JPH01293369A - Developing unit - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To facilitate loading of a unit on a main body by energizing a grip for unit transporting from the position where said grip functions as a grip to where it is housed. CONSTITUTION:The grip for unit transporting 2 consists of a spring material 3, an elastic body, etc. and is always elastically energized from the position where the grip 2 functions as a grip to where it is housed. As a result, the grip 2 becomes flexible when the grip 2 is pulled out of the unit, it can be stretched until a pin 6 reaches an expansion limiting hole because the grip 2 is fixed by a pin 4, and the grip 2 stretched by a user is maintained and placed on an opening and closing door. When the grip 2 is released, it enters a development unit 1 by virtue of tension of the tension spring 3. Therefore, when the developing unit is loaded and unloaded onto an image forming device, it can be smoothly loaded and unloaded without catching the grip on the main body.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Field of Application] The present invention relates to a phenomenon unit that is detachable from an image forming apparatus such as an electrophotographic copying machine or an electrophotographic printer.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, the direction of expansion and contraction of the carrying handle of the developing unit that is detachable from the main body of the image forming apparatus is the same direction as the direction of attaching and detaching the unit to the main body of the image forming apparatus. The handle that has been pulled out is forcibly pulled back by a guide member or the like for mounting the unit. However, if the direction of expansion and contraction of the handle for carrying the unit is not the same as the direction in which the unit is attached, the handle that has been pulled out once is pulled back again and then the unit is attached to the main body.

[Problem to be solved by the invention] As described above, when the mounting direction of the unit and the extension/contraction direction of the handle are not the same, the handle cannot be pushed back by the guide member, etc., and this occurs every time the unit is mounted on the main body. The drawback was that the handle had to be pushed back.

Means for Solving Problem c] The present invention comprises a unit transporting handle made of a spring material, an elastic body, etc., and is always biased in the direction of storing the handle from a state where it functions as a handle, so that the handle can be expanded and contracted. By doing so, the handle that has been pulled out is automatically pulled back.

〔Example〕

In FIG. 1, 1 and l are a developing unit that can be attached to and removed from the image forming apparatus, 2 is a handle for carrying the developing unit, and 3 is a tension spring for pulling back the handle for carrying the developing unit. No convex portions are formed on the surface.

FIG. 2 is a main perspective view of the developer unit l, in which 4 is a pin for fixing the developer unit carrying handle 2 (hereinafter referred to as handle 2), and 5 is the length of extension and contraction of the handle 2. The expansion/contraction restriction hole is a hole drilled in the handle 2 to determine the length of the handle.
Reference numeral 6 indicates a pin that protrudes from the developing unit 1 into the expansion/contraction restriction hole 5 to limit the expansion and contraction of the handle 2, and the shaded portion 7 represents a guide to prevent the handle 2 from coming off from the pins 4 and 6. It is a protrusion.

In FIG. 3, 8 is the main body of the image forming apparatus, and 9 is an opening/closing door which is fixed to the image forming apparatus 8 so as to be openable and closable. It becomes a stand for. Reference numeral 10 designates a photosensitive drum as an image carrier, and reference numeral 11 designates a pressure lever, which escapes downward in FIG. It is located so as not to interfere with the loading of the developer unit 1, and is provided to pressurize the developing unit 1 against the photosensitive drum 10 when loading is completed.

Further, around the photosensitive drum 10, a charger 12. Transfer/separation charger 13/14. Cleaner 1
5. and eraser lamps 16 are arranged in this order, and an image is formed by a normal electrophotographic process.

Next, the present invention will be explained in detail.

In the developer unit 1, by pulling out the handle 2 provided on the developer unit 1 as shown by the dotted line in FIG. 1, the handle 2 is fixed by the pin 4.
The pin 6 can be extended until it hits the expansion/contraction restriction hole 5. Therefore, when the user holds the stretched handle 2, places it on the opening/closing door 9, and releases the handle, the handle 2 enters into the developing unit l due to the tension of the tension spring 3.
It is stored in the stored state as shown by the solid line part of the handle 2 in FIG.
It is smoothly installed from position B of the image forming apparatus main body 8,
Thereafter, when the unit moves to position A and reaches a predetermined position, the positioning part of the unit is moved by the pressure lever 11 to the photosensitive drum lO.
Pressure is applied to determine the position.

[Other Examples]

In FIG. 4, reference numeral 11 denotes a spring handle for carrying the developing device, which is made of an elastic plate. The difference between this embodiment and the previous embodiment is that the handle 2 shown in FIG.
This is because the tension spring 3 is not used.

Since the spring handle 11 is made of an elastic material, the fourth
When the spring handle 11 is released after being stretched as shown by the dotted line in the figure, the force exerted by its elasticity to return to its original shape (solid line in Figure 4) automatically pulls the spring handle 11 back.
It has the same effect as the handle 2 in the above embodiment.

〔Effect of the invention〕

In recent years, there has been a trend to downsize image forming apparatuses, reduce their installation space, and provide them with more functions. Even in this case, efforts have been made to attach as small a handle as possible to make it easier to carry.

According to the present invention, by providing a means for automatically storing the handle in the unit after it has been pulled out, the handle is always stored in the unit except when the handle is needed. It is suitable for the recent trend toward space saving, and since the handle does not protrude when attached to or detached from the image forming apparatus, it has the effect of allowing smooth attachment and detachment without the handle getting caught on the main body.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of the developing device unit, FIG. 2 is a main perspective view of the developing device unit, FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the main body of the image forming apparatus, and FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the developing device unit. In the figure, l indicates a developing unit, 2 a handle for carrying the developing unit, and 11 a spring handle for carrying the developing unit.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) In an apparatus in which a handle for carrying the unit provided on a unit that is detachable from the main body of the image forming apparatus has a first position when carrying the unit and a second position at other times, the unit A developing unit having a unit carrying handle, characterized in that the carrying handle is biased from a first position where the carrying handle functions as a handle to a second position where the carrying handle is in a stored state. (2) The direction in which the unit carrying handle is biased from the first position to the second position is different from the direction in which the unit having the unit carrying handle is attached to and detached from the image forming apparatus main body, etc. A developing unit according to claim (1).