JP2009020233A - Developer replenishing container - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a toner replenishing container not causing toner blocking, and with less soiling by toner. <P>SOLUTION: The developer replenishing container mounted to an image forming apparatus, and for replenishing the toner includes: a container body 1 for storing the toner; and a toner discharge part 1a disposed in the container body 1, and having an opening to drop and discharge the toner. A part in the vicinity of the toner discharge part 1a is formed of a flexible member, and the opening has a small diameter so that the toner may not naturally drop therethrough when aggregated. The toner can be dropped and discharged through the opening by deforming or displacing the part in the vicinity of the toner discharge part formed of the flexible member by an action force exerted from the electrophotographic image forming apparatus. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a developer supply container for supplying developer to an electrophotographic image forming apparatus.

  Conventionally, fine powder toner as a developer is used in electrophotographic image forming apparatuses such as electrophotographic copying machines and printers. When the toner in the electrophotographic image forming apparatus main body is consumed, the toner is supplied to the image forming apparatus main body using a developer supply container (toner supply container).

  Since the toner is an extremely fine powder, a method is known in which a toner supply container is placed inside the image forming apparatus main body and discharged in small amounts so that the toner does not scatter during the toner supply operation.

  Since these toners are fine powders with a particle size of several microns, they have high agglomeration properties, and after passing through a physical distribution / transport process, or even if left untreated, they block (harden), impairing replenishment performance. There was a problem.

  In order to solve these problems, several known techniques have been disclosed in the past. For example, methods as described in Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2 have been proposed. In Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2, a part of the side wall of the toner supply container is formed of an elastic member, and toner blocking is prevented by dropping the toner adhering to the inner wall by intermittently deforming the elastic member. A method has been proposed.

  Further, in Patent Document 3, the entire container has a bag-like container body using an elastic member such as rubber or a flexible member such as a film, and a toner replenishing port at the bottom thereof, and the toner replenishing port is swung. A method has been proposed in which toner is replenished by exercise.

Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 5-29059 JP-A-10-63072 JP 2003-107875 A

  However, in the methods of Patent Documents 1 and 2 described above, the side wall of the toner supply container is deformed as an auxiliary means only for breaking the blocking. The toner supply itself uses another transport mechanism such as a screw or a transport roller. Therefore, it is necessary to provide an anti-blocking mechanism on the image forming apparatus main body side in addition to the toner transport mechanism.

  On the other hand, since the method of Patent Document 3 is a method of replenishing toner while deforming the vicinity of the toner replenishing port to eliminate toner blocking near the replenishing port, there is an advantage that only one drive mechanism on the image forming apparatus main body side is required. There is. However, since the replenishing port is largely swung left and right, it is necessary to enlarge the replenishing port receiving port, which has been one of the factors that hinder downsizing of the main body side.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to provide a developer replenishing container that does not cause toner blocking and has little developer contamination.

  Another object of the present invention is to provide a developer replenishing container having an inexpensive configuration and excellent quantitative replenishability.

  Furthermore, another object of the present invention is to provide a developer supply container excellent in physical distribution efficiency.

  A typical means in the present invention for solving the above problems is a developer replenishing container mounted on an electrophotographic image forming apparatus for replenishing a developer, a container main body for containing the developer, and a container main body. And a developer discharge portion having an opening for dropping and discharging the developer, and the vicinity of the developer discharge portion is constituted by a flexible member, and the opening is in a state where the developer is aggregated In this case, the size is such that it cannot be naturally dropped, and by deforming or displacing the vicinity of the developer discharge portion formed by the flexible member by the action force from the electrophotographic image forming apparatus, The developer is dropped and discharged.

  As described above, in the present invention, the developer discharge portion having the opening is formed, and the vicinity thereof is made of a flexible member, so that the discharge portion is received by the action from the image forming apparatus main body. Replenish the developer in the vicinity, breaking down sequentially. As a result, developer replenishment with less contamination can be realized while blocking the developer.

  Next, a developer supply container according to an embodiment of the present invention will be specifically described with reference to the drawings.

[First Embodiment]
First, the configuration of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus as an example of an image forming apparatus to which a toner supply container as a developer supply container according to the first embodiment of the present invention is mounted will be described with reference to FIG. Here, the electrophotographic image forming apparatus forms an image on a recording medium using an electrophotographic image forming system. Examples of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus include an electrophotographic copying machine, an electrophotographic printer (for example, a laser beam printer, an LED printer, etc.), a facsimile machine, a word processor, and the like.

<Electrophotographic image forming apparatus>
2 is a cross-sectional view of the main configuration of an image forming unit of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus main body (hereinafter referred to as “apparatus main body”) shown in FIG. This figure shows the case of a color copying machine, and is an example in which four developing units (Bk, M, C, Y) are arranged in parallel.

  In FIG. 1, first, the surface of an image carrier (photosensitive drum) 100 is uniformly charged by a charging device (charging roller) 101, and then exposure according to an output image is performed by an exposure device (not shown) so that the light receiving portion is statically exposed. An image is formed. When the electrostatic latent image formed on the photosensitive drum 100 reaches the developing sleeve 102 of the developing device 103, a developer (hereinafter referred to as “toner”) is supplied from the developing sleeve 102 to visualize the electrostatic image. A toner image obtained by developing the electrostatic latent image is primarily transferred to the intermediate transfer belt 107 by a transfer roller (not shown). This is performed for each color to form one color image. The formed color image is eventually secondarily transferred to a sheet (not shown) by the secondary transfer roller 108, and then fixed by heat and pressure by a fixing device (not shown) and output as an image.

  The toner remaining on the surface of the photosensitive drum 100 after the transfer is removed and collected by the cleaner unit 106 and collected to the waste toner unit.

<Developer supply container>
Next, a toner supply container as a developer supply container in the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 is a partial cross-sectional perspective view of the developer supply container, FIG. 3 is a front cross-sectional view, and FIG. 4 is a view showing a state when the developer supply container is set in the main body casing. (B) is a diagram showing a state after the mounting is completed.

  The toner supply container is made of two different materials: a container upper part 1A that is a rigid first container part formed in a substantially cylindrical shape, and a container lower part 1B that is a second container part formed of a flexible member. It is configured. The material of the flexible member may be any material that can be elastically deformed, and polyethylene, polypropylene, elastomer, or the like is preferably used.

  The container lower part 1B has a conical shape toward the bottom, and a thin substantially cylindrical developer discharge part (hereinafter simply referred to as an opening for discharging toner inside) is formed at the top part (lower end). 1a) is provided. The container upper portion 1A is circumferentially formed with a flange portion 1b at the boundary with the container lower portion 1B, and serves as a positioning stopper when inserted into the main body, and a sliding surface when the container rotates. become. The container upper portion 1A has a certain degree of strength in consideration of user handling. For this reason, in this embodiment, it is comprised with the general plastic molded product.

  On the other hand, the container lower part 1B is comprised with the member which has flexibility, and is in the state which can deform | transform freely.

  A driving force receiving portion 2 (hereinafter referred to as “coupling member”) for receiving an acting force from the image forming apparatus main body is provided on the outer peripheral portion of the discharge portion 1a. Further, the outer peripheral surface of the coupling member 2 has a gear shape, and engages with the main body driving unit 104 of the image forming apparatus main body to transmit the rotational driving force. The main body driving unit 104 receives a driving force from a driving device provided in the apparatus main body.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 4, the coupling member 2 also has a shutter function for opening and closing the discharge portion 1a. The coupling member 2 is locked in a state in which the discharge part 1a is closed in a normal state (FIG. 4A). When the toner supply container is set in the main body of the image forming apparatus, the coupling member 2 slides to open the discharge portion 1a, so that the toner can be supplied (FIG. 4B).

  The toner supply container main body contains toner, but when the toner is in an agglomerated state, the opening is configured to have a small diameter so that the toner cannot substantially fall by its own weight. For this reason, the toner supply container of this embodiment does not discharge toner by its own weight due to the cohesiveness of the toner even when the shutter is open. Therefore, the toner is not discharged from the discharge portion 1a when the shutter is just opened. When the toner is replenished, the toner is replenished from the discharge portion 1a by receiving a function from the main body of the image forming apparatus and the coupling member 2 performing a predetermined operation as described later.

<Supplying operation of toner supply container>
Next, the replenishing operation of the toner replenishing container in this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the image forming apparatus and the toner supply container. First, FIG. 5A shows a state in which the toner supply container is set in the container mounting portion (main body casing) 105. When the toner supply container is set in the main body, the coupling member 2 is engaged with the main body driving gear 104. Then, as shown in FIG. 5B, when the main body drive gear 104 rotates in the direction of arrow a, the coupling member 2 also rotates accordingly. At this time, the flexible member in the vicinity of the discharge portion 1a is pulled by the coupling member 2 and deformed. For this reason, the agglomerated state of the toner near the deformed state is broken. That is, the vicinity of the discharge portion 1a is deformed with a slight twist, so that the toner aggregation in the vicinity is broken. When the rotation further continues, as shown in FIG. 5C, the container upper portion 1A also starts to rotate with a slight delay, and the entire toner container rotates. At this time, a rotating roller (not shown) is provided between the flange portion 1b of the container upper portion 1A and the main body casing 105, so that the container main body 1 rotates smoothly.

  As the toner supply container rotates, the toner in the entire container collapses, and the inside of the container is in good fluidity. For this reason, the toner is quantitatively dropped and discharged from the discharge portion 1a. While this state is maintained while the toner supply container is rotating, toner is continuously supplied. When the rotation of the toner replenishing container stops, the toner settles due to the weight of the toner, the fluidity inside the container is lowered, and the replenishment is automatically stopped by the aggregated toner naturally blocking the discharge part 1a. Therefore, there is no need for a mechanism for closing the discharge part 1a each time as in the prior art, and a compact and inexpensive configuration can be realized.

  As described above, by deforming the vicinity of the discharge portion 1a, the toner aggregation state is broken, and the toner can be discharged from the discharge portion 1a. Therefore, the “near the discharge portion” that is made of a flexible member and can be deformed is a region where the aggregated toner blocking the discharge portion opening can be broken by deformation of the portion.

  The size of the discharge portion 1a in the present embodiment may be set as appropriate from the physical properties of the toner, the filling amount, or the balance with the diameter of the container body 1, but is preferably set to such an extent that the toner is not discharged by its own weight. In addition, from the examination result in this embodiment, it is known that the diameter ratio of the opening diameter of the discharge portion to the diameter of the container body 1 is preferably in the range of 1:10 to 1:40.

  That is, when the opening diameter is larger than 1/10 of the container main body diameter, the toner naturally falls due to its own weight, which may cause toner to fall off and stain the surroundings.

  On the other hand, if the opening diameter is smaller than 1/40 of the container main body diameter, the discharge opening may be too small and toner may not be discharged smoothly. Therefore, it is desirable that the opening diameter and the diameter of the container main body are configured with a ratio in an appropriate range.

  In the toner supply container of this embodiment, the opening diameter is 5 mm and the container body diameter is 100 mm.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, not only the auxiliary function of breaking the blocking by simply deforming the inner wall of the container as in the conventional case, but also the deformation force and rotational drive directly in the vicinity of the flexible discharge portion 1a itself. Apply force. As a result, it is possible to improve the toner fluidity of the entire container and realize quantitative toner replenishment by breaking the aggregated toner near the discharge portion 1a and simultaneously rotating the toner replenishment container itself. Become.

  Therefore, only one drive mechanism is required for toner supply, and excellent toner supply performance can be realized with a very space-saving and low-cost drive mechanism including only the rotation drive gear 104.

  Further, the discharge portion 1a is very small, and the discharge portion 1a does not swing left and right as in the conventional example, and the position of the discharge portion 1a is on the same rotational axis as the container body 1. For this reason, since the discharge part 1a is always constant and does not move, there is almost no toner scattering. Thus, toner supply can be realized while suppressing the occurrence of toner contamination.

  In addition, after use, the toner supply container that has become empty can be reduced in volume by pushing the container lower part 1B formed of the flexible member into the container upper part 1A. For this reason, the distribution efficiency at the time of collecting containers is improved. Therefore, it is possible to provide an ecological and environmentally friendly toner supply container.

  As described above, the important point in the toner supply container of the present embodiment is that the deforming force is applied to the discharge portion 1a having the minimum opening and the vicinity thereof. That is, the place where the deformation force is applied is important.

  For example, in the configuration of the toner replenishing container in the present embodiment, no matter how much the upper portion of the toner supply container is deformed rather than in the vicinity of the discharge portion 1a, it does not make any sense unless the toner aggregation in the essential discharge portion 1a is destroyed. . In particular, in a toner supply container having a minimum opening as shown in the present embodiment, a place where deformation is applied becomes important.

  In the present embodiment, as described above, the coupling member 2 is provided in the cylindrical discharge portion 1a, so that the acting force from the image forming apparatus main body is applied to the discharge portion 1a and the vicinity thereof, and the toner fluidity in the container. The toner can be replenished as much as necessary when necessary.

[Second Embodiment]
Next, a toner supply container according to the second embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. Note that the basic configuration of the present embodiment is the same as that of the above-described embodiment, and thus redundant description is omitted. Here, a configuration that is a feature of the present embodiment will be described. Moreover, the same code | symbol is attached | subjected to the member which has the same function as embodiment mentioned above.

  The difference from the first embodiment described above is an example in which toner supply is performed by eccentrically moving only the vicinity of the discharge portion 1a without the container body 1 rotating.

  As shown in FIG. 6, the coupling member 2 provided at the tip of the discharge part 1a is different from the first embodiment described above in that the discharge part 1a is provided at a position eccentric by a predetermined amount. . An engagement hole 2 a for engaging with a drive shaft 109 provided in the image forming apparatus main body is provided at a position off the center of the coupling member 2. The inner peripheral surface of the engagement hole 2a is formed in a shape that can mesh with the drive shaft 109. The relationship between the drive shaft 109 and the engagement hole 2a is that the coupling member 2 can slide in the axial direction of the drive shaft 109 when the drive shaft 109 and the engagement hole 2a are engaged. The member 2 is also configured to rotate integrally.

  As shown in FIG. 6, the engagement hole 2a engages with the drive shaft 109 as the container is set. When the drive shaft 109 rotates, the coupling member 2 performs an eccentric motion, and at the same time, the discharge portion 1a provided integrally with the coupling member 2 also performs an eccentric motion. This eccentric movement causes the toner with increased fluidity to fall and be discharged while breaking the toner aggregation near the discharge portion 1a.

  In this embodiment, since the toner supply container itself does not rotate, the container body shape is suitable for a container other than the cylindrical shape. For example, it is possible to deal with a sliding pouch container as shown in FIG. 6 and other shapes, which is effective when priority is given to space efficiency in the image forming apparatus main body.

  Further, unlike the first embodiment, this embodiment does not rotate the container itself, so it takes some time to improve the toner fluidity of the entire container, but the replenishment performance itself does not change at all.

[Other Embodiments]
In the above-described embodiment, an example in which the toner is discharged by deforming the container main body has been described. However, not only the deformation but also the toner may be discharged by displacing the container main body.

  Further, the acting force that the container main body receives from the image forming apparatus main body is not limited to the twisting force, the rotational force, and the eccentric motion, and the same effect can be exhibited by applying vibration. Therefore, the acting force is not particularly limited.

1 is a partial cross-sectional view showing an embodiment of a main part of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention. 1 is an external perspective view of a developer supply container according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a partial cross-sectional view of a developer supply container in the first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a mounting operation of the developer supply container according to the first embodiment of the present invention. It is a fragmentary sectional view showing replenishment operation in a 1st embodiment of the present invention, and shows a state at the time of (A) insertion, (B) initial rotation, and (C) replenishment rotation. It is a perspective view of the developer supply container in the second embodiment of the present invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Toner replenishment container 1A ... Container upper part 1B ... Container lower part 1a ... Discharge port 1b ... Gutter part 2 ... Coupling member 2a ... Engagement hole
100… Photosensitive drum
101… Charging roller
102… Development sleeve
103… Developer
104 ... Body drive unit
105… Body casing
106… Cleaner section
107 ... Intermediate transfer belt
108… Secondary transfer roller
109… Drive shaft

Claims (10)

In a developer supply container that is mounted on an electrophotographic image forming apparatus and supplies developer,
A container body for containing a developer;
A developer discharge portion provided in the container body and having an opening for dropping and discharging the developer;
Have
The vicinity of the developer discharge part is composed of a flexible member,
The opening is configured in such a size that it cannot fall by its own weight when the developer is in an aggregated state.
A developer that drops and discharges the developer from the opening by deforming or displacing the vicinity of the developer discharge portion formed of the flexible member by an action force from the electrophotographic image forming apparatus. Supply container. In a developer supply container that is mounted on an electrophotographic image forming apparatus and supplies developer,
A first container portion constituting a container main body for containing a developer;
A second container part that constitutes the container body integrally with the first container part;
A developer discharge portion provided in the second container portion and having an opening for dropping and discharging the developer;
Have
The second container part is composed of a flexible member,
The opening is configured in such a size that it cannot fall by its own weight when the developer is in an aggregated state.
A developer supply container, wherein the developer is dropped and discharged from the opening by deforming or displacing the second container portion by an action force from the electrophotographic image forming apparatus.   The developer supply container according to claim 1, wherein the developer discharge portion is formed in a cylindrical shape.   4. The developer supply container according to claim 1, wherein the developer discharge portion includes a force receiving portion for receiving an acting force from the electrophotographic image forming apparatus main body. .   5. The developer supply container according to claim 1, wherein the acting force is any one of twisting force, rotational force, eccentric motion, and vibration. 3. The developer supply container according to claim 1, wherein a material of the flexible member is polyethylene, polypropylene, or an elastomer.   The developer replenishing container is a developer replenishing container that replenishes the developer by rotating by receiving a driving force from the image forming apparatus main body, and the container main body and the developer discharging portion are on the same rotation axis. The developer supply container according to claim 1, wherein the developer supply container is provided. The first container portion is configured in a cylindrical shape,
The second container part is configured in a conical shape,
4. The developer supply container according to claim 2, wherein the developer discharge portion is provided on a conical top portion of the second container portion. 5.   9. The developer supply container according to claim 8, wherein a diameter ratio between the diameter of the opening and the diameter of the first container portion is in the range of 1:10 to 1:40.   The developer supply container according to claim 2, wherein a flange is formed at a boundary between the first container part and the second container part.

Images