JPH0152755B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a cleaning device, and more particularly to an improvement in a cleaning device that uses a fur brush to remove toner adhering to a latent image forming body of an electrophotographic printing device.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a conventional cleaning device of this type for an electrophotographic printing device. A fur brush 2 attached so as to be connected to the photosensitive drum (latent image forming body) 1 is rotationally driven by a brush motor 3, and acts to wipe away residual toner on the photosensitive drum 1. A housing 4 is disposed surrounding the fur brush 2 with an appropriate gap between the fur brush 2 and the fur brush 2. The remaining toner removed by the fur brush 2 is sucked by a suction blower (not shown), and is removed from the housing 4. 4 and reaches chamber 5, where it is further absorbed into a recovery system.

However, in such conventional cleaning devices, since the flow velocity on the wall surface of the housing 4 is low, a portion of the collected residual toner tends to adhere and accumulate on the inner surface of the housing 4, and this accumulated toner increases in thickness. When vibration is applied to the cleaning device, the cleaning device peels off from the inner surface of the housing 4 and falls. This fallen lump of toner cannot be sucked by the intake air flow of the blower, and eventually falls onto the surface of the photosensitive drum 1, causing a problem in that it causes printing defects. Therefore, with conventional cleaning equipment,
It was necessary to clean the inside of the housing 4 before the toner peeled off.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a cleaning device that eliminates the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art and prevents toner deposited on the inner surface of a housing from falling onto the surface of a latent image forming member.

A feature of the present invention is that the apparatus is provided with means for using the fur brush to wipe off toner deposited on the inner surface of the housing, which is disposed so as to surround the fur brush.

The present invention will be explained in detail below using the embodiment shown in FIG.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing an embodiment of the apparatus of the present invention. In FIG. 2, 1 is a photosensitive drum, 2 is a fur brush that is rotationally driven by a brush motor 3 for brushing off residual toner on the photosensitive drum 1, 4 is a housing that surrounds the fur brush 2, and 5 is an integrated body with the housing 4. The housing 4 and the chamber 5 are connected to the side plate 6a,
6b. Side plates 6a, 6
b is a mechanical base 9 with a shaft 7 and a pipe 8 so that it can rotate around the center of the chamber 5.
is supported by And side plate 6a
is the driven node of the cam mechanism. Reference numeral 10 denotes an eccentric cam, which serves as a driving node of the cam mechanism and is attached to a step motor 11. Furthermore, a sensing plate 12 is attached to the eccentric cam 10 so that the position of the eccentric cam 10 can be detected by a micro switch 13.

The residual toner on the photosensitive drum 1 that has been brushed away by the fur brush 2 is sucked into the toner recovery system via the chamber 5 by the suction system, as in the conventional case. Normally, the eccentric cam 10 is fixed at an appropriate position by detecting it with a micro switch 13 so that an appropriate gap is maintained between the housing 4 and the fur brush 2. By the way, when a drive signal is applied to the step motor 11 from the control section of the printing apparatus, the step motor 11 rotates clockwise, and the housing 4 swings to the right (or left) and becomes eccentric.
At this time, the fur brush 2 is attached to the inner surface of the housing 4.
The step motor 11 is rotated by a predetermined angle until the shaft contacts the step motor 11, and the shaft of the step motor 11 is held at that position. In this state, the fur brush 2 is rotated clockwise (or counterclockwise) to wipe off the residual toner deposited on the left (or right) inner surface of the housing 4 and sucked into the toner recovery system by the intake air flow of a blow (not shown). After brushing off the toner from the inner surface of the housing 4 for a predetermined period of time, the brush motor 3 is stopped, the step motor 11 is further rotated to the right, the housing 4 is swung to the left (or right), and the housing is turned in the opposite direction. The fur brush 2 is brought into contact with the inner surface of the fur brush 4 and held in that position.
In this state, the fur brush 2 is rotated to the left (or right) to wipe off the residual toner deposited on the right (or left) inner surface of the housing 4, and sucked it into the collection system as described above. Then, after a predetermined period of time has elapsed, the brush motor 3 is stopped and the step motor 1 is turned off.
1 further clockwise until it reaches the initial position (360° rotation), stop the step motor 11,
Hold it in that state. This completes the cleaning process inside the housing 4, and then moves on to the printing process.

According to the above-described embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a means for removing the residual toner deposited on the inner surface of the housing 4 using the fur brush 2, so that the residual toner deposited on the inner surface of the housing 4 is removed in advance before the printing process. The toner can be wiped off and sucked into the collection system, and the residual toner that has accumulated on the inner surface of the housing on the photosensitive drum 1 during the printing process will not fall, thereby preventing printing defects from occurring. .

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, the housing 4
Although the fur brush 2 is brought into contact with the inner surface of the housing 4 by being eccentric, the fur brush 2 may be eccentric or deformed, and the effect will be the same.

As explained above, according to the present invention, it is possible to prevent the residual toner deposited on the inner surface of the housing from falling onto the surface of the latent image forming member, and it is possible to prevent printing defects from occurring. be.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a conventional cleaning device for an electrophotographic printing apparatus, and FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing an embodiment of the cleaning device of the present invention. 1...Photosensitive drum, 2...Fur brush, 3...
...Brush motor, 4...Housing, 5...Chamber, 6a, 6b...Side plate, 7...
Shaft, 8...Pipe, 9...Mechanical base, 1
0... Eccentric cam, 11... Step motor, 12
...Sensing plate, 13...Micro switch.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A housing is arranged with a space provided around a fur brush that removes toner adhering to a latent image forming body, and either the fur brush or the housing is provided movably. The inner surface of the housing and the fur brush are configured to be in contact with each other, and as either the fur brush or the housing moves, the contact position between the housing and the fur brush is displaced to remove toner deposited on the inner surface of the housing. cleaning equipment. 2. The movable member is a housing, and by swinging the housing around a shaft arranged parallel to the rotation axis of the fur brush, a fur brush portion is brought into contact with the inner surface of the housing, According to the first aspect of the present invention, the toner deposited on the inner surface of the housing is removed by displacing the contact position between the housing and the fur brush as the housing swings.
Cleaning device as described in section. 3. The movable member is a fur brush, and by eccentrically rotating the fur brush, a housing portion is brought into contact with the fur brush, and the contact position between the housing and the fur brush is displaced with the eccentric rotation, and the housing is rotated eccentrically. The cleaning device according to claim 1, which removes toner deposited on the inner surface.