| 摘要 |
<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image forming apparatus for stabilizing a transport amount of fine particle and grasping a proper exchange time by a user, while suppressing the cost increase of a fine particle container. <P>SOLUTION: Two opposite transparent windows 74a and 74b are provided sandwiching a pipe inside flow passage on a nozzle 72. A flow sensor 76 is provided so as to sandwich a nozzle part providing the transparent windows 74a and 74b. The flow sensor 76 consists of a transmissive photosensor which is an optical sensor. A voltage, in response to a toner amount of the pipe inside flow passage, is output by receiving the light emitted from a light-emitting element 76a to a light-receiving element 76b in a passage from the transparent window 74a through the pipe inside flow passage to the transparent window 76b. A control part (not shown) is composed so that toner end is determined on the basis of the output voltage value. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO |
