JPH0245883Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] Technical Field The present invention relates to a cleaning device for a copying machine, and more specifically, to a copying machine in which a cleaning member scrapes off foreign matter adhering to the tip of a blade that removes residual toner from a photoreceptor. The present invention relates to a cleaning device.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Copying machines are generally equipped with a cleaning device for removing toner remaining on a photoreceptor after a transfer process. Among these cleaning devices, devices that scrape off toner adhering to the photoreceptor surface by bringing the blade into contact with the surface of the photoreceptor may cause cleaning failures or photosensitive exposure if toner adheres and hardens near the tip edge of the blade. Problems such as damage to the body surface may occur. To solve this,
Conventionally, foreign matter adhering to the tip of the blade was scraped off using a cleaning member. Specifically, for example, the first
As shown in the figure, the blade 10 is attached via the blade holder 12 to a supporting member 14 whose both ends are bent into a U-shape, using stepped screws 16, and the lower end of the bent portion 18 of the supporting member 14 is attached. The blade 10 is pivotally supported by a shaft 20 so as to be able to rotate approximately in the front-rear direction with respect to the photoreceptor surface 22. Support member 14
The blade 10 is rotated and biased by a solenoid mechanism (not shown), and during a cleaning operation during copying, the blade 10 moves forward and comes to a position where it comes into contact with the photoreceptor surface 22 with a predetermined pressing force. . Further, when the copying is completed and the copy is released, the blade 10 moves backward to a predetermined position. During this rotational movement, the tip of the blade 10 traces a trajectory shown by a dashed line A. Note that the stepped screw 16 is attached to the blade holder 1.
2, so that the blade 10 can rotate relative to the support member 14 in a plane perpendicular to the plane of the paper, and the entire length of the blade 10 comes into contact with the photoreceptor surface 22 during cleaning. It is something.

A fixed support member 24 is provided on the underside of the blade 10.
A thin plate-shaped cleaning member 2 that is bonded to and supported in a cantilever manner.
6 is provided. The cleaning member 26 is made of an elastic member (mylar, hard polymer film such as polyester film, etc.), and is disposed such that its tip is pressed down by the blade 10 and is bent downward from a straight direction. When the blade 10 is located forward during the cleaning operation, the cleaning member 26 has a large curvature so that the tip of the cleaning member 26 is located slightly inside the tip edge of the blade 10, and the blade 10 directly touches the photoreceptor surface 22. The toner can be scraped off. On the other hand, when the blade 10 rotates backward when cleaning is canceled, the cleaning member 26 tries to return to a straight shape due to its own elasticity, and at this time, the tip of the cleaning member 26 traces a trajectory shown by a two-dot chain line and crosses A and C. It comes out in front of the tip of the blade 10 after passing through. Therefore, the cleaning member 2
The tip of the blade 6 cleans the tip of the blade 10 while being in pressure contact with the blade 10 and slidingly moving relative to the blade 10 during the release operation.

This removes foreign matter such as toner and paper powder adhering to the tip edge of the blade 10.

In FIG. 1, a pre-cleaning charger 30, an inlet seal 32, and a fur brush 34 are installed before the blade 10, and the blade 10 completely removes the toner partially remaining on the photoreceptor surface 22 after being removed by the fur brush 34. This is the configuration to be removed.

The toner removed from the photoreceptor surface 22 by the fur brush 34 and the blade 10 and the foreign matter removed from the blade 10 by the cleaning member 26 are discharged to the outside by the lower conveying screw 36.

By the way, in the conventional cleaning device as shown in FIG. 1, since the cleaning member 26 is brought into pressure contact with the blade 10 by its own elasticity, the cleaning member must be made into a thin plate shape, which limits the processing accuracy of the cleaning member 26. In addition, the straightness of the blade 10 is poor, as shown in FIG.
A gap is created between the cleaning member 26 and the toner 40.
I was afraid that I would collapse. As described above, once the toner 40 starts to accumulate between the blade 10 and the cleaning member 26, since the cleaning member 26 is thin and relatively weak, the toner 40 pushes down the cleaning member 26, and the amount of accumulated toner gradually increases. do.

This increases the load on the blade 10, eventually resulting in poor cleaning.

As a method to prevent this, the amount of curvature of the cleaning member 26 due to pressing down of the blade 10 is increased,
It is conceivable to increase the retraction distance between the tip of the blade 10 and the tip of the cleaning member 26 during the cleaning operation, but this would inevitably require increasing the amount of rotation of the blade 10, which would require less space for the entire cleaning device. In addition, since the deflection of the cleaning member 26 increases, the pressing force of the blade 10 against the surface of the photoreceptor is reduced, and the cleaning member 26
The problem was that it caused permanent deformation.

Apart from this, it is possible to lengthen the free length of the cleaning member 26, but it is difficult to maintain good straightness, and the cleaning member 26 may be broken during assembly work or maintenance adjustment work. Furthermore, the method of making the cleaning member 26 thicker also weakens the pressing force of the blade, and improvement in straightness cannot be expected to be that great in terms of processing accuracy.

Furthermore, in order to obtain the straightness of the cleaning member 26, it is effective to form a concave curl toward the blade 10 side, but since the free length is long, bending is likely to occur as described above, and durability becomes a problem. becomes.

Purpose This invention solves the drawbacks of the conventional technology,
Maintains good pressure contact between the blade and the cleaning member, eliminates foreign matter from adhering to the blade, and prevents cleaning failures and damage to the surface of the photoreceptor due to foreign matter hardened on the blade. An object of the present invention is to provide a cleaning device for a copying machine that is highly reliable and durable.

Configuration The configuration of the present invention will be described below based on one embodiment. It should be noted that the same reference numerals are used for the same components as in the above-mentioned conventional art.

Referring to FIG. 3, in the cleaning device according to the present invention, a blade 10 with a slight length is attached to the underside of the blade 10, which is rotatable in the front and back directions with respect to the photoreceptor surface 22 by means of a U-shaped support member 14. A cleaning member 50 in the form of a short thin plate is adhered to the tip of the rotary support plate 52 and supported in a cantilevered manner. Rotation support plate 52
is rotatably supported by a shaft 56 at the tip of the fixed support member 54. The shaft 56 is connected to the blade 1
It is located above the axis 20 of the support member 14 of No. 0. A spring 58 is interposed between the fixed support member 54 and the rotation support plate 52, and the rotation support plate 52 is always maintained by the spring force set weakly by the elastic force of the cleaning member 50 of the spring 58. It is adapted to be biased clockwise in FIG. 3 with a predetermined pressing force. Therefore, the tip of the cleaning member 50 supported by the rotary support plate 52 in a cantilever manner comes into pressure contact with the lower surface of the blade 10. The fixed support member 54 has an L-shaped cross section and is fixed to the cleaning device housing 60. The other constituent parts are constructed exactly the same as in the case of FIG.

In the cleaning device configured as described above, when the blade 10 is moving forward during the cleaning operation and comes into contact with the photoreceptor surface 22 to remove residual toner, the cleaning member 50 and the rotating support plate 52 is pressed down by the blade 10 against the force of the spring 58 and rotates counterclockwise in the figure, so that the tip of the cleaning member 50 comes into pressure contact with the blade 10 at a position retracted from the tip of the blade 10. At this time, since the cleaning member 50 is urged in the direction of the blade 10 by the spring 58, it comes into close contact with the blade 10 while maintaining its straightness, and toner enters between the blade 10 and the cleaning member 50. Never.

On the other hand, when the cleaning operation is canceled and the blade 10 retreats clockwise to a predetermined position, the spring force of the spring 58 causes the cleaning member 50 and the rotation support plate 52 to rotate clockwise around the shaft 56. The tip of the cleaning member 50 slides against the blade 10 while being in pressure contact with the blade 10 to scrape off foreign matter attached to the tip edge of the blade 10.

For the cases shown in Figures 1 and 3, a polyester film with a thickness of 115 μm was used as the cleaning member, and the contact pressure with the blade during the cleaning operation was set to 3 to 3.
5 dyn/cm ² and the free length is 27 mm in Figure 3.
In Figure 5, we conducted a comparative experiment with a setting of 15 mm.
In the conventional example shown in Fig. 3, toner stuck between the blade and the cleaning member after 7,000 copies, resulting in poor cleaning, but in the embodiment shown in Fig. 5, no cleaning faults occurred until 50,000 copies were made. Visual inspection also showed that the blade and cleaning member were in uniform contact with each other, and no toner clumps were formed.

Effects According to the present invention, since the cleaning member is brought into pressure contact with the blade by the spring force, a good close contact condition with no gap between the blade and the cleaning member can be obtained at all times. This prevents foreign matter such as toner and paper dust from accumulating between the blade and the cleaning member.
High cleaning performance can be maintained over a long period of time, and reliability and durability can be improved without damaging the surface of the photoreceptor. In addition, since the pressure force between the blade and the cleaning member is obtained by an external spring force, the cleaning member itself may be rigid, which allows the free length of the cleaning member to be shortened, improving straightness and cleaning. The effect increases. In addition, in the past, metal plates could not be used because they would easily bend if they were made thin enough to have elasticity.
In order to have a long free length and be thin, it is necessary to make the hardness extremely high, making it possible to use rubber materials that could not be used because it was impossible to obtain a material with good precision, expanding the range of material selection.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing an example of a conventional blade-type cleaning device for a copying machine, FIG. FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a cleaning device according to an embodiment of the invention. Explanation of symbols of main parts, 10...Blade, 14
...Supporting member, 26, 50...Cleaning member, 52...Rotating support plate, 58...Spring.

Claims (1)

[Claims for Utility Model Registration] A blade for removing toner remaining on the surface of a photoreceptor of a copying machine; a first position where the tip of the blade slides into contact with the surface of the photoreceptor; and a blade that removes toner remaining on the surface of the photoreceptor; a first support means for movably supporting the blade so as to selectively assume a second position away from the blade; a cleaning member for removing foreign matter adhering to the blade; a second support means movably supporting the cleaning member so as to be able to come into contact with the upstream side of the photoconductor in the rotational direction; and a biasing means for bringing the cleaning member into contact with the cleaning member, the cleaning member being located inward from the tip of the blade when the blade is in the first position, and when the blade is in the second position from the first position. Cleaning of a copying machine, characterized in that when moving, the free end protrudes from the tip of the blade while slidingly contacting the blade by the biasing means, thereby removing foreign matter attached to the blade. Device.