JP2009199036A - Device and method for detecting residual toner and device for evaluating toner wiping-out performance - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a device and a method for detecting residual toner by which even a very small amount of residual toner is precisely and objectively detected and determined, and to provide a device for evaluating toner wiping-out performance. <P>SOLUTION: The device detects residual toner on a surface of a photoreceptor 1 in a photoreceptor unit, and includes: a laser irradiation means 8 emitting a laser beam 9 in parallel to the vicinity of an observation surface of the photoreceptor 1; and an observation means 11 observing the observation surface. The observation means 11 is used to observe scattered light of the laser beam on the surface of the photoreceptor 1. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention provides a simple and highly sensitive evaluation of a residual toner detection device and detection method for detecting toner remaining on a photoreceptor after a transfer process and a cleaning process with high sensitivity and a toner wiping property of a cleaning member. The present invention relates to a toner wiping evaluation apparatus.

  With the background of IT society, OPC (Organic Photoconductor) units are generally used for development units that can be said to be the heart of laser printers and copiers, where demand is expanding not only for business use but also for home use. Has been. In an electrophotographic process using such an OPC photoreceptor unit, toner is adsorbed to an electrostatic latent image (charge distribution corresponding to a printed image) on the photoreceptor created using a charger and a laser. An image is formed by sequentially executing a developing process for transferring to paper. In such a process, in order to remove toner remaining on the photosensitive member without being transferred, a cleaning member such as a rubber blade or a rubber roll is attached behind the transfer process so that the remaining toner is completely wiped off.

  In recent years, against the backdrop of higher resolution and higher speed, development of blades with higher wiping properties has been demanded. Conventionally, whether or not residual toner has been removed has been evaluated by observing the surface of the photoreceptor after cleaning. This is performed by visually determining whether the amount of residual toner is large or small (see Patent Document 1).

However, it is difficult to detect a very small amount of toner by evaluation based on a simple image, and there is a problem that a subtle difference between a very small amount of toner cannot be determined and the wiping property cannot be determined accurately.
JP-A-7-159376

  In view of the circumstances described above, an object of the present invention is to provide a residual toner detection device, a detection method, and a toner wiping evaluation device that can detect and judge a minute amount of residual toner accurately and objectively.

  A first aspect of the present invention that achieves the above object is an apparatus for detecting residual toner on the surface of a photoconductor of a photoconductor unit, wherein the laser irradiation means irradiates a laser beam parallel to the vicinity of the observation surface of the photoconductor. And an observation means for observing the observation surface, wherein the observation means is for observing the scattered light on the surface of the photosensitive member.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the residual toner according to the first aspect, the laser irradiating unit irradiates a laser beam parallel to the axis from an axial end portion of the photoconductor. In the detection device.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, the observation unit includes an optical lens provided to face the observation surface, and an image sensor that captures an image input from the optical lens. The residual toner detection device according to the first or second aspect.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the observation surface is a part of the axial direction of the photoconductor, the observation means is movable in the axial direction of the photoconductor, and the axial direction of the photoconductor Any area can be observed, and the residual toner detection device according to any one of the first to third aspects is provided.

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a photosensitive member to be observed, a photosensitive member supporting unit that rotatably supports the photosensitive member, a toner supplying unit that supplies toner to the photosensitive member, and the toner supplying unit. A cleaning means for wiping off toner adhering to the surface of the photoconductor, an observation means for observing the surface wiped by the cleaning means as an observation surface, and a laser beam parallel to the vicinity of the observation surface. A irradiating laser irradiating means, wherein the observing means detects residual toner by observing scattered light on the surface of the photosensitive member, and the toner wiping evaluation apparatus characterized in that It is in.

  According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a photosensitive member to be observed, a photosensitive member supporting unit that rotatably supports the photosensitive member, a toner supplying unit that supplies toner to the photosensitive member, and the toner supplying unit. A cleaning means for wiping off toner adhering to the surface of the photoconductor, an observation means for observing the surface wiped by the cleaning means as an observation surface, and a laser beam parallel to the vicinity of the observation surface. Laser irradiation means for irradiating, and the observation means detects residual toner by observing scattered light on the surface of the photosensitive member by the laser light, and thereby evaluates the cleaning means. The toner wiping property evaluation apparatus is characterized in that.

  According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the fifth or sixth aspect, the laser irradiating means irradiates laser light in parallel with the axis from the axial end of the photoconductor. In the toner wiping evaluation apparatus.

  According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, in any one of the fifth to seventh aspects, the observation means includes an optical lens and an image sensor to acquire a digital image of the observation surface. The toner wiping property evaluation apparatus described in 1).

  In a ninth aspect of the present invention, the observation surface is a part in the axial direction of the photoconductor, the observation means is movable in the axial direction of the photoconductor, and the axial direction of the photoconductor Any area can be observed, and the toner wiping evaluation apparatus according to any one of the fifth to eighth aspects is provided.

  According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, in the toner wiping property according to any one of the fifth to ninth aspects, the photoconductor, the toner supply unit, and the cleaning unit can be replaced with evaluation objects, respectively. In the evaluation device.

  An eleventh aspect of the present invention is the toner wiping property evaluation according to any one of the fifth to tenth aspects, wherein the cleaning unit includes a rubber blade for wiping the surface of the photosensitive member. In the device.

  In the twelfth aspect of the present invention, the presence or absence of residual toner is obtained by irradiating laser light parallel to the vicinity of the observation surface of the rotationally driven photoconductor while observing scattered light of the laser light on the photoconductor surface. The residual toner detection method is characterized by detecting the toner.

  According to the present invention, the residual toner adhering to the surface of the photoconductor can be precisely inspected by irradiating the surface of the photoconductor with a laser beam in parallel and detecting the scattered light of the laser beam. There is an effect that the presence / absence and the wiping property of the cleaning means can be easily evaluated with high precision and high sensitivity.

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be described based on embodiments.

  1 to 3 are a schematic perspective view of a toner wiping property evaluation apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and a schematic arrangement diagram showing a schematic configuration viewed from a side surface and an upper surface. Such a toner wiping evaluation apparatus is a residual toner detection apparatus in terms of only the function of detecting residual toner, but will be described as a toner wiping evaluation apparatus hereinafter.

  As described in these drawings, the photosensitive member 1 is detachably and rotatably supported by a pair of support bases 2 and 3, and a motor 4 that rotates the photosensitive member 1 is attached to one of the support bases 3. Has been. A toner supply unit 5 that supplies toner to the surface of the photoconductor 1 is provided around the photoconductor 1. The toner supply unit 5 is supported through a support member (not shown) so that the toner supply unit 5 can be attached and detached and the relative position with respect to the photoreceptor 1 can be adjusted. On the other hand, a cleaning blade 6, which is an example of a cleaning unit, is held by a blade holding member 7 on the downstream side of the toner supply unit 5 in the rotation direction of the photosensitive member 1. The blade holding member 7 can appropriately adjust the contact pressure and contact angle of the cleaning blade 6 to the photoreceptor 1.

  As described above, since the toner wiping evaluation apparatus evaluates the combination of the photoreceptor unit and toner of various commercially available printers, the photoreceptor is structured to be detachable from the motor unit. Moreover, since the cleaning blade 6 to be evaluated can be used in various ways, the cleaning blade 6 is also detachable. Further, the cleaning blade 6 can adjust the contact angle (indicated by θ in FIG. 2) with the photosensitive member 1 and adjust the relative position with the photosensitive member 1 to adjust the pushing amount of the blade tip. Can be adjusted as appropriate.

  Laser light irradiation means 8 is provided on the outer side in the axial direction of the support 2 on the downstream side of the cleaning blade 6 of the photosensitive member 1. The laser irradiating means 8 irradiates laser light 9 in parallel to the surface of the photoconductor 1 from the outside in the axial direction of the photoconductor 1. The laser irradiation means 8 is applied to a laser support 10 that can move in two directions orthogonal to the axial direction of the photosensitive member 1 so that the laser beam 9 is irradiated in parallel along the surface of the photosensitive member 1. It is supported. Note that an area extending in the axial direction along the laser beam 9 of the photosensitive member 1 is an observation surface, and the observation surface continuously changes when the photosensitive member 1 is rotationally driven.

  On the other hand, an observation means 11 is provided on the opposite side of the photoreceptor 1 from the cleaning blade 6. The observation means 11 has a lens 12 and a CCD image sensor 13 that can close-up the observation surface, and has a function of transmitting the observed data to the personal computer 14. Here, the lens 12 and the CCD image pickup device 13 are held by a base 15 that can adjust the direction in which the observation surface is observed, and the base 15 is fixed to the rail 16 while the observation direction is fixed. It is supported to be movable in the direction. That is, the observation of scattered light from the observation surface preferably adjusts the observation direction according to the type of toner, the rotational speed of the photoreceptor 1, and the like, as will be described later. It is preferable to observe from the direction that allows the best observation.

  In the toner wiping property evaluation apparatus described above, while rotating the photosensitive member 1 and supplying toner from the toner supply unit 5 to the surface of the photosensitive member 1, this is cleaned by the cleaning blade 6, and then the photosensitive member 1. By irradiating the laser beam 9 along the observation surface and observing the laser scattered light with the observation means 11, it can be determined whether or not there is residual toner, and the wiping property of the cleaning blade 6 can be evaluated. .

(Example)
Hereinafter, an example of a specific apparatus configuration will be described.

  The photoreceptor 1 is rotationally controlled by the motor 4 with a maximum rotational speed of 200 rpm (corresponding to 50 to 60 sheets per minute) and a rotational accuracy of 10 μm or less. As the photoreceptor 1, a commercially available laser printer OPC photoreceptor having a diameter of 30 mm was used.

  The laser irradiation means 8 is, for example, a semiconductor laser, and the outgoing beam diameter and the divergence angle of the laser light 9 irradiated from now on are 1 mm or less and 1.5 mrad or less, respectively.

  The residual toner was detected by changing the particle size of the toner supplied from the toner supply unit 5.

  The cleaning blade 6 is made of polyurethane rubber having a width of 50 mm and a thickness of 2 mm and having a JIS-A hardness of 77. The contact angle θ is 20 ° and the contact load per unit length is 2 gf / mm. Set.

  On the other hand, the lens 12 and the CCD imaging device 13 which are observation means 11 for detecting the laser scattered light have a maximum magnification on the CCD of 3.4 × 3.8 μm / pixel.

  4 shows a case where the toner is completely wiped off by the cleaning blade 6 (FIG. 4A), and a case where a part of the toner passes through the cleaning blade 6 and remains on the photosensitive member 1 (FIG. 4B). 2 is an image of the observation surface of the photoreceptor 1 at a stationary time. For comparison, the result of specular reflection observation of the observation surface with white light is also shown.

  As apparent from FIG. 4, the residual toner, which cannot be clearly identified by specular reflection observation with white light, is detected clearly by detecting the scattered light of the laser light 9 irradiated in parallel with the photoreceptor 1 by the observation means 11. was detected.

  FIG. 5 shows a laser scattered light image and a luminance waveform of AA ′ when stationary (FIG. 5A) and rotated at 32 rpm (FIG. 5B) when photographing using toners having different particle diameters. It is. Although the scattered light image detected by the rotation of the photosensitive member 1 is enlarged in the circumferential direction, a clear scattered light image is detected, and the observation of the scattered light by the observation means 11 is performed when the photosensitive member 1 is rotated. It was confirmed to be effective in detecting the toner remaining on the surface of the toner.

  From the results shown in FIG. 5, it was confirmed that even the residual toner having a particle diameter of 6 μm can be detected in the example of the rotation speed of 32 rpm (luminance threshold value 50). By determining the scattered light image obtained in this way with a constant luminance threshold value, it is possible to detect the toner passing through the entire blade.

  6 and 7 show the relationship between the maximum luminance I, scattered light width W, and particle size obtained from the luminance profile shown in FIG. 5 and the luminance profile at the time of 64 rpm rotation, respectively. As is clear from these results, it was found that the intensity of the scattered light detected depends on the particle size and the number of rotations. Usually, since the rotation speed and toner type of the photoreceptor 1 are fixed for each model, there is no problem in evaluating the wiping effect of the cleaning blade 6 within this range, but when comparing different models. In this case, it is necessary to calibrate shooting conditions for each toner type and rotation speed.

(Other examples)
In the toner wiping evaluation apparatus described above, parts such as a photoconductor of an actual machine are set and evaluated, and a charging unit and a transfer unit are omitted. However, a charging unit and / or a transfer unit is provided. May be. Further, instead of setting the actual machine parts, the laser irradiation means and the observation means may be set on the actual machine.

    Further, the cleaning means may be a roll shape in addition to the blade shape.

1 is a schematic perspective view of a toner wiping evaluation apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure which shows schematic arrangement | positioning seen from the side surface of the toner wiping property evaluation apparatus which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows schematic arrangement | positioning seen from the upper surface of the toner wiping property evaluation apparatus which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the test result of the toner wiping property evaluation apparatus which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the test result of the toner wiping property evaluation apparatus which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the test result of the toner wiping property evaluation apparatus which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the test result of the toner wiping property evaluation apparatus which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Photoconductor 5 Toner supply unit 6 Cleaning blade 8 Laser irradiation means 9 Laser light 11 Observation means

Claims (12)

  An apparatus for detecting residual toner on the surface of a photoconductor of a photoconductor unit, comprising: laser irradiating means for irradiating laser light parallel to the vicinity of the observation surface of the photoconductor; and observation means for observing the observation surface. The residual toner detecting device, wherein the observation means is for observing scattered light on the surface of the photoconductor.   2. The residual toner detection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the laser irradiation unit irradiates laser light in parallel with the axis from an axial end portion of the photosensitive member.   The said observation means is equipped with the optical lens provided so as to oppose the said observation surface, and the image sensor which images the image input from this optical lens, The Claim 1 or 2 characterized by the above-mentioned. Residual toner detection device.   The observation surface is a part of the photosensitive member in the axial direction, the observation means is movable in the axial direction of the photosensitive member, and any region in the axial direction of the photosensitive member can be observed. The residual toner detection device according to claim 1, wherein   A photosensitive member to be observed, a photosensitive member supporting means for rotatably supporting the photosensitive member, a toner supplying means for supplying toner to the photosensitive member, and the photosensitive member provided on the downstream side of the toner supplying means. A cleaning means for wiping off toner adhering to the body surface, an observing means for observing the surface wiped by the cleaning means as an observation surface, and a laser irradiation means for irradiating laser light parallel to the vicinity of the observation surface. The observing means detects residual toner by observing scattered light on the surface of the photoconductor with the laser beam, and a toner wiping evaluation apparatus.   A photosensitive member to be observed, a photosensitive member supporting means for rotatably supporting the photosensitive member, a toner supplying means for supplying toner to the photosensitive member, and the photosensitive member provided on the downstream side of the toner supplying means. A cleaning means for wiping off toner adhering to the body surface, an observing means for observing the surface wiped by the cleaning means as an observation surface, and a laser irradiation means for irradiating laser light parallel to the vicinity of the observation surface. The toner wiping property evaluation is characterized in that the observation means detects residual toner by observing scattered light on the surface of the photosensitive member by the laser light, and thereby evaluates the cleaning means. apparatus.   7. The toner wiping evaluation apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the laser irradiating means irradiates laser light in parallel with the axis from an axial end of the photoconductor.   The toner wiping property evaluation apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the observation unit includes an optical lens and an image sensor, and acquires a digital image of the observation surface. .   The observation surface is a part of the photosensitive member in the axial direction, the observation means is movable in the axial direction of the photosensitive member, and any region in the axial direction of the photosensitive member can be observed. The toner wiping evaluation apparatus according to claim 5, wherein   The toner wiping performance evaluation apparatus according to claim 5, wherein each of the photosensitive member, the toner supply unit, and the cleaning unit is replaceable with an evaluation target.   11. The toner wiping evaluation apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the cleaning unit includes a rubber blade for wiping the surface of the photoreceptor. Residue characterized by detecting the presence or absence of residual toner by irradiating laser light parallel to the vicinity of the observation surface of the rotationally driven photoconductor while observing scattered light of the laser beam on the surface of the photoconductor Toner detection method.