JP6093689B2 - Development recovery apparatus and image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Description

    The present invention relates to a developer recovery apparatus and an image forming apparatus.

    For example, as disclosed in Patent Document 1, there is known a developer recovery device that sucks and recovers toner (developer) scattered by a developing device in an image forming apparatus. The developer collecting device includes a toner suction duct having a suction port provided in the vicinity of the developing device, and a toner collecting unit connected to the toner suction duct for sucking and collecting the scattered toner of the developing device through the toner suction duct. I have.

JP 2007-298782 A

    By the way, the developer recovery apparatus described above has a problem that toner (developer) accumulates in the toner suction duct. That is, it is difficult to completely collect the toner (developer) scattered by the developing device in the toner collecting unit, and there is a problem that the toner (developer) remains in the toner suction duct. When toner (developer) accumulates in the toner suction duct, the suction resistance in the toner suction duct increases and the recovery rate of scattered toner (developer) decreases.

    The present invention has been made in view of such a point, and an object thereof is to prevent the developer from being deposited in the suction duct, and further to prevent a reduction in the recovery rate of the developer. .

The developer collecting apparatus according to the present invention has one end connected to the suction duct provided in the vicinity of the developing device and the other end of the suction duct, and sucks the developer around the developing device through the suction duct. The suction duct has a bent portion in the middle thereof, the portion on the developing unit side from the bent portion becomes the upstream portion of the duct, and the portion on the recovery box side becomes the downstream portion of the duct. it is, in the bending portion, the suction mechanism having a suction port for cleaning by suction of the developer in the suction duct from the outside of the suction duct has enabled the mounting, the suction mechanism, the A cylindrical portion inserted through the suction duct so that the tip is in a straight line with respect to the upstream portion of the duct and the tip is located in the upstream portion of the duct, and a flange portion connected to the outer end of the cylindrical portion; Formed on the flange Has the above suction port opening toward the duct upstream portion Te, the portion corresponding to the tip of the tubular portion of the outer wall surface of the upper Symbol duct upstream portion, the vibration motor is mounted.

    In addition, an image forming apparatus according to the present invention includes the developer recovery device described above.

    According to the present invention, it is possible to prevent the developer from being deposited in the suction duct, and thus to prevent a reduction in the developer recovery rate of the developer.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment. FIG. 2 is a perspective view illustrating a configuration of the toner recovery apparatus according to the embodiment. FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the configuration of the flange portion of the suction mechanism in a state where a lid is attached. FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the configuration of the flange portion of the suction mechanism with the lid removed. FIG. 5 is a diagram schematically illustrating the configuration of the toner recovery apparatus according to the embodiment. FIG. 6 is a diagram schematically illustrating the configuration of the toner recovery apparatus according to the embodiment. FIG. 7 is a diagram schematically illustrating the configuration of the toner recovery device according to the embodiment. FIG. 8 is a diagram schematically showing the configuration of the toner recovery device according to the reference embodiment.

    Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. The present invention is not limited to the following embodiment.

    The image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment is, for example, a laser printer or a multifunction peripheral, and is configured to form an image on a sheet based on image data transmitted from a terminal or the like (not shown) while conveying the sheet. ing. As shown in FIG. 1, the image forming apparatus 1 includes a paper feed unit 2, an image forming unit 3, a fixing unit 4, and a paper discharge unit 5.

    The paper feed unit 2 is a cassette paper feed unit or a manual feed tray that supplies paper to the image forming unit 3. The image forming unit 3 includes a developing device 11 and a photosensitive drum 12. In the image forming unit 3, an electrostatic latent image is formed on the photosensitive drum 12 by an optical scanning device (not shown), and the electrostatic latent image is developed by the developing device 11 to become a toner image that is a developer image. This toner image is transferred to the paper supplied from the paper supply unit 2. The fixing unit 4 includes a fixing roller and a pressure roller (both not shown), and fixes the toner image transferred to the sheet by the image forming unit 3 to the sheet. Thus, an image is formed on the paper. The paper discharge unit 5 has a paper discharge tray (not shown) to which the paper on which the image is formed is supplied from the fixing unit 4.

    Further, the image forming apparatus 1 includes a toner container 20 and a toner recovery device 30. The toner container 20 stores toner as a developer supplied to the developing device 11. The toner container 20 has a screw shaft 21 that is a toner conveying member, and supplies the toner to the developing device 11 by the rotation of the screw shaft 21. The toner collecting device 30 (developer collecting device) is for sucking and collecting the toner (developer) scattered by the developing device 11.

<Toner recovery device>
The configuration of the toner recovery device 30 will be described with reference to FIGS. The toner recovery device 30 includes a suction duct 31 and a recovery box 35.

    The suction duct 31 is a toner suction passage in which one end that is an inlet end is provided in the vicinity of the developing device 11 and the other end that is an outlet end is connected to the collection box 35. The suction duct 31 is bent halfway, and the portion closer to the developing device 11 than the bent portion 34 is a duct upstream portion 32, and the portion on the collection box 35 side is a duct downstream portion 33. The bent portion 34 of the suction duct 31 is bent at a substantially right angle in the present embodiment, but the angle of bending is not limited to this.

The height of the suction duct 31 increases from the developing device 11 side toward the collection box 35 side.

  A vibration motor 50 is attached to the outer wall surface of the duct upstream portion 32. The vibration motor is provided to prevent the developer from being deposited in the suction duct 31. The vibration motor 50 is configured, for example, by fixing an eccentric body to the output shaft of the motor body. The eccentric body is made of a weight or the like externally fitted to the output shaft in order to deteriorate the rotational balance of the motor body. Then, when the motor body rotates, vibration is generated due to the unbalanced center of gravity of the weight. The vibration motor 50 is controlled by a controller (not shown). The controller operates the vibration motor 50 during the execution of the image forming operation by the image forming unit 3.

  The attachment portion of the vibration motor 50 in the duct upstream portion 32 is configured by a plate member having flexibility. In this embodiment, a PET film is used as an example of a flexible plate member.

    The collection box 35 sucks and collects toner around the developing unit 11, that is, toner scattered by the developing unit 11. Specifically, as shown in FIGS. 5 to 7, the collection box 35 includes a suction fan 36, and the toner scattered by the developing device 11 by the suction action of the suction fan 36 is collected through the suction duct 31 together with air. Sucked into box 35. The collection box 35 is provided with a filter 37, and the toner sucked into the collection box 35 is adsorbed by the filter 37. The air sucked into the collection box 35 passes through the filter 37 and is discharged to the outside. Thus, the toner scattered by the developing device 11 is collected in the collection box 35.

    In the middle of the suction duct 31, a suction port 43 that sucks toner in the suction duct 31 from the outside of the suction duct 31 is provided.

    Specifically, the bent portion 34 of the suction duct 31 is provided with a suction mechanism 40 having the suction port 43. The suction mechanism 40 includes a cylinder part 41 and a flange part 42. The cylinder portion 41 is inserted into the duct upstream portion 32. The cylinder part 41 is configured to be movable in the axial direction (vertical direction in FIGS. 5 to 7) of the duct upstream part 32. The flange portion 42 is provided with a suction port 43 and is connected to the outer end (the lower end portion in FIGS. 5 to 7) of the cylindrical portion 41. The flange portion 42 is provided with a lid 44 that closes the suction port 43. That is, the suction port 43 is configured to be openable and closable.

    The suction mechanism 40 is configured such that the cylinder part 41 closes the duct downstream part 33 by pushing the flange part 42 and moving the cylinder part 41 in the axial direction of the duct upstream part 32.

    Further, in the suction mechanism 40, the suction port 43 opens toward the duct upstream portion 32 of the duct upstream portion 32 and the duct downstream portion 33.

    Next, the operation of the toner recovery device 30 will be described with reference to FIGS.

    First, when the toner scattered by the developing device 11 is collected in the collection box 35 (toner collection operation), the duct downstream portion 33 is not closed but opened by the cylindrical portion 41 of the suction mechanism 40. The suction port 43 is closed by a lid 44. When the suction fan 36 is driven in this state, the toner scattered by the developing device 11 is sucked into the collection box 35 together with air through the suction duct 31 (see the arrow shown in FIG. 5). Here, since the suction port 43 is closed by the lid 44, the suction force by the suction fan 36 can be effectively applied toward the periphery of the developing device 11. Thus, the toner scattered by the developing device 11 is collected.

    In the above toner collecting operation, the toner sucked into the suction duct 31 may adhere to and accumulate on the inner wall surface. When the amount of accumulation increases, the suction efficiency of the toner by the suction fan 36 decreases, and the toner cannot be sufficiently collected.

In contrast, in this embodiment, the vibration motor 50 is attached to the outer wall surface of the duct upstream portion 32, and the vibration motor 50 is vibrated by the controller during image formation. Therefore, even if the toner adheres to the inner wall surface of the duct upstream portion 32, the adhered toner can be shaken off by the vibration of the vibration motor 50. Therefore, it is possible to prevent toner from being deposited on the inner wall surface of the suction duct 31. By extension, to suppress the reduction of the suction efficiency of the toner by the suction fan 3 6, it is possible to increase the recovery rate of the toner.

  In the present embodiment, since the suction port 43 is formed in the bent portion of the suction duct 31, toner is accumulated in the suction duct 31 by cleaning the duct 31 using the suction port 43. Can be prevented.

    In this duct cleaning operation, as shown in FIG. 6, the lid 44 of the suction port 43 is removed, and the suction nozzle N of the cleaner is pressed against the flange portion 42. Subsequently, the flange portion 42 is pushed by the suction nozzle N (see the white arrow shown in FIG. 6). Then, as shown in FIG. 7, the tube portion 41 moves in the axial direction of the duct upstream portion 32, and the duct downstream portion 33 is closed by the tube portion 41. When the cleaner is driven in this state, the toner accumulated in the suction duct 31 is sucked into the cleaner together with air (see the arrow shown in FIG. 7). Here, since the duct downstream portion 33 is closed, the suction force by the vacuum cleaner can be concentratedly applied to the duct upstream portion 32 without acting in the collection box 35. Thus, the toner accumulated in the suction duct 31 is removed. In the duct cleaning operation, not only the toner accumulated in the suction duct 31 but also the toner accumulated around the developing device 11 can be sucked.

    Here, it is assumed that the vibration motor 50 is attached not to the duct upstream portion 32 but to the duct downstream portion 33. In this case, the toner shaken off from the inner wall surface of the duct 31 by the vibration of the vibration motor 50 cannot be sucked from the suction port 43 by the duct cleaning operation. However, in this embodiment, since the vibration motor 50 is attached to the duct upstream portion 32, the toner shaken off by the vibration of the vibration motor 50 can be sucked from the suction port 43. Therefore, it is possible to more reliably prevent toner from accumulating in the duct 31.

Furthermore, in this embodiment, the attachment part of the vibration motor 50 in the suction duct 31 is configured by a plate member having flexibility. Thereby, the attachment part of the vibration motor 50 in the suction duct 31 can be vibrated sufficiently. Therefore, it is possible to more reliably prevent toner from being deposited on the inner wall surface of the suction duct 31 .

Furthermore, in the present embodiment, the vibration motor 50 is attached to the bent portion 34 in which the toner is particularly likely to accumulate in the suction duct 31. Therefore, it is possible to more reliably prevent toner from accumulating in the suction duct 31 .

In addition, the reference form which does not have the suction port 43 is disclosed in FIG.

    As described above, the present invention is useful for the developer recovery device that sucks and recovers the developer scattered by the developing device and the image forming apparatus including the developer recovery device.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Image forming apparatus 11 Developer 30 Toner collection device (developer collection device)
31 Suction duct 32 Duct upstream portion 33 Duct downstream portion 34 Bending portion 35 Recovery box 40 Suction mechanism 41 Tube portion 42 Flange portion 43 Suction port 44 Lid 45 Adapter 50 Vibration motor N Suction nozzle

Claims (5)

A suction duct provided at one end in the vicinity of the developing device;
A recovery box that is connected to the other end of the suction duct and sucks and collects the developer around the developing device through the suction duct ;
The suction duct has a bent portion in the middle thereof, the portion on the developing unit side from the bent portion becomes the duct upstream portion, and the portion on the collection box side becomes the duct downstream portion,
A suction mechanism having a suction port for sucking and cleaning the developer in the suction duct from the outside of the suction duct can be attached to the bent portion ,
The suction mechanism is connected to a cylindrical portion inserted into the suction duct so that the tip is in a straight line with respect to the upstream portion of the duct and the tip is located in the upstream portion of the duct, and an outer end of the cylindrical portion. And the suction port formed in the flange portion and opened toward the upstream portion of the duct,
The portion corresponding to the tip of the tubular portion of the outer wall surface of the upper Symbol duct upstream portion, the vibration motor is mounted, the developer recovery device. The developer recovery apparatus according to claim 1 ,
The developer collecting device, wherein the attachment portion of the vibration motor in the suction duct is made of a plate member having flexibility. In the developer recovery apparatus according to claim 1 or 2,
A lid is detachably provided at the suction port of the flange portion,
The developer collecting device, wherein the suction port is closed by the lid during the toner collecting operation by the collecting box. The developer recovery apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
The developing and collecting apparatus, wherein the cylindrical portion is inserted into the suction duct so as to close the downstream portion of the duct.     An image forming apparatus comprising the developer recovery device according to claim 1.

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