JP2851216B2 - Image forming device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine and a laser beam printer, and more particularly, to a fixing device which uses a release agent when fixing a toner image on a recording material. The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine or a laser beam printer, a toner image formed on a photosensitive drum (image carrier) through processes such as charging, exposure and development is
It is transferred onto a recording material such as paper by a transfer device, and then
It is heated and pressed by a fixing roller, a pressure roller, and the like of the fixing device, and is fixed on a recording material as a permanent image.

By the way, a multicolor image forming apparatus such as 4
In a full-color image forming apparatus, four different color toners are used, and these four color toners are sequentially transferred so as to be superimposed on a recording material wound around a transfer drum (transfer device). After the fixing, fixing is performed by the fixing device. Therefore, the properties of the color toner are required to have good melting properties and color mixing properties when heated by a fixing device. If the melting and color mixing are poor, the air gap between the toner particles increases, and the scattering of light at the interface with air causes the original color tone of the toner dye to be lost. This is because the color reproducibility is reduced due to being hidden by the toner in the upper layer. To satisfy these melting properties and color mixing properties, a so-called sharp melt toner having a low softening point and a low melt viscosity is used. By using such a toner, color reproducibility can be enhanced and a color copy faithful to a document can be obtained.

[0004] However, sharp-melt toners have a drawback that they tend to be offset to the fixing roller because of their high affinity. The recording material on which the toner images of the four colors are stacked is subjected to pressure in addition to being heated in the fixing device. Therefore, the toner having a high affinity tends to be transferred to and adhered to the fixing roller by the heating and pressing. When the toner is transferred to the fixing roller, the toner is
All of them are transferred to the next recording material or solidified on the fixing roller, and both cause image defects.

Therefore, a release agent is used to prevent such defects. Prior to the fixing of the toner image on the recording material by the fixing device, a liquid release agent such as oil is applied onto the fixing roller. As a result, when the toner image is heated and pressed, the fixing roller comes into contact with the toner image on the recording material via the release agent without directly contacting the toner image, and the toner is transferred to the fixing roller side. To effectively prevent adhesion.

After the toner image is fixed, the release agent remaining on the fixing roller is wiped off by, for example, a cleaning device provided with a nonwoven fabric.

[0007]

However, according to the above-mentioned prior art, although the use of the release agent can prevent the toner from transferring to the fixing roller, when copying is performed on both sides of the recording material, In addition, a new problem arises in that the release agent transfers from the recording material to the transfer drum and from the transfer drum to the photosensitive drum, causing image defects.

That is, in the case of double-sided copying, the first side of the recording material to be copied is one side, and the second side to be copied is two sides.
If it is a surface, the release agent is transferred to one surface of the recording material by the first copy. This transfer of the release agent has no bearing if copying is not performed on two sides. However,
When copying on two surfaces, when the recording material is wound around the surface of the transfer drum in preparation for transfer of the toner image to the recording material, the release agent is transferred on one surface of the recording material, that is, on the first copy. The surface comes into contact with the transfer drum surface, which causes the release agent to transfer to the transfer drum surface. Then, when the recording material separates from the transfer drum for fixing,
The release agent on the transfer drum is transferred to and adheres to the surface of the photosensitive drum that is in contact with the transfer drum.

When the release agent is transferred and adhered to the photosensitive drum in this manner, the release agent is sufficiently wiped off by a photosensitive drum cleaning device which is originally intended to remove residual toner on the photosensitive drum. Can not do. For this reason, since the residual toner on the photosensitive drum is put on the release agent such as oil, the releasability of the residual toner from the photosensitive drum is deteriorated, and the residual toner cannot be sufficiently removed by the cleaning device. . Further, when the release agent is adhered to the photosensitive drum, the toner during development easily adheres to a portion outside the image forming area in addition to the residual toner (particularly, as in the case of jumping development, In the case of flying, extra toner adheres more). In this way, the release agent on the photosensitive drum causes residual toner and toner during development to adhere to portions of the photosensitive drum where toner should not originally adhere, and these toners will be used in subsequent copies. The image is transferred and a dirty image is formed.

In view of the above, according to the present invention, the release agent is prevented from being transferred to and adhered to the image carrier by providing spacer particle coating means for interposing spacer particles between the recording material carrier and the recording material. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus capable of preventing occurrence of an image defect.

[0011]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has an image carrier having a surface on which a toner image is formed, a recording material carrier for carrying and transporting a recording material. A transfer device for transferring the toner image on the image carrier to a recording material on the recording material support, and heating and pressing the toner image transferred on the recording material with a fixing member coated with a release agent. And a fixing device for fixing the recording material on the recording material, further comprising a spacer particle coating unit for interposing spacer particles between the recording material support and the recording material. .

[0012]

Based on the above construction, the release agent that has adhered to the recording material during the conventional two-sided copying or when the toner image formed on the first surface is fixed tends to adhere to the recording material support during the next surface copying. However, the spacer particles are interposed between the recording material support and the recording material by the spacer particle applying means to prevent the release agent from adhering to the recording material support.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. <Example 1> As an example of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention,
FIG. 1 shows an outline of a four-color full-color laser beam printer 1.

The laser beam printer 1 has a photosensitive drum 3 as an image carrier substantially at the center of the apparatus main body 2. The photosensitive drum 3 has a photosensitive layer formed on its surface, is rotatably supported by the apparatus main body 2, and is driven to rotate in the direction of arrow R1 by a driving device (not shown).

Around the photosensitive drum 3, a primary charger (charging device) 5 for uniformly charging the surface of the photosensitive drum 3 in order along its rotation direction, and irradiating the surface of the photosensitive drum 3 with light to form an electrostatic charge. Laser beam exposure device (exposure means) for forming a latent image
6. A developing device 7 for forming a toner image by attaching toner to the electrostatic latent image is provided.

The developing device 7 shown in FIG. 1 is of a rotary type, and has a rotating body 7a supported by the apparatus main body 2 and four developing devices mounted on the rotating body 7a, ie, magenta and cyan. , Developing units 7M, 7C, 7Y, 7B containing toners (developers) of respective colors of yellow, black
K. Each developing unit 7M, 7C, 7
Y and 7BK sequentially move to a developing position facing the photosensitive drum 3 by the rotation of the rotating body 7a, and form toner images of each color by attaching toner to electrostatic latent images corresponding to the respective colors. In order to perform four-color full-color copying, the electrostatic latent images on the photosensitive drums 3 are developed once each. Above the developing device 7, the developing devices 7M, 7C,
Four hoppers 7 for supplying toner to 7Y and 7BK
b is arranged.

A transfer drum (recording material support) 9 is disposed downstream of the developing device 7 along the rotation direction of the photosensitive drum 3. The transfer drum 9 formed into a cylindrical shape as a whole is rotatably supported by the apparatus main body 2.
The photosensitive drum 3 rotates in the direction of arrow R2 while being in contact with the photosensitive drum 3.

FIG. 2 shows the details of the transfer drum 9. The transfer drum 9 is a base member 1 made of a conductive member such as a metal.
0 and a recording material carrying sheet 11 stretched over this. The base member 10 includes a pair of left and right annular cylinder portions 10a and 10b,
a, a connecting portion 10c for connecting a part of 10b, and a recording material gripper 10d attached along the connecting portion 10c
Are integrally configured. Recording material gripper 10
As for d, one side in the longitudinal direction slightly floats from the connecting portion 10c,
The leading edge of the recording material P can be gripped in this gap. The recording material supporting sheet 11 is a film-like dielectric sheet having good releasability, such as a polyethylene terephthalate or polyvinylidene fluoride resin (PVdF) film, and has a thickness of 25 to 2000 μm.
m, preferably 70 to 200 μm. The recording material carrying sheet 11 is stretched so as to cover a portion between the left and right cylinder portions 10a and 10b other than the connecting portion 10c in a substantially cylindrical shape. The recording material carrying sheet 11 has its leading end fixed on the connecting portion 10c, and the left and right cylinder portions 1 are fixed.
It makes almost one round with the glue along 0a and 10b, and its rear end is fixed on the connecting portion 10c near the front end in the same manner as the front end. Therefore, most of the outer peripheral surface of the transfer drum 9 is occupied by the recording material carrying sheet 11.

A transfer discharger (transfer device) 12 is provided inside the transfer drum 9 at a position facing the photosensitive drum 3, as shown in FIGS. An inner discharging discharger 13 is disposed adjacent to the downstream side, and two outer discharging dischargers 15 and 16 are disposed outside the discharger 13 opposite to the inner discharger 13.
Further, a pressing member 17 is disposed inside the transfer drum 9 obliquely above the above-described transfer discharger 12. The pressing member 17 has an elastic sheet 17b having a base end fixed to a mounting base 17a. The elastic sheet 17b is gently curved, and its leading end is located downstream of the transfer drum 9 in the rotation direction (the direction of the arrow R2), and the leading end presses the inner peripheral side of the recording material carrying sheet 11. ,
The recording material carrying sheet 11 is pressed against the surface of the photosensitive drum 3. Thus, the transfer efficiency of the toner image to the recording material P is improved, and a clear transfer image is obtained.

In this embodiment, the diameter of the transfer drum 9 is set to 16
0 mm and the moving speed were set to 160 mm / sec. The process speed, which is the moving speed of the photosensitive drum 3 and the like, is also 1
It was set to 60 mm / sec. The transfer discharger 12 is
A corona charger having a discharge wire 12a (see FIG. 3) and a shield plate 12b, and an opening width W of the shield plate 12b
Was set to 19 mm, the distance r1 between the discharge wire 12a and the surface of the photosensitive drum 3 was set to 10.5 mm, and the distance r2 between the discharge wire 12a and the bottom surface of the shield plate was set to 16 mm. Further, for example, +4 to +
A voltage of 10 kV is applied, and the transfer current is increased from +25 to +500.
μA.

A cleaning device 18 (see FIG. 1) is disposed obliquely below the transfer drum 9. The cleaning device 18 includes a fur brush 18 a that removes residual toner on the surface of the recording material carrying sheet 11, and a cleaning auxiliary unit 1 that is disposed inside the transfer drum 9 so as to face the fur brush 18 a.
8b. The fur brush 18a is driven to rotate by a driving unit (not shown).

Rotation direction of photosensitive drum 3 (direction of arrow R1)
A cleaning device 19 is provided downstream of the transfer drum 9 along the line so as to be adjacent to the primary charger 5 described above. The cleaning device 19 has a cleaning blade 19 a made of an elastic material, and removes residual toner on the photosensitive drum 3 by pressing the tip of the cleaning blade 19 a against the surface of the photosensitive drum 3.

Next, the transport system of the recording material P will be described. As a whole, the transport path Ru of the recording material P is fed from the lower portion of the right side surface 2R of the apparatus main body 2 and is conveyed toward the transfer drum 9, where the toner image is transferred by the transfer drum 9 and the like. After that, the paper is discharged to the upper part of the right side surface 2R away from the transfer drum 9.

On the most upstream side of the transport path Ru, sheet feeding cassettes 20, which store recording materials P of different sizes, are provided.
It is detachably attached to the right side surface 2R of the apparatus main body 2. A paper feed roller 21 that supplies the recording material P from the paper feed cassette 20 toward the transport path Ru is provided above the leading end side of each paper feed cassette 20, and a transport roller 2 is provided downstream thereof.
2. A registration roller 23 is provided. The recording material gripper 10d of the transfer drum 9 described above
3 grasps the leading edge of the recording material P supplied to the transfer drum 9. When the transfer drum 9 rotates with the leading edge being gripped by the recording material gripper 10d, the entire recording material P becomes Z
The transfer drum 9 is wound around the recording material carrying sheet 11. A separating claw 25 for separating the recording material P after the transfer of the toner image from the transfer drum 9 is disposed on the upper right side of the transfer drum 9 with its leading end portion close to the surface of the transfer drum 9.
On the downstream side, a transport belt 2 that transports the recording material P separated by the separation claw 25 toward a fixing device 30 described below.
6. A paper discharge tray 27 for discharging the recording material P after fixing the toner image is arranged.

The fixing device 30 has a fixing roller 31 as a fixing member having a heater 33 housed therein, and a pressure roller 32 also having a heater 35 housed therein. When the toner image passes between the rollers 31 and 32, the toner image is heated and pressed to fix the toner image on the recording material P as a permanent image.

Next, a four-color full-color image forming process by the laser beam printer 1 having the above-described configuration will be briefly described.

The photosensitive drum 3 is driven to rotate in the direction of arrow R1, and the surface of the photosensitive drum 3 is uniformly charged by the primary charger 5. The charged photosensitive drum 3 is exposed by a laser beam exposure device 6. At this time, first, exposure corresponding to magenta image information is performed to form an electrostatic latent image. The magenta developing device 7M of the developing device 7 is opposed to the photosensitive drum 3, and the electrostatic latent image is developed and visualized to form a magenta toner image on the photosensitive drum 3.

On the other hand, the recording material P stored in the paper feed cassette 20 is moved by the rotation of the paper feed roller 21 to the transport path R.
u, and then to the transfer drum 9 via the transport roller 22 and the registration roller 23. The supplied recording material P is gripped at its leading edge by the recording material gripper 10d and wound around the surface of the transfer drum 9 as the transfer drum 9 rotates in the direction of arrow R2.

The above-described magenta toner image is transferred onto the recording material P wound around the transfer drum 9. When the magenta toner image on the photosensitive drum 3 reaches the transfer area (the contact portion between the photosensitive drum 3 and the transfer drum 9), the toner image is transferred from the back side of the recording material carrying sheet 11 to the transfer discharger 12. As a result, the recording medium P receives a corona discharge of the opposite polarity and is transferred onto the recording material P wound around the transfer drum 9. This completes the transfer of the magenta toner image.

Thereafter, through the same process, the transfer drum 9
The cyan, yellow, and black toner images are sequentially transferred onto the upper recording material P, and four color toner images are superimposed on the recording material P.

The recording material P to which the four color toner images have been transferred is
While being discharged by the inner and outer discharging dischargers 13, 15, 16, the discharger is separated from the transfer drum 9 by the separation claw 25. The separated recording material P is transported to the fixing device 30 by the transport belt 26. Here, the toner image is
It is heated and pressed to be fixed on the recording material P as a permanent image. At this time, the fixing operation speed of the fixing device 30 is 90 m, which is lower than the process speed of the device main body 2 of 160 mm / sec.
m / sec. This is because the toner is 2
In the case where the unfixed image formed by laminating the four layers is mixed and mixed, a sufficient amount of heat must be applied to the toner.
The amount of heat applied to the toner is increased. The recording material P on which the toner image has been fixed is then discharged onto the discharge tray 27.

In an image forming apparatus such as the above-described four-color full-color laser beam printer 1 which generally forms a multi-color toner image, the toner is different from that used for a single color in that a four-layer toner is used. Therefore, those having a low softening point and a low melt viscosity, so-called sharp melt properties, are used. Sharp-melt toners have good melting properties and color mixing properties when heated, and these characteristics allow the color reproduction range of a copy to be expanded and a color copy faithful to the color of the original to be obtained.

The toner, which is the first feature of the four-color full-color laser beam printer (image forming apparatus) 1, that is, the toner having sharp melt properties will be described in detail below. The sharp-melt toner is obtained by melt-kneading, pulverizing, and classifying a toner-forming material composed of, for example, a binder resin such as a polyester resin or a styrene-acryl ester resin, a colorant (a dye, a sublimable dye), and a charge control agent. It is manufactured by If necessary, an external addition step of adding various external additives (for example, hydrophobic colloidal silica) to the toner may be added. As such a color toner, a toner using a polyester resin as the binder resin is particularly preferable in consideration of the fixing property and the sharp melt property.
Examples of the sharp melt polyester resin include a polymer compound having an ester bond in the main chain of a molecule synthesized from a diol compound and a dicarboxylic acid.

In particular,

[0035]

Embedded image (Wherein R is an ethylene or propylene group, x, y
Is a positive integer of 1 or more, and (x + y)
Is 2 to 10. A) a bisphenol derivative represented by the formula
A carboxylic acid component comprising a carboxylic acid having a valency or higher or an acid anhydride thereof or a lower alkyl ester thereof (eg,
A polyester resin obtained by at least co-condensation polymerization with fumaric acid, maleic acid, maleic anhydride, phthalic acid, terephthalic acid, trimellitic acid, pyromellitic acid, etc. is more preferable because it has sharp melting properties. The softening point of this polyester resin is 75 to 150 ° C., preferably 80 to 150 ° C.
~ 120 ° C is good.

FIG. 4 shows an example of the softening characteristic of a sharp-melt toner containing such a polyester resin as a binder resin. The measurement conditions are as follows.

Using a flow tester CFT-500A type (Shimadzu Corporation), a die (nozzle) diameter of 0.2 mm,
A plunger descent-temperature curve of a toner drawn when a temperature of 70 ° C. is applied at an initial set temperature of 70 ° C., a preheating time is 300 seconds, and the temperature is increased at a constant speed of 6 ° C./min. (Hereinafter referred to as “softening S-shaped curve”). The toner used as the sample is a fine powder precisely weighed from 1 to 3 g, and the cross-sectional area of the plunger is 1.0 cm ² . Softening S
The character order curve is a curve as shown in FIG. As the temperature rises at a constant speed, the toner is gradually heated and starts to flow (plunger descent A → B). When the temperature is further increased, the toner in the molten state flows out greatly (B → C → D), the plunger descent stops, and the process ends (D → E). The height H of the softening S-shaped curve indicates the total outflow, and the temperature T corresponding to the point C of H / 2.
0 indicates the softening point of the toner.

Whether or not the toner and the binder resin have sharp melt properties can be determined by measuring the apparent melt viscosity of the toner or the binder resin. The toner or binder resin having the sharp melt property is defined as T1 when the apparent melt viscosity is 10 ³ poise and T2 when the apparent melt viscosity is 5 × 10 ² poise. １５０150 ° C. | ΔT | = | T1−T2 | = 5 to 20 ° C.

The sharp-melt resin having these temperature-melt viscosity characteristics is characterized in that the viscosity is reduced extremely sharply when heated, and this viscosity decrease is caused by the uppermost layer when the toner is laminated. The toner mixes properly with the toner in the lowermost layer and sharply increases the transparency of the toner layer itself, thereby causing good color mixing.

On the other hand, such a sharp-melt color toner has a disadvantage that it has a high affinity and is easily offset to the fixing roller.

Therefore, in the fixing device 30 of the image forming apparatus using the color toner as described above, it is necessary that the fixing roller has high releasability for a long time. Hereinafter, the fixing device 30 which is the second feature of the four-color full-color laser beam printer (image forming apparatus) 1 will be described in detail.

The fixing device 30, as shown in FIG.
A fixing roller 31 and a pressure roller 32 are provided. The fixing roller 31 has an aluminum core 31a, an HTV (high-temperature vulcanization type) silicone rubber layer 31b outside the core 31a, and an RTV (room temperature vulcanization type) on the outside.
A silicone rubber layer 31c is formed, and the total thickness of the two silicone rubber layers 31b and 31c is 3 mm, and the diameter of the fixing roller 31 as a whole is 40 mm. On the other hand, the pressure roller 32 is made of an aluminum core 3.
HTV silicone rubber layer 32b of 1 mm thickness on 2a
And an RTV silicone rubber layer 32c provided on the surface thereof to form a 40 mm diameter as a whole.

The fixing roller 31 is provided with a halogen heater 33 serving as a heat generating means in a metal core 31a, and the pressing roller 32 is provided with a halogen heater 35 in a metal core 32a. , Both halogen heaters 33, 35
Thus, the recording material P is heated from both front and back surfaces. With respect to the temperature control, the temperature of the pressure roller 32 is detected by the thermistor 36 in contact with the pressure roller 32, and the control device 37 controls the temperature based on the detected temperature.
By controlling the temperatures of both the halogen heaters 33 and 35, the temperature of the fixing roller 31 and the pressure roller 32 are both set to about 170 ° C.
To maintain a constant temperature. The fixing roller 31 and the pressing roller 32 are pressed by a pressing mechanism (not shown) with a total pressure of about 40 kg and are in contact with each other.

In FIG. 5, the fixing roller 31
An oil application device 39 as a release agent application unit is disposed upstream of the recording material P conveyance direction, a cleaning device 40 is disposed above the fixing roller 31, and a cleaning device 40 is disposed below the pressure roller 32. A cleaning blade 41 for removing oil stains on the pressure roller 32 is provided. The oil applicator 39 includes a dimethyl silicone oil 43 (release agent, Shin-Etsu Chemical KF9630) in an oil pan 42.
0 cs, hereinafter simply referred to as “oil”), is pumped up by an oil pumping roller 45 and applied to an oil application roller 46, and the amount of oil applied on the oil application roller 46 is regulated by an oil application amount adjusting blade 47. The oil 43 is applied on the fixing roller 31. In the oil application device 39 shown in FIG. 5, the amount of oil applied is set to 0.
08 g / A4 of oil 43 is applied.

The amount of oil applied by the oil applying device 39 is determined as follows. First, the weight of 50 sheets of A4 size white paper is set to A1 (g), and the transfer of the image to the white paper and the application of the oil 43 to the fixing roller 31 are not performed. Let the weight of 50 blank sheets passed through be B (g). Next, similarly, the weight of another 50 sheets of A4 size paper is set to A2 (g), and the image is not transferred to this blank sheet, but the oil 43 is applied to the fixing roller 31 and the fixing roller 31 is The weight of 50 blank sheets passed between the pressure roller 32 is defined as C (g). Using the above A1, B, A2, and C, the applied amount X (g) of oil per A4 size white sheet can be obtained by the following equation.

X = (C + A1-B-A2) / 50 On the other hand, the cleaning device 40 cleans the non-woven web 49 made of Nomex (trade name) by pressing it against the fixing roller 31 by the pressing roller 50.
The nonwoven fabric web 49 is appropriately wound by a winding device (not shown) so that toner and the like do not accumulate on the contact portion.

The four-color full-color laser beam printer (image forming apparatus) 1 described above forms an image based on a toner image on only one side of the recording material P. Methods and devices that can be formed on both sides have already been proposed and put into practical use.

In this method, the toner image is once transferred to the front side of the recording material P, and after fixing the toner image by the fixing device 30, the same recording material P is fed again to the apparatus main body.
This time, an image is formed on the back side opposite to the last time. As described above, when image formation is performed on both sides of the recording material P, if the first surface of the recording material P to be copied is one and the second surface to be copied is two, the recording material P is copied by the first copy. The release agent 43 adheres to one surface of the substrate. This adhesion of the release agent 43 has no bearing if copying is not performed on two surfaces. However, in the case of making copies on two surfaces, when the recording material P is wound around the surface of the transfer drum 9 in preparation for the transfer of the toner image to the recording material P, one surface of the recording material P, ie, the first copy, The surface to which the release agent 43 has adhered comes into contact with the surface of the transfer drum 9, whereby the release agent 43 adheres to the surface of the transfer drum 9. Thereafter, when the recording material P separates from the transfer drum 9, the release agent 43 on the transfer drum 9 adheres to the surface of the photosensitive drum 3 in contact with the transfer drum 9. Unnecessary toner adheres to the release agent 43 adhered to the photosensitive drum 3, and the toner adheres to the succeeding recording material P, thereby causing image defects such as image contamination.

Therefore, in this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 6, with respect to the laser beam printer 1 of FIG. 1, the spacer particles S are provided between the transfer drum (recording material support) 9 and the recording material P.
The spacer particle coating device (spacer particle coating means) 60 for interposing the spacer is additionally mounted.

The spacer particle coating device 60 includes a container 61 for accommodating the spacer particles S and a recording material P
And an application roller 62 for applying the toner to the toner. The application roller 62 may be driven to rotate by the conveyance of the recording material P, or may be positively driven to rotate by independent driving means (not shown). The entire spacer particle coating device 60 is disposed in the transport path Ru between the registration roller 23 and the transfer drum 9 so that the coating roller 62 abuts on the recording material P from above. Therefore, the spacer particles S are applied to the upper surface of the recording material P supplied to the transfer drum 9, that is, the surface of the recording material P that is in contact with the surface of the transfer drum 9 when being carried around the transfer drum 9. Will be.

The spacer particles S are, for example, powders of fluorocarbon, alumina, titanium oxide, cerium oxide, aluminum hydroxide, calcium carbonate, silica, PVdF, activated carbon or the like, or toners for image formation, and have a particle size of 0.05. Those having a thickness of about 20 μm are preferably used. In addition, if it has an appropriate triboelectric property,
More preferred. In the case where the recording material P has a triboelectric charging property, for example, a stirring member or a charging member is provided in the container 61 and an appropriate amount of the charging charge is applied. This is because they can be attached. The two-sided copy is performed on the recording material P by controlling the spacer particles S to be applied to the recording material P with a layer thickness of approximately 1 to 20 μm by the spacer particle application device 60 having the above-described configuration. Thus, the problem that the release agent 43 adheres to the photosensitive drum 3 to cause an image defect can be solved.

This is for the following reason. Conventionally, at the time of double-sided copying, when the recording material P passes through the fixing device 30, a release agent 43, for example, silicone oil or the like, for preventing the toner from being offset to the fixing roller 31 is attached to the image surface side. Therefore, the release agent 43 on the recording material directly adheres to the recording material carrier sheet 11 of the transfer drum 9 at the time of forming an image on the next surface, and adheres thereto. In the present embodiment, by applying spacer particles S to the surface of the recording material P, the recording material P
The release agent 43 attached on the recording material carrier sheet 11 does not directly contact the recording material carrier sheet 11, so that the adhesion of the release agent 43 to the recording material carrier sheet 11 can be effectively prevented. For this reason, the release agent 43 transferred and adhered to the photosensitive drum 3 from the recording material carrying sheet 11
As a result, it is possible to eliminate image defects such as contamination of the subsequent recording material P due to the adhesion of the release agent 43 and unnecessary toner to the photosensitive drum 3.

When the layer thickness of the spacer particles S applied on the recording material P is approximately 1 μm or less, the recording material carrying sheet 1
1 has a weak effect of preventing the release agent from adhering,
In this case, the transfer electric field intensity at the time of forming a double-sided image is weakened, and the transferability of the toner to the recording material P is deteriorated.

In this embodiment, the application of the spacer particles S is always performed during the image formation.
For example, a switch for selecting double-sided image formation or the like is provided on an operation unit (not shown) of the apparatus main body 2 so that the user of the laser beam printer 1 turns on the switch during double-sided image formation, and double-sided image formation is performed. If the configuration is such that the spacer particles S are applied only when it is detected that double-sided image formation is to be performed, wasteful consumption of the spacer particles S can be prevented, and more preferable results can be obtained. Needless to say. Further, whether or not to perform double-sided image formation is provided in the sheet feeding unit or the conveyance path Ru.
For example, it is a matter of course that the application control of the spacer particles S may be automatically controlled by automatically detecting, for example, using a release agent amount detecting unit on the recording material, an image presence detecting unit, or the like. <Embodiment 2> In this embodiment, Embodiment 1 shown in FIG.
Had coated the recording material P with the spacer particles S,
As shown in FIG. 7, the recording material is directly applied to the recording material carrying sheet 11 of the transfer drum 9.

The spacer particle coating device 60 is disposed, for example, in the vicinity of the outer peripheral surface of the transfer drum 9 and slightly downstream of the separation claw 25, and the coating roller 62 is brought into contact with the recording material carrying sheet 11 of the transfer drum 9. That is, the spacer particles S are directly applied to the recording material supporting sheet 11.

In this embodiment, the spacer particle coating device 60 is an image forming device (laser beam printer) 1
However, when a series of image forming operations is started and the transfer drum 9 starts rotating before image formation, the recording material P is carried on the recording material carrying sheet 11 in synchronization with the movement of the recording material P. Drive control is performed so that spacer particles S are applied onto the region.

By doing so, also in the present embodiment, similarly to the first embodiment, the release agent 43 is prevented from adhering to the transfer drum 9 and the occurrence of image defects can be prevented. Was. <Embodiment 3> In this embodiment, during the preliminary operation during the actual image forming operation in the laser beam printer 1 shown in FIG. After the toner layer is formed, and the toner layer is directly transferred to the recording material carrying sheet 11 to form the toner layer on the recording material carrying sheet 11, the recording material P is carried by the recording material carrying sheet 11. The configuration was adopted.

FIG. 8 is a timing chart showing operations of primary charging, image exposure, development unit movement, development drive, and transfer charging based on rotation of the transfer drum 9 for image formation in such a configuration. This will be described in detail with reference to FIG. Note that the recording material P to be image-formed is
A4 size paper.

When the switch for starting the image formation is turned on, the photosensitive drum 3 and the transfer drum 9 start to rotate, and the primary charger 5 performs corona discharge to form a toner layer on the recording material carrying sheet 11. A laser beam for uniformly charging the surface of the photosensitive drum 3 and developing a toner amount of about 1/10 or less of the maximum image density during normal image formation is irradiated for a time corresponding to the width of A4 size paper. Then, a latent image is formed on the photosensitive drum 3.

At the developing position, the magenta developing unit 7M is on standby from the end of the previous image forming apparatus, starts developing driving, and visualizes the magenta image. The developing drive is performed by the developing device 7
In view of the time t at which the developer bearing member, which carries and transports the toner in M toward the photosensitive drum 3, that is, the developing sleeve rises to a certain number of revolutions, the drive is started earlier by the time t than the leading end of the image at the developing position. Has started.

At the transfer position, the transfer discharger 12 is operated in accordance with the timing at which the toner image formed on the photosensitive drum 3 arrives, performs transfer charging, and forms a magenta toner layer on the recording material carrying sheet 11. I do. Thereafter, the recording material P sent from the paper feed cassette 20 is carried on the recording material carrying sheet 11 corresponding to the portion where the magenta toner layer is formed. Next, a magenta latent image of the first color is formed on the photosensitive drum 3 by a laser beam modulated in accordance with image information in the same manner, and the latent image is developed into a toner image. This time, the image is transferred onto the recording material P. This process was also performed for the cyan, yellow, and black images. In this embodiment, the spacer particles S are toner, and the spacer particles
Denotes a developing device 7. That is, the developing device 7 is operated at the above-mentioned predetermined timing, whereby the toner layer as the spacer particle layer is formed thinly on the recording material carrying sheet 11.

When copying was performed on both sides of the recording material P based on such a configuration, the release agent 43 of the recording material carrying sheet 11 was also applied to the recording material supporting sheet 11 in this embodiment as in the first and second embodiments. Adhesion can be prevented, and the occurrence of image defects can be prevented.

In this embodiment, the toner layer is formed on the recording material supporting sheet 11, but the toner layers are formed near the developing device 7 or around the photosensitive drum 3.
It is a matter of course that the spacer particle coating device 60 as shown in the above may be provided, and the spacer particle layer as described above may be formed on the recording material carrying sheet 11.

[0064]

As described above, according to the present invention,
By providing spacer particle coating means for interposing spacer particles between the recording material support and the recording material, the recording material support and the recording material do not come into direct contact during double-sided copying, and Since the release agent adhered to the transfer member can be prevented from being transferred to the recording material support and further transferred and adhered to the image carrier, unnecessary toner adheres to the release agent on the image carrier and subsequent recording is performed. It is possible to effectively prevent the occurrence of image defects such as soiling the image of the material.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view schematically illustrating an image forming apparatus according to a first embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view in which a part of a transfer drum is cut away.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of a main part of the transfer device.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing softening characteristics of a toner having sharp melt properties.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view schematically illustrating a fixing device.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view schematically illustrating the image forming apparatus according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view schematically illustrating an image forming apparatus according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a timing chart illustrating the operation of the image forming apparatus according to the third embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 image forming apparatus (laser beam printer) 3 image carrier (photosensitive drum) 9 recording material support (transfer drum) 11 recording material carrying sheet 12 transfer device (transfer discharger) 30 fixing device 31 fixing member (fixing roller) 43 Release agent (silicone oil) 60 Spacer particle coating means (spacer particle coating device) P Recording material S Spacer particles

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁶ , DB name) G03G 15/16 G03G 15/00 106 G03G 15/20 104

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] An image carrier having a surface on which a toner image is formed; a recording material support for carrying and transporting a recording material; and a toner image on the image carrier being applied to the recording material on the recording material support. A transfer device for transferring, and a fixing device for fixing the toner image transferred on the recording material onto the recording material by heating and pressing with a fixing member coated with a release agent, and an image forming apparatus comprising: An image forming apparatus, comprising: a spacer particle coating unit for interposing spacer particles between the recording material support and the recording material.