Image forming apparatus provided with cartridge for accommodating waste toner therein

摘要

An image forming apparatus includes a cartridge-supporting body, a belt, a belt cleaning unit, a waste toner cartridge, and a collective conveying unit. The cartridge-supporting unit supports a plurality of process cartridges. Each process cartridge includes a photosensitive drum and a drum-cleaning unit for collecting waste toner on the photosensitive drum. The belt confronts the plurality of process cartridges when the cartridge-supporting body is in an internal position. The belt cleaning unit collects waste toner on the belt. The waste toner cartridge accommodates both waste toner collected from the plurality of photosensitive drums by the plurality of drum-cleaning units and waste toner collected from the belt by the belt cleaning unit. The collective conveying unit aggregates waste toner collected from the plurality of photosensitive drums by the plurality of drum-cleaning units and conveys collectively the aggregated waste toner to the waste toner cartridge.

主权项

1. An image forming apparatus comprising:
a main frame; a first process cartridge including a first photosensitive drum and a first drum-cleaning unit configured to collect waste toner on the first photosensitive drum; a second process cartridge including a second photosensitive drum and a second drum-cleaning unit configured to collect waste toner on the second photosensitive drum; a cartridge-supporting body configured to support the first process cartridge and the second process cartridge and movable between an internal position inside the main frame and an external position outside of the main frame; a collective conveying unit provided in the cartridge-supporting body and configured to convey collectively waste toner collected by the first drum-cleaning unit and the second drum-cleaning unit; and a waste toner cartridge configured to accommodate waste toner conveyed by the collective conveying unit, the waste toner cartridge being positioned in the main frame and connecting with the collective conveying unit when the cartridge-supporting body is positioned at the internal position, the waste toner cartridge being positioned in the main frame and disconnecting with the collective conveying unit when the cartridge-supporting body is positioned at the external position.