JP6515608B2 - Toner container and image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a toner storage container containing toner and an image forming apparatus.

  An electrophotographic image forming apparatus such as a printer, a facsimile, a copying machine, or a multifunction machine having a plurality of functions transports powder of toner from a toner container as a powder container containing powder toner. The device supplies (replenishes) the developing device. The toner storage container includes a powder storage portion for storing toner, an opening portion provided at one end of the powder storage portion, and an opening for receiving a transport pipe having a powder receiving port for receiving toner from the toner storage container. The transfer tube receiving member provided in the unit, the transfer means for transferring the toner to the opening side of the powder storage portion, and the rotation of the powder storage portion pick up the toner on the opening side to the powder receiving port There is a thing of composition which has a powder pumping part which makes it drop and supplies it (for example, patent documents 1).

  In the case of a method in which the toner is pumped up and supplied to the powder receiving port of the transport pipe inserted into the opening of the transport pipe receiving member, the toner spills out from the pumping surface, so that the toner pumping efficiency by the pumping surface decreases. There was a thing. In addition, when the toner suction efficiency by the suction surface is increased, the toner receiving port may be clogged or clogged due to the characteristics of the toner, the amount of discharged toner decreases, and a large amount of toner remains in the toner container. The toner may not be discharged, and the toner container may need to be replaced.

  In recent years, from the viewpoint of achieving further energy saving, development of technology enabling low-temperature fixing and high-speed copying has been advanced, and for example, a toner excellent in low-temperature fixability using resin, wax and the like having a low softening point It has been considered. However, since the toner excellent in low-temperature fixability is thermally weak, it is apt to be a phenomenon of hardening due to heat generated from the machine being used or heat during storage, that is, blocking phenomenon tends to occur, and heat resistant storage stability There is a problem that it is difficult to secure a sufficient fixing temperature range because hot offset is likely to occur.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems in the prior art and to achieve the following objects. That is, according to the present invention, the toner can be efficiently supplied to the powder receiving port of the transport pipe inserted into the toner storage container, and the toner receiving port is blocked or clogged so that the amount of discharged toner does not decrease. An object of the present invention is to provide a toner storage container in which the toner can not be discharged while a large amount of toner remains in the toner storage container and replacement of the toner storage device is not required.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a toner storage container capable of achieving both low temperature fixability, hot offset resistance, and heat resistant storage stability at a good level.

  In order to achieve the above object, the toner storage container according to the present invention can be mounted with a toner storage container containing toner, and has a powder receiving port for receiving toner from the toner storage container, and the powder A toner storage container for use in an image forming apparatus including a transport pipe having an inlet opening upward and rotating a mounted toner storage container at a predetermined number of rotations, containing the toner and the toner A rotatable powder storage portion, an opening portion provided at one end of the powder storage portion and capable of inserting the transport pipe into a position serving as a rotation center of the toner storage container, and protruding into the container interior; Spiral projections for conveying the toner in the powder container to the opening, and rotation of the powder container to pick up the toner on the opening and feeding it to the powder receiving port Equipped with Weight distribution by gel permeation chromatography (GPC) of the component of the toner, which has an average avalanche angle of 45.0 ° to 55.0 ° and is extracted by Soxhlet extraction using tetrahydrofuran (THF) of the toner Weight average molecular weight Mw in the range of 5,000 to 35,000, and the powder pumping section has a pumping surface extending from the inner wall surface of the powder storage section toward the rotation center axis side; In the surface, an inner end portion on the rotation center axis side extends in the rotation center axis direction of the powder containing portion, and an edge of the inner end portion is substantially parallel to the rotation center axis, and When viewed from the rotation center axis direction, the powder container is inclined at a predetermined range of inclination toward the upstream side in the rotation direction of the powder containing portion with respect to the virtual straight line passing through the rotation center axis and the edge of the inner end Yes thereby, said has spiral projection is connected to the pumping surface, a toner accommodating container, wherein the portion to be the connection extends from the pumping surface in the circumferential direction.

  According to the present invention, the toner, which is the powder in the toner storage container, is efficiently supplied to the powder receiving port of the transport pipe inserted into the toner storage container, and also the toner in the toner storage container with toner It is possible to prevent the clogging of the toner container and to reduce the amount of toner remaining without being discharged from the toner container.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Sectional explanatory drawing of the powder conveyance apparatus before mounting | wearing with the powder storage container based on this invention, and a powder storage container. FIG. 1 is an entire configuration view showing an embodiment of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 3 is a schematic view showing a configuration of an image forming unit of the image forming apparatus shown in FIG. 2; FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view showing a state in which a powder storage container is installed in a powder transfer device. FIG. 3 is a schematic view showing a state in which a powder storage container is installed in a powder conveyance device in the image forming apparatus shown in FIG. 2; BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The perspective explanatory drawing of the powder storage apparatus of a state with which the powder storage container was mounted | worn, and a powder storage container. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The perspective explanatory drawing which shows the structure of the powder storage container based on this invention. Cross-sectional explanatory drawing of the powder storage apparatus of the state which mounted | worn the powder storage container, and a powder storage container. FIG. 3 is a view for explaining the configuration of a powder containing portion of a toner containing container according to the present invention and a state in which a nozzle receiving member is removed. The figure which illustrates the state which attached the nozzle receiving member to the powder accommodating part. The perspective explanatory drawing of the nozzle receiving member seen from the container front end side. (A)-(d) is the top view seen from the upper direction explaining the state at the time of mounting | wearing operation | movement of an opening / closing member and a conveyance pipe | tube. The enlarged view which shows the structure of the pumping surface of the powder pumping part which concerns on the 1st Embodiment of this invention. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the relationship between the amount of remaining toner and the amount of replenishment, which has a pumping characteristic when the pumping surface is inclined in the negative direction. (a) and (b) show the remaining amount of toner having a pumping characteristic when the inclination angle of the pumping surface of the toner container body and the number of rotations of the toner container body are changed according to the mass production model of the toner container according to the present invention Figure comparing the relationship between emissions and emissions. (a) and (b) show the remaining amount of toner and the replenishment amount, which are the pumping characteristics when the inclination angle of the pumping surface of the toner container body and the toner environmental conditions are changed according to the mass production model of the toner container according to the present invention Diagram to compare the relationship. It is a figure which shows the structure of the toner container main body which concerns on the 5th Embodiment of this invention, (a) is a top view, (b) is a side view. FIG. 14 is an enlarged perspective view illustrating the configuration of the opening side of the toner storage container main body according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 14 is an enlarged cross-sectional view for explaining the configuration of the opening side of the toner storage container main body according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention. The enlarged view explaining the structure of the pumping face of a powder pumping part to the 5th Embodiment of this invention. (A)-(c) is the operation | movement figure which demonstrated typically the change at the time of rotation of the powder suction part which concerns on the 5th Embodiment of this invention. (A)-(c) is the operation | movement figure which demonstrated typically the change at the time of rotation of the powder suction part following FIG.21 (c). (A) is a schematic view showing the diffusivity of the toner when the internal space of the toner container main body is small, (b) is the diffusion of toner when the internal space of the toner container main body according to the fifth embodiment is expanded The schematic diagram which shows sex. Explanatory drawing which shows an example of the measuring method of the weight average molecular weight Mw in molecular weight distribution by GPC of the component extracted by Soxhlet extraction method using THF of a toner. The belt type fixing device used for evaluation of the fixing property in the Example of this invention.

(Image forming device)
Hereinafter, a plurality of embodiments of the present invention will be described using the drawings. The same members or members having the same functions in the respective embodiments will be denoted by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof will be omitted in the subsequent embodiment. The following description is an example and does not limit the scope of the claims. Those skilled in the art can easily make other embodiments within the scope of the claims of the present invention, but such modifications and changes are naturally included in the scope of the claims. In the drawings, Y, M, C, and K are suffixes added to constituent members corresponding to (yellow, magenta, cyan, black), and are appropriately omitted.

  FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of an electrophotographic tandem color copier (hereinafter referred to as “copier 500”) as an image forming apparatus to which the present invention is applied. The copying machine 500 may be a monochrome copying machine. The image forming apparatus may not be a copying machine, but may be a printer, a facsimile machine, or a multifunction machine having a plurality of functions. The copying machine 500 includes a copying machine main body (hereinafter, referred to as “printer unit 100”), a sheet feeding table (hereinafter, referred to as “sheet feeding unit 200”), and an original reading unit (hereinafter referred to as “scanner unit” The main component of the

  The toner storage container storage section 70 as a powder container storage section provided at the upper portion of the printer section 100 includes four toner storage containers 32 (four toner storage containers corresponding to respective colors (yellow, magenta, cyan, black)). Y, M, C, K) are installed detachably (replaceable). An intermediate transfer unit 85 is disposed below the toner storage container storage unit 70.

  The intermediate transfer unit 85 includes an intermediate transfer belt 48 as an intermediate transfer member, four primary transfer bias rollers 49 (Y, M, C, K), a secondary transfer backup roller 82, a plurality of rollers, and an intermediate transfer cleaning device. Etc. The intermediate transfer belt 48 is stretched and supported by a plurality of rollers, and is endlessly moved in the arrow direction in FIG. 2 by rotational driving of a secondary transfer backup roller 82 which is one of the plurality of rollers.

  In the printer unit 100, four image forming units 46 (Y, M, C, K) corresponding to the respective colors are juxtaposed so as to face the intermediate transfer belt 48. Below the four toner containers 32 (Y, M, C, K), toner replenishing devices 60 (Y, M, 60) as four powder replenishing (supplying) devices corresponding to the toner containers of the respective colors. C, K) are arranged. The toner, which is a powder developer stored in the toner storage container 32 (Y, M, C, K), is made into each color by the toner replenishing device 60 (Y, M, C, K) corresponding to each toner. The image is supplied (supplemented) into the developing device provided in the corresponding image forming unit 46 (Y, M, C, K). In the present embodiment, an image forming unit is configured by four image forming units 46 (Y, M, C, K).

As shown in FIG. 2, the printer unit 100 includes an exposure device 47 which is a latent image forming unit below the four image forming units 46. The exposure device 47 exposes and scans the surface of a photosensitive member 41 (Y, M, C, K) as an image carrier, which will be described later, based on the image information of the original image read by the scanner unit 400. An electrostatic latent image is formed on the surface. The image information may not be read from the scanner unit 400, but may be image information input from an external device such as a personal computer connected to the copying machine 500.
In the present embodiment, a laser beam scanner method using a laser diode is used for the exposure device 47, but another configuration such as one using an LED array may be used as the exposure means.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view showing a schematic configuration of the image forming unit 46Y corresponding to yellow.
The image forming unit 46Y includes a drum-shaped photosensitive member 41Y. The image forming unit 46Y is configured such that a charging roller 44Y that is a charging unit, a developing device 50Y that is a developing unit, a photoconductor cleaning device 42Y, a charge removing device, and the like are disposed around the photoconductor 41Y. Then, an image forming process (charging step, exposure step, developing step, transfer step, cleaning step) is performed on the photosensitive member 41Y to form a yellow toner image on the photosensitive member 41Y.

  The other three image forming units 46 (M, C, K) also have substantially the same configuration as that of the image forming unit 46 Y corresponding to yellow except that the color of the toner used is different. Toner images corresponding to the respective color toners are formed on the photosensitive members 41 (M, C, K). Hereinafter, descriptions of the other three image forming units 46 (M, C, and K) will be appropriately omitted, and only the image forming unit 46 Y corresponding to yellow will be described.

  The photosensitive member 41Y is rotationally driven in the clockwise direction in FIG. 3 by a drive motor. The surface of the photosensitive member 41Y is uniformly charged at a position facing the charging roller 44Y (charging step). Thereafter, the surface of the photosensitive body 41Y reaches the irradiation position of the laser beam L emitted from the exposure device 47, and an electrostatic latent image corresponding to yellow is formed by exposure scanning at this position (exposure step). Thereafter, the surface of the photosensitive member 41Y reaches a position facing the developing device 50Y, and the electrostatic latent image is developed with yellow toner at this position to form a yellow toner image (developing step).

  The four primary transfer bias rollers 49 (Y, M, C, K) of the intermediate transfer unit 85 respectively sandwich the intermediate transfer belt 48 between the photosensitive members 41 (Y, M, C, K) to perform primary transfer. Each forms a nip. A transfer bias reverse to the polarity of the toner is applied to the primary transfer bias rollers 49 (Y, M, C, K).

  The surface of the photosensitive member 41Y on which the toner image is formed in the developing step reaches the primary transfer nip facing the primary transfer bias roller 49Y with the intermediate transfer belt 48 interposed therebetween, and the toner image on the photosensitive member 41Y in the primary transfer nip Is transferred onto the intermediate transfer belt 48 (primary transfer step). At this time, a slight amount of untransferred toner remains on the photosensitive member 41Y. The surface of the photosensitive member 41Y on which the toner image is transferred to the intermediate transfer belt 48 at the primary transfer nip reaches a position facing the photosensitive member cleaning device 42Y. The non-transferred toner remaining on the photosensitive member 41Y is mechanically collected by the cleaning blade 42a provided in the photosensitive member cleaning device 42Y at the opposing position (cleaning step). Finally, the surface of the photosensitive member 41Y reaches a position facing the static elimination device, and the residual potential on the photosensitive member 41Y is removed at this position. Thus, a series of image forming processes performed on the photosensitive member 41Y are completed.

  Such an image forming process is performed in the other image forming units 46 (M, C, K) in the same manner as the yellow image forming unit 46 Y. That is, the laser beam L based on the image information from the exposure device 47 disposed below the imaging units 46 (M, C, K) is a photosensitive member of each of the imaging units 46 (M, C, K) It is irradiated toward 41 (M, C, K). Specifically, the exposure device 47 emits a laser beam L from a light source, and scans the laser beam L with a rotationally driven polygon mirror, while the photosensitive members 41 (M, C, K) are interposed via a plurality of optical elements. Irradiate on top. Thereafter, the toner images of the respective colors formed on the photosensitive members 41 (M, C, K) through the development process are transferred onto the intermediate transfer belt 48.

  At this time, the intermediate transfer belt 48 travels in the arrow direction in FIG. 2 and sequentially passes through the primary transfer nips of the respective primary transfer bias rollers 49 (Y, M, C, K). As a result, the toner images of the respective colors on the respective photosensitive members 41 (Y, M, C, K) are superimposed on the intermediate transfer belt 48 and primarily transferred, and a color toner image is formed on the intermediate transfer belt 48.

  The intermediate transfer belt 48 on which the toner images of the respective colors are superimposed and transferred to form a color toner image reaches a position facing the secondary transfer roller 89. At this position, the secondary transfer backup roller 82 sandwiches the intermediate transfer belt 48 with the secondary transfer roller 89 to form a secondary transfer nip. The color toner image formed on the intermediate transfer belt 48 is, for example, of the transfer bias applied to the secondary transfer backup roller 82 on the recording medium P such as a transfer sheet conveyed to the position of the secondary transfer nip. Transferred by action. At this time, untransferred toner which has not been transferred to the recording medium P remains on the intermediate transfer belt 48. The intermediate transfer belt 48 which has passed through the secondary transfer nip reaches the position of the intermediate transfer cleaning device, the non-transferred toner on the surface is collected, and the series of transfer processes performed on the intermediate transfer belt 48 is completed.

Next, the movement of the recording medium P will be described.
The recording medium P conveyed to the above-described secondary transfer nip includes a sheet feeding roller 27 and a pair of registration rollers 28 from a sheet feeding tray 26 provided in a sheet feeding unit 200 disposed below the printer unit 100. It is transported via. Specifically, a plurality of recording media P are stored in the sheet feeding tray 26 in an overlapping manner. Then, when the feed roller 27 is rotationally driven in the counterclockwise direction in FIG. 2, the top recording medium P is conveyed toward the roller nip formed by the two rollers of the registration roller pair 28.

  The recording medium P conveyed to the registration roller pair 28 is temporarily stopped at the position of the roller nip of the registration roller pair 28 whose rotational driving has been stopped. The registration roller pair 28 is rotationally driven in synchronization with the timing when the color toner image on the intermediate transfer belt 48 reaches the secondary transfer nip, whereby the recording medium P is conveyed toward the secondary transfer nip. . Thus, a desired color toner image is transferred onto the recording medium P.

  The recording medium P on which the color toner image is transferred at the secondary transfer nip is conveyed to the position of the fixing device 86. In the fixing device 86, the color toner image transferred onto the surface is fixed on the recording medium P by the heat and pressure of the fixing belt and the pressure roller. The recording medium P having passed through the fixing device 86 passes between the rollers of the discharge roller pair 29 and is discharged to the outside of the apparatus. The recording medium P discharged to the outside of the apparatus by the discharge roller pair 29 is sequentially stacked on the stack unit 30 as an output image. Thus, a series of image forming processes in the copying machine 500 are completed.

  Next, the configuration and operation of the developing device 50 in the image forming unit 46 will be described in more detail. Although the image forming unit 46Y corresponding to yellow is described as an example here, the same configuration and operation are performed in the image forming units 46 (M, C, and K) of other colors.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the developing device 50Y includes a developing roller 51Y as a developer carrier, a doctor blade 52Y as a developer regulating plate, two developer conveying screws 55Y, and a toner concentration detection sensor 56Y. It is done. The developing roller 51Y faces the photosensitive member 41Y, and the doctor blade 52Y faces the developing roller 51Y. The two developer conveying screws 55Y are disposed in the two developer accommodating portions (53Y, 54Y). The developing roller 51Y is configured of a magnet roller fixed inside, a sleeve rotating around the magnet roller, and the like. In the first developer storage portion 53Y and the second developer storage portion 54Y, a two-component developer G composed of a carrier and a toner is stored. The second developer storage portion 54Y communicates with the toner drop transport path 64Y through an opening formed above the second developer storage portion 54Y. The toner concentration detection sensor 56Y detects the concentration of toner in the developer G in the second developer container 54Y.

  The developer G in the developing device 50Y circulates between the first developer containing portion 53Y and the second developer containing portion 54Y while being stirred by the two developer conveying screws 55Y. The developer G in the first developer storage portion 53Y is supplied onto the sleeve surface of the developing roller 51Y by the magnetic field formed by the magnet roller in the developing roller 51Y while being transported to one of the developer transporting screw 55Y. Be done. The sleeve of the developing roller 51Y is rotationally driven counterclockwise as shown by the arrow in FIG. 3, and the developer G carried on the developing roller 51Y moves on the developing roller 51Y with the rotation of the sleeve. At this time, the toner in the developer G is charged to a potential of the reverse polarity to the carrier by the frictional charge with the carrier in the developer G, and is electrostatically attracted to the carrier, and is formed on the developing roller 51Y. It is carried on the developing roller 51Y together with the carrier attracted by the magnetic field.

  The developer G carried on the developing roller 51Y is conveyed in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 3 and reaches the doctor portion where the doctor blade 52Y and the developing roller 51Y face each other. When the developer G on the developing roller 51Y passes through the doctor portion, the amount thereof is regulated and made appropriate, and thereafter, the developer G is conveyed to a developing region which is a position opposite to the photosensitive member 41Y. In the development area, the toner in the developer G is adsorbed to the latent image formed on the photoreceptor 41Y by the development electric field formed between the development roller 51Y and the photoreceptor 41Y. The developer G remaining on the surface of the developing roller 51Y which has passed through the developing region reaches the upper side of the first developer accommodating portion 53Y as the sleeve rotates, and is separated from the developing roller 51Y at this position.

  The developer G in the developing device 50Y is adjusted such that the toner concentration is within a predetermined range. More specifically, the toner contained in the toner storage container 32Y is stored in the second developer storage container 60Y, which will be described later, according to the development consumption amount of the toner contained in the developer G in the development device 50Y. It is replenished in the part 54Y. The toner supplied into the second developer container 54Y is mixed and stirred together with the developer G by the two developer conveying screws 55Y, while the first developer container 53Y and the second developer container 54Y are mixed. Circulate between

  FIG. 4 is a schematic perspective view showing a state in which the four toner storage containers 32 (Y, M, C, K) are attached to the toner storage container storage unit 70. As shown in FIG. FIG. 5 is a schematic view showing a state in which the toner container 32 is attached to the toner replenishing device 60. As shown in FIG. The toner replenishing devices 60 (Y, M, C, K) of each color have the same configuration except that the color of the toner is different. Therefore, in FIG. 5, (Y, M, C, K) are omitted and the toner replenishing device 60 and the toner storage container 32 are described. In addition, when there is a different configuration for each color, Y, M, C or K, which is a suffix indicating a specific color, is used as a code, but the configuration is not different for each color, or in the case of a common configuration In some cases, (Y, M, C, K) may be added and the suffix may be omitted as appropriate. In FIG. 4, the arrow Q indicates the mounting direction of the toner container 32 of each color to the toner replenishing device 60, and Q 1 indicates the separating direction of the toner container 32 of each color from the toner replenishing device 60.

  The toner in the toner storage containers 32 (Y, M, C, K) mounted in the toner storage container storage unit 70 of the printer unit 100 shown in FIG. 4 is, as shown in FIG. According to the toner consumption, it is appropriately replenished into the developing device. At this time, the toner in each toner container 32 is replenished to the developing device 50 by the toner replenishing device 60 of each color. The toner replenishing device 60 includes a toner container storage portion 70, a transport nozzle 611 as a transport pipe, a transport screw 614 as a transport member, a toner drop transport path 64, a drive portion (container rotation drive portion) 91, etc. There is. When the toner storage container 32 is moved in the toner storage container storage portion 70 of the printer unit 100 by the mounting operation in which the toner storage container 32 is pressed by the user in the mounting direction Q in FIG. The transport nozzles 611 of the toner replenishing device 60 are respectively inserted into the container from the container tip end side in the mounting direction Q. Thereby, the inside of each toner storage container 32 and the inside of each conveyance nozzle 611 are communicated. Details of the configuration for communicating in conjunction with the mounting operation will be described later.

  The toner storage container 32 of each color is also referred to as a toner bottle, and is a holding portion which is held non-rotatably in the toner storage container storage portion 70 and has a container tip side cover 34 as a container cover and a container gear 301 as a container side gear. The toner container body 33 is mainly composed of a substantially cylindrical toner container body 33 as a powder container portion integrally formed. Each toner container body 33 is rotatably held with respect to each container tip side cover 34. The set cover 608 in FIG. 5 is a part of the container cover receiving portion 73 of the toner storage container storage portion 70.

As shown in FIG. 4, the toner container storage unit 70 mainly includes an insertion port forming unit 71, a container receiving unit 72, and a container cover receiving unit 73.
The insertion port forming portion 71 is a portion in which the insertion port 71a is formed at the time of the mounting operation of each toner container 32 (Y, M, C, K). The insertion opening forming portion 71 of the toner storage container storage portion 70 is exposed when the main body cover (not shown) installed on the front side (the front side in the direction perpendicular to the sheet of FIG. 2) of the copying machine 500 is opened. Then, with the longitudinal direction of each toner storage container 32 (Y, M, C, K) being horizontal, the mounting and demounting operation of each toner storage container 32 from the front side of the copying machine 500 (toner storage container 32 (Y, The mounting and demounting operation is performed with the longitudinal direction of M, C, and K) as the mounting and demounting direction.

The container receiving portion 72 is a portion for supporting the toner container main body 33 (Y, M, C, K) of each toner container 32. The container receiving unit 72 is a part that slides and moves the toner storage container 32 (Y, M, C, K) when the toner storage container 32 (Y, M, C, K) is mounted on the toner replenishing device 60. The toner container 32 is divided into four in the width direction W orthogonal to the longitudinal direction (detachment direction) of the toner storage container 32 (Y, M, C, K).
The container receiving portion 72 is formed with a groove portion as a container placing portion which continues from the insertion port forming portion 71 to the container cover receiving portion 73 along the longitudinal direction of the container 32. The toner container 32 (Y, M, C, K) of each color is configured to be slidable in the longitudinal direction (mounting direction Q, separating direction Q1) on the groove. The container receiving portion 72 is formed such that the length in the longitudinal direction is substantially equal to the length in the longitudinal direction of the toner container main body 33 (Y, M, C, K) of each color.

The container cover receiving portion 73 includes the container tip side cover 34 (Y, M, C, K) of each toner container 32 (Y, M, C, K) and the toner container body 33 (Y, M, C, K). Is a part that holds each). The container cover receiving portion 73 is provided on the container tip side (the mounting direction Q side) in the longitudinal direction (attachment direction) of the container receiving portion 72, and the insertion port forming portion 71 is one end side of the container receiving portion 72 in the longitudinal direction It is provided in the direction Q1).
The four toner containers 32 (Y, M, C, and K) are slidably movable on the container receiving portion 72, respectively. For this reason, with the mounting operation of each toner container (Y, M, C, K), the container tip side cover 34 (Y, M, C, K) passes the insertion port forming portion 71 and then the container for a while It slides on the receiving part 72 and is mounted on the container cover receiving part 73 thereafter.

As shown in FIG. 5, each toner container body 33 is provided with a container gear 301 as a gear. In the toner container body 33, with the container front end side cover 34 mounted on the container cover receiving portion 73, the main body from the drive portion (container rotation drive portion) 91 configured of a drive motor and gear etc. The rotational drive is input to each of the container gears 301 via the container drive gears 601 as side gears. Thereby, the toner container main body 33 of each color is rotationally driven in the rotation direction (hereinafter referred to as the rotation direction A) shown by the arrow A in FIG. The toner in each toner storage container main body 33 is rotated by the respective toner storage container main body 33 itself, so that the toner storage container is formed by a helical projection 302 formed in a spiral shape on the inner peripheral surface of the toner storage container main body 33. The sheet is transported from one end located on the left side in FIG. 5 to the other end located on the right side along the longitudinal direction of the main body. That is, in the present embodiment, the transport means is a helical protrusion 302. As a result, the inside of the transfer nozzle 611 is formed through the nozzle opening 610 as a powder receiving port formed so as to open upward from the container tip side cover 34 side respectively provided at the other end to the transfer nozzle 611 of each color. The toners of the respective colors are respectively supplied to the Each nozzle opening 610 communicates with a shutter support opening 335b described later at an inner position beyond the position where the container gear 301 is provided in the longitudinal direction of each toner storage container body 33. That is, each container gear 301 meshes with the container drive gear 601 on the side of the opening 33 a rather than the position where each nozzle opening 610 and the shutter support opening 335 b communicate with each other.
Conveying screws 614 are disposed in the conveying nozzles 611, respectively. Each conveyance screw 614 is rotated when rotational drive is input from the drive unit (container rotation drive unit) 91 to the conveyance screw gear 605, and conveys the toner supplied into the conveyance nozzle 611. The downstream end of the transport nozzle 611 in the transport direction is connected to the toner drop transport path 64. The toner transported by each transport screw 614 falls in the toner drop transport path 64 by its own weight and is replenished into the developing device 50 (second developer storage portion 54).

  The toner storage containers 32 (Y, M, C, K) are replaced with new ones when their lifetimes are reached (when almost all of the stored toner is consumed and emptied). The end on the opposite side of the container tip side cover 34 (Y, M, C, K) in the longitudinal direction of the toner container 32 (Y, M, C, K) of each color shown in FIG. The grips 303 (Y, M, C, and K) are provided on each of the parts, and the operator grasps and pulls out the grips 303 (Y, M, C, and K) when replacing the container. The toner storage containers 32 (Y, M, C, K) mounted in the toner storage container storage unit 70 can be removed.

  Here, the configuration of the drive unit 91 will be supplemented using FIG. In FIG. 6, the color identification code is omitted. The drive part 91 is provided with the container drive gear 601 of each color and the conveyance screw gear 605 of each color. Each container drive gear 601 is driven by a drive motor 603 fixed to each mounting substrate 602, and is rotationally driven by rotating its output gear. Each conveyance screw gear 605 is rotationally driven by transmitting the rotation of each output gear via the connecting gear 604 of each color.

  As shown in FIG. 5, in the toner replenishing device 60, the amount of toner supplied to each developing device 50 is controlled by the number of revolutions of each conveying screw 614. Therefore, the toner having passed through each of the transport nozzles 611 is directly transported to each developing device 50 via the toner dropping transport path 64 without controlling the amount supplied to each developing device 50. . As in the present embodiment, the toner replenishing device 60 may be configured to insert the transport nozzle 611 into the toner storage container 32, or may be provided with a temporary toner storage unit such as a toner hopper.

  Next, the toner container 32 (Y, M, C, K) and the toner replenishing device 60 (Y, M, C, K) according to the present embodiment will be described in more detail. As described above, the toner container 32 (Y, M, C, K) and the toner replenishing device 60 (Y, M, C, K) have substantially the same configuration except that the color of the toner used is different. It has become. Therefore, the suffixes Y, M, C, and K indicating the color of toner are omitted, and the configuration of one toner storage container 32 and the toner replenishing device 60 will be described.

  FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of the toner replenishing device 60 before mounting the toner storage container 32 and an end portion of the toner storage container 32 at the end of the container. FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the toner storage container 32. FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view of the toner replenishing device 60 with the toner storage container 32 mounted and the end of the toner storage container 32 at the tip of the container. is there.

As shown in FIG. 1, the toner replenishing device 60 includes a transport nozzle 611 including a transport screw 614 inside, and a nozzle shutter 612. The nozzle shutter 612 closes the nozzle opening 610 when the toner container 32 is not mounted (in the state of FIG. 1) before the toner container 32 is mounted, and when the toner container 32 is mounted (in the state of FIG. 8) It is slidably mounted on the outer peripheral surface of the transfer nozzle 611 so as to open the opening 610. The nozzle shutter 612 is provided with a nozzle shutter flange 612a as a hook on the downstream side in the mounting direction with respect to the end surface of the nozzle receiving member 330 as a transport pipe receiving member described later that contacts the transport nozzle 611.
On the other hand, at the center of the front end surface of the toner storage container 32 (toner storage container main body), a nozzle reception port 331 as a tube insertion port into which the transport nozzle 611 is inserted at the time of mounting is formed. A container shutter 332 as an opening and closing member for closing 331 is provided.

  The transfer nozzle 611 is disposed at the center of the set cover 608. The transport nozzle 611 protrudes from the end surface 615 b on the downstream side in the mounting direction at the downstream side in the mounting direction Q of the toner storage container 32 toward the upstream side in the mounting direction into the container cover receiving portion 73. It is arranged. A container setting portion 615 as a container receiving portion stands upright toward the mounting direction of the toner storage container 32 in the projecting direction of the conveyance nozzle 611 so as to surround the periphery of the conveyance nozzle 611. That is, the container setting portion 615 is disposed at the root of the transport nozzle 611, and functions as a rotation center shaft when the transport means in the toner storage container 32 rotates to transport the toner in the toner storage container 32. It is a positioning part to the toner storage container accommodating part 70 of the container opening part 33a. That is, the container opening 33a is inserted into and fitted to the container setting portion 615, whereby the radial position of the container opening 33a is determined. In a state where the toner container 32 is attached to the toner replenishing device 60, the outer peripheral surface 33b of the container opening 33a of the toner container 32 is fitted in a slidable manner with the container setting portion 615.

  When the inner peripheral surface 615a of the end of the container setting portion 615 and the outer peripheral surface 33b of the container opening 33a of the toner container 32 are fitted, the longitudinal direction of the toner container 32 with respect to the toner supply device 60 of the toner container 32 Positioning in the radial direction orthogonal to the mounting / dismounting direction) is performed. Further, when the toner storage container 32 rotates, the outer peripheral surface 33b of the container opening 33a functions as a rotation center shaft, and the end inner peripheral surface 615a of the container setting portion 615 functions as a bearing. At this time, the outer peripheral surface 33b of the container opening 33a is slidably brought into contact with the end inner peripheral surface 615a of the container setting portion 615, and the position where the toner container 32 is positioned in the radial direction with respect to the toner replenishing device 60 is shown. Indicated by α in 8.

  As shown in FIG. 9, the toner storage container main body 33 is substantially cylindrical, and is configured to rotate with the central axis of the cylinder as the rotation center axis O. Hereinafter, in the longitudinal direction of the toner storage container 32, the side where the nozzle receiving port 331 is formed in the toner storage container 32 (the side where the container front end side cover 34 is disposed) will be referred to as "container front end side". . Further, the side of the toner container 32 on which the handle portion 303 is disposed (the side opposite to the container front end side) will be referred to as the “container rear end side”. The longitudinal direction of the toner storage container 32 is the rotation center axis direction, and in the state where the toner storage container 32 is attached to the toner replenishing device 60, the longitudinal direction is the horizontal direction. An outer diameter of the container rear end side of the toner storage container main body 33 is larger than that of the container front end side than the container gear 301, and a spiral projection 302 is formed on the inner peripheral surface. Then, when the toner storage container main body 33 rotates in the rotation direction A in the figure, the toner in the toner storage container main body 33 is moved from one end side (container rear end side) in the rotation center axis direction by the action of the spiral projection 302 A conveying force toward the side (container tip side) is applied.

  As shown in FIGS. 9 and 10, the inner wall of the toner container main body 33 is transported to the container front end side by the helical projection 302 as the toner container main body 33 rotates in the rotation direction A. A powder scooping portion 304 is formed which scoops the toner by the rotation of the toner container body 33. The powder pick-up portion 304 picks up the toner conveyed by the conveying force of the helical projection 302 by the pick-up surface 3040 according to the rotation of the toner container main body 33. Thus, the toner can be pumped up above the inserted transport nozzle 611. Also, as shown in FIG. 9 and FIG. 10, similarly to the helical projection 302, the inner circumferential surface of the powder suction portion 304 is a suction portion as a conveyance portion for feeding the toner inside to the suction surface 3040. Is formed. The details of the powder pumping section 304 will be described in detail later.

  A container gear 301 is formed on the tip end side of the powder suction portion 304 of the toner container main body 33 at the end of the container. The container front end side cover 34 is provided with a gear exposure opening 34a so that a part (the back side in FIG. 7) of the container gear 301 is exposed in a state of being attached to the toner storage container main body 33. . Then, by mounting the toner container 32 on the toner replenishing device 60, the container gear 301 exposed from the gear exposure opening 34a meshes with the container driving gear 601 on the toner replenishing device 60 side. The container gear 301 is provided on the container opening 33 a side (in the vicinity of the container opening 33 a) in the longitudinal direction of the toner storage container body 33 than the nozzle opening 610, and is disposed to be able to mesh with the container drive gear 601. . The container gear 301 meshes with the container drive gear 601 to make the transport means rotatable.

  A cylindrical container opening 33 a is formed coaxially with the container gear 301 on the container tip end side of the container gear 301 of the toner container main body 33. Then, as shown in FIG. 10, the receiving member fixing portion 337 of the nozzle receiving member 330 is press-fitted into the container opening 33a coaxially with the container opening 33a, whereby the nozzle receiving member 330 with respect to the toner container body 33 is formed. Can be fixed. The toner container 32 is filled with toner from the opening of a container opening 33a as an opening provided on one end side of the toner container main body 33, and then the nozzle receiving member 330 is stored with toner as shown in FIG. It is configured to be inserted into and fixed to the container opening 33 a of the container body 33. That is, the container opening 33a can be inserted into the position where the transport nozzle 611 is the rotation center of the toner storage container 32.

  As shown in FIG. 10, a cover claw hooking portion 306 as a hooking portion is formed between the container opening 33a of the toner container body 33 and the container gear 301. The cover claw hooking portion 306 has a ring shape extending in the rotational direction (circumferential direction) at the distal end portion of the container distal end side cover 34 in the mounting direction. The cover claw hooking portion 306 is formed to go around the outer peripheral surface of the container opening 33a.

  The container front end cover 34 is assembled to the toner storage container 32 (toner storage container main body 33) from the container front end side (the lower left side in FIG. 8), as shown in FIGS. As a result, the toner storage container main body 33 penetrates the container front end side cover 34 in the longitudinal direction, and the cover claw portion 341 as a protrusion is hooked on the cover claw hooking portion 306 as a hooking portion. The toner accommodating container main body 33 and the container leading end side cover 34 are mounted so as to be relatively rotatable by the cover claw portion 341 being caught by the cover claw hooking portion 306.

When toner container 32 is held in toner container storage portion 70 shown in FIG. 5, reaction force (restoring force) of the force that causes toner container 32 to compress container shutter spring 336 as shown in FIG. And a reaction force generated by compressing the nozzle shutter spring 613.
The toner storage container 32 in the present embodiment is mounted with a toner storage container 32 containing toner for forming an image, and a transport nozzle 611 as a transport pipe for transporting the toner, and a powder receiver provided on the transport nozzle A nozzle shutter 612 as a powder inlet opening and closing member for opening and closing the nozzle opening 610 as an inlet, a nozzle shutter spring 613 as an urging member for urging the nozzle shutter 612 to close the nozzle opening 610, a driving force A container drive gear 601 as a body-side gear for transmitting the toner to the transport means in the toner storage container 32, and a container reception receiver for receiving the toner storage container 32 arranged coaxially with the transport nozzle 611 and around the transport nozzle 611 It is a toner storage container mountable to the copying machine 500 including a container setting unit 615 as a part.

Next, the nozzle receiving member 330 fixed to the toner container main body 33 will be described.
As shown in FIG. 11, the nozzle receiving member 330 receives a container shutter supporting member 340 as a supporting member, a container shutter 332, a container seal 333 as a sealing member, a container shutter spring 336 as biasing means, and It is composed of a member fixing portion 337. The container shutter support member 340 includes a shutter rear end support portion 335, a shutter side surface support portion 335a as a side surface portion, a shutter support opening 335b as a side surface opening portion, and a receiving member fixing portion 337. . The shutter side support portion 335a and the shutter support opening 335b provided in the container shutter support member 340 are arranged adjacent to each other in the toner container rotation direction, and two mutually opposing shutter side support portions 335a have a cylindrical shape. , And the cylindrical shape is largely cut off at a portion (two points) of the shutter support opening 335b. With such a shape, the container shutter 332 can be guided to move in the longitudinal direction in a cylindrical space formed inside the cylindrical shape.

  The nozzle receiving member 330 fixed to the toner storage container main body 33 rotates together with the toner storage container main body 33 when the toner storage container main body 33 rotates, but at this time, the shutter side surface support portion 335a of the nozzle receiving member 330 supplies toner. It rotates around the transport nozzle 611 on the device 60 side. For this reason, the rotating shutter side support portion 335 a passes a space immediately above the nozzle opening 610 formed in the upper part of the transfer nozzle 611. As a result, even if toner is instantaneously deposited above the nozzle opening 610, the deposited toner is broken across the shutter side support portion 335a, and the deposited toner is aggregated when it is left, and the toner is transported when it is restarted. It is possible to suppress the occurrence of defects. On the other hand, at the timing when the shutter side support portion 335a is located to the side of the transport nozzle 611 and the nozzle opening 610 and the shutter support opening 335b face each other, as shown by arrow β in FIG. Is supplied into the transport nozzle 611.

  As shown in FIG. 10, the container shutter 332 includes a tip cylindrical portion 332c as a closing member, a sliding portion 332d, a guide rod 332e, and a shutter slippage prevention claw 332a. The tip cylindrical portion 332 c is a portion on the tip side of the container in close contact with the cylindrical opening (nozzle inlet 331) of the container seal 333. The sliding portion 332 d is a cylindrical portion which is formed closer to the rear end of the container than the tip cylindrical portion 332 c, has a slightly larger outer diameter than the tip cylindrical portion 332 c, and slides on the inner peripheral surfaces of the pair of shutter side support portions 335 a. is there.

  The guide rod 332e is a cylindrical column standing upright from the inside of the cylinder of the tip cylindrical portion 332c toward the rear end of the container, and is a rod that guides the container shutter spring 336 not to buckle by being inserted into the coil of the container shutter spring 336 It is a part. The shutter slip prevention claws 332 a are a pair of claw parts that are formed at the end opposite to the raised root of the guide lot 332 e and prevent the container shutter support member 340 from falling off the container shutter 332.

  The front end side end of the container shutter spring 336 abuts against the inner wall surface of the front end cylindrical portion 332 c, and the rear end side end of the container shutter spring 336 abuts against the wall surface of the shutter rear end support portion 335. At this time, since the container shutter spring 336 is in a compressed state, the container shutter 332 receives an urging force in a direction away from the shutter rear end support portion 335 (container tip direction). However, the shutter slippage prevention claw 332 a formed at the container rear end side end of the container shutter 332 is hooked on the outer wall surface of the shutter rear end support portion 335. Thus, the container shutter 332 is prevented from moving away from the shutter rear end support portion 335. Positioning is performed by the hooking of the shutter slip prevention claw 332 a with the shutter rear end support portion 335 and the biasing force of the container shutter spring 336.

  As shown in FIG. 8, when the toner container 32 is attached to the toner replenishing device 60, the nozzle shutter flange portion 612 a of the nozzle shutter 612 on the toner replenishing device 60 side is biased by the nozzle shutter spring 613 to seal the container seal 333. Crush the protruding part of The nozzle shutter flange 612a further enters and abuts against the container tip end of the nozzle shutter abutment rib 337a shown in FIG. 11, covers the tip end of the container seal 333 and shields it from the outside of the container. Thereby, the sealing property around the transport nozzle 611 in the nozzle receiving port 331 at the time of mounting can be secured, and toner leakage can be prevented.

  As shown in FIG. 8, the back side of the nozzle shutter spring receiving surface 612 f of the nozzle shutter flange 612 a urged by the nozzle shutter spring 613 abuts against the nozzle shutter abutment rib 337 a, whereby the toner storage container 32 of the nozzle shutter 612 is The position in the longitudinal direction with respect to Thereby, the end surface of the container seal 333 on the container tip side and the end surface of the container tip 333 on the container tip side (internal space of the cylindrical receiving member fixing portion 337 disposed in the container opening 33a described later); The positional relationship in the longitudinal direction with the nozzle shutter 612 is determined.

  Next, operations of the container shutter 332 and the transport nozzle 611 will be described with reference to FIGS. 1, 8, and 12 (a) to 12 (d). Before mounting the toner storage container 32 in the toner replenishing device 60, as shown in FIG. 1, the container shutter 332 is biased by the container shutter spring 336 toward the closing position for closing the nozzle receiving port 331. The appearance of the container shutter 332 and the transport nozzle 611 at this time is shown in FIG. Then, when the toner storage container 32 is attached to the toner replenishing device 60, the transport nozzle 611 is inserted into the nozzle receiving port 331 as shown in FIG. 12 (b). When the toner container 32 is further pushed into the toner replenishing device 60, the end surface 332 h of the tip cylindrical portion 332 c which is the end surface of the container shutter 332 (hereinafter referred to as “container shutter end surface 332 h”) and the position of the transport nozzle 611 in the insertion direction And an end surface 611a (hereinafter referred to as "the end surface 611a of the transport nozzle") are in contact with each other. When the toner container 32 is further pushed in from this state, as shown in FIG. 12C, the container shutter 332 is pushed in, and as shown in FIG. It is inserted into the rear end support portion 335. For this reason, as shown in FIG. 8, the transport nozzle 611 is inserted into the toner storage container main body 33 to be in the set position. At this time, as shown in FIG. 12D, the nozzle opening 610 is at a position overlapping the shutter support opening 335b.

Thereafter, when the toner container main body 33 is rotated, the toner pumped up above the transport nozzle 611 by the powder scooping unit 304 is dropped and introduced into the transport nozzle 611 from the nozzle opening 610 opened upward. Ru. The toner introduced into the conveyance nozzle 611 is conveyed toward the toner drop conveyance path 64 in the conveyance nozzle 611 by the rotation of the conveyance screw 614, and falls from the toner drop conveyance path 64 to the developing device 50. Supplied.

  As described above, the powder is drawn up by the powder pick-up portion 304 with respect to the nozzle opening 610 of the transport nozzle 611 inserted into the tip end opening 305 serving as the opening of the nozzle receiving member 330 fixed to the toner container body 33. When the toner T is supplied, the toner T may not be efficiently supplied from the powder suction portion 304 to the nozzle opening 610 depending on the fluidity of the toner, the rotation speed of the toner storage container main body 33, and the like. Therefore, the present inventors examined the configuration of the powder suction portion 304 (toner container body 33) and found some effective forms. The configuration will be described in detail below.

  As shown in FIG. 13, in the present embodiment, in the powder pumping portion 304 (FIG. 9) formed on the container opening 33 a (FIG. 9) side of the toner container main body 33, the toner container body 33 rotates in the rotational direction. By rotating to A, the toner T conveyed to the container opening 33a side is drawn up and supplied to the nozzle opening 610 (see FIG. 13). In addition, since the nozzle receiving member 330 (FIG. 9) is inserted and fixed to the container opening 33a, the opening 33a of the main container 33 serves as the nozzle inlet 331 in the following description of the powder scooping unit 304. explain.

An evaluation model was created and evaluated for the effective range of the inclination angle θ of the pumping surface 3040. If the content of the inclination surface θ of the pumping surface is minus (-), the toner remaining amount is (g) is defective, and the follow-up ability (%) of the toner replenishment amount is also negative (-), but when the inclination angle θ (degree) of the pumping surface is 0 degree, 15 degrees, 25 degrees, the toner remaining amount ( g) was good, and the followability (%) of the toner replenishment amount also increased to 35%, 70% and 100% respectively in order. (Since it has already reached 100% at an inclination angle of 25 degrees, it does not make much sense to continue to evaluate the inclination angle θ more than 25 degrees.) Here, the follow-up property of the toner replenishment amount is predetermined. The difference between the actual supply amount (the actual supply amount) and the set supply amount shown is indicated by a ratio (%). With the followability 100%, the actual supply amount satisfies the set supply amount and there is no shortage of supply Indicates the status.
However, in order to make comparison easier, this evaluation result quantitatively shows the influence of changing the inclination angle θ of the pumping surface 3040 for one type of toner container and one type of toner ( It can not be overemphasized that it is a numerical value), and the toner container of other shapes and sizes targeted by the present invention, and the same numerical value as the numerical value result when other types of toner are used. .
The toner bottles prepared (prototypes) as a plurality of evaluation models in which the inclination angle θ of the pumping surface is changed are mounted on the copying machine 500 which is an image forming apparatus for evaluation. The remaining amount of toner in the container was measured after rotating at a constant speed for a fixed time.

  In the present invention, the inclination angle θ (see FIG. 13) of the pumping surface 3040 is 0 degrees, where the pumping surface 3040 is positioned substantially parallel to the virtual straight line X1 (see FIG. 13) passing horizontally through the rotation center axis O. The case where the position of the pumping surface 3040 at that time is above the virtual straight line X1 (downstream in the rotational direction A) is plus (+), and the position of the pumping surface 3040 at this time is below the virtual straight line X1 (rotation direction A In the case of (upstream side) in the case of () is negative (-).

  In other words, in the positional relationship in which the virtual straight line X and X1 overlap, that is, in the state where the rotation center axis O and the edge (side portion) 3042 are horizontally aligned, the pumping surface 3040 is in the rotation direction A of the toner container body 33. The case of being inclined toward the upstream side is plus (+), and the case of being inclined toward the downstream side in the rotational direction A of the toner container main body 33 is minus (-).

In addition, an angle θ that the pumping surface 3040 forms with the virtual straight line X is referred to as an inclination angle θ. The virtual straight line X can be drawn by drawing a straight line so as to pass through the rotation center axis O and the edge (side portion) 3042 in the rotation center axial direction cross section of the toner storage container 32, and the two pumping surfaces 3040 can be drawn. In the case of the toner container 32 having such, it can also be constructed by drawing a straight line so as to pass through the two edges (sides) 3042.
The toner remaining amount g indicates the amount of toner T remaining in the toner container body 33.

  The follow-up ability of the toner replenishment amount is the ratio (%) of the difference between the actual replenishment amount (actual replenishment amount) and the predetermined set replenishment amount. The followability 100% means that the actual replenishment amount satisfies the set replenishment amount and there is no shortage of replenishment. This is a state in which the necessary and sufficient toner T can be supplied to the developing device 50 (see FIG. 4), which is the most preferable state. As the follow-up value decreases, the actual replenishment amount becomes less than the set replenishment amount, and the toner supply amount to the developing device 50 (see FIG. 4) decreases.

  The amount of toner (residual toner) remaining in the toner container main body 33 is, for example, 15 g as a reference value, and it is preferable that the amount is equal to or less than the reference value. The reference value differs depending on the type of the toner container body 33, and is not limited to this value.

  FIG. 14 shows the relationship between the amount of toner remaining and the amount of replenishment, which is the pumping characteristic when the inclination angle θ of the pumping surface 3040 is on the negative side. As shown in FIG. 14, when the inclination angle θ is set to the negative side, the toner remaining amount largely remains with respect to the reference value, and the toner remaining amount can not satisfy the reference value.

FIGS. 15A and 15B are diagrams comparing the toner discharge amount for each inclination angle θ of the suction surface 3040 of the toner container main body 33 of the mass production model under the same condition. In FIG. 15A, four mass production models of the toner storage container main body 33 with inclination angles θ of 0 °, 15 °, 25 °, 45 ° are attached to an actual machine and rotated at a bottle rotation speed of 95 rpm. The evaluation results of the toner discharge amount (g) when In FIG. 15 (b), four mass production models of the toner storage container main body 33 with inclination angles θ of 0 °, 15 °, 25 °, 45 ° are attached to the actual machine and rotated at a bottle rotation speed of 120 rpm. The evaluation results of the toner discharge amount [g] at the time of
In the evaluation, the higher the toner discharge amount [g] in the region where the toner remaining amount is small, the more advantageous. As shown in FIG. 15 (a), at a low rotational speed (95 rpm), the inclination angle θ is approximately equal to 15 ° and 30 °, and the discharge amount peaks. On the other hand, when the inclination angle θ is 0 °, the discharge amount is extremely inferior, and when the inclination angle θ is increased to 45 °, the discharge amount drops. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 15 (b), at a high rotational speed (120 rpm), the inclination angle θ has a peak of 15 °, and then the inclination angle θ of 30 ° and 45 ° are almost equal. It can be seen that θ is 0 ° the most inferior. Since the target value of the bottle rotation speed of the actual machine is between the above two conditions, it is understood that the optimum inclination angle θ is in the range of 15 ° to 30 °.

  In addition, since the larger the amount of discharged toner, the larger the amount of discharged toner, the larger the amount of discharged toner, the smaller the amount of discharged toner shown in the broken line, which is the amount of discharge required for the machine. Things are also a problem. When the plots of inclination angles θ are compared on the basis of the required emissions, the inclination angles θ of 15 ° and 30 ° are the most superior, achieving the goal that the emissions exceed the required emissions up to the remaining amount of 5 g . The next point is achieved when the inclination angle θ is 45 ° and the discharge amount exceeds the required discharge amount until the remaining amount is about 15 to 25 g, and the most inferior inclination angle θ at 0 ° discharges only the remaining amount 60 to 90 g However, from this point of view it can be seen that the optimum inclination angle θ is in the range of 15 ° to 30 °.

  FIGS. 16 (a) and 16 (b) are diagrams comparing the fluctuation range due to environmental load of the toner replenishment amount for each inclination angle of the pumping surface 3040 of the toner storage container main body 33 of the mass production model. FIG. 16A shows the case where the mass production model toner container main body 33 of one mass production model with an inclination angle θ of 15 ° is attached to an actual machine and rotated at a constant rotation speed, and environmental conditions are changed. The evaluation results of the toner replenishment amount (g / sec) are shown. FIG. 16B shows the case where the mass production model toner container main body 33 of one mass production model with a tilt angle θ of 25 ° is attached to an actual machine and rotated at a fixed number of rotations, and environmental conditions are changed. The evaluation results of the toner replenishment amount (g / sec) are shown.

  In the evaluation, the smaller the difference in supply amount due to the environment or conditions, the more stable the supply is considered to be possible. As shown in FIG. 16 (a) and FIG. 16 (b), the factors (such as temperature and humidity) affecting the replenishment rate under the most prevailing conditions are those under the N1 condition and the most adverse conditions. As the N2 condition, superiority to environmental change was compared in the range of bottle rotation speed 95 to 120 rpm determined in FIG. 15 (a) and FIG. 15 (b) and inclination angle θ of 15 ° to 30 °. As a specific value, the bottle rotation speed is 110 rpm, and the inclination angle θ is 15 ° and the inclination angle θ is compared in the toner container main body having an angle of 25 °. The broken line in the figure indicates the target replenishment amount (target value) of the replenishment amount per unit time. As a comparison result, both of the inclination angle θ of the pumping surface 3040 of 15 ° and 25 ° achieve the target replenishment amount (target value) in the region where the toner remaining amount is small, and the replenishment amount is almost equal. However, focusing on the magnitude relationship of the environmental fluctuation range, which is the difference between the replenishment amount in the case of the N1 condition located above the standard condition and the N2 condition located below the standard condition, the case where the inclination angle θ is 15 ° It can be understood that the environmental fluctuation range is smaller and the inclination angle θ of 25 ° is more advantageous than the inclination angle θ of 25 °.

  As described above, regardless of the evaluation model and the mass production model, the inclination angle θ of the pumping surface 3040 is the rotational direction A of the toner container main body 33 with respect to the virtual straight line X passing through the rotation center axis O and the edge (side portion) 3042 It is desirable that the pumping surface 3040 be inclined in the range of 25 degrees ± 5 degrees on the upstream side. Further, it is desirable that the range of the rotational speed of the toner storage container 32 in that case is in the range of 110 rpm ± 15 rpm.

Next, the movement of the toner in the toner storage container main body 33 in the vicinity of the container opening 33a of the toner bottle 32 which is the toner storage container will be described.
When the toner bottle 32 which is a powder and in which the toner as the developer is enclosed in the toner container main body 33 is placed in the same posture for a long period of time, the toner may be solidified. For this reason, a preliminary operation may be required to shake the toner up and down or right and left before use. In addition, it is generally recommended that the toner bottle 32 be placed and stored horizontally as in the state of mounting on the toner supply device 60 (copier 500). However, due to the storage space, the toner bottle 32 may be stored with the container opening 33a facing downward.

In such a case, when it is attached to the toner replenishing device 60 (the copying machine 500) by swinging up and down or left and right, corresponding to the number of reciprocations set based on the storage state in the horizontal state, the transport nozzle 611 is sufficient at the container opening 33a. There was a case that could not be inserted. When this cause was investigated, as shown to Fig.25 (a), the shape of inner wall 33c 'of the toner container main body 33 connected with the edge 3042 (3042 B-D) of the pumping face 3040 (3040 B-D) is concave. Because even if the toner bottle 32 is shaken to perform a preparatory operation, the force is dispersed by the above-mentioned concave surface and the escape place of the toner in the container is restricted. It has been discovered that it can not be sufficiently understood (it is impossible to cause the force to act on the toner).
Therefore, in the present embodiment, the shape of the inner wall 33c 'of the toner storage container main body 33 protruding into the inside of the container in a concave shape is changed to a convex shape, that is, the shape of the powder pumping portion is changed. The configuration in which the relief space of the toner is not restricted by concentrating the force with the convex shape and increasing the relief space of the toner in the container.

  Hereinafter, the configuration of the toner storage container according to the present embodiment will be described using FIGS. 17 to 23. The difference from the first to fourth embodiments is that the configuration of the powder suction portion 304E formed in the toner container main body 33 is different from that of the other forms of the suction portion 304 (304B to 304D). Basically, it is the same as the above embodiment. Therefore, the configuration of the powder suction unit 304E according to the present embodiment will be mainly described.

  FIG. 17 (a) is a plan view showing the configuration of the toner container main body 33 provided with the powder suction portion 304E, and FIG. 17 (b) shows the configuration of the toner container main body 33 provided with the powder suction portion 304E. FIG. FIG. 19 is an enlarged cross-sectional view for explaining the configuration of the opening side of the toner container main body. FIG. 2036 is an enlarged view for explaining the configuration of the pumping surface 3040E of the powder pumping portion 304E, and is a cross-sectional view as viewed from the rear end side of the container toward the front end side of the container. FIGS. 21 (a) to 21 (c) are operation diagrams schematically illustrating the change during rotation of the powder pumping portion 304E, and FIGS. 22 (a) to 22 (c) continue from FIG. 21 (c). FIG. 21 is an operation diagram schematically explaining a change at the time of rotation of a powder pumping portion 3040E. 21 and 22 show sectional views as viewed from the rear end side of the container to the front end side of the container as in FIG. FIG. 23 (a) is a schematic view showing the diffusion of toner when the internal space of the toner container main body 33 is small, and FIG. 23 (b) is a toner container provided with the powder scooping portion 304E according to the present embodiment. FIG. 14 is a schematic view showing the diffusivity of toner when the internal space of the container body 33 is expanded.

  In the present embodiment, the powder suction portion 304E formed on the side of the container opening 33a of the toner container body 33 is transported to the side of the container opening 33a by the rotation of the toner container body 33 in the rotation direction A. The toner T is drawn up and supplied to the nozzle opening 610 (see FIG. 15). In addition, since the nozzle receiving member 330 is inserted and fixed to the container opening 33a, the opening 33a of the main container 33 will be described as the nozzle inlet 331 in the following description of the powder scooping unit 304. That is, as shown in FIGS. 18 and 20, on the inner wall of the toner storage container main body 33 at the tip end side of the toner storage container main body 33, there is formed a powder pumping portion 304E which lifts upward by the rotation of the toner storage container main body 33. The powder scooping portion 304E scoops the toner conveyed by the conveying force of the spiral projection 302 by the scoop surface 3040E in response to the rotation of the toner container main body 33. Thus, the toner can be pumped up above the inserted transport nozzle 611. In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 20, two powder scooping portions 304E are provided at positions shifted in phase by 180 degrees with respect to the rotation center axis O. As shown in FIG.

Further, as shown in FIG. 18 and FIG. 19, on the inner circumferential surface of each powder suction portion 304E, a spiral as a transport portion for feeding the toner to the inner surface 3040E of the toner as well as the helical projections 302. The scoop-up portion helical projections 304a formed in the shape of a circle are respectively formed.
In the present embodiment, each powder scooping portion 304E has a scooping surface 3040E extending from the inner wall surface 33c of the toner container body 33 toward the rotation center axis O (however, an extension line of the scooping surface 3040E). Does not pass the rotation center axis O).
An inner end portion 3040Ea on the side of the rotation center axis O extends in a direction along the rotation center axis direction of the toner storage container main body 33 in the pumping-up surface 3040E. Specifically, an edge (heli, side) 3042E formed on the inner end portion 3040Ea closest to the rotation center axis O extends substantially in a row with the rotation center axis O, and the inner wall surface of the toner container main body 33 The ridgeline along the rotation center axis O is formed between the raised portion 33c 'on the side of the rotation center axis O and the pumping surface 3040E. Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 20, the pumping surface 3040E is a toner container main body 33 than the virtual straight line X passing through the rotation center axis O and the edge (side portion) 3042E of the inner end when viewed from the rotation center axis direction. It is formed to be inclined in a predetermined angle range toward the upstream side in the rotational direction A of the angle. Also in the present embodiment, the predetermined range of each inclination angle θ is 25 ° ± 5 ° (25 ° ± 5 °).

  In the present embodiment, each powder pumping portion 304E is formed by raising the pumping surface 3040E from the inner wall 33c toward the inside of the bottle, and the edge (heli, side) 3042E of the pumping surface 3040 located most inside the bottle It was made to be a mountain shape at the top. Specifically, the inner wall 3043 connected from the edge (side portion) 3042E is formed in a mountain shape having the edge 3042E as a vertex and forms an angle θ2 which is a substantially acute angle with the pumping surface 3040E.

  When the toner storage container main body 33 is blow-molded, it is difficult to form only the pumping-up surface 3040E with respect to such a pumping-up portion 304E by projecting it from the inner wall 33c in a plate shape. Therefore, when the pumping up section 304E is configured to form θ2 which is a substantially acute angle with the edge 3042E as a vertex when viewed in a cross section orthogonal to the rotation center axis (FIG. 20), the molding is simplified by blow molding. The toner container body 33 can be formed, and the internal space can be secured as shown by the dotted line in FIG.

As shown in FIGS. 18 and 19, the end 304a1 of the helical projection extends so as to be connected to the pumping surface 3040E. In the present embodiment, the end (end portion) 304a1 of the helical projection is shaped so as to rise substantially perpendicularly to the pumping surface 3040E from the pumping surface 3040E. In other words, the end (end portion) 304 a 1 of the helical protrusion extends in the circumferential direction of the rotation center axis O of the toner storage container 32. As a result, the space surrounded by the end portion 304a1 of the spiral projection, the pumping surface 3040E, and the inner wall surface 33c of the toner storage container 32 can function as a holding portion capable of holding a larger amount of toner.
The toner storage container 32 is an image forming apparatus (toner supply device) at the opening 33a side of the toner storage container 32 in the rotation center axis direction with respect to the end (end portion) 304a1 of the spiral projection in the pumping surface 3040E. When mounted on the head, it is configured to be at a position where it can face the nozzle opening 610.

With this configuration, the holding portion formed by the end portion 304a1 of the helical projection and the pumping surface 3040E of the toner conveyed by the helical projection 304a can face the nozzle opening 610, and the powder pumping portion 304E is formed. Thus, the toner can be efficiently pumped up and poured into the nozzle opening 610.
Further, since the end 304a1 of the helical projection is also substantially perpendicular to the direction in which the nozzle opening 610 extends (the axial direction of the transport nozzle 611), there is also an advantage that it does not interfere with the flow of toner.
Of course, also in this embodiment, the edge (side) 3042 E of each inner end is attached to the toner replenishing device 60 and the toner container main body 33 is rotated in the rotational direction A to the position shown in FIG. When rotating, it is formed to be located within the cross-sectional range W1 of the transport nozzle 611, preferably within the opening range W2 of the nozzle opening 610, above the nozzle opening 610.

  The pumping operation by the powder pumping section 304E having such a configuration will be described with reference to FIGS. 21 and 22. FIG. 21A shows a state before the toner container main body 33 is mounted to the toner replenishing device 60 (copier 500) and rotated. This state is assumed to be a posture of 0 °. At this posture of 0 °, the pair of shutter side surface support portions 335a, 335a of the nozzle receiving member 330, which are opposite to each other, are 180 ° out of phase with the nozzle opening 610 of the transport nozzle 611 located above. They are respectively disposed below the transport nozzles 611. In addition, the pumping surface 3040E has the edge 3042E below the imaginary straight line X passing through the rotation center axis O, and the rotational direction of the toner container main body 33 with respect to the virtual straight line X1 passing through the rotation center axis O and the edge 3042E. It has a posture inclined by a predetermined angle θ on the upstream side of A. Thus, the positional relationship in the rotational direction A is substantially orthogonal to the central axis O of rotation of the pair of shutter side surface support portions 335a and 335a of the nozzle receiving member 330 facing each other and the two pumping surfaces 3040E. It is an arrangement relationship.

  More specifically, the shutter side supports 335a, 335a are not positioned opposite to the edge 3042E of the pumping surface, that is, in the rotational direction out of the imaginary straight line X passing through the edge 3042E of the pumping surface and the rotation center axis O. It is arranged. With such a configuration, it is possible to suppress that the toner falling from the drawing-up surface 3040E is prevented from falling to the nozzle opening 610 by the shutter side support portions 335a and 335a.

  Preferably, as shown in FIG. 20, when focusing on the shutter side surface support member 335a located above (downstream in the rotational direction A) one of the toner raising surfaces 3040E on which the toner T is already held, The distance D1 between the end (right side in FIG. 20) on the upstream side in the rotational direction A of the shutter side support member 335a and the edge 3042E of the one pumping surface 3040E is the rotational direction of the shutter side support member 335a. The distance D2 between the downstream end A (left side in FIG. 20) and the edge 3042E of the other pumping surface (left side in FIG. 20 than the shutter side support member 335a in FIG. 20) desirable. Such an arrangement relationship makes it easier to secure the flow path through which the toner flows.

  Incidentally, at the posture of 0 °, the toner T is already held on one of the pumping surfaces 3040E. From this state, when the toner container main body 33 rotates counterclockwise in the drawing indicated by the arrow A, as shown in FIG. 21B, the toner T on the pumping surface 3040E is further held upward and moved . FIG. 21 (b) shows a state in which the posture is advanced 30 degrees counterclockwise from the posture 0 °. When the toner container body 33 further rotates in the counterclockwise direction shown by the arrow A, the pair of shutter side support portions 335a and 335a of the nozzle receiving member 330 also integrally rotate, as shown in FIG. 21C. As described above, the toner T on the pumping surface 3040E is further moved upward while being held upward. FIG. 21 (c) shows the state of the posture 60 ° in which the rotation has progressed counterclockwise from the posture 30 ° to 60 °. In this state, the shutter side surface support portion 335a is further moved from above the nozzle opening 610 to open the nozzle opening 610, and the pumping surface 3040E is inclined downward with respect to the rotation center axis O. The toner T on the 3040 E gradually slides on the suction surface 3040 E by its own weight and starts to fall into the nozzle opening 610.

  As shown in FIG. 22A, when the rotation of the toner container main body 33 advances from the posture 60 ° to the posture 90 °, all the toner T on the pumping surface 3040E falls by its own weight and is supplied to the nozzle opening 610. When the posture is 90 °, the other powder suction portion 3040E is located at the lower portion of the toner container main body 33, and the toner T accumulated at the lower portion is caught by the suction surface 3040E.

  As shown in FIG. 22B, when the rotation of the toner container main body 33 progresses and the posture changes from 90 ° to 120 °, a new pumping of the toner T accumulated in the lower part by the pumping surface 3040E is started. And the other shutter side support portion 335 a covers a part of the upper part of the nozzle opening 610.

Then, as shown in FIG. 22C, when the rotation of the toner container main body 33 advances from the posture 120 ° and becomes the posture 150 °, while the toner lifting by the lifting surface 3040E proceeds, the other shutter side surface support portion 335a Is moved further above the nozzle opening 610 to prevent toner replenishment.
As described above, when the toner container main body 33 rotates in the rotation direction A, the toner T drawn up by the drawing up surface 3040 E can be supplied into the transport nozzle 611 from the upper part of the nozzle opening 610.

  Further, in the present embodiment, each powder pumping portion 304E is formed by raising the pumping surface 3040E from the inner wall 33c toward the inside of the bottle, and the edge (heli, side) of the pumping surface 3040 located most inside the bottle It was made to be a mountain shape with 3042E at the top. Specifically, the inner wall 3043 connected from the edge (side portion) 3042E is formed in a mountain shape having the edge 3042E as a vertex and forms an angle θ2 which is a substantially acute angle with the pumping surface 3040E. For this reason, as shown in FIG. 23 (b), the internal space in the toner container main body 33 can be secured considerably wider than that of FIG. Since the space S2 (see FIG. 20 and FIG. 21) between them also expands, the escape place of the toner T at the time of the preliminary operation increases and the toner T becomes easy to unwind.

In the configuration of the device according to the present invention, the toner scooping surface has a predetermined range of inclination toward the upstream side in the rotation direction of the powder containing portion with respect to a virtual straight line passing through the center of rotation of the container and the edge of the inner end Because it is inclined at the corner, pumping capacity is improved.
Furthermore, a helical projection is connected to the pumping surface, and the connected portion extends circumferentially from the pumping surface. As a result, the space surrounded by the end portion 304a1 of the spiral projection, the pumping surface 3040E, and the inner wall surface 33c of the toner storage container 32 can function as a holding portion capable of holding a larger amount of toner.
The container according to the present invention, by the above-described configuration, can efficiently pump up a large amount of toner and pour it into the powder receiving port of the transport pipe.

However, as a result of the inventor's investigation, it was found that the following situation occurs depending on the characteristics of the toner.
(1) While a large amount of toner is held by the pumping surface (without spilling from the pumping surface), it is pumped up.
(2) A large amount of toner is lumped and drops into the powder receiving port at a stretch.
(3) When the powder receiving port is covered with a part of the toner, the toner remains without being broken (4) As a result, the powder receiving port is blocked and the toner can not be discharged.

In addition, the following problems have also been confirmed depending on the characteristics of the toner.
That is, when the toner dropped to the powder receiving port is transported by the screw in the transport pipe, it remains attached to the screw on the downstream side of the screw without being discharged from the transport pipe (without being dropped).
Once this state occurs, the toner on the downstream side is pressed against the toner conveyed from the screw upstream side by the force of the screw, the toner is pressed and solidified, the toner is clogged from the downstream side, and the toner is discharged. Becomes impossible.
As a result of examining the above problems by focusing on the transportability, which is one of the fluidity indexes of the toner, the following findings were obtained.

(toner)
The toner of the present invention contains at least toner base particles containing a binder resin, and an external additive, and further contains other components as required.

<On the average snowfall angle of toner>
In the present invention, it is decided to use the average avalanche angle as one of the scales for the present invention which deals with the dischargeability from a container having a complex shape of highly cohesive powder such as toner.

The average avalanche angle of the toner is 45.0 ° to 55.0 °, and more preferably 45.0 ° to 51.0 °.
When the average snow fall angle of the toner exceeds 55.0 °, the powder receiving port of the toner container is blocked as described above, and the toner can not be discharged, and the toner drops into the powder receiving port. When the toned toner is conveyed by the screw in the conveying pipe, it is not discharged from the conveying pipe on the downstream side of the screw but adheres to the screw (does not fall) and the toner is compressed and solidified. The problem of jamming occurs.
If the average snow fall angle of the toner is less than 45.0 °, the adhesion between the toners is reduced and the fluidity is lowered, so that the toner can not be discharged from the toner storage container, and the toner can not be replenished. Further, the amount of drawing up of the toner in the toner container is not stable, and an excessive amount of toner may be replenished, so that the toner may be scattered in the developing device.
When the average snow fall angle of the toner is 45.0 ° to 55.0 °, it is possible to prevent the occurrence of the problem that the discharge of the toner becomes impossible. In addition, it is possible to prevent the toner from being discharged while a large amount of toner remains in the toner container and it becomes necessary to replace the toner container.

The average snow fall angle of the toner is an index representing the fluidity of the toner, and is an index of the replenishment property of the toner.
In the present specification, the term "slope angle" means that a powder containing a predetermined amount of powder is slowly rotated at a constant speed about a vertical line perpendicular to the center of the bottom to rotate the powder with the rotation of the cylindrical container. Is slowly rising along the wall of the container, and the balance between adhesion between particles and gravity collapses and an avalanche (fall of the powder stack) occurs just before the slope (horizontal and horizontal surfaces of the powder stack) The angle between the The avalanche angle is the angle of the powder as measured at the maximum potential energy before the occurrence of the avalanche, and it is known that the smaller the avalanche angle, the better the fluidity can be obtained.

A rotary drum image analysis and measurement device is used to measure the average snow fall angle.
The rotary drum type image analysis and measurement apparatus comprises a cylindrical container (drum) having a transparent lid portion, a rotating device for rotating the cylindrical container along the circumference, a camera for capturing the inside from the cylindrical lid direction, and a direction opposite to the camera It is a measuring device that consists of a back light that illuminates the inside of the cylindrical container, and when a predetermined amount of powder is put in the cylindrical container, the drum is rotated slowly, and the deposited layer of powder rotates slowly with the rotation of the drum. It is pulled up along the top, but it is an apparatus to quantify by analyzing the size of an avalanche (collapsing of powder stack) which occurs when the balance of adhesion between particles and gravity at that time is broken. is there. In addition, since the measurement is repeated while the particle filling state is constant, good repeatability data can be obtained, and the flowability including the properties of the powder itself and the influence of the external environment, Since the sensitivity can be detected with high sensitivity, and in particular, the fluidity is measured by the value obtained by the avalanche, the fluidity of the upper layer, which is the adhesion between toners, can be expressed as compared with the conventional method.

As a rotating drum type image analysis measurement device, for example, powder analyzer REVOLUTION (manufactured by Mercury Science Inc.) and the like can be mentioned.
As a specific measuring method, first, an inner diameter of 50 mm, a cylindrical container volume 68.7Cm ^3, without particularly performing the tapping or the like of the toner is filled bulk volume 30 cm ³ minutes. While filled, place the cylindrical container on a rotating table, rotate at 0.6 rpm, and gently stir.
Next, the image processing unit is adjusted. While monitoring the camera in the measuring device in real time with a personal computer connected to a rotating drum type image analysis and measurement device, adjustment of an avalanche change amount considered as powder is an avalanche, an image light amount, and a measurement region. Avalanche change amount is fixed at 0.65% according to the result of examination. The image light amount is necessary to adjust the sensitivity of the camera by adjusting the light amount of the background, and is adjusted to, for example, about 24 db. In addition, the measurement area is necessary to improve measurement accuracy by appropriately excluding the range in which the avalanche response does not occur to the rotation due to the powder sticking to the wall etc., and monitoring in real time While setting, it is optional to avoid the range of fixed powder.
Further, after rotating the drum for 100 seconds (one rotation of the drum), the same sample is measured 50 times until avalanche occurs, and from the sum of the individual avalanche angles obtained by image processing, the average avalanche angle is calculated. calculate.
The measurement is carried out by conditioning the toner at 23 ° C. and 53% RH for 24 hours.

  The method of adjusting the average avalanche angle of the toner is not particularly limited and may be appropriately selected according to the purpose. For example, the shape of toner base particles, the type of external additive, and the content of external additive in toner And the addition conditions of the external additive to the toner base particles.

  Furthermore, by setting the weight average molecular weight Mw in the molecular weight distribution by gel permeation chromatography (GPC) of the components of the toner extracted by Soxhlet extraction using tetrahydrofuran (THF) to 5,000 or more and 50,000 or less, The low-temperature fixability is preferably achieved by setting the density to 5,000 or more and 35,000 or less, more preferably by 8,000 or more and 18,000 or less, and particularly preferably by setting 14,000 or more and 18,000 or less. And, the hot offset resistance and the heat resistant storage stability can both be achieved at a good level.

In the toner used in the present invention, the resin component in the insoluble matter to tetrahydrofuran (THF) is 0.5% by mass or more and 20% by mass or less, more preferably 0.5% by mass or more and 5% by mass or less Is preferred.
The main component of the insolubles is a resin, and may contain other pigments. The insoluble resin is not particularly limited, but it has a very large molecular weight and a low solubility in THF, and often has a crosslinked structure. As for crosslinking, in addition to chemical crosslinking via chemical bonding such as covalent bonding, physical crosslinking via hydrogen bonding, coordination through metal, ionic bonding, hydrophobic interaction, etc., can be considered. If there is no or too little insoluble matter, the viscosity of the toner at the time of fixing is too low to cause hot offset. On the other hand, if it is too high, cold offset tends to occur because the viscosity of the toner at the time of fixation is too high, and low temperature fixation becomes difficult.

<< About the measurement of the weight average molecular weight Mw in molecular weight distribution by gel permeation chromatography (GPC) of components extracted by Soxhlet extraction method using tetrahydrofuran (THF) of toner >>
The measurement of the weight average molecular weight Mw by the said gel permeation chromatography (GPC) is performed as follows.

<Soxley extraction (pretreatment of sample)>
0.3 g of toner is weighed, placed in a pre-weighed (g) weighed cylindrical filter paper ("No. 86R"; manufactured by Toyo Roshi Co., Ltd.), and applied to a Soxhlet extractor. After setting the heater temperature to 85 ° C and using 200 mL of tetrahydrofuran THF (Stabilizer-containing Wako Pure Chemical Industries, Ltd.) in a round bottom flask for Soxhlet as the extraction solvent, perform total reflux extraction (Soxley extraction) for 7 hours, The THF is distilled off on a rotary evaporator to give an extract. The extract is dissolved in THF (stabilizer-containing Wako Pure Chemical Industries, Ltd.) at 0.15% by mass, and the solution is filtered through a solvent-resistant membrane filter with a pore diameter of 0.45 μm, and the filtrate is used as a sample. 100 μL of the THF sample solution is injected and measured.

The resin component in the insoluble matter in the present invention is a component from which the coloring agent, the magnetic material, and the external additive are removed from the insoluble matter.
The method of calculating the insoluble component in the present invention is as follows.
The toner is placed in an electric furnace, and the resin and the release agent are decomposed in a state where the nitrogen gas is supplied and the nitrogen gas is substituted, and processing is performed at a temperature at which the colorant, the magnetic material, and the external additive are not decomposed. . The weight loss is confirmed, and when the weight loss stops, insolubles other than the resin component are weighed.
As a method of measuring the mass of insoluble matter other than resin component, the chemical structure of each material of colorant, magnetic material, external additive is specified, and it is included in each material of colorant, magnetic material, external additive It is also possible to calculate the mass using an analytical curve obtained from the change in the energy intensity of the fluorescent X-ray when the mass of the material is changed, focusing on the element that is an element that is not contained in other components. .
The Soxhlet-extracted cylindrical filter paper is air-dried and further dried under reduced pressure, and then the total (g) of the insolubles on the filter paper and the mass of the filter paper is weighed. Then, the mass of the resin component in the insoluble portion can be determined by subtracting the insoluble portion other than the resin component weighed in advance and the filter paper mass (g). The mass of the resin component in the insoluble portion is divided by the toner preparation amount 0.3 g and multiplied by 100 to calculate the ratio of the resin component in the insoluble portion to the mass of the toner as mass percent.

(Measurement of weight average molecular weight Mw)
Measuring device: GPC-8220GPC (made by Tosoh Corporation)
Column: TSKgel Super HZM-H 15 cm 3 stations (made by Tosoh Corporation)
Temperature: 40 ° C
Solvent: THF
Flow rate: 0.35 mL / min
Sample: The above-mentioned dried solid of Soxhlet extract or a standard sample is dissolved in THF to prepare a sample of 0.15 mass percent concentration, and 0.1 mL is injected.
Calibration curve: In measuring the molecular weight of a sample, the molecular weight distribution of the sample is calculated from the relationship between the logarithmic value of the calibration curve prepared by several types of monodispersed polystyrene standard samples and the count number. As a standard polystyrene sample for preparation of a standard curve, Std. No. S-7300, S-210, S-390, S-875, S-1980, S-10.9, S-629, S-3.0, S-0.580 are dissolved in THF, A solution of 15 weight percent concentration is made and made up using a RI (refractive index) detector for the detector.
Among the detected peaks, the largest one is taken as the main peak. When a plurality of peaks are detected, vertical division is performed at the lower end of the peak as shown in FIG. 24, and analysis is performed on the main peak to calculate Mw.

  The toner contains, for example, at least toner base particles containing a binder resin and a colorant, and an external additive, and further contains other components as required. Further, the charging of the toner is not particularly limited whether it is positive or negative.

<< External additive >>
There is no restriction | limiting in particular as said external additive, According to the objective, it can select suitably, For example, a silica particle, the hydrophobized silica particle, fatty acid metal salt (For example, a zinc stearate, aluminum stearate etc.) And metal oxide particles (eg, titania, alumina, tin oxide, antimony oxide, etc.) or hydrophobes thereof, fluoropolymers, etc. Among these, hydrophobized silica fine particles, titania fine particles, and hydrophobized titania fine particles are preferable.

  As the hydrophobized silica fine particles, for example, R-972, R-974, RX-200, RY-200, R-202, R-805, R-812, RX-50, NAX-50, NX- 90G, R-8200, RX-300 (all are manufactured by Nippon Aerosil Co., Ltd.); H2000 / 4, H2000T, H05TM, H13TM, H20TM, H30TM (all manufactured by Clariant); X-24-9163A (Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.) UFP-30, UFP-35 (all are the electric chemical industry Co., Ltd. make) etc. are mentioned.

  As the titania fine particles, for example, P-25 (manufactured by Nippon Aerosil Co., Ltd.); STT-30, STT-65C-S (both manufactured by Titanium Industrial Co., Ltd.); TAF-140 (manufactured by Fuji Titanium Industries Co., Ltd.) MT-150W, MT-500B, MT-600B, MT-150A (all are manufactured by Tayka Co., Ltd.) and the like.

  Examples of the hydrophobized titania fine particles include T-805 (manufactured by Nippon Aerosil Co., Ltd.); STT-30A, STT-65S-S (both manufactured by Titanium Kogyo Co., Ltd.); TAF-500T, TAF-1500T (All are made by Fuji titanium industry Ltd.), IT-S (made by Ishihara industry Ltd.), etc. are mentioned.

There is no restriction | limiting in particular as a particle size of the said external additive, and a shape, According to the objective, it can select suitably.
The flowability of the toner can be controlled by the shape and particle size of the external additive.
For example, with regard to particle size, since the external additive having a larger particle size is more likely to be fixed to the toner base particle when mixed with an external additive having a smaller particle size, the fluidity as a toner is small. Become. On the other hand, since the external additive having a small particle size is not immobilized on the toner base particles and easily flows, the fluidity of the toner itself is also improved.
With respect to the shape, the closer to a true circle, the easier it is to flow, and the fluidity of the toner is also improved. Although titanium oxide used as an external additive is needle-like, silica is known in spherical and heteromorphic forms. Among these, spherical silica is the easiest to flow, and the fluidity of the toner is also improved. With the use of small particle diameter silica, especially the fluidity can be improved.

  There is no restriction | limiting in particular as content of the said external additive in the said toner, According to the objective, it can select suitably.

In the toner, the flowability of the toner can be controlled by changing the content of the external additive with respect to the toner base particles. When the amount of the external additive is increased in the toner, the amount of the external additive covering the surface of the toner base particles is increased, so that the fluidity of the toner can be generally increased, and the fluidity is decreased when the amount is reduced. Can. At that time, the flowability of the toner can be effectively controlled by increasing or decreasing the amount of the small particle size spherical silica.
On the other hand, if the ratio of the covering of the toner base particles with the external additive is increased too much, the area covered with the inorganic substance will increase too much, and the fixing becomes difficult. On the other hand, if the coating ratio of the external additive is reduced too much, the fluidity of the toner may be lost to make it impossible to replenish the toner, or the toner may be aggregated to easily cause an abnormal image.

<< Toner base particle >>
The toner base particles contain at least a binder resin and a colorant, and further contain a release agent, a charge control agent, and the like as required.

-Binding resin-
There is no restriction | limiting in particular as said binder resin, According to the objective, it can select suitably, For example, a polyester resin, a silicone resin, a styrene acrylic resin, a styrene resin, an acrylic resin, an epoxy resin, a diene resin, a phenol Resin, terpene resin, coumarin resin, amidimide resin, butyral resin, urethane resin, ethylene vinyl acetate resin etc. are mentioned. These may be used alone or in combination of two or more. Among these, polyester resin, polyester resin and the above other binder resin are combined in that they are excellent in low-temperature fixability and can smooth the image surface, and have sufficient flexibility even if the molecular weight is lowered. Resins are preferred.

--Polyester resin--
There is no restriction | limiting in particular as said polyester resin, According to the objective, it can select suitably. Moreover, as said polyester resin, the modified polyester resin which introduce | transduced various reactive functional groups into the side chain of polyester may be sufficient, and the unmodified polyester resin which has not introduce | transduced may be sufficient. These may be used alone or in combination of two or more.
The polyester resin may be a crystalline polyester resin or a non-crystalline polyester resin.

---Crystalline polyester resin---
A crystalline polyester resin can be contained as the binder resin.
The term "crystalline polyester resin" refers to a polyester resin in which the proportion of the crystal structure in which the main chain is regularly oriented is particularly high, and the viscosity of the resin largely changes near the melting point.
Examples of the crystalline polyester resin include, as alcohol components, saturated aliphatic diol compounds having 2 to 12 carbon atoms (especially 1,4-butanediol, 1,6-hexanediol, 1,8-octanediol, 1, 10-decanediol, 1,12-dodecanediol, and derivatives thereof) and a dicarboxylic acid having 2 to 12 carbon atoms having a double bond (C = C bond) as an acid component at least as an acid component, or a carbon number 2 to 12 saturated dicarboxylic acids (especially fumaric acid, 1,4-butanedioic acid, 1,6-hexanedioic acid, 1, -8-octanedioic acid, 1,10-decanedioic acid, 1,12-dodecane Preferred are crystalline polyester resins synthesized using diacids and derivatives thereof.

  Among them, in particular, 1,4-butanediol, 1,6-hexanediol, 1, -8-8 octanediol, 1,10-decanediol, in that the difference between the endothermic peak temperature and the endothermic shoulder temperature is made smaller. And any one alcohol component of 1,12-dodecanediol, fumaric acid, 1,4-butanedioic acid, 1,6-hexanedioic acid, 1, -8-octanedioic acid, 1,10-decane It is preferable to be composed of only one kind of dicarboxylic acid component of diacid and 1,12-dodecanedioic acid.

  Further, as a method of controlling the crystallinity and the softening point of the crystalline polyester resin, at the time of polyester synthesis, a trivalent or more polyhydric alcohol such as glycerin or other trivalent alcohol such as trimellitic anhydride or the like can be used as an alcohol component. The method of designing and using non-linear polyester etc. which polycondensed by adding polyvalent carboxylic acid of this, etc. is mentioned.

  The molecular structure of the crystalline polyester resin of the present invention can be confirmed by X-ray diffraction, GC / MS, LC / MS, IR measurement, etc. in addition to NMR measurement with a solution or solid.

  There is no restriction | limiting in particular as content in the said toner of the said crystalline polyester resin, Although it can select suitably according to the objective, 0 mass%-15 mass% are preferable, 5 mass%-15 mass Weight percent is more preferred. When the content is less than 5% by weight, the effect on the low temperature fixability may not be sufficiently obtained. Further, since the crystalline polyester resin has relatively low stress resistance, if the content exceeds 15% by mass, the external additive is buried in the crystalline polyester resin portion on the toner base surface, and the storage stability is deteriorated. It is not preferable.

  There is no restriction | limiting in particular as said modified polyester resin, According to the objective, it can select suitably, For example, polyester which can react with an active hydrogen group containing compound, the said active hydrogen group containing compound (following, "polyester prepolymer") And the like, and resins obtained by an extension reaction and / or a crosslinking reaction, and the like. The elongation reaction and / or the crosslinking reaction may be terminated by a reaction terminator (such as blocked monoamine such as diethylamine, dibutylamine, butylamine, laurylamine, ketimine compound, etc.), if necessary.

As a method of controlling the weight average molecular weight Mw of the Soxhlet extraction and the resin component in the insoluble matter, in the pulverization method, it can be controlled by appropriately changing the type and molecular weight of the binder resin of the raw material. In this case, there is a correlation between the weight average molecular weight of the raw material binder resin and the weight average molecular weight Mw of Soxhlet extraction of the toner. A plurality of resins may be used. For example, a resin having an Mw of about 10,000 and a resin having an Mw of about 50,000 may be mixed and used in any ratio.
The resin component in the insoluble portion of the toner in tetrahydrofuran (THF) is preferably 0.5% by mass to 20% by mass, and more preferably 0.5% by mass to 5% by mass. If the resin component in the insoluble portion is small, it tends to soften when heat is applied, which is advantageous for fixability but disadvantageous for heat resistance. In addition, when the resin component in the insoluble portion is less than 0.5% by mass, the viscosity when the toner is melted at the time of fixing is too low to easily place a hot offset and it is difficult to secure a sufficient fixing width. On the other hand, when the amount of the resin component in the insoluble portion is large, hot offset hardly occurs and securing is easy to be secured, and heat resistance is also improved, but the fixing lower limit temperature rises. If the content of the resin component in the insoluble portion exceeds 20% by mass, even if the toner is melted, the temperature is required to obtain the viscosity until fixing occurs, so low temperature fixing becomes difficult.
On the other hand, in the dissolution suspension method, the toner composition is dissolved in a solvent or the dispersion is emulsified / dispersed in an aqueous medium, the solvent is removed from the obtained emulsion / dispersion, and then the prepolymer is subjected to a heating crosslinking reaction ( For example, there is a method of stirring at 45 ° C. for 10 hours). The reaction can be controlled by changing the aging temperature and time. In this case, the prepolymer after the crosslinking reaction becomes higher in molecular weight and becomes insoluble which can not be extracted by Soxlet, but if this crosslinking reaction does not proceed sufficiently, it becomes a component that can be extracted by Soxlet, and the apparent extracted component is It is presumed that the molecular weight tends to be large. As described above, when the crosslinking reaction does not proceed, the melt viscosity of the toner at the time of fixing becomes too low and hot offset occurs.
In addition, regarding the insoluble content, the main component is the prepolymer after the crosslinking reaction, so it is possible to increase, decrease or control the insoluble content by increasing or decreasing the amount of prepolymer in the binder resin. is there.

-Colorant-
There is no restriction | limiting in particular as said coloring agent, According to the objective, it can select suitably, For example, a black pigment, a yellow pigment, a magenta pigment, a cyan pigment etc. are mentioned. Among these, it is preferable to contain any of yellow pigments, magenta pigments, and cyan pigments.
The black pigment is used, for example, in a black toner. Examples of the black pigment include carbon black, copper oxide, manganese dioxide, aniline black, activated carbon, nonmagnetic ferrite, magnetite, nigrosine dye, iron black and the like.
The yellow pigment is used, for example, in yellow toner. Examples of the yellow pigment include CI Pigment Yellow 74, 93, 97, 109, 128, 151, 154, 155, 166, 168, 180, 185, Naphthol Yellow S, and the like. Hansa yellow (10 G, 5 G, G), cadmium yellow, yellow iron oxide, yellow earth, yellow lead, titanium yellow, polyazo yellow and the like.
The magenta pigment is used, for example, in magenta toner. Examples of the magenta pigment include quinacridone pigments, CI Pigment Red 48: 2, 57: 1, 58: 2, 5, 31, 146, 147, 150, 176, and the like. And monoazo pigments such as 184 and 269. Further, the quinacridone pigment may be used in combination with the monoazo pigment.
The cyan pigment is used, for example, in cyan toner. Examples of the cyan pigment include Cu-phthalocyanine pigments, Zn-phthalocyanine pigments, and Al-phthalocyanine pigments.

  There is no restriction | limiting in particular as content of the said coloring agent in the said toner, Although it can select suitably according to the objective, 1 mass part-15 mass parts are preferable with respect to 100 mass parts of said toner, 3 mass Part to 10 parts by mass are more preferable.

  The colorant may be used as a master batch complexed with a resin. Such a resin is not particularly limited, but in view of compatibility with the binder resin, it is preferable to use the binder resin or a resin having a similar structure to the binder resin.

-Release agent-
There is no restriction | limiting in particular as said mold release agent, According to the objective, it can select suitably, For example, wax, wax etc. are mentioned.
Examples of the waxes and the waxes include vegetable waxes, mineral waxes, and petroleum waxes. Examples of plant waxes include carnauba wax, cotton wax, wood wax, rice wax and the like. Examples of the animal waxes include beeswax and lanolin. Examples of the mineral wax include ozokerite and cercin. Examples of the petroleum wax include paraffin, microcrystalline and petrolatum.

  There is no restriction | limiting in particular as melting | fusing point of the said mold release agent, Although it can select suitably according to the objective, 50 to 120 degreeC is preferable and 60 to 90 degreeC is more preferable. If the melting point is less than 50 ° C., the wax may adversely affect the storage stability, and if it exceeds 120 ° C., cold offset may easily occur during fixation at a low temperature. The melting point of the release agent can be determined by measuring the maximum endothermic peak using a differential scanning calorimeter (TG-DSC system, TAS-100, manufactured by Rigaku Denki Co., Ltd.).

The release agent is preferably present in a dispersed state in the toner base particles, and for that purpose, the release agent and the binder resin are preferably not compatible with each other. The method for finely dispersing the releasing agent in the toner base particles is not particularly limited and may be appropriately selected according to the purpose. For example, the releasing agent is dispersed by applying a shearing force at the time of producing the toner. Methods etc.

  The dispersion state of the release agent can be confirmed by observing a thin film section of toner particles with a transmission electron microscope (TEM). The dispersion diameter of the release agent is preferably small, but if it is too small, exudation at the time of fixing may be insufficient. Therefore, if the mold release agent can be confirmed at a magnification of 10,000 times, the mold release agent is present in a dispersed state. If the release agent can not be confirmed at a magnification of 10,000, dyeing at the time of fixing becomes insufficient even if finely dispersed.

  There is no restriction | limiting in particular as content in the said toner of the said mold release agent, Although it can select suitably according to the objective, 1 mass%-20 mass% are preferable, and 3 mass%-10 mass% are more preferable . When the content is less than 1% by mass, the hot offset resistance is deteriorated due to the lack of releasability, so that it is necessary to take measures such as oil application fixing. If it exceeds 20% by mass, many release agents will be deposited on the surface of toner base particles, but since the release agents themselves are soft and inferior in stress resistance, the heat resistant storage stability is deteriorated due to the embedding of external additives, It is not preferable because an abnormality such as filming occurs.

-Charge control agent-
In addition, in order to provide the toner with an appropriate chargeability, it is possible to include a charge control agent in the toner as needed.
Any known charge control agent can be used as the charge control agent. As colored materials may change their color tone, colorless or nearly white materials are preferable, for example, triphenylmethane dyes, molybdate chelate pigments, rhodamine dyes, alkoxy amines, quaternary ammonium salts (fluorine A modified quaternary ammonium salt), alkylamides, phosphorus alone or compounds thereof, tungsten singly or compounds thereof, fluorochemicals, metal salts of salicylic acid, metal salts of salicylic acid derivatives, and the like. These may be used alone or in combination of two or more.

  The content of the charge control agent in the toner is determined by the type of the binder resin and the toner production method including the dispersion method, and is not uniquely limited to the binder resin. 0.01 mass%-5 mass% are preferable, and 0.02 mass%-2 mass% are more preferable. When the content is more than 5% by mass, the chargeability of the toner is too large, the effect of the charge control agent is diminished, the electrostatic attraction force with the developing roller is increased, and the flowability of the developer is decreased. When the amount is less than 0.01% by mass, the charge buildup property and the charge amount may not be sufficient, and the toner image may be easily influenced.

<< Toner Production Method >>
There is no restriction | limiting in particular as a manufacturing method of the said toner, According to the objective, it can select suitably, For example, a grinding method, a chemical construction method, etc. are mentioned. By using these methods, toner base particles can be obtained.
The chemical method includes, for example, a suspension polymerization method of producing a monomer as a starting material, an emulsion polymerization aggregation method, a seed polymerization method, a dissolution suspension method, a dissolution suspension polymerization method, a phase inversion emulsification method, and these methods. The aggregation method of aggregating the resin particles in a state of being dispersed in an aqueous medium and granulating the particles into particles of a desired size by heating and the like can be mentioned.
The dissolution suspension method is a method in which a resin or a resin precursor is dissolved in an organic solvent or the like, and dispersed or emulsified in an aqueous medium.
In the dissolution suspension polymerization method, an oil phase composition containing a binder resin precursor (reactive group-containing prepolymer) having a functional group capable of reacting with an active hydrogen group in the dissolution suspension method is used as a resin fine particle. In this method, the active hydrogen group-containing compound is reacted with the reactive group-containing prepolymer in the aqueous medium by emulsification or dispersion in an aqueous medium containing the compound.
The phase inversion emulsification method is a method in which water is added to a solution composed of a resin or a resin precursor and an appropriate emulsifier to perform phase inversion.
Below, these manufacturing methods are explained in detail.

-Grinding method-
The pulverizing method is, for example, a method of manufacturing the toner base particles by pulverizing and classifying a melt-kneaded toner material having at least a colorant, a binder resin, and a releasing agent.

  In the melt-kneading, the toner material is mixed, and the obtained mixture is charged into a melt-kneader and melt-kneaded. As the melt-kneader, for example, a uniaxial or biaxial continuous kneader, a batch-type kneader using a roll mill, or the like can be used.

  In the pulverizing, the kneaded material obtained by the kneading is pulverized. In this pulverization, it is preferable to coarsely pulverize the kneaded product and then finely pulverize it. At this time, it is preferable to use a system of colliding the collision plate in the jet stream and crushing, colliding particles in the jet stream and pulverizing each other, or pulverizing with a narrow gap between the mechanically rotating rotor and stator.

In the classification, the pulverized product obtained by the pulverization is classified to prepare particles of a predetermined particle size. The classification can be performed, for example, by removing the fine particle part by a cyclone, a decanter, a centrifugal separator or the like.
After the pulverization and classification are completed, the pulverized material is classified into a gas flow by centrifugal force or the like to produce toner base particles of a predetermined particle diameter.

-Dissolution suspension method-
In the dissolution and suspension method, for example, an oil phase composition in which a toner composition comprising at least a binder resin or resin precursor, a colorant, and a release agent is dissolved or dispersed in an organic solvent is used as a water system. This is a method of producing toner base particles by dispersing or emulsifying in a medium.

  The organic solvent used for dissolving or dispersing the toner composition is preferably volatile having a boiling point of less than 100 ° C., from the viewpoint of facilitating the subsequent removal of the solvent.

  In the solution suspension method, when the oil phase composition is dispersed or emulsified in an aqueous medium, an emulsifying agent or a dispersing agent may be used as necessary.

-Dissolution suspension polymerization method-
In the solution suspension polymerization method, an oil phase containing at least a binder resin, a reactive group-containing binder resin precursor (a reactive group-containing prepolymer), a colorant, and a release agent in the solution-suspension method. The composition is preferably dispersed or emulsified in an aqueous medium containing resin fine particles to granulate toner base particles.
As the reactive group-containing binder resin precursor, a reactive group-containing prepolymer having a functional group capable of reacting with an active hydrogen group is known. Preferred is a method of reacting the active hydrogen group-containing compound contained in the oil phase composition and / or the aqueous medium in the particles with the prepolymer.

The resin fine particles can be formed using a known polymerization method, but it is preferable to obtain the resin fine particles as an aqueous dispersion of resin fine particles.
10 nm-300 nm are preferable, and, as for the volume average particle diameter of the said resin fine particle, 30 nm-120 nm are more preferable. When the volume average particle size of the resin fine particles is less than 10 nm and more than 300 nm, the particle size distribution of the toner may be deteriorated.

  The solid content concentration of the oil phase composition is preferably 40% by mass to 80% by mass. When the solid concentration is too high, dissolution or dispersion may be difficult, the viscosity may be high and handling may be difficult, and when the solid concentration is too low, the productivity of the toner may be reduced.

  The toner composition other than the binder resin such as the colorant and the release agent, and the masterbatch thereof are individually dissolved or dispersed in an organic solvent, and then mixed with the binder resin solution or dispersion. May be

  As the aqueous medium, water may be used alone, or a solvent miscible with water may be used in combination. As the solvent miscible with water, alcohol (methanol, isopropanol, ethylene glycol etc.), dimethylformamide, tetrahydrofuran, cellosolves (methyl cellosolve etc.), lower ketones (acetone, methyl ethyl ketone etc.) and the like can be mentioned.

  The method of dispersion or emulsification in the aqueous medium is not particularly limited, but known equipment such as low speed shear type, high speed shear type, friction type, high pressure jet type, and ultrasonic waves can be applied. Among these, the high speed shear type is preferable from the viewpoint of reducing the particle size. When using a high speed shear disperser, the rotational speed is not particularly limited, but is usually 1,000 to 30,000 rpm, preferably 5,000 to 20,000 rpm. As temperature at the time of dispersion | distribution, it is 0 degreeC-150 degreeC (under pressure) normally, and 20 degreeC-80 degreeC is preferable.

  There is no restriction | limiting in particular as a method to remove the said organic solvent from the obtained emulsion dispersion, According to the objective, it can select suitably, For example, it stirs the whole system gradually under normal pressure or reduced pressure. It is possible to employ a method in which the temperature is raised and the organic solvent in the droplet is completely evaporated and removed.

  A well-known technique is used as a method of washing | cleaning and drying the toner mother particle disperse | distributed to the said aqueous medium. That is, after solid-liquid separation with a centrifuge, filter press, etc., the obtained toner cake is re-dispersed in ion-exchanged water at about normal temperature to about 40 ° C. and pH adjusted with acid or alkali as necessary, After repeating the process of solid-liquid separation again several times to remove impurities, surfactants and the like, toner powder is obtained by drying using an air flow drier, a circulation drier, a vacuum drier, a vibrating flow drier, etc. . At this time, fine particle components of the toner may be removed by centrifugation or the like, and after drying, a desired particle size distribution can be obtained using a known classifier as needed.

The toner base particles may be mixed with particles such as the external additive and the charge control agent. At this time, it is possible to suppress the detachment of particles such as the external additive from the surface of the toner base particles by applying a mechanical impact force.
There is no restriction | limiting in particular as a method of applying the said mechanical impact force, According to the objective, it can select suitably, For example, the method of applying an impact force to a mixture using the blade | wing rotated at high speed And the mixture is accelerated to cause particles or particles to collide with an appropriate collision plate.
There is no restriction | limiting in particular as an apparatus used for the said method, According to the objective, it can select suitably, For example, Ong Mill (made by Hosokawa Micron Corporation), I type mill (made by Nippon Pneumatic Mfg. Co., The apparatus which reduced the pressure, the hybridization system (made by Nara Machinery Co., Ltd.), the cryptron system (made by Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd.), an automatic mortar, etc. are mentioned.

  EXAMPLES Hereinafter, examples of the present invention will be described, but the present invention is not limited to the following examples. The term "parts" refers to "parts by mass" unless otherwise specified. "%" Represents "% by mass" unless otherwise specified.

<< About the measurement of the average snowfall angle of toner >>
The average snow fall angle of the toner was determined by the method described above.
That is, a rotary drum image analysis and measurement apparatus is used to measure the average snow fall angle.
The rotary drum type image analysis and measurement apparatus comprises a cylindrical container (drum) having a transparent lid portion, a rotating device for rotating the cylindrical container along the circumference, a camera for capturing the inside from the cylindrical lid direction, and a direction opposite to the camera It is a measuring device that consists of a back light that illuminates the inside of the cylindrical container, and when a predetermined amount of powder is put in the cylindrical container, the drum is rotated slowly, and the deposited layer of powder rotates slowly with the rotation of the drum. It is pulled up along the top, but it is an apparatus to quantify by analyzing the size of an avalanche (collapsing of powder stack) which occurs when the balance of adhesion between particles and gravity at that time is broken. is there. In addition, since the measurement is repeated while the particle filling state is constant, good repeatability data can be obtained, and the flowability including the properties of the powder itself and the influence of the external environment, Since the sensitivity can be detected with high sensitivity, and in particular, the fluidity is measured by the value obtained by the avalanche, the fluidity of the upper layer, which is the adhesion between toners, can be expressed as compared with the conventional method.

As a rotating drum type image analysis measurement device, for example, powder analyzer REVOLUTION (manufactured by Mercury Science Inc.) and the like can be mentioned.
As a specific measuring method, first, an inner diameter of 50 mm, a cylindrical container volume 68.7Cm ^3, without particularly performing the tapping or the like of the toner is filled bulk volume 30 cm ³ minutes. While filled, place the cylindrical container on a rotating table, rotate at 0.6 rpm, and gently stir.
Next, the image processing unit is adjusted. While monitoring the camera in the measuring device in real time with a personal computer connected to a rotating drum type image analysis and measurement device, adjustment of an avalanche change amount considered as powder is an avalanche, an image light amount, and a measurement region. Avalanche change amount is fixed at 0.65% according to the result of examination. The image light amount is necessary to adjust the sensitivity of the camera by adjusting the light amount of the background, and is adjusted to, for example, about 24 db. In addition, the measurement area is necessary to improve measurement accuracy by appropriately excluding the range in which the avalanche response does not occur to the rotation due to the powder sticking to the wall etc., and monitoring in real time While setting, it is optional to avoid the range of fixed powder.
Further, after rotating the drum for 100 seconds (one rotation of the drum), the same sample is measured 50 times until avalanche occurs, and from the sum of the individual avalanche angles obtained by image processing, the average avalanche angle is calculated. calculate.
The measurement is carried out by conditioning the toner at 23 ° C. and 53% RH for 24 hours.

<Soxhlet extraction and calculation of THF insolubles>
0.3 g of toner was weighed, placed in a pre-weighed (g) weighed cylindrical filter paper ("No. 86R"; manufactured by Toyo Roshi Co., Ltd.), and subjected to a Soxhlet extractor. After setting the heater temperature to 85 ° C and using 200 mL of tetrahydrofuran THF (Stabilizer-containing Wako Pure Chemical Industries, Ltd.) 200 mL in a Soxhlet round bottom flask as the extraction solvent, perform total reflux extraction (Soxley extraction) for 7 hours, and then use a rotary The THF was distilled off with an evaporator to obtain an extract. The extract was dissolved in THF (stabilizer-containing Wako Pure Chemical Industries, Ltd.) at 0.15% by mass and then filtered through a solvent-resistant membrane filter with a pore diameter of 0.45 μm, and the filtrate was used as a sample. 100 μL of the THF sample solution was injected and measured.

The method of calculating the insoluble component is as follows.
The toner is placed in an electric furnace, and the resin and the release agent are decomposed in a state where the nitrogen gas is supplied and the nitrogen gas is substituted, and the treatment is performed at a temperature at which the colorant, the magnetic material, and the external additive are not decomposed. . The weight loss was confirmed, and when the weight loss stopped, insolubles other than the resin component were weighed.
The Soxhlet-extracted cylindrical filter paper was air-dried and further dried under reduced pressure, and then the total (g) of the insolubles on the filter paper and the mass of the filter paper was weighed. Then, the mass of the resin component in the insoluble portion was determined by subtracting the insoluble portion other than the resin component weighed in advance and the filter paper mass (g). The mass of the resin component in the insolubles was divided by the toner preparation amount 0.3 g and multiplied by 100 to calculate the ratio of the resin component in the insolubles to the mass of the toner as mass percent.

<Measurement of Weight Average Molecular Weight Mw of Toner Extracted Component>
Measuring device: GPC-8220GPC (made by Tosoh Corporation)
Column: TSKgel Super HZM-H 15 cm 3 stations (made by Tosoh Corporation)
Temperature: 40 ° C
Solvent: THF
Flow rate: 0.35 mL / min
Sample: The above-mentioned dried solid of Soxhlet extract, or a standard sample was dissolved in THF to prepare a sample of 0.15 mass percent concentration, and 0.1 mL was injected.
Calibration curve: In measuring the molecular weight of a sample, the molecular weight distribution of the sample was calculated from the relationship between the logarithmic value of the calibration curve prepared with several types of monodispersed polystyrene standard samples and the count number. As a standard polystyrene sample for preparation of a standard curve, Std. No. S-7300, S-210, S-390, S-875, S-1980, S-10.9, S-629, S-3.0, S-0.580 are dissolved in THF, Solutions of 15 weight percent concentration were made and made using RI (refractive index) detector for the detector.
Of the detected peaks, the largest one was taken as the main peak. When a plurality of peaks were detected, vertical division was performed at the lower end of the peak as shown in FIG. 24, and analysis was performed on the main peak to calculate Mw.

(Production Example 1)
-Binder resin formation process-
As a binder resin, polyester (1) was used, and toner base particles were produced as follows.
--Synthesis of polyester--
In a reaction vessel equipped with a cooling pipe, a stirrer and a nitrogen introduction pipe, 70 parts by mass of bisphenol ethylene oxide 2 mol adduct, 568 parts by mass of bisphenol A propion oxide 2 mol adduct, 44 parts by mass of terephthalic acid, and 211 parts of isophthalic acid Part was charged and condensation reaction was carried out at 210 ° C. for 13 hours under a normal pressure nitrogen stream. The reaction was further continued for 5 hours while dehydrating under a reduced pressure of 0 mmHg to 15 mmHg, and then cooled to obtain a polyester (1). The weight average molecular weight Mw of the polyester (1) was 5,700.

-Synthesis of Intermediate Polyester (1)--
In a reaction vessel equipped with a cooling pipe, a stirrer and a nitrogen introducing pipe, 650 parts by mass of prepylene glycol, 90 parts by mass of 2 mol adduct of bisphenol A propylene oxide, 290 parts by mass of terephthalic acid, 22 parts by mass of trimellitic anhydride, And 2 parts by mass of dibutyltin oxide were charged and reacted at 230 ° C. for 8 hours under normal pressure. Next, the mixture was reacted for 7 hours under a reduced pressure of 10 mmHg to 15 mmHg to synthesize an intermediate polyester (1).
The obtained intermediate polyester (1) has a number average molecular weight (Mn) of 5,900, a weight average molecular weight (Mw) of 22,500, a glass transition temperature (Tg) of 43 ° C., and an acid value of 0.5 mg KOH / g, the hydroxyl value was 22 mg KOH / g.

--Synthesis of polyester prepolymer (1)--
Next, 410 parts by mass of the intermediate polyester (1), 89 parts by mass of isophorone diisocyanate and 500 parts by mass of ethyl acetate are charged in a reaction vessel equipped with a cooling pipe, a stirrer and a nitrogen introducing pipe, and The mixture was reacted for 5 hours to synthesize polyester prepolymer (1) (a polymer capable of reacting with the active hydrogen group-containing compound).
The free isocyanate content of the obtained polyester prepolymer was 1.53% by mass.

<Production of Crystalline Polyester Resin 1>
In a reaction vessel provided with a cooling pipe, a stirrer and a nitrogen introducing pipe, 202 parts (1.00 mol) of sebacic acid, 154 parts (1.30 mol) of 1,6-hexanediol, and tetrabutoxytitanate 0. Five parts were added, and reaction was carried out for 8 hours while distilling off generated water at 180 ° C. under a nitrogen stream. Next, while raising the temperature gradually to 220 ° C., the reaction is carried out for 4 hours while distilling off water and 1,6-hexanediol generated under a nitrogen stream, and Mw is further about 15 under a reduced pressure of 5 mmHg to 20 mmHg. The reaction was carried out until reaching 1,000, to obtain [Crystalline polyester resin 1]. The obtained [crystalline polyester resin 1] had a Mw of 14,000 and a melting point of 66 ° C.

<Production of Toner Base Particle 1>
<Dissolution suspension polymerization method>
-Preparation of Release Agent Dispersion 1-
50 parts of paraffin wax (HNP-9, manufactured by Nippon Seiwa Co., Ltd., melting point 75 ° C.), 30 parts of [graft polymer], and 420 parts of ethyl acetate are put into a container set with a stirring rod and a thermometer, and 80 is stirred. The temperature is raised to ° C, maintained at 80 ° C for 5 hours, then cooled to 30 ° C for 1 hour, and using a bead mill (Ultravisco mill, manufactured by Imex Co., Ltd.), liquid transfer speed 1 kg / hr, disc peripheral speed 6 m Dispersion was carried out under the conditions of 3 passes, filling with 80% by volume of zirconia beads with a diameter of 0.5 mm for 1 second, to obtain [releasing agent dispersion 1].

-Preparation of crystalline polyester resin dispersion 1-
100 parts of [Crystalline polyester resin 1] and 400 parts of ethyl acetate are put into a container set with a stirring rod and a thermometer, heated and dissolved at 75 ° C with stirring, and cooled to 10 ° C or less in 1 hour, bead mill (Ultravisco mill, manufactured by Imex Co., Ltd.), dispersion is performed for 5 hours under conditions of a liquid transfer speed of 1 kg / hr, a disc peripheral speed of 6 m / sec, and a diameter of 0.5 mm filled with 80% by volume zirconia beads [crystalline Polyester resin dispersion 1] was obtained.

-Preparation of master batch 1-
Non-crystalline polyester resin 1 100 parts Carbon black (Printex 35, manufactured by Degussa) 100 parts (DBP oil absorption: 42 mL / 100 g, pH: 9.5)
-Ion-exchanged water 50 parts The above raw materials were mixed using a Henschel mixer (manufactured by Japan Coke Industry Co., Ltd.). The resulting mixture was kneaded using a two-roll mill. The kneading temperature was 90.degree. C., and then gradually cooled to 50.degree. The obtained kneaded product was pulverized with a Pulperizer (manufactured by Hosokawa Micron Corporation) to prepare [Master batch 1].

-Preparation of oil phase 1-
In a container equipped with a thermometer and a stirrer, 93 parts of [noncrystalline polyester resin 1], 68 parts of [crystalline polyester resin dispersion liquid 1], 75 parts of [release agent dispersion liquid 1], [master batch 1] 18 parts and 19 parts of ethyl acetate are put and pre-dispersed with a stirrer, then stirred at a rotation number of 5,000 rpm with a TK type homomixer (manufactured by Primix Co., Ltd.), uniformly dissolved and dispersed. [Oil phase 1] was obtained.

-Production of water dispersion of resin fine particles-
Water 600 parts, styrene 120 parts, methacrylic acid 100 parts, butyl acrylate 45 parts, alkyl allyl sulfosuccinic acid sodium salt (Eleminol JS-2, manufactured by Sanyo Kasei Kogyo Co., Ltd.) in a reaction vessel equipped with a stirring rod and a thermometer 10 parts and 1 part of ammonium persulfate were charged and stirred at 400 rpm for 20 minutes to obtain a white emulsion. The emulsion was heated to a system temperature of 75 ° C. and reacted for 6 hours. Further, 30 parts of a 1% aqueous solution of ammonium persulfate was added, and the mixture was aged at 75 ° C. for 6 hours to obtain [water dispersion liquid of resin fine particles]. The volume average particle diameter of the particles contained in this [water dispersion of resin fine particles] was 60 nm, the weight average molecular weight of the resin component was 140,000, and the Tg was 73 ° C.

-Preparation of water phase 1-
990 parts of water, 83 parts of [water dispersion of resin fine particles], 37 parts of 48.5% aqueous solution of sodium dodecyl diphenyl ether disulfonate (Eleminol MON-7, manufactured by Sanyo Chemical Industries, Ltd.), and 90 parts of ethyl acetate are mixed and stirred. And obtained [water phase 1].

-Emulsification or dispersion (emulsification / dispersion process)-
To 273 parts of the [oil phase 1], 45 parts of a 50% ethyl acetate solution of [polyester prepolymer 1] and 3 parts of a 50% ethyl acetate solution of isophorone diamine are added, and then added to TK homomixer (manufactured by PRIMIX CORPORATION) The mixture was stirred at a rotational speed of 5,000 rpm and uniformly dissolved and dispersed to obtain [Oil phase 1 ']. Next, 400 parts of [aqueous phase 1] is placed in another container set with a stirrer and a thermometer, and while stirring at 13,000 rpm with a TK homomixer (manufactured by Primix, Inc.) [oil phase 1 ' ] Were added and emulsified for 1 minute to obtain [Emulsified slurry 1].

-Solvent removal-Washing-Drying-
In a container in which a stirrer and a thermometer were set, [Emulsified Slurry 1] was charged, desolvated at 30 ° C. for 8 hours, and then aged at 45 ° C. for 10 hours to obtain [Slurry 1]. The obtained [Slurry 1] was filtered under reduced pressure, and the following washing treatment was performed.
(1) 100 parts of ion-exchanged water was added to the filter cake, mixed with a TK homomixer (rotation speed: 6,000 rpm for 5 minutes), and then filtered.
(2) 100 parts of a 10% aqueous sodium hydroxide solution was added to the filter cake of the above (1), mixed with a TK homomixer (rotation speed: 6,000 rpm for 10 minutes), and then filtered under reduced pressure.
(3) 100 parts of 10% hydrochloric acid was added to the filter cake of the above (2), mixed with a TK homomixer (rotation speed: 6,000 rpm for 5 minutes), and then filtered.
(4) 300 parts of ion-exchanged water was added to the filter cake of the above (3), mixed with a TK homomixer (rotation speed: 6,000 rpm for 5 minutes) and filtered twice to obtain a filter cake 1 .
The obtained filter cake 1 was dried at 45 ° C. for 48 hours in a circulating drier. Thereafter, the resultant was sieved with a mesh of 75 μm to prepare toner base particles 1. When the particle diameter of the toner base particle 1 was measured, the volume average particle diameter (Dv) was 5.5 μm.

(Production Example 2)
Toner base particles 2 of Production Example 2 were obtained in the same manner as in Production Example 1 except that the aging time after solvent removal was changed from 10 hours to 5 hours.

(Production Example 3)
A toner base particle 3 of Production Example 3 was produced in the same manner as in Production Example 1 except that the aging time after solvent removal was changed from 10 hours to 15 hours.

-Synthesis of Intermediate Polyester (2)--
In a reaction vessel equipped with a cooling pipe, a stirrer and a nitrogen introducing pipe, 682 parts by mass of preylene glycol, 81 parts by mass of 2 mol adduct of bisphenol A propylene oxide, 283 parts by mass of terephthalic acid, 22 parts by mass of trimellitic anhydride, And 2 parts by mass of dibutyltin oxide were charged, and allowed to react at 230 ° C. for 5 hours under normal pressure. Next, the mixture was reacted for 4 hours under a reduced pressure of 10 mmHg to 15 mmHg to synthesize an intermediate polyester (2).
The obtained intermediate polyester (2) has a number average molecular weight (Mn) of 2,900, a weight average molecular weight (Mw) of 11,500, a glass transition temperature (Tg) of 45 ° C., and an acid value of 0.5 mg KOH / g, the hydroxyl value was 32 mg KOH / g.

--Synthesis of prepolymer (2)--
Next, 410 parts by mass of the intermediate polyester (2), 89 parts by mass of isophorone diisocyanate and 500 parts by mass of ethyl acetate are charged in a reaction vessel equipped with a cooling pipe, a stirrer and a nitrogen introducing pipe, The mixture was allowed to react for 5 hours to synthesize prepolymer (2) (a polymer capable of reacting with the active hydrogen group-containing compound).
The free isocyanate content of the obtained prepolymer was 1.46% by mass.

(Production Example 4)
Toner base particles 4 of Production Example 4 were obtained in the same manner as in Production Example 1 except that the prepolymer (1) was changed to the prepolymer (2) in the emulsification / dispersion step of Production Example 1.

(Production Example 5)
Toner base particles 5 of Production Example 5 were obtained in the same manner as in Production Example 1 except that the aging time after solvent removal was changed from 10 hours to 0 hours (no aging process).

(Production Example 6)
Toner base particles 6 of Production Example 6 were obtained in the same manner as in Production Example 1 except that the prepolymer (1) was not used in the emulsification / dispersion step of Production Example 1.

(Production Example 7)
Toner base particles 7 of Production Example 7 were obtained in the same manner as in Production Example 1 except that 20 parts by mass of the prepolymer (1) was used in the emulsification / dispersion step of Production Example 1.

Production Example 8
Toner base particles 8 of Production Example 8 were obtained in the same manner as in Production Example 1 except that 75 parts by mass of the prepolymer (1) was used in the emulsification / dispersion step of Production Example 1.

Production Example 9
Toner base particles 9 of Production Example 9 were obtained in the same manner as in Production Example 1 except that 90 parts by mass of the prepolymer (1) was used in the emulsification / dispersion step of Production Example 1.

Production Example 10
Toner base particles 10 of Production Example 10 were obtained in the same manner as in Production Example 1 except that the non-crystalline polyester resin 3 was used instead of the polyester (1) in the emulsification / dispersion step of Production Example 1.

(Production Example 11)
27 parts of [noncrystalline polyester resin 2], 54 parts of [noncrystalline polyester resin 3], 8 parts of [crystalline polyester resin 1], paraffin wax (HNP-9, manufactured by Nippon Seiwa Co., Ltd., melting point 75 ° C.) After 6 parts and 12 parts of [master batch 2] are premixed at 1,500 rpm for 3 minutes using a Henschel mixer (Henshell 20B, manufactured by Nippon Coke Industry Co., Ltd.), a single-screw kneader (small bus coco) -It melt | melted and knead | mixed with the conditions of preset temperature (90 degreeC of inlet parts), an outlet part (60 degreeC), and a feed amount (10 kg / hr) with a kneader (made by Buss company). The obtained kneaded product was rolled and cooled, and roughly crushed using a Pulperizer (manufactured by Hosokawa Micron Corporation). Next, using a flat type collision plate with an I-type mill (IDS-2 type manufactured by Nippon Pneumatic Mfg. Co., Ltd.), under the conditions of air pressure (6.0 atm / cm 2) and feed amount (0.5 kg / hr) The resultant was finely pulverized and further classified by a classifier (132 MP, manufactured by Alpine) to obtain toner base particles 11 of Production Example 11. When the particle diameter of the toner base particle 11 was measured, the volume average particle diameter (Dv) was 7.0 μm.

Production Example 12
A toner is manufactured in the same manner as in Production Example 11 except that [Noncrystalline polyester resin 2] is changed from 27 parts to 57 parts and [Amorphous polyester resin 3] is changed from 54 parts to 24 parts in Production Example 11. Base particles 12 were obtained.

<Soxley extraction>
As a sample, 0.3 g of the manufactured toner was weighed, placed in cylindrical filter paper (“No. 86R”; manufactured by Toyo Roshi Co., Ltd.), and subjected to a Soxhlet extractor. After setting the heater temperature to 85 ° C and using 200 mL of tetrahydrofuran THF (Stabilizer-containing Wako Pure Chemical Industries, Ltd.) 200 mL in a Soxhlet round bottom flask as the extraction solvent, perform total reflux extraction (Soxley extraction) for 7 hours, and then use a rotary The THF was distilled off with an evaporator to obtain an extract. A solution of the extract in THF was filtered through a solvent-resistant membrane filter with a pore size of 0.45 μm, and the molecular weight was measured by GPC.

[Toner 1 to Toner 72, Developer 1 to Developer 72]
<Production of Toners 1 to 72>
A predetermined amount of a predetermined external additive was added to 100 parts of the obtained [toner base particles 1] to [toner base particles 12] according to Tables 1 to 3. A Henschel mixer was used for mixing, and after mixing, it was passed through a 500-mesh sieve to obtain Toner 1 to Toner 72.
Further, a two-component developer having a toner concentration of 10% by mass is prepared by mixing with a carrier, and using each of the obtained developers, the fixability (fixing lower limit temperature, offset not-occurring upper limit temperature) according to the evaluation contents shown below. And fixing width) and heat resistant storage stability (penetration) were evaluated. The results are shown in Tables 1 to 3.

<Toner container>
The toner container (the cross section of the container opening shown in FIG. 20) shown in FIG. 9 was used. The toner manufactured in the toner manufacturing example was filled in the toner container main body.
The toner storage container shown in FIG. 10 has a suction raising portion integrally formed with the toner storage container main body, a protruding portion is fixed to the toner storage container main body, and the toner storage container main body rotates to raise the suction. The unit lifts the toner from the bottom to the top.

<< Evaluation >>
The evaluation results of Examples 1 to 50 and Comparative Examples 1 to 22 evaluated by the following method are shown in Tables 1 to 3.

<Bottle drainability>
The above toner container was evaluated by the following evaluation method.
The dischargeability of the toner from the toner container main body at that time was evaluated by the following evaluation criteria. The results are shown in Tables 1 to 3.

〔Evaluation method〕
120 g of the toner was filled in the toner container described in detail in FIGS. 1 to 15 (the volume of the toner container is 1,200 mL). The toner container was shaken to sufficiently agitate the toner. The toner container was attached to the replenishing device provided with the transport nozzle described in the present embodiment (see FIG. 9). The toner container was rotated, and the replenishing device was operated to measure the amount of toner discharged from the replenishing device.
Condition: Toner container rotation speed: 110 rpm
Transfer screw pitch in the transfer nozzle of the replenishment device: 12.5 mm
Conveying screw outer diameter: 10 mm
Conveying screw shaft diameter: 4 mm
Conveying screw rotation speed: 460 rpm
Inclination angle of pumping surface 25 °

〔Evaluation criteria〕
(Bottle drainability)
:: The toner is discharged even if the amount of toner in the storage container reaches 70 g.
Fair: The toner can not be discharged before the residual amount of toner in the storage container reaches 70 g only under high temperature and high humidity (50 ° C., 70%) conditions.
X: The toner can not be discharged before the amount of toner in the storage container reaches 70 g.
In this experiment, assuming that the unused filling amount of the toner (the filling amount at the time of product shipment) is 200 g or more, in order to verify the dischargeability, the remaining amount of toner of 70 g was used as the evaluation standard as described above.
○ 合格 is a pass and × is a fail.

<Fixation to toner receiving port>
The above toner container was evaluated by the same evaluation method as the above evaluation method of the dischargeability.
The toner replenishment ability from the toner container main body at that time was evaluated by the following evaluation criteria. The results are shown in Tables 1 to 3.

〔Evaluation criteria〕
:: Good (when the toner continues to be driven until the toner can not be discharged, the toner receiving port in the toner container does not cause the passage obstruction by the toner)
Δ: Allowable level (When the toner continues to be driven until the toner can not be discharged, the toner receiving port in the toner container is partially blocked by the toner)
X: Level at which it can not be used practically (when the driving is continued until the toner can not be discharged, the toner passage opening in the toner container is completely blocked by the toner)
△ was a pass, and x was a fail.

<Fixability (Offset non-occurrence upper limit temperature, Fixing lower limit temperature and fixing width)>
Fixability (offset non-generated temperature and lower limit fixing temperature) was evaluated using an image forming apparatus provided with a belt type fixing device 110 shown in FIG.
The belt type fixing device 110 includes a heating roller 121, a fixing roller 122, a pressure roller 124, and a fixing belt 123.
The fixing belt 123 is stretched by a heating roller 121 and a fixing roller 122 rotatably disposed therein, and is heated by the heating roller 121 to a predetermined temperature. The heating roller 121 has a heating source 125 built therein, and is designed to be adjustable in temperature by a temperature sensor 127 attached in the vicinity of the heating roller 121. The fixing roller 122 is rotatably disposed inside the fixing belt 123 and in contact with the inner surface of the fixing belt 123. The pressure roller 124 abuts against the outer surface of the fixing belt 123 and the outer surface of the fixing belt 123 so as to press the fixing roller 122, and is rotatably disposed.
In the belt type fixing device 110, first, the recording medium (sheet) P on which the toner image to be fixed is formed is conveyed to the heating roller 121. Then, the toner T on the sheet P is heated and melted by the heating roller 121 and the fixing belt 123 which are heated to a predetermined temperature by the function of the built-in heating source 125. In this state, the sheet P is inserted into the nip portion formed between the fixing roller 122 and the pressure roller 124. The sheet P inserted into the nip portion is in contact with the surface of the fixing belt 123 that rotates in synchronization with the rotation of the fixing roller 122 and the pressure roller 124, and passes through the nip portion by the pressing force of the pressure roller 124. The toner T is fixed on the sheet P when pressed. Next, the sheet P on which the toner T is fixed passes between the fixing roller 122 and the pressure roller 124, is separated from the fixing belt 123, and is conveyed to a tray (not shown) through the guide G. The fixing belt 123 is cleaned by the cleaning roller 126.

In the belt type fixing device shown in FIG. 25, the fixing conditions of a belt tension of 1.5 kg / piece, a belt speed of 350 mm / sec and a nip width of 13 mm by the fixing roller 122, pressure roller 124, heating roller 121 and fixing belt 123. Fixation took place at
The fixing roller 122 is a roller of silicone foam having a diameter of 38 mm and an Asker C hardness of about 30 degrees. The pressure roller 124 has a PFA tube coated on a core metal (iron, 1 mm thick) with a diameter of 48 mm, and a surface of the PFA layer is coated with a silicone rubber layer with a thickness of 1 mm. It is a 75 degree roller. The heating roller 121 is an aluminum roller having a diameter of 30 mm and a thickness of 2 mm. The fixing belt 123 has a belt diameter of 6
It is 0 mm and a belt width of 310 mm, and is stretched around a roller having a silicone rubber release layer of about 150 μm thick on a nickel belt substrate surface of about 40 μm thick.

<Hot offset non-occurrence upper limit temperature>
The offset non-generated temperature was measured using an image forming apparatus provided with a belt type fixing device shown in FIG. That is, image formation is performed using a color copier ("Pretail 550"; manufactured by Ricoh Co., Ltd.) on a transfer paper ("Type 6000-70W; manufactured by Ricoh Co., Ltd.) with a solid image of 1.0. ± .0. .1 mg / cm2 of toner was adjusted to be developed. The temperature of the fixing belt (heating roller) was changed, and the obtained image was fixed using the belt type fixing device of FIG. 25, and the fixing temperature (offset non-generation temperature) at which offset did not occur was measured.

<Fixing lower limit temperature>
Using the image forming apparatus provided with the belt type fixing device shown in FIG. 25, the image is transferred using a color copying machine (“Pretail 550”; manufactured by Ricoh Co., Ltd.), transfer paper (“Type 6200”; Ricoh Co., Ltd.) Made and made a copy test. The fixing roll temperature at which the residual ratio of the image density after rubbing the obtained fixed image with a pad is 70% or more was defined as the lower limit fixing temperature. The toner having the lower limit temperature of fixing lower than 150 ° C. is preferable, and the toner having the lower limit temperature of fixing lower than 130 ° C. is further preferable.

<Fixing width>
The difference between the lower limit fixing temperature and the upper limit of the offset non-occurrence temperature was defined as the fixing width. The fixing width is preferably 20 ° C. or more, and more preferably 50 ° C. or more.

<Heat resistant storage stability (penetration)>
A 50 mL glass container was filled with 10 g of each toner, and left in a thermostat at 50 ° C. for 20 hours. The toner was cooled to room temperature, and the penetration was measured by a penetration test (JIS K 2235-1991). The larger the value of the penetration, the better the heat-resistant storage stability.

32Y, 32M, 32C, 32K Toner container 33 Toner container main body (powder container)
33a opening 33c inner wall surface of powder containing portion 34 container front end side cover (container cover)
41 Photoconductor (image carrier)
46Y, 46M, 34C, 46K Image formation unit 50 Development device 60 Toner supply device (powder supply (supply) device)
100 Printer unit (copier main body)
200 paper feed table (paper feed unit)
301 container gear 302 helical projection (conveying means)
304, 304 (BE) Powder pumping section 304a Pumping section helical projection 304a1 End of helical projection (end portion)
304a 2 Ends 3040, 3040 (B to E) on the side away from the opening, Pumping surfaces 3040a, 3040 (Ba to Ea) Inner end of the pumping surface 3041 Wall (container tip side wall)
3042, 3042 (BE) Edge (heli, side)
3043 inner wall 330 nozzle receiving member (conveying pipe receiving member)
331 Nozzle inlet (pipe insertion port)
332 Container shutter (opening and closing member)
335 shutter rear end support portion 335a shutter side surface support portion 335b shutter support opening 340 container shutter support member 500 copying machine (image forming apparatus)
608 Set cover 610 Nozzle opening (powder inlet)
611 Transfer nozzle (transfer tube)
615 Container setting part (container receiving part)
The angle of inclination of the rising surface of θ θ The angle between the projection and the surface of the rising surface θ2 The angle of the two surfaces of the rising portion O Rotation center axis h1 Height of the rising surface h2 Height of the projection S Space S7 S7 start position (start point)
T toner (powder for image formation)
W Opening range of rotational direction of powder inlet W1 Opening range of axial direction of powder inlet X, X1 Virtual straight line P Recording medium G Developer Q Mounting direction Q1 Detaching direction

JP 2012-133349 A

Claims (11)

A toner container containing toner can be mounted,
A powder receiving port for receiving toner from the toner container;
The powder receiving port includes a transfer pipe opening upward,
A toner storage container for use in an image forming apparatus that rotates a mounted toner storage container within a predetermined rotation number range,
With the toner
A rotatable powder container for containing the toner;
An opening portion which is provided at one end of the powder containing portion and which can insert the transport pipe into a position which is a rotation center of the toner containing container;
A helical projection which projects into the interior of the container and conveys the toner in the powder container to the opening;
The powder storage unit includes a powder pumping unit that pumps the toner on the side of the opening by rotation of the powder storage unit and supplies the toner to the powder receiving port.
The average snow fall angle of the toner is 45.0 ° to 55.0 °,
The weight average molecular weight Mw in the molecular weight distribution by gel permeation chromatography (GPC) of the component of the toner extracted by Soxhlet extraction using tetrahydrofuran (THF) is 5,000 or more and 35,000 or less,
The powder pumping section has a pumping surface extending from the inner wall surface of the powder storage section toward the rotation center axis side,
The pumping surface is
An inner end portion on the rotation center axis side extends in the rotation center axis direction of the powder containing portion, and an edge of the inner end portion is substantially parallel to the rotation center axis,
When viewed from the rotation center axis direction, it is inclined at a predetermined range of inclination angle toward the upstream side in the rotation direction of the powder containing portion with respect to a virtual straight line passing through the rotation center axis and the edge of the inner end Yes,
The toner container according to claim 1, wherein the helical protrusion is connected to the pumping surface, and the connected portion extends in the circumferential direction from the pumping surface.   The toner container according to claim 1, wherein an average snow fall angle of the toner is 45.0 ° to 51.0 °.   The toner has a weight average molecular weight Mw in a molecular weight distribution by gel permeation chromatography (GPC) of 8,000 or more and 18,000 or less according to gel permeation chromatography (GPC) of components extracted by Soxhlet extraction using tetrahydrofuran (THF). Or 2. The toner container according to 2.   The toner has a weight average molecular weight Mw in a molecular weight distribution by gel permeation chromatography (GPC) of 14,000 or more and 18,000 or less according to gel permeation chromatography (GPC) of components extracted by Soxhlet extraction using tetrahydrofuran (THF). 3. The toner container according to any one of 3.   The toner container according to claim 1, wherein the binder resin of the toner contains a crystalline polyester resin.   The inclination angle of the pumping surface is, when viewed from the rotation center axis direction, directed upstream in the rotation direction of the powder containing portion with respect to a virtual straight line passing through the rotation center axis and the edge of the inner end. The toner container according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the range is 25 degrees ± 5 degrees.   The edge of the inner end portion is positioned within the opening range in the rotation direction of the powder receiving port above the powder receiving port when the powder containing portion rotates when the powder receiving portion is rotated. The toner container according to any one of claims 1 to 6.   The position of the spiral projection on the pumping surface is within an opening range in the axial direction of the powder receiving port when the transport pipe is inserted into the opening. Description toner container.   The toner according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the inner wall surface of the bottle forming the pumping surface is formed in a mountain shape with the end of the pumping surface located most inside the bottle as a vertex. Containment container.   10. The toner container according to claim 9, wherein an angle between two surfaces forming a convex portion having a mountain shape with an end of the pumping surface as a vertex is substantially acute.   An image forming apparatus comprising: the toner storage container according to any one of claims 1 to 10; and an image forming unit configured to form an image on an image carrier using the toner transported from the toner storage container.