WASTE-TONER CONVEYANCE DEVICE AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS

摘要

An image forming apparatus including multiple image forming units; a waste-toner container; and a waste-toner conveyance device including a common conveyance channel member disposed in an arrangement direction of the image forming units and provided with toner inlets to receive the waste toner from toner outlets of the cleaning units, communicating channel members identical in structure and respectively disposed between the toner outlets and the toner inlets of the common conveyance channel member, and a rotatable conveying member to transport the waste toner inside the common conveyance channel member linearly along a rotation axis thereof. The common conveyance channel member is shaped to equalize relative positions of each of the toner outlets and a corresponding one of the toner inlets of the common conveyance channel member among the multiple image forming units among which a distance from the toner outlet to the rotation axis differs.

主权项

1. An image forming apparatus comprising:
multiple image forming units respectively including latent image bearers to bear toner images and cleaning units to collect waste toner from surfaces of the latent image bearers; a waste-toner container to contain the waste toner discharged from the cleaning units; and a waste-toner conveyance device to transport the waste toner to the waste-toner container, the waste-toner conveyance device including:
a common conveyance channel member disposed in a direction in which the image forming units are arranged, the common conveyance channel member provided with toner inlets to receive the waste toner from respective toner outlets of the cleaning units,communicating channel members respectively disposed between the toner outlets of the cleaning units and the toner inlets of the common conveyance channel member, the communicating channel members identical in structure, anda rotatable conveying member to transport the waste toner inside the common conveyance channel member linearly along a rotation axis of the conveying member, wherein a distance from each of the toner outlets of the cleaning units to the rotation axis of the conveying member differs among the multiple image forming units, and the common conveyance channel member is shaped to equalize relative positions of each of the toner outlets of the cleaning unit and a corresponding one of the toner inlets of the common conveyance channel member among the multiple image forming units.