JPH06124038A - Copying device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a copying device capable of detecting both of the presence of a developing cartridge and the rotation of a magnet roller. CONSTITUTION:The copying device has the developing cartridge 10 freely attachably/detachably provided on a device main body 1, the magnet roller 11 of the developing cartridge 10 is connected with a motor 26 provided on the device main body 1 via a coupling 32 and simultaneously, a gear 27a is provided on one end of the magnet roller 11. On the side of the device main body, a gear meshed with the gear 27a and having a rotary encoder 28 is provided and moreover, a rotation detecting sensor 29 for detecting the rotation of the rotary encoder 28 is provided so as to be opposite to both sides of the end edge part of the encoder 28.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a copying machine, and more particularly to a copying machine capable of detecting the presence / absence of a developing cartridge and the rotation of a magnet roller.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As is well known, many proposals have already been made for a copying machine, and an electrophotographic copying machine is essentially the mainstream. FIG. 5 is a schematic explanatory view showing an example of the configuration of such an electrophotographic copying apparatus. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a copying apparatus main body, and an original placing table 2 on which an original 25 is placed and an original -3 are provided on an upper portion thereof, while the copying apparatus main body 1 is rotatably disposed. With the photosensitive drum 13 as the center, the optical system including the charger 14, the irradiation lamp 15, the rod lens array 24, etc. from the 12 o'clock position in the clockwise direction in the drawing, the developing device 1
0, a transfer device 12, and a cleaning device 17 are arranged. In this case, the developing device 10 includes the magnet roller 11, the stirring roller 23, the toner sensor SE2,
It is composed of a supply roller 22, an agitator 21, etc.,
In recent years, a unit having a structure in which a developer is detachably mounted in a cartridge system while the developer is built in has become popular.

Further, reference numeral 18 in FIG. 5 denotes a storage portion for storing the toner removed by the cleaning device 17. Further, 5 is a manual paper feeding unit, which is a means for feeding paper to the transfer unit 12 via the paper feeding roller 6 and the registration roller 8, while 19 is a heating roller and 20 is a pressure roller. The both form a fixing device. In the figure, SE1, SE5, SE6, and SE3 are sensors provided to detect a conveying process from sheet feeding to fixing and discharging the sheet, and SE4.
Is a sensor for controlling heating conditions of the fixing device.

Next, the operation of the copying machine having the configuration shown in FIG. 5 will be described with reference to FIG. An original placing table 2 is installed above the copying apparatus main body 1, and an original 25 placed on the original placing table 2 is irradiated by an irradiation lamp 15 and its reflected light is reflected by a rod lens array 24. The photosensitive drum 13 rotatably disposed is exposed through the. The surface of the photoconductor drum 13 is uniformly charged by the charger 14 arranged in contact with the photoconductor drum 13, and the reflected light from the document 25 is exposed to expose the photoconductor drum 13 onto the photoconductor drum 13. An electrostatic latent image is formed. This electrostatic latent image is developed by the toner supplied from the developing device 10 and a toner image corresponding to the image of the document 25 is formed on the photosensitive drum 13. Subsequently, paper is supplied from the manual paper feed unit 5 to the photoconductor drum 13 via the registration roller 8, and the toner image is transferred onto the paper by the transfer device 12 arranged in contact with the photoconductor drum 13 and fixed. It is adapted to be conveyed to a heating roller 19 and a pressure roller 20 which constitute the apparatus.

After the transfer of the toner image onto the paper, the transfer device 1
The toner adhered on the surface 2 is moved onto the photoconductor drum 13 by applying a reverse polarity voltage to the toner to the transfer device 12.
The toner moved from the transfer unit 12 is transferred to the photosensitive drum 13
The toner remaining on the top is removed by the cleaning device 17 and is stored in the toner storage portion 18. Further, the surface of the photosensitive drum 13 is uniformly discharged by the direct light of the irradiation lamp. When the sheet is conveyed to the fixing device, the toner image on the sheet is fixed on the sheet by being heated and pressed by the heating roller 19 and the pressure roller 20 in the fixing device, and then the sheet is discharged.

[0006]

The structure and operation of the conventional copying machine are as described above with reference to FIG. 5, but in this case, the developing device 10 is developed as described above. It is generally supplied as a so-called disposable cartridge system containing a developing agent in a detachable manner, and a stirring roller 23 for stirring the built-in developing agent and a developing agent (toner) on the surface of the photosensitive drum 13. A motor for rotating a magnet roller 11 for conveying an electrostatic latent image into a toner image is built in the copying apparatus main body 1, and when the developing apparatus 10 is mounted, the motor and arbitrary means are used. By mounting the magnet roller 11 so that the shaft end of the magnet roller 11 is fitted into the coupling portion to be connected, the rotation of the motor can be immediately transmitted to the magnet roller 11. Ri, and also the developing device 10 can be used detachably with one touch as so-called developing cartridge.

By the way, when placed in an electrophotographic copying machine,
Needless to say, the developing device 10 (developing cartridge) is mounted, but after mounting, the magnet roller 11 and the stirring roller 23 are rotated at any time to perform development by proper mixing of toner and carrier. It is also important to stabilize the concentration level of the agent. Therefore, in the conventional apparatus, in addition to the means for detecting the presence / absence of the mounting of the developing cartridge, a means for detecting the rotation status of the magnet roller 11 is provided. However, with such means, separate detection mechanisms are required, so that the number of parts in the entire apparatus is unavoidably increased, which may lead to an increase in price. Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a copying apparatus capable of detecting the presence / absence of a developing cartridge and the rotating condition of a magnet roller.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and its gist is to provide a copying apparatus in which a developing cartridge is detachably provided in the apparatus main body. , The magnet roller of the developing cartridge is connected to a motor provided in the main body of the apparatus through a coupling, and a gear is provided at one end of the magnet roller, and the main body of the apparatus is provided with a rotary member that meshes with the gear. A copying machine is provided in which a gear having an encoder is provided, while a rotation detection sensor for detecting rotation of the rotary encoder is provided so as to face both sides of an edge portion of the encoder.

[0009]

According to the present invention, the magnet roller of the developing device (developing cartridge) is detachably attached to the motor provided in the copying apparatus main body through the coupling, and the gear is provided at one end of the magnet roller. The gear engages with the gear provided on the device body side.In this case, the gear on the device body side is equipped with a rotary encoder, and the rotation detection sensor is arranged so as to face both sides of the end edge of the encoder. Because it is provided,
The mounting of the developer cartridge is detected by the mounting of the magnet roller, and the rotation of the magnet roller is transmitted through the transmission of the rotation of the gear to output from the rotation detection sensor, so that the rotation of the magnet roller is also detected. be able to.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. Developing device 10 in the copying machine of the present invention
An outline of a main part of the configuration (hereinafter referred to as the developing cartridge 10) and its vicinity will be described with reference to the front view of FIG. 1 and the side view of FIG. First, as shown in FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a copying apparatus main body provided with an original cover 3, and like the conventional apparatus shown in FIG. 5, the developing cartridge 10 is detachably provided facing the photosensitive drum 13. Has been. Further, the copying machine main body 1 is provided with a motor 26, and is configured to rotate a pulley 31 via a belt 30. On the other hand, a gear 27a is provided at one end of the magnet roller 11, and the end portion of the magnet roller 11 is fitted into a recess formed at one end of the pulley 31 as shown in the side view of FIG. The coupling 32 is configured. As a result, the rotation of the motor 26 can be transmitted to the magnet roller 11.

On the other hand, the gear 27a meshes with a gear 27b provided on the copying apparatus main body 1 side, and the gear 27b.
As shown in FIG. 2, a rotary encoder 28 is provided side by side. Further, the copying apparatus main body 1 is provided with a rotation detection sensor 29 for detecting the rotation of the encoder 28.
It is provided so as to face both sides of the edge portion of the encoder. Needless to say, magnets
Since the roller 11 is formed integrally with the developing cartridge 10, when the developing cartridge 10 is removed, the magnet roller 11 is also removed in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 2 and the coupling 32 is disconnected, and the gears 27a and 2
Since the mesh with 7b is also disengaged, rotation of the rotary encoder 28 does not occur.

A front view of FIG. 3 shows an outline of a main part of this situation. As is apparent from the drawing, since the developing cartridge 10 is not mounted, the gear 27a does not exist, and the drive from the motor 26 is performed. Since the force transmission means is lost, the rotation of the rotary encoder 28 does not occur, and therefore the output from the rotation detection sensor 29 does not occur, so that it is immediately detected that the developing cartridge is not mounted. On the other hand, when the developing cartridge 10 is mounted as shown in FIG. 1, the rotation of the motor 26 is transmitted to the magnet roller 11 via the coupling 32, and the rotary encoder 28 is rotated via the gears 27a and 26b. However, since the pulse waveform is output from the rotation detection sensor 29 and the output level of the rotation detection sensor 29 changes in this way, not only the presence or absence of the cartridge but also the rotation detection of the drive source such as the motor 26 can be performed. It will be possible.

Finally, the operation of the copying apparatus of the present invention will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. First, in step 1 (S1), the power is turned on (Power O
N) and a CPU (central CPU) for performing various automatic controls of this electrophotographic copying apparatus in step 2 (S2).
Processing unit), and initial operations for setting various circuits around the CPU, and initializing them as shown in step 3 (S3). Note that, in the flowchart of FIG. 4, details of steps 2 (S2) to 7 (S7) of “warm up” are shown in steps 4 (S4) to 12 (S12) of FIG.

Next, after initialization is performed in step 3 (S3), the motor 26 shown in FIG. 1 is turned on in step 4 (S4). Next, it is judged in step 5 (S5) whether or not the rotary encoder 28 shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 is rotated and a pulse is output from the rotation detection sensor 29, and if a pulse is output ( Y
es), after recognizing that the developing cartridge 11 is properly mounted, the motor 26 is once turned off in step 6 (S6), and the warm-up process of step 7 (S7) shifts to the subsequent copying process. However, if the pulse of the encoder 28 is not detected by the rotation detection sensor 29 in step 5 (S5) (No), it is further determined in step 8 (S8) whether or not it is in the "toner empty" state, and actually, If it is in the "toner empty" state (the developer is empty) (Yes),
It is determined in step 9 (S9) that there is no developing cartridge 11 (that is, the developing cartridge 11 is not mounted), and the motor 26 is turned off in step 10 (S10).

On the other hand, in step 8 (S8),
When it is recognized that the toner is not in the "toner empty" state (No) and the rotation detection sensor 29 does not detect the pulse, the drive-related trouble is determined in step 11 (S11), and the step 12 ( S
Similarly in 12), the motor 26 is turned off. On the other hand, as described above, when the pulse of the rotation detection sensor 29 is detected in step 5 (S5) (Yes
s), after the step 7 (S7) of performing warm-up, it is checked in step 13 (S13) whether the heating state of the fixing device is "Ready" (Yes / No), the set temperature is reached, and copying is performed. "Ready" (Yes)
Then, turn on the copy switch in step 14 (S14).
If you switch on (Yes),
In step 15 (S15), the copy process (copy process) is executed, and in step 16 (S16), the process returns to the desired step depending on whether the copy is finished or continued, and the copy is finished (Yes).
In the case of s), it is determined in step 14 (S14) whether or not the copy switch is turned on again.

[0016]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a copying apparatus capable of detecting the presence / absence of a developing cartridge and detecting the rotation of a magnet / roller. The above effect is extremely remarkable.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view for explaining the outline of a main part of an embodiment of a copying apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a front view illustrating the outline of the main parts of the apparatus of FIG. 1 when the developing device is removed.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the copying apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic explanatory diagram showing a configuration example of a conventional electrophotographic copying apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Copying Machine Main Body 2 Original Placement Table 3 Original Cover 5 Manual Paper Feeding Section 6 Paper Feeding Roller 8 Registration Roller 10 Developing Device 11 Magnet / Roller 12 Transfer Device 13 Photosensitive Drum 14 Charging Device 15 Irradiation Lamp 17 Cleaning Device 18 Storage 19 Heating roller 20 Pressure roller 21 Agitator 22 Replenishing roller 23 Stirring roller 24 Rod lens array 25 Original document SE1 to SE5 Sensor 26 Motor 27a, 27b Gear 28 Rotary encoder 29 Rotation detection sensor 30 Belt 31 Pulley 32 Coupling

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A copying machine in which a developing cartridge is detachably provided in the apparatus main body, wherein a magnet roller of the developing cartridge is connected to a motor provided in the apparatus main body through a coupling, and the magnet A gear is provided at one end of the roller, and a gear having a rotary encoder that meshes with the gear is provided on the apparatus main body side, while a rotation detection sensor for detecting rotation of the rotary encoder is provided at the end of the encoder. A copying machine, characterized in that it is provided so as to face both edges.