JPH1039601A - Vessel for developer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent an externally packing vessel or workers from being contaminated by a scattered developer by discharging the air within an internally packing vessel without passing through the developer, when the internally packing vessel is to be taken out of the externally packing vessel, by means of a cap installed in a developer discharging port of the internally packing vessel. SOLUTION: A plug-opening side of a cap 4, which can be attached/detached from either plug-closing side or plug-opening side, is attached to a developer discharging port 1a of an externally packing vessel 1. By pushing up a claw part 5a of a developer discharging port opening/closing member 5 so as to abut on an installing frame 3, a gap is formed between the developer discharging port opening/closing member 5 and an air permeable sheet 6, so that an air intake passage as shown by an arrow- mark (a), which leads from a developer discharging port 2a to an opening on the plug-closing side of the cap 4 of the internally packing vessel via the air permeable sheet 6, is formed. Accordingly, by removing the cap 4, the air within the internally packing vessel can be discharged without passing the developer, and the internally packing vessel can be taken out of the externally packing vessel 1 together with the cap 4. Thus, scatter of the developer, which may cause contamination of the externally packing vessel 1, can be prevented.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a developer container for storing a developer used in an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a facsimile, and a printer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In general, injection-molded or blow-molded plastic bottles are used as developer containers in image forming apparatuses such as copiers, facsimiles, and printers. Environmental problems are becoming more apparent. Conventionally, in order to cope with such a problem, the container portion of the developer container is configured to have a multi-layer structure of a plastic outer portion and an inner portion made of a seal film detachable from the outer portion. Thereafter, by removing the interior portion, the contamination of the exterior portion by the developer was eliminated, and the exterior portion was easily reused.
A "developer container" described in JP-A-4-366982 has been proposed.

[0003]

Incidentally, the "developer container" described in the above-mentioned prior art JP-A-4-366982.
The container portion has a multilayer structure of a bottle-shaped blow-molded plastic exterior portion and an interior portion of a plastic film detachably attached to the exterior portion, and the discharge opening / closing portion forms a shutter structure. Is sealed at the discharge port of the exterior part.

In this conventional example, after the interior part is peeled off,
It is said that it is not particularly necessary to clean the exterior part, but in reality, since the interior part is peeled off at the processing plant, after supplying the developer at the user's site, the shutter is closed. While transported to the processing site, there is a high possibility that the outer portion of the container will be stained with the remaining developer depending on the handling. Further, in this conventional example, since the exterior part and the interior part of the container part are in a multilayer structure in which the interior part is in close contact, it is very difficult to peel off the interior part from the exterior part, and this interior part has At the time of the stripping operation, there is a defect that the remaining developer is scattered due to the discharge of the air in the interior part and contaminates the exterior part container and the hands and clothes of the worker.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, by removing the cap, the air in the inner container can be discharged without allowing the developer to pass therethrough. In addition, a cap capable of taking out the inner container from the outer container together with the cap is provided. In this way, by removing the cap, the air in the inner container is discharged without passing the developer, and the inner container is taken out of the outer container together with the cap, so that the developer causing the contamination of the outer container is scattered. Is eliminated, and the inner container can be taken out without touching the inner container.

[0006]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION In the developer container of the present invention, a cap is formed so that it can be attached to and detached from a developer discharge port of an outer container from either the closing side or the opening side, and the developer passes therethrough. A ventilation sheet having no ventilation holes,
The developer outlet of the inner container is closed by attaching the stopper side of the cap to the developer outlet of the outer container, and the developer outlet of the inner container is opened and ventilated by attaching the open side of the cap. A developer discharge port opening / closing member that forms a ventilation path to the sheet, and an engaging portion that engages with the developer discharge port of the inner container by attaching the cap opening side,
Provide on the cap.

[0007] Further, providing an inner container fixing member for fixing the inner container at the bottom of the outer container eliminates the residual developer in the inner container at the time of supplying the developer.
This is effective in removing air from the interior container when removing the cap.

It is effective to divide the outer container into a plurality of parts so as to be able to expand and contract, so as to reduce the volume of the developer container at the time of collection and to reduce the collection cost.

[0009]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the developer container of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. The developer container includes a cylindrical outer container 1 having relatively rigidity, an inner container 2 made of a plastic film which is detachably disposed in the outer container 1 and contains a developer, and an outer container 1. And a cap 4 formed so that it can be attached to and detached from the developer discharge port 1a of the outer container 1 for opening and closing by screwing the developer discharge port 1a. It is composed of a container with a heavy structure. In FIG. 1, the inner container 2 is wound around the developer discharge port of the inner container 2 so as to wrap a ring-shaped mounting frame 3 fitted into the developer discharge port of the outer container 1, and is provided on the capping side of the cap 4. The developer outlet opening / closing member 5 is attached to the outer container 1 by pressing the developer outlet of the inner container 2 against the developer outlet of the outer container 1. As a material of the interior container 2, a plastic film such as a polyethylene film is suitable.

The inner container 2 is detached from the outer container 1 in FIG.
By screwing the cap 4 upside down,
This is performed without touching the interior container 2. That is, when the opening side of the cap 4 is screwed into the developer discharge port 1 a of the outer container 1, as shown in FIG. After passing over, you will not be able to screw in any more. Therefore, in FIG. 2, when the cap 4 is then unscrewed in the removing direction, the engaging portion 4 a of the cap 4 is engaged with the developer discharge port of the inner container 2 so as to hook the mounting frame 3, The inner container 2 is removed together with the cap 4 from the outer container 1.

As shown in FIG. 1 to FIG. 3, a plurality of developer discharge port opening / closing members 5 provided on the closing side of the cap 4 in this embodiment are provided in a circumferential direction thereof (in this example, 4.
Of the cap 4 is fitted slidably with respect to the partition 4b by fitting into the slit 4c of the rib-shaped partition 4b formed on the inner periphery at a substantially intermediate position of the cap 4. , The slit 4 of the claw portion 5a and the partition portion 4b
The protrusion 5b formed on the claw portion 5a is not easily disengaged by engaging with the edge of the slit 4c. Further, a ventilation sheet 6 having a ventilation hole of a size that does not allow the developer to pass through is attached to the opening side of the partition 4b of the cap 4 by an adhesive means such as a double-sided tape. The gas permeable sheet 6 is a sheet formed of a material having a large number of pores that do not allow particles having a size larger than the developer particle diameter to pass, such as a gas permeable sheet or a pressure release filter.

As a result, as shown in FIG. 1, when the stopper side of the cap 4 is attached to the developer discharge port 1a of the outer container 1, the developer discharge port opening / closing member 5 allows the developer discharge of the inner container 2 to be performed. The outlet is pressed against the mounting frame 3 to close the developer discharge port 2a of the inner container 2, so that there is no gap in which the developer leaks. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 2, in a state where the opening side of the cap 4 is attached to the developer discharge port 1 a of the outer container 1, the claw 5 a of the developer discharge port opening / closing member 5 is attached to the mounting frame 3. , And a gap is formed between the developer discharge port opening / closing member 5 and the permeable sheet 6, and the cap 4 is closed from the developer discharge port 2 a of the inner container 2 via the permeable sheet 6. An air passage a is formed as shown by an arrow that extends to the side opening.

Therefore, in the developer container of the present embodiment, the air in the inner container 2 is discharged without passing the developer by removing the cap 4, and the outer container 1 together with the cap 4 is discharged.
Since the inner container 2 can be taken out from the inside, the scattering of the developer causing the contamination of the outer container 1 can be eliminated, and the inner container 2 can be easily taken out without touching the inner container 2. 1 can be reused without any modification.

Although the developer discharge port opening / closing member 5 in this embodiment is slidably attached to the partition 4b in consideration of the difficulty in molding the cap 4, it is difficult to form the cap 4. If the properties are neglected, the developer discharge port opening / closing member 5 is formed integrally with the partition 4b so that a predetermined gap is formed in advance with the air permeable sheet 6. You may. However, in this case,
Each claw 5a of the developer discharge port opening / closing member 5 receives the pressure when the cap 4 is closed.
It is desirable to make the shape of the above-mentioned shape sufficiently resistant to the above-mentioned pressure, or to provide a relatively small ventilation hole in place of the gap between the claws 5a.

Next, another embodiment of the present invention will be described. As shown in FIG. 4, the developer container of this embodiment is characterized in that an inner container fixing member 7 for fixing the inner container 2 is provided at the bottom of the outer container 1. The inner container fixing member 7 is configured by adhering an adhesive 7b such as a double-sided tape on the upper surface of the fixing plate 7a. After fixing the bottom of the inner container 2 to the fixing plate 7a with the adhesive 7b, the outer container 1 attached to the bottom.

Thus, when the developer is supplied, the inner container 2
Does not move to the developer discharge port 2a side to block the developer discharge port 2a, and the developer does not remain in the interior container 2. Further, in the developer container of the present embodiment, when the inner container 2 is taken out from the outer container 1 by unscrewing the cap 4 screwed on the open side, the inner container 2 fixed at the bottom is squeezed. In this manner, the air inside the inner container 2 can be removed at the same time as the air is removed from the inner container 2, so that it is not necessary to perform a work of crushing the inner container 2 after being taken out by hand. Can be easily handled. Here, if the inner container fixing member 7 is configured to be detachable with respect to the bottom of the outer member 1, the outer member 1 can be reused at low cost only by replacing the used inner container fixing member 7. be able to.

Next, still another embodiment of the present invention will be described. In the developer container of this embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the outer container 1 is divided into a plurality (in this example, three cap-side containers 1A, intermediate containers 1B, and bottom-side containers 1C). It is characterized by being configured to be stretchable.
That is, each outer container (cap-side container 1
A, the intermediate container 1B, and the bottom container 1C) are extended into a use state as shown in FIG. 5 by screwing together spiral projections 1b formed on the inner peripheral surface and the outer peripheral surface of the end. Then, by unscrewing the spiral projections 1b, the spiral projections 1b are contracted into an unused state as shown in FIG.

Here, each outer container (cap side container 1)
A, the intermediate container 1B, and the bottom-side container 1C) are assembled in a ring shape formed on the inner peripheral surface and the outer peripheral surface of each end, in addition to the twisting method of screwing the protrusion 1b as described above. A click stop method may be used in which the projections are disengaged from each other to expand and contract each outer container. Further, the outer container 1 of the present embodiment is not limited to the three-part container shown in the figure.

In a copying machine or a printer, since the amount of developer consumed varies depending on the copying or printing speed, the shape (capacity) of the developer container, for example, the container length and the container diameter also differ. In the case where the shape of the developer container needs to be changed as described above, in many cases, generally, the length of the container is changed. In such a case, in the developer container of the present embodiment, for example, the cap-side container 1 shown in FIG.
A and the bottom side container 1C can be easily used by changing the length of only the intermediate container 1B. When the outer container 1 has a two-part configuration including the cap-side container 1A and the bottom-side container 1C, for example, the container length of the bottom-side container 1C may be changed.

Further, as shown in FIG. 7, a cap 4 having a developer discharge port opening / closing member 5 and a ventilation sheet 6 shown in the above embodiment, an inner container 1 By attaching the fixing member 7, the handling convenience can be further improved.

[0021]

The present invention is embodied in the form described above and has the following effects.

By removing the cap, the air in the inner container is discharged without passing the developer, and the inner container is taken out of the outer container together with the cap. The scattering of the developer can be prevented, the inner container can be taken out without touching the inner container, and the developer container (outer container) can be easily reused.

Further, by providing the inner container fixing member for fixing the inner container to the bottom of the outer container, the developer remaining in the inner container at the time of replenishing the developer can be eliminated, and the inner container can be removed when the cap is removed. The air can be removed, and the work of crushing the removed inner container such as crushing the inner container by hand becomes unnecessary, and the inner container can be easily handled.

Further, by dividing the outer container into a plurality of parts so as to be able to expand and contract, the volume of the developer container at the time of collection can be reduced to reduce the collection cost, and the divided container can be reduced to one. By using the common parts, developer containers having different lengths can be provided at low cost.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an enlarged sectional view of a main part showing a state of a developer container according to an embodiment of the present invention when a cap is closed.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged cross-sectional view illustrating a main part of the developer container according to the embodiment of the present invention when the inner container is taken out.

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary perspective view showing a state where the cap of the developer container according to the embodiment of the present invention is closed.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a state in which a developer container according to another embodiment of the present invention is taken out of an inner container.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view illustrating an extended state of a developer container according to still another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a contracted state of a developer container according to still another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view showing a developer container according to still another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Outer container 1a Developer outlet of outer container 1b Spiral projection 1A Cap side container 1B Intermediate container 1C Bottom side container 2 Inner container 2a Developer outlet of inner container 3 Mounting frame 4 Cap 4a Engaging part 4b Partition part 4c slit 5 developer discharge port opening / closing member 5a claw portion 6 ventilation sheet 7 interior container fixing member a ventilation path

Claims (3)

[Claims] An outer container, a film-shaped inner container removably disposed in the outer container and containing a developer;
In a developer container having a double structure having a cap for opening and closing the developer discharge port of the outer container, the developer container can be attached to and detached from the developer discharge port portion of the outer container from either the closing side or the opening side. As well as forming the cap, a ventilation sheet having a ventilation hole through which the developer does not pass,
The developer discharging port of the outer container is attached to the cap closing side of the cap to close the developer discharging port of the inner container, and the developer discharging port of the outer container is opened to the cap opening side of the cap. A developer discharge port opening / closing member for opening a developer discharge port of the inner container to form a ventilation path to the ventilation sheet by opening the container, and opening the cap at the developer discharge port of the outer container. A developer container, wherein the cap is provided with an engaging portion that engages with the developer discharge port of the interior container by mounting the side. 2. The developer container according to claim 1, wherein an inner container fixing member for fixing the inner container is provided at a bottom of the outer container. 3. An outer container, a film-shaped inner container removably disposed in the outer container and containing a developer,
A developer container having a double structure having a cap for opening and closing a developer discharge port of the outer container, wherein the outer container is divided into a plurality of parts and configured to be expandable and contractible.