JPH08323180A - Kneading device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide a kneading device which does not change material dispersion even in spite of a large amt. of charge by melting and kneading the raw materials charged into this device while storing the dust to be pulverized again to powder material and charging the dust into midway of kneading from another charge port while sieving the dust. CONSTITUTION: The raw materials 33 are charged into a raw material charging hopper 6 and while the materials are stored therein, the materials are fed by the prescribed amt. each from an outlet in the lower side into the supplying chamber 8 of a supplying machine 8. The raw materials 33 are fed by supplying vanes 9 to a supplying machine outlet 10 and are charged atop a front roll 2 and a rear roll 3. The raw materials are compressed while heated by a heater 4 and are melted and kneaded. An automatic sieving device 14 takes out the prescribed amt. each of the dust 29a under storage in the dust charging hopper 13 and charges the dust 29a to a wide range under melting and kneading of the raw materials 33 while sieving the dust. The powder 29a is then melted and kneaded without flocculation.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a kneading apparatus for melting and kneading raw materials to produce a powder material.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When manufacturing a toner, dust of the toner which is not used as a product is generated. Traditionally,
Regarding this handling, a method is often used in which the dust is melt-kneaded together with the raw material to be reprocessed and reused as a powder material of a new toner.

FIG. 3 is a general schematic process diagram for manufacturing a toner. The powder material 21, which is a new material of the toner 31, is charged into the material charging port 20. The powder material 21 is sent to the classifier 25 as powder 24 together with the pulverized material 23 taken out from the pulverizer 22. The classifier 25 classifies the fed powder 24 into a coarse powder 26 and a fine powder 27 with a predetermined first particle size value (classification point),
Coarse powder 26 larger than the first particle size value is sent to the crusher 22, and fine powder 27 smaller than the first particle size value is sent to the classifier 28. The crusher 22 crushes the coarse powder 26 sent from the classifier 25. The crushed coarse powder 2
6 is taken out from the crusher 22 as the crushed material 23. The crushed material 23 taken out is the material input port 20.
It is sent to the classifier 25 as powder 24 together with the powder material 21 charged from.

The classifier 28 has a predetermined second particle size value (classification point) for the fed fine powder 27, and has a toner 31 larger than the second particle size value and dust 29 smaller than that.
And classify. The classified dust 29 is sent to the cyclone 30a, and the toner 31 is taken out from the classifier 28 as a final object. As a result, the median particle diameter of the toner 31 manufactured by this process changes from the second particle diameter value to the powder having the first particle diameter value. The first particle size value and the second particle size value are set so that the central particle size of the toner 31 is 8 to 10 μm.

The cyclone 30a has a predetermined third particle size value, and the dust 29 sent out from the classifier 28 is treated with the centrifugal force to generate the dust 29a larger than the third particle size value. Separated into smaller dust particles 29b. The separated dust 29a is taken out from the cyclone 29a, and the dust 29b is sent from the cyclone 30a to the bag filter 30b. The bag filter 30b collects the dust 29b which is sent from the cyclone 30a and mixed with the air drawn from the blower. The dust 29b collected is collected by the bag filter 30.
taken out from b.

Dust 29a thus taken out
Is reprocessed as a new powder material 21.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing what kind of particle size distribution is obtained after the powder 24 is processed by the process of FIG. The powder 24 is classified by a classifier 25 into a coarse powder 26 having a larger particle size than the first particle size and a fine powder 27 having a smaller particle size. Next, the fine powder 27 is separated by the classifier 28 into dust 29 smaller than the second particle diameter value and toner 3 larger than the dust 29.
It is separated into 1.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a kneading machine 32 for producing the toner powder material 21. A binder resin, carbon black, CCA, wax, a mold release material and the like are used as the raw material 33 for manufacturing the powder material 21. The dust 29a described above is reprocessed by being mixed with the raw material 33. That is, the raw material 33 and the dust 29 a are fed into the material feeding port 34 of the kneader 32.
The fed raw material 33 and dust 29a are sent to the melt-kneading chamber 36 while being crushed by the crusher 35. Raw material 33 and dust 29a sent to the melt-kneading chamber 36
Is conveyed in the direction of the material outlet 38 while being melt-kneaded by the stirring blade 37 in the melt-kneading chamber 36. The melted and kneaded raw material 33 and the dust 29a are extruded as the powder material 21 from the material outlet 38. In this way, the dust 29a is dispersed in the melt-kneading chamber 36 while the raw material 3
3 is melt-kneaded and reprocessed.

[0009]

However, in the prior art as described above, when the amount of the dust 29a introduced into the material inlet 34 becomes large, the charge control material contained in the aggregated dust 29a is used. When a certain CCA is overdispersed with respect to a desired dispersion preset in the kneading machine 32, and the powder material 21 containing the CCA is crushed and classified using a toner 31 produced by classification. However, there is a problem that problems such as ID down and toner scattering occur.

That is, CCA, which is a charge control material, has better compatibility with the binder resin than carbon black. Therefore, in the melt-kneading chamber 36, the CCA follows the flow of the melted binder resin and is better dispersed than the carbon black. In the kneading machine 32, a desired dispersion is set in advance with respect to the raw material 33 so that the CCA does not become overdispersed.

Here, when only the dust 29a outside the desired dispersion setting is reprocessed by the kneading machine 32, the dispersion of carbon black becomes worse and conversely the dispersion of CCA becomes overdispersion. When the powder material 21 is melt-kneaded in this way and pulverized and classified to make a toner 31, when the toner 31 is used for copying, the image density becomes low in continuous copying ( ID down)
Occurs. Further, problems such as toner scattering also occur.

Therefore, if the amount of dust 29a charged to the raw material 33 is small, there is no problem in the dispersion of CCA, but if the amount is large, the dust 29a will agglomerate and that portion will be overdispersed as described above. This will cause a similar problem to occur.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems of the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a kneading apparatus in which the material dispersion does not change even when the amount of dust introduced increases.

[0014]

According to the present invention of claim 1, there is provided a first charging means for charging a raw material from a first charging port and a discharging means for discharging a powder material melt-kneaded from a discharging portion. A kneading means having, a hopper for charging at least dust to be re-powdered while storing it, and a hopper for charging the dust charged from the hopper to the first charging port and the take-out part A kneading device comprising: a second charging means for charging the dust in the middle of the kneading means from a second charging port installed at a predetermined position in between.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the two rolls having spiral grooves on the surface thereof and the side surfaces of the two rolls are in contact with each other so that the two rolls can rotate. Supporting means for supporting at both ends of the two rolls, heating means for heating a part or all of one or both of the two rolls, and two rolls so that the rotating shafts are respectively horizontal. First charging means for charging the raw materials to the upper portions of the two rolls from a first charging port provided on the upstream side of
The take-out means for taking out the powder material melt-kneaded and produced from the take-out section provided on the downstream side of the two rolls, and the spiral groove direct from the first charging port to the take-out section. Generate the transport action, and
In order to melt and knead the fed raw materials, driving means for rotating the two rolls respectively, a hopper for feeding at least dust to be re-powdered while being stored, and a hopper fed from the hopper A second charging port for charging the dust to the upper part of the two rolls through a second charging port installed at a predetermined position between the first charging port and the take-out portion while filtering the dust with a second charging port. A kneading device comprising: a charging means.

[0016]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the first charging means of the kneading means takes in the raw material from the first charging port. The hopper charges the second dusting means while storing the dust to be re-powdered. The second charging means applies the dust charged from the hopper to a sieve while
The dust is charged in the middle of the kneading means from a second charging port provided at a predetermined position between the charging port and the discharging unit. The take-out means of the kneading means takes out the powder material melt-kneaded from the take-out part.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the supporting means, the side surfaces of the two rolls having spiral grooves on their surfaces are brought into contact with each other so that the rotating shafts of the two rolls are rotatable. Both ends of the two rolls are supported so as to be horizontal. The heating means heats a part or all of one or both of the two rolls. The driving means causes the spiral groove to generate a conveying action from the first charging port to the discharging part, and melts and kneads the raw materials charged in the upper portions of the two rolls. Rotate each roll of the book.

The first charging means charges the raw material to the upper part of the two rolls from a first charging port provided on the upstream side of the two rolls. The hopper throws into the second feeding means while at least storing the dust to be re-powdered material. The second charging means applies the dust charged from the hopper to a sieve and, from a second charging port installed at a predetermined position between the first charging port and the take-out portion, Dust is added to the upper part of the two rolls.
The take-out means takes out the powder material produced by melting and kneading from the take-out section provided on the downstream side of the two rolls.

[0019]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment of a kneading device of the present invention, (a) is a top view thereof, and (b) is a side view thereof. The kneading machine 1 is a continuous two-roll kneading machine for melting and kneading the raw material 33 and the dust 29a extracted from the cyclone 30a shown in FIG. 3 and manufacturing the powder material 21 used in the crushing step. Is. The raw material 33 of FIG. 1 includes a binder resin, carbon black,
CCA, wax and a release material are used. The dispersion of the kneading machine 1 is set with respect to the raw material 33, and the dust 29
a becomes a disturbance with respect to its dispersion.

The front roll 2 and the rear roll 3 are rolls having spiral grooves on their surfaces. The front roll 2 has a heating device 4 housed therein in order to melt the raw material 33 in a predetermined range from the central portion to the upstream side. The front roll 2 and the rear roll 3 and the heating device 4 correspond to the roll and the heating means in the kneading device of the present invention, respectively.

The support base 5 is such that the side surfaces of the front roll 2 and the rear roll 3 are in contact with each other, and in a rotatable state, the rotation axes of the front roll 2 and the rear roll 3 are horizontal, respectively. It is supported at both ends. The support base 5 corresponds to the support means in the kneading device of the present invention.

The raw material feeding hopper 6 is a hopper for taking out the raw material 33 by a predetermined amount while storing the raw material 33. The outlet below the raw material input hopper 6 is
It is connected to the feeder 7. The raw material feeding hopper 6 is installed above the supporting table 5 on the upstream side of the front roll 2 and the rear roll 3 via a feeder 7. In the feeder 7, the raw material 33 taken out from the raw material feeding hopper 6 is rotated by the rotation of the supply blade 9 provided in the supply chamber 8 provided inside.
Of the front roll 2 and the rear roll 3 to the feeder outlet 10 located at the upper end of the charging side on the upstream side, from which the raw material 33 is fed to the upper surfaces of the front roll 2 and the rear roll 3 on the upstream side. To do. The feeder outlet 10, the raw material feeding hopper 6 and the feeder 7 correspond to the first feeding port and the first feeding means in the kneading device of the present invention, respectively.

The take-out device 11 is located at the rotary blade contact portion where the rotary blade is pressed against the surface of the front roll 2 located at the downstream take-out side ends of the front roll 2 and the rear roll 3, and at the surface thereof. This is an apparatus for taking out the melt-kneaded raw material 33 and the dust 29a that are wound around as powder material 21 while cutting them. The rotary blade contact part and the take-out device 11 correspond to the take-out part and the take-out means in the kneading device of the present invention, respectively.

A drive motor 12 is housed inside the support base 5 on the downstream side of the front roll 2 and the rear roll 3. The drive motor 12 uses a spiral groove, which is carved on the surface of each of the front roll 2 and the rear roll 3 and serves as a mirror, to generate a conveying action from the upstream side to the downstream side. It is a motor that rotates the front roll 2 and the rear roll 3 in order to melt and knead the 29a. The drive motor 12 corresponds to the drive means in the kneading device of the present invention.

The dust feeding hopper 13 is a hopper for taking out the dust 29a by a predetermined amount while storing the dust 29a. An automatic sieving device 14 is installed at the exit below the dust input hopper 13. The automatic sieving device 14 is disposed at a predetermined position between the feeder outlet 10 and the rotary blade contact portion, and is thrown so that the dust 29a is evenly dispersed in a wide range of the upper surfaces of the front roll 2 and the rear roll 3. It is a sieve for doing. The fixed legs 15 are four legs attached to the four corners of the sieve in order to fix the dust feeding hopper 13 and the automatic sieving device 14 at the predetermined positions.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described.

The raw material 33 is fed into the raw material feeding hopper 6, and while being stored therein, is fed into the supply chamber 8 of the feeder 7 by a predetermined amount from the outlet on the lower side. The raw material 33 sent into the supply chamber 8 is supplied from the supply outlet 1 by the supply blade 9.
It is conveyed to 0, and is then put on the upper surfaces of the front roll 2 and the rear roll 3 on the upstream side.

The fed raw material 33 flows downstream due to the conveying action of the front roll 2 and the rear roll 3.
At this time, due to the heat of the heating device 4, the raw material 33 is conveyed while being wound around the surface of the front roll 2.

First, the raw material 33 is compressed by the front roll 2 and the rear roll 3. The compressed raw material is conveyed to the portion heated by the heating device 4. The raw material 33 is melted there and kneaded by the subsequent conveyance.

The automatic sieving device 14 is the dust input hopper 1
A predetermined amount of the dust 29a stored in 3 is taken out, and the dust 29a is put into a wide range in which the raw material 33 is melt-kneaded while sieving. Since the dust 29a is uniformly introduced into a wide range where the raw material 33 is melt-kneaded, the dust 29a is conveyed to the downstream while being melt-kneaded together with the raw material 33 without agglomerating.

The raw material 33 and the dust 29a conveyed while being wound around the front roll 2 are taken out as the powder material 21 while being cut by the rotary blade at the rotary blade contact portion.

In this embodiment, the heating device 4 is housed inside the front roll 2 in order to melt the raw material 33 in a predetermined range from the central portion to the upstream side. The present invention is not limited to this, and the heating means may be external and heat the entire front roll 4. In short, the heating means of the kneading device of the present invention may heat part or all of one or both of the two rolls.

In this embodiment, the outlet 10 of the feeder is
Although it is assumed that the front roll 2 and the rear roll 3 are located on the upstream side of the upstream side end portions, they do not necessarily have to be the end portions. In short, in the kneading device of the present invention, the first charging port is 2
It may be provided on the upstream side of the book roll.

Further, in this embodiment, the rotary blade contact portion is a portion where the rotary blade is pressed against the surface of the front roll 2 located at the downstream side take-out side end portions of the front roll 2 and the rear roll 3. However, it is not always necessary that the front roll 2 and the rear roll 3 are at the downstream side take-out side end portions. In short, in the kneading device of the present invention, the take-out section may be provided on the downstream side of the two rolls.

Further, in this embodiment, the dust to be reprocessed is
Although the dust 29a in FIG. 3 is used, the dust to be reprocessed may be the dust 29a and 29b in FIG. 3, and the dust 29a generated in the crushing / classifying process having a configuration different from that in FIG. It may be dust.

[0037]

As is apparent from the above, according to the present invention, even if the amount of dust input for re-powder material becomes large, the raw material and the dust are not aggregated without agglomerating the dust. It has the effect of being able to melt-knead and.

Along with this, it is possible to provide a powder material for producing a good toner that does not cause problems such as ID down and toner scattering.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment according to a kneading device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a kneader 32 for producing a toner powder material 21.

FIG. 3 is a general schematic process diagram when manufacturing a toner.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing what kind of particle size distribution is obtained after the powder 24 is processed by the process of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Kneading machine 2 ... Front roll 3 ... Rear roll 4 ... Heating device 5 ... Support stand 6 ... Raw material feeding hopper 7 ... Feeder 8 ... Feeding chamber 9 ... Feeding blade 10 ... Feeder outlet 11 ... Takeout device 12 ... Driving motor 13 ... Dust input hopper 14 ... Automatic sieving device 15 ... Fixed leg

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A first intake of raw materials from a first input port
Kneading means having a take-out means and a take-out means for taking out the powder material melt-kneaded from the take-out part, a hopper for feeding at least dust to be re-powdered material, and a feed from the hopper A second charging port for charging the dust into the kneading means from a second charging port provided at a predetermined position between the first charging port and the take-out portion while sieving the dust. A kneading device comprising: 2 charging means. 2. The kneading means rotates the two rolls in a rotatable state with the two rolls having spiral grooves on the surface and the side surfaces of the two rolls in contact with each other. Supporting means for supporting both ends of the two rolls, heating means for heating a part or all of one or both of the two rolls, so that the shafts are horizontal, respectively, and A first charging means for charging the raw material into the upper part of the two rolls from a first charging port provided on the upstream side, and a melt-kneaded product from a take-out part provided on the downstream side of the two rolls. In order to generate a conveying action from the first charging port to the discharging unit by the discharging means for discharging the powdered material and the spiral groove, and to melt and knead the charged raw material. , Each of the above two rolls The kneading device according to claim 1, further comprising: a driving unit for rotating the kneading unit.