JP2006138909A - Image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image forming apparatus that prevents cleaning failure from being caused under an inferior environment and a low temperature environment. <P>SOLUTION: The image forming apparatus includes: a light emitting element for emitting light to the surface of an image carrier; a light receiving element for receiving the reflected light of the light emitting element from the surface of the image carrier, and a comparison means for comparing a reference value and the value of the amount of reflected light detected by the light receiving element; and a temperature detecting means; and a heating means for heating the cleaning member. The cleaning member is heated based on the output of the comparison means and the output of a temperature detecting means. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention generally relates to an image forming apparatus that forms an electrostatic latent image on an electrophotographic photosensitive member by an electrophotographic method or the like and visualizes the electrostatic latent image with a developer.

  Here, examples of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus include an electrophotographic copying machine, an electrophotographic printer (for example, an LED printer, a laser beam printer, and the like), an electrophotographic facsimile apparatus, and the like.

  In a conventional electrophotographic image forming apparatus, the surface of an electrophotographic photosensitive member (hereinafter referred to as a photosensitive drum) is uniformly charged by a charging device, and the charged photosensitive drum surface is exposed by an exposure device to be electrostatically charged. A latent image is formed. The electrostatic latent image is developed by a developing device to form a developer (hereinafter referred to as toner) image. The toner image is transferred to a transfer material such as paper by a transfer device, and the toner image is transferred by a fixing device. Is fixed on the transfer material as a permanently fixed image and output. The toner remaining on the surface of the photosensitive drum after the toner image is transferred is cleaned by a cleaning device to prepare for the next image forming operation.

  As a cleaning device for removing the toner remaining on the surface of the photosensitive drum, a method using a blade is widely used from the viewpoints of downsizing of the device, no driving source, relatively low manufacturing cost, and the like. The blade mainly has a structure in which a metal sheet metal as a support and a rubber member are bonded or integrally formed, and the toner remaining on the surface of the photosensitive drum is configured by pressing the tip of the rubber member against the surface of the photosensitive drum. Can be scraped off and removed from the drum surface.

  As a material of the rubber member of the cleaning device, urethane rubber (polyester urethane elastomer or the like) is widely used mainly from the viewpoint of hardly scratching the surface of the photosensitive drum. Here, when the toner remaining on the surface of the photosensitive drum is cleaned after the toner image is transferred at a relatively low temperature where the hardness of the rubber member of the cleaning device is relatively low, the toner slips through the cleaning device and stains the charging device and the transfer material. The phenomenon (cleaning failure) sometimes occurred.

  Polyester urethane elastomers, which are mainly used as rubber members for cleaning devices, have increased hardness in a low-temperature and humid environment, so that the force received from the photosensitive drum increases and the rubber elasticity also decreases. When the tip is chipped or when the surface of the photosensitive drum is slid, the follow-up to minute load fluctuations received from the photosensitive drum that depends on the surface properties of the photosensitive drum surface deteriorates, and the force received from the photosensitive drum is constantly As a result, there is a case in which residual toner is caught in the contact area between the photosensitive drum surface and the front end of the rubber member, and another residual toner slips out from around the sandwiched toner (cleaning failure). there were.

  On the other hand, as a means for avoiding a defect in a low temperature environment, conventionally, as seen in Patent Document 1, Patent Document 2, and Patent Document 3, for example, proposals have been made to heat the cleaning blade.

JP-A-2-244185 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-186885 JP 11-38849 A

  However, in the above method, the cleaning blade is heated using a heater or the like. Therefore, there is a problem that power consumption increases. The performance of the cleaning device greatly depends not only on the temperature of the use environment but also on the surface property of the photosensitive drum.

  For example, if a bad environment (a lot of sand, dust, etc.) or bad paper (paper with a large amount of additives such as calcium carbonate and a large particle size) is used, foreign matter will adhere to the transfer material. However, when the image forming apparatus is configured such that the transfer material and the photosensitive drum are in direct contact with each other, the damage to the surface of the photosensitive drum is enormous, and in a low temperature environment, the rubber property due to the low temperature is lost. With the cleaning blade, it is very difficult to sufficiently regulate the discharged toner on the photosensitive drum whose surface property has been lost, and a cleaning failure has occurred.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus that does not cause poor cleaning in a rough environment and in a low temperature environment.

  In order to achieve the above object, an invention according to claim 1 is directed to an image carrier that carries a toner image as a carrier, a transfer device that directly transfers a toner image from the image carrier to a transfer material, and an image on the image carrier. In an image forming apparatus having a cleaning member for removing residual toner, a light emitting element that gives light to the surface on the image carrier, a light receiving element that can receive reflected light of the light emitting element from the surface of the carrier, and a light receiving element A comparison means for comparing the value of the amount of reflected light detected by the reference value with a reference value, a temperature detection means, and a heating means for heating the cleaning member. The cleaning member is adjusted based on the output of the comparison means and the output of the temperature detection means. Heat.

  According to the second aspect of the present invention, the roughness of the surface of the image carrier is detected from the value of the amount of reflected light detected by the light receiving element.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, the light receiving element receives specularly reflected light.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the light receiving element receives irregularly reflected light.

  According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the surface property detection means including the light emitting element and the light receiving element is arranged so as to detect the surface property of the sheet passing portion of the image carrier.

  According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, a plurality of surface property detection means are arranged in a direction perpendicular to the rotation direction of the image carrier.

  According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, the surface property detection means has means for moving the surface property detection apparatus in a direction perpendicular to the rotation direction of the image carrier.

  The invention according to claim 8 is an image carrier that carries a toner image as a carrying object, a transfer device that directly transfers a toner image from the image carrier to a transfer material, and residual toner on the image carrier. In an image forming apparatus having a cleaning member, a light emitting element that gives light to the surface on the image carrier, a first light receiving element that can receive regular reflection light of the light emitting element from the surface of the image carrier, and light received by irregular reflection A second light receiving element capable of comparing, a comparing means for comparing the value of the reflected light amount detected by the first and second light receiving elements with a reference value, a temperature detecting means, and a heating means for heating the cleaning member. The cleaning member is heated based on the output of the comparison means and the output of the temperature detection means.

  According to the ninth aspect of the invention, the roughness of the surface of the image carrier is detected from the value of the reflected light amount detected by the first and second light receiving elements.

  According to the tenth aspect of the present invention, the surface property detecting means including the light emitting element and the light receiving element is arranged so as to detect the surface property in the sheet passing portion of the image carrier.

  According to an eleventh aspect of the present invention, a plurality of surface property detection means are arranged in a direction perpendicular to the rotation direction of the image carrier.

  According to a twelfth aspect of the present invention, the surface property detection means has means for moving the surface property detection apparatus in a direction perpendicular to the rotation direction of the image carrier.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, the light emitting element that gives light to the surface on the image carrier, the light receiving element that can receive the reflected light of the light emitting element from the surface of the carrier, and the value of the amount of reflected light detected by the light receiving element By heating the cleaning blade based on the output of the temperature detecting means, the heating is performed when necessary, and the cleaning performance of the cleaning blade can be maintained while preventing an increase in power consumption.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to the first aspect, the surface of the image carrier is accurately detected by detecting the roughness of the surface of the image carrier from the value of the amount of reflected light detected by the light receiving element. Sex can be judged.

  According to the third aspect of the invention, in particular, the surface property of the image carrier can be accurately determined when the light receiving element according to the first aspect receives the regular reflection light.

  According to the invention described in claim 4, the surface property of the image carrier can be accurately determined by the light receiving element according to claim 1 receiving irregularly reflected light.

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to the first aspect, the surface property detection means including the light emitting element and the light receiving element is configured to detect the surface property in the sheet passing portion of the image carrier. By being arranged, it is possible to accurately determine the surface property of the image carrier.

  According to the invention described in claim 6, the surface property detecting means according to claim 1 is arranged in a direction perpendicular to the rotation direction of the image carrier so that the surface property of the image carrier can be accurately determined. Can be judged.

  According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, the surface property detecting means according to the first aspect has means for moving the surface property of the image carrier in a direction perpendicular to the rotation direction of the image carrier, thereby accurately determining the surface property of the image carrier. Judgment can be made.

  According to the eighth aspect of the present invention, the light emitting element that gives light to the surface on the image carrier, the first light receiving element that can receive the regular reflection light of the light emitting element from the surface of the image carrier, and the irregularly reflected light are received. A second light receiving element capable of comparing, a comparing means for comparing the value of the reflected light amount detected by the first and second light receiving elements with a reference value, a temperature detecting means, and a heating means for heating the cleaning member. By heating the cleaning member based on the output of the comparison unit and the output of the temperature detection unit, the cleaning member is heated when necessary, and it is possible to maintain good cleaning performance of the cleaning blade while preventing an increase in power consumption. it can.

  According to the ninth aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to the eighth aspect, the roughness of the surface of the image carrier is accurately detected by detecting the amount of reflected light detected by the first and second light receiving elements. The surface property of the image carrier can be determined.

  According to the tenth aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to the eighth aspect, the surface property detection means including the light emitting element and the light receiving element is configured to detect the surface property in the sheet passing portion of the image carrier. By being arranged, it is possible to accurately determine the surface property of the image carrier.

  According to the eleventh aspect of the present invention, a plurality of surface property detection means according to the eighth aspect are arranged in a direction perpendicular to the rotation direction of the image carrier, so that the surface property of the image carrier is accurately determined. Can be judged.

  According to a twelfth aspect of the present invention, the surface property detecting means according to the eighth aspect has means for moving the surface property of the image carrier in a direction perpendicular to the rotation direction of the image carrier, so that the surface property of the image carrier is accurately determined. Judgment can be made.

  Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. However, the dimensions, materials, shapes, relative arrangements, and the like of the components described in this embodiment are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention only to those unless otherwise specified. Absent.

<Embodiment 1>
The image forming apparatus according to the present embodiment is a printer that receives image information from a host computer and outputs an image. The image forming apparatus is configured such that consumables such as a photosensitive drum and toner can be attached to and detached from the main body as a process cartridge and exchanged. Device.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an image forming apparatus used in the present embodiment. Laser light modulated in accordance with an image signal is scanned and output from a scanner unit 1 including a laser, a polygon mirror, and a lens system. Irradiated onto the photosensitive drum 2 which is a carrier. The photosensitive drum 2 is rotationally driven in the direction of arrow a in FIG. 1 and is uniformly charged by the charging means 3 comprising a charging roller, and an electrostatic latent image is formed on the surface of the photosensitive drum 2 by irradiation with laser light.

  In this embodiment, the peripheral speed of the photosensitive drum 2 is 94.2 mm / sec, the dark portion surface potential Vd of the photosensitive drum 2 uniformly charged by the charging unit 3 is −500 V, and the bright portion surface potential Vl is −100 V. . This electrostatic latent image is developed as a toner image by the toner 41 in the developing device 4 to be visualized. In this embodiment, the developing bias voltage Vdc is set to Vdc = −300 V, and the negatively charged toner 41 is reversely developed to form an image with the toner 41 on the photosensitive drum 2.

  On the other hand, the recording material 71 stored in the cassette 7 is supplied to the registration roller 73 in synchronization with the formation of the latent image on the photosensitive drum 2 by the paper feed roller 72. The recording material 71 is conveyed to a transfer device 6 including a transfer roller in synchronization with the leading edge of the latent image formed on the photosensitive drum 2 by the registration roller 73, and the toner image is transferred to the photosensitive device by the transfer device 6. The image is directly transferred from the body drum 2 to the recording material 7. In the present embodiment, the transfer process is performed by applying Vtr = 1000 V as the transfer bias voltage Vtr to the transfer device 6. The recording material 71 to which the toner image has been transferred is permanently fixed to the toner image by the fixing device 8 and is finally discharged to the outside of the apparatus.

  The toner remaining on the photosensitive drum 2 is removed by a cleaning device 5 using a cleaning blade 51 made of an elastic blade. The cleaning device 5 includes a support portion 52 for supporting the blade 51, a squeeze sheet 53 for collecting scraped toner, and a heater 54 for heating the blade 51. The cleaning blade 51 is arranged so that the tip of the elastic blade is in the counter direction with respect to the rotation direction A of the photosensitive drum 2.

  First, the photosensitive drum 2 used in the present embodiment has a structure in which a photosensitive layer is applied on an aluminum cylinder 2b. The photosensitive layer is usually an insulator and does not particularly define a substance as long as it is a photoconductor having a characteristic that it becomes a conductor when irradiated with light of a specific wavelength. Mainly, OPC (organic optical semiconductor), A-Si (amorphous silicon), CdS (cadmium sulfide), Se (selenium) and the like are often used.

  FIG. 2 is a layer configuration diagram in the OPC of this embodiment.

  The charge generation layer 2c and the charge transport layer 2d, which is a dielectric layer, are coated on the aluminum cylinder 2b, and hole-electron pairs are generated in the charge generation layer 2c by light irradiation, and these are charged. Become a leader of the flow. The charge generation layer 2c is made of a phthalocyanine compound having a film thickness of about 0.2 μm, the charge transport layer 2d is made of polycarbonate in which a hydrazone compound having a film thickness of about 20 μm is dispersed, and the surface roughness is Ra = 0.01, Rz = 0. .1 (conforms to JIS B0601-1994).

  A sectional view of the cleaning blade 51 used in the present embodiment is shown in FIG. An elastic blade 51a made of a rubber elastic body made of urethane rubber was adhered to the support member 51b to form a cleaning blade 51. In this embodiment, urethane rubber is used, but it is also possible to use an elastic body such as silicon rubber, nitrile rubber, or chloroprene rubber as the elastic blade 51a.

  Next, the cleaning blade heating configuration and method in the present invention will be described. FIGS. 4 to 6 are enlarged perspective views illustrating a blade support member provided with a heater and a cleaning blade portion.

  The cleaning blade 51 is integrally formed with an elastic blade 51a formed of an elastic body such as rubber and a support member 51b. Further, the material of the support member 51b has a high thermal conductivity, and in this embodiment, iron is used, and the heater 54 extends over the entire length of the support member 51b. Is provided.

  In the present embodiment, an iron support member 51b having a thickness of 2.0 mm is used, and its heat capacity is sufficiently large. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 5, a small heater 54 is provided along the longitudinal direction of the support member 51b. May be divided into several places. In order to obtain the same effect, as shown in FIG. 6, a φ0.5 mm nichrome wire as a heater 54 is embedded in the elastic blade 51a, reaches the tip of the elastic blade 51a and extends in the longitudinal direction. It is also possible to use a configuration such as Thereby, only the vicinity of the contact portion of the photosensitive drum 2 which is the tip of the elastic blade 51a can be effectively warmed with a small amount of heat.

  A temperature sensor 9 for measuring the temperature inside the image forming apparatus is arranged in the vicinity of the process cartridge 10 so that the ambient temperature of the cleaning apparatus 5 can be measured as much as possible. As the temperature sensor 9, a thermistor, a thermocouple, a platinum temperature resistor, a thermopile, etc. are mainly known. In the present embodiment, a thermistor that is inexpensive and can be measured in an environment where the printer is used is used. It was.

  FIG. 7 is a schematic configuration diagram of the process cartridge 10 used in the present embodiment.

  In the process cartridge 10, the photosensitive drum 2, the charging means 3, the developing device 4, and the cleaning device 5 are collectively unitized, and these components are assembled in a predetermined relationship in the cartridge. The cartridge is inserted and mounted in a predetermined manner with respect to a predetermined portion in the image forming apparatus main body. On the contrary, the cartridge can be removed from the apparatus main body.

  Next, the developing device of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

  A toner 41 accommodated in a toner container, a developing roller 42 that carries the toner 41 on the outer peripheral surface and conveys it to a developing area formed with the photosensitive drum 2, and a toner supply that conveys and applies the toner 41 to the developing roller 42 A developing process is performed in a developing region, a roller 43 (not shown), a developing blade 44 that regulates the amount of toner so that the toner 41 applied by the toner supply roller 43 is supported on the developing roller 42 in an appropriate amount. For this purpose, the developing device 4 is constituted by a developing bias applying means 45 (not shown) connected to the developing roller 42 and provided inside the image forming apparatus main body.

  Next, a detection method used for detecting the state of the photosensitive drum surface 2a mounted in the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS.

  Since the surface property detection is performed in a state where there is no residual toner particles on the photosensitive drum 2, it is desirable that the surface property detection device 11 is provided on the downstream side of the cleaning device 5.

  As shown in FIG. 1, a surface property detection device 11 including a light emitting element 11a such as an LED and a light receiving element 11b such as a photodiode is disposed. The surface property detection device 11 irradiates the photosensitive drum surface 2a with infrared light from the light emitting element 11a, and measures the reflected light from the surface of the photosensitive drum surface 2a by the light receiving element 11b. Measure the thickness. The reflected light from the photosensitive drum surface 2a includes a regular reflection component and a diffuse reflection component, and can be implemented by a method of detecting either the regular reflection component or the irregular reflection component. The state of the surface 2a can be reflected severely. Therefore, in this embodiment, a method of detecting regular reflection light is adopted.

  Therefore, as shown in FIG. 8, in the surface property detection device 11, when the normal line I is used as a reference so that the irregularly reflected light from the photosensitive drum surface 2a does not enter the light receiving element 11b, the surface property detecting device 11 is directed to the photosensitive drum surface 2a. Only the regular reflection light is measured by setting the irradiation angle to α = 45 ° and the light reception angle of the reflected light from the photosensitive drum surface 2a to β = 45 °.

  The comparative example of the surface property detection of this embodiment is described below.

[Comparative Example 1]
Three types of photosensitive drums 2 with varying surface roughness were prepared.

  First, the roughness of the surface roughness of the three types of prepared photosensitive drums 2 was measured according to JIS B0601-1994. The measurement results are shown in Table 1 below.

表１に示すＡ、Ｂ，Ｃ３種の感光体ドラム２を表面性検知装置１１が出力した値と感光体ドラムの粗さの関係を記したグラフを図９に記す。

FIG. 9 is a graph showing the relationship between the values output from the surface property detector 11 and the roughness of the photosensitive drums for the A, B, and C type photosensitive drums 2 shown in Table 1.

  The surface property detection device 11 used in the present embodiment receives regular reflection light, so that the regular reflection light received decreases as the surface roughness increases.

  From the result of FIG. 9, the surface roughness of the photosensitive drum 2 can be measured by using the surface property detection device 11 used in the present invention.

  Next, the arrangement of the surface property detection means 11 will be described.

  Since the surface property in the sheet passing portion of the photosensitive drum 2 has to be detected, it is desirable that the arrangement be made so as to measure the inside of the sheet passing portion of the photosensitive drum as shown in FIG. Further, as shown in FIG. 10B, it goes without saying that there is also a method of arranging a plurality in the direction perpendicular to the rotation direction of the photosensitive drum 2 in order to increase the detection accuracy. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 10 (c), a motor 15, a belt 16, and the like that move the surface property detection means perpendicularly to the rotation direction of the photosensitive drum 2 are provided and operated in the rotation direction of the belt 16. There is also a method for improving the detection accuracy.

  Next, the photosensitive drum 2 having the above-described surface roughness and a cartridge on which the cleaning device 5 in which the heater 54 is attached to the support member 52 are mounted are prepared, and the temperature sensor 20 mounted in the image forming apparatus is used. The atmosphere temperature was varied so that the measured temperature was 0 ° C. to 5 ° C., and 10 images with a predetermined printing rate were printed. In this comparative example, the predetermined printing rate was 2%.

  The results are shown in Table 2. As for the meaning of the symbol, ○ indicates that no cleaning failure has occurred, and × indicates that a vertical streak-like cleaning failure has occurred.

次に、クリーニング装置５に設けたヒータ５４を用いクリーニングブレード５１を加熱し、加熱から１分ごとに１０枚プリントを行い、その結果を表３に記す。記号の意味として、○はクリーニング不良発生せず、△は途切れ途切れの縦スジ状のクリーニング不良発生、×は、縦スジ状のクリーニング不良発生となっている。

Next, the cleaning blade 51 is heated using the heater 54 provided in the cleaning device 5, 10 sheets are printed every minute from the heating, and the results are shown in Table 3. As for the meaning of the symbol, ○ indicates that no cleaning failure has occurred, Δ indicates intermittent vertical streak-like cleaning failure, and X indicates occurrence of vertical streak-like cleaning failure.

この比較によって、表面が大きく荒れた感光体ドラムでも加熱時間が５分以上あれば、クリーニング装置の性能を維持ことができる。

According to this comparison, the performance of the cleaning device can be maintained even if the surface of the photosensitive drum is rough and has a heating time of 5 minutes or more.

  In order to describe the operation that satisfies the above conditions, a schematic diagram of the image forming apparatus B of the present embodiment in FIG. 11 and a flowchart in FIG. 12 are described. This will be described below.

  When there is a print request from the host A to the image forming apparatus B (S0), the surface property of the photosensitive drum is measured from the CPU mounted in the image forming apparatus B (S1). The output is compared with the threshold value A by the surface property comparing means 12 (S2). If it is larger than the threshold A, a command is sent from the CPU to the exposure apparatus 1 and the drive means 20, and printing is executed (S6). When it is smaller than the threshold A, the temperature in the apparatus is measured using the temperature sensor 9 (S3), and the output is compared with the threshold B by the temperature comparison means 13 (S4). If it is smaller than the threshold B, the cleaning device 5 is heated using the heater 54 (S5). After a predetermined time has elapsed, a command is issued from the CPU to the exposure apparatus 1 and the driving means 20, and printing is executed (S6). After executing printing, it is determined whether or not there is a further print request (S7), and printing is terminated (S8).

  In the present embodiment, the light emitted from the light emitting element 11a is described as infrared light. However, the light is not particularly limited as long as it has little absorption with respect to the surface of the photosensitive drum.

  In the present embodiment, the heating time is set to 5 minutes. However, since this differs depending on the heating capability of the heater, the heating time is not limited.

  By adopting the configuration as described above, a low-temperature environment and a rough environment (a lot of sand, dust, etc.) or a rough paper (a lot of additives such as calcium carbonate are used, and the particle size is small. Even if the surface of the photosensitive drum is large and rough, the cleaning device can be heated to adjust the temperature when necessary, thereby avoiding an increase in power consumption and improving the performance of the cleaning device. An image forming apparatus that can be maintained can be provided.

<Embodiment 2>
Next, an image forming apparatus according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention will be described. The basic configuration is the same as that of the embodiment, and corresponding portions are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof will be omitted unless necessary.

  First, a detection method used for detecting the state of the photosensitive drum surface 2a mounted in the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

  The surface property detection device 11 according to the present embodiment irradiates the photosensitive drum surface 2a with infrared light from the light emitting element 11a, and measures the reflected light from the photosensitive drum surface 2a by the light receiving element 11b. Measure the top surface roughness. The reflected light from the photosensitive drum surface 2a includes a regular reflection component and an irregular reflection component, and can be implemented by a method of detecting either the regular reflection component or the irregular reflection component. However, the irregular reflection component is detected by the photosensitive drum surface 2a. The state of can be reflected reliably. Therefore, in this embodiment, a system for detecting irregularly reflected light is adopted.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 13, in this surface property detection device 11, when the normal I is used as a reference so that the regular reflection light from the photosensitive drum surface 2a does not enter the light receiving element 11b, the photosensitive drum surface 2a. In this case, only the irregularly reflected light is measured with an irradiation angle of α = 45 ° and a light receiving angle of the reflected light from the photosensitive drum surface 2a being β = 0 °.
The results of studying surface property detection according to this embodiment will be described below.

[Comparative Example 2]
As in the first embodiment, three types of photosensitive drums 2 with varying surface roughness were prepared.

  First, the roughness of the surface roughness of the three types of prepared photosensitive drums 2 was measured according to JIS B0601-1994. The measurement results are shown in Table 4 below.

表１に示すＡ、Ｂ、Ｃ３種の感光体ドラム２を表面性検知装置１１が出力した値と感光体ドラムの粗さの関係を記したグラフを図１４に記す。

FIG. 14 is a graph showing the relationship between the values output from the surface property detector 11 and the roughness of the photosensitive drums for the A, B, and C type photosensitive drums 2 shown in Table 1.

  The surface property detection device 11 used in the present embodiment receives irregularly reflected light, so that the irregularly reflected light received increases as the surface roughness increases.

  From the result of FIG. 14, the surface roughness of the photosensitive drum 2 can be measured by using the surface property measuring device 11 used in the present invention.

  The operation of the surface property measuring apparatus for the surface of the photosensitive drum, which is a feature of the present embodiment, will be described with reference to the sequence chart of FIG.

  When there is a print request from the host A to the image forming apparatus B (S0), the surface property of the photosensitive drum is measured from the CPU mounted in the image forming apparatus B (S1). The output is compared with the threshold value A by the surface property comparing means 12 (S2). If it is smaller than the threshold value A, a command is sent from the CPU to the exposure apparatus 1 and the drive means 20, and printing is executed (S6). When it is larger than the threshold A, the temperature in the apparatus is measured using the temperature sensor 9 (S3), and the output is compared with the threshold B by the temperature comparison means 13 (S4). If it is smaller than the threshold B, the cleaning device 5 is heated using the heater 54 (S5). After a predetermined time has elapsed, a command is issued from the CPU to the exposure apparatus 1 and the driving means 20, and printing is executed (S6). After executing printing, it is determined whether or not there is a further print request (S7), and printing is terminated (S8).

  By adopting the above configuration, a low temperature environment and a rough environment (a lot of sand, dust, etc.), or a rough paper (a lot of additives such as calcium carbonate are used, and a paper having a large particle size is used. ) And maintain the performance of the cleaning device while avoiding an increase in power consumption by heating the cleaning device and adjusting the temperature when necessary, even if the surface of the photoconductor drum is greatly roughened. It was possible to provide an image forming apparatus capable of performing the above.

<Embodiment 3>
Next, an image forming apparatus according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention will be described. The basic configuration is the same as that of the first embodiment, and corresponding portions are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof will be omitted unless necessary.

  First, a detection method used for detecting the state of the photosensitive drum surface 2a mounted in the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

  The surface property detection device 11 according to the present embodiment irradiates the photosensitive drum surface 2a with infrared light from the light emitting element 11a, specularly reflected light from the light receiving element 11b, and irregularly reflected light from the light receiving element 11c. By measuring, the surface roughness on the photosensitive drum surface 2a is measured. The reflected light from the photosensitive drum surface 2a includes a regular reflection component and a diffuse reflection component. The regular reflection component can be implemented by a method of detecting any of the irregular reflection components. As shown in FIG. 9, the output tends to be larger than the actual roughness. Further, irregularly reflected light tends to be output with a smaller output than the actual roughness as shown in FIG. Therefore, the surface property of the photosensitive drum can be accurately grasped by measuring both components of the reflected light and reflecting the average value of roughness calculated from both outputs. Therefore, in the present embodiment, a method of detecting both regular reflection light and irregular reflection light is adopted.

  Therefore, in this surface property detection device 11, when the normal I is used as a reference, the irradiation angle from the light emitting element 11a to the photosensitive drum surface 2a is α = 45 °, and the light receiving element 11b is positive from the photosensitive drum surface 2a. Only the regular reflection light is measured with the light reception angle of the reflected light being β = 45 °, and only the irregular reflection light is measured with the light reception angle of the irregular reflection light to the light receiving element 11c being γ = 0 °.

  The operation of the surface property measuring apparatus for the surface of the photosensitive drum, which is a feature of the present embodiment, will be described with reference to the schematic diagram of the image forming apparatus C of the present embodiment in FIG. 17 and the flowchart in FIG.

  When there is a print request from the host A to the image forming apparatus C (S0), the surface property measurement of the photosensitive drum is executed from the CPU mounted in the image forming apparatus C (S1). From the output obtained from the light receiving element 11b, the surface roughness obtained from the regular reflection light is calculated by the surface property calculating means 14b (S2). Further, the surface roughness obtained from the irregularly reflected light is calculated by the surface property calculating means 14c from the output obtained from the light receiving element 11c (S3). These outputs are averaged by the surface property calculation means 14a (S4), and the output is compared with the threshold value A by the surface property comparison means 12 (S5). If it is larger than the threshold value A, an instruction is sent from the CPU to the exposure apparatus 1 and the drive means 20 to execute printing (S9). When the temperature is smaller than the threshold A, the temperature in the apparatus is measured using the temperature sensor 9 (S6), and the output is compared with the threshold B by the temperature comparison means 13 (S7). If smaller than the threshold B, the cleaning device 5 is heated using the heater 54 (S8). After a predetermined time elapses, a command is issued from the CPU to the exposure apparatus 1 and the drive means 20, and printing is executed (S9). After executing printing, it is determined whether or not there is a further print request (S10), and printing is terminated (S11).

  By adopting the configuration as described above, a low-temperature environment and a rough environment (a lot of sand, dust, etc.) or a rough paper (a lot of additives such as calcium carbonate are used, and the particle size is small. Even if the surface of the photosensitive drum is large and rough, the cleaning device can be heated to adjust the temperature when necessary, thereby avoiding an increase in power consumption and improving the performance of the cleaning device. An image forming apparatus that can be maintained can be provided.

1 is a cross-sectional view of an image forming apparatus according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. It is a layer block diagram in OPC which concerns on Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is sectional drawing of the cleaning blade which concerns on Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is a layout view of the heater according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. It is a layout view of the heater according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. It is a layout view of the heater according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. It is sectional drawing of the process cartridge which concerns on Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is the schematic of the surface property detection apparatus which concerns on Embodiment 1 of this invention. 6 is a graph showing a relationship between a value output by the surface property detection device according to the first embodiment of the present invention and the roughness of the photosensitive drum. It is a layout view of the surface property detection device according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. 1 is a schematic diagram of an image forming apparatus according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. It is a sequence chart which concerns on Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is the schematic of the surface property detection apparatus which concerns on Embodiment 2 of this invention. It is a graph which shows the relationship between the value which the surface property detection apparatus concerning Embodiment 2 of this invention output, and the roughness of a photoreceptor drum. It is a sequence chart which concerns on Embodiment 2 of this invention. It is the schematic of the surface property detection apparatus which concerns on Embodiment 3 of this invention. It is the schematic of the image forming apparatus which concerns on Embodiment 3 of this invention. It is a sequence chart which concerns on Embodiment 3 of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Exposure apparatus 2 Photosensitive drum 3 Charging means 4 Developing apparatus 5 Cleaning means 6 Transfer apparatus 7 Cassette 8 Fixing device 9 Temperature sensor 10 Process cartridge 11 Surface property detection apparatus 12 Surface property comparison means 13 Temperature comparison means 14 Surface property calculation means 15 Motor 16 belt 20 drive means

Claims (12)

An image carrier that carries a toner image as a carrier; a transfer device that directly transfers the toner image from the image carrier to a transfer material; and a cleaning member that removes residual toner on the image carrier. In the image forming apparatus,
The light emitting element that gives light to the surface on the image carrier, the light receiving element that can receive the reflected light of the light emitting element from the surface of the carrier, and the value of the amount of reflected light detected by the light receiving element are compared with a reference value. An image forming apparatus comprising: a comparison unit; a temperature detection unit; and a heating unit that heats the cleaning member, wherein the cleaning member is heated based on an output of the comparison unit and an output of the temperature detection unit.   The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein roughness of the surface of the image carrier is detected from a value of the amount of reflected light detected by the light receiving element.   The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the light receiving element receives specularly reflected light.   The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the light receiving element receives irregularly reflected light.   The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the surface property detecting means including the light emitting element and the light receiving element is arranged to detect the surface property in the sheet passing portion of the image carrier.   The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of the surface property detection units are arranged in a direction perpendicular to a rotation direction of the image carrier. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the surface property detection unit includes a unit that moves the surface property in a direction perpendicular to a rotation direction of the image carrier. An image carrier that carries a toner image as a carrier; a transfer device that directly transfers the toner image from the image carrier to a transfer material; and a cleaning member that removes residual toner on the image carrier. In the image forming apparatus,
A light-emitting element that gives light to the surface on the image carrier, a first light-receiving element that can receive specularly reflected light from the light-emitting element from the surface of the carrier, and a second light-receiving element that can receive irregularly reflected light Comparison means for comparing a value output based on the value of each of the reflected light amounts detected by the first and second light receiving elements with a reference value, temperature detection means, and heating for heating the cleaning member And an image forming apparatus, wherein the cleaning member is heated based on the output of the comparison means and the output of the temperature detection means.   9. The image forming apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the roughness of the surface of the image carrier is detected from the value of the amount of reflected light detected by the first and second light receiving elements.   The image forming apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the surface property detection unit including the light emitting element and the light receiving element is disposed so as to detect the surface property in the sheet passing portion of the image carrier.   9. The image forming apparatus according to claim 8, wherein a plurality of the surface property detecting means are arranged in a direction perpendicular to a rotation direction of the image carrier.   9. The image forming apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the surface property detection means includes means for moving the surface property in a direction perpendicular to a rotation direction of the image carrier.

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