JPH06118857A - Electrophotographic recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent waste toner from being leaked and to prevent staining by the toner from occurring by providing a blade which abuts on a cleaning blade and closes a recovery port when an exchange unit body is pulled out. CONSTITUTION:When a cleaner and toner magazine CTM 8 is pulled out from a device main body, a lever 19 is released from a separation means in the device main body and a shutter 13 is turned by the tension of a spring 18. Then, the tip of the blade 15 abuts on the tip of the cleaning blade 12 while scraping up the discharged toner left near the tip of the blade 12. That means, the recovery port 9a is closed. The scraped waste toner is passed through a taper 15a and recovered in a waste toner recovery tank part 9. Then, the CTM 8 is pulled out from the device main body under a state that the blade 15 abuts on the blade 12 and exchanged.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electrophotographic recording apparatus applied to a facsimile machine, a printer, a copying machine, etc., and particularly, a waste toner collecting tank section and a toner replenishing tank section are integrally combined. The present invention relates to an electrophotographic recording device using the exchange unit body.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, the life of a photoconductor and a developing unit in an electrophotographic recording apparatus of this kind has reached several hundreds of thousands in terms of Japanese Industrial Standard A4 size paper. However, maintenance is indispensable, such as replacement of the photoconductor or developing unit that has reached the end of its life, or replacement of the toner supply tank section that is out of toner and the waste toner collection tank section that is full of waste toner.

In the conventional apparatus, the toner replenishing tank section and the waste toner collecting tank section are constituted by separate units. Therefore, the user has to replace each of them separately, which is troublesome for maintenance. Further, a sensor for detecting that the tank is full is required on the waste toner collecting tank side.

On the other hand, there is also a method of collectively replacing the photoconductor, the developing unit, the toner replenishing tank portion, and the waste toner collecting tank portion when the toner is used up. However, in this case, since the photoconductor and the developing unit which have not reached the end of their life are also discarded, the running cost per sheet of recording paper becomes high.

Further, if the used unit is thrown away, toxic substances such as the photoconductor are also thrown away, and a big problem concerning regulation of industrial waste remains. Therefore, even if the maker collects the used unit and replenishes the toner, it has to be transported to an extra part, which causes a problem of high transportation cost.

Furthermore, in order to meet the recent needs for downsizing of the apparatus, the toner supply tank portion and the waste toner recovery tank portion cannot be made too large.

In order to solve such a problem, a cleaner toner magazine (hereinafter, abbreviated as CTM) as a replacement unit is formed by integrally connecting a waste toner recovery tank section and a toner replenishment tank section. With the above configuration, the user can easily replace the replacement sensor, and the detection sensor can be eliminated.

[0008]

As described above, the toner replenishing tank portion and the waste toner collecting tank portion are integrally connected to each other to form a replacement unit, which allows the user to easily perform maintenance. It was

However, the problem here is the leakage of the waste toner from the waste toner recovery tank portion when the CTM is replaced. In the conventional electrophotographic recording apparatus, since the service person or the like replaces the waste toner collecting tank section as a separate unit for service, there is no particular problem. But,
Since the CTM is exchanged by the user, there is a risk of soiling clothes and the like due to leakage of waste toner.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory view for explaining the cause of waste toner leakage in the CTM, where 50 is a photoconductor and 51 is a photoconductor.
Reference numeral 50 denotes a photosensitive roller that rotates 50, 52 a holder that holds the cleaning blade 53, and 54 a toner scraping blade that scrapes the waste toner into the waste toner collecting tank while rotating.

The cleaning blade 53 is arranged so as to face in the direction opposite to the traveling direction of the photoconductor 50 at the time of image formation, and the tip thereof is in contact with the photoconductor 50.

Further, the cleaning blade 53 is usually 2 mm
It has a certain degree of thickness, and may have a taper cut at its tip in order to smoothly collect the waste toner.
However, if this taper is completely cut, the edge portion becomes weak, and there is a risk that an obstacle such as entrainment may occur. Therefore, it is usual to give the tip a thickness of about 0.6 mm and taper it at an angle of about 55 °.

However, as shown by A in the figure, if the tip of the cleaning blade 13 is thick, it cannot be collected completely,
There is toner remaining on the tip. CTM in that state
If the toner is taken out from the main body of the apparatus, the toner naturally spills, which leads to soiling of the user's clothes and the like.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an electrophotographic recording apparatus capable of preventing waste toner from leaking and preventing contamination by toner.

[0015]

In order to achieve such an object, the present invention provides a waste toner recovery tank having a cleaning blade for removing the residual toner on the surface of the photosensitive member and a recovery port for taking in the removed residual toner. In the electrophotographic recording apparatus in which a toner replenishing section for replenishing toner is integrally coupled to the section, and an exchange unit body detachable from the apparatus main body is provided, when the exchange unit body is pulled out, A blade that comes into contact with the cleaning blade and closes the recovery port is provided.

Further, according to the present invention, in the electrophotographic recording apparatus, a magnet for adsorbing magnetic toner is provided in the waste toner collecting tank section.

Further, according to the present invention, in the electrophotographic recording apparatus, a flexible sheet member is provided to cover at least a contact portion between the blade and the cleaning blade when the replacement unit body is pulled out. .

[0018]

According to the present invention, when the replacement unit is pulled out from the main body of the apparatus, the blade comes into contact with the cleaning blade to close the recovery port of the waste toner recovery tank.

Further, by providing the magnet for adsorbing the magnetic toner, the magnetic force of the magnet holds the magnetic toner in the waste toner collecting tank portion.

Further, when the replacement unit body is removed from the main body of the apparatus, the contact portion between the blade and the cleaning blade is covered with the flexible sheet.

[0021]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing a configuration of an electrophotographic recording apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention, in which 1 is a photoconductor, 2 is a charger, 3 is an exposure unit, 4 is a developing unit, and 5 is a transfer unit. , 6 is a fixing device, 7 is a static eliminator, 8 is a CTM, 9 is a waste toner collecting tank part, 10 is a toner replenishing tank part, 11 is a holder for holding a cleaning blade 12, 13 is a rotating member 14, and a blade 15 is provided. An attached shutter, 16 discharges the toner in the toner replenishing tank portion 10 by rotation, and the developing device 4
Shows the spiral sent to.

The CTM 8 is a replaceable unit body in which the waste toner collecting tank portion 9 and the toner replenishing tank portion 10 are integrally connected, and is in the moving direction of the photosensitive member 1 during the image forming operation (hereinafter referred to as the forward direction). ) Is arranged on the upstream side of the static eliminator 7.

A holder 11 holding a cleaning blade 12 at one end is fixed in the waste toner recovery tank section 9. The tip of the cleaning blade 12 is provided with a thickness of about 0.6 mm and a taper with an angle of about 55 °.
Further, the tip end thereof is installed in a direction opposite to the movement of the photoconductor 1 in the positive direction and abuts on the photoconductor 1.

Further, a rotating member 14 of the shutter 13 is installed in the waste toner collecting tank 9 so as to be rotatable in the direction of the arrow in the figure. The blade 15 attached to the rotating member 14
The cleaning blade 12 is rotated by the rotation of the shutter 13.
Abut the tip of. The blade 15 is made of polyurethane rubber and has a 45 ° taper 15a at its tip.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the internal structure of the waste toner collecting tank portion 9 in the electrophotographic recording apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention, and 17 supports the shutter 13 rotatably. A rotation fulcrum, 18 is a spring installed between the lever 19 and the fixed shaft 20, 21 is a toner scraping blade, 22 is a rotary shaft of the toner scraping blade 21, and 23 is a gear for transmitting a rotational force to the rotary shaft 22. Indicates.

The rotating member 14 of the shutter 13 is a L-shaped front member in front view, and a U-shaped side view U is provided at both ends of one of the bent portions.
The arms 14b and 14b are formed so as to have a V shape. Holes through which the pivots 17, 17 are passed through the arms 14b, 14b.
(Not shown) is formed. The blade 15 is attached to the other bent portion 14a of the rotating member 14 so as to project from the tip of the bent portion 14a.

The arm portions 14b and 14b of the rotating member 14 are rotatably mounted in the waste toner collecting tank portion 9 by the rotating fulcrums 17 and 17, respectively.

The mounting positions of the pivots 17, 17 are as follows.
It is set so that the shutter 13 rotates to bring the tip of the blade 15 into contact with the tip of the cleaning blade 12.

Further, a lever 19 is attached to one rotation fulcrum 17 outside the waste toner recovery tank section 9. The lever 19 is interlocked with the rotation of the shutter 13.
In addition, the fixed shaft 20
Is provided.

Further, a tension spring 18 is attached between the lever 19 and the fixed shaft 20. Therefore, C
When TM8 is not mounted in the apparatus, the pulling force of the spring 18 brings the tip of the blade 15 into contact with the tip of the cleaning blade 12, that is, the collection port 9a is closed.

When the CTM 8 is mounted in the main body of the apparatus, it comes into contact with the lever 19, rotates the lever 19, and separates the blade 15 from the cleaning blade 12 by a separating means.
(Not shown) is provided. Therefore, when the CTM 8 is installed in the apparatus, the blade 15 and the cleaning blade 12 are separated from each other.

A toner scraping blade 21 for collecting the waste toner scraped off by the cleaning blade 12 is supported by the rotating shaft 22 in the waste toner collecting tank section 9. A gear 23 that transmits a rotational force from a motor (not shown) or the like is attached to one end of the rotary shaft 22. The rotation of the gear 23 causes the toner scraping blade 21 to rotate,
The waste toner near the tip of the cleaning blade 12 is collected.

Next, the image forming operation will be described with reference to FIG. First, after charging the photoconductor 1 with the charger 2,
Optical writing is performed by the exposure unit 3 to form an electrostatic latent image on the photoconductor 1. The electrostatic latent image is developed by the developing device 4 to form a toner image, and then the toner image is transferred by the transfer device 5 to the recording paper supplied from the paper feeding unit (not shown). The recording paper on which the toner image has been transferred is heated and fixed by the fixing device 6 and discharged. On the other hand, the toner remaining on the photoconductor 1 is scraped off by the cleaning blade 12 and collected in the waste toner collecting tank 9 as the toner to be discarded. Then, the cleaned photoconductor 1 is subjected to the residual charge removal by the static eliminator 7 to prepare for the next image forming operation.

When the image forming operation is repeated and there is no new toner in the toner replenishing tank section 10, or when the waste toner collecting tank section 9 is full of waste toner, CT
M8 needs to be replaced.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing the positional relationship between the shutter 13 and the cleaning blade 12 when the CTM 8 shown in FIG. 1 is replaced.

When the CTM 8 is pulled out from the apparatus main body, the lever 19 is released from the separating means (not shown) in the apparatus main body, and the shutter 13 is rotated by pulling the spring 18. Then, the tip of the blade 15 contacts the tip of the cleaning blade 12 while scraping up the waste toner remaining near the tip of the cleaning blade 12. The scraped-up waste toner passes through the taper 15a and is collected in the waste toner collecting tank section 9. Then, with the blade 15 and the cleaning blade 12 in contact with each other, the CTM 8 is extracted from the apparatus main body and exchanged.

FIG. 4 is a schematic configuration diagram showing the configuration of an electrophotographic recording apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention, and 24 is a magnet. The same members as those in the first embodiment are designated by the same reference numerals.

In the second embodiment, a magnet 24 is provided between the blade 15 and the bending portion 14a of the rotating member 14 in the first embodiment. The magnet 24 has a bent portion 14a
Is longer than the tip of the blade and shorter than the tapered portion 15a of the blade 15.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the positional relationship between the shutter 13 and the cleaning blade 12 when the CTM 8 shown in FIG. 4 is replaced. When the CTM 8 is pulled out from the apparatus main body, the shutter 13 rotates as in the first embodiment, and the tip of the blade 15 contacts the tip of the cleaning blade 12. The CTM 8 is exchanged in that state. Also CTM
Inside the toner 8, the waste toner having magnetism is held by the magnetic force of the magnet 24.

FIG. 6 is a schematic view showing the schematic arrangement of an electrophotographic recording apparatus according to the third embodiment of the present invention, and 25 is a flexible sheet. The same members as those in the second embodiment are designated by the same reference numerals.

The third embodiment is a magnet 24 of the second embodiment.
The rear end is provided with a protrusion 24a, and a flexible sheet 25, which is longer than the blade 15, is attached onto the protrusion 24a. A polyester resin having a thickness of about 0.1 mm is used for the flexible sheet 25.

FIG. 7 shows a state in which the CTM8 is extracted from the main body of the electrophotographic recording apparatus according to the third embodiment, and FIG. 8 is an explanatory view showing a state in which the CTM8 is completely extracted from the main body of the apparatus. is there.

When the CTM8 is slightly pulled out from the apparatus main body,
As shown in FIG. 7, the shutter is the same as in the first and second embodiments.
13 rotates, the tip of blade 15 and the cleaning blade
The flexible sheet 25 is in contact with the photoconductor 1 on the photoconductor roller 26 while the tip end of 12 is in contact.

Then, when the CTM 8 is completely extracted from the main body of the apparatus, the flexible sheet 25 is separated from the photosensitive roller 26 as shown in FIG. The contact portion with the cleaning blade 12 and the surface of the cleaning blade 12 facing the photoconductor 1 are covered.

Next, the function and effect will be described. With the configuration of the first embodiment, when the CTM 8 is pulled out from the apparatus main body, the tip of the blade 15 scrapes up the waste toner at the tip of the cleaning blade 12 and the cleaning blade.
Since it abuts on the tip of 12, it is possible to prevent the toner from remaining near the tip, and when the CTM8 is replaced, the user stains clothes or the like with waste toner or stains the members around the exchange unit body. Is prevented.
Further, since the blade 15 is made of polyurethane rubber and the tip thereof is tapered 15a, the waste toner can be scraped up smoothly without damaging the photoconductor 1.

Further, with the configuration of the second embodiment, the first
In addition to the function and effect of the embodiment, the magnet 24 holds the magnetic waste toner in the waste toner collecting tank portion 9 by its magnetic force, so that the waste toner leakage can be prevented more reliably.

Further, according to the structure of the third embodiment, in addition to the operational effects of the first and second embodiments, the flexible sheet 25 allows the blade 15 and the cleaning blade 12 when the CTM 8 is replaced.
By covering the abutting portion of the cleaning blade 12 and the surface of the cleaning blade 12 facing the photoconductor 1, it is possible to prevent toner leakage when there is a gap in the abutting portion and scattering of toner adhered to the facing surface of the cleaning blade 12. can do.

[0048]

The present invention has the following effects by adopting the above-mentioned configuration.

First, when the replacement unit body is pulled out, the blade closes the recovery port of the waste toner recovery tank portion, so that the leakage of the waste toner can be prevented. When replacing the replacement unit body, the waste toner and the replacement unit body can be prevented. It is possible to prevent the clothes around the user from being soiled by the members around the.

Further, since the blade is provided with a magnet, the magnetic toner retains the magnetic toner in the waste toner collecting tank portion, so that the waste toner leakage can be prevented.

By providing the flexible member for covering the contact portion between the blade and the cleaning blade, it is possible to prevent the toner from leaking from the gap between the blade and the cleaning blade.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing a main part of an electrophotographic recording apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a configuration of a waste toner recovery tank section in FIG.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an operation in the waste toner recovery tank unit shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram showing a main part of an electrophotographic recording apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an operation in the waste toner recovery tank unit in FIG.

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram showing a main part of an electrophotographic recording apparatus according to a third embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an operation in the waste toner recovery tank unit in FIG.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an operation in the waste toner recovery tank unit in FIG.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an operation in a waste toner recovery tank section in a conventional electrophotographic recording apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Photoconductor, 8 ... Exchange unit body (CTM), 9 ... Waste toner collection tank section, 9a ... Collection port, 10 ... Toner supply tank section, 12 ... Cleaning blade, 13 ... Shutter, 15 ... Blade, 24 ... Magnet , 25 ... Flexible sheet.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A toner replenishment section for replenishing toner is integrally connected to a waste toner recovery tank section having a cleaning blade for removing the residual toner on the surface of the photoreceptor and a recovery port for taking in the removed residual toner, Further, in the electrophotographic recording apparatus equipped with a detachable exchange unit body with respect to the apparatus body, when the exchange unit body is pulled out, a blade that comes into contact with the cleaning blade and closes the recovery port is provided. An electrophotographic recording device characterized by: 2. The electrophotographic recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the blade is provided with a magnet that attracts magnetic toner. 3. When pulling out the replacement unit body,
The electrophotographic recording apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a flexible sheet member that covers at least a contact portion between the blade and the cleaning blade.