JPH1039566A - Color image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make the floor space of a main body small and to facilitate the processing operation of waste toner by almost triangularly laying a photoreceptor belt by using plural rollers and arranging the waste toner storage part of a cleaning device at the lower part of one side thereof. SOLUTION: The photoreceptor belt 1 is triangularly arranged at almost the central part of the device main body by being stretched by using at least four rollers. The respective rollers are constituted of the belt driving roller 2 coupled to a driving motor at an electrostatic latent image forming part, the transfer roll 23 forming transfer nip width at a transfer part, the cleaning roller 4 press-contacting with a cleaning blade 9 and the tension roller 3a. The blade 9 is included in the waste toner storage part 20 and the storage part 20 is arranged in a vacant space between one side of the tension of the belt formed by the rollers 4 and 2 and provided with inclination and a paper cassette 25.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a color image forming apparatus such as an electronic copying machine, a laser beam printer, and a facsimile.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a color image forming apparatus sequentially develops a photoreceptor belt with a plurality of developing units having different toner colors, synthesizes a toner image on the photoreceptor belt with an intermediate transfer member, and then transfers the transfer paper ( (Hereinafter, referred to as paper). In this type of apparatus, there is an apparatus in which a photoreceptor belt is installed so that a linear portion of the photoreceptor belt is horizontal, and each color developing device is arranged side by side on the belt (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-318875). .

A conventional color image forming apparatus will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2 is a side view of a conventional color image forming apparatus. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 1 denotes a photosensitive belt on which a photosensitive receiving layer such as an organic photoconductor (OPC) is applied in a thin film shape. The photoreceptor belt 1 is supported by a tension band by four rollers so as to form a horizontal surface, and includes a belt driving roller 2 connected to a driving motor (not shown) in an electrostatic latent image forming unit, a developing unit The belt idle roller 3b forms a horizontal plane in contact with the intermediate transfer body 8, the first transfer roll 23 forms a transfer nip width at a transfer portion with the intermediate transfer body 8, and the tension roller 4 applies a predetermined tension to the photosensitive belt 1. You. Further, a cleaning blade 9 is fixed to a cleaning device 43 for removing unnecessary waste toner remaining on the photoconductor belt 1, and is provided at the center of the bottom of the substantially triangular photoconductor belt 1 and is removed. The waste toner has been sent by the conveying means 44 to a waste toner box (not shown) which is detachably attached to the vicinity of the photosensitive belt 1.

[0004]

However, in the above-described conventional color image forming apparatus, the size in the depth direction of the color image forming apparatus becomes large because a waste toner box is required, and as a result, the installation floor area is also large. The waste toner transport mechanism and the waste toner box for storing the waste toner are required, which complicates the apparatus and increases the cost. In addition, the operation of the machine body must be stopped and the waste toner box needs to be replaced, which causes a problem such as a decrease in work efficiency.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems and to provide a color image forming apparatus in which the floor area of the main body is small and the operation of processing waste toner is easy.

[0006]

According to the present invention, in order to achieve the above object, one side of the photoreceptor belt forms a substantially horizontal plane with a plurality of rollers, and the other side is disposed below the substantially horizontal plane. The cleaning roller is suspended in a substantially triangular shape so as to form an obtuse angle, the cleaning roller corresponds to the cleaning unit of the cleaning device, and the waste toner storage unit of the cleaning device is disposed below the remaining one side. With this configuration, A color image forming apparatus can be obtained in which the waste toner storage section of the cleaning device can be made large below the photoreceptor belt, the floor area of the main body is small, and the operation of processing waste toner can be simplified.

[0007]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
A photoreceptor belt on which an electrostatic latent image is formed; a plurality of developing devices for selectively visualizing the electrostatic latent image formed on the photoreceptor belt for each color with toners of each color; An intermediate transfer body that synthesizes the toner image on the body belt and collectively transfers the toner image to the transfer paper, and a cleaning device that is disposed near the photosensitive belt and removes and stores unnecessary waste toner remaining on the photosensitive belt. In the color image forming apparatus, the photoreceptor belt is formed in a substantially triangular shape such that one side forms a substantially horizontal plane with a plurality of rollers, and the other side forms an obtuse angle with a cleaning roller disposed below the substantially horizontal plane. The cleaning unit of the cleaning device corresponds to the cleaning roller, and the waste toner storage unit of the cleaning device is disposed below the remaining one side. It has an effect of free space waste toner reservoir can be effectively occupied in one.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the plurality of developing units are non-magnetic one-component developing units,
Each of the developing units is selectively brought into contact with or separated from the photoreceptor belt, and has the same function as that of the first embodiment.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect of the present invention, a sweep roller for conveying the waste toner is disposed in the cleaning device, and the waste toner is packed into the waste toner storage unit. The filling rate of the waste toner into the waste toner storage section can be made 90% or more, and the life of the photoreceptor belt and the time when the waste toner storage section becomes full can be made almost the same. It has the effect of improving work efficiency.

Hereinafter, a color image forming apparatus of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a side view of a color image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, a photoreceptor belt 1 is disposed substantially at the center of the apparatus main body, and has a triangular shape with at least four rollers provided with tension inside. Each of the rollers includes a belt driving roller 2 connected to a driving motor (not shown) in an electrostatic latent image forming unit, a first transfer roll 23 forming a transfer nip width in a transfer unit, and a residual on the photosensitive belt 1. The cleaning roller 54 is in pressure contact with the cleaning blade 9 for scraping off the toner, and the tension roller 3a applies a predetermined tension to the photoreceptor belt 1. The belt driving roller 2, the cleaning roller 54, and the first transfer roll 23 are of a predetermined type. Is rotatably fixed at the position. The waste toner storage unit 20 includes the cleaning blade 9 and is disposed in an empty space between one side of the inclined belt tension formed by the cleaning roller 54 and the belt driving roller 2 and the paper cassette 25. The sweep roller 21 for transporting the waste toner 22 is provided with a driving force from the outside. The photoreceptor belt 1 is rotated in the direction of arrow a by a drive motor (not shown), the upper portion of the photoreceptor belt 1 forms a horizontal flat portion, and the developing units 7B, 7Y, 7M, 7C of the respective colors are attached to the body of the machine. Equal intervals in the horizontal direction in the provided storage unit provided,
Each of the developing units 7B and 7 is detachably arranged in a horizontal row.
The insides of Y, 7M, and 7C have the same configuration except for toner. The developing units 15B, 15Y, 15M, and 15C are used to develop electrostatic latent images of a predetermined color.
A contact cam for bringing Y, 7M, and 7C into contact with the photosensitive belt 1. Reference numerals 16B, 16Y, 16M, and 16C denote separation springs that press the developing units 7B, 7Y, 7M, and 7C to separate positions. The contact cams 15B, 15Y, 15M, and 15C are provided on the developing device removable cover 17 on the upper surface of the apparatus main body. The developing unit detachable cover 17 is supported by a fixed developing unit detachable cover shaft 18 so as to be freely opened and closed. The operation will be described below. First, a high voltage is applied to the charging line 11 in the charger 5 connected to the high-voltage power supply to cause corona discharge to uniformly charge the surface of the photoreceptor belt 1 to about -500v to -650v. Next, the photosensitive belt 1 is driven by a driving device (not shown).
A predetermined color of a plurality of color components on the surface of the photoreceptor belt 1 which is rotated in the direction of arrow a and is uniformly charged by
For example, a laser beam 14 corresponding to a black (B) image
Is irradiated by the laser beam generator 6, the irradiated portion on the photoreceptor belt 1 loses its charge, and an electrostatic latent image is formed. On the other hand, the developing device 7B in which the black developer contributing to the development is stored is supplied with a DC motor (not shown) by a color selection signal from a host computer (not shown).
Is rotated, and the connected contact cam 15B is rotated by 180 degrees, against the pressing force of the separation spring 16B,
It comes into contact with the photoreceptor belt 1. While the developing device 7B is developing, the other developing devices 7Y, 7M, and 7C are separated from the photosensitive belt 1.

Next, for example, when the color of cyan (C) is selected, the DC motor (not shown) rotates in a predetermined direction, and the connected contact cam 15Y rotates by 180 degrees, so that the developing device Reference numeral 7C abuts on the photoreceptor belt 1 to start developing cyan. At this time, the other three-color developing units 7B, 7Y, and 7M are at separate positions. In the case of a copier or printer using four colors, the developing operation is sequentially repeated four times to superimpose the four color B, C, M, Y toner images on the intermediate transfer belt 19 to form a composite image. The composite image formed in this way is applied to a paper transfer roller 31 at a high voltage having a polarity opposite to that of the toner, and is collectively transferred to the paper 26 sent from the paper cassette 25 along the paper transport path 28 by the pressure.
Subsequently, the sheet is sent to the fixing device 32, where the image is fixed by the heat of the heat roller 33 and the pinching force of the pressure roller 34 to form a color image. The sheet 26 that has passed through the fixing device 32 passes through a pair of discharge rollers 35 and is discharged to a discharge tray 37. The paper feed unit 41 incorporates a manual feed tray 40, a registration roller 30 (driven side), a paper feed path 28, a manual feed roller 42, and a paper transfer roller 31. Unnecessary toner on the photoreceptor belt 1 is removed by the cleaning blade 9 and scraped off on the sweep roller 21. Since the sweep roller 21 is externally driven, the waste toner 22 can be packed deep into the waste toner storage unit 20. In the experiment, the use of the sweep roller 21 makes it possible to increase the filling ratio of the waste toner into the waste toner storage unit 20 to 90% or more. As a result, the life of the photoreceptor belt 1 and the time when the waste toner storage unit becomes full Can be made substantially the same, and the photoreceptor belt 1 and the cleaning device including the sweep roller 21, the cleaning blade 9, and the waste toner storage unit 20 can be integrated and replaced at the same time.

[0012]

As described above, according to the present invention, the installation floor area of the main body can be reduced, the configuration is simplified, and the operation of treating waste toner is simplified.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view of a color image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view of a conventional color image forming apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 photoconductor belt 5 charger 6 laser beam generator 7B, 7Y, 7M, 7C developing device 8 intermediate transfer member 9 cleaning blade 11 charging wire 14 laser beam 15B, 15Y, 15M, 15C contact cam 16B, 16Y, 16M, 16C Separation spring 17 Developing unit removable cover 18 Developing unit removable cover shaft 19 Intermediate transfer belt 20 Waste toner storage unit 21 Sweep roller 23 First transfer roll 25 Paper cassette 26 Paper 28 Paper transport path 30 Register roller 31 Paper transfer roller 32 Fixing Container 33 Heat roller 34 Pressure roller 35 Paper discharge roller pair

Claims (3)

[Claims] A photoreceptor belt on which an electrostatic latent image is formed; a plurality of developing devices for selectively visualizing the electrostatic latent image formed on the photoreceptor belt for each color with toner of each color; An intermediate transfer member that synthesizes the visualized toner image on the photoconductor belt and collectively transfers the toner image to transfer paper, and unnecessary waste toner that is disposed near the photoconductor belt and remains on the photoconductor belt. A cleaning device for removing and storing the photosensitive belt, wherein one side of the photoreceptor belt forms a substantially horizontal plane with a plurality of rollers, and the other side is disposed below the substantially horizontal plane. A roller is suspended in a substantially triangular shape so as to form an obtuse angle, a cleaning unit of the cleaning device is made to correspond to the cleaning roller, and a waste toner storage unit of the cleaning device is disposed below a remaining side. Color image forming apparatus characterized by the. 2. A color image according to claim 1, wherein said plurality of developing units are non-magnetic one-component developing units, and each of said developing units is selectively brought into contact with or separated from said photosensitive belt. Forming equipment. 3. The cleaning device according to claim 2, wherein a sweep roller for conveying waste toner is disposed in said cleaning device.
The color image forming apparatus as described in the above.