| 摘要 |
<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image forming apparatus capable of suppressing use of a toner bottle of which maintenance contract type is mismatched, while securing convenience for a user. <P>SOLUTION: During a "toner replenishing process" which is performed when replenishing toner from a toner bottle to a development unit, a bottle side contract type in an IC chip of the toner bottle and a main body side contract type of the copying machine main body are compared (step S106). If the contract types coincide with each other, a first toner replenishing control process is performed in which toner is replenished to the upper limit value Hi of the development unit (in this case a sub hopper), while if they are determined to be different, a second toner replenishing control is performed in which an amount of toner necessary for each image forming job to be performed is predicted and the predicted amount of toner is replenished. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2013,JPO&INPIT |
