Patent ID: 7296873
Filing Date: 2007-11-20
Classification: G03G

Abstract:
1. A printing device having a sensitizing drum and a developing roller, comprising: a judgment unit for judging whether a service life of a loaded developing agent cartridge has expired by accessing a memory unit built into said developing agent cartridge, said memory unit storing information concerning the service life of the developing agent cartridge; and an operation mode setting unit for setting an operation mode to a safety mode in order to prevent printing troubles when said judgment unit determines that the service life of said developing agent cartridge has expired; wherein said safety mode is to execute a printing process with an increased cleaning frequency, an increased calibration frequency or an increased communication frequency with a control center compared to those of a standard mode, the printing device prints by an electronic photograph method and collects toner remaining on the sensitizing drum by using the developing roller while rotating the sensitizing drum as a sequence independent of a printing sequence to clean the sensitizing drum, and when the printing device increases cleaning frequency in the safety mode compared to the standard mode, the printing device executes a cleaning process per printing job in the standard mode and executes a cleaning process per printing page in the safety mode.