JPH0394812A - Ozone filter and image forming device using the filter - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent a decrease in the efficiency in removing ozone by arranging a single-layer ozone filter having the smallest number of holes on the suction side of an air current and laminating a single-layer ozone filter with the number of holes progressively increasing toward the discharge side of the air current. CONSTITUTION:A single-layer ozone filter 27a is arranged on the suction side of an air current and a single-layer ozone filter 27b on the discharge side of the air current, and both filters are integrally combined to form an ozone filter 27. The number of cells provided to the filter 27a is smaller than the number of cells provided to the filter 27b, and the cell 28a of the filter 27a is made larger than the cell 28b of the filter 27b. As a result, the air current is smoothly sucked into the filter.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of Industrial Application The present invention relates to an ozone filter for removing ozone generated in image forming apparatuses such as copying machines and printers, and an image forming apparatus to which the ozone filter is applied. It is something.

<Prior Art> Today, with the progress and development of information processing technology, various image forming apparatuses such as electrophotographic apparatuses and laser beam printers have been developed and put into practical use. Among these, image forming apparatuses using electrophotography are widely used.

This causes the drum-shaped photoreceptor, which is the image carrier, to be exposed to corona radiation. After uniformly charging with an electric device, the photoreceptor is exposed to light to form an electrostatic latent image, toner is attached to this latent image to form a visible image, and then transferred to a transfer material to form an image. It is something.

J: When a photoreceptor is charged or neutralized by a discharger, oxygen in the air is decomposed to produce ozone (0,), nitrogen oxides (NO.), etc. If the concentration of these substances is high, there is a risk that the Ezone may cause deterioration of the surface of the photoreceptor and cause image deterioration.
The equipment must be vented at night.

L: Air containing high concentrations of ozone may have a negative effect on the human body, so it is desirable not to release the ozone generated inside the equipment into the equipment. ,stomach.

This ozone filter absorbs the ozone containing highly concentrated ozone from around the electric discharger and blows it onto the ozone filter. However, the air was leaking into the equipment row.

The ozone removal efficiency of the above-mentioned t-noon filter is air,
・Determined by the size of the contact area with respect to the existing ozone soiler.For example, as shown in Figure 6 (a), an ozone filter with minute lattice-shaped holes provided in the force direction perpendicular to the airflow. , it is proportional to the number of holes in the grid (hereinafter referred to as ``the number of cells 1''). Therefore, increasing the number of cells increases the ozone removal efficiency.

However, in the above-mentioned conventional technology, as the number of cells in the ozone filter 50 increases, the pressure loss of the air flow in front of the filter increases, and there is a risk that the ozone removal efficiency will decrease.

For this reason, it is necessary to install a fan with a large air volume, which increases the size of the millet and makes it difficult to process the filter.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 6(b), the ozone filter 51 has a multilayer structure, and the single-layer filters on the suction side and the outflow side of the air flow are combined so that the axes of symmetry of the passage holes are shifted by 90 degrees. In the case of configuration 1, the pressure loss of the air flow in front of the filter can be reduced, but in order to obtain ozone removal efficiency similar to that of the ozone filter 50, a multi-hole structure must be adopted. , the air flow direction (
Therefore, the noiler must be constructed thickly in the cell axis direction, and there is a risk that the device will become larger.

The purpose of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art.
An ozone filter in which a single-layer ozone filter with a minimum number of cells is laminated on the outlet side of the air, and an image forming apparatus to which the ozone filter is applied. Provide 3''.

In order to solve the problem of the above-mentioned prior art, the typical f-stage applied to the embodiment described below is a method that removes ozone generated in the image forming apparatus. In the ozone filter installed for the purpose of An ozone filter configured by sequentially stacking layer ozone filters, an image forming means for forming an image by exposing an image carrier charged by a discharger, and suctioning air inside the device. A possible suction means, a conduction path for guiding the air sucked by the suction means outside the device i.1'1', and a conduction path according to claim (11) or claim (2) There is an image forming bag holder C having an ozone filter.

<Effect> According to Toki Sendan, there is a minimum of 1 on the suction side of the air flow! Since the single-layer ozone filter with the number of filters is placed 1, the airflow can flow smoothly into the filter.
It is possible to reduce the pressure loss per side of the ozone filter in the air flow.

Furthermore, since single-layer ozone filters having a larger number of cells are sequentially stacked toward the airflow discharge side, it is possible to increase the contact area of the airflow and improve ozone removal efficiency.

Furthermore, the cells of the single-layer ozone filter are formed into a honeycomb shape, and the symmetry axes in the longitudinal direction of the cells are parallel to each other in all stacked single-layer ozone filters. Since the cells can be configured to have the same shape, the resistance of the air flow is made uniform, making it possible to remove ozone evenly. Furthermore, when the ozone filter is applied to an image forming apparatus, it is possible to reduce ozone in exhaust gas and improve the reliability and durability of the apparatus without unnecessarily increasing the size of the apparatus. Embodiment> Hereinafter, an embodiment of an image forming apparatus to which the present invention is applied will be described with reference to the drawings.

Figure 1 is a perspective explanatory diagram of the ozone filter, Figure 2 is an explanatory diagram of the ozone filter seen from the airflow suction side,
3(a), 4(b) and 4 are enlarged explanatory views of the cells of the ozone filter, and FIG. 5 is an explanatory view showing a general layout of the image forming apparatus. First, the general structure of an image forming apparatus to which the present invention is applied will be explained with reference to FIG. 1
The original image is printed on plain paper. This is a copying machine that can make double-sided copies on a sheet material S such as a plastic sheet.

The copying machine 1 includes a photosensitive drum 2, which is an image bearing member that serves as an image forming means, and a primary charger 3, which is a corona discharger, arranged around the photosensitive drum 2. a developing device 4 containing toner;
A post charger 5, which is a corona discharger, a transfer charger 6, a separation charger 7, a cleaner 8, and the like are provided.

To explain the operation of the image forming means, reflected light from the document irradiation lamp 9 that has exposed the document D is imaged on the photosensitive drum 2 via the mirror 10 and the lens l1. Then, toner is applied by the developing device 4 to form a visible image. Furthermore, the post charger 5 removes excess toner from the toner image.

On the other hand, cassette 12. The sheet materials S stacked and stored on the feed rollers 14.13 are selectively moved by a feed signal.
15 and is fed by a pair of conveying rollers 16. 17. 1
Registration roller pair 1 each temporarily stopped by 8
9 and the skew is corrected.

Then, the sheet material S is conveyed to the transfer section by a pair of registration rollers 19 in synchronization with the leading edge of the toner image formed on the photosensitive drum 2. The sheet material S is charged with a polarity opposite to that of the toner by a transfer charger 6, and the sheet material S is charged with a polarity opposite to that of the toner.
The toner image formed on the sheet material S is transferred to the sheet material S.

After that, the sheet material S is electrostatically attracted to the photosensitive drum 2.
The charge is removed by the separation charger 7 and separated from the photosensitive drum 2.

The sheet material S after the image transfer is conveyed to a fixing device 21 by a conveying device 20, and the transferred image is permanently fixed by passing between a pair of rollers that constitute the fixing device 21. A flapper 22 is provided on the downstream side of the fixing device 21 in the conveyance direction of the sheet material S.

The operation of the flapper 22 is controlled so that the sheet material S is discharged from the discharge port 23 in the single-sided copying mode, and the sheet material S is guided to the re-conveying path 24 in the double-sided copying mode.

In the vicinity of the corona discharger constituting the image forming means, there is an exhaust duct 25 for sucking and exhausting air inside and outside the apparatus.
An exhaust structure including an exhaust fan 26 and the like is provided. An ozone filter is attached to the exhaust duct 25 to remove ozone generated within the device. Next, the ozone filter applied to the copy 8l1 made as described above will be explained with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3. In FIGS. 1 and 2, 27 is an ozone filter with a thickness of about 10 to 20 seconds installed in a duct for exhausting the air inside and outside the copy 4111 to the outside. The ozone filter 27 has a single-layer ozone filter 27a disposed on the airflow suction side, a single-layer ozone filter 27b disposed on the airflow discharge side, and the two are integrally combined. The ozone filter 27 is formed by laminating and stretching aluminum foils having a thickness of 20 to 50 cm to form a honeycomb structure material having a plurality of honeycomb cells. Activated carbon or manganese 1 is applied to the surface of each cell above.
Titanium. It is thinly coated with metal catalysts such as aluminum and silicon. Furthermore, the number of cells provided in the single-layer ozone filter 27a is smaller than the number of cells in the single-layer ozone filter 27b, and therefore the size of each cell is smaller than that of the single-layer ozone filter 27.
The cell 28a of a is larger than the cell 28b of the single layer ozone filter 27b, and the cells 28a and 2 are arranged in similar shapes.

According to the article, by arranging the single ozone filter 27a with a small number of cells on the suction side of the air flow, the loss caused by the collision of the air flow on the front surface of the filter on the suction side is reduced, and the air flow is improved. This allows for smooth suction into the filter.

Moreover, by arranging the single-layer ozone filter 27b having a large number of cells on the side of the air flow, the contact area between the ozone-containing air and the filter can be increased, thereby increasing the ozone removal effect.

In addition, the ozone filter A filter 27 is used for aluminum.
This is because they are superior in weather resistance, durability, and safety to paper or cloth-based filters.

Further, although the ozone filter 27 has two layers, it is also possible to construct a structure in which a plurality of single layer ozone filters are laminated. In this case, one jet is laminated from the filter having the smallest number of cells from the suction side of the air flow, and one layer is stacked horizontally.
It is desirable that

Next, the shape of the cells of the ozone filter 27 will be explained with reference to FIGS. 3(a) and 4(b).

First, in FIGS. 3(a) and 3(b), the cells 28a,
The horizontal longitudinal axes of the cells 28'b are arranged parallel to each other, and each cell 28a, 28b is symmetrically shaped about the horizontal longitudinal axis and the expansion axis. Furthermore, the partition wall pattern of the cells 281) existing in the cell axial direction within the cell 28a is uniformly arranged over the entire surface of the single layer ozone filter 27a.

The cell length °C in the horizontal longitudinal axis direction of the ozone filter 27 is expressed as ffi = a - 1 - 2 b - Cos θ from Fig. 3 (a), and the value of l/a is 1/ a = 1 + 2 ( b/a) Cosθ
is given by

In this embodiment, each cell 28a. shown in FIG. 3(b). 28
What is the cell pattern of b? ! / a = 2.

Under the above conditions, when θ is -60°, a=b, that is, the cell pattern becomes a regular hexagon as shown in FIG.

As described above, there is a cell axis 1111 in the fly cam cell 28a.
Since the pattern shape of the positive walls of the honeycomb cells 28b formed in the ozone filter 27 is the same over the entire surface of the ozone filter 27, the airflow resistance in any part of the ozone filter 27 becomes uniform, and the ozone/reduction is Great effects can be achieved evenly.

In addition, in this example, we have explained the case of ``'C, j2 / a - 2'' when configuring the cell butter n, but 1, / a = .''3.4, - In the case of (even if it is rough, it is possible to configure it selectively depending on the balance of manufacturing, specification performance, etc.).

Furthermore, a single layer ozone filter 27a27l shown in FIG.
) thickness H. , If. By selecting the air}
It is possible to construct a maison filter 27 that can maximize ozone removal efficiency with respect to the strength of L.

In this embodiment, the ozone filter 27 is applied to a copying machine, but it can also be applied to other image forming apparatuses that generate ozone.

<<Effects of the Invention>> As described above, the present invention employs a layer ozone filter with a minimum number of cells on the suction side of the airflow, so that the airflow flows smoothly into the filter. I can do it,
It is possible to reduce the pressure loss in the air flow in front of the ozone filter.

In addition, ozone removal efficiency can be improved by increasing the contact area of the air flow by sequentially stacking single ozone filters with a large number of cells toward the air flow discharge side.

Furthermore, the cells of the single-layer ozone filter are formed into a honeycomb shape, and the axes of symmetry in the longitudinal force direction of the cells are parallel to each other in the laminated single-layer ozone filters, so that the cells are aligned in the cell axis direction over the entire surface of the filter. Since the cells can be arranged in the same shape, the resistance of the airflow is made uniform, making it possible to remove ozone evenly.

Furthermore, when the ozone filter is applied to an image forming apparatus, it is possible to reduce ozone in exhaust gas and improve the reliability and durability of the apparatus without unnecessarily increasing the size of the apparatus.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1 is a perspective explanatory diagram of the ozone filter, Figure 2 is an explanatory diagram of the ozone filter seen from the airflow suction side,
3(a), (b) and 4 are enlarged explanatory diagrams of the cells of the ozone filter, FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing the schematic structure of the image forming apparatus, and FIG. 6(a) (bl is a conventional This is an explanatory diagram of an example. D is a document, S is a sheet material, 1 is a copying machine, 2 is a photosensitive drum, 3 is a primary charger, 4 is a developer, 5 is a post charger, 6
1 is a transfer charger, 7 is a separation charger, 8 is a cleaner, 9 is an original irradiation lamp, 10 is a reflection mirror, 11 is a lens, 1
2. 13 is a cassette, 14. 15 is a feeding roller, 1
6. 17. 18 is a pair of conveying rollers, 19 is a pair of registration rollers, 20 is a conveying device, 21 is a fixing device, 22 is a flapper, 23 is an ejection port roller, 24 is a re-conveying path, 25. 25
a. 25b is a duct, 26 is a suction fan, 27 is an ozone filter, 27a and 27b are single layer ozone filters, and 28a and 28b are cells. Figure 2(a)

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) In the ozone filter installed to remove ozone generated within the image forming device, a single-layer ozone filter with the minimum number of holes is placed on the suction side of the airflow, and a single-layer ozone filter with the minimum number of holes is placed on the exhaust side of the airflow. An ozone filter characterized by being constructed by laminating single-layer ozone filters in which the number of holes increases toward the other end. (2) The holes of the single layer ozone filter are formed into a honeycomb shape, and the longitudinal symmetry axes of the holes are parallel in all the laminated single layer ozone filters (1).
) Ozone filter described. (3) an image forming means that forms an image by exposing an image bearing member charged by a corona discharger; a suction means capable of sucking air inside the device; and a suction means capable of sucking air inside the device, and sucking the air out of the device. Claim (1) or Claim (2): a conductive path for guiding; and claim (1) or claim (2) provided in the conductive path.
An image forming apparatus comprising: the ozone filter described above;