JPH11130003A - Method and apparatus for filling powder - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable powder to be highly densely filled in a short time by placing a filling port of a container upward, deaerating while filling a powder by a first filling apparatus to fill an approximately half amount of the powder, and then deaerating while filling by a second filling apparatus to fill the remaining approximately half amount of the powder. SOLUTION: A filling nozzle 502 is positioned at a lower end of a main hopper 501. This is of a funnel shape and is attached to a vertically movable slider 503 so that its tip closes a filling port of a toner cartridge at the time of filling the toner. This apparatus is equipped with a deaeration suction rod 504 which vertically moves and reaches the vicinity of a internal bottom of a container, wherein a toner cartridge 100 stops at a position of a first filling apparatus 200 by a skirt 600, the slider 503 lowers to insert the filling nozzle 502 and the air suction rod 504 inside a filling port of the toner cartridge, and deaeration is performed while filling the toner to fill a half amount of toner into the toner cartridge 100 to enable highly dense filling.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for filling a container with powder such as toner.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There is known a method in which a container provided with a spiral protrusion on its inner surface is filled with toner, and the toner container is set horizontally and gradually dropped and supplied to a developing unit while being rotated. . In addition, various types of toner cartridges are used. It is desirable that these containers are filled with toner at a high density. 2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, to fill a container with toner, (1) after filling the container with the toner, leave the toner to settle naturally,
Subsequently, an amount of toner corresponding to the settled amount is further filled (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 4-87901). A method of forcibly discharging air to fill the toner (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-199302) is employed. However, the method (1) is rarely carried out as it is, and the deaeration means (2) is used together.

[0003]

However, recently, as the amount of office work has increased, the amount of toner consumption has also increased. Therefore, it has been required to fill a container with toner in a short time. The device has its limitations. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a method and an apparatus capable of filling powder such as toner into a container in a short time. Another object of the present invention is to provide a powder filling method and apparatus capable of performing high-density powder filling.

[0004]

According to the present invention, first, in a method for filling powder into a powder container, the first filling is carried out with the filling port of the container facing upward. Approximately half the amount of powder was filled by degassing while filling the powder with the filling device, and then nearly half of the powder was degassed while filling the same powder with the second filling device in this container. A powder filling method characterized by filling a body is provided.

[0005] Second, in a method of filling a powder in a powder container, the powder is almost completely halved by a first filling machine with the filling port of the container facing upward. After filling, deaeration is performed by embedding the tip of an intermediate air suction rod in the powder in this container, and then deaeration while filling the same powder with the second filling device in the container. There is provided a powder filling method characterized in that substantially half of the powder is filled.

Third, in a method of filling powder into a powder container, the container is degassed while filling the powder with a first filling machine with the filling port of the container facing upward. After filling approximately half the amount of powder with the tip of the intermediate air suction rod in the powder in this container and performing deaeration, the container is further filled with the same A powder filling method is characterized in that degassing is performed while filling the powder, and the remaining powder is filled with approximately half of the powder.

According to the present invention, fourthly, in a powder filling apparatus for filling powder into a powder container, a first filling machine having a filling nozzle and an air suction rod, and an air suction rod are provided. A powder filling device is provided, wherein an intermediate degassing device and a second filling device having a filling nozzle and an air suction rod are provided in series on a moving path of the container.

According to the present invention, two filling machines are arranged in series on the moving path of the container, and if necessary, an intermediate degassing device is arranged between these filling devices. Almost half of the toner is filled by the filling machine, and the remaining (half) toner is to be filled by the subsequent (second) filling machine. As a result, the toner can be filled at a higher density and the time required for the filling operation can be significantly reduced.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below in more detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a positional relationship of a main part of the powder filling apparatus of the present invention. An intermediate deaerator 400 is provided between the first filling device 200 and the second filling device 300. The arrow on the left side of the paper indicates the moving direction of the container at the time of filling the toner.
On the other hand, the arrow on the right side of the paper indicates the direction in which the container filled with the toner returns.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the intermediate deaerator, and FIG. 3 is a front view thereof. The upper and lower air suction rods 401 are attached to the upper arm slider 403 and the lower arm slider 404 of the moving slider 402. The moving slider 402 moves up and down while being supported by the fixed slider 405 and the air cylinder 406. A fixed slider 405 is fixed by a column 407 and an arm 408. The air suction bar 401 drawn by a solid line in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 shows a state before descending to the toner cartridge 100. In the drawing, reference numeral 401a denotes a dust collecting port for cleaning the air suction rod. The air suction rod 401 is formed of a thin tube having a spindle-shaped mesh smaller than the toner particle diameter at the tip thereof.

FIG. 4 is a front view of the filling machine of the present invention, and FIG.
Is a side view thereof, and the filling machine device is the same as the first filling machine device and the second filling machine device. In this filling machine device, a filling nozzle 502 is provided at a lower end of a main hopper 501. The filling nozzle 502 has a funnel shape, and its tip is attached to a slider 503 that can move up and down so as to close the filling opening of the toner cartridge 100 as shown by a broken line in FIG. In addition, this filling machine device is provided with a degassing suction rod 504 that moves up and down to reach a position close to the bottom of the container.

In the state shown in FIG. 1, when the toner cartridge 100 stops at the position of the first filling device 200 by the skirt 600 as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the slider 503 descends and the filling nozzle 502 and the air Suction rod 5
04 is inserted into the filling port of the toner cartridge and the inside thereof, and then deaeration is performed while the toner is being filled, so that the toner cartridge 100 is filled with approximately half the amount of toner. Subsequently, if necessary, the toner cartridge 100 is stopped at the position of the intermediate deaerator 400, and further deaeration of the toner is performed.

The air suction rod 50 provided together with the filling nozzle 502 in the first filling machine device and the second filling machine device.
Reference numeral 4 is the same as the air suction rod of the intermediate deaerator, but the air suction rod of the intermediate deaerator 400 can have a large diameter. Next, the toner cartridge 100 which has been degassed by the intermediate air suction rod 401 and is filled with approximately half of the toner is further filled with approximately half of the remaining toner by the second filling device 300. The filling of the toner in the second filling device is performed while degassing.

In the first powder filling method of the present invention, degassing by the intermediate air suction rod 401 is not performed. Further, in the second powder filling method of the present invention, degassing in the first filling device 200 is not performed. In the first and second filling machines, the air suction rod rises and returns to the original position at the same time as the toner filling is completed. It is preferable to blow toner into the toner cartridge by blowing air into the air suction rod for 1 to 3 seconds.

In the first powder filling method of the present invention,
Since the intermediate degassing device is not used, when the n-th toner cartridge sequentially sent for filling the toner is filled with the toner by the first filling device 200, the (n-1) -th toner cartridge is used. The remaining half of the cartridge is filled with toner by the second filling device 300. Further, in the second and third powder filling methods of the present invention, n
The first toner cartridge 100 is
When the toner is filled at 0, the (n-1) th toner cartridge 100 is degassed by the intermediate deaerator 400 in a state where almost half of the toner is already filled,
The (n-2) th toner cartridge is filled with the remaining half amount of toner by the second filling device 300.

When the method of arranging two filling machines in series and performing powder filling is adopted as described above, the time required for toner filling is reduced by half unless the time required for moving the toner cartridge is taken into account. be able to. So far, the description has been made by taking an electrophotographic toner as an example of the powder, but the present invention is also applicable to powders other than the toner. Also, not only two filling machine devices may be arranged in series, but three or more filling machine devices may be arranged in series.

[0017]

According to the present invention, the time required for filling the powder can be greatly reduced. Also, when the container moves from the first filling device to the intermediate degassing device and the second filling device, the powder that is almost half filled in the first filling device slightly sinks, and further powder here. Since it is filled, high-density filling becomes possible.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a positional relationship of a main part of a powder filling device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a deaeration intermediate deaerator according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a front view of an intermediate deaerator according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a front view of the filling machine of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a side view of the filling machine of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 100 toner cartridge 200 first filling device 300 second filling device 400 intermediate deaerator 401 air suction rod 402 moving slider 403 upper arm slider 404 lower arm slider 405 fixed slider 406 air cylinder 407 support slider 408 support 409 support Arm 410 Post base 411 Air cylinder 412 Protective cover 413 Finger 414 Stopper 501 Main hopper 502 Filling nozzle 503 Slider 504 Air suction rod 600 Hakama 700 Conveyor

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A method for filling powder into a powder container, wherein the container is degassed while filling the powder with a first filling machine with the filling port of the container facing upward. A powder filling method, which comprises filling half of the powder and then degassing the container with the same powder in a second filling machine while filling the container with almost half of the remaining powder. 2. A method for filling a powder in a powder container, wherein the powder is filled with the powder in a substantially half amount by a first filling machine with the filling port of the container facing upward. rear,
The powder in this container is evacuated by embedding the tip of an intermediate air suction rod in the powder, and then the container is evacuated while filling the same powder with the second filling machine, and almost half of the powder remaining A powder filling method comprising filling a body. 3. A method for filling a powder in a powder container, wherein the container is degassed while filling the powder with a first filling machine with the filling port of the container facing upward. After half the amount of powder is stored, the tip of the intermediate air suction rod is buried in the powder in this container and deaeration is performed. A powder filling method, characterized by degassing while filling and filling the remaining powder with almost half amount. 4. A powder filling apparatus for filling powder into a powder container, comprising: a first filling machine having a filling nozzle and an air suction rod; an intermediate deaerator having an air suction rod; A powder filling device comprising a second filling device having an air suction rod provided in series on a moving path of a container.