JPH0876578A - Toner hopper and developing device incorporating the hopper - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To enable attaching and detaching a cartridge type toner hopper with a simple operation by bringing the opening part of a shutter turning along a toner replenishing roller into slidable contact with a position between the closing and the opening linked with the attaching and detaching operation of the hopper. CONSTITUTION: The the shutter member 30 is provided with the sectional plane approximately formed into circular-arc shape, in the center part of which the opening part 31 of the slit shape corresponding to the hopper supplying port 23 is disposed and whose shaft part on both side in the lengthwise direction is severally supported, the pinion gear 22 fixed to the shaft end is engaged with the rack 17, the gear face is carved only in the turning angle range between closing position and the opening position of the shutter opening part 31. Then, the pinion gear 22 is rotated linked with the detaching operation of the toner hopper 3, the opening part 31 of the shutter 30 is turned by 90 deg. from the face down position to the face sideways position and thus the closing in the toner supply is performed. At this time, the opening end tip part 31a and 31b turns to the closing position while scraping off the toner on the periphery of the replenishing roller 21. Thus, the cartridge type hopper can be stably attached and detached without causing the toner soiling.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a developing device in an electrophotographic apparatus which is applied to a facsimile machine, a printer, a copying machine and the like and develops by using a multi-component developer, and more particularly, a multi-component developer is stored. The present invention relates to an invention applied to a developing device in which a toner hopper for appropriately supplying toner into a developing container is formed into a toner supply cartridge.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a developing device using a two-component developer composed of, for example, a carrier and a toner is known, and in this type of developing device, a developing container having a predetermined mixing ratio is provided on the upper surface of the developing container. A toner hopper is connected through a toner replenishing mechanism, and a toner concentration sensor is arranged in the developing container, and the mixing ratio of the toner and the carrier is generated every time the toner is consumed from the developing container by a predetermined electrophotographic developing operation. Is detected by the toner concentration sensor, and the toner replenishment mechanism is driven and controlled based on the detection signal so that the toner is sequentially supplied from the toner hopper into the developing container, and the replenishment mechanism is provided on the bottom surface of the toner hopper. A toner replenishment roller covered with sponge is rotatably attached to the slit opening formed at an arbitrary position, and the toner concentration roller is attached to the roller. Rotation controllable supply by a signal from the sensor motor - is constituted by connecting data.

In the above apparatus, when the toner in the toner hopper is exhausted, after the toner cartridge is mounted on the shutter member provided in the opening on the upper surface of the toner hopper, the operation is performed in conjunction with the opening operation of the cartridge opening. After independently opening the shutter member and supplying the toner into the toner hopper, the shutter member is closed and the toner cartridge is removed.

However, in such a conventional technique,
Since the toner cartridge is further mounted on the toner hopper to perform the toner replenishing operation, the toner replenishing space is unnecessarily high.

Further, a tape seal or a shutter member is generally attached to the opening on the lower surface side of the toner cartridge, and the toner is replenished by peeling the tape seal or by opening and closing the shutter member.
In the method using the tape seal, the toner is scattered from the tape after peeling, and in the method using the shutter member, it is necessary to perform the opening / closing operation in conjunction with the shutter member on the toner hopper side, which makes the structure complicated. Occurs. In order to eliminate such drawbacks, attempts have been made to provide the toner hopper itself with a cartridge function.

[0006]

However, since a toner replenishing roller having a sponge at the bottom thereof is attached to the toner hopper, toner is scattered from the replenishing roller portion when the hopper is attached or detached.

In order to solve such a drawback, the tape seal or the shutter member can be attached to the outlet side opening of the replenishing roller, but this leads to the complicated structure and toner scattering. This also applies to an apparatus having a toner replenishing roller on the side of the developing container, and toner is often accumulated on the toner supplying roller of the developing container when used and removed, which often causes contamination inside the machine.

The present invention has been made in view of the drawbacks of the prior art.
Provided is a developing device and a toner hopper which can be stably attached / detached to / from a developing container side by a simple operation without causing toner contamination and a complicated structure even when the toner hopper itself has a cartridge function. The purpose is to do.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above problems, the present invention is a developing device in which a toner hopper having a replenishing roller whose rotation is controlled based on a detection signal of a toner concentration sensor is provided as a toner replenishing cartridge. In particular, in the toner hopper, a shutter that rotates along the outer peripheral surface of the toner replenishing roller is arranged, and the opening is configured so that the opening can be opened and closed at a predetermined rotation angle position. The point provided is the first feature.

A second feature is that at least one edge of the shutter opening is brought into contact with the roller peripheral surface so as to be slidable. In this case, preferably, the edge of the shutter opening located on the downstream side in the rotation direction of the supply roller is brought into pressure contact with the roller peripheral surface.

Further, according to the present invention, particularly in combination with the developing container side, the shutter opening can be rotated by a predetermined angle between the blocking position and the opening position in association with the attaching / detaching operation of the hopper to the developing container side. The third feature is that it is configured.

With such a construction, the shutter mounting shaft is loosely fitted to one side of the replenishing roller shaft, and a pinion gear is provided on the mounting shaft, while a rack is provided on the developing container side along the attaching and detaching direction of the hopper. It is preferable that the shutter opening is configured to be rotatable by a predetermined angle between the shield position and the open position while the rack is engaged with the pinion gear.

[0013]

According to such a technical means, since the shutter member is arranged along the outer peripheral surface of the toner replenishing roller,
In other words, since there is no gap between the shutter member and the peripheral surface of the toner replenishing roller, toner scattering does not occur even when the shutter is opened or closed or the hopper attaching / detaching operation linked with the opening / closing operation is performed. Since the edge is brought into slidable contact with the roller peripheral surface, it is possible to reliably scrape off the toner adhered to the roller peripheral surface when the shutter is opened and closed.

In this case, the edge of the shutter opening located on the downstream side in the rotation direction of the replenishing roller is brought into pressure contact with the roller peripheral surface so that the toner is supplied to the developing container side by the rotation of the replenishing roller during the replenishing operation. It is possible to reliably scrape off the toner remaining on the replenishing roller after the replenishment, so that the toner replenishing accuracy can be improved. Further, the supply amount can be regulated by bringing the peripheral edge of the upstream side in the rotation direction into contact with the peripheral surface of the supply roller.

Therefore, the supply amount can be more reliably regulated by contacting the peripheral surface of the replenishing roller at both the upstream and downstream edges in the rotation direction. In this case, it is preferable that the supply roller is a sponge roller whose surface is covered with sponge.

Further, a rack is provided on the side of the developing container along the attachment / detachment direction of the hopper, and the shutter opening can be rotated by a predetermined angle between the closed position and the open position while the rack and the pinion gear mesh with each other. With this configuration, the pinion gear provided coaxially with the shutter is engaged with the rack on the side of the developing container in conjunction with the operation of mounting the toner hopper on the developing container, and the toner can be supplied to the developing container from the shutter shielding position. The toner can be replenished by rotating to the position. Further, after the toner in the hopper is used, the pinion gear is rotated while meshing with the rack by performing the removing operation of the hopper, and the shutter is returned to the shielding position even if the shutter is rotated to the shielding position.

[0017]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention; However, the dimensions, materials, shapes, relative positions and the like of the components described in this embodiment are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention thereto, but are merely examples, unless otherwise specified. Not too much. FIG.
1 shows a schematic configuration of the developing device according to the embodiment of the present invention.
Is a photosensitive drum, 2 is a developing container, and 3 is a toner hopper. A developing sleeve 12 having a magnet assembly roller 11 therein is rotatably supported in the developing container 2 on the side facing the photosensitive drum 1 so as to be rotatable in the arrow direction, and the developing sleeve 12 is located on the upstream side in the rotating direction of the sleeve 12. A doctor blade 13 is arranged on the wall of the container, a mixer 14 for mixing and agitating the toner and the developer is arranged in the container 2, and a toner concentration sensor 15 is arranged on the lower wall of the container facing the mixer 14.

A toner receiving port 16 is opened above the mixer 14, and has a slit opening shape having a length substantially equal to that of the toner replenishing roller 21 on the toner hopper 3 side. Further, a rack 17 is erected on the end side in the longitudinal direction which is separated from the receiving port 16, and a pinion gear 22 on the side of the hopper 3 meshes with the rack 17 in association with the attaching and detaching operation of the hopper 3.
The shutter member 30 in the hopper 3 is rotated by a predetermined angle, and the shutter opening 31 is set to a position that can be displaced from the closed position to the open position that matches the supply port 23. Incidentally, the developing container 2
A hopper mounting portion 19 is formed on the back side of the sloping slope, and the supporting hole 1 is attached to the mounting portion 19.
8 is provided, and the support shaft 24 of the hopper 3 is detachably fitted into the support hole 18 so that it can be positioned and supported.

In FIG. 2, the toner hopper 3 has a structure in which the fresh toner area 3A and the waste toner collecting area 3B are integrated, and one side in the longitudinal direction divided by the partition wall 3C is the waste toner area 3B, substantially the center side. Is a fresh toner area 3A, and a waste toner collecting port 3D is provided in the waste toner area 3B so that the waste toner can be collected by a waste toner collecting mechanism (not shown) provided on the apparatus main body side. The waste toner area 3B uses a very small amount of fresh toner, and even if most of the fresh toner is discharged as waste toner, the volume ratio of all the waste toner can be collected in the waste toner area 3B.

The fresh toner area 3A is shown in FIG.
As shown in (B), a portion of the lower surface of the hopper 3 facing the supply port 23 is recessed in an arcuate cross section, and the recessed portion 29 is opened in a slit shape to form the toner supply port 23.
A shutter member 30 and a replenishing roller 21 are coaxially arranged in the supply port 23. 28 is a toner stirring fan, which is rotated by a gear train (not shown) in accordance with the rotation of the supply roller 21. Two support shafts 24 are provided so as to project on both left and right sides in the longitudinal direction, and can be fitted into the support holes 18 as described above.

Next, the toner supply mechanism will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 2 and 1B. The surface of the toner supply roller 21 is covered with sponge, and the roller shafts 211 and 212 are extended to the left and right sides to form one roller shaft 2.
The 11th end is made to penetrate from the hopper support wall, and the driven gear 26 is fixedly provided at the protruding portion thereof so that it can mesh with the drive system of the apparatus main body when the hopper 3 is mounted. The other end roller shaft 212 end is rotatably fitted in the drum-shaped shaft portion 301 of the shutter member 30. As a result, the supply roller 21 is configured to be rotatable independently of the shutter member 30.

The shutter member 30 has a substantially arcuate cross section,
A slit-shaped opening 31 corresponding to the hopper supply port 23 is provided in the center thereof, and cylindrical and drum-shaped shaft portions 301 and 302 are attached to both sides in the longitudinal direction thereof, and both are replenished in the shaft portions 301 and 302. The roller 21 shaft is rotatably supported. Further, the outer circumference of the shaft portions 301 and 302 is the hopper 3
Rotatably supported by the support walls 390 and 392 of the replenishing roller 21, and the end of the shaft portion 301 located on the side opposite to the mounting position of the driven gear 26 of the replenishing roller 21 is penetrated from the hopper support wall 391 and the rack is provided at the protruding portion thereof. A pinion gear 22 meshing with 17 is fixed.

As shown in FIG. 4 (A), the pinion gear 22 meshes with the rack 17, and the tooth surface is only in the angular range in which the shutter opening 31 swings from the closed position to the open position or from the open position to the closed position. Engrave.

As shown in FIG. 1B, the shutter member 30 is located inside the shutter member 30 located on the left side of the drawing with the opening 31 in between, that is, upstream of the opening 31 in the rotation direction of the replenishing roller 21. The peripheral surface 303 is formed so as to become gradually narrower as the replenishing roller 21 rotates, and is configured so as to substantially contact the replenishing roller 21 at the opening edge 31a on the terminal side thereof. Also, with the opening 31 in between,
In other words, the inner peripheral surface of the shutter member 30 located on the downstream side of the opening 31 in the rotation direction of the supply roller 21 is provided with the protrusion 304 that bites into the peripheral surface of the supply roller 21 at the opening edge 31b.

The outer peripheral surface 305 of the shutter member 30 is formed along the peripheral surface of the recessed portion 29 on the bottom surface of the hopper so that the shutter member 30 can be rotated and the clearance is set so that the toner is prevented from entering the void portion as much as possible.

Next, the procedure for attaching / detaching the hopper 3 in this embodiment will be described. First, as shown in FIG. 4 (B), in the hopper 3 alone, the opening 31 of the shutter member 30 faces right beside, and the toner supply port 23 of the hopper 3 is closed. In this state, as shown in FIG.
When the hopper 3 is lowered in the vertical direction while the 4 are fitted and the positioning is performed to mount the hopper 3 on the developing container 2 side, the pinion gear 22 first meshes with the rack 17. The rack 17 has the number of teeth and the tooth angle necessary for the pinion gear 22 to rotate about 90 °. Therefore, the engagement of the rack 17 causes the pinion gear 22 to rotate about 90 ° clockwise, and The opening 31 pivots to the downward position and coincides with the toner supply port 23, as shown in FIG.

By mounting at the predetermined position, the driven gear 26 of the supply roller 21 and the drive system on the apparatus main body side mesh with each other. When the developing operation is performed in this state, a change in the mixing ratio between the toner and the carrier occurs every time the toner is consumed from the developing container 2 to the mag roller side through the developing sleeve 12 by the predetermined electrophotographic developing operation. The toner concentration sensor 15 detects the toner, and the toner is sequentially supplied from the toner hopper 3 into the developing container 2 while drivingly controlling the toner supply roller 21 based on the detection signal.

At this time, when the replenishing roller 21 is rotated counterclockwise, the shutter member 30 gradually narrows the inner peripheral surface of the shutter member 30 with the rotation of the replenishing roller 21 on the upstream side of the opening 31. The toner supply amount is regulated because it is formed as much as possible and the opening edge 31a is almost in contact with the supply roller 21.

Further, after supplying the toner from the opening 31,
The protrusion 30 of the opening edge 31b located on the downstream side in the rotation direction
At 4, the toner remaining on the replenishing roller 21 is swept off to the opening 31 side and dropped to the developing container 2 side. Hereinafter, the above operation is repeated.

When all the fresh toner in the toner hopper 3 is consumed, the hopper 3 is removed. At this time, since the pinion gear 22 meshes with the rack 17, the hopper 3 is removed. In conjunction with this, the pinion gear 22 rotates counterclockwise by approximately 90 °, and the opening portion 31 of the shutter rotates 90 ° from the downward position to the lateral position to close the toner supply.

At this time, since the opening edges 31a and 31b are in contact with the peripheral surface of the replenishing roller 21, the toner is wiped off from the peripheral surface of the replenishing roller 21 while rotating to the closed position. Therefore, the toner is not accidentally scattered during the removing operation. Further, after the toner is refilled in the hopper 3, the toner on the peripheral surface of the replenishing roller 21 is wiped off even when the toner is re-installed, so that the toner is not scattered.

[0032]

According to the present invention, therefore, even when the toner hopper itself is provided with a cartridge function, the toner is not contaminated and the structure is not complicated, and the toner can be stably transferred to the developing container side by a simple operation. Desorption operation becomes possible. Further, according to the present invention, the toner can be replenished accurately and stably. Further, according to the present invention, the toner hopper can be removed without leaving the toner on the developing container, and it is possible to prevent the inside of the machine from being contaminated due to toner falling. It has various remarkable effects.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1A is a schematic cross-sectional view of a developing device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1B is an enlarged view around a supply roller.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of the developing device in FIG. 1 in a longitudinal direction.

3 is a schematic top view of the developer container of FIG. 1. FIG.

FIG. 4 shows a state in which a toner hopper and a developing container of the present developing device are separated, (A) shows a position of a rack / pinion gear,
(B) is an enlarged view showing a closed position of the shutter member.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 developing container 3 toner hopper 15 toner concentration sensor 17 rack 21 replenishing roller 22 pinion gear 30 shutter member 31 shutter opening 31a, 31b edge

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An opening is provided at a position facing a developing container accommodating a developer containing a plurality of components, and rotation control is performed on the opening based on a detection signal of a toner concentration sensor arranged on the developing container side. In a developing device in which a toner hopper provided with a supply roller is detachably configured, the toner hopper is provided rotatably along an outer peripheral surface of the toner supply roller, and the opening is opened at a predetermined rotation angle position. And a toner hopper provided with a shutter configured to be able to be closed and in which at least one edge of the shutter opening portion is in slidable contact with the roller peripheral surface, and is interlocked with the detaching operation of the hopper to the developing container side. Then, the developing device is characterized in that the shutter opening is configured to be rotatable between the blocking position and the opening position by a predetermined angle. 2. A shutter mounting shaft is loosely fitted to one side of a replenishing roller shaft, a pinion gear is provided on the mounting shaft, and a rack is extended on the developing container side along the attaching / detaching direction of the hopper. 2. The developing device according to claim 1, wherein the shutter opening is configured to be rotatable by a predetermined angle between the blocking position and the opening position while the rack and the pinion gear are meshed with each other. 3. An opening is provided at a position facing a developing container accommodating a developer of a plurality of components, and rotation is controlled based on a detection signal of a toner concentration sensor arranged on the developing container side at the opening. In a toner hopper provided with a supply roller, a shutter is provided that is rotatable along an outer peripheral surface of the toner supply roller and that has an opening that can be opened and closed at a predetermined rotation angle position. A toner hopper characterized in that at least one edge of the shutter opening is slidably in contact with the peripheral surface of the replenishing roller so that the toner adhering to the replenishing roller can be scraped off by rotation of the replenishing roller. 4. The developing device according to claim 1, wherein an edge of the shutter opening located on the downstream side in the rotation direction of the replenishing roller is pressed against the peripheral surface of the roller so as to be slidable.