| 摘要 |
PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To drastically and totally decrease the probability of the interruption of copying operation by preventing the allowable number of copies from being uniformly set after detecting the residual quantity of toner and increasing the allowable number of copies in accordance with the adhesive quantity of toner. SOLUTION: The toner quantity from a line A (detection surface) to a line B (replenishment feasible surface capable of replenishing a developing device) is about 120g, actually, 100g of toner can be supplied after a toner sensor 74 detects the toner quantity. When the detection is performed by the toner sensor 74 in the midst of consecutive copying, the on-time of the driving clutch 75 of a hopper screw 72 is started to be integrated. Since it takes 200sec to supply 100g of toner in the case the supply ability of the screw 72 is 0.5g/sec, consecutive copying is temporarily interrupted in the case the integrated time attains 200sec before finishing copying. After the detection, the driving time of the screw is integraed, and the propriety of continuing copying is judged based on the integrated value, so that the allowable number of copies after the detection is prevented from being uniformly decreased, and the toner in a hopper is effectively used. |
