| US 7,599,633 B2 | ||
| Image forming apparatus dust container including dust conveyance members | ||
| Tomofumi Inoue, Osaka (Japan); Takafumi Miyazaki, Osaka (Japan); Tomoya Adachi, Osaka (Japan); Takeshi Sakashita, Osaka (Japan); Yuuji Meguro, Hyogo (Japan); Takeru Muramatsu, Osaka (Japan); and Kohji Hatayama, Osaka (Japan) | ||
| Assigned to Ricoh Company, Ltd., Tokyo (Japan) | ||
| Filed on Oct. 16, 2006, as Appl. No. 11/580,939. | ||
| Claims priority of application No. 2005-330661 (JP), filed on Nov. 15, 2005; application No. 2005-353645 (JP), filed on Dec. 07, 2005; application No. 2006-008324 (JP), filed on Jan. 17, 2006; and application No. 2006-035622 (JP), filed on Feb. 13, 2006. | ||
| Prior Publication US 2007/0110458 A1, May 17, 2007 | ||
| Int. Cl. G03G 21/10 (2006.01) | ||
| U.S. Cl. 399—35 [399/360; 399/120] | 14 Claims |
| 1. A dust container configured to contain dust therein, comprising:
a container body configured to contain the dust therein;
an inlet to the container body for passing the dust therethrough;
a dust conveying unit that conveys the dust from the inlet to a portion away from the inlet inside the container body, the
dust conveying unit including a plurality of conveying members arranged at different positions in the dust conveying unit
and operating to urge the dust in a predetermined direction within the container, at least one of the conveying members of
the plurality of conveying members being different with respect to others of the plurality of conveying members in at least
any one of a dust conveying direction and a dust conveying amount;
a dust detector configured to detect whether the container body is substantially full with the dust, and
wherein the dust conveying unit further includes a regulating plate that is configured to regulate a flow of the dust generated
by the plurality of conveying members.
|