JPH08211719A - Toner replenishing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To obtain a toner replenishing device capable of forcibly breaking a lump of toner flowing out from the discharge port of a toner bottle. CONSTITUTION: The toner bottle 18 is held in a nearly horizontal direction by a bottle holder 25 and driven to rotate around an axis line by a motor 27. On the toner bottle 18, a helical rib projected on the internal surface is formed by a helical groove 35. The inner stopper 30 of the toner discharge port of the toner bottle 18 is opened by a collect chuck, then, arranged in the vicinity of the discharge port and rotated in a direction opposite to the bottle 18 by the motor 27. Then, a rib or helical wing is formed on the inner stopper 30.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to toner replenishment in an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a facsimile, a printer, and more particularly, to a toner bottle containing a developer (hereinafter referred to as "toner") with a high density of toner. The present invention relates to a toner replenishing device that does not hinder the development process even if it is filled.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An electrophotographic method in which an electrostatic latent image is formed on a photoconductive photoreceptor, the latent image is developed by charged colored particles, and the resulting image of the developer is transferred onto a transfer paper. It has been put to practical use and widely used in copiers, facsimiles, printers, etc. In the image forming apparatus using the electrophotographic method, when the developer is consumed from the developing device incorporated therein and is consumed, the developer is replenished and continuously used. Conventionally, as a mechanism for replenishing a developer, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 59-188678 and 60-60
As disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 146265, it has been proposed to rotate a toner bottle as a container for storing a developer around an axis to let the toner flow out from a discharge port provided on one end surface of the bottle.

In order to make toner flow out smoothly from the toner bottle, it has been proposed to apply vibration to a horizontally installed toner bottle as disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 61-24756.

[0004]

By the way, in order to downsize the developing device, it is necessary to downsize the toner bottle itself. In this case, it is technically required to fill the toner bottle with higher density. It becomes a matter. When the toner bottle is filled with high density, the toner may be lumped and flow into the developing device, and such lump of toner causes development failure. Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a toner replenishing device in which a lump of toner flowing out from a discharge port of a toner bottle is forcibly destroyed.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above technical object, according to the present invention, there is provided a toner container having a toner discharge port at one end surface of a cylindrical container body, and the toner container. Replenishing toner having holding means for holding the toner container in a substantially horizontal direction in a state of being communicated with the toner introducing portion to the developing portion, and rotation driving means for rotating the toner storage container held by the holding means around its axis. Assuming the device,
A spiral rib that is formed to project on the inner wall surface of the container body of the toner storage container and guides the toner to the toner discharge port side as the toner storage container rotates, and fits into the toner discharge port of the toner storage container. A mating plug member, and a plug holding means for holding the plug member removed from the toner discharge port in the vicinity of the toner discharge port and concentrically with the toner discharge port,
A stopper rotation driving means for rotating the stopper member held by the stopper holding means around its axis, and a rotation difference is provided between the rotation of the toner storage container and the rotation of the stopper member. Further, the plug member is provided with a blade adjacent to the inner peripheral surface of the toner discharge port.

[0006]

According to the above construction, the toner in the toner container is smoothly delivered to the toner ejection port side by the rotation of the toner container about its axis and the spiral rib formed on the inner wall surface of the toner container. Will be done. And
Even if the toner sent to the toner discharge port is lumped, this toner lump is generated by the stopper member that rotates while having a rotation difference with the rotation of the toner storage container in the vicinity of the toner discharge port. It is forcibly destroyed by being sandwiched between the blade of the plug member and the inner wall surface of the toner discharge port.

In order to simplify the entire apparatus, it is desirable that the drive source included in the rotation driving means of the toner storage container and the drive source included in the plug rotation driving means be a common drive source. Further, by setting the rotation direction of the toner storage container and the rotation direction of the stopper member to be opposite to each other, it is possible to effectively destroy the toner lump described above. Further, in order to make the toner flow out smoothly, the shape of the blade of the stopper member is a spiral shape that guides the toner in the toner storage container in the direction of flowing out as the stopper member rotates. preferable.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An example in which the present invention is applied to an electrophotographic copying machine (hereinafter referred to as a copying machine) which is an image forming apparatus will be specifically described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a front view showing a schematic configuration of a copying machine, and FIG. 2 is a plan view thereof. The copying machine 1 has a contact glass 3 on the upper surface of its housing 2 for placing an original,
An optical unit including a document irradiation lamp 4, a reflection mirror 5, a lens, and the like is provided below the contact glass 3, and a photosensitive drum 6 is provided below the optical unit. Around the photosensitive drum 6, a charging device 7, a developing device 8, a transfer device (transfer charger) 9,
A cleaning device 10, a static eliminator 11 and the like are provided.

The copying machine 1 has a paper feed section 12 for stocking the transfer paper P and feeding the transfer paper P at the bottom thereof.
On the transfer paper sent from the paper supply unit 12, a toner image is transferred through a path 13 passing between the photosensitive drum 6 and the transfer device 9, and then the toner image is fixed by a fixing device 14 and then copied. Ejected from machine 1. Developing device 8
Is a developing roller 15, an impeller 16 for stirring, and a mixing roller 1.
7 is a conventional general dry developing device including a toner bottle 18 as a developer accommodating container, and
The toner flowing out from the toner bottle 18 is used as the developing device 8
A hopper 19 for guiding the inside is provided, and an ogger 20 is attached to the hopper 19, and the toner in the hopper 19 is forcibly sent by the auger 20 to the developing device 8.

The toner bottle 18 is held in a substantially horizontal state by a toner replenishing unit 21, and the hopper 18 (including the auger 20) is included in the toner replenishing unit 21.
Is built in. This toner supply unit 21
As shown in FIG. 2, it is mounted so as to be rotatable about a vertical axis 22 within a range of about 90 degrees in a horizontal plane, and optionally, the first position A stored in the housing 2 and the housing. The second position B protruding laterally from 2 can be taken. As will be described later in detail, when the unit 21 takes the first position A, the unit 21
Is automatically opened, and toner is supplied to the developing device 8 at the first position A. On the other hand, when replacing the toner bottle 18,
This is performed by positioning the unit 21 at the second position B, and at this second position B, the empty toner bottle 18 is automatically closed.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the toner supply unit 21. The toner supply unit 21 has a bottle holder 25 for holding the toner bottle 18, and the bottle holder 2
5, a sleeve 26 is rotatably provided, and the sleeve 26 is formed with a gear ring 26a extending in the circumferential direction. The sleeve 26 is provided at the mouth portion 18 of the toner bottle 18.
It has a shape conforming to c (described in detail later) and entirely surrounds the mouth of the bottle 18. A motor 27 is provided below the bottle holder 25, and a gear 28 that meshes with the above-described gear ring 26a is attached to the output shaft of the motor 27. The rotation of the motor 27 is rotated by the gear 28 and the gear ring 26a. 26, so that the toner bottle 18 is rotationally driven in the direction of arrow 29 in FIG. The engagement between the toner bottle 18 and the sleeve 26 will be described later.

The toner replenishing unit 21 clamps the inner plug 30 of the toner bottle 18 and moves it forward and backward to open and close the collet chuck 31, and urges the collet chuck 31 to the forward side, that is, the toner bottle 18 side. It has a spring 32 and a cam mechanism 33 for moving the collet chuck 31 forward and backward. Cam mechanism 33
Indicates that the toner supply unit 21 is in the first position A (storage position).
From the second position B (bottle replacement position), the collet chuck 31 is moved forward to move the inner stopper 30.
Is attached to the toner bottle 18 (see FIG. 5). On the other hand, interlocking with the rotation of the unit 21 from the second position B to the first position A, the collet chuck 31 is retracted while gripping the inner plug 30 of the bottle 18 (see FIG. 4). .

The toner replenishing unit 21 also has a means 33 for positioning the bottle 18 and applying an impact to the bottle 18, which means will be described later in detail for convenience of explanation. Before this, the shape of the toner bottle 18 will be described. As is clear from FIGS. 3 and 4, the toner bottle 18 has a substantially cylindrical main body 18a and a cylindrical ejection port 18b opening at the center of one end surface of the main body 18a. On the side surface of the main body 18a, a rib protruding inside the main body is formed by a groove 35 protruding inward.
The groove 35 extends in a spiral shape, and the toner in the toner bottle 18 is transferred to the bottle 18 by the spiral groove, that is, the spiral rib.
With the rotation of, the liquid is guided toward the discharge port 18b.

The main body 18a has a circumferential flange 36 at a position separated from the discharge port 18b, and a notch 37 having a shape in which a part of a corner 18c is cut off at a portion adjacent to the discharge port 18b. Have. The cutout portion 37 has a shape in which the corner portion 18c is cut off over substantially half the circumference along the extension line of the spiral groove 35. More specifically, the wall 37 of the cutout 37
a has a shape that is inclined toward the ejection port 18b when viewed from the ejection port 18b side, and the ejection port 1 when viewed in cross section.
It has a shape that smoothly inclines toward 8b. A protrusion 41 is formed on the end wall 18d of the main body 18a, as is apparent from FIG. 6, and the protrusion 41 engages with the corresponding protrusion 42 formed on the end wall 26a of the sleeve 26 described above. The torque of the sleeve 26 is transmitted to the bottle 18.

Now, returning to the toner supply unit 21,
The means 33 for positioning the bottle 18 and for impacting the bottle 18, as shown in FIG.
Has an arm 44 extending in the axial direction of
An intermediate portion in the longitudinal direction is attached to the top of the bottle holder 25 via a pin 45, and is biased by a spring 46 arranged around the pin 45 in a direction toward the peripheral surface of the bottle 18. The end 44 of the arm 44 on the bottle holder side
a has a hemispherical surface slightly projecting downward, and this hemispherical surface 44 a is received in a hemispherical recess 25 a formed in the holder 25.

The tip of the arm 44 extends beyond the circumferential flange 36 of the bottle 18, has a claw 44b extending downward at a position corresponding to the circumferential flange 36, and is located on the end side of the claw 44b. Has a striking member 47 arranged downward, and the striking member 47 has a length dimension in the height direction slightly shorter than that of the claw 44b. The striking member 47 is preferably an elastic body, and is made of, for example, rubber, a flexible resin, a foam, a gel or the like.

In the above structure, the bottle holder 25
The toner bottle 18 placed on the
The b is engaged with the circumferential flange 36 to be positioned at a predetermined position on the holder 25. When the developing processing operation is repeated and the toner concentration in the developing device 8 decreases, an output signal from a toner sensor (not shown) causes the toner supply unit 2 to replenish.
The first motor 27 is activated, and the toner bottle 18 rotates about its axis. With the rotation of this bottle 18,
The toner in the bottle 18 is guided by the spiral groove 35 and gradually sent out toward the ejection port 18b, and the toner flowing out from the ejection port 18b is guided to the developing device 8 by the hopper 19 and the like. The amount of toner flowing out from the ejection port 18b is regulated by the inner plug 30 located near the ejection port 18b.
The position of the inner plug 30, that is, the collet chuck 31 so that the toner continuously flows out from the discharge port 18b in a constant amount as much as possible.
It is desirable to set the stroke amount.

In the above toner replenishing operation, as the toner bottle 18 rotates, the arm 44 is first struck by a projection and a recess (both not shown) of the bottle 18 formed at a position corresponding to the tip of the claw 44b. The member 47 is lifted by the protrusion, and immediately thereafter, the claw 44b performs an operation of dropping into the recess. Thereby, the hitting member 47 hits the side wall of the bottle 18. The timing at which the hitting member 47 hits the toner bottle 18 depends on the wall 37 a of the cutout portion 37 of the bottle 18.
Is preferably about 45 degrees from the horizon. This hitting timing can be easily set by adjusting the rotational angle position of the sleeve 26 of the toner supply unit 21. According to this, the toner in the bottle 18 vigorously flows out from the ejection port 18b due to the rotation of the bottle 18 and the impact from the hitting member 47. Since the tapping member 47 is made of the elastic member as described above, the tapping sound when tapping the bottle 18 is relatively small.

FIG. 6 shows the discharge port 18b of the toner bottle 18.
3 is an enlarged view of the portion of FIG. The inner plug 30 includes a plurality of ribs 5 protruding toward the discharge port 18b.
0, each rib 50 extends in the radial direction, and its outer peripheral side corner portion 50a has a notched shape. The reference numeral 30a shown in FIG. 6 indicates a grip portion gripped by the collect chuck 31 described above. On the other hand, the discharge port 18b of the toner bottle 18 is formed with a rib 52 extending in the axial direction on the inner peripheral wall surface thereof, and it is preferable that a plurality of ribs 52 are provided in the circumferential direction (in this embodiment, they are separated by 180 degrees). Two ribs 52 are provided). The bottle side rib 52 has a length dimension which is as close as possible to the corner portion 50a of the inner stopper 30 side rib 50 when the inner stopper 30 is opened by the collect chuck 31.

With respect to the structures of the discharge port 18b and the inner plug 30, the toner replenishing unit 21 is provided with a gear train 55 linked to the output shaft of the motor 27, and this gear train 55 is a collect. The sleeve 53 is connected to the circumferential gear 53a of the sleeve 53 surrounding the chuck 31,
The bottle 18 is adapted to rotate in the opposite direction.
The rotation direction of the sleeve 53, that is, the rotation direction of the collect chuck 31 is indicated by reference numeral 56.

According to the above structure, as shown by the symbol W in FIG. 7, even if there is a lump of toner flowing out from the bottle 18, the inner plug 30 rotating in the opposite direction to the toner bottle 18 is rotated. The ribs 50 and the bottle-side ribs 52 forcefully break the lump W, so that toner without lumps flows out. Therefore, even if the toner contained in the toner bottle 18 is supplied at a high density, this does not hinder the development.

8 and 9 show a modified example of the inner plug 30, and the inner plug 30 may be provided with spiral blades 57 in place of the ribs 50. In this case, the spiral blade 57 may be tapered, and the rib 52 similar to that in the previous embodiment may be provided on the inner peripheral wall surface of the discharge port 18b of the toner bottle 18. According to this, the substantial inner diameter of the discharge port 18b is reduced,
The distance between the spiral blade 57 and the spiral blade 57 can be reduced. However, in the above-described embodiments and modified examples, the bottle-side rib 52 is not essential, and even if the outer diameter of the rib 52 on the inner plug 30 side or the outer diameter of the spiral blade 57 is set to be substantially the same as the inner diameter of the discharge port 18b. Good.

[0023]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, the toner lump can be forcibly destroyed when the toner in the toner container is flowed out, so that the packing density of the toner container is reduced. Even if the density is high, the problem of defective development does not occur.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall schematic configuration diagram of a copying machine to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view of the copying machine shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of a toner replenishing unit and a toner bottle to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 4 is a partial cross-sectional view showing a state in which the collet chuck is performing a plug opening operation.

FIG. 5 is a partial cross-sectional view showing a state in which the collet chuck is performing the closing operation of the plug.

FIG. 6 is a partial perspective view of a toner bottle to which the present invention has been applied.

FIG. 7 is a partial cross-sectional view of a toner discharge port portion of a toner bottle for explaining the operation of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a partial view of a modified example of the inner stopper of the toner bottle, as seen from the inside of the toner bottle, as viewed from the toner discharge port side.

9 is a side view corresponding to FIG. 7, showing a cross section of a part of the modified example shown in FIG. 9;

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Copier 8 Developing Device 18 Toner Bottle 18a Toner Bottle Body 18b Toner Bottle Toner Discharge Port 21 Toner Replenishing Unit 25 Bottle Holder 26 Rotating Sleeve 27 Motor 30 Toner Bottle Inner Plug 31 Collect Chuck 35 Toner Bottle Picking Toner Bottle Spiral groove (rib) 50 Rib provided on the inner plug 55 Gear train 57 linked to the output shaft of the motor 57 Spiral blade provided on the inner plug

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A toner storage container having a toner discharge port on one end surface of a cylindrical container body, and the toner storage container is held in a substantially horizontal direction in a state of being communicated with a toner introduction part to a developing part. In a toner replenishing device having a holding means and a rotation driving means for rotating the toner storage container held by the holding means around its axis, the toner replenishing device is formed so as to project on an inner wall surface of a container body of the toner storage container. A spiral rib that guides the toner to the toner discharge port side as the toner storage container rotates; a plug member that fits into the toner discharge port of the toner storage container; and a plug member that is removed from the toner discharge port. A plug holding unit that holds the toner discharge port in the vicinity of the toner discharge port and concentric with the toner discharge port, and a plug rotation driving unit that rotates the plug member held by the plug holding unit around its axis. A rotation difference is provided between the rotation of the toner container and the rotation of the stopper member, and the stopper member is provided with a blade adjacent to the inner peripheral surface of the toner discharge port. A toner replenishing device characterized in that 2. The toner replenishing device according to claim 1, wherein the drive source included in the rotation drive means of the toner storage container and the drive source included in the plug rotation drive means are a common drive source. 3. The toner replenishing device according to claim 1, wherein a rotation direction of the toner storage container and a rotation direction of the stopper member are opposite directions. 4. The blade of the stopper member has a spiral shape that guides the toner in the toner storage container in a direction to flow out as the stopper member rotates.
The toner replenishing device according to any one of 1.