JP3315596B2 - 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 electrophotographic image forming apparatus for forming an image on a recording medium, for example, a copying machine, a printer, a facsimile, and the like. Is characterized by a high-voltage connector that electrically connects the

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an image forming apparatus uses a corona discharge to form and transfer an electrostatic latent image to impart an electrostatic charge, and thus ozone is generated inside the apparatus.
In addition, fine powder toner is used to develop the electrostatic latent image.
Paper dust becomes dust and scatters inside the device.

For this reason, ozone and dust generated inside the apparatus are guided from the back of the apparatus to an exhaust fan by an exhaust duct.
A flow path is formed to exhaust air out of the apparatus.

In a conventional image forming apparatus, a charger for generating the corona discharge or a developing unit for developing an electrostatic latent image is provided by means of electric connection supplied from a high-voltage power supply unit inside the apparatus. It is connected to a certain high-voltage connector on the back side of the device.

As described above, in the conventional image forming apparatus, the exhaust duct and the high-pressure connector have to be arranged so as to coexist in position.

[0006]

Therefore, since both the high-pressure connector and the exhaust duct are arranged on the back side of the apparatus, the conventional example has the following disadvantages. (1) For the high-voltage connector, the creepage distance from the electrical grounding member,
A space distance is required. On the other hand, in the exhaust duct, there are many restrictions on space such as an optimum suction hole area, a position, and an air flow path cross section of the suction efficiency. (2) The high-voltage connector requires a high-pressure harness that is electrically connected to the high-voltage power supply unit, and the exhaust duct requires an air flow path that connects to the exhaust fan. On the other hand, a drive unit for driving each part of the device is usually provided at the back of the device. Therefore, the arrangement of each of the high-pressure harness, the exhaust duct, and the drive system is difficult in terms of design, and maintenance is complicated. (3) In order to overcome the above-mentioned problem, for example, if a high-pressure connector is made to coexist in the exhaust duct, the sealing performance of the exhaust duct will be impaired.

Accordingly, a first object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus capable of suppressing an increase in size of an apparatus caused by a high-voltage connector.

A second object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus in which the arrangement of a high-pressure harness, an exhaust duct, a drive system, and the like is easy in design and maintenance is easy.

A third object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus which can achieve the above object without increasing costs.

[0010]

The above object is achieved by an image forming apparatus according to the present invention. In summary, the present invention provides:
An image forming apparatus comprising: an image carrier; a charger and a developing device provided to face the image carrier; and a high-voltage power supply unit for supplying power to the charger and the developing device. A high-pressure harness fixed to a portion of the exhaust duct opposite to the image carrier from the high-voltage power supply unit; and an exhaust duct. Image forming, wherein a current is supplied to the charging device and the developing device via a high-voltage connector connected to the electrode portion provided integrally with the exhaust duct at a position facing the electrode portion. Device. According to one embodiment of the present invention, the high-pressure harness is insert-molded in a wall on a rear side of the exhaust duct.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, a plurality of the chargers are provided. Further, the plurality of chargers are a charger for charging the image carrier, a transfer charger for transferring a developed image on the image carrier to a recording material, and separating the recording material from the image carrier. It can be a separate charger.

[0012] According to another embodiment of the present invention, a notch is provided in the mounting portion for accommodating the high-voltage connector, the cutout communicating the mounting portion with the exhaust duct. Also,
According to another embodiment of the present invention, there are provided a DC high-voltage power supply and an AC high-voltage power supply, and an outlet of the DC high-voltage harness and the DC high-voltage power supply, and an outlet of the AC high-voltage harness and the AC high-voltage power supply Separately provided at both ends of the exhaust duct.

[0013]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, an image forming apparatus according to the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 6 shows the configuration of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention. In the figure, the image forming apparatus is a printer 1
000 and the scanner unit 2000, and the printer 10
Reference numeral 00 denotes an upper cassette 100 and a lower cassette 102. Sheets in the upper cassette 100 are separated and fed one by one by the action of the separation claw and the feeding roller 101, and guided to the registration roller 106. Lower cassette 10
The sheet material in 2 is separated and fed one by one by the action of the separation claw and the feeding roller 103, and is guided to the registration roller 106.

The printer 1000 includes a laser modulator (laser scanner) 111, a photosensitive drum 112, an image writing optical system 113, a developing device 114, and a transfer charger 11.
5. The image forming section is constituted by the separation charger 116.

Further, a conveying belt 117 for conveying the sheet material on which an image is formed, a fixing device 118, a discharge roller 119
And the sheet material on which the image is formed is discharged to the sorter 2 by the discharge roller 119.

The scanner unit 2000 includes a scanning system light source 20.
1, platen glass 202, original platen 203 to be opened and closed,
A lens 204, a light receiving (photoelectric conversion) unit 205, and an image processing unit 206 are provided.

The original image read by the scanning light source 201 is processed by the image processing unit 206, converted into an electric signal 207, and transmitted to the laser modulation unit 111.

The printer 1000 and the scanner 200
Although 0 may be separate as shown in FIG. 6, the printer 1000 and the scanner 2000 may be integrated. In the case of being integrated, it is usually called an image forming apparatus (or a printer).

The printer 1000, whether separate or integrated, functions as a copying machine when the processing signal of the image processing unit 206 is input to the laser modulation unit 111, and functions as a facsimile when a facsimile transmission signal is input. Functions as a printer if an output signal from a computer is input. Conversely, if the processing signal of the image processing unit 206 is transmitted to another facsimile, it functions as a facsimile.

If an automatic document feeder 250 as shown by a two-dot chain line is mounted instead of the document pressure plate 203,
The manuscript is read automatically.

Embodiment 1 Next, Embodiment 1 according to the present invention will be described.
This will be described in detail with reference to FIGS.

In FIG. 1, a photosensitive drum 112 as an image carrier has a photoconductive semiconductor (A-Si, OP
C) is applied, and the drum surface held at a predetermined charge by corona discharge of the primary charger 10 forms an electrostatic latent image by blank exposure 12 and image exposure 9. Thereafter, the toner image visualized by the developing device 114 is transferred onto the transfer paper synchronously fed by the registration roller 106 by corona discharge by the transfer charger 115, and then corona discharge by the separation charger 116. The transfer paper is separated from the surface of the photosensitive drum by the action of, and is sent to the transport belt 117.

On the other hand, the transfer residual toner on the photosensitive drum 112 is scraped off by the cleaner 14 and is conveyed to a waste toner container (not shown), and the surface of the photosensitive drum 112 is cleaned. After that, the surface of the photosensitive drum 112 irradiated with light by the pre-exposure 11 is electrically initialized, and the next image forming process is started.

The potential sensor 13 is a member for measuring the potential on the surface of the photosensitive drum 112 and controlling the current of the primary charger 10. The pre-transfer charger 15 uses a corona to charge the visualized toner image. The toner collection roller 16 is disposed around the photosensitive drum 112 in order to obtain an effect of increasing transfer efficiency by stabilizing by discharging, and an effect of collecting toner scattered from the developing device 114 and preventing contamination in the apparatus.

As shown in FIG. 2, the photosensitive drum 112
The drum shaft 17 is rotatably supported by ball bearings 22 fixed to the main body rear plate 20 and the driving support plate 21, respectively. The driving gear 18 is drivingly connected to a driving source (not shown). It is configured to rotate in the direction of arrow A in FIG. 1 by the action with the meshing drum gear 19.

Each of the chargers described above has opening holes 20d, 20e, and 2d formed in the body rear side plate 20 shown in FIG.
0f, 20g, and 20h, the contact spring 27 in the protruding high-voltage connector 30a and the charger (for example, the primary charger 1).
0, it is electrically conductive by contact with the electrode portions 10a and 115a on the transfer charger 115) side.

On the other hand, a high-voltage harness 26 is arranged from the high-voltage power supply unit 25 shown in FIGS.
8 to a contact spring 27.

The high pressure connector 30a is connected to the exhaust duct 3
0, and the air in the device is
2 in the exhaust duct 30 in FIG.
And exhausted to the outside through the ozone filter 24. The suction port is the rear plate 2 shown in FIG.
Opening holes 20a, 20b, and 20c opened at 0,
It is provided at an optimal position for mainly absorbing ozone and scattered toner generated from each charger. As shown in FIG. 2, the high-pressure harness 26 is insert-molded on a wall of the exhaust duct 30 on the inner side of the device. In the present invention, as shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the exhaust duct 30 may be simply disposed so as to be opposed to the electrode portion of the charger and the developing device, and the space inside the exhaust duct 30 is reduced. By utilizing this, the creeping distance and the space distance of the high-voltage connector 30a and the high-voltage harness 26 can be secured without providing a special insulating substrate.

As shown in FIG. 2, it is preferable to provide a cutout portion 30b at the base of the high-voltage connector portion 30a, so that the air sucked by the fan 23 can be ventilated to the inside of the connector portion. It is possible to prevent toner contamination of the contact portion with the contact spring and also prevent contact deterioration due to accumulation of ozone. In addition, since the high-voltage application unit and the exhaust duct unit are formed as a single unit, maintenance is simplified, and accidents such as touching and damaging the harness during maintenance can be prevented.

By adopting the configuration as described above, the degree of freedom in designing the high-pressure connector and the exhaust duct is improved, and the mounting portion can be reduced in space as compared with the case where the high-pressure connector and the exhaust duct are arranged independently. Since a seal is not required, cost can be reduced.

Further, since the arrangement of the exhaust duct and the high-pressure harness is substantially common, the exhaust duct can also serve as a high-pressure harness fixing member. Therefore, the number of assembly steps can be reduced, and erroneous connection of the harness at the time of assembly can be prevented.

Second Embodiment Next, a second embodiment according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. In the present embodiment, the outlet of the high-voltage harness 26 "and the high-voltage power supply 25" on which the AC components of the separation charger 116 and the pre-transfer charger 15 (see FIG. 1) are superimposed are connected to another charger, that is, the primary charger 10 Transfer charger 115 and developing device 11
4 (see FIG. 1), apart from the outlet of the DC high-voltage harness 26 'and the high-voltage power supply 26', and the arrangement of the high-voltage harness 26 "is also arranged as far as possible from the DC high-voltage harness 25 '. When prevention is required, it is possible to satisfy the requirement.

Further, by making the exhaust duct 30 of an insulating resin, there is an advantage that the distance can be reduced and the positional stability is increased as compared with the conventional spatial arrangement.

[0035]

As described above, according to the present invention,
An image forming apparatus comprising: an image carrier; a charger and a developing device provided to face the image carrier; and a high-voltage power supply unit for supplying electricity to the charger and the developing device. A high-pressure harness fixed to a portion of the exhaust duct opposite to the image carrier from the high-voltage power supply unit, and an exhaust duct provided at a position facing the electrode portion of the exhaust duct. The charging duct and the developing unit are energized through the high pressure connector connected to the electrode unit provided integrally with the exhaust duct, so that the exhaust duct faces the electrode unit of the charging unit and the developing unit. It is possible to secure the creepage distance and space distance of the high-voltage connector and the high-voltage harness without using a special insulating board by using the space in the exhaust duct. , High pressure core In addition, it is possible to suppress the increase in size of the equipment caused by the actuator, and the layout of the high-pressure harness, the exhaust duct, and the drive system is easy in design, maintenance can be improved, and reliability after long-term use is improved. An image forming apparatus that can be improved can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram illustrating a main part of an image forming apparatus according to a first exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along line II-II in FIG.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view taken along a line III-III in FIG. 2 omitting a drive gear, a drum gear, and a drive support plate for easy understanding.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing an exhaust duct.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory view showing each opening of a rear plate of the main body.

FIG. 6 is a schematic configuration diagram illustrating an image forming apparatus according to the first exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram corresponding to FIG. 3 of the first embodiment in the second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Primary charger 15 Pre-transfer charger 25, 25 ', 25 "High voltage power supply unit 26, 26', 26" High voltage harness 30 Exhaust duct 30a High voltage connector 30b Notch 112 Photosensitive drum 114 Developing device 115 Transfer charger

Continuation of the front page (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G03G 21/00 370-540 G03G 15/00 550 G03G 15/02 G03G 15/16 G03G 15/08 B41J 29/00

Claims (6)

(57) [Claims] 1. An image forming apparatus comprising: an image carrier; a charger and a developing device provided to face the image carrier; and a high-voltage power supply unit for energizing the charger and the developing device. A high-pressure harness having an exhaust duct provided at least at a position facing the electrode portion of the charger and the developing device, and being fixed to a portion of the exhaust duct opposite to the image carrier from the high-voltage power supply unit; Energizing the charging device and the developing device via a high-voltage connector connected to the electrode unit provided integrally with the exhaust duct at a position facing the electrode unit of the exhaust duct. Characteristic image forming apparatus. 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the high-pressure harness is insert-molded on a wall of the exhaust duct on the inner side of the apparatus. 3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of said chargers are provided. 4. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of chargers are configured to charge the image carrier, a transfer charger configured to transfer a developed image on the image carrier to a recording material, and to transfer the recording material to the image carrier. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image forming apparatus is a separation charger that separates the image from the image forming apparatus. 5. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a notch for connecting the mounting portion and the exhaust duct is provided in a mounting portion for accommodating the high-voltage connector. 6. A high-voltage power supply for DC and a high-voltage power supply for AC, wherein an outlet of the high-voltage harness for DC and the high-voltage power supply for DC are separated from an outlet of the high-voltage harness for AC and the high-voltage power supply for AC. 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the exhaust duct is provided at both ends.