JPH0574071B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides image information based on calculation output from a computer, read output from an image reading device, etc., or image information obtained using electrophotography, as a toner image in the form of an endless belt. an image display device that is supported on an image carrier and displayed through a display window;
Or it relates to an image bearing belt used in an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine that further transfers the toner image formed on the belt to a transfer paper or the like, and more specifically, an attachment mechanism for attaching it to the main body of the image bearing belt apparatus. The present invention relates to an image carrying belt.

Generally, the image carrying belt used in the above-mentioned apparatus has a limited service life due to deterioration caused by its use. It is preferable to do so. Furthermore, since the image carrying belt as described above has a relatively long overall circumferential length, it is difficult to make it into an endless belt shape.

For this reason, in a conventional long image carrying belt, a mounting part is provided at one end, and this mounting part is removably engaged with an engaging member provided on the main body of the apparatus to form an endless belt. It is conceivable to use it as By the way, image display devices and image forming devices that generally have an endless image-bearing belt adopt a structure in which the image-bearing belt is mounted on a plurality of rollers and rotated. The toner is attached to the formed latent image by a developing means and rotated within the main body of the apparatus. Therefore, when the belt mounting portion passes through the developing means position, if the belt mounting portion protrudes from the image bearing surface of the image bearing belt or is concave, toner scattering is likely to occur.
Further, because the belt attachment portion is detachable, there is a gap, and toner easily flows to the opposite side of the belt through this gap.

In this way, when toner adheres to the back side of the image carrying belt, since the back side of the image carrying belt is the surface that comes into contact with the roller, the toner gets caught between the roller and the belt, causing scratches on the roller surface. Or,
Furthermore, the image carrying belt may be damaged. Furthermore, if the belt continues to rotate with toner adhered to the back side of the image carrying belt, the toner will fly up into the space surrounded by the belt and enter deep into the complex drive mechanism, causing a malfunction. It causes. In particular, if there are optical components such as optical information irradiation means in the space surrounded by the belt, toner will adhere to these optical components and have a fatal effect on the original functions of the device. Furthermore, if the toner is conductive, it is likely to scatter onto electrical parts and cause accidents such as short circuits. Further, cleaning the inner surface of the image carrying belt and the space surrounded by the image carrying belt is difficult and complicated unless the belt is removed from the apparatus each time.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems of the conventional image bearing belt. Specifically, this invention prevents toner from scattering or toner from adhering to the connecting means of the removable image bearing belt. In order to form a movable image carrying belt, mounting members are provided respectively at the leading end and the rear end in the sheet rotation direction, and the mounting members are respectively mounted on stays provided perpendicularly to the sheet moving direction, A portion of the sheet that is further rear end than the attachment member on the rear end side of the sheet covers the joint portion of the attachment member and the stay, and covers the entire circumferential direction of the belt with an image bearing surface.

By arranging this flexible sheet member, the toner supply side of the coupling means has a smooth surface, and toner scattering occurs when the coupling means passes through the toner supply means, and toner flows around to the opposite side via the coupling means. This can be prevented. For example, this coupling means may be provided by the image bearing belt itself or may be provided by cooperation with a structure on the apparatus main body side.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail based on Examples.

1 to 3 show the configuration of an image display device to which the present invention can be applied, in which FIG. 1 is an external oblique view, FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional perspective view, and FIG. 3 is a vertical cross-sectional view. In the figure, 1 is a vertical equipment exterior casing, 2 is a surface image viewing hole formed in a large opening on the front panel of the exterior casing, and 3 is an operation panel with the lower part of the front panel protruding forward and provided on its upper surface. 4 is a display window glass pasted in the window hole 2; 5, 6, 7, and 8 are support rollers for hanging four endless image bearing belts arranged parallel to each other and individually rotatably supported; , 9 is constituted by a photoreceptor and an endless image carrying belt suspended and supported by the four rollers.

In the endless belt type photoreceptor 9 (hereinafter simply referred to as belt), the base layer is, for example, a transparent sheet such as a polyester sheet, and metal is deposited very thinly on the outer surface of the sheet to substantially maintain transparency. It is entirely flexible, with a photosensitive material layer (photoconductive layer) such as CdS formed on the metal-deposited surface.

In this example, among the four rollers mentioned above, roller 5 is a driving roller, and the rotational force of a motor M (FIG. 3) is transmitted to this roller, and at least one of the other three driven rollers, for example roller 6, is driven by a belt. A pressing force is applied to the roller 9 in a certain direction, and it acts as a tension roller.

In the above configuration, the drive roller 5 is driven to rotate counterclockwise in FIG. 2 by the motor M, so that the belt 9 rotates counterclockwise in FIG. With this rotation, the outer circumferential surface of the belt between the rollers 5 and 8 moves from the bottom to the top and passes through the display image viewing window hole 2 on the front panel of the outer casing.

Reference numeral 21 denotes an optical information irradiation device using a laser beam scanning method, which is fixedly arranged inside the orbit of the belt 9 and includes a semiconductor laser oscillator 22, a polygon mirror scanner 23, an f-theta lens 24, and a reflecting mirror 25. and a transparent plate 26 made of plastic or the like.

This irradiation device 21 oscillates an intermittent laser beam L corresponding to time-series electric pixel signals output from an electronic computer, image reading device, etc. from a semiconductor laser oscillator 22 toward a polygon mirror scanner 23, and sends it to the scanner. The incident laser beam L is swung in the belt width direction and is made to enter the inner surface of the belt between the rollers 7 and 8 through the intertwining path of the f-theta lens 24, the reflector 25, and the transparency 26, so that the inner surface of the belt portion is aligned with the belt width. The laser beam is scanned in the direction.
Then, this laser beam scanning is used as a main scanning, and the rotational movement of the belt 9 is used as a sub-scanning, so that the belt 9 is irradiated with image-shaped light by the laser beam from the inner surface of the belt.

A developing device 27 is a toner supplying means disposed on the outer surface of the belt between the rollers 7 and 8.

the roller 7 serving as the laser beam scanning exposure section;
Transparent plate 26 arranged on the inner side of the belt part between 8
The transparent plate 26 is disposed with its lower surface slightly protruding downward from the common tangent line below the rollers 7 and 8, and is in pressure contact with the inner surface of the belt. This prevents vertical vibration of the belt 9 caused by waving and vertical movement of the belt 9, as well as contact with the developing brush (brush-like spikes of developer formed by a magnet) of the developing unit 27, and allows the exposure position to be adjusted. It functions to maintain a constant value and improve resolution.

When a command to start displaying image information is input by operating the scanning plate 3, the belt 9 is rotated by the rotation of the motor M.
starts rotating at a predetermined speed.

Further, the laser beam scanning exposure carried out on the belt 9 of designated image information by the exposure device 21 is performed by the rollers 7 and 8.
Begins on the inner side of the belt between. A toner developing device 27 is disposed on the outer surface of the belt in this exposure section, and toner is applied to the outer surface of the belt at the same time as exposure based on the image forming principle disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 56-197410 and No. 56-197412. By acting, toner images corresponding to the exposed images are sequentially formed. The toner images sequentially formed on the outer surface of the belt are displayed through the display image viewing window hole 2 on the front panel of the exterior casing as the belt rotates.
When the belt 9 rotates from bottom to top and moves to the window hole range position, the rotation of the belt 9 is temporarily stopped. As a result, an image is displayed on the window hole 2, and the display window glass 4
The image is visible through the

The toner image on the outer surface of the belt after being displayed reaches the toner developing unit 27 as the belt rotates.
A new toner image is formed by undergoing cleaning with a brush and simultaneous exposure and development.

Now, in the image display device having the above structure, toner scattering due to movement of the belt 9 is prevented,
Further, an embodiment of a belt coupling mechanism according to the present invention that prevents toner from going around to the back surface of the belt 9 will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5.

Near both ends of the support rollers 5, 6, 7, 8, sprocket wheels 10, 11, 12, 13 are provided coaxially with the rollers, as shown in FIG. 2, and each of these sprocket wheels is equipped with an endless chain. I'm hanging on to 14.

One of the opposing comrades of a large number of link plates forming the chain of the pair of chains 14 is connected by a stay 16, and the belt 9 is detachably attached to the stay 16, and a mounting part 18 that also serves as a means for connecting the belt.
is formed. The stay 16 will be described in detail later, but in this case, the coupling means is constructed in cooperation with the mechanism of the main body.

FIG. 4 is a longitudinal side view of the belt 9 of this embodiment, showing a base 30 constituting the belt 9, mounting members 33, 34 that engage with the stay 16, and the base 3 and the mounting members 33, 34. The image carrying belt 9
is configured.

The image bearing surface of the belt 9 is the surface indicated by the arrow A, and the belt 9 is attached to the main unit so that the traveling direction of the belt 9 is the direction indicated by the arrow B. In this way, since the mounting members 33 and 34 are attached to both ends of the belt base 30 via the rubbers 31 and 32, the effect of absorbing the swinging when the belt 9 is turned by the support rollers can be achieved. have

On the other hand, near the rear end of the belt base 30 in the advancing direction, as shown by arrow C, is a free end long enough to fully cover the mounting portion.

In addition, each of the above-mentioned rubbers 31 and 32 is attached to the base body 3 of the belt.
0, the portions that come into contact with the rollers 5, 6, 7, and 8 are chamfered 32a so that they pass smoothly over the rollers. Further, the rubber 31 is conductive rubber, and electrically connects the conductive layer on the belt base 30 and the mounting member 33.

FIG. 5 is a partially sectional perspective view of the vicinity of the mounting portion 18, and FIG. 6 is a side sectional view.

In the figure, a protrusion 1 provided on one of the link plates of the chain 14 and extending in the direction of the belt 9
A stay 16 is fixed to 5 by a pin 17. As described above, the outer stay 16 is similarly fixed to the chain on the opposite side (not shown), and is installed between the opposite chains.

A pair of small diameter round bar members 35 is fixed to the stay 16 via a thin plate 36, and mounting members 33 and 34 are engaged with the small diameter round bar members 35 as shown in the figure.

In the figure, A indicates an image bearing surface, and the belt 9 moves in the direction of arrow B.

To attach the belt 9 to the device in this manner, first, as shown in FIG.
The belt base body 30 is engaged with the mounting portion 18 respectively.
The free end C of the belt 9 is attached to the image bearing surface A so as to cover the image bearing surface A.
Adhere to the side with double-sided adhesive tape 37.

In this case, if the portion of the photoreceptor that contacts the double-sided adhesive tape 37 is peeled off in advance, peeling of the photoreceptor on the image bearing surface A can be prevented. Furthermore, by covering the mounting portion 18 in the direction shown in the figure with respect to the traveling direction, it is possible to reduce the adhesion of toner when passing near the developing device 2.

By attaching the belt 9 to the apparatus as described above, since the attachment portion 18 is covered by the belt base 30, the attachment portion 18 is separated from the toner even when passing near the developing device 27, and the attachment portion 18 is covered with the belt base body 30. toner becomes difficult to adhere to.

Additionally, a belt base 30 covering the mounting portion 18
is grounded to the main body of the device through the stay 16 via the conductive rubber 31 and the mounting member 33,
Toner is difficult to adhere to.

Therefore, toner scattering and toner wrapping around the back surface of the belt 9, as shown in the conventional example, almost no longer occur.

Further, when the present invention is used in an image display device as in this embodiment, it is possible to not only prevent the user from feeling strange when looking at the belt attachment part 18, but also to prevent the user from feeling uncomfortable when looking at the belt attachment part 18. This prevents toner from entering the concave and convex portions that are essential to the above, or from passing around the optical information source inside the photoreceptor through the space of the mounting portion and contaminating this optical information source with toner. Although the above embodiment shows an example in which the present invention is applied to an image display device, the present invention may also be applied to an image forming device having a function of transferring a toner image visualized on an image bearing belt to a transfer paper or the like. However, the same effects as in the above embodiment can be obtained.

Furthermore, in addition to the method using a laser beam as shown in the above embodiment, the image exposure means also uses a method in which a reflected light image from the document is formed on an image bearing belt, and a method in which a toner image forming apparatus without an exposure means uses an Agnes stylus or the like. The present invention can also be applied to an apparatus using a developing method, and the present invention can be used regardless of the toner image forming means.

FIG. 7 is a side view of an image carrying belt showing another embodiment of the present invention, and in the modified embodiment shown in FIG.
image bearing belts, each end of which covers the mounting portion 18.

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to prevent foreign matter from entering from the joint portion without impairing the ease of attaching and detaching the image carrying belt, and it is also possible to form an image in the entire circumferential direction of the belt, and to The effect is that the parts do not peel off.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of an image display device to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied, FIG. 2 is a partially sectional perspective view, FIG. 3 is a longitudinal sectional view, and FIG. 4 is an embodiment of the present invention. Longitudinal side view of the image-bearing belt of No. 5
The figure is a partial cross-sectional perspective view of the vicinity of the image carrying belt attachment part.
6 is a side sectional view, and FIG. 7 is a side view showing a modification of the belt shown in FIG. 4. 5, 6, 7, 8...Roller, 9...Image carrying belt, 16...Stay, 18...Image carrying belt mounting portion, 27...Developing device, 30...Belt base, 3
1, 32... Rubber, 33, 34... Mounting member, 3
7...Double-sided adhesive tape.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In order to form a rotatable image carrying belt using at least one image carrying sheet, attaching members are provided at the leading end in the sheet rotation direction and at the rear end thereof, and the attaching members are attached to the sheet moving direction. The belt is attached to a stay provided perpendicularly to the belt, and a portion of the sheet that is further rearward than the attachment member on the rear end side of the sheet covers the joint portion of the attachment member and the stay, and the entire circumferential direction of the belt is image-bearing. A coupling mechanism for an image carrying belt characterized by covering it with a surface.