JPH05249868A - Recovered substance carrying device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent a blocking phenomenon from occurring and to smoothly guide a recovered substance such as toner to a recovery container by providing a base material which supports one end of a vibrator which does not restrict vibration in the carrying path of the recovered substance. CONSTITUTION:The plural vibrators 9 driven by a driving circuit 8 are provided. The toner 13 recovered by a cleaning means is carried to the inside of a carrying device 5 by a screw type carrying device 3. At this time, a piezoelectric element is driven by the driving circuit 8 and such repeated vibration by which the free ends of the vibrators 9 are displaced in an inclined direction by camber is generated in the inside of the carrying device 5. By the vibration, the toner 13 carried to the inside of the carrying device 5 is prevented from being attached on the vibrators 9 or the base member 7 and the attached toner is peeled. Besides, the lump thereof is decomposed and stirred. Then, it is carried in the inclined directions of the vibrators 9 while the flowing state thereof is gradually made excellent.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a collected material carrying device such as a collected toner carrying device in an electrophotographic apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in an electrophotographic apparatus, the transfer efficiency of toner onto paper or the like does not reach 100%, and an untransferred toner remains on a photoreceptor. The untransferred toner was recovered by a cleaning means, and the recovered toner was transported by a toner transport device to a recovery container for storage.

As shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-287482, the conventional recovery toner transfer device is formed by a cylindrical pipe and a spiral rotator provided therein. .. The toner inside the pipe is conveyed to the collection container by the rotation of the spiral rotator.

[0004]

However, this conventional technique has a problem that a blocking phenomenon, which is a clogging phenomenon, occurs due to toner adhesion near the inlet of the recovery container. If this blocking phenomenon occurs, toner will not be collected,
The toner that has not been collected pollutes the inside of the electrophotographic apparatus.

The present invention prevents this blocking phenomenon,
It is an object of the present invention to provide a recovered material transporting device that can smoothly guide recovered materials such as toner into a recovery container.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, a plurality of vibrators driven by the driving means are provided, the vibrators are positioned in the collected material conveying path, and the vibrators vibrate. A base material was provided to support at one end without restraint.

According to a second aspect of the invention, the vibrator according to the first aspect is formed by bonding a plate-shaped drive element which expands and contracts by the drive of the drive means and a plate-shaped separate member.

According to a third aspect of the invention, the vibrator according to the second aspect has a driving element bonded to both sides of the member.

According to a fourth aspect of the invention, in the first, second or third aspect of the invention, a vibration detecting element is attached to the vibrator, and a control means for controlling the driving means using the output of the vibration detecting element as an input is provided. ..

[0010]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the vibration of the vibrator prevents the collected matter from adhering to the vibrator or the base material, and the already adhered matter is separated to form a lump. Dissolve and stir, and convey while gradually improving the flow state.

According to the second aspect of the invention, the expansion and contraction of the driving element causes the entire vibrator to warp. This warping movement prevents the collected material from adhering and peels off what has already adhered. Further, one end of the vibrator, which is not attached to the base material, is displaced by the warping motion. Due to this displacement, the collected material that has become a lump is repelled and decomposed and stirred. Furthermore, this displacement includes a motion component parallel to the substrate surface, that is, in the direction in which the collected material is conveyed. The recovered material is transported by this motion component.

In the invention according to claim 3, when the two driving elements attached so as to sandwich the member are alternately driven by the driving means, the vibrator causes a warping motion as in the invention according to claim 2. , Have the same effect.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the vibration detecting element detects the vibration state of the vibrator, which changes according to the state of the collected material attached to the vibrator or the base material or the collected material being conveyed. And send it to the control means. Based on this, the control means sends to the drive means an optimum vibration condition according to the conveying condition of the collected material, and the vibration according to the condition is generated.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. This embodiment is a toner for an electrostatic copying machine.
It is applied to a toner carrier for a collection container. As shown in FIG. 1, a screw-type transfer device 3 in which a spiral rotating body 2 is arranged in a cylindrical pipe 1 is connected to a cleaning means (not shown), and a toner collecting container 4 is connected.
The carrier device 5 characterized by the present embodiment is connected between the screw type carrier device 3 and the screw type carrier device 3.

As shown in FIG. 1, the carrier device 5 is, in principle, a driving means which is disposed in a toner carrier path 6 which serves as a recovered material carrier path and whose one end is supported by a base material 7. It is composed of a plurality of vibrators 9 driven by a drive circuit 8.

FIGS. 3 and 4 show a concrete structural example based on such a principle. The toner carrier path 6 is formed by the four plate-shaped base materials 7. The vibrator 9 is formed by adhering a plate-shaped member 11 to a plate-shaped piezoelectric element 10 that extends by applying a voltage as a driving element, and one end that does not restrain vibration on the surface of the base material 7. It is installed in. At that time, the surface of the vibrator 9 on the side of the member 11 is attached so as to be inclined with respect to the surface of the base material 7 with the surface facing the conveying direction. Then, wiring 12 is provided in parallel with each piezoelectric element 10 from the drive circuit 8.
Are connected. In such a structure, the toner 13 collected by the cleaning means (not shown) is
First, the screw type transfer device 3 conveys it into the transfer device 5. At this time, the drive circuit 8 is provided inside the carrier device 5.
The piezoelectric element 10 is driven by the
As shown in FIG. 5, a warp causes a vibration that is displaced in the tilt direction and returns to the original position. Due to this vibration, the toner 13 transferred into the transfer device 5 is prevented from adhering to the vibrator 9 and the base material 7, the already adhered ones are peeled off, and the lumped ones are decomposed and stirred. Then, the oscillator 9 is conveyed in the tilting direction while the flow state is gradually improved. In this way, the toner 13 is guided into the collection container 4 from the carrier device 5 without being jammed smoothly.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The same parts as those in the above-described embodiment are designated by the same reference numerals and their description is omitted (the same applies to the following embodiments). In this embodiment, instead of the vibrator 9 of the above embodiment, a vibrator 15 formed by sticking the piezoelectric element 14 as a driving element is provided on the surface of the member 11 opposite to the sticking surface of the piezoelectric element 10. ing. Similarly to the piezoelectric element 10, the piezoelectric element 14 is connected to the wiring 1 in parallel from the drive circuit 8.
2 is connected, but at that time, the polarity of the wiring of the piezoelectric element 10 is reversed.

In such a configuration, when the piezoelectric elements 10 and 14 are driven by the drive circuit 8, the piezoelectric elements 10 and 14 are alternately extended, and the free end 15a of the vibrator 15 is the first as shown by the alternate long and short dash line in FIG. It is possible to obtain a larger amplitude by displacing on the side opposite to the example. Therefore, the adhesion can be prevented, the adhesion can be removed, and the lumps can be decomposed and stirred as compared with the first embodiment, and the smoother transportation can be realized.

Further, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. In this embodiment, in place of the vibrator 9 of the first embodiment, a vibrator 17 formed by sticking a vibration detecting element 16 is provided on the surface of the member 11 opposite to the sticking surface of the piezoelectric element 10. ing. Further, the vibration detecting element 16 is connected in parallel to a control circuit 18 as a control means for controlling the drive circuit 8, and the drive circuit 8 and the control circuit 18 are further connected. The vibration detecting element 16 has a strain gauge.
And a strain resistance element or the like.

In such a structure, when each piezoelectric element 10 is driven by the drive circuit 8, the vibrator 17 and the substrate 7
The state of the collected matter adhering to and the conveyed collected matter becomes the vibration state of the vibrator 17, and the vibration detection element 16
It is input to the control circuit 18. Based on this, the control circuit 18 can send the optimum vibration condition to the drive circuit 8 according to the state of conveyance of the collected material. For this reason, the drive circuit 8 tends to cause vibrations depending on the transportation condition, for example, small vibrations when the collected material is relatively not adhering to the smooth and is not transferred to the smooth. In this case, large vibration can be generated.

[0021]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the vibration of the vibrator prevents the collected matter from adhering to the vibrator or the base material, and the already adhered matter is separated to form a lump. Is decomposed and agitated and conveyed while gradually improving the flow state, so that the recovered material can be smoothly introduced into the recovery container without being clogged. Further, the structure is simple, and only one driving means is required.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, due to the expansion and contraction of the driving element, the whole vibrator of the laminated structure causes a warping motion, and this warping motion prevents the collected matter from adhering and separates the already adhering one. can do. Further, one end of the vibrator, which is not attached to the base material, is displaced by the warping motion, and the displacement makes it possible to repel, disassemble, and stir the collected material. Further, this displacement includes a motion component parallel to the surface of the base material, that is, in the collected product transport direction, and the recovered product can be transported by this motion component. As described above, according to the second aspect of the invention, the required motion can be taken out from the driving element which only expands and contracts with a very simple structure.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, when an element which only expands or contracts by driving is used as the driving element,
The amplitude of the vibrator can be made larger than that of the invention of claim 2. Therefore, when such a driving element is used, strong vibration that cannot be obtained in the invention of claim 2 further prevents adhesion, peels off adhesion, and decomposes and agglomerates lumps to realize smoother transportation.

According to a fourth aspect of the invention, the state of the collected matter attached to the vibrator or the base material or the collected matter being conveyed is
When the vibrator is in a vibrating state, it is fed back from the vibration detecting element to the driving means through the control means. Therefore, it is possible to constantly generate vibrations according to the transportation status. For example, if the collected material is transported to the smooth without being relatively attached, a small vibration is generated, and the collected material tends to be attached to the smooth.
Large vibrations can be generated when they are not transported to the space.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional side view showing a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a transfer device.

FIG. 4 is a side view of a vibrator.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing displacement of a vibrator.

FIG. 6 is a side view of a vibrator showing a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a side view of a vibrator showing a third embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 6 Transport Path 7 Base Material 8 Driving Means 9 Transducer 10 Driving Element 11 Member 14 Driving Element 15 Vibrator 16 Vibration Detection Element 17 Vibrator 18 Control Means

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of vibrators driven by a driving means are provided, and these vibrators are positioned in a collected material conveying path,
A collected material carrying device characterized in that a base material that supports one end of the vibrator without restraining the vibration of the vibrator is provided. 2. The collected-material conveying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the vibrator is formed by laminating a plate-shaped driving element that expands and contracts by driving the driving means and a plate-shaped separate member. .. 3. The collected material carrying apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the vibrator is formed by laminating plate-shaped drive elements on both sides of the plate-shaped member. 4. The collected-material transfer according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein a vibration detecting element is attached to the vibrator, and a control means for controlling the driving means using the output of the vibration detecting element as an input is provided. apparatus.