Lexmark Inc. Assigned New Volumetric Toner Cartridge Patent.
Volumetric toner cartridge having toner agitators; (U.S. Patent 8,918,032); Jonathan Murray Hill of Richmond and others; Lexmark International Inc. of Lexington, Ky.
A toner cartridge for an imaging device having a housing having a toner reservoir and an exit port in fluid communication with the toner reservoir. A drive shaft rotatably mounts within the toner reservoir. A toner platform is movably coupled to the drive shaft and is nonrotatable but slidable relative to the housing.
A resilient arm is positioned within the reservoir and biased toward an initial position in the path of the toner platform.
When the drive shaft rotates, the toner platform translates toward the exit port. When the toner platform contacts the resilient arm, the resilient arm moves to permit the toner platform to pass and when the toner platform moves further toward the exit port the resilient arm returns to the initial position.
The resilient arm may mount on the inner surface, the toner to platform or the drive shaft.