JPH06175541A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make a good use of surplus heat in a fixing device so as to make recovered toner aggregate with high concentration and to retain it by providing a heat transmitting means for receiving the heat generated from a heat generating part and supplying the heat to the retained toner. CONSTITUTION:A heat pipe 16 as the heat transferring means for receiving the heat generated from a fixing roller 3A, transferring the heat to a toner recovering container 7 trough a recessed part 7a and supplying the heat to the retained toner in the toner recovering room 8 is installed between the toner recovering container 7 and the fixing roller 3A as the heat generating part. The heat necessary for melting the toner is supplied to the toner recovering room 8 by the heat pipe 16 so as to accelerate the melting of the recovered toner. By giving the heat to the retained toner, the toner is melted and the toner is retained in the toner recovering room 8 in a highly concentrated aggregated state. Thus, a heat source dedicated for heating the retaining toner is eliminated, so that the simplification of the constitution of the image forming device and the reduction of the cost are accomplished.

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 equipped with a cleaning device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a printer or a facsimile, an electrostatic latent image is formed on an image carrier,
In the one that visualizes this electrostatic latent image as a toner image,
After the toner image is transferred to the recording medium, the toner that has not contributed to the transfer remains on the surface of the image carrier, and the toner is transferred to the image carrier by a cleaning device facing the image carrier. The carrier is removed and collected.

Generally, in this type of cleaning device, the toner scraped from the image bearing member by a cleaning member such as a cleaning blade is stored in the toner collecting portion. Such a toner recovery unit eventually becomes full of toner as copying continues. The full state is one of the factors that determine the maintenance of the image forming apparatus and the life of the image forming apparatus. However, if the full state comes directly, the maintenance is very troublesome. Will be things.

As a measure for extending the period of such a full state, for example, a technique according to Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 61-68271 has been proposed. This technology heats the toner in the toner recovery unit with a dedicated heating device, agglomerates it, and fills it at a high density, but this requires a dedicated heat source and its power source. , The cost of the image forming apparatus becomes high, and
It is disadvantageous when using a material that easily deteriorates due to heat.

In addition to the above, there has been proposed a technique, such as that disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 1-166083, in which the stored toner is guided from a cleaning device to a fixing roller which generates heat. A toner transport path is required between the cleaning device and the fixing roller.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to utilize the excess heat of a fixing device without requiring a dedicated heat source and without transporting recovered toner to the vicinity of the fixing device. An object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus capable of collecting and collecting collected toner at a high density.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a toner recovery unit for removing the toner remaining on the image carrier after the toner image transfer step and storing the removed toner. An image forming apparatus comprising: a cleaning device provided; and a fixing device that has a heat generating portion and heat-fixes a toner image transferred onto a recording medium after a toner image transfer step by the heat generating portion, The present invention proposes an image forming apparatus in which a heat transfer unit that receives heat generated from a toner collecting unit and transfers the heat to the toner collecting unit to supply heat to the stored toner is provided between the toner collecting unit and the heat generating unit. .

At this time, it is effective that the heat transfer means is a heat pipe whose one end side and the other end side are respectively provided on the toner collecting portion side and the heat generating portion side.

Further, it is effective that the heat pipe is arranged such that one end side thereof is arranged in parallel with the arrangement direction of the cleaning device.

Furthermore, the other end of the heat pipe is placed at the first position near the heat generating portion during image formation, and the second end near the cooling device for lowering the temperature of the recording medium after the fixing step during non-image formation. It is effective if it is configured to be movable so as to be placed in a position.

Further, the heat pipe is connected to the other end side of the pipe as the weight of the toner in the toner collecting portion increases.
It is effective to have a movable structure so that the distance to the heat generating portion is gradually narrowed.

Further, the heat pipe has a movable structure such that the other end side thereof is placed in the vicinity of the cooling device for lowering the temperature of the recording medium after the fixing process when the toner collecting section is full. When it is supposed to be done,
It is effective.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a drum-shaped photosensitive member which is an example of the constitution of the image carrier, and the photosensitive member 1 is rotationally driven in the direction of the arrow shown by a driving means (not shown). An electrostatic latent image is formed on the photoconductor 1, and the latent image is visualized as a toner image by a developing device (not shown). The toner image is transferred onto the recording medium 18 such as transfer paper by the transfer device.

Further, a cleaning device 2 is provided so as to face the photoconductor 1, and the disposing direction is parallel to the axial direction of the photoconductor 1. That is, in the cleaning device 2, the longitudinal direction is the axial direction of the photoconductor 1. The cleaning device 2 has a cleaning blade 4 made of polyurethane rubber or the like, and the blade 4 contacts the surface of the photoconductor 1 to scrape off the toner remaining on the surface after the toner image transfer step. Remove.

A guide 5 made of, for example, a resin sheet made of Mylar (trade name) is arranged under the cleaning blade 4 so as to close the gap between the photoconductor 1 and the cleaning device 2. On the left side of 5, there is provided a transport paddle 6 which is rotationally driven by the same drive source as the photoconductor 1.

By the way, the cleaning device 2 of this embodiment is
The main body of the apparatus comprises a toner collection container 7, which is made of synthetic resin, for example. The inside is a toner recovery chamber 8 for storing the removed toner.

The toner collecting chamber 8 is located on the opposite side of the carrying paddle 6 from the cleaning blade 4, and the paddle facing sheet 9 is bent toward the toner collecting chamber 8 side of the carrying paddle 6 on the toner collecting chamber 8 side. It is disposed in contact with the transport paddle 6. Similarly to the guide 5, the paddle facing sheet 9 is also made of a resin sheet made of Mylar (trade name), for example.

As shown in FIG. 2, the upper portion of the toner recovery container 7 has a horizontally elongated opening in the longitudinal direction, and a filter 11 is installed so as to close the opening. or,
Two windows 12 and 13 each made of a light-transmissive member are provided in the toner collecting container portion in the longitudinal center immediately below the opening, and a light emitter 14 is provided in the opposing portion outside each window. And a light receiver 15 are installed respectively. The light from the light emitter 14 is reflected by the reflection mirror 9 provided in the toner recovery container 7 and enters the light receiver 15.

A concave portion 7a is provided in the lower portion of the toner recovery container 7, and this portion 7a is made of a metal having a high thermal conductivity such as brass. The pipe portion 16A of the heat pipe 16 is placed in the void of the concave portion 7a.

As shown in FIG. 2, the pipe portion 16A is bent by 90 ° from the pipe body and keeps a constant distance from the concave portion 7a of the toner collecting container 7 so as to be parallel to the arrangement direction of the cleaning device 2. Are arranged close to each other and extend to a position on the front side of the toner collection container 7. The pipe portion 16A may be arranged in contact with the concave portion 7.

Here, in FIG. 1, reference numeral 3 is a fixing device, and this device 3 is a pair of fixing rollers 3.
It has A and 3B. A heater 1 is provided in the fixing roller 3A.
When the heater 17 is turned on, the fixing roller 3A is heated. The recording medium 18 on which the toner image on the photoconductor 1 is transferred is sent toward between the fixing rollers 3A and 3B, and the toner image transferred on the recording medium 18 is heated and fixed while passing through the roller portions. To be done. That is, in this example, the upper roller 3A is a heat generating portion of the fixing device 3, and after the toner image transfer step, the toner image transferred onto the recording medium 18 is heated by the action of heat of the heat generating portion. It is fixed.

Now, the pipe portion 16A of the heat pipe 16
However, as the one end side of the heat pipe, the other end side 16B is bent 90 ° toward the fixing roller 3A and is inserted to some extent from the end portion of the fixing roller 3A, as shown in FIG.

Here, in FIG. 1, the residual toner on the photosensitive member 1 is carried to a region facing the cleaning device 2 and scraped off by the cleaning blade 4. After that, the residual toner (hereinafter, referred to as collected toner) is removed by the guide member 5.
It slides down, and as shown in FIG.
Collect at the bottom of. Next, as shown in FIG. 6B, the accumulated toner is pushed out toward the toner recovery chamber 8 by the transport paddle 6, and the toner attached to the transport paddle 6 is also scraped off by the paddle facing sheet 9. Then, as shown in FIG. 7C, the toner accumulated in the toner collecting chamber 8 side is conveyed further into the toner collecting chamber 8 by the paddle facing sheet 9 which is bent inside by the conveying paddle 6. In this way, the toner collection container 7 that divides the toner collection chamber 8 is
This is an example of a toner recovery unit that stores the toner removed from the photoconductor 1.

The heat pipe 16 is composed of a pipe having a high heat conductivity and having a heat conductive medium sealed therein. It is known that the heat pipe 16 is far superior in heat conductivity to other metal materials as its characteristic, and the temperature of the entire heat pipe and the temperature of the heating portion are the same with a slight time difference.
The heat pipe 16 generates heat near the fixing roller 3A (temperature 50
(About 80 ° C.) is a metal recess 7 at the bottom of the toner recovery chamber 8.
tell a. Although the recessed portion 7a has a slight heat transfer time difference, the heat (4
0 ° C. or higher) to accelerate the melting of the recovered toner.

In any case, the heat pipe 16 receives the heat generated from the fixing roller 3A, transfers this heat to the toner collecting container 7 via the recessed portion 7a, and heats the toner stored in the toner collecting chamber 8. It constitutes an example of the configuration of the heat transfer means for supplying the heat. The feature of the image forming apparatus shown in the drawing is that such a heat transfer means is provided in the toner recovery container 7 and
The point is that it is provided between the fixing roller 3A and the heat generating portion.

By applying such heat to the stored toner, the toner is melted, and the stored toner can be stored in the toner recovery chamber 8 in a densely aggregated state.
According to this embodiment, a dedicated heat source for heating the stored toner is not required, so that the structure of the image forming apparatus can be simplified and the cost thereof can be reduced.

As described above, there has been proposed a structure in which the stored toner is conveyed from the cleaning device to the fixing device and heated by the heat of the fixing device. However, this is not the case. Since it is necessary to provide a toner conveyance path, the cost of the apparatus tends to increase. Further, the heat easily deforms the housing portion forming the toner transport path, and blocking of the toner easily occurs in the middle of the transport path. In this example, such a problem is solved. In any case, in the case of this example, the surplus heat generated in the fixing device 3 is skillfully utilized.

When a heat pipe is used as the heat transfer means, the function of accumulating and storing the toner in a high density can be achieved with a simple structure and at low cost.

One end side and the other end side of the heat pipe 16 are respectively provided on the toner collecting container 17 side and the fixing roller 3A side, and in this example, as shown in FIG. 2, it is one end side of the heat pipe 16. The pipe portion 16A is positioned so as to penetrate the toner recovery container 7, and the recessed portion 7a (FIG. 1).
In parallel with the toner collection container 7, the toner collection container 7 is arranged in close proximity to the toner collection container 7 or in contact with the toner collection container 7. As a result, the toner in the toner recovery container 7 can be uniformly heated in the longitudinal direction, and the toner can be melted uniformly in the longitudinal direction. That is, the aggregation in the longitudinal direction can be uniformly performed. As a result, the storage space in the toner recovery chamber 8 can be filled with toner at a high density.

Here, when the toner in the toner recovery container 7 is agglomerated by heat, it is necessary to supply a uniform amount of heat to the toner accumulated in the longitudinal direction in the toner recovery container. If the amount of heat supplied is not uniform in the longitudinal direction, the collected toner will not be melted evenly, and especially when it is almost full, the full state will be detected before the toner has completely melted, and there is room for storage. However, the toner collection container must be replaced.

By disposing the pipe portion 16A, which is one end side of the heat pipe 16, as shown in FIG. 2, the collected toner is evenly melted in the longitudinal direction, and the toner is filled in the storage space in the toner collecting container. Can be densely packed.

Further, the heat pipe 16 is constructed so as to be rotatable about a pipe portion 16A on one end side thereof as a central axis. As shown in FIG. 4, a solenoid 21 is connected to the heat pipe main body portion near the pipe portion 16A via a pullback spring 20. Solenoid 21
Is connected to the CPU 23 and is on / off controlled via the driver 22. A spring 26 is hung between the heat pipe 16 and a fixed end 25 on the cleaning device body side, for example.

Reference numeral 24 in FIG. 4 is a cooling device for lowering the temperature of the recording medium 18 after the fixing process. The cooling device 24 is, for example, a fan that sends cooling air toward the recording medium.

When the solenoid 21 is excited, the heat pipe 16 is placed in the first position where the pipe portion 16B, which is the other end side, comes to the portion of the fixing roller 3A, and when the excitation of the solenoid 21 is released, Pulled by the spring 26,
As shown in FIG. 5, the pipe portion 16B, which is the other end side, is placed at a second position immediately below the cooling device 24 for the fixed recording medium.

Further, to explain the operation of the heat pipe 16 in detail, as shown in FIG. 4, the solenoid 21 has a main body CPU 23 through a solenoid control driver 22.
When the fixing device 3 is warmed up, the solenoid 21 is excited to heat the heat pipe 16 on the fixing roller 3A side. Gravitate. Further, as shown in FIG. 5, immediately after the copying operation is completed, the solenoid 21 receives an instruction to turn off from the CPU 23, and the pull-back force of the spring 26 causes the pipe portion 16B on the other end side of the heat pipe 16 to be positioned immediately below the cooling device 24. And will be cooled.

The solenoid 21 and the heat pipe 16
The spring 20 for connecting to and is for simply arranging the solenoid 21 outside the movable path of the heat pipe 16, and has a spring constant larger than that of the spring 26 and substantially changes its length by pulling the solenoid 21 and the spring 26. is not.

As described above, the heat pipe 16 is placed at the first position shown in FIG. 4 in the vicinity of the fixing roller 3A with the pipe portion 16B on the other end side during image formation (during copying operation). When it is not formed (when the copy operation is not performed),
The pipe portion 16B is movably configured so as to be placed in the second position shown in FIG. 5 in the vicinity of the cooling device 24.

If heat is constantly supplied to the toner recovery container 7, the container 7 may be thermally deteriorated and deformed especially when the container 7 is made of resin. . As described above, when the heat pipe 16 has a movable structure, the heat pipe 16 is separated from the fixing roller 3A which is a heat source and is close to the cooling device 24 when the copy operation is not performed. It is possible to prevent the heat from being propagated to the toner collecting container 7 and prevent the toner collecting container 7 from being deteriorated by heat.

Due to the heat conduction characteristics of the heat pipe 16, even if the heat pipe 16 rotates at the above-mentioned urgent timing, the heat can be sufficiently supplied to the toner collecting chamber 8 and the heat is not applied during heating. The heat at the end of the pipe 16 can be supplied into the toner recovery chamber 8 with a minute time difference. Since the heat pipe 16 comes to the front of the cooling device 24 during non-copying, it does not hinder the cooling function of the fixed recording medium 18 which is the original purpose of the device.

Here, in FIG. 1, the light emitter 14, the reflection mirror 19, the light receiver 15 and the like detect the full state of the toner in the toner collecting chamber 8. That is,
When the light from the light emitter 14 is blocked by the accumulated toner,
This means that the CPU 23 is full and the result is the previous CPU 23.
(Fig. 4). At this time, the main body CPU 23 sends a copy prohibition display to an interface mechanism (not shown) with the user, while the same as at the end of the copy operation described above.
A command to move the pipe portion 16B, which is the other end side of the heat pipe 16, toward the cooling device 24 is sent.

By the way, in the structure in which the toner collecting container is provided in the fixing roller, even if the collecting container is full,
Unless the temperature of the fixing roller is lowered by natural cooling,
Manual collection container replacement is not possible. Further, since the entire fixing device has a considerable number of parts, once the temperature rises, the temperature does not easily drop by natural cooling.

When the toner full state in the toner collecting container 7 is detected by the full-state detecting means as described above,
By disposing the heat pipe 16 at the second position shown in FIG. 5, heat deterioration of the toner recovery container 7 can be suppressed, and the toner recovery container can be replaced without leaving it for a long time after full detection. You can

Thus, the heat pipe 16 of this example is
The other end side pipe portion 16B is configured to be movable so as to be placed in the vicinity of the cooling device 24 for lowering the temperature of the recording medium 18 after the fixing process when the toner recovery container 7 is full. It has become one. It should be noted that when the toner collecting container 7 is full, it means that the container 7 is actually full due to being clogged with toner, and it is not actually full, but the amount of toner in the container 7 is large. It also means that the container 7 has been replaced.

By the way, the toner gradually accumulates in the toner recovery container 7, but the heat transfer efficiency in the upper portion of the accumulation portion becomes worse as the accumulation amount increases.
Therefore, especially in the state of being almost full, there is a possibility that the toner is completely detected before the melting of the toner is completely completed, and the toner recovery container 7 is forced to be replaced although there is room for storage.

In FIG. 6, the weight of the toner collecting container 7 is detected by the weight detecting means 27. The detection means 27 is composed of, for example, a metal support (not shown) that supports the lower portion of the toner recovery container 7, and a strain gauge (not shown) provided on the side surface of the support. The strain gauge is connected to the CPU 23. There is. By the weight detecting means 27 having a detecting element such as such a strain gauge,
The weight of the toner collection container 7 is detected.

The heat pipe 16 can continuously change the position of the other end side pipe portion 16B by a cam 28, and the rotation axis of the cam 28 is connected to the main body CPU 23 via a control driver 122. It is connected to the rotating shaft of the stepping motor 29.

The operation of this structure will be described below. FIG. 6 shows a state in which it is detected that there is no collected toner in the collecting container 7 or a small amount of the collected toner. From this state, When it is detected that the amount of collected toner exceeds a certain amount, the cam 28 rotates in the direction of the arrow by a certain angle,
As a result, the heat pipe 16 approaches the fixing roller 3A. This operation is performed by the detection of the weight by the detecting means 27 in several stages until the toner is full.

FIG. 7 shows the rotating state of the heat pipe 16 when the amount of collected toner is the maximum just before the full state. In this state, the amount of heat supplied is the maximum, and the stored toner just before the full state is sufficient. It is heated with a sufficient amount of heat.

On the other hand, when the amount of stored toner is smaller than such amount, the cam 28 causes the heat pipe 16 to move.
Is adjusted to a position as shown in FIG. 6 so that the supply of heat quantity is made smaller than such heat quantity.

The heat pipe 16 is placed at the second position as shown in FIG. 8 when the copying operation is not performed and after the toner in the full state is melted and aggregated. In this state, the heat pipe 16 is cooled by the operation of the cooling device 24. As a result, the supply of heat to the toner collecting container 7 is cut off, and at the same time, the toner collecting container 7 is positively cooled.

In any case, as the weight of the toner in the toner collecting container 7 increases, the distance between the pipe portion 16B, which is the other end of the pipe, and the fixing roller 3A, which is the heat generating portion, gradually increases. The heat pipe 16 is movably configured so as to be narrowed.

According to this structure, thermal deterioration of the toner recovery container 7 can be prevented, and the accumulated toner can be uniformly melted in the vertical direction. The toner can be fully filled. In any case, it is possible to optimally supply heat according to the weight of the collected toner.

Here, the above-mentioned actual exploitation Sho 61-6827
In the technique according to Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 1, when the toner recovery container is heated by a dedicated heating device, the internal pressure increases as the temperature of the air inside the container rises, and the airflow is blown toward the inside of the cleaning device connected through the transfer pipe. Occurs. When this air flow reaches the space below the cleaning blade 4, the toner that has been carried on the air flow is removed from the photosensitive member 1.
It adheres to the surface of the and causes deterioration of image quality.

By constructing as follows, it is possible to prevent such blowing airflow.

In FIG. 9, reference numeral 31 denotes a heat pipe having the same structure as the heat pipe 16, and the heat pipe 31 has an inner diameter larger than that of the heat pipe 16. One end side pipe portion 31A of the heat pipe 31 extends in the same direction as the cleaning device 2 is arranged, as shown in FIG.
It is placed on top of 1. That is, the pipe 31A is
It extends in parallel to the opening of the toner collection container to which the filter 11 is attached with a constant width in the longitudinal direction. The other end side pipe portion 31B of the heat pipe 31 is
The fixing roller 3A is provided so as to be close to the fixing roller 3A to the extent that the fixing roller 3A is located on the rear end side.

From the characteristics of the heat pipe, the larger the inner diameter, the larger the heat transport amount. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 9, the heat pipe 31 has a larger heat transportable amount than the heat pipe 16, and the other end side pipe portion 3 of the heat pipe 31.
1B and the fixing roller 3A, so that the distance between the other end side pipe portion 16B of the heat pipe 16 and the fixing roller 3A is smaller than the other end side pipe portion 31B.
Are installed. That is, the other end side pipe portion 31B,
It is closer to the fixing roller 3A than the other end side pipe portion 16B.

According to this arrangement, the heat pipe 31 faces the filter 11 (toner recovery chamber) based on the amount of heat supplied to the lower portion of the toner recovery chamber 8 facing the heat pipe 16 and the area D. 8) The temperature is higher in the E region. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 9, an air flow X passing through the filter 11 from the lower part of the toner recovery chamber 8 is generated. Further, the temperature of the F region near the toner removing portion is dominated by the temperature of the photosensitive member surface, but the temperature is lower than the temperature of the E region,
An airflow Y that escapes into the area E is generated from the gaps at both ends of the transport paddle 6.

Since both the airflows X and Y are airflows due to the temperature difference, the wind speed is low, and the airflow is not such that the toner is positively conveyed in the direction of the filter 11, and it is opposite to the scattering direction of the toner to the F region. Toner adhesion to the photoconductor 1 can be suppressed. Further, since both the heat pipe 31 and the heat pipe 16 are arranged parallel to the longitudinal direction of the cleaning device, the airflows at arbitrary positions in the longitudinal direction have substantially the same wind speed, and the toner recovery chamber 8 due to a partial airflow difference. It is possible to prevent the rotation of the airflow inside.

As described above, by using the heat pipe 31 in combination with the heat pipe 16, the temperature distribution in the cleaning device 2 can be controlled by the temperature of the toner removing portion (F portion) and the heat receiving portion (D portion). The temperature of the lower region of the filter 11 becomes higher than that of the filter 11, and an airflow is generated which can prevent the accumulated toner from adhering to the surface of the photoconductor 1. Furthermore, since a small airflow with a low wind velocity is generated through the filter 11 from the inside of the toner collection chamber 8 to the outside of the toner collection chamber, it is possible to prevent clogging of the collected toner with the filter portion.

The heat pipe 31 may be replaced with another heat transfer means as long as the same function can be achieved. Further, instead of the heat transfer means, a heat generating device such as a heater or a lamp may be provided above the filter 11, but if a heat pipe 31 similar to the heat pipe 16 is used as in the illustrated example, both heat pipes are used. 16,31
This heat source can be completely shared by the fixing device 3, which is advantageous in terms of cost. Further, even when the filter 11 is provided in a portion other than the upper portion of the toner recovery container 7, the above-described configuration can be adopted.

As described above, a toner image is formed on an image carrier, which is a photosensitive member, which is an example of a latent image carrier, is transferred to a recording medium, and the toner remaining on the photosensitive member after the transferring step is cleaned by a cleaning device. Although the embodiment in which the present invention is applied to the image forming apparatus of the type that is cleaned by the method described above has been described, the toner image on the latent image carrier is temporarily primary-transferred to the intermediate transfer member, and then the toner image is transferred onto a transfer paper or the like. The present invention can be applied to the image forming apparatus of the type in which the toner remaining on the intermediate transfer member after the secondary transfer is secondarily transferred to the recording medium is cleaned by the cleaning device. In this case, the latent image carrier and the intermediate transfer member constitute the image carrier targeted by the present invention.

[0063]

According to the structure described in claim 1, the toner in the toner collecting portion can be stored at a high density, and the work such as replacement of the toner collecting portion or collection of the internal toner is not frequently performed. Complete. Further, since the surplus heat generated in the fixing device is used, a dedicated heat source is unnecessary, the structure of the image forming apparatus can be further simplified, and the cost can be reduced. Further, since there is no need for means for conveying the toner between the toner collecting section and the fixing device, there is no need to worry about the toner blocking phenomenon.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, it is possible to achieve the function of aggregating and storing the toner at a high density with a simple configuration and at low cost.

According to the third aspect of the invention, the toner can be uniformly aggregated in the longitudinal direction of the cleaning device, and the storage space in the toner recovery section can be filled with the toner at a high density. .

According to the structure described in claim 4, thermal deterioration of the toner collecting portion can be effectively prevented.

According to the structure of claim 5, thermal deterioration of the toner collecting portion can be effectively prevented, and at the same time,
Since the accumulated toner can be uniformly melted in the vertical direction, the toner filling property is further improved.

According to the structure of claim 6, heat deterioration of the toner recovery unit can be suppressed, and after the full state is detected, the toner recovery unit is replaced or the internal toner is recovered without leaving it for a long time. It can be performed.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram illustrating a part of an image forming apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of constituent parts from a photoconductor to a fixing device.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a manner in which removed toner is sent into a toner collection chamber by a transport paddle.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a state in which a heat pipe interposed between a cleaning device and a fixing device is placed at a heat transfer position.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a state in which a heat pipe interposed between a cleaning device and a fixing device is placed at a non-heat transfer position.

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment in which the heat transfer amount of a heat pipe can be adjusted.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a state in which a heat pipe is placed at a heat transfer position in the above embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a state in which a heat pipe is placed at a non-heat transfer position in the embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example in which thermal convection is caused in the cleaning device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 cleaning device 3 fixing device 16 heat pipe 18 recording medium 24 cooling device

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A cleaning device having a toner collecting section for removing the toner remaining on the image carrier after the toner image transfer step and storing the removed toner, and a heat generating section, and a toner image In an image forming apparatus including a fixing device that heat-fixes a toner image transferred onto a recording medium after a transfer process by a heat generating portion thereof, the heat generated from the heat generating portion is received and the heat is transferred to a toner collecting portion. A heat transfer means for transmitting heat to the stored toner,
An image forming apparatus characterized in that it is provided between a heat generating portion. 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the heat transfer means is a heat pipe whose one end side and the other end side are respectively provided on the toner recovery section side and the heat generation section side. 3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein one end of the heat pipe is arranged in parallel with the arrangement direction of the cleaning device. 4. The heat pipe has the other end located at a first position near the heat generating portion during image formation and a second near the cooling device for lowering the temperature of the recording medium after the fixing step during non-image formation. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the image forming apparatus is configured to be movable so as to be placed at a position. 5. The heat pipe is configured to be movable such that the distance between the other end of the pipe and the heat generating portion is gradually narrowed as the weight of the toner in the toner collecting portion is increased. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein 6. The heat pipe has a movable structure such that the other end thereof is placed in the vicinity of a cooling device for lowering the temperature of the recording medium after the fixing step when the toner collecting section is full. Claims 2 to 5
The image forming apparatus according to any one of 1.