Patent ID: 8086138

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: a housing which comprises a housing side opening through which waste toner passes; a plurality of developing units which are disposed in parallel with each other in the housing, each of the developing units comprising an image carrier on which an electrostatic latent image is configured to be formed, a toner carrier which carries a toner for supplying the toner to the image carrier and visualizing the electrostatic latent image to form a toner image, and a developing unit side reception opening for receiving the toner; and a plurality of toner cartridges which correspond to the plurality of developing units, the toner cartridges configured to be disposed in parallel with each other in the housing, each of the toner cartridges comprising a first containing unit for containing the toner to be supplied to the toner carrier, and a cartridge side supply opening through which the toner passes to the respective toner carrier; wherein a first toner cartridge of the plurality of toner cartridges comprises a second containing unit for containing the waste toner, and each of the toner cartridges other than the first toner cartridge does not comprise a second container in which the waste toner is stored, the second containing unit comprises a cartridge side opening for receiving the waste toner having passed through the housing side opening, wherein the developing units and the toner cartridges can be independently attached to and detached from the housing, each of the toner cartridges is configured to be disposed opposite to an end of a respective one of the developing units along a substantially horizontal direction in a longitudinal direction of the toner carrier, and wherein the cartridge side supply opening and the developing unit side reception opening are configured to be disposed to be opposite to each other along the substantially horizontal direction, the housing side opening and the cartridge side opening are disposed configured to be opposite to each other along the substantially horizontal direction.