FLUIDITY DETECTING DEVICE AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS

• Main Authors: HAGIWARA EMI, KONO YASUNORI, INOUE RYO, HARAGUCHI MANAMI, MIYAZAWA TOMOAKI, USAMI HIROICHI, ISHIDA SHINTARO
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; Japanese
• Published: 07.05.2015
• Subjects: CINEMATOGRAPHY; ELECTROGRAPHY; ELECTROPHOTOGRAPHY; HOLOGRAPHY; MAGNETOGRAPHY; PHOTOGRAPHY; PHYSICS

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily and accurately recognize fluidity of a developer in an image forming apparatus.SOLUTION: A representative configuration of a fluidity detecting device and an image forming apparatus relating to the present invention includes four surfaces (wall surface 81, pressurizing member 82, first wall surface 2a, second wall surface 2b) consisting of two pairs of facing surfaces, a screw 3a for applying a pressure to a developer in a space S blocked by four surfaces, and at least two first pressure sensors 83a and a second pressure sensor 83b which are provided along the direction parallel to the four surfaces in the space S, on the first wall surface 2a, being one of the four surfaces, and detect a pressure of the developer. The fluidity of the developer is detected from a ratio between output values of at least two first pressure sensor 83a and second pressure sensor 83b. 【課題】本発明は、現像剤の流動性を画像形成装置内で簡易に且つ正確に把握することを目的とする。【解決手段】本発明に係る流動性検出装置及び画像形成装置の代表的な構成は、２対の対向する面からなる４つの面（壁面８１、加圧部材８２、第１の壁面２ａ、第２の壁面２ｂ）と、４つの面で塞がれた空間Ｓ内の現像剤に圧力を加えるスクリュー３ａと、４つの面の１つの面第１の壁面２ａに、空間Ｓの４つの面と平行となる方向に沿って設けられ、現像剤の圧力を検知する少なくとも２つの第１の圧力センサ８３ａ、第２の圧力センサ８３ｂと、を有し、少なくとも２つの第１の圧力センサ８３ａ、第２の圧力センサ８３ｂの各々の出力値の比率から現像剤の流動性を検出することを特徴とする。【選択図】図４