JP6086204B2 - Image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an electrophotographic image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a printer, a facsimile machine, and a multifunction machine including these.

  In an electrophotographic color image forming apparatus, a toner bottle (developer container), a developing unit, an image forming unit, and the like are mounted on the apparatus body. For this reason, an electrical board is also required as a control unit for applying a bias to a motor, a mechatronic component, a charging roller, and a developing roller involved in image formation driving.

  That is, in an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a printer, and a facsimile, a plurality of electrical boards such as a power supply, a composite high-voltage power supply, and an engine board are used to start and control electrical parts such as a motor and a sensor. Yes.

  In the case of arranging an electrical board, as described in Patent Document 1, there is one in which a board housing portion (an electrical board housing apparatus) for housing an electrical board is provided on the rear surface of the apparatus main body.

  In recent years, in order to reduce the size of an image forming apparatus, in an image forming unit, a photosensitive drum and a driving motor for driving the photosensitive drum are attached to a side plate disposed in the apparatus main body ( Patent Document 2).

  Conventionally, a drum drive unit (a unit having a photosensitive drum and a drive motor) is attached to a housing disposed in the apparatus main body, and the electrical board is attached to the housing ( Patent Document 3).

  In Patent Document 1, it is necessary to provide an electrical board storage portion (storage chamber) on the rear surface of the apparatus main body in order to store the electrical board. For this reason, it is necessary to provide an open / close space for the storage chamber at the site where the apparatus is installed, and there is a problem that the installation space is increased even if the entire apparatus can be reduced in size.

  In Patent Document 2, a photosensitive drum and a driving motor for driving the photosensitive drum are attached to a side plate arranged in the main body of the apparatus, but a part (space) for arranging the electrical board is separately provided. It was necessary to install. That is, in this side plate, there are bearings, shaft members, and the like in portions other than the arrangement of the motor and the like, and the portion where the electrical board is arranged cannot be secured on this side plate. For this reason, the apparatus main body cannot be downsized (downsized).

  In Patent Document 3, a drive motor (brushless motor) is provided for each photosensitive drum, and the drum drive unit cannot be made very compact. Further, the developing unit requires a developing roller, a developing motor, and the like, and no measures for reducing the size are taken.

  In view of such circumstances, the present invention can reduce the size of the entire apparatus without forming a useless space in the apparatus main body, and it is necessary to provide an electrical board storage part on the rear wall of the apparatus main body. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus having no image.

An image forming apparatus of the present invention includes an image carrier, a developing roller that develops a latent image on the image carrier, an image carrier driving motor that drives the image carrier, a developing roller driving motor that drives the developing roller, and The image carrier, the developing roller, the image carrier driving motor, and the developing roller driving motor are attached to a holding board disposed in the apparatus main body, and an electrical board is attached to the holding board. . In this case, the electrical substrate may be a high-voltage substrate for charging the surface of the image carrier or a high-voltage substrate that supplies a bias to the image roller.

  According to the image forming apparatus of the present invention, the drive unit can be configured by attaching the image carrier, the developing roller, the image carrier driving motor, and the developing roller driving motor to the holding substrate. Can be attached.

  In the image forming apparatus of the present invention, it is not necessary to separately secure a mounting portion of the electrical board, it is not necessary to create a useless space in the apparatus main body, and the space in the apparatus main body can be effectively used, and the entire apparatus This can contribute to the downsizing.

1 is an overall simplified side view of an image forming apparatus of the present invention. 2 is an overall configuration diagram of the image forming apparatus. FIG. FIG. 2 is a main part configuration diagram of the image forming apparatus. 2 is a perspective view of a process cartridge of the image forming apparatus. FIG. 2 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a process cartridge of the image forming apparatus. FIG. FIG. 2 is a front view of a drive transmission path of the image forming apparatus. FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the drive transmission path shown in FIG. 6. FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the drive transmission path shown in FIG. 6. FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view of a main part of a process cartridge of the image forming apparatus. FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view of a main part of a process cartridge of the image forming apparatus. FIG. 2 is a front view of a drive unit of the image forming apparatus. FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a drive unit of the image forming apparatus.

  DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, embodiments for carrying out the present invention according to embodiments shown in the drawings will be described.

  FIG. 1 is an overall simplified side view of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is an overall configuration diagram. The image forming apparatus in this case is a so-called tandem type image forming apparatus, and in the apparatus main body 100 in order from the lower side to the upper side, the paper feeding unit 201, the writing unit 202, the image forming unit 203, A toner supply unit 204, a fixing unit 205, and a paper discharge unit 206 are arranged. In other words, the writing unit 202 forms an electrostatic latent image of the image on the photoconductor that is the image carrier of the image forming unit 203.

  In this case, the apparatus main body 100 includes a main body base 198 and a pair of side plates 199 and 200 erected on the main body base 198, as shown in FIG. A paper feeding unit 201, a writing unit 202, an image forming unit 203, a toner replenishing unit 204, a fixing unit 205, and a paper discharging unit 206 are arranged. The front surface of the apparatus main body 100 is blocked by the front wall 195, and the rear surface of the apparatus main body 100 is blocked by the rear wall 196.

  On one side plate 200, an electrical component 210 on which a large number of electronic board groups are arranged is arranged on the outer side. Between this electrical unit 210 and one side plate 199, a sheet feeding drive unit 208 corresponding to the height position of the sheet feeding unit 201, and an image forming unit corresponding to the height positions of the writing unit 202 and the image forming unit 203. A driving unit 207 and a fixing driving unit and a toner supply driving unit 209 corresponding to the height positions of the fixing unit 205 and the paper discharge unit 206 are arranged.

  FIG. 3 shows an image forming unit 203. The image forming unit 203 includes a photoconductor 1 as an image carrier. In this case, a black photosensitive member 1a, a magenta photosensitive member 1b, a cyan photosensitive member 1c, and a yellow photosensitive member 1d are provided.

  A latent image is formed on each of the photosensitive members 1a, 1b, 1c, and 1d by the exposure beams 5a, 5b, 5c, and 5d of the respective colors irradiated from the writing unit 202, and the developing rollers 2a, 2b, 2c, and In 2d, toner images are formed on the photoreceptors 1a, 1b, 1c, and 1d. Thereafter, the toner is sequentially applied onto the intermediate transfer belt 3 at the transfer positions (primary transfer rollers) 6a, 6b, 6c, and 6d of the respective colors in the order of the yellow photoreceptor 1d, the cyan photoreceptor 1c, the magenta photoreceptor 1b, and the black photoreceptor 1a. The image is transferred.

  The intermediate transfer belt 3 is stretched by a plurality of support rollers 10. One of the plurality of support rollers 10 is a drive roller, and the intermediate transfer belt 3 travels as the drive roller rotates.

  On the other hand, the toner image on the intermediate transfer belt 3 is transferred by the secondary transfer roller 4 to the transfer paper P conveyed from the registration roller pair 7 in time, and is fixed by the fixing roller 8.

  That is, this apparatus performs copying of a document image on a recording sheet (transfer sheet) fed from the sheet feeding unit 201 or the manual feed tray 211, and the sheet passes through a sheet discharge unit 206 to be printed on the upper surface of the apparatus main body 100. The paper is discharged to the paper output tray.

  Incidentally, the photoreceptor 1 is arranged in a so-called process cartridge 30 as shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 4, the process cartridge 30 includes a photoconductor unit 50 having the photoconductor 1 and a developing unit 51 having the developing roller 2. In this case, the photosensitive unit 50 and the developing unit 51 may be an integral structure product.

  In the photoconductor unit 50, as shown in FIG. 5, the surface of the photoconductor 1 that rotates clockwise is charged to a predetermined potential by the charging roller 42. The uniformly charged photoconductor 1 is exposed by the light beam 5 from the writing unit 202 to form a latent image.

  The developing unit 51 contains a developing roller 2, a magnetic carrier, and a two-component developer (hereinafter simply referred to as a developer) containing a negatively charged toner. The developer is frictionally charged while being agitated and conveyed by the conveying screw 35 and then carried on the surface of the developing roller 2. Then, after the layer thickness is regulated by the developing doctor 59, the developer is conveyed to a developing position facing the photosensitive drum 1, where toner is attached to the electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive drum 1. Due to this adhesion, a predetermined color toner image is formed on the photosensitive drum 1. The developer that has consumed the toner by the development is returned to the developing unit 51 as the developing roller 2 rotates.

  The photosensitive drum 1 is in contact with an intermediate transfer belt 3 (see FIG. 3 and the like) of a transfer unit disposed above the photosensitive drum 1 to form a transfer nip as a transfer position. The toner developed on the photosensitive member 1 is transferred onto the intermediate transfer belt 3, and the toner remaining on the photosensitive member 1 without being transferred is removed by a cleaning blade 39, and is accommodated in a toner collection coil 40 (not shown). It is conveyed to the part.

  In the above embodiment, the case of a tandem type image forming apparatus has been described. However, the present invention can also be applied to a monochrome image forming apparatus provided with a set of toner image forming units using black toner.

  Next, in the image forming apparatus of the present embodiment, the drive transmission paths of the photosensitive member 1, the developing roller 2, the conveying screw 35, the cleaning brush 41, the toner recovery coil 40, and the charging roller 42 in the process cartridge 30 are described with reference to FIGS. This will be described with reference to FIG.

  The black photoconductor motor 11, which is a drive source on the black photoconductor 1a side, has gear teeth formed on the output shaft by cutting or the like, and is transmitted to the large diameter gear 12a. Drive transmission is performed by a joint 31 coaxial with the photosensitive member 1 of the process cartridge 30 through a male joint 22 (22a) of an involute spline integrated with the large-diameter gear 12a.

  At this time, a small module gear is adopted as the large-diameter gear 12a, and even if the speed variation of the meshing period of one tooth occurs on the photosensitive member 1, it is an area that is difficult to see on the image. Color irregularities are less likely to occur.

  The large-diameter gear 12a has a gear 13 formed between the large-diameter side and the joint portion 22, and the gear 13 (13a) meshes with the brush joint 21 (21a). The brush joint 21a is driven and transmitted to a joint 36 that drives the brush 41 and the recovery coil 40 on the process cartridge 30 side by a joint portion 24 (24a) that is a female shape of an involute spline integrated at the tip. The joint 36 and the recovery coil 40 are interlocked and connected via gears 37 and 38 and the like.

  On the black developing side, the black developing motor 20 as a driving source has gear teeth formed on the output shaft by cutting or the like, and is transmitted to the developing gear 16 (16a). The gear 16a meshes with the developing joint (18) 18a. The developing joint 18a has a joint portion (19) 19a which is a female shape of an involute spline integrated at the tip, and a joint 32 which drives the gear 33 of the developing roller 2 on the process cartridge 30 side and the gear 34 of the developing screw 35. Drive transmission.

  In the present embodiment, the charging roller 42 in the process cartridge 30 is rotated with the photosensitive member 1, but when driving, the driving roller is not supplied from the flange of the photosensitive member 1. It is a preferable drive configuration to transmit the drive by the input system from the joint 36. Note that all involute spline shapes may be reversed for male and female.

  Next, an Fc (full color) drive system will be described. The Fc photoconductor motor 60, which is a drive source on the Fc photoconductor side, has gear teeth formed on the output shaft by cutting or the like, and is transmitted to the large diameter gear 12b and the large diameter gear 12c. Further, the large-diameter gear 12c meshes with the idler gear 61 and the large-diameter gear 12d, and drives the photoconductor 1 of three colors, magenta, cyan, yellow. Like black, the joint form of drive transmission to the unit side is the same. That is, in each collar, as shown by arrows A, B, and C in FIG. 9 and arrows A, B, and C in FIG. 7, the joint 31 and the joint portion 22 (22b, 22c, 22d) are connected to each other. 32 and the joint part 19 (19b, 19c, 19d) are connected, and the joint 36 and the joint part 24 (24b, 24c, 24d) are connected.

  On the Fc developing side, the Fc developing motor 101 as a drive source has gear teeth formed on the output shaft by cutting, and is transmitted to the developing gear 53 for driving. The developing gear 53 transmits driving power to the idler gear 53 and the developing joint 18b on the magenta side. Further, on the cyan side, driving is transmitted to the gears 53 and 54 and the developing joint 18c. On the yellow side, driving is transmitted to the gear 54, the timing belt 55, the gear 56, and the developing joint 18d. Like black, the joint form of drive transmission to the unit side is the same.

  Next, the drive system of the intermediate transfer belt 3 will be described. The black large-diameter gear 12a transmits the driving force to the gears 81 and 82 to drive the transfer joint 83. The transfer joint 83 drives the intermediate transfer belt 3 in conjunction with an intermediate transfer belt unit (not shown).

  Next, the drive unit 120 of the image forming unit 203 will be described. The drive system of the image forming unit 203 is a drive unit 120 including all the drive mechanisms for driving the four-color photoconductor 1, the four-color developing roller 2, and the intermediate transfer belt unit (see FIGS. 11 and 12). It is. Motors 60 and 101 are provided in a direction opposite to the joint group for driving and transmitting the photosensitive member 1 and the developing roller 2. All the motors are attached to the same holding substrate (side plate) 79.

  That is, the black photoconductor motor 11, the black developing motor 20, the full color photoconductor motor 60, and the full color developing motor 101 are attached to the one surface 79 a side of the holding substrate 79. In this case, the black photoconductor motor 11 is disposed on one end side in the longitudinal direction of one surface 79a of the holding substrate 79, and the black developing motor 20 is disposed adjacent thereto. The full-color photosensitive motor 60 and the full-color developing motor 101 are disposed at the center in the longitudinal direction of the holding substrate 79, and the full-color photosensitive motor 60 is on the upper side of the holding substrate 79. Is the lower side of the holding substrate 79.

  In this case, a cut and bent shape is formed from the sheet metal, and a substrate mounting space (substrate fixing surface) on which the electrical substrate 80 can be mounted is provided at the other longitudinal end of the one surface 79a of the holding substrate 79. At this time, the substrate fixing surface is secured by being offset from the motor. Then, the electric board 80 is mounted on the board fixing surface. The electrical board 80 can be, for example, an I / O control board. Here, the I / O control board is a board provided in an engine control unit (a control unit that performs control related to image formation) of the image forming apparatus. The engine control unit includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a RAM (Random Access Memory), a ROM (Read Only Memory), and the like. The I / O control board controls input / output of various signals, and includes an A / D conversion unit and a voltage control unit.

  The electrical board 80 may be a board that controls mechatronic components such as a solenoid and a motor, or a high-voltage board that supplies a developing bias and a charging bias.

  By the way, in the drive unit 120, the full-color photoreceptor motor 60 and the full-color developing motor 101 are disposed correspondingly between the adjacent magenta photoreceptor 1b and cyan photoreceptor 1c. The electrical board 80 is disposed between the adjacent cyan photoreceptor 1c and yellow photoreceptor 1d.

  In this image forming apparatus, the drive unit 120 configured as described above constitutes the image forming drive unit 207 shown in FIG. For this reason, the electrical board 80 is disposed in the image forming drive unit 207. For this reason, there exists an advantage which can make the space of the electrical equipment part 210 small.

  In the image forming apparatus configured as described above, the photosensitive member 1 as the image carrier, the developing roller 2, the image carrier driving motors 11 and 60, and the developing motors 20 and 101 are attached to the holding substrate 79. The drive unit 120 can be configured, and the drive unit 120 can be attached to the electrical board. For this reason, it is not necessary to separately secure a mounting portion for the electrical board 80, and it is not necessary to create a useless space in the apparatus, and the entire apparatus can be made compact.

  That is, in this image forming apparatus, it is not necessary to dispose the electrical board in a part other than the drive unit, and the space in the apparatus main body 100 can be used effectively, which can contribute to the downsizing of the entire apparatus. .

  Each of the image bearing member (photosensitive member 1) and the developing roller 2 has at least three, and the image bearing member driving motor (photosensitive member motors 11 and 60) and the developing motors 20 and 101 are provided adjacent to each other. If one is arranged between the image carriers, further compactness can be achieved.

  If the electrical board 80 is a control board that controls the motor group, harness distribution is simplified, the harness length is shortened, and the cost can be reduced. In addition, it is easy to ensure the drive unit alone. That is, since the drive mechanism is unitized, it is excellent in maintainability.

  The electrical substrate 80 may be a high-voltage substrate for charging the surface of the image carrier or a high-pressure substrate for supplying a bias to the developing roller, and the space in the apparatus main body 100 can be effectively used. Can do.

  Further, by arranging the arrangement as shown in FIG. 2, the space in the apparatus main body 100 can be further effectively used, and the image forming apparatus can be effectively reduced in size.

  In addition, this invention is not limited to the above-mentioned Example, Of course, a various change can be added in the range which does not deviate from the summary of this invention. Examples of the image forming apparatus according to the present invention include an electrophotographic copying machine, a laser beam printer, and a facsimile machine.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Photoconductor 2 Developing roller 11 Black photoconductor motor (Image carrier drive motor)
20 Black developing motor 60 Full color photosensitive motor 79 Holding substrate 80 Electrical board 101 Full color developing motor 120 Drive unit 201 Paper feed unit 202 Writing unit 203 Image forming unit 204 Toner supply unit 205 Fixing unit 206 Paper discharge unit 207 Image forming drive unit 208 Paper Feed Drive Unit 209 Toner Supply Drive Unit

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-87692 JP 2005-189482 A JP 2010-26354 A

Claims (3)

An image carrier, a developing roller for developing a latent image on the image carrier, an image carrier driving motor for driving the image carrier, and a developing roller driving motor for driving the developing roller, the image carrier, A developing roller, an image carrier driving motor, and a developing roller driving motor are attached to a holding substrate disposed in the apparatus main body, and an electric board is attached to the holding board, and the electric board charges the surface of the image carrier. An image forming apparatus characterized by being a high-pressure substrate . An image carrier, a developing roller for developing a latent image on the image carrier, an image carrier driving motor for driving the image carrier, and a developing roller driving motor for driving the developing roller, the image carrier, A developing roller, an image carrier driving motor, and a developing roller driving motor are attached to a holding substrate disposed in the apparatus main body, and an electric board is attached to the holding board, and the electric board supplies a bias to the developing roller. An image forming apparatus, which is a high-pressure substrate . The apparatus main body has a pair of side plates, and a paper feeding unit, a writing unit, an image forming unit, a fixing unit and a toner replenishing unit, and a paper discharge are sequentially disposed between the side plates from the bottom to the top. A sheet feeding drive unit corresponding to the height position of the sheet feeding unit, between the electrical component unit and the one side plate. An image forming apparatus in which an image forming drive unit corresponding to the height positions of the writing unit and the image forming unit, and a fixing drive unit and a toner supply driving unit corresponding to the height positions of the fixing unit and the paper discharge unit are arranged. There,
An image carrier, a developing roller, an image carrier driving motor, a developing roller driving motor, and an electrical board are attached to a holding substrate to constitute a driving unit, and this driving unit constitutes the image forming driving unit. an image forming apparatus according to claim 1 or claim 2 you.

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