JP4466152B2 - Image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus including a detachable waste toner container.

A toner image carrier that carries a toner image, such as a photosensitive drum or a transfer belt, is provided with a waste toner storage container that removes toner remaining after transfer and stores waste toner.
FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a configuration of a conventional waste toner collecting container. Waste toner is supplied to the box-shaped waste toner collecting container 61 from the toner image carrier through the waste toner discharge pipe 62 and is collected in the waste toner box 63. FIG. 10 is a cross-sectional view of the waste toner collecting container 61. As shown in FIG. 10, when a certain amount of waste toner t accumulates in the waste toner box 63, a push-up member 64 rotated by a driving force (not shown) is rotated. The bottom surface of the waste toner box 63 is hit and the waste toner box 63 is vibrated. As a result, the waste toner accumulated in the waste toner box 63 collapses and is leveled in the waste toner box 63.

Patent Document 1 discloses an invention in which a waste toner box is vibrated using the push-up member to deposit waste toner flatly. According to the present invention, the waste toner box is periodically vibrated, and the waste toner in the waste toner box is periodically flattened by the vibration.
JP 2002-214925 A (paragraph numbers 0026 to 0095)

  However, in the above-described conventional apparatus, the push-up member 64 is rotated, and the bottom surface of the waste toner box 63 is struck to vibrate. Also, a large drive source for rotating the push-up member 64 is required.

  On the other hand, in the case of an image forming apparatus in which a flat box-shaped (so-called lunch box-shaped) waste toner collection container is detachably attached to the apparatus main body, it is difficult to uniformly store the waste toner in the waste toner collection container. In order to carry out the same method as described above, it is necessary to give a stronger vibration.

  Therefore, the present invention uses a sieving diaphragm, efficiently sieving waste toner even with weak vibrations, efficiently storing waste toner in a flat box-shaped waste toner collecting container, and improving the waste toner holding rate. An image forming apparatus is provided.

According to the present invention, there is provided a cleaner for removing waste toner carried on a belt-like toner image carrier that circulates and a waste toner carrying means for carrying the waste toner removed by the cleaner , A thin flat box-shaped waste toner storage container which is provided to store the waste toner transported by the waste toner transport means and is detachable from the apparatus main body along the belt surface of the belt-shaped toner image carrier. In the image forming apparatus, the waste toner container has a receiving port for receiving the waste toner conveyed by the waste toner conveying means on one side of the upper surface portion of the container , and the apparatus main body when the waste toner container is attached to the apparatus main body. vibrate in a horizontal direction perpendicular to the side receiving the driving force from a plurality of holes gradually increase the rate of formation of the hole as the distance from the receiving opening the Can be achieved by providing an image forming apparatus characterized by being furnished with a sieve-like vibrating plate to the waste toner through said plurality of holes receiving the toner once deposited into the container.

  With this configuration, the waste toner can be uniformly stored in the entire container even if it is a flat box-shaped waste toner collection container without giving a large vibration to the waste toner collection container.

The sieve diaphragm is configured to vibrate in the horizontal direction. With this configuration, the waste toner can be efficiently screened and uniformly stored in the waste toner collection container.
In addition, a plurality of holes are formed in the sieving diaphragm, and the formation rate of holes at positions away from the waste toner input portion is higher than that in the vicinity of the input portion. With this configuration, many holes are formed at positions away from the toner discharge port where waste toner accumulates, and the waste toner is uniformly deposited in the waste toner collection container.

  According to the present invention, for example, the waste toner is diffused and conveyed in the horizontal direction by the vibration plate that is vibrated by the vibration motor provided in the waste toner container, and from the holes formed at a narrower distance as the distance from the waste toner accumulation position increases. The waste toner falls and the waste toner storage container having a shallow bottom can efficiently store the waste toner and improve the waste toner storage rate.

In addition, the sifter-like diaphragm of the present invention has extremely weak vibration, and is not configured to abut the push-up member against the waste toner collecting container as in the prior art, and the sound is quiet .

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
(Embodiment 1)
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view illustrating an internal configuration of an image forming apparatus (hereinafter referred to as a printer) 1 according to the present embodiment. The printer 1 shown in FIG. 1 is an electrophotographic tandem color image forming apparatus, and includes four image forming units 2, an intermediate transfer belt unit 3, a paper feeding unit 4, and a duplex printing transport unit 5. ing.

  The four image forming units 2 have a configuration in which four image forming units 6 (6M, 6C, 6Y, 6K) are arranged side by side in a multistage manner from right to left in FIG. Of the four image forming units 6, three image forming units 6M, 6C, and 6Y on the upstream side (right side in the figure) are magenta (M), cyan (C), yellow (subtractive three primary colors), respectively. A mono-color image is formed with the color toner of Y), and the image forming unit 6K forms a monochrome image with black (K) toner mainly used for dark portions of characters and images.

  Each of the image forming units 6 has the same configuration except for the color of the toner stored in the toner container. Accordingly, the configuration of the black (K) image forming unit 6K will be described below as an example.

  The image forming unit 6 includes a photosensitive drum 7 at the bottom. The peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 7 is made of, for example, an organic photoconductive material. A cleaner 8, a charger 9, an optical writing head 11, and a developing roller 13 of a developing device 12 are arranged around the periphery of the photosensitive drum 7. The optical writing head 11 has a separate structure from the image forming unit 6. Further, the image forming unit 6 is configured to be able to be inserted and removed in the drawing depth direction by opening a front door (not shown) in front of the printer 1 (front side of the drawing).

  The developing device 12 puts one of magenta (M), cyan (C), yellow (Y), and black (K) toners in the upper toner container as indicated by M, C, Y, and K in the drawing. The intermediate portion is provided with a toner replenishing mechanism for the lower portion, the lower portion is provided with the above-described developing roller 13 at the side opening, the toner stirring member inside, the toner supply roller for supplying toner to the developing roller 13, and the developing A doctor blade or the like for regulating the toner layer on the roller 13 to a constant layer thickness is provided.

  The intermediate transfer belt unit 3 includes a transfer belt 14 that extends in a substantially loop shape from substantially the left and right sides of the drawing at the center of the main body, and the transfer belt 14 that is stretched over the transfer belt 14. A driving roller 15 and a driven roller 16 that circulate in the counterclockwise direction in the figure are provided.

  The transfer belt 14 directly transfers the toner image onto the belt surface (primary transfer), and conveys the toner image to a transfer position on the paper for further transfer (secondary transfer) onto the paper. In this example, the entire unit is described as an intermediate transfer belt unit.

  The intermediate transfer belt unit 3 includes a belt position control mechanism 17 in the loop of the flat loop-shaped transfer belt 14. The belt position control mechanism 17 includes a primary transfer roller 18 made of a conductive foam sponge that presses against the lower peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 7 via the transfer belt 14.

  The belt position control mechanism 17 has three primary transfer rollers 18 corresponding to the three image forming units 6M, 6C, and 6Y of magenta (M), cyan (C), and yellow (Y) as vertical support shafts. The image is transferred to the center at the same cycle, and the one primary transfer roller 18 corresponding to the black (K) image forming unit 6K is rotated at a rotation cycle different from the cycle of the three primary transfer rollers 18 for transfer. The belt 14 is moved away from the photosensitive drum 7, and the full color mode (all four primary transfer rollers 18 are in contact with the transfer belt 14) and the monochrome mode (only the primary transfer roller 18 corresponding to the image forming unit 6K is the transfer belt). 14) and all non-transfer mode (all four primary transfer rollers 18 are separated from the transfer belt 14).

  In the intermediate transfer belt unit 3, a belt cleaner unit 19 is disposed further upstream of the uppermost image forming unit 6 </ b> M in the belt moving direction on the upper surface, and is flat so as to be almost along the entire lower surface. A thin waste toner collecting container 20 is detachably disposed.

  The paper feed unit 4 includes two paper feed cassettes 21 arranged in two upper and lower stages, and in the vicinity of the paper feed opening (right side in the figure) of the two paper feed cassettes 21, respectively, A feeding roller 23, a separating roller 24, and a conveying roller pair 25 are disposed. In the paper conveyance direction (vertical direction in the figure) of the conveyance roller pair 25, a secondary transfer roller 26 that is pressed against the driven roller 16 via the transfer belt 14 is disposed to form a secondary transfer portion to the paper. is doing.

  A belt-type heat fixing device 27 is disposed downstream (upward in the drawing) of the secondary transfer portion, and the sheet after fixing is fixed to the belt-type heat fixing device 27 further downstream of the belt-type heat fixing device 27. A pair of carry-out rollers 28 for carrying out the paper and a pair of paper discharge rollers 31 for discharging the carried paper to a paper discharge tray 29 formed on the upper surface of the apparatus are disposed.

  The duplex printing conveyance unit 5 includes a start return path 32a that branches from the intermediate conveyance path between the carry-out roller pair 28 and the discharge roller pair 31 to the right lateral direction in the drawing, and then an intermediate return path 32b that bends downward. A terminal return path 32c that bends in the left lateral direction opposite to the above and eventually reverses the return sheet, and three return roller pairs 33a, 33b, and 33c arranged in the middle of these return paths are provided. . A pair of carry-in rollers 34 is disposed inside the main body device at the outlet of the end return path 32c.

  In the present example, the belt cleaner unit 19 disposed on the upper surface of the intermediate transfer belt unit 3 includes a lower cleaning roller 35, an upper intake roller 36, and a conveying screw 37 that are disposed in two stages. . The lower cleaning roller 35 comes into contact with the upper surface of the transfer belt 14 to scrape and remove the waste toner, and the take-in roller 36 takes over the waste toner removed by the cleaning roller 35 and accumulates it in the belt cleaner unit 19, and the conveying screw 37 The accumulated waste toner is transported to the upper part of the dropping cylinder 38 and sent to the waste toner collecting container 20 via the dropping cylinder 38.

  In order to bring the cleaning roller 35 into pressure contact with the transfer belt 14 with an appropriate pressure, a pressure roller 39 that presses the transfer belt 14 toward the cleaning roller 35 from below is provided on the intermediate transfer belt unit 3 side. ing.

  FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the waste toner collection container 20. The waste toner collection container 20 is provided with a waste toner discharge pipe 40, and the waste toner discharge pipe 40 is connected to the dropping cylinder 38. Further, the waste toner collecting container 20 of this example is a thin flat box-shaped container, and is detachable from the apparatus main body in the direction of arrow a. The motor harness 41 supplies power to a drive motor described later.

  3A and 3B are views for explaining the internal configuration of the waste toner collecting container 20, and FIG. 3B is a view showing a cross section taken along the line A-A 'of FIG. As described above, the waste toner collection container 20 has a flat box shape, and a vibration plate 42 having a substantially flat shape is disposed in the waste toner collection container 20. The vibration plate 42 is attached by vibration plate support members 43 provided at the four corners of the waste toner collecting container 20. A drive motor 44 is attached to the lower surface of the diaphragm 42, and power is supplied to the drive motor 44 via the motor harness 41 described above.

  A toner discharge port 47 formed in the above-described waste toner discharge pipe 40 is located immediately above the vibration plate 42 to which the drive motor 44 is attached. Therefore, the waste toner sent through the waste toner discharge pipe 40 falls and accumulates directly above the vibration plate 42 to which the drive motor 44 is attached.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating the configuration of the diaphragm 42. As shown in the figure, a large number of holes 46 are formed in the vibration plate 42, and the formation rate of the holes 46 is far away from the position of the vibration plate 42 directly below the toner discharge port 47. That is, the hole 46 is formed sparsely near the position of the vibration plate 42 immediately below the toner discharge port 47, and the formation density of the holes 46 increases as the distance from the position of the vibration plate 42 directly below the toner discharge port 47 increases. Note that the formation rate, hole diameter, and the like of the holes 46 are determined by, for example, experimental results and design values performed in advance.

  Further, the drive motor 44 is driven based on electric power including a signal supplied via the motor harness 41, and vibrates the diaphragm 42 at a constant cycle, for example. Note that the period and magnitude of this vibration are also set, for example, based on experimental results and design values performed in advance.

Next, the processing operation of this example in the above configuration will be described below.
First, as described above, the image forming units 6M, 6C, 6Y, and 6K are used to transfer a toner image to the transfer belt 14, and further transfer (secondary transfer) the toner image to a sheet. At this time, the toner that has not been completely transferred to the sheet remains on the transfer belt 14, and the residual toner is removed by the belt cleaner unit 19 described above. The waste toner removed by the belt cleaner unit 19 falls from the toner discharge port 47 to the diaphragm 42 through the waste toner discharge pipe 40.

  FIGS. 5A and 5B are views for explaining how the waste toner dropped on the vibration plate 42 is uniformly stored in the waste toner collection container 20. First, as shown in FIG. 5A, the waste toner dropped on the vibration plate 42 forms a small mountain 48. When a signal is supplied from the motor harness 41 at an appropriate timing and the drive motor 44 is driven, the drive motor 44 vibrates the diaphragm 42 in the left-right direction on the paper surface of FIG.

  Due to the vibration of the vibration plate 42, the waste toner that has dropped to the position of the vibration plate 42 directly below the toner discharge port 43 moves in the direction of the arrow in FIG. It falls into the waste toner collecting container 20. As described above, the formation rate of the holes 46 formed in the vibration plate 42 is sparser as it is closer to the position of the vibration plate 42 immediately below the toner discharge port 43 and is denser as it is farther away. On the other hand, the amount of waste toner increases as it approaches the position of the diaphragm 42 directly below the toner discharge port 43 and decreases as it moves away. Accordingly, the amount of waste toner falling from the vibration plate 42 into the waste toner collection container 20 is uniform throughout the waste toner collection container 20, and the waste toner accumulated in the waste toner collection container 20 is stored in the waste toner collection container 20. The same amount of waste toner is deposited at any of the 20 positions.

  Therefore, even in the flat box-shaped waste toner collecting container 20 as in the present example, the waste toner does not accumulate in some places and can be stored uniformly. That is, the waste toner is averaged and stored in the back side of the waste toner collection container 20, and the waste toner can be efficiently stored by making full use of the capacity of the waste toner collection container 20.

  In the description of the first embodiment, the vibration plate 42 is vibrated by the vibration motor 44. However, the vibration plate 42 may be vibrated using vibration in an ultrasonic frequency band using the piezoelectric effect. Furthermore, it is good also as a structure which vibrates a film itself using the polymer film which has a piezo effect in the vibrating body itself.

Further, the vibration direction of the vibration plate 42 that is vibrated by the drive motor 44 is not necessarily horizontal.
(Embodiment 2)
Next, Embodiment 2 of the present invention will be described. Also in this example, the waste toner collecting container 20 is disposed in the printer 1 shown in FIG. The overall configuration of the waste toner collecting container 20 is also the configuration shown in FIG. 2 described above, but the configuration of the diaphragm is different.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating the configuration of the diaphragm 50 of this example. In the drawing, a large number of holes 51 are formed in the diaphragm 50, and a diaphragm having a thicker thickness than that of the diaphragm 42 used in the first embodiment is used. In this example, the hole 51 formed in the diaphragm 50 has a taper 52 formed on the inner surface thereof. The enlarged portion A shown in the figure is an enlarged view of the taper 52.

  The holes 51 are all the same shape and square in the horizontal plane of the diaphragm 50, and are formed at equal intervals in the vertical and horizontal directions. Further, the taper 52 formed on the inner surface of each hole 51 has a configuration in which the opening is wide on the upper surface of the diaphragm 50 and the opening is narrow on the lower surface. Note that reference numeral 53 shown in the figure denotes a vibration plate support member for attaching the vibration plate 51 to the waste toner collecting container 20.

FIGS. 7A to 7C are diagrams illustrating waste toner collection processing when the diaphragm 50 having the above-described configuration is used. The diaphragm 50 is assumed to vibrate at an appropriate timing.
First, as described above, the waste toner removed by the belt cleaner unit 19 falls from the toner discharge port 47 to the diaphragm 50 through the waste toner discharge pipe 40. FIG. 7A shows a state in which the waste toner that has fallen on the diaphragm 50 accumulates in the waste toner collection container 20 directly below through the hole 51.

  Thereafter, the collection of the waste toner continues, and when the upper part of the waste toner accumulated in the mountain shape reaches the vibration plate 50, the upper waste toner enters the hole 51 of the vibration plate 50 that is vibrated by the drive motor 44. FIG. 2B shows a state where the waste toner accumulated in the waste toner collecting container 20 reaches the vibration plate 50.

  FIG. 6C is an enlarged view of a portion B in FIG. 5B, and the diaphragm 50 vibrates in the direction of the arrow shown in FIG. For this reason, the waste toner that has entered the hole 51 reaches the upper side of the diaphragm 50 by the scooping action by the taper 52, moves over the upper surface of the diaphragm 50, and moves to the adjacent hole 51.

  The movement of the waste toner similarly occurs in all the holes 51, and the waste toner accumulated at the position of the vibration plate 50 immediately below the toner discharge port 47 is sequentially carried to the side of the waste toner collection container 20. Therefore, even in the flat box-shaped waste toner collecting container 20 as in the present example, the waste toner is not accumulated in some places and the waste toner can be uniformly stored in the container. it can.

In this example, the diaphragm 50 may be a molded product, and may be formed of a sheet metal, a metal mesh, or the like. Further, the vibration direction of the diaphragm 50 is not necessarily horizontal.
(Embodiment 3)
Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described. Also in this example, the waste toner collecting container 20 is disposed in the printer 1 shown in FIG. The overall configuration of the waste toner collecting container 20 is also the configuration shown in FIG. 2 described above, but the configuration of the diaphragm is different.

  In other words, in this example, the vibration plate is inclined and gives direction to the moving direction of the waste toner. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 8A, the right side of the vibration plate 54 (the position of the vibration plate 54 directly below the toner discharge port 47) is high and the left side of the vibration plate 54 is low, and the vibration plate 54 is tilted. Arrange. In other words, the vibration plate 54 is disposed so that the waste toner can easily move in the diffusion conveyance direction from the waste toner discharge side. With this configuration, it is possible to give direction to the movement of the waste toner, further improve the conveyance efficiency, and move the waste toner more efficiently to the back side of the waste toner collection container 20.

  That is, as described above, when the upper portion of the waste toner accumulated in the waste toner collecting container 20 directly below the waste toner discharge port 47 reaches the vibration plate 54, the waste toner moves on the upper surface of the vibration plate 54 by the vibration of the vibration plate 54. Get over and move sequentially to the next hole. At this time, in this example, since the vibration plate 54 is inclined as described above, the waste toner can be more efficiently moved to the side of the waste toner collection container 20.

  In this example, a limit switch 56 is provided at the center of the waste toner collecting container 20. The limit switch 56 detects a full state of waste toner by the convex deformation of the diaphragm 54. That is, in this example, the diaphragm 54 is made of a flexible material, and when the waste toner is further collected in the waste toner collection container 20 from the state of FIG. The state shown in FIG. At this time, the limit switch 56 is pressed to notify that the waste toner collecting container 20 is full.

  FIG. 4D is a diagram for explaining a configuration when the vibration plate 54 is bent. A taper in a hole in the vicinity of the position where the limit switch 56 is disposed is formed in a direction opposite to that of the above-described embodiment, and vibration is generated. The waste toner is drawn into the waste toner collecting container at the center of the plate 54. With this configuration, the central portion of the diaphragm 54 receives high pressure from the waste toner, the central portion of the diaphragm 54 rises, pushes the push port 56a of the limit switch 56, turns on the limit switch 56, and is discarded. The full state of the toner collection container 20 is notified.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, waste toner can be stored in the waste toner collection container 20 more efficiently, and the limit switch 56 is used to fill the whole container with the waste toner. When 20 is full, the full container status can be notified immediately.

1 is a diagram illustrating an overall configuration of an image forming apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment. FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a waste toner collection container used in the image forming apparatus of the present embodiment. (A) is a figure explaining the internal structure of a waste toner collection container, (b) is a figure which shows the A-A 'cross section of the figure (a). 4 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a diaphragm used in Embodiment 1. FIG. (A), (b) is a figure explaining a mode that the waste toner which fell on the diaphragm is accommodated in the waste toner collection container 20 uniformly. 6 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a diaphragm used in Embodiment 2. FIG. (A)-(c) is a figure explaining the collection process of the waste toner at the time of using the diaphragm of Embodiment 2. FIG. (A)-(d) is a figure explaining the waste toner collection | recovery process at the time of using the diaphragm of Embodiment 3. FIG. It is a figure explaining the waste toner collection container of a prior art example. FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining a leveling state of waste toner when a waste toner collecting container of a conventional example is used.

Explanation of symbols

1. Image forming apparatus (printer)
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 2 ... Image formation part 3 ... Intermediate transfer belt unit 4 ... Paper feed part 5 ... Conveyance unit for double-sided printing 6 (6M, 6C, 6Y, 6K) ... Image formation unit 7. Photoconductor drum 8 ... cleaner 9 ... charger 11 ... optical writing head 12 ... developing device 13 ... developing roller 14 ... transfer belt 15 ... driving roller 16 ... -Follower roller 17 ... Belt position control mechanism 18 ... Primary transfer roller 19 ... Belt cleaner unit 20 ... Waste toner collection container 21 ... Paper feed cassette 22 ... Paper take-out roller 23 ...・ Feeding roller 24... Rolling roller 25... Conveying roller pair 26... Secondary transfer roller 27... Belt-type heat fixing device 28. ..Discharge roller pair 32 a ... start return path 32b ... intermediate return path 32c ... end return path 33a, 33b, 33c ... return roller pair 34 ... carry-in roller pair 35 ... cleaning roller 36 ... take-in Roller 37 ... Conveying screw 38 ... Drop cylinder 39 ... Pressing roller 40 ... Waste toner discharge pipe 41 ... Motor harness 42 ... Diaphragm 43 ... Diaphragm support material 44 ... Drive motor 46 ... Hole 47 ... Toner discharge port 50 ... Vibration plate 51 ... Hole 52 ... Taper 53 ... Vibration plate support material 54 ... Vibration plate 56 ... Limit switch

Claims (1)

A cleaner that removes waste toner carried on a belt-like toner image carrier that circulates, a waste toner carrying means that carries the waste toner removed by the cleaner, and a waste toner carrying means that carries the waste toner. An image forming apparatus having a thin flat box-shaped waste toner storage container provided to store the waste toner and detachable from the apparatus main body along a belt surface of the belt-shaped toner image carrier;
The waste toner storage container, which has a receiving port in the side of the container top section for receiving the waste toner conveyed by the waste toner conveying means receives the driving force from the apparatus main body when attached to the apparatus main body wherein It has a plurality of holes that vibrate in a horizontal direction perpendicular to one side and gradually increase the formation rate of the holes as the distance from the receiving port increases, and once the waste toner is received, the waste toner is placed in the container through the plurality of holes. An image forming apparatus comprising a sieve-like diaphragm to be deposited on the interior.

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