JPH04181961A - Electrophotographic copying device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To miniaturize a device and to prolong the life of a photosensitive drum by allowing a film and a paper to simultaneously pass between both rollers of a fixing means and heating and pressuring a toner image so that it may be transferred and fixed on the paper. CONSTITUTION:A photosensitive drum 1 is turned, the outer peripheral surface of the drum 1 is uniformly electrostatically charged by corona discharge from an electrostatic charger 2, and exposing light is radiated from an exposing device 3 so as to form an electrostatic latent image. When the electrostatic latent image is opposed to a developing device 6, toner 5 in the developing device 6 is attracted through the film 7 and stuck to the surface of the film 7 to form a toner image. The film 7 is carried to a fixing device and the paper 18 is carried from a paper carrying path 14 to the fixing device. Then, the surface of the film 7 where the toner image is formed is covered with the paper 18. When both of them 7 and 18 pass the fixing device in a state where they are superposed, the toner image on the film 7 is melted by the heating action of a heating roller 10 and transferred to the paper 18 so that the image is fixed on the paper by the pressuring action of a pressuring roller 9. Thus, the device is miniaturized and the life of the image carrier pair is prolonged.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an electrophotographic apparatus, in particular, an electrophotographic apparatus, in which a charging means, an exposure means, etc. are disposed in the outer peripheral area of an image carrier, and an image is formed by an electrostatic copying process. Regarding electrophotographic equipment.

■Moneru and Street Traditionally, this type of technology, as shown in Figure 2,
Corona discharge from the charger 50 irradiates the outer peripheral surface of the charged photoreceptor drum 51 with light emitted from the optical writing head 52 to form an electrostatic latent image, and the electrostatic latent image is developed. The toner supplied from the device 53 adheres to form a toner image on the photoreceptor drum 51C, and this toner image is transferred to the paper 55 by the transfer device 54, and the photoreceptor drum that was not transferred to the paper in this transfer process The residual toner 51 is scraped off by a cleaning blade 56 to clean the outer surface of the photoreceptor drum 51, while the transferred paper 55 is fixed by a fixing device 57.

However, in the conventional technique, each operation process is provided in the outer peripheral area of the photoreceptor drum 51.

For example, the transfer device 54 or the cleaning blade 56
In order to equip the photoreceptor drum 52 with such equipment, the outer circumference of the photoreceptor drum 52 inevitably increases, resulting in an increase in the size of the entire apparatus.

Also, the cleaning blade 56 cleans the photosensitive drum 5.
Since the outer surface of the photosensitive drum 51 is damaged, the usable life of the photosensitive drum 51 is shortened. Moreover, by having a transfer process,
Low-resistance toner, ie, conductive toner, cannot be used, which causes problems such as unstable development.

The present invention was devised in view of the above-mentioned problems, and an object of the present invention is to reduce the size of an electrophotographic apparatus by reducing the outer circumference of the photoreceptor drum, and to prolong the service life of the photoreceptor drum. In addition, the present invention provides an electrophotographic apparatus that can obtain stable development by making it possible to use a low-resistance toner, that is, a conductive toner.

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides an electrophotographic apparatus in which a toner image is conveyed via a film between an image bearing member and a fixing means. A charging means and an exposing means are provided to form an electrostatic latent image, and a toner supply means is provided to form a toner image on the film. heating the toner image formed on the film by passing the film and paper simultaneously between both rollers;
It is characterized in that it is configured to transfer and fix onto the paper by applying pressure.

With the above configuration, the transfer process and cleaning blade are unnecessary, and the cleaning blade can be removed from the outer peripheral area of the image carrier.
Since the transfer device can be removed, the outer circumferential area of the image carrier can be simplified, and the outer circumferential circle of the image carrier can be reduced, while damage to the outer surface of the image carrier caused by the cleaning blade can be eliminated. Furthermore, since there is no transfer process, low-resistance toner can be used.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An electrophotographic apparatus of the present invention will be explained based on an embodiment of the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the overall configuration of the present invention, and in the figure,
Reference numeral 1 denotes a photoreceptor drum having a photoconductive layer on its outer peripheral surface, and a charger 2 equipped with a high-voltage wire is provided on the right side facing the drum 1. Below the charger 2, the photoreceptor drum 1
For example, an exposure device 3 consisting of an LED head or the like is placed opposite to the
The photosensitive drum 1 has an opening facing the drum 1 on the left side thereof, and a developing device 6 containing a magnet roller 4 and toner 5 is provided inside.

On the other hand, below the photosensitive drum 1, a driven reel 8, on which a film 7 (to be described later) is wound in an unused state, is freely rotated. Further, on the right side of the photosensitive drum 1, a fixing device 11 is provided which is vertically opposed and consists of a pressure roller 9 and a heating roller 10, which rotate oppositely to each other.
A drive reel 12 is provided below the fixing device 11 to wind up the used film 7 in conjunction with a drive source (not shown).

On the other hand, the pressure roller 9 in the fixing device 11
A paper transport path 14 in which registration rollers 13 for controlling the timing of feeding out the paper 18 are provided is formed on the left side of the paper transport path 14 . On the other hand, the film 7 described above is made of, for example, PEC.
A polyester film such as a sheet is subjected to heat-resistant treatment and mold release treatment, and is wound into a roll.The terminal end of the polyester film is wound around the driven reel 8, and the starting end thereof is connected to the photoreceptor drum 1. The film is wound around the outer peripheral surface of the heating roller 10 to form a film transport path 15, and is wound and housed on a drive reel.

In the figure, 16 is an eraser lamp, and 17 is a film 7.
This is a guide roller that guides the

Next, the operation of this embodiment achieved as described above will be explained.

First, the photoreceptor drum 1 rotates clockwise, its outer peripheral surface is uniformly charged by corona discharge from the charger 2, and the charged photoreceptor drum 1 is irradiated with exposure light based on image information from the exposure device 3. An electrostatic latent image is formed on the outer peripheral surface of the photoreceptor drum 1, and when the electrostatic latent image faces the developing device 6, the film 7 wound around the outer peripheral surface of the photoreceptor drum 1 is suctioning the toner 5 of the developing device 6 through the
The toner 5 is attached to the surface of the film 70 to form a toner image on the surface of the film 7.

The film 7 on which this toner image has been formed is conveyed to the fixing device 11 via the film conveyance path 15, and the paper 18 is conveyed from the paper conveyance path 14 by the action of the registration rollers 13.
is transported to the fixing device 11. Then, in the fixing device 11, on the surface of the film 70 on which the toner image is formed,
When the paper 18 is covered and the raincoat 7.8 passes through the fixing device 11 in a polymerized state, the toner image on the film 7 is melted by the heating action of the heating roller 10, and is transferred to the paper 18 while being pressed. The image is reliably fixed on the paper by the pressure action of the roller 9, and the paper 18 after fixing is collected into a paper collection device (not shown), and the used film 7 is wound up on a winding roll 12. be accommodated.

As explained above, the present invention does not require a cleaning process and a transfer process, so the outer circumference of the scratch carrier can be made small, and together with the reduction in the above processes, the overall electrophotographic apparatus can be reduced. can be made smaller. Furthermore, damage to the image carrier can be eliminated, and the service life of the image carrier can be extended. Furthermore, since a low-resistance If-type toner can be used, there is also the advantage that development is stabilized.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an overall front view showing the configuration of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a front view showing a conventional example. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Photosensitive drum, 2... Charger, 3... Exposure device, 6... Developing device, 7... Film, 9... m-pressure roller, 10... Heating roller, 11...Fuser, 1
8...Paper. Patent applicant: Murata Machinery Co., Ltd. Figure 1 Figure 2

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) An electrophotographic device configured to convey a toner image via a film between an image carrier and a fixing device, and a charging device for forming an electrostatic latent image around the image carrier. and an exposure means, and a toner supply means for forming a toner image on the film.The fixing means has two rollers facing each other, and simultaneously holds the film and paper between the two rollers. An electrophotographic apparatus characterized in that the toner image formed on the sheet is transferred and fixed onto the sheet by heating and pressurizing the toner image formed on the sheet.