JP2007108631A - Toner supplier, toner conveyor, and an image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a toner supplier in which an in-container toner agitator member in a container part and a toner supplying conveyor member use the same toner supplying operation driving source, the toner supplier capable of accurately detecting whether there is toner in the toner container part, even if the rotational speed of the toner supply conveyor member is increased, and to provide an image forming apparatus equipped therewith. <P>SOLUTION: The toner supplier 50M which has a sub-hopper 48M as the toner container part, a toner-conveying coil 70M as the toner-supplying conveyor member for supplying toner, a toner detection sensor 72M, and an agitator 74M as the in-container agitator member and in which the agitator 74 and toner conveying coil 70M are driven by a drive motor 41M as the common toner that supplies operation driving source is characterized in that the agitator 74M is provided with a paddle opening part 75M as an in-container toner fluidity suppressing means for suppressing increase in the fluidity of the toner in the toner hopper 48M. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a toner replenishing device that feeds toner in a toner accommodating portion to a developer accommodating portion by a toner replenishing and conveying member, a toner conveying device that conveys toner in a toner accommodating portion by a toner conveying member, and an image forming apparatus including these. Is.

Conventionally, as a toner replenishing device, there is one as described in Patent Document 1. In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-260260, a developer container of a developing device that temporarily develops toner supplied from a toner bottle in a toner container and performs development by a toner replenishment conveyance member that conveys toner by rotating the toner in the toner container. A toner replenishing device is shown.
The greatest purpose of replenishing toner is to replenish and supply the amount of toner consumed by image output in order to maintain the toner concentration in the developer accommodating portion of the developing device. However, if the amount of toner in the toner storage portion of the toner replenishing device decreases and a stable amount of toner cannot be supplied, the toner concentration in the developer storage portion of the developing device decreases, leading to image formation due to a decrease in image density. .

The toner replenishing device of Patent Document 1 includes a toner detection sensor that detects the presence or absence of toner at a certain height in the toner storage unit. Based on the detection result of the toner detection sensor, it is possible to detect a decrease in the toner in the toner container, and the toner in the toner bottle has run out, but the toner remains in the toner container (hereinafter referred to as near empty). Can be detected. By replacing the toner bottle in the near-empty state, the toner bottle can be replaced before the toner in the toner storage portion runs out, so that stable toner replenishment can be performed. As a result, it is possible to prevent a decrease in image density due to a decrease in the toner density in the developer container.
Further, a toner replenishing device provided with a toner agitating member that rotates in the toner accommodating portion and agitates the toner so that the toner does not aggregate in the toner accommodating portion that temporarily accommodates toner is added to the toner replenishing device described in Patent Document 1. An image forming apparatus provided is described in Patent Document 2. The toner replenishing conveying member and the toner agitating member of this toner replenishing device are supplied with driving force from a common toner replenishing operation driving source via a gear.

JP 2004-139031 A JP 2004-220012 A

In recent years, it is necessary to increase the toner replenishment per hour from the toner replenishing device by increasing the image forming speed. If the rotation speed of the toner supply / conveyance member is increased in order to increase the toner supply speed, the rotation speed of the toner stirring member having a common drive source also increases.
As described above, when the number of rotations of the toner replenishing conveyance member and the toner agitating member is increased, the toner detection sensor detects the near empty even though the toner bottle has sufficient toner in the toner container. Occurred.
Possible causes of this problem are as follows.
The above-described image forming apparatus uses toner having good fluidity (low acceleration cohesion degree) in order to cope with high-speed toner, so that when the toner is agitated excessively by the toner agitating member, air is excessively mixed with the toner. As a result, the toner rises. When the toner rises, the amount of toner contained per unit volume decreases, and the toner detection sensor cannot detect the presence of toner. In particular, in the above-described image forming apparatus, since the presence or absence of toner is detected based on the magnitude of the load on the detection surface of the sensor, the load on the detection surface is reduced when the above-described toner is in a state of rising. As a result, erroneous detection that there is no toner is made despite the presence of toner in the toner container. Incidentally, the problem caused by the state where the toner amount per unit volume is reduced due to soaring is not limited to the sensor that detects the load applied to the detection surface of the sensor, but the toner is detected even with other types of toner detection sensors. False positives can occur.
The above-described problem is not limited to the toner replenishing device that replenishes toner to the developing device, but includes a toner accommodating portion that temporarily accommodates toner, and a toner conveying device that conveys the toner in the toner accommodating portion to another location. It can happen.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems. An object of the present invention is a toner replenishing device in which the toner agitating member and the toner replenishing conveying member are the same toner replenishing operation drive source. The present invention is to provide a toner replenishing device that can accurately detect the presence or absence of toner in the toner accommodating portion even when the rotational speed of the toner is increased, and an image forming apparatus including the toner replenishing device.
A second object of the present invention is a toner conveying device in which the toner agitating member and the toner conveying member are the same toner conveying operation drive source, and even if the number of rotations of the toner conveying member is increased, It is an object of the present invention to provide a toner conveying device that can accurately detect the presence or absence of toner, and an image forming apparatus including the toner conveying device.

In order to achieve the above object, a first aspect of the present invention is a toner container that temporarily stores toner, and a toner replenishment transport member that replenishes the developer container by rotating the toner in the toner container. And a toner detection sensor that is installed on a wall surface in the toner storage unit and detects the presence or absence of the toner at the installed height, and a toner stirring member that rotates in the toner storage unit and stirs the toner, In the toner replenishing device in which driving is transmitted from a common toner replenishing operation drive source for the toner agitating member and the toner replenishing conveying member, the fluidity of the toner is increased by agitation of the toner agitating member in the toner accommodating portion It has a toner fluidity suppressing means for suppressing toner.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the toner replenishing device according to the first aspect, the toner replenishing operation is controlled in accordance with a load applied to the toner replenishing operation driving source.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the toner replenishing device according to the second aspect of the present invention, the toner replenishing device further includes a toner container that accommodates the toner to be supplied to the toner accommodating portion, and the toner container is driven by the toner replenishment operation drive source. It is characterized in that it is rotated by being operated.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, a toner container that temporarily stores toner, a toner conveying member that conveys the toner by rotating the toner in the toner container, and a wall surface in the toner container, A toner detection sensor that detects the presence or absence of the toner at a set height; and a toner stirring member that rotates in the toner container and stirs the toner. The toner stirring member and the toner conveying member are common. In the toner transport device in which driving is transmitted from the toner transport operation drive source, the toner transport device includes toner fluidity suppressing means for suppressing an increase in fluidity of the toner due to stirring of the toner stirring member in the toner storage portion. It is what.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the toner conveying device according to the fourth aspect is provided, wherein the toner conveying member is a toner replenishing conveying member that replenishes toner in the developer accommodating portion, and the toner conveying operation drive source is a replenishing operation. In a toner supply device as a toner supply operation drive source as a drive source, the toner supply operation is controlled in accordance with a load applied to the toner supply operation drive source.
According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the toner replenishing device according to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the toner replenishing device further includes a toner container that accommodates toner to be supplied to the toner accommodating portion, and the toner container is driven by the toner replenishment operation drive source. It is characterized in that it is rotated by being operated.
According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the toner replenishing device according to the third or sixth aspect, the toner replenishing operation is controlled in accordance with the remaining amount of toner in the toner container.
According to a eighth aspect of the present invention, in the toner replenishing device according to the seventh aspect, if the remaining amount of toner in the toner container is within a predetermined range, the toner is replenished for a theoretical replenishment time. When the remaining amount of toner in the toner container is less than the predetermined range, toner is replenished for a time shorter than the theoretical replenishment time, and when the remaining amount of toner in the toner container is larger than the predetermined range. The toner is supplied for a time longer than the theoretical supply time. However, the theoretical replenishment time is the time required for the toner replenishing device to replenish the toner for the consumed toner amount with respect to the consumed toner amount consumed by the development, and is calculated based on the experimental results before manufacturing. The
According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, in the toner replenishing device according to the seventh or eighth aspect, the toner replenishing operation drive source is a DC motor.
According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, in the toner replenishing device according to the second, third, fifth, or sixth aspect, the toner replenishing operation drive source is a DC motor, and is in accordance with the magnitude of the driving current supplied to the DC motor. Thus, the toner replenishing operation is controlled.
In the toner replenishing device according to claim 11, if the magnitude of the drive current is within a predetermined range, toner is replenished for a theoretical replenishment time, and the magnitude of the drive current is If it is smaller than the predetermined range, the toner is replenished for a time shorter than the theoretical replenishment time. If the drive current is larger than the predetermined range, the toner is longer than the theoretical replenishment time. It is characterized by replenishing. However, the theoretical replenishment time is the time required for the toner replenishing device to replenish the toner for the consumed toner amount with respect to the consumed toner amount consumed by the development, and is calculated based on the experimental results before manufacturing. The
According to a twelfth aspect of the present invention, in the toner replenishing device according to the eleventh aspect, the toner replenishing operation is stopped when the drive current becomes equal to or higher than the rated current of the DC motor.
According to a thirteenth aspect of the invention, in the toner replenishing device of the first, second, third, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh or twelfth aspect, the toner stirring member is a flat paddle member. The toner fluidity suppressing means includes a paddle opening provided in the paddle member.
The invention according to claim 14 is the toner replenishing device according to claim 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 or 13, wherein the toner fluidity suppression means is the toner. Drive control means for driving the toner replenishment operation drive source by intermittent drive that repeats drive and stop according to the rotational speed of the agitating member is included.
Further, the invention of claim 15 is the toner replenishing device according to claim 14, wherein the time ratio of the timing of driving and stopping of the intermittent driving is the driving time with respect to the sum of driving and stopping times. The ratio is 75% or less.
According to a sixteenth aspect of the invention, in the toner replenishing device according to the first, second, third, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, or fifteenth aspect, the toner stirring member can be used. It consists of a flexible material.
According to a seventeenth aspect of the present invention, in the toner replenishing device according to the sixteenth aspect, the toner stirring member rubs the detection surface of the toner detection sensor.
Further, the invention of claim 18 is the toner replenishing device according to claim 17, wherein the length of the toner stirring member is longer than the distance from the rotating shaft of the toner stirring member to the detection surface of the toner detection sensor. The width of the toner stirring member is larger than the width of the detection surface of the toner detection sensor.
According to a nineteenth aspect of the invention, in the toner replenishing device according to the seventeenth or eighteenth aspect, the toner stirring member rubs the detection surface of the toner detection sensor from below to above. It is.
According to a twentieth aspect of the invention, the toner replenishing device according to the first, second, third, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelve, thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, or nineteenth aspect. The rotating shaft of the toner stirring member is perpendicular to the moving direction of the toner in the toner container.
The invention of claim 21 is the toner of claims 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, or 20. In the replenishing device, the toner has an accelerated aggregation degree of 15% or less.
Further, the invention of claim 22 is the invention described in claims 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, or 21. In the toner replenishing device, the toner replenishing and conveying member is a toner conveying coil that rotates to convey the toner in the direction of the rotation axis.
The invention of claim 23 is the invention of claims 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21. Alternatively, in the toner replenishing device of No. 22, the toner replenishing and conveying member is provided below the toner accommodating portion, and the toner is supplied to the toner accommodating portion from above.
Further, the invention of claim 24 is the invention of claims 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21. , 22 or 23, the replenishment rotation shaft that is the rotation shaft of the toner replenishment conveyance member and the agitation rotation shaft that is the rotation shaft of the toner agitating member are not parallel, and the replenishment rotation shaft and the agitation rotation Each shaft is provided with a bevel gear, and each bevel gear meshes with each other and transmits drive.
According to a twenty-fifth aspect of the invention, in the toner replenishing device of the twenty-fourth aspect, the bevel gears have the same number of teeth.
Further, the invention of claim 26 is provided with a latent image carrier and a developer container, and a developing device for developing a latent image on the latent image carrier using the developer in the developer container, An image forming apparatus including a toner replenishing unit that supplies toner to the developer accommodating portion, wherein the toner replenishing unit is defined by claim 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. 13, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 or 25.
According to a twenty-seventh aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to the twenty-sixth aspect, when continuously outputting an image having a predetermined image area ratio or more, the toner density in the developer accommodating portion is set every time a predetermined number of images are formed. If the toner density is lower than a predetermined value, image formation is stopped, and the toner replenishing device performs an intermittent replenishment operation with a stop time longer than a normal replenishment operation. To do.

In the toner replenishing device having the configuration according to claim 1, the toner replenishment device that controls the fluidity of the toner in the toner containing portion prevents excessive agitation of the toner. Thus, it can be prevented that the air is excessively mixed and the amount of toner per unit volume is partially reduced.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a toner conveying device having the configuration according to the fourth aspect, wherein the toner fluidity suppressing means for controlling the fluidity of the toner in the toner containing portion prevents excessive agitation of the toner. Thus, it can be prevented that the air is excessively mixed and the amount of toner per unit volume is partially reduced.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, it is possible to prevent the amount of toner per unit volume in the toner storage portion from being partially reduced. Therefore, even if the rotation speed of the toner replenishment conveying member is increased, toner detection in the toner storage portion is detected. There is an excellent effect that the presence or absence of toner at the position can be accurately detected.
According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to prevent the amount of toner per unit volume in the toner storage portion from being partially reduced. Therefore, even if the number of rotations of the toner transport member is increased, the toner detection position in the toner storage portion There is an excellent effect that the presence / absence of toner can be accurately detected.

Hereinafter, an electrophotographic printer (hereinafter simply referred to as a printer 100) will be described as a first embodiment of an image forming apparatus to which the present invention is applied.
First, the basic configuration of the printer 100 will be described. FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of the printer 100. In the figure, the printer 100 includes four process cartridges 6Y, M, C, and K for generating toner images of yellow, magenta, cyan, and black (hereinafter referred to as Y, M, C, and K). Yes. These use Y, M, C, and K toners of different colors as the image forming material, but the other configurations are the same and are replaced when the lifetime is reached. Taking a process cartridge 6M for generating an M toner image as an example, as shown in FIG. 2, a drum-shaped photosensitive member 1M, a drum cleaning device 2M, a charge eliminating device (not shown), a charging device 4M, a developing device 5M, and the like. It has. The process cartridge 6M can be attached to and detached from the main body of the printer 100 so that consumable parts can be replaced at a time.

  The charging device 4M uniformly charges the surface of the photoreceptor 1M that is rotated clockwise in the drawing by a driving unit (not shown). The uniformly charged surface of the photoreceptor 1M is exposed and scanned by the laser beam L and carries an electrostatic latent image for M. The M electrostatic latent image is developed into an M toner image by the developing device 5M using M toner. Then, intermediate transfer is performed on the intermediate transfer belt 8. The drum cleaning device 2M removes the toner remaining on the surface of the photoreceptor 1M after the intermediate transfer process. The static eliminator neutralizes residual charges on the photoreceptor 1M after cleaning. By this charge removal, the surface of the photoreceptor 1M is initialized and prepared for the next image formation. In the other process cartridges 6Y, 6C, and 6K, Y, C, and K toner images are similarly formed on the photoreceptors 1Y, 1C, and 1K, and are intermediately transferred onto the intermediate transfer belt 8.

  In FIG. 1 described above, an exposure device 7 is disposed below the process cartridges 6Y, 6M, 6C, and 6K in the drawing. The exposure device 7 serving as a latent image forming unit irradiates the respective photosensitive members in the process cartridges 6Y, 6M, 6C, and 6K with a laser beam L emitted based on the image information. By this exposure, electrostatic latent images for Y, M, C, and K are formed on the photoreceptors 1Y, 1M, 1C, and 1K. The exposure device 7 irradiates the photoconductor with a laser beam (L) emitted from a light source through a plurality of optical lenses and mirrors while scanning with a polygon mirror rotated by a motor.

  On the lower side of the exposure apparatus 7 in the figure, paper supply means including a paper storage cassette 26, a paper supply roller 27 incorporated therein, a registration roller pair 28, and the like are disposed. The paper storage cassette 26 stores a plurality of transfer papers P as recording bodies, and a paper feed roller 27 is in contact with the uppermost transfer paper P. When the paper feeding roller 27 is rotated counterclockwise in the drawing by a driving means (not shown), the uppermost transfer paper P is fed toward the rollers of the registration roller pair 28. The registration roller pair 28 rotationally drives both rollers to sandwich the transfer paper P, but temporarily stops rotating immediately after sandwiching. Then, the transfer paper P is sent out toward a later-described secondary transfer nip at an appropriate timing. In the sheet feeding unit having such a configuration, a conveying unit is configured by a combination of the sheet feeding roller 27 and the registration roller pair 28 corresponding to the timing roller. This transport means transports the transfer paper P from a paper storage cassette 26 serving as a storage means to a secondary transfer nip described later.

  Above the process cartridges 6Y, 6M, 6C, and 6K, an intermediate transfer unit 15 that moves the intermediate transfer belt 8 that is an intermediate transfer member endlessly while stretching is disposed. The intermediate transfer unit 15 includes, in addition to the intermediate transfer belt 8, four primary transfer bias rollers 9Y, M, C, and K, a cleaning device 10, and the like. A secondary transfer backup roller 12, a cleaning backup roller 13, a tension roller 14 and the like are also provided. The intermediate transfer belt 8 is endlessly moved in the counterclockwise direction in the figure by the rotational drive of at least one of the rollers while being stretched around these three rollers. The primary transfer bias rollers 9Y, M, C, and K sandwich the intermediate transfer belt 8 moved endlessly in this manner from the photoreceptors 1Y, M, C, and K to form primary transfer nips, respectively. Yes. In these methods, a transfer bias having a polarity opposite to that of toner (for example, plus) is applied to the back surface (loop inner peripheral surface) of the intermediate transfer belt 8. All of the rollers except the primary transfer bias rollers 9Y, 9M, 9C, and 9K are electrically grounded. The intermediate transfer belt 8 sequentially passes through the primary transfer nips for Y, M, C, and K along with the endless movement thereof, and Y, M, and C on the photoreceptors 1Y, M, C, and K are sequentially transferred. , K toner images are superimposed and primarily transferred. As a result, a four-color superimposed toner image (hereinafter referred to as a four-color toner image) is formed on the intermediate transfer belt 8.

  The secondary transfer backup roller 12 sandwiches the intermediate transfer belt 8 between the secondary transfer roller 19 and forms a secondary transfer nip. The four-color toner image formed on the intermediate transfer belt 8 is transferred to the transfer paper P at the secondary transfer nip. Untransferred toner that has not been transferred onto the transfer paper P adheres to the intermediate transfer belt 8 after passing through the secondary transfer nip. This is cleaned by the cleaning device 10.

  In the secondary transfer nip, the transfer paper P is sandwiched between the intermediate transfer belt 8 and the secondary transfer roller 19 whose surfaces move in the forward direction, and is conveyed in the opposite direction to the registration roller pair 28 side. . When the transfer paper P sent out from the secondary transfer nip passes between the rollers of the fixing device 20, the four-color toner image transferred to the surface is fixed by heat and pressure. Thereafter, the transfer paper P is discharged out of the apparatus through a pair of paper discharge rollers 29. A stack unit 30 is formed on the upper surface of the main body of the printer 100, and the transfer paper P discharged to the outside by the discharge roller pair 29 is sequentially stacked on the stack unit 30.

  The configuration of the developing device 5M in the process cartridge 6M will be described. The developing device 5M includes a magnetic field generating means inside, and a developing sleeve 51M as a developer carrying member that carries and conveys a two-component developer containing magnetic particles and toner on the surface, and is carried on the developing sleeve 51M. And a doctor 52M as a developer regulating member that regulates the layer thickness of the developer conveyed. Here, a place where the developing sleeve 51 is accommodated is referred to as a developing sleeve accommodating portion 53. Further, a developer accommodating portion 54M is located adjacent to the developing sleeve accommodating portion 53M to accommodate the developer, and the developer accommodating portion 54M includes a developer conveying screw 55M for agitating and conveying the developer. Further, the developing device 5M includes a density detection sensor 56M as a toner density sensor that detects the toner density of the developer in the developer storage portion 54M, and toner that is replenished based on the detection result of the density detection sensor 56M. A toner supply port (not shown) for taking in the portion 54M is provided.

  Next, the operation of this developing device will be described. The developer is agitated and conveyed by the rotation of the developer conveying screw 55M and circulates in the developer accommodating portion 54. By being agitated and conveyed, the toner in the developer is charged by frictional charging with the carrier. The developer containing charged toner on the side of the developer accommodating portion 54 adjacent to the developing sleeve accommodating portion 53M is supplied to the surface of the developing sleeve 51M having a magnetic pole inside and is carried by magnetic force. The developer layer carried on the developing sleeve 51M is conveyed in the arrow direction as the developing sleeve 51M rotates. In the middle, after the thickness of the developer layer is regulated by the doctor 52M, it is transported to the developing area facing the photoreceptor 1M. In the development area, development based on the latent image formed on the photoreceptor 1M is performed. The developer layer that has passed through the developing area and remained on the developing sleeve 51M is conveyed along with the rotation of the developing sleeve 51M, and is separated from the developing sleeve 51M by the repulsive magnetic force due to the magnetic pole arrangement inside the developing sleeve 51M. The unit 54 is accommodated.

  In FIG. 1 described above, a toner bottle base 31 is disposed between the intermediate transfer unit 15 and the stack unit 30 located above the intermediate transfer unit 15. The bottle container 31 contains toner bottles 32Y, 32M, 32C, 32K containing Y, M, C, and K toners. The toner bottles 32Y, 32M, 32C, and 32K are installed on the toner bottle base 31 so as to be placed from above for each toner color. The Y, M, C, and K toners in the toner bottles 32Y, 32M, 32C, and 32K are appropriately replenished to the developing devices of the process cartridges 6Y, 6M, 6C, and 6K, respectively, by a toner conveyance device described later. These toner bottles 32Y, 32M, 32C, and 32K are detachable from the printer 100 main body independently of the process cartridges 6Y, 6M, 6C, and 6K.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the toner bottle 32M. As shown in FIG. 3, the toner bottle 32M is provided with a resin case 34M at the tip of the bottle body 33M. A handle 35M is integrally formed with the resin case 34M. A bottle rotation gear 37M that rotates integrally with the bottle body 33 is provided on the resin case 34M side of the bottle body 33.
When attaching the toner bottle 32M to the main body of the printer 100, first, the stack portion 30 is opened upward to expose the toner bottle base 31. Then, after placing the toner bottle 32M on the toner bottle base 31, the handle 35M is rotated. Then, the resin case 34M integrally formed with the handle 35M rotates, the shutter 36M moves in the circumferential direction of the resin case 34M and opens to open the toner discharge port (not shown), and at the same time, the resin case 34M. The toner bottle base 31 is connected and fixed. On the other hand, to remove the toner bottle 32M from the main body of the printer 100, the handle 35M is rotated in the reverse direction to release the connection between the resin case 34M and the toner bottle base 31, and at the same time, the shutter 36M is closed and the toner discharge port is opened. Closed. Then, the toner bottle 32M can be taken out from the main body of the printer 100 while holding the handle 35M. As described above, since the toner bottle 32M can be mounted and removed from the upper side of the printer 100 main body, the replacement operation of the toner bottle 32M is easy to understand and can be easily performed. Further, since the handle 35M is formed on the resin case 34M, the resin case 34M can be rotated and fixed to the toner container 31 easily.
When the toner bottle 32M is detached from the printer 100 main body, the shutter 36M is not opened even if the handle 35M of the resin case 34M is rotated. As a result, it is possible to prevent the toner 36 from being accidentally opened when the toner bottle 32M is replaced and the toner inside is spilled.

Next, the toner conveying unit will be described. FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the toner bottles 32Y, 32M, 32C, 32K, the toner replenishing devices 40Y, 40M, 40C, the intermediate transfer unit 15, and the process cartridges 6Y, 6M, 6C, and 6K.
The toner replenishing devices 40Y, 40M, 40C, and 40K are provided in the main body of the printer 100 on the back side of the intermediate transfer unit 15 in FIG. Therefore, the process cartridges 6Y, M, C, K or the toner bottles 32Y, M, C, K do not need to be provided with toner conveying means. , M, C, K can be miniaturized. Further, since the conventional process cartridge and the toner bottle are arranged close to each other, there is a design limitation. However, in the printer 100, the process cartridge and the toner bottle can be arranged separately. Therefore, the degree of freedom in design is improved, and the printer 100 can be downsized.
Further, the discharge ports of the toner bottles 32Y, M, C, and K, the toner replenishing devices 40Y, M, C, and K, and the developer containing portions 54Y, M, C, and K of the developing devices 5Y, M, C, and K are provided. A toner replenishing port is disposed on one side of the intermediate transfer unit 15. Therefore, the toner transport path of the toner replenishing devices 40Y, 40M, 40C, 40K can be minimized, and the printer 100 can be reduced in size and prevented from being clogged during toner transport.

Since the toner supply devices 40Y, 40M, 40C, and 40K have the same configuration, the toner supply device 40M for conveying M toner will be described.
FIG. 5 is a front view illustrating the arrangement of the toner bottle base 31, the toner supply device 40M, and the toner bottle 32M. The other toner replenishing devices 40Y, 40C, and 40K and the toner bottles 32Y, 32C, and 32K are also arranged in the same manner, but are not shown. 6 is a front view of the toner replenishing device 40M and the toner bottle 32M in which the toner bottle base 31 is omitted, FIG. 7 is a right side view of FIG. 6, and FIG. 8 is a left side view of FIG. is there.

The toner replenishing device 40M includes a drive motor 41M as a toner replenishment operation drive source, a worm gear 42M, a drive transmission gear 44M, a sub hopper 48M as a toner storage unit, and a toner transport pipe 43M as a toner transport path including a toner replenishment transport member. Consists mainly of. The drive from the drive motor 41M is transmitted from the worm gear 42M that rotates coaxially with the drive motor 41M to the drive transmission gear 44M.
A bottle drive transmission gear 49M coaxial with the drive transmission gear 44M is provided. The bottle drive transmission gear 49M meshes with the bottle rotation gear 37M of the toner bottle 32M, and when the drive motor 41M is rotated, the bottle drive transmission gear 49M rotates. The bottle body 33M that rotates integrally with the bottle rotation gear 37M rotates.
On the side of the sub hopper 48M, a replenishment drive transmission gear 45M is installed so as to mesh with the drive transmission gear 44M. The replenishment drive transmission gear 45M is provided on a rotating shaft of a toner stirring member, which will be described later in detail, and a stirring side bevel gear 46M is provided on this rotating shaft. A resin-made toner carrying coil, which will be described in detail later, is inscribed inside the toner carrying pipe 43M, and a carrying-side bevel gear 47M is provided on the rotation shaft of the toner carrying coil.

  When the density detection sensor 56M of the developing device 5M shown in FIG. 2 detects that the toner density is insufficient in the developer accommodating portion 54M, the drive motor 41M is rotated by the replenishment signal from the control portion 57M. Since the spiral developer guide groove 38M is formed on the inner surface of the inner wall of the bottle main body 33M, the toner inside is conveyed from the back side of the bottle main body 33M to the resin case 34M side of the tip by rotation. The toner in the bottle main body 33M falls into the sub hopper 48M of the toner replenishing device 40M from the discharge port (not shown) of the resin case 34M. The sub hopper 48M is connected to the toner conveyance pipe 43M below, and when the drive motor 41M is rotated, the bottle main body 33M is rotated, and at the same time, the toner agitating member in the sub hopper 48M and the toner conveyance coil in the toner conveyance pipe 43M are simultaneously rotated. To do. Due to the rotation of the toner transport coil, the toner that has reached the lower side of the sub hopper 48M is transported through the toner transport pipe 43M and replenished to a toner replenishing port (not shown) of the developer container 54M of the developing device 5M. In this way, the toner density in the developing device 5M is adjusted.

  If the transport coil in the toner transport pipe 43M is made of metal, toner nucleation nuclei may be generated when the outer peripheral surface of the metal transport coil and the inner peripheral surface of the toner transport pipe rub against each other. It was. As a result, abnormal images such as white spots may occur due to the aggregation nuclei of the toner. Since the toner replenishing device 40 uses a resin-made transport coil, since the friction is small even if the outer peripheral surface of the transport coil rubs against the inner peripheral surface of the toner transport pipe, there is no occurrence of toner aggregation nuclei and white spots are generated. The occurrence of abnormal images such as these can be prevented.

Next, details of the sub hopper 48M used in the conventional printer 100 will be described.
The embodiment to which the present invention is applied differs from the conventional printer 100 in that the toner replenishing device is provided with a toner fluidity suppressing unit, and the other configurations are common.
9 is a schematic side view of the conventional sub hopper 48M seen through from the side and seen from the inside, FIG. 10 is a schematic top view seen through from the top and FIG. 11 is a front view. It is a schematic front view when seeing through from.
As shown in these drawings, a toner transport coil 70M as a toner replenishment transport member is installed in the toner transport pipe 43M. The gap between the inner wall of the toner transport pipe 43M and the outer periphery of the toner transport coil 70M is about 0.1 to 0.2 [mm].
As described above, the toner transport coil 70M is installed in the toner transport pipe 43M, and the toner is prevented from accumulating in the toner transport pipe 43M by applying a force to the toner to move in the transport direction. Therefore, it is possible to prevent a problem that the toner accumulated in the toner transport pipe 43M flows into the developing device 5M of the process cartridge 6M at a time due to some impact or the like.
Furthermore, since the coil shape has a small stress for bending, the toner transport coil 70M can rotate even if the toner transport pipe 43M is bent. Accordingly, since it is not necessary to make the toner transport pipe 43M linear, the degree of freedom in layout can be increased, and the overall size of the developing device can be reduced.
The outer diameter of the toner conveying coil 70M is 7 [mm], the inner diameter is 5 [mm], and the coil pitch is 8 [mm]. The amount of toner replenishment per one rotation of the toner conveying coil 70M is measured. It was 83.4 [mg].
A drive motor 41M, which is a drive source of the toner transport coil 70M, drives the motor according to the toner density detection amount in the developer container of the developing device 5M. This toner density detection amount is updated every 240 [msec], and the replenishment operation is started after 240 [msec] at the latest from the start of development.

  In the sub hopper 48M, a transport rotating shaft 71M is bonded to the inside of the toner transport coil 70M. Further, a region from the downstream end in the transport direction of the sub hopper 48M to the tip of the transport rotation shaft 71M on the downstream side in the transport direction is defined as a region A, and in the region A, the toner transport coil 70M is set to have one or more turns. In the area A, the toner conveying coil 70M is inscribed in the toner conveying pipe 43M, the conveying rotation shaft 71M is close to the inner diameter of the toner conveying coil 70M, and the toner conveying coil 70M has one pitch or more, so that the toner is caused by its own weight. There are almost no gaps that can pass through region A. Therefore, no matter what timing the toner is discharged from the toner bottle 32M, the toner can be blocked in the region A and the toner can be passed only by the rotation of the toner transport coil 70M. As a result, the amount of toner passing through the region A can be stabilized, and the amount of toner replenishment to the developing device 5M located downstream in the transport direction from the region A can be stabilized.

The sub hopper 48M is provided with an agitator 74M that is a flat paddle member that is a toner stirring member that rotates in the sub hopper 48M and stirs the toner. The agitator 74M is fixed to the agitation rotating shaft 73M, which is the rotation shaft of the replenishing drive transmission gear 45M to which the drive is transmitted from the drive transmission gear 44M, and the agitator 74M rotates as the replenishment drive transmission gear 45M rotates. Further, the stirring rotation shaft 73M is provided with a stirring side bevel gear 46M, which meshes with the conveyance side bevel gear 47M provided on the conveyance rotation shaft 71M, and the rotation of the stirring rotation shaft 73M is transferred to the conveyance rotation shaft 71M. To communicate. Further, the stirring side bevel gear 46M and the conveyance side bevel gear 47M are made of members having the same shape and the number of teeth is the same. Therefore, the number of rotations per hour of the agitator 74M and the time of the toner conveyance coil 70M The number of rotations is the same.
As described above, the drive is transmitted from the drive motor 41M, which is a common toner supply drive source, to the agitator 74M and the toner transport coil 70M, thereby reducing the number of parts of the drive member and reducing the cost. I can plan. Further, since the stirring side bevel gear 46M and the conveying side bevel gear 47M have the same number of teeth, space can be saved without enlarging one of the gears. Further, by using the same shape members for the stirring side bevel gear 46M and the conveyance side bevel gear 47M, it is possible to further reduce the cost by sharing the parts.

  Further, a toner detection sensor 72M that detects the presence or absence of toner at the height of the sensor detection surface 721M provided in the sub hopper 48M is provided on the side surface of the sub hopper 48M. By detecting that there is no toner supply from the toner bottle 32M and no toner is left on the sensor detection surface 721M, there is no toner in the toner bottle 32M, but toner remains in the sub hopper 48M. Empty can be detected. As the toner detection sensor 72M, a piezoelectric vibration type toner level sensor manufactured by TDK Corporation was used.

The agitator 74M is made of a flexible material such as PET. The shape of the agitator 74M from the stirring rotation shaft 73M to the tip of the agitator 74M is 1 to 3 mm longer than the distance from the stirring rotation shaft 73M to the sensor detection surface 721M. A sensor having a width wider than that of the detection surface 721M is used. In the toner replenishing device 40M, an agitator 74M having a length of 8 to 19 [mm] is used as the agitator 74M depending on the size of the inside of the sub hopper 48M. In particular, the actual machine has an agitator 74M having a length of 13 [mm]. Is used.
By being 1 to 3 [mm] longer than the distance from the stirring rotation shaft 73M to the sensor detection surface 721M, the tip of the agitator 74M rubs the surface of the sensor detection surface 721M with a biting amount of 1 to 3 [mm]. By rubbing the sensor detection surface 721M, it is possible to prevent toner from adhering to the vicinity of the sensor detection surface 721M, and to prevent erroneous detection due to toner adhering to the sensor detection surface 721M. That is, the agitator 74M also has a role as a cleaning member for the sensor detection surface 721M.

Further, the agitator 74M rotates in the direction of arrow B in FIG. 11, and the tip thereof rubs the sensor detection surface 721M from below to above. By using a flexible material such as PET as the material of the agitator 74M, it is possible to prevent wear deterioration of the sensor detection surface 721M as compared with a material using an inflexible material such as metal.
The toner replenished from the toner bottle 32M is replenished from above the sub hopper 48M and conveyed toward the developing device 5M by the toner conveying coil 70M below, and the toner in the sub hopper 48M falls from above to below. Move to. And the stirring rotating shaft 73M which is a rotating shaft of the agitator 74M is provided in the horizontal direction. That is, the stirring rotation shaft 73M is provided in a direction perpendicular to the toner moving direction in the sub hopper 48M.

In addition, as the toner used in the printer 100, a toner having high fluidity is used so as to be compatible with high-speed toner conveyance. Specifically, a toner having an accelerated aggregation degree of 15% or less is used. The accelerated aggregation degree is an index indicating the fluidity of the toner.
A method for measuring the accelerated aggregation degree of the toner is shown below.
・ Measurement device Hosokawa Micron powder tester ・ Measurement method ・ Leave the sample to be measured in a thermostatic chamber (35 ± 2 [° C], 24 ± 1 [h])
・ Measured with a powder tester ・ Uses three types of sieves with different mesh openings (for example, 75 [μm], 44 [μm], and 22 [μm])
-Calculate from the remaining amount of toner when sieving, and obtain the degree of aggregation by the following calculation.
((Weight of powder remaining on upper screen) / (sample amount)) × 100
((Powder weight remaining on the middle screen) / (sampled amount)) × 100 × 3/5
((Powder weight remaining on lower sieve) / (sampled amount)) × 100 × 1/5
The total of the above three calculated values is defined as the heat aggregation degree [%].
As described above, the toner heat aggregation degree is an index obtained by stacking the three types of meshes having different openings in the order of increasing openings, placing the uppermost particles, sieving with constant vibration, and calculating from the powder weight on each mesh. .

Next, a confirmation experiment in which the accelerated aggregation degree of the toner to be used is set to 15% or less will be described.
Using an experimental machine, a replenishment operation was performed using a plurality of types of toners having different fluidity.
A replenishment operation was performed for a fixed time, and the toner replenishment amount per rotation of the agitator for each toner was calculated from the number of rotations of the agitator and the amount of toner replenished.
The experimental results of this experiment are shown in Table 1 and the graph of FIG.

From Table 1 and FIG. 12, it was confirmed that when the accelerated aggregation degree of the toner used exceeds 15%, the toner replenishment amount decreases rapidly. Thus, a toner having an accelerated aggregation degree of 15% or less is used.
Further, the lower limit value of the accelerated aggregation degree of the toner to be used is 8% or more. This is because toner less than 8% tends to flow and operability deteriorates.

In the conventional toner replenishing device 40M as described above, in recent years, it has been demanded that a larger amount of toner can be supplied in order to cope with higher-speed image formation. Specifically, it is required that a toner replenishment amount of 12.0 (± 20 [%]) [g / min] can be realized.
Since the toner replenishment amount per rotation of the toner transport coil 70M is 83.4 [mg], the toner transport coil 70M is 144 (± 20 [%]) in order to realize the above toner replenishment amount. A rotation speed of [rpm] is required.
In the toner replenishing device 40M, the rotation speeds of the toner transport coil 70M and the agitator 74M are the same. Therefore, if the rotation speed of the toner conveying coil 70M is 144 (± 20 [%]) [rpm], the rotation speed of the agitator 74M is also 144 (± 20 [%]) [rpm].

When the rotation speed of the toner conveying coil 70M is increased and the rotation speed becomes 124 [rpm] or more, the near empty even though the toner amount in the sub hopper 48M is higher than the sensor detection surface 721M. There was a problem detecting this.
As a result of intensive studies by the present inventors on such defects, it is considered that there are the following causes.
In the toner replenishing device 40M, a toner having good fluidity with an acceleration aggregation degree of 15% or less is used in order to cope with the high speed of the toner. Therefore, if the rotational speed of the agitator 74M is increased and excessive stirring is performed, As a result, the air is excessively mixed, and the toner rises.
When the toner rises, the amount of toner contained per unit volume is partially reduced, and the toner detection sensor 72M can detect the presence of toner. Since the agitator 74M rubs the sensor detection surface 721M, it is considered that the toner rises in the vicinity of the sensor detection surface 721M and the amount of toner contained per unit volume is partially reduced.
The toner replenishing device 40M uses a toner level sensor of TDK Co., Ltd. as the toner detection sensor 72M. This is because the presence or absence of toner is detected based on the magnitude of the load applied to the sensor detection surface 721M. Therefore, the load applied to the sensor detection surface 721M is reduced when the above-described toner is raised. As a result, an erroneous detection that there is no toner is made despite the presence of toner in the sub hopper 48M.

Here, the presence or absence of toner is detected as follows.
That is, the toner detection sensor 72M detects the presence or absence of toner every 200 [msec]. The control unit 57M to which the detection signal of the toner detection sensor 72M is sent inputs a signal from the toner detection sensor 72M every 200 [msec]. Then, assuming that detection is performed five times as one set and toner is present three or more times out of the five detections, it is determined that there is toner. On the other hand, if the signal indicating the presence of toner in the five detections is less than twice, it is determined that there is no toner.

Since the bottle rotation gear 37M that rotates the toner bottle 32M also receives drive transmission from the drive motor 41M, when the rotation speed of the drive motor 41M is increased to increase the rotation speed of the toner transport coil 70M, the toner bottle 32M is increased. The number of revolutions also increases. In the toner supply device 40M, the rotation speed ratio is
Number of rotations of toner bottle: Number of rotations of toner transfer coil (agitator) = 1: 2.067
When the rotation speed of the toner transport coil 70M is 124 [rpm], the rotation speed of the toner bottle 32M is 60 [rpm].

  In the printer 100 described above, image formation stops when the near empty state is reached, and image formation cannot be resumed unless the toner bottle 32M is replaced. Even without replacement, it is necessary to take out the toner bottle 32M from the toner bottle base 31, check the amount of toner in the toner bottle 32M, and set the toner bottle base 31 again. As described above, when near-empty erroneous detection occurs, unnecessary work is required, leading to a reduction in work efficiency.

Further, as a method of suppressing excessive stirring of the toner in the sub hopper 48M while increasing the rotation speed of the toner transport coil 70M, it is conceivable to make the rotation speed of the agitator 74M slower than the rotation speed of the toner transport coil 70M. . However, if the rotational speed of the agitator 74M and the rotational speed of the toner transport coil 70M are made different, the gear ratio needs to be changed, and the module needs to be changed, resulting in an increase in cost. In order to increase the rotation speed of the toner conveyance coil 70M by changing the gear ratio, if the gear for transmitting the drive to the conveyance rotation shaft 71M is increased, the distance between the conveyance rotation shaft 71M and the agitation rotation shaft 73M increases. This leads to an increase in the size of the device.
Therefore, a configuration is desired in which the fluidity of the toner in the sub hopper 48M is prevented from increasing without making the rotational speed of the agitator 74M different from the rotational speed of the toner conveying coil 70M.

[Example 1]
Next, details of the sub hopper 48M of the first embodiment used in the printer 100 to which the present invention is applied will be described.
In the first exemplary embodiment, the toner replenishing device is provided with a toner fluidity suppressing unit, which is different from the conventional printer 100 in other configurations. Therefore, the description about a common structure is abbreviate | omitted.
FIG. 13 is a schematic side view of the sub hopper 48M according to the first embodiment as seen through from the side and seen from inside, FIG. 14 is a schematic top view of the inside as seen through from above, and FIG. It is a schematic front view when seeing through from the front.
As shown in these drawings, the sub hopper 48M of the first embodiment is provided with a paddle opening 75M in an agitator 74M as a paddle member as a toner fluidity suppressing means. FIG. 16 shows an example of an agitator 74M used in the toner replenishing device 40M.

  By providing the paddle opening 75M which is a toner fluidity suppressing means, even if the agitator 74M rotates, the toner slips through the paddle opening 75M, so that the stirring ability of the agitator 74M can be suppressed. Since the stirring ability of the agitator 74M can be suppressed, excessive stirring of the toner is prevented, and air is excessively mixed with the toner and the amount of toner per unit accumulation is partially reduced. Can do. Therefore, even if the rotation speed of the toner transport coil 70M is increased and the rotation speed of the agitator 74M is increased, the presence or absence of toner at the position of the sensor detection surface 721M in the sub hopper 48M can be accurately detected.

Next, with the conventional toner replenishing device 40M and the toner replenishing device 40M used in the present embodiment, when the toner conveying coil 70M has a rotational speed of 124 [rpm] with sufficient toner in the sub hopper 48M. The detection result of the toner detection sensor 72M was output.
FIG. 17 shows the detection result. FIG. 17A shows an output when the paddle opening 75M is provided in the agitator 74M, and FIG. 17B shows an output when the paddle opening 75M is not provided in the agitator 74M. .
From FIG. 17B, it can be seen that if the paddle opening 75M is not provided in the agitator 74M, a false detection of near empty that there is no toner occurs even if there is sufficient toner in the sub hopper 48M. On the other hand, FIG. 17A shows that by providing the paddle opening 75M in the agitator 74M, if there is sufficient toner in the sub hopper 48M, it is correctly detected that there is toner.

[Example 2]
The rotational speed of the drive motor 41M varies depending on the rotational torque of the agitator 74M, the rotational torque of the toner transport coil 70M, and the rotational torque of the toner bottle 32M. That is, even if a signal for performing the same output is sent to the drive motor 41M, the rotation speed is slow at the beginning of rotation when each rotation torque increases, and the rotation speed decreases as each rotation torque is reduced. Get faster. Along with this, the rotational speeds of the toner conveying coil 70M and the agitator 74M gradually increase.
When the rotation speed of the toner conveying coil 70M and the agitator 74M is 124 [rpm], by providing the paddle opening 75M in the agitator 74M, excessive stirring of the toner can be prevented, and no false detection of near empty has occurred. . However, when the rotational speed of the agitator 74M is increased and the rotational speed exceeds 155 [rpm], a false detection of near empty occurs.
When the rotational speed of the agitator 74M is 155 [rpm], the rotational speed of the toner bottle 32M is 75 [rpm].

Here, even when the paddle opening 75M is provided in the agitator 74M, the second toner fluidity suppressing means will be described in order to prevent false detection of near empty by further increasing the rotation speed.
In the second embodiment, in addition to the configuration in which the paddle opening 75M of the first embodiment is provided, when the rotational speed of the agitator 74M exceeds 155 [rpm], the drive motor 41M that is a toner supply operation drive source is driven and stopped. Drive control means for driving by repeated intermittent drive is provided.

FIG. 18 is a schematic configuration diagram of a toner replenishing device 40M provided with drive control means. As illustrated in FIG. 18, the toner replenishing device 40M according to the second exemplary embodiment includes a stirring rotation speed measuring member 76M that measures the rotation speed of the stirring rotation shaft 73M. The drive control means includes a stirring rotation speed measuring member 76M, a control unit 57M that receives a signal output from the stirring rotation speed measuring member 76M, and a drive motor 41M that intermittently drives based on a signal from the control unit 57M. It is composed.
In the toner replenishing device 40M of Example 2, when the measured value by the stirring rotation speed measuring member 76M becomes 155 [rpm] or more, the drive of the drive motor 41M is intermittently driven by the control unit 57. By performing the intermittent driving, it is possible to prevent the amount of toner per unit volume from being reduced due to the air that has a lot of air at the time of driving and the air that has been swollen out when the driving stops.
Thereby, even if the rotation speed of the toner transport coil 70M is increased and the rotation speed of the agitator 74M is increased, the presence or absence of toner at the position of the sensor detection surface 721M in the sub hopper 48M can be accurately detected.
In the intermittent drive, with respect to the time ratio of the drive and stop timing, the ratio of the drive time to the combined drive and stop time (hereinafter referred to as the duty ratio) is 75 [%] or less. Control to be.

Here, the paddle opening 75M is provided in the agitator 74M, and the detection result of the toner detection sensor 72M in the case of three duty ratios when the rotational speed of the agitator 74M is 155 [rpm] is output.
FIG. 19 shows the detection result. FIG. 19A shows an output when the duty ratio is 75 [%] (1.5 seconds ON, 0.5 seconds OFF). FIG. 19B shows the output when the duty ratio is 90 [%] (1.8 seconds ON, 0.2 seconds OFF), and FIG. 19C shows the duty ratio of 100 [%]. It is the output of time (continuous drive).
From FIG. 19 (c), it can be seen that when the agitator 74M is continuously driven with the rotation speed being 155 [rpm], even if the paddle opening 75M is provided, a false detection of near empty occurs. .
Further, as shown in FIG. 19B, even when the paddle opening 75M is provided and the intermittent drive is performed in the state where the rotational speed of the agitator 74M is 155 [rpm], the duty ratio is 90 [%]. When the ratio is large, it can be seen that a false detection of near empty has occurred.
On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 19A, the paddle opening 75M is provided in the state where the rotational speed of the agitator 74M is 155 [rpm], and intermittent driving is performed at a duty ratio of 75 [%], so that toner is contained in the sub hopper 48M. If it is sufficient, it can be seen that the presence of toner is correctly detected.

[Modification]
As the paddle opening 75M provided in the agitator 74M, a square hole is provided in the first and second embodiments like the outer edge of the agitator 74M. However, the shape of the hole is not limited to a square.
As shown in FIG. 20, it is good also as a circular paddle opening part 75M. Further, any shape can be adopted as long as the stirring area of the agitator 74M is reduced.

  In the image forming apparatus including the toner replenishing device 40 according to the present embodiment as described in the first, second, and modified examples, when the toner replenishment amount from the toner replenishing device 40 varies, the developing device 5 There is a possibility that the toner density of the developer in the inside may vary. When the toner density of the developer in the developing device 5 varies, the developer carried on the developing sleeve 51 also varies in toner density, leading to image quality deterioration such as blurring and color unevenness. Therefore, the toner replenishing device 40 is required to have a stable toner replenishing amount without variation.

  As described above, the rotational speed of the drive motor 41 serving as the toner supply operation drive source varies depending on the rotational torque of the agitator 74, the rotational torque of the toner transport coil 70, and the rotational torque of the toner bottle 32. The cause of the fluctuation of each of these rotational torques is not limited to the start of rotation described above. Specifically, the rotational torque of the toner bottle 32 fluctuates due to a change in the mass of the toner bottle 32 due to a change in the remaining amount of toner in the toner bottle 32 serving as a toner container. In addition, by increasing or decreasing the amount of toner in the sub hopper 48 which is a toner container, the amount of toner agitated by the agitator 74 changes, so that the rotational torque of the agitator 74 varies.

  Further, a DC motor is used as the drive motor 41 of the toner supply device 40 of the present embodiment. When the rotational torque of the DC motor fluctuates, the rotation speed fluctuates, and the rotation speed of the toner conveyance coil 70 that is a toner replenishment conveyance member fluctuates. Therefore, even if the replenishment operation is performed for the same time, the amount of toner replenished to the developing device 5 varies when the rotational torque of the DC motor varies. If the toner amount supplied to the developing device 5 varies, the image quality is deteriorated as described above. By using a stepping motor as the drive motor 41, it is possible to suppress the rotational speed due to the fluctuation of the rotational torque. However, since the stepping motor is more expensive than the DC motor, the manufacturing cost increases. If the toner replenishing device 40 that uses a DC motor as the drive motor 41 and can provide a stable toner replenishment amount, the manufacturing cost can be kept low while maintaining the image quality.

FIG. 21 is a flowchart showing an outline of supply control of the toner supply device 40 of the present embodiment. As shown in the figure, when image formation is started (S11), the load of the DC motor is determined (S12). When the motor load is larger than a certain magnitude T, the supply control mode (1) is set (S13), and when the motor load is less than the magnitude T, the supply control mode (2) is set (S13).
Further, in the replenishment control of the toner replenishing device 40 of the present embodiment, control for varying the time for performing the replenishment operation depending on the replenishment mode is performed.
Replenishment of toner by the toner replenishing device 40 replenishes toner for the amount of toner consumed to develop a latent image having the number of pixels calculated from image information used when forming an electrostatic latent image. The replenishment operation required for the time is performed. However, when the load applied to the DC motor increases, the rotational speed of the DC motor decreases, and even if the replenishment operation is performed for the same time, the amount of toner replenishment becomes smaller than before the load applied to the DC motor increases. On the other hand, when the load applied to the DC motor is reduced, the rotational speed of the DC motor is increased, and even if the replenishment operation is performed for the same time, the toner replenishment amount becomes larger than before the load applied to the DC motor is reduced.
Therefore, in the control of the flowchart of FIG. 21, the replenishment control mode (1) is a replenishment mode in which the replenishment operation is made longer than the replenishment control mode (2).
In this way, by changing the toner replenishment operation to an appropriate replenishment control mode in accordance with the load applied to the DC motor, it is possible to reduce the variation in the replenishment amount due to the fluctuation in the rotational speed of the DC motor. Thereby, manufacturing cost can be suppressed low, maintaining image quality.
Next, a specific example of controlling the toner supply operation according to the load applied to the DC motor will be described. In the following specific example, the toner replenishment operation time is controlled according to the load applied to the DC motor, and the replenishment operation time is determined based on the theoretical replenishment time.
Here, the theoretical replenishment operation time is the time required for the toner replenishing device 40 to replenish toner for the consumed toner amount in the normal replenishment operation with respect to the consumed toner amount obtained from the number of pixels of the formed image. It is calculated based on the experimental results before manufacturing.
As a specific method for calculating the theoretical replenishment time, for example, there is the following method.
From the image information at the time of image formation, the number of pixels per image is calculated, and the amount of toner consumed when forming one image is calculated based on this number of pixels. Further, the toner replenishing device 40 detects the relationship between the time for performing a normal replenishing operation and the amount of toner replenished at that time by an experiment before manufacturing. Based on this detection result, a theoretical replenishment time, which is a toner replenishment time necessary for replenishing toner for the amount of toner consumed when forming one image, is calculated. Although the method for calculating the theoretical replenishment time from the toner amount required for each image formation has been described, the theoretical replenishment time may be calculated from the toner amount required for each image formation of a plurality of images.

  FIG. 22 is a flowchart showing an outline of a first specific example for controlling the toner supply operation according to the load applied to the DC motor. The specific example of the flowchart shown in FIG. 22 controls toner replenishment time according to the remaining amount of toner in the toner bottle 32 as a toner container. When the remaining amount of toner in the toner bottle 32 changes, the mass of the toner bottle 32 changes and the rotational torque of the toner bottle 32 fluctuates, so the load on the DC motor also fluctuates. In this specific example, the toner replenishment time is controlled according to the fluctuation of the rotational torque of the toner bottle 32 as the fluctuation of the load applied to the DC motor. The remaining amount of toner in the toner bottle 32 is detected by a toner remaining amount detection sensor (not shown) provided in the toner bottle 32.

  As shown in FIG. 22, when image formation is started (S21), the remaining amount of toner in the toner bottle is detected (S22). When the remaining amount of toner is 20% or less of the capacity of the toner bottle 32, the replenishment operation is performed in a mode smaller than the theoretical replenishment time (S23). As a mode smaller than the theoretical supply time, for example, the supply operation is performed for 90% of the theoretical supply time. If the remaining amount of toner exceeds 20% of the capacity of the toner bottle 32, the remaining amount of toner in the toner bottle is detected again (S24). When the remaining amount of toner is 50% or less of the capacity of the toner bottle 32, the replenishment operation is performed in the theoretical replenishment time mode (S25). On the other hand, when the remaining amount of toner exceeds 50% of the capacity of the toner bottle 32, the replenishment operation is performed in a mode larger than the theoretical replenishment time (S26). As a mode longer than the theoretical supply time, for example, the supply operation is performed for 110% of the theoretical supply time.

In the specific example shown in the flowchart of FIG. 22, if the remaining amount of toner in the toner bottle 32 is within a predetermined range, which is greater than 20 [%] of the capacity of the toner bottle 32 and less than 50 [%], The toner is replenished for the theoretical replenishment time. Further, when the remaining amount of toner in the toner bottle 32 is less than the predetermined range, that is, when the toner bottle 32 has a capacity of 20% or less, toner supply is performed for a time shorter than the theoretical supply time. On the other hand, when the remaining amount of toner in the toner bottle 32 is larger than a predetermined range, that is, when it is larger than 50% of the capacity of the toner bottle 32, the toner is replenished for a longer time than the theoretical replenishment time.
In FIG. 22, the remaining amount of toner in the toner bottle 32 is detected twice (S22 and S24). However, it is determined whether the remaining amount of toner in the toner bottle 32 is within a predetermined range, more than a predetermined range, You may determine whether it is less than the range.

When the remaining amount of toner decreases, the toner bottle 32 becomes lighter and the rotational torque of the toner bottle 32 decreases, so that the rotational speed of the DC motor increases. As the number of rotations of the DC motor increases, the amount of toner replenished per unit time increases, so that toner replenishment shorter than the theoretical replenishment time is performed.
On the other hand, when the amount of remaining toner is large, the toner bottle 32 is heavy and the rotational torque of the toner bottle 32 is high, so that the rotational speed of the DC motor is low. When the number of rotations of the DC motor is low, the amount of toner replenished per unit time is small, so that toner replenishment longer than the theoretical replenishment time is performed.

  In this way, by controlling the toner replenishment time according to the remaining amount of toner in the toner bottle 32, the toner replenishment is performed according to the fluctuation of the rotational torque of the toner bottle 32, which is the fluctuation of the load applied to the DC motor. Can be controlled. As a result, it is possible to reduce variations in the amount of toner replenishment due to fluctuations in the rotational speed of the DC motor due to fluctuations in the remaining amount of toner.

FIG. 23 is a flowchart showing an outline of a second specific example for controlling the toner supply operation according to the load applied to the DC motor. The specific example of the flowchart shown in FIG. 23 is to control the toner replenishment time according to the motor current value which is the magnitude of the drive current supplied to the drive motor 41 which is a DC motor.
When the load applied to the DC motor varies, the rotational torque of the DC motor varies, and the motor current value, which is the magnitude of the current supplied to the DC motor, also varies. Specifically, when the rotational torque of the DC motor increases, the current value also increases, and the rotational speed of the DC motor at this time decreases. On the other hand, when the rotational torque of the DC motor decreases, the current value also decreases, and the rotational speed of the DC motor at this time increases.

As shown in FIG. 23, when image formation is started (S31), a motor current value is detected (S32). If the motor current value is 60% or less of the rated current, the replenishment operation is performed in a mode smaller than the theoretical replenishment time (S33). As a mode smaller than the theoretical supply time, for example, the supply operation is performed for 90% of the theoretical supply time. If the motor current value exceeds 60% of the rated current, the motor current value is detected again (S34). If the motor current value is 75% or less of the rated current, the replenishment operation is performed in the theoretical replenishment time mode (S35). On the other hand, when the motor current value exceeds 75 [%] of the rated current, the replenishment operation is performed in a mode larger than the theoretical replenishment time (S36). As a mode longer than the theoretical supply time, for example, the supply operation is performed for 110% of the theoretical supply time.
The above rated current is the upper limit value of the current that can be passed through the DC motor, and is set by the manufacturer of the DC motor.

  In the specific example shown in the flowchart of FIG. 23, if the magnitude of the drive current is within a predetermined range and the motor current value is greater than 60 [%] of the rated current and within the range of 75 [%] or less, the theoretical supply is performed. Replenish toner for hours. When the motor current value is smaller than the predetermined range, that is, when the motor current value is 60% or less of the rated current, toner supply is performed for a time shorter than the theoretical supply time. On the other hand, when the motor current value is larger than the predetermined range, that is, when the motor current value is larger than 75 [%] of the rated current, the toner is replenished for a longer time than the theoretical replenishment time.

A state where the motor current value is small is a state where the rotational torque of the DC motor is also small, and thus the rotational speed of the DC motor is large. When the number of rotations of the DC motor is large, the amount of toner replenished per unit time is large. Therefore, toner replenishment shorter than the theoretical replenishment time is performed.
On the other hand, the state where the motor current value is large is a state where the rotational torque of the DC motor is also large, and therefore the rotational speed of the DC motor is low. When the number of rotations of the DC motor is low, the amount of toner replenished per unit time is small, so that toner replenishment longer than the theoretical replenishment time is performed.

  In this way, by controlling the toner replenishment time according to the value of the motor current flowing through the drive motor 41 that is a DC motor, it is possible to control the toner replenishment according to the fluctuation of the load applied to the DC motor. As a result, it is possible to reduce variations in the amount of toner replenishment due to fluctuations in the rotation speed of the DC motor due to fluctuations in the load applied to the DC motor.

In the toner replenishing device 40 of this embodiment, the agitator 74, the toner transport coil 70, and the toner bottle 32 are driven by a single DC motor called a drive motor 41. Since one DC motor is used as a drive source for a plurality of members, the torque applied to the DC motor tends to increase, and the motor is likely to rise in temperature. When the temperature of the DC motor rises, the number of rotations with respect to the motor current value decreases, and there arises a problem that toner replenishment to the developer container 54 of the developing device 5 cannot be caught up.
Further, when image formation with a high image area ratio is performed, the amount of toner consumed when forming one image increases, so the time for performing the toner replenishment operation of the toner replenishment device 40 becomes longer. That is, the time during which the toner replenishing device 40 stops the replenishment operation during the formation of one image is shortened. When images with a high image area ratio are continuously formed, the DC motor will continue to be driven in a state of continuous driving or close to continuous driving, and the burden on the DC motor will increase, resulting in a high image area ratio. The continuous output of the image is also in a state where the temperature of the DC motor is likely to rise.

For this reason, when the printer 100 that replenishes toner using the toner replenishing device 40 outputs a high image area ratio image continuously, the toner concentration in the developing device 5 suddenly decreases. It is conceivable that the temperature of the DC motor is rising.
Normally, when the toner concentration of the developer in the developing device is lowered, the image forming operation is stopped and the toner replenishing operation is continuously performed to adjust the toner concentration of the developer in the developing device. However, if the toner concentration decreases due to an increase in the temperature of the DC motor of the toner replenishing device 40, the continuous toner replenishing operation increases the burden on the DC motor and further increases the temperature. Increasing the burden on the DC motor while the temperature of the DC motor is rising as the rotational speed with respect to the motor current value decreases is inefficient and further leads to a reduction in the life of the DC motor.
In addition, using the printer 100 used in the present embodiment, the present inventors continuously formed images with an image area ratio of 20 [%], and conducted an experiment in which the toner density of the developer in the developing device was detected. went.
A graph of the experimental results is shown in FIG. In FIG. 24, the horizontal axis represents the number of images formed, and the vertical axis represents the output voltage Vt of the density detection sensor. The density sensor used in this experiment (Ricoh Keiki Co., Ltd .: GW230002) is a magnetic permeability sensor, and the output voltage Vt increases as the developer toner concentration decreases. In the figure, Vtref is a value obtained by substituting the toner density necessary for satisfying the developing ability with the output value of the density detection sensor. From FIG. 24, it can be seen that the toner density started to decrease rapidly from the 80th to 90th sheets.

Therefore, when images with a high image area ratio are continuously formed and the toner density of the developer in the developing device 5 decreases, it is necessary to perform supply control with a small burden on the DC motor.
FIG. 25 shows an outline of a specific example of replenishment control that places less burden on the DC motor when the toner density of the developer in the developing device 5 is reduced when images with a high image area ratio are continuously formed. It is a flowchart. In FIG. 25, Vt is an output voltage of the density detection sensor 56 when the toner density in the developing device is detected by the density detection sensor 56 which is a toner density sensor at the time of toner density determination. Similarly to FIG. 24, Vtref is a value obtained by substituting the toner density necessary to satisfy the developing ability with the output value of the density detection sensor. The density detection sensor 56 is a magnetic permeability sensor. The higher the output voltage of the density detection sensor 56 is, the lower the toner density of the developer is.

As shown in FIG. 25, when image formation is started (S41), image formation is performed while toner is being supplied in the normal supply control mode (S42). Then, the image area ratio of the formed image is determined (S42).
In the determination of the image area ratio (S42), when the image area ratio is less than 20%, the toner replenishing device 40 continues the toner replenishment in the normal replenishment control mode (S42). On the other hand, when the image area ratio is 20 [%] or more in the determination of the image area ratio, the sheet passing number determination (S43) is performed.
In the determination of the number of sheets to be passed (S43), when the number of sheets to be passed, which is the number of images formed with a high image area ratio, is less than 100, toner supply is continued in the normal supply control mode (S42). On the other hand, when the number of sheets to be passed is 100 or more, toner density determination (S45) is performed.
In the toner density determination (S45), when the value of Vt−Vtref is 0.2 [V] or less, toner supply is continued in the normal supply control mode (S42). On the other hand, if the value of Vt−Vtref is larger than 0.2 [V], the toner density adjustment and replenishment mode (S46) is stopped, and image formation on the transfer paper P is stopped and development is performed with a replenishment operation that places less burden on the DC motor. Toner is supplied to the device 5. The replenishment operation with less burden on the DC motor is an intermittent replenishment operation with a stop time longer than that of a normal replenishment operation. For example, after 0.5 [s] is turned on, the replenishment operation is performed with 3.0 [s] off. Repeat the replenishment operation 5 times. After performing the replenishment operation five times in the toner concentration adjustment replenishment mode, the toner concentration determination (S45) is performed again.

As described above, the output value (Vt) of the toner density sensor detected for every 100 sheets of paper when the image is continuously output with a high image area (image area ratio of 20 [%] or more), and an initial value that becomes a reference value When the sensor output value (Vtref) of the toner concentration of the agent satisfies Vt−Vtref> 0.2 [V], toner supply is performed in the toner concentration adjustment supply mode (S46) in which the burden on the DC motor is small. As the density detection sensor 56 of the present embodiment, GW230002 manufactured by Ricoh Keiki Co., Ltd. is used. When the output value is increased by 0.2 [V] with this density detection sensor 56, the toner density of the developer is 0. This is a state in which 5% is reduced. As described above, if image formation is continued in a state where the toner density of the developer is reduced, image quality such as blurring and color unevenness is deteriorated. In the toner density adjustment supply mode (S46), since image formation is stopped, it is possible to prevent an image with degraded quality from being output.
Further, when the toner density of the developer in the developing device 5 is lowered when images with a high image area ratio are continuously formed, the toner density is lowered due to the temperature of the DC motor being raised. There is a risk that. In the toner concentration adjustment replenishment mode (S46), since the replenishment operation is performed with less burden on the DC motor, it is possible to avoid further temperature rise of the DC motor. As a result, the burden on the DC motor is reduced, and the life of the DC motor can be extended. Further, since toner replenishment is performed in the normal replenishment control mode after the toner density returns to within a predetermined range (after Vt−Vtref ≦ 0.2 [V]), variation in the replenishment amount can be suppressed. The variation in the toner density of the developer in the developing device 5 can be suppressed. Thereby, image formation can be performed with stable image quality.

  In the above description, the toner replenishing device 40M that replenishes magenta toner has been described, but the same configuration is used for the toner replenishing devices 40Y, 40C, and 40K that replenish toner of other colors. In this embodiment, the toner replenishing device 40M that replenishes toner to the developing device 5M has been described. However, the toner replenishing device 40M includes a toner storage unit including a toner stirring member, a toner transporting member, and a toner transporting operation drive source. The same configuration can be applied as long as the toner conveying device conveys the toner to another location.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the sub hopper 48M as a toner storage unit, the toner transport coil 70M as a toner replenishment transport member to be replenished, the toner detection sensor 72M, and the agitator 74M as a toner agitating member are provided. 74M and toner conveying coil 70M are toner replenishing devices 40M to which driving is transmitted from a drive motor 41M which is a common toner replenishing operation driving source, and toner fluidity suppressing means for suppressing an increase in toner fluidity in sub hopper 48M. As shown, a paddle opening 75M is provided in the agitator 74M. As a result, even if the agitator 74M rotates, the toner slips through the paddle opening 75M, so that the stirring ability of the agitator 74M can be suppressed. Since the stirring ability of the agitator 74M can be suppressed, excessive stirring of the toner is prevented, and air is excessively mixed with the toner and the amount of toner per unit accumulation is partially reduced. Can do. Therefore, even if the rotation speed of the toner transport coil 70M is increased and the rotation speed of the agitator 74M is increased, the presence or absence of toner at the position of the sensor detection surface 721M in the sub hopper 48M can be accurately detected.
Further, the agitator 74M rubs the sensor detection surface 721M of the toner detection sensor 72M to prevent the toner from adhering to the vicinity of the sensor detection surface 721M, and an error caused by the toner adhering to the sensor detection surface 721M. Detection can be prevented.
In addition, by using a flexible material such as PET as the material of the agitator 74M, it is possible to prevent wear deterioration of the sensor detection surface 721M as compared with a material using an inflexible material such as metal. .
Further, the agitator 74M is used such that the length from the stirring rotation shaft 73M to the tip of the agitator 74M is longer than the distance from the stirring rotation shaft 73M to the sensor detection surface 721M. As a result, the tip of the agitator 74M bites into the sensor detection surface 721M and can be rubbed reliably. Further, the agitator 74M is wider than the sensor detection surface 721M. Thereby, the whole sensor detection surface 721M can be rubbed reliably. Therefore, it is possible to reliably prevent toner from adhering to the vicinity of the sensor detection surface 721M, and to more reliably prevent erroneous detection due to the toner adhering to the sensor detection surface 721M.
The agitator 74M rotates so as to rub the sensor detection surface 721M from below to above. As a result, since the agitator 74M pushes the toner in the counter direction against the toner flying from above on the sensor detection surface 721M, the sensor detection surface 721M immediately after rubbing is hidden by the umbrella of the agitator 74M and cleaned. Can be maintained. If the sensor detection surface 721M is rubbed from the upper side to the lower side, the sensor detection surface 721M is exposed to the toner flying from the upper side immediately after the rubbing, so that the toner immediately comes into the cleaned state. It adheres and the cleaning effect becomes small.
Further, the agitation rotating shaft 73M, which is the rotating shaft of the agitator 74M, is provided horizontally in the sub hopper 48M perpendicular to the toner moving direction from the upper side to the lower side. If toner with good fluidity is set in a state where there is no toner in the toner replenishing device 40M (for example, before toner filling at the time of machine setup), there is a possibility that toner flows in. This means that an unintended amount of toner flows into the apparatus at once according to gravity. At this time, since the stirring rotation shaft 73M and the agitator 74M are perpendicular to the toner moving direction, a force that blocks the movement of the toner acts as compared with the case where the stirring shaft and the agitator are parallel to the toner moving direction. Cheap. Thereby, the inflow of toner can be prevented.
Further, as the toner fluidity suppressing means, there is provided drive control means for driving the drive motor 41M, which is a toner replenishment operation drive source, by intermittent driving that repeats driving and stopping when the rotational speed of the agitator 74M exceeds 155 [rpm]. ing. Accordingly, even if the paddle opening 75M is provided, even if the rotational speed of the agitator 74M is increased to such an extent that the increase in toner fluidity cannot be suppressed, air contained in the toner is released during the stop time. The stirring ability of the agitator 74M can be suppressed. Therefore, even if the rotation speed of the toner transport coil 70M is increased and the rotation speed of the agitator 74M is increased, the presence or absence of toner at the position of the sensor detection surface 721M in the sub hopper 48M can be accurately detected.
In addition, stable toner supply can be performed by using a toner having a high fluidity having an accelerated aggregation degree of 15% or less as the toner.
Further, since the toner transport coil 70M is used as the toner replenishment transport member, and the coil shape has a small stress for bending, the toner transport coil 70M can rotate even if the toner transport pipe 43M is bent. Accordingly, since it is not necessary to make the toner transport pipe 43M linear, the degree of freedom in layout can be increased, and the overall size of the developing device can be reduced.
Further, since the toner transport coil 70M is provided below the sub hopper 48M, and toner is supplied to the sub hopper 48M from above, the toner moves by its own weight, and it is not necessary to provide a toner transport member in the sub hopper 48M.
Further, the conveyance rotation shaft 71M and the agitation rotation shaft 73M are not parallel, and the conveyance rotation shaft 71M is inclined downward in the toner conveyance direction, so that the toner can easily move downstream in the conveyance direction, and stable toner. Can be replenished. Further, since the transport rotation shaft 71M includes a transport-side bevel gear 47M and the stirring rotation shaft 73M includes a stirring-side bevel gear 46M, even if the transport rotation shaft 71M and the stirring rotation shaft 73M are not parallel, the drive rotation shaft 71M is driven. Can communicate.
Moreover, since the stirring side bevel gear 46M and the conveyance side bevel gear 47M have the same number of teeth, space saving can be achieved without increasing one of the gears. Further, by using the same shape members for the stirring side bevel gear 46M and the conveyance side bevel gear 47M, it is possible to further reduce the cost by sharing the parts.
Also, by changing the toner replenishment operation to an appropriate replenishment control mode in accordance with the load applied to the DC motor, variation in the replenishment amount due to fluctuations in the rotational speed of the DC motor can be reduced, and highly accurate replenishment operation can be performed. Image quality can be maintained. Further, the use of a DC motor as the drive source motor 41 can reduce the manufacturing cost.
Further, by controlling the toner replenishment time in accordance with the remaining amount of toner in the toner bottle 32 that is a toner container, it is possible to respond to fluctuations in the load applied to the DC motor due to fluctuations in the rotational torque of the toner bottle 32. Thus, toner supply can be controlled. As a result, variations in the amount of toner replenishment due to fluctuations in the rotational speed of the DC motor caused by fluctuations in the remaining amount of toner can be reduced, and image quality can be maintained by performing highly accurate replenishment operations.
Further, by controlling the toner replenishment time according to the motor current value flowing through the drive motor 41 which is a DC motor, it is possible to control the toner replenishment according to the fluctuation of the load applied to the DC motor. As a result, variation in the amount of toner replenishment due to fluctuations in the rotation speed of the DC motor due to fluctuations in the load applied to the DC motor can be reduced, and image quality can be maintained by performing highly accurate replenishment operations. .
Further, when the toner density of the developer in the developing device 5 is reduced when images with a high image area ratio are continuously formed, the supply control is performed in the toner density adjustment supply mode, which places less burden on the DC motor. As a result, the life of the DC motor can be extended. Further, in the toner density adjustment and replenishment mode, the image formation is stopped, the toner density of the developer in the developing device is replenished to a state suitable for development, and then the image formation is resumed. Of the replenishment amount can be reduced, and the image quality can be maintained by performing a highly accurate replenishment operation.
Further, by providing the toner replenishing device 40 as the toner replenishing means of the printer 100 which is an image forming apparatus, stable toner replenishment can be performed and image quality can be maintained.

1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a printer according to an embodiment. FIG. The perspective view of a toner bottle. FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a toner bottle, an intermediate transfer unit, and a toner transport device. FIG. 2 is a front view of a toner bottle base, a toner supply device, and a toner bottle. FIG. 6 is a front view in which the toner bottle base is omitted from FIG. 5. The right view of FIG. The left view of FIG. Schematic when the conventional sub hopper is seen through from the side and the inside is seen. Schematic when the conventional sub hopper is seen through from above and the inside is seen. Schematic when the conventional sub hopper is seen through from the front and the inside is seen. The graph of the experimental result which shows the relationship between an acceleration aggregation degree and the replenishment amount. Schematic when the inside of the sub hopper of the embodiment is seen through from the side. Schematic when the sub hopper of the embodiment is seen through from above and the inside is seen. Schematic when the sub hopper of embodiment is seen through from the front and the inside is seen. Detailed explanatory drawing of the agitator of embodiment. The graph which shows the output value of a toner detection sensor. (A) is the toner supply device of Example 1, and (b) is the output value when the conventional toner supply device is used. FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram when the toner replenishing device of Embodiment 2 is viewed from above. The graph which shows the output value of a toner detection sensor. (A) is a toner replenishing device of Example 2, (b) is a toner replenishing device with a duty ratio of 90%, and (c) is an output value when a toner replenishing device that is continuously driven is used. FIG. 6 is a schematic view of a modified toner supply device as viewed from above. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an outline of supply control of the toner supply device according to the embodiment. 6 is a flowchart showing an outline of a first specific example for controlling a toner replenishing operation in accordance with a load applied to a DC motor. 9 is a flowchart showing an outline of a second specific example for controlling toner replenishment operation in accordance with a load applied to a DC motor. 6 is a graph showing the relationship between the number of prints and the output value of the density sensor when images with a high image area ratio are continuously formed. 6 is a flowchart showing an outline of replenishment control in which an image with a high image area ratio is continuously output and the burden on the DC motor is reduced when the developer toner density decreases.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Photoconductor 6 Process cartridge 7 Exposure apparatus 31 Bottle container 32 Toner bottle 34 Resin case 35 Handle 36 Shutter 37 Bottle rotation gear 38 Developer guide groove 40 Toner supply device 41 Drive motor 42 Warm gear 43 Toner conveyance pipe 44 Drive transmission gear 45 Replenishment drive transmission gear 46 Agitating side bevel gear 47 Conveying side bevel gear 48 Sub hopper 49 Bottle drive transmission gear 51 Developing sleeve 54 Developer accommodating portion 55 Developer conveying screw 70 Toner conveying coil 71 Conveying rotation shaft 72 Toner detection sensor 73 Agitating rotating shaft 74 Agitator 75 Paddle opening

Claims (27)

A toner container for temporarily storing toner;
A toner replenishment conveying member that replenishes the developer accommodating portion by rotating the toner in the toner accommodating portion;
A toner detection sensor installed on a wall surface in the toner container and detecting the presence or absence of the toner at the installed height;
A toner stirring member that rotates in the toner container and stirs the toner;
In the toner replenishing device in which the toner agitating member and the toner replenishing conveying member are driven by a common toner replenishing operation drive source,
A toner replenishing device comprising toner fluidity suppressing means for suppressing an increase in fluidity of the toner due to agitation of the toner agitating member in the toner container. The toner replenishing device according to claim 1.
A toner replenishing device that controls a toner replenishing operation in accordance with a load applied to the toner replenishing operation driving source. The toner replenishing device according to claim 2.
A toner container for containing toner to be supplied to the toner container;
The toner replenishing device, wherein the toner container rotates when the drive is transmitted from the toner replenishing operation driving source. A toner container for temporarily storing toner;
A toner conveying member that conveys the toner in the toner container by rotating the toner;
A toner detection sensor installed on a wall surface in the toner container and detecting the presence or absence of the toner at the installed height;
A toner stirring member that rotates in the toner container and stirs the toner;
In the toner conveying apparatus in which the toner agitating member and the toner conveying member are driven by a common toner conveying operation drive source,
A toner conveying device comprising toner fluidity suppressing means for suppressing an increase in fluidity of the toner due to agitation of the toner agitating member in the toner container. A toner conveying device according to claim 4,
The toner transport member is a toner replenishment transport member that replenishes toner in a developer container, and the toner transport operation drive source is a toner replenishment operation drive source that is a toner replenishment operation drive source.
A toner replenishing device that controls a toner replenishing operation in accordance with a load applied to the toner replenishing operation driving source. The toner replenishing device according to claim 5.
A toner container for containing toner to be supplied to the toner container;
The toner replenishing device, wherein the toner container rotates when the drive is transmitted from the toner replenishing operation driving source. The toner replenishing device according to claim 3 or 6,
A toner replenishing device that controls a toner replenishing operation in accordance with a remaining amount of toner in the toner container. The toner replenishing device according to claim 7.
If the remaining amount of toner in the toner container is within a predetermined range, toner supply for a theoretical supply time is performed,
When the remaining amount of toner in the toner container is less than the predetermined range, toner is replenished for a time shorter than the theoretical replenishment time,
A toner replenishing device that performs toner replenishment for a time longer than the theoretical replenishment time when the amount of remaining toner in the toner container is greater than the predetermined range.
However, the theoretical replenishment time is the time required for the toner replenishing device to replenish the toner for the consumed toner amount with respect to the consumed toner amount consumed by the development, and is calculated based on the experimental results before manufacturing. The The toner replenishing device according to claim 7 or 8,
A toner replenishing device, wherein the toner replenishing operation drive source is a DC motor. The toner supply device according to claim 2, 3, 5, or 6.
The toner replenishing operation drive source is a DC motor, and the toner replenishing device controls the toner replenishing operation according to the magnitude of the driving current supplied to the DC motor. The toner replenishing device according to claim 10.
If the magnitude of the drive current is within a predetermined range, toner supply for the theoretical supply time is performed,
When the magnitude of the drive current is smaller than the predetermined range, toner is supplied for a time shorter than the theoretical supply time,
A toner replenishing device that performs toner replenishment for a time longer than the theoretical replenishment time when the magnitude of the drive current is larger than the predetermined range.
However, the theoretical replenishment time is the time required for the toner replenishing device to replenish the toner for the consumed toner amount with respect to the consumed toner amount consumed by the development, and is calculated based on the experimental results before manufacturing. The The toner replenishing device according to claim 11.
A toner replenishing device, wherein the toner replenishing operation is stopped when the driving current exceeds a rated current of the DC motor. The toner replenishing device according to claim 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 or 12.
The toner stirring member is a flat paddle member;
The toner replenishing device, wherein the toner fluidity suppressing means includes a paddle opening provided in the paddle member. The toner replenishing device according to claim 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, or 13.
The toner replenishing device, wherein the toner fluidity suppressing means includes drive control means for driving the toner replenishing operation driving source by intermittent driving that repeats driving and stopping in accordance with the rotation speed of the toner stirring member. The toner replenishing device according to claim 14.
A toner replenishing device, characterized in that, with respect to the time ratio between the timing of the intermittent drive and the stop, the ratio of the drive time to the combined drive and stop time is 75% or less. The toner replenishing device according to claim 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 or 15.
The toner replenishing device, wherein the toner stirring member is made of a flexible material. The toner replenishing device according to claim 16.
The toner replenishing device, wherein the toner stirring member rubs a detection surface of the toner detection sensor. The toner replenishing device according to claim 17.
The length of the toner stirring member is longer than the distance from the rotation axis of the toner stirring member to the detection surface of the toner detection sensor,
A toner replenishing device, wherein a width of the toner stirring member is larger than a width of the detection surface of the toner detection sensor. The toner replenishing device according to claim 17 or 18,
The toner replenishing device, wherein the toner stirring member rubs the detection surface of the toner detection sensor from below to above. In the toner replenishing device according to claim 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 or 19.
The toner replenishing device according to claim 1, wherein a rotation axis of the toner agitating member is perpendicular to a moving direction of the toner in the toner accommodating portion. The toner supply device according to claim 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 or 20.
A toner replenishing device, wherein the toner has an accelerated aggregation degree of 15% or less. The toner replenishing device according to claim 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, or 21.
The toner replenishing device according to claim 1, wherein the toner replenishing / conveying member is a toner conveying coil that rotates to convey the toner in a rotation axis direction. The toner replenishing device according to claim 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 or 22.
The toner replenishing device, wherein the toner replenishing / conveying member is provided below the toner container, and the toner is supplied to the toner container from above. 24. The toner replenishing device according to claim 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 or 23. ,
The replenishment rotation shaft that is the rotation shaft of the toner replenishment conveyance member and the agitation rotation shaft that is the rotation shaft of the toner agitation member are not parallel, and the replenishment rotation axis and the agitation rotation axis are each provided with a bevel gear, A toner replenishing device, wherein the bevel gears mesh with each other to transmit driving. 25. The toner replenishing device according to claim 24.
A toner replenishing device, wherein each of the bevel gears has the same number of teeth. A latent image carrier;
A developing device that includes a developer container, and develops the latent image on the latent image carrier using the developer in the developer container;
In an image forming apparatus provided with a toner replenishing means for supplying toner to the developer containing portion,
As the toner replenishing means, claims 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, An image forming apparatus using a toner supply device of No. 23, 24 or 25. 27. The image forming apparatus according to claim 26.
When continuously outputting an image having a predetermined image area ratio or more, the toner density in the developer accommodating portion is detected every time a predetermined number of images are formed, and when the toner density is lower than a predetermined value, An image forming apparatus, wherein image formation is stopped, and the toner replenishing device performs an intermittent replenishing operation having a stop time longer than a normal replenishing operation.

Images