JPH04372969A - Toner replenishing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To efficiently and surely collapse a mount of toner while increasing fluidity and uniformly store it in a toner hopper by providing leveling members leveling the toner supplied into the toner hopper while being rotated. CONSTITUTION:When the supply of toner is completed, a shutter 20 is again slid in the direction of an arrow A to open a toner supplying opening 19, a toner cartridge 16 is slid in the direction of an arrow B to be removed, a hopper cover 18 is slid in the direction of the arrow B according to the coupling relation between a recess 29 and a protruded wall 28, and a toner receiving opening 17 starts to be opened. Impellers 22, 23 are moved in the direction of the arrow B together with the hopper cover 18 while being rotated according to the engaging relation between pinion gears 32, 33 and rack sections 24A, 25A. A mount of the toner near the toner receiving opening 17 generated by the toner supply is stirred, collapsed and leveled by the impellers 22, 23.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a toner replenishing device that is used in image forming apparatuses such as electronic copying machines and printers and is composed of a toner cartridge and a toner hopper.

0002

[Prior Art] Conventionally, for example, the developing section of an electronic copying machine is shown in FIG.
As shown in 0, the developing device 1 is composed of a developing device 1 and a toner hopper 2, which is a toner replenishing device that replenishes toner to the developing device 1. First, the developing device 1 collects dry toner supplied from the toner hopper 2 by a mixing roller 3. After mixing with the developer (a two-component developer in which carrier (iron powder, etc.) and toner are mixed at a certain ratio) housed in the developer housing 4, the mixture is stirred with the stirring paddle 5, and this stirring causes the carrier and toner to be mixed. The frictionally charged developer is conveyed to the side of the developing roller 7 disposed opposite to the photoreceptor drum 6, and the conveyed developer is rubbed against the photoreceptor drum 6 by the developing roller 7. Toner is applied to the latent image formed on the latent image 6 to develop it. Here, the developing roller 7 has a structure in which a developing sleeve is rotatably provided on the outside of an internally fixed magnet structure, and the toner is electrostatically attached to the surface of the developing sleeve by the magnetic force from the magnet structure. A magnetic brush of the carrier is formed, and this magnetic brush is applied to the photoreceptor drum 6 by rotation of the developing sleeve.
The toner is applied by rubbing it against the surface of the paper. Note that 8 is a cutting plate for regulating the height of the magnetic brush, and 9 is a developing partition plate.

[0003] When the toner sensor 10 detects that the ratio of the amount of carrier in the developer has increased from the standard due to toner adhesion and consumption, toner is replenished from the toner hopper 2. There is. That is, the toner replenishing roller (sponge roller) 11 rotates to replenish the toner in the toner hopper 2 into the developing housing 4 of the developing device 1 through the replenishing port 12. At this time, the toner stirring rods 13, 14, and 15 are rotated to stir the toner in the toner hopper 2 to prevent coagulation (blocking) and cavities (bridging). To replenish the toner into the toner hopper 2, the toner cartridge 16 containing toner for replenishment is mounted on the hopper cover 2A of the toner hopper 2, which has the toner receiving opening 17 formed therein. The toner inside is dropped into the toner hopper 2. Here, 18 is a hopper lid that opens and closes the toner receiving opening 17 of the toner hopper 2, and is normally locked in a closed state, but is unlocked and opened when the toner cartridge 16 is installed. , the toner replenishing opening 19 of the toner cartridge 16 facing the toner receiving opening 17 also has a shutter 20.
It is designed to be opened and closed by. Note that 21 is a cartridge lid. Then, when replenishing the toner, it is necessary to prevent so-called toner mounds from occurring, so that the toner is replenished in the toner hopper 2 unevenly and the toner does not accumulate in a mound near the toner receiving opening 17. For this purpose, in the past, a leveling plate was provided to level the toner supplied in the toner hopper 2 (for example, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 59-34
(See Publication No. 564).

0004

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the toner leveling structure of the conventional toner replenishing device, only a single leveling plate slides in one direction, and dense toner piles with poor fluidity are removed. As the amount of toner consumed has increased due to the increased speed of copying machines in recent years, a large amount of toner has been replenished into the toner hopper, and when the pile of toner becomes large, There are problems in that the pile of toner cannot be broken up and becomes lopsided, or it cannot fit inside the toner hopper and the toner flows out and scatters to the outside, causing toner stains. In addition, since the single leveling plate is designed to break up the toner pile by sliding in one direction,
Another problem was that the pile of toner was crushed and solidified, impairing its fluidity. The present invention has been made in view of these points, and an object of the present invention is to provide a toner replenishing device that can efficiently and reliably break up a pile of toner while increasing its fluidity and store it uniformly in a toner hopper. purpose.

[0005]

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention comprises a toner cartridge containing toner for replenishment, and a toner hopper to which the toner cartridge is attached and to which the toner in the toner cartridge is replenished. The toner replenishing device is provided with a leveling member that rotates and smoothes the toner supplied in the toner hopper. Specifically, the leveling member is an impeller, and is used for attaching/detaching the toner cartridge or removing the toner cartridge. The toner hopper is rotated and moved in accordance with the opening and closing operations of a shutter that opens and closes the toner supply opening.

[0006]

[Operation] According to such a configuration, when toner is replenished from the toner cartridge, the impeller serving as a leveling member moves while rotating inside the toner hopper to agitate the pile of toner created by toner replenishment. However, it will be destroyed.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The toner replenishing device of the present invention will be explained below with reference to the drawings. It should be noted that the same parts as those in the prior art will be given the same reference numerals and the explanation thereof will be omitted. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, the toner receiving opening 1 of the toner hopper 2 is
An impeller 2 serving as a leveling member is mounted on a hopper lid 18 that opens and closes 7.
2 and 23 are rotatably provided, and the impellers 22 and 23 are configured to rotate and move when the hopper lid 18 is opened and closed as the toner cartridge 16 is installed and removed. Here, the hopper lid 18 is the hopper cover 2A.
The toner cartridge 16 is slidably assembled in the axial direction of the photoreceptor drum 6 to open and close the toner receiving opening 17, and the toner cartridge 16 is mounted on the mounting surface 2AB of the hopper cover 2A from above. When placing and sliding mounting (that is, combining the flanges 26 and 27 with the rail parts 24 and 25 and sliding in the direction of arrow A), the projecting wall 28 on the hopper lid 18 side and the recess 29 on the toner cartridge 16 side It is designed to be opened due to the inset relationship with. The impellers 22 and 23 are connected to the hopper lid 1.
The lower surface side of the hopper lid 18 is fixed to rotating shafts 30 and 31 which are rotatably supported by the rotating shafts 30 and 31.
, 31 on the upper surface side of the hopper lid 18 and the rack portions 24A, 25A formed on the rail portions 24, 25 are engaged with each other.

Therefore, when replenishing toner from the toner cartridge 16 into the toner hopper 2, the toner cartridge 16 is first inserted into the hopper cover 2A from above as shown in FIG.
Place it on the mounting surface 2AB (see Fig. 2) of the recess 29.
A projecting wall 28 is fitted into the rail, and its flanges 26 and 27 are opposed to the rail portions 24 and 25. And that state (
At the cartridge removal position), move the toner cartridge in the direction of arrow A.
When the hopper lid 18 is slid in the direction of the arrow A due to the fitting relationship between the recess 29 and the projecting wall 28, the toner receiving opening 17 begins to open, and the flanges 26 and 27 close to the rail portions 24 and 25. In combination with this, the toner is prevented from coming off from the toner hopper 2. and,
When the toner cartridge 16 is further slid in the direction of arrow A in this assembled state, the toner cartridge 16
The toner replenishing opening 19 is brought to the specified cartridge mounting position opposite the toner receiving opening 17, and the hopper lid 18 completely opens the toner receiving opening 17. At this time, the impellers 22, 23 as well as the hopper lid 18, the pinion gears 32, 33, the rack part 24A,
Due to the meshing relationship with 25A, it is rotated and moved in the direction of arrow A.

Therefore, with this cartridge installed, hook your finger on the handle 20A of the shutter 20 and slide the shutter in the direction of arrow B to open the toner supply opening 19.
When opened, the toner in the toner cartridge 16 falls into the toner hopper 2 through the toner replenishing opening 19 and the toner receiving opening 17 and is replenished. When the toner supply is finished, move the shutter 20 by arrow A.
After sliding the toner cartridge 16 in the direction again to close the toner replenishment opening 19, follow the arrow B to remove the toner cartridge 16.
When the hopper lid 18 is slid in the direction of arrow B, the hopper lid 18 also slides in the direction of arrow B due to the fitting relationship between the recess 29 and the protruding wall 28, and begins to close the toner receiving opening 17. At this time, the impellers 22 and 23 also move in the direction of arrow B while rotating together with the hopper lid 18 due to the meshing relationship between the pinion gears 32 and 33 and the rack parts 24A and 25A. A pile of toner near the toner receiving opening 17 generated by toner replenishment is broken down and leveled while being stirred. That is, when the toner cartridge 16 is slightly slid in the direction of the arrow B as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 from the cartridge mounting position, the impellers 22 and 23 also move in the direction of the toner mountain formed by replenishment (FIG. 6). If the toner cartridge 16 is further slid in this state as shown in FIG. 5, the impellers 22 and 23 will move while scraping the pile of toner as shown in FIG. 7. Therefore, when the toner cartridge 16 is slid in the direction of arrow B and brought to the cartridge removal position, the toner receiving opening 17 of the toner hopper 2 is closed by the hopper lid 18, and the toner inside also flows. The photoreceptor drum 6 is evenly leveled in the axial direction with good properties. In this embodiment, the toner is stored in the hopper lid 18.
The impeller 22 rotates around an axis perpendicular to the direction of movement of
, 23, the toner is spread and leveled, compared to the conventional technology which flattens the toner pile in one direction of movement of the opening/closing lid (corresponding to the hopper lid). can be evenly and reliably leveled inside the toner hopper 2. Furthermore, in this embodiment, since the toner near the upper layer of the toner pile is actively leveled by the impellers 22 and 23, unlike the prior art, the toner pile itself is not leveled. In comparison, the burden on the operator during toner leveling work can be reduced.

In this embodiment, the impellers 22 and 23 are arranged horizontally in a row, but they may be arranged in a staggered manner, and the number, shape, angle, direction of rotation, etc. of the impellers are also limited to this. It is not something that will be done. Further, in this embodiment, the impellers 22 and 23 are rotated and moved as the toner cartridge 16 is attached and detached, but as shown in FIG. The shutter 2 is attached to the rotating shafts 30 and 31 of the impellers 22 and 23 supported by the
By fitting the protrusion 20B on the 0 side, the shutter 20
It may be moved along with the movement. Furthermore, impeller 2
As shown in FIG. 9, at least one of 2 and 23 may be arranged in upper and lower two stages (in this case, 22A and 22B) to break up the pile of toner and perform internal stirring.

[0011]

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the toner replenishing device of the present invention, when replenishing toner from a toner cartridge, by rotating the leveling member, the piles of toner are scraped while stirring. Therefore, the toner can be efficiently and reliably leveled in the toner hopper while increasing its fluidity.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing an example of a toner replenishing device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view of the developing section.

FIG. 3 is a top view for explaining the process of removing the toner cartridge.

[Figure 4] A side view of its main parts.

FIG. 5 is a side view of the main part showing the toner cartridge just before it finishes sliding.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a state immediately before leveling the toner with the impeller.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a state in which toner is leveled by the impeller.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing other embodiments.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing other embodiments.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a conventional toner replenishment configuration.

[Explanation of symbols]

2 Toner hopper 16 Toner cartridge 17 Toner receiving opening 18 Hopper lid 19 Toner supply opening 20 Shutter 22, 23 Impeller

Claims (2)

[Claims] Claims: 1. A toner replenishing device comprising a toner cartridge containing toner for replenishment and a toner hopper to which the toner cartridge is attached and to which the toner in the toner cartridge is replenished; A toner replenishing device characterized by being provided with a leveling member for leveling the toner. 2. The leveling member is an impeller, and is moved while rotating within the toner hopper in response to attachment/detachment of a toner cartridge or opening/closing operation of a shutter for opening/closing a toner supply opening of the toner cartridge. The toner replenishing device according to claim 1.