Patent ID: 8611805

Claim:
A waste-toner collecting device for collecting non-transferred toner as waste toner remaining on an image carrier, the waste-toner collecting device comprising: a waste toner collector that communicates with a cleaning unit for removing non-transferred toner from the image carrier via a conveying path, and collects and stores therein the non-transferred toner as waste toner conveyed from the cleaning unit via the conveying path; and a leveling member that levels waste toner accumulated inside the waste toner collector, and a drive of which is controlled so that driving conditions thereof are varied based on information of an image formed on the image carrier, wherein switching of the driving conditions of the leveling member is controlled so as to be performed after a delay time during which the non-transferred toner collected in the cleaning unit reaches the waste-toner collector via the conveying path, wherein the leveling member is any one of a screw member, a coil member, and a stirring member which are rotatably driven in a predetermined direction, and is controlled to be driven so that when an image area of an image formed on the image carrier is large, then a driving rate or a rotational speed per unit time of the leveling member is increased, and when an image area of an image formed on the image carrier is small, then the driving rate or the rotational speed per unit time is reduced.