JP4311628B2 - Cleaning device and image forming apparatus to which the device is applied - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a cleaning device used for cleaning a peripheral surface of a photosensitive drum of an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a facsimile machine, or various printers, and an image forming apparatus to which the cleaning device is applied. is there.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a photosensitive drum cleaning device as described in Patent Document 1 is known. This cleaning device is for removing and cleaning the residual toner remaining on the peripheral surface after the toner image formed on the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum is transferred to the paper, and has an opening. A fur brush that rotates in a forward direction (a direction opposite to the rotational direction of the photosensitive drum) around a brush axis parallel to the photosensitive drum in a predetermined casing formed to face the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum; The blade provided on the downstream side of the fur brush (upper side of the fur brush) in the rotational direction of the photosensitive drum so that the tip is in sliding contact with the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum, and removed by these blades and collected by the fur brush And a screw feeder that carries the collected toner out of the system.

  The toner scraped off from the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum by the blade is once received by the fur brush that is driven and rotated in the forward direction while contacting the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum at a lower position, and then the centrifugal force. Then, it is thrown out in the direction opposite to the photosensitive drum and is carried out of the system from the casing by a screw feeder.

Further, a comb-like toner accumulation preventing member is attached to the inner wall surface of the casing in a state where the tip of the comb teeth is immersed in the fur brush, and the sliding between the toner accumulation preventing member and the rotating fur brush is slid. The toner is prevented from accumulating in the fur brush due to the contact interference.
JP-A-6-102801

  By the way, in the conventional cleaning device as described above, the residual toner scraped off from the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum by the blade is directed toward the blade by the fur brush rotating in the forward direction. Since the toner is swept up, the swept toner adheres to and accumulates on the periphery of the blade and tends to be in a lump.

  In recent years, various image forming apparatuses have been made compact, and for the sake of compactness, a cleaning device that has been disposed just beside the photosensitive drum is disposed obliquely above the photosensitive drum. When the cleaning device is placed at such a position, the angle of the blade with respect to the horizontal plane is reduced to approach the horizontal state, so that the toner scraped off by the blade and returned by the forward rotating fur brush is conventionally near the blade. In addition, there is a new problem that it is easier to deposit.

  The present invention has been made in view of such a situation, and it is possible to reliably prevent the collection of the collected toner in the casing, thereby preventing toner agglomeration in the casing as much as possible and image formation. It is an object of the present invention to provide a cleaning device capable of coping with downsizing of the device and an image forming apparatus to which the device is applied.

The invention (cleaning device) according to claim 1 is provided on the upstream side of the blade on the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum, and disposed parallel to the photosensitive drum. The fur brush whose forward end is in sliding contact with the circumferential surface of the photosensitive drum by forward rotation around the brush axis, and the toner scraped up by the fur brush and scraped off by the blade is collected by rotation around the predetermined conveying axis. In the cleaning device in which the collected toner conveying member to be discharged to the outside is disposed on the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum, the collected toner is collected between the blade and the fur brush in the casing of the cleaning device. is disposed to agitate the toner, the base end side is fixed to the inner wall surface of the casing, and scraping toner tip is retracted into the said fur brush And wood, and the swinging mechanism for swinging the toner scraping member is provided in contact with the toner scraping member, said swing mechanism comprises at least one rotor blade is fixed to the transfer shaft , the toner scraping member is characterized in that one side is to swing while being elastically deformed in abutment and the abutment release of the rotor blades.

According to a second aspect of the present invention (cleaning apparatus), in the first aspect of the invention, the collected toner conveying member is formed by a screw feeder that rotates about a conveying axis in which a spiral blade is arranged in parallel with the photosensitive drum. , before Symbol toner scraping member is characterized in that one side is pressed圧当contact with the rotating blades.

The invention (image forming apparatus) described in claim 3 is characterized in that the cleaning apparatus described in claim 1 or 2 is applied.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention (cleaning apparatus), since the toner scraping member is swung by the swing mechanism, the tip of the toner scraping member is surrounded by the brush hair of the rotating fur brush. By swinging in the state, the toner held on the fur brush is prevented from wrinkling and the collected toner temporarily stored between the peripheral surface of the fur brush and the blade is solidified into a lump. Can be prevented.

  Further, the toner that has been agitated by the toner scraping member and whose lump is broken is brought up to be efficiently sent to the collected toner conveying member. Accordingly, since the collected toner is always immediately discharged from the system by the collected toner conveying member whenever it occurs, the capacity of the casing can be reduced correspondingly, and the cleaning device is applied, for example, in an image forming apparatus. It can contribute to downsizing.

Furthermore, rotating blades, because they are formed by at least one rotor blade projecting from the peripheral surface of the conveying shaft, by causing rotation of the rotary blade, pressing or toner scraping member is pressed against the tip of the rotor blades When the toner is released, it is elastically deformed and swings effectively, so that the effect of preventing the agglomeration of toner and the effect of breaking the agglomerated toner can be improved.

According to the second aspect of the present invention (cleaning device), the toner scraping member is pressed and abutted against the top surface of the rotary blade fixed in an eccentric state to the conveying shaft of the screw feeder. by rotating blades in the rotation of the conveying shaft driven by the rotate integrally with the conveying shaft, the toner scraping member is pressed in contact with the circumferential surface of the rotor blades, the circumferential surface of the rest and its abutment position is the top surface Thus, the toner scraping member can be swung.

In this way, by pressing and abutting one side of the toner scraping member against the tip of the rotary blade fixed to the screw feeder, the swinging mechanism reliably swings the toner scraping member while having a simple configuration. This can contribute to a reduction in the number of parts and, in turn, to a reduction in device cost.

According to the invention described in claim 3 (image forming apparatus), the toner collected in the cleaning apparatus is removed from the toner scraping member by adopting the cleaning apparatus described in claim 1 or 2 in the image forming apparatus. Since the toner is immediately carried out of the system by the collected toner conveying member with the assistance of the movement, the capacity of the cleaning device can be reduced correspondingly, and the image forming apparatus can be made compact.

  FIG. 1 is an explanatory view for explaining a schematic configuration of an in-cylinder discharge type digital multifunction peripheral (image forming apparatus) 1 to which a cleaning device according to the present invention is applied. As shown in FIG. 1, in the digital multifunction peripheral 1, when performing a copy operation, in the image forming unit 130 in the multifunction peripheral body 100, a small-diameter photosensitive drum 4 that is rotated in the A direction by the charging unit 3 is provided. An electrostatic latent image is formed on the photosensitive drum 4 by a laser beam from an exposure unit (laser scanning unit or the like) 8 based on the original image data that is uniformly charged and read by the original reading unit 5, and the developing unit 7. As a result, a developer (hereinafter referred to as toner) is attached to the electrostatic latent image to form a toner image. The toner is supplied to the developing unit 7 from the toner container 6.

  The sheet is conveyed from the sheet feeding mechanism 9 to the image forming unit 130 via the sheet conveying path 10 and the resist roller pair 14 toward the photosensitive drum 4 on which the toner image is formed as described above. In 130, the toner image on the surface of the photosensitive drum 4 is transferred onto the sheet by the transfer roller 11 (image transfer unit). The sheet onto which the toner image has been transferred is separated from the photosensitive drum 4 and conveyed to the fixing unit 12 having the fixing roller pair 12a to fix the toner image. The sheet that has passed through the fixing unit 12 is sent to a sheet conveyance path 13 branched in a plurality of directions, and is routed by path switching mechanisms 21, 22, and 23 having a plurality of path switching guides provided at branch points of the sheet conveyance path 13. The transport direction is sorted, and the sheet is discharged to the sheet discharge portion of the first discharge tray 102a, the second discharge tray 102b, or the third discharge tray 103 as it is (or after being sent to the sheet transfer path 17 and copied on both sides). .

  In the present embodiment, the cleaning device 20 is provided on the downstream side of the transfer roller 11 in the rotation direction of the photosensitive drum 4 at a position slightly left in FIG. 1 from the top position of the photosensitive drum 4. Subsequently, the charging unit 3, the exposure unit 8, and the developing unit 7 are sequentially disposed in the rotation direction of the photosensitive drum 4, and the incidental member of the photosensitive drum 4 is not disposed on the left side. It is possible to contribute to the downsizing of the multifunction machine main body 100.

Further, although not shown, a static elimination device that removes residual charges on the surface of the photosensitive drum 4 is provided on the downstream side of the cleaning device 20. Further, the paper feed mechanism 9 is detachably attached to the multifunction machine main body 100 and includes a plurality of paper feed cassettes 91 and 92 for storing paper, and a stack bypass (manual feed tray) 93 provided above the paper feed cassettes 91 and 92. These are connected to the image forming unit 130 including the photosensitive drum 4 and the developing unit 7 by the paper conveyance path 10.

  Specifically, the sheet conveyance path 13 is first branched into left and right branches on the downstream side of the fixing roller pair 12a, and one path (a path branching in the right direction in FIG. 1) communicates with the first discharge tray 102a. It is configured as follows. The other path (the path that branches in the left direction in FIG. 1) branches into the upper and lower forks via the conveying roller pair 141, and the other path (the path that branches in the upper direction in FIG. 1) is the second discharge. It is configured to communicate with the tray 102b. On the other hand, the other path (the path branched in the downward direction in FIG. 1) is bifurcated immediately below the branch point, and one path passes through the discharge roller pair 144 to the third discharge tray 103. The other path is configured to communicate with the paper transport path 17.

  2 is an exploded perspective view of the cleaning device 20 according to the present invention, partly cut away, and FIG. 3 is an assembled perspective view of the partly cutout. 4 is a side sectional view of the cleaning device 20 shown in FIG. 3, and FIG. 5 is a plan view showing the relative positional relationship between the screw feeder 60, the rotary blade 70, and the toner scraping member 80. It is explanatory drawing. 2 and 3, the XX direction is referred to as the width direction, and the YY direction is referred to as the front-rear direction. In particular, the -X direction is leftward, the + X direction is rightward, the -Y direction is forward, and the + Y direction is forward. It is called the back.

As shown in these drawings, the cleaning device 20 includes a blade 40 that scrapes residual toner on the circumferential surface of the photosensitive drum 4, and an upstream side of the blade 40 on the circumferential surface of the photosensitive drum 4 (on the photosensitive drum 4. The fur brush 50 provided upstream of the rotation direction (clockwise) and in front of FIG. 2 is scraped off by the blade 40, and is removed from the surface of the photosensitive drum 4 by the fur brush 50. A screw feeder (collected toner conveying member) 60 for discharging the wiped collected toner out of the system, a plurality of rotary blades 70 provided at one end of a feeder shaft 61 of the screw feeder 60, and the fur A toner scraping member 80 that scrapes off the toner so that the toner does not collect in the brush 50 is disposed above the photosensitive drum 4. It is configured by being attached to the single 30.

  The upper surface of the toner scraping member 80 is in pressure contact with the tip of the rotary blade 70, and the toner scraping member 80 is elastically deformed by rotating the rotary blade 70 around the feeder shaft 61. It is designed to swing.

  The casing 30 is elongated in the width direction so as to correspond to the circumferential surface of the photosensitive drum 4 in the longitudinal direction, and as shown in FIG. 31 and a charging unit holding part 34 extending behind the toner collecting part 31.

  The toner collecting portion 31 includes a fur brush mounting portion 32 having an arcuate upper portion in a side view including a front portion having a bifurcated shape, and the same extending from the fur brush mounting portion 32 toward the rear. It consists of a screw feeder mounting portion 33 having an arc shape. A front wall 321 extending from the arc-shaped portion toward the photosensitive drum 4 is formed at the front position of the fur brush mounting portion 32, and at the rear position of the screw feeder mounting portion 33, A rear wall 331 is provided so as to extend from the arc-shaped portion toward the photosensitive drum 4.

A flange portion 332 is provided at the lower end edge of the rear wall 331 so as to extend rearward over the entire length of the casing 30 in the width direction. A mounting plate 35 having an L shape in a side view for attaching the toner scraping member 80 is fixed. The mounting plate 35 includes a mounting plate main body 351 whose longitudinal width is set to be longer than that of the flange portion 332, and a bent portion formed by bending upward from the rear edge of the mounting plate main body 351. 352.

  The mounting plate main body 351 has a plurality of elongated holes 353 extending in the front-rear direction at a predetermined pitch in the longitudinal direction, while the flange portion 332 has screw holes at positions corresponding to the elongated holes 353. 333 is screwed, and the mounting plate 35 is fixed to the flange portion 332 by screwing and fastening the screw B to the screw hole 333 through the elongated hole 353. Then, by moving the mounting plate 35 back and forth with the screw B loosened, the amount of protrusion of the front end edge (a protruding edge 354 described later) of the mounting plate 35 from the flange portion 332 can be adjusted. .

  The front end portion of the mounting plate 35 is provided with a protruding edge 354 extending in the width direction protruding forward from the rear wall 331 in a state where the mounting plate 35 is fixed to the flange portion 332, and this protruding edge 354. The blade 40 is fixed to the lower surface side by screwing or the like, and the toner scraping member 80 is fixed to the upper surface side by screwing or the like.

  Further, a side wall 311 is provided at each end in the width direction of the toner recovery unit 31, whereby the casing 30 has a rectangular shape elongated in the width direction facing the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 4 on the lower surface side. The opening is formed.

  In each side wall 311, a fur brush through-hole 312 for mounting the fur brush 50 in the toner collecting unit 31 is provided at the center of curvature of the arc-shaped ceiling portion of the fur brush mounting portion 32. A screw feeder through-hole 313 for mounting the screw feeder 60 in the toner collecting portion 31 is formed at the center of curvature of the ceiling portion of the screw feeder mounting portion 33 that has an arc shape. Has been.

  The recovered toner recovered by scraping and recovering from the photosensitive drum 4 in the space surrounded by the blade 40, the fur brush 50, and the screw feeder 60 at a lower position in the toner recovery portion 31 of the casing 30 is temporarily stored. A toner temporary storage space 310 for storing the toner is formed.

  The charging unit holding part 34 is extended from the flange part 332 in a state of exhibiting a predetermined shape toward the rear. The charging unit 3 is mounted on the charging unit holding portion 34. The casing 30 is constituted by the toner collecting unit 31 and the charging unit holding unit 34 so that the digital multifunction device 1 can be made compact.

  The blade 40 scrapes off residual toner remaining on the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 4 rotating in the clockwise direction after the toner image transfer process is completed. The blade 40 is set so that the length in the width direction is equal to the effective length of the photosensitive drum 4, and the front end edge of the blade 40 is fixed to the projecting edge 354 at the front edge portion. The front-rear width dimension is set so as to be in contact with the peripheral surface of No. 4.

  The fur brush 50 rotates in the forward direction (rotation in a direction opposite to the rotation direction of the photoconductive drum 4 so as to follow the rotation of the photoconductive drum 4), whereby the blade 40 is rotated on the peripheral surface of the photoconductive drum 4. The toner scraped from the toner is swept toward the screw feeder 60, and includes a brush shaft 51 and a large number of brush hairs 52 projecting radially from the entire circumference of the brush shaft 51. Configured.

The fur brush 50 is mounted in the fur brush mounting portion 32 of the casing 30 by fitting both ends of the brush shaft 51 into the fur brush through holes 312 formed in the pair of side walls 311 of the casing 30. It has come to be. The fur bristles 52 of the fur brush 50 are set to have a length dimension so that the tip of the fur bristles 52 can come into contact with the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 4 in a state where the fur brush 50 is mounted on the fur brush mounting portion 32. Therefore, when the fur brush 50 rotates forward, the residual toner on the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 4 scraped by the blade 40 is swept toward the screw feeder 60 without leaking out of the system. .

  The screw feeder 60 is for carrying out the collected toner scraped off by the blade 40 and swept away by the fur brush 50 to the outside of the system by its rotation, and includes a feeder shaft (conveying shaft) 61 and the feeder shaft. A spiral fin (spiral blade) 62 concentrically and integrally attached to 61 is provided. The screw feeder 60 is mounted in the screw feeder mounting portion 33 of the casing 30 by inserting both ends of the feeder shaft 61 into the screw feeder through holes 313 formed in the pair of side walls 311 of the casing 30. It has come to be.

  The diameter of the spiral fin 62 is set to be slightly shorter than the radius of curvature of the inner surface of the ceiling portion of the screw feeder mounting portion 33, and the recovered toner can be discharged efficiently. ing. The collected toner sent to one end of the screw feeder mounting portion 33 due to the rotation of the spiral fin 62 around the feeder shaft 61 is discharged out of the system from the lower surface opening of the toner collecting portion 31 and collected in a collecting container (not shown). It has come to be.

  In the vicinity of the casing 30, drive means (not shown) including a drive motor and power transmission means formed by combining various gears is provided. The drive force of the drive means is the brush shaft 51 and the feeder shaft 61. As a result, the fur brush 50 and the screw feeder 60 are driven to rotate.

The rotary blade 70 is attached to one end portion (left end portion in the example shown in FIGS. 2 and 3) of the feeder shaft 61 of the screw feeder 60 so as to face the toner scraping member 80. In the present embodiment, three rotor blades 70 having the same dimensions are provided in the circumferential direction of the feeder shaft 61 at an equal pitch (120 ° pitch). The rotary blade 70 has a length dimension (dimension in the radial direction of the feeder shaft 61) longer than the radial dimension of the spiral fin 62 of the screw feeder 60, and an arc of the peripheral surface of the feeder shaft 61 and the top of the screw feeder mounting portion 33. The dimension is set slightly shorter than the distance between the inner peripheral surface.

  According to the rotating blade 70, the rotating blade 70 integrally rotates around the feeder shaft 61 in a state where the upper surface of the toner scraping member 80 is in contact with the tip of the rotating blade 70. Is in contact with the toner scraping member 80 (see (a) of FIG. 6), and the toner scraping member 80 is in contact with the spiral fin 62 without contacting any of the rotor blades 70 (see FIG. 6). (See (b)), the toner scraping member 80 swings, and the toner temporarily stored in the temporary toner storage space 310 is agitated.

  The toner scraping member 80 is for preventing the toner scraped off from the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 4 from staying between the many brush hairs 52 of the fur brush 50 and solidifying. The dimension is set larger than the diameter of the spiral fin 62, and the length dimension (left-right width dimension) is set slightly shorter than the dimension between the pair of side walls 311 of the casing 30.

The trailing edge of the toner scraping member 80 is fixed to the upper surface side of the protruding edge 354 of the mounting plate 35 with screws or the like. The protruding edge 354 is formed so that the upper surface side is slightly raised toward the front, whereby the toner scraping member 80 is in a forwardly raised state toward the front. In such a state, the blade 40 fixed to the protruding edge 354 can adjust the protruding amount from the flange portion 332 by moving the mounting plate 35 back and forth.

  A plurality of square holes 81 are formed in front of the toner scraping member 80 to direct the collected toner accumulated between the blade 40 and the toner scraping member 80 toward the screw feeder 60. Has been.

  6A and 6B are explanatory views for explaining the operation of the rotary blade 70. FIG. 6A shows the tip edge of a single rotary blade 70 suspended from the feeder shaft 61 on the upper surface of the toner scraping member 80. FIG. The abutting state (B) indicates a state where the toner scraping member 80 is in contact with the spiral fin 62 without contacting any of the rotary blades 70.

  First, as shown in FIG. 6A, when the tip edge of one rotary blade 70 suspended from the feeder shaft 61 is in contact with the upper surface of the toner scraping member 80, the toner scraping member The posture 80 is set to a lower posture that is pressed by the tip edge of the rotary blade 70 and elastically deforms downward, and thereby bends downward.

  When the feeder shaft 61 rotates about the axis in this state, the toner scraping member 80 is rotated clockwise around the base end portion while maintaining the contact state with the lower edge of the rotary blade 70 by its elastic force. As shown in FIG. 6B, the contact with the rotary blade 70 is eliminated. In this state, the toner scraping member 80 is set to the upper posture in which the next rotary blade 70 has not yet been in contact, and thus is in contact with the spiral fin 62.

  When the rotation of the feeder shaft 61 around the axis is continued, the toner scraping member 80 swings between the lower posture and the upper posture. The collected toner swept up in the temporary toner storage space 310 is agitated by the toner scraping member 80, and even if agglomeration occurs, the agglomerate is broken, and the agglomerate is discharged by the screw feeder 60. Such an inconvenience can be reliably prevented.

  As described above in detail, the cleaning device 20 according to the present invention is provided on the upstream side of the blade 40 on the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 4 and the blade 40 that scrapes the residual toner on the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 4. The fur brush 50 in which the tip of the brush bristles 52 is in sliding contact with the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 4 by the forward rotation around the brush shaft 51 arranged in parallel with the photosensitive drum 4, and the vibration that swings the toner scraping member 80. Therefore, the collected toner accumulated in the temporary toner storage space 310 between the fur brush 50 and the blade 40 in the casing 30 is caused by the swinging of the toner scraping member 80 by the swinging mechanism. It is possible to reliably prevent the collected toner from being solidified and agglomerated in the toner temporary storage space 310 by being stirred and broken.

  Further, the toner that has been agitated by the toner scraping member 80 to break up the lump is soared, so that it can be efficiently fed into the screw feeder 60 through the square hole 81 of the toner scraping member 80. Accordingly, since the collected toner is always immediately discharged out of the system by the screw feeder 60 every time it is generated, the capacity of the casing can be reduced correspondingly, and the digital multifunction device 1 to which the cleaning device 20 is applied can be reduced. It can contribute to downsizing.

Further, the swing mechanism includes at least one rotary blade 70 fixed in an eccentric state to the feeder shaft 61 (in this embodiment, three rotary blades 70 provided at an equal pitch in the circumferential direction of the feeder shaft 61). The toner scraping member 80 is pressed against and brought into contact with the tip edge of the rotating blade 70 in an elastically deformed state, and therefore the rotating blade is rotated by the rotation of the feeder shaft 61 around the axis of the feeder by driving the screw feeder 60. When the roller 70 rotates integrally with the feeder shaft 61, the toner scraping member 80 pressed against the tip edge of the rotary blade 70 is displaced, and thereby the toner scraping member 80 can be swung.

  In this way, the toner scraping member 80 has a simple configuration, but the toner scraping member 80 is pressed and brought into contact with the leading edge of the rotary blade 70 fixed to the screw feeder 60. Can be reliably swung, which can contribute to a reduction in the number of parts and, in turn, to a reduction in device cost.

  Further, since the collected toner scraping member 80 is made of an elastic material so as to be brought into contact with the tip edge of the rotary blade 70 in an elastically deformed state, the toner scraping member 80 is elastically applied to the toner scraping member 80 itself. 80 can be pressed and brought into contact with the rotary blade 70, and it is possible to contribute to a reduction in the number of parts by not requiring an urging means such as a spring.

  The toner collected in the cleaning device 20 is immediately carried out of the system by the collected toner conveying member with the assistance of the swinging of the toner scraping member 80, so that the capacity of the cleaning device 20 is reduced accordingly. Therefore, the digital multi-function peripheral 1 according to the present invention to which the cleaning device 20 is applied can be made compact.

  The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and includes the following contents.

  (1) In the above embodiment, the cleaning device 20 is disposed above the photosensitive drum 4. However, the present invention is limited to disposing the cleaning device 20 above the photosensitive drum 4. In the case where the digital multifunction device 1 is not compact, it may be provided on the side of the photosensitive drum 4.

  (2) In the above-described embodiment, the casing 30 includes the toner recovery unit 31 and the charging unit holding unit 34, and the cleaning device 20 and the charging unit 3 are held in the same casing 30. Instead of this, a dedicated casing may be adopted for each of the cleaning device 20 and the charging unit 3 according to the characteristics and local conditions of each image forming apparatus.

  (3) In the above-described embodiment, the toner scraping member 80 is formed of an elastic material and is made to abut on the feeder shaft 61 in an elastically deformed state to swing. However, instead of this, the toner scraping member 80 is scraped off. The member 80 may be rotated around a predetermined axis, and the toner scraping member 80 may be brought into contact with the tip edge of the rotary blade 70 by the biasing force of a biasing means such as a spring.

(4) In the above embodiment , three rotor blades 70 are used, and these rotor blades 70 are provided on the feeder shaft 61 at an equal pitch in the circumferential direction, but are limited to the equal pitch. Each of them may be provided at a different pitch. Further, the number of the rotary blades 70 is not limited to three, and may be one, two, or four or more. Further, an eccentric cam may be employed instead of the rotary blade 70.

  In order to confirm the effect of the cleaning device 20 according to the present invention, when the rotary blade 70 is attached to the feeder shaft 61 of the screw feeder 60 of the cleaning device 20 for the same digital multi-function device 1 (Example), the attachment A comparison test for confirming whether or not there is a change in the image obtained by the printing test of the digital multi-function peripheral 1 was performed in the case where there was no comparison (comparative example).

  The photosensitive drum 4 of the used digital multifunction machine 1 had an outer diameter of 300 mm. Further, the fur brush 50 used had an outer diameter of 12.5 mm and the brush bristles 52 made of polyamide. The blade 40 is made of urethane rubber with a thickness of 2 mm, and the toner scraping member 80 is made of stainless steel (SUS316) with a thickness of 0.3 mm.

  As a result of such a test, in the case of the example, no defect was found in the image even when the image was printed on 80,000 sheets, whereas in the case of the comparative example, after printing 5,000 sheets, The streaks of toner extending in the vertical direction were recognized on the paper, and it was confirmed that normal image formation could not be performed when the number of sheets exceeded 5,000.

  This is because, in the case of the embodiment, the collected toner collected in the temporary toner storage space 310 in the casing 30 is efficiently sent to the screw feeder 60 by the swinging of the toner scraping member 80, whereby the temporary toner is temporarily stored. The toner does not stay in the storage space 310 for a long time, whereas in the case of the comparative example, the toner scraping member 80 does not swing, so that the blade 40 scrapes off the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 4. It is considered that the dropped toner is sequentially accumulated in the temporary storage space 310, and finally the toner slips between the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 4 and the blade 40 due to the collected toner pressure. .

  This proves that the cleaning device 20 according to the present invention including the rotary blade 70 is excellent.

It is explanatory drawing which shows one Embodiment of the image forming apparatus with which the cleaning apparatus which concerns on this invention was applied. It is a partially cutaway exploded perspective view of the cleaning device according to the present invention. FIG. 3 is a partially cut away assembly perspective view of the cleaning device shown in FIG. 2. It is sectional drawing of the side view of the cleaning apparatus shown in FIG. It is explanatory drawing of planar view which shows the relative positional relationship of a screw feeder, a toner breaking member, and a toner scraping member. FIG. 6B is an explanatory diagram for explaining the operation of the rotor blades, in which (A) shows a state in which the tip edge of one rotor blade that is suspended from the feeder shaft is in contact with the upper surface of the toner scraping member; ) Shows a state where the toner scraping member is not in contact with any of the rotor blades.

Explanation of symbols

1 Digital MFP (image forming device)
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 3 Charging unit 4 Photoconductor drum 6 Toner container 7 Development unit 8 Exposure unit 9 Paper feed mechanism 10 Paper conveyance path 11 Transfer roller 12 Fixing part 12a Fixing roller pair 13 Paper conveyance path 14 Registration roller pair 17 Paper conveyance path 21,22 23 path switching mechanism 100 MFP main body 102a first discharge tray 102b second discharge tray 103 third discharge tray 130 image forming unit 141 transport roller pair 144 discharge roller pair 91, 92 paper feed cassette 93 stack bypass (manual feed tray)
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 20 Cleaning apparatus 30 Casing 31 Toner collection part 310 Toner temporary storage space 311 Side wall 312 Fur brush through-hole 313 Screw feeder through-hole 32 Fur brush mounting part 321 Front wall 33 Screw feeder mounting part 331 Rear wall 332 Flange part 333 Screw hole 34 Charging unit holding portion 35 Mounting plate 351 Mounting plate main body 352 Bending portion 353 Long hole 354 Projecting edge 40 Blade 50 Fur brush 51 Brush shaft 52 Brush hair 60 Screw feeder 61 Feeder shaft 62 Spiral fin 70 Rotary blade
8 0 Toner scraping member 81 Square hole B Screw

Claims (3)

A blade that scrapes residual toner on the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum, and a forward end around the brush shaft that is provided on the upstream side of the blade on the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum and is arranged in parallel with the photosensitive drum, the tip is exposed to light. A fur brush that is in sliding contact with the peripheral surface of the body drum, and a collected toner conveying member that collects the toner scraped up by the blade and that is scraped off by the blade by rotation around a predetermined conveying axis and discharges the toner to the outside. In the cleaning device disposed on the circumferential surface of the photosensitive drum,
In the casing of the cleaning device,
A toner scraping member disposed to stir the collected toner accumulated between the blade and the fur brush , a proximal end side fixed to the inner wall surface of the casing, and a distal end immersed in the fur brush;
A swing mechanism for swinging the toner scraping member is provided in contact with the toner scraping member,
The swing mechanism comprises at least one rotor blade is fixed to the transfer shaft, the toner scraping member is swung while being elastically deformed in abutment and abutting released one side and the rotating blades A cleaning device characterized by being a thing.   The recovered toner conveying member is formed by a screw feeder that rotates around a conveying axis in which a spiral blade is arranged in parallel with the photosensitive drum, and one side of the toner scraping member is pressed against the rotating blade. The cleaning device according to claim 1. An image forming apparatus to which the cleaning device according to claim 1 is applied.