JP2606841B2 - Abnormality detection device for image forming equipment - Google Patents

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an abnormality detection device for an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine that detects an abnormality during toner conveyance.

(Prior art)

FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 show a configuration for conveying and collecting waste toner from a cleaning section of a conventional electrophotographic copying machine. The waste toner is conveyed from the cleaning unit by the collection coil 1 and delivered to the collection coil 2. The collection coil 2 is driven through the drive gear 3, bevel gears 4, 5 and the chain 6, and collects the waste toner in the waste toner bottle 7. By the way, the amount of waste toner is not always constant, but increases due to the use condition of the user (the amount of waste toner increases when the platen is released and copying is performed) or the change in process conditions over time. If the user or service person forgets to replace the waste toner bottle, the waste toner solidifies and the coil bends and breaks. It breaks, but the user does not notice it with a temporary abnormal sound (tooth breaking sound). Furthermore, the recovery coil from the cleaning unit is damaged, cleaning of the drum is deteriorated, a copy error occurs, a service call is made, and a trouble is noticed. The damaged recovery coils 1, 2 and bevel gears 4, 5
Had been replaced. That is, in the drive transmission device using the conventional gear, there is no means for detecting the overload even if the load on the driven side increases, so that the gear and other parts cannot be prevented from being damaged. .

2. Description of the Related Art As a conventional apparatus for detecting a toner conveyance abnormality, for example, an apparatus disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Publication No. 58-98653 is known. In this apparatus, a helical rotating body that conveys a granular material in an axial direction is disposed movably in an axial direction in a conveying path of the granular material, and the helical rotating body is opposite to a conveying direction of the helical rotating material. It is characterized in that a detection member for detecting the movement in the direction and stopping the operation of the spiral rotating body is provided, and a spiral roller is used as the spiral rotating body.

In this conventional example, when the fur brush hair or paper fiber debris mixed into the toner due to long-term use blocks the opening of the toner collecting unit, or when a large amount of toner is transported due to an abnormality in the apparatus. When the toner is fed into the spiral roller or when the toner is melted by frictional heat during transportation, a large transfer load acts on the spiral roller, and this load causes a part of the rotational force acting on the spiral roller to be a thrust force. Accordingly, the spiral roller compresses the expansion spring at the shaft end and moves rightward in the drawing, and comes into contact with the shaft movement detection sensor to detect a transfer failure state.

Incidentally, in order to move such a rigid body in the thrust direction, a load is applied because the toner and the above-mentioned impurities are usually mixed in the guide groove, and the force at the time of movement is not constant. Therefore, when the spiral roller moves to operate the shaft movement detection sensor, the force applied to the spiral roller is not constant, and therefore, it is not possible to accurately detect the abnormality of the toner.

Further, since the shaft movement detecting sensor is disposed on the shaft of the spiral roller and outside the portion containing the toner, the spiral roller is generally supported by a bearing. Therefore, if the spiral roller moves in the thrust direction while a load is applied to the toner, the toner may leak from the gap between the bearings. In order to prevent this, it is necessary to reliably seal the bearing portion, and it is inevitably expensive.

〔Purpose〕

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems of the related art, and has as its object to perform an abnormality detection apparatus for an image forming apparatus capable of performing highly accurate abnormality detection during toner conveyance and having a small size. It is to provide.

〔Constitution〕

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an abnormality detection device for an image forming apparatus that detects a conveyance abnormality during toner conveyance, a tube member forming a toner conveyance path, and a toner moving inside the tube member. , A toner transport member that moves the toner in the axial direction according to the rotation of the toner transport member, a drive mechanism that transmits a driving force to the toner transport member, and rotates the toner transport member, and a drive mechanism that drives the toner transport member. A supporting means for supporting the shaft of the driven gear so that it can be displaced only in a preset direction intersecting with the axis of the shaft, and the shaft of the driven gear on the driven side from the driving gear. An elastic urging unit that urges the gear in a direction in which the driving force is transmitted; and a rotation of the toner conveying member is hindered, and a shaft of the driven gear is opposed to an elastic force of the elastic urging unit. When a fixed displacement occurs, the displacement is detected. Detecting means for, it is characterized in that a display means for displaying the abnormality in accordance with the operation of the sensing means.

Hereinafter, a specific description will be given based on an embodiment of the present invention.

1 and 2, reference numeral 10 denotes a drive gear, 11 denotes a drive-side bevel gear, 12 denotes a driven-side bevel gear, and a mounting hole 15 of a bearing 14 of a shaft 13 is provided with a substantially pressure angle of the drive-side bevel gear 11. The bearing 14 is pushed up to a regular position by a leaf spring 16 at a constant pressure and meshes with the drive-side bevel gear 11. Further, a compression spring 17 is mounted between the bearing 14 and the driven bevel gear 11, so that the bearing 14 always applies a spring pressure to come into contact with the bracket 18. Reference numeral 19 denotes a microswitch fixed to a bracket 18, and its contact plate 20 is opposed to a lower portion of the driven bevel gear 12 in a normal position.

Next, the operation will be described. When the waste toner starts to fill the waste toner bottle 25 and the load of the collection coil 22 becomes a set load abnormality (substantially determined by the set pressure of the leaf spring 16), the sprocket on the driven side driving the collection coil 22 23b, chain 24 and drive side sprocket 2
The driven bevel gear 3a, which is coaxial with the drive-side sprocket 23a, starts to tilt against the pressure of the leaf spring 16, and pushes down the contact plate 20 of the microswitch 19 as a detecting member to detect an abnormality. In response to the signal, an abnormal display is blinked on the display of the operation unit to enable copying up to a predetermined number of copies, and thereafter, the abnormal display is turned on to disable copying.
When the full waste toner bottle 25 is replaced with an empty bottle and reset, the load on the inclined driven bevel gear 12 is reduced, and the inclined driven bevel gear 12 returns to its original state. Therefore, there is no component damage.

FIG. 5 shows an example of the control circuit. In the figure, CP
For U, 8-bit 8085 (IC101: code 101, the same applies hereinafter) is used. IC102 is output in a time division manner from the IC101.
AD0-7 are divided into addresses A0-7 and data D0-7 by ALE. The IC 103 is a 4-line to 16-line decoder, and uses A12 to A15 so that peripheral ICs can be selected by a memory mapped method. IC105 is 32 KB R
OM, which can be used at 0000H to 7FFFH by A15, and is programmed in its address area. The IC 106 is a RAM, which is 2 kilobytes and is located at 0F000H to 0F7FFH.
ICs 107 to 109 are I / O ports, and input and output can be arbitrarily set by a program. PA0 to 7 and PB0 to
7. It has a 24-bit I / O port for PC0-7. IC11
Reference numeral 0 denotes a keyboard / display (LED) controller, which will be described later in detail with reference to FIG.

IC104 is 8253 and is a programmable timer. Then, the output is connected to RST5.5 and RST7.5 of IC101, and an interrupt operation is given.

SW101 is a normally open type micro switch. Due to the abnormality detection mechanism of the recovery coil 22, this SW10
When 1 is turned on, “b” of the IC 111 becomes GND = 0V. Usually S
Since W101 is off, “b” of IC111 is “H” = 15V.

The SW101 is located at the rear of the machine and is separated from the main controller, so a 15V line is used to improve the noise margin. The IC 111 is a level shifter of 15V → 5V.
“H” = 5V or “L” = 0V.

SW103 is a normally open type reset switch. When this SW103 is pressed, it becomes “L” and “H”.
→ When “L” of “L” is detected by PA2, the CPU (IC101) determines that the reset switch is pressed.

In the drawing, A is a zero-cross detector, and B is a recovery coil 22.
It is a connection clutch.

FIG. 7 shows a circuit diagram of the operation unit. In the figure, 112
Is the one using 8279 as a key switch and LED control IC. Figures 8 and 9 show the key switch and LE
The contents of D are shown. The LED 24 is an LED for displaying a recovery coil abnormality, and the LED 25 is an LED for displaying a toner end.

If a recovery coil error occurs, remove the waste toner bottle 25
This is the time when the waste toner is excessively accumulated and the recovery coil 22 is overloaded, so that the waste toner bottle 25 is taken out and the empty waste toner bottle is set. Since the above is the same as the toner replenishment, the toner end LED may be turned on when the recovery coil is abnormal, and the cost for the LED is reduced.

FIG. 6 shows a signal waveform of SW101 when the recovery coil is abnormal. There is chattering at the time of ON, and if this ON state continues for a long time, the contacts of the bevel gears 11 and 12 will be worn, and this will occur when the SW 101 is turned off. The drive system may be turned off before the machine is worn. A clutch (electromagnetic clutch) may be used for the drive unit, and when this abnormality is detected, the clutch may be turned off to eliminate the transmission of the drive.

The recovery coil abnormality check routine of FIG. 10 will be described. In this figure, SB101 checks whether SW101 in FIG. 5 is ON or not. If it is on, the abnormality detection counter is counting up. The abnormality detection counter
If it is less than 10, it is not regarded as abnormal (SB102). If this counter is 10 or more, it is regarded as abnormal and the recovery coil error SW
Set the ON flag (FIJSW = "H"). The abnormality detection counter is cleared. When the connection / disconnection clutch B for driving the recovery coil is used for drive transmission, the clutch B is turned off at this time, the load on the recovery coil 22 is eliminated, and the recovery coil abnormality display LED 24 is blinked.

FIGS. 11 to 13 show three patterns of the remaining copy control method after the recovery coil abnormality detection has been activated as flow charts.

In the example of FIG. 11, it is determined in SB201 whether or not copying is in progress. Unless copying is in progress, the following processing is not performed.
In SB202, the judgment of FIJSW set in the recovery coil abnormality check routine of FIG. 10 is performed. FIJSW is “H”
Otherwise, it will return (RET). FIJSW = H for SB203
At this time, it is determined that the transfer paper has been fed.
If paper has been fed, count up the remaining copy counter (CCI). The number of copies has been compared with the reference value of 100 since the recovery coil abnormality SW was turned on in SB204. If 100 or more copies have been taken, the copying is stopped and the display LED 24 for the recovery coil abnormality is turned on. As described above, the toner end LED 25 may be turned on. Then, the recovery coil abnormality flag is set. The machine is
When this flag is set, copying is disabled, and copying is stopped until the reset key is pressed. Then, the remaining copy counter (CCI) is cleared.

Another remaining copy control method will be described with reference to FIG. That is, the SB 301 determines the FIJSW to be set in the recovery coil abnormality routine of FIG. If this flag is "L", the following processing is not performed. The SB 302 checks whether or not copying has been completed. When the recovery coil error SW is turned on, if copying is in progress, copying in that mode is performed until the end. This is because if copying is stopped halfway, it will have a significant effect on the user's work. When the mode ends, the recovery coil abnormality flag is set, and the display of the recovery coil abnormality is turned on (the LED 24 is lit). The reset is due to toner replacement.

The remaining copy control method shown in FIG.
The set FIJSW is determined in the figure. If this flag is not set, the following processing is not performed. At SB402, the state of the DIP switch SW102 shown in FIG. 5 is determined. If this SW 102 is “L”, the control shown in FIG. 12 is performed. If this SW 102 is “H”, the control shown in FIG. 11 is performed. Here, "L" indicates that the depth switch SW102 has been closed, and "H" indicates that it has been opened. The DIP switch SW102 is set / reset to the above-mentioned two positions.
One of the two controls is selected.

FIG. 14 shows the main control routine. That is, after the power is turned on, an initialization routine is performed, and the process proceeds to MAIN :. MAIN: Since then, I have done all the necessary work as a copier. The recovery coil abnormality check described in this embodiment and the remaining copy control are also provided after MAIN :. The processing from the detection of the jam to the display control is performed in a cycle of 30 to 60 milliseconds, and is repeatedly executed. FIG. 15 shows a routine for resetting the recovery coil abnormality. SB50
At 1, it is determined whether or not the recovery coil abnormality flag is set (= H). If not set, return (RET). Reset key (SW103) on SB502
Is pressed, clears the recovery coil abnormality flag if pressed, turns on the drive system for 10 seconds after reset, and drives for 10 seconds to perform the operation to eliminate displacement of bevel gears 11 and 12 Set the ON flag.

FIG. 16 shows a routine for driving for 10 seconds. That is, if the drive ON flag is set (= H) for 10 seconds (SB601), the opening and closing of the door is checked (SB602), and if the door is closed, the drive is turned on for 10 seconds. In SB603, if the drive-on time has passed 10 seconds, the drive is turned off.

Note that the recovery coil abnormality reset in FIG. 15 and the 10-second driving subroutine in FIG. 16 are included in the main routine in FIG.

Further, although the embodiment of the present invention detects the load on the recovery coil due to the increase of waste toner, the present invention is not limited to this. The drive side bevel gear may be displaceable, the bevel gear may be replaced with a spur gear, and the sensing element may be a microswitch of the embodiment, a proximity sensor, a photo sensor, or the like. , Other sensing elements may be used.

〔effect〕

As described above, according to the present invention, the load due to the toner increases, and the overload of the toner transfer coil is detected from the change in the rotation state of the toner transfer coil. Therefore, highly accurate abnormality detection can be performed. Further, since the abnormality detection device is incorporated in the drive system of the toner conveying device, and the abnormality is detected by detecting the displacement in the direction intersecting the axis of the driven gear, the device can be made compact as a whole.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a sectional front view taken along the line AA of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a conventional apparatus, and FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the bevel gear meshing portion shown in FIG.
FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the control circuit of the present invention, FIG. 6 is a switch signal waveform diagram when the recovery coil is abnormal in the embodiment, FIG. 7 is a circuit diagram of an operation section of the embodiment, FIG. Fig. 9
The figure shows the contents of the key switch and LED of the embodiment,
FIG. 0 is a flowchart showing a recovery coil abnormality check routine, FIGS. 11, 12, and 13 are flowcharts showing a remaining copy control method after detection of a recovery coil abnormality, and FIG. 14 is a flowchart showing a main control routine. FIG. 15 is a flow chart showing a recovery coil abnormality reset routine.
FIG. 16 is a flowchart of the driving routine for 10 seconds. 11,12 ... gear, 13 ... gear shaft, 19 ... detection member, LED24
……display.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. An abnormality detection device for an image forming apparatus for detecting a conveyance abnormality during toner conveyance, comprising: a tube member which forms a toner conveyance path, in which toner moves inside; A toner conveying member that moves the toner in the axial direction according to its own rotation, a driving mechanism that transmits a driving force to the toner conveying member to rotate the toner conveying member, and a gear that is driven by the driving mechanism. Support means for supporting the shaft so that it can be displaced only in a preset direction intersecting the axis of the shaft; and a driving force transmitted from the main gear to the driven gear from the main gear to the driven gear. Elastic urging means for urging in the direction of rotation, when the rotation of the toner conveying member is inhibited, and the shaft of the driven gear is displaced by a predetermined amount against the elastic force of the elastic urging means, Detecting means for detecting the displacement; Display means for displaying an abnormality in accordance with the operation of the detection means. An abnormality detection apparatus for an image forming apparatus, comprising: