JPH0362067A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent such troubles as toner scattering by operating a lever shaft by interlocking with the drive of an image forming device main body, lowering a toner hopper and connecting it to a developing device. CONSTITUTION:To load the developing device 1 to the device main body, the lever shaft 3 is rotated clockwise after the developing device 1 is loaded inside the device main body, and the toner hopper 2 is lowered with respect to the developing device 1. Even if a user forgets rotating the lever shaft 3, a power source is turned on to drive the device main body. Then, a gear 4 rotates and drives counterclockwise, whereby an operational bar 5 abuts on the end of the bending part 6 of the lever shaft 3 to rotate the lever shaft 3 clockwise. Thus, even if a user forgets connecting the toner hopper to the developing device, they are automatically connected to prevent trouble such as toner scattering.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, and particularly to an image forming apparatus in which a toner hopper moves up and down with respect to the developing apparatus when the developing apparatus is installed and removed inside the main body of the image forming apparatus. The present invention relates to a forming device.

(Prior Art) Generally, in an image forming apparatus in which a developing device is detachably installed inside the main body of the image forming apparatus, a toner supply section that supplies toner from an upper toner hopper to a lower developing device is used to connect the developing device to the image forming apparatus. Some devices are designed to slide when attached to or removed from the main body.

However, according to this image forming apparatus, since the developing device is attached and detached by sliding, high positional accuracy is required, resulting in high cost, or the sliding part is installed to reduce the burden on the operator when attaching and detaching the developing device. If the size of the toner is made smaller, there are problems such as the toner supply route becomes complicated.

Therefore, first, the present inventor proposed Utility Application No. 63-141421.
In this issue, we proposed the image forming apparatus shown in FIG. This image forming apparatus A includes a developing device 1, a toner hopper 2 disposed above the developing device 1, and a toner hopper 2 rotatably disposed inside the device main body in order to move the toner hopper 2 up and down with respect to the developing device 1. It has a lever shaft 3 installed,
When the developing device 1 is slid in the axial direction of the developing roller to be attached to and removed from the image forming apparatus 8 body, the lever shaft 3
By rotating the toner hopper 2, the toner hopper 2 is raised and lowered in the vertical direction with respect to the developing device 1. The broken line in the figure shows the state in which the toner hopper 2 is raised relative to the developing device 1.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, according to the above-described image forming apparatus, the developing device 1
After installing the toner hopper 2 inside the main body of the image forming apparatus 8, the lever shaft 3 must be rotated in a predetermined direction (clockwise in FIG. 2) to lower the toner hopper 2 and connect it to the developing device 1. However, if you forget to rotate the lever shaft 3 and turn on the drive of the main body of the device, for example, the toner supply roller (not shown) inside the toner hopper 2 will operate, and the It is possible that the toner will scatter inside the main body of the apparatus.

This memorial service was made in view of the problems mentioned above.
The lever shaft is automatically operated according to the drive of the device body.1
．． An image forming apparatus is provided in which a toner printer can be lowered and connected to a developing device.

(Means for Solving the Problems) The image forming apparatus of the present invention includes a developing device, a toner hopper disposed above the developing device, and a lever shaft for raising and lowering the toner hopper with respect to the developing device. is provided inside the apparatus main body, and when the developing device is slid in the axial direction of the developing roller to be installed and removed inside the image forming apparatus main body, the lever shaft is operated to move the toner hopper up and down with respect to the developing device. In an image forming apparatus that moves up and down in the direction, the toner hopper is lowered and connected to a developing device by operating the lever shaft in conjunction with the drive of the image forming apparatus main body.

(Function) According to the image forming apparatus of the present invention, by operating the lever shaft in conjunction with the drive of the image forming apparatus main body, the toner hopper is lowered and connected to the developing device. As a result, even if the toner hopper is forgotten to be connected to the developing device when the developing device is installed inside the main body of the image forming apparatus, the toner hopper is automatically connected, so problems such as toner scattering can be prevented.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the image forming apparatus of the present invention will be described based on FIG.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of an image forming apparatus of the present invention.

Note that the same reference numerals are used for elements common to those of the image forming apparatus shown in FIG. 2, and detailed description thereof will be avoided.

This embodiment differs from FIG. 2 in that there is a gear 4, which rotates counterclockwise by the drive of the main body of the image forming apparatus, on the front end side (the back side in the figure) in the mounting direction of the developing device l inside the main body of the image forming apparatus. At the same time, a plate-shaped operating rod 5 is fixed to this gear 4, and an L-shaped bend is provided at one end of the lever shaft 3 so as to be located in a part of the area of the rotation locus drawn by the operating rod 5. This is because part 6 is provided.

To explain the operation of the embodiment with the above configuration, when removing the developing device 1 from the main body of the device, the lever shaft 3 is rotated counterclockwise as in the conventional case, and the toner hopper 2 is removed from the developing device 1. After the developing device 1 is lifted up and the connection with the developing device 1 is released, the developing device 1 is removed.

Next, when installing the developing device 1 into the device main body, as in the conventional case, after installing the developing device 1 inside the device main body, the lever shaft 3 is rotated clockwise to move the toner hopper 2 into the developing device. There is no problem if you lower the lever shaft 3 at this point, but even if you forget to rotate the lever shaft 3, if you turn on the power (not shown) to drive the device, the gear 4 will move to the position shown in the figure. By rotating in the middle counterclockwise direction, the operating rod 5 comes into contact with the end of the bent portion 6 of the lever shaft 3, thereby rotating the lever shaft 3 in the clockwise direction. As a result, even if you forget to rotate the lever shaft 3, the toner hopper 2 can be lowered and connected to the developing device 1 by driving the main body of the device before the developing operation is set. .

According to the image forming apparatus of this embodiment, the operating rod 5 of the gear 4 always comes into contact with the bent part 6 of the lever shaft 3 during one rotation of the gear 4, so when the power of the apparatus main body is turned on, there is an instant The toner hopper 2 and the developing device 1 can be connected to each other, and the developing operation can be started quickly.

(Effects) According to the image forming apparatus of the present invention, even if you forget to lower the toner hopper when the developing device is attached to the image forming apparatus main body, the developing operation is set to the state before setting by driving the device main body. In this case, since the toner hopper 2 can be lowered and connected to the developing device 1, the developing operation is not hindered.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing a conventional image forming apparatus.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A developing device, a toner hopper disposed above the developing device, and a lever shaft for raising and lowering the toner hopper with respect to the developing device are provided inside the device main body, and the developing device is connected to its developing roller. In the image forming apparatus, the toner hopper is raised and lowered in the vertical direction with respect to the developing device by operating the lever shaft when the toner hopper is attached to and removed from the inside of the image forming apparatus main body by sliding in the axial direction. An image forming apparatus characterized in that the toner hopper is lowered and connected to a developing device by operating the lever shaft in conjunction with the drive.