JPH0720758A - Device able to be recycled - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make it possible to smoothly and exactly disassemble members or parts so as to meet recycling forms by applying visually recognizable elements including information on fastening means on these members or parts. CONSTITUTION:A front cover 20a, side covers, etc., and an external cover of an image forming device consist of a synthetic resin. The service life of such synthetic resin members is nearly semipermanent and, therefore, these members are able to be recycled. The members are consequently required to be disassembled and removed from the image forming device in the stage of recovery. For example, the information on the fastening members necessary for removing the cover, i.e., the members are screws and four pieces of these screws need be removed to disassemble, are displayed on the front cover 20a. The display is merely necessitated to be formed at the time of injection molding of the resin cover. Since the visually recognizable elements including the information on the fastening means are applied on the members or parts, the disassembly operation of the members or parts is easy at the time of disassembling the members or parts according to the recycling forms classified to reuse as it is, to use for other purpose, and to discard.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a facsimile or a laser printer for recording image information on a transfer material, and an apparatus for disassembling and recycling the other parts or members.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, interest in global-scale environmental destruction has increased worldwide, and the ever-increasing amount of garbage has been promoted to be reduced in weight and reuse of resources. On the other hand, many studies have been conducted to recycle the entire device or a part of it to effectively use it as a resource. That is, since many resin parts and metal parts are used in office machines such as copying machines and facsimiles, it is recognized as a field in which there is an extremely high need for recycling.

Such an OA device has a product life according to its service life or frequency of use, and in a copying machine or the like, it also has a life depending on the cumulative number of copies. Since many of the members and parts that make up the product do not reach the end of their useful lives, when recycling is considered, it is necessary to collect the equipment and then separate it for reuse, reuse, or disposal. It needs to be disassembled accordingly.

[0004]

Therefore, regarding disassembling for recycling, in view of the fact that the manufacturer and the disassembler are generally different when recycling a process cartridge for electrophotography, for example, In order to prevent a situation in which the parts are erroneously disassembled and cannot be recycled, in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 25451/1990, a photosensitive drum, a charging roller, a developing blade
It has been proposed to attach a squishe sheet, a developing sleeve, a developing blade, and an order number circled in the disassembling order to the member, and disassemble according to the member. To prevent residual toner from scattering when disassembled, attach a label with an arrow to each of the developing device and cleaning device that make up the process cartridge, and disassemble so as to follow the displayed posture. Proposed.

However, these proposed ideas only display the order of the units to be disassembled and removed, or only clarify the disassembled posture. When actually collecting and disassembling a device that has reached the end of its product life, the fastening members such as screws, screws, C-rings, and E-rings are removed during the disassembly work. What parts should be removed? It is necessary to be skilled in performing the work while always accurately recognizing this, and it is surprisingly difficult to disassemble the device into each component efficiently and accurately.

In light of the actual situation so far, the present invention provides an OA provided with a member or a component according to a recycling form classified into reuse, reuse, and disposal so that disassembly can be smoothly and accurately performed. It is an object to provide a device such as a device.

[0007]

The present invention solves this problem by
A solution is provided by disassembling / separating and recycling the device by providing a visually recognizable element including information about the fastening means.

It is preferable that the visual recognition element is a pictogram.

It is more preferable if the visual recognition element is integrally provided on the component or member to be disassembled.

It is preferable that the information contained in the visual recognition element is sorted by color.

It is advantageous if the fastening members are also color-coded in correspondence with the color-coded information.

Further, in the apparatus which can be disassembled / separated and recycled, even if the member attachable / detachable to / from the apparatus is provided with a care for disassembling, the above problem can be solved.

It is preferable that this member is provided with a visually recognizable element including information about the fastening means.

[0014]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the embodiments based on the drawings.

An image forming apparatus having a high recycling value will be described as a recyclable apparatus. The mechanism for image formation of the entire image forming apparatus is basically the same as the conventional one, and a predetermined device necessary for forming an image, such as a charging unit and a developing unit, is provided around the photoconductor. Although such a mechanism is provided, the description of such a mechanism is omitted for simplification of the description, and only the part particularly related to the present invention will be described here.

In the image forming apparatus as shown in FIG.
Exterior covers such as the front cover 20a and the side covers are made of synthetic resin. Since such a synthetic resin member has a substantially semi-permanent service life, it is a recyclable member. Therefore, it is necessary to disassemble and remove the member from the image forming apparatus at the collecting stage. So in Figure 2
As shown by being emphasized in (b), for example, the front cover 20
In a, information on the fastening member necessary for removing the cover, that is, the member is a screw, and disassembling, four screws are displayed. Figure 2
As can be seen from (a), this indication may be formed at the same time when the resin cover is injection-molded, or a seal or the like may be attached later. As a result, the person doing the disassembly can know that when removing the front cover, remove the four screws from the beginning,
The work can be easily performed in a short time.

Depending on the member to be disassembled, the member itself may be attached to the apparatus main body by a fastening member, and other members may be fixed by the same type of fastening member. In this case, the information regarding the fastening means is clarified by the color distinction. For example, in the case where three screws are used to attach a certain member to the device body and at the same time another member is also fixed to the member with four screws, the device body is The screws for mounting are colored red, the screws for fixing other members are colored white, and "red screws x 3" are attached to the members.
With such a display, a person who performs disassembling work does not have to accidentally remove screws for fixing other members due to color distinction.

As further shown in FIG. 3, the front cover 20.
When removing b, the position of the fastening member to be removed may be displayed by pictograms. Accordingly, even if the type and the number of fastening members are not indicated, the person performing the disassembling work can easily perform the work.

FIG. 4 shows another structure. When removing the front cover 20c from the image forming apparatus, the sheet 23 that is attachable to and detachable from the image forming apparatus is hooked on a hook portion (not shown). The seat 23 is provided with an opening hole at a position corresponding to the position of the fastening member to be removed when removing the front cover 20c. Therefore, if the fastening member such as a screw confirmed through the opening hole is loosened using, for example, the driver 24, the front cover 20c can be easily removed. It is more effective if the sheet 23 is provided with pictograms or the like indicating the type and number of fastening members, as in the above example. The sheet need only be stored inside the image forming apparatus until it is collected, and does not require any special space in the storage place. By storing the sheet in this way, loss or the like can be prevented.

Although all of the above-mentioned examples describe the front cover, the same applies to other exterior covers or each unit housed inside the main body of the apparatus.

Even if it is more appropriate to arrange the parts or parts to be directly disassembled than to display the above-mentioned information about the fastening members on another member such as a sheet, it is possible to For example, when the toner is attached at the time of collection, a person such as a disassembler obtains the information, and further, a step such as washing is required in order to send the information to the recycling step. Information regarding the fastening members is integrally provided on the upper surface of the upper case 25 of the developing device shown in FIG. 5A and the wall of the side plate 26 of the developing device shown in FIG. If a film is attached to the surface, the film can be removed during disassembly to remove the adhered toner and easily obtain information about the fastening member. If the portion to which the silicone oil adheres is similarly treated, the adhered matter can be easily removed.

[0022]

According to the present invention, since a visually recognizable element including information about a fastening member is provided, it is disassembled into members or parts according to a recycling form classified into reuse, reuse and disposal. In doing so, the disassembly work becomes extremely easy.

Moreover, if the information is given to the detachable member having a hole corresponding to the fastening member to be removed, for example, the position and the number of the member can be clarified.

The present invention is applied to not only the image forming apparatus but also other OA equipment and the like to be collected and recycled.
Each can make disassembly work extremely smooth.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention.

2 is a partially enlarged view of the front cover of FIG. 1, where (a) is a side view and (b) is a front view.

FIG. 3 is a schematic perspective view of an image forming apparatus showing another display method.

FIG. 4 is a schematic perspective view of an image forming apparatus having another configuration.

FIG. 5 shows a member to which a film is attached,
(A) is a lower case portion of the developing device, and (b) is a side plate of the developing device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 20a Front cover 23 Seat 24 Driver

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Makoto Makoto 1-3-6 Nakamagome, Ota-ku, Tokyo Inside Ricoh Co., Ltd. (72) Inori Hidenori Sakai 1-3-6 Nakamagome, Ota-ku, Tokyo In stock company Ricoh (72) Inventor Fumio Kurizumi 1-3-6 Nakamagome, Ota-ku, Tokyo Inside Ricoh stock company (72) Inventor Yasuhiro Kawashima 1-3-6 Nakamagome, Ota-ku, Tokyo Ricoh Co., Ltd. Within

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A device that can be disassembled / separated and recycled, which is provided with a visually recognizable element including information about a fastening means. 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the visual recognition element is a pictogram. 3. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the visual recognition element is integrally applied to the part or member to be disassembled. 4. The information contained in the visual recognition element is sorted by color.
The device according to. 5. The device according to claim 4, wherein the fastening member is also color-coded corresponding to the color-coded information. 6. A device which can be disassembled / sorted and recycled, wherein a member attachable / detachable to / from the device is provided with a care for disassembly. 7. A device according to claim 6, characterized in that the member is provided with a visually recognizable element containing information on the fastening means.