JP2013064808A - Powder storage device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent as much as possible powder such as toner, developer, waste toner, and waste developer from attaching to a seal member and from spilling to the outside of a container.SOLUTION: In a powder storage device, at least one of toner, developer, waste toner, and waste developer is transported in one-way direction (an arrow B direction) in a pipe-shaped transportation member 4 and is caused to drop from one end opening of the transportation member 4 into a container 20 for storage. The container 20 is attachable/detachable to a body portion of an image forming apparatus so as to cause one end portion of the transportation member 4 to penetrate thereinto. A portion, of the container 20, opposite to the one end portion is mounted with a seal member 25 having elasticity. A shutter member 33 arranged on the one end portion of the transportation member 4 is provided with a projection portion 34 existing between a lower portion of the one end portion of the transportation member 4 and a seal member 25 (lower tongue piece 27a) when the one end portion penetrates into the container 20. The projection portion 34 has a length that reaches almost at the same position of a tip end of the seal member 25 (the lower tongue piece 27a) or that reaches at the position projected into the container 20 than the tip of the seal member 25.

Description

  The present invention relates to a powder container, and more particularly to a powder container for supplying / collecting powders of toner, developer, waste toner, waste developer, and the like to a container in an electrophotographic copying machine or printer. .

  In general, an electrophotographic image forming apparatus includes a waste powder recovery device that recovers waste toner removed from an image carrier such as a photoconductor or waste developer removed from a developing device. As shown in FIG. 11, this type of collection device conveys waste toner and waste developer through the conveyance pipe 105 in the direction of arrow B by the conveyance screw 131 and drops downward from one end opening 132 to collect the collection container. 120 is accommodated in a predetermined location.

  The collection container 120 can be attached / detached to / from the main body portion of the image forming apparatus so that one end of the transport pipe 105 enters, and the portion of the collection container 120 facing the one end of the transport pipe 105 is elastic. A sealing member 125 (see FIG. 12) is attached. A plurality of tongue pieces 127 a and 127 b are formed in the seal member 125 by providing cuts 126 radially. The tongue pieces 127a and 127b are bent by one end as shown in FIG. 11 when one end of the transport pipe 105 is inserted, and when the collection container 120 is removed from the apparatus main body, the tongue piece 127a and 127b is shown in FIG. As shown, restore and close the entry.

  However, since the tongue pieces 127a and 127b are formed by radial cuts 126 centered on the axis of the conveying pipe 105, the upper tongue piece 127b and the lower tongue piece 127a are relatively long, and particularly the lower tongue piece. Since the front end portion of 127a protrudes from the opening 132, the waste toner T adheres thereto. When the collection container 120 is removed from the main body portion, the lower tongue 127a returns to the vertical direction. At this time, the adhering waste toner T spills outside the collection container 120, and the inside of the apparatus, the installation floor surface, Or, there is a problem that the user's hand is soiled.

  Conventionally, as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H10-260260, there is known a technique that obtains high sealing performance by not matching the seal break of the toner container between the inside and the outside of the seal. Certainly, this sealing member can improve the sealing performance, but it is not intended to eliminate the adhesion of the toner to the tongue piece and spilling to the outside.

JP 2010-085458 A

  An object of the present invention is to provide a powder container that can prevent toner, developer, waste toner, waste developer, and other powders from adhering to a seal member and spilling outside the container as much as possible.

The powder storage device according to one aspect of the present invention,
In a powder container that conveys at least one of toner, developer, waste toner, and waste developer in one direction in a pipe-shaped conveyance member, and drops and accommodates the container from one end opening of the conveyance member.
The container is attachable / detachable to / from the main body portion of the image forming apparatus so that one end of the conveying member enters.
A seal member having elasticity is attached to a portion facing the one end of the container,
The shutter member disposed at one end of the conveying member is provided with a protruding portion interposed between the lower portion of the one end and the seal member when the one end of the conveying member enters the container. ,
The protruding portion has substantially the same length as the tip of the seal member or a length protruding inward of the container from the tip of the seal member;
It is characterized by.

  In the powder container, the shutter member disposed at one end of the conveying member is interposed between the lower portion of the one end and the seal member when the one end of the conveying member enters the container. A protrusion is provided, and the protrusion has a length that is substantially the same as the tip of the seal member or protrudes inward of the container from the tip of the seal member. The powder hardly adheres to the seal member. Therefore, when the container is removed from the main body of the apparatus, that is, when the tongue piece is restored to the original sealing state, the powder is prevented from spilling to the outside as much as possible.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to prevent toner, developer, waste toner, waste developer, and other powders from adhering to the seal member and spilling out of the container as much as possible.

1 is a schematic configuration diagram illustrating a main part of an image forming apparatus. It is a front view which shows a waste powder collection container. FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line XX of FIG. It is a perspective view which shows the one end part of a conveyance pipe. The shutter provided in the conveyance pipe is shown, (a) is a perspective view, (b) is a side view. (A) is sectional drawing which shows a conveyance pipe, (b), (c) is a front view which shows both the cut | interruptions of a sealing member. (A), (b) is a front view which shows the cut | interruption of a sealing member. It is an expanded sectional view which shows the principal part of a waste powder collection | recovery apparatus, (a) is the time of mounting | wearing, (b) is in the middle of removal, (c) shows the time of removal completion. (A), (b) is a perspective view which shows the other example of a shutter. It is sectional drawing which shows the principal part of the collection | recovery apparatus which is 2nd Example. It is an expanded sectional view which shows the principal part of the conventional waste powder collection | recovery apparatus. It is a front view which shows the cut | interruption of the sealing member currently used for the apparatus shown in FIG.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the powder container according to the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In addition, the same code | symbol is attached | subjected to the same member and part in each figure, and the overlapping description is abbreviate | omitted.

  The image forming apparatus shown in FIG. 1 is a tandem color image forming apparatus, in which toner images respectively formed on the photosensitive drums 2 included in the juxtaposed image forming units 1 are rotated in the direction of arrow A. The toner image is primarily transferred to the transfer belt 10 and synthesized, and the synthesized toner image is secondarily transferred onto a sheet (not shown) by the secondary transfer unit 15. Reference numerals y, m, c, and k attached to the reference numerals indicate members that form yellow, magenta, cyan, and black images, respectively.

  The image forming unit 1 is mainly composed of a photosensitive drum 2 and a developing device 3, and waste toner removed from the photosensitive drum 2 includes an old carrier removed from the developing device 3 through the transport pipe 4. The waste developer is transported to the collection container 20 shown in FIG. Inside the collection container 20, the waste powder follows a path indicated by a dotted line in FIG. 2 and is collected in the central portion 20a, and the collection amount is detected by a capacity detection sensor (not shown). Conveying the waste powder inside the collection container 20 is described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2010-145812, and this collection apparatus has the same configuration.

  Further, a toner bottle 16 containing replenishing toner is installed immediately above the intermediate transfer belt 10. Residual toner on the intermediate transfer belt 10 is also removed by the cleaning unit 11, and waste toner from this portion is also collected in the collection container 20 with a basically similar configuration to the collection mechanism described below. The description of the waste toner recovery path from the intermediate transfer belt 10 is omitted.

  In the first embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3, the collection container 20 can be attached to the main body portion of the image forming apparatus with one end of the conveyance pipe 4 protruding, and is conveniently provided with eight conveyance pipes 4. Each of the openings 5 is provided with an opening. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the conveyance pipe 4 has a conveyance screw 31 disposed therein so that it can be driven to rotate in one direction, and the rotation of the screw 31 conveys waste toner toward one end in the direction of arrow B. Is done. An opening 32 is formed in the lower part of one end of the transport pipe 4, and the shutter 33 is installed in a state of being biased in the direction of arrow B by a spring member (not shown). The shutter 33 is restricted by the wall 20b of the collection container 20 and opens the opening 32 when the collection container 20 is mounted on the main body of the image forming apparatus. On the other hand, when the collection container 20 is removed from the main body portion, the restriction by the wall portion 20b is lost, and the opening portion 32 is closed. FIG. 4 shows a state where the shutter 33 opens the opening 32.

  A seal member 25 is attached to the opening portion of the collection container 20. The seal member 25 is an elastic sheet, and a sponge or a foamable resin material can be preferably used. The cross-sectional shape of the transport pipe 4 is as shown in FIG. 6A, and the relative positional relationship between the cross-sectional shape (inner diameter) and the seal member 25 is as shown in FIGS. It is shown in a) and (b). Specifically, the sealing member 25 is provided with a plurality of cuts 26 to form a plurality of tongue pieces 27a and 27b that are divided in a substantially vertical direction, and the lower tongue piece 27a has a more elastically deformed portion than the upper tongue piece 27b. short. In other words, the intersection point P of the cut line 26 is located below the center point O of the cross section of the transport pipe 4. There are various ways of inserting the cut surface 26, that is, the shapes of the tongue pieces 27a and 27b, and typical shapes thereof are shown in FIGS. 6 (b), 6 (c), 7 (a) and 7 (b).

  The shutter 33 is further provided with a protrusion 34 that partially covers the opening 32. As shown in FIG. 5, the projecting portion 34 projects from one end opening of the shutter 33 and is formed in an arc shape along the lower portion of the shutter 33.

  When the collection container 20 is mounted on the main body of the image forming apparatus and one end of the transport pipe 4 enters the collection container 20, the tongue pieces 27a and 27b are formed on the transport pipe 4 as shown in FIG. The protrusion 34 of the shutter 33 is interposed between the lower part of the one end of the transport pipe 4 and the tongue piece 27 a of the seal member 25. That is, since the upper surface of the tongue piece 27 a is covered with the protruding portion 34, the waste toner T falling from the opening 32 does not adhere to the tongue piece 27 a.

  FIGS. 8B and 8C show a state where the collection container 20 is removed from the main body. During the removal (see FIG. 8B), the tongue 27a is covered with the protruding portion 34 of the shutter 33, and the waste toner T does not adhere. When the collection container 20 is completely removed from the main body portion (see FIG. 8C), the tongue pieces 27a and 27b are restored to a flat state and the opening portion of the collection container 20 (the entry portion of the transport pipe 4) is closed. . Thus, when the tongue pieces 27a and 27b are restored to the original sealed state, the waste powder does not spill outside. Further, since the lower tongue piece 27 a is short, there is no problem that the tip end portion of the lower tongue piece 27 a blocks the opening 32 and is sandwiched between the transport pipe 4 and the shutter 33.

  The cut line 26 formed in the seal member 25 may be linear as shown in FIGS. 7A and 7B, or may be arcuate as shown in FIGS. 6B and 6C. May be included. In particular, the provision of the arc-shaped cut line 26 along the cross-sectional shape of the transport pipe 4 can effectively prevent waste powder from spilling without impairing the sealing performance.

  In the present embodiment, the protruding portion 34 of the shutter 33 has a length that is the same position as the tip of the lower tongue piece 27a of the lower seal member 25 when one end portion of the transport pipe 4 enters the collection container 20. ing. Not only this but the protrusion part 34 may have the length which protrudes inward of the collection | recovery container 20 rather than the front-end | tip of the lower tongue piece 27a.

  Moreover, the protrusion part 34 may be extended from the lower part of the one end part of the conveyance pipe 4 to the side part, as shown to Fig.9 (a). Or the protrusion part 34 may be provided so that the perimeter of the one end part of the conveyance pipe 4 may be enclosed, as shown in FIG.9 (b).

  Next, a second embodiment of the recovery device will be described with reference to FIG. In the second embodiment, the upper tongue piece 127b and the lower tongue piece 127a shown in FIG. 12 use the seal members 125 having the same length. Compared with the first embodiment, as the lower tongue piece 127a is longer, the protruding portion 34 of the shutter 33 is provided longer than the tip of the tongue piece 127a.

  The powder container according to the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and can be variously modified within the scope of the gist.

  In particular, the configuration of the image forming portion by the electrophotographic method is arbitrary, and the detailed configuration of the collection container and the detailed shape of the seal member are also arbitrary. The present invention is not limited to a waste toner and waste developer collection device, but can be applied to a device that supplies toner and developer to a developing tank.

  As described above, the present invention is useful for a powder container, and is particularly excellent in that powder adheres to a seal member and can prevent spills to the outside of the container as much as possible.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Image forming unit 2 ... Photosensitive drum 4 ... Conveying pipe 20 ... Collection container 25 ... Sealing member 27a ... Lower tongue piece 27b ... Upper tongue piece 31 ... Conveying screw 32 ... Opening 33 ... Shutter 34 ... Protrusion part

Claims (4)

In a powder container that conveys at least one of toner, developer, waste toner, and waste developer in one direction in a pipe-shaped conveyance member, and drops and accommodates the container from one end opening of the conveyance member.
The container is attachable / detachable to / from the main body portion of the image forming apparatus so that one end of the conveying member enters.
A seal member having elasticity is attached to a portion facing the one end of the container,
The shutter member disposed at one end of the conveying member is provided with a protruding portion interposed between the lower portion of the one end and the seal member when the one end of the conveying member enters the container. ,
The protruding portion has substantially the same length as the tip of the seal member or a length protruding inward of the container from the tip of the seal member;
A powder container characterized by the above.   2. The powder container according to claim 1, wherein the protruding portion extends from a lower portion to a side portion of one end portion of the conveying member.   2. The powder container according to claim 1, wherein the protruding portion is provided so as to surround the entire circumference of one end portion of the conveying member. The sealing member is provided with a plurality of cuts to form at least a plurality of tongue pieces divided vertically, and the tongue piece located below has a shorter elastic deformation portion than the tongue piece located above,
The powder container according to claim 1, claim 2, or claim 3.

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