JPH1048931A - Toner cartridge - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce an amount of residual toner by lessening a residual part of toner in a container main body and to fix a toner cartridge at fixed position on a toner filling device vertically in a stabilized state when toner is filled in the container main body. SOLUTION: A toner cartridge 1 is a blow form made of polytetrafluoroethylene resin and roundness with a radius of over 3mm is provided in a boundary 18 between a lower part of inner surface of a container main body 10 and a base 10a. The roundness with a radius of over 3mm is also provided in a boundary 19 between a protuberant stripe 11 and a spiral groove 14 formed by the stripe. In addition, a cross-shaped protrusion 15 made by plate ribs 12 and 13 is formed on the lower surface 10b of the container main body and the surfaces of these plate ribs 12 and 13 are flush.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a toner cartridge (toner replenishing container) for supplying toner to a developing device of an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a printer, a facsimile or the like using toner.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In general, a toner cartridge is entirely made of a thermoplastic plastic. As shown in FIG. 4, a cylindrical container body 21 having a spiral groove 32 formed by a ridge 31 on its inner peripheral surface is formed. By rotating, the toner is transported along the spiral groove 32 in the direction of the arrow in the figure, and is discharged from a discharge port (not shown) of the container body 21. It should be noted that Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 3-2881,
Japanese Patent Publication No. 1681 discloses a toner cartridge having an improved structure.

In recent years, in order to use resources effectively, there is a tendency that the used cartridges are washed to completely remove toner remaining on the inner and outer surfaces of the used cartridges and then to be treated in a regeneration process. It is growing.

[0004]

However, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the conventional toner cartridge 30 has a configuration in which a ridge 31 having a trapezoidal cross section protrudes from the cylindrical inner peripheral surface of the container body 21. Therefore, when the toner is used up, a relatively large amount of toner is lumped at the boundary 33 between the ridge 31 and the spiral groove 32 and the boundary 34 between the lower end of the inner peripheral surface of the container body 21 and the bottom surface. (22 to 24 are residual toners), and there is a problem that it takes a long time for cleaning. 4 and 5, 21a is the bottom of the container body 21.

[0005] The toner cartridge 60 shown in FIG. 6 has the same problem as described above. 61 is a container body,
62 is a ridge having a trapezoidal cross section, 63 is a spiral groove, 64 is a gear for rotating the toner cartridge 60, 65
Is a mounting portion for the rotary drive device.

Further, container bodies 21, 61 shown in FIGS.
Then, when filling the toner, it is necessary to use a special type of jig or the like in order to stably and vertically set these at a predetermined portion of a toner filling device (not shown).

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and a first object of the present invention is to reduce a residual toner amount in a container body by reducing a toner stagnation portion in the container body.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a toner cartridge that can easily and easily clean a container body in a short time. A second object of the present invention is to provide a toner cartridge which can be fixed vertically in a stable state with a jig having a simple structure at a predetermined portion of a toner filling device when filling a container body with toner. It is to be.

[0008]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a toner cartridge for achieving a first object.
In a toner cartridge in which toner is conveyed along the spiral groove by rotating a cylindrical container body having a spiral groove formed on the inner peripheral surface by a ridge and is discharged from a discharge port of the container body, for example, FIG. As shown in the figure, a radius of 3 m is formed at a boundary portion 18 between the lower end portion of the inner peripheral surface of the container body 10 and the bottom surface 10a and a boundary portion 19 between the ridge 11 and the spiral groove 14.
m or more (R3 or more rounded).

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a toner cartridge comprising:
In order to achieve the first object, the inner and outer surfaces of the container body according to claim 1 are provided with a critical surface tension γc at 20 ° C.
Is formed of a plastic material of 33 to 18.5 dyn / cm. Examples of such a plastic material include polyethylene (31 dyn / cm), polyvinyl fluoride (28 dyn / cm), ethylene trifluoride (22 dyn / cm), and polytetrafluoroethylene (18.5 dyn / cm).

The toner cartridge according to claim 3 is
Claim 2 or Claim 3 is for achieving the second object.
For example, as shown in FIGS.
Is a blow-molded product in which a plate-like rib 12 is provided on a lower end surface 10b at the same time as molding at a position corresponding to a mating surface of a split mold (not shown) for blow molding, and is orthogonal to the plate-like rib 12. By attaching the plate-shaped ribs 13 in this manner, the cross-shaped projections 1 can be viewed from the bottom of the container body 10 (see FIG. 2).
5 are formed, and the plate-like ribs 12 and 13 are flush (the end faces of the projections 15 are on the same plane).

In the toner cartridge of the first aspect, since a radius of 3 mm or more is provided at a predetermined portion of the container body, the amount of residual toner at this portion is smaller than that of the conventional toner cartridge. In the toner cartridge according to the second aspect, since the inner surface of the container body is made of a material to which the toner is unlikely to adhere, and the radius is provided as described above, the amount of toner remaining in the container body is significantly smaller than that of the conventional toner cartridge. Decrease. In addition, since the outer surface of the container body is also formed of a material to which toner does not easily adhere, the amount of residual toner on the outer surface also decreases.

In the toner cartridge according to the third aspect, the cross-shaped plate-shaped rib provided at the lower end portion of the container main body is fitted into the cross-shaped concave portion of the toner filling device, so that the container main body can be stably and vertically extended. Can be fixed.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. Embodiment 1 FIG. 1 is a partial sectional front view showing the structure of the toner cartridge, and FIG. 2 is a left side view (bottom view of the toner cartridge) of FIG. FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view showing the entire structure of a developer supply unit (toner cartridge storage unit) including the toner cartridge of FIG.

The toner cartridge 1 is a blow molded article made of polytetrafluoroethylene resin, and the container body 10
A radius 3 is set at the boundary 18 between the lower end of the inner peripheral surface and the bottom surface 10a.
Add a radius of at least mm. A radius of 3 mm or more is also provided at the boundary 19 between the ridge 11 and the spiral groove 14 formed thereby. In addition, a plate-like rib 12 is provided on the lower end surface 10b of the container body 10 at a position corresponding to the mating surface of a split mold (not shown) for blow molding at the same time as molding. The plate-shaped rib 13 is attached. The plate-like ribs 12 and 13 form a cross-shaped protrusion 15 when viewed from the bottom of the container body 10 (see FIG. 2), and the plate-like ribs 12 and 13 are flush with each other.

An upper end portion (front end portion) of the container body 10 is a toner discharge portion 16, and a conical toner lead-out portion 17 is provided between the toner discharge portion 16 and a front end portion of the spiral groove 14.
A screw 16 a for screwing to the gear bottle 4 is provided on the outer peripheral surface of the toner discharge section 16. The toner discharge section 16 is also used as a toner filling port for filling the container body 10 with toner.

Next, the structure of the gear bottle 4, the support 5 for supporting the toner cartridge 1, and the like will be described with reference to FIG. The receiving table 5 is provided on the mounting table 6 so as to be rotatable (in the horizontal direction) in the directions of arrows C and D about the rotation fulcrum 7. The cylindrical gear bottle 4 is provided directly above the receiving table 5. The knob 3 is attached to the upper part of the gear bottle 4, and the knob 3 is operated to rotate in the directions of the arrows E and F (about the horizontal axis) so that the gear bottle 4 can be raised and lowered. A toner supply port is opened at the tip of the gear bottle 4.

When the toner cartridge 1 is used, the receiving table 5 in the state shown in FIG. 1 is rotated in the direction of arrow C so as to be projected from the image forming apparatus main body. The gear bottle 4 is raised by operating the knob 3 and rotating in the direction of the arrow E. The inner plug 2 is screwed into the toner discharge section 16 of the toner cartridge 1, and the toner discharge section 16 is further screwed into the gear bottle 4. As a result, the toner discharge section 16 communicates with the toner supply port of the gear bottle 4. Then, the toner cartridge 1 is set on the receiving table 5 by rotating the toner cartridge 1 integrally with the gear bottle 4 in the direction of the arrow F, and further, the receiving table 5 is rotated in the direction of the arrow D to attach the toner cartridge 1 to the image forming apparatus main body. set.

The gear bottle 4 is driven by a driving device (not shown).
Is rotated in the direction of arrow A, the toner cartridge 1
Rotates together with the gear bottle 4 in the direction of arrow B, and the toner is conveyed along the spiral groove 14 and supplied to a developing unit (not shown) via the toner discharge section 16 and the toner supply port.

In order to fill a new container body or an empty container body after use of toner with toner, the container body 1 must be filled.
The above-mentioned projection 15 is fitted into a cross-shaped recess (not shown) of the mounting table of the toner filling device. Thereby, the container body 10
Can be fixed vertically in a stable state,
The toner filling operation can be performed easily and accurately.

[0020]

As is apparent from the above description, claim 1
According to the toner cartridge described above, since a radius of 3 mm or more is provided at a predetermined portion in the container body, the amount of toner remaining at this portion is smaller than that of the conventional toner cartridge, and almost no toner remains in the container body. Disappears. As a result, the amount of waste toner is drastically reduced, and the container body can be easily cleaned in a short time.

According to the toner cartridge of the second aspect,
Since the inner surface of the container body is made of a material to which toner is unlikely to adhere, and the radius is provided as described above, the amount of residual toner in the toner cartridge is significantly reduced as compared with the conventional toner cartridge. In addition, since the outer surface of the container body is also made of a material to which toner does not easily adhere, the amount of residual toner on the outer surface is also reduced. Therefore, with this toner cartridge, more remarkable effects can be obtained as compared with the toner cartridge of the first aspect.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, since a projection formed by a cross-shaped plate-like rib is provided at a predetermined portion, the empty cartridge is collected after the toner is used, and the empty cartridge is reused as a toner cartridge. When a new toner is filled, the empty cartridge can be vertically fixed in a stable state by fitting the protrusion of the empty cartridge into the cross-shaped concave portion of the mounting table. Therefore, the toner filling operation can be easily and accurately performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partial sectional front view showing the structure of a toner cartridge according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a left side view of FIG. 1 (a bottom view of the toner cartridge).

FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view showing the entire structure of a developer supply unit including the toner cartridge of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional front view showing a main structure of a conventional toner cartridge.

FIG. 5 is a left side view of FIG.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing another example of the conventional toner cartridge, with a part thereof broken away.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Toner cartridge 2 Inner plug 3 Knob 4 Gear bottle 5 Receiving stand 6 Mounting stand 7 Support point 10 Container main body 10a Bottom surface 10b Lower end surface 11 Protrusion 12,13 Plate-shaped rib 14 Spiral groove 15 Projection 16 Toner discharge port 16a Screw 17 Toner lead-out part Reference Signs List 18 Boundary part between lower end of inner peripheral surface of container body and bottom surface 19 Boundary part between ridge and spiral groove 21 Container body 21a Bottom part 22-24 Remaining toner 30 Toner cartridge 31 Ridge 32 Spiral groove 33 Projection Boundary portion between the inner peripheral surface lower end portion and the bottom surface of the container body 60 toner cartridge 61 container body 62 ridge 63 spiral groove 64 gear 65 mounting portion

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A toner cartridge wherein toner is transported along a spiral groove by rotating a cylindrical container body having a spiral groove formed on an inner peripheral surface thereof by a ridge, and is discharged from a discharge port of the container body. 3. The toner cartridge according to claim 1, wherein a radius of 3 mm or more is provided at a boundary between the lower end of the inner peripheral surface of the container body and the bottom surface and a boundary between the ridge and the spiral groove. 2. The toner cartridge according to claim 1, wherein the inner and outer surfaces of the container body are formed of a plastic material having a critical surface tension γc at 20 ° C. of 33 to 18.5 dyn / cm. 3. The blow molding product wherein the container body is provided with a plate-shaped rib on an end face on the bottom side at the same time as molding at a portion corresponding to a mating surface of a blow mold split die. By attaching plate-shaped ribs perpendicularly, while forming a cross-shaped projection as viewed from the bottom of the container body,
3. The toner cartridge according to claim 1, wherein the pair of plate-shaped ribs are flush with each other.