JP2585445Y2 - Residual toner recovery device - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a residual toner collecting device incorporated in an electrophotographic apparatus applicable as a facsimile, a printer or a copying machine, and in particular, to a method for transferring a toner image carried on the photosensitive member to the photosensitive member. A residual toner collection device comprising a cleaning roller for removing the residual toner and a screw for transporting the residual toner cleaned from the photosensitive drum to the collection container side extending parallel to the photosensitive drum axis. Related to the device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an exposure image is formed on a drum-shaped or belt-shaped photosensitive member using a light output corresponding to a document image or image information, and the exposed image is formed using a developing device. 2. Description of the Related Art An electrophotographic apparatus configured to transfer a toner image to a plain paper or other recording material after forming a toner image is known, and is widely used in printers, copiers, and other image forming apparatuses. For example, as shown in FIG. 6, this type of apparatus generally includes a cleaning roller 50 and a knife-edge-shaped cleaning blade 51 together with a cleaning roller 50 as a cleaning mechanism 5 for removing residual toner adhering to the photosensitive drum 1 after the transfer of the toner image. The toner is rubbed against the surface to scrape off the toner adhering to the drum surface, and the scraped toner is disposed on the drum shaft end side via a screw 60 extending in parallel with the photosensitive drum shaft. It is configured to lead to the collection bottle of the.

[0003]

However, in the prior art, when the cleaning blade 51 and the cleaning roller 50 uniformly remove the toner over the entire width of the photosensitive drum 1, the screw 60 is mounted on the side of the collection bottle. In order to take a configuration in which the toner is gradually accumulated along the axial direction of the photosensitive drum 1, the toner that cannot be completely conveyed by the screw 60 overflows on the downstream side (bottle mounting side) in the screw rotation direction. While collecting in the space 5A interposed between the screw 60, the cleaning roller 50, and the cleaning blade 51, the toner pool eventually overflows to the cleaning roller 50 side, so that smooth cleaning cannot be performed.

On the other hand, in the above-described apparatus, the toner recovery bottle must be provided at a restricted location on or below the shaft end of the screw 60. As a result, the design is restricted and the toner collection bottle is restricted. The permissible space for disposing the collection bottle is small, and as a result, the replacement cycle of the collection bottle on the user side is shortened, and the maintenance work is complicated.

In order to solve such a drawback, the present applicant first provided an intermediate conveying means extending from a terminal position of the screw shaft in a plane direction substantially perpendicular to the drum shaft. A technique has been proposed in which the end of the screw 60 and the toner collection bottle are connected via a pulley / belt mechanism extending along a surface direction orthogonal to the above.
(Japanese Utility Model Application No. 3-28389)

According to such technical means, the arrangement position of the collecting section is not limited to the end of the screw, in other words, the vicinity of the cleaning mechanism 5, but the most preferable position in the apparatus, for example, toner supply incorporated in the developing device It can be placed on the side of the container. Further, by connecting the drive pulley of the belt mechanism to the screw shaft end, the belt mechanism does not have an independent drive source, the synchronization between the two conveying means can be completely achieved, and the screw shaft end side is provided. The residual toner can be continuously conveyed to the collection unit side without stagnation, which has the effect of completely eliminating the risk of overflow at an intermediate position.

However, it has been found that the above-mentioned prior art still has the following problem. That is, in the prior art, since the transport path is bent from the drum axis direction to the drum orthogonal direction using the first and second transport means, toner accumulation easily occurs at the bent position. . When the accumulation occurs, the fluidity as a so-called powder (toner) is greatly reduced. Accordingly, in the prior art, in order to improve the flow of the toner, for example, as shown in FIG. However, even if the above configuration is adopted, since the conveying force at the end of the screw 60 is reduced, it is unavoidable that toner accumulation occurs at the position facing the drive pulley.

In view of the drawbacks of the prior art, the present invention is to provide a residual toner collecting device which can be smoothly cleaned and transported without causing a residual toner overflow at a toner cleaning portion and a toner accumulation at a screw end portion. With the goal.

[0009]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 2, the conveying screws 6 arranged side by side as shown in FIG.
0 and the cleaning roller 50 with the respective constituting rotatably in the same direction, the screw 60 and the rollers 5
Across on 0, contactable to either of the screw 60 and the roller 50 in its axial direction, and, substantially Kleene
Roller 50 has the same length as the
A co-rotating member 70 that rotates by receiving the rotational force of either the crown 60 or the roller 50 is mounted. The present invention is applied to all the residual toner collecting device in which the cleaning roller 50 and the screw 60 and other conveying rollers are arranged side by side, and it does not matter whether the above-described belt / pulley conveying mechanism is included. The two members 50 and 60 do not necessarily need to be rotated at the same peripheral speed, and the peripheral speed on the screw 60 side may be increased, and the co-rotating member 70 may be rotated as if rubbing against the surface of the cleaning roller 50. The cleaning roller 5
The toner sweeping effect on the zero surface increases.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the transfer screw is provided.
The peripheral speed of rotation of the over, characterized in that the faster than the peripheral speed of the cleaning roller. The invention of claim 3, wherein the pre
An intermediate transport mechanism extending along a direction perpendicular to the photosensitive drum axis is connected to the exit end of the screw, and the residual toner can be transported to the collection container side via the intermediate transport mechanism. Both are characterized in that stirring blades rotatable integrally with the mounting shaft of the screw are provided at a position facing the transfer start end of the intermediate transfer mechanism on the screw blade end side of the screw. As shown in FIG. 3, an intermediate transport mechanism (belt mechanism) 20 extending along a direction perpendicular to the axis of the photosensitive drum is connected to the exit end side of the screw 60, and is collected via the intermediate transport mechanism 20. The point that the residual toner can be conveyed to the container side is the same as that of the prior application, but the present invention is particularly applied to the conveyance start end of the intermediate conveyance mechanism 20 on the screw blade end side of the screw 60, specifically, the belt. A stirring blade 61 rotatable integrally with the shaft of the screw 60 is provided at a position facing the drive pulley 21 of the mechanism 20.

[0011]

Next, the operation of the present invention will be described. First, according to the invention of claim 1, the presence of the co-rotating member 70 disposed between the two juxtaposed members 50, 60 prevents the formation of a toner pool while also rotating the co-rotating member 70. Thus, the toner pool that is to be generated on the downstream side in the transport direction of the screw 60 is smoothed in the axial direction while being pushed back to the upstream side. In particular, the co-rotating member 70 includes both members 50,
Since the toner is rotated while swinging left and right between 60, the toner pool can be easily broken, and the smoothing is further enhanced. As a result, the possibility that the toner pool overflows to the cleaning roller 50 side is eliminated, and smooth cleaning is enabled. Also, in particular, the co-rotating member 70 is not supported by the shaft hole, but takes a structure in which the co-rotating member 70 is placed between the two members 50 and 60 so that the co-rotating member 70 is simply rotated between the two members 50 and 60. Because of the mounting structure, bearings and conductive gears are not required, and the structure can be applied to existing residual toner collecting devices without complicating the structure.

On the other hand, according to the present invention, the peripheral speed of the screw 60 is made faster than the peripheral speed of the cleaning roller 50 so that when the screw 60 is in contact with the co-rotating member 70, The co-rotating member 70 can be rotated as if rubbing against the surface of the cleaning roller 50, thereby increasing the toner sweeping effect on the surface of the cleaning roller 50. According to the invention of claim 3, since the intermediate transport mechanism 20 extending along the surface direction perpendicular to the drum axis is provided, the residual toner collecting container 41 is not limited to the vicinity of the cleaning mechanism 5, It can be arranged at the most preferable position in the apparatus, for example, near the toner supply container. As a result, the amount of the developer used in the toner supply container 40 and the amount of the residual toner discharged are highly correlated, so that the capacity of the toner collection container 41 corresponds to the amount of the developer in the toner supply container 40. When the setting is made, the time of toner supply into the toner supply container and the time of replacement of the collection unit match, and the time of supply of the toner supply container can be automatically determined by the developer detection sensor and the number of printed sheets. ,
The collection container can be accurately replaced together with the toner supply container.

In particular, in the present invention, a stirring blade 61 rotatable integrally with the screw mounting shaft is provided at a position facing the driving pulley of the belt mechanism. The toner accumulated in the toner is stirred and mixed with air. As a result, the apparent specific gravity of the accumulated toner can be reduced, and the fluidity can be improved. In particular, since the belt mechanism has its transport portion located not on the center but on the periphery of the driving pulley 21, the toner guided to the center is scattered to the peripheral side by the agitation and can be smoothly put on the belt. .

[0014]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention; However, unless otherwise specified, dimensions, materials, shapes, relative arrangements, and the like of the components described in this embodiment are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention thereto, but are merely illustrative examples. Not just. FIG.
1 is an image forming apparatus using an electrophotographic method according to an embodiment of the present invention. A charging device 2 composed of a corona discharge device, a light exposure device 3 composed of an optical system, and a developing sleeve are provided around a photosensitive drum 1 along a rotating direction. 4a, a developing device 4 facing the drum 1 and a transfer device 6;
Exposure means 3 on the photosensitive drum 1 uniformly charged by
Is used to form an exposure image corresponding to the image information, and the exposed image is formed into a toner image using the developing sleeve 4a, and then the recording is guided to the transfer position from the registration roller 7 in synchronization with the toner image. The toner image can be transferred to a material.

A toner cleaning mechanism 5 is provided on the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 1 from the transfer position to the charging position. The cleaning mechanism 5 has a cleaning roller 50 and a cleaning blade 51 on the side facing the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 1 along its rotation direction, and the peripheral surface and the tip of the blade 51 are disposed so as to be able to press against the drum. The frame 52 that supports or supports them is substantially “one”.
A screw 60 is formed in the shape of a letter, and a screw 60 extending parallel to the drum axis together with the cleaning roller 50 is disposed behind the frame 52. The screw 60 and the cleaning roller 50 are connected to a drive system (not shown), and are configured to be rotatable at the same peripheral speed and in the same direction. The peripheral speed is set to be higher than the peripheral speed of the photosensitive drum 1 so that the residual toner is scraped off toward the upper side of the cleaning roller 50. Further, as shown in FIG.
A circular co-rotating roller 70 is placed between 0 and 60. The co-rotating roller 70 is set to be slightly shorter than the entire length of the frame 52, and is configured to be able to co-rotate following the rotation of the pair of members 50 and 60 arranged side by side.

According to this configuration, the photosensitive drum 1
After the toner image carried thereon is transferred to plain paper via the transfer roller 6, a part of the toner image is guided to the cleaning mechanism 5 while remaining on the photosensitive drum 1 together with the paper dust. In the cleaning mechanism 5, the toner is scraped off by the cleaning blade 51 while the residual toner is swept upward by the rubbing of the cleaning roller 50.
It leads to the zero contact position. The co around roller 70 is the
Since the cleaning roller 50 and the screw 60 are rotated by the rotation of the cleaning roller 50, the residual toner is guided to the screw 60 side while being pressed by its own weight, and is guided to the belt mechanism side described later by the screw 60. The screw 60 is configured to gradually accumulate the toner along the axial direction of the photosensitive drum 1, and a part of the toner that cannot be completely conveyed by the screw 60 on the downstream side in the screw rotation direction is removed by the cleaning roller 50. And said
Although the space between the screws 60 tends to overflow, the upper space is closed by the co-rotating roller 70, so that the toner to overflow overflows due to the presence of the co-rotating roller 70. Side, and can be smoothed along the axial direction.

FIGS. 3 to 5 show a mechanism for collecting the residual toner conveyed by the screw 60. First, the screw 60 has a spiral around a screw shaft 62 extending parallel to the drum 1 as shown in FIG. Spiral blade 6
As shown in FIG. 4, a shaft 62a having a key protrusion in cross section is formed so as to surround the screw shaft 62, and a stirring blade 61 is fitted to the protrusion shaft 62a. Then, the driving pulley 21 of the belt mechanism is
Of the shaft hole 21a is fitted. Numeral 65 is a frame surrounding the screw shaft 62, and the diameter of the shaft portion of the protruding portion 62a is enlarged so as to expand toward the end.
a is configured to be fittable.

The belt mechanism 20 includes the screw shaft 62
Drive pulley 21 fitted to the projecting shaft 62a, a driven pulley 24 disposed at a position facing an opening 42 of a toner collection container 41 described later, and a belt 23 stretched between the pulleys 21 and 24. 3 and 5, extending obliquely upward toward the toner replenishing container 40 along a plane orthogonal to the drum shaft at the one end of the photosensitive drum 1 as shown in FIGS. Have been established. The drive pulley 21
Is formed in a cylindrical shape, the center hole 21a of which is formed in a key groove shape that can be fitted to the screw shaft end 62a, and a pair of protrusions 21b are protruded on the outer periphery thereof to form the engagement hole 2
7 can be engaged. The belt 23 is formed of a rubber-like belt having a partition wall 26 made of a flexible elastic material provided upright at predetermined intervals on the outer peripheral surface.
Are formed along the longitudinal direction. As shown in FIG. 5, the frame 22 has a substantially oval shape surrounding the belt 23. The frame 22 has an inlet 22 a on the drive pulley 21 side, and the toner collection unit 41 below the driven pulley 24. The side facing the opening 42 is opened to form the toner discharge port 22b.

As shown in FIG. 5, the toner collecting container 41 includes a collecting container mounting table 4 provided at a side end of the toner replenishing container 40.
6, and is removably held by a leaf spring 43 provided on the bottom surface of the mounting base 46 and a lever member 45 mounted on the back side of the guide wall 44 for setting the toner collecting container 41.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. First, as described above, the rotation of the screw shaft 62 uses the spiral blade 64 to convey the residual toner to the shaft 1 end side of the drum. At this time, a stirring blade 61 rotatable integrally with the screw shaft 62 is provided at the terminal side of the spiral blade 64, so that the toner accumulated at the terminal side of the spiral blade 64 is stirred by the rotation of the stirring blade 61. Then, the toner is mixed with air, and as a result, the apparent specific gravity of the accumulated toner can be reduced and the fluidity can be improved, so that the toner can be smoothly carried into the belt of the belt mechanism 20.

Since the drive pulley 21 of the belt mechanism is connected to the screw shaft 62, the belt mechanism 20 rotates in synchronization with the screw shaft 62, and the partition wall 66 of the belt 62 is used. Then, the residual toner is conveyed to the driven pulley 65 side as it is, and the toner can be smoothly discharged from the toner discharge port to the toner collection container 41 side.

[0022]

As described above, according to the present invention, the toner can be smoothly cleaned without causing overflow of the toner in the toner cleaning section or toner accumulation at the end of the screw, and can be smoothly transferred to the toner collecting container via the intermediate conveyance mechanism. Transport can be performed smoothly. And so on.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a main part of a photoconductor drum of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the cleaning mechanism of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing a residual toner collecting mechanism from the screw in FIG. 1 to a collecting container.

FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of a screw terminal side.

FIG. 5 is a front view of FIG. 3;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a main part of a conventional image forming apparatus, focusing on a photosensitive drum.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 photoreceptor drum 60 screw 50 cleaning roller 70 co-rotating member

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁶ , DB name) G03G 21/10-21/12

Claims (3)

(57) [Scope of request for utility model registration] A cleaning roller that removes residual toner by rubbing against the photosensitive drum in a residual toner conveying path in parallel with a photosensitive drum shaft; and a cleaning device that removes residual toner removed by the cleaning roller from the photosensitive drum shaft. And a conveying screw for conveying the toner to the collection container side in the direction, wherein the cleaning roller and the conveying screw arranged side by side are arranged.
A-menu while configured to be rotated in the same direction, the click
Straddling on the leaning roller and the conveying screw ,
Both the cleaning roller and the transport screw can contact in the axial direction, and the cleaning roller
And rotate by receiving any rotational force of the conveying screw , and have approximately the same length as the cleaning roller.
Residual toner collecting device having a co-rotating member mounted thereon 2. The residual toner collecting device according to claim 1, wherein the peripheral speed at which the transport screw rotates is faster than the peripheral speed of the cleaning roller. 3. An intermediate transport mechanism extending along a direction perpendicular to the axis of the photosensitive drum is connected to an outlet end of the screw , and residual toner is supplied to the collection container via the intermediate transport mechanism. A stirring blade that is configured to be able to be conveyed and that is provided with a stirring blade that is rotatable integrally with a mounting shaft of the screw at a position facing the conveyance start end of the intermediate conveyance mechanism on the screw blade end side of the screw. 2. The residual toner collecting device according to 1.