1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a toner cartridge which is detachably mounted on a toner box of a copier/duplicator or a printer to supply toner into the latter.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are available a variety of toner cartridges that are detachably mounted on the toner box. Toner cartridges, that are mounted on the toner box after opening are well known in the art. However, a toner box of this type is disadvantageous in that in the process of mounting it on the toner box, the toner is often scattered, thus contaminating the surrounding area. In order to eliminate this difficulty, toner cartridges have teen proposed, for instance, by Japanese Patent Application (OPI) No. 224364/1983 (the term "OPI" as used herein means an unexamined published application"), and Japanese Utility Model Application (OPI) No. 77151/1983, where the cartridges are opened after being mounted on the toner box. Another toner cartridge is proposed by this inventor in U.S. Pat. No. 4,834,246.
One example of a conventional toner cartridge is shown in FIGS. 8, 9 and 10. FIG. 8 is a sectional view of the cartridge, FIG. 9 is a sectional view taken along line A--A of FIG. 8, and FIG. 10 provides a bottom view for a description of the opening of the conventional toner cartridge. The conventional toner cartridge comprises a toner container body 1 that has an opening at the bottom and is substantially in the form of a rectangular box. A mouth ring member 2 has a bonding region 8 along the opening edge to which a sealing film 4 is bonded. The mouth ring member 2 also holds a lid 3 in such a manner that the lid is slidable. The sealing film seals the opening in such a manner that it can be peeled off when necessary. At one nd of the opening, a locking member 11 is present to secure one end of the sealing film and the lid for the opening. Toner 6 is contained in the toner container body, which is covered with a top plate 7. The sealing film is bonded to the bonding region of the mouth ring member, thus supporting the toner. One end portion of the sealing film, is folded over one end portion of the lid, and secured to the locking member 11. The locking member 11 is slidably provided over the rear surface of the lid and the lid is slidably held by a side wall 10, which is integral with the mouth ring member.
The toner is supplied by the conventional toner cartridge as follows. First, the toner cartridge is mounted or the toner inlet of the toner box. Then, the locking member is moved in the direction of the arrow of FIG. 8 with a suitable means (not shown) to peel the sealing film off the opening of the toner container body thereby opening the latter. As a result, toner is supplied to the toner box from the toner container body.
In the conventional toner cartridge described above, the bonding region of the mouth ring member is adjacent to the opening. If the toner cartridge is dropped during transportation or handling, it often occurs that the sealing film falls off, or is damaged or punctured by the impact of dropping, resulting in toner leaking out of the toner cartridge. This difficulty may be eliminated by strongly bonding the sealing film to the bonding region but this results in requiring greater power to peel off the sealing film to supply the toner, resulting in a toner supplying operation that cannot be easily or smoothly carried out.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a toner cartridge that has the seemingly contradictory characteristics of allowing the peeling of the sealing film to be easily and smoothly performed while providing a toner cartridge configuration that reduces damage to the sealing film as a result of accidental dropping of the toner cartridge during handling or transportation.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.