Patent ID: 8737852
Filing Date: 2014-05-27
Classification: G03G

Abstract:
1. An image forming apparatus comprising: a body; a developer recovery container that is detachably provided to the body, and contains a developer that has been recovered; a detecting section that is provided to the body, and detects a recovery status of the developer contained within the developer recovery container; a power supply that supplies electric power to the detecting section; a detection object part that is provided to the developer recovery container, and is a part to be detected by the detecting section, the detection object part indicating the recovery status of the developer in the developer recovery container on a basis of presence or absence of the developer; a pair of wires that are provided to the developer recovery container, the wires being electrically isolated from each other and one of the wires being electrically connected to the detecting section and the other of the wires being electrically connected to the power supply in a case where the developer recovery container has not been used; a conducting section that is provided to the developer recovery container, and is located in a first position in a case where the developer recovery container has not been used and is located in a second position in a case where the developer recovery container has been used, the first position being a position that brings the pair of wires into a non-conducting state, the second position being a position that brings the pair of wires into a conducting state; a drive section that electrically connects the pair of wires, and drives the conducting section to the second position to maintain the conducting state of the pair of wires; and a determining section that determines the developer recovery container to have been used in a case where the developer is determined to be not present in the detection object part on a basis of information from the detecting section, and in a case where the developer is determined to be present in the detection object part, checks the information from the detecting section again after driving the drive section, and determines the developer recovery container to have not been used in a case where the developer is determined to be not present in the detection object part and determines the developer recovery container to have been used in a case where the developer is determined to be present in the detection object part.