Patent ID: 6690896
Filing Date: 2004-02-10
Classification: G03G

Abstract:
An electro photographic image forming apparatus comprising:a replacement assembly having a toner container attachable to said image forming apparatus; a feeding unit to feed toner from said toner container to a development unit; a toner detection unit which detects a density of the toner in said development unit and detects that the toner is used completely in said toner container; and a read/write non-volatile memory; wherein, said image forming apparatus comprising: an estimation unit which generates information in such a way that first, said estimation unit obtains an amount of toner feed periods for said feeding unit during forming images, next, accumulates said amount of the toner feed periods into an accumulated sum of said amount of toner feed periods, then stores said accumulated sum into said read/write non-volatile memory and makes said toner detection unit start detecting the amount of the toner contained in said toner container after said accumulated sum exceeds a predetermined value.