JPH05313543A - Toner recycle device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To recover talc included in recovered toner. CONSTITUTION:A brush roll 8 rotating while being in contact with toner A carried along the a toner carrying path 2, an electrifying means electrifying brush 10 of the brush roll 8 to be slightly higher in potential than the electrified potential of the toner and a recovery means 12 recovering the talc B stuck to the brush 10 are provided in the toner carrying path 2 extending from a cleaner 20 to a developing device 22. Therefore, since the brush 10 has a reverse polarity to the talc B and is electrified to the potential slightly higher than the electrified potential of the toner, a greater Coulomb force is produced between the brush 10 and the talc B compared to that between the toner A and the talc B and the talc B is separated from the toner A and is attracted to the brush 10 and recovered.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a toner recycling device for conveying toner collected by a cleaner to a developing device in an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine or a printer, which collects talc contained in the collected toner. It is related to the mechanism.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a toner recycling device for connecting a cleaner and a developing device via a toner conveying path and returning the toner collected by the cleaner to the developing device, a magnet is provided in the toner conveying path and a magnet is located below the magnet. The magnetic carrier and the toner frictionally charged on the magnetic carrier are conveyed by the magnet onto the foreign matter dropping section, and the non-magnetic foreign matter contained in the developer is dropped onto the foreign matter dropping section. There is known one having a foreign matter removing mechanism that collects and collects it.

Further, a foreign matter removing mechanism is provided in which the developer mixing and stirring system of the developing device is provided with a foreign matter dropping section, and a magnet is provided in the developer mixing and stirring member to remove the nonmagnetic foreign matter by dropping it into the foreign matter dropping section. It is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 61-235876.

Further, a brush made of an insulating resin is brought into contact with the developer scraped off from the surface of the developing roller by the scraper, and the electric charge generated by the contact with the developer is used to adsorb and remove paper dust or the like from the brush. A foreign matter removing mechanism is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 62-65772.

[0005]

However, in the first and second foreign matter removing mechanisms, the low-charged toner, which has a poor charging property, also falls into the foreign matter drop collecting section. It had the problem of overflowing. Further, in the third foreign matter removing mechanism, since the moving speed of the developer conveyed on the developing roller is high, the foreign matter collecting efficiency is poor, and the brush must be regularly cleaned to remove the adsorbed foreign matter. Had a problem. That is,
The above-mentioned foreign matter removing mechanism has a problem that the foreign matter cannot be efficiently sorted and collected and removed.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, the present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and it is provided in a toner conveying path of a toner recycling device while contacting the toner conveyed in the toner conveying path. A rotating brush roll, a charging unit that charges the brush of the brush roll to a potential slightly higher than the toner charge level, and a collecting unit that collects talc attached to the brush are provided. The charging means may be configured such that the brush is made of a material that is charged to a potential slightly higher than the toner charge level by contact with talc, or the brush is slightly higher than the toner charge level. It may be a DC power supply that applies a voltage of a potential.

[0007]

In the toner recycling device, the Coulomb force acts between the brush charged by the charging means and the talc having a charge of the opposite polarity. Therefore, the talc is adsorbed by the brush and captured by the Coulomb force. Further, the captured talc is recovered by the recovery means. However, since the charged potentials of the brush and the toner are almost the same, the Coulomb force acting between them is small, and the toner is not adsorbed and collected by the brush.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. In the toner recycling device 1,
One end of the toner transport path 2 is connected to the toner recovery unit 21 of the cleaner 20, and the other end is connected to the recovered toner supply unit 23 of the developing device 22. Further, the toner carrying path 2 is provided with a foreign matter collecting section 3, and the toner carrying path 4 on the cleaner side of the foreign matter collecting section 3 (hereinafter referred to as “upstream carrying path 4”) and the toner carrying on the developing unit side. Coils 6 and 7 are respectively accommodated in the path 5 (hereinafter referred to as "downstream side transfer path 5") as toner transfer means.
Is drivingly connected to a motor (not shown).

The foreign matter collecting section 3 accommodates a brush roll 8 in which a brush 10 is planted on a horizontal shaft 9 which is orthogonal to the toner conveying path 2, and is not shown via a gear 11 fixed to the shaft 9. It is drivingly connected to the motor. Further, the foreign matter collecting section 3 is provided with a foreign matter collecting box 12 located above the upstream side transport path 4, and the mouth portion 13 of the foreign matter collecting box 12 is projected into the accommodating portion of the brush roll 8, A guide portion 14 forming the bottom portion of the mouth portion 13 is engaged with the brush 10.

The brush 10 is hardly charged even when it comes into contact with the toner, and comes into contact with the talc contained in the collected toner, so that the brush 10 has a polarity opposite to that of the talc and is slightly higher than the toner. It is made of a substance that is electrically charged. Specifically, when the toner is styrene / acrylic, the brush is nylon, or polyamide 66, polyamide 11 or C.I. I. Wool dyed with an azo dye such as Direct Yellow 12 is suitable. Further, it is suitable that the brush has a toner charge amount of 3 mq / g or less when the brush fiber and the toner are put in a bottle made of an insulating material and stirred for 3 hours.

Toner recycling device 1 having the above structure
The operation will be described. First, the toner A collected by the cleaner from the photoconductor 24 is sent from the toner collecting section 21 to the upstream side conveying path 4, and is conveyed to the foreign matter collecting section 3 based on the rotation of the coil 6. Note that the recovered toner A contains a cinderstone powder (a hydrous silicate mineral of magnesium), that is, talc B, which is an additive of paper. It is charged with the polarity of.

In the foreign matter collecting section 3, the brush roll 8 rotates in the direction of the arrow X based on the drive of the motor, and the toner A is conveyed to the downstream side by the conveying action of the brush 10. Here, when the brush 10 comes into contact with the talc B contained in the toner A, the brush 10 is charged with a charge having a polarity opposite to that of the talc B,
It is charged to a potential slightly higher than that of the toner A. Therefore, the talc B is separated from the toner A by the Coulomb force acting between the talc B and the brush 10 and adsorbed to the brush 10, and is conveyed together with the brush 10 in the arrow X direction. Then, the talc B is dropped from the brush 10 by the impact applied to the brush 10 due to the contact with the guide portion 14, and is collected in the foreign matter collection box 12 via the guide portion 14. On the other hand, the toner A from which the talc B has been removed is sent to the downstream conveying path 5 by the brush 10 and is replenished to the collected toner replenishing section 23 of the developing device 22 based on the rotation of the coil 7 and is re-developed.

In the above description, the brush is made of styrene, acrylic or the like, and the brush is charged to a potential slightly higher than the toner by contact with talc. However, a direct current power source is connected to the brush. Alternatively, the brush and the talc may be electrically attracted to each other by applying a voltage having a potential slightly higher than the toner charge level to the brush from the DC power source.

[0014]

As is clear from the above description, in the toner recycling apparatus according to the present invention, the brush has a polarity opposite to that of talc and is charged to a potential slightly higher than the toner charge level. Therefore, a larger Coulomb force acts between the brush and the talc than the Coulomb force acting between the toner and the talc. As a result, talc is separated from the toner, adsorbed on the brush, and collected. Further, since the brush and the toner have almost the same potential, the Coulomb force acting between them is small, and the toner does not adhere to the brush to be collected. That is, the present toner recycling apparatus can effectively sort and collect talc from the collected toner.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view of a toner recycling device.

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view of a foreign matter collecting unit.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a foreign matter collection unit.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a brush roll.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Toner recycling device, 2 ... Toner conveyance path, 3 ... Foreign matter collection part, 8 ... Brush roll, 10 ... Brush, 12 ... Foreign matter collection box, 20 ... Cleaner, 22 ... Developing device, A ...
Toner, B ... Talc.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A toner recycling device for transporting toner collected by a cleaner to a developing device, which rotates in a toner transport path from the cleaner to the developing device while contacting the toner transported through the toner transport path. A toner recycle comprising: a brush roll for charging, a charging unit that charges the brush of the brush roll to a potential slightly higher than the toner charge level, and a collection unit that collects talc adhering to the brush. apparatus. 2. The brush according to claim 1, wherein the charging means is made of a substance that is charged to a potential slightly higher than a toner charge potential by contact with talc.
Toner recycling equipment. 3. The toner recycling apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the charging unit is a DC power source that applies a voltage having a potential slightly higher than a toner charge level to the brush.