JP4248316B2 - Image forming apparatus cleaning apparatus, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that forms an image on a sheet material such as paper or an OHP film, such as a copying machine, a printer, a facsimile, or a complex machine thereof. The present invention relates to a cleaning apparatus that is provided in such an image forming apparatus and that cleans an image carrier after image transfer. The present invention also relates to a process cartridge that includes a cleaning device and at least an image carrier and is detachable from the image forming apparatus in a lump.
[0002]
[Prior art]
In general, in an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, for example, an electrostatic latent image is formed on the surface of an image carrier by charging and writing, and a toner image is formed by attaching toner to the electrostatic latent image and developing it. The toner image on the image carrier is transferred to form an image on a sheet. Then, the untransferred transferred image is fixed on the sheet by passing the image-transferred sheet through a fixing device, while the image bearing member after the image transfer is cleaned by a cleaning device to prepare for re-image formation. It was.
[0003]
[Patent Document 1]
JP, 2000-35735, A An example of a cleaning device with which such an image forming device is provided is indicated in patent documents 1, for example. FIG. 4 shows a lubricant coating device provided in the cleaning device.
[0004]
The illustrated lubricant application device 1 presses a solid lubricant 2 against a lubricant application brush 3 that is a lubricant application member, and rotates the lubricant application brush 3 to scrape the lubricant from the solid lubricant 2. It was applied to the image carrier 4 as a member to be applied.
[0005]
Accordingly, the contact resistance of the cleaning blade 5 with respect to the image carrier 4 is reduced to prevent vibrations such as chatter from occurring on the cleaning blade 5, thereby improving the cleaning performance and extending the life of the cleaning blade 5. Was.
[0006]
Conventionally, such a lubricant coating device 1 is provided, and for example, with respect to the lubricant coating brush 3 of the lubricant coating device 1, a cleaning blade 5 is disposed on the downstream side in the rotational direction of the image carrier 4, and the upstream side. There has been a cleaning device in which the collected toner conveying member 6 is disposed. A part of an image forming apparatus provided with such a cleaning device is shown in FIG.
[0007]
The cleaning material applying device 1 provided in the cleaning device includes a solid slidable material 2 having a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape, an urging member 7 that urges the solid slidable material 2, and a lubricating material application brush (sliding material application) that presses the solid slidable material 2. Member) 3, the solid lubricant 2 and the biasing member 7 were provided.
[0008]
The solid lubricant 2 is pressed against the lubricant application brush 3 so that the biasing direction L of the bias member 7 passes through the center of gravity G of the solid lubricant 2, and the lubricant application brush 3 is rotated clockwise during cleaning. The lubricant was rotated and scraped off the lubricant from the solid lubricant 2 and applied to the image carrier (member to be coated) 4.
[0009]
At the same time, the removal material such as residual toner scraped off from the surface of the image carrier 4 by the cleaning blade 5 and accumulated in the region B is transferred to the region C by the rotation of the lubricant coating brush 3. Then, after scraping off the removed matter adhering to the lubricant applying brush 3 with the scraper 8, the removed matter in the region C is conveyed and collected by the collected toner conveying member 6, and then collected in a waste toner tank or not shown. The toner recycling device has returned to the developing device.
[0010]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, the lubricant application device 1 provided in such a cleaning device is configured so that the urging direction L of the urging member 7 passes through the center of gravity G of the solid lubricant 2 as shown in FIG. 2 was urged by the urging member 7. Therefore, at the time of cleaning, as shown in FIG. 6B, the sliding force applied to the solid lubricant 2 is within the range of play between the solid lubricant 2 and a holder (not shown) by the rotational force of the lubricant application brush 3. The upstream side of the material application brush 3 in the rotation direction bites in. As a result, when the lubricant application brush 3 transports the removed matter such as the toner accumulated in the region B to the region C, the removal matter adhering to the lubricant application brush 3 hits the left side of the solid lubricant 2 in the figure. It will be scraped off.
[0011]
Therefore, since the solid lubricant 2 becomes a barrier and the removed matter accumulated in the region B cannot be transferred to the region C by the lubricant application brush 3, the removed material of the lubricant application brush 3 in the region B can be removed. There was a problem of depositing on one side.
[0012]
As such, when deposited on the region B on one side of the lubricant coating brush 3, the cleaning ability of the cleaning blade 5 is reduced, or the lubricant coating brush 3 is clogged, resulting in a decrease in image quality. did.
[0013]
Accordingly, a first object of the present invention is to prevent the removed material from accumulating on one side of the lubricant application member.
[0014]
A second object of the present invention is to achieve the above-mentioned object by simplifying the configuration.
[0015]
It is a third object of the present invention to prevent the cleaning device from depositing the removed material on one side of the lubricant applying member and transporting and collecting the toner by the recovered toner transporting member.
[0016]
A fourth object of the present invention is to provide a process cartridge having a cleaning device that achieves the above-mentioned object and having improved maintainability.
[0017]
A fifth object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus including a cleaning device that achieves the above-described object.
[0018]
A sixth object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus provided with a process cartridge that achieves the fourth object.
[0019]
Incidentally, in recent years, some image forming apparatuses use a polymerized toner manufactured by a polymerization method as a toner. The polymerized toner produced by the polymerization method has a small particle size, a shape close to a sphere, and is highly uniform compared to a toner produced by the pulverization method using the same resin. We were able to.
[0020]
A seventh object of the present invention is to provide a process cartridge capable of achieving the fourth object and forming a high-quality image.
[0021]
An eighth object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus capable of achieving the fifth or sixth object and forming a high quality image.
[0022]
A ninth object of the present invention is to provide a lubricant application method capable of preventing the removed material from accumulating on one side of the lubricant application member.
[0023]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
Therefore, in order to achieve the above third object, the invention according to claim 1
Press the solid lubricant against the lubricant application member, rotate the lubricant application member in contact with the image carrier in the forward rotation direction, scrape the lubricant from the solid lubricant and apply it to the image carrier. In the cleaning device for an image forming apparatus, the cleaning blade coating device is provided, the cleaning blade is disposed on the downstream side in the rotational direction of the image carrier relative to the lubricant coating member, and the recovered toner transport member is disposed on the upstream side.
While placing the lubricant application member on the upper side of the image carrier,
Solid lubricant is pressed against the lubricant application member so that the downstream side is stronger than the upstream side in the rotation direction of the lubricant application member, and the removed toner and other removals on the cleaning blade side are collected by the rotation of the lubricant application member. The solid lubricant is pressed against the lubricant application member so as to be transferred to the member side .
[0024]
The invention according to claim 2 is to achieve the second object described above.
The image forming apparatus cleaning apparatus according to claim 1,
The solid lubricant is eccentrically biased by the biasing member, and the solid lubricant is pressed against the lubricant coating member so that the downstream side is stronger than the upstream side in the rotation direction of the lubricant coating member.
[0025]
The invention described in claim 3 is to achieve the second object described above.
The image forming apparatus cleaning apparatus according to claim 1,
The solid lubricant is eccentrically biased by a weight, and the solid lubricant is pressed against the lubricant application member so that the downstream side is stronger than the upstream side in the rotation direction of the lubricant application member.
[0027]
In order to achieve the above-mentioned fourth object, the invention according to claim 4
A process cartridge comprising the cleaning device for an image forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3 .
[0028]
The invention according to claim 5 is to achieve the fifth object described above,
It is an image forming apparatus provided with the cleaning apparatus of the image forming apparatus of any one of Claim 1 thru | or 3 .
[0029]
In order to achieve the sixth object described above, the invention described in claim 6
An image forming apparatus comprising the process cartridge according to claim 4 .
[0030]
The invention described in claim 7 is to achieve the seventh object described above,
The process cartridge according to claim 4 , wherein
It is characterized by using a polymerized toner.
[0031]
The invention according to claim 8 is to achieve the eighth object described above,
The image forming apparatus according to claim 5 or 6 ,
It is characterized by using a polymerized toner.
[0033]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 shows an overall schematic configuration of an internal mechanism of an electrophotographic copying machine which is an example of an image forming apparatus.
[0034]
Reference numeral 100 in the drawing denotes a copying machine main body (image forming apparatus main body). The copying machine main body 100 has an image reading device 200 mounted thereon and placed on a sheet bank 300. Further, an automatic document feeder 400 is mounted on the image reading apparatus 200 so that the back side can be opened and closed up and down with the back side as a fulcrum.
[0035]
The copying machine main body 100 includes an image forming device W therein. The image forming apparatus W is provided with a drum-shaped image carrier (a member to be coated) 10. Around the image carrier 10, in order from the charging device 11 disposed on the upper left side in the figure to the rotation direction (counterclockwise) A of the image carrier 10, the developing device 12 is provided on the lower left side and the developing device 12 is provided on the right side. A transfer device 13 and a cleaning device 14 are arranged on the upper side.
[0036]
As shown in FIG. 2, such a copying machine includes, for example, an image carrier 10, a charging device 11, a developing device 12, and a cleaning device 14 that are integrated in a cartridge case to form a process cartridge 15. Then, the process cartridge 15 is removed from the copying machine main body 100 shown in FIG.
[0037]
In addition, a sheet conveyance path R for conveying the sheet material S fed from the sheet cassette 38 of the sheet bank 300 from below to the stack position via the transfer position D is provided inside the copying machine main body 100.
[0038]
In the sheet conveyance path R, a registration roller 16 is provided upstream of the transfer position D. Further, a thermal fixing device 20 is provided at a downstream position of the transfer position D. The heat fixing device 20 is provided with a heating roller 21 and a pressure roller 22.
[0039]
A discharge roller 23 is provided further downstream of such a thermal fixing device 20. Further, a discharge stack unit 24 that is a stacking position for stacking sheets on which images have been formed is provided.
[0040]
A laser writing device 26 is provided below the discharge sheet stack portion 24 in the drawing. The laser writing device 26 is provided with a scanning optical system (not shown) such as a laser light source 27, a scanning polygon mirror 28, a polygon motor 29, and an fθ lens.
[0041]
Next, the image reading apparatus 200 includes a light source 31, a plurality of mirrors 32, an imaging optical lens 33, an image sensor 34 such as a CCD, and the like. A contact glass 35 is provided on the upper surface.
[0042]
Although not shown, the automatic document feeder 400 on the contact glass 35 is provided with a document setting table at the document placement position and a document stacking table at the discharge position. Further, a document transport path is provided for transporting the document from the document setting table to the document stacking table via the reading position on the contact glass 35 of the image reading device 200. The sheet conveyance path is provided with a plurality of sheet conveyance rollers (not shown) for conveying the document.
[0043]
The sheet bank 300 includes a sheet cassette 38 that accommodates a sheet material S such as paper and an OHP film. A delivery roller 39 is provided on the right side of the sheet cassette 38 in the drawing.
[0044]
Now, when making a copy using this copying machine, a main switch (not shown) is turned on and a document is set on a document setting table of the automatic document feeder 400. In the case of a book document, the automatic document feeder 400 is opened, the document is set directly on the contact glass 35 of the image reading device 200, and the automatic document feeder 400 is closed and pressed.
[0045]
When a start switch (not shown) is pressed, when the document is set on the automatic document conveying device 400, the document is moved by the sheet conveying roller through the document conveying path onto the contact glass 35, and then the image reading device 200 is moved. Driven, reads the document contents, and discharges the document onto the document stacking table. On the other hand, when the document is set directly on the contact glass 35, the image reading apparatus 200 is immediately driven.
[0046]
When the image reading apparatus 200 is driven, the image reading apparatus 200 moves the light source 31 along the contact glass 35, reflects light from the light source 31 on the document surface on the contact glass 35, and reflects the reflected light into a plurality of light beams. The light is reflected by the mirror 32, passes through the imaging optical lens 33, enters the image sensor 34, and the image sensor 34 reads the content of the document.
[0047]
At the same time, the image carrier 10 is rotated by a drive motor (not shown), and in the illustrated example, the surface is first uniformly charged by the charging device 11 using a charging roller, and then read by the image reading device 200 described above. The laser writing device 26 irradiates a laser beam E in accordance with the content of the original and forms a latent image on the surface of the image carrier 10. Then, the developing device 12 attaches toner to the toner. An image is formed and the electrostatic latent image is visualized.
[0048]
At the same time when the start switch is pressed, the sheet material S is sent out from the sheet cassette 38 provided in the sheet bank 300 by the feed roller 39, and is fed into the sheet transport path R while being separated and transported one by one. Stop by hitting. Then, the registration roller 16 is rotated in synchronization with the toner image on the image carrier 10 described above, and sent to the right side of the image carrier 10.
[0049]
Then, on the sheet material S fed to the right side of the image carrier 10, the toner image on the image carrier 10 is transferred at the transfer position D by the transfer device 13 in the illustrated example to form an image. The residual toner on the image carrier 10 after image transfer is removed and cleaned by the cleaning device 14, and the residual potential on the image carrier 10 is removed by a neutralization device (not shown) to start the next image formation starting from the charging device 11. Prepare for.
[0050]
On the other hand, the sheet material S after the image transfer is put in the heat fixing device 20 and conveyed between the heating roller 21 and the pressure roller 22 while applying heat and pressure to transfer the toner image on the sheet material S. To settle. Thereafter, the sheet is discharged onto the discharge stack unit 39 by the discharge roller 23 and stacked there.
[0051]
Details of the cleaning device 14 provided in such a copying machine are shown in FIG. The cleaning device 14 includes a lubricant coating device 42, a cleaning blade 44, and a collected toner conveying member 45 in the cleaning case portion 15 a of the cartridge case of the process cartridge 15.
[0052]
They are provided with a cleaning blade 44 on the downstream side in the rotation direction of the image carrier 10 and a recovery toner conveying member 45 on the upstream side with respect to the lubricant application brush (slidant application member) 43 provided in the lubricant application device 42. To do.
[0053]
The lubricant application device 42 is, for example, a solid lubricant 46 made of zinc stearate having a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape, a biasing member 47 such as a spring that biases the solid lubricant 46, and a lubricant that presses the solid lubricant 46. A material application brush 43 and a holder (not shown) that supports the solid lubricant 46 and the biasing member 47 are provided.
[0054]
Such a lubricant application device 42 biases the solid lubricant 46 eccentrically by the biasing member 47 so that the biasing direction L of the biasing member 47 does not pass through the center of gravity G of the solid lubricant 46, for example. The solid lubricant 46 is pressed against the lubricant application brush 43 so that the downstream side is stronger than the upstream side in the rotation direction of the lubricant application brush 43.
[0055]
The cleaning blade 44 is attached to the blade holder 48 and pressed against the image carrier 10 with a predetermined pressing force.
[0056]
The collected toner conveying member 45 has, for example, a coil shape, and removes a residual toner or the like removed by the lubricating material applying brush (sliding material applying member) 43 and the cleaning blade 44 provided in the lubricating material applying device 42. It is conveyed in the axial direction of the carrier 10. The removed material conveyed by the collected toner conveying member 45 is returned to the developing device 12 by a toner recycling device (not shown). Note that the toner recycling device returns to the developing device 12 using a conveying member such as a screw, a coil, or a belt, or using gravity through a conveying path formed by a pipe or the like.
[0057]
In a copying machine equipped with such a cleaning device 14, during cleaning, the lubricant application brush 43 is rotated clockwise together with the counterclockwise rotation indicated by the arrow A of the image carrier 10 to remove the solid lubricant 46. The image carrier 10 after image transfer is cleaned while scraping off the lubricant and applying it to the image carrier 10 which is a member to be coated.
[0058]
Next, along with the rotation of the image carrier, the removed material such as residual toner is reliably scraped off from the surface of the image carrier 10 and collected in the region B by the cleaning blade 44.
[0059]
Then, the removed material accumulated in the area B is transferred to the area C by the rotation of the lubricant coating brush 43 described above.
[0060]
At this time, in the lubricant application device 42, the solid lubricant 46 is eccentrically urged by the urging member 47, and as shown in FIG. 3, the rotation direction is higher than the urging force F1 on the upstream side in the rotation direction of the lubricant application brush 43. Since the solid lubricant 46 is pressed against the lubricant application brush 43 so that the downstream biasing force F2 is increased, that is, the downstream side is stronger than the upstream side in the rotational direction of the lubricant application brush 43, the lubricant application brush 43 is pressed. On the other hand, the upstream side of the solid lubricant 46 is used as an escape, and the downstream side is used as a bite, so that the upstream side of the solid lubricant 46 does not scrape off the removed toner or the like adhering to the solid lubricant. It can transfer to the area | region C which is a downstream, and it can prevent that a removal material accumulates in the area | region B which is one side of the lubricant application brush 43. FIG.
[0061]
Then, the removed matter adhering to the lubricant applying brush 43 is scraped off by a scraper 49 provided around the lubricant applying brush 43, and the removed matter in the area C is removed by the recovered toner conveying member 45 on the image carrier 10. After transporting in the width direction, the toner is recycled back to the developing device 12.
[0062]
By the way, a copying machine provided with the conventional lubricant coating device shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 and the copying machine according to the present invention shown in FIGS. saw.
[0063]
In this experiment, the experiment temperature was room temperature, the sheet material was plain paper, the number of images formed was 6,000, and the solid lubricant 46 was made of zinc stearate.
[0064]
The conventional copying machine has a defective cleaning when the number of formed images is about 5,000. On the other hand, the copying machine according to the present invention was able to make copies to the end.
[0065]
In the above-described example, the solid lubricant 46 is eccentrically urged by the urging member 47 and the solid lubricant 46 is urged downstream from the upstream side in the rotation direction of the lubricant application brush 43 so as to be stronger. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, a weight is provided on a holder (not shown), and the solid lubricant 46 is eccentrically urged by the weight, and the downstream side of the lubricant application brush 43 from the upstream side in the rotational direction is pressed. The solid lubricant 46 may be pressed against the lubricant application brush 43 so as to be strong.
[0066]
Further, a polymerized toner produced by a polymerization method may be used as the toner. The polymerized toner produced by the polymerization method has a smaller particle size, a shape close to a sphere, and is highly uniform compared to the toner produced by the pulverization method using the same resin. can do.
[0067]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the solid lubricant is pressed against the lubricant application member, the lubricant application member is rotated in contact with the image carrier in the forward rotation direction, and the solid lubricant is rotated. A lubricant application device for scraping the lubricant from the lubricant and applying the lubricant to the image carrier is provided. A cleaning blade is provided downstream of the lubricant carrier in the rotation direction of the image carrier, and a recovered toner conveying member is provided upstream. The solid lubricant is pressed against the lubricant application member so that the downstream side is stronger than the upstream side in the rotation direction of the lubricant application member. Since the upstream side of the belt is used as the escape side and the downstream side is used as the front side, the removal material such as residual toner adhered to the lubricant application member is transferred to the downstream side without scraping on the upstream side of the solid lubricant. Remove on one side of lubricant application member Together but it is possible to prevent the deposition of, it can be transported collecting the toner in the recovery toner conveying member.
[0068]
According to the invention of claim 2, the solid lubricant is eccentrically biased by the biasing member, and the solid lubricant is pushed onto the lubricant coating member so that the downstream side is stronger than the upstream side in the rotational direction of the lubricant coating member. Therefore, since it is not necessary to provide a new part or the like simply by decentering and urging the solid lubricant with the urging member, the effect of the first aspect can be obtained by simplifying the configuration.
[0069]
According to the invention of claim 3, the solid lubricant is eccentrically biased by the weight, and the solid lubricant is pressed against the lubricant application member so that the downstream side is stronger than the upstream side in the rotation direction of the lubricant application member. Since only the weight is provided, the configuration can be simplified and the effect described in claim 1 can be obtained.
[0071]
According to the invention of claim 4 , since the process cartridge includes the cleaning device according to any one of claims 1 to 3 , the process cartridge includes the cleaning device having each of the effects described above and has improved maintainability. Can be provided.
[0072]
According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, since the image forming apparatus includes the cleaning apparatus according to any one of the first to third aspects , an image forming apparatus including the cleaning apparatus having the effects described above is provided. Can do.
[0073]
According to the invention of claim 6, the image forming apparatus, because provided with a process cartridge according to claim 4, it is possible to provide an image forming apparatus having a process cartridge having the effects described in claim 4.
[0074]
According to the invention of claim 7, the process cartridge according to claim 4, since using a polymerization toner, it is possible to obtain the effect according to claim 4, to form a high quality image A process cartridge capable of being provided can be provided.
[0075]
According to the eighth aspect of the invention, since the image forming apparatus according to the fifth or sixth aspect uses the polymerized toner, the effect according to the fifth or sixth aspect can be obtained and a high-quality image can be obtained. An image forming apparatus capable of forming the image can be provided.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a laser copying machine according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of a process cartridge provided in the laser copying machine.
FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a part of a lubricant application device provided in the process cartridge.
FIG. 4 is a schematic configuration diagram of a conventional lubricant application device.
FIG. 5 is a schematic configuration diagram illustrating a cleaning device provided in a conventional image forming apparatus.
FIGS. 6A and 6B are explanatory diagrams of a lubricant coating device provided in the cleaning device. FIGS.
[Explanation of symbols]
10 Image carrier (coating member)
14 Cleaning device 15 Process cartridge 43 Lubricant application brush (lubricant application member)
44 Cleaning Blade 45 Collected Toner Transport Member 46 Solid Lubricant 47 Biasing Member 100 Copier Main Body (Image Forming Device Main Body)

Claims (8)

The solid lubricant is pressed against the lubricant application member, the lubricant application member is rotated in contact with the image carrier in a forward rotation direction, the lubricant is scraped off from the solid lubricant, and the image carrier is applied to the image carrier. In a cleaning device for an image forming apparatus, comprising a lubricant coating device for coating, wherein a cleaning blade is disposed on the downstream side in the rotational direction of the image carrier with respect to the lubricant coating member, and a collected toner conveying member is disposed on the upstream side.
While arranging the lubricant application member on the upper side of the image carrier,
The solid lubricant is pressed against the lubricant application member so that the downstream side is stronger than the upstream side in the rotation direction of the lubricant application member, and the recovered toner is removed from the cleaning blade by rotation of the lubricant application member. A cleaning device for an image forming apparatus , wherein the solid lubricant is pressed against the lubricant application member so as to be transferred to a conveying member side . The solid lubricant is eccentrically biased by an urging member, and the solid lubricant is pressed against the lubricant application member so that the downstream side is stronger than the upstream side in the rotation direction of the lubricant application member. A cleaning device for an image forming apparatus according to claim 1. The solid lubricant is eccentrically biased by a weight, and the solid lubricant is pressed against the lubricant application member so that the downstream side is stronger than the upstream side in the rotation direction of the lubricant application member. Item 4. A cleaning device for an image forming apparatus according to Item 1. A process cartridge comprising the cleaning device for an image forming apparatus according to claim 1 . An image forming apparatus comprising the cleaning device for an image forming apparatus according to claim 1 . An image forming apparatus comprising the process cartridge according to claim 4 . The process cartridge according to claim 4 , wherein polymerized toner is used. Characterized by using a polymerized toner, the image forming apparatus according to claim 5 or 6.

Images