JPH0577477A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a low-cost image forming device having no need for an elastic body, such as a spring, for applying a tension to an aperture electrode. CONSTITUTION:A substrate 61 is bonded to an aperture electrode body 1 with a thermally curable adhesive and kept at a high temperature for curing the adhesive. At this time, a difference in thermal expansion coefficient causes the aperture electrode body 1 to expand by a larger amount. When this is cooled to an ordinary temperature after the adhesive is cured, the aperture electrode body 1 is shrunk by a larger amount. Thus, a tension remains in the aperture electrode body 1. As a result, the aperture electrode body 1 has no bending rigidity because it is made of a polyimide film of several tens of micrometers, but a tension applied to the aperture electrode body 1 generates a force to a strain, and the polyimide film is vibrated following a vibrator. As a result, only an aperture-proximity part 64 having a tension is vibrated to shake off toner adhering to apertures 6.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a copying machine, a printer,
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that can be used for plotters, facsimiles, and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an image recording apparatus for controlling the passage of toner particles through an aperture to obtain an image on a support by applying an image signal to an electrode having an aperture has been proposed in US Pat. No. 3,689,935. There is. This proposal consists of a continuous conductor layer (reference electrode) on one side across an insulator layer and a plurality of conductive layers (control electrodes) insulated from each other on the other side. An aperture electrode body having at least one row of apertures penetrating through three layers for each control electrode, a means for selectively applying a potential between the control electrode and the reference electrode, and an aperture by the applied potential. It comprises means for projecting charged particles so as to modulate the flow of toner particles therethrough, and means for positioning the support in the particle flow path by the relative movement of the support and the aperture electrode body.

However, when recording is performed using the above-mentioned image recording apparatus, there is a problem in that the aperture electrode portion is clogged with toner. For example 240
In order to obtain the recording density of DPI, the dot size is 100 μm at the maximum. Therefore, the inner diameter of the opening electrode in the control electrode needs to be very small, about 50 μm, and the average particle size is about 10 μm. May have clogged the opening electrode portion due to environmental changes, dust, and the like.

For this reason, the present applicant applies tension to only the aperture portion of the electrode with an aperture to apply vibration, so that the aperture portion, which is always applied with tension, is likely to vibrate, toner is difficult to adhere, and Even if the toner adheres, the toner is immediately removed, and therefore, an image recording apparatus has been proposed which can always obtain a stable image output.

[0005]

However, since an elastic body such as a spring is required to apply tension only to the aperture portion of the electrode with aperture, it becomes expensive.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an inexpensive image forming apparatus which does not require an elastic body such as a spring to apply tension to an electrode with an aperture. Has a purpose.

[0007]

To achieve this object, the image forming apparatus of the present invention controls the passage of the charged toner through the aperture by applying an image signal to an electrode having an aperture. Then, in an image forming apparatus for forming an image on a support provided on the opposite side with the toner supply source and the electrode with an aperture interposed therebetween, a vibrating means for vibrating the electrode with an aperture in order to prevent adhesion of toner to the aperture. And a supporting member that supports the electrode with an aperture and has a lower coefficient of thermal expansion than the electrode with an aperture, and after heating the electrode with the aperture and the supporting member, each of them is coupled with an aperture. A residual tensile force is generated between the electrode and the support member.

[0008]

According to the present invention having the above structure, the tensile force is left only in the vicinity of the aperture of the electrode with aperture, and the vibrating means prevents the toner from adhering to the aperture.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of an image forming apparatus 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in detail in FIG. 2, the aperture electrode body 1 has a reference electrode 3 on the toner supply source side of the insulating layer 2 and a control electrode 4 on the support side.
A large number of apertures 6 penetrating the insulating layer 2 and the control electrode 4 are formed in a row and in the width of the support. The insulating layer 2 is formed of a resin film or the like, and a supporting member 61 having high rigidity is bonded to the aperture electrode body 1 on the side of the reference electrode 3 near the aperture 6 in a state where tension remains in the aperture electrode body 1.

A method of adhering the support member 61 to the aperture electrode body 1 in a state where tension remains is to adhere the support member 61 to the aperture electrode body 1 with a thermosetting adhesive.
When kept at a high temperature for curing, the aperture electrode body 1 is made of a polyimide film, and the support member 61 is made of aluminum. After the aperture electrode body 1 expands more due to the difference in the coefficient of thermal expansion, the adhesive is cured. When cooled to room temperature, the aperture electrode body 1 contracts more this time, and the tension remains in the aperture electrode body 1.

[0012] The strength of the tension is 10 to 1000 grams centimeter per unit length in the width direction, especially 100.
~ 200 grams centimeters is preferred.

Therefore, it is possible to apply tension to the aperture electrode body 1 without using an elastic body such as a spring.

Therefore, the aperture electrode body 1 has a size of several 10 μm.
Since it is a polyimide film of m, it has no bending rigidity, but a force against strain is generated by applying tension, and the polyimide film easily vibrates following the vibrator.

A plurality of piezo elements 66 are adhered to the back surface of the support member 61.

A connector 63 is soldered to the control electrode 4 side of the non-aperture vicinity portion 65.

In FIG. 1, on the left side of the image forming apparatus 100, a cassette 50 for accommodating the support 10 and a support 1 are provided.
Half-moon roller 51 that supplies 0 one by one, support supply roller 52 that sends support 10 downstream, and chute 5
3 are provided.

On the downstream side, on the control electrode side of the aperture electrode body 1, the support carrier roller 14, the sensor 57, and
A back electrode 11 is disposed in contact with the back surface of the support body 10, and each control electrode 4 is connected to a control voltage drive circuit 8 that generates a voltage according to an image signal via a connector 63. The back electrode 11 is connected to a negative high voltage power supply 12.

On the reference electrode side of the aperture electrode body 1, a toner carrying belt 26 is wound between the driving roller 20 and the backup roller 24, and the charge removing brush 31 is provided on the back side of the surface of the carrying belt facing the aperture electrode body. Are arranged. These are housed in the toner case 21 together with the toner 22 stored near the supply roller 23, the toner carrying belt 26 that is in contact with the supply roller 23, and the carrying roller 30 having a clearance of 0.1 to 0.4 mm. The supply roller 23 has a sponge or the like, and the supporting roller 30 has a resin surface.

Further downstream, the fixing device 13 and the chute 5
The operation will be described in detail below in the above-described configuration in which the 4, the discharge roller 55 and the tray 56 are arranged.

The support 10 housed in the cassette 50 is
Half moon roller 51 feeds out one by one and shoots 5
3 is guided by the supporting member feeding roller 52 and is conveyed to the supporting member conveying roller 14. When the tip of the support 10 is detected by the sensor 57, the toner transport belt 26 rotates between the backup roller 24 and the drive roller 20 by the rotation of the drive roller 20 in the arrow direction, and the toner 22 is rotated by the rotation of the supply roller 23 in the arrow direction. Is rubbed against the carrying roller 30 to be positively triboelectrically charged, and then carried on the toner carrying belt 26 by electrostatic coating with a high voltage power source.

The carried toner is conveyed toward the surface facing the aperture electrode, and on the upstream side of this position, from the back side of the conveying belt 26, the discharging belt 31 is used by the discharging belt 31.
6 is discharged. A high-frequency voltage is applied to the piezo element 66 at the position facing the aperture electrode to vibrate the support member 61, the vibration of the support member 61 propagates through the air, and the surface of the conveyor belt 26 vibrates. Therefore, the conveyor belt 26
The toner 22 carried on is subjected to a force by the vibration acceleration of the conveyor belt 26, and is released from the image force, the van der Waals force, and the adhesion force such as the electrostatic force with the conveyor belt 26.

On the other hand, at this time, when a negative voltage is applied to the control electrode 4 in accordance with an image signal from the storage means (not shown), the aperture 6 of the applied control electrode 4 goes from the back surface to the front surface of the aperture 6. The toner 22 having a line of electric force and being positively charged is drawn from the back surface of the aperture 6 to the front surface, and is further propelled and held on the support by the flying electric field formed by the back electrode 11. And an image portion is formed. Aperture 6 corresponding to the non-image part
By applying the same potential or a positive voltage as that of the reference electrode 3 to the control electrode 4, the flying electric field by the back electrode 11 is shielded or the reference electrode 3 in the aperture 6 goes from the front surface to the back surface. By forming the lines of electric force, the toner 22 is prevented from passing through the aperture 6. By repeating this process while conveying the support 10, a toner image is formed on the entire surface of the support 10.

When forming a toner image, in order to prevent the aperture 6 from being clogged with the toner 22, a high frequency voltage is applied to the piezo element 66 to cause it to vibrate, and the support member 61 is oscillated.
By vibrating, only the aperture vicinity portion 64 to which tension is applied vibrates, and the toner 22 attached to the aperture 6 is shaken off. That is, since the aperture electrode body 1 is a polyimide film with a thickness of several tens of μm, it does not have bending rigidity, but a force against strain is generated by applying tension, and the polyimide film vibrates following the vibrator. As a result, only the vicinity of the aperture 64 to which the tension is applied vibrates, and the toner 22 attached to the aperture 6 is shaken off.

The support on which the toner image is formed is the fixing device 1.
After passing through 3, the image is fixed on the support 10. Further, the tray 5 is guided by the chute 54 and is discharged by the discharge roller 55.
It is discharged to 6.

Further, the present invention can be modified without departing from the scope of the invention without being limited to the above-mentioned embodiments.

[0027]

As is clear from the above description,
According to the present invention, tension is applied to the electrode with an aperture without using an elastic body such as a spring, and the electrode with an aperture is vibrated by the vibrating means, thereby eliminating dirt and clogging of the aperture.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing an embodiment embodying the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing details of an aperture electrode body.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Aperture Electrode Body 2 Insulating Layer 3 Reference Electrode 4 Control Electrode 6 Aperture 8 Control Voltage Drive Circuit 10 Support 11 Backside Electrode 22 Toner 26 Toner Transport Belt 30 Carrying Roller 61 Supporting Member 66 Piezo Element

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A support provided on an opposite side of a toner supply source and an electrode with an aperture by controlling an aperture passage of charged toner by applying an image signal to an electrode having an aperture by a control means. In an image forming apparatus for forming an image on a sheet, a vibrating unit that vibrates the electrode with apertures to prevent toner from adhering to the apertures, supports the electrode with apertures, and has a coefficient of thermal expansion greater than that of the electrode with apertures. Is provided with a low supporting member, and after heating the electrode with aperture and the supporting member, each is coupled to generate a residual tensile force between the electrode with aperture and the supporting member. Forming equipment.