Patent ID: 8909070
Filing Date: 2014-12-09
Classification: G03G

Abstract:
1. An image forming apparatus comprising: a housing; an image holding body that is housed in the housing and holds a toner image; an image forming unit that is housed in the housing and forms the toner image on the image holding body; a cartridge that includes at least the image holding body and is removably mounted on the housing; a toner container that is removably mounted on the cartridge, houses a toner therein, and supplies the toner to the image forming unit; a retaining mechanism that retains the toner container with respect to the cartridge; a releasing mechanism that at least allows the toner container retained by the retaining mechanism to be released while the cartridge is mounted on the housing, and remains in the housing when the cartridge is removed from the housing; a container storage that is installed on the toner container and stores first information relating to a use amount of the toner in the toner container and second information relating to a use amount of an image holding portion, which is a component not including the toner container and including at least the image holding body from among components installed in the cartridge; a housing storage that stores at least the second information and remains in the housing when the cartridge is removed from the housing; an information update unit that updates the first information in accordance with use of the toner in the toner container, and updates the second information in accordance with use of the image holding portion; and an information write unit that writes the second information stored in the housing storage into the container storage if the first information stored in the container storage indicates that the toner in the toner container is unused and the second information stored in the container storage indicates that the image holding portion is used.