JPH1083112A - Recycling bottle for toner/developer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To meet UL94-HB, fire-retardant specification, and to enable the incorporation and use of the bottle in an image forming device by formulating PCR (post consumer resin), and giving a thickness having a specific value or more. SOLUTION: The recycling bottle is produced formulating the PCR and, further, by giving a thickness of 0.5mm or more. It can be passed through a specific standard not by formulating the PCR into a virgin material but by forming the toner/developer bottle out of only the PCR and giving it the thickness of 0.5mm or more. It is preferable that PCR (HDPE) made by ENVIROTHENE be used as a recycled material and HDPE made by PAXON be used as the virgin material. By formulating the PCR, melt flow rate, flexural strength, elastic modulus in flexure, Rockwell hardness, heat deformation temperature, and specific gravity are made high. Even when the physical-properties values change in such a way, it can satisfies UL compatibility being the standard of fire retardancl required when the bottle used by being incorporated in the device.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a recycling bottle for toner / developer used in an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a facsimile, a laser printer, etc. for forming image information on a transfer material.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, built-in consumable parts mounted on an image forming apparatus, such as a photoreceptor, a cleaning device, a toner or a developer cartridge, have a predetermined life, or have a built-in toner or developer. When there were no more units, they were replaced with new ones, and the used units or parts were individually disposable.

[0003] In recent years, however, interest in environmental destruction on a global scale has increased worldwide, and garbage, which is increasing year by year, has been reduced in weight and reuse of resources has been promoted. As a part of such efforts, for OA equipment and the like, it has been studied to recycle the entire apparatus or a part thereof and use it effectively as a resource. In other words, from the viewpoint of resource protection, some parts and units that can be used even after the end of the product life of the apparatus main body are collected and reused or reused. Are coming.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A cartridge or bottle (hereinafter, referred to as "bottle") containing toner and developer and supplying the toner and developer to an image forming apparatus.
Even after the supply of the toner or the developer is completed and the container is emptied and replaced with a new bottle, it can be used again for the same type of image forming apparatus by refilling the toner or the developer. Therefore, repeated use of the bottle has come to be seen occasionally.

However, repeated use damages the supply port of the bottle and the like, and eventually makes it difficult to use the bottle as it is. In such a case, even if the bottle becomes difficult to use, it does not change in material, so it may be conceived to cut or coarsely pulverize it and reuse it as a bottle raw material. Particularly in California, the Plastic Containers Control Law was enforced in January 1995, and used resins, namely, PCR (Post Consumer Resi
The use of n) has become mandatory.

[0006] In PCR, for example, used hard polyethylene (HDPE) bottles are washed, labels are peeled off, crushed, melted, and pelletized. It does not, and it shows yellow-grey. This is because, for example, the residual toner is present in the collected used bottle and the residual toner cannot be completely removed even by washing, so that the residual toner dissolves into the resin chip. As a result, the PCR, which is a recycled material, has a change in melt flow rate, bending strength, heat deformation temperature, specific gravity, etc., as compared with the virgin material.
Therefore, there is a problem whether or not it can be handled in the same manner as the virgin material. In particular, when used by being built in an image forming apparatus, it is necessary to provide a certain level of flame retardancy.

[0007] In view of the above facts, an object of the present invention is to effectively use a recycled material as a bottle material.

[0008]

According to the present invention, the above-mentioned object is achieved by a bottle for toner / developer prepared by incorporating PCR and having a thickness of 0.5 mm or more. . Even if the bottle for toner / developer is formed only by PCR instead of blending PCR with the virgin material, a predetermined standard can be satisfied if the bottle has a thickness of 0.5 mm or more.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The details of the present invention will be described in detail below. First, as a recycled material, PCR made by ENVIROTHENE
Table 1 shows the results obtained by measuring the physical properties of the PCR, the virgin material, and the material obtained by mixing these using HDPE (HDPE) and HDE manufactured by PAXON as the virgin material.

[0010]

[Table 1]

By blending PCR, the melt flow rate, flexural strength, flexural modulus, Rockwell hardness,
The heat distortion temperature and specific gravity tend to increase. The problem is how such changes in physical properties affect the flammability of the bottle material. Therefore, a flammability test of a plastic material referred to as UL94 (horizontal combustion test method) was performed on the resin for each compound.

Three samples were tested for each of the above formulations. Two lines perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of each sample were marked at 25 mm and 100 mm from the igniting end, and the sample was fixed at the end furthest from the 25 mm mark as shown in FIG. .
The vertical axis is horizontal, and the horizontal axis is inclined at 45 degrees. The wire mesh was fixed horizontally below the sample, the distance between the lowest edge of the sample and the wire mesh 1 was 10 ± 1 mm, and the unfixed end of the sample and the end of the wire mesh were straight.

The burner 2 was ignited at a position remote from the sample and adjusted so as to emit a blue flame having a height of 20 ± 1 mm. By adjusting the gas supply and the air inlet of the burner 2 to emit a flame, a yellowish blue flame with a tip of about 20 mm was emitted. The air supply was increased until the yellow tip disappeared. The height of the flame is measured again and readjusted if necessary.

A flame was applied to the free edge of the lower edge of the sample. The central axis of the burner 2 was on the same vertical plane as the lower edge of the longitudinal axis of the sample, and was inclined horizontally to the end of the sample at an angle of about 45 degrees. The position of the burner 2 was adjusted so that the flame hit the free end of the sample to a depth of 6 ± 1 mm. The test flame was applied for 30 seconds without changing the position. Thereafter, or when the burning tip of the sample reached the mark of 25 mm within 30 seconds, the burner 2 was moved away. Time measurement was started when the burning tip reached the mark of 25 mm.

If the sample continues to burn after the test flame has been moved away, the time it takes for the burning tip to reach from the 25 mm mark to the 100 mm mark is measured in seconds and recorded along with the length L broken. If the burned tip passed the 25 mm mark and did not reach the 100 mm mark, 25 m
The time between the m-mark and the end of combustion (disappearance) was recorded in seconds and the length of damage in mm.

The linear burning velocity V of each sample is calculated as follows: V = 60 L /
It calculated from the formula of t. Where V is the linear burn rate in mm per minute, L is the damage length in mm (L = 75 mm if the tip of the flame passes the 100 mm mark), and t is the time in seconds. . The result is shown in FIG.

For a sample having a thickness of less than 3.0 mm, the burning rate in the section of 75 mm is 75 mm / s per minute.
If it does not exceed ec, it is classified as 94HB.
Even if the thickness of the synthetic resin is only 0.5 mm or more, even if it is a synthetic resin composed of Will be satisfied. Of course, the PCR tends to have a higher methyl flow rate than the virgin material as can be seen from the evaluation of the physical properties, and therefore it is necessary to control the molding conditions so that the wall thickness is adjusted to the above dimensions.

On the other hand, when the toner / developer bottle is recycled and reused, the bottle is washed, the label is peeled off, and the caliber inspection and the appearance inspection are performed. It is checked whether toner is present. This is because toner cohesion easily occurs when the residual toner is present, which causes a so-called "sparkle" phenomenon. This is because it is necessary to return to the cleaning step. The residual toner is detected by irradiating high frequency light from outside the bottle while rotating the bottle, reading the black portion of the bottle with a CCD camera, and performing binarization discrimination using a computer. The inspection is not performed if the bottle is too thick. In the case of a bottle of the above material, it is necessary for inspection to be 1 mm or less.

[0019]

According to the present invention, even if PCR is blended and used in accordance with the California Plastic Containers Control Law,
By manufacturing a bottle for toner / developer so as to have a thickness of 0.5 mm or more, UL94, which is a flame retardant standard, is used.
-HB can be obtained and can be used by being built in the image forming apparatus. Even if a bottle for toner / developer is formed only by PCR instead of blending PCR with virgin material, UL94-HB can be obtained similarly if it has a thickness of 0.5 mm or more.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing a state in which a horizontal combustion test (UL94) is performed.

FIG. 2 is a graph showing a relationship between a PCR mixing ratio and a burning rate.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Wire mesh 2 Burner

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Masakazu Nakata 1-3-6 Nakamagome, Ota-ku, Tokyo Inside Ricoh Company, Ltd. (72) Inventor Yoshiyasu Ito 1-3-6 Nakamagome, Ota-ku, Tokyo Ricoh Co., Ltd.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A toner / developer bottle having a thickness of 0.5 mm or more and containing PCR. 2. A toner / developer bottle having a thickness of 0.5 mm or more, which is obtained by PCR.