Patent ID: 11872818
Assignee: KYOCERA DOCUMENT SOLUTIONS INC.
Field: Textile and paper machines (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B | IPC B

Claim 0:
1. An image forming apparatus comprising:
a housing;
a container body containing a liquid and placed on a ground surface which is a part of the housing; and
an electrostatic capacitance sensor which detects a change in capacitance between a side surface of the container body and the ground surface to determine a change in quantity of the liquid in the container body, wherein
the container body has a supply port formed below a liquid level at a time of emptying when it is determined that the container body is empty on the basis of a detection result of the electrostatic capacitance sensor, and
the container body has a blank part in which the liquid is not contained, below the liquid level at the time of emptying, and
a top surface of the container body is a part of the housing, and the top surface meets at least one of the following conditions a) to c),
a) the top surface and the ground surface are in electrically conductive state, a distance between the top surface and the electrostatic capacitance sensor is longer than a distance between the ground surface and the electrostatic capacitance sensor,
b) the top surface and the ground surface are electrically insulated, and
c) the top surface is opened.