrostatic latent images are formed, and toners of different colors to the electrostatic latent images formed on the surfaces of the plurality of photosensitive members. A plurality of developing devices that supply toner images of the respective colors, a plurality of toner replenishing devices that replenish toner of the respective colors to the plurality of developing devices, and a remaining amount of toner in the plurality of toner replenishing devices In the image forming apparatus including the toner remaining amount detecting means for detecting the toner, the toner remaining amount detecting means has a light detecting means including a light emitting means and a light receiving means for receiving the light emitted from the light emitting means. The light detecting means is arranged so that each light received by the light receiving means passes through two of the toner replenishing devices, and the remaining amount of toner in the toner replenishing device is approaching the end. Sometimes the light reception The toner replenishing device includes a detected portion that shields or transmits a line, and the two received light beams emitted from the light emitting means of the two light detecting means are shielded or blocked by the detected portion of the one toner replenishing device. It is characterized by comprising a determination means for detecting that the toner has passed through and determining that the remaining amount of toner in the toner replenishing device is approaching the end.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to the first aspect, when it is detected that only one of the light detecting means is shielded or transmitted by the detected portion of the one toner replenishing device. The determination means determines that an abnormality has occurred in the light detection means.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus of the second aspect, the first light is detected when the detected portion of the one toner replenishing device is detected by the first and second light detecting means. When the detection means detects the detected portion of the toner replenishing device and outputs a detection output, and the detection output from the second light detection means is not detected within a predetermined time, the light detection means is abnormal. The judging means judges.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the image forming apparatus according to the third aspect, wherein the predetermined time is detected by the first light detecting unit first after the start of use of the image forming apparatus. When detecting the part, the timing difference between the detection of the detected part by the second light detection means and the detection from the first light detection means is measured, and the detection timing is set based on the detection timing difference. It is characterized by that.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to any one of the first to fourth aspects, two of the toner replenishing devices determine that the remaining amount of toner is at the end at the same time by the light detecting means. If so, the determination means displays a warning and prints in a mode that reduces the toner consumption.

  According to the present invention, the toner remaining amount detecting means includes a pair of light detecting means including a light emitting means and a light receiving means for receiving a light beam emitted from the light emitting means, and the light detecting means includes the light receiving means. Each of the received light rays received by the means is arranged to pass through two of the toner replenishing devices, and when the remaining amount of toner in the toner replenishing device approaches the end, the received light rays are shielded or transmitted. The toner replenishing device includes a detected portion to be shielded or transmitted by two detected light beams emitted from the light emitting means of the two light detecting means by the detected portion of the one toner replenishing device. By providing a determination means for detecting and determining that the amount of toner remaining in the toner replenishing device is approaching the end, a toner remaining amount detection means that enables a double check more reliably with a simple configuration. Prepared It is possible to provide an image forming apparatus.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. Inside the image forming apparatus, drum-shaped photoreceptors 1Y, 1M, 1C, and 1K, which are image carriers for yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C), and black (K), are provided in parallel. It is arranged. That is, the image forming apparatus is a tandem type color laser copying machine. The toner images of the respective colors formed by these photoreceptors 1Y, 1M, 1C, and 1K are supported on an endless transport belt 2 that is stretched around support rollers 3A and 3B and transported in the direction of arrow A. The toner image is transferred onto the transfer material P such as transfer paper conveyed in the direction of arrow A in a superimposed manner to form a four-color toner image.
Near the bottom of the image forming apparatus, a paper feed roller 4 is provided. When the paper feed roller 4 rotates, the transfer material P is sent out from the paper feed cassette 5. The transfer material P sent out from the paper feed cassette 5 is conveyed to the registration roller 6 and temporarily stopped by the registration roller 6, and the transfer belt 2 is used to transfer the toner images from the photoconductors 1Y, 1M, 1C, and 1K. It is conveyed to.
The transfer material P conveyed along with the conveyance of the conveyance belt 2 is applied with a transfer bias from the transfer roller 7 at the transfer nip between the photoconductors 1Y, 1M, 1C, and 1K, and the photoconductors 1Y, 1M. The toner images of the respective colors are stacked and transferred from 1C and 1K. In this way, the transfer material P onto which the color toner images onto which the four color toner images have been stacked and transferred are transferred to the fixing device 9. In the fixing device 9, the color toner image is fixed on the transfer material P by being heated and pressurized. Then, the transfer material P subjected to the fixing process by the fixing device 9 is discharged from the discharge roller 8 to the discharge stack portion H.

The optical writing unit 10 has a light source, a polygon mirror, an f-θ lens, a reflection mirror, and the like, and receives laser light LY, LM, LC, LK corresponding to the image data of each color based on the image data. Irradiate the surface of 1Y, 1M, 1C, 1K. Then, the photoreceptors 1Y, 1M, 1C, and 1K that are uniformly charged by the charging device 11 attenuate the surface potential of the portions irradiated with the laser beams LY, LM, LC, and LK. By this attenuation, electrostatic latent images corresponding to the respective color images are formed on the surfaces of the photoreceptors 1Y, 1M, 1C, and 1K. The electrostatic latent images formed in this way are developed by the developing devices 12Y, 12M, 12C, and 12K, and toner images of the respective colors are formed. These developing devices 12Y, 12M, 12C, and 12K are provided with bottle-shaped toner replenishing devices 13Y, 13M, 13C, and 13K that replenish the respective developing devices 12Y, 12M, 12C, and 12K with respective toners. .
The toner images formed on the photoreceptors 1Y, 1M, 1C, and 1K are transferred to the transfer material P as described above. Since the toner remains on the surfaces of the photoreceptors 1Y, 1M, 1C, and 1K after the transfer, the cleaning device 14 cleans the surfaces of the photoreceptors 1Y, 1M, 1C, and 1K. Then, after the lubricant is applied to the surfaces of the photoreceptors 1Y, 1M, 1C, and 1K by the lubricant application device provided in the cleaning device 14, the charge is removed by a static eliminator (not shown), and again the charging device 11 Is uniformly charged and returns to the initial state.

In such an image device, it is desirable that the toners of the respective colors accommodated in the toner replenishing devices 13Y, 13M, 13C, and 13K are exhausted and the toner cannot be replenished to the developing devices 12Y, 12M, 12C, and 12K. The color toner image is faint or not formed at all, and an abnormal image is formed. In order to cope with such a problem, in the present invention, a near-end state of toner is detected, and a warning requesting replacement of the toner replenishing device or the like can be displayed on a panel (not shown) of the image forming apparatus. A method for detecting the two-end state of the toner will be described with reference to FIGS.
The toner replenishing devices 13Y, 13M, 13C, and 13K have the same basic structure except that the toners stored are different. Therefore, the toner replenishing device 13Y will be described as an example.
FIG. 2 shows a cross-sectional structure of the toner replenishing device 13Y in which the toner T is full in the toner replenishing device. FIG. 2A is a longitudinal direction of the toner replenishing device 13Y (perpendicular to the transport direction A of the transport belt 2). (B) is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA in FIG. 2 (A).
3 shows a cross-sectional structure of the toner replenishing device 13Y in which the toner T is in the near-end state in the toner replenishing device. FIG. 3A is a longitudinal direction of the toner replenishing device 13Y (perpendicular to the transport direction A of the transport belt 2). (B) is a cross-sectional view taken along line BB in FIG. 3 (A).

As shown in FIG. 2A, the toner replenishing device 13Y used in the image forming apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention includes a toner containing portion 15a for containing toner T and a light shielding plate for the toner remaining amount detecting lever 16. The bottle-shaped container 15 which has the light-shielding plate accommodating part 15b which accommodates 16c is provided.
A supply port 15c for supplying the replenishment toner T stored in the toner storage unit 15a to the developing device 12Y is provided at the bottom of the toner storage unit 15a. An opening / closing lid that is opened and closed by an opening / closing mechanism (not shown) is attached to the supply port 15c, and the replenishment toner T is dropped and supplied to the developing device 12Y by a necessary amount by opening / closing the opening / closing lid. It has become. Then, by rotating a paddle (not shown) in the toner replenishing device 13Y, the toner T in the toner replenishing device 13 is replenished into the developing device 12Y via 15c.
As shown in FIG. 1, the developing device 12Y has a toner containing portion 12Ya that is a container for containing toner, and the toner containing portion 12Ya has a developing roller 12Yb for applying toner onto the photoreceptor 1Y. A toner supply roller 12Tc for supplying toner to the developing roller 12Yb, and a toner agitating member (not shown) for agitating the toner in the toner containing portion 71 are provided.

Further, as shown in FIG. 2A, a toner remaining amount detection lever 16 is attached to a partition wall 15d that partitions the toner storage portion 15a and the light shielding plate storage portion 15b so as to be pivotable in a vertical direction at a fulcrum 16a. Yes. At one end of the toner remaining amount detection lever 16, an arm-like toner remaining amount detector 16b mounted on the draft surface T0 of the toner T is attached, and the toner is moved along with the vertical movement of the draft surface T0 of the toner T. The remaining amount detector 16b also moves up and down to detect the remaining amount of toner in the toner container 15a.
On the other hand, a light shielding plate 16c as a detected portion is attached to the other end of the toner amount detection lever 16, and is lowered and raised in conjunction with the vertical movement of the toner remaining amount detector 16b. . Then, as shown in FIG. 2B, when the light shielding plate 16c rises to a predetermined height, the light shielding plate 16c blocks the received light beam 18 of the light detecting means 17 that passes through the detected portion receiving portion 15b, and the toner. It is possible to detect that the remaining amount of toner in the storage portion 15a has approached the end (near-end state).

The light detection means 17 includes an issuing means 17a that emits infrared rays, and a light receiving means 17b such as a photosensor that receives the infrared rays (received light rays) 18 emitted from the light emitting means 17a.
Accordingly, as shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, when the amount of toner T in the toner storage portion 15a is full, the toner remaining amount detector 16b is raised, and accordingly, the light shielding is performed. Since the plate 16c descends and does not block the received light beam 18, the light receiving means 17b receives the received light beam 18 and outputs a high level detection output.
On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 3A, when the remaining amount of toner in the toner container 15a is in a near-end state, the light shielding plate 16c rises with the lowering of the remaining toner amount detector 16b, and is shown in FIG. As described above, the light shielding plate 16c shields the received light beam 18 and changes the detection output of the light receiving means 17b to a low level.
In the toner remaining amount detecting means according to the present embodiment, as described above, when the toner T is consumed and the near end state is reached, the position of the light shielding plate 16c changes with the movement of the position of the toner remaining amount detector 16b. It is possible to detect that the remaining amount of toner has reached the near end by blocking the received light beam 18 composed of The method for detecting the remaining amount of toner is not limited to the above-described configuration, and may be a configuration in which the received light beam 18 is shielded other than at the near end and the received light beam 18 is transmitted at the near end. Further, the received light beam 18 emitted from the light emitting means 17a is not limited to infrared light, but may be other light beams such as visible light.

Conventionally, such toner remaining amount detecting means is used to detect the toner remaining amount of the toner replenishing device by one toner detecting means for one toner replenishing device.
That is, as shown in FIG. 4, light detecting means 17A, 17B, and 17C for detecting the remaining amount of toner for the toner replenishing devices 13Y, 13M, 13C, and 13B containing yellow, magenta, cyan, and black toners, respectively. , 17D are used, and the received light beams 18A, 18B, 18C, 18D emitted from the light emitting units 17Aa, 17Ba, 17Ca, 17Da of the respective light detection units 17A, 17B, 17C, 17D are used as toner replenishing devices 13Y, 13M, Each one of 13C and 13B is transmitted, and the remaining amount of toner in each of the toner replenishing devices 13Y, 13M, 13C, and 13B is detected by the light receiving means 17Ab, 17Bb, 17Cb, and 17Db.
Accordingly, the toner replenishing device 13Y detected by the light detecting means 17A, 17B, 17C, 17D, which has failed by only one failure of the light emitting means 17Aa, 17Ba, 17Ca, 17Da or the light receiving means 17Ab, 17Bb, 17Cb, 17Db, etc. , 13M, 13C, and 13B cannot be properly detected. As a result, there is a problem that an image is formed in a state where there is no remaining toner, and an abnormal image is formed. Note that reference numeral 19 in FIG. 4 denotes a mirror that reflects the received light beams 18A, 18B, 18C, and 18D.
In the present invention, in order to solve such a problem, the received light beams 18A, 18B, 18C, and 18D emitted from the light emitting units 17Aa, 17Ba, 17Ca, and 17D are respectively supplied to the toner supply devices 13Y, 13M, 13C, and 13B. The two toners are transmitted, and the remaining amounts of toner in the toner replenishing devices 13Y, 13M, 13C, and 13B are detected by the light receiving units 17Ab, 17Bb, 17Cb, and 17Db. Therefore, even if one set of light emitting means and light receiving means fails, the discovery of the failure can be immediately determined, and as a result, the image forming process can be appropriately interrupted.

FIG. 5 shows received light beams 18A, 18B, 18C, and 18D emitted from the light emitting means 17Aa, 17Ba, 17Ca, and 17D and the light receiving means for the toner replenishing devices 13Y, 13M, 13C, and 13B according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a top view which shows typically the arrangement | positioning relationship of 17Ab, 17Bb, 17Cb, and 17Db.
FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view schematically showing an arrangement relationship between the light shielding plate and the received light beam at the near end position of the detected portion receiving portion in FIG. 5. FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a determination apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 5, reference numeral 19 denotes a mirror that reflects the received light rays 18A, 18B, and 18C.
As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, in the toner remaining amount detecting means according to the present embodiment, two toner replenishing devices 13Y, 13M, and 13C with one light-receiving beam detected by a pair of light-emitting means and light-receiving means. , 13B are provided with light detection means 17A, 17B, 17C, 17D. That is, the received light beam 18A is for the toner supply devices 13Y and 13M, the received light beam 18B is for the toner supply devices 13C and 13B, the received light beam 18C is for the toner supply devices 13M and 13C, and the received light beam 18D is for the toner supply device 13Y. And 13B can be detected. Therefore, it is possible to determine which toner replenishing device is in the near-end state by determining the detection patterns in the light receiving units 17Ab, 17Bb, 17Cb, and 17Db.

この表から明らかなように、受光手段１７Ａｂ、１７Ｂｂ、１７Ｃｂ、１７Ｄｂの検知パターン（●印）から、どのトナー補給装置がニアエンド状態になっているかを判定することが可能となる。 Table 1 is a table showing the relationship between the detection patterns in the light receiving units 17Ab, 17Bb, 17Cb, and 17Db and the toner replenishing device that is in the near-end state.
[Table 1]

As is apparent from this table, it is possible to determine which toner replenishing device is in the near-end state from the detection patterns (● marks) of the light receiving means 17Ab, 17Bb, 17Cb, and 17Db.

The two light receiving means 17Ab, 17Bb, 17Cb, and 17Db detect one of the toner replenishing devices to determine the near-end state of the toner replenishing device. Thus, when one set of light emitting means and light receiving means (17Db) breaks down and only one of the light receiving means 17Ab, 17Bb, 17Cb, 17Db detects the toner replenishing devices 13Y, 13M, 13C, 13B, It becomes possible to immediately and easily determine the failure of the light detection means 17A, 17B, 17C, 17D.
Based on such a determination result, the determination device shown in FIG. 7 uses the determination unit 20 to replace the XX color replenishment toner on a panel (not shown) of the image forming apparatus, and replace the light detection unit. "Please contact us for repair because it is out of order" and prompt the user to be alerted. That is, detection outputs from the light receiving units 17Ab, 17Bb, 17Cb, and 17Db are input to the determination unit 20, and based on these detection outputs, the determination unit 20 uses the table shown in Table 1 to determine which color toner is replenished. It is possible to determine whether the device needs to be replaced.
Based on this determination result, it is possible to display a toner replenishing device that needs to be replaced on the display means 21 such as the panel, etc., and to alert the user. If only one detection output of the light receiving means 17Ab, 17Bb, 17Cb, and 17Db is not detected, the determination means 20 determines that any one of the light detection means 17A, 17B, 17C, and 17D has failed. Then, the display means 21 can display the fact and alert the user.
Note that the display means is not limited to displaying characters on the panel of the image forming apparatus, but may be any display means that alerts the user by sound, a buzzer warning, a lamp flashing, or the like.

In this embodiment, it is possible to detect that the two toner replenishing devices are simultaneously in the near end state. However, when the two toner replenishing devices are simultaneously in the near end state, It is possible to determine the abnormal state and display the fact on the panel, and from the determination unit 20 to operate the mode switching unit 22 to automatically switch to a mode for reducing the toner consumption, thereby delaying the replacement time. It is.
In this embodiment, when three or more toner replenishing devices are simultaneously in the near end state, it is not possible to accurately detect which color toner replenishing device is in the near end state. There is a difference in consumption, and the rate at which three or more toners are in the near-end state at the same time is very low, and the first and second near-ends have already been detected. Replace these toner supply devices. Therefore, it will not be a big hindrance in actual use.
In the present embodiment, as described above, when only one of the light receiving means 17Ab, 17Bb, 17Cb, and 17Db is detected, it is determined that a failure has occurred. However, the light receiving means 17Ab, 17Bb, and 17Cb are determined. , 17Db detection may cause a timing difference between the first detection output and the second detection output, and may be erroneously determined as one detection output. In order to prevent such erroneous determination, in the present embodiment, it is determined whether or not the second detection output is generated within a predetermined time after the first detection output is detected, thereby preventing the erroneous determination. Like to do. Measures for preventing such erroneous determination will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a state in which the near-end state of the toner replenishing device is normally detected in the waveform diagram of the detection output detected by the first and second light receiving means.
FIG. 9 is a waveform diagram of detection outputs detected by the first and second light receiving means and shows that the second light receiving means has failed. 8 and 9, the waveform indicated by reference numeral 1 is a waveform diagram of the first light receiving means, and the waveform indicated by reference numeral 2 is a waveform diagram of the second light receiving means.
As shown in FIG. 8, when the light receiving light 18A by the light shielding plate 16c is shielded by the first light receiving means, for example, 17Ab, the output changes from the high level to the low level as indicated by reference numeral 1 to generate the detection signal X. Detecting that the toner replenishing device 13Y is in a near-end state. In this case, in the second light receiving means 17Db, the detection output Y indicated by reference numeral 2 outputs the detection output Y whose output has changed from the high level to the low level, but there is a slight amount between the detection signals X and Y. A timing shift Z occurs.
If this timing shift Z is not taken into account, only the X signal is detected, so there is a possibility that it is determined as a failure. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 8, the presence or absence of a failure is determined by detecting whether or not the Y signal is detected within a predetermined time width W including the Y signal.
Therefore, as shown in FIG. 9, when the Y signal is not detected within the time period W, it is determined that a failure has occurred in the second light detection means 17D. Therefore, it is possible to determine the failure more reliably.

Such setting of the predetermined time width W can be appropriately performed by adjusting the characteristics of these light detection means when the light detection means 17A, 17B, 17C, 17D are provided. However, after the start of use of the image forming apparatus, the first light detecting unit first detects the near-end state of one toner replenishing device to detect the X signal, and then the second light detecting unit detects the second signal. It is preferable to measure the timing shift Z when the detection signal Y is detected and set the predetermined time width W based on the timing shift Z, because this can be easily and reliably performed. .
As described above, in the present embodiment, the received light beams 18A, 18B, 18C, and 18D are transmitted through the two toner replenishing devices 13Y, 13M, 13C, and 13B, and the toner is received by the light receiving units 17Ab, 17Bb, 17Cb, and 17Db. Since the remaining amount of toner in the replenishing devices 13Y, 13M, 13C, and 13B is detected, it is possible to easily and reliably detect the remaining amount of toner while performing a double check with a simple configuration.
In the present embodiment, the arrangement order of the toner replenishing devices 13Y, 13M, 13C, and 13B is in the order of yellow, magenta, cyan, and black. However, the arrangement order is not limited to this. Other arrangement orders may be used.

1 is a diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. A cross-sectional structure of the toner replenishing device 13Y in which the toner T is full in the toner replenishing device is shown, and FIG. In the figure, (B) is a cross-sectional view taken along line AA of (A). A cross-sectional structure of the toner replenishing device 13Y in which the toner T is in the near-end state in the toner replenishing device is shown, and FIG. In the figure, (B) is a cross-sectional view taken along the line BB of (A). FIG. 6 is a top view schematically showing a positional relationship between a light receiving beam emitted from a light emitting unit and a light receiving unit with respect to a conventional toner replenishing device. FIG. 6 is a top view schematically showing the arrangement relationship between the received light beam emitted from the light emitting unit and the light receiving unit with respect to the toner supply device according to the embodiment of the present invention. It is sectional drawing which shows typically the arrangement | positioning relationship between the light-shielding plate in the near end position of the to-be-detected part accommodating part of FIG. It is a block diagram of the determination apparatus concerning one embodiment by the present invention. It is a figure which shows the state which detected the near end state of the toner replenishing apparatus normally by the waveform diagram of the detection output detected by the 1st and 2nd light-receiving means. It is a figure which shows that the 2nd light-receiving means failed with the wave form diagram of the detection output detected by the 1st and 2nd light-receiving means.

Explanation of symbols

  1Y, 1M, 1C, 1B Photoconductor, 2 Conveyor belt, 3A, 3B Support roller, 5 Paper feed cassette, 6 Registration roller, 7 Transfer roller, 10 Optical writing device, 11 Charging device, 12Y, 12M, 12C, 12B Development Device, 13Y, 13M, 13C, 13B Toner supply device, 14 Cleaning device, 15 Container, 15a Toner storage unit, 15b Light shielding plate storage unit, 15c Supply port, 16 Toner remaining amount detection lever, 16a Support point, 16b Toner remaining amount detection Child, 16c light shielding plate, 17A, 17B, 17C, 17D light detection means, 17Aa, 17Ba, 17Ca, 17Da light emission means, 17Ab, 17Bb, 17Cb, 17Db light reception means, 18A, 18B, 18C, 18D light reception light, 20 determination means , 21 Display means, 22 Mode switching means

Claims (5)

A plurality of photoconductors on which electrostatic latent images are formed, and a plurality of developments for supplying toners of different colors to the electrostatic latent images formed on the surfaces of the photoconductors to form respective color toner images An image forming apparatus comprising: a device; a plurality of toner replenishing devices that replenish toner of the respective colors to the plurality of developing devices; and a toner remaining amount detecting unit that detects a remaining amount of toner in the plurality of toner replenishing devices. In
The toner remaining amount detecting means has a light detecting means comprising a light emitting means and a light receiving means for receiving a light beam emitted from the light emitting means, and the light detecting means receives each received light beam received by the light receiving means. Are arranged to pass through each of the two toner replenishing devices,
When the remaining amount of toner in the toner replenishing device approaches the end, the toner replenishing device includes a detected portion that blocks or transmits the received light beam, and is emitted from the light emitting means of the two light detecting means. And a determination unit that detects that the two received light beams are shielded or transmitted by the detected portion of one toner replenishing device and determines that the remaining amount of toner in the toner replenishing device is approaching the end. An image forming apparatus. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1.
When it is detected that only one of the light detection means is shielded or transmitted by the detected portion of the one toner replenishing device, the determination means determines that an abnormality has occurred in the light detection means. An image forming apparatus. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2.
When the detected portion of the one toner replenishing device is detected by the first and second light detecting means, the first light detecting means detects the detected portion of the toner replenishing device and outputs a detection output. The determination unit determines that an abnormality has occurred in the light detection unit when the detection output from the second light detection unit is not detected within a predetermined time. The image forming apparatus according to claim 3.
The predetermined time is determined by the second light detecting means when the detected portion of one toner supply device is detected by the first light detecting means for the first time after the start of use of the image forming apparatus. An image forming apparatus, wherein a difference in timing between detection and detection from the first light detection unit is measured and set based on the difference in detection timing. The image forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein:
When two of the toner replenishing devices determine that the remaining amount of toner is at the end simultaneously by the light detection means, the determination means displays a warning and prints in a mode to reduce toner consumption. An image forming apparatus.

Images