IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS AND METHOD OF DETECTING AMOUNT OF RESIDUAL DEVELOPER
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Accused Products
Abstract
An image forming apparatus having a developer container containing a developer and a developer carrying member for carrying the developer and adapted to switch an AC voltage to be applied to the developer carrying member, the apparatus comprising a detecting member for detecting the amount of developer in the developer container and a processing portion for determining the amount of developer in the developer container according to the value output by the detecting member when the AC voltage is applied to the developer carrying member, the processing portion being adapted to determine the amount of developer by executing a process that corresponds to the operation of switching the AC voltage.
50 Citations
32 Claims
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1-24. -24. (canceled)
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25. An image forming apparatus for applying a voltage to a developing member which develops a latent image formed on an image bearing member, and having image forming states in which the values of the voltage to be applied to the developing member are different from each other, said image forming apparatus comprising:
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a developer container containing a developer; a detecting member that detects the amount of developer in said developer container; and an output part that outputs information about the developer amount in said developer container based on a value of the electrostatic capacity between the developing member and said detecting member, wherein said output part corrects the value of the electrostatic capacity corresponding to a switching of the image forming state, and outputs the information about the developer amount based on the corrected value. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29)
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30. A developer amount detecting method of an image forming apparatus for applying a voltage to a developing member which develops a latent image formed on an image bearing member and having image forming states in which values of a voltage to be applied to the developing member are different from each other, said developer amount detecting method comprising:
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a detecting step of detecting the amount of developer in a developer container as electrostatic-capacity information; a state switching step of switching the image forming state of the image forming apparatus; a correcting step of correcting the detected electrostatic-capacity information corresponding to the switching of the image forming state in said state switching step; and an outputting step of outputting the information about the developer amount in the developer container based on the corrected electrostatic-capacity information. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32)
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Specification