JPH0566700A - Developer recovering device for image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the soiling of the surrounding part by discharged toner, to improve a maintenance performance and the quality of an image and also to prolong the life of the device by recovering the discharged toner recovered from a photosensitive body into a discharged toner box without leaking it to outside. CONSTITUTION:1st and 2nd grooves 42a and 46a are separately scraped and formed on the outer peripheral surface of a nozzle 42 of a housing 38 for a cleaning device 18 and on the inner peripheral part of a toner take-in port 46 of the discharged toner box 37, and the nozzle 42 is combined with the toner take-in port 46 by a screw, so that a gap between the housing 38 and the discharged toner box 37 is made extremely small so as to eliminate the leakage of the discharged toner through the gap. Thus, the surrounding part can be prevented from soiling by the discharged toner, the maintenance performance and the quality of the image can be improved and the life of the device can be prolonged.

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 electrophotographic apparatus, in which a toner remaining on a photoconductor after the transfer is completed.
The present invention relates to a developer collecting device in an image forming apparatus that collects toner.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In conventional image forming apparatuses such as copying machines,
After the transfer, the waste toner removed by the cleaning device is taken out from the photoconductor, and a cartridge-shaped waste toner is removed.
In the case of the developer collecting device that collects in the box,
The inner and outer diameters of the toner outlet of the casing of the training device and the toner inlet of the waste toner box are simply fitted loosely, and the casing and the waste toner box are electrically connected. The waste toner was collected from the housing to the waste toner box side through the loosely fitted toner discharge port and toner intake port.

[0003]

Conventionally, the waste toner removed from the photoconductor after the completion of transfer is removed from the casing of the cleaning device through the loosely fitted toner discharge port and toner intake port. It was collected in the waste toner box. Therefore, a gap is created between the toner discharge port and the toner intake port, and the suspended waste toner leaks from the gap,
Toners that stain the surroundings, especially those that have poor fluidity and tend to float easily, are significantly soiled, and maintenance must be performed frequently to clean the photoreceptor and charging device. However, there is a problem that the image quality is deteriorated due to the deterioration of the image quality, and the life of the device is not extended. Further, in a so-called clamshell type image forming apparatus in which the upper mechanism of the apparatus main body is opened to open the conveyance path when clearing a paper jam, the toner outlet and the toner inlet are opened each time the upper mechanism is opened. There was also a problem that the toner was separated and the toner spilled and the surrounding area was soiled.

Therefore, the present invention eliminates the above-mentioned problems, and the case and the waste toner are not affected regardless of the generation of the floating waste toner.
Toner leakage does not occur between the box and the cleaning frequency of the cleaning of the photoconductor and charging device, etc. can be reduced, image quality deterioration can be prevented, and the life of the device can be extended. It is an object of the present invention to provide a developer recovery device in an image forming apparatus having high reliability.

[0005]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a developer image formed on an image bearing member at a position facing the image bearing member after the image is transferred onto a transfer target member. A removing means for removing the developer remaining on the image carrier, and a housing for containing the developer removed by the removing means and having a discharging portion in which a screw-shaped first groove is formed. , A transporting unit provided in the housing for transporting the developer to the discharging unit, and an intake unit having a second groove formed therein, wherein the first groove and the second groove are engaged with each other. By connecting the intake part to the discharge part, there is provided a storage unit that is electrically connected to the housing and stores the developer discharged from the discharge part.

[0006]

The present invention is configured as described above, and since the housing and the accumulating means are brought into conduction by engaging the screw-shaped grooves of the discharge part and the intake part, the gap between the discharge part and the intake part is formed. Since there is almost no, it is possible to prevent the leakage of floating waste toner. Therefore, there is no contamination of the surroundings due to the leakage of the floating waste toner, the frequency of cleaning can be reduced, the maintainability can be improved, and the image quality and the life of the apparatus can be extended.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below with reference to the embodiments shown in FIGS. FIG. 1 is a schematic explanatory view of the entire apparatus,
A drum-shaped photoconductor 12 which is an image carrier is provided in a substantially central portion of the apparatus body 10. Around the photoconductor, a charging device 13 and an exposure device 14 are sequentially arranged along the rotation direction.
Exposure position 14a, developing device 16, transfer peeling chart
A cleaner that forms part of the jar 17 and the developer recovery device 36.
A steering device 18 and a static elimination lamp 20 are provided. At the front end of the cleaning device 18, a waste toner box 37 composed of a semitransparent cylindrical container, which is a storage means described later and constitutes a developer recovery device 36 together with the cleaning device 18, is connected. ing. Also the device body 1
On the right side of 0, a paper feed cassette 21 for accommodating sheet P
a and 21b and a manual paper feed table 21c are provided.
Then, in the apparatus main body 10, the paper feed cassettes 21 a, 21
b and the manual paper feeder 21c to the pickup roller 22
Sheets taken out by a, 22b, 22c and fed
A conveyance path 24 for the sheet P is formed to guide the sheet P through the photoconductor 12 to the sheet discharge tray 23 on the left side of the apparatus body 10. On the upstream side of the photoconductor 12 in the transport path 24, the first
Further, a second separation roller 25a, 25b, a registration roller pair 26 are provided, and a transport belt 27, a fixing roller pair 28, and a paper discharge roller pair 30 are provided on the downstream side. still,
A document table 31 and a document cover 32 that covers the document table 31 are provided on the upper surface of the apparatus body 10.

Next, the cleaning device 18 and the waste toner box 37 of the developer recovery device 36 will be described in detail. At the bottom of the casing 38 of the cleaning device 18, a waste toner 41 scraped from the surface of the photoconductor 12 by a cleaning blade 40 as a removing means is provided on the bottom surface of the casing 38 on the front side. A toner carrying auger 43, which is a carrying means for carrying the waste toner 41 to the outside of the casing 38, that is, a nozzle 42 that is a discharge portion is provided. And nozzle 4
A screw-shaped first groove 42a is formed on the outer periphery of the groove 2. Reference numeral 44 is a recovery blade which captures the waste toner 41 scraped off by the cleaning blade 40 and guides it to the toner conveying auger 43.

On the other hand, the waste toner box 37 is formed with a toner intake port 46 which is an intake portion, and a second groove 46a which meshes with the first groove 42a is formed in the inner periphery thereof. Further, 47 is a flat plate-shaped stopper provided on the nozzle 42 side, and the flat surface 48 of the tip end of the toner intake port 46 comes into contact therewith, so that the meshing of the first and second grooves 42a, 46a is stopped. ..

Next, the operation will be described. When copying, in the developer recovery device 36, the first groove 42 of the nozzle 42
a and the second groove 46a of the toner intake port 46 are screwed to a position where the stopper 47 and the tip end flat surface portion 48 come into contact with each other, and the waste toner box 37 is attached to the housing 38. In this state, the document D is placed on the document table 31, and image forming conditions such as sheet size, copy magnification, and number of copies are set on an operation panel (not shown) to copy the document. Turn on the key to start copy operation.

As a result, a copy operation is started in the apparatus main body 10, and the photoconductor 12 follows the rotation thereof, and passes through the charging device 13, the exposure position 14a, and the developing device 16 and the toner.
An image is formed and reaches the transfer peeling charger 17. On the other hand, in synchronization with this, one of the selected paper feed cassettes 21
Sheet paper P is supplied from a and 21b, and is sent to the transfer peeling charger 17 through the registration roller pair 26 at the timing when the front end is aligned with the toner image on the photoconductor 12.
After the toner image is transferred, the sheet peeled off from the photoconductor 12
The paper P is fixed by the fixing roller pair 28, and is discharged onto the paper discharge tray 23 by the paper discharge roller pair 30 to complete the copying.

On the other hand, after the transfer is completed, the residual toner on the photoconductor 12 is removed by the cleaning plate 40.
The waste toner 41 guided to the toner carrying auger 43 by the recovery blade 44 in the housing 38 is guided to the housing 38 front side by the toner carrying auger 43, and the nozzle 42 and It is dropped and collected in the waste toner box 37 through the toner intake port 46.

After this, the photoconductor 12 is replaced with the static elimination lamp 20.
Then, the electricity is removed, the next copy is made possible, and the necessary number of copy operations are repeated.

When the waste toner 41 in the waste toner box 37 becomes full during the copying operation as described above, the front cover (not shown) of the apparatus main body 10 is opened and the nozzle is opened. 42 and the toner inlet 46 are unscrewed and replaced with a new waste toner box 37.

With this structure, the nozzle 42 and the toner intake port 46 are screwed together, and the gap between the housing 38 and the waste toner box 37 is extremely small. Waste toner 41 in device 36
Even if it floats, it does not leak to the outside, and there is no risk of polluting the peripheral devices such as the photoconductor 12. Therefore, maintenance performance is improved by reducing the maintenance frequency for cleaning the device, which in turn improves image quality and prolongs the life of the device.

The present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned one embodiment, and may be modified within the scope of the invention, and the shape and material of the accumulating means may be arbitrary. Further, the structure of the apparatus main body may be a clamshell type as in the other embodiment shown in FIG. In this case, when the upper mechanism 52 of the apparatus main body 51 is opened, the waste toner box 54 is integrally opened upward together with the cleaning device 53, so that the waste toner box 54 is collected in the waste toner box 54. Although the waste toner is floated by vibration, since there is almost no gap between the casing 53 of the cleaning device 53 and the waste toner box 54, the waste toner does not leak outside.
There is no risk of the surroundings being contaminated by the waste toner. In addition, in the clamshell type device, the casing and the waste toner box are separated each time the upper mechanism 52 is opened as in the conventional case, and the waste toner drops from the separated portion to stain the surroundings. Nothing.

[0017]

As described above, according to the present invention, by screwing the discharge part and the intake part with each other, the gap between the housing and the accumulating means can be almost eliminated, and the collected developer can be developed. It is possible to reliably prevent leakage to the outside of the agent recovery device. Therefore, there is no possibility that the collected developer will stain the peripheral device, the maintainability is improved, and the image quality is prevented from being deteriorated due to the stain of the image carrier, and a high quality image can be obtained. The life can be extended, and the reliability of the device can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an apparatus main body according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a cleaning device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing a nozzle and a toner intake port according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a nozzle and a toner intake of one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram showing a state in which an upper mechanism of an apparatus main body of another embodiment of the present invention is opened.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Device main body 12 ... Photosensitive body 18 ... Cleaning device 36 ... Developer collection device 37 ... Waste toner box 42 ... Nozzle 42a ... 1st groove 46 ... Toner intake port 46a ... 2nd groove

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A removal method for removing a developer remaining on the image carrier, which is provided at a position facing the image carrier after the developer image formed on the image carrier is transferred to a transfer target. Means, a housing having a discharging portion in which a screw-shaped first groove is formed, and housing the developer removed by the removing means, and the developer provided in the housing to the discharging portion. The casing has a conveying means for conveying and an intake portion in which a second groove is formed, and the first groove and the second groove are engaged with each other to couple the intake portion to the discharge portion. And a storage unit that stores the developer discharged from the discharge unit by being connected to the developer collecting apparatus in the image forming apparatus.