摘要 |
PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a toner recycling device by which the toner recovered from an image carrier is appropriately carried to a toner supply unit while preventing the recovered toner from clogging. SOLUTION: This toner recycling device is provided with a transportation tube 5 making a cleaning unit recovering the toner from a photoreceptor communicate with the toner supply unit supplying the toner to a developing unit and an air transportation type pump 7 disposed at the middle part of the tube 5. The pump 7 is provided with an upstream-side transportation path 8a, a downstream-side transportation path 8b, a pair of opening and closing valves 9 and 10, a cylinder 11 formed between the valves 9 and 10 and the like inside a housing 8. Besides, the pump 7 is constituted so that the recovered toner Ta included in the air current of an upstream-side transportation tube 5a is taken in the cylinder 11 by opening and closing the valves 9 and 10 by a prescribed angle by using a driving motor and the like on a condition that the phases thereof are deviated by 180 deg. and repeatedly fed out toward the tube 5b thereafter. Thus, the toner Ta can be carried without causing the backflow thereof. |