JPH0736169A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide an image forming device capable of preventing photosensitive toner from being erroneously exposed in the case of normally using and supplying the photosensitive toner. CONSTITUTION:When a solenoid 24 is arranged in a toner supplying port 28 formed on the upper part of a photosensitive toner coating part 20, and optical sensors 23a-23d detect that a replenishment toner container is set to the toner supplying port 28; a CPU drives the solenoid 24 so as to release the locking of an open/close cover 25. Thus, the open/close cover 25 is prevented from being erroneously drawn out in a condition where the replenishment toner container is not set on the toner supplying port 28.

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 using a photosensitive toner.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art So-called photosensitive microcapsules in which a core material composed of a dye precursor and a photosensitive material is enclosed by a wall material such as a resin are known. Also,
A color copying apparatus using a photosensitive medium carrying the photosensitive microcapsules has been developed.

In this apparatus, the photosensitive medium is exposed in accordance with image information and the microcapsules are cured to form a chemical latent image on the photosensitive medium. Next, the image receiving paper and the photosensitive medium are overlapped and pressed, and the microcapsules are destroyed, whereby the chemical latent image is developed and an image is formed on the image receiving paper.

However, in this apparatus, a photosensitive medium having a plastic film such as PET as a base material and microcapsules coated on the base material is used. Therefore, although the base material does not directly contribute to image formation, it is consumed and discarded together with the microcapsules each time an image is formed. Therefore, this image forming apparatus has a problem that the so-called running cost is high.

Therefore, in order to solve this problem, the present applicants have proposed an apparatus capable of forming an image without discarding the base material by using a photosensitive microcapsule in a particulate form, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 3-124919. , Japanese Patent Application No. 3-220101, Japanese Patent Application No. 3-23099, and Japanese Patent Application No. 3-285005.

In this image forming apparatus, an image forming substance such as a dye precursor, a colored dye or a pigment, and a core substance made of a photosensitive substance which cures in response to light are enclosed by a wall material such as resin. A photosensitive microcapsule toner composed of the prepared microcapsules is used.

By the photosensitive microcapsule toner coating device provided inside the image forming apparatus, toner-like microcapsules are dry-coated on an endless belt-shaped or drum-shaped support, and then, depending on image information. Exposed. Next, the microcapsules of the toner are broken by the pressing means and the core substance is released. Then, when the core substance is transferred to the image receiving paper, the core substance penetrates between the fibers of the image receiving paper, and an image is formed by the image forming substance in the core substance.

When the photosensitive toner is consumed and the amount of the photosensitive toner in the coating device becomes less than a certain amount, it is necessary to replenish the photosensitive microcapsule toner from the toner replenishing port of the device.

In order to prevent the photosensitive toner from being exposed to light, an opening / closing cover is provided at the replenishing port. When the toner replenishing container is placed on the replenishing port, the opening / closing cover is opened to remove the photosensitive capsule toner. The procedure is such that the supply container is supplied, the opening / closing cover is closed again, and then the supply container is removed.

[0010]

However, in such a conventional image forming apparatus, there is a possibility that a user may open the opening / closing cover of the replenishing port without accidentally installing the toner replenishing container on the replenishing port. It was In this case, there is a problem that the light of the room light or the natural light enters the inside of the apparatus through the replenishment port, and the photosensitive toner stored inside the apparatus is exposed. Since the core material is cured when the photosensitive toner is exposed to light as described above, an image formed by using the microcapsules has serious defects such as low density and unnatural color development.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and prevents the photosensitive toner from being erroneously exposed during normal use of the image forming apparatus and replenishment of the photosensitive toner. Image forming apparatus.

[0012]

To achieve this object, an image forming apparatus of the present invention is an image forming apparatus using a photosensitive toner, and is a lock for prohibiting or permitting opening of a supply port for the photosensitive toner. Means, a toner container detecting means for detecting whether or not a replenishing toner container is installed in the replenishing port, and a control means for controlling the operation of the locking means by the output of the toner container detecting means.

[0013]

In the image forming apparatus of the present invention having the above structure, when the toner container detecting means detects that the replenishment toner container is not installed in the toner replenishing port,
The lock means prohibits the opening / closing cover of the toner supply port from opening via the control means. This state is the normal use state of the device.

Further, when replenishing the toner, when the user installs the replenishment toner container at a predetermined position above the toner replenishing port, the lock means is opened and closed by the control means by the output of the toner container detecting means. Allow opening.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an image forming apparatus embodying the present invention. Inside the image forming apparatus M, a support roller 10 for conveying the photosensitive toner is provided rotatably in the direction of the arrow in the drawing. At the upper right of the support roller 10 in the figure, the photosensitive toner 22 is attached to the support roller 10.
A photosensitive toner coating section 20 for dry coating is provided.

The photosensitive toner coating section 20 comprises a carrying roller 21, a photosensitive toner 22 stored therein, and a toner case 29.

As shown in FIG. 2, the photosensitive microcapsule toner 100 is substantially spherical and has a diameter of 3 to 20.
The core material 3 has a thickness of 0.01 μm to 1 μm and is enclosed by the wall member 2 made of resin or the like.

The core substance 3 comprises a photosensitive substance 4 which is cured by a polymerization reaction in response to light, and an image forming substance 5 such as a pigment finely dispersed in the photosensitive substance 4.

An electric field is formed between the support roller 10 and the photosensitive toner coating section 20 by a power source (not shown).

A toner replenishing port 28 and an openable / closable cover 25 movable left and right in FIG.
And a solenoid 24 which is a locking means of the open / close cover.

FIG. 4 shows an enlarged perspective view of the vicinity of the toner supply port 28. The solenoid 24 is installed such that the front end 24b of the solenoid penetrates the hole 25b of the opening / closing cover 25 in a state where the opening / closing cover 25 is closed (most pushed into the apparatus). Further, around the toner replenishing port 28, the optical sensors 23a, 2 which are replenishing container detecting means.
3b, 23c and 23d are provided.

Each of the optical sensors 23a to 23d has a light emitting portion and a light receiving portion which are integrated, and detects the illuminance above the replenishing port 28.

FIG. 3 shows the structure of the control means for controlling the operation of the solenoid 24 which is the lock means. The detection result of the illuminance is converted into a voltage signal by the optical sensors 23a to 23d, and the CPU 6 is passed through the I / F 61 including the A / D converter.
Input to 3. The CPU 63 compares it with the reference value in the ROM 64 to determine whether or not a replenishing container is installed. In response to the determination result output from the CPU, the driver-62 drives the solenoid 24.

In FIG. 1, an exposure unit 30 for exposing photosensitive toner according to image information is provided on the downstream side of the support roller 10 in the rotational direction. Further, a pressure roller 35 is provided on the downstream side in the rotation direction of the support roller 10. Both the pressure roller 35 and the support roller 10 constitute a discharging means for discharging the core substance of the photosensitive toner.

Further, a thermal transfer roller 40 having a built-in transfer heater 41 is provided below the support roller 10.

The operation of this image forming apparatus will be described below.

In FIG. 1, the photosensitive toner 22 stored in the photosensitive toner coating section 20 is charged because it is agitated inside the photosensitive toner coating section 20.

Support roller 10 and photosensitive toner application section 2
Due to the electric field formed between the carrier rollers of 0, the charged photosensitive toner 22 moves and adheres to the support roller 10.

The photosensitive toner 22 is conveyed to the exposure unit 30 by the rotation of the support roller 10. The photosensitive toner 22 is exposed according to the image information to be formed on the image receiving paper. At this time, the core substance of the photosensitive toner 22 is cured depending on the intensity of the exposure. When the photosensitive toner 22 is pressed by the releasing means, the core substance of the photosensitive toner 22 is released according to the degree of curing of the core substance.

The image receiving paper 52 is taken out from the paper feed tray 51 and is supplied between the support roller and the thermal transfer roller by the carrying roller 53. Then, the core substance attached to the support roller is transferred to the image receiving paper. Since the core substance contains the image forming substance, an image is formed on the image receiving paper.
The image receiving paper is output to the output tray.

During the normal operation described above,
As shown in FIG. 4, the replenishment toner container is not installed above the opening 28. Therefore, since the solenoid 24 is driven by the control means shown in FIG. 3 and the tip end portion 24b of the solenoid is engaged with the hole portion 25b of the shutter 25, the shutter 25 is fixed inside the apparatus. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the shutter from being accidentally pulled out of the device and the light incident from the opening 28 to reach the inside of the device.

On the other hand, when the photosensitive toner is consumed and needs to be replenished, the user places the replenishment toner container 27 above the opening 28. An enlarged view of this state is shown in FIG. The replenishment toner container 27 is provided to prevent the built-in photosensitive toner from being exposed to light during storage.
Naturally, it is made of a black resin or the like having a good light shielding property.

At this time, as shown in FIG. 5, the optical sensor 23 is located inside the area surrounded by the replenishment toner container 27. Therefore, the optical sensor 23 detects that the vicinity of the opening is shielded regardless of the natural light or the illumination light of the room light.

The tip of the solenoid 24 is stored by the control means and does not engage with the hole 25b at the tip of the shutter 25. Therefore, the user can pull out the shutter 25, and the replenishment toner inside the replenishment toner container 27 is stored inside the photosensitive toner application section 20.

[0036]

As is apparent from the above description, in the image forming apparatus of the present invention, the photosensitive toner inside is not exposed by an erroneous operation.

Therefore, it is possible to form an image of stable quality.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an image forming apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a photosensitive toner used in an image forming apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a control unit of a lock mechanism of an opening / closing cover.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a state in which an opening / closing cover is closed.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a state in which an opening / closing cover is opened.

[Explanation of symbols]

 M Image forming apparatus 2 Wall member 3 Core material 4 Photosensitive material 5 Image forming material 10 Support roller 20 Photosensitive toner application section 23 Optical sensor (detection means) 24 Solenoid (locking means) 25 Opening / closing cover 28 Toner supply port 30 Exposure Part 100 Microcapsules that are photosensitive toners

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An image forming apparatus using a photosensitive toner, wherein lock means for prohibiting or permitting opening of the supply opening for the photosensitive toner and whether or not a supply toner container is installed at the supply opening is detected. An image forming apparatus comprising: a toner container detecting means; and a control means for controlling the operation of the locking means by the output of the toner container detecting means.