JPH05341699A - Cleaning device for image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prolong the life of a cleaning blade by constituting the cleaning blade abutting on a photosensitive body and removing residual toner, of plural cleaning blades of a different material. CONSTITUTION:A spring 9 is provided to press the cleaning blade with contact with the photosensitive body 2, and has an elastic modulus so as to obtain abutting with prescribed contact pressure, when a first cleaning blade 3 and a second cleaning blade 5 are abutted on the photosensitive body 2. The first cleaning blade 3 and the second cleaning blade 5 of the different material are attached to a first holder 4 and a second holder 6, respectively, and selectively brought into contact with the photosensitive body 2. The second holder 6 is attached to the first holder 4, to constitute a blade unit 8, and freely rotatably fitted to a blade supporting shaft 13 provided on a bracket 7, as well. Then, the toner and foreign matter removed from the photosensitive body 2 by the first/second cleaning blades 3 and 5, are discharged outside a cleaning device 1, by a carrying coil 10.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cleaning device for an image forming apparatus using an electrophotographic process.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional cleaning device for an image forming apparatus is provided with a plurality of cleaning blades made of the same material that come into contact with a photoconductor to remove residual toner, and the cleaning blades are arranged so as to be displaced in the rotational direction of the photoconductor. If the contact area with the photosensitive drum increases due to fatigue of the blade disposed on the front or the blade arranged in front, the next blade abuts the photosensitive drum, or the cleaning member is appropriately cleaned in the non-cleaning portion. Cleaning equipment having a cleaning means is used.

[0003]

The cleaning device as described above is provided with a plurality of cleaning blades made of the same material, and those which are used while exchanging them are as follows:
Although it is possible to extend the replacement period of the cleaning blade, the characteristics of the rubber material such as polyurethane rubber used for the cleaning blade are likely to change its characteristics at low temperature and high temperature, and when the impact resilience decreases due to the increase of the temperature in the vicinity, The low frequency vibration of the cleaning blade is caused by the friction with the body, and the high frequency vibration is caused when the impact resilience is increased due to the temperature decrease. These vibrations cause problems such as abnormal noise and defective cleaning.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems, and even if the temperature in the vicinity of the cleaning blade changes, low-frequency vibration of the cleaning blade, generation of abnormal noise due to high-frequency vibration, defective cleaning, etc. It is an object of the present invention to provide a cleaning device capable of maintaining a long service life of a cleaning blade without causing the above problems.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides a cleaning device having a cleaning blade for contacting a photoconductor to remove residual toner. The cleaning blade is composed of a plurality of cleaning blades made of different materials. The invention of claim 2 is
In the invention of claim 1, the plurality of cleaning blades are composed of a cleaning blade made of a material having a relatively low impact resilience and a cleaning blade made of a material having a relatively high impact resilience. According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a temperature detecting means for detecting the temperature in the vicinity of the cleaning device, and a means for selectively bringing the blade into contact with the photoconductor by the detection output of the temperature detecting means. It is a thing.

[0006]

In the invention as described above, the invention of claim 1 is the cleaning apparatus as described above, which is provided with a plurality of cleaning blades made of different materials, and selectively abuts the appropriate cleaning blade on the photosensitive member. Then, the residual toner is removed. According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the plurality of cleaning blades are composed of a cleaning blade made of a material having a relatively low impact resilience and a cleaning blade made of a material having a relatively high impact resilience, and are selectively suitable. A cleaning blade is brought into contact with the photoconductor to remove the residual toner. According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the temperature detection means for detecting the temperature in the vicinity of the cleaning device, and the detection output of the temperature detection means causes the blade to contact the photoconductor automatically and selectively. And a cleaning blade made of a material having a relatively high impact resilience at a low temperature and a cleaning blade made of a material having a relatively low impact resilience at a high temperature to contact the photoconductor to remove residual toner.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In the embodiment of the present invention shown in FIGS.
The bracket 7 is inside the casing 18 and is rotatably attached to a bracket support shaft 14 provided on a side plate 19 of the casing 18. The bracket arm 16 provided on the bracket 7 is inserted into the casing 18 through an insertion hole 20 through which the bracket arm 16 provided on the casing 18 can move up and down.
Protruding outside. This protruding bracket arm
A bracket arm 16 is attached to the tip of 16 in FIG.
One end of the spring 9 acting in the direction of pulling upward is attached, and the other end of the spring 9 is attached to the casing 18. The spring 9 is provided to bring the cleaning blade into pressure contact with the photoconductor 2, and the first cleaning blade 3 or the second cleaning blade 3 is attached to the photoconductor 2.
When the cleaning blade 5 comes into contact with the cleaning blade 5, one having an elastic coefficient that allows the cleaning blade 5 to come into contact with a predetermined contact pressure is selected and used. The first cleaning blade 3 is attached to the first holder 4, and the second cleaning blade 5 is attached to the second holder 6. The second holder 6 is attached to the first holder 4 to form a blade unit 8, which is rotatably attached to a blade support shaft 13 provided on the bracket 7. The toner and foreign matter removed from the photoconductor 2 by the first or second cleaning blades 3 and 5 are discharged to the outside of the cleaning device 1 by the carrying coil 10.

The switching of the cleaning blade in this embodiment will be described. In FIG. 2, the first holder 4
An arm 15 is provided at the end of which a plunger 17 of a solenoid 12 and one end of a blade switching spring 11 are attached. The other end of the blade switching spring 11 is attached to the bracket 7 so as to pull the arm 15 upward, and the plunger 17
Is mounted so as to pull downward when the solenoid 12 is activated. A temperature detecting means (not shown) is provided in the vicinity of the blade unit 8, and the detection output controls the output of a solenoid drive power source (not shown) to generate a solenoid.
12 is operated to selectively bring the first cleaning blade 3 or the second cleaning blade 5 into contact with the photoconductor 2 for cleaning. For example, when the output of the driving power supply is turned off, the solenoid 12 is opened and the arm 15 of the blade unit 8 is pulled by the blade switching spring 11 to rotate counterclockwise about the blade support shaft 13 as a fulcrum. The first cleaning blade 3 is switched to the second cleaning blade 5.

In this embodiment, when the temperature detecting means detects the low temperature range, the temperature range below the appropriately selected temperature between 23 ° C. and 45 ° C. is the low temperature range, and the temperature range above that is the high temperature range. When a cleaning blade made of a material with a relatively high impact resilience of 50% or more detects a high temperature range,
The detection output of the temperature detection means controls the output of the solenoid drive power source so that the cleaning blade made of a material having a relatively low impact resilience of 30% or less contacts the photoconductor 2.
Operate the solenoid 12. For example, when a material having a relatively low impact resilience of 30% or less is used for the first cleaning blade 3 and the temperature in the vicinity of the blade unit 8 is in a high temperature range, the detection output of the temperature detecting means is the output of the solenoid drive power source. 2 is turned on, the arm 15 is pulled downward in FIG. 2, the first cleaning blade 3 is held at the position indicated by the solid line, and brought into contact with the photoconductor 2. When the temperature in the vicinity of the blade unit 8 reaches a low temperature range, the detection output of the temperature detecting means turns off the output of the solenoid driving power source to open the solenoid 12, and the blade switching spring 11 pulls the arm 15 to pull the blade. The unit 8 is rotated counterclockwise to retract the first cleaning blade 3 to the position shown by the dotted line, and the second cleaning blade 5 made of a material having a relatively high impact resilience of 50% or more is applied to the photoconductor 2. Contact. Although the temperature detecting sensor is used as the temperature detecting means, a shape memory alloy may be used.

[0010]

The present invention is as described above, and the invention of claim 1 is a cleaning apparatus having a cleaning blade for contacting a photoconductor to remove residual toner, wherein the cleaning blade is made of a plurality of different materials. Since it consists of the cleaning blade, the abnormal noise due to the vibration due to the rubbing resistance between the cleaning blade and the photoconductor does not occur over a wide temperature range, and there is no cleaning failure due to the vibration or damage to the cleaning blade. This has the effect of maintaining a long life. According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the plurality of cleaning blades are composed of a cleaning blade made of a material having a relatively low impact resilience and a cleaning blade made of a material having a relatively high impact resilience, and are selectively suitable. Since the cleaning blade is brought into contact with the photoconductor to remove the residual toner, abnormal noise due to the vibration due to the frictional resistance between the cleaning blade and the photoconductor does not occur over a wide temperature range, and the cleaning failure due to the vibration,
There is an effect that the life of the cleaning blade can be maintained for a long time without the damage of the cleaning blade. According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, it is provided with temperature detecting means for detecting the temperature in the vicinity of the cleaning device, and means for selectively bringing the blade into contact with the photoconductor by the detection output of the temperature detecting means. Since there is no abnormal noise due to vibration due to the sliding resistance between the cleaning blade and the photoconductor over a wide temperature range, there is no cleaning failure due to vibration, and there is no damage to the cleaning blade.
There is an effect that the life of the cleaning blade can be maintained for a long time.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic vertical sectional view of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic vertical sectional view showing a portion of the above bracket and a cleaning blade.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Cleaning Device 2 Photoconductor 3 First Cleaning Blade 4 First Holder 5 Second Cleaning Blade 6 Second Holder 7 Bracket 8 Blade Unit 9 Spring 10 Transport Coil 11 Blade Switching Spring 12 Solenoid 13 Blade Spindle 14 Bracket Spindle 15 Arm 16 Bracket arm 17 Plunger 18 Casing 19 Side plate 20 Insertion hole

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A cleaning device for an image forming apparatus, comprising: a cleaning blade that comes into contact with a photoconductor and removes residual toner. The cleaning blade comprises a plurality of cleaning blades made of different materials. 2. The cleaning device for an image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of cleaning blades are composed of a cleaning blade made of a material having a relatively low impact resilience and a cleaning blade made of a material having a relatively high impact resilience. 3. A cleaning device for an image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a temperature detecting means for detecting a temperature in the vicinity of the cleaning device; and a means for selectively bringing the blade into contact with the photoconductor by a detection output of the temperature detecting means. apparatus.