Patent ID: 8600246

Claim:
A developer recovery device, comprising: a recovery container that receives and accommodates a developer recovered from an image carrier, an agitator member that agitates the developer inside the recovery container, two shafts to which mutually engageable cams are respectively provided and that transmit rotational force to the agitator member, a spring that biases and causes to move one of the cams such that the two cams mutually engage and that causes a shaft connection between the two shafts to be joined, a torque limiter that carries out joining of the shaft connection, in which the two cams are caused to mutually engage to join the shaft connection, and disjoining of the shaft connection, in which the two cams are caused to move apart to disjoin the shaft connection, and a full-state determination portion that detects a disjoined state of the shaft connection and, based on the detected disjoined state, determines that the recovery container has become full of developer, wherein the torque limiter is constituted by the two cams and the spring, and in a disjoined state of the shaft connection, due to the torque limiter, the one cam is stopped and the other cam rotates such that the two cams repetitively engage and move apart, and the full-state determination portion is provided with a switch that is switched only between on and off in response to the engaging and moving apart of the two cams and obtains an on-off period of the switch, and in a case where the on-off period is within a prescribed time range that is set in advance and has been repeated at least a prescribed number of times that is set in advance, determines that the recovery container has become full of developer.