Image Forming Apparatus Having Waste Toner Container Commonly Used For Photosensitive Drums and Transfer Belt

摘要

An image forming apparatus includes a main frame, a plurality of process cartridges, a cartridge-supporting body, a belt, a belt cleaning unit, a waste toner cartridge, and a collective conveying unit. Each drum-cleaning unit collects waste toner on a corresponding photosensitive drum. The cartridge-supporting body supports the process cartridges and is movable between an internal position inside the main frame and an external position outside of the main frame. The belt cleaning unit collects waste toner on the belt. The waste toner cartridge accommodates both waste toner collected from the photosensitive drums by the drum-cleaning units and waste toner collected from the belt by the belt cleaning unit. The collective conveying unit aggregates both waste toner collected from the photosensitive drums by the drum-cleaning units and waste toner collected from the belt by the belt cleaning unit and conveys the aggregated waste toner to the waste toner cartridge.

主权项

1. An image forming apparatus comprising:
a main frame; a plurality of process cartridges including a plurality of photosensitive drums and a plurality of drum-cleaning units, the plurality of process cartridges being provided in one-to-one correspondence with the plurality of photosensitive drums, the plurality of photosensitive drums being provided in one-to-one correspondence with the plurality of drum-cleaning units, each of the plurality of drum-cleaning units being configured to collect waste toner on a corresponding photosensitive drum; a cartridge-supporting body configured to support the plurality of process cartridges and movable between an internal position inside the main frame and an external position outside of the main frame; a belt configured to confront the plurality of process cartridges when the cartridge-supporting body supporting the plurality of process cartridges is in the internal position; a belt cleaning unit configured to collect waste toner on the belt; a waste toner cartridge configured to accommodate 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; and a collective conveying unit provided in the cartridge-supporting body and configured to aggregate 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 and to convey collectively the aggregated waste toner to the waste toner cartridge.