JP2010231157A - Image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image forming apparatus having improved assemblability of a toner agitator into a toner storage part, and improved toner stirring performance. <P>SOLUTION: An image forming process unit 60 including a developing unit 8 is connected to a toner storage part 14 so as to form a toner conveying path 15. The toner storage part 14 includes a housing 140 and a toner agitator disposed in the housing. The toner agitator comprises: a rotating driving shaft which penetrates through side wall parts facing each other in the housing and which is freely rotatably supported; and an agitating/conveying fin attached to the rotating driving shaft. The agitating/conveying fin includes a holding part constituted of at least one pair of holding pieces which are fitted to the rotating driving shaft from a direction perpendicular to the axial center of the rotating driving shaft so as to hold the rotating driving shaft. When they are fitted to each other, the agitating/conveying fin and the rotating driving shaft cannot mutually rotate. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a facsimile machine, a copying machine, or a printer (including these multifunction machines), and more particularly to an improvement in an electrophotographic image forming apparatus.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, an image forming apparatus that forms an image according to the following flow and prints an image on a recording sheet is known.
First, the recording paper is fed one by one from a recording paper supply unit provided with a paper cassette and the like, passed through a pair of conveying rollers (registration roller pair) provided in the middle of the sheet conveying path, and a photosensitive drum of the electrophotographic recording unit and It is conveyed to the nip part of the transfer roller. Toner is supplied from the developing unit to develop the electrostatic latent image on the surface of the photosensitive drum, and the toner image is transferred to a recording sheet. After the toner image is fixed as a permanent image by the fixing device, the recording paper is discharged.

Patent Document 1 below discloses the structure of the toner storage portion of the image forming apparatus as described above, and here the toner storage portion is divided in order to improve the attachment of the rotating member provided in the toner storage portion. What is possible is described.
According to this, since the toner container is divided on a plane passing through the rotation axis of the toner agitator, the toner agitator can be easily assembled with the toner container divided. Yes.

JP-A-5-142873

  However, when the toner containing portion is divided and configured as described above, it is necessary to firmly join the joining portion so that toner leakage does not occur from the joining portion of the divided toner containing portion.

By the way, as a toner agitator for agitation provided in a toner accommodating portion, one in which an agitating / conveying fin is attached to a rotary drive shaft supported through the opposite side wall portions of a housing is known.
At this time, if the receiving port for receiving the toner supplied into the toner containing portion is formed small so as not to cause toner leakage, the rotational drive shaft to which the agitating and conveying fins are attached is inserted obliquely into the housing. Will be assembled. Therefore, it is conceivable that the stirring and transporting fin is formed small so that the stirring and transporting fin does not get in the way at the time of assembly, or the stirring and transporting fin is attached after the rotational drive shaft is assembled.
However, when the agitating / conveying fins are formed small, the toner is not sufficiently agitated uniformly, which causes agglomeration of the toner. That is, if the stirring and transporting fins are small, a gap is formed between the side wall portion of the housing and the stirring and transporting fins, and the toner present in the gap may not be stirred by the stirring and transporting fins and may aggregate.
In addition, when the agitating and conveying fins are retrofitted, it is difficult to strengthen the fitting relationship with the rotary drive shaft. That is, a load torque is applied to the toner agitator when the toner is agitated. Therefore, the fitting relationship between the rotary drive shaft and the stirring and conveying fin needs to be made strong, and a structure that does not easily disengage in a direction perpendicular to the axis of the rotary drive shaft is required.

Further, when supplying toner to the developing device main body, an image forming apparatus adopting a configuration in which the toner is conveyed from the toner cartridge via a toner containing portion (toner hopper) provided separately from the developing device main body. There is.
In this case, the toner stirring agitator is required not only to stir the toner but also to have the ability to scoop up and transport the toner toward the toner transport / discharge screw provided in the toner container. Therefore, from the viewpoint of improving the ability to convey the toner, a large stirring and conveying fin is required.

  The present invention has been proposed in order to solve the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus capable of improving the agitating ability of the toner with good assembling ability of the agitator for agitating the toner in the toner accommodating portion. It is to provide.

  In order to achieve the above object, an image forming apparatus according to the present invention connects an image forming process unit including a developing unit and a toner storage unit disposed in association with the image forming process unit to provide a toner transport system. The toner storage portion includes a housing and a toner agitator provided in the housing, and the toner agitator penetrates through opposing side wall portions of the housing. A rotation drive shaft that is rotatably supported and a stirring and conveying fin attached to the rotation driving shaft. The stirring and conveying fin is in a direction perpendicular to the axis of the rotation driving shaft with respect to the rotation driving shaft. A gripping portion comprising at least a pair of gripping portion pieces fitted so as to hold the rotation drive shaft is provided, and in the fitted state, the stirring and conveying fin and the rotation drive Doo is characterized by being configured so as to be mutually unrotatable.

  In the present invention, the rotational drive shaft is made of a cylindrical member, and a pair of flat cut surfaces are formed in parallel on the portion of the rotational drive shaft where the gripping portion is fitted, and the rotation of the gripping piece. The fitting surface with the drive shaft may include a shape portion that matches the cut surface, thereby forming a fitting relationship incapable of mutual rotation.

  Further, in the present invention, two agitating and conveying fins having the same axis symmetrical with respect to the rotational drive shaft are attached, and a plurality of the gripping portions in each agitating and conveying fin are arranged along the axial direction of the rotational driving shaft. Each pair of gripping piece pieces is formed in an arrangement relationship shifted in the axial direction of the rotary drive shaft and is mounted symmetrically about the rotational drive shaft. In the two agitating and conveying fins in the formed state, the gripping piece of each gripping part may be configured to mesh with each other along the axial direction.

According to the image forming apparatus of the present invention, the agitating and conveying fin includes the grip portion including at least a pair of grip portion pieces that are fitted so as to hold the rotation drive shaft. Further, in the state where the agitating / conveying fin and the rotation drive shaft are fitted together, the agitating / conveying fin and the rotation driving shaft are configured to be unable to rotate relative to each other.
Therefore, the stirring / conveying fins can be fitted to the rotation drive shaft without using a tool, and the toner can be sufficiently agitated by the stirring / conveying fins. . That is, since the agitation transport fin and the rotation drive shaft are fitted in such a manner that they cannot rotate with each other, even when a load torque is applied to the agitation transport fin, it is possible to improve the ability to agitate and transport the toner without spinning. It is.
The gripping portion of the stirring and conveying fin is structured to be fitted so as to hold the rotation drive shaft from a direction orthogonal to the axis of the rotation drive shaft. Accordingly, since the agitation and transport fin can be fitted to the rotation drive shaft after the rotation drive shaft is assembled to the toner accommodating portion, the assembling property of the toner agitator for the toner agitation can be achieved even in the toner accommodation portion having a small toner receiving port. Can be better.
Further, since the agitating / conveying fins can be retrofitted in this way, the degree of freedom in designing the constituent members of the toner hopper and the toner agitating agitator is increased, and the agitating / conveying fins can be made larger. That is, it is not necessary to insert the rotational drive shaft obliquely into the opening in a state in which the agitating and conveying fins are attached to the rotational drive shaft as in the prior art. Therefore, the stirring and conveying fins can be formed substantially along the axial direction of the rotational drive shaft between the opposing side wall portions of the housing.

The fitting surface of the gripping piece with the rotation drive shaft includes a shape portion that matches a cut surface formed in a part of the rotation drive shaft of the columnar member, thereby forming a non-rotatable fitting relationship. Can be.
According to this, even when a large load torque is applied when agitating the toner, the agitating / conveying fins do not idle, and the toner can be agitated while maintaining the above-mentioned fitting relationship.

  Two agitating / conveying fins having the same axis symmetrical with respect to the rotational drive shaft are attached, and the gripping portions of the stirring / conveying fins are formed from a plurality of pairs of gripping portion pieces arranged along the axial direction of the rotational drive shaft. Can be. In this case, when the two agitating and conveying fins are fitted to the rotation drive shaft, the gripping piece of each gripping portion is configured to mesh with each other along the axial direction. Therefore, two agitating and conveying fins can be retrofitted without a tool on one rotational drive shaft. Further, since the toner is agitated and conveyed by the two agitating and conveying fins, the ability to further agitate the toner and the ability to convey the toner can be improved. Furthermore, since the component configuration of the two agitating and conveying fins can be made common, productivity is improved and there is no concern about cost increase.

1 is a schematic longitudinal sectional view showing an embodiment of an image forming apparatus of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a schematic plan view showing a toner transport system including a toner container in the image forming apparatus. FIG. 3 is an exploded overall perspective view of a toner stirring agitator in the image forming apparatus. FIG. 3 is a partially exploded overall perspective view of a toner storage unit in the image forming apparatus. FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along line X-X in FIG. 2.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
The image forming apparatus 100 illustrated in FIG. 1 illustrates a printer including an electrophotographic recording unit, but is not limited thereto, and is not limited to this, a copying machine having an image reading function, a facsimile apparatus, or a so-called composite having these functions. Needless to say, it may be a machine.
The apparatus main body 1 of the illustrated image forming apparatus 100 includes a recording paper supply unit 2 for recording paper (paper), an image recording unit 3 for recording an image on the recording paper by an electrophotographic method, and discharges the recording paper after printing. The discharging section 4 is configured to be layered in the height direction in this order.

The recording paper supply unit 2 for recording paper includes a detachable recording paper supply cassette 20 that can store and store a large number of recording papers, and a separation roller 21 installed at the front end of the recording paper supply cassette 20 in the recording paper supply direction. And a separation pad 22 in contact with the peripheral surface of the separation roller 21.
An optional cassette (not shown) may be further provided under the recording paper supply cassette 20 to form a multi-cassette system having two or more stages. It is also possible to use a retard roller instead of the separation pad 22.

The image recording unit 3 includes a process unit in which an exposure unit 7, a development unit 8, a transfer roller 9, and a cleaning device 10 including a charger 6, an LED, and the like are arranged in this order around the photosensitive drum 5, and a downstream side thereof. And a fixing device 11 provided in the apparatus.
An image forming process unit 60 including a drum unit 50 in which the photosensitive drum 5, the charger 6, and the cleaning device 10 are collectively and a developing unit 80 in which the developer housing 81, the agitating and conveying screws 82 and 83 are collectively configured. . The drum unit 50 and the developing device unit 80 are detachably attached to the apparatus main body 1 from the front side thereof individually or in a state in which both are coupled by a predetermined coupling means.
In addition, all the process units except the exposure unit 7 and the transfer roller 9 can be collectively used as the image forming process unit 60. These image forming process units 60 are appropriately replaced with new ones as consumables. Here, the front side of the apparatus main body 1 refers to the front side of the sheet in FIG. 1, and the recording paper supply cassette 20 can also be inserted into and removed from the front side of the apparatus main body 1.

The developing unit 80 in the illustrated example is a developing unit 8 that uses a two-component (replenishment toner and carrier) developer. A replenishment toner and a carrier are accommodated in a resin-molded developer housing 81, and the toner is supplied to the biased developing roller 84 while being stirred and transported by two parallel stirring and transporting screws 82 and 83. Has been.
A magnetic sensor 85 is attached to the outer surface of the developing device housing 81, and the toner concentration (mixing ratio of toner and carrier) in the developing device housing 81 is always detected.
A toner bottle 16 and a toner hopper 14 (toner container), which will be described later, are installed at a position apart from the developing unit 80. When it is detected by the magnetic sensor 85 that the toner concentration in the developing device housing 81 has decreased, the toner is replenished into the developing device housing 81 from the toner hopper 14 through the toner conveyance path 15.

The fixing device 11 includes a heat roller 12 and a press roller 13 which are provided on the downstream side of the drum unit 50 and are arranged so as to be in contact with each other.
A registration roller pair 40 is provided in the vicinity of the upstream side of the developing device 8, and the recording paper separated and fed one by one from the recording paper supply cassette 20 is registered by the registration roller pair 40, so that the photosensitive drum 5 and the transfer roller are registered. 9 to be introduced into the nip portion.
Further, on the downstream side of the fixing device 11, a switching gate 41, a discharge roller pair 42 and a discharge tray 43 are connected in series, and the discharge unit 4 is configured by these.

In the image forming apparatus 100 having the above configuration, image information transmitted from an external terminal such as a facsimile or a personal computer is converted into optical information by the exposure device 7 on the surface of the photosensitive drum 5 uniformly charged by the charger 6. Written. An electrostatic latent image based on optical information is formed on the surface of the photosensitive drum 5. The electrostatic latent image is developed by the developing device 8 and is sequentially transferred as a toner image on the recording paper into which the resist is introduced by the transfer roller 9.
Specifically, at the time of development, toner is attracted to the photosensitive drum 5 due to a potential difference with the developing device 8 at a portion where the potential has changed due to light irradiation to become a black portion, and toner is attracted to other portions. It becomes a white part. As a whole, a black and white toner image based on the image information is formed and transferred to the recording paper.

The toner image transferred onto the recording paper as described above is fixed as a permanent image by the fixing device 11, and the recording paper on which the permanent image is formed pushes up the switching gate 41 and discharges the tray 43 through the discharge roller pair 42. To be discharged.
This series of recording paper conveyances rises substantially vertically (vertically) immediately after feeding out from the recording paper supply cassette 20, and the discharge roller pair 42 is U in a direction of about 180 degrees from the feeding direction from the recording paper supply cassette 20. It is made along the main conveyance path 110 formed to turn. With such a layout configuration, the entire apparatus can be made compact.

The image forming apparatus 100 in the example has a double-sided recording function, and a reverse conveyance path 111 that circulates and joins the main conveyance path 110 on the upstream side of the registration roller pair 40 from the attachment position of the switching gate 41 of the main conveyance path 110. Is formed.
Further, the image forming apparatus 100 shown in the figure further includes a manual paper feed function, and a manual feed tray 101 that can be opened and closed is attached to the side of the apparatus main body 1.
A manual feed separation roller 23 and a friction separation pad 24 are provided in contact with each other at the front end portion of the manual feed tray 101, and a manual feed conveyance path 112 merging with the main conveyance path 110 is provided further downstream. It has been.

Next, a toner transport system in the image forming apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment will be described.
FIG. 2 is a plan view schematically showing a positional relationship in which the toner bottle 16, the toner hopper 14, and the image forming process unit 60 are installed.
The toner conveyance system in the illustrated image forming apparatus 100 is configured by connecting an image forming process unit 60 including a developing device 8, a toner hopper 14 disposed in association with the image forming process unit 60, and a toner bottle 16. Has been.

The toner bottle 16 includes a container main body 160 made of a tapered cylindrical resin material or the like, and the container main body 160 is prefilled with toner to be supplied to the developing unit 80.
The toner bottle 16 has a tapered end portion as a front end 1601, and the front end 1601 is provided with a discharge port 1602 (see FIG. 5) for discharging the toner filled in the container body 160 to the toner hopper 14. ing.
The toner bottle 16 is mounted in a state where the opening / closing door 103 provided on the front side of the apparatus main body 1 (downward in the drawing of FIG. 2) is opened. The toner bottle 16 is mounted on the bottle holder 162 so that the tapered front end 1601 is on the back side of the apparatus main body 1 (on the toner hopper 14 side, above the paper surface in FIG. 2). Specifically, the body 1600 portion of the container main body 160 is mounted on a cylindrical body mounting portion 163 provided above the bottle holding table 162, and the front end 1601 portion of the container main body 160 is mounted on the bottle front end mounting portion 161. With this attachment, a toner hopper 14 described later and a toner bottle 16 are joined to constitute a toner delivery unit to the developing device 8.

  The image forming apparatus 100 includes a detection unit (not illustrated) that detects that the toner bottle 16 is mounted on the body mounting unit 163 and a control unit (not illustrated) that controls the timing for driving the rotation of the toner bottle 16. I have. A motor (not shown) is driven based on a control signal from the control unit, and the toner bottle 16 rotates. On the inner surface of the container body 160, a protrusion 164 (a groove shape when viewed from the outer surface side) is formed in a spiral shape. Therefore, as the toner bottle 16 rotates, the toner contained in the container main body 160 is conveyed to the front end 1601 side (toner hopper 14 side) so as to be pushed out by the spiral protrusion 164.

On the inner peripheral side of the bottle front end mounting portion 161, a bottle front end support portion 165 (see FIG. 5) is further provided. The bottle front end support 165 is provided with a discharge port 1650 (see FIG. 5) so as to communicate with the discharge port 1602 of the container body 160.
The bottle front end mounting portion 161 is also provided with an opening 1610 (see FIG. 5) that opens downward.
The bottle front end support 165 rotates the bottle front end support 165 as the container body 160 rotates.
As a result, the toner in the toner bottle 16 is delivered to the toner hopper 14 in the following flow. The container main body 160 and the bottle front end support portion 165 rotate in synchronization, and the positions of the discharge port 1602 of the container main body 160 and the discharge port 1650 (see FIG. 5) of the bottle front end support portion 165 change with this rotation. Further, along with this rotation, as described above, the toner in the container main body 160 is conveyed toward the front end 1601 due to the effect of the protrusion 164.
By the rotation, the discharge port 1602 of the container main body 160 and the discharge port 1650 of the bottle front end support portion 165 reach the lower position by the rotation of the toner bottle 16. At this time, the toner conveyed to the front end 1601 side is dropped and discharged from the discharge ports 1602 and 1650 to the toner hopper 14 side through the opening 1610.
In this way, the toner is supplied into the toner hopper 14 through the opening 1610 of the bottle front end mounting portion 161 that is always open and the toner receiving port 144 of the toner hopper 14 described later.
When the rotation of the toner bottle 16 is stopped, rotation control is performed so that the bottle front end support portion 165 and the discharge ports 1602 and 1650 of the container body 160 are directed upward (state shown in FIG. 5).

Next, the toner hopper 14 and the toner agitator 141 will be described.
The toner hopper 14 is provided on the back side of the hopper holding stand 162 described above, and is disposed immediately below the bottle front end mounting portion 161 in order to receive the toner discharged from the discharge ports 1602 and 1650. The toner hopper 14 and the bottle front end mounting portion 161 are connected by a connecting tool 18 such as a screw. Reference numeral 19 in FIG. 4 denotes a screw hole into which the connector 18 is screwed.
The toner hopper 14 includes a housing 140, a toner stirring agitator 141, a toner transport / discharge screw 142, a toner sensor 143, and a toner receiving port 144.

  The housing 140 of the toner hopper 14 formed in a substantially rectangular box shape in plan view is made of a resin material or the like, and is a toner receiver that opens upward to receive the toner discharged from the discharge port 1602 of the toner bottle 16. An inlet 144 is provided. The toner receiving port 144 is always in communication with the opening 1610 of the bottle front end mounting portion 161 in a state where it is connected to the bottle front end mounting portion 161. As described above, toner is supplied when the toner bottle 16 rotates and its discharge port 1602 faces downward.

The rotation drive shaft 1412 constituting the toner agitator 141 is arranged in parallel with the toner bottle 16 provided immediately above. Therefore, one shaft hole 1403 for rotatably supporting the rotation drive shaft 1412 is formed in each of the opposite side wall portions 1402 of the housing 140 at a position orthogonal to the toner bottle 16.
The bottom wall portion 1400 of the housing 140 is formed in a semicircular cross section concentrically with the rotational drive shaft 1412 so as to follow the track of the rotating toner agitator 141.
A hole 1401 for exposing the detection surface 1430 of the toner sensor 143 for detecting the remaining amount of toner in the toner hopper 14 is formed on one side surface of the bottom wall portion 1400 of the housing 140. The hole 1401 is desirably formed at a position that is substantially the same height as the position where the rotation drive shaft 1412 is installed. This is because a sufficient amount of toner can be recorded in the toner hopper 14 even when the toner in the toner bottle 16 runs out.
Here, the toner sensor 143 that detects the remaining amount of toner is not particularly limited, but a piezoelectric sensor that detects the remaining amount of toner that does not include a carrier can be used.

A toner agitator 141 for agitating the toner is attached in the housing 140 so that the toner supplied from the toner bottle 16 to the toner hopper 14 does not aggregate.
The toner stirring agitator 141 includes a rotation drive shaft 1412 that is rotatably supported through the opposite side wall portions 1402 of the housing 140 described above, and a stirring and conveying fin 1410 attached to the rotation drive shaft 1412.
The rotation drive shaft 1412 is made of a solid columnar member, and a pair of flat cut surfaces 1417 are formed in parallel on a portion where a gripping portion 1413 of a stirring and conveying fin 1410 described later is fitted (FIG. 5). (See enlarged view of the main part).

The stirring / conveying fin 1410 has a grip portion 1413 including two pairs of grip portion pieces 1418 that are fitted to the rotation drive shaft 1412 so as to hold the rotation drive shaft 1412 from a direction orthogonal to the axis of the rotation drive shaft 1412. It has.
The gripping piece 1418 is configured to mesh with each other as shown in the enlarged view of the main part in FIG. 5 when the two agitating and conveying fins 1410 are fitted to the rotation drive shaft 1412. Details are as follows.
As shown in FIG. 3, the gripping piece pieces 1418 are formed so as to be displaced in the axial direction of the rotary drive shaft 1412 without overlapping each other. That is, one grip part piece 1418 of the pair of grip part pieces 1418 is formed in a shape to be fitted so as to be held from one cut surface 1417 side of the rotation drive shaft 1412. Further, the other gripping piece 1418 is formed in a shape that is fitted so as to be held from the cut surface 1417 side opposite to the one gripping piece 1418. The fitting surface of each gripping piece 1418 with the rotation drive shaft 1412 has a flat shape that matches the cut surface 1417. Therefore, in the two pairs of gripping part pieces 1418, two gripping part pieces 1418 for gripping one cut surface 1417 are provided at an interval. In addition, two gripping piece pieces 1418 that hold the cut face 1417 opposite to the one cut face 1417 are provided in a positional relationship that is displaced between the other gripping piece pieces 1418. The front side portion 1419 of the gripping piece 1418 is formed in a cross-sectional shape, and is elastically deformed by pressing when fitted to the rotary drive shaft 1412 so that it returns to its original shape after being fitted to the rotary drive shaft 1412. It is configured.

  As a result, when the two agitating / conveying fins 1410 are fitted to the rotation drive shaft 1412, the other gripping part piece 1418 is fitted into a recess formed between the one gripping part piece 1418. The Therefore, the agitation transport fin 1410 and the rotational drive shaft 1412 are in a non-rotatable fitting relationship, and the agitation transport fin 1410 cannot be detached in the direction perpendicular to the axis of the rotational drive shaft 1412.

A blade sheet 1411 made of a flexible resin material such as a resin film is provided on the front side of the stirring and conveying fin 1410.
The blade sheet 1411 is attached to the stirring and conveying fin 1410 via a detachable attachment member 1414.
The attachment member 1414 includes a plate body provided along the longitudinal direction of the blade sheet 1411 in order to fix one end of the blade sheet 1411 (see FIG. 3). The mounting member 1414 is provided with a notch for forming a mounting hole 1420 into which the dowel 1416 is press-fitted in accordance with the position of the dowel 1416 formed on one surface of the stirring and conveying fin 1410. The mounting hole 1420 is formed between two cut-and-raised pieces 1415 that have been cut and raised to some extent in advance so as to spread the cut to both sides.
If the dowels 1416 formed on the stirring and conveying fins 1410 are cut and raised and press-fitted into the mounting holes 1420 formed between the pieces 1415, the cut and raised pieces 1415 are pushed by the dowels 1416 and deformed. Thus, the dowel 1416 and the cut-and-raised piece 1415 are pressed against each other, and the attachment member 1414 is firmly attached to the stirring and conveying fin 1410.
An attachment hole 1420 is formed in the blade sheet 1411 to be attached to the front side of the stirring and conveying fin 1410, and the attaching hole 1420 is inserted into the dowel 1416 of the stirring and conveying fin 1410 described above. If the attachment member 1414 is attached to the stirring and conveying fin 1410 above the blade sheet 1411 in this state, the blade sheet 1411 can be attached to the front side of the stirring and conveying fin 1410.

  The shape and configuration of the toner stirring agitator 141 is not limited to the illustrated example. For example, the configuration of the gripping portion 1413 is not limited to the two pairs of gripping portion pieces 1418, and one pair or three pairs of gripping portion pieces. 1418 may be provided. Further, the shapes of the blade sheet 1411 and the attachment member 1414, and the attachment and fixing methods of the blade sheet 1411 are not limited to the illustrated examples. For example, a clip-shaped attachment member 1414 that sandwiches the stirring and conveying fin 1410 and the blade sheet 1411 may be used. Moreover, it is not restricted to what is attached so that attachment or detachment is possible via the attachment member 1414, For example, you may weld the blade sheet | seat 1411 with a heat | fever. In short, it may be configured so that the toner in the housing 140 is not removed from the agitating / conveying fin 1410 when the toner is agitated.

Next, a procedure for attaching the toner agitator 141 will be described.
First, the rotary drive shaft 1412 is inserted into the shaft hole 1403 formed in the side wall portion 1402 of the toner hopper 14 from the outside of the housing 140 via a bearing member, and the rotary drive shaft 1412 is assembled. At this time, the stirring and conveying fin 1410 is not yet attached to the rotation drive shaft 1412.
Therefore, even if the rotation drive shaft 1412 protrudes from the side wall portion 1402 of the housing 140 of the toner hopper 14 so as to be structurally long due to a drive source (not shown) or the like, the rotation drive shaft 1412 can be easily moved to the toner hopper. 14 is assembled.
After the rotation drive shaft 1412 is assembled to the toner hopper 14, the first stirring / conveying fin 1410 is attached to the rotation drive shaft 1412.
At this time, the portion where the cut surface 1417 of the rotational drive shaft 1412 is formed is narrower than the other portions, and the gripping piece 1418 is shaped to match the cut surface 1417. Therefore, if the stirring and conveying fin 1410 is fitted from above with the cut surface 1417 maintained at a vertical position, the front side portion 1419 of the gripping piece 1418 can be smoothly press-fitted. When the agitating / conveying fin 1410 is fitted to the rotation drive shaft 1412, the agitating / conveying fin 1410 is inserted from above the toner receiving port 144 so that the side on which the gripping piece 1418 is provided faces downward.

Here, attention is paid to the mounting direction of the stirring and conveying fins 1410 so that the agitating and conveying fins 1410 can stir and convey the toner on the surface to which the mounting member 1414 is attached. In addition, the blade sheet 1411 is in contact with the bottom wall portion 1400 in an elastically bent state, and is attached in consideration of whether the blade sheet 1411 is set so as to move smoothly in this state. That is, the blade sheet 1411 is attached at a position where the blade sheet 1411 is in contact with the bottom wall portion 1400 (see FIG. 5) so that the surface to which the attachment member 1414 is attached is the front surface in the rotational direction of the toner agitator 141. This is because the load on the blade sheet 1411 can be reduced and the attachment member 1414 can be made difficult to come off.
In this way, paying attention to the mounting direction of the stirring and conveying fins 1410, the front side portion 1419 of the gripping piece 1418 is strongly pressed toward the rotation drive shaft 1412. Then, the cut surface 1417 of the rotary drive shaft 1412 and the gripping piece 1418 formed so as to be aligned with the cut surface 1417 are fitted together. The front side portion 1419 of the gripping piece 1418 is elastically deformed by being pressed against the rotational drive shaft 1412 in this manner, and is fitted so as to hold the rotational drive shaft 1412 by the gripping piece 1418 that makes a pair. And after fitting in a correct position, it returns to the original shape. Thus, when the rotation drive shaft 1412 and the gripping portion 1413 are properly fitted, the cut surface 1417 and the gripping piece 1418 are aligned with each other, and the agitation transport fin 1410 cannot be idled.

Next, the second stirring / conveying fin 1410 is attached to the rotation drive shaft 1412.
At this time, the rotary drive shaft 1412 is rotated to a position where the first stirring / conveying fin 1410 already attached is disposed below (state of FIG. 4). In this state, the second agitating / conveying fin 1410 is inserted from above the opening 144 of the toner hopper 14 with the side on which the gripping piece 1418 is provided facing downward.
As described above, the gripping piece 1418 is formed so as to be displaced along the axial direction of the rotational drive shaft 1412. Accordingly, when the agitating and conveying fins 1410 are attached to the rotational drive shaft 1412 so as to be axially symmetrical, the gripping piece pieces 1418 of the gripping portions 1413 are fitted so as to mesh with each other along the axial direction.
As shown in FIG. 5, the two agitating / conveying fins 1410 are attached, so that the agitating / conveying fins 1410 and the rotation drive shaft 1412 cannot rotate with each other and are detached in the direction perpendicular to the axis of the agitating / conveying fins 1410. Is impossible.

In this manner, the agitation transport fin 1410 can be fitted to the rotation drive shaft 1412 after the rotation drive shaft 1412 is assembled to the housing 140. Therefore, even if the toner receiving port 144 of the toner hopper 14 is formed small, the toner agitator 141 can be easily assembled. That is, it is possible to increase the degree of design freedom by forming the toner receiving port 144 small enough to allow the stirring and conveying fins 1410 to be inserted, and to prevent the toner from leaking at the toner transfer portion.
Further, since the agitating / conveying fins 1410 can be retrofitted, the agitating / conveying fins 1410 can be integrally formed across the opposing side wall portions 1402 of the housing 140 along the axial direction of the rotation drive shaft 1412. Further, there is no need to insert the rotational drive shaft 1412 obliquely into the toner receiving port 144 in a state where the agitating and conveying fins 1410 are attached to the rotational drive shaft 1412 as in the prior art. Therefore, the agitation and conveyance fins 1410 can be made large as shown in FIG. 4, and the gap between the side wall portion 1402 of the housing 140 and the agitation and conveyance fins 1410 can be reduced, and the toner in the housing 140 can be agitated uniformly. And the ability to stir the toner can be improved. In addition, the ability to convey toner can be improved.

  On one side of the housing 140, a toner conveying / discharging screw 142 is provided in parallel with a rotation drive shaft 1412 to which a toner agitator 141 is attached. Here, the toner conveyance / discharge screw 142 is configured to rotate by being connected to a drive source (not shown) installed in the apparatus main body 1. Further, the toner agitator 141 is rotated by being connected to a drive source (not shown) installed in the apparatus main body 1 via a drive transmission unit 1421 (see FIG. 4).

The toner conveyance / discharge screw 142 is provided at a position slightly on one side of the housing 140 toward the discharge / conveyance path 17 provided on the discharge side of the toner hopper 14 in order to convey the toner to the developing unit 80 structurally. Provided above. The discharge conveyance path 17 is a toner conveyance path that connects the toner hopper 14 and the toner conveyance path 15. The toner conveying and discharging screw 142 is installed so that the tip of the toner conveying and discharging screw 142 passes through the toner conveying path 17 from one side of the toner hopper 14 and reaches the connecting portion of the toner conveying path 15.
The toner scraped up by the toner stirring agitator 141 toward the toner conveyance / discharge screw 142 side is supplied by the toner conveyance / discharge screw 142 through the discharge conveyance path 17 connected to the discharge side of the toner hopper 14. It is conveyed toward 15.
At this time, the toner in the toner hopper 14 is uniformly agitated and conveyed by the agitating and conveying fins 1410 formed to the full width between the side wall portions 1402 of the housing 140. Further, the toner moves up the bottom wall portion 1400 of the housing 140 in a state where the front side of the blade sheet 1411 is in contact, and the toner is scraped up using an elastic bending action, so that the conveying force toward the toner conveying and discharging screw 142 can be further improved. Can do.

The toner thus transported to the replenishment toner transport path 15 through the discharge transport path 17 is transported to the developing unit 80 (image forming process unit 60) by a transport screw (not shown) provided in the replenishment toner transport path 15. Is done.
Here, the toner conveying and discharging screw 142 and the conveying screw are controlled and operated based on the detection information of the magnetic sensor 85, and the amount of toner supplied to the developing unit 80 is controlled.
The toner transported and replenished to the developing device unit 80 is replenished into the developing device housing 81 and is sucked by the photosensitive drum 5 as described above to form a black and white toner image based on the image information to form a recording paper. It is transferred to.

As described above, the shape and configuration of the image forming apparatus 100, the toner bottle 16, the toner hopper 14, the toner agitator 141, the developing unit 80, and the like are not limited to the illustrated examples. The configuration of the delivery section is not limited to the illustrated example. Further, here, an example in which two stirring and conveying fins 1410 are provided has been described. However, according to the present invention, the stirring and conveying fins 1410 can be configured to be large, so that the number may be one, or two or more. It may be.
Furthermore, in the image forming apparatus 100 of the illustrated example, the image forming process unit 60 and the toner bottle 16 are configured to be detachable from the front side of the apparatus main body 1. However, the present invention is not limited to this. It is good also as a structure which can be attached or detached from the back side.

8 Developer 14 Toner hopper (toner container)
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 140 Housing 1402 Side wall part 141 Toner stirring agitator 1410 Stirring conveyance fin 1412 Rotation drive shaft 1413 Gripping part 1417 Cut surface 1418 Gripping part piece 60 Image forming process unit 100 Image forming apparatus

Claims (3)

An image forming apparatus in which a toner transport system is configured by connecting an image forming process unit including a developing unit and a toner storage unit disposed in association with the image forming process unit,
The toner container includes a housing and a toner agitator provided in the housing.
The toner agitator for agitation includes a rotation drive shaft that is rotatably supported through the opposing side wall portions of the housing, and an agitation transport fin attached to the rotation drive shaft.
The agitating and conveying fin includes a grip portion including at least a pair of grip portion pieces that are fitted to the rotation drive shaft so as to hold the rotation drive shaft from a direction orthogonal to the axis of the rotation drive shaft. An image forming apparatus, wherein the stirring and conveying fin and the rotation drive shaft are configured to be unable to rotate relative to each other in the combined state. In claim 1,
The rotational drive shaft is formed of a cylindrical member, and a pair of flat cut surfaces are formed in parallel on a portion of the rotational drive shaft where the gripping portion is fitted, and the rotational portion of the gripping piece is connected to the rotational drive shaft. The image forming apparatus, wherein the fitting surface includes a shape portion that matches the cut surface, thereby forming a fitting relationship incapable of mutual rotation. In claim 1 or claim 2,
Two of the same agitating and conveying fins are attached symmetrically with respect to the rotational drive shaft, and the gripping portions of each agitating and conveying fin are a plurality of pairs of gripping portions arranged along the axial direction of the rotationally driven shaft. Consist of pieces,
Each of the pair of gripping pieces is formed in an arrangement relationship shifted in the axial direction of the rotary drive shaft, and two agitators are attached symmetrically with respect to the rotary drive shaft. In the conveyance fin, the image forming apparatus is characterized in that gripping pieces of the gripping portions are configured to mesh with each other along the axial direction.

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