JPH06132683A - Cooling and ventilating devices of electronic equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain the cooling and ventilating devices of an electronic equipment maintaining the cooling and ventilating capacities while having a low noise by constituting a fan unit for being able to go up and down directly under an exhaust port of an equipment base plate between a rising position and a falling position. CONSTITUTION:When a fan 14 is located directly under an exhaust port 22 formed on the base plate 21 of a basket body 20, an air flow is formed by its rotation, the inside air is uniformly exhausted from a branch tube of an air duct 9 from the exhaust port 22 through an air chamber 23. Then, in a fan unit 25, the fan 14 and an ozone filter 26 are housed inside a box body 27 and the pieces 27a guided projected from the upper parts of its both sides are free slidably engaged with a pair of guide rails 28 provided on the base part 21 so as to make the equipment base movable in the front and rear directions. Accordingly, since one exhaust port 22 is formed on the base of the equipment and one exhaust fan 14 of a large calibre is arranged directly under the exhaust port 22 so as to realize a low noise, a cut of the fan number and simplification of software due to the reduced control signals.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an improvement of a device for cooling and ventilation in electronic equipment such as a copying machine, and particularly to a cooling and ventilation capacity without increasing the number of fans and the area of openings. The present invention relates to a cooling and ventilation device for electronic devices that can reduce noise while maintaining the above.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an image forming apparatus using an electrophotographic process such as a copying machine, a printer, a facsimile machine, and other electronic equipment, various heat-generating components and sources of ozone and the like are provided in a housing. Due to the need for internal cooling and ventilation, there is a ventilation and ventilation mechanism consisting of fans, ducts, vents, etc. The heat and ozone inside the equipment are exhausted from the ventilation port (exhaust port) by the fan, but in the conventional image forming apparatus, there are multiple ventilation ports provided at appropriate places on the side of the device, and the ventilation port prevents internal noise. It is a cause of external transmission. Further, with the downsizing of the device, a small-diameter fan has come to be used, and since it is rotated at a high speed in order to exert a sufficient cooling and ventilation function, noise is increased. By the way, in recent years, when the influence of the noise generated by the office equipment in the office on the work environment has become a problem, it has been proved effective to reduce the opening of the casing of the equipment as a noise countermeasure. It is also clear that noise cannot be reduced by arranging fans near the sources of heat and ozone and exhausting them at high speed from the vents on the side of the machine as in the past. . This is because the wind noises of multiple fans and the drive noises of the machine leak from the vents. As means for solving such a problem, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. Sho 6
In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-33448, a diffusion space is provided in the path of the exhaust flow, and the exhaust air is exhausted from the bottom surface of the device, so that the exhaust flow velocity is reduced by the diffusion space and problems such as noise generation are eliminated. However, since this device does not attempt to reduce the number of fans, it is an incomplete measure against noise.

Next, FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an air flow inside a conventional copying machine, and FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an air flow in a cleaning section. An optical system 1 including a strong light source is arranged on the upper part of the device, and an optical fan 2 arranged on the left side of the device introduces outside air from a ventilation hole on the left side as indicated by an arrow to remove air overheated by the light source. It exhausts from the right side. An image forming unit including a photosensitive drum, a developing device, a cleaning unit, and the like is located at the center of the copying machine. The cleaning unit 3 collects the toner removed from the photosensitive drum by the blade, and the air path is devised so as to prevent the collected toner from scattering outside the unit. That is,
As shown in FIG. 12, air is sucked by a vacuum fan 6 installed in the main body of the apparatus so that a route through which the cleaning filter 4 and the conveyed toner film 5 pass is formed from the back surface of the cleaning unit 3. Therefore, the inside of the unit becomes a negative pressure, and the toner that is about to be scattered when the blade is released is sucked into the inside of the unit and is not scattered to the outside.

Further, the air around the charger 8 is introduced from the opening on the upper surface of the cleaning unit housing 7 and guided to the vacuum fan 6. As shown in FIG. 11, the air is sucked by the vacuum fan 6 and is exhausted to the outside of the copying machine through the air duct 9. In this conventional example, the air duct 9 is accidentally opened on the bottom surface of the device, but in reality, the air duct is not provided and the air is often exhausted from a vent provided on the rear surface of the device. As an air flow other than the above, there is one formed by an exhaust fan 11 for cooling the fixing unit 10 and a DC power supply cooling fan 13 for cooling the DC power supply 12. As described above, in the conventional copying machine, since the number of fans is large and many openings for discharging the exhaust air are formed in various places, the sound of the fan when the copying machine is on standby and the sound when operating are inevitably leaked. The noise is loud.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above, and it is possible to reduce the noise while maintaining the cooling and ventilation capacities while suppressing the number of fans and the area of the openings to the minimum necessary. It is intended to provide a cooling and ventilation device for electronic devices.

[0006]

To achieve the above object, the present invention relates to an electronic device having an exhaust fan on the bottom surface of a housing, wherein a fan unit including the exhaust fan is provided on the periphery of the exhaust port immediately below the exhaust port of the bottom plate of the device. It is characterized in that it can be moved up and down between an ascending rising position and a separated descending position, and when the fan unit is in the descending position, the fan unit is arranged to be movable in a predetermined direction at the bottom of the device.

The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration and air flow of a first embodiment of a copying machine to which the present invention is applied. A large-diameter fan 14 is arranged on the bottom of the device, and an air duct 9 is provided near a heat source, an ozone generation source, and the like. And the outlets of the air introduced from the respective suction ports face the large-diameter fan 14. It goes without saying that an exhaust opening is provided on the bottom surface of the device facing the fan 14. The specific location of the suction port of the air duct 9 includes the vicinity of the light source of the optical system 1, the cleaning unit 3,
The fixing unit 10, the charging charger 8, the DC power source 12 and the like can be mentioned. In FIG. 1, the suction port is not shown in order to avoid complication of the drawing. The outside air introduction port that allows exhaust from the exhaust port on the bottom surface is provided at an appropriate place on the side surface of the device, but the minimum necessary opening area is sufficient.

The present embodiment is also characterized in that the moving mechanism of the fan, which will be described later, allows the fan to move back and forth between the operating position and the withdrawal position for filter replacement. As described above, in the first embodiment of the present invention, only one exhaust port exists on the bottom surface of the device, and if the sound absorbing material is spread on the floor surface directly below the copying machine, the noise prevention effect can be further enhanced. Since only the minimum necessary outside air introduction port is provided on the side surface of the machine, the number of holes and the area of the side surface are reduced, so that sound leakage from the side surface is reduced. Since the number of fans is only one, it becomes easy to control the fans.

Next, FIG. 2 shows the cooling of the second embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 1 is a configuration explanatory view of a copying machine provided with a ventilation device,
The same parts as those in the embodiment are designated by the same reference numerals and the duplicated description is omitted, but the difference is that the outside air inlet is provided on the bottom surface of the device. By forming the outside air inlet at the position indicated by A in the figure, the airflow as shown can be formed in cooperation with the fan 14. In this embodiment, it is not necessary to provide an outside air introduction port on the side surface of the apparatus, and the side surface of the copying machine can be completely sealed by closing the gap formed in the joint of the exterior. Sound leakage is 0. For this reason, even if a fan is installed at a site that needs to blow air,
There is no fear that noise will increase. Further, if a fan 15 for suction is installed in the outside air introduction port A as needed, the cooling efficiency can be greatly improved. In addition, it is effective to pipe an air duct from the introduction port A to efficiently blow the air to a portion where cooling or air blowing is surely required. Examples of such a part include the optical system 1 and the cleaning unit 3, and by piping the air duct 9, the air can be concentrated and blown only to a desired part without being dispersed to an unnecessary part. Also in this embodiment, similarly to the above embodiment, the fan moving mechanism described later is configured to be able to move back and forth between the operating position and the withdrawal position for filter replacement.

Next, FIGS. 3 and 4 are perspective views and main parts showing an example of a moving mechanism for supporting and operating the fan 14 shown in each of the above-described embodiments so as to be able to move forward and backward on the bottom surface of the device. FIG. 3 is an enlarged view showing the rotation of the fan 14 when the fan 14 is located immediately below an exhaust port 22 formed at a proper position of a bottom plate 21 that constitutes the bottom of the housing 20 of the device, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. It is possible to form an air flow and discharge the internal air from the exhaust port 22 to the bottom of the device. The air chamber 23 of the air duct 9 is located immediately above the exhaust port 22 so that the air can be uniformly exhausted from the branch pipe of the air duct 9. This is because, if the air chamber 23 is not provided, only the amount of exhaust gas from the duct near the center of the fan 14 increases, and the exhaust gas from other ducts cannot be absorbed.

The fan unit 25, which is moved forward and backward by the moving mechanism, accommodates the fan 14 and the ozone filter 26 in a box 27, and is guided from the upper part of both side surfaces of the box 27. The fan unit 25 is movable in the front-back direction on the bottom surface of the device by slidably engaging the piece 27a with a pair of guide rails 28 provided on the bottom of the bottom plate 21. An elevating mechanism 29 for separating and approaching the unit from the bottom plate 21 is provided on both side surfaces of the box body 27.
When the unit 25 is in the lowered state, the pair of roller receiving plates 30 extending downward from the bottom plate 21 and the roller 57 of the elevating mechanism 29, which will be described later, are separated from each other.
Can be moved. Therefore, the fan unit 25 is
The guided piece 27a can move between a descending position where the guided piece 27a descends and slides on the guide rail 28, and an ascending position where the guided piece 27a floats from the guide rail 28 and is pressed against the bottom plate 21.
When the fan unit 25 is in the raised state and is in close contact with the bottom plate 21 (periphery of the exhaust port 22), the exhaust efficiency is high. To improve the adhesion between the fan 14 and the bottom plate 21,
In order to prevent the sound emission due to the vibration propagation, rubber or damping material 19 (of course, a ventilation hole or the like is formed) is arranged at an appropriate place on the upper surface of the box body of the fan unit 25.

As a means for driving the fan unit in the front-rear direction, for example, drive means composed of a fan unit moving motor 35 and a timing belt 36 is used. The timing belt 36 is endlessly stretched by a pair of pulleys that are arranged at a predetermined distance in the front-rear direction on the bottom surface of the device, and the timing belt 36 is placed at an appropriate position on the box 27 (for example, the guided piece 2).
The timing belt 36 can move the entire fan unit 25 in the front-back direction by being fixed to 7a) and driving one pulley by the motor 35. It is preferable that the fan unit 25 can be removed from the guide rail 28 when moving forward. A sensor 40 such as a photo interrupter is arranged at an appropriate position on one side surface of the box body 27 of the fan unit 25, and the inside of the sensor 40 is relatively moved from one guide rail 28 facing the sensor 40 when the fan unit is moved. Pass through the sensor 40
The projections 41a and 41b for turning on and off are fixed. The harness 43 for supplying electric power to the fan unit 25 and transmitting and receiving signals has a sufficient length so as to prevent the connector 44 from coming off from a plug or the like of the other party when the fan unit is moved, and is elastic. . The ozone filter 26 can be easily replaced by arranging the bottom surface of the box 27 to be openable and closable by the sliding lid 46. In addition, of course, a hole or the like for ensuring air permeability is formed in this lid.

Next, FIGS. 5 and 6 are schematic views showing an example of a mechanism for raising and lowering the fan unit in the embodiments of FIGS. 3 and 4. The raising and lowering mechanism 29 has an intermediate portion on the side surface of the box body. On the other hand, a lever 5 pivotally supported by a shaft 50.
1, a spring 52 that biases one end of the lever 51 in one direction (counterclockwise direction), and the other end (clockwise direction) that engages near the one end of the lever and resists the spring 52. A solenoid 53 for urging the lever 51 and two legs 55, 55 whose upper ends are pivotally supported by a pin 54 provided at the other end of the lever 51.
A roller 57 rotatably supported at the lower end of each leg 55, 55, and an elastic member 58 for urging the legs 55, 55 in a direction in which they approach each other at an intermediate portion, at least two The end portions of the link pieces 59 are pivotally supported with respect to each other, and the other end portions of the link pieces 59 are pivotally supported at the intermediate portions of the legs 55 so as to restrict the expansion range of the legs 55. It has an open range regulating means 60.

FIG. 6 shows the case in which the solenoid 53 is in the OFF state. At this time, the lever 51 rotates counterclockwise around the shaft 50 by the force of the spring 52 and pushes down the legs 55, 55. Therefore, the roller 57 at the lower end of the leg
Is pressed against the roller receiving plate 30 to spread the leg 55. As a reaction to the pressing operation of the leg 55 by the lever 51, the box body 27 rises and comes into close contact with the equipment bottom plate 21. The pushing operation of the fan unit 25 is performed immediately below the exhaust port 22. The fan unit 25 is attached to the equipment bottom plate 21.
When it is separated from the position, the solenoid 53 is turned on and the lever 51 is pulled down as shown in FIG.
Is separated from the roller receiving plate 30. Only in this state, the fan unit 25 can move. Fan unit 2
5 is in the raised position in FIG. 6, the upper surface of the unit is in close contact with the exhaust port 22, so the fan 14
When driven, the airflow shown in FIG. 1 or 2 can be formed. Further, by moving the state to the state shown in FIG. 5 and then operating the moving mechanism, the unit can be moved to the front side of the device and removed to enable the filter replacement work.

Next, the operation for moving the fan unit 25 will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. 7 (a) and 7 (b). The fan unit operates according to the flow shown in the figure by turning on the fan movement switch of the operation unit (not shown). If the service engineer replaces the ozone filter 26 of the fan 14, the fan moving switch does not have to be provided at a place of the operation unit that is always used by the user, and may be provided in the SP mode dedicated to the service engineer. May be. First, the mode for moving the fan unit 25 that is in close contact with the exhaust port 22 will be described with reference to FIG. First, turn on the fan movement switch
Then, the solenoid 53 is turned on and the roller 57 is pulled up from the roller receiving plate 30, so that the fan unit 25 is separated downward from the equipment bottom plate 21 (FIG. 5, step 100,
101). At this time, the fan position detection sensor 40 is turned on by the one projection 41a, and the timing belt 36 is driven by the forward rotation start of the fan unit motor 35 to move the fan unit 25 forward. When the sensor 40 separates from the protrusion 41a, the sensor is turned off, but the motor 35 continues to rotate, and the sensor 40 causes the other protrusion 4 to move.
When the position of 1b is reached and turned on again, the motor 35 stops driving. This is the limit of forward movement (steps 102 to 105). At this position, the filter is replaced (the fan unit is removed). At this time, the solenoid 53 is turned off so as not to overheat (step 106), so that the roller 57 projects downward and the fan unit 25 goes up.

Next, the procedure for returning the fan unit to the position directly below the exhaust port 22 will be described with reference to FIG. First, when the fan movement switch is turned on, the solenoid 53 is turned on,
The roller 57 and the leg 55 are pulled up, the reverse rotation of the motor 35 is started (steps 110 to 112), and the fan unit 25
To start moving backward. Front sensor 41b is OFF
After that, the motor 35 continues to rotate until the rear sensor 41a is turned on, and stops when the sensor 41a is turned on. Since the position where the motor 25 is turned off is directly below the exhaust port 22, the fan unit 25 is pressed against the bottom plate 21 by turning off the solenoid 53 (step 113-).
116).

Next, FIGS. 8 (a) and 8 (b) are views showing another structural example of the lifting mechanism of the fan unit, (a) showing a raised state and (b) showing a lowered state. ing. The lifting mechanism includes a motor 60 arranged on one side of the box 27,
The motor fixing bracket 61, the war gear 62 integrated with the output shaft of the lifting motor 60, and the worm gear 6
2, a spur gear 63 that meshes with the spur gear 63, a roller 64 that is rotatably supported on the surface of the spur gear 63 near the periphery thereof, and an upper end of the box gear 27.
Has a lower end portion pivotally supported by a leg 65, and a lever 67 for loosely fitting the roller 64 in an elongated hole 66 located at an intermediate portion. A pulse encoder 70 is integrated with the shaft protruding from the center of the end surface of the gear 62, and the light transmission type sensor 71 detects the number of pulses of the pulse encoder 70.

The lever 67 moves at a circular locus by the rotation of the spur gear 63.
When the leg 65 is in the position (protruding position) shown in FIG. 8A, the fan unit 27 is pulled up and brought into close contact with the bottom plate 21 (periphery of the exhaust port 22). Also,
When the leg 65 is at the position (retracted position) shown in FIG. 8B, the fan unit 27 is lowered. In this lowered state, the fan unit 27 can move in the front-rear direction. Since the mechanism for moving the fan unit is the same as that of the above-mentioned embodiment, refer also to FIG. 3 and FIG. If a DC servomotor is used as the lifting motor 60, the rotation speed of the motor can be controlled by a control unit (not shown) by counting the number of pulses of the pulse encoder 70, and the leg 65 moves back and forth along the receiving plate 30. Can be controlled. In addition to the above, for example, an eccentric cam may be used to directly move the fan unit up and down. When the fan unit 25 is in the raised position of FIG. 8 (a), the upper surface of the unit is in close contact with the exhaust port 22, so that when the fan 14 in the unit is driven, the air flow shown in FIG. 1 or 2 is formed. It becomes possible to do. Also, FIG.
By moving to the state of (b) and then operating the moving mechanism, it is possible to move the unit to the front side of the equipment and perform filter replacement work.

9 and 10 are flow charts for explaining the operation of vertically moving the fan unit of the embodiment shown in FIG. First, FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a procedure for moving the fan unit 25 in a state of being in close contact with the exhaust port 2 (state of FIG. 8 (a)). First, when the fan moving switch is turned on in step 120, the motor 60 is turned on. It turns on to start rotation, and stops when the count pulse of the sensor 71 that detects the rotation of the encoder 70 reaches a set number. During this time, the rotation of the motor moves the leg 65 to the retracted position shown in FIG.
Away from 1. Here, the fan unit moving motor 35 shown in FIG.
Move forward. During the movement, the rear fan position detection sensor 41a is turned from OFF to ON, and the motor 35 is stopped when the front sensor 41b is turned from OFF to ON (steps 121 to 127).

Next, FIG. 10 is a flow chart for returning the fan unit 25 to a position right below the exhaust port 22, and when the fan moving switch is turned on in step 130,
The fan moving motor 35 starts reverse rotation and the front sensor 4
1b goes from ON to OFF. The sensor 41b is OFF
Then, the motor 35 stops. Subsequently, the lift motor 60 starts rotating and stops when the encoder setting pulse is reached. The position of the fan unit 25 when the motor is stopped is the raised position shown in FIG. 8 (a).

[0021]

As described above, according to the present invention, since the exhaust port is formed at one place on the bottom surface of the equipment and the large-diameter exhaust fan is arranged immediately below the exhaust port, the noise reduction and the fan are achieved. It is possible to realize the simplification of the software by reducing the number and the control signal. Further, since the intake port provided on the side surface of the device has the minimum necessary area, it is possible to prevent internal noise from leaking to the outside. Further, if all of the intake ports A or the intake fans 15 are arranged on the bottom surface of the equipment, there will be no openings on the side surface of the equipment, the noise reduction rate will be improved, and as a result, fans can be added inside the equipment. Further, since the fan elevating mechanism and moving mechanism are provided, the fan can be detached from the device only by operating the switch, and since the fan and the ozone filter are incorporated in the same box, the filter can be easily replaced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration and airflow of a first embodiment of a copying machine to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a structural explanatory view of a copying machine having a cooling and ventilation device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing an example of a moving mechanism for supporting and operating the fan shown in each embodiment on the bottom surface of the device so as to be able to move forward and backward.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of a main part of the moving mechanism in FIG.

5 is a schematic view showing an example of a mechanism for raising and lowering a fan unit in the embodiment of FIGS. 3 and 4. FIG.

FIG. 6 is a schematic view showing an example of a mechanism for raising and lowering a fan unit in the embodiment of FIGS. 3 and 4.

7 (a) and 7 (b) are flowcharts showing an operation for moving the fan unit.

8A and 8B are diagrams showing another configuration example of the lifting mechanism of the fan unit.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of moving a fan unit up and down.

FIG. 10 is another flowchart illustrating an operation of moving the fan unit up and down.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an air flow inside a conventional copying machine.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an air flow of a cleaning unit.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Optical System, 2 Optical Fan, 3 Cleaning Unit, 4 Cleaning Filter, 5 Conveying Toner Film, 6 Vacuum Fan, 7 Cleaning Unit Housing, 8 Charging Charger, 9 Air Duct, 1
0 fixing unit, 12 exhaust fan, 13 DC power cooling fan, 14 exhaust fan, 15 intake fan, 1
9 rubber, damping material, 20 housing, 21 bottom plate, 22 exhaust port, 23 air chamber, 25 fan unit, 26
Ozone filter, 27 box, 27a Guided piece,
28 guide rails, 29 lifting mechanism, 30 roller receiving plate, 35 fan unit moving motor, 36 timing belt, 40 sensor, 41a, 41b protrusion, 50
Shaft, 51 lever, 52 lever urging spring, 53
Solenoid, 54 pins, 55 legs, 57 rollers, 5
8 elastic member, 59 link piece, 60 expansion range restricting means, 61 motor fixing bracket, 62 worm gear, 63 spur gear, 64 roller, 65 legs, 66 elongated hole, 67 lever, 67a fulcrum, 70 pulse encoder, 71 light Transmissive sensor,

Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁵ Identification code Office reference number FI Technical display location G03G 15/00 305 H04N 1/00 D 7046-5C

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In an electronic device having an exhaust fan on a bottom surface of a housing, a fan unit including the exhaust fan has an elevated position in which the fan unit is in close contact with the exhaust port peripheral edge immediately below the exhaust port of a bottom plate of the device, and the exhaust port peripheral edge. A cooling / ventilating device for electronic equipment, characterized in that it is configured to be able to move up and down between a separated descending position, and further, when in the descending position, the fan unit is configured to be able to move the equipment bottom portion in a predetermined direction. .