JPH10186857A - Carrying device for powder toner - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a carrying device capable of preventing the blocking of powder toner with a simple constitution. SOLUTION: When this device 1 drives, a coil or spiral state carrying member extending in the longitudinal direction of the length of a casing 7 rotates, an agitator board 17 intervening in the pitch of a coil or spiral abuts on the carrying member and vibrates. Thus, toner accumulated on the carrying member is scratched, so that the powder toner is prevented from being fixed between a rotating brush 9 and the spiral 23. This simple constitution can be obtained by only making the board 17 intervene in the pitch of the coil or spiral state carrying member.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a powder toner conveying device used in an electrophotographic copying machine or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a device for conveying powder toner of this type,
2. Description of the Related Art There is known a powder toner conveying device for conveying a toner removed from a photoconductor in a cleaning unit of an electrophotographic copying machine to a toner collecting device. For example, JP-A-55-124
In Japanese Patent No. 172, a number of agitators are fixed to a supporting member above a coil-shaped conveying member, the supporting member is supported via a leaf spring, and the leaf spring is vibrated in conjunction with the rotation of the conveying member. There is disclosed a configuration for causing this to occur. In this way, by providing the agitator and oscillating the same, blocking (agglomeration) of the powder toner generated on the conveying member is prevented.

[0003]

However, in the above-mentioned prior art, although blocking of toner between the conveying member and the rotary brush can be prevented, blocking between the coils of the conveying member cannot be prevented. In addition, since the supporting member is supported by a leaf spring to vibrate the agitator, there is a problem that the structure is complicated.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a powder toner conveying device which can prevent toner blocking with a simple structure.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a container for accommodating powder toner, and a conveying member provided in a coil or spiral shape in the container. And a driving means for rotating and driving the transport member, and a plurality of agitator plates formed of an elastic member between the spirals or coils of the transport member, wherein the transport member contacts the agitator plate and vibrates by rotation of the transport member. It is characterized by the following. According to the first aspect of the present invention, the coil or the spiral of the conveying member is rotated by the driving of the conveying member, and the agitator plate interposed between the coils or the spiral pitch is pressed against the conveying member by the displacement of the conveying member. Then, it returns elastically and vibrates. Thus, the toner accumulated between the transport members can be scraped off, and the powder toner can be prevented from hardening on the transport members. Further, since the agitator plate is merely interposed between the coil wires or the spiral, the configuration is simple.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the agitator plate has a comb-like slit formed at a lower portion with which the conveying member contacts. is there. According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the agitator plate has slits formed in a comb shape, the degree of freedom of the plate is high, and when the agitator plate comes into contact at multiple points along the transport direction, an excessive force is applied to the agitator plate. Thus, the toner adhering to the conveying member can be effectively written off.

[0007] The invention described in claim 3 is the first or second invention.
In the invention described in (1), the agitator plate is disposed obliquely intersecting with the rotation axis of the transport member. According to the third aspect of the present invention, since the agitator plate is obliquely mounted, when the agitator plate is pressed by the conveying member, the agitator plate is easily bent to release the force, thereby preventing damage to the agitator plate. .

[0008] The invention according to claim 4 is the invention according to claims 1 to 3.
In the invention described in any one of (1) to (4), the transport member abuts on the agitator plate and pushes the transport member in the transport direction. According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the agitator plate is pressed in the forward direction according to the rotation direction, so that an excessive force is not applied to the agitator plate, and the agitator is prevented from being damaged.

[0009] The invention according to claim 5 is the invention according to claims 1 to 4.
In the invention described in any one of the above, the pitch of the agitator plate is different from the pitch of the conveying member. According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, since the transport member does not hit each agitator at the same time and the timing at which the agitator is pressed is made different, it is possible to prevent the bias of the axial load applied to the transport member and prevent the transport member from being biased. Such a torque fluctuation can be reduced.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A first embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. As shown in FIG. 1, a powder toner conveying device 1 according to the present embodiment is used in a cleaning device 3 of an electrophotographic copying machine. The cleaning device 3 removes toner remaining on the photosensitive drum 5 after transferring the toner image after forming a toner image by attaching to the electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive drum 5.

The cleaning device 3 includes a rotating brush 9 for removing toner remaining on the surface of the photosensitive drum 5 and a blade 1 for further scraping off toner in a casing 7.
1. A transfer device (powder toner transfer device) 1 having a flicker portion 13 for scraping off toner attached to the rotating brush 9 and transferring the toner dropped under the rotating brush 9 to a collection container (not shown). Is provided. In this embodiment, both the rotating brush 9 and the blade 11 are provided, but either one may be used.

The transport device 1 includes a transport member 15 extending in the longitudinal direction of the casing 7 and an agitator plate 17 disposed between the transport member 15 and the rotating brush 9. The lower periphery is surrounded by a lower casing 19 integrated with the casing 7.

As shown in FIG. 2, the transport member 15 includes a drive shaft 21 rotated by a drive motor (not shown).
The drive shaft 21 has a spiral 2 along its extension direction.
3 is provided integrally, and the toner is conveyed in the direction of arrow E in FIG.

A plurality of agitator plates 17 are provided at a predetermined pitch Pa along the toner transport direction.
The upper end of the agitator plate 17 is fixed to a bracket 25 provided on the casing 7. The pitch Pa of the adjacent agitator plates 17 is arranged at the same pitch as the spiral pitch Pb along the extending direction of the drive shaft 21. The lower end of the agitator plate 17 is, as shown in FIG.
The agitator plate 17 and the spiral 23 are configured to overlap with each other on the peripheral side of the spiral 23 between the spirals 23.

The agitator plate 17 is, as shown in FIG.
The agitator plate 17 is disposed so as to obliquely intersect the axis of the drive shaft 21, so that the agitator plate 17 continuously contacts the spiral 23 at a plurality of points so that the toner attached to the spiral can be reliably scraped off. Has become.

The agitator plate 17 has, at its lower end,
As shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of slits 24 are formed in a comb shape, and the spiral 23 has a high degree of freedom when the spirals 23 are sequentially brought into contact with the agitator plate 17 and pressed according to the rotation direction of the transport member 15. Since no excessive force is applied, the agitator plate 17 is prevented from being damaged.

Next, the operation of the embodiment will be described. As shown in FIG. 1, the photoreceptor drum 5 is rotating in the direction of arrow A, and the residual toner on the surface of the photoreceptor drum 5 is wiped off by the rotating brush 9 in contact with the photoreceptor surface. The rotating brush 9 is rotated in the direction of arrow B, and the toner attached to the rotating brush 9
Is scraped off by the flicker portion 13 provided in the
It falls onto the transport device 1. The toner that has dropped onto the transport device 1 is moved by a spiral 23 that rotates with the drive shaft 21.
It is transported in the direction of arrow E and discharged to a collection container (not shown). In addition, the residual toner on the photosensitive drum 5 that has been removed by the rotating brush 9 is scraped off by the blade 11, falls on the rotating brush 9, and falls from the rotating brush 9 to the transport device 1 as described above.

In the transport device 1, the spiral 23 rotates together with the drive shaft 21, and the spiral 23 is rotated by the agitator plate 1.
7 and pressed. When the spiral 23 is separated, the agitator plate 17 returns elastically and vibrates, and the spiral plate 2
In addition to scraping off the lump of toner adhering to 3, the rotating brush 9 and the spiral 23
Prevents toner from hardening in between.

In the agitator plate 17, since the slits 24 are formed in a comb-like shape to increase the degree of freedom of the plate, an excessive force is not applied when the spiral 23 comes into contact, and the agitator plate 17 and the spiral 23 To prevent damage to
Since the slits 24 are formed to be flexible, the number of contact points with the spirals 23 is increased, and the efficiency of scraping the toner mass is increased. Therefore, according to the present embodiment, the toner can be prevented from hardening with an efficient and simple configuration, and the toner can be reliably collected.

Next, the second and third embodiments will be described with reference to FIGS. In these embodiments, the same parts as those in the above-described embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and detailed description of those parts will be omitted.

In the second embodiment shown in FIG. 3, the pitch Pa of the agitator plate 17 is changed with respect to the pitch Pb between the spirals 23. The other parts have the same configuration as the above-described embodiment. By changing the pitch Pa of the agitator plate 17 with respect to the pitch Pb between the spirals 23, the timing at which each agitator plate 17 comes into contact with the spiral 23 is different, so that the bias of the thrust load on the transport member 15 in the axial direction is prevented. As a result, the torque fluctuation of the motor driving the shaft 21 can be reduced. Furthermore, the thrust load can be made substantially uniform by sequentially changing the pitch Pa of each agitator plate 17, and in this case, the torque fluctuation of the drive motor can be further reduced.

In the third embodiment shown in FIG. 4, an example is shown in which a coil spring 27 is used as the conveying member 15 instead of the above-mentioned spiral 23, and the other parts are the same as those in the above-described embodiment. Configuration. In this embodiment, effects similar to those of the above-described embodiment can be obtained.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, but can be variously modified without departing from the gist of the present invention. For example, the agitator plate 17 is not limited to a flat plate, and even if a corrugated plate is used, the same effect as in the above-described embodiment can be obtained. Also, the agitator plate 17
May be configured to be in contact with the rotating brush 9 so that the toner attached to the rotating brush 9 is also wiped off.

[0024]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, since the agitator plate is interposed between the coil wires or the spirals of the conveying member, the powder toner hardens on the conveying member with a simple structure. Can be prevented. Further, by using the agitator plate as an elastic member, it is possible to effectively vibrate by the elastic return force.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the agitator plate has the comb-shaped slits formed therein, the agitator plate has a high degree of freedom of the plate and can be contacted at multiple points along the axis of the conveying member. No excessive force is applied.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, since the agitator plate is mounted obliquely with respect to the axis of the conveying member,
The agitator plate can be continuously brought into contact with the transport member at a number of points to scrape off toner adhered to the transport member.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, since the agitator plate is pressed in the forward direction according to the rotation direction, it is possible to prevent an excessive force from being applied to the agitator plate and prevent the agitator plate from being damaged. .

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the timing at which the pitch of the agitator plate is pressed is different from the pitch of the transport member, so that the bias of the axial load applied to the transport member can be prevented, and , The torque fluctuation according to the above can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a cleaning device equipped with a powder toner conveying device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the powder toner conveying device shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of a powder toner conveying device according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a plan view of a powder toner conveying device according to a third embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Conveying apparatus of powder toner 15 Conveying member 17 Agitator plate 19 Lower casing (container) 21 Axis 23 Spiral 24 Slit 27 Coil spring

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A container for accommodating powder toner, a conveying member provided in a coil or spiral shape in the container, a driving means for rotating the conveying member, and a pitch between a spiral or a coil of the conveying member. And a plurality of agitator plates made of an elastic member, wherein the transport member contacts the agitator plate and vibrates by rotation of the transport member. 2. The powder toner conveying device according to claim 1, wherein the agitator plate has a comb-shaped slit formed at a lower portion where the conveying member contacts. 3. The powder toner conveying device according to claim 1, wherein the agitator plate is disposed obliquely crossing a rotation axis of the conveying member. 4. The powder toner conveying device according to claim 1, wherein the conveying member is pressed against the agitator plate in a conveying direction thereof. 5. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a pitch of said agitator plate is different from a pitch of said conveying member.