JP2002040895A - Cleaning device, cleaning toner magazine, and image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent waste toner from dropping by preventing a contact member, which scratches toner off a magnetic body roll, from being turned over by the pressure of toner. SOLUTION: A second sheet material 31 is made thicker and shorter by x [mm] than a first sheet material 30, and the first sheet material 30 and the second sheet material 31 have end parts aligned and are joined by a double coated adhesive tape 33 to constitute scraper 24 so that the first sheet material 30 may project from the second sheet material 31 in the front end part by x [mm]. The scraper 24 is stuck to a bracket 32 by the double coated adhesive tape 33 so that the front end of the scraper 24 may be brought into contact with the magnetic body roll.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cleaning apparatus, a cleaning toner magazine, and an image forming apparatus applied to electrophotographic apparatuses such as a copying machine, a printer, and a facsimile apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional technique of this kind is disclosed in
There is an electrophotographic recording apparatus described in JP-A-308866.
According to this publication, a scraper is arranged at an angle with respect to the rotation axis of a magnetic roller for conveying toner to generate a component force in a portion where a load is concentrated, such as a protrusion, and the scraper is turned up. It is described that the snagging is suppressed.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, waste toner collecting means for attracting toner by magnetic force in order to store toner blocked by a cleaning means in a waste toner tank, In many cases, a configuration having a sheet material for scraping off the toner is adopted. Generally, a PET resin having a thickness of 0.05 mm to 0.125 mm is used as a sheet material constituting the scraper, and the thinner the thickness, the lighter the load becomes, and the roller is locked by a convex step. There is nothing to let you do. However, on the other hand, the toner may be turned up by a flaw of the waste toner collecting means or the pressure of the waste toner, and the function of scraping the waste toner may be lost. As a result, the waste toner adheres to the waste toner collecting means but continues to accumulate on the surface as it is,
Eventually, it spills into the machine, contaminating the image and developing into user complaints.

FIG. 5, FIG. 6, and FIG. 7 are explanatory views showing the mechanism of turning over of the scraper.
101 is a cleaning blade made of urethane abutting on the photoreceptor 100, 102 is a magnetic roller having a magnetic surface, 103 is a scraper made of a sheet material abutting in the counter direction with respect to the rotation direction of the magnetic roller 102, 104 is 4 shows a waste toner tank.

As shown in FIG. 5, toner remaining on the photoreceptor 100 without being transferred to recording paper by an electrophotographic process is blocked by a cleaning blade 101, and the blocked toner is attracted to a magnetic roller 102. The toner adsorbed on the magnetic roller 102 is scraped off by the scraper 103. Then scraper 103
The toner scraped off by the convection flows in the direction shown by the arrow A near the scraper 103. The range of the convection gradually widens, and eventually goes out of the range of the magnetic force of the magnetic roller 102, so that the toner spills out and is stored inside the waste toner tank 104.

[0006] The magnetic roller 1 is
Since the toner scraped off from 02 is convection near the scraper 103, the scraper 103 is constantly pushed in the direction B as shown in FIG. This force increases as the amount of convection toner increases, and when the amount of waste toner exceeds a certain amount, the scraper 103 is pushed down to the lower portion of the magnetic roller 102 by the force, and the curl occurs as shown in FIG. I do.

When the scraper 103 is turned up, the toner adhered to the magnetic roller 102 cannot be scraped off, and spills in the direction of arrow C in FIG. 7 to stain the recording paper and the inside of the machine with the toner. Results.

In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 6-308866, the scraper is brought into contact with the magnetic roller at a certain angle to prevent the scraper from being turned up. However, adopting the configuration in which the contact is made at an angle does not necessarily provide the effect of preventing the curling due to the toner pressure.

The present invention solves such a problem, and realizes prevention of waste toner from spilling by preventing the contact member that scrapes the toner from the magnetic roller from being turned up by the pressure of the toner. It is an object of the present invention to provide a cleaning device, a cleaning toner magazine, and an image forming apparatus.

[0010]

According to the present invention, there is provided a cleaning apparatus for cleaning an untransferred toner remaining on a photoreceptor after transfer. Waste toner collecting means for collecting the untransferred toner, a waste toner tank for storing the untransferred toner, and a contact member for scraping the untransferred toner collected by the waste toner collecting means into the waste toner tank. In the cleaning device provided, the contact member, a plurality of sheet materials are overlapped,
The elasticity of the free end that contacts the waste toner collecting means is higher than that of the fixed end. With this configuration, the rigidity of the contact member can be partially increased, so that the bending of the sheet material due to the pressure of the toner can be reduced.

Further, in the cleaning device according to the present invention, the contact member has only one sheet material contacting the waste toner collecting means, and the other sheet material is shorter than the sheet material contacting the waste toner collecting means. It is characterized by having done. With this configuration, the overall rigidity can be easily increased without changing the thickness of the distal end portion of the contact member.

Further, in the cleaning apparatus according to the present invention, the thickness of the other sheet material is made larger than the thickness of the sheet material contacting the waste toner collecting means. With this configuration, the number of other sheet materials can be reduced.

Further, the cleaning device of the present invention is characterized in that the material of the sheet material is PET resin. With this configuration, the contact member can be configured at low cost.

Further, in the cleaning apparatus of the present invention, the thickness of the sheet material contacting the waste toner collecting means is set to 0.05 m.
m to 0.125 mm. With this configuration, it is possible to stably scrape off the waste toner on the magnetic roller.

Further, the cleaning toner magazine of the present invention comprises a cleaning device, a fresh toner tank for supplying toner to a developing means, a charging means for applying a charge to a photoreceptor, or a charge removing device for removing a charge remaining on the photoreceptor. At least one of the means is integrated so as to be detachable from the image forming apparatus main body. With this configuration, it is possible to prevent the waste toner from spilling due to the occurrence of the turning of the contact member in the cleaning device for the cleaning toner magazine.

Further, the image forming apparatus of the present invention is characterized by including the cleaning device or the cleaning toner magazine. With this configuration, it is possible to prevent the waste toner from spilling due to the turning-up of the contact member in the photoconductor cleaning device.

[0017]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing a schematic configuration of a facsimile machine. Reference numeral 1 denotes a document reading unit arranged at an upper part of the apparatus main body, and 2 denotes a recording unit arranged at a lower part of the apparatus main body.

An original reading section 1 has an original table 3 on which an original is set, and an original reading sensor 4 for reading an image of the original.
And a document stack tray 5 for stacking documents discharged outside the apparatus main body, and a transport system for transporting the documents. The plurality of originals set on the original table 3 are
The originals are separated and transported one by one by a transport system, passed through the original reading sensor 4, and discharged to the original stack tray 5. Here, the image of the document is optically read when passing through the document reading sensor 4.

The recording unit 2 includes a paper feeding and conveying unit 6 for supplying recording paper, an image forming unit 7 for forming an image by an electrophotographic method and recording an image on the recording paper, and a fixing unit for fixing the image on the recording paper. A part 8 is provided.

The paper feeding / conveying section 6 includes a paper feeding cassette 9 for storing recording paper, and a paper feeding roller 10 for picking up the recording paper stored in the paper feeding cassette 9 and conveying it to the image forming section 7. During image formation, the sheets are separated and conveyed to the image forming unit 7 one by one.

The image forming section 7 employs an electrophotographic configuration in which the photosensitive member 11 is a main constituent member.
Charger 12, developing unit 13, transfer roller 14, charge removing lamp 15 for removing charge from photoreceptor 11, photoreceptor 1
A cleaning blade 16 for cleaning the cleaning blade 1 is provided. Further, a laser optical system 17 that scans an area between the charging charger 12 and the developing device 13 in the photoconductor 11 with a laser beam modulated based on image data received from the outside or image data from the document reading sensor 4 is provided. Provided. Then, the toner image formed on the photoconductor 11 by the electrophotographic process is
The toner image is transferred to the recording paper by transporting the recording paper at a timing passing through the nip portion between the transfer roller 1 and the transfer roller 14, and the recording paper is transported to the fixing unit 8.

The fixing section 8 is provided with a fixing roller and a pressure roller which is in pressure contact with the fixing roller.
The toner image is fixed on the recording paper by being pressed / heated when passing through the fixing roller and the pressure roller, and then discharged to the recording paper stack unit 18.

FIG. 2 is a side view showing the structure around the photoconductor in the image forming unit shown in FIG. 1. Numeral 20 denotes a fresh toner tank 21 for storing new toner and the photoconductor 11 remains on the photoconductor 11 without being transferred to recording paper. 1 shows a cleaning toner magazine (hereinafter, referred to as CTM) integrally formed with a waste toner tank 22 for storing the prepared toner, and configured as a cartridge body detachable from the apparatus main body.

The waste toner tank 2 in the CTM 20
The cleaning blade 16 is fixed to the waste toner collecting port formed in the second toner tank 2, and a magnetic roller 23 is provided near the tip of the cleaning blade 16 inside the waste toner tank 22. Further, a scraper 24 having elasticity is fixed inside the waste toner tank 22, and the tip of the scraper 24 has a magnetic roller 23 facing the counter direction with respect to the rotation direction of the magnetic roller 23.
Abut.

Further, the charging charger 12 is fixed to the outer surface of the waste toner tank 22, and the charging charger 12 is arranged so as to face the photoconductor 11 when the CTM 20 is mounted on the apparatus main body.

In FIG. 2, 25 is a developing roller,
Reference numeral 26 denotes a replenishing roller that conveys new toner to the developing roller 25, and reference numeral 27 denotes an intermediate roller that contacts the photosensitive member 11 and the developing roller 25.

When the CTM 20 is mounted on the main body of the apparatus, the toner supply port of the fresh toner tank 21 and the toner supply port of the developing device 13 face each other.
Is ready to be transported into the developing device 13.
The new toner from the fresh toner tank 21 is conveyed to the developing roller 25 by the supply roller 26, and a thin toner layer is formed on the surface of the developing roller 25. Then, the toner on the surface of the developing roller 25 is transferred and adhered to the intermediate roller 27, and the toner on the surface of the intermediate roller 27 is further transferred to the photoconductor 1.
The toner image is formed on the photoconductor 11 by selectively transferring and attaching to the latent image formed on the photoconductor 11.

As the waste toner collecting means, a magnetic roller is generally used. The configuration of the magnetic roller includes (1) a metal core and a magnet (2) a resin core and a magnet (3) an integral molding of the core magnet with resin, but rigidity and component accuracy (particularly runout) ,
Comparing in terms of cost, the following relationship is established, and in terms of cost, the resin cored bar and the magnet (2) are the best. However, the metal core and the magnet of (1) are the most excellent in preventing the scraper from turning up, which is the subject of this study. Rigidity: (1)>(3)> (2) Part accuracy: (1)> (2) >> (3) Cost: (2)>(1)> (3) FIG. 3 shows the configuration of the scraper in FIG. It is a side view which shows, 30 is a 1st sheet material, 31 is a 2nd sheet material, 32
Is provided in the waste toner tank 22, and the scraper 24
Fig. 3 shows a bracket for fixing the bracket. First sheet material 30
The scraper 24 is formed by aligning the ends of the sheet material 31 and the second sheet material 31 and joining them together with a double-sided adhesive tape 33. Here, since the second sheet material 31 is configured to be thicker and shorter by x mm than the first sheet material 30,
The leading end of the scraper 24 causes the first sheet material 30 to protrude x mm with respect to the second sheet material 31. The scraper 24 is attached to the bracket 32 with a double-sided adhesive tape 33 so that the tip of the scraper 24 contacts the magnetic roller 23. In the present embodiment, the first sheet material 30 has a thickness of 0.050 mm to 0.5 mm.
125 mm and the protrusion amount x are set to 2 mm.

Next, a test was conducted on the occurrence of turning over when the second sheet material 31 was removed from the scraper 24 shown in FIG. 3 and the scraper 24 was removed. Turn-up occurred when the toner began to convect. On the other hand, in the scraper 24 shown in FIG. In the test described above, a 0.1 mm thick PET (polyethyle
As the second sheet material 31, a 0.3 mm thick PET resin was used.

FIG. 4 is a side view showing another configuration of the scraper in FIG. Members having the same or the same functions as those shown in FIG. 3 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and detailed description thereof will be omitted.

In the scraper shown in FIG. 3, the first sheet material 30 and the second sheet material 31 are adhered with a double-sided adhesive tape, but in the scraper shown in FIG.
One surface of the sheet material 30 is adhered to the bracket 32 with a double-sided adhesive tape 33, and the opposite surface is pressure-bonded with the second sheet material 31.

When the second sheet material 31 is not fixed with the double-sided adhesive tape 33 as described above, a thin metal plate is more preferable than a PET resin in terms of strength. FIG.
When the first and second sheet members 30 and 31 are fixed by using the double-sided adhesive tape 33 as shown in FIG. 7, PET resin is sufficient in strength and can be constructed at a lower cost than a thin metal plate.

Although the surface of the photoconductor 11 is charged by the charging charger according to the above-described embodiment, it may be charged by a charging roller. in this case,
The charging charger can reduce cost compared to the charging roller, but generates ozone during charging. Therefore, in consideration of the environment, the charging roller is more preferable.

In the configuration shown in FIG. 2, the charging charger 12 is attached to the waste toner tank. However, the present invention is not limited to this.
The CTM 20 may be configured by attaching both the charging charger 12 and the discharging lamp 15.

[0036]

According to the present invention as described above, the contact member for contacting the magnetic roller for collecting the waste toner and scraping off the waste toner is turned up by the pressure of the toner. Spillage of waste toner caused by the above can be prevented.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a schematic configuration of a facsimile machine.

FIG. 2 is a side view illustrating a configuration around a photoconductor in an image forming unit in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a side view showing the configuration of the scraper in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a side view showing another configuration of the scraper in FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a state of collecting waste toner in a mechanism of turning over of the scraper.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a state where waste toner is accumulated;

FIG. 7 is an explanatory view showing a state in which the scraper is turned up.

[Description of Signs] 1 Document reading unit 2 Recording unit 3 Document table 4 Document reading sensor 5 Document stack tray 6 Feeding / conveying unit 7 Image forming unit 8 Fixing unit 9 Feeding cassette 10 Feeding roller 11 Photoconductor 12 Charger 13 Developing device 14 Transfer roller 15 Static elimination lamp 16 Cleaning blade 17 Laser optical system 18 Recording paper stack 20 Cleaning toner magazine (CTM) 21 Fresh toner tank 22 Waste toner tank 23 Magnetic roller 24 Scraper 25 Developing roller 26 Intermediate roller 27 Intermediate roller Reference Signs List 30 first sheet material 31 second sheet material 32 bracket 33 double-sided adhesive tape

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A cleaning means for blocking untransferred toner remaining on a photoreceptor after transfer, a waste toner collecting means for collecting untransferred toner blocked by the cleaning means, and a housing for untransferred toner. A waste toner tank, and a contact member that scrapes the untransferred toner collected by the waste toner collecting unit into the waste toner tank.
A cleaning device wherein a plurality of sheet materials are superimposed, and the elasticity of a free end portion abutting on the waste toner collecting means is higher than that of a fixed end portion side. 2. The contact member according to claim 1, wherein only one sheet material is in contact with the waste toner collecting means, and another sheet material is shorter than the sheet material in contact with the waste toner collecting means. The cleaning device according to claim 1. 3. The cleaning device according to claim 1, wherein the thickness of the other sheet material is larger than the thickness of the sheet material contacting the waste toner collecting unit. 4. The cleaning device according to claim 1, wherein the material of the sheet material is PET resin. 5. The cleaning device according to claim 1, wherein the thickness of the sheet material contacting the waste toner collecting means is 0.05 mm to 0.125 mm. 6. A cleaning device according to claim 1, a fresh toner tank for supplying a toner to a developing device, and a charging device for supplying a charge to the photosensitive member or remaining on the photosensitive member. A cleaning toner magazine integrated with at least one of a charge removing means for removing an electric charge and detachably attached to an image forming apparatus main body. 7. An image forming apparatus comprising the cleaning device according to claim 1. Description: 8. An image forming apparatus comprising the cleaning toner magazine according to claim 6.