JPH0392882A - Cleaning unit for electrophotographic device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To surely prevent abnormal images such as a blurred image and a part-missing image for a long time by composing a polishing roller, which rotates in contact with the photosensitive body and polishes it, of a roller main body and a string-like member spirally wound around the roller main body. CONSTITUTION:The polishing roller which polishes the photosensitive body 2 while rotating in contact therewith and removes corona products attaching to the surface of the photosensitive body 2 is composed of the roller main body 17 and the string-like member 18 spirally wound around the roller main body 17. Since the string-like member 18 spirally wound around the roller main body 17 polishes the photosensitive body 2, only the outside surface of the string-like member 18 comes into contact with the photosensitive body 2, and the contact is uniform, thereby uniformly polishing the body. While high quality images are provided for a long time, abnormal images such as a blurred image and a part-missing image can be surely prevented.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a cleaning unit for electrophotographic apparatuses, and more particularly to a cleaning unit for electrophotographic apparatuses used in copying machines, laser printers, and the like.

(Prior art) Generally, an electrophotographic apparatus has a photoreceptor, and examples of the photoreceptor include an amorphous silicon photoreceptor, an arsenic selenium photoreceptor, a selenium tellurium photoreceptor, and an ITN photoreceptor.These photoreceptors can be used as they are. It is sometimes used, and
Amorphous carbon (a-C), fluorinated amorphous carbon (aCF), amorphous silicon nitride {a-
SiN}, amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiC), etc., ester crosslinked or urethane crosslinked styrene-methyl methacrylate resin, epoxy resin,
An organic layer such as a polyethylene resin may be used alone, or a resistance control agent may be dispersed in these organic layers to form a protective layer and used as an overcoat.

Further, the electrophotographic apparatus has a plurality of corona dischargers for charging, transfer, separation, static elimination, etc., and these corona dischargers are provided so as to surround the photoreceptor.

When a corona discharger is discharged to form an image, corona products such as ozone, nitric acid, and ammonium nitrate are generated near the discharger. When this corona product forms a mist and adheres to the surface of the photoreceptor, if left as it is, problems such as image blurring and image omission may occur at high humidity. Image blur and image dropouts are caused by corona products adhering to the photoreceptor surface that lower the electrical resistance of the photoreceptor surface.
Furthermore, it is presumed that this phenomenon occurs because the material used to construct the layer affects the inside of the layer, changing the electrophotographic characteristics. When the photoreceptor is made of, for example, Asz Se, corona products adhering to the photoreceptor can be relatively easily removed by a developing process or a cleaning process.
Image blur and image omission can be prevented.

On the other hand, when the photoreceptor is made of amorphous silicon or has the various overcoats described above, the removal rate of corona products is extremely low even in the cleaning process.
After copying 000 sheets, copying in an environment of 30'C and 8o% RH will easily result in image blurring or missing images, making it impractical, and corona products will cover the entire surface of the photoreceptor. The copy was completely blank.

Specific methods to prevent the above problems include:
For example, there are methods of heating and drying the photoreceptor, methods of removing corona products on the surface of the photoreceptor with water or a solvent, and methods of removing corona products on the surface of the photoreceptor by polishing the surface layer of the photoreceptor. A specific example of the method for polishing the final surface layer of the photoreceptor is a-
A method of polishing a photoconductor with a roller web that has separated Si, a method of polishing a photoconductor with a wire brush described in JP-A-58-196567, and a magnetic abrasive material described in JP-A-58-196568. A method of polishing a photoconductor with a magnetic brush, a method of polishing a photoconductor by externally adding SiC powder to the toner surface described in JP-A No. 61-15154, and a developer described in JP-A-61-15155. Method of polishing a photoreceptor by externally adding spherical SiC, JP-A-58-7298
A method of polishing a photoreceptor using a puff polishing mechanism described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 60-98475, a method of polishing a photoreceptor with a metal or its compound having a small ionization tendency, described in JP-A-60-98475;
A method of polishing a photoreceptor with a fur brush coated with an abrasive material as described in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 59-112265, JP-A-62
A method of polishing a photoreceptor by rubbing it with a polyester member described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 34182, a method of polishing a photoreceptor with an abrasive material or fine particles having the same hardness as the photoreceptor described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-29759, A method for polishing a photoconductor by intermittently bringing a cleaning member containing an abrasive into contact with the photoconductor, as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 121479, JP-A-62-278586
A method of polishing a photoreceptor using metal brush cleaning for removing residual toner is known, as described in the above publication. In order to carry out the above-described method, electrophotographic devices are equipped with various cleaning units aimed at removing corona products.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, in these conventional cleaning units for electrophotographic devices, the electrical characteristics may deteriorate or be ineffective depending on the type of photoreceptor, due to the following reasons. It is possible to prevent abnormal images such as blurred images and image omissions while maintaining good quality images, which may occur when it becomes difficult to maintain the image quality of the photoreceptor or the mechanical durability of the photoreceptor decreases. There was a problem that there was no.

That is, in the case of a method of heating and drying a photoreceptor, an amorphous silicon-based photoreceptor or an overcoat type Asz
Se. Although it is sometimes used for photoreceptors, there are problems such as softening of the toner or deterioration of the electrical characteristics of the photoreceptor depending on the type of photoreceptor.

In addition, in the case of cleaning the photoreceptor with water or a solvent, cleaning with water is sufficient for photoreceptors overcoated with urethane cross-linked styrene-methyl methacrylate resin, but cleaning with water is sufficient for photoreceptors overcoated with urethane cross-linked resin and a-
Cleaning with water or solvents such as IPA and toluene has little effect on non-quality inorganic photoreceptors such as C, a-CF, and a-SfC, and especially in the latter non-quality inorganic photoreceptors, corona products may be removed from the protective layer. Ultrasonic cleaning had no effect at all because it was extremely strongly adsorbed.

Furthermore, in the case of the method of polishing the surface layer of the photoreceptor, corona products are removed while polishing the photoreceptor surface with a metal brush or metal plate, so it is extremely expensive to polish the photoreceptor uniformly. Precision is required, and the protective layer of the photoreceptor may be polished too deeply than necessary, or the polishing may become uneven, making it difficult to maintain the image quality of the photoreceptor.
Alternatively, the mechanical durability of the photoreceptor may be reduced.

To explain in detail, when polishing the surface of a photoreceptor, ideally only the corona particles should be removed without scraping the protective layer of the photoreceptor, but this is because the surface of the photoreceptor is quite uneven. Therefore, it is actually impossible. In practice, if the surface layer of the photoreceptor is uniformly scraped by the thickness of 100 to 700 people per 10,000 images, corona products will be completely removed, and the amount of scraping of the protective layer itself will also be a problem. There isn't. For general copiers, it depends on the type of photoreceptor, but it is 1000
~15001! For a photoconductor with a hardness of v, the number of 10 per 10,000 sheets
Approximately a person, a few microns per 10,000 sheets for a 40-5011v photoreceptor
This causes scratches on the order of m. If a few micrometers are removed, no white spots will occur in the image, but the protective layer will be removed too much, and if it is removed by several tens of micrometers or less, the image will be blurred if the removal is even slightly uneven. or blank areas are more likely to occur.

(Purpose of the Invention) Therefore, the present invention aims to polish the photoconductor to the minimum necessary extent with a polishing roller without shortening the life of the photoconductor, thereby maintaining high quality images over a long period of time while preventing image blurring and image omission. The aim is to reliably prevent abnormal images such as

(Structure of the Invention) In order to achieve the above-mentioned purpose, the cleaning unit of the electrophotographic apparatus according to the present invention polishes the photoreceptor by rotating while contacting the photoreceptor to remove corona products attached to the surface of the photoreceptor. A polishing roller, and a brush roller having an outer peripheral portion made of a brush and rotating while the brush is in contact with the polishing roller to remove corona products attached to the polishing roller,
The polishing roller is characterized by comprising a roller body and a string-like member spirally wound around the roller body, and the polishing roller has holes formed so that the roller bodies are arranged in a spiral manner. The string member of the polishing roller is spirally wound around the roller body along the rows of ventilation holes while maintaining the opening of each ventilation hole of the roller body, , the roller body may be characterized by being provided with a suction mechanism that suctions the air inside the roller body.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be specifically explained based on examples.

1 to 3 are diagrams showing a first embodiment of a cleaning unit for an electrophotographic apparatus according to the present invention.

First, the structure will be explained.

In FIGS. 1 to 3, l indicates an image forming device, and the image forming device 1 includes a photoreceptor 2, a charging corona torpedo device 3, a developing unit 4, a corona torpedo device for transfer and separation 5, and a static eliminating device. It includes a corona discharger 6, a toner cleaning unit 7, a cleaning unit 8, and a fixing device 9, and exposure is performed in an exposure area M. The cleaning unit 8 includes a polishing roller 10, a brush roller 11, a conductive-treated resin or metal casing l2, and a net 13.
, an adsorbent 14 made of activated carbon or ion exchange resin,
It is composed of a brush 15 and an exhaust fan 16. The polishing roller 10 rotates in the direction of arrow B at 50 to 300 rpII1 while contacting the photoconductor 2 rotating in the direction of arrow A in FIG. It is made up of a roller body 17 and a string-like member l8. The roller body 17 is, for example, aluminum
For example, the string-like member 18 has a diameter of 0.5 to 5III.
It is made of twisted nylon material with a diameter of II1.

The string-like member 17 is spirally wound around the roller body l7 at an angle of, for example, 2 to 20 degrees with respect to the circumferential direction of the roller wood body l7. The brush roller 11 has an outer peripheral portion consisting of a brush 11a, and is rotated at 50 to 300 rpm in the direction of arrow C in FIG. 2 while bringing the brush 11a into contact with the polishing roller 10.
The polishing roller 10 is rotated to remove corona products attached to the polishing roller 10. The polishing roller 10 and the brush roller 11 start rotating at the same time as the main switch of the image forming apparatus 1 is turned on, and the exhaust fan 16 also starts to be driven. Also, the polishing roller lO is set to the main switch O.
It may be made to come into contact with the photoreceptor 2 regardless of N10FF, or it may be made to come into contact with the photoreceptor 2 at the same time as the main switch is turned on, and separated from the photoreceptor 2 at the same time as the main switch is turned off. However, the polishing roller lO
Corona products remaining on the photoconductor 2 may adhere to the photoconductor 2 and disturb the image, so in order to maintain better image quality, it is necessary to separate the photoconductor 2 from the photoconductor 2 at the same time as the main switch is turned off. It's better. Furthermore, brush roller 1
It is preferable that the tip of the brush Ila of No. 1 lightly touches the polishing roller IO, and the tip of the brush Ila should be in contact with the polishing roller IO, and the brush Ila should have a brush tip of 0.0.
It is recommended that it dig in by about 5 to 2 mm. If the amount of biting is too large, cleaning efficiency will decrease. The material of the brush 11 is set depending on the material and shape of the string-like member 18, and it should be strong and have conductivity of the order of 106 Ω·cm or less. As long as it is something that will not be attached, there is no particular choice of material. However, the material of brush roller 1 should be
A material with a high /% ratio is good, and a high conductivity can reduce the adhesion of corona products to the brush roller 1L. The diameter of the brush lla is usually about 0.1 to 0.31.

Next, the effect will be explained.

First, when the main switch of the image forming apparatus 1 is turned on, the polishing roller 1o and the brush roller 11 start rotating together with the photoreceptor 2. Then, while the rotation of the photoreceptor 2 is stopped, corona products attached to the photoreceptor 2 near the charging corona discharger 3 or other corona dischargers 5 and 6 are removed by polishing with the polishing roller 10. Some of the removed corona products fly directly into the casing 12, but most of them adhere to the string-like member l8 of the polishing roller 10. The corona products adhering to the string member 18 are then brushed off and removed by the brush lla of the brush roller 11 and scattered into the casing 12. Furthermore, the corona products scattered within the casing 12 are sucked together with the air inside the casing 12 by the exhaust fan 16, and the corona products are adsorbed by the adsorbent 14. As a result, corona products adhering to the surface of the photoreceptor 2 are completely removed at the start of the image forming operation, and abnormal images such as blurred images and image omissions are reliably prevented from occurring in the image to be formed. I can do it.

Furthermore, even during image formation, the polishing roller 10 is constantly polishing the photoreceptor 2, so that image formation is not performed with corona products still attached to the photoreceptor 2, resulting in blurred images and missing images. It is possible to reliably prevent the occurrence of abnormal images such as fat stasis.

As described above, in this embodiment, since the photoreceptor 2 is polished by the string member 18 spirally wound around the roller body 17, the outer surface of the string member 18 comes into contact with the photoreceptor 2. Since the contact is uniform, the polishing can be done very uniformly compared to conventional polishing using a wire brush or the like. In addition, corona products scraped off from the photoreceptor 2 by polishing are brushed off by the brush roller 11 and adsorbed by the adsorption member 14, so that corona products are prevented from adhering to the photoreceptor 2 again. It can be prevented. Then, the material of the string member 18 is set (
In this example, if the photoconductor 2 is polished (nylon),
The amount of abrasion of the surface layer is 100, which is the ideal amount of abrasion mentioned above.
700 people, and since the abrasion condition is uniform, the amount of abrasion of the surface layer of the photoreceptor 2 can be minimized to the necessary minimum without shortening the life of the photoreceptor 2.

Therefore, while maintaining high quality images over a long period of time,
Different palm images such as image blur and image omission can be prevented to a maximum of 11 times.

Note that the material of the roller body 17 is not limited to aluminum, but may also be iron, other metals, resin materials such as Delrin, vinyl chloride, nylon, polycarbonate, or the like. Further, the roller body 17 may be a roller member made of the above-mentioned metal or resin coated with an elastic body such as urethane rubber. , the polishing effect can be further improved. Furthermore, the string-like member 18 is not limited to a thread-like member made of nylon material, but may be modified depending on the type of photoreceptor 2, such as mechanical properties such as hardness, flexibility, and abrasion resistance of the photoreceptor 2. Depending on the characteristics, for example, materials such as polyethylene terephthalate, polyester, polyacetal, carbon fiber, aramid fiber, etc., or metal wires such as tungsten wire or piano wire, either alone or in the form of twisted threads, can be used, and the core material can be made of these materials. A material covered with a mesh-like member consisting of the following may be used.

However, since the single string member 18 has little effect,
It is preferable to use a twisted yarn or a core material covered with a mesh member. That is, the string-like member l8 is required to have wear resistance, chemical stability, heat resistance, cold resistance, and a certain degree of rigidity, and preferably also has properties such as thermal conductivity and electrical conductivity. It would be even better if there was
The above-mentioned materials may be selected depending on these required characteristics.

Further, the diameter and the winding interval of the string-like member 18 are related to the uniform polishing property of the surface of the photoreceptor 2, and the larger the diameter and the wider the winding interval, the more likely it is that uneven polishing will occur.
If the roller body 17 is wound at an angle of O-1 degree with respect to the circumferential direction of the roller body 17, unevenness will increase in the axial direction. A slope of 10 degrees is even more effective.

Furthermore, since corona products also adhere to the brush roller 11, a beating plate may be provided next to the brush roller 11.

Here, the results of the first experiment and the second experiment conducted to confirm the effects of this example will be explained.

In the first experiment, as the photoreceptor 2, As. Se. 60μm thick? An overcoated photoreceptor was used, in which a selenium photoreceptor coated with a film was coated with an intermediate layer having a thickness of 1,100 mm, and a protective layer having a thickness of about 3 μm. The intermediate layer was formed by applying a silicone resin diluted to about 2% with ligroin onto a drum by a dipping method and then drying it at 120° C. for 1 hour. The protective layer was made by adding 50 wt% of SnO micro-M powder to urethane cross-linked styrene-methyl methacrylate resin, toluene,
Cellosolve acetate and MIBK (mixing ratio 3:4:
Add the mixed solvent of 3), boil in a ball mill for about 120 hours, add and disperse aliphatic polyisocyanate as a crosslinking agent, and apply multiple coats by spraying.
It was formed by drying at 'C for 30 minutes. The string-like member 18 is made of three twisted 11-diameter nylon strings, and the string-like member l8 is spirally wound around the polishing roller 10 so as to be inclined at 5 degrees with respect to the circumferential direction of the polishing roller 10. I used something similar. After running 5,000 sheets at room temperature using the cleaning unit of this example and using a conventional non-abrasive cleaning unit, the humidity was conditioned at 30°C and 90% for 3 hours. In the same environment, an experiment was conducted in which the image condition was checked using FIJ every 5,000 images.

The results are shown in Table 1 below.

Table 1 From Table 1, in the case of conventional non-polishing, image blurring appeared at the time of 5,000 sheets, whereas in the case of this example, image blurring appeared at 3,000 sheets.
No deterioration in image quality was observed even after printing 10,000 copies.

Therefore, this example was found to be sufficiently effective in preventing image quality deterioration.

In the second experiment, the photoreceptor 2 was placed on an aluminum drum with a thickness of about 0.0 mm. A functionally separated OP with a 15 μm charge generation layer and a 20 μm thick charge transport layer on top of it.
A photoreceptor was used in which a protective layer consisting of an a-SiN:H layer was overcoated to a thickness of about 4,000 on OPC. Furthermore, the same polishing roller lO as in the first experiment was used.

The present embodiment and the conventional non-abrasive cleaning unit were each applied to a laser printer, and images were formed at a rate of 3,000 sheets/day at room temperature, and the next day at 30°C and 80%
We conducted an experiment to check the image state in the environment. The results are shown in Table 2 below.

Table 2 Table 2 shows that in the case of the conventional non-polishing method, a band-like white spot phenomenon appeared at the point of 3,000 sheets, but in the case of this example, the image quality deteriorated even at the point of 16,000 sheets. Inferiority was not recognized.

Therefore, in the second experiment as well, it was confirmed that this embodiment was sufficiently effective in preventing image quality deterioration.

4 to 7 are diagrams showing a second embodiment of a cleaning unit for an electrophotographic apparatus according to the present invention.

In addition, in FIGS. 4 to 7, the same reference numerals as in the first embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 are given to the same structural members as in the first embodiment shown in FIGS. Explanation of the structural members will be omitted.

In FIGS. 4 to 7, 21 is a cleaning unit, and the cleaning unit 21 includes a polishing roller 22, a brush roller 11, a casing l2, an exhaust pipe 23, an exhaust hose 24, an exhaust fan 25, an adsorbent 14, and a drive mechanism 2.
6. The polishing roller 22 is 15-40III
It consists of a roller main body 27 having a diameter of I1 and a string member 18, and is rotatably supported via a bearing 29 on an exhaust pipe 23 fixed to a casing 28 of the image forming apparatus.

The drive mechanism 26 includes a motor 26a and a gear 26b, and the polishing roller 22 is rotationally driven by the drive mechanism 26. The roller main body 27 has a plurality of ventilation holes 27a having a diameter of 0.5 to 31 mm, which are arranged in a spiral manner, and the number of rows of the ventilation holes 27a is, for example, 2 to 20 in the circumferential direction of the roller main body 27. It is sloping. String member 18
is wound around the roller body 27 along the row of ventilation holes 27a while maintaining the openings of the ventilation holes 27a. Therefore, the string member 18 is inclined at the same angle as the inclination angle of the row of ventilation holes 27 with respect to the circumferential direction of the roller wooden body 27. The air inside the roller body 27 is sucked by the exhaust fan 25 through the exhaust pipe 23 and the exhaust hose 24, and the sucked air is discharged to the outside through the layer of adsorbent l4. Therefore, the exhaust pipe 23, the exhaust hose 24, and the exhaust fan 25 constitute a mechanism for sucking the air inside the roller body 27. In addition, the polishing roller 22
The operation is similar to that of the polishing roller 10 of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1, and the material of the roller body 27 may be the same as that of the roller body 17 of the first embodiment.

In this embodiment, the corona products scraped off the photoreceptor 2 by the polishing roller 22 are brushed off and removed by the brush roller 1l, and then sucked into the roller body 27 together with air, and further removed by the exhaust pipe 23 and the exhaust hose. 24
It is designed to be adsorbed by the adsorbent 14 through the adsorbent.

Therefore, in this embodiment, corona products can be prevented from floating in the casing 12, and corona products that have been scraped off on the photoreceptor 2 can be completely prevented from adhering again. It is possible to reliably prevent abnormal images such as image blurring and image omissions while maintaining high quality images over a long period of time.

Here, the results of the third experiment and the fourth experiment conducted to confirm the effects of this example will be explained.

In the third experiment, the same photoconductor 2 as used in the second experiment described above was used, and this was set in an experimental laser printer. The roller body 27 has a diameter of 20 and a thickness of 1.2
mm diameter cylinder, the rows of ventilation holes 27a are formed so as to be inclined by 3 degrees with respect to the circumferential direction, and the ventilation holes 27a
The outer diameter of is 1. It was set to 5 mm. The string-like member 18 was made of a core material covered with mesh-like vinyl, and was fixed with an adhesive along the rows of ventilation holes 27a. However, the string-like member 18 was wound only around half of one side of the roller body 27, and the images obtained by the wound part and the unwrapped part were compared. The rotation speed of the polishing roller 22 is 150 rpm, and the polishing roller 22 is
was brought into contact with a pressure of 150 g. Then, after forming 3,000 images in a normal temperature environment,
Leave it in that state overnight, then turn the main swift ONL the next morning.
After approximately 1.5 minutes of pre-cleaning, IIRm, 2x2
Check the image with a dot pattern, then heat at 30℃75
The humidity was adjusted for 1.5 hours in an environment of ~80%, and the image check was performed again. Thereafter, this process was repeated up to 15,000 sheets, and the results are shown in Table 3 below. However, ◎, ○ in Table 3
, △, × marks and A, B are ◎...No problem at all, ○...Some image blurring etc. is seen, but there is no problem in practical use, △...1 Image blur or image dropouts occur in some areas, ×・
...Blurred or missing images occur on the entire surface, A...
...At normal humidity, B...At high humidity.

Table 3 From Table 3, it was confirmed that this example was sufficiently effective even after 15,000 sheets, compared to the non-polishing example which became impossible after 6,000 sheets. In this example, the polishing thickness at the time of 15,000 sheets was 100 people.

In the fourth experiment, the same photoconductor 2 as used in the first experiment described above was used, and the same polishing roller 22 as in the third experiment was used. Experiments were conducted with two pressures, 100g and 400g, at which the polishing roller 22 contacts the photoreceptor 2.
The rotation speed of the polishing roller 22 was 250 rpm. Then, the cleaning unit 2l is set to operate at the same time as the main switch of the image forming apparatus is turned on, and images are formed at a rate of 5,000 sheets/day in a normal humidity environment. The results were checked in the fourth section of the paper.
It is shown in Tables (a) and (b). However, Table 4 (a), (b)
The ◎, ○, △, and × marks in ) have the same meanings as the marks in Table 3.

(Wood page, blank space below) Table 4 (a) (b) From Table 4 (a) and (b), compared to the image of the non-polishing example which becomes unacceptable at the time of 10,000 sheets, this example was confirmed to be sufficiently effective. It was also confirmed that the larger the pressure applied to the photoreceptor 2, the more effective it is. In addition, the polishing thickness is 130 people/10,000 pieces on average when using 100g pressure, and 400
The g-pressure version had an average of 650 people/10,000 sheets.

(Effects) According to the present invention, since the photoconductor is polished by the polishing roller consisting of the roller body and a string-like member spirally wound around the roller body, the photoconductor is polished within the range that does not shorten the life of the photoconductor. The body can be polished to the minimum necessary extent, and abnormal images such as blurred images and image omissions can be reliably prevented while maintaining high quality images over a long period of time.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

1 to 3 are diagrams showing a first embodiment of a cleaning unit for an electrophotographic apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG.
2 is an enlarged sectional view thereof, FIG. 3 is an enlarged perspective view of its polishing roller, and FIGS. 4 to 7 are cleaning diagrams of the electrophotographic apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of an electrophotographic apparatus to which the second embodiment is applied, FIG. 5 is an enlarged sectional view thereof, and FIG. 6 is a diagram showing its polishing. FIG. 7 is an enlarged perspective view of the roller, and FIG. 7 is an enlarged sectional view of the main part thereof. 2... Photoreceptor, 10, 22... Polishing roller, 11... Brush roller, 11a... Brush, 17, 27... Roller main body, 18... string-like member, 27a... ventilation hole, agent

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) Polishing the photoreceptor by rotating it while in contact with the photoreceptor;
a polishing roller that removes corona products that have adhered to the surface of the photoreceptor; a brush roller that has an outer peripheral portion made of a brush and rotates while the brush is in contact with the polishing roller to remove corona products that have adhered to the polishing roller; A cleaning unit for an electrophotographic apparatus, characterized in that the polishing roller comprises a roller body and a string-like member spirally wound around the roller body. (2) The roller body of the polishing roller is made of a cylindrical member having a plurality of ventilation holes arranged in a spiral manner, and the string-like member of the polishing roller maintains the opening of each ventilation hole in the roller body. 2. The cleaning unit for an electrophotographic apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a suction mechanism that is spirally wound around the roller body along the row of ventilation holes and that sucks air inside the roller body.