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EP0112928A1 Expired / Lapsed EP ⏱️ 0.0 years remaining

Toner level sensor

Assignee: Proterial Ltd
•
Filing: 1983-07-12
•
Granted: —
•
Expires: 2003-07-12
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Abstract

Abstract 57 toner level sensor detecting the presence, absence, or the level of toner remaining in an electronic copying machine, has a pair of transformers (9a), (9b) with primary and secondary coils (L 1 a), (Lib) and (L 2 a), (L 2 b), respectively, wound around magnetic cores (7a), (7b) with magnetic air gaps, provided so as to operate stably even if the external environmental conditions such as the temperature, moisture, etc., vary. The phases of the outputs of the secondary coils are set alternately opposite to each other when a regulating magnetic unit is positioned in the vicinity of one magnetic air gap and there is toner in the vicinity of the other magnetic air gap, so that the presence, absence, or the level of toner remaining can be determined by detecting phase differences between the outputs of each of the secondary coils by a phase comparator (11).

Inventors

  • 👤 Kenichi Kanai
  • 👤 Osamu Shimoe

Bibliographic Details

Application Number —
Jurisdiction EP
Data Source google_patents
Last Synchronized 2026-11-09 16:37
CPC Classifications
G; G03; G03G; G03G15/00; G03G15/06; G03G15/08; G03G15/0822; G03G15/0848; G03G15/0856; G03G15/086; Y; Y10; Y10S; Y10S222/00; Y10S222/01

Claims Analysis

Total Claims: 4
Claim 1
Independent Claim 97 words
1 . A toner level sensor comprising a level detection section including primary coils and secondary coils wound on a couple of magnetic cores having a magnetic gap, an oscillator connected to said primary coils for supplying a primary input thereto, a phase detector connected to said two secondary coils for comparing the phases of the outputs of the two secondary coils to produce a phase detection output, and a potential comparator for comparing the output of said phase detector with the potential of a predetermined reference voltage to produce a detection output corresponding to the difference.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim 97 words
1 . A toner level sensor comprising a level detection section including primary coils and secondary coils wound on a couple of magnetic cores having a magnetic gap, an oscillator connected to said primary coils for supplying a primary input thereto, a phase detector connected to said two secondary coils for comparing the phases of the outputs of the two secondary coils to produce a phase detection output, and a potential comparator for comparing the output of said phase detector with the potential of a predetermined reference voltage to produce a detection output corresponding to the difference.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim 36 words
A toner level sensor according to Claim 1, wherein said couple of magnetic cores have shapes symmetric with respect to selected one of a point, a line and a plane and share a common magnetic path.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim 41 words
A toner level sensor according to Claim 1 or 2, wherein a magnetic member is arranged in the vicinity of the magnetic gap of one of said magnetic cores thereby to bias the output phase of said secondary coil in advance.

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