JPH087518B2 - Cleaning device - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a cleaning device for an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine or a laser printer.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a cleaning device has been made of a molded product, for example, a molded product made of a plastic material in order to reduce costs. That is, a case having a toner recovery chamber formed of a molded product, a cleaning blade fixed to the case and arranged to contact a photosensitive member as a member to be cleaned, and a recovery roller that is an impeller for recovering toner are pressed against each other. There is utilized a cleaning device having a recovery blade, such as a thin mylar blade, disposed in the.

In such a conventional cleaning device, the case cannot avoid aging and deformation due to heat. When the case is deformed, for example, warped, the contact state of the cleaning blade supported by the case with respect to the photoconductor is changed, the contact state of the recovery blade with the recovery roller is changed, and a gap is generated, resulting in defective recovery of toner or There is a problem that the toner is scattered and the reliability is lowered.

It is an object of the present invention to solve the above-mentioned problems of the related art and to provide a reliable cleaning device in which the toner recovery capability does not deteriorate even if a molded product ages or is thermally deformed.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is characterized in that a leaf spring is provided in the case for pressing the wall portion supporting the blade in the case so that the blade is in pressure contact with the rotating body. And

The details of the configuration and operation of the present invention will be described based on the embodiments shown in the drawings.

In the image forming apparatus shown in the example of the printer shown in FIG. 1, after transferring onto the transfer paper sent by the registration roller pair 2 to the photosensitive member 1 under the action of the transfer charger 3, the photosensitive member 1 is attached by the developing device 4. The cleaning device 5 collects the remaining developer among the remaining developers. Since other known image forming processes can use known means, detailed description thereof will be omitted.

As shown in FIG. 5, the cleaning device 5 generally includes a cleaning blade 6 that contacts the photoconductor 1 that is a rotating body.
And a case 10 having a wall portion to which the supporting member 7 supporting the cleaning blade can be fixed via a cushion 8 and forming a recovery chamber 9 for recovering the cleaned developer, for example, toner.

The case 10 rotatably supports a collecting roller 11 as an impeller-shaped rotating body that sends the toner scraped by the cleaning blade 6 into the collecting chamber 9. A collection blade 12 formed as a thin piece member such as a Mylar blade is fixed to the wall portion 10a of the case 10, and the collection blade is formed.
Reference numeral 12 serves to press the collection roller 11 into contact with the collection roller 11 to reliably store the toner sent by the collection roller 11 in the collection chamber.

The wall portion 10a of the case 10 may be deformed over time due to the temperature inside the device and the stress due to the force applied by the cushion 9 or the like, and may warp in a state indicated by a broken line, for example. When the wall portion 10a is thus warped, the recovery blade 12 changes its relative position to the recovery roller 11,
The pressed state becomes poor, and a gap is sometimes formed between the pressure roller and the collection roller 11. In this case, not only the toner will be poorly collected, but also the toner will be scattered to the outside.

In order to solve such a problem, a leaf spring 13 is fixed inside the case 10 as shown in FIG. The leaf spring 13 has a force to push the wall portion outward, and the collecting blade 12 collects the collecting roller.
The pushing force toward 11 and the pushing force of the cleaning blade 6 toward the photoconductor 1 are urged through the wall portion 10a.

Even if the wall portion 10a is given a tendency to warp inside the case due to thermal deformation or a force from the outside, the leaf spring 13 has a function of canceling the tendency, and the wall portion 10a of the case 10 does not always warp and is the first The state can be maintained. That is, the recovery blade can always be kept normal.

The leaf spring 13 can be formed so as to act over the entire length of the wall portion 10a, but since it is sufficient to effectively cancel the warp, it can be attached to only a part of the wall portion 10a in the longitudinal direction as shown in FIG. It is enough. Note that FIG. 3 shows only the upper case in the case where the case 10 of FIG. 2 can be divided into an upper case and a lower case, which are turned upside down.

The leaf spring 13 can be adhesively fixed to the case, but can also be fastened with a screw 14 as shown in FIG.

Effect According to the present invention, deformation of the case, for example, warpage can be absorbed by a simple structure in which a leaf spring is provided inside the case, and as a result, it is possible to provide a case that does not warp over time. Therefore, the blade can always maintain the correct contact with the collecting roller or the photosensitive member, the toner can be collected smoothly, the toner does not scatter, and the collecting failure does not occur, which enables reliable cleaning. .

Like the printer device, the temperature condition of transportation and storage is -23.
Although the temperature shock is usually large even when the temperature is in the range of about 40 to 40 ° C., the present invention has provided good results against this shock.

The present invention can contribute to increasing the margin of toner recovery capability.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 is an overall schematic explanatory view of an example of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a sectional view of a cleaning apparatus according to the present invention,
FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the upper case of the cleaning device which is separable from the upper and lower sides, and FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing only the leaf spring mounting portion of FIG. FIG. 5 is a sectional view of a conventional cleaning device showing a method. 1 ... photoreceptor, 6 ... cleaning blade 10 ... case, 11 ... collection roller 12 ... collection blade 13 ... leaf spring

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Hiroshi Komai 1-3-6 Nakamagome, Ota-ku, Tokyo Inside Ricoh Co., Ltd. (56) References JP 63-200181 (JP, A) Actual development Sho 62 -14467 (JP, U)

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A cleaning device for an image forming apparatus, comprising: a blade that comes into contact with a rotating body that carries toner; and a molded product case that holds the blade and forms a recovery chamber that recovers recovered toner. For the wall that supports the blade,
A cleaning device, characterized in that a leaf spring is provided inside the case so as to press the blade against the rotating body.