PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15973571
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-05
Publication Date: 2018-11
Patent Classification: ["399", "053000"]

Abstract:
In an image forming device including a volume supply type developing device, generation of an aggregate of a developer on a back surface of a layer thickness regulating member is suppressed, while occurrence of an image failure caused by the aggregate is suppressed. An image forming device includes: a photosensitive drum; a developing device including a developing roller; a toner container including a toner sensor; and a control portion. According to an increase or decrease of a retention part formed in a first transport path, a toner flows into the developing device from the toner container. The control portion causes the developing roller to reversely rotate at predetermined timing when the toner sensor senses that a residual amount of a toner in the toner container falls below a predetermined threshold value.

Claim (Index 1):
An image forming device comprising:\n a developer container which houses a developer therein and has a developer discharge port capable of discharging the developer; a developing device which has a developing roller configured to be rotatable and carrying a developer on a circumference surface of the developing roller, and which receives the developer from the developer container; a photosensitive drum which has a surface on which an electrostatic latent image is formed, and which carries a developer image made to appear from the electrostatic latent image by the developer on the developing roller; a transfer portion which transfers the developer image on the photosensitive drum to a sheet; a residual amount sensing portion which senses that a residual amount of a developer in the developer container falls below a predetermined threshold value; a driving portion which generates a driving force to cause the developing roller to rotate around a predetermined axis in a first rotation direction and a second rotation direction opposite to the first rotation direction; and a drive control portion which controls the driving portion to rotatably drive the developing roller; wherein the developing device includes:\n a developing housing which rotatably supports the developing roller; \n a developer transport path formed in the developing housing and including a first transport path which is arranged at an interval from the developing roller and in which the developer is transported in a first direction along an axis direction of the developing roller, and a second transport path which is arranged between the developing roller and the first transport path and in which the developer is transported in a second direction opposite to the first direction, the developer being circularly transported between the first transport path and the second transport path; \n a developer replenishing port which is opened, in the housing, below the developer discharge port and above the first transport path, and which receives the developer from the developer container onto the developer transport path; \n a first transport member rotatably arranged on the first transport path, and configured to transport the developer in the first direction; \n a second transport member rotatably arranged on the second transport path, and configured to transport the developer in the second direction, and to supply the developer to the developing roller; \n a transport capacity suppressing portion provided downstream of the developer replenishing port in the first direction to partly suppress a transport capacity of the developer in the first direction of the first transport member, thereby forming a developer retention part at a position opposed to the developer replenishing port; and \n a layer thickness regulating member arranged to be opposed to the developing roller to regulate a layer thickness of the developer supplied from the second transport member to the developing roller, and \n during developing operation in which the electrostatic latent image is made to appear by the developer on the developing roller, the drive control portion causes the developing roller to rotate in the first rotation direction and when the residual amount sensing portion senses that a residual amount of the developer in the developer container falls below the threshold value, causes the developing roller to rotate in the second rotation direction at predetermined timing different from timing of the developing operation.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 7.0
- Percentile: 93.0
- Lexical Diversity: 1.86842
- Patent Class: 399.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: True
- Related Applications: ['15926804', '13032949', '14180793', '15628919', '15628986']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.8144735031983508
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.4768303810293634
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.7807091909814521
- Mean Citation Score: 230.79102000000003
- Max Citation Score: 238.91771
- Similarity Product: 190.1952735043657

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 1
- Claim Label 103: 1
- Claim Label 112: 1
- Combined Label: 1
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test