JP2004354445A - Evacuating apparatus for image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce noise even in the case that ventilation resistance of an exhaust path increases, to ensure a ventilation path even in such a configuration that the exhaust port is disposed close to the wall of a room or the like, and also to prevent walls or the like from discoloring due to heat. <P>SOLUTION: The evacuation apparatus includes: an exhaust fan 29 that horizontally draws air in a housing 2; a protruding part 2c formed so as to face the exhaust fan and protrude from the back 2b of the housing; and an exhaust port 24 formed such that exhaust gas discharged horizontally is struck against the protruding part 2c to cause to flow in a direction that is almost at a right angle. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a printer, and a facsimile using an electrophotographic method, and more particularly, to an exhaust device for removing heat, ozone, floating toner, and the like generated inside the image forming apparatus.
[0002]
[Prior art]
In the above-described image forming apparatus, heat is generated from a power supply device, various motors, a fixing device, and the like, ozone is generated in a charging process, and floating toner is generated in a developing process. Therefore, the heat, ozone, floating toner, and the like are removed through a filter and then discharged outside the apparatus by an exhaust fan.
[0003]
Conventionally, this exhaust fan is generally disposed on the back of the apparatus and discharges exhaust air from the exhaust fan to the outside in a horizontal direction from an exhaust port (for example, see Patent Document 1).
[0004]
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-151835
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
By the way, when reducing the size of the image forming apparatus, the shape of the exhaust passage inside the apparatus becomes complicated and the cross-sectional area must be reduced, and the cross-sectional area of the filter must be reduced. The ventilation resistance increases. As a result, it is necessary to increase the capacity of the exhaust fan in order to ensure the same ozone and toner removal performance as before. However, when the capacity of the exhaust fan is increased, the wind speed increases and the noise increases, and in the above-described conventional exhaust device, since the exhaust is discharged to the outside in the horizontal direction, the noise also propagates to the outside as it is and the noise is allowed. There is a problem that the value is exceeded.
Further, when the image forming apparatus is arranged with the exhaust port approaching the wall of the room or the like, the ventilation path cannot be secured, and the exhaust may directly hit the wall or the like, causing a risk of discoloration due to heat. There is a problem that.
[0006]
The present invention solves the above-mentioned conventional problems and problems, and can reduce noise even when the ventilation resistance of the exhaust passage increases, and can reduce the noise even when the exhaust port is brought close to the wall of the room. It is an object of the present invention to provide an exhaust device of an image forming apparatus that can secure a ventilation path and prevent a wall or the like from being discolored by heat.
[0007]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, an exhaust device of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention includes an exhaust fan that discharges air in a housing in a horizontal direction, and an exhaust fan that is opposed to the exhaust fan and swells from a rear surface of the housing. It is characterized by comprising a formed bulging portion and an exhaust port formed so that exhaust gas discharged in the horizontal direction hits the bulging portion and flows in a substantially right angle direction.
In addition, a filter is disposed upstream of the exhaust fan, and the exhaust port is provided below a bulging portion. Are provided.
[0008]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of an exhaust device according to the present invention, and is an overall configuration diagram of an image forming apparatus.
[0009]
The image forming apparatus 1 has a housing 2 and a front cover 2a that is attached to the front of the apparatus 1 so as to be openable and closable. An image carrier 3 composed of a photoreceptor drum is provided in the housing 2 and is driven to rotate in a direction indicated by an arrow in FIG. Around the image carrier 3, a charging device 4 for uniformly charging the image carrier 3 along a rotation direction thereof, and an exposure device for forming an electrostatic latent image on the image carrier 3. 5, a rotary developing device 6 for developing an electrostatic latent image, and an intermediate transfer device 7 for primarily transferring a single-color toner image formed on the image carrier 3 are provided.
[0010]
The rotary developing device 6 has a yellow developing device 6Y, a magenta developing device 6M, a cyan developing device 6C, and a black developing device 6K mounted on a support frame 9, and the support frame 9 is rotated by a drive motor (not shown). It has a configuration. The plurality of developing devices 6Y, 6M, 6C, and 6K rotate so that the developing roller 6a of a certain developing device selectively faces the image carrier 3 every time the image carrier 3 rotates by a predetermined amount. It has been like that. It should be noted that each of the developing devices 6Y, 6M, 6C, and 6K is provided with a toner storage section that stores a toner of each color.
[0011]
The intermediate transfer device 7 includes a driving roller 10 and a driven roller 11, an intermediate transfer belt 12 wound around the two rollers 10 and 11 and driven in a direction indicated by an arrow, and a back surface of the belt 12 facing the image carrier 3. A primary transfer roller 13 disposed, a transfer belt cleaner 14 for removing residual toner on the belt 12, and a four-color full-color image formed on the intermediate transfer belt 12 disposed opposite the drive roller 10. And a secondary transfer roller 15 for transferring the image onto a recording medium (such as paper).
[0012]
A power supply 16 is provided below the exposure device 5, and a paper feed cassette 17 is provided at the bottom of the housing 2. A recording medium in the paper feed cassette 17 includes a pickup roller 18, a recording medium transport path 19 , A secondary transfer roller 15 and a fixing device 20 to be conveyed to a paper discharge tray 21. The paper feed cassette 17 is mounted so as to be able to be pulled out to the front of the apparatus by a handle 17b, and an auxiliary cassette 17a is mounted so as to be able to be drawn out so as to protrude to the rear of the apparatus so as to cope with a case where the paper size is large. I have.
[0013]
The operation of the image forming apparatus having the above configuration will be described. When an image forming signal is input from a computer (not shown), the image carrier 3, the developing roller 6 a of the developing device 6 and the intermediate transfer belt 12 are driven to rotate, and first, the outer peripheral surface of the image carrier 3 is charged by the charging device 4. The outer peripheral surface of the uniformly charged and uniformly charged image carrier 3 is selectively exposed by the exposing device 5 in accordance with the image information of the first color (for example, yellow), and a yellow electrostatic latent image is formed. An image is formed.
[0014]
At the latent image position formed on the image carrier 3, the developing device 6 </ b> Y for yellow rotates and its developing roller 6 a comes into contact with the developing device 6 </ b> Y, so that the yellow electrostatic latent image toner image is formed on the image carrier 3. Then, the toner image formed on the image carrier 3 is transferred onto the intermediate transfer belt 12 by the primary transfer roller 13. At this time, the secondary transfer roller 15 is separated from the intermediate transfer belt 12.
[0015]
The above-described processing is repeated for the second, third, and fourth colors of the image forming signal, and the latent image formation, development, and transfer by one rotation of the image carrier 3 and the intermediate transfer belt 12 are repeated to form an image. Four color toner images corresponding to the content of the signal are superimposed and transferred on the intermediate transfer belt 12. Then, at the timing when this full-color image reaches the secondary transfer roller 15, the recording medium is supplied from the transport path 19 to the secondary transfer roller 15, and at this time, the secondary transfer roller 15 is pressed against the intermediate transfer belt 12 and A secondary transfer voltage is applied, and the full-color toner image on the intermediate transfer belt 12 is transferred onto a recording medium. Then, the toner image transferred onto the recording medium is heated and pressed by the fixing device 20 and fixed. The toner remaining on the intermediate transfer belt 12 is removed by the transfer belt cleaner 14.
[0016]
In the case of double-sided printing, the recording medium that has exited the fixing device 20 is switched back so that the rear end thereof is at the front end, is supplied to the secondary transfer roller 15 again through the double-sided printing conveyance path 22, and The full-color toner image on the intermediate transfer belt 12 is transferred onto a recording medium, and is again heated and pressed by the fixing device 20 to be fixed.
[0017]
Next, the exhaust system of the image forming apparatus 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 2 is a rear view as viewed from the left in FIG. 1, FIG. 3 is a side view as viewed from the paper surface direction in FIG. 1, and FIG. 4 is an enlarged sectional view of the exhaust device in FIG. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a large number of air supply holes 23 are formed in a lower portion of the rear surface portion 2 b of the housing 2 so that fresh air can be supplied to each portion in the image forming apparatus 1.
[0018]
Further, two exhaust ports 24 and 25 are formed in the rear surface 2 b of the housing 2. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 4, an exhaust duct 26 is formed between the developing device 6 and the intermediate transfer belt 12 by partition plates 26a and 26b. The partition plate 26b has a curved surface shape in accordance with the outer peripheral shape of the rotary developing device 6. A filter 27 is provided at an intermediate portion of the exhaust duct 26, and an exhaust fan 29 for discharging air in the housing 2 in a horizontal direction is provided at an outlet of the exhaust duct 26. The exhaust fan 29 is disposed at a position protruding from the rear surface of the housing 2, and a swelling portion 2 c which is swelled with a predetermined distance from the exhaust fan 29 and whose lower part is opened is formed integrally with the rear portion 2 b of the housing 2. I have.
[0019]
As a result, an exhaust passage 30 is formed between the bulging portion 2c of the back surface portion 2b and the exhaust fan 29, and an exhaust port 24 is formed below the exhaust passage 30. The exhaust port 24 is provided with a plurality of ribs 31 integrally with the back surface 2b in parallel with the flow of exhaust gas, thereby preventing a user from inserting his / her hand when moving the apparatus for some reason during operation.
[0020]
With the above configuration, the ozone generated by the charging device 4, the floating toner generated by the developing device 6, and the heat of the motor driving each unit are discharged by the exhaust fan 29 through the exhaust duct 26, the filter 27, the exhaust passage 30, and the exhaust port 24. After that, it is discharged outside the device. Therefore, the noise generated by the exhaust fan 29 is blocked by the bulging portion 2c of the back surface portion 2b and does not directly go outside, so that the noise can be reduced. The floating toner is collected by a filter 27 arranged on the upstream side of the exhaust fan 29.
[0021]
The other exhaust port 25 is provided in a bulging portion 2d formed so as to bulge to the back surface portion 2b. The exhaust port 25 is formed with a plurality of rectifying plates 32 for directing exhaust gas obliquely downward. An exhaust fan 33 is arranged inside the outlet 2d. The exhaust fan 33 exhausts heat and ozone inside the device through a filter 33a. Unlike the exhaust by the exhaust fan 29, the exhaust fan 33 has a relatively small ventilation resistance, and thus has an exhaust structure similar to that of the related art. . Note that a plurality of power cord support members 34 are fixed below the rear surface 2b in FIG.
[0022]
As shown in FIG. 3, an exhaust port 35 is provided below the side surface 2 e of the image forming apparatus 1, and an exhaust fan (not shown) exhausts mainly heat generated in the power supply device 16 and the exposure device 5. . An air supply port 36 for supplying air to the fixing device 20 is provided above the side surface 2e. An exhaust fan and an exhaust port (not shown) are provided on a side surface opposite to the air supply port 36 and on the opposite side.
[0023]
As described above, the embodiments of the present invention have been described. However, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments, and various changes are possible. May be combined. For example, in the above-described embodiment, the exhaust port 24 is provided below the bulging portion 2c. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and may be in the horizontal direction. The exhaust port 24 may be provided so as to flow in a substantially right angle direction.
[0024]
【The invention's effect】
As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, noise can be reduced even when the ventilation resistance of the exhaust passage increases. Further, even when the exhaust port is brought close to the wall of the room or the like, a ventilation path can be secured and the wall or the like can be prevented from being discolored by heat.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention and is an overall configuration diagram of an image forming apparatus.
FIG. 2 is a rear view as viewed from the left in FIG.
FIG. 3 is a side view of FIG. 1 as viewed from the paper surface direction.
FIG. 4 is an enlarged sectional view of the exhaust device of FIG.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 2 ... Housing, 2b ... Back part, 2c ... Swelling part, 24 ... Exhaust port 27 ... Filter, 29 ... Exhaust fan, 31 ... Rib

Claims (4)

An exhaust fan for discharging air in the housing in the horizontal direction, a bulging portion formed to face the exhaust fan and to bulge from the rear surface of the housing, and the exhaust gas discharged in the horizontal direction bulges And an exhaust port formed so as to flow in a substantially right angle direction at a portion of the image forming apparatus. The exhaust device of an image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a filter is disposed upstream of the exhaust fan. 3. The exhaust device for an image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the exhaust port is provided below the bulging portion. 4. The exhaust device according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of ribs are provided in the exhaust port in parallel with a flow of the exhaust gas.

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