JPH06149127A - Cleaning device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent recovered toner from being scattered to the surroundings from the inside of a housing with simple structure by providing a side sealing member and an elastic sealing member on each side plate of the housing. CONSTITUTION:A cleaning blade 22, a fur brush 23 and a recovering blade 25 are provided in the housing. The end part of the cleaning blade 22 is brought into press-contact with the elastic sealing member 32 made of sponge, attached to the inner surface of the rear side plate 21b of the housing. On the other hand. the side sealing member 30 made of acrylic pile is stuck to the side surface of the rear side plate 21b. In the side sealing member 30,a part corresponding to the end part of the fur brush 23 is formed to a projecting part 31 protruded into the housing. The projecting part 31 is overlapped with the end part of the fur brush 23 in about 2-3mm range in an axial direction. On the front side plate of the housing, as well, the elastic sealing member and side sealing member of the similar constitution are provided.

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 a copying machine, which is equipped with an unnecessary toner attached to a photosensitive drum.
The present invention relates to a cleaning device used to remove paper dust and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an electrophotographic copying machine, a cleaning device for removing toner and the like remaining on a photosensitive drum after a toner image is transferred is arranged in proximity to the photosensitive drum. In the cleaning device, normally, a cleaning blade arranged in the housing comes into sliding contact with the photoconductor drum through an opening provided in the housing, and the toner attached to the peripheral surface of the photoconductor drum by the cleaning blade. Are removed.

The cleaning blade is installed between the side plates of the housing, and the toner scraped off the photosensitive drum by the cleaning blade may leak from between the cleaning blade and the side plates of the housing. is there.

For this reason, for example, in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 61-1286.
In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 66, an elastic seal member is provided between each end of the cleaning blade and each side plate of the housing to prevent toner from scattering from each end of the cleaning blade to the outside of the housing. In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-87894, a seal member is provided between each end of the cleaning blade and each side plate of the housing, and a scraper is provided to prevent toner from leaking between the seal member and the cleaning blade. A cleaning device provided with is disclosed.

Recently, in order to efficiently clean the paper dust and the like adhering to the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum, a blade that slides on the surface of the photosensitive drum and a fur brush that rolls on the photosensitive drum are used. Both have developed a cleaning device for cleaning the surface of the photosensitive drum. The blade and the fur brush are installed between the side plates of the housing so as to extend from the opening provided in the housing and come into contact with the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum.
The fabric brush is rotationally driven by the drive shaft. In such a cleaning device, the rotation of the fur brush causes
The pressure in the housing rises. Therefore, toner may leak between the cleaning blade and the fur brush and the side plates of the housing.

In order to solve such a problem, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Publication No. 60-70855 discloses a cleaning device in which a housing is provided with a depressurizing hole for venting air and a filter is provided in the depressurizing hole. .

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In a cleaning device provided with a fur brush, the ends of the fur brush and the side plates of the housing are simply sealed by a sealing member. It is not possible to prevent the leakage of toner and the like from between the side plates of the housing, and the toner adheres to the seal member and the scraper after long-term use. There is a problem that the adhered toner adheres to the outer peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum and adheres to the photosensitive drum in a film shape, or the toner adhered to the seal member and the scraper scatters around.

Further, in the cleaning device disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 60-70855, toner is accumulated on the filter due to long-term use, the filter is clogged, and the pressure reducing hole prevents the pressure inside the housing from rising. There is a problem that the toner cannot be formed and the toner deposited on the filter is discharged to the surroundings together with the air flowing through the pressure reducing hole.

The present invention solves such a problem, and an object thereof is to provide a cleaning device which has a simple structure and can prevent the toner collected from the inside of the housing of the cleaning device from scattering around. Especially.

[0010]

In the cleaning device of the present invention, openings facing the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum are provided between the side plates respectively disposed in the vicinity of the respective axial end portions of the photosensitive drum. A housing, and extends from the opening of the housing so as to be in sliding contact with the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum,
A cleaning blade that extends in the axial direction of the photosensitive drum, a fur brush that extends from the opening of the housing and is rotationally driven so as to be in sliding contact with the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum, and the photosensitive drum on each side plate of the housing. And a side seal member having protrusions protruding into the opening so as to be in slidable contact with the respective end portions of the fur brush, the side seal members being respectively attached to the side surfaces opposed to the slidable surface of the photosensitive drum, The elastic sealing member is provided between the inner surface of each side plate of the housing and each end of the cleaning blade, thereby achieving the above object.

[0011]

In the cleaning device of the present invention, the end portions of the cleaning blade and the side plates of the housing are sealed by the elastic seal member to prevent toner from leaking out, and the side plates of the housing and the photosensitive drum are prevented. The protruding part of the side seal that seals between
Since the end portions of the fur brush are slidably contacted with each other, leakage of toner and the like from between the end portions of the fur brush and the side plates of the housing is reliably prevented.

[0012]

EXAMPLES Examples of the present invention will be described below. The cleaning device of the present invention is mounted on, for example, an electrophotographic copying machine and, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, is arranged close to the photosensitive drum 10. This photoconductor drum 10
A toner image is formed on the peripheral surface of
An image is formed on the recording paper by transferring the toner image onto the recording paper. Then, the cleaning device 20 of the present invention removes toner, paper dust, and the like remaining on the surface of the photosensitive drum 10.

The cleaning device 20 has a housing 21 fixed to the main body of the copying machine, and the housing 21 is provided with an opening 21c facing the photosensitive drum 10. The opening 21c is opened over substantially the entire length of the photosensitive drum 10 in the axial direction. The housing 21
A cleaning blade 22 is attached in the inside thereof to slidably contact the photosensitive drum 10 through the opening of the housing 21 and remove unnecessary toner and the like remaining on the photosensitive drum 10. The cleaning blade 22 is provided between the front side plate 21a and the rear side plate 21b in the vicinity of each axial end of the photosensitive drum 10 in the housing 21. A fur brush 23 is rotatably provided below the cleaning blade 22 so as to be in sliding contact with the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 10. The fur brush 23 has a drive shaft 24 rotatably supported between a front side plate 21a and a rear side plate 21b of the housing 21. The drive shaft 24 penetrates through the rear plate 21b and the housing 21
Of the drive gear to the outside of the
23a is attached. A scraper 25 is provided in a substantially horizontal state on the inner surface of the housing 21 opposite to the side where the photoconductor drum 10 is arranged, and the tip end of the scraper 25 is in contact with the fur brush 23.

A recovery blade 26 is provided at the lower edge of the opening 21c of the housing 21. The recovery blade 26 extends upward from the lower edge of the opening 21c, and its tip portion is in sliding contact with the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 10 to cover the lower portion of the opening 21c. At the bottom of the housing 21,
A spiral conveyor 27 that conveys the toner collected in the housing 21 to the outside of the housing 21 is provided.
As shown in FIG. 3, one end of the spiral conveyor 27 extends through the front side plate 21a of the housing 21, and at the end thereof, the toner to be conveyed is collected in a lower collecting container ( A discharge port 27a is provided for dropping into the inside (not shown). The drive shaft 28 of the spiral conveyor 27 is also the front side plate 21a.
And it is rotatably supported between the rear side plates 21b. One end of the drive shaft 28 penetrates the rear plate 21b of the housing 21, and a drive gear 27a is provided at the end of the drive shaft 28 extending to the outside. The drive gear 27a meshes with the drive gear 23a attached to the drive shaft 24 of the fur brush 23.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the rear plate 21b of the housing 21 in the vicinity of the opening 21c. The end of the cleaning blade 22 is pressed against an elastic seal member 32 made of sponge attached to the inner surface of the rear plate 21b. The side surface of the rear plate 21b facing the photoconductor drum 10 is curved along the peripheral surface of the photoconductor drum 10.
For example, a side seal member 30 made of acrylic pile is attached. The side seal member 30 includes a housing 21
Of the photosensitive drum 1 over and around the opening 21c of
It is provided so as to be in sliding contact with the outer peripheral surface 11 of 0. In the side seal member 30, a portion corresponding to the end portion of the fur brush 23 is a protruding portion 31 protruding into the housing 21,
As shown in FIG. 4, the protruding portion 31 overlaps with the end portion of the fur brush 23 by a range L of, for example, about 2 to 3 mm in the axial direction. The elastic seal member 32 pressed against the end of the cleaning blade 22 has the protrusion 31 of the side seal member 30.
It has the same thickness as. Note that the front side plate 21a of the housing 21 is also provided with an elastic seal member and a side seal member having the same configuration.
The removed toner is prevented from scattering from the respective ends of the cleaning blade 22 and the fur brush 23 into the main body of the copying machine.

The end portion of the fur brush 23 is arranged with a gap M of about 2 to 3 mm from the inner surface of the rear side plate 21b, and the bristles of the fur brush 23 in contact with the protruding portion 31 of the side seal member 30. The tip falls into this gap M. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the drive load of the fur brush 23 from increasing due to the bristle tips of the fur brush 23 slidingly contacting the rear side plate 21b.

In the cleaning device having such a structure,
When the photosensitive drum 10 is rotationally driven, the fur brush 23 and the spiral conveyor 27 are rotationally driven in synchronization with the rotation, and the side edge portion of the cleaning blade 22 is on the peripheral surface of the rotating photosensitive drum 10. Sliding contact. Toner, paper dust, and the like adhering to the peripheral surface of the photoconductor drum 10 are rotated by a fur brush 23 and a cleaning blade.
Removed by 22. At this time, the fur brush 23 is rotationally driven to increase the pressure in the housing 21, but each end of the opening 21c in the housing 21 is sealed by the side seal member 30 and each of the cleaning blades 22 is sealed. The ends are sealed by the elastic seal member 32, and further, since the ends of the fur brush 23 are sealed by the protrusions 31 of the side seal member 30, the ends of the housing 21 are separated from the housing 21.
The toner and the like inside is surely prevented from scattering into the copying machine. Then, the fur brushes 23 contacting the protrusions 31 of the side seal members 30 fall into the gap M between the front side plate 21a and the rear side plate 21b and the fur brush 23, so that an increase in the drive load of the fur brushes 23 is suppressed. To be done.

[0018]

As described above, according to the cleaning device of the present invention, each end of the fur brush is attached to the protrusion provided on the side seal member for sealing between each side plate of the housing and the photosensitive drum. Since the respective ends of the brush are in sliding contact with each other, it is possible to reliably prevent the toner from leaking from the ends of the fur brush.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of a main part of a cleaning device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the cleaning device.

FIG. 3 is a side view of the cleaning device on the photosensitive drum side.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the main part of the cleaning device from the inside of the housing.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Photoconductor drum 20 Cleaning device 21 Housing 22 Cleaning blade 23 Fur brush 24 Drive shaft 30 Side seal material part 31 Projection part 32 Elastic seal member

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A housing provided with an opening facing a peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum between side plates respectively disposed in the vicinity of respective ends of the photosensitive drum in the axial direction, and a housing exposed from the opening of the housing. A cleaning blade that extends in sliding contact with the peripheral surface of the body drum, and a cleaning blade that extends in the axial direction of the photosensitive drum, and a rotational drive that extends from the opening of the housing and slides in contact with the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum. A fur brush and a side surface of each side plate of the housing that faces the photoconductor drum. The fur brush is attached so as to be in sliding contact with the peripheral surface of the photoconductor drum. A side seal member having a protrusion protruding into the opening, and an elastic seal provided between the inner surface of each side plate of the housing and each end of the cleaning blade. A cleaning device comprising a member.