JPH0659525A - Electrophotographic device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the quality of an image and an operation. CONSTITUTION:An opened upper part housing is pressed and angularly displaced clockwise around a supporting shaft. The shaft of a process cartridge pivotally supported by the upper part housing is abutted/pressed on the slope 121 of a locking piece 120 provided on a lower part housing 22, to angularly displace the locking piece 120 counterclockwise. Thus, the shaft of the process cartridge enters into between the undercut 122 of the locking piece 120 and a positioning groove 119 formed on the lower part housing 22. Further, when the upper part housing is angularly displaced, the restraining piece 124 of the locking piece 120 is pressed by the bottom end part of the upper part housing and angularly displaced clockwise and the shaft of the process cartridge is held by the locking piece 120 and the positioning groove 119.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a relatively small LED.
(Light emitting diode) The present invention relates to an electrophotographic apparatus realized as a printer or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 61 is a perspective view of a typical conventional electrophotographic apparatus 1. The electrophotographic apparatus 1 includes a box-shaped lower housing 2 opening upward and a bottomless box-shaped upper housing 3. A paper feed cassette 4 is attached to one end of the lower housing 2. The recording paper from the paper feed cassette 4 is conveyed in the electrophotographic apparatus 1 along the conveying direction indicated by arrow A1. The upper housing 3 is pivotally supported by the lower housing 2 by a pivot 14 near the downstream end of the transport direction A1 and near the lower end of the downstream end.

On the upstream side of the conveying direction A1 of the upper housing 3, a charger for charging a uniform charge on the photosensitive drum 5, an LED array for forming a desired optical image on the charged photosensitive drum 5, Process cartridge 1 including a developing device that forms a toner image on the photosensitive drum 5 on which an electrostatic latent image is formed by irradiation of light from the LED array, and a cleaner that removes residual toner on the photosensitive drum 5 after transfer.
0 is attached detachably. In the lower housing 2, below the photosensitive drum 5 on the downstream side in the transport direction A1 with respect to the paper feeding cassette 4, a transfer device 11 for transferring the toner image on the photosensitive drum 5 onto the recording paper from the paper feeding cassette 4, and a post-transfer device. The fixing device 13 for fixing the toner image on the recording paper is disposed.

The process cartridge 10 is detachably mounted on the back surface of the upper housing 3. For example, when the toner contained in the process cartridge 10 is consumed and lost, the upper housing 3 is replaced with the above-mentioned structure. The process cartridge 10 mounted on the back surface of the upper housing 3 after being angularly displaced about the pivot 14 to open.
The process cartridge 10 is removed and a new process cartridge 10 is mounted. After that, by closing the upper housing 3, the electrophotographic apparatus 1 is ready for use.

The upper housing 3 has a rectangular plate-shaped top portion 6, and rectangular plate-shaped side portions 7 and 8 that hang down toward the lower housing from both widthwise ends of the top portion 6 orthogonal to the transport direction A1. Provided at the lower ends of the side portions 7 and 8 are locking pieces 9 and 12 that extend in the proximity direction to each other. Further, protrusions 15 and 16 are formed on the inner surfaces of the side portions 7 and 8 which face each other, and the lower end surfaces thereof, that is, the surfaces which face the locking pieces 9 and 12, respectively, are the process cartridges. The locking surfaces 17 and 18 have a shape corresponding to the shape of the upper surface of the locking surface 10, and gradually become closer to the locking pieces 9 and 12 toward the pivot 14 side.

That is, when the process cartridge 10 is mounted in the upper housing 3, the width direction side portions 10a and 10b of the process cartridge 10 are vertically moved by the locking surfaces 17 and 18 and the locking pieces 9 and 12. From the state where it is clamped from and is attached to the upper housing 3,
The upper housing 3 is configured so that it does not rattle in the vertical direction and can maintain a predetermined distance from the transfer device 11. Further, the position of the process cartridge 10 in the left-right direction is realized by contacting the inner side surface of the upper housing 3 with the widthwise both side portions 10 a, 10 b of the process cartridge 10.

[0007]

In the above-mentioned conventional example, by mounting the process cartridge 10 in the upper housing 3 having the above-mentioned structure, the process cartridge 10 is not moved in the vertical direction and the width direction, and the predetermined position is set. I am trying to keep it. However, the outer shape of the process cartridge 10 and the distance between the inner surfaces of the side portions 7 and 8 of the upper housing 3, or the distance between the locking surfaces 17 and 18 and the locking pieces 9 and 12 are different from each other. In order to allow the process cartridge 10 to be detachably accommodated in the upper housing 3, a gap is required to allow the process cartridge 10 to move in the upper housing 3.

Therefore, the process cartridge 10 inevitably has rattling in the upper housing 3 in the vertical direction and the width direction. The rattling in the vertical direction causes a defect in the image on the recording paper obtained by transferring the toner image on the photosensitive drum 5, and the rattling in the width direction causes the image on the recording paper to shift in the width direction. Such a problem appears as a remarkable image defect when a toner image is printed on a single recording paper multiple times. Further, the rattling in the width direction may cause a conveyance failure of the recording sheet conveyed from the sheet feeding cassette 4.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above technical problems, improve the quality of an image formed on a recording sheet body, and convey the recording sheet body without stopping undesirably. It is to provide an electrophotographic apparatus capable of

[0010]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides an electrophotographic apparatus having a lower housing and an upper housing opened and closed by the lower housing, wherein the recording sheet body is provided with the lower housing at one end in a predetermined conveying direction. An upper housing that is pivotally supported so that it can be angularly displaced, and a cleaning that is pivotally supported by the upper housing so that it can be angularly displaced, and that removes toner on the photosensitive drum, the developing device, and the surface of the photosensitive drum after the toner image on the photosensitive drum is transferred. The device is integrally provided in the housing, and the process cartridge has engaging protrusions protruding on at least one side, and a box-shaped lower housing that opens upward, and can be angularly displaced near the upper end of the side. And a pressing surface is formed at one end on one side with respect to the pivotal position to prevent the lifting by pushing the engaging projection from substantially above. An engaging member including an engaging member formed with an engaging piece extending upward, a receiving surface that receives the engaging projection from below, and a substantially V-shaped guide surface that guides the engaging projection to the receiving surface. A lower housing having a receiving member having a mating groove, and when the upper housing is closed, the engaging projection of the process cartridge is guided by the guide surface of the receiving member and received by the receiving surface, and the pressing surface of the locking member. The upper housing is brought into contact with the engaging piece of the engaging member from above from the upper side in a state of being pressed by the engaging groove of the receiving member, and the engaging member holds the process cartridge in the lower housing. Is an electrophotographic apparatus.

[0011]

The opening / closing operation of the upper housing with respect to the lower housing in the electrophotographic apparatus of the present invention is as follows. When the upper housing is closed, when the upper housing is angularly displaced toward the lower housing, the process cartridge pivotally supported by the upper housing is also angularly displaced toward the lower housing. The engaging protrusions on both sides of the process cartridge are guided by the guide surface of the receiving member provided in the lower housing and received by the receiving surface, and are pressed by the pressing surface of the locking member to engage with the engaging groove of the receiving member. In the fitted state, the upper housing abuts the locking piece of the locking member from above to prevent angular displacement of the locking member.

Therefore, the engagement protrusion of the process cartridge is engaged with and retained by the engagement groove of the receiving member.
That is, the process cartridge is held at a predetermined position with respect to the lower housing via the receiving member, and rattling is eliminated with the upper housing closed.

To release the holding state of the process cartridge as described above, the upper housing is angularly displaced from the lower housing in the opening direction. As a result, a gap is created between the locking piece of the locking member and the upper housing, whereby the locking member is angularly displaced and the engaging projection of the process cartridge is disengaged from the pressing surface of the locking member. This detachment allows the upper housing to be wide open from the lower housing.

As described above, according to the present invention, the process cartridge is held in the lower housing by the engagement state with the receiving member when the upper housing is closed. Therefore, as compared with the case where the structure surrounding the process cartridge is provided in the upper housing and the process cartridge is held in this structure, a gap for attaching and detaching the process cartridge becomes unnecessary, and the process cartridge is installed in the lower housing. On the other hand, it can be held at a predetermined position with high accuracy. Therefore, the positional deviation of the image formed on the recording medium due to the rattling shown in the case of the comparative example can be eliminated, and the image quality can be significantly improved. Further, due to the rattling, it is possible to prevent a defective conveyance operation of the recording medium conveyed near the photosensitive drum of the process cartridge.

[0015]

【Example】

(1) Description of Overall Configuration FIG. 1 is an overall sectional view of an LED printer 21 of an embodiment of the electrophotographic apparatus of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a system diagram of the LED printer 21, and FIG. 3 is an LED printer. 22 is a system diagram showing an arrangement state of various sensors and rollers in FIG. The LED printer 21 has an upper opening and a substantially box-shaped lower housing 22 and a lower housing 22.
And an upper housing 23 in the shape of a lid. The upper housing 23 is angularly movably coupled via a support shaft 24 to the vicinity of an end portion on the downstream side of the recording paper conveyance direction A1 in the body of the LED printer 21 and near an upper end portion thereof. . The lower housing 22 opens upward. FIG. 4 is a front view showing a state where the lower housing 22 and the upper housing 23 are combined.

The recording paper 2 is placed in the lower housing 22.
The paper feed cassette 29 in which 5 are stacked and stored is detachably mounted from the upstream side in the transport direction A1. In the paper feed cassette 29, the recording paper 2 is attached to the take-out side of the stored recording paper 25, that is, a substantially semi-cylindrical paper feed roller 30 on the right side in FIG.
A lifting plate 31 is provided that is biased upward by a spring 32 to bring the 5 closer. The paper feed roller 30 has a semi-cylindrical shape as described above, and supplies and stops the recording paper 25 for each rotation.

The carrying direction A of the lower housing 22
The sheet feeding roller 30 is rotatably mounted on the upstream side of the first printer so that the sheet feeding roller 30 has an axis parallel to the width direction orthogonal to the carrying direction A1 of the LED printer 21, that is, the direction perpendicular to the plane of FIG. The feeding direction A is more than the feeding roller 30.
1 Downstream side, above the lifting plate 31, a detection unit 3 for detecting the presence or absence of the recording paper 25 in the paper feed cassette 29.
3 is arranged. The detection means 33 is disposed at a corresponding position on the lower portion of the lifting plate 31 and a detection lever 34 which is provided in a substantially L-shape and is angularly displaceable around an axis parallel to the width direction. It is composed of an optical sensor 35 (see FIG. 28) for optically detecting. That is, the lifting plate 31 is provided with a through hole (not shown) through which the detection lever 34 freely passes and projects downward. When the recording sheet 25 is not present on the lifting plate 31, the detection lever 34 moves downward. It is angularly displaced toward the outside and projects downward through the through hole of the lifting plate 31. FIG. 2 shows a state in which there is no recording sheet. When the optical sensor 35 detects the detection lever 34 in this state, the state in which there is no recording sheet 25 in the paper feed cassette 29 is detected.

In the vicinity of the upstream end of the LED printer 21 in the carrying direction A1, the paper feeding roller 30 is used to carry the carrying direction A
The recording paper 25 that has started to be fed toward the upstream side 1 is further conveyed by being pinched by a pair of conveying rollers 37 via an inversion path 36 that reverses the feeding direction toward the downstream side in the conveying direction A1. Then, it is sandwiched between the registration rollers 38. A detection unit 39 for detecting a recording sheet is arranged near the upstream side of the registration roller 38 in the transport direction A1. The detection means 39 also includes a detection lever 40 and an optical sensor 41 that optically detects the end portion of the detection lever 40 when the detection lever 40 is angularly displaced depending on the presence or absence of recording paper.

The recording paper 25 that has passed the registration rollers 38.
The transfer device 42 performs a transfer process as described later. The transfer device 42 has a box shape elongated in the width direction of the LED printer 21, and a shield case 43 made of a metal material having an opening at one end in a direction orthogonal to the width direction.
And a transfer discharger 100 provided with a discharge wire 44 stretched around the shield case 43, and extends from the peripheral edge of the opening of the shield case 43 toward the downstream side in the transport direction A1 to smooth the recording paper 25. And a guide piece 45 made of a synthetic resin material having a low friction coefficient. That is, the guide piece 45 of the transfer device 42 becomes a part of the guide path of the recording paper 25.

The recording sheet transferred by the transfer device 42 is conveyed to the fixing device 46. The fixing device 46 has a substantially box-shaped housing 47 in which a pressure roller 48 and a heating roller 49 are arranged in contact with each other.
Is elastically abutted against the heating roller 49 by a spring. A detection unit 51 for detecting the recording paper 25 is provided on the downstream side of the fixing device 46 in the transport direction A1. The detecting means 51 has the same structure as the detecting means 33 and 39, and a detecting lever 53 protruding to the conveyance path of the recording paper 25.
And an optical sensor 54 for detecting the angular displacement of the detection lever 53 due to the pressing of the recording paper 25. A rear unit 55 that includes the detection means 51 and constitutes the downstream end of the lower housing 22 in the transport direction A1 is provided.

The rear unit 55 is provided at the downstream side end of the pair of side frames, which will be described later, on both sides in the width direction of the lower housing 22, that is, both sides along the direction perpendicular to the paper surface of FIG. Fixed.
The rear unit 55 is provided with paper discharge rollers 58 and 59 at positions facing each other in order to discharge the recording paper after fixing to the outside of the machine on the downstream side in the transport direction A1 with respect to the detection means 51. An opening 101 is formed downstream of the rear unit 55 with respect to the paper discharge rollers 58 and 59 in the transport direction A1. Is mounted so as to be freely angularly displaceable via a shaft 61 below.

On the inner side of the rear cover 60, the discharge rollers 58 and 59 are connected in the vicinity of the contact position, and the discharge rollers 5
A reversing member 62 forming a reversing path 350, which has a substantially semi-circular inner peripheral surface that reverses the moving direction of the recording paper from 8, 59 to the upper side and to the upstream side of the transport direction A1.
Is provided. Near the end position of the reversing member 62, paper discharge rollers 64 and 65 are provided at positions facing each other in order to discharge the conveyed recording paper to the stacker 63 mounted on the upper housing 23.

The conveying direction A of the upper housing 23
1, a holding member 66 opening toward the upstream side in the transport direction A1 is provided near the central position along the upper housing 23.
In the width direction both side frames 67, 68 of the conveyance direction A1
The long holes 69, 70 formed in a state of being inclined from the upper side to the lower side from the upstream side to the downstream side, respectively.
The support shafts 71 and 72 formed at both ends of the holding member 66 in the width direction are mounted by being angularly fitted. The holding member 66 includes the process cartridge 7
3 is detachably attached.

The process cartridge 73 has a housing 75 in which a toner box 74 having toner stored therein is detachably accommodated. The developing roller 76 and the photosensitive drum 77 are rotatably mounted on the housing 75 at predetermined intervals with parallel axes. The process cartridge 73 has an agitator 78 that mixes the toner stored in the toner box 74 with a carrier and supplies the mixed toner to the developing roller 76 as a developer.
Is provided. A toner sensor 367 is provided near the agitator 78 to detect the toner concentration in the developer. Around the photosensitive drum 77 in the housing 75, on the downstream side in the rotation direction A2 of the photosensitive drum 77 with respect to the developing roller 76, that is, on the left side in FIG. A cleaning device 80 having a cleaning blade 79 for scraping off the residual toner and a charger 81 such as a corona discharger for uniformly charging a charge of a predetermined polarity are arranged on the surface of the photosensitive drum 77. . Charger 81
A space is provided between the developing roller 76 and the developing roller 76, and a desired surface of the photosensitive drum 77, which is mounted on the upper housing 22 in a swingable manner and is charged by the charger 81, is provided in the space. An LED array 82 that emits light to form an optical image is mounted.

In the vicinity of the upstream end of the lower housing 22 in the transport direction A1, the recording paper 25 from the paper feed cassette 29 is reversed in the transport direction toward the downstream side of the transport direction A1 in FIG. And LE near the upper end of FIG.
A manual paper feeding device 83 for manually feeding paper is provided in the D printer 21. The manual paper feeding device 83
A loading table 84 on which a recording sheet for manual feeding is loaded, and mounting plates 286, 287 near both ends of the loading table 84 in the width direction.
Are provided respectively. Further, paper feed rollers 299 and 300 for feeding the recording paper into the body of the LED printer 21 are provided on the loading table 84. In the lower part of the loading table 84, in order to switch the feeding of the recording paper for transfer in the LED printer 21 from the paper feeding cassette 29 or the manual feeding device 83, a loading table is provided. Detection means 87 for detecting the presence or absence of recording paper on 84
Is provided. The detection means 87 has the same configuration as the above-described detection means 33, 39, etc., and is a detection lever 88 that is pressed by the loading of the recording paper on the loading platform 84 and is angularly displaced. And an optical sensor 89 for detecting the angular displacement operation of 88.

From the manual paper feeding device 83 to the paper feeding roller 29
The recording paper conveyed by the 9,300 to the downstream side in the conveying direction A1 is near the upper end of the reversing path 36,
It is conveyed to the registration roller 38 side by the conveying roller 37. When the recording paper is placed on the manual paper feeding device 83 as described above, the recording paper is detected by the detecting means 87. In such a case, the paper feeding cassette 29 is mounted in the LED printer 21. Even if it is present, the paper feed roller 36 does not operate as described later, and the paper feed from the manual paper feed device 83 is preferentially executed.

(2) Description of Upper Housing 23 FIG. 5 is a plan view of the upper housing 23, FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the mounting member 94, FIG. 7 is a front view of the upper housing 23, and FIG. It is a rear view of the upper housing 23. As shown in FIGS. 5 to 8, the upper housing 23 includes side plates 67 and 68, which are substantially plate-shaped and arranged in parallel with the transport direction A1, and the side frames 67 and 6.
8 is configured to include a front end frame 90 and a mounting member 94 that connect 8 at the upstream end and the central portion in the transport direction A1. The upper housing 23 has a structure described below near the upper end of the lower housing 22 immediately below the front end frame 90.
A lock mechanism 92 for fixing or opening the lower housing 22 to the lower housing 22 is arranged. A lock release member 93 that is reciprocally displaced in parallel with the transport direction A1 that releases a lock state of the lock mechanism 92 described later is disposed on the side frame 67 of the upper housing 23.

On the other hand, as shown in each drawing, a mounting member for mounting the LED array 82 on the upper housing 23 in the vicinity of the central position of the side frames 67, 68 of the upper housing 23 along the carrying direction A1. 94 is fixed. The mounting member 94 is formed by bending a substantially rectangular plate-shaped member in two opposite directions along the transport direction A1 and is screwed to the side frames 67 and 68.
And an inclined portion 96 that inclines upward from the mounting portions 95a and 95b toward the upstream side in the transport direction A1, and a side frame 67, 68 extending from the upper end of the inclined portion 96 in parallel with the transport direction A1.
The mounting portion 97 that is screwed to and a part of the mounting portion 97 are cut and raised, and are inclined slightly downward toward the upstream side in the transport direction A1 to support the LED array 82 in a slightly swingable manner, and the inclined portion 96. And supporting portions 98a and 98b respectively provided near both ends in the width direction.

The side frame 6 of the upper housing 23
7 and 68 are formed with the elongated holes 69 and 70, respectively, which are inclined from the upper side to the lower side in FIGS. 7 and 8 along the transport direction A1, and the holding members 66 are provided in the elongated holes 69 and 70, respectively.
Support shafts 71, 72 of side frames 67, 68, respectively.
It is attached by penetrating from the inner side to the outer side. That is, the holding member 66 can be angularly displaced about the support shafts 71 and 72, and can be moved in the longitudinal direction of the elongated holes 69 and 70. A waste toner box 99 for collecting waste toner discharged from the process cartridge 73 mounted in the holding member 66 will be described later at the rear end of the holding member 66 in FIG. 4, that is, the upper end in FIG. Is detachably attached. On the other hand, on the upstream side of the arrangement direction of the holding member 66 in the upper housing 23 in the transport direction A1, one end is fixed to the side frames 67 and 68, and the other end extends toward the downstream side in the transport direction A1. Piece 100a,
100b is fixed respectively.

(3) Description of Lower Housing 22 FIG. 9 is a plan view showing the front housing portion of the lower housing 22 in the direction perpendicular to the plane of FIG. 4, and FIG.
FIG. 5 is a plan view showing a rear portion of FIG.
FIG. 11 is a front view of the lower housing 22, and FIG. 12 is a front view showing a mounting state of the holding member 66. FIG. 13 is a rear view of the lower housing 22. Lower housing 2
2, the side frames 56, 57 are fixed at predetermined intervals from both ends in the width direction in the partition wall 27 having a substantially rectangular plate shape.
A gear or LE for transmitting power to the above-described photosensitive drum 77 or the like is provided between 57 and the widthwise end of the partition wall 27.
Mounting portions 101a and 101b for mounting various electric circuit elements used for controlling the D printer 21 are configured.

On the upstream side of the side frame 56 in the conveying direction A1, there is formed a fitting hole 102 which is cut out from the upper side where the paper feeding roller 30 is mounted, and in the side frame 57, the fitting hole is formed. A fitting hole 103 is formed at a position corresponding to 102. With respect to the fitting hole 102 of the mounting portion 101a, the LED is provided on the downstream side in the transport direction A1.
A motor 104 for supplying rotational power to various rollers of the printer 21 is provided.

A gear 105 is provided on the rotating shaft of the motor 104. The gear 105 meshes with a large-diameter gear 106 out of a large-diameter gear 106 and a small-diameter gear 107 which are coaxially fixed to each other. The gear 107 meshes with another gear 108. The gear 108 meshes with the large-diameter gear 109 of the large-diameter gear 109 and the small-diameter gear 110 fixed coaxially to each other, and the small-diameter gear 110 meshes with the gears 111 and 112 individually. The rotation of the gear 111 is shown in FIG.
Via the clutch mechanism 216 shown in FIG.
Is transmitted to the photosensitive drum 77 via the gear 113. On the other hand, the rotation of the gear 112 is transmitted to the small-diameter gear 114 of the small-diameter gear 114 and the large-diameter gear 115 that are coaxially fixed to each other, and the large-diameter gear 115 passes through the gear 116 of the fixing device 46. The rotation is transmitted to the pressure roller 48.

A mounting plate 117 parallel to the side frame 56 is erected on the mounting portion 101a of the partition wall 27. The mounting plate 117 is axially positioned at a predetermined position in the transport direction A1 with respect to the mounting plate 117 and at a predetermined height from the partition wall 27. 118 is provided, and a positioning groove 119 that is concave downward is formed on the upper side of the shaft 118. A plate-shaped lock piece 120 is angularly displacedly coupled to the shaft 118. Lock piece 120
On the upper side of the shaft 118, an inclined surface 121 is formed which inclines downward toward the upstream side in the transport direction A1. The inclined surface 121 has a concave shape extending from the upstream end of the inclined direction in the transport direction A1 toward the downstream side in the transport direction A1. An escape groove 122 is formed. Lock piece 1
20 has a connecting portion 123 inclined upward as it goes to the upstream side in the transport direction A1, and the upstream end of the connecting portion 123 is bent toward the inner side in the width direction and is a plate-shaped member parallel to the horizontal plane. It is formed as a stop 124.

As shown in FIGS. 10 and 13, a support plate 125 having a convex shape is screwed to the side frame 57 on the end portion in the width direction, that is, on the upper side in FIG. A shaft 126 is provided on the upper end of the support plate 125 at a position corresponding to the shaft 118 of the mounting plate 117, and a concave positioning groove 127 is formed below the shaft 126 at a position corresponding to the positioning groove 119. It Further, a lock piece 128 having a symmetrical shape with the lock piece 120 of the mounting plate 117 is provided on the shaft 126 so as to be angularly displaceable. Lock piece 128
The part corresponding to the part of the lock piece 120 is shown by adding the subscript a to the reference numerals 121 to 124.

A guide member 334 is fixed at a predetermined height from the partition wall 27 on the downstream side in the carrying direction A1 with respect to the positioning groove 119 of the mounting plate 117. Guide member 334
Is formed with a guide surface 335 that bulges in a substantially arcuate shape toward the upstream side in the transport direction A1.

(4) Description of Holding Member 66 FIG. 14 is a right side view of the holding member 66, FIG. 15 is a plan view of the holding member 66, FIG. 16 is a front view of the holding member 66, and FIG. 1 is a rear view of the holding member 66, and FIG.
8 is a sectional view taken along the section line X18-X18 in FIG. The holding member 66 is wholly made of a synthetic resin material, has a length in the width direction on the downstream side of the carrying direction A1,
A back plate 129 that extends in the up-down direction is provided, and a rectangular plate-shaped upper plate 130 and a lower plate 131 that extend toward the upstream side in the transport direction A1 are provided at the upper and lower ends thereof, and the lower surface of the upper plate 130 is in the transport direction. A plurality of guide protrusions 1 extending in a direction parallel to A1
32 is integrally formed.

At the left end of the inner plate 129 in FIGS. 14 and 15, the side plate 13 extending toward the upstream side in the transport direction A1 is formed.
3, the inner surface of the side plate 133 in the width direction has a concave shape outward in the width direction and is inclined downward from the upstream side to the downstream side in the transport direction A1; A positioning recess 136 including a long groove 135 extending from the lower end to the downstream side in the transport direction A1 is formed. On the other hand, at the lower end of the side plate 133 and in the vicinity of the downstream end of the conveying direction A1, the guide piece 1 extending further downward.
37 is integrally formed. The guide piece 137 is in the transport direction A1.
Inclined portion 138 that inclines downward from the upstream side to the downstream side
And a protrusion 139 extending from the tip of the inclined portion 138 toward the downstream side in the transport direction A1.

A mounting member 140 is integrally formed at the right end of FIG. 15 of the back plate 129 so as to project further to the right, and is open to the left side of FIG. It is provided in. The mounting member 140 includes a connecting plate 141 that extends further to the right from the right end of the inner plate 129 in FIGS. 14 and 15, and a long plate-shaped side plate that extends from the end of the connecting plate 141 toward the upstream side in the transport direction A1. 142. Further, a connecting portion 143 is formed from the right end in FIG. 15 of the lower plate 131 toward the upstream side in the transport direction A1, and a connecting portion 144 connected to the upstream end in the transport direction A1 of the side plate 142 is formed at the tip thereof. To be done. The connecting portion 144 is formed at a predetermined distance from the lower ends of the side plate 142 and the connecting portion 143, that is, the lower ends of the respective members in FIG. 14, and the vicinity of the upper end portion of the waste toner box 99 shown in FIGS. 5 and 8 will be described later. 1 to be stored as
45.

A plurality of protrusions 146a, 14 are provided at the lower ends of the side plate 142 and the connecting portion 143 in the direction of approaching each other.
6b, 147a, 147b are respectively formed. Between the protrusions 146a and 146b and between the protrusions 147a and 147b
Gaps 148a and 148b are provided between them. Further, a rectangular plate-shaped guide piece 149 extending toward the upstream side in the transport direction A1 is formed from the inner plate 129 and the right end portion in FIG.

Side plates 150, 1 extending from the left and right ends of the inner plate 129 in the left-right direction in FIG.
51, and the support shafts 71 and 72 are formed on the side plates 150 and 151 in directions opposite to each other, respectively.
The long holes 69 and 70 formed in the holes 7 and 68 are respectively fitted.

Rectangular through holes 152 and 153 are formed at both ends of the upper plate 130 in the left-right direction in FIG. 15, and engaging pieces 154 extending in the upstream direction of the conveying direction A1 are formed in the through holes 152 and 153, respectively. , 155 are formed. Each engaging piece 15
Engaging claws 156 and 157 are formed at the free ends of 4, 155 so as to hang downward, that is, downward in FIGS. 14 and 18. Portions of the upper plate 130 on the upstream side in the transport direction A1 of the through holes 152 and 153 are formed as convex curved portions 158 and 159 in the direction opposite to the lower plate 131, respectively.
As shown in FIG.
When it is mounted on the No. 6, the engagement state is achieved between the process cartridge 73 and the engagement pieces 154 and 155.

(5) Description of Process Cartridge 73 FIG. 19 is a plan view showing a partial cross section of the process cartridge 73, FIG. 20 is a developed cross section of the gear train wheel portion of the process cartridge 73, and FIG. 22 is a front view of the cartridge 73, FIG. 22 is a rear view of the process cartridge 73, and FIG. 23 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the process cartridge 73 near the sub-agitator 162.
FIG. 24 is a sectional view of the process cartridge 73. The housing 75 of the process cartridge 73 is provided with an accommodating portion 160 of the toner box 74 that detachably accommodates the toner box 74 from above, and is formed on the rear side of the accommodating portion 160 from above to below. Notch 1
61 is formed. A sub-agitator 162 that moves the toner supplied from the toner box 74 shown in FIG. 1 to the agitator 78 side is provided on the upstream side of the agitator 78 of the housing 75 in the transport direction A1.

Housing 7 of process cartridge 73
In FIG. 5, a fixture 163 for pressing and fixing the charger 81 to the housing 75 is screwed near the downstream end of the conveying direction A1. As shown in FIG. 21, the protrusion 16 is located at the downstream end of the fixture 163 in the transport direction A1 and near both ends in the width direction of the fixture 163.
4 are formed respectively, and when the process cartridge 73 is attached to the holding member 66, the engaging piece 15 of the holding member 66 is formed.
The process cartridge 73 is engaged with the holding members 6 by engaging with the engaging claws 156 and 157 of the nozzles 4 and 155 as described later.
Hold at 6.

A shaft 33 for rotatably supporting the photosensitive drum 77 is provided on the front side of the housing 75, that is, on the side wall on the lower side of FIG.
6 protrudes, and the gear 339 whose rotation is transmitted by the gear 113 shown in FIG. 11 is coaxially fixed to the photosensitive drum.
The gear 339 meshes with a gear 361 that is coaxially fixed to the screw 348 in the housing 75 that constitutes the cleaning device 80. On the other hand, the gear 339 meshes with the large-diameter gear 361 coaxially loosely fitted to the shaft 324 of the developing roller 76 and the gear 340 of the small-diameter gear 340 coaxially formed integrally therewith, and the other gears 361 are The gears 341a and 341b fixed coaxially mesh with the gear 341a. The gear 341b is a gear 36 coaxially fixed to the developing roller 76.
The rotation of the photosensitive drum 77 is transmitted to the developing roller 76. Further, the gear 341b meshes with the gear 343, and the gear 343 meshes with the gear 342 fixed to the shaft 360 of the agitator 78.

Storage portion 160 of process cartridge 73
The toner box 74 housed in is shown in FIG.
Further, the housing 165 of the toner box 74 has a downwardly convex shape corresponding to the shape of the housing portion 160 in the housing 75 of the process cartridge 73,
Toner storage portion 166 having an upper opening, and toner storage portion 1
A toner replenishing hole 167 is formed so as to be connected to the downstream side of the conveying direction A1 of 66, and the toner replenishing hole 167 is formed downward.
At the position where 7 is closed, a toner replenishing roller 168 made of a porous material such as sponge is provided with a shaft 18 parallel to the width direction.
4, the toner replenishing section 169 is rotatably arranged.
And are integrally included.

The toner storage portion 166 has a housing 16
5, a shaft 171 is provided between the both side walls 170 near the upper ends of the both side walls 170, and the tip of the shaft 171 has the toner storage unit 1.
A toner moving member 172 that slides on the inner wall of 66 is swingably provided. The toner moving member 172 and the toner supply roller 168 are rotationally driven by a toner motor 383 (see FIG. 3) fixed to the upper housing 23. The toner moving member 172 includes a support frame 173 connected to the shaft 171 for angular displacement, and a toner moving piece 174 fixed to a tip of the support frame 173 in the radial direction. The distal end of the toner moving piece 174 in the radial direction is curved in a substantially arcuate shape along the shape of the inner wall surface of the toner accommodating portion 166. A surface 175 is formed, and the sliding surface 175 is inclined radially inward on the toner supply roller 168 side,
Toner collection surface 1 for collecting toner in the toner storage unit 166
76 is formed.

A shaft 177 is disposed between the both side walls 170 below the shaft 171, and a fan-shaped drive cam 178 for reciprocally angularly displacing the toner moving member 172 by being rotationally driven by the shaft 177 is rotatable. It is provided in. The drive cam 178 is configured to include a small arc portion 179 and an arc portion 180 that has a diameter larger than that of the small arc portion 179 and that follows the shape of the inner peripheral surface of the toner storage portion 166 and has an arc shape of a half circumference or less. To be done. Both ends of the circular arc portion 180 in the circumferential direction and the small circular arc portion 17
Connecting part 1 that connects with 9 and opens at an angle of 180 degrees or less
81 and 182 are respectively formed.

That is, when the drive cam 178 is rotationally driven in the arrow A3 direction, the connecting portion 181 causes the toner moving member 1 to move.
The support frame 173 of 72 is pressed to move the toner moving member 172 to the position shown by the chain double-dashed line in FIG. 25, and the reciprocal angle is displaced between this position and the position shown by the solid line in FIG. On the other hand, a stop piece 183 for stopping the angular displacement of the toner moving member 172 in the counterclockwise direction of FIG.

The toner replenishing roller 168 is inserted into the housing 165 from above, and a U-shaped receiving piece 185 formed on the inner peripheral surface of the both side walls 170 of the housing 165.
Both ends are rotatably supported. On the other hand, the shaft 171 of the toner moving member 172 is connected to the side walls 17
Both ends are rotatably supported by notches 186 formed at the upper end of 0 and the bottom of which are formed in an arc shape, respectively.

On the other hand, the housing 165 is opened upward, and a cover 187 for covering this opening is attached. The cover 187 is, for example, screwed to the peripheral portion of the housing 165, and pressing pieces 188 and 189 that respectively hang down from positions corresponding to above the toner replenishing roller 168 and the shaft 171 are integrally provided.
The tips of 8, 189 are formed in a concave shape upward, and the concave portions support the shafts 184, 171 from above. As a result, the positioning of the shafts 184 and 171 and the prevention of their falling off are realized.

A receiving plate 405 for the purpose of protecting the process cartridge 73 is provided on the upstream side of the paper transport direction A1 in the portion where the photosensitive drum 77 is exposed on the outer periphery of the lower surface of the process cartridge 73.

(6) Description of Conveying Device 190 FIG. 26 is provided with the paper feeding roller 30, the conveying roller 37 and the registration roller 38 described with reference to FIG. 27 is a plan view of a conveying device 190 that takes in the recording paper from the device 83 into the machine body and conveys the recording paper toward the transfer device 42. FIG.
0 is a front view of FIG. 0, FIG. 28 is a rear view of the transport device 190, FIG. 29 is an exploded perspective view of the vicinity of the registration roller 38, FIG. 30 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the transport device 190, and FIG. 31 is a clutch. 32 is a cross-sectional view near the mechanism 217, and FIG.
FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of the vicinity of a drive lever 222. The carrying device 190 includes a pair of upper and lower guide members 192 and 193, which are connected to each other in the vicinity of the downstream end in the carrying direction A1 so as to be angularly displaced.

The upper guide member 192 smoothly guides the conveyed recording paper, and is a rectangular plate-shaped guide plate 194 that is long in the width direction, and is located in the vicinity of an intermediate position of the guide plate 194 in the conveying direction A1. And a pair of leaf springs 195 arranged at intervals in the width direction. Each leaf spring 195 is formed so as to incline upward toward the upstream side in the transport direction A1, and the upper guide member 1 is formed at its base end using the fixing piece 196.
It is fixed to the upper surface of 92. When the upper housing 23 is closed, the leaf spring 195 elastically abuts the lower surface of the housing portion 160 of the process cartridge 3 from below, and biases the upper housing 23 upward through the process cartridge 73. The upper guide member 192 is cut and raised at four positions in the width direction as an example, and a total of four support pieces 197 are respectively provided upright, and the transport roller is attached to a shaft 198 rotatably inserted therein. Two driven rollers 37a, which are the upper rollers constituting 37, are mounted respectively.

Of the transport rollers 37, the drive roller 37b arranged below is a lower guide member 193 as will be described later.
Attached to. Transport direction A1 of the upper guide member 192
At the downstream end, both ends in the width direction have the lower guide member 19
3 is attached to a pin 200 that is angularly displaced.
Accordingly, the upper guide member 192 can be angularly displaced with respect to the lower guide member 193. The side plate 204, which will be described later, on which the pin 200 is rotatably supported is provided with a rotation restricting portion 204a that engages with a corner portion 192b around the outer periphery of the upper guide member 192, and the angular displacement of the upper guide member 192 with respect to the lower guide member 193. It regulates the possible range. That is, the upper guide member 192 is angularly displaced upward about the pin 200, and is opened to a position where the upper guide member 192 is angularly displaced counterclockwise when viewed from the direction of FIG. And the corner portion 192 of the upper guide member 192.
b and the rotation restricting portion 204a of the side plate 204 come into contact with each other, and the angular displacement range of the upper guide member 192 is restricted. Therefore, in this state, the upper guide member reduces its own weight by the rotation restricting portion 2.
It will be in the form of being stored in 04a and will keep the open state even if the hand is released. A shaft 202, on which an upper driven roller 201 constituting the registration roller 38 is rotatably mounted, is fixed between the bearings 199 at both ends of the upper guide member 192 in the width direction.

The lower guide member 193 is the guide plate 194.
And a pair of side plates 204 and 205 formed by bending downward at both ends in the width direction of the guide plate 203 and having a shape substantially corresponding to. . To the outside of the side plate 204, power is transmitted from the gear 111 driven by the motor 104 described with reference to FIG. 11, and the driven roller 2 of the registration roller 38 is transmitted.
01, a gear 209 loosely fitted to a shaft 215 of a drive roller 208, gears 210 and 211 for transmitting power to a gear 206 meshing with the gear 209, a gear 207 coaxially fixed to the gear 206, and the gear 206. A gear 212 that meshes with the drive roller 37b provided facing the driven roller 37a of the transport roller 37, and the gear 2
Gear 2 meshing with 06 and transmitting power to the paper feed roller 30
13 and a gear 214 that meshes with the gear 213 and is displaceable in the up-down direction while meshing with the gear 213 by a configuration described later at a position opposite to the gears 206 and 207.

The driven roller 20 of the registration roller 38.
1 and the drive roller 208 have shafts 202 and 21 respectively.
It is attached to 5. The shaft 215 is rotatably supported by the side plates 204 and 205, and projects outward from the side plate 204 to be coupled to the clutch mechanism 216. A known structure is used for the clutch mechanism 216, and the rotation of the gear 209 is used as an example to transmit / disconnect to / from the shaft 215 by inputting a control signal or the like. As a result, the registration roller 38 can realize intermittent rotational movement at a desired timing.

Another clutch mechanism 217 is provided for the paper feed roller 30. That is, the paper feed roller 30 is mounted on the shaft 218, and one end of the shaft 218 has a side wall 205.
The other end of the shaft 218 is rotatably supported by the side wall 204 and protrudes outward and is connected to the clutch mechanism 217. The operation control of the clutch mechanism 217 is performed by the drive mechanism 221 including the electromagnet device 219 and the Amasia 220 as described later. Further, the above-described vertical movement of the gear 214 allows angular displacement of the vicinity of the bent portion of the L-shaped drive lever 222 having the gear 214 rotatably mounted near one end thereof to the vicinity of the end of the shaft 218. This is accomplished by mounting and engaging the other end of the drive lever 222 with a drive piece 225 (see FIG. 32) that is pin-coupled to the telescopic rod 224 of the electromagnetic plunger 223.

When the electromagnetic plunger 223 is actuated and the rod 224 is retracted, the drive lever 222 is angularly displaced in the counterclockwise direction in FIG. As a result, the rotation is transmitted to the sheet feeding roller of the manual sheet feeding device 83 as described later. When the power supply to the electromagnetic plunger 223 is stopped, the drive lever 22
27 is angularly displaced clockwise in FIG. 27, the gear 214 descends, and the transmission of rotation to the manual paper feeding device 83 is cut off.

As shown in FIG. 27, each of the electromagnet device 219 and the electromagnetic plunger 223 is provided with a guide member 19.
It is mounted on a mounting base 226 separate from 2, 193. The mounting base 226 has a mounting portion 227 that is mounted substantially horizontally.
And a side wall 228 standing upright on the rear side of the mounting portion 227, that is, on the upper side in FIG. 30. Mounting part 227
A support piece 229 having an L-shape and supporting the Amatia 220 so as to be angularly displaceable on both sides in the width direction, and an electromagnet device 219 are screwed together.

The Amatia 220 is an electromagnet device 219.
27. A wide plate-shaped attraction portion 230 that is magnetically attracted to the support piece 229, and the support piece 229 protrudes to the opposite side from the attraction portion 230 and then hangs downward to cut and raise the support piece 229 and extend upward in FIG. The guide portion 232 that restricts the angular displacement operation of the Amachia 220 by abutting on the pair of guide pieces 231 formed as described above, and further protrudes from the upper end portion of the guide portion 232 to the right in FIG. 27 and further extends from the guide piece 231. FIG. 27
A spring receiving portion 234 that is connected by a tension spring 233 to the tip of a spring hooking portion 231 ′ that is cut and raised small to the right.
With.

Regarding the adsorption part 230 of the Amasia 220,
An engaging portion 235 that extends to a position below the clutch mechanism 217 and is bent upward is formed at an end opposite to the spring receiving portion 234. The engaging portion 235 is connected or disconnected to the clutch mechanism 217.

The structure of the clutch mechanism 217 will be described below. The gear 213 has a cylindrical shape and is not fixed to the shaft 218 so that rotation is not transmitted. The cylindrical portion 2 is provided on the gear 213.
41 is formed and the front side of the shaft 218, that is, FIG.
The end portion on the right side 1 passes through the tubular portion 241, extends further outward, and is fitted coaxially with the cylindrical rotating body 242. Rotating body 2
The portion of 42 near the tubular portion 241 has an outer diameter substantially the same as that of the tubular portion 241, and the end portions facing the tubular portion 241 are set at positions close to each other. The cylindrical portion 241 and the rotating body 24
Portions of the two opposite end portions are surrounded by an outer tubular body 243, and one end of the outer tubular body 243 has one end inside the outer tubular body 243.
The coil 244, which is locked by 3 and the other end of which is locked by the rotating body 242, includes the cylindrical portion 241 and the rotating body 242.
Is provided by winding each outer peripheral portion of.

On the other hand, engaging claws 245 are provided on the outer periphery of the outer cylindrical body 243, the electromagnet device 219 is not energized and no magnetic force is generated, and the Amachia 220 is moved upward by the spring force of the tension spring 233. When angularly displaced, the engaging portion 235 engages with the engaging claw 245 to prevent the external cylinder body 243 from rotating in the direction of arrow A6 (see FIG. 31). When the electromagnet device 219 is energized to generate a magnetic force, an Amachia 220
Is sucked, the engagement state between the engagement portion 235 and the engagement claw 245 is released, and the outer cylindrical body 243 becomes rotatable (state in FIG. 27).

That is, when the engagement state between the engagement portion 235 and the engagement claw 245 is released, when the gear 213 rotates, the rotation of the cylindrical body 241 causes the coil 244 to be tightened, and the coil 244 causes the rotation of the cylinder 241. The cylindrical body 241 and the rotating body 242 are fixed to each other, and the rotation is transmitted to the shaft 218. As a result, the paper feed roller 30 is rotationally driven. On the other hand, in the state where the engaging portion 235 and the engaging claw 245 are engaged, the force of tightening the coil 244 acts due to the rotation of the cylindrical body 241, but the rotation of the outer cylindrical body 243 in the same direction is blocked. Therefore, a force in the unwinding direction acts on the coil 244, the tubular body 241 and the rotating body 242 are not coupled by the coil 244, and the transmission of rotation to the shaft 218 is blocked.

(7) Description of Transfer Device 42 FIG. 33 is a plan view of the transfer device 42, FIG. 34 is a front view showing a partial cross section of the transfer device 42, and FIG. 35 is a cross sectional view of the transfer device 42. Is. The transfer device 42 of this embodiment
Is a guide member that guides the recording paper conveyed from the above-described conveying device 190 to a transfer area between the recording paper and the photosensitive drum 77;
A discharging device for transfer and a fixing device 46 for fixing the recording paper after the transfer.
It is characterized in that it is integrally formed with a guide member for guiding to.

A guide member 248 is provided on the upstream side of the transfer device 42 in the transfer direction A1 to guide the recording paper conveyed from the transfer device 190 to the transfer area 247 between the photosensitive drum 77 and the recording paper. The first guide member 248 is
It is formed by bending a metal plate, is arranged so as to be inclined downward toward the upstream side in the transport direction A1, and is connected to the ground potential. On the other hand, synthetic resin connectors 246 are fixed to both ends of the first guide member 248 in the longitudinal direction (front side and rear side in the vertical direction in FIG. 34), respectively.
3 and the guide member 248 are connected at both ends of the transfer device 42. A discharge wire 249 is provided near the transfer area of the coupling tool 246.
Is formed, and the shield case 43, which is formed by bending the metal plate into a substantially box shape and is connected to the ground potential, is provided so as to surround the groove 250 from below. The transfer discharger 364 is configured to include the discharge wire 249 and the shield case 43.

The downstream side of the shield case 43 in the transport direction A1 is formed as a support portion 251 extending obliquely downward.
A plurality of long holes are formed in the support portion 251 along the transport direction A1. A guide piece 45, which forms a paper guide surface by passing a plurality of rod-shaped guide ribs 45 ′ through the long holes of the support portion 251, is arranged below the support portion 251 along the width direction. The upper surface of each guide rib 45 has a supporting portion 251.
Is formed at a position higher than the surface of the sheet, and a predetermined length of space is provided between the supporting portion 251 and the recording sheet.

That is, the recording sheet conveyed from the conveying device 190 is transferred to the transfer area 247 by the guide member 248.
And the potential of the recording paper due to static electricity is set to the ground potential. Photosensitive drum 7 in transfer area 247
The recording paper on which the toner image on the sheet 7 is transferred is guided to the fixing device 46 side by the guide ribs 45, and is also supported by the guide piece 45 at a distance from the supporting portion 25.
By 1, the electric charge potential of the sheet is discharged and discharged while being transferred by the transfer device 42.

As a result, the guide from the transport device 190,
Also, the need to separately provide a member used for guiding to the fixing device 46 and a member used for transfer is eliminated, and the configuration can be simplified. In addition, the guide member 2
The potential of the recording paper prior to the transfer and the potential of the recording paper after the transfer can be set to the ground potential by the 48 and the supporting portion 251, and the transfer processing and the separation / conveyance of the recording paper after the transfer from the photosensitive drum 77 can be efficiently performed. Can be done on a regular basis.

(8) Description of Fixing Device FIG. 36 is a front view of the fixing device 46, and FIG. 37 is a sectional view of the fixing device 46. Housing 47 of fixing device 46
An opening 253 is formed on the upstream side of the conveyance direction A1 of the above, and the recording paper from the transfer device 42 passes through and is guided between the pressure roller 48 and the heating roller 49. Axis 2 of pressure roller 48
The other end of a spring 258, one end of which is fixed to the lower end of the housing 47, is connected to 57, and presses the pressure roller 48 against the heating roller 49. A gear 254 is coaxially provided on the heating roller 49, and rotation is transmitted via a gear 255 that meshes with the gear 116 described with reference to FIG. 11. The pressure roller 48 is driven by the rotation of the heating roller 49. A gear 256 meshing with the gear 254 is provided on the downstream side of the fixing device 46 in the transport direction A1 and transmits rotation to a rear unit 55 described later. On the downstream side of the heating roller 49 in the transport direction A1, a separating claw 365 for peeling off the recording paper adhered to the heating roller 49 by molten toner or the like at the time of fixing is provided with its tip abutting the heating roller 49.

The separating claw 365 is, for example, a film made of a polyimide resin, and has one end fixed to the downstream end of the housing 47 of the fixing device 46 in the conveying direction A1 and the other end extending to the heating roller 49 side. Heating roller 49
It contacts the surface of the paper and guides the leading edge of the paper. Further, a paper guide 400 made of a metal plate for guiding the recording paper conveyed from the transfer device 42 from the lower surface is provided in the opening 253 of the fixing device 46 and is set to the ground potential.

(9) Description of Rear Unit 55 FIG. 38 is a front view seen from the downstream side of the rear unit 55 in the carrying direction A1, FIG. 39 is a right side view of the rear unit 55, and FIG. 40 is a rear unit. FIG. 41 is a left side view of FIG. 55, and FIG. 41 is a sectional view taken along section line X40-X40 of FIG. 39. The rear unit 55 has a substantially rectangular plate-shaped frame 259 that stands upright at right angles to the transport direction A1, and the opening 101 is formed in the frame 259. Opening 1
01, the rear cover 60 is mounted, and the rear cover 60 is angularly displaceable by the shaft 61 to the mounting pieces 262 formed at both ends in the width direction of the frame 259 so as to project toward the upstream side in the transport direction A1. Connected to.

On the upstream side of the shaft 61 in the carrying direction A1 in the mounting piece 262, as shown in FIG.
A gear 263 meshing with 56 is provided, a rubber belt 264 is wound around a pulley 266 coaxially fixed to the gear 263, and rotation is transmitted to a pulley 267 coaxially fixed to the paper discharge roller 65. The detection means 51 is arranged near the pulley 266. The discharge roller 59 has
A gear 268 that meshes with the gear 263 is provided coaxially and is driven to rotate.

Inversion member 62 provided on the rear cover 60
Is a configuration in which a plurality of plate-shaped members are arranged in the width direction, and a fitting hole 269 is formed in the rear unit 55 so as to be opened on the downstream side in the transport direction A1, and the width on the rear side of the rear cover 60. A fitting piece 27 formed in the vicinity of both ends in the direction toward the upstream side in the conveying direction A1 and bent downward in an arc shape.
0 is detachably fitted.

FIG. 42 is a sectional plane line X34-X34 of FIG.
FIG. 43 is a cross-sectional view as seen from FIG.
5 is a cross-sectional view seen from X-35, and FIG. 44 is a side view showing an operation state of the rear unit 55. In this embodiment,
As shown in FIGS. 38 and 41, the rear unit 55 is provided with four coaxially fixed discharge rollers 59, which are arranged at substantially equal intervals, and each discharge roller 59.
The first paper discharge rollers 58a are arranged at the respective positions facing each other. The first paper discharge roller 58a is opposed to the paper discharge roller 59.
The recording paper is pinched between the paper and the paper and ejected out of the machine.

In the present embodiment, a second paper discharging roller 58b is arranged near the center position in the width direction of the rear unit 55, in which the facing paper discharging roller 59 is not arranged. That is, the shaft 271 of each of the first paper discharge rollers 58a projects outward at both ends in the axial direction, and the paper discharge roller unit 402
In, in the vicinity of both axial end portions of each first paper discharge roller 58a, the support portions 27 each formed in a substantially U shape.
3 is supported so as to be vertically displaceable, and the first paper discharge roller 5
8 a projects downward through an opening 274 formed in the paper ejection roller unit 402 in a range facing the paper ejection roller 59 and contacts the paper ejection roller 59. In the vicinity of each of the first paper discharge rollers 58a, the base end portion of the paper discharge roller unit 4 is
It is fixed to 02 and makes a U shape, and at each of its fingers,
Each shaft 271 at both ends in the axial direction of the first paper discharge roller 58a
A plurality of pressing pieces 275 for elastically pressing are provided respectively.

On the other hand, in the second paper discharge roller 58b, shafts 272 project in opposite directions from both ends in the longitudinal direction, and the shaft 272 has a shape similar to that of the support portion 273. It is supported from below by a substantially U-shaped support portion 276 formed in the unit 402. The paper discharge rollers 58a, 58b are provided between the paper discharge rollers 58a, 58b.
Partition walls 277 are provided to respectively partition 8b in the width direction. Regarding the second discharge roller 58b,
Two U-shaped notches as shown in FIG. 43 are formed in the partition walls 277 on both sides thereof, and the pressing piece 279 hangs down toward the wall.
Are formed respectively.

The pressing piece 279 is, as shown in FIG.
From the base end portion to the free end portion side, that is, from the upper side to the lower side in FIG. 38, the second discharge roller 58b is pressed downward from above so that the second discharge roller 58b faces downward. When attached to the support portion 276, the shaft 272 is
Is pressed into the recess of the support portion 276, each pressing piece 27
An engaging recess 280 is formed near the free end of the shaft 9 so that the tip of the shaft 272 can be engaged with the shaft 272.

The second paper discharge roller 58 to which the shaft 272 is attached
In order to mount b to the rear unit 55, the shafts 272 are inserted into the support portions 276 on both sides from the upper side to the lower side, and at the timing when the shaft 272 reaches the vicinity of the bottom of the recess of the support portions 276, 272 engages with the engaging recess 280 of the pressing piece 279. Therefore, the second paper discharge roller 5
8b is supported by the support portion 276 from the lower side in a state where the parallel movement in a direction other than the upward pull-out is prevented and the rotation around the axis is allowed. Moreover, the pressing pieces 279 support the shafts 272 on both axially end sides of the second paper discharge roller 58b from above, stronger than elastically pressing the shafts 271.

For example, when a recording paper having a large paper thickness enters between the paper discharge rollers 58 and 59, the first paper discharge roller 5
8a is displaced upward against the spring force of the pressing piece 275, and clamps such a recording sheet with the sheet discharge roller 59. On the other hand, when the second paper discharge roller 58b is pressed upward by the recording paper having a large paper thickness, the pressing piece 279 is bent and deformed in the thickness direction, whereby the second paper discharge roller 58b is moved upward. Some displacement is allowed. Second as mentioned above
The paper discharge roller 58b only presses from above the vicinity of the central position in the width direction of the recording paper which is sandwiched between the paper discharge rollers 58 and 59 and moves.

The function of the second paper discharge roller 58b is to press the recording paper from above as described above, especially in the case of official postcards in which the thickness of the recording paper is large and the paper width is narrow, or so-called strong recording. In the case of paper, the recording paper portions on both sides in the width direction of the pressing position pressed by the second paper discharge roller 58b are so-called warped and displaced upward. Therefore, the pressure contact force between the recording paper and the paper discharge roller is increased, and the paper discharge operation by the paper discharge rollers 58 and 59 can be smoothly performed.

In the rear unit 55 of this embodiment, the rear cover 60 is arranged downstream of the paper discharge rollers 58 and 59 in the carrying direction A1. By opening the rear cover 60 by angularly displacing it around the shaft 61. , Discharge rollers 58,
The recording paper passing through 59 is discharged out of the machine through the opening 101. On the other hand, by closing the rear cover 60 and closing the opening 101, the recording paper that has passed through the paper discharge rollers 58 and 59 has its traveling direction reversed by the reversing member 62 and is sent to the paper discharge rollers 64 and 65 side.

A plurality of paper discharge rollers 64 are fixed to a plurality of shafts 281, respectively, and the shafts 281 are rotatable on a U-shaped support portion 282 formed on the upper side of the mounting piece 262 near the paper discharge rollers 65. And is pressed from above by each finger portion of a substantially U-shaped pressing piece 283 having spring elasticity.
That is, when the recording paper enters between the paper discharge rollers 64 and 65, the paper discharge roller 64 is displaced upwards against the spring force of the pressing piece 283, thereby recording between the paper discharge rollers 64 and 65. The paper can be advanced, and the recording paper is conveyed by being sandwiched between the paper discharge rollers 64 and 65 by the spring force of the pressing piece 283.

When the rear cover 60 is opened, the paper discharge roller unit 402 is attached to the opening 10 of the mounting piece 262.
The minor axis 403 formed on the side wall facing No. 1 can be angularly displaced downstream in the conveying direction A1 and the vicinity of the discharge port of the fixing device can be accessed from the outside of the machine through the opening 101. Therefore, when a paper jam occurs near the fixing device, it is possible to easily remove the jammed paper from the opening 350.

(10) Description of Manual Paper Feeding Device 83 FIG. 45 is a plan view of the manual paper feeding device 83, FIG. 46 is a front view of the manual paper feeding device 83, and FIG. FIG. 48 is a sectional view, and FIG.
3 is a rear view of FIG. The manual paper feeding device 83 is used for manually feeding the recording paper into the machine body, and a loading table 84 on which the recording paper is loaded, and an upper guide 284 fixed across the widthwise ends of the loading table 84. The cut-and-raised pieces 286 and 287 formed by standing upright.

The ridges 2 are provided at both widthwise ends of the loading platform 84.
89 and 290 are formed on each of which U is roughly formed.
The letter-shaped upper guide 284 is fixed. The upper guide 284 is parallel to the surface of the loading table 84 and has the ridge 28.
The flat plate portion 285 arranged at a distance of 9,290 from the surface of the mounting table 84, and the cut-and-raised piece 2 which is bent and rises upward at both widthwise ends of the flat plate portion 285.
86 and 287 are provided. A pair of mounting plates 288 and 291 integrated with the upper guide 284 are formed near the center of the flat plate portion 285 of the upper guide 284 in the width direction at predetermined intervals in the width direction. This mounting plate 288,29
1, a shaft 292 is arranged which extends through the cut-and-raised piece 286 in parallel with the width direction and to which a gear 293 meshing with the gear 214 described with reference to FIG. Further, the other end of the shaft 292 penetrates the mounting plate 288, and the gear 2
98 is fixed. Further, between the mounting plates 288 and 291, a pair of shafts 2 are provided on opposite sides of the shaft 292.
94 and 295 are rotatably arranged, and the shafts 294 and 29 are
Gears 296 and 297 are fixed to the mounting plate 288 side of the gear 5, and the rotation is transmitted by meshing with the gear 298 which is fixed coaxially with the gear 293 with respect to the shaft 292. Paper feed rollers 299 and 300 such as rubber rollers are fixed to the shafts 294 and 295, respectively.

In the detecting means 87 provided in the manual paper feeding device 83 of this embodiment, the detecting lever 88 is constructed so as to be angularly displaceable around the shaft 301 below the mounting table 84, and the tip end thereof is mounted. It projects upward through a long hole formed in the table 84. That is, when the leading end of the drive lever 88 is pressed by the recording paper, the drive lever 88 is angularly displaced about the shaft 301, and the optical sensor 89 detects the angular displacement operation of the drive lever 88.

In the vicinity of the downstream end of the upper guide 284 in the transport direction A1, the lock member 3 constituting the lock mechanism 92 is formed.
02 is arranged to be freely angularly displaced. The lock member 302 includes a rectangular plate-shaped connecting portion 303 having a length exceeding the distance between the mounting plates 286 and 287, and a lock formed by bending the connecting portion 303 at both ends in the width direction to the downstream side in the transport direction A1. And a claw 304. The base end of the lock claw 304 is
Pins are attached to the mounting plates 286 and 287 so as to be freely angularly displaced. A cylindrical portion 305 is integrally provided at a portion of the connecting portion 303 outside the mounting plate 286.
The spring member 306 is integrally fixed to. Spring member 306
As shown in FIGS. 45 and 46, is formed in a shape that once extends to the downstream side of the conveying direction arrow A1 along the left-right direction of FIG. 46, is inverted and extends upward. In the vicinity of the downstream end of the loading table 84 in the transport direction A1, a concave guide surface 337 is formed toward the downstream side in the transport direction A1 having a ¼ cylindrical shape, and constitutes the inversion path 36 described with reference to FIG. Become part of.

(11) Description of Lock Mechanism 92 FIG. 49 is an enlarged front view showing the vicinity of the upstream end of the upper housing 23 in the transport direction A1, FIG. 50 is a plan view of FIG. 49, and FIG. 51 is FIG. FIG. 52 is an exploded front view showing the operation of the lock mechanism 92. Transporting direction A1 of each side frame 67, 68 of the upper housing 23
Upper portions of the upstream end portions are configured as attachment pieces 307 and 308 that are bent in directions close to each other. The front end frame 90 is screwed to the mounting pieces 307 and 308. At the upstream side ends of the side frames 67, 68 in the transport direction A1, the portions of the mounting pieces 307, 308 that are closer to the lower side are bent toward each other and the notches 30 are formed.
Engagement portions 311 and 312 in which 9, 310 are formed, respectively
Configured as. The lower portions of the engaging portions 311 and 312 are bent inward (toward the rear side of the plane of FIG. 52) to form a flat pressing piece 313.

As described above, the lock mechanism 92 is provided in the manual paper feeding device 83. When the upper housing 23 is angularly displaced in the arrow A7 direction about the shaft 24 shown in FIG. 1, the pressing piece 313 of the upper housing 23 presses the spring member 306 from above. Thereby, the spring member 30
The spring force of 6 causes the lock member 302 to be angularly displaced in the direction of arrow A8 with the center of the cylindrical portion 305 as the center of rotation, and the lock claw 304 to the notches 309 and 3 of the engaging portions 311 and 312.
10 is entered and the engaged state is established. In this engaged state, by pressing the upper housing 23 from above, the spring member 306 is further bent, whereby the spring member 306 is pressed.
The spring force of the lock member 30 is applied by this spring force.
The second lock claw 304 is engaged with the notches 309 and 310.

The lock member 302 in such a locked state
The lock releasing member 93 for releasing the lock from the engaging portions 311 and 312 is provided. The unlocking member 93 has a grip portion 314 that protrudes upward from the upper housing 23 and protrudes upward.
And a rectangular plate-like plate portion 31 that is larger than the grip portion 314.
5 and the plate portion 315 inward in the width direction, that is, downwardly extending from the rightward portion in FIG. 51, and is long in the transport direction A1 formed at the upper end of the upper housing 23. A connecting portion 317 that is formed shorter than the hole 316 along the transport direction A1, and a long hole 319 that extends toward the downstream side in the transport direction A1 with respect to the connecting portion 317, and through which a pin 318 provided on the side frame 67 is loose. 49 is formed to guide the movement of the unlocking member 93 in the left-right direction of FIG.
49, a connecting member 321 that is formed on the upstream side in the up-down direction in FIG. 49, and extends from the lower end of the connecting member 321 toward the upstream side in the transport direction A1 and has a front end portion that is the lock claw 30.
4 is pressed to release the locked state with the notches 309 and 310, or the pressing member 322 held in a non-contact state with the lock claw 304 is integrally formed. A rib 323 is formed between the connecting member 321 and the pressing member 322.

The grip portion 314 of the lock releasing member 93 is L
When the grip portion is exposed on the upper case of the ED printer 21 and is moved in the direction opposite to the arrow A1 direction, the pressing member 322 is pressed.
Causes the lock claw 304 to rotate in the direction opposite to the arrow A8 direction. Further, when the grip portion is released, the return spring 404 moves and holds the arrow portion in the direction of arrow A1.

(12) Description of Carrier Sealing Structure FIG. 53 is a sectional view of the process cartridge 73 shown in FIGS. 21 and 22 in the vicinity of the end of the shaft 360 of the agitator 78. In this embodiment, the process cartridge 7
3 provides a structure for preventing the leakage of the carriers stored in the vicinity of the agitator 78. A slide bearing 325 is provided at a portion of the housing 75 of the process cartridge 73 where the shaft 360 is inserted. The plain bearing 325 has a small diameter portion 326 through which the shaft 360 is inserted, and a cylindrical sponge ring 328 and an annular magnet piece 327 are coaxially arranged inward of the housing 75 on an inner side surface 329 surrounding the small diameter portion 326. It is joined and fixed in two steps.

A flange portion 78f is integrally formed at a position facing the magnet piece 327 of the agitator 78, and the magnet piece 327 and the thrust surface of the flange portion 78f are in relative contact with each other and slide. Since the sponge is formed slightly thicker than its installation space, it is assembled in a state of being compressed in the thrust direction. Therefore, the elastic restoring force appropriately presses the magnet piece 327 against the flange portion 78f. In order for the developer in the housing 75 to pass through this bearing portion, it is necessary to pass through a microscopic gap generated by the fine irregularities on the surface between the flange portion 78f and the magnet piece 327. The carrier is adsorbed to form a so-called magnetic brush, and the magnetic brush prevents the carrier from leaking from the process cartridge 73.

(13) Description of Waste Toner Box 99 FIG. 54 is a perspective view of the waste toner box 99, and FIG.
Is a plan view of the waste toner box 99, and FIG. 56 is a right side view of the waste toner box 99. The waste toner box 99 is made of a synthetic resin material and has a box-shaped box body 35.
1, a neck portion 352 protruding upward from the upper end of the box body 351, narrower than the width of the box body 351 in the vertical direction in FIG. 55, and extending upward, and the neck portion 35.
The lid 353 that closes the second opening is integrally formed. An opening 354 is formed in the lid 353, and the neck 3
A portion extending from 52 to the lid 353 is formed with a projecting portion 359 projecting to both sides in the width direction from the neck portion 352, and engaging portions 356 formed downward at both ends in the width direction in the vicinity of a substantially central position in the longitudinal direction thereof. It is configured to include and.

The total length from the upper limit of the lid 353 to the lower end of the engaging portion 356 is calculated by determining the protrusion 146a from the lower end of the connecting portion 144 of the protrusions 146a and 146b; 147a and 147b shown in FIGS. , 146b, 147
It is selected to be approximately the same as the height in the vertical direction to the upper surface of a, 147b. The narrower width of the lid 353, that is, the width formed by the protruding portion 359 (the length in the vertical direction in FIG. 55) is approximately the same as the distance between the protrusions 146b and 147b in FIG. To be elected.

(14) Description of Sub Agitator 162 FIG. 57 is a sectional view of the sub agitator 162. The sub-agitator 162 includes a shaft 363 mounted in the housing 75 of the process cartridge 73 in the width direction and a shaft 3
Leg portions 369 and 370 projecting in opposite directions are integrally formed at both radial ends of 63. Legs 369, 37
0 is provided with mounting surfaces 379 and 380 on each side surface, and each mounting surface 379 and 380 has a mylar film 371, respectively.
372 is fixed. Each leg portion 369, 370 extends from the tip end thereof toward the downstream side in the rotational direction C1 of the agitator 162, and the radially outer end has an arc shape corresponding to the shape of the inner peripheral surface of the housing 75 near the installation position of the agitator 162. The mounting portions 375 and 376 formed in the above are integrally formed.

The rotation direction C1 of the mounting portions 375 and 376.
The downstream side is configured as flat positioning surfaces 377 and 378 orthogonal to the extending direction of the leg portions 369 and 370.

Rectangular plate-shaped mylar films 371, 372
To attach to the mounting surfaces 379 and 380, the tips of the mylar films 371 and 372 are brought into contact with the positioning surfaces 377 and 378, and the portions near the tips of the mylar films 371 and 372 are attached to the mounting surfaces 379 and 380 with an adhesive or the like. Stick to it. Thereby, positioning when attaching the mylar films 371 and 372 can be easily performed.

(15) Description of Electrical Configuration FIG. 58 is a block diagram showing the electrical configuration of the LED printer 21. The LED printer 21 includes a microcomputer 381 for controlling the operation, an operation panel 382 for operating the electrophotographic process, and the above-mentioned detection means 33, 3 respectively.
A toner sensor 367 for detecting the toner density in each of 9, 51, 87 and the process cartridge 73 is connected.
The motor 104, the electromagnet device 219, the electromagnetic plunger 223, the toner motor 383, and the clutch mechanism 216 are connected to the output end of the microcomputer 381.

The operation of this embodiment will be described below.

(1) Opening / closing operation of the upper housing 23 FIGS. 59 and 60 are front views showing the operation of the LED printer 21.

The upper housing 23 is the lower housing 2
2, in particular, is connected to the lower housing 22 by a support shaft 24 so as to be angularly displaceable. In addition, the upper housing 23
The lock mechanism 92 realizes the fixing of the to the lower housing 22. At this time, in the upper housing 23,
A holding member 66 having a waste toner box 99 mounted thereon is pin-coupled around support shafts 71 and 72 so as to be freely angularly displaced, and a process cartridge 73 having a toner box 74 mounted thereon is mounted to the holding member 66. When the upper housing 23 is opened, the holding member 66 is at the angular displacement end position in the clockwise direction in FIG. The LED array 82 is mounted on the upper housing 23 via a mounting member 94, and thus is separated from the process cartridge 73.

When closing the upper housing 23, the upper housing 23 in the open state is pressed and angularly displaced around the support shaft 24 in the clockwise direction in FIG. When the upper housing 23 is angularly displaced, the guide piece 137 of the holding member 66 is
Comes into contact with the guide surface 335 which is raised in a substantially arc shape on the upstream side of the guide member 334 in the transport direction A1. The guide member 335 is guided in an arcuate locus, and after the upper housing 23 is angularly displaced in a closing direction by a predetermined angle, the guide member 137 comes into contact with the guide member 335 to hold the holding member 6.
6 Therefore, the process cartridge 73 is held in a substantially horizontal state.

When the upper housing 23 further continues the angular displacement in such a state, each of the photosensitive drums 77 protruding from the process cartridge 73 mounted on the holding member 66 on both sides in the width direction as shown in FIG. Axis 336
Is the lock piece 12 provided in the lower housing 22.
It contacts the inclined surface 121 of 0. The shaft 336 has an inclined surface 121.
Is pressed to angularly displace the lock piece 120 in the direction of arrow B1 which is the counterclockwise direction in FIG. This allows the shaft 33
6 enters into the clearance groove 122 of the lock piece 120 and the positioning groove 119 formed in the lower housing 22 and is fitted therein.

The same operation is performed for the lock piece 128 provided on the rear surface side of the lower housing 22. At this time, by further angularly displacing the upper housing 23 downward, the holding member 66 moves upward along the elongated holes 69 and 70, and the support shafts 71 and 72 move to the upper ends of the elongated holes 69 and 70. It will be stopped when it reaches the department.

At this time, the locking pieces 124, 124a of the lock pieces 120, 128 are pushed downward by the leaf springs 100a, 100b attached to the side frames 67, 68 from above to the arrow shown in FIG. Angular displacement in the B1 direction is prevented. That is, in such a state, the upper housing 2
3 is a positioning groove 119, 122 of the lower housing 22 via the holding member 66 and the process cartridge 73.
The lock piece 120 holds the locked state. In addition, the process cartridge 73 includes the transport device 19
The leaf spring 195 of 0 is pressed from above, and its reaction causes the leaf spring 195 to urge the spring upward.

Further, when closing the upper housing 23, the lock mechanism 9 described with reference to FIGS. 49 to 52 is used.
2 works. That is, when the upper housing 23 is angularly displaced in the closing direction, the pressing piece 3 of the upper housing 23
13 presses the spring member 306 of the lock mechanism 92 from above. At this time, the pair of lock claws 304 provided near both ends of the lock mechanism 92 in the width direction are engaged with the engaging portions 311 and 3 at the upstream end of the upper housing 23 in the transport direction A1.
It is near the position facing the 12 notches 309 and 310,
The spring force of the spring member 306 causes angular displacement in the arrow A8 direction around the axis of the cylindrical portion 305, and the lock claws 304 engage with the notches 309 and 310. In this way, the upper housing 23 is locked to the lower housing 22.

When the upper housing 23 is closed, the process cartridge 73 is transferred to the transfer device 190 as described above.
The leaf spring 195 elastically presses upward, and the upper housing 23 is further pressed against this spring force, whereby the locked state by the lock mechanism 92 can be realized. As described above, the process cartridge 73
As shown in FIGS. 19 to 22, a large number of gears are arranged on the side surface of the gear. Particularly, the gear 339 fixed to the photosensitive drum 77 meshes with the gear 113 provided in the lower housing 22 shown in FIG. Power is transmitted.

That is, by closing the upper housing 23, the gear 339 of the process cartridge 73 is moved to the gear 11
However, when the gears 339 and 113 collide with each other with a large collision, the teeth are damaged, a large sound is generated, and the operation quality is deteriorated. In this embodiment, the gear 33
When the 9,113 mesh, the process cartridge 73
Is pressed upward by the leaf spring 195, the gear 33
The teeth 9 and 113 gradually approach each other and mesh with each other to prevent the occurrence of defects such as missing teeth.

When the upper housing 23 is opened,
First, the locked state of the lock mechanism 92 is released. Therefore, when the lock release member 93 is pressed toward the upstream side in the transport direction A1, the tip of the pressing member 322 of the lock release member 93 presses the front side of the lock mechanism 92, that is, the lock claw 304 on the lower side in FIG. 49. The locking member 302 is shown in FIG.
Angular displacement in the clockwise direction of. At this time, the upper housing 23 is in a state of being pressed upward by the spring member 306 and the leaf spring 195 of the conveying device 190, and the lock claw 304 is inclined and the lock claw 30 is tilted.
4 is disengaged from the engaging portions 311 and 312,
The upper housing 23 is moved around the support shaft 24 by the spring force of the spring member 306 and the spring force of the leaf spring 195 of the transfer device 190 described with reference to FIGS.
Angular displacement in the counterclockwise direction.

When the upper housing 23 is angularly displaced about the support shaft 24 in the counterclockwise direction in FIG.
a and 100b are disengaged from the locking pieces 124 and 124a, the locking pieces 120 and 128 are angularly displaced in the direction of arrow B1 in FIG.
2a faces upward, and the photosensitive drum 77
The shaft 336 of the is pulled out upward. As a result, the upper housing 23 is held by the holding member 66 and the process cartridge 7.
3 and 3 are separated from the lower housing 22 and are angularly displaced around the support shaft 24 to be in an open state.

At this time, the holding member 66 is in a state in which the shafts 71, 72 are moved to the lower ends of the elongated holes 69, 70, and at this position, the holding member 66 is formed with the elongated holes 69, 70 of the upper housing 23. Is in contact with a member in the vicinity of the upper housing 23, that is, the upper housing 23 is opened at a predetermined angle.

That is, since the process cartridge 73 is separated from the upper housing 23 in this manner, the attaching / detaching operation of the process cartridge 73 with respect to the holding member 66 can be significantly facilitated.

FIG. 59 shows a state in which the upper guide member 192 described with reference to FIGS. 26 to 29 is opened upward, and is stopped at one end of its angular displacement range. When trying to close the upper housing 23 toward the lower housing in this state, the tip portion 192a of the upper guide member 192 is closed.
On the other hand, after the receiving plate 405 provided on the outer surface near the lower side of the developing roller 76 of the process cartridge faces and approaches,
Contact. As a result, the closing of the upper housing 23 is prohibited and the process cartridge is prevented from being damaged by the collision with the upper guide member 192.

On the other hand, as described above, the waste toner box 99 shown in FIG. 54 to FIG.
It is attached to 0. Therefore, the waste toner box 99 is mounted on the lower housing 22 side in a proportional manner, and the waste toner box 99 is opened and closed each time the upper housing 23 is opened and closed.
Compared with the case where the waste toner supply port or the waste toner discharge port of the cleaning device 80 is exposed to the outside, it is possible to prevent the waste toner from scattering inside the machine when the upper housing 23 is opened and closed. You can

(2) Printing Operation on Recording Paper As shown in FIG. 1, the paper feed cassette 29 is inserted into the partition wall 27 of the lower housing 22 from the upstream side in the carrying direction A1. The lifting plate 31 in the paper feed cassette 29 lifts the upstream side in the transport direction A1 of the recording papers stacked on the paper feed cassette 29 by the spring force as described above, and the paper feed roller 3
Close to 0. When the recording paper is not placed on the manual paper feeding device 83, the detecting means 8 shown in FIGS.
7 does not detect the recording paper, the electromagnetic plunger 223 shown in FIGS. 30 and 32 is not energized, and the spring force of the spring 240 causes the drive lever 222 to be angularly displaced clockwise in FIG. The transmission of the rotation of 46 to the gear 293 is cut off.

At this time, the motor 104 shown in FIG. 11 is rotating, and the electromagnet device 2 shown in FIGS.
19 is intermittently energized, and the engaging portion 23 of the Amasia 220
The engagement state with the engagement claw 245 by 5 is intermittently released, and the rotation of the motor 104 is intermittently transmitted to the sheet feeding roller 30. As a result, the recording paper in the paper feed cassette 29 is taken out by the paper feed roller 30 each time the rotation is transmitted.

The recording paper taken out from the paper feeding cassette 29 is fed to the reversing path 3 which is constituted by the guide member 338 of the conveying device 190 and the guide surface 337 of the manual paper feeding device 83.
6, the traveling path is reversed to the left side in FIG.
1 through the conveyance path constituted by the upper guide member 192 and the lower guide member 193 of the conveyance device 190 to reach the conveyance roller 37. The leading edge of the recording paper reaches here by the conveyance of the paper feed roller 30 twice, and the conveyance roller 37 feeds the recording paper thereafter. In this conveyance path, the detection unit 39 provided on the upstream side of the registration roller 38 in the conveyance direction A1 detects the recording paper. The recording paper taken out from the paper feeding cassette 29 is further conveyed, and the leading end of the recording paper bends by contacting the stopped registration roller 38, and at the same time, a predetermined time after the detection of the recording paper by the detecting means 39, that is, the above-mentioned bending occurs. The motor 104 stops operating at the time when it is sufficiently formed, and the recording paper stops. After that, it waits for the reception of image data from the host computer, the formation of an electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive drum 77 based on the image and the data, and the resumption of the conveyance of the recording paper. At this timing of restarting the conveyance, the clutch mechanism 2 shown in FIG.
16 is activated and the rotation of the motor 104 causes the drive roller 20 to rotate.
8 is transmitted to the recording paper by the registration roller 38.
Transfer area 247 between the photosensitive drum 77 and the transfer device 42
Be transported to.

The LED array 82 mounted on the upper housing 23 as described above includes the LED printer 21.
Print data or the like is supplied from an external device such as a computer or a word processor to which is connected, and light corresponding to the print data is generated to irradiate the photosensitive drum 77.
The surface of the photosensitive drum 77 is uniformly charged by the charger 81, and an electrostatic latent image is formed by the irradiation of the light. Toner is supplied to the photosensitive drum 77 by the developing roller 76 provided in the process cartridge 73, and this electrostatic latent image is converted into a toner image. The toner image is transferred to the recording paper by the transfer device 42, and the toner remaining on the surface of the photosensitive drum 77 after the transfer is removed by the cleaning device 80.

The recording sheet after transfer is conveyed to the fixing device 46, sandwiched between the pressure roller 48 and the heating roller 49, and heated while being conveyed to the downstream side in the conveying direction A1 to perform the fixing action. The recording paper after fixing has a pair of discharge rollers 58, 5
It is sandwiched between 9 and transported further. At this time, when the rear cover 60 of the rear unit 55 is opened, the recording paper is ejected to the outside of the machine through the opening 101 of the rear unit 55. When the rear cover 60 is closed, the reversing member 62 provided in the rear unit 55.
As a result, the traveling direction is reversed to the direction toward the upper side and toward the upstream side in the arrow A1 direction, and the discharge rollers 64, 65
The stacker 63, which is sandwiched between and further conveyed, is disposed between the side frames 67 and 68 of the upper housing 23.
It drops on top and is stacked.

When there is no more recording paper in the paper feed cassette 29, the detection lever 34 provided in the conveying device 190 falls downward through the through hole formed in the push-up plate 31, and this fall is caused. It is detected optically and the state where the recording paper is lost is detected. When a recording sheet is mounted on the loading table 84 of the manual sheet feeding device 83, the recording sheet causes the detection lever 88 of the detecting means 87 to lie down, and this state is detected by the optical sensor 89. . Correspondingly, the electromagnet device 219 of the carrying device 190 is not energized, and the electromagnetic plunger 223
Is energized.

As a result, the rod 224 retracts, the drive lever 222 is angularly displaced counterclockwise in FIG. 27, the gear 214 meshes with the gear 293 of the manual paper feeding device 83, and the rotation is transmitted to the gears 296 and 297. The loading platform 84
The upper recording sheet is conveyed toward the conveying roller 37.
From this point onward, the same operation as the operation after the operation of the transport roller 37 in the operation of copying the recording paper from the paper feed cassette 29 is performed.

The toner is supplied to the developing roller 76 of the process cartridge 73 by the process cartridge 73.
It is performed as a supply from the toner box 74 stored in the storage section 160.

In the toner box 74 shown in FIG. 25,
The rotation of the toner motor 383 is transmitted to the gear 347 connected to the drive cam 178, and the drive cam 17 is driven.
8 is rotationally driven in the direction of arrow A3 in FIG. By this rotation drive, the toner moving member 172 is driven to perform reciprocal angular displacement in the arrow A4 direction, and the toner in the toner box 74 is supplied to the toner supply roller 168 side. By the rotation of the toner supply roller 168, the toner drops from the toner supply hole 167 of the toner box 74 and is supplied to the agitator 78 side.

The toner dropped and supplied from the toner replenishing hole 167 drops while the sub-agitator 162 is rotating in the direction of arrow C1, and the inner wall of the housing 75 of the process cartridge 73 and the sub-agitator are dropped as shown in FIG. 1
Enter between 62. Since the lengths of the mylar films 371 and 372 attached to the sub-agitator 162 in the radial direction are sufficiently long to reach the inner wall 75a of the housing, the tips of the mylar films 371 and 372 are located between the inner wall of the housing 75. Caught in the sub agitator 1
The toner is conveyed along the wall while being bent to the downstream side of the arrow C1 rotation direction of 62. When the Mylar films 371 and 372 further rotate and reach the position facing the agitator 78, the above-mentioned winding state at the tip end is released, and the elastic restoration is performed vigorously. At this time, mylar film 371,
The toner conveyed by the operation of 372 is scattered in a wide range toward the agitator 78, and the just-supplemented unstirred toner is uniformly dispersed in the developing chamber, so that the efficiency of the subsequent toner stirring is significantly improved.

(3) Attachment / Detachment of Process Cartridge 73 It is necessary to remove and attach the process cartridge 73 from the LED printer 21 due to the loss of toner in the toner box 74 or the expiration of the photosensitive drum 77. May occur. In order to attach / detach the process cartridge 73 as described above, as described in the item of the opening / closing operation of the upper housing 23, the lock mechanism 9 is used.
The lock state 2 is released, and the upper housing 23 is opened. At this time, as described above, the holding member 66 and the process cartridge 73 mounted on the holding member 66.
Is opened and separated from the upper housing 23 by a predetermined angle.

Further, in the process cartridge 73 mounted on the holding member 66, the engaging claws 156 and 157 of the holding member 66 shown in FIG. 15 and the projection 164 of the process cartridge 73 are engaged with each other. Is in a state.
This engagement prevents the process cartridge 73 from easily falling off the holding member 66. However, this engagement state is maintained by the elasticity of the plate-like engagement pieces 154 and 155 made of a synthetic resin material in which the engagement claws 156 and 157 are formed as shown in FIG. To release the engaged state, the toner box 74 side of the process cartridge 73 is lifted and the downstream side of the process cartridge 73 in the transport direction A1 is displaced downward, so that the protrusion 164 is disengaged from the engaging claws 156 and 157. . In this way, the process cartridge 7
3 is taken out from the holding member 66.

When the toner in the toner box 74 is lost, the toner box 74 is removed from the storage section 160 of the process cartridge 73, and a new toner box 74 is stored in the storage section 160. At this time, in the toner box 74, a shaft 177 provided coaxially with the drive cam 178 projects toward the rear side, that is, the rear side in the drawing of FIG. 25, and the gear 347 is provided at the tip thereof. Therefore, the shaft 177 is provided with the notch 161 formed in the housing portion 160 of the process cartridge 73.
(See FIG. 22) When housed in the process cartridge 73, the gear 346 of the process cartridge 73 meshes with the gear 347 to enable transmission of power.

As described above, the process cartridge 73 in which the new toner box 74 is housed is attached to the photosensitive drum 7.
The 7 side is inserted into the holding member 66 first. At this time,
As shown in FIG. 59, an LED array 82 is arranged facing downward from the upper housing 23 via a mounting member 94. This LED array 82, as described above,
The holding member 66 is provided when the upper housing 23 is opened.
And the upper housing 23 of the process cartridge 73
The holding member 66 is separated from the holding member 66 by a predetermined angle.
Further, since the process cartridge 73 is detached from the process cartridge 73, the process cartridge 73 is not hindered from being attached to or detached from the holding member 66.

The holding member 66 holds the process cartridge 73.
When inserted inside, the shaft 3 of the process cartridge 73
Of the 36, the shaft 336 on the front side, that is, the lower side in FIG.
Is guided into the long groove 135 of the holding member 66 and enters,
The other shaft 336, that is, the upper shaft 336 in FIG.
Is located on the connecting portion 143 of the holding member 66. Also,
The protrusion 164 of the process cartridge 73 passes below the curved portions 158 and 159 of the holding member 66, and the engaging pieces 154 and 155 are bent upward to engage the engaging claws 156 and 15.
Engage with 7. As a result, the process cartridge 73
It is possible to prevent the situation where the sheet easily comes off from the holding member 66.

(4) Paper Jam Processing In an electrophotographic apparatus, paper jams occur in places where a recording paper is sandwiched between a plurality of rollers to convey it, or where the recording paper changes its traveling direction. Many occur. In the LED printer 21 shown in FIG. 1, such a portion is provided around the paper feed roller 30 for taking out the recording paper from the paper feed cassette 29, the transport roller 37, and the registration roller 3.
8, around the transfer device 42, around the fixing device 46, and the rear unit 55. When a paper jam occurs in the reversing path 36 near the paper feed roller 30, the upper guide member 192 of the transport device 190 is exposed when the upper housing 23 is opened as described above.

As described above, the upper guide member 192 is
The lower guide member 193 is angularly displaced near the registration roller 38. Therefore, when the exposed upper guide member 192 is pulled upward, the lower guide member 193 is exposed. Therefore, if the recording paper is stopped between the vicinity of the paper feed roller 30 and the vicinity of the registration roller 38 via the lower guide member 193, the state can be immediately grasped and the recording paper can be easily removed. it can. At this time, in particular, since the upper guide member 192 is self-held in the open state as described above, the operation of removing the recording paper can be easily performed.

The recording paper is the registration roller 38 and the fixing device 4.
When a paper jam has occurred between the transfer device 42 and the printer 6, the transfer device 42 is exposed when the upper housing 23 is opened. Therefore, even if a paper jam occurs near the transfer device 42, this state can be easily recognized, and the stopped recording paper can be easily removed.

When a paper jam has occurred in the rear unit 55, the rear cover 60 is opened and the discharge rollers 58, 59; 64, 65 and the recording paper reversing path 350 between them are formed. Is exposed. This allows
It is possible to easily remove the recording paper in which paper jam has occurred in the rear unit 55.

That is, the LED printer 21 of the present embodiment.
Then, when a paper jam occurs inside, the upper housing 23 is opened, or in addition to this, the upper guide member 192 of the conveying device 190 is opened, or the rear unit 5
By opening the rear cover 60 of No. 5, it is possible to confirm the occurrence state of the paper jam and remove the stagnant recording paper, and the paper jam process becomes much easier. In particular, the paper jam processing inside the transport device 190 is significantly facilitated.

(5) Attachment / Detachment of Waste Toner Box To attach the waste toner box 99 to the holding member 66,
With the longitudinal direction of the waste toner box 99, that is, the left-right direction in FIG. 55 parallel to the transport direction A1, and the opening 354 facing the downstream side in the transport direction A1, the lid 353 and the neck portion 3 are disposed.
52 is inserted inside the attachment member 140 of the holding member 66, below the connecting portion 144. That is, the protruding portion 359 of the waste toner box 99 is replaced with the connecting portion 1 shown in FIG.
44 and the protrusions 146b and 147b in the vertical gap,
Figure 14 Insert from the front to the back of the page.

When the engaging portion 356 reaches the gaps 148a and 148b of the holding member 66, the engaging portion 356 is pushed downward, that is, downward in FIG. The engaging portion 356 moves downward in the gaps 148a and 148b and is fitted therein. Further, with respect to the engaging portion 356 of the projecting portion 359, a portion on the downstream side in the transport direction A1 is located on the protrusions 146a and 147a of the holding member 66. In this way, the waste toner box 99 is detachably attached to the holding member 66.

When taking out the waste toner box 99 from the holding member 66, the operation is performed in the reverse order of the mounting operation.

[0140]

As described above, according to the present invention, when the upper housing is closed, the process cartridge is held in the lower housing by the engagement state with the receiving member. Therefore, as compared with the case where the structure surrounding the process cartridge is provided in the upper housing and the process cartridge is held in this structure, a gap for attaching and detaching the process cartridge becomes unnecessary, and the process cartridge is installed in the lower housing. On the other hand, it can be held at a predetermined position with high accuracy. Further, it is possible to eliminate the positional deviation of the image formed on the recording medium due to the rattling of the process cartridge,
The image quality can be significantly improved. Further, due to the rattling, it is possible to prevent a defective conveyance operation of the recording medium conveyed near the photosensitive drum of the process cartridge.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of an LED printer 21 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a system diagram of an LED printer 21.

FIG. 3 is a system diagram showing an arrangement of rollers of the LED printer 21 and recording paper detection means.

FIG. 4 is a lower housing 22 and an upper housing 23.
FIG.

FIG. 5 is a plan view of FIG.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a mounting member 94.

7 is a front view of the upper housing 23. FIG.

FIG. 8 is a rear view of the upper housing 23.

9 is a plan view of a portion of the lower housing 22. FIG.

FIG. 10 is a plan view of another portion of the lower housing 22.

11 is a front view of the lower housing 22. FIG.

FIG. 12 is a front view showing the attaching operation of the holding member 66.

FIG. 13 is a rear view of the lower housing 22.

FIG. 14 is a front view of a holding member 66.

FIG. 15 is a plan view of a holding member 66.

16 is a front view of a holding member 66. FIG.

17 is a rear view of the holding member 66. FIG.

FIG. 18 is a cross-sectional view taken along section line X18-X18 of FIG.

FIG. 19 is a plan view showing a partial cross section of the process cartridge 73.

20 is a developed cross-sectional view of a gear train wheel portion of the process cartridge 73. FIG.

FIG. 21 is a front view of the process cartridge 73.

FIG. 22 is a rear view of the process cartridge 73.

23 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the process cartridge 73 near the sub-agitator 162. FIG.

FIG. 24 is a sectional view of the process cartridge 73.

FIG. 25 is a front view showing a cross section of the toner box 74.

FIG. 26 is a plan view of the transport device 190.

27 is a front view of the transport device 190. FIG.

28 is a rear view of the transport device 190. FIG.

29 is an exploded perspective view of the vicinity of the registration roller 38. FIG.

FIG. 30 is an enlarged plan view of a part of the transport device 190.

FIG. 31 is a sectional view of the vicinity of a clutch mechanism 217.

FIG. 32 is an exploded perspective view around the clutch mechanism 217.

FIG. 33 is a plan view of the transfer device 42.

34 is a front view showing a partial cross section of the transfer device 42. FIG.

35 is a cross-sectional view taken along the section line X33-X33 of FIG.

FIG. 36 is a front view of the fixing device 46.

FIG. 37 is a sectional view of the fixing device 46.

38 is a front view of the rear unit 55. FIG.

39 is a front view of the rear unit 55. FIG.

40 is a rear view of the rear unit 55. FIG.

41 is a cross-sectional view taken along section line X40-X40 in FIG. 39.

42 is a sectional view taken along the section line X34-X34 in FIG.

FIG. 43 is a sectional view taken along section line X35-X35 in FIG. 38.

44 is a front view showing the operation state of the rear unit 55. FIG.

45 is a plan view of the manual paper feeding device 83. FIG.

FIG. 46 is a front view of the manual paper feeding device 83.

FIG. 47 is a sectional view of the manual paper feeding device 83.

48 is a rear view of the manual paper feeding device 83. FIG.

49 is an enlarged front view of the vicinity of an end portion of the upper housing 23, which is a cross-sectional view taken along the section line X47-X47 of FIG. 48.

50 is a plan view of FIG. 49. FIG.

51 is a right side view of FIG. 49. FIG.

52 is a front view showing an operating state of the lock mechanism 92. FIG.

53 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a carrier leakage prevention structure regarding the shaft of the agitator 78. FIG.

FIG. 54 is a perspective view of the waste toner box 99.

FIG. 55 is a plan view of the waste toner box 99.

FIG. 56 is a right side view of the waste toner box 99.

FIG. 57 is a sectional view of the sub-agitator 162.

FIG. 58 is a block diagram of the LED printer 21.

FIG. 59 is a front view in which the upper guide member 192 of the LED printer 21 is opened.

FIG. 60 is a front view in which the upper guide member 192 of the LED printer 21 is closed.

FIG. 61 is a perspective view of a typical conventional electrophotographic apparatus 1.

[Description of Reference Signs] 21 LED Printer 22 Lower Housing 23 Upper Housing 25 Recording Paper 29 Paper Feed Cassette 30 Paper Feed Rollers 33, 39, 51 Detecting Means 36 Reverse Path 42 Transfer Device 46 Fixing Device 55 Rear Unit 58 Paper Ejecting Roller 58a 1 Paper Ejection Roller 58b Second Paper Ejection Roller 59 Paper Ejection Roller 66 Holding Member 73 Process Cartridge 74 Toner Box 76 Developing Roller 82 LED Array 83 Manual Paper Feeding Device 92 Lock Mechanism 93 Lock Release Member 99 Waste Toner Box 162 Sub-Agitator 190 Transport Device 192 Upper guide member 193 Lower guide member 264 Rubber belt 266, 267 Pulley

Continued Front Page (72) Inventor Katsuya Shiba 4-1-1-18 Hachiman-dori, Chuo-ku, Kobe City T & M Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An electrophotographic apparatus comprising a lower housing and an upper housing opened and closed by the lower housing, wherein the recording sheet body is pivotally supported on the lower housing at one end in a predetermined transport direction so as to be angularly displaceable. An upper housing and a cleaning device, which is rotatably supported by the upper housing so as to be capable of angular displacement, integrally includes a photosensitive drum, a developing device, and a cleaning device for removing toner on the surface of the photosensitive drum after transferring a toner image on the photosensitive drum At the same time, a process cartridge having an engaging projection protruding on at least one side, and a box-shaped lower housing that opens upward, are pivotally supported near the upper end of the side so that they can be angularly displaced, With respect to the one side end, a pressing surface that presses the engaging protrusion from substantially above to prevent the rising is formed, and the other side end part extends upward. A locking member having a piece formed thereon, a receiving surface for receiving the engaging projection from below, and a receiving member having an engaging groove having a substantially V-shaped guide surface for guiding the engaging projection on the receiving surface. And a lower housing provided with the upper housing, the engaging projection of the process cartridge is guided by the guide surface of the receiving member to be received by the receiving surface and is pressed by the pressing surface of the locking member when the upper housing is closed. An electrophotographic apparatus, wherein an upper housing abuts a locking piece of a locking member from above in a state of being engaged with the engaging groove, and the locking member holds the process cartridge in the lower housing.