JP2003335428A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image forming device provided with a paper powder collection mechanism capable of fixing the jam of transported paper near a registration roller, and preventing the collected paper powder from scattering to a surrounding area. <P>SOLUTION: This image forming device having a pair of registration rollers for guiding the paper to an image forming part, comprises an oscillating guide member oscillatable around the registration roller between a first position for guiding the paper and a second position for opening a transporting passage, and the oscillating guide member is provided with a paper powder collection case for storing the paper powder. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

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 including a copying machine, a facsimile, and a printer equipped with a paper feeding device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an image forming apparatus uses a pair of registration rollers to convey a sheet to an image forming section. Paper powder from paper may adhere to and accumulate on the registration rollers. Adhesion of paper powder to the registration rollers lowers the coefficient of friction of the registration rollers and reduces the sheet conveyance force. Further, if the paper dust attached to the registration rollers is transferred to the image forming unit, it may cause an abnormal image.

[0003]

Therefore, an image forming apparatus capable of removing and collecting paper dust has been proposed for some time.
As disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-129874, a typical technique is to bring a cleaning blade into contact with the surface of a registration roller and physically remove the paper dust on the roller as the registration roller rotates. . However, the sheet conveyed in the image forming apparatus may jam during the conveyance.

Therefore, as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 11-157699, there is a case where a mechanism for opening the guide plate is adopted so that the user can remove the jammed paper when the paper is jammed near the registration rollers. . In this case, when the above-mentioned cleaning blade for removing paper dust is attached, the paper dust collecting part does not adopt a closed structure, so the paper dust collected with great effort will be scattered into the device when the guide plate is opened. Will end up. Therefore, at present, a cleaning blade for removing paper dust cannot be attached to the openable guide plate.

The technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-25503 discloses a structure in which the paper dust collecting portion is sealed. A cleaning blade (scraper) is provided at one end of the opening of the paper dust collecting unit, and a squeeze sheet member that is constantly in contact with the other end (upstream side of the cleaning blade contact point) is installed and sealed at the other end. With such a configuration, the internal pressure is increased by the air flowing into the paper dust collecting unit, so that the air blows out from the opening and the paper dust is scattered around. Further, in order to process the collected paper dust, it is discharged from a narrow opening, and workability is poor.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, an object of the present invention is to treat a jam of a conveyed sheet in the vicinity of the registration rollers and to prevent the collected sheet dust from scattering around. An object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus provided with.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, according to the invention of claim 1, in an image forming apparatus having a pair of registration rollers for guiding a sheet to an image forming portion, the pair of registration rollers are provided. A swing guide member that can swing around the registration roller between a first position for guiding the paper and a second position for opening the conveyance path is provided in the vicinity of the paper roll. The most main feature is an image forming apparatus provided with a paper dust collecting case for accumulating.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the paper dust collecting case provided on the swing guide member is a paper dust removing member for removing the paper dust adhering to the registration roller. The paper dust removing member support plate that supports the paper dust removing member and the paper dust removing member that comes into contact with the resist roller, contact the resist roller surface upstream of the paper dust removing member, and collect the paper dust at an angle that follows the rotation of the resist roller. The main feature is an image forming apparatus including a shield member attached to a case.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to the first aspect, the image forming apparatus is provided with a filter for allowing the air flowing into the paper dust collecting case to pass therethrough and blocking the paper dust. And

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the paper dust removing member, the paper dust removing member support plate, the shield member and the paper dust collecting case are configured as one unit, and the paper dust collecting unit is provided. The main feature of the image forming apparatus is that the swing guide member is detachable.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to the first aspect, the image forming apparatus is configured so that the unit can be divided into a removing member, a paper dust removing member support plate, a shield member, and a paper dust collecting case. And

According to a sixth aspect of the invention, in the first aspect, the image forming apparatus is characterized mainly in that the contact angle of the tip of the shield member that contacts the surface of the registration roller is 10 ° or less.

[0013]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an image forming apparatus to which the present invention is applied. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes an image forming apparatus main body, and in the image forming apparatus main body 1, an image forming section 2 for forming an image based on a well-known electrophotographic process is provided. There is. Below the image forming section 2, there is provided a sheet feeding section 4 having a two-stage sheet feeding cassette for feeding sheets for transfer. Reference numeral 5 is a manual paper feeding unit, and 6 is a double-sided unit that reverses the front and back of the paper.

In the image forming apparatus, the sheet fed from the sheet feeding section 4 or the manual sheet feeding section 5 is sent to a pair of registration rollers 11 via a conveyance roller 10, and these registration rollers 11 cause the image forming section to move. The toner image formed in 2 is conveyed to the transfer portion at the same timing. A transfer belt 7 is provided in the transfer section, and an unfixed toner image is transferred to the sheet sent to the transfer section and is further conveyed upward by the traveling of the transfer belt 7, and is nipped by the fixing roller pair 8. To be done. The unfixed toner image is fixed as a permanent image on the sheet conveyed by the fixing roller pair 8 by the action of heating and pressure and is conveyed upward.

Above the fixing roller pair 8, there is arranged a switching claw 12 for selectively switching the sheet conveyance destination between the sheet discharge section 9 and the duplex unit 6. This switching claw 12
Guides the paper to the paper discharge section 9 when it is in the position shown by the solid line,
When it is in the position shown by the chain line, the paper is guided to the duplex unit 6.

The double-sided unit 6 is provided with a reversing claw 13 near the entrance, and following the reversing claw 13, the reversing roller 1 is provided.
4 are provided. The sheet conveyed to the duplex unit 6 by the switching claw 12 is sent to the switchback path 15 by the reversing roller 14 because the reversing claw 13 is initially in the position indicated by the solid line, and when the trailing edge of the sheet leaves the reversing claw 13, The reversing claw 13 is switched to the position indicated by the chain line, and the reversing roller 14 starts reverse rotation. By this switching, the rear end of the paper is sent to the registration roller pair 11 again with the rear end as the front, and the front and back of the paper are reversed at this time, so an image is formed on the back.

The image forming apparatus constructed as described above is constructed so that the user can easily deal with a jam occurring at any place in the sheet conveying path. Since a jam may occur also in the resist portion, a mechanism for fixing the resist portion and opening the swing guide plate to perform the jam processing will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3.

FIG. 2 is a partial sectional view showing a jam clearance mechanism provided in the vicinity of the registration roller pair, and FIG. 3 is a partial sectional view showing the jam clearance mechanism of FIG. 2 in an open state. Sheets conveyed from the sheet feeding section 4, the manual sheet feeding section 5, or the duplex unit 6 shown in FIG. 1 are guided by the fixed guide plate 20 and the swing guide member 21 to form a pair of registration rollers 1.
1 nip. The swing guide member 21 is swingably attached to the shaft 22 of the registration roller 11 on the right side in FIGS. 2 and 3.

A cover 23 of the image forming apparatus main body 1 is provided on the side opposite to the guide surface of the swing guide member 21, and the cover 23 is rotatably attached to the image forming apparatus main body 1 via a support shaft 24. There is. The cover 23 includes a first and a second regulating link 25, which serve as a regulating member for regulating the rotation amount of the cover 23.
26 is provided, one end of the first restriction link 25 is rotatably attached to the cover 23 via the shaft 27, and the other end is the pin 2
8 is connected to one end of the second restriction link 26. The other end of the second regulation link 26 is pivotally supported by the machine frame of the image forming apparatus main body 1 via a shaft 29.

The swing guide member 21 and the cover 23 are connected via a link member 30 as a connecting means. The link member 30 is provided between the swing guide member 21 and the second regulation link 26. A long hole 31 is formed at one end of the link member 30 at a connecting portion with the swing guide plate 21, and a pin 32 provided on the swing guide plate 21 is movably connected to the long hole 31. The other end of the link member 30 is connected to the second regulation link 26 via the shaft 33.

By configuring the respective parts as described above, when the cover 23 rotates clockwise about the shaft 24 and opens, the second restricting link 26 causes the shaft 29 to move through the first restricting link 25. It is rotated counterclockwise around the center. As a result, when the link member 30 is pulled and moved by substantially the length of the long hole 31, the swing guide plate 21 is rotated counterclockwise about the shaft 23.

Thus, when the cover 23 is moved, the swing guide member 21 rotates counterclockwise, so that the conveying path of the registration portion is opened. Therefore, the jammed paper can be easily viewed, and it is possible to prevent forgetting to remove the jammed paper.

FIG. 4 (a) is a schematic view showing an embodiment of a paper dust collecting unit provided in the image forming apparatus of the present invention at a position corresponding to FIG. 2, and FIG. 4 (b) is FIG. 4 (a). FIG. 4 is a schematic view showing an embodiment of the paper dust collecting unit of FIG. 3 at a position corresponding to FIG. 3.

A removable paper dust collecting case 14 is arranged on the swing guide member 21. Further, the paper dust removing member support plate 13 to which the paper dust removing member 12 for scraping off the paper dust adhering to the registration roller pair 11 is adhered is the paper dust collecting case 1
4 is detachably provided to form a paper dust collecting unit. The tip of the paper dust removing member 12 is pressed against the surface of the registration roller 11, and the registration roller 11 is rotationally driven to scrape off the paper dust adhering to the surface and recover the paper dust by using gravity. Store in the back of case 14.

The paper dust removing member 12 is most preferably a polyester film having a thickness of about 0.1 mm to 0.3 mm. Further, a shield member 15 for preventing the scattering of the paper dust is adhered to one end of the paper dust collecting case 14, and in the middle, only the air flowing into the paper dust collecting case 14 is discharged and the paper dust is stopped. A window with a filter 16 is provided.

When the paper dust collecting case 14 is full of paper dust, the paper dust removing member 12 and the paper dust removing member supporting plate 1 are provided.
After removing the paper dust collecting case 14 from the rocking guide plate 21 using the handle 19 with the attached 3, the paper dust removing member 12 and the paper dust removing member support plate 1 are removed from the paper dust collecting case 14.
3 is removed, and the paper dust collected in the paper dust collecting case 14 is discarded.

When a defect such as abrasion or chipping is found in the paper dust removing member 12, it is replaced together with the paper dust removing member supporting plate 13. If a similar problem occurs in the shield member 15, the shield member 15 is replaced together with the paper dust collecting case 14.

FIG. 5 shows one of the registration roller, the paper dust collecting case and the shield member in the embodiment of FIG. 4 (a).
It is a partial view which expands and shows a part. In FIG. 5, the shield member 15 is attached to the paper dust collecting case 14 at an angle according to the rotation of the registration roller 11, and its tip is slightly in contact with the registration roller 11. The shield member 15 is a material that is softer than the material of the paper dust removing member 12, and is preferably a foamed polyurethane sheet having a thickness of about 0.1 mm to 0.3 mm.

When the registration roller 11 rotates clockwise, the paper dust hits the shield member 15. However, when the contact angle θ formed by the registration roller 11 and the shield member 15 is small to some extent and the shield member 15 is a soft material. It has been proved that the shield member 15 enters the paper dust collecting case 14 side without being able to scrape the paper dust.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged view showing a part of the registration roller, the paper dust collecting case and the shield member in the embodiment of FIG. 4A for explaining the attachment angle of the shield member to the paper dust collecting case. FIG. In FIG.
Optimally, the shield member 15 is attached to the paper dust collecting case 14 so that the contact angle θ of the shield member 15 with the surface of the registration roller 11 is close to 0 °.

[0031]

As described above, in the image forming apparatus of claim 1, in the vicinity of the pair of registration rollers, between the first position for guiding the sheet and the second position for opening the conveying path. Since a swing guide member capable of swinging around the registration roller is provided, and a paper dust collecting case for accumulating paper dust is provided on the swing guide member, jam processing is easy and the paper dust collecting case is accumulated. Prevents paper dust from scattering.

In the image forming apparatus of the second aspect, since the shield member is in contact with the paper dust removing member at an angle according to the rotation of the registration roller on the upstream side of the paper dust removing member, the paper dust collecting unit is closed and the paper dust is removed from the paper dust removing unit. It is possible to reach the contact point of the powder removing member and prevent scattering of paper powder.

In the image forming apparatus of the third aspect, since the filter for discharging the air flowing into the paper dust collecting case is provided, it is possible to prevent the paper dust from being blown out from the other openings.

In the image forming apparatus of the fourth aspect, since the paper dust removing member, the paper dust removing member support plate, the shield member and the paper dust collecting case are detachably constructed in one unit, the paper dust is collected. Also, the unit can be easily cleaned or replaced.

In the image forming apparatus of the fifth aspect, since the paper dust removing member and the paper dust removing member supporting plate, the shield member and the paper dust collecting case can be divided, the paper dust can be easily discarded. At the same time, the paper dust removing member and the shield member can be easily replaced.

In the image forming apparatus of the sixth aspect, since the tip end of the shield member is in contact with the registration roller at a contact angle of 10 ° or less, the paper dust collecting section is closed and the paper dust is removed. The effect of reaching the removal member contact point is further improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an image forming apparatus to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a partial cross-sectional view showing a jam clearance mechanism provided near a pair of registration rollers.

FIG. 3 is a partial cross-sectional view showing the jam clearance mechanism of FIG. 2 in an open state.

FIG. 4A is a schematic view showing an embodiment of a paper dust collecting unit provided in the image forming apparatus of the present invention at a position corresponding to FIG. FIG. 4B is a schematic view showing the embodiment of the paper dust collecting unit of FIG. 4A at a position corresponding to FIG. 3.

5 is a partial enlarged view showing a part of a registration roller, a paper dust collecting case and a shield member in the embodiment of FIG. 4 (a).

FIG. 6 is an enlarged partial view showing a part of the registration roller, the paper dust collecting case and the shield member in the embodiment of FIG. 4A, which illustrates the attachment angle of the shield member to the paper dust collecting case. Is.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Image forming device body 2 Image forming section 11 Registration roller 12 Paper dust removing member 13 Paper dust removing member support plate 14 Paper dust collection case 15 Shield member 16 filters 21 Swing guide member

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. An image forming apparatus having a pair of registration rollers for guiding a sheet to an image forming unit, in the vicinity of the pair of registration rollers, a first position for guiding the sheet and a second position for opening a conveyance path. An image forming apparatus comprising: a rocking guide member capable of rocking around the registration roller, and a paper dust collecting case for accumulating paper dust on the rocking guide member. 2. A paper dust removing case for removing paper dust adhering to the registration roller, and a paper dust removing member support for supporting the paper dust removing member, wherein the paper dust collecting case provided on the swing guide member. A plate, and a shield member that contacts the registration roller surface upstream of the paper dust removing member that contacts the registration roller, and is attached to the paper dust collecting case at an angle that follows the rotation of the registration roller. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, which is characterized. 3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the paper dust collecting case is provided with a filter for transmitting air flowing into the paper dust collecting case and blocking the paper dust. 4. A paper dust removing member, a paper dust removing member support plate, a shield member, and a paper dust collecting case are configured as one unit, and the paper dust collecting unit is detachable from the swing guide member. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: 5. The image forming apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the unit is dividable into a removing member, a paper dust removing member support plate, a shield member, and a paper dust collecting case. 6. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the contact angle of the tip of the shield member that contacts the surface of the registration roller is 10 ° or less.