JP2010156904A - Image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To discharge heat accumulated in space provided with a controller to the outside of an apparatus. <P>SOLUTION: The image forming apparatus includes: an image forming part which forms an image; an image reading part which is positioned above the image forming part and reads the image; a supporting part which supports the image reading part; the controller which is arranged in the image forming part; ventilation parts which are formed so that air may circulate in the controller, the supporting part and the image reading part; and a blower part which is disposed at the supporting part and sends the air to the ventilation part. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus.

  Patent Document 1 includes a pair of hollow arm-shaped members that support the scanner from below, and a support column 102 that supports a pair of arm-shaped members at the upper end, and the support column is between two support columns. A support base is disclosed in which an air inflow port through which air that has passed through a disposed printer board flows is opened, and an air outflow port through which an air flow that flows in from the air inflow port flows out opens on the lower surface of the arm-like member. In Patent Document 2, a rack column is formed in a hollow shape, and air heated by a heating element of an apparatus arranged in the rack is flowed above the inlet through an inlet formed in the column. A configuration for discharging from the outlet is disclosed.

JP 2007-318413 A JP 2001-236000 A

  An object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus capable of discharging heat staying in a space provided with a control unit to the outside of the apparatus.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention according to claim 1 is directed to an image forming unit that forms an image, an image reading unit that is positioned above the image forming unit, and that reads the image, and supports the image reading unit. A support unit, a control unit disposed in the image forming unit, a vent unit formed so that air flows to the control unit, the support unit, and the image reading unit, and the support unit. And an air blowing unit that sends air to the ventilation unit.

  2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit and the support unit are arranged in a vertical direction, the image reading unit is arranged in a horizontal direction, and the ventilation unit is bent. Device.

  The present invention according to claim 3 is the image forming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the air blowing section is disposed at a bent portion of the ventilation section and is inclined with respect to the image reading section.

  The present invention according to claim 4 is the image forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the ventilation portion has a discharge hole formed in a lower surface of the image reading portion.

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the image forming apparatus according to the fourth aspect, wherein the discharge hole is provided with a plurality of guide portions arranged to be inclined with respect to the lower surface of the image reading portion.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, the heat staying in the space provided with the control unit can be discharged to the outside of the apparatus.

  According to the second aspect of the present invention, in addition to the effect of the first aspect of the present invention, the heat retained in the space in which the control unit is provided is better than when the present configuration is not provided. Can be discharged outside the device.

  According to the third aspect of the present invention, in addition to the effect of the second aspect of the present invention, the apparatus can be downsized as compared with the case where the present configuration is not provided.

  According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, in addition to the effect of the present invention according to any one of the first to third aspects, the image reading unit is effectively cooled compared to the case where the present configuration is not provided. be able to.

  According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, in addition to the effect of the present invention according to the fourth aspect, inflow of dust and the like can be reduced as compared with the case where the present configuration is not provided.

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a side sectional view of an image forming apparatus 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention.
The image forming apparatus 100 includes an image forming unit 10 that forms an image, an image reading unit 11 that is disposed substantially horizontally above the image forming unit 10, and that reads an image. The image forming unit 10 and the image reading unit 11 Are connected to each other substantially vertically, and the support unit 70 is configured to support the image reading unit 11 at the tip.

  First, the image forming unit 10 will be described.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the image forming unit 10 includes an image forming unit main body 12, an image forming unit 14 in the image forming unit main body 12, and a sheet supply device 16 that supplies a sheet to the image forming unit 14. A power supply unit 18 and a sheet discharge portion 22 for discharging a sheet on which an image has been formed are provided on the upper portion of the image forming portion main body 12.

  The image forming unit 14 is of an electrophotographic system for forming a color image, and uniformly holds the image holders 24Y, 24M, 24C, and 24B that hold toner images and the image holders 24Y, 24M, 24C, and 24B. Charging devices 25Y, 25M, 25C, and 25B equipped with charging rolls for charging to each of them, and optical writing devices 26Y, 26M, 26C, and 26B that write electrostatic latent images to the respective image carriers 24Y, 24M, 24C, and 24B with light, The developing devices 28Y, 28M, 28C, and 28B for developing the latent images written on the respective image carriers 24Y, 24M, 24C, and 24B using a two-component developer composed of a non-magnetic toner and a magnetic carrier. A transfer unit 29 that transfers the toner images formed on the image carriers 24Y, 24M, 24C, and 24B to the sheet, and the transfer unit 29 does not transfer the toner images. The image carrier 24Y after the has 24M, 24C, scraped waste toner remaining for example 24B (peeling with) cleaning collecting devices 30Y, 30M, 30C, and 30B.

  Each of the optical writing devices 26Y, 26M, 26C, and 26B includes a laser exposure device. The optical writing device 26Y applies laser light corresponding to the yellow image to the image carrier 24Y, and the optical writing device 26M provides a magenta image to the image carrier 24M. The optical writing device 26C emits laser light corresponding to the cyan image to the image holding member 24C, and the optical writing device 26B emits laser light corresponding to the black image to the image holding member 24B. Electrostatic latent images are written in 24Y, 24M, 24C, and 24B, respectively.

  The transfer unit 29 is disposed so as to be in contact with the image carriers 24Y, 24M, 24C, and 24B of the image forming unit 32. The transfer unit 29 is integrated as a unit, and includes two support rolls 44a and 44b, a conveyance belt 46 that conveys a sheet or a toner image, an adsorption roll 48 that adsorbs the sheet to the conveyance belt 46, and a conveyance belt. 46, transfer rolls 50Y, 50M, 50C, and 50B for transferring the toner images formed on the image holding members 24Y, 24M, 24C, and 24B are mounted on the sheet being conveyed.

  The suction roll 48 is provided in pressure contact with the support roll 44 a via the transport belt 46, and a voltage is applied from the power supply unit 18 to electrostatically attract the sheet to the transport belt 46.

  The transfer rolls 50Y, 50M, 50C, and 50B are each applied with a transfer bias, and the toner images formed on the image carriers 24Y, 24M, 24C, and 24B are sequentially transferred onto the sheet being conveyed by the conveyance belt 46. A color toner image in which four color toner images of yellow, magenta, black and cyan are superimposed on the sheet is formed.

  A fixing device 52 for fixing the toner image transferred onto the sheet by the transfer unit 29 to the sheet is provided at the upper part in the image forming unit main body 12. The fixing device 52 includes a heating roll 52a and a pressure roll 52b. The toner image is fixed on the sheet by heating and pressing the sheet passing between the heating roll 52a and the pressure roll 52b. ing.

  In addition, a conveyance path 60 that conveys the sheet supplied from the sheet supply device 16 to the sheet discharge section 22 is provided in the image forming unit main body 12, and along the conveyance path 60, upstream in the sheet conveyance direction. A resist roll 62, a transfer unit 29, a fixing device 52, and a discharge roll 64 are arranged in this order. The discharge roll 64 discharges the sheet conveyed from the fixing device 52 to the sheet discharge unit 22.

Next, the periphery of the control unit 72 will be described with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 2 is a schematic front view of the image forming apparatus 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a schematic perspective view for explaining the flow of air in the image forming apparatus 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention.

The control unit 72 is, for example, a control board that is a heating element having a CPU or the like, and controls each part of the image forming apparatus 100 such as the image forming unit 10 and the image reading unit 11.
The control unit 72 is disposed substantially vertically in the first ventilation unit 74 that is a hollow box-shaped space formed on the side of the image forming unit main body 12.
The first ventilation portion 74 is formed from the lower surface to the upper surface on the side of the image forming unit main body 12.

The support unit 70 extends substantially vertically from the upper surface on the side of the image forming unit main body 12, and the upper end supports the end of the image reading unit 11 substantially horizontally.
The support part 70 has a hollow box shape and forms a second ventilation part 76. The second ventilation portion 76 is formed so as to be inclined in a direction away from the end portion as the surface opposite to the side surface supporting the end portion of the image reading portion 11 approaches the upper image reading portion 11. Further, the second ventilation portion 76 communicates with the first ventilation portion 74.

The image reading unit 11 is disposed substantially horizontally above the sheet discharge unit 22 of the image forming unit 10.
The image reading unit 11 includes an image reading unit main body 77 and a hollow portion 78 formed below the image reading unit main body 77. The hollow part 78 forms a third ventilation part 79.
The third ventilation part 79 communicates with the second ventilation part 76. A discharge hole 80 for discharging air inside the apparatus, which will be described later, is formed in the lower surface of the hollow portion 78 that is the lower surface of the image reading unit 11.

In the bent part in the support part 70, for example, a fan blowing part 83 of a fan for sending the air in the first ventilation part 74, the second ventilation part 76 and the third ventilation part 79 toward the discharge hole 80 is arranged. It is installed.
The air blower 83 is disposed at an angle of 30 ° to 60 °, preferably 45 ° with respect to the image reading unit 11.

Next, the discharge hole 80 formed in the lower surface of the image reading unit 11 will be described with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the entire image forming apparatus 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention.
5A is a perspective view of the periphery of the discharge hole 80 formed on the lower surface of the image reading unit 11 that is the A part of FIG. 4, and FIG. 5B is a perspective view of the guide portion 81 provided in the discharge hole 80. A cross-sectional view is shown.
In the embodiment of the present invention, a plurality of louver-shaped (long plate-shaped) guide portions 81 are provided in the discharge hole 80 so as to be inclined from the upstream side to the downstream side of the air with respect to the lower surface of the image reading unit 11. ing.
In the embodiment of the present invention, the discharge hole 80 is provided with the louver-shaped (long plate-shaped) guide portion 81, but the present invention is not limited to this, and as shown in FIG. Shape) 82.

  Therefore, the heated air around the control unit 72 provided in the first ventilation unit 74 in the apparatus 100 is formed by using the space where the control unit 72 is disposed, the support unit 70 and the lower part of the image reading unit 11 as a duct. The first ventilation portion 74 is lifted, bent into an L shape via the second ventilation portion 76, and flows to the third ventilation portion 79. Here, the air blowing unit 83 in the bent portion rotates, so that the air on the upstream side of the air blowing unit 83 is discharged from the discharge hole 80 on the downstream side, and the vicinity of the control unit 72 on the upstream side is warmed. Air is discharged outside the device.

  Further, by providing a plurality of louver-like guide portions 81 disposed in the discharge hole 80 so as to be inclined from the upstream side to the downstream side of the air with respect to the lower surface of the image reading unit 11, air permeability is improved and dust or the like is provided. The warmed air inside the apparatus is well discharged outside the apparatus while reducing the inflow of air.

1 is a cross-sectional view seen from a side showing an outline of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a schematic front view of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a schematic perspective view showing a flow of air in an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a perspective view showing an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4A is a perspective view of the periphery of the discharge hole 80 formed on the lower surface of the image reading unit 11 which is part A of FIG. 4, and FIG. 4B is a cross-sectional view of the guide part 81 formed in the discharge hole 80. . FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the periphery of a discharge hole 80 according to another embodiment formed on the lower surface of the screen reading unit 11 that is part A of FIG. 4.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Image forming part 11 Image reading part 12 Image forming part main body 22 Sheet discharge part 70 Support part 72 Control part 74 1st ventilation part 76 2nd ventilation part 77 Image reading part main body 78 Hollow part 79 3rd ventilation part 80 Discharge hole 81 Guide part 83 Blower part

Claims (5)

An image forming unit for forming an image;
An image reading unit located above the image forming unit for reading an image;
A support unit for supporting the image reading unit;
A control unit disposed in the image forming unit;
A ventilation part formed so that air flows through the control part, the support part and the image reading part;
An air blower that is in the support and sends air to the vent;
An image forming apparatus.   The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit and the support unit are arranged in a vertical direction, the image reading unit is arranged in a horizontal direction, and the ventilation unit is bent.   The image forming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the air blowing unit is disposed in a bent portion of the ventilation unit and is inclined with respect to the image reading unit.   The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the ventilation portion has a discharge hole formed in a lower surface of the image reading portion.   The image forming apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the discharge hole is provided with a plurality of guide portions arranged to be inclined with respect to a lower surface of the image reading portion.

Images