JPH11160986A - Toner supply container - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily reuse a used toner supply container main body by molding the toner supply container main body housing powder toner out of thermoplastic resin including antistatic agent. SOLUTION: A toner supply bottle 1 being the toner supply container and a storage device 21 storing the powder toner supplied from the bottle 1 and supplying it to the developing container 102 of a developing device 102 are arranged. The bottle main body being the toner supply container main body is molded out of the thermoplastic resin to which the antistatic agent is added. By adding the antistatic agent to the thermoplastic resin, the bottle main body is provided with such property that it is not electrified. Therefore, since the bottle main body including the antistatic agent is not electrified, the powder toner is not attached to the bottle main body. Thus, the powder toner left in the bottle main body can be easily eliminated by being washed by water.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a toner supply container used in an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, and more particularly to a material of a container body.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in an electrophotographic image forming apparatus such as a dry electrophotographic copying machine, a printer, and a facsimile, for example, a bottle-shaped toner supply container is mounted on the main body of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus, and the main body of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus is mounted. The powder toner is supplied to a supplied portion provided in the printer.

[0003] Here, the container main body for storing the powder toner of such a toner supply container is formed by blow molding a thermoplastic resin such as polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, and acrylic resin. In addition,
These materials are selected in consideration of quality (size, shape, strength, etc.) and cost required by the electrophotographic image forming apparatus.

Incidentally, this toner supply container becomes an empty container when the supply of toner to the supplied portion is completed, and has been disposed of. In addition, as a disposal method at the time of these disposals, there are many methods that are disposed of by landfill or the like. However, due to the recent shortage of landfill sites and the problem of high costs due to high disposal costs due to remote locations, or environmental problems such as dust and soil pollution at the time of landfill, fundamental measures for disposal methods are demanded.

[0005] Furthermore, the disposal of waste is a worldwide problem, and its methods include reuse, recycling and reuse, landfill, and incineration. Recycling is important. Therefore, there has been an increasing movement to reuse the container body as a recycled material to reduce waste.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a toner supply container which is easier to reuse than a conventional toner supply container.

[0007]

According to the present invention, there is provided a toner supply container mounted on an electrophotographic image forming apparatus main body for supplying powder toner to a supplied portion provided in the electrophotographic image forming apparatus main body. The toner supply container body for storing the powder toner is formed of a thermoplastic resin containing an antistatic agent.

[0008] The present invention also provides the thermoplastic resin, wherein the antistatic agent is contained in an amount of 0.0 to 100 parts by weight of the thermoplastic resin.
It is characterized by containing 1 to 10 parts by weight.

Further, the present invention is characterized in that a nonionic surfactant is used as the antistatic agent.

Further, the present invention is characterized in that a polyolefin resin, a polystyrene resin, a polyester resin, an acrylic resin, a copolymer and a mixture of these resins are used as the thermoplastic resin.

According to the present invention, there is provided a toner supply container comprising:
By forming the toner supply container main body that stores the powder toner from a thermoplastic resin containing an antistatic agent,
The powder toner is prevented from adhering to the toner supply container main body, and the cleaning and removal of the powder toner are simplified.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a view showing the structure of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus provided with a toner supply container according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. It is). The apparatus main body 100 has a photoconductor 101 as an image carrier,
After an electrostatic latent image is formed on the photoreceptor 101 by a charger (not shown), an exposure device (not shown), or the like, a powder toner is adhered to the electrostatic latent image by a developing device 102 to form a visible image. Is formed.

The visible image is fed to the paper feed cassette 10
3, the paper feed roller 105, the transport roller 106,
The transfer material S supplied to the photoconductor 101 via 107 or the like
Is transferred by the transfer device 109. Thereafter, the transfer material S is conveyed to the fixing device 111 by conveying means provided near the heat exhaust fan 113, and
Heat and pressure are applied at 11. As a result, the visible image is fixed on the transfer material S and becomes a permanent image, and the transfer material S
At the same time, the image is discharged outside the apparatus main body, and the image formation is completed.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 102b denotes a developing sleeve disposed on the developing device 102 so that powder toner adheres to the electrostatic latent image on the photoreceptor 101; 1, a toner supply bottle as a toner supply container; Reference numeral denotes a storage device for storing the powder toner supplied from the toner supply bottle 1 and supplying the powder toner to the developing container 102a of the developing device 102.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the toner supply bottle. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 1a denotes a bottle main body, which is a main body of a toner supply container, and 2 denotes a bottle main body attached to a toner discharge opening (not shown) of the main body 1a. This is the cap part. Reference numeral 3 denotes a shutter provided on the cap unit 2,
When the powder toner is supplied to the developing device 102, the cap 2 is placed in an opening (not shown) of the storage device 2, and then the shutter 3 is pulled out to open the toner discharging opening.

Here, the bottle main body 1a is formed of a thermoplastic resin to which an antistatic agent is added, and the bottle main body 1a is not charged by adding the antistatic agent to the thermoplastic resin. It has properties.

Examples of the thermoplastic resin include polyolefin resins such as polyethylene and polypropylene, polystyrene resins, polyester resins, acrylic resins, and copolymers and mixtures of these resins.

The antistatic agent may be plastic, fiber,
It is a chemical that is added or applied to paper or the like to prevent the generation of static electricity. For example, when an antistatic agent is added to plastic, it is kneaded before molding.

As the antistatic agent, a surfactant can be used as a component. As the nonionic surfactant, poly (oxyethylene) alkylamine, poly (oxyethylene) alkylamide, poly (oxyethylene) alkylamide, (Oxyethylene) alkyl ether, poly (oxyethylene) alkylphenyl ether, glycerin fatty acid ester,
Sol vitamin fatty acid ester, anionic alkyl sulphonate, alkyl benzene sulphonate, alkyl sulphate, alkyl phosphate, cationic quaternary ammonium chloride, quaternary ammonium chloride
It is desirable to use an alkyl betaine, an alkyl imidazoline, an alkyl alanine, or the like as the quaternary ammonium sulfate, the quaternary ammonium nitrate, and the amphoteric system.

On the other hand, the powder toner contained in the bottle main body 1a is a fine powder of plastic into which the pigment is kneaded, and is charged with electrostatic charge by contact charging and keeps charging for a long time. .

Here, when the charged powder toner is stored in a conventional bottle body formed only of plastic, for example, the powder toner and the bottle body are electrostatically attracted, and the powder toner is Although the toner adheres to the bottle main body, the powder toner does not adhere to the bottle main body 1a because the bottle main body 1a containing the antistatic agent is not charged as described above.

As described above, from the viewpoint of effective use of resources, it is important to reuse and recycle the toner supply bottle. However, it is not possible to reuse the toner supply bottle if it remains attached to the inner wall of the bottle body. This is because when the bottle body is reused as a recycled material, after the bottle body is crushed, the powder toner is separated and removed from the crushed material by washing, and the bottle body is blow-molded again. This is because if the powder toner is not sufficiently washed and the powder toner remains, the color of the molded bottle differs from bottle to bottle, or the material strength of the bottle body decreases.

Therefore, as described above, by preventing the powder toner from adhering to the bottle body 1a, the powder toner remaining on the bottle body 1a can be easily removed by washing with water.

Thus, the used toner supply bottle 1
Is washed, the toner supply bottle 1 can be reused as it is. Further, since the used bottle body 1a does not contain any foreign matter, it can be reused as a thermoplastic resin.

It is preferable that the content of the antistatic agent in the bottle body is large, but if it is too large, it bleeds out to the surface of the bottle, and if this is transferred to the powder toner, the charging performance of the powder toner deteriorates. Become like

For this reason, the addition amount of the antistatic agent is 0.01 to 10 parts by weight with respect to 100 parts by weight of the thermoplastic resin.
Preferably, 0.05 to 5 parts by weight is good. Note that 0.
When the amount is less than 01 parts by weight, the antistatic effect is weak, and when the amount is more than 10%, the antistatic agent oozes on the surface of the thermoplastic resin to deteriorate the charging characteristics of the toner.

The bottle body 1 containing an antistatic agent
When preparing a, for example, an antistatic agent and a thermoplastic resin are melt-kneaded with a twin-screw kneader, pelletized, and blow-molded with a blow molding machine.

Next, an example of this embodiment will be described.

In this embodiment, the thermoplastic resin is polypropylene (made by Mitsui Toatsu, grade: MJS-20).
56) 100 parts by weight and 2 parts by weight of polyethylene glycol (made by NOF Corporation, # 6000) as an antistatic agent were melt-mixed and pelletized using a twin-screw kneader, and the pellets were used to prepare a bottle body 1a.

A copy machine NP980, a copy machine manufactured by Canon Inc.
After filling 500 g of the 0 toner (NPG-2) and stirring and mixing 20 times, the powder toner was discharged from the bottle main body 1a, and the inner wall of the bottle main body 1a was observed. As a result, almost no powder toner remained on the inner wall of the bottle. Further, when the bottle body 1a was washed with water, the remaining powder toner could be easily removed.

Next, a comparative example of this embodiment will be described.

In this comparative example, a bottle body was prepared in the same manner as in this example except that no antistatic agent was used, and the same toner as in this example was filled, and the mixture was stirred and mixed 20 times. The powder toner was discharged from the main body, and the inner wall of the bottle was observed.

As a result, the powder toner which could be clearly confirmed visually remained partially on the corners and wall surfaces of the bottle main body, and the fine powder thinly adhered to the entire inner wall surface of the bottle. Further, even if the bottle body was washed with water, the powder toner could not be easily removed.

[0035]

As described above, according to the present invention, the toner supply container body is formed of a thermoplastic resin containing an antistatic agent so that the powder toner does not adhere to the toner supply container. As a result, the powder toner can be easily separated from the toner supply container main body, and the toner supply container main body after use can be easily reused. Further, since the used toner supply container main body does not contain foreign matter, it can be reused as a thermoplastic resin.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a structure of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus provided with a toner supply container according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the toner supply container.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Toner supply bottle 1a Bottle main body 2 Cap part 3 Shutter 100 Electrophotographic image forming apparatus main body 102 Developing device

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An electrophotographic image forming apparatus main body,
In a toner supply container for supplying a powder toner to a supply portion provided in the electrophotographic image forming apparatus main body, a toner supply container main body containing the powder toner is formed by a thermoplastic resin containing an antistatic agent. A toner supply container formed by: 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the thermoplastic resin is a thermoplastic resin.
The toner supply container according to claim 1, wherein the antistatic agent is contained in an amount of 0.01 to 10 parts by weight based on 0 parts by weight. 3. The toner supply container according to claim 1, wherein a nonionic surfactant is used as the antistatic agent. 4. The toner supply container according to claim 1, wherein a polyolefin resin, a polystyrene resin, a polyester resin, an acrylic resin, a copolymer or a mixture of these resins is used as the thermoplastic resin.