Patent ID: 8862043
Filing Date: 2014-10-14
Classification: G03G

Abstract:
1. A toner transporting device comprising: a screw that includes a shaft portion and a spiral fin wound around the shaft portion, and the screw transports toner in an axial direction thereof; and a toner crushing member that is disposed along a transport direction of the toner and crushes accumulated toner, the toner crushing member comprising: a base portion that extends along the shaft portion of the screw; and a flexible plate member which is disposed at a position at which the flexible plate member bumps into and contacts the spiral fin, and in which a downstream side of the flexible plate member in the transport direction of the toner in the screw is fixed to the base portion, and an upstream side of the flexible plate member in the transport direction of the toner in the screw is separated from the base portion, wherein in a state where the flexible plate member is maximally deformed due to the spiral fin, on a line segment connecting a tip of a cleaning blade which scrapes residual toner on an image carrier and a rotation center of the screw in a longitudinal cross-section of the image carrier, a distance from the tip of the cleaning blade to the flexible plate member is shorter than one-third of a distance from the tip of the cleaning blade to the intersection of the line segment and the tip of the spiral fin.