Systems and methods for facilitating advanced toner dispensing from rotating toner cartridge components

摘要

A system and method are provided for improving powder material dispensing from containers, including toner dispensing from rotating toner cartridge components. The disclosed systems and methods separately agitate a rotating toner bottle, including an apparently, or indicated, expended toner bottle, in an image forming device to dislodge residual toner in the toner bottle without the need to remove the toner bottle from the image forming device to perform manual agitation by modifying a physical configuration of the rotating toner bottle in a manner that improves the performance of the rotating toner bottle by improving the flow of the toner material within the toner bottle. The disclosed physical configurations of the rotating toner bottle impart agitating pulses or disturbances onto rotating toner bottles to disturb any layers of residual toner material formed within the rotating toner bottle that may inhibit flow of the toner material in the rotating toner bottle.

主权项

1. A rotating container for holding and transporting a powdered material, comprising:
a body section with a substantially round cross-section facilitating the rotating of the container in operation for moving the powdered material axially in the container; an end cap section at one axial end of the body section through which the powdered material passes to exit the container as the container rotates; and at least one physical feature on an outer profile of the container to induce agitation of the container as the container is rotated, the at least one physical feature comprising a flattening of a portion of the substantially round cross-section of the body section of the container, such that the flattening results from a geometric segment of the substantially round cross-section of the body section being not present.