JPH0710365Y2 - Scattered developer recovery device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Industrial field of application) The present invention relates to a scattered developer collecting device for preventing scattering of a developer falling from a gap between a photosensitive drum and a developing device. More specifically, the present invention relates to a scattered developer collecting device of a developing device in which the developing device can be located close to and away from the photosensitive drum.

(Prior Art) Conventionally, a magnetic brush has been used to supply toner for developing an electrostatic latent image formed on the peripheral surface of a photosensitive drum. The photoconductor drum and the magnetic brush are in contact with each other, but the photoconductor drum and the developing device are arranged with an appropriate gap.

However, there is a problem in that the developer drops from the magnetic brush during the developing operation or the like through the gap and scatters, so that the developer adheres to the transfer paper transport path below the developing device.

In order to solve the above problems, for example, as shown in FIG. 4, a scattered developer collecting device for collecting the developer falling from the gap between the photosensitive drum and the developing device to prevent the developer from scattering ( It has been proposed that 35) is attached to a pair of photosensitive drum supporting side plates that rotatably support the photosensitive member.

By the way, in a copying machine that can obtain multicolored copies,
Switching between the developing units of the main developing unit (30) and the sub developing unit (31) used for developing the electrostatic latent image is performed by the rotating fulcrums (32) (33) of the developing units (30) (31). ) Around the photoconductor drum to alternately approach and separate from the photoconductor drum, that is, by widening or narrowing the gap between the photoconductor drum (34) and the developing units (30) and (31). There is something like this.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, in the above-described embodiment, when the scattered developer collecting device (35) is provided, as shown by a dashed line in FIG. ) Is the photoconductor drum (3
4) When rotating about the rotation fulcrum (32) to separate from the photosensitive drum (34) and the main developing unit (3)
In order to reliably collect the developer falling from the gap, the scattered developer collecting device (35) itself must be upsized so as to completely cover the gap. Further, the scattered developer collecting device (35) and the main developing unit (30) should be provided with a predetermined distance so that the scattered developer collecting device (35) does not come into contact with the main developing unit (30) during the rotating operation. Since it has to be performed, it is easily affected by the flow of air in the apparatus, and as a result, all the falling developer cannot be collected in the scattered developer collecting apparatus (35).

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems,
Provided is a scattered developer collecting device that always and completely collects a developer falling from the gap regardless of the size of the gap that changes when the developing device approaches and separates from the photosensitive drum. .

(Means for Solving the Problems) A scattered developer collecting device of the present invention includes a photoconductor drum rotatably supported between a pair of supporting side plates, and a photoconductor drum that is disposed so as to face the photoconductor drum. A scattered developer collecting device that collects scattered developer that falls from a gap between a developing device that moves closer to the photosensitive drum and a developing device that separates from the developing position and does not perform developing. In the above, the scattered developer collecting device is composed of a developer collecting device mounted between supporting side plates of the photoconductor drum, and a flexible material detachably connected to the developer collecting device and the developing device. A seal member is provided, and the seal member constantly covers the gap regardless of the displacement of the developing device.

(Operation) According to the scattered developer recovery device of the present invention, the seal member is
It is detachably connected to both the scattered developer collecting device provided on the photosensitive drum supporting side plate and the developing device.

As a result, regardless of the size of the gap that changes as the developing device approaches and separates from the photosensitive drum, the gap is covered below by the scattered developer collecting device in any case.

As a result, the developer falling from the gap can be reliably and completely recovered by the scattered developer recovery device.

(Embodiment) An embodiment of the scattered developer collecting device of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

FIG. 1 is a side view showing an embodiment of the scattered developer collecting apparatus of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view of a main part of the embodiment of the scattered developer collecting apparatus of the present invention.

In this embodiment, the scattered developer collecting device of the present invention is applied to a twin color copying machine, that is, a copying machine having two developing devices. In the figure, (1) indicates a photosensitive drum. The body drum (1) is rotatably supported between a pair of photosensitive drum supporting side plates (2), and faces the photosensitive drum (1) so as to face the main developing unit (15) and the sub developing unit (17). Are rotatably arranged by the respective rotation fulcrums (16) (18).

In other words, by rotating each of the developing units (15) and (17), a developing operation position in which development is selectively performed in the vicinity of the photosensitive drum (1) and a development operation position in which development is not performed apart from the development operation position are performed. The gap between the photosensitive drum (1) and the developing units (15) and (17) also changes with the displacement between the two positions.

Each developing unit (15) (17) has a T-shaped guide groove (20) for guiding and mounting a sealing member (9), which will be described later, at the lower end on the side of the photosensitive drum (1). A protrusion (19) is formed.

The scattered developer collecting device (3) for collecting the developer falling from the gap has two units corresponding to the main developing unit (15) and the sub developing unit (17), respectively. Therefore, in order to avoid duplication, only the scattered developer collecting device (3) on the main developing unit (15) side will be described.

The scattered developer collecting device (3) is a developer collecting device (3) between support projections (5) formed by projecting a part of the pair of photosensitive drum supporting side plates (2) on the side facing the developing unit (15). 6)
And a seal member (9) detachably attached to both the scattered developer collection container (4) and the developing unit (15). Is.

More specifically, the scattered developer recovery container (4) is a hollow, substantially box-shaped container composed of a support protrusion (5), a bottom surface (6a) of the developer recovery device (6), and an upright portion (7). An opening is formed in the upper part, and a guide groove (8) for guiding and mounting the seal member (9) is provided on the outer wall of the upright portion (7).

On the other hand, the seal member (9) is fixed to one end portion of the substantially rod-shaped first mounting member (10) that engages with the guide groove (8) and the first mounting member (10) to have flexibility. A sheet-shaped elastic member (11) and an insertion opening (13) for inserting the elastic member (11) and a guide groove (2) of the developing unit (15).
0) and a second mounting member (12) having a substantially T-shaped cross section, which is detachably attached to the developer recovery container (4) and the developing unit (15), The mounting member (12) is configured to be insertable into the elastic member (11).

The free end portion of the elastic member (11) passes through the insertion opening (13) of the second mounting member (12) so that the second mounting member (1
2) is formed to be slightly rounded so as not to separate from the elastic member (11).

Now, the operation of the scattered developer collecting device based on the above configuration will be described. The seal member (9) is composed of the scattered developer collecting container (4) and the developing unit (15) provided on the photosensitive drum supporting side plate (2). The developing unit (15) is mounted on both sides and connects the photosensitive drum (1) and the developing unit (15) with each other by the elastic member (11), so that the developing unit (15) is indicated by a chain line in FIG. Even when it is separated from the photoconductor drum (1), the photoconductor drum (1) and the developing unit (15)
The gap is securely covered by the elastic member (11) of the seal member (9).

As a result, regardless of the size of the gap that changes when the developing unit (15) approaches and separates from the photoconductor drum (1), the gap is always set by the elastic member (11) of the seal member (9). It is covered below.

As a result, the developer falling from the gap can be reliably and completely recovered by the scattered developer recovery device.

Similarly, on the side of the sub developing unit (17) as well, the scattered developer collecting device (3) reliably prevents the falling of the scattered developer, so that the scattered developer from the sub developing unit (17) is located below. The possibility of being mixed in the main developing unit (15) and adversely affecting the color of the image obtained as a result of development by the main developing unit (15) is completely eliminated.

Next, a second embodiment of the scattered developer collecting device of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing a main part of another embodiment of the scattered developer collecting device of the present invention.

The second embodiment is different from the first embodiment in that the guide groove (8) of the developer recovery container (6) is changed, that is, the elastic member (11) of the seal member (9) is replaced with the developer. A guide groove (8) for mounting on the recovery device (6) is provided on the inner wall of the upright portion (7) of the developer recovery device (6), and the guide groove (8) is curved with the elastic member (11) curved. ), And the developer accumulated on the elastic member (11) is recovered in the developer recovery container (4) by using the elastic member (11) as a guide. Other configurations and operations are the same as those in the first embodiment, and therefore will not be described in detail here.

As described above, since the developer can be prevented from accumulating on the elastic member (11), the worker can quickly replace the seal member (9) without worrying about the developer. You can

When the developing unit (15) is attached or detached, the seal member (9) of the first and second embodiments is detachably attached to the developer recovery container (4) and the developing unit (15). However, the sealing member (9) does not get in the way.

In the first and second embodiments, the scattered developer recovery container is formed by mounting the developer recovery device on the support projection with screws or the like, but is not limited to this, and is formed integrally with the drum support side plate. May be.

In the first and second embodiments, the scattered developer collecting device is applied to the twin color copying machine having two developing units, but the present invention is not limited to this and the developing unit may be three. It can be applied to an image forming apparatus such as a so-called full-color copying machine having more than one, of course,
It can also be applied to an image forming apparatus such as a mono-color copying machine having only one developing unit.

Further, in both of the embodiments, the method of displacing the developing device from the photosensitive member is described as rotating, but the present invention can be applied to a form of reciprocatingly displacing.

(Effect) According to the scattered developer collecting device of the present invention, it is possible to surely and completely collect the scattered developer that always drops from the gap between the developing device and the photosensitive drum, regardless of the displacement of the developing device with respect to the photosensitive drum. Is.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view showing an embodiment of the scattered developer collecting apparatus of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view of an essential part of the embodiment of the scattered developer collecting apparatus of the present invention, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a sectional view showing a main part of another embodiment of the scattered developer collecting apparatus of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a side view showing a conventional scattered developer collecting apparatus. 1,34 …… Photosensitive drum, 2, …… Photosensitive drum support side plate,
3,35 …… Scattered developer collection device, 4 …… Developer collection container,
9 ... Seal member, 10 ... First mounting portion, 11 ... Elastic member, 12 ... Second mounting portion

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (72) Katsunori Fujii, 1-2-2 Tamatsukuri, Higashi-ku, Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture Mita Industry Co., Ltd. (72) Hiroyuki Hatano 1-2-2 Tamatsukuri, Higashi-ku, Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture No. Mita Kogyo Co., Ltd. Examiner Osamu Komaki (56) References JP-A-2-106773 (JP, A) JP-A-62-297858 (JP, A) JP-A-63-96678 (JP, A) Special Kai 62-280880 (JP, A) Actual flat 2-35162 (JP, U) Actual 57-162653 (JP, U)

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A photosensitive drum which is rotatably supported between a pair of supporting side plates, and a developing operation position which is disposed so as to face the photosensitive drum and is in proximity to the photosensitive drum for developing. In a scattered developer collecting device for collecting scattered developer falling from a gap between a developing device which is separated from the developing device and is displaced to a non-developing developing position, the scattered developer collecting device supports the photosensitive drum. The developer collecting device is mounted between the side plates, and a seal member made of a flexible material is detachably connected to the developer collecting device and the developing device. The seal member is the developing device. The scattered developer collecting device is characterized in that the gap is constantly covered regardless of the displacement of the scattered developer.