JP2007140377A - Lubricant applicator and image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a lubricant applicator which presses a solid lubricant against a brush roller by a pressing means and grinds the solid lubricant by the brush roller to coat an image carrier surface, the lubricant applicator being capable of making uniform the amount of the lubricant applied onto the image carrier by grinding the lubricant which is uniform in amount along the length for a long period; and an iamge forming apparatus. <P>SOLUTION: The lubricant applicator, equipped with the solid lubricant 2, a solid lubricant support member 3 which supports the solid lubricant, the brush roller 7 which coats the surface of a photoreceptor with the solid lubricant, and the pressing means of pressing the lubricant support member so that the solid lubricant is pressed against the brush roller, is equipped with a base member 4 which is fixed as the pressing means in parallel to the axis of the brush roller, an elastic member 8 for pressing the solid lubricant support member, and a plurality of rotary arms 5 which are fitted to the base member and solid lubricant support member 3 at a plurality of positions spaced from each other along the length and as long as each other and can rotate at the same time. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a printer, a facsimile, and the like, and a lubricant coating apparatus employed in the image forming apparatus.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there has been known a technique in which a lubricant such as zinc stearate is applied to the surface of an image carrier in order to improve the life of the image carrier and to improve transfer properties such as measures against insect worms during transfer. As a lubricant application device, a solid lubricant such as a zinc stearate bar is pressed and brought into contact with a brush roller having good polishing and coating properties by a pressurizing means such as a spring, and the solid lubricant is scraped off by the brush roller to form an image. Many are applied to the surface of the carrier.

  As a pressurizing means for pressing and bringing the solid lubricant into contact with the brush roller, there is generally used a pressing member that presses and urges a support member that supports the solid lubricant with a spring. Further, when a spring is used as the pressurizing means, it is difficult to press uniformly in the longitudinal direction of the brush roller with a single spring. Therefore, a plurality of springs are provided in the longitudinal direction and the solid lubricant is brushed by the plurality of springs. There is also known one that is brought into press contact with the material (for example, Patent Document 1).

JP 2005-140875 A

  In the lubricant application device, it is necessary to regulate the direction in which the solid lubricant moves toward the brush roller so that the solid lubricant contacts the brush roller at an appropriate angle. Therefore, in general, a regulating member for regulating the moving direction of the solid lubricant is provided on both sides of the support member, and the moving direction is regulated by the support member hitting the regulating member. However, depending on how the restricting member and the support member are brought into contact with each other, a difference occurs in the slidability of the support member in the longitudinal direction of the brush roller. Due to the difference in the sliding property of the support member in the longitudinal direction, the contact state between the solid lubricant and the brush roller is varied in the longitudinal direction even if the applied pressure of the spring itself is the same, and the amount of lubricant to be scraped off. There is a risk that deviation will occur. Initially, the deviation of the amount of lubricant to be scraped off is very small, but over time, this deviation causes a difference in the size of the solid lubricant as a longitudinal deviation of the amount of lubricant consumed. For this reason, the amount of displacement of the spring changes in the longitudinal direction, the difference in the amount of lubricant that is scraped off increases, and the amount of lubricant on the image carrier becomes non-uniform. A portion having an excessive amount of lubricant in the longitudinal direction leads to abnormal images such as image flow and contamination when a contact charging member is used, and a portion having an excessive amount of lubricant leads to filming of the image carrier.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-described background. The object of the present invention is to press and urge a solid lubricant against a brush roller by a pressurizing means so that the brush roller scrapes the solid lubricant and image carrier. Provided is a lubricant coating apparatus and an image forming apparatus capable of uniforming the amount of lubricant applied on an image carrier by shaving a uniform amount of lubricant in the longitudinal direction over a long period of time in a lubricant coating apparatus for coating on a surface. It is to be.

In order to achieve the above object, the invention of claim 1 includes a solid lubricant, a solid lubricant support member that supports the solid lubricant, a brush roller that applies the solid lubricant to the surface of the image carrier, Pressurizing means for pressurizing the lubricant support member so as to press and bias the solid lubricant against the brush roller, and applying the solid lubricant shaved by rotating the brush roller to the surface of the image carrier In the lubricant application apparatus, the pressurizing means is a base member fixed so as to be parallel to the axis of the brush roller, an elastic member for pressing the solid lubricant support member, and the base member; The solid lubricant supporting member is provided with a plurality of pivot arms which are attached to the solid lubricant support member at a plurality of positions separated from each other with respect to the longitudinal direction and which can be rotated at the same time.
The invention according to claim 2 is the lubricant application apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the elastic member is a coil spring attached by being stretched substantially parallel to the longitudinal direction of the base member, and the coil spring attempts to return to its original state. The contracting force is converted into a pressing force to the solid lubricant support member, and the solid lubricant support member is pressed and urged.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image forming apparatus comprising: an image carrier that carries a toner image; and a lubricant application device that applies a lubricant on the image carrier. One or two lubricant application devices are employed.

  In these lubricant application devices and image forming apparatuses, the plurality of rotating arms attached to the solid lubricant supporting member and the base member at a plurality of positions separated from each other rotate simultaneously at the same length. Do not move apart. Therefore, the solid lubricant supporting member always moves in parallel with the base member fixed so as to be parallel to the axis of the brush roller by the movement of a plurality of rotating arms that simultaneously rotate with the same length. . Thereby, the solid lubricant supporting member always moves so as to be parallel to the axis of the brush roller, and the contact state between the solid lubricant and the brush roller becomes uniform in the longitudinal direction. Therefore, it is possible to prevent a deviation from occurring in the amount of lubricant scraped off in the longitudinal direction.

  According to the first to third aspects of the present invention, in the lubricant application device in which the solid lubricant is pressed and urged against the brush roller by the pressing means, and the brush roller scrapes the solid lubricant and applies it to the surface of the image carrier. There is an excellent effect that the amount of lubricant applied on the image carrier can be made uniform by shaving a uniform amount of lubricant in the axial direction over a long period of time.

  Embodiments in which the present invention is applied to an image forming apparatus will be described below. The image forming apparatus forms an electrostatic latent image on a photoconductor as an image carrier, and converts the electrostatic latent image into a toner image by a developing device. After the toner image is transferred to the transfer member, the toner remaining on the photosensitive member is removed by a cleaning device. Image formation is performed by such a cycle.

  In addition, the image forming apparatus according to the present exemplary embodiment includes a lubricant application device that applies a lubricant such as zinc stearate on the photoconductor in order to improve the life and transferability of the photoconductor. FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a lubricant application device. The lubricant application device is attached to the brush roller 7 as the lubricant application member, the solid lubricant 2, the solid lubricant support member 3 that supports the solid lubricant 2, the base member 4, and the base member 4. And a coil spring 8 stretched in the longitudinal direction of the lubricant application device. The brush roller 7 is disposed so as to contact the photoreceptor 1. As the solid lubricant 2, a zinc stearate solid bar or the like can be used. This solid lubricant 2 is fixed to a lubricant support member 3. Further, the base member 4 is fixed to a casing (not shown) of the lubricant application device so as to be parallel to the axis of the brush roller 7. The solid lubricant supporting portion 3 is attached to the base portion 4 so as to be simultaneously rotatable by the same length arm 5 at two points separated from each other in the longitudinal direction. Further, the base member 4 is connected to a coil spring 8, and a contraction force to return the coil spring 8 stretched in the longitudinal direction of the lubricant application device to press the solid lubricant 2 toward the brush roller 7 side. A pivotable arm 6 is provided for changing to

  In the lubricant application device having such a configuration, the arm 6 is stretched in the longitudinal direction of the lubricant application device of the coil spring 8 and applies a contraction force to return to the original state, and applies the solid lubricant 2 to the brush roller application brush. The lubricant support member 3 is pressed in the direction of pressing. Further, since the lubricant support member 3 is attached to the base member 4 so as to be simultaneously rotatable by the arms 5 having the same length at two points separated from each other in the longitudinal direction, the solid lubricant support member 3 is attached to the base member 4. It always moves only in parallel. Therefore, since the solid lubricant supporting member 4 pressed by the arm 6 always moves only in parallel with the base member 4, that is, in parallel with the axis of the brush roller 7, the contact state between the solid lubricant 2 and the brush roller 7 is changed. It becomes uniform in the axial direction. The brush roller 7 is rotationally driven to scrape off a small amount of the solid lubricant that is in uniform contact with the brush roller 7 in the axial direction and applies the solid lubricant to the photoreceptor 1. In this way, it is possible to prevent a deviation from occurring in the amount of lubricant scraped off in the axial direction. Further, as described above, the coil spring 8 is stretched in the longitudinal direction of the lubricant application device. When tensioned in this way, the amount of spring displacement is sufficiently longer than the change in stroke due to lubricant consumption over time, so the decrease in applied pressure over time can be kept small, and the amount of lubricant applied over time can be stabilized. Can be.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, the description has been made using the apparatus for applying the lubricant material to the photosensitive member 1 as the image carrier. However, the intermediate transfer member or the like carrying the toner image transferred as the image carrier. The present invention can also be applied as a lubricant application device for applying to the surface.

As described above, as described in the present embodiment, the base member 4 fixed so as to be parallel to the axis of the brush roller 7 as the pressurizing means for pressing and urging the solid lubricant 2 against the brush roller 7, and solid lubrication Coil spring 8 for pressing solid lubricant support member 3 supporting agent 2, and base member 4 and solid lubricant support member 3 attached at a plurality of positions apart from each other in the longitudinal direction at the same time. A plurality of rotatable arms 5 are provided. Since the solid lubricant supporting member 3 is attached to the base member 4 via the plurality of rotating arms 5, it can move only in parallel with the base member 4. For this reason, the solid lubricant supporting member 3 always moves so as to be parallel to the axis of the brush roller 7, and the contact state between the solid lubricant 2 and the brush roller 7 becomes uniform in the longitudinal direction. Therefore, it is possible to prevent a deviation from occurring in the amount of lubricant scraped off in the longitudinal direction.
The coil spring 8 is attached so as to extend substantially parallel to the longitudinal direction of the base member 4, and the contraction force to return the coil spring 8 to the original is converted into a pressing force to the solid lubricant support member 3, thereby solid lubrication An arm 6 that presses and biases the agent supporting member 3 is provided. When tensioned in this way, the amount of spring displacement is sufficiently longer than the change in stroke due to lubricant consumption over time, so the decrease in applied pressure over time can be kept small, and the amount of lubricant applied over time can be stabilized. Can be.
In addition, by adopting such a lubricant application device in an image forming apparatus, the amount of lubricant applied on the image carrier can be made uniform by scraping a uniform amount of lubricant in the axial direction over a long period of time. An abnormal image such as a flow can be prevented, contamination can be prevented when a contact charging member is used, and filming of the photoreceptor 1 can be prevented. In particular, when the AC contact charging method is used as the charging device, there is no room for contamination of the contact charging member, so it is effective to use the lubricant application device of this embodiment.

1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a lubricant application device employed in an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Photoconductor 2 Solid lubricant 3 Solid lubricant support member 4 Base member 5 Arm 6 Arm 7 Brush roller 8 Coil spring

Claims (3)

  A solid lubricant, a solid lubricant support member that supports the solid lubricant, a brush roller that applies the solid lubricant to the surface of the image carrier, and the solid lubricant that is pressed against the brush roller. A lubricant applying device for applying to the surface of the image carrier the solid lubricant scraped by rotating the brush roller, wherein the pressurizing means includes the brush. A base member fixed so as to be parallel to the axis of the roller, an elastic member for pressing the solid lubricant supporting member, and a plurality of base members and the solid lubricant supporting member that are separated from each other in the longitudinal direction. A lubricant applicator comprising a plurality of pivot arms that are pivotable at the same time and that are pivotable at the same time.   2. The lubricant application apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the elastic member is a coil spring attached by being stretched substantially parallel to the longitudinal direction of the base member, and the contraction force that the coil spring attempts to return to is returned to the solid lubricant. A lubricant coating apparatus, wherein the solid lubricant supporting member is configured to press and urge the solid lubricant support member by converting the pressure to a member. In an image forming apparatus comprising an image carrier that carries a toner image, and a lubricant application device that applies a lubricant on the image carrier.
An image forming apparatus, wherein the lubricant applying apparatus according to claim 1 is employed as the lubricant applying apparatus.

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