JPH03126034A - Developer applicator - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To always achieve stable electrostatic coating and to output a satisfactory picture over a long period by removing residual toner accumulated in a brush-like carrying roller through the use of a cleaning blade member provided with plural comb-teeth shaped grooves. CONSTITUTION:Electrified developer toner 32 splashes in an alternating electric field produced between the grounded carrying roller 34 and the electrode roller 22, and sticks onto a supporting body 21; however, unsplashed developer toner 32 remains in the brushing part 38 of the carrying roller 34 as residual toner. By rotating the carrying roller 34, the comb-teeth part 39 of the cleaning blade 41 bites the brushing part 38 of the roller, and scrapes the toner in the rotating direction. Therefore, the residual toner existing inside is scraped out, and the inside of the brush 38 is cleaned up almost as clean as an initial condition. Thus, even if the developer toner 32 is carried again, it is stably carried out; also surface which is coated with developer can be obtained always at the stable efficiency at the time of electrostatic coating.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Field of Application] The present invention relates to a color developer coating device for applying a color developer to an arbitrary support such as plain paper.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, a color copying machine exposes microcapsule paper to light and presses the microcapsule paper against a developer paper coated with a color developer to obtain a desired copy on the developer paper. This method has been put into practical use.

By the way, since the color developer paper coated with the color developer described above is not versatile and is difficult to obtain, an apparatus for applying the color developer to a support such as plain paper has been proposed. In such an apparatus and U, for example, for the purpose of applying a color developer to the support, a carrier such as a roller carrying charged particulate color developer is applied to the support in a non-contact manner. A color developer coating device has been proposed in which the color developer is copied onto a support by an electrostatic force generated by an electric field while facing the support.

This device uses a brush-like carrier roller with a metal core as a core member and a pile of insulating polymer material such as nylon or Teflon around the core.
Moreover, it was possible to apply the color developer at high speed.

[Problem to be solved by the invention] However, in such a color developer coating device,
When coating a color developer on a support, the amount of coating may become uneven on the support over time.
Occasionally, a situation occurred where it became almost impossible to apply the product.

The cause of this was "clogging" caused by residual toner staying inside the brush-like carrier roller.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and aims to always perform stable electrostatic coating and ultimately produce a good image output.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve this object, the developer coating device of the present invention has the following features:
A cleaning blade member is provided, which is disposed in contact with a supporting means that supports particulate color developer.

[Function] The developer coating device of the present invention having the above-described configuration uses the cleaning blade to remove residual toner that remains within the carrying roller.

[Example] Hereinafter, an example embodying the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a developer coating device showing an embodiment of the present invention. Inside the color developer application device external device 0, there is a transport unit 20 for a support 21 such as plain paper to which a color developer is applied for forming an image, and a color developer supply unit 3.
Consists of 0. Furthermore, an insertion opening 11 into which a support body 21 is inserted and an extraction opening 12 are provided on the outer periphery of the device exterior work 0.

The conveying unit 20 of the support body 21 includes an electrode roller 22
and an AC type ? connected to the electrode roller 22 in order to apply a predetermined high voltage to the support 21. Fi, E, and a conveyance roller 24 disposed at a predetermined position, the support body 2
A conveyance belt 23 for conveying 1 is wound around the outer periphery of the electrode roller 22 and the conveyance roller 24.

Further, the developer supply unit 30 includes a carrier roller 34 that is grounded G, and a developer toner 3 on the carrier roller 34.
A developer supply roller 33 is provided auxiliary to support the developer toner 2, and a developer toner 3 is supported on the developer toner 34.
A regulating member 35 for adjusting the thickness of the second layer to a predetermined thickness.
and a cleaning blade 41 arranged below the carrying roller 34 in FIG.

FIG. 2 shows a detailed view of the vicinity of the carrying roller, and the explanation will be made using this drawing. The supporting roller 34 has a shaft portion 36 and a core portion 37 made of stainless steel or steel, and a pile (diameter φ0.07 mm) made of an insulating material such as Teflon or nylon around the core portion 37.

The brush portion 38 has a length of 2 mm. A cleaning blade 41 is arranged in contact with the carrier roller 34 . The cleaning blade 41 is composed of a comb tooth portion 39 and a holding portion 40, and the tip of the comb tooth portion 39 is buried in the brush portion 38.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained.

As the motor (not shown) is driven, the developer carrying roller 34 and the supply roller 33 rotate counterclockwise in FIG. 1, and the stored developer toner 32 is transferred to the supply roller 3.
3, the paper is conveyed to the vicinity of the carrying roller 34.

This carrying roller 34 carries a large amount of toner in the brush portion 38 and is also capable of charging the toner.

When the carrying roller 34 is rotated, the developer toner 32 on the carrying roller 34 is shaped by the regulating member 35 into a layer having a predetermined thickness.

Thereafter, the charged developer toner 32 flies through an alternating electric field formed between the grounded carrier roller 34 and the electrode roller 22 and adheres to the support 21 .

At this time, the developer toner 32 that has not been blown away remains in the brush portion 38 of the carrying roller 34 as residual toner. The carrier roller 34 further rotates, and as a result of this rotation, the comb tooth portion 39 of the cleaning blade 41 is caused to touch the brush portion 3 of the roller.
8 and scrape it out in the direction of rotation. As a result, the residual toner inside is scraped out, and the inside of the brush section 38 is refreshed to a state close to its initial state. The scraped out residual toner returns to the inside of the toner case and can be used again for electrostatic coating.

Therefore, by refreshing the carrying roller 34, even when carrying the developer toner 32 again, it is carried out extremely stably, and as a result, even when carrying out electrostatic coating, the developer is always applied with stable efficiency. You can get a face.

Next, an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to an image recording apparatus will be briefly described with reference to FIG.

A document table 62 is provided on the top of the device exterior 60 and an ejection port 61 is provided on the side.
is provided, and inside the apparatus, the capsule sheet 83 and the support 85 are connected to the charged coating section 70 and the exposure/development section 80.
The image is outputted to the output port 61 through the output port 61.

In the exposure and development section 80, the capsule sheet 83 is wound around a capsule sheet roll 81, which is driven by a guide roller 87, and includes an exposure section 82, a pressure development section 89 consisting of a pair of pressure development rollers, a fixing unit 90, and A cutter 91 is provided downstream. The support 85 is wound around a support roll 84, and the charge coating section 70 and the exposure and development section 80 are installed downstream thereof.

The charging application section 70 is provided with a toner case 71,
A color developer toner 72 is stored therein, and a carrier roller 74 and a supply roller 73 are arranged at the bottom. A cleaning blade 75 is disposed on the outer periphery of the carrier roller 74 so that its tip abuts, and a cleaning blade 75 is disposed on the outer circumference of the carrier roller 74 .
A counter electrode 76 connected to an AC power source E is disposed opposite the supporting roller 74 with the support roller 5 sandwiched therebetween.

Next, the operation of the present image recording apparatus will be explained.

The support body 8 sent out by the rotation of the support body roll 84
5 reaches the charged coating section 70. Here, the developer toner 72 is applied to the support 85 by the carrier roller 74, but the residual toner on the carrier roller 74 is scraped off by the cleaning blade 75, so that good and efficient development is always possible. A colorant electrostatic coating surface is formed on the support 85.

The support 85 uniformly coated with the color developer toner 72 is exposed to light by a pressure developing roller 88 and brought into close contact with the capsule sheet 83 on which a latent image has been formed, thereby being developed. The colored support 85 is heat-fixed in a fixing unit 90 and outputted from an outlet 61 as an image recording medium.

Incidentally, the developer coating device of the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described in detail above, and changes can be made within the scope of the spirit thereof. For example, it is possible to use a cleaning blade having a wire-like brush portion, or to make the comb teeth sharp to improve the efficiency of toner removal inside the carrier roller.

[Effects of the Invention] As is clear from the above detailed description, according to the present invention, the residual toner accumulated in the brush-shaped carrier roller is removed by the cleaning blade member having a plurality of tooth-shaped grooves. This makes it possible to always perform stable electrostatic coating. As a result, good images can be output for a long period of time.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 to 3 show embodiments embodying the present invention. FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the developer coating device of the present invention, and FIG. FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the vicinity of the roller and a schematic sectional view of an image recording apparatus to which the present invention is applied. In the figure, 20 is a support conveyance unit, 21 is a support, and 30
Reference numeral 32 indicates a supply unit, 32 indicates a carrying roller for the developer toner 34, and 41 indicates a cleaning blade.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A supporting means for supporting a particulate color developer; a conveyance means for transporting a support coated with the particulate color developer; and the support and the particulate color developer. and a voltage applying means for forming an electric field between the parts, the cleaning blade member being disposed in contact with the supporting means in order to remove particulate color developing agent remaining on the supporting means. A color developer coating device comprising: 2. The developer coating device according to claim 1, wherein the supporting means is a supporting roller having a brush-like structure made of a polymeric material on its surface. 3. The developer coating device according to claim 1, wherein the cleaning blade member has a plurality of comb-like grooves.