JP2015040874A - Cleaning member and image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a cleaning member including a blade and a holder, configured to allow only the blade to be replaced, and to bring the blade into uniform contact with a surface of a body to be cleaned, to properly scrape off a substrate deposited thereon.SOLUTION: A collection blade 14 includes a metal blade 15 which brings a tip ridge part into contact with a surface of a collection roller 11 to scrape off toner, and a holder 16. A base end part 15b of the blade is held between a cleaning case 17 and a plane part of the holder, to be separably fastened by a screw 17. A pressure member 20 is arranged for pressing the base end part of the metal blade against the plane part of the holder, in a position other than the fastening position, in a longitudinal direction.

Description

  The present invention relates to a cleaning member composed of a blade and a holder that comes into contact with the surface of an object to be cleaned and scrapes off deposits, and an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a facsimile, and a printer that employs the cleaning member. .

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there has been known a cleaning member configured to scrape deposits by bringing a tip ridge line portion of a metal blade into contact with an object to be cleaned. One example is a recovery blade of an electrostatic brush cleaning device. In the electrostatic brush cleaning device, a voltage having a polarity opposite to that of toner is applied to a brush roller that rotates while contacting the image carrier, and the toner on the image carrier is electrostatically moved onto the brush roller. A large voltage is applied to the metal recovery roller that rotates while being in contact with the brush roller on the opposite polarity side of the brush roller, and the toner held by the brush roller is electrostatically recovered on the recovery roller. The toner is mechanically scraped by bringing the tip ridge portion of a metal blade as a collection blade into contact with the surface of the collection roller.

  Patent Document 1 describes a cleaning member in which a side surface on the proximal end side of a metal blade is integrally bonded to a flat portion of a holder made of a rigid body using an adhesive.

  When scraping off the toner on the collecting roller with the metal blade, it is necessary that the tip ridge line portion of the metal blade comes into contact with the collecting roller with a predetermined contact pressure. At this time, it is preferable to obtain a predetermined contact pressure with a small force, and a thin and soft metal blade is used. However, if a thin and soft metal blade is used alone, it is difficult to maintain a high degree of flatness, and the leading edge ridge cannot be uniformly contacted with the recovery roller at a predetermined contact pressure. As a result, the toner cannot be scraped well. On the other hand, in the cleaning member of Patent Document 1, the side surface on the base end side of the metal blade is bonded to the flat portion of the holder that is made of a rigid body and can maintain flatness. It is regulated by the flat part and can maintain a high degree of flatness. For this reason, the tip ridge line portion of the metal blade can be brought into uniform contact with the collecting roller at a predetermined contact pressure, and good toner scraping can be achieved.

  On the other hand, in the image forming apparatus, reduction of running cost is an important issue, and it is desired to reduce the cost of replacement parts. In the electrostatic cleaning device, the tip ridge portion of the metal blade is in contact with the metal recovery roller, and wears with time, so that the scraping ability gradually decreases. For this reason, it is necessary to periodically replace the metal blade. The cleaning member of Patent Document 1 is integrally configured by bonding a metal blade and a holder using an adhesive. For this reason, the holder is removed from the housing of the apparatus, and the metal blade and the holder are replaced together, and the cost of replacement parts is higher than when only the metal blade is replaced.

  As a configuration in which only the metal blade can be replaced, a configuration in which the base end side portion of the metal blade is sandwiched between the flat portion of the holder and the housing, and a fastening member such as a screw is used without using an adhesive is conceivable. . In this configuration, while only the metal blade is replaceable, the base end side portion of the metal blade is brought into close contact with the flat portion of the holder, and the attitude of the metal blade is regulated to maintain a high degree of flatness. However, at a location away from the fastening position in the longitudinal direction of the long metal blade, the base end side portion of the metal blade and the flat portion of the holder are separated due to deformation of the casing or corrugated shape, and the flatness of the metal blade is There was a problem that it could not be maintained. In this state, the tip ridge line portion of the metal blade and the collecting roller cannot be in uniform contact, and the toner cannot be scraped well. For this reason, the toner remains on the collecting roller, and a toner collection failure from the cleaning brush occurs, and eventually a cleaning failure occurs.

  As described above, in the configuration in which the metal blade can be separated and replaced from the holder using the recovery blade of the electrostatic brush cleaning device, the problem that the flatness of the metal blade cannot be maintained and good toner cannot be scraped has been described. . Not only this but the above-mentioned problem arises similarly in the cleaning member which consists of a blade and holder which contacts the surface of the object to be cleaned and scrapes off the adhering matter.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to make the blade uniformly contact the surface of the object to be cleaned while allowing only the blade to be replaced in the cleaning member composed of the blade and the holder. It is another object of the present invention to provide a cleaning member and an image forming apparatus capable of satisfactorily scraping off deposits.

In order to achieve the above object, the invention of claim 1 is a cleaning member comprising a blade and a holder that scrapes off adhering matter by bringing a tip ridge line portion into contact with the surface of a cleaning object.
A base end side portion of the blade is sandwiched and fastened between the housing to which the cleaning member is attached and the flat portion of the holder, and the base of the blade is located at a position other than the fastening position in the longitudinal direction of the blade. A pressing member that presses the end side portion against the flat portion of the holder is provided.

  According to the present invention, in the cleaning member composed of the blade and the holder, only the blade can be replaced, and the tip ridge line portion of the blade is brought into contact with the surface of the object to be cleaned to scrape off the deposits well. There is an excellent effect of being able to.

1 is a schematic configuration diagram illustrating a printer according to an embodiment. FIG. 3 is an enlarged view showing one of four image forming units of the printer. It is a schematic block diagram of the cleaning apparatus of the printer. The schematic diagram for demonstrating the attachment part of the collection | recovery blade of the cleaning apparatus. The longitudinal direction cross-sectional schematic diagram which shows the base end side part of a metal blade in case there is no pressing member, and the plane part of a holder. The longitudinal direction cross-sectional schematic diagram which shows the base end side part of a metal blade at the time of providing a pressing member, and the plane part of a holder. The disassembled perspective view for demonstrating how to attach the collection | recovery blade to the cleaning apparatus. Sectional drawing of an example of the cleaning member which adhere | attached the conventional metal braid | blade and the holder with the adhesive agent.

An embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a printer which is an electrophotographic image forming apparatus will be described below.
FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram illustrating a printer according to the present embodiment.
This printer includes an intermediate transfer belt 56 as an intermediate transfer member, which is an image carrier, at substantially the center inside the printer. The intermediate transfer belt 56 is an endless belt and is supported by being laid over four rollers 52, 53, 54, and 55, and is rotationally driven in the direction of arrow A in the figure. Above the intermediate transfer belt 56, four image forming units corresponding to yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C), and black (K) toners are arranged along the belt surface of the intermediate transfer belt 56. It is out.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged view showing one of the four image forming units.
Since all image forming units have the same configuration, the subscripts Y, M, C, and K indicating the distinction of colors are omitted here. The image forming unit has a photoreceptor 1 as an image carrier, and around the photoreceptor 1, a charging device 2, a developing device 4, a cleaning device 6, a lubricant application device 3, and the like are arranged. .

  Referring to FIG. 1, an electrostatic latent image is formed above the four image forming units, in which an electrostatic latent image is written by irradiating the surface of each charged photoconductor with laser light L based on image data of each color. An exposure apparatus 9 is provided as means. A primary transfer roller 51 serving as a transfer unit that primarily transfers the toner image formed on the photoconductor 1 onto the intermediate transfer belt 56 is located at a position facing each photoconductor 1 with the intermediate transfer belt 56 interposed therebetween. Each is arranged.

  A secondary transfer roller 61 as a secondary transfer unit is pressed against the outside of the portion of the intermediate transfer belt 56 supported by the roller 52. A contact portion between the secondary transfer roller 61 and the intermediate transfer belt 56 is a secondary transfer portion, and the toner image on the intermediate transfer belt 56 is transferred onto a transfer sheet as a recording material. A belt cleaning device 54 is provided on the downstream side of the secondary transfer roller 61. A fixing device 70 for fixing the toner image on the transfer paper to the transfer paper is provided on the left side of the secondary transfer portion in the drawing. A paper feeding device (not shown) is provided at the bottom of the printer to place the transfer paper and send the transfer paper toward the secondary transfer unit.

  In the printer having such a configuration, in each of the four image forming units, each photosensitive member 1 is uniformly charged by the charging device 2, and the exposure device 9 irradiates the laser beam L based on the image data, thereby electrostatic latent. An image is formed, and the developing device 4 develops the electrostatic latent image with each color toner. Each color toner image on each photoconductor 1 is sequentially transferred onto the intermediate transfer belt 56 by applying a bias voltage to the primary transfer roller 51 to form an overlapped toner image. At the same time, a transfer sheet is fed from a paper supply device (not shown) toward the secondary transfer unit, and the superimposed toner image on the intermediate transfer belt 56 is transferred by applying a bias voltage to the secondary transfer roller 61. It is transferred to paper. The superimposed toner image is fixed on the transfer paper by the fixing device 70, thereby forming a color image. On the other hand, after the toner image has been transferred, the photosensitive member 1 is removed from adhering matters such as transfer residual toner by each cleaning device 6 to prepare for the next toner image formation. In addition, the intermediate transfer belt 56 after the superimposed toner image is transferred is removed from adhering matters such as transfer residual toner by a belt cleaning device, and is prepared for the next toner image formation.

  FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration diagram of the cleaning device 6. The cleaning device 6 is an electrostatic brush cleaning device that electrostatically cleans residual toner on the photoreceptor 1. The cleaning device 6 includes a cleaning brush 10 that contacts the photosensitive member 1, a collection roller 11 that contacts the cleaning brush 10, a collection blade 14 that contacts the collection roller 11, a waste toner screw 13, and the like.

  The cleaning brush 10 is a brush-like roller made of conductive resin fibers or the like, and is applied with a voltage having a polarity opposite to that of the transfer residual toner on the photoconductor 1 to clean the transfer residual toner on the photoconductor 1. Electrostatically move on the brush 10. The collection roller 11 is made of a stainless steel bar or the like, applies a voltage further on the opposite polarity side than the voltage applied to the cleaning brush 10, moves from the photoreceptor 1, and is held on the cleaning brush 10. Is electrostatically collected on the collection roller 11. The collection blade 14 includes a metal blade 15 and a holder 16. The tip ridge portion of the metal blade 15 is brought into contact with the surface of the collection roller 11, and the toner on the collection roller 11 is mechanically scraped off. The toner scraped off by the collection blade 14 is conveyed toward a waste toner tank (not shown) by a waste toner screw 13 below.

  Next, the collection blade 14 of the cleaning device 6 that is a characteristic part will be described in detail. The metal blade 15 of the collection blade 14 is made of a copper plate, a SUS plate, or the like, and the toner is removed from the collection roller 11 by generating a scraping force by the tip ridge line portion by biting the tip ridge line portion into the collection roller 11. To do. At this time, in order to give a constant amount of biting with a small force, the metal blade 15 is generally a thin plate of about 0.05 mm to 0.3 mm and has a soft strength. Since the metal blade 15 is a thin plate and soft, when it is used as a single product, it cannot maintain a high degree of flatness. For this reason, the collection blade 14 has a holder 16 as a member for regulating the flatness of the metal blade 15. As the holder 16, a holder 16 having a flat portion obtained by bending a zinc-treated steel plate or the like into an L shape to increase the strength is mainly used.

  By attaching the base end side portion of the metal blade 15 to the flat portion of the holder 16 which has high strength and can maintain flatness, the metal blade 15 is regulated in its posture by the flat portion of the holder 16 and has high flatness with high accuracy. Is maintained. In FIG. 3, an L-shaped metal blade 15 is used, but the two parts of the distal end side portion 15a and the proximal end side portion 15b forming the L shape are integrated thin plates via bending portions. (See FIG. 4a) and their flatness is not independent. By restricting the base end side portion 15b with the holder 16 having high flatness with the L-shaped metal blade 15, the posture of the entire L-shaped metal blade 15 having a bent portion is regulated and includes the tip ridge line portion. The flatness of the tip end portion 15a is maintained. That is, if the flatness of the flat portion of the holder 16 having high strength is ensured, the proximal end portion 15b of the metal blade 15 is restricted by the flat portion of the holder 16, and the attitude of the entire metal blade 15 is restricted. Thereby, the flatness of the distal end side portion 15 a including the distal end ridge line portion of the metal blade 15 is maintained, and the distal end ridge line portion uniformly abuts on the collecting roller 11.

  Since the tip ridge line portion of the metal blade 15 of the recovery blade 14 is in contact with the metal recovery roller 11, the scraping ability gradually decreases due to wear over time. For this reason, the metal blade 15 needs to be periodically replaced. As shown in FIG. 8, a conventional recovery blade is generally formed by integrally bonding a metal blade 15 to a holder 16 using a thermosetting silicone adhesive 16c. In the case where the metal blade 15 is integrally bonded to the holder 16 by using the adhesive 16c, the holder 16 is removed from the cleaning case, and the metal blade 15 and the holder 16 are integrally replaced with the recovery blade 14 together. become. This is more expensive than a configuration in which only the metal blade 15 is replaced. In addition, in the case of the recovery blade integrally configured by bonding the metal blade 15 to the holder 16, in addition to the component cost of the holder 16, the bonding process cost also accumulates. For this reason, the cost of the collection blade 14 as a whole is more than double the cost of parts as a single metal blade 15.

  In printers, reducing running costs is an important issue, and it is desired to reduce the cost of replacement parts. For this reason, it is desired that the metal blade 15 of the recovery blade 14 can be replaced.

  FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram for explaining the configuration of the attachment portion of the recovery blade 14 in the cleaning device of this embodiment. In the present embodiment, the recovery blade 14 includes a screw 17 that is a fastening member without sandwiching the proximal end portion 15b of the metal blade 15 between the flat portion of the holder 16 and the cleaning case 18 and using an adhesive. It is concluded with. At the time of replacement, the metal blade 15 is separated from the holder 16 and removed from the cleaning case 18 by removing the screw 17 so that only the metal blade 15 can be replaced.

  However, the base end side portion 15b of the metal blade 15 and the flat portion of the holder 16 are separated from each other in the longitudinal direction from the fastening position by the screw 17 due to deformation of the cleaning case 18 and the wavy shape. There may be a case where a portion 19 separated by an order of several mm is generated (see FIG. 5). When a portion 19 where the base end side portion 15b of the metal blade 15 is separated from the flat portion of the holder 16 is generated, the base end side portion 15b is wavy, and the tip end side portion 15a including the tip ridge line portion is affected by the influence. However, the flatness cannot be maintained. In such a state, the tip ridge line portion of the metal blade 15 and the collection roller 11 cannot be in contact uniformly, and good toner cannot be scraped off. Where the contact pressure is low, toner remains on the collection roller 11, which causes a toner collection failure from the cleaning brush 10 and eventually a cleaning failure.

  In the cleaning device 6, the cleaning brush 10 and the like are also replacement parts, and it is desired to increase the life of the replacement parts in order to reduce running costs. However, if the cleaning failure occurs, it is regarded as the early life of the cleaning device 6 and the cleaning brush 10 and the like are replaced, so that the running cost is greatly increased. In particular, in a printer that performs a large amount of printing such as production printing, the life of replacement parts is a significant problem because it greatly affects the cost of printing one sheet.

  Therefore, the recovery blade 14 in the cleaning device 6 of the present embodiment is configured so that the base end side portion 15b of the metal blade 15 and the plane of the holder 16 are maintained so that the flatness of the front end side portion 15a including the front end ridge line portion of the metal blade 15 is maintained. A pressing member 20 is provided to press the part.

  FIG. 6 is a schematic longitudinal sectional view showing the proximal end portion 15b of the metal blade 15 and the flat portion of the holder 16 when the pressing member 20 is provided. A pressing member 20 made of an elastic member such as a relatively hard sponge or rubber is provided at a position away from the fastening position by the screw 17 of the cleaning case 18 where the collection blade 14 is fastened. Since the pressing member 20 presses the proximal end portion 15b of the metal blade 15 against the flat portion of the holder 16 at a position other than the fastening position, the proximal end of the metal blade 15 is located even at a location away from the longitudinal fastening position. The side portion 15b and the flat portion of the holder 16 are in close contact with each other. Thereby, the base end side portion 15b of the metal blade 15 is made to be the flat portion of the holder 16 in the same manner as when the side surface of the base end side of the metal blade 15 is bonded to the flat portion of the holder 16 by the adhesive 21. It can be adhered. The pressing member 20 needs to be made of a material that can provide a force sufficient to bring the proximal end portion 15 b of the metal blade 15 into close contact with the flat portion of the holder 16. As such a pressing member 20, a sponge material having a hardness of 0.02 MPa or more at a 25% compressive load can be used.

  When the base end side portion 15 b of the metal blade 15 is completely in close contact with the flat portion of the holder 16, the posture of the thin metal blade 15 is regulated by the flatness of the holder 16. Since the holder 16 is a thick plate and has a high L-shaped bending strength, the flatness is constantly maintained even if a slight force is applied if the accuracy of the flatness is good. The proximal end portion 15b of the metal blade 15 is brought into close contact with the flat portion of the holder 16 at the same level as the integration by the adhesive, whereby the posture of the metal blade 15 is regulated and the flatness of the portion 15a including the tip ridge line portion. Is maintained.

  FIG. 7 is an exploded perspective view for explaining how to attach the recovery blade to the cleaning device. A pressing member 20 made of an elastic member such as a relatively hard sponge or rubber is attached to a portion of the cleaning case 18 where the recovery blade 14 is fastened and is separated from the fastening position by a screw (not shown). The metal blade 15 and the holder 16 are placed on the pasted pressing member 20 and fastened. On the other hand, when the metal blade 15 is replaced, the fastening with the screw is released. Thereby, the holder 16 and the metal blade 15 can be removed as separate bodies.

  As described above, in the collection blade 14 of this embodiment, the metal blade 15 can be separated and replaced from the holder 16. At the same time, as in the case where the conventional metal blade 15 is bonded to the holder 16, the tip ridge line portion of the metal blade 15 can be uniformly brought into contact with the collecting roller 11 to scrape off the toner satisfactorily. For this reason, the cost reduction of replacement parts and the lifetime improvement of a cleaning apparatus can be made compatible, and a running cost can be reduced.

  As described above, the present invention has been described using the L-shaped metal blade. However, even in the case of the strip-shaped metal blade, the proximal end portion is brought into close contact with the flat portion of the holder 16 by the pressing member 20 by the pressing member 20. It goes without saying that the ridge line portion can be brought into contact with the collection roller 11 uniformly.

  In the present embodiment, the present invention has been described using the collection blade 14 of the electrostatic brush cleaning device. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the present invention can be applied to a cleaning member including a blade and a holder that abuts against the surface of the object to be cleaned and scrapes off the adhered matter, and has the same effect.

What has been described above is merely an example, and the present invention has a specific effect for each of the following aspects.
(Aspect A)
It is a cleaning member such as a recovery blade 14 including a blade such as a metal blade 15 that scrapes off deposits such as toner by bringing a tip ridge line portion into contact with the surface of an object to be cleaned such as the recovery roller 11 and a holder 16. With this cleaning member, the base end side portion 15b of the blade is sandwiched and fastened between the housing such as the cleaning case 18 to which the cleaning member is attached and the flat portion of the holder 16, and other than the fastening position in the longitudinal direction of the blade. A pressing member 20 is provided at a position to press the base end side portion of the blade against the flat portion of the holder.

In (Aspect A), since the base end side portion of the blade is sandwiched and fastened between the housing and the flat portion of the holder, the blade and the holder are separated and removed from the housing by releasing the fastening. Can only be exchanged. Further, since the proximal end side portion of the blade is pressed against the flat portion of the holder by the pressing member at a position other than the fastening position with respect to the longitudinal direction of the blade, the proximal end side of the blade is provided even at a location away from the fastening position in the longitudinal direction. The portion and the flat portion of the holder are in close contact with each other. Thereby, the attitude | position of a braid | blade is controlled by the flat part of a holder in any position of a longitudinal direction, and flatness is maintained in the whole area | region of the longitudinal direction of a blade. Therefore, the tip ridge line portion of the blade can uniformly contact the object to be cleaned in the longitudinal direction, and good toner scraping can be performed.

(Aspect B)
In (Aspect A), the pressing member 20 is an elastic member such as rubber or sponge attached to a housing such as the cleaning case 18 to which the cleaning member is attached. According to this, the present invention can be embodied with a simple configuration.

(Aspect C)
In (Aspect A) or (Aspect B), the blade is a metal blade 15 made of a thin metal plate. According to this, as described in the above embodiment, the flatness can be satisfactorily maintained.

(Aspect D)
In (Aspect C), the metal blade 15 has an L-shaped bent portion between the distal end flange portion 15a and the proximal end portion 15b. According to this, as described in the above embodiment, the flatness can be satisfactorily maintained.

(Aspect E)
In the image forming apparatus including at least a toner image forming unit that forms a toner image and a cleaning unit that scrapes off the toner by abutting against a member to be cleaned such as the collecting roller 11 to which the toner has adhered, as the cleaning unit (Aspect A ) To (Aspect D). According to this, as described in the above embodiment, it is possible to achieve both cost reduction of replacement parts and longer life, and reduction of running cost can be achieved.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Photoconductor 2 Charging device 3 Lubricant coating device 4 Developing device 8 Cleaning device 9 Exposure device 10 Cleaning brush 11 Recovery roller 13 Waste toner screw 14 Recovery blade 15 Metal blade 15a Tip side portion 15b Base end side portion 16 Holder 17 Screw 18 Cleaning case 19 Separated place 20 Pressing member 21 Adhesive 56 Intermediate transfer belt

JP 2006-038953 A

Claims (5)

In the cleaning member consisting of a blade and a holder that scrapes off adhering matter by bringing the tip ridge line portion into contact with the surface of the object to be cleaned,
A base end side portion of the blade is sandwiched and fastened between the housing to which the cleaning member is attached and the flat portion of the holder, and the base of the blade is located at a position other than the fastening position in the longitudinal direction of the blade. A cleaning member provided with a pressing member that presses an end side portion against a flat portion of the holder.   The cleaning member according to claim 1, wherein the pressing member is an elastic member attached to a housing to which the cleaning member is attached.   3. The cleaning member according to claim 1, wherein the blade is a metal blade made of a thin metal plate.   4. The cleaning member according to claim 3, wherein the metal blade has an L-shaped bent portion between a distal end portion and a proximal end portion. In an image forming apparatus comprising at least a toner image forming unit that forms a toner image, and a cleaning unit that abuts on a cleaning target to which the toner adheres and scrapes off the toner.
An image forming apparatus using the cleaning member according to any one of claims 1, 2, 3, and 4 as the cleaning means.

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