JPH10207209A - Identification type cartridge - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To recognize various kinds of information on toner or a toner container without any trouble and inconvenience and to prevent the erroneous fitting of a cartridge, etc., by attaching a conductive terminal connected to a semiconductor storage member not so as to displace a contact point, even if a rotary part is rotated. SOLUTION: A conductive terminal 35 is provided all around the outer periphery of a container, in a direction perpendicular to the axis line of the rotation of the cartridge 31'. The conductive terminal 35 is connected to the semiconductor storage member arranged in the container or the outer periphery and brought into contact with a conductive terminal 36 disposed in a main body device, in a state where the cartridge 31' is fitted into the main body device. By such a constitution, even if the cartridge 31' is rotated, communication can be always executed between the semiconductor storage member and the CPU of the main body device. Further, the erroneous fitting of the cartridge, etc., can be prevented.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cartridge removably mounted in an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a laser printer, a facsimile and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, a toner / developer (hereinafter referred to as "toner") is applied to an electrostatic latent image during development.
Is electrostatically attached to form a visible image. Therefore, as this operation is repeated, the toner is consumed, and finally the toner disappears from the storage unit. Therefore, new toner needs to be replenished before the stored toner runs out or before it runs out. However, in consideration of simplicity of handling, toner is generally replenished by replacing the toner cartridge.

However, in each image forming apparatus, an image carrier for copying a toner image on a transfer sheet is classified into various types according to the copying speed and the like, and the toner used in each type is accordingly selected. A plurality of types of toners are also prepared, and new toners which are used under the same copying conditions are sequentially developed. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare cartridges containing various toners of various sizes and types. In the case of a full-color image forming apparatus, four types (four colors) of toner are required for one apparatus.

Conventionally, various identification-type toner cartridges have been proposed in order to solve the above-mentioned confusion.
Its purpose is to discriminate between new and old cartridges, detect unit replacement time, prevent mixing of different types of toner, prevent incorrect mounting of cartridges, use common cartridges, detect cartridge replacement, prevent color mixing, process control, and so on. As a corresponding achievement means, various sensors are attached to the cartridge or the shape of the cartridge is devised.

For example, according to the technique proposed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-82493, while storing a plurality of types of toner in a cartridge having a common shape, the information means is marked by a marker code (bar code) or the like. Set aside,
The information unit is identified by a reflective sensor or the like on the image forming apparatus main body side to prevent erroneous mounting of the toner.

In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1-232360, in order to enable a single copying machine to use a plurality of types of toners having different characteristics, the copier needs to take into account the difference in the characteristics of the toner sealed therein. Detecting means for detecting the identification information of the cartridge having the identification information for identifying the cartridge; control means for controlling the copying process conditions for each of the characteristics of the toner by a detection signal of the detection means; Has been proposed.

According to the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-72381, a container (cartridge) containing toner is provided.
Provided with a storage element storing at least information including data specific to the contained toner, and a reading device for reading the information stored in the storage element is provided on the side of the apparatus to which the container is attached. .

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION However, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No.
In the technique proposed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 3-82493, since a light reflection type optical sensor is used, the probability of erroneous detection due to contamination by scattered toner or the like is extremely high and lacks reliability. In addition, marker code (bar code) as information means
, Information cannot be rewritten.

In the technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1-223260, a reflection type photo interrupter or the like is exemplified as information identification means. They must be combined and are not suitable for identifying a lot of information. In the case where the optical identification means is used, the same problem as the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-82493 is presented. In the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-72381, a plurality of electrodes are provided around the entire tapered portion near the mouth of the cartridge, and a signal line for controlling a storage element and data input / output are provided to these electrodes. Since each line such as a data line to be performed and a power supply line for supplying power is connected, if the cartridge is set with a slight twist in the connection portion on the apparatus main body side at the time of mounting, a connection failure occurs. Therefore, careful operation is required. Furthermore, since the corresponding portion of each line such as a signal line and a data line is specified at one position, the respective electrodes cannot relatively move. In other words, the configuration cannot be adopted in a cartridge having a rotating part, and there is a great restriction on the application type.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to enable a variety of information relating to a toner or a toner container to be recognized without any trouble and without any trouble even in a cartridge having a rotating part. In other words, an optimum image formation is always ensured, and in some cases, a cartridge can be shared for a plurality of types of toners, and the cartridge can be effectively reused.

[0011]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a cartridge according to the present invention includes a semiconductor storage member, and a conductive terminal connected to the semiconductor storage member is provided on a rotating part itself, and the rotating part is provided with a conductive terminal. It is mounted so that the contact point will not be displaced even if it rotates.

In the case of a rotary type cartridge, the conductive terminal is provided over the entire outer peripheral surface of the container in a direction perpendicular to the rotation axis, or concentrically with the axis at the container end surface perpendicular to the rotation axis. Preferably, a conductive terminal is provided.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The details of the present invention will be described in detail below. It is to be noted that the following embodiments are merely examples embodying the present invention, and do not limit the technical scope of the present invention.

FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing the overall structure of an internal mechanism of a laser printer having a toner cartridge according to the present invention. What is indicated by reference numeral 10 in the drawing is the printer main body. In the printer main body 10, a photosensitive member 11, which is a drum-shaped image carrier, is provided substantially at the center. Around the photoconductor 11, a charging device 12, a developing device 13, a transfer device 14, and a cleaning device 15 are arranged in a driving direction indicated by an arrow in the drawing. Although not shown in the drawing, the cartridge according to the present invention is disposed on the front or side surface of the printer with respect to the developing device 13. Further, the charging device 12,
An optical writing device 17 is disposed above the cleaning device 15 and the developing device 13. On the right side of the apparatus main body 10 in the figure, a paper feed cassette 18 containing paper P is detachably attached.

When an image is recorded on the paper P using this laser printer, the paper feed roller 20 is driven to rotate and the paper P is fed out of the paper feed cassette 18 toward the image forming section, and the paper P is fed to the image forming section. Is conveyed to the lower side of the photoconductor 11 by the registration roller pair 19 at a certain timing.

The photoreceptor 11 is driven to rotate clockwise as indicated by an arrow. At this time, the surface of the photoreceptor 11 is uniformly charged by the charging device 12, and thereafter, the surface of the photoreceptor 11 is irradiated with laser light from the optical writing device 17 so that the surface of the photoreceptor 11 is irradiated. An electrostatic latent image is formed. The latent image on the drum surface is visualized by toner when passing through a position facing the developing device 13. The image information visualized by the toner is transferred by the transfer device 14 onto the upper surface of the sheet P conveyed below the photoconductor 11.

Then, the sheet P after the image transfer is fixed to the fixing device 1.
6 and the transferred image is fixed by the fixing device 16. The sheet P that has exited the fixing device 16 is conveyed through the conveyance path 21, discharged by the discharge roller pair 22, and stored on the discharge tray 23.

On the other hand, the residual toner on the surface of the photoconductor 11 after the image transfer is removed by the cleaning device 15. Next, the toner cartridge according to the present invention provided with a semiconductor storage member and a conductive terminal for extracting information stored in the semiconductor storage member will be specifically described. The semiconductor storage member is specifically a backup memory, a flash memory, a nonvolatile RAM, or the like, and various information is written in the storage member.
For example, the information initially written includes conditions necessary for image forming process control, such as toner lot, color, particle size, components (magnetic and non-magnetic), charging characteristics, and melting point temperature. In addition, as information that can be rewritten at any time during use of the cartridge, the use history of the cartridge,
Toner end information, toner remaining amount, and the like are included.

In recent years, an image forming apparatus using a container-rotating type cartridge 31 having a spiral groove 33 formed on the peripheral surface of the container as shown in FIG. 2 has increased. In such a cartridge, the container itself is rotated by a gear 32 integrally attached to the container, and the rotation causes toner to be conveyed to the supply opening 34 side by a spiral portion 33 protruding from the container peripheral surface. Therefore, there are many advantages such as no need to provide a component for stirring the toner. However, since the container itself rotates, it is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-723.
No. 81 cannot apply the disclosed structure. Therefore, in the present invention, as shown in FIG. 3, the conductive terminals 35 are provided in the direction perpendicular to the rotation axis of the cartridge 31 over the entire outer circumference of the container. The conductive terminal 35 is connected to a semiconductor storage member disposed inside or on the outer peripheral surface of the container, and in a state where the cartridge 31 ′ is mounted on the main device, the conductive terminal 36 disposed on the main device is provided.
Comes into contact with With such a configuration, communication between the semiconductor storage member and the CPU of the main unit can always be performed even when the cartridge 31 'rotates. In the illustrated example, the conductive terminals 3 on the cartridge side are used.
5 rotates together with the cartridge 31 ′ and the gear 32, but the conductive terminal 35 does not rotate integrally with the gear 32 because it is merely inserted into the cartridge 31 ′, or stops at that position, or It may be attached so as to rotate with the rotation at random.

In the same rotary type cartridge as in the above example, the flat surface of the container is used instead of the peripheral surface of the container.
In the example, the required number of conductive terminals 35 ′ are concentrically arranged radially from the rotation axis of the cartridge on the end face near the supply opening 34.
May be provided (FIG. 5). The conductive terminals 35 'also come into contact with the conductive terminals 36' (FIG. 4) provided in the main unit when the cartridge 31 '' is mounted on the main unit. Although only one conductive terminal 36 'on the main unit is shown in the example of FIG. 4, a plurality of conductive terminals 35' on the cartridge side shown in FIG.
The terminal on the main unit side is also provided corresponding to each of them. With such a configuration, communication can always be performed between the semiconductor storage member and the CPU of the main unit even when the cartridge 31 ″ rotates. In the illustrated example, the conductive terminal is provided on the toner supply opening side, but may be provided on the opposite side, that is, on the so-called bottom side.

Further, as shown in FIG. 6, the cartridge 41 itself is fixed to the main unit at the mounting position, and the agitator 42 (the agitator is omitted and only the shaft is shown) disposed inside is rotated by rotation. In the case of a type in which toner is supplied from an opening 43 formed in the peripheral wall of the cartridge parallel to the axial direction by the rotation, the agitator 4 is used.
The conductive terminal 45 can be provided on the second shaft portion. The terminal 45 contacts the conductive terminal 46 on the main device side,
The semiconductor storage member and the CPU of the main body can communicate with each other.

The following describes how various kinds of information are utilized in what kind of flow in the above configuration. First, when there is no toner in the cartridge set in the apparatus main body, the cartridge is replaced with a new toner cartridge. The semiconductor storage member (memory) provided in this cartridge is connected to the above-described conductive terminal on the cartridge side, and by setting the cartridge in a predetermined position on the apparatus main body, the conductive terminal is connected to the terminal on the main body apparatus side. And the semiconductor storage member of the cartridge and the CPU of the main unit can communicate with each other. FIG. 7 shows this connection relationship. Conventionally, a sensor such as a photo interrupter is used to detect whether or not the cartridge has been set securely. When information cannot be exchanged between the semiconductor storage member and the main body CPU, the CPU issues a warning of a set detection error. As a result, it is not necessary to separately provide a separate set detection sensor, and space can be saved. Further, as shown in FIG. 8, the information stored in the semiconductor storage member is detected by the detecting means of the main unit and sent to the CPU, where each process condition is set, and then the printing operation is performed. Start. For example, FIG.
As shown in the flowchart, the CPU determines whether the information on the type of toner is appropriate for the apparatus,
If not, the user is warned that the device is unusable, and the device is disabled. If they match, use is permitted to allow normal printing operation. Alternatively, it is also possible to control image forming process conditions based on the detected information and perform process control (for example, changing development conditions, charging conditions, transfer conditions, and fixing conditions) so that the toner is suitable. .

Since the semiconductor storage member can be rewritten, information in the cartridge that changes with time, such as the remaining amount of toner, ON and OFF of the toner cartridge, can be changed.
The OFF time (the non-operating time of the toner cartridge) can also be written and stored (FIG. 10 and FIG. 10).
1). The remaining amount of toner can be detected by using a piezoelectric sensor or a torque sensor depending on the type of toner cartridge, so that the information in the semiconductor storage member can be rewritten with time. By doing so, the remaining amount of toner, which was conventionally detected only at the end of toner, is detected and stored in real time, so if that information is displayed on the operation panel of the main unit, the user can print out a large amount. For example, it is easier to determine whether it is better to replace the cartridge with a new cartridge based on the displayed remaining amount. Failure can be prevented.

Also, for a cartridge once removed in the middle due to such a large amount of copying or the like, since the remaining amount of toner in the cartridge is stored in the semiconductor storage member, it is not new when resetting. This can be understood in advance. This means that it is possible to immediately determine whether the set cartridge is new. Also, in some conventional type cartridges, once removed, the protrusions and the like provided on the cartridge are damaged at that time, and the shape of the cartridge is distinguished from old to new. However, there is a problem that the toner cannot be reset even if the toner remains in the cartridge, but the cartridge according to the present invention does not have such a problem.

As described above, the toner cartridge is turned on.
By counting the time and the OFF time, the state of the toner in the cartridge can be grasped.
That is, although the toner is usually left unattended, the fluidity is reduced and the toner easily aggregates depending on the environment.
If the time is stored, the toner supply amount can be kept constant by changing the rotation amount of the container or the rotation amount of the agitator, depending on the cartridge type. Further, since the semiconductor storage member is attached to the toner cartridge, the OFF time can be reliably detected even when the cartridge is removed from the apparatus as described above.

When the cartridge is finally emptied, toner end information is written into the semiconductor storage member, and if the cartridge is erroneously mounted in the apparatus main body, the user is immediately notified that the cartridge is empty. It becomes possible. When the cartridge is recycled almost at the same time as the toner end, if the number of times of use is written as information, it is possible to prevent the cartridge from being erroneously reused more than the life of the cartridge itself. In the case of recycling a cartridge in this way, if information is to be given to the cartridge using, for example, a barcode, a barcode of usage history information for each cartridge type is created and attached to the cartridge. Must be peeled off and replaced again with a new one, which can be quite troublesome. On the other hand, if a rewritable semiconductor storage member is used as in the present invention, the cartridge can be reused as it is simply by rewriting the internal information, and furthermore, complicated work is not required, so that cost is reduced. This is also advantageous. Furthermore, since the communication with the CPU of the main unit is performed via the conductive terminal, the image sensor is more resistant to contamination and less erroneous detection than a conventional identification unit such as a light reflection type sensor.

[0027]

According to the present invention, the semiconductor memory member is provided, and the conductive terminal connected to the semiconductor memory member is attached to the rotating part itself so that the contact point is not displaced even when the rotating part rotates. Therefore, even if the rotating part moves, various information on the toner or the toner container can be always recognized without any trouble and without troublesomeness, thereby preventing erroneous mounting of the cartridge and the like. In some cases, the cartridge can be used in common for a plurality of types of toner, and the cartridge can be reused more effectively.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an overall internal mechanism of a laser printer to which a cartridge having a semiconductor storage member is to be mounted.

FIG. 2 is a schematic side view of a conventionally known rotary type cartridge.

FIG. 3 is a schematic side view showing terminal contact between the cartridge and the main assembly according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic side view showing terminal contact between a cartridge and a main assembly according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

5 is a view of the cartridge of FIG. 4 as viewed from a toner supply opening side.

FIG. 6 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing a cartridge and a main body device according to a third embodiment of the present invention immediately before terminal contact.

FIG. 7 is a conceptual block diagram showing a connection between a semiconductor storage member of a cartridge and a main body CPU.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart for setting image forming process conditions based on information of a semiconductor storage member.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart for determining whether toner is appropriate based on information of a semiconductor storage member.

FIG. 10 is a conceptual block diagram when using information on a remaining toner amount that changes over time in a cartridge.

FIG. 11 shows O changing over time in the cartridge.
It is a conceptual block diagram at the time of using information of N, OFF time, and use history.

[Explanation of symbols]

 31 'Toner cartridge 32 Drive gear 33 Spiral groove 35 Cartridge-side conductive terminal 36 Main unit-side conductive terminal

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Kiyotaka Ota 1-3-6 Nakamagome, Ota-ku, Tokyo Inside Ricoh Co., Ltd.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An identification comprising a semiconductor memory member, wherein a conductive terminal connected to the semiconductor memory member is attached to a rotating part so that a contact point is not displaced even when the rotating part rotates. Type cartridge. 2. The cartridge according to claim 1, wherein the conductive terminal is provided over the entire circumference of the outer peripheral surface of the container in a direction perpendicular to the rotation axis. 3. The cartridge according to claim 1, wherein the conductive terminal is provided concentrically with respect to the rotation axis at a container end surface perpendicular to the rotation axis.