Development unit with toner recovery for an image forming apparatus and process

摘要

An image forming apparatus includes: an image carrier; a development unit for forming a toner image on the image carrier by supplying a toner contained in a developer reservoir to a latent image formed on the image carrier by means of a developer carrier; a transfer unit for transferring the toner image formed on the image carrier onto a transfer medium; a recovery unit for recovering the toner remaining on the image carrier after image transfer; a return unit for transporting the recover toner recovered by the recovery unit so as to return the recover toner into the developer reservoir of the development unit; and a separator/feeder for separating the toner contained in the developer reservoir from the recover toner thereby exclusively feeding the toner contained in the developer reservoir to the latent image formed on the image carrier by means of the developer carrier.