JP2010072013A - Toner supply device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a toner supply device that has high operation reliability. <P>SOLUTION: The toner supply device has a grooved rotation roll in a developing section that uses two-component developer. A scraper is brought into contact with a groove of this grooved rotation roll. As the rotation roll rotates, toner in the groove is scraped by the scraper. The toner supply device has a guide wall by which the toner scraped by the scraper is supplied to a regular position in the developing section. In the toner supply device, the guide wall includes an impeller and a diaphragm made of an elastic material abutting on the impeller. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a toner replenishing device used in an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine or a facsimile.

  A general electrophotographic printing apparatus forms an electrostatic latent image on a uniformly charged photoreceptor, and develops the toner by a developing device to visualize the electrostatic latent image. The toner image on the photosensitive member is transferred onto a sheet by a transfer device, and is fixed on the sheet by being heated and pressed by a fixing device. Further, untransferred toner on the photoreceptor is cleaned by a cleaning machine. The above process is repeated and printing is performed continuously.

  Usually, the toner is agitated and conveyed in the developing device as a developer composed of a magnetic carrier, and is adsorbed and conveyed by a developing roll having a magnet at the center thereof, and the toner is developed on the photoreceptor. Since toner is always consumed during continuous printing, it is necessary to replenish the toner in the developer in the developing device little by little and always keep the toner ratio or amount at or above a specified value. Therefore, in order to perform stable toner supply, a guide unit for supplying toner to a fixed position is required when toner is supplied from the toner supply unit into the developing device.

  FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a conventional toner replenishing device. The toner replenishing device 1 includes a stirring mechanism 2, a grooved rotating roll 4 for supplying toner 3 in an amount corresponding to the number of rotations in a developing unit (not shown), and a toner 3 a entering the groove of the grooved rotating roll 4. The toner feed amount regulating plate 5 for regulating the amount, the leaf spring scraper 7 for scraping off the toner 3a from the groove portion 6 of the rotary roll 4 with groove, and the toner 3b scraped off by the scraper 7 with the developing portion (FIG. The guide wall 8 is used for guiding to an internal fixed position, and the empty detection sensor 12 is used for detecting toner empty when the toner amount in the toner replenishing device 1 is below a certain level. Further, in the above-described method in which the end surface of the scraper 7 is brought into contact with the groove portion 6 of the grooved rotary roll 4 and the toner 3a in the groove portion 6 is scraped off by the scraper 7 as the grooved rotary roll 4 rotates. The toner 3b scraped off from the groove 6 of the rotating roll 4 by the scraper 7 is likely to be scattered, and a guide wall 8 is indispensable as a guide portion for replenishing at a fixed position. By providing this guide wall 8, the scraper 7 scrapes off. The dropped toner 3b is prevented from being scattered by the guide wall 8 and replenished to a fixed position inside the developing device (not shown). However, while the toner 3b scraped off by the scraper 7 is regulated by the guide wall 8, it is scattered and gradually adheres and accumulates on the guide wall 8, and falls due to a light impact during the removal operation of the toner replenishing device 1 due to maintenance. However, it may adversely affect the image quality by contaminating the inside of the printing device or the floor, or dropping it inside the developing device even if the toner replenishing device is not removed, and increasing the toner concentration in the developer. It was.

  In order to prevent this, a diaphragm 9 integrated with the scraper 7 is provided in the space of the guide wall 8 portion, and the scraper 7 for scraping off the toner 3a from the grooved rotary roll 7 for supplying toner is provided in the groove portion 6. There is known a method for preventing the adhesion / deposition of the toner 3b to the guide wall 8 by utilizing vibration when passing through the guide wall (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-246076

  However, in the prior art, the diaphragm 9 for dropping the toner 3b adhering to the guide wall 8 has a structure integrated with the scraper 7, and in order to increase the vibration amount of the diaphragm 9, It is necessary to increase the depth and number of grooves 6.

  As a result, the amount of toner scraped off by the scraper 7 increases. Conversely, in order to reduce the amount of toner scraped off by the scraper 7, the vibration amount of the vibration plate 9 is insufficient and deposited on the vibration plate 9 in order to reduce the depth and number of the groove portions 6 of the grooved rotary roll 4. It was difficult to obtain a stable toner concentration of the developer because the toner could not be removed sufficiently.

  The vibration plate 9 vibrates only when the toner-supplied grooved rotating roll 4 rotates, and is deposited on the guide wall 8 as necessary, for example, before the toner supply device 1 is removed during maintenance. There was also a problem that the toner could not be removed.

  An object of the present invention is to eliminate such drawbacks of the prior art and provide a toner replenishing device with high operational reliability.

  In order to achieve the above object, the first means of the present invention has a grooved rotary roll in a developing portion using a two-component developer, and a scraper is brought into contact with the groove portion of the grooved rotary roll, and the grooved In a toner replenishing device comprising a guide wall for scraping off the toner in the groove by the scraper as the rotating roll rotates and replenishing the toner scraped off by the scraper to a fixed position in the developing unit, an impeller, and A vibration plate made of an elastic material that comes into contact with the impeller is provided on the guide wall portion.

  According to a second means of the present invention, in the first means, the impeller has one or more protrusions.

  According to a third means of the present invention, in the first or second means, the grooved rotating roll and the impeller are driven by the same motor, and a one-way clutch is provided in a driving portion of the grooved rotating roll. It is characterized by this.

  In the toner replenishing device according to the first aspect, since the guide wall is provided with the impeller and the diaphragm made of an elastic material contacting the impeller, the vibration amount of the diaphragm can be set regardless of the toner replenishment amount. .

  In the toner replenishing device according to the second aspect, since the impeller has one or more protrusions, an appropriate vibration amount of the diaphragm can be easily set.

  In the toner replenishing device according to claim 3, since the one-way clutch is provided on the grooved rotating roll and the impeller and the grooved rotating roll are driven by the same motor, the toner replenishing device is independent of the toner replenishment. There is an effect that only the vibration operation of the diaphragm can be performed as necessary. As a result, it is possible to provide a toner replenishing device that can supply toner stably and stably in the developing device with a simple and inexpensive configuration with less contamination during maintenance.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of the toner replenishing device according to the present embodiment, FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a drive unit in the toner replenishing device, and FIGS. 4 to 7 are schematic diagrams for explaining the operation of the toner replenishing device of the present invention.

  The toner replenishing device 1 includes a stirring mechanism 2, a grooved rotating roll 4 for supplying toner 3 in an amount corresponding to the number of rotations in a developing unit (not shown), and a toner 3 a entering the groove of the grooved rotating roll 4 The toner feed amount regulating plate 5 for regulating the amount, the leaf spring scraper 7 for scraping off the toner 3a from the groove portion 6 of the rotary roll 4 with groove, and the toner 3b scraped off by the scraper 7 with the developing portion (FIG. (Not shown) A guide wall 8 for guiding to a fixed position, a vibration plate 10 for preventing toner adhesion / deposition on the guide wall 8, an impeller 11 for vibrating the vibration plate 10, and the toner supply device 1 It is constituted by an empty detection sensor 12 for detecting toner empty when the amount of toner becomes below a certain level.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the grooved rotary roll 4 and the impeller 11 are driven by the same timing belt 13 and are rotated in conjunction with the power of the motor 14 attached to the toner replenishing device 1. is doing. Further, a one-way clutch is attached to the grooved rotary roll drive pulley 15 so that the impeller 11 can freely rotate regardless of the toner replenishment.

  Next, the operation mechanism of the mechanism for preventing toner adhesion / deposition on the guide wall 8 of the toner replenishing device 1 according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the scraper 7 is assembled with the end face bent and in contact with the grooved rotary roll 4 at the time of assembly. It is provided in the state contact | abutted to. As shown in FIG. 5, when the grooved rotary roll 4 rotates in the direction of the arrow and toner replenishment into the developing unit (not shown) is started, the scraper 7 falls into the groove 6, and the toner 3 a in the groove 6 is removed. At the same time as it is scraped, it vibrates because the flexure is released at once. At this time, most of the scraped off toner 3 b falls into the developing unit (not shown), but the partially scattered toner 3 c adheres to the surface of the vibration plate 10.

  On the other hand, the diaphragm 10 is pushed and bent by the projection 16 of the impeller 11 that rotates simultaneously with the grooved rotary roll 4. As shown in FIG. 6, when the grooved rotary roll 4 further rotates, the scraper 7 is detached from the groove portion 6, and again comes into contact with the grooved rotary roll and bends. When the vibration plate 10 of the guide wall 8 gets over the protruding portion 16 of the impeller 11 that abuts, the vibration of the vibration plate 10 is released at once and vibrates. ) Drop in.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, the vibration plate 10 vibrates by repeating the operations of FIGS. 4 to 6 with the rotation of the grooved rotary roll 4 at the time of toner replenishment, and the toner on the guide wall 8 is Adhesion / deposition can be prevented. Also, as shown in FIG. 3, a one-way clutch is provided on the drive pulley 15 of the grooved rotary roll 4 so that the grooved rotary roll 4 rotates only in the direction of the arrow shown in FIG. 2, and a special mechanism is added. In addition, it is possible to arbitrarily perform only the vibration operation of the diaphragm 10 regardless of the toner replenishment.

  As a result, before the maintenance of the toner replenishing apparatus 1, the motor 14 is rotated in the direction opposite to that during toner replenishment for about 30 seconds, for example, so that the grooved rotary roll 4 does not rotate as shown in FIG. Since only the impeller 11 rotates in the direction of the arrow to vibrate the diaphragm 10, the toner 3c in the guide wall 8 is removed, and the inside of the printing apparatus and the floor surface can be prevented from being stained with toner during maintenance. Further, by providing the guide wall 8 with the impeller 11 for vibrating the vibration plate 10, the vibration amount of the vibration plate 10 can be easily adjusted as needed regardless of the amount of toner supplied to the developing device. effective.

  In the embodiment described above, the projections 16 of the impeller 11 are set at five locations at the same pitch, but the impeller 11 can vibrate the diaphragm 10 by having one or more projections. Therefore, the number, pitch, and height of the protrusions 16 may be freely changed according to the amount of vibration required by the diaphragm 10.

It is a schematic block diagram of the conventional toner replenishing device. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a toner supply device showing an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a driving unit of the toner supply device. It is a figure for demonstrating operation | movement of the toner supply apparatus of this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating operation | movement of the toner supply apparatus of this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating operation | movement of the toner supply apparatus of this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating operation | movement of the toner supply apparatus of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Toner replenishment apparatus, 2 ... Stirring mechanism, 3 ... Toner, 4 ... Rotating roll, 5 ... Toner feed amount control board, 6 ... Groove part, 7 ... Scraper, DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 8 ... Guide wall, 10 ... Diaphragm, 11 ... Impeller, 12 ... Empty detection sensor, 13 ... Timing belt, 14 ... Motor, 15 ... Drive pulley, 16 ···protrusion.

Claims (3)

  A developing section using a two-component developer has a grooved rotating roll, a scraper is brought into contact with the groove of the grooved rotating roll, and the toner in the groove is scraped by the scraper with the rotation of the grooved rotating roll. In a toner replenishing device having a guide wall for replenishing toner scraped off by the scraper to a fixed position in the developing unit, an impeller and a diaphragm made of an elastic material in contact with the impeller are provided with the guide wall. A toner replenishing device provided in the section.   The toner replenishing device according to claim 1, wherein the impeller has one or more protrusions.   3. The toner replenishing device according to claim 1, wherein the grooved rotating roll and the impeller are driven by the same motor, and a one-way clutch is provided in a driving portion of the grooved rotating roll.

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