JPH0566488A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain an image forming device whose manufacturing cost is cheap. CONSTITUTION:A pair of air intake ducts D connecting a ventilating fan 7 with both end parts of a fluorescent lamp 31, especially, having high temperatures, are provided, to enhance exhausting efficiency, so that the ventilating fan 7 which has small exhausting capacity and is inexpensive, can be used. The air intake duct D is composed of a part of the upper part casing 24, and a part of an optical housing 33, to suppress the rising of cost.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as an electrostatic copying machine or an electrostatic original reading device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an electrostatic latent image formed on a photosensitive drum is visualized as a toner image and then transferred to a sheet, which is extremely miniaturized as an image forming apparatus such as an electrostatic copying machine. A so-called portable type is also provided (see, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 2-17453).

This type of image forming apparatus is an optical system for forming an electrostatic latent image on a photoconductor by illuminating and scanning an original using a rod-shaped lamp such as a fluorescent lamp, and an electrostatic system formed on the photoconductor. An image forming unit that visualizes the latent image into a toner image and then transfers it to paper.
Includes a fixing unit that fixes the toner image transferred to the paper, introduces the paper into the main body of the device, and discharges the hot air from the paper conveying unit that discharges from the main body of the device through the image forming unit and heat generating parts such as lamps to the outside of the casing Exhaust fan, a drive system for driving these, and a control circuit and other functional components such as electrical components. And each of these functional parts
It is attached to a metal reinforcing frame including a pair of side plates and stays for connecting the side plates, which are arranged in a box-shaped casing made of a synthetic resin molded product.

[0004]

In order to popularize the image forming apparatus having the above structure for home use and personal use, it is desirable to make the size and weight as small as possible, and to reduce the manufacturing cost and the selling price. However, in the above-described conventional image forming apparatus, even though both ends of the lamp become particularly hot, the exhaust fan exhausts a wide area over the entire width direction of the lamp. In order to exhaust the air to the exhaust air, it is necessary to use a fan having a relatively large exhaust capacity as the exhaust fan, and there is a problem that the cost becomes high accordingly.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus capable of performing sufficient exhaust using an exhaust fan having a small exhaust capacity.

[0006]

As an image forming apparatus of the present invention for achieving the above object, an original is illuminated and scanned using a rod-shaped lamp housed in an optical housing made of synthetic resin, and is scanned on a photosensitive member. An optical system that forms an electrostatic latent image on the paper, an image forming unit that visualizes the electrostatic latent image formed on the photoconductor into a toner image, and then transfers it to the paper, and the toner image transferred to the paper is fixed In an image forming apparatus including a fixing section, a sheet conveying section that introduces a sheet into the apparatus main body and discharges the sheet from the apparatus main body through the image forming section, and an exhaust fan that exhausts hot air in the casing of the apparatus main body. The optical housing is integrally formed with a duct member that constitutes a pair of intake ducts that connect both ends of the lamp and the exhaust fan, either alone or in combination with a part of the casing.

[0007]

According to the image forming apparatus having the above structure, the pair of intake ducts connecting the both ends of the lamp and the exhaust fan
Particularly, the hot air at both ends of the lamp, which becomes high in temperature, can be efficiently exhausted, so that the heat of the lamp can be sufficiently exhausted even if an exhaust fan having a small exhaust capacity is used.

Moreover, since the exhaust duct is composed of a duct member integrally formed in the optical housing or a combination of the duct member and a part of the casing, the cost burden for the intake duct is reduced. rare.

[0009]

Embodiments will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings showing embodiments. FIG. 3 is a schematic sectional view of a copying machine as an image forming apparatus showing an embodiment of the present invention. In this copying machine, an optical system 3 for illuminating and scanning a document moved by a document table 1 and guiding reflected light from the document to a photosensitive drum 42 inside a casing 2 made of a synthetic resin which constitutes the main body of the apparatus. The electrostatic latent image formed on the photoconductor drum 42 is visualized by the developing device 41, and then the image forming section 4 for transferring the image onto the sheet, and the fixing section 6 for fixing the toner image transferred onto the sheet in the middle part are arranged. Then, the above-mentioned sheet is introduced into the inside of the apparatus main body 2 from the sheet feeding port 26, and is then discharged from the sheet discharging port 27 through the image forming section 4, the document table 1, the image forming section 4, and the sheet conveying section. A drive system for driving the unit 5 and the like, electrical components including a control circuit for controlling these drives, and functional components such as an exhaust fan 7 for exhausting hot air inside the casing 2 are provided.

The casing 2 is composed of an upper casing 24 and a lower casing 25 having a monocoque structure which are screwed so as to be separable from each other.
It is supported by each casing. 22 in the drawing reference numerals
Is a paper feed tray, 23 is a paper discharge tray, and 11 is a document holder. The optical system 3 includes the upper casing 2
4, a rod-shaped fluorescent lamp 31 for illuminating and scanning the original through a slit 24c formed on the upper surface of 4, and a rod lens 32 for guiding the reflected light from the original to the photosensitive drum 42,
It is arranged inside the optical housing 33 made of synthetic resin.

As the image forming section 4, a charging charger 43, a developing device 41, a transfer charger 44, and a cleaner 45 are arranged in this order around the photosensitive drum 42, and the charging charger 43 uniformly charges the image. After forming an electrostatic latent image by forming a document image on the outer peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 42, the developing device 41 visualizes the electrostatic latent image, and the transfer charger 44 forms the toner image. This is a conventionally known configuration in which the toner is transferred to a sheet and the residual toner is collected by the cleaner 45. The developing device 41, the photosensitive drum 42, the transfer charger 44, and the cleaner 45, which are components of the image forming unit 4,
Each of the image forming frames 46 is assembled into a unit. The charging charger 43 is held by the optical housing 33 of the optical system 3.
The image forming frame 46 is made of a synthetic resin molded product, and the image forming frame 46 contains the toner collecting container 4 for storing the toner collected by the cleaner 45.
7 is integrally molded.

The toner recovery container 47 is in the shape of a tray having a rectangular plan shape, and the upper opening thereof is closed by a lid portion 24e formed in the upper casing 24. The lid 24e includes a ceiling surface of the upper casing 24 and a frame-shaped first hanging piece 2 extending downward from the ceiling surface.
4f, and the first hanging piece 24f is brought into close contact with the opening edge of the upper portion of the toner recovery container 47 to close the toner recovery container 47, thereby collecting in the toner recovery container 47. It prevents the scattered toner from scattering. As described above, since the lid portion 24e is integrally formed with the upper casing 24, the toner collecting container 47 is formed.
Since it is not necessary to separately form a lid, the number of parts can be reduced and the number of assembling steps can be reduced accordingly.

The developing device 41 has a toner cartridge 41c which is removably mounted in a developing housing 41a made of synthetic resin, and a toner which is dropped and supplied from the toner cartridge 41c into the developing housing 41a. Supply roller 41d and developing housing 4
A stirring roller 4 that stirs the toner supplied to the inside of 1a.
1e and a developing roller 41f that supplies toner to the photosensitive drum 42.

The sheet conveying unit 5 sandwiches the sheet having the leading end inserted from the sheet feeding port 26 and introduces it into the inside of the apparatus main body 2, and the leading end of the sheet conveyed by the conveying roller pair 51. The fixing unit 6 is provided with a resist stopper 52 for temporarily holding the sheet and waiting the sheet, and the fixing unit 6 fixes the toner image transferred onto the sheet while pinching the sheet and conveying the sheet. The heat roller 61 is heated by a built-in heater, and the pressure roller 62 is brought into pressure contact with the heat roller 61 and driven by the heat roller 61.

The exhaust fan 7 is arranged above the downstream side end of the sheet conveying section 5, and is located at a predetermined position between the exhaust fan 7 and the fluorescent lamp 31 of the optical system 3 and the toner collecting container. 47 are arranged. The exhaust fan 7 is composed of, for example, a sirocco fan, and both ends on the intake side of the exhaust fan 7 are connected to the fluorescent lamp 3 via a pair of intake ducts D provided with a lid portion 24e of the upper casing 24 interposed therebetween.
1 communicates with both ends (see FIGS. 1 and 2).
The intake duct D is composed of a duct member 33 a having a groove-shaped cross section integrally formed with the optical housing 33 and a ceiling surface of the upper casing 24. The side wall of the optical housing 33 is notched at a portion corresponding to the intake duct D to allow the intake duct D and the fluorescent lamp 31 to communicate with each other.

According to the above embodiment, the pair of intake ducts D
As a result, the hot air at both ends of the fluorescent lamp 31, which becomes particularly high in temperature, can be efficiently exhausted, so that the exhaust fan 7 having a small exhaust capacity and a low exhaust capacity can be obtained without lowering the exhaust efficiency.
Can be used. Moreover, the intake duct D
However, since it is configured by a part of the upper casing 24 and a part of the optical housing 33, the number of parts and the number of assembling steps do not increase, and the cost of the intake duct D hardly increases.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and for example, as shown in FIG.
3a may be formed in an L-shaped cross section, and the duct member 33a and the hanging piece 24f formed in the upper casing 24 may form the intake duct D. Further, as shown in FIG. 5, the duct member 33a is formed in a flat plate shape, and
A second hanging piece 24g may be formed in the upper casing 24 in parallel with the hanging piece 24f, and the duct member 33a, the hanging piece 24f, and the second hanging piece 24f may constitute the intake duct D.

Further, as shown in FIG. 6, the duct member 3
3a may be formed in a frame-shaped cross section, and in this case, the intake duct D can be configured by the duct member 33a alone without combining with a part of the upper casing 24.

[0019]

As described above, according to the image forming apparatus of the present invention, the pair of intake ducts can efficiently exhaust the hot air at the both ends of the fluorescent lamp, which has a high temperature. A small, inexpensive exhaust fan can be used. Moreover, since the intake duct is composed of the optical housing itself or a part of the optical housing and a part of the casing, there is almost no cost burden for the intake duct.

Therefore, there is a unique effect that the manufacturing cost can be reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partially cutaway plan view of a copying machine as an image forming apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a main part of the copying machine.

FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing an internal configuration.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of an essential part showing another embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of main parts showing still another embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of main parts showing still another embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 Casing 3 Optical system 31 Fluorescent lamp 33 Optical housing 33a Duct member 4 Image forming unit 42 Photoconductor drum 5 Paper transporting unit 6 Fixing unit 7 Exhaust fan D Intake duct

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An optical system for forming an electrostatic latent image on a photoconductor by illuminating and scanning an original using a rod-shaped lamp housed in an optical housing made of synthetic resin, and a static system formed on the photoconductor. It includes an image forming unit that transfers the latent image to a toner image and then transfers it to a sheet, and a fixing unit that fixes the toner image transferred to the sheet.
In an image forming apparatus including a sheet conveying unit that introduces a sheet into the apparatus main body and discharges the sheet from the apparatus main body through the image forming unit, and an exhaust fan that exhausts hot air in the casing of the apparatus main body, in the optical housing, An image forming apparatus, characterized in that duct members that form a pair of intake ducts that connect both ends of a lamp and an exhaust fan are integrally formed as a single body or in combination with a part of a casing.