JPH01300286A - Toner cleaning method for electrophotographic recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To settle various problems such as an electrification failure, a transfer failure, etc., caused by a coagulated toner by returning a drum by a prescribed quantity in the direction opposite to the printing rotating direction, and thereafter, starting the printing, when a power source is ON. CONSTITUTION:When a power source is ON, a toner suction fan which has been connected to a suction duct 9 is operated, and subsequently, a drum is stopped in the direction opposite to an arrow mark A, and a cleaning member 8 is rotated in the direction as indicated with an arrow mark B. Furthermore, thereafter, the drum 1 is rotated in the direction as indicated with the arrow A, and a sequence operation is executed. Accordingly, the surface of the drum 1 which has come into contact with the cleaning member 8, while the power source is OFF receives the same cleaning action as in the course of printing by the cleaning member 8, when the power source becomes ON. In such a way, such problems as an electrification failure, a laser write failure, a development failure, a transfer failure, etc., caused by a condensed toner, which have been generated, while the power source is OFF some not to be generated.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a method of operating an electrophotographic recording device, and more particularly, to an electrophotographic recording device that cleans unnecessary toner adhering to a photoreceptor. The present invention relates to a toner cleaning method.

[Conventional technology]

Prior to explaining the present invention, a method of operating a conventional electrophotographic recording apparatus will be explained with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5.

In FIG. 4, the drum 1, which has a photoreceptor on its surface, is rotating in the direction of arrow A during printing, and the outer periphery of the drum 1 includes a charger 3, a developing roll 5, a transfer device 6, and a toner cleaning member 8. is located. The drum 1 is first charged to a predetermined potential by a charger 3, and then a laser beam 2 is emitted from an optical system (not shown) in accordance with a printing signal.
The surface of the drum 1 is irradiated, the potential of the irradiated part decreases,
An electrostatic latent image is formed on the surface of the drum 1. Next, the developer 4. The developing roll 5 transfers the charged toner to the drum 1.
to form a toner image on the drum 1, and the toner is transferred onto the paper 7 by the transfer device 6. At this time, 100% of the toner on the drum 1 is not transferred to the paper 7, and a portion of it remains on the surface of the drum 1.
After the transfer, the surface of the drum 1 is cleaned by the cleaning member 8, the toner is removed from the surface of the drum 1, and the toner is sucked through the toner suction duct 9 by a toner suction fan (not shown). When the power of the electrophotographic recording apparatus is turned on, the toner suction fan (not shown) operates first, and then the cleaning member 8 moves to the direction indicated by the arrow B.
After rotating in the direction of the arrow, the drum 1 rotates in the six directions of the arrow to start printing. When the power is turned off, the drum 1 first stops rotating, then the cleaning member 8 stops rotating, and then the suction fan stops.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] Although the operating method of the conventional electrophotographic recording device is as described above, the conventional method has the following problems when cleaning toner, and it is necessary to improve this point. was desired.

Here, the problem will be explained based on FIG. 5. In the figure, when the drum 1 is stopped (that is, when the power is turned off)
, shows an enlarged view of the portion where the cleaning member 8 is in contact with the drum 1. The cleaning member 8 has a soft brush shape, and the tip of the cleaning member 8 is free from toner (including paper powder) that has adhered during printing.
10 remains without being completely removed by suction. Also, drum 1
While the cleaning member 8 and the tram 1 are stopped, the cleaning member 8 and the tram 1 remain in a stationary state in contact with each other for a long period of time, and the toner 10 is pressed against the drum 1.
The toner 10 adheres to the drum 1, which does not occur when the cleaning member 8 is rotating in the direction of arrow B and the drum 1 is rotating in the direction of arrow A). In particular, the toner 10 that has adhered to the drum 1 at the downstream S portion in the rotation direction (six arrow directions) of the drum 1 is only subjected to friction by the cleaning member 8 for a short time when the power is turned on. Compared to the toner dirt 11 remaining on the drum 10, it is charged and developed without being sufficiently removed and suctioned from the surface of the drum 10. There was a problem with print quality deterioration. In this way, conventionally, the toner on the drum 1 that could not be cleaned during the previous printing operation is removed.
There was a problem in that Ei was deposited on the drum 1 when the power was subsequently turned off.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art, and to prevent the toner from being completely cleaned on the drum during the previous printing operation to adhere to the drum during subsequent power off.
An object of the present invention is to provide an improved toner cleaning method for an electrophotographic recording device that eliminates the problem of print quality deterioration due to adhered toner.

[Means to solve the problem]

The purpose is to form a latent image on a photoreceptor provided on the drum surface, attach toner to this latent image, and transfer it to paper;
In an operating method of an electrophotographic recording apparatus, the toner that does not need to be transferred is cleaned by a cleaning member that contacts the surface of the drum, and then sucked by a toner suction means, and the drum is rotated in one direction during printing to perform printing. , is achieved by moving the drum back a certain amount at least once in a direction opposite to the printing rotation direction when the power is turned on, and then printing is started. Supplementary to this, the present invention solves the problem of print quality deterioration mentioned above due to toner adhesion that occurs while the electrophotographic recording device is powered off, and that this adhering toner is mechanically removed by a cleaning member. Focusing on the fact that it can be removed by rubbing, we devised a sequence operation when the power is turned on, so that when the power is turned off, the adhered toner generated when the power is turned off can be sufficiently rubbed and removed with a cleaning member before printing can proceed. [Function] According to the present invention that employs the cleaning method described above, when the power is turned on, printing is started after the drum is returned by a certain amount at least once in the direction opposite to the printing rotation direction. As a result, even if toner on the drum that could not be completely cleaned during the previous printing operation adheres to the drum during subsequent power off, the cleaning member will be able to sufficiently rub and remove the adhered toner. From then on, the printing operation can be started.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained based on FIGS. 1 and 2. In this embodiment, when the power is turned on, the toner suction fan (not shown) connected to the suction duct shown in FIG. Then, the drum 1 is stopped in the direction opposite to the arrow A, and the cleaning member 8 is rotated in the direction of the arrow B.

Furthermore, after that, the drum 1 is rotated in the direction of arrow A, and the charger 3 performs the strip-setting, the laser beam 2 writes, and the developer 4. A sequence operation of development by the developing roll 5 and transfer onto the paper 7 by the transfer device 6 is performed. Further, when the power is turned off, a sequence operation is performed in which the rotation of the drum 1 is first stopped, then the cleaning member 8 is stopped, and finally the suction fan is stopped. By setting the amount of rotation of the drum 1 in the direction opposite to the arrow A when the power is turned on to be sufficiently larger than the contact length Q between the drum 1 and the cleaning member 8, the cleaning member 8 can be rotated when the power is turned off. When the power is turned on, the surface of the drum 1 that was in contact with the drum 1 is subjected to the same cleaning action as during printing by the cleaning member 8 when the power is turned on, so that condensation generated during the power off is removed by the cleaning member 8 when the power is turned on.
Various problems that occur through the process, such as charging failure, laser writing failure, development failure, and transfer failure, do not occur. Note that the reverse rotation operation of the drum 1 may be repeated multiple times rather than only once, and by repeating the reverse rotation operation of the drum 1 multiple times,
The effect of improving print quality can be made even more noticeable.

Further, in the embodiment, when the power is turned on, first the toner suction fan is activated, then the drum 1 is rotated by a predetermined amount in the direction opposite to the arrow A, and then the cleaning member 8 is rotated in the direction of the arrow B. After that, the case where the drum 1 is rotated in the six directions of the arrow and the printing operation is started is illustrated, but as shown in FIG. 3, after turning on the power and operating the toner suction fan, the cleaning member is rotated. after that,
The drum may be rotated in the direction opposite to arrow A, and then the drum may be rotated in the direction of arrow A to enter the printing operation. Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the cleaning member 8 is always rotated in the direction of the arrow B, but in order to further improve the cleaning performance, the cleaning member 8 is always rotated in the opposite direction to the rotation direction of the drum. It is also possible to further improve the rubbing effect.

〔Effect of the invention〕

The present invention is as described above, and according to the present invention, when the power is turned on, the drum is moved back a certain amount in the direction opposite to the printing rotation direction and then printing is started, thereby making it possible to completely clean the drum during the printing operation of a turn. Even if the toner that was not present on the drum adheres to the drum when the power is turned off, the adhered toner can be sufficiently rubbed and removed with the cleaning member before printing can proceed, and the adhered toner can be removed. Various problems such as toner charging failure, laser writing failure, development failure, and transfer failure can be solved all at once.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 and 2 show one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of the overall configuration of an electrophotographic recording apparatus suitable for carrying out the method of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is the same as in FIG. 1, respectively. Code 9.1
．． 8 is a timing chart showing the operation sequence of the toner suction duct, drum, and toner cleaning member;
FIG. 3 is an operation timing chart of each part of an electrophotographic recording apparatus showing another embodiment of the method of the present invention, FIG. 4 is a diagram explaining the operating method of a conventional electrophotographic recording apparatus, and FIG. It is a partially enlarged view. 1 is a drum, 2 is a laser beam, 3 is a charger, 4 is a developer,
5 is a developing roll, 6 is a transfer device, 7 is paper, 8 is a toner cleaning member, and 9 is a toner suction duct. Name of patent applicant Hitachi Koki Co., Ltd. Sai/3 Su2 no Y Nerf 9-Ko, 7'#t~-11--1--■
-11--7"-1-------]--------O3 Figure O4-Lu Saif mouth

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Forming a latent image on a photoreceptor provided on the drum surface;
Toner is attached to this latent image and transferred to paper, and after cleaning unnecessary toner with a cleaning member that contacts the surface of the drum, it is sucked by a toner suction means, and the drum is moved in one direction during printing. In the operating method of an electrophotographic recording device that prints by rotating, when the power is turned on,
A toner cleaning method for an electrophotographic recording apparatus, characterized in that printing is started after the drum is returned by a certain amount at least once in a direction opposite to a printing rotation direction. 2. The toner cleaning method for an electrophotographic recording apparatus according to the invention as set forth in claim 1, wherein the cleaning member always rotates in a direction opposite to the rotational direction of the drum.