JPH03184071A - Developing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the leakage and scattering of toner without using a sealing member by providing a developer bag body which is arranged inside a develop ing unit, seals a developer, and can elastically expand and an unsealing means which can burst and unseal the developer bag body by means of an insert out side the developing unit, inside it. CONSTITUTION:The ballon-like bag body 50 is elastically expanded so that the toner T is sealed. The toner is separated and arranged in a condition that it is bagged, in the upper space of a stirring body 44 inside a developer room 40. In the slit 49a of a sealing member 49 to seal an opening part 48, the insert W such as a pencil can be inserted outside the developing unit 13, and the developer bag body 50 arranged in the developer housing room 40 can be burst and unsealed by the piercing operation of the insert W. The developer bag body 50 which is burst and unsealed is elastically shrunk and housed in a bag body housing space 45. Thus, a sealing member, etc., are not needed to be incorporated, and the leakage and scattering of the toner T is prevented even if socks such as vibration, falling, are given.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a unitized developing device in an image forming apparatus that forms images using an electrophotographic process, such as a laser printer. In particular, the present invention relates to a developing device in which a means for accommodating developer (hereinafter referred to as toner) in a developer accommodating chamber of a developing unit during transportation is improved.

(Prior Art) Generally, one image forming apparatus is composed of an electrophotographic process unit that performs electrophotographic processes such as charging, exposure, development, transfer, peeling, and cleaning.

The developing device constituting such an electrophotographic process unit is configured such that the unitized developing unit can be set in and out of the main body of the image forming apparatus.

Conventionally, this type of developing device has a structure in which toner is already filled and accommodated in the developer storage chamber of the developing unit before being set in the image forming apparatus main body, or a developing device is installed in the image forming device main body. After the toner is set, the toner is filled and stored in the developer storage chamber of the development unit using a dedicated toner bottle or the like.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) However, in the developing device of the above-described conventional structure, when toner is already stored in the developer storage chamber of the developing unit, for example, when the developing unit is transported, etc. When carrying the toner in a packaging box, the toner stored in the developer storage chamber may leak or scatter due to shocks such as vibration or dropping.

In order to prevent such toner leakage and scattering, it is necessary to close the gap in the developer storage chamber of the development unit using various sealing materials, which increases costs.

Moreover, the work of assembling the sealing material into the developing unit is troublesome and cumbersome, and if the sealing material is forgotten to be attached at any point, toner may leak from that part and stain the inside of the packaging box. Furthermore, it is troublesome to remove the sealing material when setting the developing unit into the image forming apparatus main body.

On the other hand, after setting the developing unit in the main body of one image forming apparatus, when filling and storing toner in the developer storage chamber of the developing unit using a toner-dedicated bottle or the like, for example, the eighth
As shown in the figure, first open the cover 〇 of the developing unit loading section of the image forming apparatus main body a.Next, after loading and setting the developing unit d into the developing unit loading section, the developing unit d is An upper surface cover g provided in an openable/closable manner is opened at an opening f formed on the upper surface of the agent storage chamber e, and toner T is filled and stored through the opening f using a dedicated toner bottle h or the like.

However, in this case, it is necessary to enlarge the opening f provided on the upper surface of the developer storage chamber e of the developing unit d.
Moreover, unless careful attention is paid, the toner T tends to overflow around the opening f. This poses a problem in that not only the exterior surface of the developing unit but also the inside of the image forming apparatus body may be stained with toner.

The present invention has been made under the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to prevent leakage and scattering of toner contained in the developer storage chamber of a developing unit during transportation, etc., without using a sealing material. An object of the present invention is to provide a developing device that can reliably prevent such problems.

Another object of the present invention is to eliminate the troublesome supply work of using a dedicated toner bottle or the like for supplying toner into the developer storage chamber of the developing unit, and to avoid the troublesome supply work by using a special toner bottle or the like for supplying toner into the developer storage chamber of the developing unit. An object of the present invention is to provide a developing device that can reliably prevent stains caused by toner.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a developing unit that agitates and supplies a developer, and an elastic device disposed in the developing unit that encloses the developer. The developer bag is configured to include an expandable developer bag, and an opening means that allows the developer bag to be ruptured and opened within the developing unit by an object inserted from the outside of the developing unit. .

(Function) That is, the present invention has the above-described configuration, so that when the developing unit is carried during transportation, the developer sealed in the bag is separately stored in the developing unit. This prevents the developer from leaking or scattering due to shocks such as vibrations or drops.

Furthermore, when filling and storing developer in the developing unit, the developer bag is ruptured and opened by inserting an insert from the outside of the developing unit. The developer is kept in a bagged state until just before it is set in the device main body and is actually operated, and the developer is reliably retained.

(Embodiment) The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to an illustrated embodiment.

Figure 2 shows the appearance of a laser printer as an electrophotographic image forming apparatus using a semiconductor laser;
The figure shows its internal configuration.

This laser printer is connected to a host system (not shown), which is an external output device such as a computer or word processor, via a transmission controller such as an interface circuit, and receives a print start signal from the host system. Then, the image recording operation is started, and the image is recorded on paper as a transfer material and outputted.

That is, the above-described image forming apparatus has the following configuration.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, reference numeral 1 in the figures represents the main body of the image forming apparatus. A control board accommodating section 2 for accommodating a plurality of function adding control boards (not shown) is formed at the bottom of the image forming apparatus main body 1, and this control board accommodating section 2 includes:
A main control board 3 is arranged.

In the figure, reference numeral 4 denotes an electrophotographic process unit 5 which performs electrophotographic processes such as charging, exposure, development, transfer, peeling, cleaning, and fixing to form an image, and is disposed above the control board housing section 2. is the above-mentioned image formation '3A! A paper discharge section 5.6 formed by partially recessing the upper surface of the i2 main body 1 is a paper feed cassette for feeding paper P to the electrophotographic process unit 4.

Next, the configuration of the electrophotographic process unit 4 will be explained with reference to FIG. 3.

In the drawing, reference numeral 10 denotes a drum-shaped photoreceptor serving as an image carrier, which is located approximately at the center of the unit accommodating portion in the main body 1 of the image forming apparatus. Around the photoreceptor 10, a charging means 11 made of a scorotron is arranged along the rotation direction of the photoreceptor 10.
The exposure section A of the laser exposure unit 12 serves as an electrostatic latent image forming means, and the developing unit 13 serves as a magnetic brush type developing device that performs development. transfer means 14 consisting of a corotron;
A cleaning means 15 and a static eliminating means 16 are arranged in sequence.

Further, a paper feed cassette 6 is provided in the image forming apparatus main body 1.
A paper conveyance path 18 is formed which guides the paper P fed from the paper feeder 17 through the image transfer section B between the photoreceptor 10 and the transfer means 14 to the paper discharge section 5. An aligning roller pair 19 is arranged on the upstream side of the image transfer section B of the path 18, and a fixing unit 2o is arranged on the downstream side thereof.
is located.

This fixing unit 20 includes a heat roller 22 in which a heater lamp 21 is housed, and a pressure roller 23 that is brought into pressure contact with this heat roller 22.
In the meantime, the paper P to which the toner image has been transferred in the image transfer section B is
By passing the toner image, the toner image is melted and fixed onto the paper P.

In the figure, reference numeral 24 indicates a paper conveyance switching guide arranged downstream of the fixing unit 20, and 25 indicates a pair of paper discharge rollers for discharging the fixed paper P to the paper discharge section 5.

The laser exposure unit 12 also includes a semiconductor laser oscillator (not shown), a polygon scanner 30 including a polygon mirror 31 and a mirror motor 32, and an fθ lens 33.
．． It is composed of a reflecting mirror 34 and the like for scanning the scanned laser beam to a predetermined position.

Further, the photoreceptor 10 uses an organic photoconductor, and has a structure in which a charge generation layer and a charge transport layer covering the charge generation layer are formed on the surface of an aluminum cylinder. It is integrated with the cleaning means 15 and independently of the developing unit 13 and is incorporated into the image forming apparatus main body 1 so as to be removable.

The developing unit 13 employs a reversal developing method in order to simplify the electrophotographic process, and has a configuration as shown in detail in FIG. 4.

That is, the developing unit 13 charges a developer containing chamber 40 made of a casing, a developing roller 41 provided in the developer containing chamber 40, and a toner T provided in contact with the surface of the developing roller 41. Blade 42 for
, a collection roller 43 disposed adjacent to the developing roller 41 , and an agitator 44 that uniformly stirs and supplies the toner T to the developing roller 41 . The toner T remaining on the developing roller 41 is scraped off by rotating in a direction opposite to the rotating direction of the developing roller 41 .

In the image forming apparatus described above, when a print start signal is received from the host system, the drum-shaped photoreceptor 10 rotates, and the photoreceptor 10 is charged by the charging means 11.

Next, the exposure section A of the laser exposure unit 12 including the polygon scanner 30 scans and exposes the photoreceptor 10 with a laser beam L modulated in response to dot image data from the host system. An electrostatic latent image corresponding to an image signal is formed on the body 10.

This electrostatic latent image on the photoreceptor 10 is developed and visualized with the toner T of the developing unit 13.

On the other hand, the paper P taken out from the paper feed cassette 6 via the paper feed means 17 periodically during the toner image forming operation is fed through the aligning roller pair 19, and is previously formed on the photoreceptor 10. The resulting toner image is transferred onto the paper P at the image transfer section B by the action of the transfer means 14.

Then, the paper P after the transfer is sent to the fixing unit 20 through the paper conveyance path 18, and the toner image is transferred to the paper P.
After being fused and fixed, the paper is discharged to a paper discharge section 6 via a pair of paper discharge rollers 25.

In this case, the photoreceptor 1 after transferring the toner image onto the paper P
The residual toner remaining on the photoreceptor 10 is scraped off from the photoreceptor 10 by a residual toner removing means 26 made of elastic rubber and collected inside the cleaning means 15.

By the way, as shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 5, the developing unit 13 is operated by an agitator in the developer storage chamber 40 during transportation or just before it is set in the image forming apparatus main body 1 and is actually operated. Toner T sealed in a balloon-like bag 50 made of an elastic material such as rubber by elastically inflating is separately placed in the upper space of the toner 44 in a bag.

One end 50a of the bag 50 is connected to a slit in the bag storage space 45 formed at an upper side of the developer storage chamber 40, that is, at a position that does not interfere with the agitator 44 provided in the developer storage chamber 41. It is inserted into a shaped opening 46 and fixed with a pin 47.

Further, numeral 48 in the figure is an opening formed on the upper surface of the developer storage chamber 40 of the developing unit E3. This opening 48 is sealed with a sealing material 49.
A slit 49a is formed therein.

That is, as shown in FIG. 6, an insert W such as a pencil can be inserted into the slit 49a of the sealing material 49 that seals the opening 48 from the outside of the developing unit 13. By the piercing operation, the developer bag 50 disposed in the developer storage chamber 40 can be ruptured and opened.

The developer bag 50 after being burst and opened is elastically contracted and moved into the bag storage space 45, as shown in FIG.
It is designed to be stored in the

Therefore, according to the above configuration, since the toner T is separately arranged in a bag in the developer storage chamber 40 of the developing unit 13, the developing unit 13 is
Toner T will not leak or scatter even if it is subjected to shocks such as vibration or dropping when carried in a packaging box.

Furthermore, the toner T is reliably held in the bagged state until just before the developing unit 13 is set in the image forming apparatus main body 1 and is actually operated.

Note that in the above embodiment, the developing unit 13
Although one slit 49a is provided in the sealing material 49 that seals the opening 48 formed on the upper surface of the developer storage chamber 40 to enable insertion of an insert W such as a pencil, it is possible to insert an insert W such as a pencil. may be formed by cutting radially from the center point.

[Effects of the Invention] As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, since the developer sealed in the bag is stored separately in the developing unit, it is difficult to remove the developing unit during transportation. When carrying the product, the developer may leak due to shocks such as vibration or dropping.
Since there is no scattering, there is no need to perform the troublesome work of incorporating a sealing material, etc., as in the past, and costs can be reduced.

Furthermore, when filling and storing developer in the developing unit, the developer bag is ruptured by inserting an insert from the outside of the developing unit, so the developing unit cannot be placed inside the main body of the image forming apparatus. The developer is maintained in a bagged state until just before it is set and actually operated, and the developer can be held securely.

Furthermore, since there is no need to carry out the troublesome supply operation using a dedicated toner bottle or the like as in the prior art, the exterior surface of the developing unit and the inside of the main body of the image forming apparatus are not contaminated with developer.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing an embodiment of the developing device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is an external view of a laser printer as an image forming device in which the developing device according to the present invention is set, and FIG. 3 is a similar laser printer. An explanatory diagram schematically showing the internal structure of the printer, FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing the developer filling state in the developing unit, FIG. 5 is an external view of the developing unit, and FIGS. 6 and 7 are the developing unit. FIG. 8 is an explanatory view showing a state in which the agent bag is ruptured and opened, and FIG. 8 is a schematic explanatory view showing a state in which a developer is filled in a developing device of a laser printer as a conventional image forming apparatus. 13. Developing unit, 48. Opening. 50...Developer bag, T...Developer, W...Insert.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A developing unit that agitates and supplies developer; an elastically expandable developer bag disposed in this developing unit and enclosing the developer; 1. A developing device comprising: an opening means that can be ruptured and opened within the developing unit by an insert.