초록 ▼

A toner seal member to be used for sealing a developer container including a developer accommodating portion for accommodating a developer; and an opening for supplying the developer from the developer accommodating portion, the toner seal member being for sealing the opening, wherein the toner seal

A toner seal member to be used for sealing a developer container including a developer accommodating portion for accommodating a developer; and an opening for supplying the developer from the developer accommodating portion, the toner seal member being for sealing the opening, wherein the toner seal member unseals the opening by being automatically wound up, the toner seal member including a sealing portion for covering and sealing the opening; and a regulating portion for regulating an operation of a detecting member for detecting winding-up of the toner seal member to unseal the opening.

대표청구항 ▼

A toner seal member to be used for sealing a developer container including a developer accommodating portion for accommodating a developer; and an opening for supplying the developer from the developer accommodating portion, the toner seal member being for sealing the opening, wherein the toner seal

A toner seal member to be used for sealing a developer container including a developer accommodating portion for accommodating a developer; and an opening for supplying the developer from the developer accommodating portion, the toner seal member being for sealing the opening, wherein the toner seal member unseals the opening by being automatically wound up, the toner seal member including a sealing portion for covering and sealing the opening; and a regulating portion for regulating an operation of a detecting member for detecting winding-up of the toner seal member to unseal the opening. orm a multi-layer test toner patch; emitting light onto said multi-layer toner patch; measuring an amount of light that is reflected off of said multi-layer toner patch; emitting light onto a bare section of the image-bearing surface, the bare section having substantially no toner thereon; measuring an amount of light that is reflected off of the bare section; adjusting at least one electrophotographic condition, said adjusting being dependent upon each of said measuring steps; and repeating said superimposing step, said emitting steps and said measuring steps after a change in a reflectivity of the image bearing surface occurs, said adjusting step being dependent upon said repeated measuring steps. 13. The method of claim 12, comprising the further steps of: calculating a first mathematical relationship between the amount of light that is reflected off of said multi-layer toner patch before the change in reflectivity of the image bearing surface and the amount of light that is reflected off of the bare section before the change in reflectivity of the image bearing surface; and calculating a second mathematical relationship between the amount of light that is reflected off of said multi-layer toner patch after the change in reflectivity of the image bearing surface and the amount of light that is reflected off of the bare section after the change in reflectivity of the image bearing surface, said adjusting step being dependent upon each of the first mathematical relationship and the second mathematical relationship. 14. The method of claim 13, wherein said first mathematical relationship comprises a first ratio of the amount of light that is reflected off of said multi-layer toner patch before the change in reflectivity of the image bearing surface to the amount of light that is reflected off of the bare section before the change in reflectivity of the image bearing surface, said second mathematical relationship comprising a second ratio of the amount of light that is reflected off of said multi-layer toner patch after the change in reflectivity of the image bearing surface to the amount of light that is reflected off of the bare section after the change in reflectivity of the image bearing surface. 15. A method of calibrating a multi-color electrophotographic machine having an image bearing surface, said method comprising the steps of: superimposing toner patches of each of a plurality of colors on the image-bearing surface to thereby form a multi-layer test toner patch, the plurality of colors including cyan, magenta and yellow; emitting light onto said multi-layer toner patch; measuring an amount of light that is reflected off of said multi-layer toner patch; emitting light onto a bare section of the image-bearing surface, the bare section having substantially no toner thereon; measuring an amount of light that is reflected off of the bare section; and adjusting at least one electrophotographic condition, said adjusting being dependent upon each of said measuring steps. 16. A method of calibrating a multi-color electrophotographic machine having an image bearing surface, said method comprising the steps of: superimposing toner patches of each of a plurality of colors on the image-bearing surface to thereby form a multi-layer test toner patch; emitting light onto said multi-layer toner patch; measuring an amount of light that is reflected off of said multi-layer toner patch; emitting light onto a bare section of the image-bearing surface, the bare section having substantially no toner thereon; measuring an amount of light that is reflected off of the bare section, wherein each of said emitting and measuring steps are performed with a toner patch sensor; adjusting at least one electrophotographic condition, said adjusting being dependent upon each of said measuring steps; and reducing a gain of said toner patch sensor before measuring the amount of light that is reflected off of said multi-lay er toner patch. 17. A method of calibrating a multi-color electrophotographic machine having an image bearing surface, said method comprising the steps of: superimposing toner patches of each of a plurality of colors on the image-bearing surface to thereby form a multi-layer test toner patch; emitting light onto said multi-layer toner patch; measuring an amount of light that is reflected off of said multi-layer toner patch; emitting light onto a bare section of the image-bearing surface, the bare section having substantially no toner thereon; measuring an amount of light that is reflected off of the bare section; and adjusting at least one electrophotographic condition, said adjusting being dependent upon each of said measuring steps, said adjusting step being performed independently for each of the colors of the multi-color electrophotographic machine, said adjusting step being performed by using at least one lookup table relating results of said measuring steps with at least one of a desired laser power and a desired developer bias for each of the colors of the multi-color electrophotographic machine. 18. A method of calibrating a multi-color electrophotographic machine having an image bearing surface, said method comprising the steps of: superimposing toner patches of each of a plurality of colors on the image-bearing surface to thereby form a multi-layer test toner patch; emitting light onto said multi-layer toner patch; measuring an amount of light that is reflected off of said multi-layer toner patch; emitting light onto a bare section of the image-bearing surface, the bare section having substantially no toner thereon; measuring an amount of light that is reflected off of the bare section; and adjusting at least one electrophotographic condition, said adjusting being dependent upon each of said measuring steps, said adjusting step being performed independently for each of the colors of the multi-color electrophotographic machine, said adjusting step being performed by calculating a saturation reflection ratio for each of the colors of the multi-color electrophotographic machine. 19. A method of calibrating a multi-color electrophotographic machine having an intermediate transfer belt, said method comprising the steps of: superimposing toner patches of each of a plurality of colors on the intermediate transfer belt to thereby form a multi-layer test toner patch; emitting light onto said multi-layer toner patch; measuring an amount of light that is reflected off of said multi-layer toner patch; emitting light onto a bare section of the intermediate transfer belt, the bare section having substantially no toner thereon; measuring an amount of light that is reflected off of the bare section; and adjusting at least one electrophotographic condition, said adjusting being dependent upon each of said measuring steps. 20. A method of calibrating an electrophotographic machine having an image bearing surface, said method comprising the steps of: determining at least one of a minimum possible desired laser power value and a minimum possible desired developer bias value; creating a plurality of toner patches on the image bearing surface using at least one of a plurality of low laser power values below said minimum possible desired laser power value and a plurality of low developer bias values below said minimum possible desired developer bias value; emitting light onto said toner patches; measuring an amount of light that is reflected off of each of said toner patches; emitting light onto a bare section of the image-bearing surface, the bare section having substantially no toner thereon; measuring an amount of light that is reflected off of the bare section; and adjusting at least one of an actual laser power and an actual developer bias dependent upon each of said measuring steps. 21. The method of claim 20, wherein said adjusting step includes the substeps of: calculating a respective