JP2003255793A - Cleaning apparatus and image forming apparatus provided with the same - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce noise to be irreducible minimum and to extend a life by giving optimal vibration degree depending on the growing degree of an aggregat ed lump. <P>SOLUTION: This image forming apparatus is provided with: an electrostatic latent image forming means for scanning on the surface of an image carrier charged uniformly by a charging means to form an electrostatic latent image; a development means for developing the electrostatic latent image formed on the surface of the image carrier to be a toner image; a transfer means for transferring the toner image to a transfer material; a vibration means which vibrates a cleaning object which is abutted on the image carrier for removing residual toner and a cleaning member for removing a stuck matter stuck to the cleaning object formed separately from the cleaning object in the cleaning apparatus for removing transfer residual toner on the image carrier after transfer; the cleaning apparatus comprising a plurality of operation modes of a plurality of different vibration degrees at the vibration means. According to the operation mode of the image forming apparatus, the vibration means controls the operation mode of different vibration degrees. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cleaning device for cleaning the surface of an image carrier in a printer, a copying machine, a facsimile, etc., and an image forming apparatus equipped with the cleaning device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A cleaning device in an image forming apparatus such as a printer, a copying machine, a facsimile machine, etc., which has a cleaning blade as a cleaning member for cleaning an image carrier is known.

For example, in an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, a toner image is formed on a photosensitive drum (image carrier) through each image forming process of a charging process, an exposing process and a developing process, and this toner image is transferred. Is transferred from the photosensitive drum onto a recording material (for example, paper).
In this transfer process, not all of the toner forming the toner image on the photosensitive drum is transferred, and a small amount of toner remains on the surface of the photosensitive drum. The toner remaining on the surface of the photosensitive drum in this way (hereinafter referred to as "residual toner") is removed by the above-mentioned cleaning blade.

As shown in FIG. 6, the edge 61a of the cleaning blade 60 is brought into contact with the surface of the photosensitive drum 11,
As a result, the residual toner adhering to the surface of the photosensitive drum 11 is scraped off.

[0005]

However, the above-mentioned conventional example has the following problems.

As shown in FIG. 2, the residual toner scraped from the surface of the photosensitive drum 11 is condensed in the vicinity of the edge 43a of the cleaning blade 43 which is in contact with the photosensitive drum 11. Usually, the agglomerated residual toner does not pose a problem because it drops to a cleaning container (not shown) of the cleaning device in a certain size.

However, depending on the influence of the increase in the peripheral speed (process speed) of the photosensitive drum 11 due to the recent increase in the speed of the image forming apparatus and the environmental conditions, the agglomerated residual toner (hereinafter referred to as agglomerate) may drop. It was found that a phenomenon occurs in which the growth continues without interruption and slips through the nip N of the edge 43a of the cleaning blade 43. The problem is that the residual toner that has slipped through in this way is transferred to the succeeding recording material (sheet material) in a streak pattern at the time of the next image formation, resulting in an image defect.

As a means for improving the cleaning property of the cleaning blade, there is a method of applying vibration by a piezoelectric element to the cleaning blade, as proposed in JP-A-6-4014 and JP-A-11-174922. . However, in this method, since the piezoelectric element is attached to the cleaning blade that deteriorates due to durability, the piezoelectric element is also replaced at the time of replacing the deteriorated cleaning blade, resulting in an increase in cost. Further, there is a defect that it is difficult to give sufficient vibration to remove the aggregated and grown aggregate. In addition, JP-A-9-1604
The method of applying collision vibration to the cleaning blade as proposed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 55 may be able to give sufficient vibration to remove agglomerates, but it is Depending on the behavior of the cleaning blade, adverse effects such as residual toner passing through may be considered.

Further, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-112187, when the number of continuous image formations is equal to or more than a predetermined number, the shape of the cleaning member is changed by temporarily stopping the rotation of the photosensitive drum for each predetermined number of image formations. The shape of the nip portion between the photosensitive drum and the cleaning member changes due to a slight change when the photosensitive drum rotates and then stops. Thus, there is also a method in which the shape of the nip portion is changed by temporarily stopping the rotation of the photosensitive drum, and thereby the toner which is being fixed to the nip portion can be dropped from the nip portion. Although this method can remove a small amount of agglomerate that occurs when intermittently forming an image, it cannot be said to be perfect in completely removing an agglomerate that continues to grow in continuous image formation. In particular, when images are continuously formed on both sides, the image on the second surface is formed on the transfer material once fixed by the fixing device, so the surface temperature of the photosensitive drum rises due to the heat of the transfer material. . Therefore, when the image is formed on both sides continuously and left for a long time, because of the temperature characteristics of the toner, the agglomerates aggregated in the nip portion between the photosensitive drum and the cleaning blade are solidified due to the surface temperature of the photosensitive drum. Easier to do.

Therefore, it is conceivable to provide a vibrating means in the cleaning unit to temporarily suspend the continuous image formation during continuous image formation and to vibrate the image during the continuous image formation so as to remove such agglomerates.

However, this method is most suitable for removing agglomerates, but the problem of noise caused by the vibrating means arises as a problem.

When the vibrating means is operated, the vibration propagates to the photosensitive drum via the cleaning blade.
It is not desirable to do it during imaging. Therefore, it is necessary to operate the vibrating means when the photosensitive drum is completely stopped. Excitation degree of acceleration means (acceleration)
It is needless to say that the larger the value is, the more effective it is to remove the agglomerates, but the resonance of the mounting member causes noise to increase in proportion to the vibration degree due to the resonance. As described above, the vibrating means is operated uniformly even though the growth degree of the agglomerate differs depending on the operation mode and state of the image forming apparatus, and the machine is completely stopped as described above. Because it was a movement when I was there, I was forced to feel uncomfortable due to noise.

Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and a cleaning device capable of satisfactorily removing the toner image on the image bearing member without causing a large increase in cost. It is an object of the present invention to reduce noise while providing an image forming apparatus including the above.

[0014]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, an electrostatic latent image forming means for forming an electrostatic latent image by scanning on the surface of an image carrier uniformly charged by a charging means, Developing means for developing the electrostatic latent image formed on the surface of the image carrier into a toner image, transfer means for transferring the toner image to a transfer material, and transfer residual toner on the image carrier after transfer. A cleaning object for removing residual toner by contacting the image bearing member and a cleaning object provided separately from the cleaning object part in a cleaning device for removing In an image forming apparatus having a vibrating unit that vibrates the cleaning member, and a vibrating unit that has a plurality of operating modes with different vibrating degrees, the vibrating unit that vibrates the cleaning member. An image forming apparatus characterized by controlling operation modes having different excitation degrees in accordance with the operation mode of the image forming apparatus. It reduces noise to a minimum. Further, since the vibration degree of the vibration means is suppressed to a necessary minimum, it is possible to extend the life of the vibration means.

[0015]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. The same reference numerals in the drawings denote the same configurations or operations, and repeated description thereof will be omitted as appropriate.

(Image Forming Apparatus) FIG. 1 shows an example of the image forming apparatus according to the present invention. The image forming apparatus shown in FIG.
This is a laser beam printer, and the drawing is a vertical cross-sectional view showing its schematic configuration. In the following, a case will be described as an example where the cleaning target of the cleaning device 17 (described later) according to the present invention is the photosensitive drum 11.

The laser beam printer (hereinafter referred to as "image forming apparatus") shown in FIG. 1 comprises a printer section (image forming section) 1 and a reader section (image reading section) 2.

Of these, a drum type electrophotographic photosensitive member (hereinafter referred to as "photosensitive drum") 11 is disposed as an image bearing member in the printer unit 1, and the rotation direction is provided around the photosensitive drum 11. The primary charging device (primary charging means) 12 and the exposure device (exposure means) 1 are arranged substantially in the order of (arrow direction).
3, developing device (developing means) 14, transfer charger 15, separation charger 16, cleaning device (cleaning means) 17
Is provided. In addition, along the transport direction of the recording material (paper, for example) P, the paper feed cassette 18
a, 18b, paper feed rollers 19a and 19b, registration rollers 20, a conveyor belt 21, a fixing device (fixing means) 22 having a fixing roller 22a and a pressure roller 22b, and
A discharge roller 23 is provided.

On the other hand, a platen glass 3 is provided on the reader unit 2.
1, document pressing plate 32, light source 33, reflection mirrors 34a, 3
4b, 34c, lens 35, CCD (photoelectric conversion element) 3
6. An image processing unit 37 and the like are provided.

The image forming apparatus having the above-described structure is provided with the print unit 1.
3, the photosensitive drum 11 is rotationally driven by a driving unit (not shown) in a direction of an arrow at a predetermined process speed (peripheral speed), 480 mm / sec in the present embodiment. To be uniformly charged. On the other hand, in the reader unit 2, an original (not shown) placed on the platen glass 31 and pressed by the original pressing plate 32 has an image surface (lower surface) whose light source 33 is the image surface.
And the reflected light is reflected by the reflecting mirrors 34a, 3
It is reflected by 4 b and 34 c, further transmitted through the lens 35, and input to the CCD 36. The light thus input to the CCD 36 is subjected to various kinds of well-known image processing by the image processing unit 37, then converted into an electric signal 38, and input to the exposure device 13 on the printer unit 1 side as image information.

The laser scanner 13a of the exposure device 13 is
The surface of the photosensitive drum 11 after being exposed as described above is exposed through the reflecting mirror 13b, which is modulated according to the image information. By this exposure, an electrostatic latent image is formed on the surface of the photosensitive drum 11.

This electrostatic latent image is developed by the developing device 14. The developing device 14 contains a developer (toner), and the toner is attached to the electrostatic latent image on the surface of the photosensitive drum 11 by applying a developing bias to the developing sleeve 14a, and the electrostatic latent image is formed. Is developed as a toner image.

The toner image thus formed on the photosensitive drum 11 is transferred to the recording material P. The recording material P is fed from the paper feed cassette 18a or the paper feed cassette 18b to the paper feed roller 19
The sheet is fed by a or the sheet feeding roller 19b, and is supplied to the transfer portion between the photosensitive drum 11 and the transfer charger 15 so as to be timed with the toner image on the photosensitive drum 11 by the registration roller 20. The toner image on the photosensitive drum 11 is transferred onto the recording material P by applying a transfer bias to the transfer charger 15.

The recording material P after the transfer of the toner image is separated from the surface of the photosensitive drum 11 by the separation charging device 16 and is conveyed to the fixing device 22 by the conveying belt 21, where it is heated by the fixing roller 22a and the pressure roller 22b. After being pressed and the toner image is fixed on the surface, it is discharged by the discharge roller 23 to the outside of the image forming apparatus main body.

On the other hand, the photosensitive drum 11 after the toner image transfer
The residual toner (adhered matter) remaining on the surface without being transferred to the recording material P at the time of transfer is removed by the cleaning device 17, and is provided for the next image formation. The cleaning device 17 will be described in detail later.

In FIG. 1, the original is automatically fed onto the platen glass 31 above the original pressing plate 32,
An automatic document feeder 39 for automatically ejecting a document from the platen glass 31 is shown by a chain double-dashed line.

(Cleaning Device) Next, the cleaning device 17 according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIG. Note that FIG. 2 is a vertical cross-sectional view of the cleaning device 17 in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction (axial direction) of the photosensitive drum 11.

The cleaning device 17 includes a frame (first
Frame) 41, a frame (second frame) 42,
Cleaning blade (cleaning member) 43, magnet roller 44, conveyance screw 45, sheet 46,
A holder 47, shafts 48 and 49, a tension spring (biasing means) 50, and a vibrating means 51 are provided.

Of these, the cleaning blade 43 is formed of a plate-shaped elastic body, and is held so as to be sandwiched between the frame 41 and the holder 47 by screwing the holder 47 to the frame 41. There is. The cleaning blade 43 has its one edge 43 a brought into contact with the surface of the photosensitive drum 11. The contact direction is the counter direction with respect to the moving direction (arrow direction) of the surface of the photosensitive drum 11. A contact surface 41 a of the frame 41 with the back surface of the cleaning blade 43, and a contact surface 47 of the holder 47 with the end surface of the cleaning blade 43.
a is processed with high precision and is arranged with high positional precision. Therefore, the cleaning blade 43 is sandwiched by the holder 47 in a state where a part of the cleaning blade 43 is in contact with the above-mentioned contact surfaces 41a and 47a.
It is possible to realize a high position accuracy with respect to 1. The frame 41 holding the cleaning blade 43 also holds the vibrating means 51.

The frame 41 is swingably attached to the frame 42 via a shaft 48. In the present embodiment, the structure is swingable in the longitudinal direction, but it is also possible to adopt a structure in which it is not swung in the longitudinal direction. The tension spring 50 described above has one end connected to a part of the frame 42 and the other end attached to a part of the frame 41. Therefore, the frame 41
Is urged by the tension spring 50 counterclockwise in FIG. As a result, the edge 43a of the cleaning blade 43 is brought into contact with the surface of the photosensitive drum 11 with an appropriate pressing force.

The frame 42 extends downward on the side far from the photosensitive drum 11, and extends downward toward the photosensitive drum 11. The magnet roller 44 and the conveying screw 45 are rotatably supported by this portion of the frame 42. The magnet roller 44 and the conveying screw 45 are rotationally driven by a driving means (not shown).

The magnet roller 44 is disposed below the cleaning blade 43, and has a toner layer formed on the surface thereof with the residual toner scraped off by the cleaning blade 43. The thickness of the toner layer is defined by the sheet 46 and the shaft 49. The magnet roller 44 recoats the surface of the photosensitive drum 11 with toner by bringing the toner layer into contact with the photosensitive drum 11 in the longitudinal direction (the direction along the generatrix). This is an adverse effect when the residual toner is scraped off by the cleaning blade 43 without recoating, that is, the frictional force between the cleaning blade 43 and the photosensitive drum 11 is different between the portion with the residual toner and the portion without the residual toner.
This is to prevent the adverse effect that unnecessary chattering (fine vibration) occurs. By thus re-coating the residual toner in the longitudinal direction of the photosensitive drum 11, the frictional force between the cleaning blade 43 and the photosensitive drum 11 can be stabilized in the longitudinal direction, so that the cleaning cleaning blade 43 can be prevented from chattering. The residual toner is scraped off by the cleaning blade 43 together with the recoated toner, and collected by the magnet roller 44.

The rotating direction of the magnet roller is preferably in the forward direction with respect to the drum as shown in FIG. 2, but the same effect can be obtained even in the reverse direction with respect to the drum. .

The seat 46 is in contact with the shaft 49. The sheet 46 is collected by the magnet roller 44,
It has a function of sending excess residual toner to the conveying screw 45 to form the toner layer. The conveying screw 5 conveys the residual toner to a toner collecting container (not shown).

(Exciting Means) FIG. 4 shows the configuration of the exciting means 51 of this embodiment.

The vibrating means 51 comprises a motor 52, a weight 53 attached to its output shaft 52a, and a case 54. The motor 52 is housed and fixed in the above-mentioned case 54 while being connected to a control circuit (not shown). Further, the case 54 to which the motor 52 is fixed inside is fixed to the frame 41 as shown in FIG. The weight 53 is fixed such that its center of gravity is biased to one side with respect to the output shaft 52a. Therefore, when the output shaft 52a of the motor 52 is rotationally driven by the control circuit, vibration is generated from the motor 52. This vibration propagates to the case 54 and the frame 41, and further to the cleaning blade 43. The case 54 has a function of preventing toner from entering the motor 52, and a function of restraining the motor 52 to efficiently propagate vibration to the frame 41.

The vibrating means 51 having the above-mentioned configuration is not limited to the above-mentioned configuration as long as it can give the cleaning blade 43 sufficient vibration to remove the agglomerates.

Further, it is effective to dispose one vibrating means 51 at the center of the frame 41 of the cleaning device 17 in the longitudinal direction, but in this case, the cleaning blade 4 is used.
Large vibration is required to effectively propagate the vibration up to the end of 3. For this reason, as shown in FIG.
By arranging a plurality of such as at both ends of the frame 41 in the longitudinal direction, it becomes possible to propagate the vibration to the cleaning blade 43 evenly with a relatively small vibration. In this case, the vibrating means 51 is arranged at positions which are distributed to both end sides with the longitudinal center A of the frame 41 as a reference so that the variation of the contact pressure of the cleaning blade 43 to the photosensitive drum 11 is reduced. Is desirable.

The cleaning blade 43 described above is used.
The cleaning performance gradually deteriorates due to wear caused by long-term use. Therefore, replacement is required at an appropriate time. Even at this time, with the configuration of the present embodiment as described above, it is possible to easily replace only the cleaning blade 43 simply by removing the holder 47, and the cost of parts required for replacement and the number of replacement steps can be minimized. In addition to being suppressed, the accuracy of the mounting surface of the cleaning blade 43 can be assured by the surface accuracy of the contact surface 41a of the frame 41, so that the stability is improved. It is important that the mounting state is stable in order to increase the reproducibility of the behavior of the cleaning blade 43 when the vibration is input by the vibrating means 51.

(Blade edge part) FIG. 3 (a),
(B), (c), and (d) show the surface of the photosensitive drum 11 and the edge 4 of the cleaning blade 43 in the present embodiment.
The enlarged view of the contact part (nip) N with 3a is shown.

As shown in FIG. 3A, residual toner scraped from the surface of the photosensitive drum 11 is agglomerated on the edge 43a of the cleaning blade 43 which is in contact with the photosensitive drum 11. As shown in FIG. 3B, when the aggregated residual toner continues to grow, the cleaning blade 43
Nip N between the edge 43a of the photosensitive drum 11 and the surface of the photosensitive drum 11
There is a possibility that the toner may pass through the sheet and the toner may adhere to the recording material P, resulting in an image defect. For this reason, it is necessary to remove the residual toner that has grown and formed an aggregate from the edge 43a.

Then, the vibrating means 51 (see FIG. 1) is operated to move the cleaning blade 43 through the frame 41.
By propagating the vibration to (FIG. 3C), the residual toner agglomerates are removed from the edge 43a of the cleaning blade 43 before the image defect occurs (FIG. 3D). By the way, when the vibrating means 51 is operated as described in the conventional example, the vibration propagates to the photosensitive drum 11 via the cleaning blade 43.
It is not desirable to do it during imaging. Photosensitive drum 11
If the vibrating means 51 is operated during rotation, the cleaning blade edge is partially separated from the photosensitive drum due to vibration, and the transfer residual toner on the photosensitive drum slips through the cleaning blade, resulting in an image defect. Therefore, the timing for operating the vibrating means 51 is required when the photosensitive drum is completely stopped.

When the image forming apparatus shifts from the operation stage to the stop stage, the photosensitive drum 11 rotates for a while due to inertia until the photosensitive drum 11 completely stops. Therefore, it takes a predetermined time from the time when the signal for stopping the photosensitive drum 11 is issued to the time when the photosensitive drum 11 is completely stopped.

The operation of the vibrating means 51 in this embodiment will be described with reference to the timing chart of FIG.

When the power is turned on at 101, a warm-up operation is performed. At this time, although not particularly shown, at least when the temperature detecting means of the fixing device reaches a predetermined temperature, at least the fixing roller and the pressure roller start to rotate, and at the same time, the photosensitive drum 11 rotates (hereinafter referred to as "pre-multi-rotation"). . In that case, the fixing roller and the photosensitive drum 11 do not have to start rotating at the same timing. In this embodiment, the predetermined temperature is 170 ° C.

FIG. 8 shows a timing chart.

When the temperature rises to 170 ° C. or more during warm-up, the pre-multi-rotation operation starts, and after that, the temperature of the fixing roller rises, and when the temperature reaches a predetermined target controlled temperature, the pre-multi-rotation operation is completed. After the drum signal for stopping the drum is issued, the power supply to the drum motor is stopped. Therefore, the photosensitive drum 11 is stopped, but since the rotation due to the inertia of the photosensitive drum 11 remains, it is stopped after A seconds. It should be noted that the value of A is about 0.5 to 2 seconds, although it cannot be generally stated because the value is affected by the torque of the photosensitive drum 11, the process speed, and the like. Of course, it is possible to adopt any other value without affecting the effect or the like.

Therefore, in consideration of the rotation due to the inertia of the photosensitive drum 11, the vibrating means 51 is operated B seconds after the time when the drum signal is turned from ON to OFF so that the photosensitive drum 11 is excited. The shaking means 51 can be operated.

C second is the operating time of the vibrating means 51, and its value is arbitrary. In this embodiment, the operation is performed for 0.7 seconds.

Here, the value of B seconds is, for example, (A seconds + 0.
1 to about 1 second). Here, which value of 0.1 second to 1 second is different depending on the model, and of course it is possible to adopt a value higher than that without affecting the effect at all.

The D second is the time between the operations when the vibrating means 51 operates. The value of D is arbitrary, and in this embodiment, it is set to 1 second, for example. Further, if this time is D seconds> 0 seconds, no effect will be obtained regardless of which value is adopted. In the present embodiment, the operation is performed a plurality of times, but of course, it may be performed once as long as the effect can be obtained only once.

On the other hand, the drive circuit of the vibrating means in the mode operating at this time will be described with reference to FIG. The operation mode is changed by the applied voltage. As described in the conventional example, the agglomerates are apt to coagulate due to the surface temperature of the photosensitive drum, particularly when the images are continuously formed on both sides and then left for a long time. Therefore,
Especially for machines equipped with drum heaters, depending on the state when the power was turned off last time, it is highly possible that the agglomerates will cause a problem after the next power is turned on. Need to break down. Therefore, in step 102 of FIG. 7, which is the vibration operation at the end of the previous multi-rotation operation, Q2 is turned on and the applied voltage of 12 V is applied to increase the vibration degree.

Then, in 103 of FIG. 7, the operation shifts to the standby.

When copying is started at 104, a counter (not shown) is started and it is judged at 105 whether or not a predetermined number of N sheets has been exceeded. N preset in 105
If it exceeds the number of sheets, the process proceeds to 106, and the operation of the vibration mode 2 is performed.

The timing chart is the same as in the previous multi-rotation in FIG.

After the drum signal is issued to stop the drum when the number of sheets exceeds N, the power supply to the drum motor is stopped. Therefore, the photosensitive drum 11 is stopped, but since the rotation due to the inertia of the photosensitive drum 11 remains, it is stopped after A seconds. It should be noted that although it is the value of A, it cannot be generally stated because it is affected by the torque of the photosensitive drum 11, the process speed, etc.
It is about 5 seconds to 2 seconds. Of course, it is possible to adopt any other value without affecting the effect or the like.

Therefore, in consideration of the rotation of the photosensitive drum 11 due to the inertia, the vibrating means 51 is operated B seconds after the time when the drum signal is turned from ON to OFF, and the vibration is applied when the photosensitive drum 11 is stopped. The shaking means 51 can be operated.

C1 to C3 seconds are respective operating times of the vibrating means 51, and their values are arbitrary. In this embodiment, C1 is operated for 0.7 seconds, C2 is operated for 0.8 seconds, and C3 is operated for 0.9 seconds.

The respective operation times can be set arbitrarily in consideration of the operation of the image forming apparatus and the like.

Here, the value of B seconds is, for example, (A seconds + 0.
1 to about 1 second). Here, which value of 0.1 second to 1 second is different depending on the model, and of course it is possible to adopt a value higher than that without affecting the effect at all.

The D second is the time between the operations when the vibrating means 51 operates. The value of D is arbitrary, and in this embodiment, it is set to 1 second, for example. Further, if this time is D seconds> 0 seconds, no effect will be obtained regardless of which value is adopted.

In the vibration operation mode 2 due to the stop of the operation during copying in step 106, the agglomerates have already been destroyed in the mode 1 with a large vibration degree at the time of the multi revolution before the power is turned on, and are gradually formed again from the beginning. And the aggregates are small. In addition, unlike the warm-up time, which is often done only in the morning, the user is always waiting in front of the actual machine until the job is completed. To avoid unnecessary noise, turn on Q1 and turn on 5V. The applied voltage is applied to perform the minimum required vibration.

When the job is completed at 107, the process goes to the standby at 103.

The number of operations according to the present embodiment is only an example, and other times may be set.
Further, although the voltages are set to 5 V and 12 V, other voltages or another means for reducing the applied voltage may be used as long as the vibration degree seems to be necessary.

Further, according to the present embodiment, the vibrating means 51
It is possible to reduce the degree of vibration of the vibrating means 51 according to need, which makes it possible not only to reduce the noise of the vibrating means 51 but also to prolong the service life.

[0066]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Electrostatic latent image forming means for scanning the surface of the image carrier uniformly charged by the charging means to form an electrostatic latent image, and toner for the electrostatic latent image formed on the surface of the image carrier. A developing device for developing an image, a transfer device for transferring the toner image to a transfer material, and a cleaning device for removing a transfer residual toner on the image carrier after the transfer are contacted with the image carrier and the residual toner. The object to be removed and the vibrating means for vibrating the cleaning member for removing the adhering matter provided separately from the object to be cleaned, which is provided separately from the object to be cleaned; In an image forming apparatus having a cleaning device having a plurality of operation modes with different vibration levels, a vibrating unit for vibrating the cleaning member is responsive to the operation mode of the image forming device.
An image forming apparatus characterized by controlling operation modes having different excitation levels, whereby an optimal excitation level is given to the growth rate of agglomerates, and noise is reduced to a necessary minimum. . Further, since the vibration degree of the vibration means is suppressed to the necessary minimum, it is possible to extend the life of the vibration means, and effectively prevent image defects such as contamination of the recording material due to poor cleaning. can do.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing a schematic configuration of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view showing a schematic configuration of a cleaning device according to the present invention.

FIG. 3A to FIG. 3D are enlarged views for explaining a method of removing toner aggregated near the edge of the cleaning blade by vibration.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a motor and a case which constitute a vibrating unit.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a state where two vibrating means are attached to the frame.

FIG. 6 is a vibration mode switching circuit diagram in the embodiment.

FIG. 7 is an embodiment flowchart.

FIG. 8 is a sequence of a vibration operation in the embodiment.

FIG. 9 is an enlarged view showing a state where toner is aggregated in the vicinity of the edge of a conventional cleaning blade.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 Cleaning target (photosensitive drum) 17 Cleaning means (cleaning device) 41 First Frame (Frame) 42 Second Frame (Frame) 43 Cleaning member (cleaning blade) 50 Biasing means (tensile spring) 51 Excitation means 52 motor 52a Motor output shaft 53 weights N contact part (nip) P Recording material (sheet material)

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An electrostatic latent image forming unit that scans on the surface of an image carrier uniformly charged by a charging unit to form an electrostatic latent image, and the electrostatic latent image formed on the surface of the image carrier. A developing device for developing an electrostatic latent image into a toner image, a transfer device for transferring the toner image onto a transfer material, and a cleaning device for removing a transfer residual toner on the image carrier after the transfer, An object to be contacted with the cleaning object for removing the residual toner, and a vibrating means for vibrating the cleaning member for removing the adhering material attached to the object to be cleaned which is provided separately from the object to be cleaned; In an image forming apparatus in which the vibrating means includes a cleaning device having a plurality of operation modes having different vibrating degrees, the vibrating means for vibrating the cleaning member is vibrated according to the operation mode of the image forming apparatus. Frequency An image forming apparatus characterized by controlling different operation modes. 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the vibrating means for vibrating the cleaning member operates at a predetermined timing after the image carrier is stopped.