JPH0317679A - Recovered toner amount detecting device for cleaner - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a device which securely detects an amount of recovered toner of a cleaner by frictionally joining a follower wheel, which is fitted to a paddle wheel whose rotation resistance varies with an amount of recovered toner in the storage chamber of a housing, to a driving wheel, and providing a photosensor which outputs a signal in response to the detection of relative idling between them. CONSTITUTION:When the storage chamber 38 of the housing 35 is almost full of recovering toner, the paddle wheel 40 comes into contact with the recovered toner; the rotation resistance of the paddle wheel 4 is increased, and its transmission torque becomes high; consequently, a coil spring 43 is slightly bent, and the driving wheel 42 comes to idling at a few degrees to the follower wheel 41. As a result, the first slit 451 of the driving wheel 42 and the first slit 441 of the follower wheel 41 coincide, and light of a light emitting unit passes through the first slits 441 and 451. While the wheels make one rotation, the photosensor 50 is turned off only one time, and consequently outputs, as a first warning, a signal indicating that the storage chamber 38 is almost full of the recovering toner.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a device for detecting the amount of toner collected by a cleaner used in an electrophotographic copying machine or the like.

[Conventional technology]

A commonly known electrophotographic copying machine optically exposes a document onto a photoreceptor to form an electrostatic latent image, and a developer develops this electrostatic latent image into a toner image. After the toner image is transferred onto paper by a transfer device, the paper is sent to a fixing device to fix the toner image.

In such electrophotographic copying machines, toner that has not been transferred to the paper by the transfer device remains on the photoreceptor, and this residual toner has a negative effect on the next copying operation, so it is necessary to remove the residual toner with a cleaner. It is being collected.

For example, as shown in FIG.
A cleaner 3 equipped with a /- door 2 is disposed to face the photoconductor 4 so that the cleaner blade 2 contacts the surface of the photoconductor 4, and the cleaner blade 2 removes residual toner on the photoconductor 4. The toner is scraped off and collected, and is sent into the toner storage chamber 6 by the conveying roller 5.

In such a cleaner, when the toner storage chamber 6 is full of collected toner (hereinafter referred to as collected toner), it is necessary to discharge the collected toner, so the amount of collected toner in the toner storage chamber 6 is is detected by detection device A.

This detection device A has a shielding plate 8 vertically movably suspended on the upper wall 1a of the housing 1 by Mylar 7 having excellent flexibility, and a photosensor 11 equipped with a light emitter 9 and a light receiver 10 on the fixed side. When the shielding plate 8 is pushed up by the collected toner, it faces into the photosensor 11 and blocks the light between the light emitter 9 and the light receiver 10. Thereby, it is determined that the amount of collected toner is full, and the photosensor 11 to output a signal.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

In such a collected toner amount detection device, the shielding plate 8 is covered with Mylar 7 to prevent collected toner from entering onto the shielding plate 8, so the Mylar 7 has a complicated shape and is difficult to manufacture. This is troublesome and the assembly work is also laborious and manual work, making it difficult to automate the assembly work.

Further, since the shielding plate 8 performs the detection operation by blocking the light from the photo sensor 11, the amount of recovered toner cannot be detected in two stages.
As shown in the figure, the upper part of the shielding plate 8 is made into a stepped shape.
a and the lower part 8b, and a pair of photo sensors 1.
1 is disposed facing the upper parts 8a and 8b, and the upper part 8a first blocks the light of one photo sensor 11 to output a first-stage detection signal, and then the lower part 8b blocks the light of the other photo sensor 11. Since the second stage detection signal is output by blocking light, two photo sensors 11 are required.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a device for detecting the amount of collected toner in a cleaner that can solve the above-mentioned problems.

[Means and effects for solving the problem] A paddle wheel whose rotational resistance changes depending on the amount of collected toner in a storage chamber of a housing, a driven side wheel and a driving side wheel that rotate relatively idly due to the rotational resistance of the paddle wheel,
The collected toner amount detection device is equipped with a photosensor that detects this relative idling and outputs a signal, so that the collected toner amount can be detected step by step using one photosensor.

〔Example〕

FIG. 4 is a schematic explanatory diagram of an electrophotographic copying machine.
A charger 22, a developing device 23, a transfer device 24, a peeler 25, a cleaner 26, etc. are arranged in this order, and the document 2 on the platen 27 is
The original image of No. 8 is transferred to a charger 22 and a developing device 23 using an exposure optical system 29.
An electrostatic latent image is formed on the photoreceptor 21 by irradiation and exposure between the two, and this electrostatic latent image is developed into a toner image by the developing device 23, and the toner image is transferred to the paper 31 fed from the paper supply device 30. At the same time, the paper 31 is transferred to the paper 31 by the transfer device 24
In step 5, it is peeled off from the photoreceptor 2l and transferred to the transfer belt 32.
After the toner image is sent to the fixing device 33 and fixed on the paper, it is discharged onto the tray 34.

The cleaner 26 has a housing 35 provided with a cleaner blade 36, and the housing 35 is attached to the upper wall 3.
5a1 lower wall 35b1 one end wall 35C1 other end wall 35d1 one side wall 35e1 is more box-shaped than the other side wall 35f,
An inlet 37 is provided at one end wall 35c, a cleaner blade 36 is provided at the upper edge thereof, and one side wall 35e and the other side wall 37 are provided.
5f protrudes forward from one end wall 35c, through which the shaft 21a of the photoreceptor 21 can rotate, thereby allowing the cleaner 2
6 and the photoreceptor 21 are integrated.

A conveying roller 39 for feeding the collected toner into the storage chamber 38 is provided below the entrance side of the housing 35.
A paddle wheel 40 is rotatably provided in the upper part of the storage chamber 38, and a spindle 40a of this paddle wheel 40 is rotatably supported across one side wall 35e and the other side wall 35f. As shown in FIG. 2, a driven wheel 41 is fixed to the support shaft 40a, and a driving wheel 42 is rotatably supported. In addition to being connected, each wheel has a transparent portion, for example, first and second slits 441, 45,
．． 442.452 are formed at intervals in the rotation direction,
An intermediate gear 46 fixed to the driving wheel 42 meshes with a drum gear 49 via idle gears 47 and 48, and the drum gear 49 supports the photoreceptor 21. The housing 35 is provided with a photo sensor 5 on the upper wall 35a of the housing 35.
0 is provided facing the driven wheel 41.

The photo sensor 50 is a reflective photo sensor that turns on when a light receiver 52 receives light from a light emitter 51.

As shown in FIG. 3, the width H1 of each slit is the same, the distance L between the slits is smaller than the width H1 of the slits, and when the rotational resistance of the paddle wheel 40 is small, the drive side wheel 42 and the driven wheel 41 are rotated together by the spring force of the coil spring 43, and at this time, the first driven wheel 4l
, the second slits 441 and 442 and the first and second slits 45, 452 of the driving wheel 42 are out of position in the rotational direction, and the light from the light emitter 51 of the photosensor 50 is reflected from the wheel and reaches the light receiver 52. The photo sensor 50 is configured not to output a signal.

Note that the coil spring 43 may be engaged between the pin provided on the driven wheel 41 and the pin provided on the driving wheel 42 to form a torque splitter, or the driven wheel 41 and the driving wheel 42 may be connected by friction. It may also be used as a Torx blister by crimping through a plate.

In other words, when the rotational resistance of the driven wheel 41 increases, the driving wheel 42 may idle by a predetermined angle with respect to the driven wheel 41.

Therefore, when the amount of collected toner in the storage chamber 38 of the housing 35 is small, the collected toner does not come into contact with the paddle wheel 40, and the rotational resistance of the paddle wheel 40 is small and the transmitted torque is small, as shown in FIG. 5(a). Since the first and second slits 44, 442 of the driven wheel 41 and the first and second slits 45, 452 of the driving wheel 42 are misaligned as shown in FIG.
The light from the light emitter 51 is always reflected from the wheel and sent to the light receiver 5.
2, the photosensor 50 is always on.

Further, when the amount of collected toner in the storage chamber 38 of the housing 35 does not reach nearly full, the paddle wheel 40 comes into contact with the collected toner, and the rotational resistance of the paddle wheel 40 increases and the transmitted torque increases, causing the coil spring 43 to slightly Does the driving side wheel 42 bend against the driven side wheel 41? 5(b), the first slit 451 of the driving wheel 42 matches the first slit 44 of the driven wheel 41, and the light from the light emitter 51 passes through the first slit. 44, 45, so the photo sensor 50 is turned off only once during one revolution of the wheel.
As a result, it is determined that the collected toner is nearly full, and a signal to that effect is output as a first warning so that the user can sense it.

Further, when the amount of collected toner in the storage chamber 38 of the housing 35 increases further and becomes full, the paddle wheel 40 comes into contact with more of the collected toner, the rotational resistance increases, and the transmitted torque also increases, causing the coil spring 43 to further increase. Since the driving wheel 42 further idles relative to the driven wheel 41 due to the bending, the first and second slits 44144■ of the driven wheel 41 are connected to the second and second slits of the driving wheel 42, as shown in FIG. 5(e). 1 slit 45■, 45, and the photo sensor 50 is turned off twice during one revolution of the wheel as described above, so it is known that the collected toner is full, and a signal to that effect is sent. the second
It is output as the second warning so that the user can sense it.

In the above embodiment, there are two slits, but there may be three or more, and the slits may be replaced by round holes or a transparent material.

〔Effect of the invention〕

The rotational resistance of the paddle wheel 40 is determined by the amount of collected toner, and when the amount of toner is small, the rotational resistance is small, and when the amount is large, the rotational resistance is large. The torque transmitted to the side wheel 41 is small when the amount of recovered toner is small, and becomes large when the amount is large, and when the transmitted torque becomes large, the driving side wheel 42 rotates idly with respect to the driven side wheel 41 due to the action of the torque limiter. match, the photo sensor 50 outputs a signal, and since the transparent portions are formed in a plurality of shapes at intervals in the rotation direction, as the idle angle of the drive side wheel 42 becomes thicker, the matching transparent portions are output. As the number of light parts increases, the photo sensor 5
0 outputs multiple signals during one rotation of the wheel.

Therefore, it is sufficient to provide the paddle wheel 40, the driven side wheels, the driving side wheels 41, 42, the torque limiter, and the photosensor 50. These can be easily manufactured in advance, and can be assembled by attaching them in the order of the assembly process, so the assembly process is easy. Not only can this be automated, but it can also be detected by outputting a signal in stages depending on the amount of collected toner using a single photosensor.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Embodiments of the present invention are shown in FIGS. 1 to 5, with FIG. 1 being a perspective view of the cleaner, and FIG. 2 being a sectional view of the paddle wheel drive section.
'W43 is an exploded perspective view of the driven side wheel, driving side wheel, and photosensor, Figure 4 is an overall schematic explanatory diagram of the electrophotographic copying machine, and Figures 5 (a), (b), and (c) are explanations of operation. FIG. 6 is a sectional view of a conventional example, and FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a problem. 25 is a housing, 38 is a storage chamber, 40 is a paddle wheel, 40a is a spindle, 41 is a driven wheel, 42 is a driving wheel, and 50 is a photosensor.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A paddle wheel 40 is placed above the storage chamber 38 of the housing 35.
At the same time, a driven wheel 41 having a plurality of transparent parts spaced apart in the rotational direction is fixed to the spindle 40a of the paddle wheel 40, and the driven wheel 41 and the driving wheel 42 are connected to a torque limiter. A plurality of transparent parts are formed on the drive side wheel 42 so as to be misaligned with the transparent parts of the driven wheel 41 when the transmitted torque is small. A collected toner amount detection device for a cleaner, characterized in that a photo sensor 50 is provided to detect when a light section and a transparent section of a driven wheel 41 match.