JP5155982B2 - Cleaning device and image forming apparatus having the same - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a polishing roller for polishing the surface of a photoreceptor, a scraper that contacts the surface, and a toner storage member for storing toner scraped off from the surface of the polishing roller by the scraper at a contact portion between the polishing roller and the scraper. And an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine and a printer having the same.

  In an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine or a printer, a photosensitive member whose surface is uniformly charged by a charger is exposed and scanned by an optical scanning device, and an electrostatic latent image corresponding to image information is formed on the surface. . The electrostatic latent image is developed by a developing device using toner as a developer to be visualized as a toner image. The toner image is transferred from a photosensitive member to a sheet by a transfer device and then fixed by a fixing device. A series of image forming operations is completed by heating and pressurizing and fixing on the paper, and discharging the paper on which the toner image is fixed to the outside of the apparatus. Incidentally, the toner (transfer residual toner) which is not transferred onto the sheet in the transfer process but remains on the photosensitive member is removed and collected by the cleaning device.

  By the way, in an image forming apparatus using an a-Si (amorphous silicon) photoconductor, a-Si is very hard compared to OPC (organic photoconductor) and is therefore difficult to be scraped, and the life of the a-Si photoconductor is extended. However, it is difficult to remove contaminants such as discharge products adhering to the surface of the photoreceptor.

  Therefore, an external additive such as titanium oxide is added to the toner, and the surface of the photosensitive member is polished by rotating an elastic polishing roller having the toner attached thereto while being in contact with the photosensitive member. The surface of the photoreceptor is cleaned by scraping off contaminants such as products to prevent the occurrence of image flow and the like due to moisture absorption of the contaminants.

  However, if the toner adheres too much to the polishing roller, the toner may fall on the intermediate transfer belt or the paper to be transported and an image defect may occur, or toner clogging may occur in the cleaning device. .

  Therefore, Patent Document 1 proposes a configuration in which a scraper is pressed against the surface of the polishing roller in the counter direction to regulate the amount of toner on the polishing roller, so that the toner is smoothly conveyed to the collection unit. .

  However, when the printing operation of the pattern biased in the width direction is continued, the toner containing the abrasive cannot be sufficiently held on the polishing roller in the non-printed area, and adheres to the surface of the a-Si photosensitive member. The action of removing the discharge product by polishing decreases, and the surface friction coefficient of the photoreceptor increases. When the surface friction coefficient of the photoconductor increases, problems such as transfer failure, an increase in drive torque of the photoconductor, and image flow in a high humidity environment occur.

  Therefore, as in the cleaning device 120 shown in FIG. 7, a thin film toner reservoir member 132 is provided near the scraper 129, and the toner scraped from the surface of the polishing roller 128 by the scraper 129 is polished by the toner reservoir member 132. A configuration is proposed in which the roller 128 and the scraper 129 are accumulated in a contact portion (hereinafter referred to as “retaining portion”). According to such a configuration, an appropriate amount of toner containing an abrasive is supplied substantially uniformly over the entire area including the non-image area of the polishing roller 128, and the polishing action of the surface of the photosensitive drum 116 by the polishing roller 128 is enhanced. Thus, contaminants such as discharge products adhering to the surface of the photosensitive drum 116 are surely removed, and the surface of the photosensitive drum 116 is cleaned. For this reason, problems such as transfer failure, image flow in a high humidity environment, an increase in driving torque due to an increase in surface friction of the photosensitive drum 116, and a wobbling of the cleaning blade 130 are solved.

  In the cleaning blade 130, the external additive contained in the toner acts as a lubricant by slightly rubbing between the cleaning blade 130 and the photosensitive drum 116, but is stored by the toner storage member 132. Since the toner is uniformly supplied over the entire area of the polishing roller 128, the coefficient of friction of the surface of the photosensitive drum 116 is kept low over the entire area, and the cleaning blade 130 contacting the surface of the photosensitive drum 116 is prevented from curling. .

JP 2003-098924 A

  However, when the configuration in which the toner reservoir member 132 is provided as shown in FIG. 7, the toner is retained in the stay portion between the toner reservoir member 132 and the polishing roller 128 by the toner reservoir member 132 is higher than the height of the toner reservoir member 132 as shown in FIG. 8. When the toner accumulates, the accumulated toner is pressed, and a part of the toner is rubbed between the scraper 129 and the polishing roller 128 as shown in the figure. When such a phenomenon occurs, the toner layer on the polishing roller 128 becomes thick due to the scraped toner, and this causes uneven polishing of the photosensitive drum 116, or the scraped toner or the scraper 129 or the like A minute black spot is generated due to an increase in the charge amount of the toner due to the rubbing, and an image defect or the like is generated due to the dropping of the toner on an unillustrated intermediate transfer belt or paper.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and the object of the present invention is to prevent the toner accumulated by the toner reservoir member from passing through between the scraper and the polishing roller, and to increase the toner layer thickness on the polishing roller. An object of the present invention is to provide a cleaning device and an image forming apparatus provided with the same that can prevent the occurrence of uneven polishing of the photosensitive member and the occurrence of image defects by keeping them appropriately.

  In order to achieve the above object, a first aspect of the present invention is a polishing roller that rotates while abutting on a photoconductor to polish the surface of the photoconductor, and a scraper that contacts the polishing roller and scrapes toner from the surface of the polishing roller. And a cleaning device comprising a toner reservoir member for collecting toner scraped off from the surface of the polishing roller by the scraper at a contact portion between the polishing roller and the scraper, between the toner reservoir member and the scraper. A toner breaker member for breaking the accumulated toner is provided.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the toner breaking member is made of an elastic member, a part of the toner breaking member is applied to the toner reservoir member, and the toner breaking member is elastically deformed to form the toner. The reservoir member is rocked.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect of the present invention, the toner collecting member for collecting the toner scraped off from the photoconductor by the polishing roller is provided, and the toner breaking member is rotated by the rotation of the toner collecting member. Is elastically deformed.

  According to a fourth aspect of the invention, in the invention according to any one of the first to third aspects, the toner breaking member is formed integrally with the toner reservoir member.

  An image forming apparatus according to a fifth aspect includes the cleaning apparatus according to any one of the first to fourth aspects.

  According to the present invention, the crest of toner accumulated in the staying portion with the polishing roller by the toner reservoir member is collapsed by the toner breaking member, so that the toner does not accumulate more than the height of the toner reservoir member. For this reason, the phenomenon that the accumulated toner is pressed and a part of the toner is rubbed between the scraper and the polishing roller is prevented, and the thickness of the toner layer on the polishing roller is always properly maintained. As a result, uneven polishing of the photosensitive member, wobbling of the cleaning blade, generation of minute black spots due to increase in the charge amount of the toner due to rubbing between the scraped toner or scrapers, toner on the intermediate transfer belt or paper Occurrence of an image defect or the like due to the falling of the image is prevented, and a good image can be stably obtained.

1 is a side sectional view of an image forming apparatus (laser printer) according to the present invention. It is a sectional side view of the cleaning apparatus which concerns on Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is a fragmentary perspective view which shows the drive mechanism of the toner breaker member of the cleaning apparatus which concerns on Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is a figure which shows the axial direction distribution of the friction coefficient of the photosensitive drum in Embodiment 1 of this invention in comparison with the past. It is a figure which shows the axial direction distribution of the surface layer thickness of the photosensitive drum in Embodiment 1 of this invention in comparison with the former. It is a sectional side view of the cleaning apparatus which concerns on Embodiment 2 of this invention. It is a sectional side view of the conventional cleaning apparatus. It is a sectional side view of the conventional cleaning apparatus.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[Image forming apparatus]
FIG. 1 is a side sectional view of a laser printer as an embodiment of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention. In the illustrated laser printer 1, a rectangular box-shaped printer body (housing) 2 has a central portion on the upper surface thereof. An inclined concave paper discharge tray 3 is provided. An openable and closable manual feed tray 4 is provided at the upper part of the front surface of the printer main body 2 (the left side in FIG. 1 is the front). The sheet feeding roller 5 constitutes a manual sheet feeding unit 6.

  Thus, the laser printer 1 transfers the paper P based on image data transmitted from a terminal (not shown) while transporting the paper P as a recording material along the transport path L provided in the printer body 2. The transport path L is formed in a substantially L shape in a side view and extends to the paper discharge tray 3.

  The laser printer 1 includes a cassette paper feeding unit 7 provided at a lower portion of the printer main body 2, an image forming unit 8 provided at a substantially central portion in the printer main body 2 above the cassette paper feeding unit 7, A fixing device 9 disposed behind the image forming unit 8 and a concave paper discharge unit 10 provided on the upper surface of the printer main body 2 above the fixing device 9 are provided.

  The cassette sheet feeding unit 7 stacks and stores a plurality of sheets of paper P in a rectangular tray-shaped sheet feeding cassette 11 having an open upper surface, and picks a roller 12 that picks up the sheets P in the sheet feeding cassette 11 one by one. And a feed roller 13 and a retard roller 14 for separating the taken paper P one by one and feeding them to the transport path L. The transport path L has a predetermined length after the fed paper P is temporarily held. A registration roller pair 15 is provided to be supplied to the image forming unit 8 at this timing.

  The image forming unit 8 forms an image corresponding to the image data on the paper P supplied one by one from the manual paper feeding unit 6 or the cassette paper feeding unit 7. A photosensitive drum 16 as a photosensitive member that is rotatably arranged, a charging roller 17 that is a charging unit, a developing device 18 that is a developing unit, a transfer roller 19 that is a transfer unit, and a cleaning device 20 disposed around the photosensitive drum 16. A laser scanner unit (LSU) 21 disposed above them, a toner hopper 22 containing replenishing toner, and the like are provided.

  The fixing device 9 is for fixing the toner image transferred onto the paper P in the image forming unit 8 to the paper P, and includes a fixing roller 23 and a pressure roller 24 that rotate while being pressed against each other. I have. The fixing roller 23 incorporates a heating means such as a heater, and the pressure roller 24 is pressed against the fixing roller 23 by a biasing means such as a spring with a predetermined pressure. Is formed.

  Further, the paper discharge unit 10 is for discharging the paper P on which the toner image has been fixed in the fixing device 9 to the outside of the printer main body 2, and is a pair of upper and lower discharges provided at the end of the conveyance path L. The paper roller pair 25, the plurality of vertical rib-shaped conveyance guide ribs 26 for guiding the paper P conveyed along the conveyance path L from the fixing device 9 to the conveyance roller pair 25, and the printer main body 2 are discharged. The paper discharge tray 3 for loading sheets P to be stored is provided.

  Next, an image forming operation of the laser printer 1 having the above configuration will be described.

  For example, when a print start signal is transmitted to the laser printer 1 from a terminal such as a personal computer (personal computer), the photosensitive drum 16 is moved in the direction of the arrow (counterclockwise) in FIG. Direction) at a predetermined process speed, and the surface thereof is uniformly charged to a predetermined potential by the charging roller 17. When a laser beam based on the image data transmitted from the terminal is output from the laser scanner unit 21 and irradiated onto the photosensitive drum 16, an electrostatic latent image corresponding to the image data is formed on the photosensitive drum 16. Is done. Then, the electrostatic latent image formed on the photosensitive drum 16 is developed by the developing device 18 using toner as a developer to be visualized as a toner image.

  By the way, when cassette feeding is performed, the paper P stored in the paper feeding cassette 11 of the cassette paper feeding unit 7 is picked up one by one from the uppermost one by the pick roller 12, and the feed roller 13 and the retard roller 14. Are separated one by one and conveyed to the registration roller pair 15. In the registration roller pair 15, the paper P is temporarily put into a standby state and then supplied to the image forming unit 8 at a predetermined timing synchronized with the toner image on the photosensitive drum 16.

  In the image forming unit 8, the sheet P supplied to the transfer nip between the photosensitive drum 16 and the transfer roller 19 is conveyed while being pressed against the photosensitive drum 16 by the transfer roller 19, so that the surface (transfer) The toner image on the photosensitive drum 16 is transferred onto the surface. The sheet P on which the toner image has been transferred is conveyed to the fixing device 9 where it is heated and pressurized in the process of being sandwiched and conveyed by the fixing nip between the fixing roller 23 and the pressure roller 24. The toner image is fixed. The toner remaining on the surface of the photosensitive drum 16 (transfer residual toner) after the transfer of the toner image onto the paper P is removed by the cleaning device 20, and the photosensitive drum 16 whose surface has been cleaned is prepared for the next image forming operation. .

  Thus, the sheet P having the toner image fixed on the surface thereof by the fixing device 9 is conveyed upward along the conveyance path L toward the sheet discharge unit 10, and along the conveyance guide rib 26 to the pair of sheet discharge rollers 25. And is fed out of the printer main body 2 while being sandwiched between the pair of paper discharge rollers 25 and stacked on the paper discharge tray 3 provided on the upper portion of the printer main body 2, and a series of image forming operations is completed. .

  When the user manually feeds the paper, the paper P stacked on the manual tray 4 of the manual paper feed unit 6 is supplied to the registration roller pair 15 by the manual paper feed roller 5. Through the same process, an image is formed on the paper P, and the paper P on which the image is formed is stacked on the paper discharge tray 3 outside the printer main body 2.

[Cleaning device]
Next, an embodiment of the cleaning device 20 according to the present invention will be described.

<Embodiment 1>
2 is a side sectional view of the cleaning device according to the present invention, FIG. 3 is a partial perspective view showing a driving mechanism of a toner breaker member of the cleaning device, and FIG. 4 is a comparison of the axial distribution of the coefficient of friction of the photosensitive drum with the conventional one. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the axial distribution of the surface layer thickness of the photosensitive drum in comparison with the prior art.

  In the housing 27 of the cleaning device 20 shown in FIG. 2, a polishing roller 28 that rotates while contacting the photosensitive drum 16 to polish the surface of the photosensitive drum 16, and a surface of the polishing roller 28 that contacts the polishing roller 28. The scraper 29 for scraping off the toner from the toner is stored, and the scraper 29 is in contact with the rotation direction of the polishing roller 28 (clockwise in FIG. 2) in the counter direction. In this embodiment, an a-Si photosensitive member is used for the photosensitive drum 16, and an external additive such as titanium oxide is added to the toner as an abrasive. The polishing roller 28 is made of an elastic body such as rubber, and the scraper 29 is made of SUS material having a thickness of about 0.08 to 0.12 mm.

  A cleaning blade 30 is attached to the upper portion of the opening of the housing 27 facing the photosensitive drum 16 so as to scrape residual toner remaining on the photosensitive drum 16 in contact with the surface of the photosensitive drum 16. Yes. The cleaning blade 30 abuts in the counter direction with respect to the rotation direction of the photosensitive drum 16 on the downstream side (downstream in the rotation direction of the photosensitive drum 16) of the surface of the photosensitive drum 16 with respect to the contact point of the polishing roller 28. ing.

  Incidentally, the scraper 29 is attached to a frame 31, and a thin film-like toner reservoir member 32 is attached to the frame 31 in a state of being separated from the polishing roller 28. The toner reservoir member 32 is for accumulating toner scraped from the surface of the photosensitive drum 16 by the scraper 29 in a contact portion (retention portion) between the polishing roller 28 and the scraper 29, as will be described later. In this embodiment, it is composed of a PET film having a thickness of 0.1 mm.

  As shown in FIG. 2, a rotatable toner collecting screw 33 is accommodated outside the toner collecting member 32 in the housing 27. The toner collecting screw 33 is moved by the toner collecting member 32 as will be described later. It fulfills the function of collecting and collecting unnecessary toner that has accumulated in the stay between the polishing roller 28 and overflowed from the toner reservoir member 32 in the longitudinal direction (perpendicular to the plane of FIG. 2).

  By the way, in the present embodiment, the toner breaking member 34 for breaking the toner piles accumulated in the staying portion by the toner retaining member 32 is provided. The toner breaking member 34 is integrated with the toner retaining member 32. It is configured. That is, in the present embodiment, the PET film is bent into an inverted V shape, and the toner reservoir member 32 is configured by one of the bent surfaces, and the toner breaking member 34 is configured by the other surface. As shown in FIG. 3, the end portion of the toner breaker member 34 is formed in a strip shape by forming a plurality of longitudinal cuts (slits) at appropriate intervals in the width direction. It is in contact with the blade 33 a of the toner recovery screw 33.

  Thus, the surface of the photosensitive drum 16 after the toner image is transferred to the paper P in the course of the image forming operation in the laser printer 1 shown in FIG. From 16, the toner is scraped off together with contaminants and is held on the polishing roller 28.

  The toner remaining on the photosensitive drum 16 polished by the polishing roller 28 is scraped off by the cleaning blade 30 and falls onto the polishing roller 28, and the photosensitive drum 16 whose surface is cleaned prepares for the next image formation. However, since the toner slightly rubs between the cleaning blade 30 and the photosensitive drum 16, and the abrasive contained therein serves as a lubricant, an increase in the coefficient of friction of the photosensitive drum 16 is suppressed, and the photosensitive drum is reduced. It is possible to prevent the cleaning blade 30 from rubbing against the surface of the 16 from being twisted. At this time, the polishing roller 28 also functions to supply the toner held by the polishing roller 28 to the cleaning blade 30.

  Incidentally, in the present embodiment, since the toner reservoir member 32 is provided in the vicinity of the polishing roller 28 in the housing 27, the toner scraped off from the surface of the polishing roller 28 by the scraper 29 is separated from the polishing roller 28 by the toner reservoir member 32. It is collected in the contact portion with the scraper 29. For this reason, an appropriate amount of toner containing an abrasive is supplied substantially uniformly over the entire area including the non-image area of the polishing roller 28, and the polishing action of the surface of the photosensitive drum 16 by the polishing roller 28 is enhanced and the photosensitive drum 16. Contaminants such as discharge products adhering to the surface are surely removed and the surface of the photosensitive drum 16 is cleaned, image transfer under poor transfer or high humidity environment, and driving torque due to increased surface friction of the photosensitive drum 16 is achieved. Problems such as rising and squeezing of the cleaning blade 30 are eliminated.

  Then, the toner accumulated in the staying portion between the polishing roller 28 by the toner reservoir member 32 overflows and falls from the toner reservoir member 32, and the dropped toner is longitudinally (see FIG. However, when the toner recovery screw 33 rotates, the strip-shaped end portions of the toner breaking member 34 that contacts the blades 33a of the toner recovery screw 33 are alternately turned by the blades 33a. Since the vibration oscillates, the toner reservoir member 32 is elastically deformed by the vibration and oscillates in the direction of the arrow in FIG. For this reason, the crest of the toner collected in the staying portion with the polishing roller 28 by the toner storing member 32 is destroyed by the swinging of the toner storing member 32, and the toner is stored in the staying portion more than the height of the toner storing member 32. There is no.

  As described above, since the toner does not accumulate in the staying portion more than the height of the toner reservoir member 32, the toner accumulated in the staying portion is not pressed by its own weight, and part of the scraper 29 and the polishing roller Occurrence of a phenomenon of rubbing through the gap between the two rollers 28 is prevented, and the thickness of the toner layer on the polishing roller 28 is always kept appropriate. As a result, uneven polishing of the photosensitive drum 16, wobbling of the cleaning blade 30, generation of minute black spots due to increase in the charge amount of the toner due to rubbing between the scraped toner or the scraper 29, and the toner on the paper Occurrence of an image defect or the like due to dropping is prevented, and a good image can be stably obtained.

  Here, examples of the present invention will be described.

  In this example, the presence or absence of toner pools and black spots was observed under the following conditions, and the axial distribution of the coefficient of friction and surface layer thickness of the photosensitive drum was measured.

・ Experimental machine: FS-4000DN (A4 monochrome) modified machine manufactured by Kyocera Mita ・ Environment: Temperature 32 ° C / Relative humidity 80%
·System configuration:
Photosensitive drum: Diameter φ30mm, peripheral speed 180mm / s
Polishing roller: Diameter φ14mm, material EPDM sponge, thickness 2mm
Scraper: material SUS, thickness 8μm, bite depth 0.2mm
Toner reservoir member: Material PET film, thickness 100 μm, scraper distance 2 mm
Experimental conditions: The following four items are observed or measured after 10,000 originals with a printing rate of 6% are printed.

1) Height from toner reservoir member height (visually)
2) Presence / absence of black spots (viewed with white paper)
3) Axial distribution of surface friction coefficient of photosensitive drum (measurement)
4) Axial distribution (measurement) of surface film thickness of photosensitive drum
Experimental results: shown in Table 1 and FIGS.

  Table 1 shows the results of observing the height of the toner reservoir relative to the height of the toner reservoir member and the presence or absence of black spots in the case where the toner breaker member is not provided. Table 1 shows the toner reservoir and black spots when no toner breaker member is provided. However, when the toner breaking member was provided, neither toner reservoir nor black spots were observed.

図４にトナー崩し部材を設けた場合と設けない場合の感光ドラム表面の摩擦係数の軸方向分布を示すが、トナー崩し部材を設けない場合には折れ線Ａ’に示すように摩擦係数の絶対値が大きく、軸方向に大きくばらつくが、トナー崩し部材を設けた場合には、折れ線Ａに示すように摩擦係数の絶対値が小さく抑えられるとともに、軸方向のばらつきも小さく抑えられることが分かる。

FIG. 4 shows the axial distribution of the friction coefficient on the surface of the photosensitive drum with and without the toner breaker member. When the toner breaker member is not provided, the absolute value of the friction coefficient is indicated by a broken line A ′. However, when the toner breaker member is provided, the absolute value of the friction coefficient can be kept small as shown by the broken line A, and the variation in the axial direction can be kept small.

  FIG. 5 shows the axial distribution of the layer thickness on the surface of the photosensitive drum with and without the toner breaker member. When the toner breaker member is not provided, the layer thickness as shown by the broken line B ′ is shown. Although the absolute value is small and varies greatly in the axial direction, it can be seen that when the toner breaking member is provided, the absolute value of the layer thickness is large as shown by the broken line A, and the variation in the axial direction is also suppressed. In other words, by providing the toner breaking member, the photosensitive drum is uniformly polished in the axial direction, and the polishing amount is suppressed to be small, and the durability of the photosensitive drum is improved.

<Embodiment 2>
Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 6 is a side sectional view of the cleaning device according to the second embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 6, the same elements as those shown in FIG. 2 are denoted by the same reference numerals. Description of is omitted.

  In the present embodiment, a fan-shaped frame-shaped toner breaker member 35 (only one of which is shown in FIG. 6) is disposed at both ends of the toner collection screw 33 in the axial direction (perpendicular to the plane of FIG. 6). Each toner breaker member 35 is formed of an elastic member, and one side thereof is fixed to the inner surface of the housing 27, and the other side is in contact with the blade 33 a of the toner recovery screw 33. A part of the arc-shaped outer peripheral portion of each toner breaker member 35 is in contact with both ends of the upper end portion of the toner reservoir member 32 in the longitudinal direction (perpendicular to the plane of FIG. 6).

  Thus, in this embodiment, when the toner recovery screw 33 rotates, the toner breaking member 35 that contacts the blades 33a of the toner recovery screw 33 vibrates alternately by the blades 33a and vibrates. Is propagated to the toner reservoir member 32, and the toner reservoir member 32 is elastically deformed and swings in the direction of the arrow in FIG. For this reason, the crest of the toner stored in the staying portion with the polishing roller 28 by the toner storing member 32 is destroyed by the swinging of the toner storing member 35, and the toner is stored in the staying portion beyond the height of the toner storing member 32. There is no. As a result, as in the first embodiment, a phenomenon in which a part of the toner rubs between the scraper 29 and the polishing roller 28 is prevented, and the thickness of the toner layer on the polishing roller 28 is always properly maintained. As a result, the photosensitive drum 16 is unevenly polished, the cleaning blade 30 is swollen, the amount of charged toner increases due to friction between the scraped toners or the scraper 29, and the like. Occurrence of an image defect or the like due to is prevented, and a good image can be stably obtained.

  Although the present invention has been described with respect to an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a laser printer and a cleaning device provided in the laser printer, the present invention is not limited to any other image forming apparatus including a copying machine, a facsimile machine, and a multifunction machine. Of course, the present invention can be similarly applied to a cleaning device provided in the same.

1 Laser printer (image forming device)
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 2 Printer main body 3 Paper discharge tray 4 Manual feed tray 5 Paper feed roller 6 Manual paper feed part 7 Cassette paper feed part 8 Image forming part 9 Fixing device 10 Paper discharge part 11 Paper feed cassette 12 Pick roller 13 Feed roller 14 Retard roller 15 Resist Roller pair 16 Photosensitive drum (photoconductor)
17 Charging roller 18 Developing device 19 Transfer roller 20 Cleaning device 21 Laser scanner (LSU)
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 22 Toner hopper 23 Fixing roller 24 Pressure roller 25 Paper discharge roller pair 26 Conveying guide rib 27 Cleaning device housing 28 Polishing roller 29 Scraper 30 Cleaning blade 31 Frame 32 Toner collecting member 33 Toner collecting screw (toner collecting member)
33a Toner recovery screw blades 34, 35 Toner breaker L Transport path P Paper

Claims (5)

A polishing roller that rotates while being in contact with the photoconductor to polish the surface of the photoconductor, a scraper that contacts the polishing roller and scrapes the toner from the surface of the polishing roller, and a toner scraped off from the surface of the polishing roller by the scraper In a cleaning device provided with a toner reservoir member for collecting the toner at a contact portion between the polishing roller and the scraper,
A cleaning device comprising a toner breaking member for breaking the toner accumulated between the toner reservoir and the scraper.   2. The toner breaking member is formed of an elastic member, and a part of the toner breaking member is applied to the toner reservoir member, and the toner reservoir member is elastically deformed to swing the toner reservoir member. The cleaning apparatus according to 1.   The cleaning apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising a toner collecting member that collects toner scraped from the photoconductor by the polishing roller, and elastically deforming the toner breaking member by a rotation operation of the toner collecting member. .   The cleaning device according to claim 1, wherein the toner breaking member is integrated with the toner reservoir member. An image forming apparatus comprising the cleaning device according to claim 1.

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