JPH06175495A - Developer cartridge and process cartridge and image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a developer cartridge, of which used developer container can be recovered and a seal film can be welded to an opening of the container again, by providing a projecting part, which has a height to be left at least after the welding of the film, at a film welding part of a developer container. CONSTITUTION:In a cartridge A, the top surface of a container main body 15a made of a synthetic resin is provided with a nearly rectangular opening 15b as a developer discharge port. At a flange part 15c of the opening 15b, a projecting part 15 is formed, and a seal film member 16 is thermal-welded to the projecting part 15d. Height of the projecting part 15d is formed at such a degree that it is left after the thermal-welding of the seal film member 16 (about 0.7mm-1.2mm). The used cartridge A is recovered for reuse. At this stage, the height of the projecting part 15d is lowered by the first film-welding, but the projecting part 15d is left. Consequently, the left projecting part 15d is utilized again for the thermal-welding of a seal film member 16 on the projecting part 15d.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a developer cartridge in which an opening of a container for containing a developer is welded with a film, a process cartridge, and an image forming apparatus to which the process cartridge can be mounted.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a developer cartridge is made of a material such as a synthetic resin, and comprises a container body having an opening serving as a developer discharge port, and a seal film provided with an adhesive layer based on a synthetic resin film. It is general that the seal film is adhered to the opening portion of the container by a welding means such as heat welding, ultrasonic welding, or impulse welding. This container is
The periphery of the opening is welded with a film, and when the developer is discharged, the welded portion is peeled off by a hand or the like to discharge the developer.

[0003]

When heat-welding a main body containing a powder developer and a film sealing an opening,
The container body is fixed to a jig, and as shown in FIG. 11, after the seal film 51 is placed on the opening of the container 50, the temperature and pressure are applied by the heat welding bar 52 from above and pressure welding is performed. .
However, inconveniences such as misalignment between the container body 50 and the jig, misalignment between the heat-welding bar 52, deformation of the heat-welding bar 52 and uneven horizontal balance may occur. Further, this adhesive portion needs to have an adhesive force capable of withstanding an impact such as a drop. Therefore, in order to obtain this adhesive force, the flat surface 50a of the container body 50 that is in contact with the conventional heat welding bar 52 is conventionally used.
Since the adhesive surface is pressed while melting, the adhesive surface 50a is dented as shown in FIG. 12, and resin around the adhesive surface rises around the adhesive surface. Usually, in the heat welding of the container body 50 and the seal film 51, the depth of the recess is about 0.3 mm, and the height of the bulge at that time is about 0.2 mm.

Further, in recent years, due to the increasing protection of the global environment, it has been considered to reuse the developer cartridge.
However, in the container body 50 that has been heat-welded as described above, there is a step on the surface that has been once heat-welded, so if you try to heat-seal the seal film 51 again at the same location, it will be heat-welded to the container body adhesive surface. Considerable positional accuracy is required for the bar 52, and as shown in Fig. 13, even if the positional relationship is slightly deviated, the one-side contact of the heat-welding bar 52 becomes awful and the variation in the adhesive force due to the adhesive location increases. It becomes difficult to obtain the required adhesive force.

Further, if the user tries to bond again by avoiding the previously bonded surface, the heat-welding bar 52 cannot be used.
Multiple heat welding bars are required.

The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to mount a developer cartridge, a process cartridge, and the above-mentioned process cartridge in which a used developer container is recovered and a seal film can be welded to the container opening again. An object is to provide a possible image forming apparatus.

[0007]

A typical structure according to the present invention for achieving the above object is to provide a film welding portion of a developer container with a protrusion having a height at least after the film welding. Will be a feature.

[0008]

In the above structure, when the seal film is re-welded to the container opening, the seal film can be always adhered to the tip of the protrusion, and stable adhesion is possible without requiring fine adjustment.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a developer cartridge, a process cartridge and an image forming apparatus according to the present invention will be specifically described with reference to the drawings. [First Embodiment] FIG. 1 is a perspective explanatory view of a developer cartridge A according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a structural explanation of an image forming apparatus B for forming an image by introducing a developer using the cartridge A. It is a figure.

First, the overall structure of the image forming apparatus B will be described. As shown in FIG.
A light image based on image information is emitted from the optical system 1 to form a developer (hereinafter referred to as toner) image on the photosensitive drum, which is an image carrier. The recording medium 2 is synchronized with the formation of the toner image.
Are transported by the transport means. That is, the sheet is fed from the cassette 3 by the pickup roller 4 and is also conveyed by the registration roller 5 to the image forming unit. Then, the toner image formed on the photosensitive drum in the image forming section is transferred to the recording medium 2 by the transfer means 6 which constitutes a transfer means, and the recording medium 2 is transferred.
On the other hand, heat and pressure are applied by the fixing roller 7c including the conveying roller 7a and the heater 7b to fix the transferred toner image, and the discharging roller 8 discharges the transferred toner image to the discharging portion 9.

The image forming unit rotates the photosensitive drum 10 which is an image carrier, and uniformly charges the surface of the photosensitive drum 10 by the charging means 11. The optical image from the optical system 1 is passed through the exposing unit 12 through the exposing unit 12. The photosensitive drum 10 is exposed to form a latent image, and the developing means 13 forms a toner image corresponding to the latent image to visualize the latent image. After the transfer roller 6 transfers the toner image onto the recording medium 2, the cleaning means 14 removes the toner remaining on the photosensitive drum 7.

The developing means 13 has a toner reservoir 13a,
When the toner in the toner reservoir 13a is used up, the lid (not shown) provided on the exterior of the apparatus is opened and the toner is introduced from the developer cartridge A.

Next, the structure of the developer cartridge A will be described. In this cartridge A, as shown in FIG. 1, a substantially rectangular opening 15b serving as a developer discharge port is provided on the upper surface of a container body 15a made of synthetic resin. And its opening 15
A collar portion 15c is formed on b. A protrusion 15d integrally formed with the container body 15a is formed on the flange 15c, and the seal film member 16 is heat-welded to the protrusion 15d.

To heat-seal the seal film member 16 to the protrusion 15d, as shown in FIG. 3, after the toner is stored in the container body 15a, the container body 15a is mounted on a jig (not shown), and the protrusion is formed. The seal film member 16 is placed on 15d. Then, the heat welding bar 17 contacting the entire projection 15d is lowered from above the film member 16, and the seal film member 16 is heated and pressure-welded to heat-seal the seal film member 16 to the projection 15d. At this time, the tip of the protrusion 15d is bonded to the seal film member 16 in a state of being melted and deformed by heat and pressure as shown in FIG.

The protrusion 15d of the developer cartridge A
The height of is designed such that it does not disappear even after the seal film 16 is welded. For that, the height is about
It is preferable to configure it to about 0.7 mm to about 1.2 mm,
In this embodiment, the height is 0.8 mm.

To add toner from the developer cartridge A to the image forming apparatus B, as shown in FIG. 5, the lid provided above the toner reservoir 13a of the developing means 13 is opened and the cartridge A is turned upside down. When the opening 15b is brought into contact with the toner reservoir 13a and the seal film 16 is pulled out, the cartridge A
The toner inside is thrown into the toner reservoir 13a.

The used cartridge A after the toner is added is collected and reused. At this time, as described above, since the protrusion 15d remains even if the height is lowered by the first film welding, as shown in FIG.
It is possible to heat-seal the seal film member 16 again on the protrusion 15d by using the remaining protrusion 15d without delicate alignment between the heat-welding bar 17 and the bonding position of the container body 15a. is there.

The projection 15d has improved flatness due to the first film welding (see FIG. 6).
Since the seal film member 16 is heated and pressed onto the 15d,
It can be re-bonded without the adhesive strength changing extremely.

Although the cartridge A has an example in which the protrusion 15d is a single layer, the same effect can be obtained even if the protrusion 15d is doubled as shown in FIG.

Here, even if the protrusion 15d is provided, if the height thereof is too low, the above-mentioned effect cannot be obtained. For example, if the height is about 0.3 mm, the seal film member 16
When heat-sealed, the projection 15d disappears, and there is a possibility that a chip or a dent may partially occur. When the protrusion 15d is partially recessed, the recessed portion is less likely to be bonded when the film member 16 is heat-welded again due to a slight deviation between the heat-welding bar 17 and the bonding portion of the container body 15a. If the height of the projection 15d is too high, the projection 15d will not disappear even if the seal film member 16 is heat-welded, but the strength of the cartridge A will be increased because the projection 15d projects too much from the flange 15c. Becomes weak. Therefore, the protrusion 15d
The height is preferably 0.7 to 1.2 mm.

[Second Embodiment] In the above-described embodiment, an example in which the developer cartridge A is configured as a single unit for charging the toner to the image forming apparatus B has been described. An example of using a process cartridge in which the above and the process means are integrated will be described with reference to FIGS. 8 is a structural explanatory view of the process cartridge C, FIG. 9 is a structural explanatory view of the image forming apparatus D in which the process cartridge C is mounted, and FIG. 10 is a structural explanatory view of the toner container.

The process cartridge C includes the photosensitive drum 10, the charging means 11, and the exposure section 1 according to the first embodiment described above.
2. The developing unit 13 and the cleaning unit 14 are integrally formed into a cartridge, which is attachable to and detachable from the image forming apparatus D.

That is, in the process cartridge C, as shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, the surface of the photosensitive drum 18 is uniformly charged by the charging roller 19 and is irradiated from the optical system 30 through the exposure section 20. A latent image is formed by the light image that is generated, and the latent image is visualized as a toner image by the developing unit 21.

The developing means 21 contains toner in a toner container 21a. The toner feeding member 21b is rotated in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 8 to feed the toner, and the developing sleeve 21d having a magnet 21c is rotated. Specially
A toner layer is formed on the surface of the sleeve 21d. By applying a bias voltage to the developing sleeve 21d, the toner is transferred to the photosensitive drum 18 according to the latent image. Reference numeral 21e in FIG. 8 is a developing blade that regulates the toner layer thickness on the developing sleeve 21d.

The toner remaining on the photosensitive drum 18 after the toner transferred to the photosensitive drum 18 is transferred onto the recording medium 2 by the transfer roller 22 is removed by the cleaning means 23. That is, the toner is scraped off by the cleaning blade 23a, the toner is scooped by the squeegee sheet 23b, and is stored in the waste toner reservoir 23c.

As shown in FIG. 9, the process cartridge C is mounted in the mounting portion of the image forming apparatus D, and an image is formed on the recording medium 2 in accordance with an image forming operation. That is, the pickup roller 25a and the feeding roller 25 from the cassette 24 are synchronized with the image formation on the photosensitive drum 18.
The recording medium 2 is fed by b, and is conveyed by the registration roller 26 to the image forming section. And the recording medium 2 after the transfer
Is a fixing roller with a built-in transport roller 27a and heater 27b.
Heat and pressure are applied by 27c to fix the transfer toner, and the discharging roller 28 discharges the transferred toner to the discharging unit 29.

Here, the process cartridge C constitutes a housing by combining the toner developing container 31 and the cleaning container 32. The toner developing container 31 houses the developing means 21, and the cleaning container 32 houses the photosensitive drum 18, the charging roller 19, and the cleaning means 23.

As shown in FIG. 10, the toner developing container 31 includes a container 21a containing toner and a developing sleeve 21.
The developing device frame 33, to which d and the developing blade 21e are attached, is connected. The toner container 21a is made of synthetic resin, and a seal film member 34 is heat-welded and sealed in the opening 21a1. By pulling out the seal film member 34 at the start of use of the cartridge, the toner in the toner container 21a is supplied to the developing sleeve 21d.

Further, a flange portion 21a2 is provided around the opening 21a1 of the toner container 21a, and the flange portion 21a2 surrounds the opening 21a1 in the same manner as in the above-described first embodiment.
A 1.2 mm protrusion 21a3 is provided. And this protrusion 21a3
The seal film member 34 is heat-welded on top. Therefore,
Even when the seal film member 34 is heat-welded again when the toner container 21a is reused, it is possible to obtain the same effect as that of the first embodiment described above.

[Other Embodiments] In the above-mentioned first and second embodiments, heat welding is exemplified when welding the seal film member, but this welding uses welding such as ultrasonic welding or impulse welding. It is possible.

Also, as the above-mentioned developing method, the known method 2 is used.
Various developing methods such as a component magnetic brush developing method, a cascade developing method, a touch-down developing method and a cloud developing method can be used.

The structure of the charging means is also the contact charging method in which a charging roller is brought into contact with a photosensitive drum to charge it, or a conventionally used tungsten wire is provided with a metal shield such as aluminum around three sides, and the tungsten wire is used. It is of course possible to use a configuration in which positive or negative ions generated by applying a high voltage to the surface of the photosensitive drum are moved to the surface of the photosensitive drum to uniformly charge the surface of the drum.

The charging means may be of a blade type (charging blade), a pad type, a block type, a rod type, a wire type or the like other than the roller type.

As a method for cleaning the toner remaining on the photosensitive drum, the cleaning means may be constituted by using a blade, a fur brush, a magnetic brush or the like.

The above-mentioned process cartridge is
For example, an electrophotographic photosensitive member as an image carrier and at least one process means are provided. Therefore, as the mode of the process cartridge, in addition to the embodiment described above, for example, the image carrier and the charging means are integrally made into a cartridge, which can be attached to and detached from the apparatus main body. The image carrier and the developing means are integrally formed into a cartridge, which can be attached to and detached from the main body of the apparatus. The image carrier and the cleaning means are integrally made into a cartridge so that it can be attached to and detached from the apparatus main body. Further, there is one in which an image carrier and two or more of the above-mentioned process means are combined into an integrated cartridge, which can be attached to and detached from the apparatus main body.

That is, the above-mentioned process cartridge is one in which the charging means, the developing means or the cleaning means and the electrophotographic photosensitive member are integrally formed into a cartridge, and the cartridge can be attached to and detached from the main body of the image forming apparatus. . Further, at least one of the charging means, the developing means, and the cleaning means and the electrophotographic photosensitive member are integrally made into a cartridge so that it can be attached to and detached from the main body of the image forming apparatus. Further, it means that at least the developing means and the electrophotographic photosensitive member are integrally made into a cartridge so as to be attachable to and detachable from the apparatus main body.

In the above-described embodiment, the image forming apparatus can be used in a laser beam printer, an electrophotographic copying machine, a facsimile machine, or another image forming apparatus such as a word processor.

[0038]

As described above, the present invention uses a used cartridge because a protrusion having a certain height is provided in the opening in order to weld and seal the film member.
When welding the film member again, it is possible to perform stable adhesion without requiring fine adjustment.

Therefore, the cartridge can be easily reused and reused, and the waste can be reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective explanatory view of a developer cartridge according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a configuration of an image forming apparatus that forms an image by supplying a developer by a developer cartridge.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of thermally sealing a seal film member to a developer cartridge.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view of a state in which a seal film member is heat-welded to a developer cartridge.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of adding toner to the image forming apparatus.

FIG. 6 is an illustration of welding a seal film member to a developer cartridge.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of an embodiment in which a protrusion is doubled.

FIG. 8 is a structural explanatory view of a process cartridge.

FIG. 9 is a configuration explanatory diagram of an image forming apparatus in which a process cartridge is mounted.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram in which a toner container and a developing frame are disassembled.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating the configuration of a conventional developer cartridge.

FIG. 12 is an explanatory view of a state in which a recess is formed when the seal film member is welded to the developer cartridge.

FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram of a case where the seal film member is welded again to the developer cartridge having the recess.

[Explanation of symbols]

A ... Developer cartridge, B ... Image forming apparatus, 1 ... Optical system, 2 ... Recording medium, 3 ... Cassette, 4 ... Pickup roller, 5 ... Registration roller, 6 ... Transfer roller, 7a ... Conveying roller, 7b ... Heater, Reference numeral 7c ... Fixing roller, 8 ... Ejection roller, 9 ... Ejection section, 10 ... Photosensitive drum, 11 ... Charging means, 12 ... Exposure section, 13 ... Developing means, 13a ... Toner reservoir, 14
... cleaning means, 15a ... container body, 15b ... opening, 15
c ... Collar portion, 15d ... Projection portion, 16 ... Seal film member, 17 ...
Thermal welding bar, 18 ... Photosensitive drum, 19 ... Charging roller, 20 ...
Exposure unit, 21 ... Developing means, 21a ... Toner container, 21a1 ... Opening, 21a2 ... Collar section, 21a3 ... Projection section, 21b ... Toner feeding member,
21c ... Magnet, 21d ... Developing sleeve, 21e ... Developing blade, 22 ... Transfer roller, 23 ... Cleaning means, 23a ... Cleaning blade, 23b ... Squeeze sheet, 23c ... Waste toner reservoir, 24 ... Cassette, 25a ... Pickup roller,
25b ... Feeding roller, 26 ... Registration roller, 27a ... Conveying roller, 27b ... Heater, 27c ... Fixing roller, 28 ... Discharging roller, 29 ... Discharging section, 30 ... Optical system, 31 ... Toner developing container, 32
... Cleaning container, 33 ... Development frame, 34 ... Seal film member

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A developer cartridge in which a film is welded and sealed in an opening of a container containing a developer, wherein the film welding portion is provided with a protrusion having a height at least after the film welding. And developer cartridge. 2. The developer cartridge according to claim 1, wherein the height of the protrusion before welding the film is set to 0.7 to 1.2 mm. 3. A process cartridge mountable to the main body of an image forming apparatus, comprising: an image carrier, and a developing container in which a film is welded and sealed in an opening of a container containing a developer acting on the image carrier. A process cartridge, wherein the film welding portion of the developing container is provided with a protrusion having a height at least after the film welding. 4. An image forming apparatus capable of mounting a process cartridge and forming an image on a recording medium, wherein a film is provided in an opening of a container for accommodating an image carrier and a developer acting on the image carrier. A developing container that is welded and hermetically sealed, and mounting means for mounting a process cartridge having a projection portion having a height at least after the film is welded on the film welding portion of the developing container, and conveying a recording medium. An image forming apparatus, comprising: