Patent ID: 9244427
Filing Date: 2016-01-26
CPC Classification: G03G

Claim Text:
1. An image forming apparatus comprising: a main frame; a plurality of process cartridges including a plurality of photosensitive drums and a plurality of drum-cleaning units, the plurality of process cartridges being provided in one-to-one correspondence with the plurality of photosensitive drums, the plurality of photosensitive drums being provided in one-to-one correspondence with the plurality of drum-cleaning units, each of the plurality of drum-cleaning units being configured to collect waste toner on a corresponding photosensitive drum; a cartridge-supporting body configured to support the plurality of process cartridges and be movable between an internal position inside the main frame and an external position outside of the main frame; a belt configured to confront the plurality of process cartridges when the cartridge-supporting body supporting the plurality of process cartridges is in the internal position; a belt cleaning unit configured to collect waste toner on the belt; a waste toner cartridge configured to accommodate both waste toner collected from the plurality of photosensitive drums by the plurality of drum-cleaning units and waste toner collected from the belt by the belt cleaning unit; and a collective conveying unit provided in the cartridge-supporting body and configured to aggregate waste toner collected from the plurality of photosensitive drums by the plurality of drum-cleaning units and to convey collectively the aggregated waste toner to the waste toner cartridge, wherein the waste toner cartridge is provided in the main frame when the cartridge-supporting body is positioned at the internal position and when the cartridge-supporting body is positioned at the external position, and wherein the waste toner cartridge connects with the collective conveying unit when the cartridge-supporting body is positioned at the internal position, and the waste toner cartridge disconnects with the collective conveying unit when the cartridge-supporting body is positioned at the external position.