JP2000293090A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent image defect, warm air and an unpleasant bad odor caused by the retaining of ozone by rotatably arranging a blade part and a radiation fin provided at both ends of a heat pipe on the inside and the outside of a circulating air flow path part. SOLUTION: A circulating air flow duct 21 provided to cool heat (warm air) and deodorize the bad odor is formed nearly in L-shape as a whole, and constituted of a pair of parallel ducts 21c coupled by an extended upside duct 21a and a coupling duct 21b. The duct 21 is provided at a position where it envelops a photoreceptor drum 13 and an electrifying charger 14. A pair of fans 22 and 23 opposed to each other and a rotatable heat pipe 24 arranged between the fans 22 and 23 are provided in the duct 21, and plural windmill blades 25 are integrally provided at one end of the pipe 24 and a radiation fin 26 is integrally provided at the other end. Then, the blade 25 and the fin 26 are arranged rotatably through bearings on the inside and the outside of the duct 21, respectively.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus using an electrostatic process such as a copying machine, a printer, and a facsimile.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in an image forming apparatus using an electrostatic process such as a copying machine, a printer, a facsimile, etc., when the temperature around a photosensitive drum and a charger (image forming unit) rises, melting of a developing toner and Since a problem such as entrainment of the cleaning blade occurs, the ambient temperature (warm air) of the image forming unit is cooled by air sent from a blowing fan or the like. The hot air after the cooling is exhausted to the outside of the apparatus. However, in this case, the discharged hot air may contain an unpleasant odor such as toner odor. Therefore, measures to solve the problem are desired, and the vicinity of the charging charger and the transfer separation belt is ozone generated by high-pressure discharge. Therefore, there is a possibility that an image defect due to the retention of ozone may occur. Furthermore, since such ozone has a bad influence on the human body in terms of environmental health, its concentration and exhaust volume are regulated by standards. In order to solve such a problem caused by the image forming apparatus, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-50214 discloses that an exhaust passage is provided inside the apparatus, and a cooling fan and a heat pipe for cooling are provided in the passage. A technique is disclosed in which hot air is cooled by a cooling fan and a heat pipe, and ozone generated in a high-pressure section is passed through an ozone filter to reduce the concentration of ozone and exhaust the ozone.

[0003]

However, in the case of the image forming apparatus described in the above publication, the generated ozone is deodorized by an ozone filter to reduce the ozone concentration. However, since some odor still remains, it is not sufficient as a solution to the residual odor, and the driving noise of the fan for exhausting the hot air is transmitted to the inside and outside of the device through the exhaust passage, so that the noise is reduced. May cause.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems of the conventional image forming apparatus, and to prevent image defects due to stagnation of ozone and to prevent generation of warm air and unpleasant odor. An apparatus is provided.

[0005]

According to the present invention, in order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 is characterized in that a charging section or a transfer section, at least one charge removing section, a circulating air flow path section, Which are opposed to each other in the circulating air flow path portion.
It has a pair of fans and a rotatable heat pipe disposed between the fans, and a windmill-like wing is formed at one end of the heat pipe and a radiation fin is integrally formed at the other end. In addition to the above arrangement, a wing portion is provided inside the circulating air flow path portion and a radiation fin is provided outside the fin portion so as to be rotatable.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, an exchangeable ozone filter is disposed in a part of the circulating air flow path.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the radiating fins are arranged below the device and far from the heat source.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment of the present invention.
1 is a schematic cross-sectional view of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment. That is, as shown in FIG. 1, the inside of the image forming apparatus A has a data writing unit 7 and an image forming unit 12 (image forming unit), of which the image forming unit 12 is a photoconductive photosensitive drum.
13, a charging charger 14, a developing device 15, a transfer / separation belt 16, a cleaning device 17, a fixing device 18, and a paper feeding unit 19 provided around the photosensitive drum 13 are arranged, respectively. The surface of the photoconductor drum 13 is uniformly charged by the charging charger 14 when the photoconductor drum 13 is rotationally driven.

A data writing unit 7 includes a light source 8 such as a laser diode, a scanning polygon mirror 9 (polygon mirror), a polygon motor 10, and a scanning optical system 11 such as an fθ lens.
Composed of Reference numeral 1 denotes a document reading unit (image scanner). The document reading unit 1 includes an image reading device including a light source 2, a mirror 3, an imaging lens 4, and an image sensor 5 such as a CCD.

Then, an image on the original is read in pixel units by the original reading section 1, and the read data is converted into digital data (binarization).
Is sent to the data writing unit 7 or stored in the image memory (storage means). An automatic document feeder 6 (ADF) for automatic paper feed is mounted on the document table (contact glass). Reference numeral 20 denotes a double-sided paper feeding unit 20 for double-sided paper feeding.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, a feature of the present invention is that a circulating airflow duct 21 is provided for cooling heat (hot air) and deodorizing odors. That is, the circulating airflow duct 21 is formed as a "substantially L-shape" as a whole, and is composed of a pair of parallel ducts 21c, 21c connected by an extending upper duct 21a and a connection duct 21b. As shown in FIG. 2, the circulating airflow duct 21 is provided at a position surrounding the photoconductor drum 13 and the charging charger 14. And
The circulating airflow duct 21 has a pair of fans 22 and 23 facing each other, and a rotatable heat pipe 24 disposed between the fans 22 and 23.
A plurality of windmill-like blades 25, 25 are integrally provided at one end (front side), and radiation fins 26 are integrally provided at the other end (rear side). The heat pipe 24 functions as a cooling unit as described later. Further, in this example, the wing portion 25 is provided inside the circulating airflow duct 21, and the radiation fins 26 are provided on the outside thereof so as to be rotatable by bearings 27. Therefore, when the heat pipe 24 rotates, the wings 25 and the radiation fins
26 rotates in the same direction. On the other hand, the pair of fans 22 and 23 are provided with an intake port 28 and an exhaust port 29 at positions orthogonal to each other, and the exhaust port 29 of the fan 22 and the intake port 28 of the fan 23 are provided.
Are opposed to each other.

Hereinafter, the circulating cooling operation of the circulating airflow duct 21 configured as described above will be described. First, fan 22
Rotates, and the airflow blown from the exhaust port 29 of the fan 22 reaches the periphery of the charger 14 from the connection duct 21b through the intake port 28 and the exhaust port 29 of the fan 23, through the parallel duct 21c. The air containing heat existing around the charger 14 due to this air blow is supplied to the intake port 28 and the exhaust port of the fan 22.
The air is again sent to the intake port 28 of the fan 23 through 29. At this time, as shown in FIG.
Wings 25 are rotated by the air sent out from the
As a result, the heat pipe 24 and the radiation fin 26 rotate. As a result, the air (warm air) containing the sent heat is cooled by the heat exchange / cooling action of the heat pipe 24 and the radiating fins 26, and is sent again to the charging charger 14 via the fan 23, and thereafter, Airflow circulation is continued. As a result, air containing heat (air flow) does not stay around the charger 14.

FIG. 4 shows a second embodiment of the present invention. That is, the notch 30 is formed in a part of the circulation airflow duct 21, and the replaceable ozone filter 31 is formed in the notch 30.
Has been arranged. Here, it is preferable that the ozone filter 31 is disposed at a position adjacent to the fan 22 as shown in the drawing so that a pressure loss of an air flow does not occur. With the arrangement of the ozone filter 31, the concentration of ozone present in the circulation airflow duct 21 can be more effectively reduced.

FIG. 5 shows a third embodiment of the present invention. That is, in the third embodiment, the concave portion 33 is formed in a part of the outer cover 32 of the device A, and the radiating fin 26 is exposed here, and the portion below the device A is located as far as possible from a heat source such as a power supply unit. It is arranged. Further, as shown in FIG. 5, the concave portion 33 is closed by a mounting cover 35 in consideration of ventilation such as a louver, so that the radiation fin 26 is not directly touched, thereby ensuring safety. The mounting cover 35 may be formed integrally with the outer cover 32. In the embodiment according to the present invention, an example is shown in which the circulating airflow duct 21 is arranged around the charging charger 14, but the present invention is not limited to this, and a similar effect can be obtained for a transfer unit or a static elimination unit. .

[0015]

The present invention is as described above. According to the first aspect of the present invention, at least one charging unit or transfer unit is provided.
And a pair of fans facing each other, and a rotatable heat pipe disposed between the fans. A windmill-like wing is provided at one end of the pipe, and a radiating fin is integrally provided at the other end, and the wing is disposed rotatably on the outside of the circulating air flow path. Therefore, no hot air is discharged to the outside of the device, and the hot air generated by the heat inside the device can be cooled by a heat pipe. And the generation of unpleasant odor can be prevented.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, since an exchangeable ozone filter is disposed in a part of the circulating air passage in the first aspect of the invention, ozone is generated without exhausting ozone outside the apparatus. Since the ozone treatment can be performed, it is possible to prevent image defects due to ozone stagnation and heat, and to prevent generation of warm air and unpleasant odor.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the radiating fins are arranged below the device and far from the heat source, so that the internal temperature of the circulating air flow path can be reduced and the radiating fins can be improved. There is an effect that the operating noise of the fan can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic longitudinal sectional view showing a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view showing a main part of the circulating air passage.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the same.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged perspective view showing an arrangement of an ozone filter according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged perspective view showing an arrangement of heat radiation fins in the third embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 A Image forming apparatus 1 Document reading section 7 Data writing section 13 Photoreceptor drum 14 Charger 15 Developing device 21 Circulating air duct 22, 23 Fan 24 Heat pipe 25 Blade 26 Radiation fin 28 Intake port 29 Exhaust port 30 Notch 31 Ozone filter 32 Exterior cover 33 Recess 35 Mounting cover

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A charging section or a transfer section, at least one static elimination section, and a circulating air flow path section, a pair of fans facing each other in the circulating air flow path section, and disposed between the fans. A rotatable heat pipe having a windmill-like wing at one end and a radiation fin at the other end, and a wing inside the circulating air flow passage. An image forming apparatus using an electrostatic process, wherein a heat radiation fin and a heat radiating fin are disposed on the outside of the image forming apparatus, respectively. 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an exchangeable ozone filter is disposed in a part of the circulating air flow path. 3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the radiating fins are disposed below the apparatus and far from the heat source.