JPH09101733A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image forming device eliminating the need of forming a lubricant thin film on the surface of an image carrier, which is likely to cause the scattering of lubricant and the harmful side effect in a developing process, and having no problem in production cost. SOLUTION: An inner cylinder 18 having an aperture 18a and a turnable outer cylinder 19 having an aperture 19a, which are disposed concentrically, are provided in the cover 16 of a cleaning unit 1 equipped with a cleaning blade 2. When the inner cylinder 18 is filled up with the powder lubricant 20 and the cleaning unit 1 is attached to the image carrier 6, a gear 4 attached to the outer cylinder 19 is meshed with a rack 7 and turned, so that the apertures 18a and 19a are overlapped and a shutter 5 which is freely turned with respect to the cover 16 and attached to the gear 4 is turned. Then, the aperture 17 of the cover 16 is opened, and the lubricant 20 is supplied to the contact part of the blade 2 with the image carrier 6, whereby the turning-up of the blade 2 is prevented and a high-quality image is formed.

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 utilizing an electrostatic transfer process such as an electrostatic copying machine or a printer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An image forming apparatus incorporates a cleaning unit as a typical equipment unit having a member that makes frictional contact with an image carrier.

In the image forming apparatus, a toner image is formed on the surface of the image carrier and the process of transferring the toner image to the transfer material is repeated, but the cleaning unit removes residual toner remaining on the image carrier at each transfer. It has been removed.
In this cleaning unit, the edge of a cleaning blade made of an elastic material such as rubber is pressed against the surface of the image carrier to scrape off the residual toner.

In this case, a considerable frictional force is exerted between the image bearing member and the cleaning blade, and if the cleaning blade is left in pressure contact with the image bearing member for a long period of time, they will be It comes into close contact. FIG. 8 (a)
As shown in, when the edge of the cleaning blade 2 is in contact with the image carrier 6 for a long time, the image carrier 6 rotates in the arrow direction to start the cleaning operation.
Since the frictional force and the adhesion force during long-time contact are added to the small contact area of the edge with the image carrier 6, the edge portion is dragged to the image carrier 6. For this reason, the cleaning blade 2 which is flexible and easily deformed becomes unrecoverable because the edge portion is reversed as shown in FIG.
The cleaning function is lost.

In order to prevent the reversal of the edge portion, it is necessary to reduce the frictional action of the cleaning blade 2, and the cleaning blade 2 may be brushed with a powder lubricant such as zinc stearate or barium stearate. The method of dusting is generally used. In addition, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication
Japanese Patent No. 158884 discloses a method of applying a liquid in which a fine powder such as a phenol resin is dispersed in a dispersion liquid such as water to a contact portion between an image bearing member and a member in contact with the image bearing member.

Further, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 6-348180, a solid lubricant is integrally held by a holding member such as a fiber brush, and the solid lubricant is brought into contact with the surface of the image carrier 6 so as to contact the image carrier. A method of forming a lubricant thin film on the surface of the is disclosed.

[0007]

However, it is difficult to apply the powder lubricant to the cleaning blade 2 with a brush, and it is difficult to apply the powder lubricant to the cleaning blade 2 uniformly.
In order to prevent the curling of the edge, it is necessary to sprinkle it excessively, and there is a problem that the work environment is deteriorated due to the scattering of the powder lubricant. Furthermore, the lubricant may be scattered from the cleaning blade 2 due to vibrations during transportation, and the cleaning device may be contaminated with the lubricant.

According to the method disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-158884, the lubricant does not scatter at the time of manufacturing, but after the liquid lubricant dries, the lubricant may drop or scatter. Occasionally, the cleaning device may become contaminated with lubricant.

According to the method disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 6-348180, there is a problem that a lubricant thin film may cause side effects depending on the type of developing process, and a fiber brush as a holding member. Since it is necessary to use a foaming agent roller, there is a problem in manufacturing cost.

The present invention has been made in view of the present situation of supplying a lubricant for alleviating the frictional action on the frictional contact member with the image carrier in the image forming apparatus as described above. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus that does not have a lubricant thin film formation on the surface of an image bearing member that may cause scattering of the toner and side effects in the developing process, and that does not cause a problem in manufacturing cost.

[0011]

In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 is characterized in that an equipment unit provided with a member that makes frictional contact with an image carrier is detachable from the image carrier. An attached image forming apparatus, which is provided on the upstream side of the rotation of the image carrier during the image forming operation in the device unit, is provided with a holding portion for the powder lubricant, and includes the powder lubricant. The powder lubricant is supplied to the lubricant supply unit by mounting the powder lubricant supply unit supplying the member on the image carrier with the member in contact with the image carrier. And a driving means for driving the driving means.

[0012] Similarly, in order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 2 is the invention according to claim 1, wherein the powder lubricant supplying means is concentrically arranged on a common shaft core,
An inner cylinder and an outer cylinder, which are relatively rotatable and each of which has an opening, are provided, the powder lubricant is filled with the inner cylinder as the holding portion, and the device unit is mounted on the image carrier. Thus, the powder lubricant is supplied with the openings aligned with each other by the rotation of at least one of the inner cylinder and the outer cylinder.

[0013] Similarly, in order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 3 is the invention according to claim 1, wherein the powder lubricant supplying means is a bag body filled with the powder lubricant. The holding means is provided, and the powder lubricant is supplied by the drive means breaking the bag when the device unit is mounted on the image carrier. .

Similarly, in order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 4 is characterized in that, in the invention according to claim 1, the holding portion is filled with the powder lubricant without a gap. It is a thing.

Similarly, in order to achieve the above object, in the invention according to claim 5, in the invention according to claim 1, the driving unit is mounted on the image bearing member so that the driving means can drive the device unit. The shutter attached to the cover is rotated to open and expose the member that makes frictional contact with the image carrier.

[0016]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

[First Embodiment] A first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing the configuration of the main part of the present embodiment, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing the overall configuration of the present embodiment, and FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing the configuration of the inner cylinder and the outer cylindrical portion of FIG. FIG. 4 is an explanatory view showing the configuration of the shirt portion of the cover of FIG.

In the image forming apparatus according to the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2, the cleaning unit 1 is mounted so as to face the image carrier 6, and the cleaning unit 1 applies force in the arrow direction. In addition, by moving,
The image carrier 6 is removable. From the position of the cleaning unit 1, in the clockwise direction, the static elimination lamp 10 for facing the peripheral surface of the image carrier 6 in close proximity to the peripheral surface of the image carrier 6 and the peripheral surface of the image carrier 6 are made uniform. A charging unit 11 that charges the image forming member 6 and a developing unit 12 that develops the electrostatic latent image of the formed image formed on the image carrier 6 are provided. The writing position P1 is set.

Further, a transfer unit 13 for transferring the toner image on the peripheral surface of the image carrier 6 to the paper delivered from the paper cassette 14 at the downstream position in the clockwise direction of the developing unit 12 with respect to the image carrier 6. And the transfer unit 1
3, a fixing unit 15 that fixes an image on a sheet is disposed downstream of the sheet conveyance path.

In this embodiment, the cleaning unit 1 detachably attached to the image carrier 6 is attached to the cover 16 of the cleaning unit 1 and to the image carrier 6 when the cleaning unit 1 is attached to the image carrier 6. Aperture 1 formed to face each other
In FIG. 1, a shutter 7 which is omitted to avoid complication of the drawing is opened to the outside. Further, in the cover 16, the cleaning blade 2 that comes into frictional contact with the image carrier 6 at the time of mounting is provided at a position downstream of the opening 17 in the rotation direction of the image carrier 6 during image formation.
Are arranged in the longitudinal direction.

On the other hand, in the cover 16, at the position of the opening 17, the image carrier 6 is attached to the cleaning blade 2.
An inner cylinder 18 and an outer cylinder 19 are arranged concentrically with each other in parallel to the cleaning blade 2 on the upstream side of the rotation at the time of image formation, and the inner cylinder 18 has an opening 18a and the outer cylinder 1
Openings 19a are formed in each of the holes 9. Inner cylinder 1
The opening 18a of No. 8 is formed so as to face the position of the opening 17 formed in the cover 16 at the time of mounting, and the gear 4 is fixedly formed on the outer cylinder 19, and the gear 4 is fixed to the device. It is meshed with a rack 7 attached to the section.

When the cleaning unit 1 is mounted on the image carrier 6 or removed from the image carrier 6,
The gear 4 is rotated by meshing with the rack 7, the opening 19a of the outer cylinder 19 is aligned with the opening 18a of the inner cylinder 18, or the positions of the openings 19a, 18a are deviated. Powder lubricant such as zinc stearate 20
However, it is filled without any gap.

That is, when the cleaning unit 1 is not attached to the image carrier 6, as shown in FIG. 3A, the opening 19a of the outer cylinder 19 is located above and the inner cylinder 18 is
However, when the cleaning unit 1 is mounted on the image carrier 6, the outer cylinder 19 is rotated by the rotation of the gear 4 that meshes with the rack 7, and at the end of the mounting, As shown in (b), the openings 18a,
19a are overlapped with each other so that the powder lubricant 20 can be set in a releasable state.

In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4, the cover 16 of the cleaning unit 1 is provided with an opening 17 formed in the cover 16 when the cleaning unit 1 is not attached to the image carrier 6. The shutter 5 that closes the cleaning blade 2 inside the cover 16
It is rotatably mounted. The shutter 5 is fixed to the rotating shaft of the gear 4 described above.

That is, when the cleaning unit 1 is not attached to the image carrier 6, as shown in FIG.
The shutter 5 does not rotate, and the shutter 5 closes the opening 17 of the cover 16. When the mounting of the cleaning unit 1 on the image carrier 6 is started, the gear 4 starts to rotate. ), The shutter 5 is rotated to open the opening 17 of the cover 16, and the state where the powder lubricant 20 can be supplied to the contact portion of the cleaning blade 2 with the image carrier 6 is set. It is structured like this.

The cleaning operation of this embodiment having such a configuration will be described. The cleaning unit 1 which has been operating for a predetermined operation time and is in a deficient state of the powder lubricant 20 is
When pulled up along the rack 7 as shown by the arrow in FIG. 2, the gear 4 meshes with the rack 7 and starts rotating, so that the outer cylinder 19 and the shirt 5 start rotating. By the rotation of the outer cylinder 19, the opening 18a of the inner cylinder 18 is closed by the outer cylinder 19, and by the rotation of the shutter 5,
The opening 17 of the cover 16 is closed by the shutter 5.

At the end of the removal movement of the cleaning unit 1 from the image carrier 6, as shown in FIG. 3 (a), the opening 18a of the inner cylinder 18 is completely closed by the outer cylinder 19, and as shown in FIG. As shown in (a), the opening 17 of the cover 16 is completely closed by the shutter 5, and the cleaning blade 2 is in a state of being enclosed in the cover 16. In this state, the cleaning unit 1 can be easily removed from the image carrier 6 without scattering toner or powder lubricant around.

Then, the gear 4 of the new cleaning unit 1 in which the inner cylinder 18 is filled with the powder lubricant is engaged with the rack 7, and the cleaning unit 1 is pushed in the direction of the arrow X in FIG. As the gear 4 approaches the rack 7, the gear 4 rotates in a state of being meshed with the rack 7, and the outer cylinder 19 and the shutter 5 start rotating.

When the mounting of the cleaning unit 1 on the image carrier 6 is completed, as shown in FIG. 3B, the opening 19a of the outer cylinder 19 and the opening 18 of the inner cylinder 18 are formed.
4a, the shirt 5 rotates to the position shown in FIG. 4B, the openings 18a, 19a, 17 overlap each other, the cleaning blade 2 contacts the image carrier 6, and the powder lubricant 20 A state in which the cleaning blade 2 can be supplied to the contact portion of the cleaning blade 2 with the image carrier 6 is set.

In this state, when the image forming operation of the image forming apparatus is started, the image carrier 6 rotates in the direction of the arrow θ in FIG. 1, and the inner cylinder 18 is located at the upstream position of the cleaning blade 2.
The powder lubricant 20 is uniformly supplied in the axial direction along with the rotation of the image carrier 6 by a predetermined amount in the circumferential direction,
The cleaning blade 2 performs the cleaning operation of the residual toner on the image carrier 6 with a proper amount of the powder lubricant 20 being constantly supplied to the contact portion with the image carrier 6.

In this cleaning operation, the powder lubricant 2
By 0, the friction between the cleaning blade 2 and the image carrier 6 is appropriately moderated, and the cleaning blade 2 is moved to the position shown in FIG.
As shown in (b), the curling state does not occur, a stable cleaning operation is performed, and high-quality image formation is performed.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the cleaning unit 1 can be easily attached to the image carrier 6 and can be easily removed from the image carrier 6 without scattering of powder lubricant or toner. Then, the state where the powder lubricant can be released is set by the mounting operation, and the powder lubricant is supplied to the contact portion of the cleaning blade 2 with the image carrier 6 by the start of the image forming operation. Since friction between the image carrier 6 and the image carrier 6 is moderately relaxed, the cleaning blade 2 is prevented from being turned over, a stable cleaning operation is performed, and high-quality image formation is performed. Further, filling the cleaning unit 1 with the powder lubricant,
It becomes easy to recycle the cleaning unit 1 by exchanging parts such as the cleaning blade 2.

[Second Embodiment] A second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing the configuration of the main part of the present embodiment, FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing the configuration of the bag body portion of FIG. 4, and FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing the configuration of the shutter portion of the cover of FIG. is there.

In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 5, an opening 17 is formed at a position facing the image carrier 6 with respect to the cover 16A of the cleaning unit 1, and the opening 17 is formed.
The cleaning blade 2 is attached to the cover 16A in the vicinity of the position on the downstream side in the rotation direction of the image carrier 6 during the image forming operation. A housing chamber 23 is provided at a position facing the opening 17 of the cover 16A, an opening 23a is formed at a position facing the opening 17 of the housing chamber 23, and the powder lubricant 20 is provided in the housing chamber 23. Bag 2 filled with
4 are accommodated.

As shown in FIG. 6, the bag body 24 has an inner cylinder having an opening 28a formed at a position opposed to the outer cylinder 27 and the opening 23a made of a soft synthetic resin material, the longitudinal ends of which are closed. 28, and the end of the opening 28a is the outer cylinder 2
7, the inner cylinder 28 is filled with the powder lubricant 20. Then, in the cleaning unit 1,
The opening blade body 30 is movable upward along the opening 23a.
And a drive shaft 30a integrated with one end of the opening blade body 30.
Is projected to the outside of the cover 16A, and an engagement piece 35 that engages with the drive shaft 30a is disposed near the image carrier 6.

The cover 16A is not shown in FIG. 5 in order to avoid complication of the drawing, but as shown in FIG. 7, when the cleaning blade 1 is attached to the image carrier 6, the drive shaft 30a is removed. The shutter 5 that rotates along the surface of the cover 16A by engaging with the engaging piece 35 and moving.
A is attached.

That is, the shutter 5A is rotatably attached to the cover 16A about the shaft 32, and the spring 33 is provided between the end of the shutter 5A near the shaft 32 and the cover 16A.
In the state where the cleaning unit 1 is not attached to the image carrier 6, as shown in FIG. 7A, the spring force of the spring 33 causes the shirt 5A to cover the cover 1.
It is located by closing the opening 17 of 6A. Then, when the cleaning unit 1 is mounted on the image carrier, the engaging piece 3
5, the drive shaft 30a moves upward, and the spring 3
The shutter 5A rotates to resist the opening 17
Is configured to be open.

The configuration of the other parts of the present embodiment is the same as that of the first embodiment already described, and therefore a duplicate description will not be given.

The cleaning operation of this embodiment having such a configuration will be described. The cleaning unit 1 which has been operating for a predetermined operation time and is in a deficient state of the powder lubricant 20 is
When pulled up in the direction of the arrow X in FIG. 5, the engagement between the drive shaft 30a and the engagement piece 35 is released, so that the spring 33
The shutter 5A is rotated by the spring force to close the opening 17, the cleaning blade 2 is housed in the cover 16A, and the cleaning unit 1 is removed from the image carrier 6 without scattering of toner or powder lubricant.

Next, when the new cleaning unit 1 containing the bag body 24 filled with the powder lubricant 20 is mounted on the image carrier 6, the drive shaft 30a engages with the engagement piece 35, and the drive shaft 30a. Resists the spring force of the spring 33,
Since it moves upward, the bag body 24 is broken by the blade body 30. At the same time, the drive shaft 30a rotates the shirt 5A to open the opening 17, and the powder lubricant 20 is set to be able to be supplied to the contact portion between the cleaning blade 2 and the image carrier 6.

In this state, when the image forming operation of the image forming apparatus is started, the image carrier 6 rotates in the direction of the arrow θ in FIG. 5, and the powder is removed from the bag body 24 at the upstream position of the cleaning blade 2. The lubricant 20 is uniformly supplied in the axial direction along with the rotation of the image carrier 6 by a predetermined amount in the circumferential direction, and the cleaning blade 2 is applied to the contact portion with the image carrier 6.
The cleaning operation of the residual toner on the image carrier 6 is performed in a state where the powder lubricant 20 is always supplied in an appropriate amount.

In this cleaning operation, the powder lubricant 2
By 0, the friction between the cleaning blade 2 and the image carrier 6 is appropriately moderated, and the cleaning blade 2 is moved to the position shown in FIG.
As shown in (b), the curling state does not occur, a stable cleaning operation is performed, and high-quality image formation is performed.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the holding portion for the powder lubricant has an extremely simple structure, the cleaning unit 1 is easily attached to the image carrier 6, and the image carrier 6 It can be easily removed without scattering the powder lubricant or toner, and the state where the powder lubricant can be released by the mounting operation is set, and by the start of the image forming operation,
The powder lubricant is supplied to the contact portion of the cleaning blade 2 with the image carrier 6, and the friction between the cleaning blade 2 and the image carrier 6 is moderately moderated, so that the cleaning blade 2 is prevented from curling and is stable. The cleaning operation described above is performed, and high-quality image formation is performed. Further, it becomes easy to recycle the cleaning unit 1 by replacing the bag body 24 of the cleaning unit 1 and the parts such as the cleaning blade 2.

[0043]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, when an equipment unit having a member that makes frictional contact with the image carrier is mounted on the image carrier, the driving means drives the image forming operation of the image carrier in the equipment unit. The powder lubricant is supplied from the powder lubricant supply means provided on the upstream side of the rotation at the time of rotation to the member for frictionally contacting the image carrier and the contact portion of the image carrier. Since it is supplied, it is possible to automatically prevent the above-mentioned member from being curled up and perform high-quality image formation.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, when the device unit having the member that makes frictional contact with the image carrier is mounted on the image carrier, the device unit is concentrically arranged on the common axis and relatively rotated. A powder lubricant supply means having an inner cylinder and an outer cylinder each of which is freely provided with an opening and in which the powder lubricant is filled in the inner cylinder is a rotation of at least one of the inner cylinder and the outer cylinder. Since the openings are aligned with each other and the powder lubricant is supplied to the member in frictional contact with the image bearing member and the contact portion of the image bearing member, curling of the member is automatically prevented and a high quality image is obtained. It is possible to carry out the formation.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, when the device unit having the member that makes frictional contact with the image carrier is mounted on the image carrier, the powder lubricant provided in the powder lubricant supply means is The filled bag is broken, and the powder lubricant is supplied to the contact portion of the image carrier and the member that makes frictional contact with the image carrier, so that the member is automatically prevented from curling with a simple configuration. Therefore, it becomes possible to perform high quality image formation.

According to the invention of claim 4, in addition to the effect obtained by the invention of claim 1, since the powder lubricant is filled in the holding portion without any gap, the powder lubricant is not unevenly distributed. The powder lubricant evenly lubricates the image carrier in the axial direction, and uniformly prevents the member that makes frictional contact with the image carrier from curling.

According to the invention of claim 5, in addition to the effect obtained by the invention of claim 1, by mounting the device unit on the image carrier, the drive means is attached to the cover of the device unit. Is rotated to expose the member that makes frictional contact with the image carrier, so that the number of parts can be reduced, the mechanism can be simplified, and the manufacturing cost can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of a main part of a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an overall configuration of the same embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of an inner cylinder and an outer cylinder of FIG.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of a shirt portion of the cover of FIG.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of a main part of a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of a bag portion of FIG.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of a shutter portion of the cover of FIG.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of deformation of a cleaning blade in a conventional image forming apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Cleaning Unit 2 Cleaning Blade 4 Gear 5, 5A Shirt 6 Image Carrier 7 Rack 16, 16A Cover 17 Opening 18 Inner Cylinder 18a Opening 19 Outer Cylinder 19a Opening 20 Powder Lubricant 23 Storage Chamber 24 Bag Body 30 Opening Blade 30a Drive shaft 35 engagement piece

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. An image forming apparatus in which an equipment unit including a member that makes frictional contact with an image carrier is detachably attached to the image carrier, and the image carrier is provided in the equipment unit. Of the powder lubricant, which is provided on the upstream side of the rotation during the image forming operation, and which holds the powder lubricant, and supplies the powder lubricant to a contact portion of the member with the image carrier. An image forming apparatus comprising: a drive unit that causes the lubricant supply unit to supply the powder lubricant by mounting the device unit on the image carrier. 2. The powder lubricant supplying means comprises an inner cylinder and an outer cylinder, which are concentrically arranged on a common axis and are rotatable relative to each other, and each of which has an opening. The powder lubricant is filled with the cylinder as the holding portion, and when the device unit is mounted on the image carrier, the openings are aligned with each other by the rotation of at least one of the inner cylinder and the outer cylinder. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the powder lubricant is supplied. 3. The powder lubricant supply means includes a bag body filled with the powder lubricant as the holding portion, and the drive means is mounted by mounting the device unit on the image carrier. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the powder lubricant is supplied by breaking the bag. 4. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the holding portion is filled with the powder lubricant without a gap. 5. When the device unit is mounted on the image carrier, the drive means rotates a shutter mounted on the cover of the device unit to open and expose a member that makes frictional contact with the image carrier. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: