JP2001343883A - Electrophotographic image forming device and processor cartridge - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent erroneous attachment of a process cartridge by a simple structure, in an image forming device of a tandem type. SOLUTION: Pieces of station information (n), which respectively concern first to fourth image forming stations Pa to Pd attached to the corresponding process cartridges 100a to 100d, are stored in corresponding NVRAM101a to 101d. On the other hand, pieces of station information N, which respectively concern the first to fourth image forming stations Pa to Pd are stored in a storage medium 50 of an image forming device main body 30. When each of the process cartridges 100a to 100d is attached, the each station information (n) is collated with the each station information N on the main body 30 side to detect erroneous attachment.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention generally relates to an electrophotographic system in which an electrostatic latent image is formed on an image carrier by an electrophotographic method, and the electrostatic latent image is visualized by a developer contained in a developing device. The present invention relates to a photographic image forming apparatus and a process cartridge.

Here, as an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, for example, an electrophotographic copying machine, an electrophotographic printer (for example, L
ED printers, laser beam printers, etc.), and electrophotographic facsimile machines.

A process cartridge is a cartridge in which at least one of a charging unit, a developing unit, and a cleaning unit and an electrophotographic photosensitive member are integrally formed into a cartridge, and this cartridge is detachably mountable to an electrophotographic image forming apparatus main body. Or a cartridge in which at least the developing means and the electrophotographic photosensitive member are integrally formed, and this cartridge is detachable from the main body of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus.

[0004]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, many image forming apparatuses using an electrophotographic system or an electrostatic recording system have been proposed and embodied. Among them, an example of a schematic configuration and operation of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus is shown. Will be described with reference to FIG.

In the image forming apparatus shown in FIG. 3, when a copy start signal is input, a photosensitive drum 1 as an electrophotographic photosensitive member is charged to a predetermined potential by a charger 3 as charging means. You.

On the other hand, in the reader unit I, the platen 10
A unit 9 in which a document irradiating lamp, a short focus lens array, and a CCD sensor are integrated with the document G placed thereon.
Scans while irradiating the document, the reflected light of the illumination scanning light on the document surface is imaged by the short focus lens array and is incident on the CCD sensor. The CCD sensor includes a light receiving unit, a transfer unit, and an output unit. The light signal is converted into a charge signal in the light receiving unit, and the transfer unit sequentially transfers the light signal to an output unit in synchronization with a clock pulse. The output unit converts the charge signal into a voltage signal, amplifies the voltage signal, reduces impedance, and outputs the voltage signal. The obtained analog signal is subjected to image processing, converted into a digital signal, and converted into a digital signal.
Send to I

In the printer section II, upon receiving the image signal, the solid-state laser element, which is turned on and off, is charged to a predetermined potential by a laser exposure means 2 which scans the light with a rotating polygon mirror rotating at high speed. An electrostatic latent image corresponding to a document image is formed on the surface of the photosensitive drum 1.

The electrostatic latent image is developed by a developing unit 4 as a developing means containing a so-called two-component developer containing toner particles and carrier particles, and a toner image is obtained on the photosensitive drum 1.

The toner image thus formed on the photosensitive drum 1 is electrostatically transferred to a recording material P as a storage medium by a transfer charging blade 74 of the transfer device 7. Thereafter, the recording material P is electrostatically separated from the transfer belt 71 stretched between the rollers 72 and 73, and is conveyed to the fixing device 6, where the toner image is thermally fixed and a permanent image is output.

The toner remaining on the photosensitive drum 1 after the transfer is cleaned by a cleaner 4 as cleaning means, and is used for the next image formation.

Further, in the above-described image forming apparatus, a process cartridge having an integral unit structure in which the consumable parts can be attached to and detached from the apparatus main body is used in terms of simplicity, life of the consumable parts, and cost. . As shown in FIG. 4, the process cartridge 100 usually includes an electrophotographic photosensitive member 1, a charging unit 3, a developing unit 4, and a cleaning unit 5, and is replaced with a proper life.

According to this process cartridge system,
Since the maintenance of the apparatus can be performed by the user himself without relying on a serviceman, the operability can be remarkably improved. Therefore, this process cartridge system is widely used in electrophotographic image forming apparatuses.

[0013] Since such a process cartridge is frequently attached to and detached from the main assembly of the apparatus, it is frequently used in an EEPRO.
A proposal has also been made to incorporate a non-volatile storage means 101 such as M into the process cartridge itself, for example, to improve the detection accuracy of each process cartridge when a plurality of process cartridges are used for one apparatus main body.

In recent years, as a configuration of a color electrophotographic image forming apparatus, the image forming means (also referred to as an image forming station) described above is arranged side by side for four colors, and
A so-called tandem type color image forming apparatus has been developed in which a toner image of four colors can be superimposed on a recording material only by passing the recording material once through each image forming unit. This method has an advantage that high-speed color printing can be performed.

In the tandem type color image forming apparatus, the above process cartridges for four colors are also mounted.

[0016]

However, in the case of the above-described tandem type color electrophotographic image forming apparatus, when each image forming station is arranged in a color order such as yellow, magenta, cyan, and black, It is conceivable that the image forming stations are interchanged when replacing or mounting the process cartridge. When the process cartridges are interchanged, different colors of toner are mixed, and an image defect occurs. In particular, when a user replaces or mounts a process cartridge by himself / herself, irrespective of a service person, there is a greater concern that such a process cartridge is erroneously mounted.

Conventionally, in order to avoid such a problem,
A configuration is adopted in which the shape of the process cartridge mounted in each image forming station is changed so that the process cartridge cannot be mounted in a different image forming station.

However, such a configuration requires a process cartridge having a different shape for each color, so that it is complicated and the overall cost is high.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an electrophotographic image forming apparatus and a process cartridge which can prevent erroneous mounting of a process cartridge with a simple configuration.

[0020]

The above object is achieved by an electrophotographic image forming apparatus and a process cartridge according to the present invention. In summary, the present invention relates to an electrophotographic image forming apparatus including a process cartridge, which is detachable and includes a plurality of image forming units for forming an image on a recording medium, comprising: (a) an electrophotographic photosensitive member; Removing a process cartridge comprising: a process unit acting on the electrophotographic photosensitive member; and a storage unit for storing information relating to the process cartridge and capable of reading / writing the stored information from the main body of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus. And (b) an electrostatic latent image forming means for forming an electrostatic latent image on the electrophotographic photosensitive member. The information on the process cartridge includes at least the process cartridge. Wherein the information is related to an arrangement in the electrophotographic image forming apparatus main body. That.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a process cartridge detachably mountable to an electrophotographic image forming apparatus main body, wherein (a) an electrophotographic photosensitive member, and (b) a process means acting on the electrophotographic photosensitive member. (C) storage means for storing information on the process cartridge, and the stored information being readable / writable from the electrophotographic image forming apparatus main body. A process cartridge is provided, which is information on an arrangement of the process cartridge in the main body of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus.

According to one embodiment of each of the above inventions,
The process unit includes a charging unit and a developing unit.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the information on the arrangement is arrangement number information of the process cartridge in the main body of the image forming apparatus.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the information on the arrangement is color information on the developing means of the process cartridge.

[0025]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, an electrophotographic image forming apparatus and a process cartridge according to the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings. Note that members having the same functions as the members described above are denoted by the same reference numerals.

Referring to FIG. 1, an embodiment of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus according to the present invention will be described.

The electrophotographic image forming apparatus of this embodiment is similar to that of FIG.
As shown in FIG. 1, a printer unit II includes a reader unit I and a printer unit II. In the printer unit II, first, second, third, and fourth image forming stations (image forming units) Pa,
This is a tandem-type electrophotographic image forming apparatus that forms toner images of different colors using Pb, Pc, and Pd, and sequentially superimposes and transfers the toner images onto the same recording medium P to obtain a color image.

The leader section I is substantially the same as that shown and described in FIG.

First to fourth image forming stations Pa to
Pd is a photosensitive drum 11b, 1c, 1d as an electrophotographic photosensitive member, a primary charger 3a as a charging unit, respectively.
3b, 3c, 3d, developing devices 4a, 4b,
4c, 4d and exposure lamps 8a, 8b, 8c, 8d
In the present embodiment, the process cartridges 100a, 100b, 100c, and 100d are integrally formed, and can be detached from the image forming apparatus main body 30 via the mounting means 20 (only a part is shown). It is attached to.

The exposure means 2a to 2d, which are the latent image forming means of this embodiment, use an LED array writer head.

The photosensitive drums 1a to 1d are provided with an exposure lamp 8a.
After being uniformly exposed and neutralized by the primary chargers 3a to 3d, it is uniformly charged by the primary chargers 3a to 3d.
2d forms an electrostatic latent image that is color-separated in accordance with the image exposure pattern. The electrostatic latent images are stored in the developing units 4a to 4a.
By means of d, development is carried out by developers (toners) of yellow, magenta, cyan and black, respectively.

In general, the developing method is such that a non-magnetic toner is coated on a developing roller with a blade or the like, and a magnetic toner is coated by a magnetic force, conveyed, and developed in a non-contact state with a photosensitive drum. (One-component non-contact development) and a method of developing the toner coated as described above in contact with the photosensitive drum (1).
A two-component contact development), a method in which a mixture of toner particles and a magnetic carrier is used as a developer, and the toner particles are conveyed by magnetic force and developed in contact with the photosensitive drum (two-component contact development). The above-described two-component developer is developed in a non-contact state and is developed into two types (two-component non-contact development). The two-component contact development method is often used from the viewpoint of high image quality and high stability.

The toner images developed by the developing units 4a to 4d are then transferred by the transfer device 7 to a recording material P as a storage medium.

The transfer device 7 is stretched around a driving roller 72 and a driven roller 73, and has an endless transport belt 71 which is driven to rotate in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 1, and the photosensitive drums 1a to 1d.
And a transfer charging blade 74a, 74b, 74c, 74d provided with the transport belt 71 interposed therebetween. The transfer charging blades 74a to 74d
While the pressing force is applied to the photosensitive drums 1a to 1d from the inside of the recording medium 1 and supplied from a high-voltage power supply (not shown), the reverse polarity of the toner is charged from the back side of the recording material P carried on the conveyance belt 71. Is performed, the photosensitive drums 1a to 1a to
The toner images on 1d are sequentially transferred to the upper surface of the recording material P.

The transfer of the recording material P formed by the photoconductive drums 1a to 1d and the transport belt 7 is synchronized with the rotation of the photoconductive drums 1a to 1d from a paper feeder (not shown) at an appropriate timing. Transported to the department.

In this embodiment, the conveyor belt 7 is made of a polyimide resin having a thickness of 75 μm. The material of the conveyor belt is not limited to a polyimide resin, but may be a polycarbonate resin, a polyethylene terephthalate resin, a polyvinylidene fluoride resin, a polyethylene naphthalate resin, a polyetheretherketone resin, a polyethersulfone resin, or a polyurethane resin. Plastic, fluorine-based, silicon-based rubber, and the like can be suitably used. 75μ
It is not limited to m, but those having 25 to 2000 μm, preferably 50 to 150 μm can be suitably used.

Further, the transfer charging blades 74a to 74d having a resistance of 1 × 10 ⁵ to 1 × 10 ⁷ Ω were used.
+15 μA is applied to the transfer charging blades 74a to 74d.
The transfer was carried out by applying a bias of constant current control.

In this manner, each of the photosensitive drums 1a to 1a
The toner images respectively transferred onto the recording material P are electrostatically transferred onto the recording material P by the transfer charging blades 74a to 74d. Thereafter, the recording material P is conveyed to the fixing device 6, where the toner image is thermally fixed, and a permanent image is output.

In this embodiment, the process cartridge 10
Storage means 101a, 101b, 10
1c and 101d, and the storage means 101a to 101d are provided.
The information about the arrangement order of the process cartridges 101a to 101d in the image forming apparatus is stored in advance in d. The information on the arrangement order includes, for example, the toner color in the developing unit of the process cartridge and the numbers assigned to the first to fourth image forming stations Pa to Pd of the image forming apparatus main body, that is, the station numbers. .

The storage means 101a to 101c used in this embodiment
101d is not particularly limited as long as it stores and holds signal information in a rewritable manner.
Alternatively, an electrical storage means such as a rewritable ROM, a magnetic storage medium such as a magnetic recording medium, a magnetic bubble memory, and a magneto-optical disk may be used. In this embodiment, a nonvolatile NV (NonVo) is used in terms of ease of handling and cost.
latile) RAM was used.

Next, the flow relating to the control of this embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

When the user replaces, installs, or mounts any one of the process cartridges 100a to 100d with respect to the image forming apparatus main body 30 (S11), first, the storage provided in the process cartridge in which the image forming apparatus main body 30 is mounted. The information n relating to the arrangement order in the image forming apparatus main body stored in the means is read (S12), and then the arrangement order (station information N) previously stored in the storage medium 50 in the image forming apparatus main body, for example, a CPU or the like. Is read (S13), the two are collated (S14), and it is determined whether N = n (S15). As a result, if the mounting location of the process cartridge is incorrect, the user is informed of the mounting error and is warned (S16). If the mounting position of the process cartridge is valid, the image forming operation is started (S17).

More specifically, the station information N = 1, 2, 3, and 4 in the arrangement order regarding the first to fourth image forming stations Pa to Pd are stored in the storage medium 50 of the apparatus main body 30.
The storage means 101a-1 of the process cartridges 100a-100d to be mounted on
01d, station information n = 1, 2, 3,... Of the first to fourth image forming stations Pa to Pd to be mounted.
4 are stored.

Then, for example, the process cartridge 10 to be mounted in the first image forming station Pa
0a is incorrectly input by the user to the second image forming station Pb.
When the image forming apparatus 100 is mounted on the image forming station Pb, the apparatus main body 30 reads information n = 1 regarding the arrangement order from the storage unit 101a in the mounted process cartridge 100a, and stores the information in the station of the second image forming station Pb stored in the storage medium 50 of the apparatus main body 30. If the information N is compared with N = 2, the station information, that is, the station number should be originally the same, but it is different.
Can recognize that the process cartridge 101a has been mounted by mistake, and warn the user there.

Each of the process cartridges 100a-1
NVRAMs 101a to 101 serving as storage means on 00d
As the arrangement order information stored in d, not only the station number but also the color information of each of the developing units 4a to 4d can be used.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to prevent a user from accidentally mounting a process cartridge when replacing or mounting a process cartridge in another station.

In this embodiment, the case where the present invention is applied to an electrophotographic image forming apparatus in which a process cartridge is detachably mounted to an apparatus main body has been described, but at least a developer container and a developing roller are used. The present invention can also be applied to an electrophotographic image forming apparatus in which a developing cartridge having a certain developer carrier is detachably mounted to the apparatus main body.

[0048]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the electrophotographic image forming apparatus and the process cartridge of the present invention, information on the process cartridge is stored,
And a storage unit that can read / write the stored information from / to the main body of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus. The information on the process cartridge includes at least information on an arrangement of the process cartridge in the main body of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus. , The erroneous mounting of the process cartridge can be prevented with a simple configuration, and an image defect due to mixing of the developer can be prevented.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram illustrating an embodiment of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining the flow of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram illustrating an example of a conventional electrophotographic image forming apparatus.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram illustrating an example of a conventional process cartridge.

[Explanation of symbols]

1a, 1b, 1c, 1d Photoconductor drum (electrophotographic photoconductor) 2a, 2b, 2c, 2d Exposure means 3a, 3b, 3c, 3d Primary charger (charging means
Process means) 4a, 4b, 4c, 4d Developing device (developing means / process means) 20 Mounting means 100a to 100d Process cartridge 101a to 101d NVRAM (storage means) P Recording paper (recording medium) Pa, Pb, Pc, Pd Image Forming station (image forming section)

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Koichi Hashimoto 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Inside Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Kenichi Shibuya 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon (72) Inventor Shuichi Kadota 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo F-term in Canon Inc. (reference) 2H030 AA07 AB02 AD16 BB02 BB21 BB41 2H071 BA04 BA13 BA20 BA32 DA06 DA08 DA15 DA32 EA18

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. An electrophotographic image forming apparatus having a process cartridge detachable and having a plurality of image forming units for forming an image on a recording medium, comprising: (a) an electrophotographic photosensitive member; Removably mount a process cartridge comprising: a process unit acting on a photoreceptor; and a storage unit for storing information relating to the process cartridge and reading / writing the stored information from the main body of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus. (B) an electrostatic latent image forming means for forming an electrostatic latent image on the electrophotographic photosensitive member, and the information on the process cartridge includes at least the electronic device of the process cartridge. An electrophotographic image forming apparatus, wherein the information is information on an arrangement in a photographic image forming apparatus main body. 2. An electrophotographic image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said processing means includes a charging means and a developing means. 3. The electrophotographic image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information on the arrangement is arrangement number information of the process cartridge in the image forming apparatus main body. 4. The electrophotographic image forming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the information on the arrangement is color information on the developing unit of the process cartridge. 5. The electrophotographic image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image forming units are arranged in parallel, and a tandem system in which images are sequentially superimposed on the storage medium in one pass. Any one of the electrophotographic image forming apparatuses. 6. A process cartridge detachably mountable to an electrophotographic image forming apparatus having a plurality of image forming units for forming an image on a recording medium, comprising: (a) an electrophotographic photosensitive member; and (b) the electrophotographic. (C) storage means for storing information relating to a process cartridge, wherein the stored information is readable / writable from / to the main body of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus; 2. The process cartridge according to claim 1, wherein the information on the cartridge is at least information on an arrangement of the process cartridge in the main body of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus. 7. The process cartridge according to claim 6, wherein said process means includes a charging means and a developing means. 8. The process cartridge according to claim 6, wherein the information on the arrangement is arrangement number information of the process cartridge in the main body of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus. 9. The process cartridge according to claim 7, wherein the information on the arrangement is color information of the developing unit of the process cartridge. 10. The electrophotographic image forming apparatus is of a tandem type in which the image forming units are arranged in parallel, and images are sequentially superimposed on the storage medium in one pass. Any of the process cartridges.