JPH0434487A - Waste toner recovery device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To increase the storage efficiency even when the feed opening of a waste toner recovery container is arranged at an optional position by providing the waste toner recovery container which has the feed opening for waste toner removed from the surface of an electrostatic latent image carrier and means which move the container reciprocally with different acceleration between the going and return ways. CONSTITUTION:The device is equipped with the waste toner recovery container 5 which has the feed opening 5a for the waste toner removed from the surface of the electrostatic latent image carrier 1 and means 6, 11, and 14 which move the container 5 with different acceleration between the going and return ways. In this case, the waste toner which is feed in the waste toner container 5 through the feed opening 5a is swung by the reciprocal movement of the container 5 and pressed with gravity and acceleration, and then the waste toner is deposited at a position deviating in a larger acceleration direction. Consequently, even when the position of the feed opening 5a is set optionally, the waste toner can be deposited from a position farther from the feed opening 5a in order and the storage efficiency is improved.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a waste toner collection device in an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine or a printer.

(Prior Art) Conventionally, in an image forming apparatus that develops an electrostatic latent image formed on an electrostatic latent image carrier such as a photoreceptor and transfers the resulting developed image to a transfer material, electrostatic It is known that the waste toner remaining on the latent image carrier is scraped off with a cleaning blade and the waste toner is put into a collection container and collected.

If waste toner is put into the collection container in this way, the waste toner will accumulate in the collection container in a mountain shape with the top just below the input port, reducing the storage capacity of the waste toner, or the fullness detection sensor may be placed on the slope of the mountain. If the toner is placed outside the toner, there are problems such as waste toner overflowing from the inlet before detection. Therefore, as a means to solve this problem, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5,657,076 discloses a method in which vibration is generated by a protrusion provided on a movable member such as a cassette, and the vibration is transmitted to a waste toner collection container. A device is disclosed in which waste toner is deposited in a substantially horizontal manner.

Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 57-8574 discloses a device in which waste toner is leveled by a horizontally swinging member within a waste toner collection container.

Furthermore, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 59-158165 discloses a device in which the waste toner collection container has an elongated inlet and the waste toner collection container is moved back and forth in the direction along the elongated hole to distribute the toner uniformly. Disclosed.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) However, in a waste toner collection container that is configured to vibrate and deposit toner in a substantially horizontal manner, the waste toner cannot be deposited in a completely horizontal state, and Due to the high accumulation of waste toner directly below the mouth, storage efficiency cannot be sufficiently increased unless the inlet is provided in the center of the collection container, which poses a problem in that the space for placing the waste toner collection container is restricted. .

In addition, in the case where the toner is leveled with a swinging member, it is necessary to provide a member that can swing horizontally inside the waste toner collection container, which complicates the structure and poses problems in the stability of the operating mechanism. Furthermore, there is a problem in that the waste toner is not consolidated due to vibration or the like, so that the storage efficiency cannot be improved.

In addition, in the case where the waste toner collection container is moved back and forth along the input port of a long hole, the toner is only deposited in a continuous mountain shape in the direction of the long hole, and it is not compacted by vibration etc., so the storage efficiency is sufficiently increased. The problem was that I couldn't do it.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above conventional problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide a waste toner collection device that can increase storage efficiency even if the input port of the waste toner collection container is placed at an arbitrary position.

(Means for Solving the Problems) In order to achieve the above object, the waste toner collection device of the present invention includes a waste toner collection container having an input port for the waste toner removed from the surface of the electrostatic latent image carrier; The present invention is characterized by comprising means for reciprocating the waste toner collection container at different accelerations on the outward and return trips.

(Function) According to the above structure of the present invention, the waste toner put into the waste toner collection container from the input port is shaken by the reciprocating movement of the waste toner collection container and consolidated by gravity and acceleration, so that the storage efficiency is improved. In addition, waste toner is deposited in positions biased toward the direction of high acceleration, so even if the position of the inlet is set arbitrarily, waste toner can be accumulated sequentially from the side farthest from the inlet. The space for arranging the waste toner collection container can be arbitrarily set without reducing efficiency.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4.

In FIG. 1, a photosensitive drum 1 is rotatably supported by a photosensitive drum frame 2. As shown in FIG.

A charging means, an exposure means, a developing means, a transfer means, etc. (not shown) are arranged around the photosensitive drum 1, and an electrostatic latent image is formed on the photosensitive drum 1 by the charging means and the exposing means, and then developed. The image is developed by a means and transferred onto a transfer material by a transfer means. A cleaner unit 4 including a cleaning blade 3 for scraping and removing toner remaining on the surface of the photosensitive drum 1 after transfer is disposed between the transfer means and the charging means. The cleaner unit 4 includes a conveying means 4a that collects the waste toner scraped by the cleaning blade 3 and conveys it toward the input port 5a of the waste toner collection container 5 disposed at an appropriate location in the axial direction of the photosensitive drum 1. have.

The waste toner collection container 5 is housed and held within a tray-shaped holding guide 6. A pair of short elongated holes 7a and 7b are formed in one side wall of the holding guide 6 in the horizontal direction, and a stepped collar 9 fixed to the photosensitive drum frame 2 with flat head screws 8 is inserted into these elongated holes 7a and 7b. The holding guide 6 is slidably engaged and supported so as to be able to reciprocate in the horizontal direction. A cam 11 fixed to a timing roller shaft 10 is engaged with one end surface of the holding guide 6 in the moving direction.

As shown in detail in FIG. 4, the cam 11 has a step d formed on the outer cam surface of the cam 11 so that the radius of rotation suddenly changes from Rff1ax to Rmin. Further, a tension spring 14 is hung between a protrusion 13 that protrudes from the holding guide 6 so as to pass through a window 12 formed in the photosensitive drum frame 2 and a countersunk screw 8 that fixes one stepped collar 9. , the holding guide 6 is urged toward the cam 11.

A timing roller shaft 10 to which a cam 11 is fixed is attached to the upper main body frame 15a, and is designed to feed the transfer material to the transfer section in synchronization with the leading edge of the image on the photosensitive drum l during image formation. Sometimes it is stopped, and after the supplied transfer material is temporarily stopped and a loop is formed, it starts rotating in synchronization with the image on the photosensitive drum 1, and after the transfer material has passed, it continues to rotate for a while and then stops. The drive is controlled.

Furthermore, in order to smooth the reciprocating movement of the holding guide 6 in the horizontal direction, a stepped collar 7a of the holding guide 6 is provided.

A roller unit 16 supporting the lower surface of the end opposite to the one side wall supported at 7b is fixed to the lower body frame 15b with screws.

As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the waste toner collection container 5 is provided with an input port 5a through a gently inclined constriction portion 5b at the upper part of the container at a position biased to one side with respect to the direction of movement.
In addition, on one side of the input port 5a in the direction orthogonal to the moving direction, a bulging portion 5C having a predetermined width is formed in place of the inclined constriction portion 5b. On both sides of this bulging part 5c, there are LEs facing each other.
D17 and a photosensor 18 are provided, and the light from the LED 17 is configured to pass through the bulge 5c and enter the photosensor 18. Therefore, when waste toner accumulates in the bulging portion 5C and the light from the LED 17 is blocked, the output of the optical sensor 18 decreases, and it is detected that the collection container 5 is filled with waste toner.

In the above configuration, each time an image is formed on the photosensitive drum 1 and the transfer material is sent to the transfer section by the timing roller in synchronization with the leading edge of the image, the cam 11 having the step d is rotated by the rotation of the timing roller shaft 10. The holding guide 6 holding the waste toner collection container 5 is pressed against this cam 11 by a tension spring 14, so that the cam 1
The waste toner collection container 5 is reciprocated every rotation of 1.
In addition, the forward and backward paths, that is, the process of moving rightward in FIG. During the process of moving the cam 11 to the left, the acceleration caused by the urging force of the tension spring 14 is larger than the acceleration caused by the cam shape of the cam 11. Since the acceleration between the two processes is greatly different, the waste toner is The waste toner put into the collection container 5 is accumulated in the direction of high acceleration, that is, toward one side where the cam 11 is arranged, and as shown by the imaginary line in FIG. 2, the side far from the input port 5a is higher. Even if the inlets 5a are arranged unevenly, the storage efficiency of the waste toner collecting container 5 can be increased. Further, since the waste toner collecting container 5 reciprocates and the thrown toner is shaken, it is consolidated by gravity and acceleration, increasing the storage efficiency.

In this way, waste toner is accumulated in the waste toner collection container 5 one after another, and when it approaches a full state, it gradually enters the bulge 5C from below, and when its upper surface reaches the upper part of the bulge 5c, the LED 17 lights up. When the output of the optical sensor 18 decreases due to the blockage, it is detected that the air is full. At this time, by arranging the LED 17 and the optical sensor 18 on both sides of the small width bulge 5c, the light from the LED 17 is reliably incident on the optical sensor 18, and there is no possibility of false detection.

A second embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIGS. 5 and 6.

Since the basic configuration of this embodiment is the same as that of the first embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, corresponding components are given the same reference numerals and redundant explanations will be omitted. This example is
The shape of the waste toner collection container 5 has been changed so that the capacity can be increased, and the inclined constriction part 5b at the bottom of the input port 5a is eliminated, and the waste toner storage space is arranged opposite to the side where the cam 11 is arranged. It also extends to the sides with a narrow width.

In the above embodiment, the rotation of the timing roller shaft 10 is used as the drive source to reciprocate the waste toner collection container 5, but a separate drive motor may be provided to drive the waste toner collection container 5. It may be driven by a driving means such as a material conveying means or a fixing means.

Further, the shape of the waste toner collection container 5 and the direction of reciprocating movement related thereto can also be arbitrarily designed other than the above embodiments. For example, as shown in FIG. 7, a portion 19 higher than the input port 5a is formed in the waste toner collection container 5, and the acceleration when moving toward the high portion 19 in the direction connecting the high portion 19 and the input port 5a is The waste toner 20 may be moved back and forth so that the
They are deposited sequentially from 9 onwards.

Also, in the above embodiment, an example of reciprocating linear movement was shown, but
As shown in FIG. 8, the waste toner collection container 5 may be rotated reciprocally around the vertical axis 21, in which case the outer peripheral portion away from the rotation axis 21 expands in the direction of rotation where the acceleration is large. By providing the section 22, the waste toner 20 can be deposited from this expanding section 22.

Further, as shown in FIG. 9, the waste toner collection container 5 may be rotated reciprocally about the horizontal axis 23. Further, as shown in FIG. 10, the waste toner collection container 5 is caused to perform a reciprocating movement that is a combination of reciprocating rotational movement around the horizontal axis 23 and linear reciprocating movement in the horizontal direction.
It is also possible to sequentially deposit 0 from the diagonal direction with respect to the input port 5a. In this way, a plurality of reciprocating movements having different moving directions and rotation axes may be arbitrarily combined.

(Effects of the Invention) According to the waste toner collection device of the present invention, the waste toner put into the waste toner collection container is shaken by the reciprocating movement of the waste toner collection container and consolidated by gravity and acceleration. Therefore, the storage efficiency can be increased, and the waste toner is deposited in a position biased toward the direction of high acceleration, so even if the position of the inlet is set arbitrarily, the waste toner is deposited sequentially from the side farthest from the inlet. This has the effect that the space for arranging the waste toner collection container can be arbitrarily set without reducing the storage efficiency.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

1 to 4 show an embodiment of the waste toner collection device of the present invention, in which FIG. 1 is an overall front view, FIG. 2 is a front view of main parts, and FIG. 3 is a plan view of a waste toner collection container. ×, FIG. 4 is a front view of a cam constituting the means for reciprocating the waste toner collection container, FIGS. 5 and 6 show other embodiments of the present invention, FIG. 5 is an overall front view, and FIG. The figure is a plan view of the waste toner collection container.
7 to 10 are conceptual diagrams of still other embodiments of the present invention. 1---------------Photosensitive drum 5
--------------Waste toner collection container 11
-1---------- Cam 14 with a step-
−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−Tension spring.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A waste toner collection container having an input port for waste toner removed from the surface of the electrostatic latent image carrier, and a means for reciprocating the waste toner collection container at different accelerations on the outward and return trips. A waste toner collection device characterized by: