DEVELOPING DEVICE, CARRIER, TONER, DEVELOPER, PROCESS CARTRIDGE AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a developing device capable of uniforming toner concentration by controlling phases of toner concentration variation and suppressing the variation of the toner concentration or the fluctuation of toner static charge amounts.

SOLUTION: The developing device is configured so that: in a flow of a developer in the developing device where the toner concentration spatially changes because of toner replenishment or toner consumption by development, a branch point is formed at a predetermined position (for example, an opening 404a provided in a partition plate 404 between two screws 402, 403); developers branched at the branch point are made to pass through different routes (route 1, route 2) from each other so as to shift phases of the toner concentration change in the respective developers; and then the developers with shifted phases are again joined to control the phases. By superposing developers having spatial toner concentration changes while the phases are shifted, a high toner concentration and a low toner concentration are averaged to uniformize the toner concentration.

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