JPH05323689A - Color image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make a device compact and to facilitate the maintenance and the adjustment of the device by having a process cartridge in which a belt like photosensitive body and a developing device, etc., are integrated attached to or detached from a device main body and specifying its attaching/detaching method. CONSTITUTION:The outer peripheral surface of the belt-like photo-sensitive body 31 obtained by forming a photosensitive layer on the surface of a base substance made of transparent insulating resin is cleaned by a cleaning device 33 and uniformly electrostatically charged by an electrostatic charger 34, and image exposure is performed on the inner peripheral surface thereof by an image exposing unit 4, then an electrostatic latent image formed on the outer peripheral surface on the surface side of the photosensitive layer is developed by the developing devices 35A-35D. Therefore, the image exposure of respective colors is not intercepted by a toner image. Then, the process cartridge 3 by which the photosensitive body 31, the charger 34, and the devices 35A-35D are integrally attached to or detached from the device main body 1 is used. When the cartridge 3 is detached from the main body 1, the cartridge 3 is lifted upward or drawn out to the cleaning device 33 by pulling out the exposing unit 4 from the inner side of the photosensitive body 31 to the side.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a color image forming apparatus such as a copying machine or a facsimile, and more particularly to a process cartridge having a belt-shaped photosensitive member, a cleaning device acting on the outer peripheral surface thereof and a plurality of developing devices. The present invention relates to a color image forming apparatus detachably attached to a main body.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In the conventional color image forming apparatus as described above, the image exposure means is provided on the apparatus main body side and the image exposure is made incident on the outer peripheral surface of the belt-shaped photosensitive member. Image exposure is blocked by the toner image formed before that, at least the volume of the image exposure means occupies a large size of the apparatus, and maintenance and adjustment of the image exposure means are troublesome. was there.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and the image exposure of each color is not blocked by the toner image, and the apparatus is compactly constructed. An object of the present invention is to provide a color image forming apparatus using a process cartridge of a belt-shaped photosensitive member, which allows easy maintenance and adjustment of the means.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, a process cartridge having a belt-shaped photosensitive member, a cleaning device acting on the outer peripheral surface thereof, and a plurality of developing devices is detachably mounted on a main body of the device to form a color image. In the apparatus, the belt-shaped photoconductor is a photoconductor in which a photoconductor layer is provided on a transparent substrate and image exposure is made incident on the inner peripheral surface, and the image exposure means inputs an image signal and emits image exposure. In the image exposure unit, removal of the process cartridge from the apparatus main body is performed by pulling out the image exposure unit from the inside of the belt-shaped photoconductor to the side and lifting the process cartridge upward or pulling out to the cleaning device side. In the color image forming apparatus, the process cartridge is attached to the apparatus main body in the reverse order of the taking-out. To achieve the above object by the configuration of the.

[0005]

That is, in the color image forming apparatus of the present invention, the belt-shaped photoconductor of the process cartridge is a photoconductor in which the photoconductor layer is provided on the transparent substrate and the image exposure is made incident on the inner peripheral surface thereof. Since a toner image is formed on the outer peripheral surface by, the toner image does not block the image exposure of each color.
Since the image exposure means for emitting image exposure based on the image signal is detachably attached to the inside of the belt-shaped photoreceptor of the process cartridge attached to the apparatus main body as an image exposure unit, the apparatus has a compact structure and This has an excellent effect that maintenance and adjustment of the image exposure unit can be easily performed.

[0006]

The present invention will be described below with reference to the illustrated examples.

FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 are schematic sectional views showing an example of a color image forming apparatus of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a schematic view taken along the line XX of FIG. 1 or 2.

The image forming apparatus shown in FIG. 1 is a color copying machine provided with a conventionally known document reading device 2 in which reflected light obtained by scanning and exposing a color document is color-separated by a dichroic prism 21 and is incident on three CCDs 22A to 22C. The image forming apparatus shown in FIG. 2 is a color printer that forms a color image based on information from a separate document reading device or a computer. Each of the image forming apparatuses is a belt-shaped photosensitive member 31, a static eliminator exposure device 32 that acts on the outer peripheral surface thereof, and a cleaning device.
33, a charger 34 with an electrode sliding cleaner, and a plurality of developing devices 35A to 35D are used as a process cartridge 3 assembled so that they can be integrally attached to and detached from the main assembly 1 of the apparatus. The process cartridge 3 also has a static eliminator 36 with an electrode scraping cleaner.

The belt-shaped photosensitive member 31 is formed by depositing aluminum on the surface of a transparent insulating resin belt substrate by vapor deposition or sputtering,
Metals such as silver, lead, zinc, nickel, gold, chromium, molybdenum, titanium, platinum or indium oxide, tin oxide,
A configuration in which a conventionally known photoreceptor layer is formed on a transparent conductive substrate on which a metal oxide such as indium oxide or tin is formed as a transparent conductive layer or on a transparent conductive substrate of a belt substrate formed of a resin containing a conductive agent. The electrostatic latent image formed on the outer peripheral surface on the surface side of the photoconductor layer is developed into a toner image by the developing devices 35A to 35D. It is something.

That is, the belt-shaped photoconductor 31 includes a charger 34.
The outer peripheral surface cleaned by the cleaning device 33 is uniformly charged by the charging device 34 by rotating in the direction of the arrow with the side provided with the developing devices 35A to 35D and the like as the tension side, and the inner peripheral surface after charging. In the illustrated example, an image exposure unit 4 using a well-known laser beam scanner receives image exposure of, for example, a yellow image to form an electrostatic latent image on the outer peripheral surface,
The electrostatic latent image is developed into, for example, a yellow toner image having a dot structure by the developing device 35A under a jumping development condition with yellow toner charged to the same polarity as the electrostatic latent image.

The image exposure unit 4 is mounted on the process cartridge 3 so as to occupy a fixed position inside the belt-shaped photosensitive member 31, and is externally supplied via the CPU of the image forming apparatus provided in the apparatus main body 1. From the power source for driving the laser or the motor of the polygon mirror and the image signal for modulating the laser beam from the outside or the document reading device 2 shown in FIG. Emit.

When the belt-shaped photosensitive member 31 reaches the position of the charging device 34 after passing through the cleaning device 33 in which the yellow toner image forming surface is in the inoperative state shown by the dotted line, the charging device 34 again.
Is uniformly charged by the image exposing unit 4 and the electrostatic latent image formed on the outer peripheral surface thereof is, for example, developed by the developing device 35B. Similarly, it is developed into a magenta toner image, and a two-color image in which a yellow toner image and a magenta toner image are combined is formed on the outer peripheral surface. The two-color image forming surface is also uniformly charged by the charger 34, and the charged image is exposed to the cyan image by the image exposing means on the inner peripheral surface after charging, and the static image formed on the outer peripheral surface is thereby formed. If the electrostatic latent image is, for example, a developing device
Similarly, it is developed into a cyan toner image by 35C to form a color image consisting of three color toner images on the outer peripheral surface.

In the case of forming a clear color image in the dark area, the three-color image forming surface is also uniformly charged by the charger 34, and the image exposure of the dark area image is made incident on the inner peripheral surface after the charging. Then, the electrostatic latent image formed on the outer peripheral surface is similarly developed into a black toner image by the developing device 35D, and a color image composed of four color toner images is formed on the outer peripheral surface. This 4
A color color image or the above-described three-color color image is the device main body 1
A transfer roller 7 transfers the recording paper, which is sent from the paper feed cassette 5 mounted on the paper feeding means 6 to the belt-shaped photoconductor 31 so as to contact the belt-shaped photoconductor 31 by the feed roller 61, the relay conveyance roller 62, and the timing roller 63. The static eliminator 36 of FIG. 1 is used for facilitating transfer of a color image onto a recording sheet.

The recording paper on which the color image has been transferred has the color image fixed by the heating roller 81 of the fixing device 8 and is discharged to the outside by the paper discharge roller 9. Then, the outer peripheral surface of the belt-shaped photosensitive member 31 on which the color image is transferred is the static eliminator
The charge is removed by 32, and the residual toner is removed by the cleaning device 33 for cleaning.

The process cartridge 3 shown in FIG. 1 is attached to and detached from the apparatus main body 1 by rotating the right side wall door 11 of the apparatus main body 1 in the direction of the arrow and sliding it horizontally. Is attached to and detached from the apparatus body 1 by pivotally opening the top door 12 of the apparatus body 1 in the direction of the arrow and raising and lowering it in the vertical direction. But,
The image exposure unit 4, which is mounted on the process cartridge 3 as described above, inputs the electric power and the image signal through the CPU, so that the cable 10 as shown in FIG.
When the process cartridge 3 is detached from the apparatus main body 1, the front side wall door 13 of the apparatus main body 1 shown in FIG. Unit 4 in the direction of arrow Process cartridge 3
Then, the process cartridge 3 is taken out from the apparatus main body 1 as described above.
When the process cartridge 3 is attached to the apparatus main body 1, the process cartridge 3 is attached in the reverse order of removal.

In the process cartridge 3, a protective cover 37 for covering a portion of the belt-shaped photosensitive member 31 facing the transfer device 7 which is exposed when taken out from the apparatus main body 1 is a rotary cover or a slide cover. Is provided as.

Further, in the image forming apparatus of the illustrated example,
A partial frame 14 supporting one of the relay conveyance roller 62 and the timing roller 63 of the sheet feeding means 6, one side of the conveyance path guide, the transfer device 7, half of the fixing device 8 and the lower side roller of the paper discharge roller 9. Is connected to the apparatus main body 1 so as to be openably rotatable about the axis of the lower roller of the paper discharge roller 9 as shown by the chain double-dashed line. The jammed recording paper can be easily removed by opening and rotating 14 to the position of the chain double-dashed line.

[0018]

According to the color image forming apparatus using the process cartridge of the belt-shaped photoconductor of the present invention, the image exposure of the separation color incident on the photoconductor is not interrupted by the toner image previously formed, The apparatus has a compact structure, and has an excellent effect that maintenance and adjustment of the image exposure unit can be easily performed.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing an example of a color image forming apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic structural sectional view showing another example of the color image forming apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view taken along line XX of FIG. 1 or FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Device Main Body 10 Cable 11 Right Side Wall Door 12 Top Side Door 13 Front Side Side Door 14 Partial Frame 2 Original Reading Device 3 Process Cartridge 31 Belt-Shaped Photoreceptor 32 Electrification Exposure Device 33 Cleaning Device 34 Charging Device 35A-35D Developer 36 Electrification Device 4 Image exposure unit 5 Paper feed cassette 6 Paper feed means 7 Transfer device 8 Fixing device 9 Paper ejection roller

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A color image forming apparatus in which a process cartridge having a belt-shaped photoconductor, a cleaning device acting on the outer peripheral surface of the photoconductor, and a plurality of developing devices is detachably mounted in a main body of the device. An image exposure unit in which a photosensitive layer is provided on a transparent substrate, and image exposure is made incident on the inner peripheral surface, and the image exposure unit inputs an image signal and emits image exposure. The cartridge is taken out from the main body of the device by pulling out the image exposure unit sideways from the inside of the belt-shaped photoreceptor and lifting the process cartridge upward or pulling it out to the cleaning device side. The color image forming apparatus is characterized in that the mounting is performed in the reverse order of the taking out. 2. An original reading device for outputting an image signal to an image exposure unit is provided above the process cartridge, and the process cartridge is taken out from the main body of the device by pulling out to the cleaning device side.
Color image forming apparatus.