JPH11174764A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To simplify a structure relating to the supply of a lubricant to an image carrier, thereby contributing to the miniaturization of the device, and also to restrain wasteful consumption and uneven supply of the lubricant to the utmost. SOLUTION: A lubricant supply mechanism 2 is composed of a device composing member 6 fixed to a device main body 4, a lubricant 8 in the form of a sheet fixed to the device composing member 6, and a supply brush 10 in contact with the lubricant 8, which supplies the lubricant to the photoreceptor 100. The thickness (t) of the lubricant 8 is not larger than the amount D that the lubricant 8 is pressed into the supply brush 10.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a printer, a facsimile, and the like.
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus having a function of supplying a lubricant to a surface of an image carrier.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a printer, and a facsimile, for example, as shown in FIG. 10, a charging roller 102, an exposure unit 104, a developing unit 106, A transfer unit 108, a cleaning blade 110, a static eliminator 112, and the like are arranged, and each image forming process such as charging, exposure, development, transfer, cleaning, and static elimination is executed as the photoconductor 100 rotates in the direction of the arrow. It has become so. The exposure by the exposure unit 104 forms an electrostatic latent image of the target image on the photoconductor 100, and the electrostatic latent image is visualized into a toner image by the developing unit 106. Thereafter, the toner image is transferred by the transfer unit 108 to the sheet P fed at a predetermined timing by the pair of registration rollers 114,114. Paper P on which toner image has been transferred
Is sent to a fixing device (not shown), where the toner image is fixed on the paper P as a permanent image by heat and pressure. The toner remaining on the photoconductor 100 is removed by the cleaning blade 1
10, and the residual charges are removed by the static eliminator 112.

Some of the image forming units or members directly contact the surface of the photoconductor 100, such as the charging roller 102, the transfer unit 108, and the cleaning blade 110. It is known that if a certain amount is removed by contact abrasion, the electrical characteristics or photosensitive characteristics of the photoreceptor 100 change. In such a case, a predetermined image forming process cannot be performed.
That is, the wear of the photosensitive layer causes a reduction in the life of the photosensitive member 100. As described above, there are a plurality of image forming units or members that come into contact with the surface of the photoconductor 100, but the most problematic is the cleaning blade 110, and the other image forming units or members are caused by wear. Occurs, but not to such an extent that the life of the photoconductor 100 is substantially reduced. The reason why the cleaning blade 110 is a problem is as follows.
This is because, in order to remove the toner remaining on the photoreceptor 100, the contact is made mechanically, that is, the contact is made to scrape off. The wear caused by the cleaning blade 110 is mainly divided into the following two forms. Abrasion due to shear force generated between photoconductor 100 and cleaning blade 110
And acts like a grindstone, and wear caused by such abrasive action is a factor that determines the occurrence of such wear.
00, the contact pressure of the cleaning blade 110 against the photoconductor 100, the composition of the toner particles, the photoconductor 1
00 surface friction coefficient.

[0004] The main purpose is to suppress the wear of the surface of the photoconductor 100 by the cleaning blade 110.
As shown in FIG. 10, a lubricant supply mechanism 116 is provided. The lubricant supply mechanism 116 includes a case 118 fixed to the apparatus main body, a lubricant 120 movably accommodated in the case 118, a supply roller 122 that contacts the lubricant 120 and scrapes the lubricant 120, Supply roller 1
The lubricant 120 attached to the photosensitive member 100 is taken away.
The lubricant 120 is urged by a spring 126 against the supply roller 122 so that almost all of the lubricant can be used up. The lubricating material 120 is a consumable and its thickness decreases with time. However, since the lubricating material 120 is pressed by the spring 126, the lubricating material 120 always contacts the supply roller 122.

As shown in FIG. 11, the lubricant 120 is formed in a rectangular parallelepiped shape extending in the axial direction of the photoreceptor 100.
Case 11 that guides movement due to consumption of lubricant 120
8 also has a shape corresponding to this. When the lubricant 120 is supplied to the surface of the photoconductor 100, the friction coefficient between the cleaning blade 110 and the surface of the photoconductor 100 decreases, and thereby the abrasion of the surface of the photoconductor 100 is suppressed. As the lubricant 120, a solid lubricant such as zinc stearate is used. As shown in FIG. 12, there is a type in which the lubricant 120 is directly supplied to the surface of the photoconductor 100 by the supply brush 124 without providing the supply roller 122.
On the other hand, JP-A-6-342236 discloses that the photosensitive member 1 is provided only by the supply roller 122 without providing the supply brush 124.
A configuration has been proposed in which the supply is made directly to 00. In the case of this prior art, in order to simplify the configuration of the lubricant supply mechanism, the supply roller 122 is configured to also serve as the charging roller 102 as an existing component.

[0006] Previously, a rectangular parallelepiped lubricant 120 was used.
Is directly fixed to a part of the structure of the apparatus main body, and the supply brush 124 is brought into contact with the device so that its tip is warped, that is, the supply brush 124 is similar to that shown in FIG.
However, since the lubricant 120 is fixed, the warpage of the brush tip is recovered, and at the same time, the scraping action on the lubricant 120 is lost, and the remaining lubricant 120 is wasted. was there. In order to solve this problem, a pressurizing structure using the spring 126 or the like is mainly used.

[0007]

In recent years, in this type of image forming apparatus, regardless of the purpose of the improvement, improvement of the apparatus as a whole, simplification of the configuration and reduction of the cost are strongly demanded. ing. From this point of view, when looking at the prior art having the lubricating material pressurizing configuration, the emphasis is placed on the lubricant supply function of using the lubricating material without waste, and it can be said that the configuration contradicts the technical trend. . Also, there is a problem in the lubricant supply function itself, that is, the stroke of the spring changes as the supply of the lubricant progresses, and the pressing force changes. That is, when the pressing force changes, uneven supply of the lubricant to the photoconductor occurs, and it is impossible to stably reduce the friction coefficient of the entire surface of the photoconductor.

In addition, since the lubricant must be movable, the lubricant itself must have mechanical strength and rigidity and have dimensional accuracy in the longitudinal direction. . However, the lubricating material itself is very brittle due to its properties, lacks rigidity, and is likely to bend. When the flexure occurs, a contact failure with the supply roller or the like occurs, resulting in uneven supply of the lubricant. Further, when the thickness of the lubricant is reduced by the supply, cracks easily occur before the lubricant is used up due to brittleness, and in this case, the supply of the lubricant becomes uneven. As described above, since the influence of the dimensional accuracy, the blending ratio of the binder material, and the like is likely to occur, there is a problem from the viewpoint of manufacturing.

Therefore, the present invention has been made to reduce the size and simplification of the structure relating to the supply of the lubricant without causing the remaining use of the lubricant.
It is a main object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus capable of reducing costs and preventing uneven supply of a lubricant to an image carrier without being affected by manufacturing accuracy or the like.

[0010]

Means for Solving the Problems A lubricant is brought into contact with a member that comes into contact with the lubricant so that one of them is deformed,
In addition, when the thickness of the lubricant is within a range in which the deformation is recovered, the lubricant can be used up without requiring a pressurizing structure. In addition, if the lubricant is fixed, the mechanical strength, rigidity, and the like that should be originally possessed by the lubricant can be imparted to the structure such as the main body of the apparatus. The delicateness can be reduced. This is the purpose of the present invention. More specifically, according to the first aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus having a function of supplying a lubricant to the surface of the image carrier, the lubricant is fixedly provided to an apparatus constituent member, and The thickness is set to be equal to or less than the bite amount of one of the lubricant and the member in contact with the lubricant. Here, the term “lubricant” refers to a concept including a member itself containing a liquid or powder lubricant in addition to a solid lubricant.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the configuration of the first aspect, the lubricant is formed in a sheet shape, and is fixed to an apparatus component.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the configuration of the first aspect, the lubricant is provided by being coated on a fixing member.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the bite amount is obtained by deformation of the lubricant.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the configuration of the fourth aspect, an elastic body is provided inside the lubricant so as to always restore the deformation of the lubricant. .

According to the invention of claim 6, in claim 4 or 5,
In the configuration described above, a configuration is adopted in which the member that contacts the lubricant is the image carrier itself.

According to the seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided the first, second, third and fourth aspects.
3, 4, 5, or 6, wherein the lubricant is polytetrafluoroethylene.

[0017]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. The same parts as those in the conventional example are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the description of the configuration and the function is the same, so that the description is omitted (the same applies hereinafter). As shown in FIG. 1, the image forming apparatus according to the present embodiment includes a lubricant supply mechanism 2. The lubricant supply mechanism 2 includes a device component 6 having a U-shaped cross section fixed to the device main body 4, a lubricant 8 fixed to the device component 6 in an attached state, and a lubricant 8 in contact with the lubricant 8. And a supply brush 10 for supplying the lubricant 8 to the surface of the photoconductor 100 as an image carrier. A conventional cleaning brush is used as the supply brush 10, and is driven to rotate in a direction indicated by an arrow by a drive mechanism (not shown).

The lubricating material 8 is manufactured with a composition distribution that does not cause plastic fracture, elastic fracture, creep fracture, cracks, etc. even when bent at a right angle, and is formed in a sheet shape (including a concept of a film shape). . In this embodiment, the thickness is 3 m
m is defined as a sheet. As a method of processing the lubricant 8 into a sheet shape, for example, a forming process, a rolling process, or the like can be adopted, and further, a method of cutting and finishing the formed product may be adopted.
Further, as a special construction method, there is foam molding or the like, and it is possible to have an elastic force while having a sheet shape.

As shown in FIG. 2, the lubricating material 8 is adhered along the bottom surface of the apparatus component member 6 and both side surfaces rising perpendicularly from the bottom surface under the bending characteristics and rigidity. The portion substantially supplied to the photoreceptor 100 by the supply brush 10 is a portion 8a fixed to the bottom surface of the device component 6, but 8b and 8b fixed to the side surface of the device component 6.
The portion 8c has a significance as a safety measure for maintaining the fixation of the portion 8a. That is, as shown in FIG. 3, when the lubricant 8 has a size fixed only to the bottom surface of the device component 6, the scraping force of the supply brush 10, that is, the shearing force F causes the device component 6 and the lubricant to be fixed. This is because there is a possibility that the adhesion between the lubricating material 8 and the lubricating material 8 may be broken, the peeling may progress, and the lubricating material 8 may fall off from the component member 6. In the present embodiment, both sides of the apparatus component member 6 are provided with 8
The portions b and 8c are fixed, but if the rotation direction of the supply brush 10 is constant, it may be fixed to only the corresponding side surface.

Next, the relationship between the lubricant 8 and the supply brush 10 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. The lubricant 8 is installed so as to bite into the supply brush 10, and the bite amount is D. The thickness t of the lubricant 8 is set to be equal to or less than the bite amount D. The unit brush body 10a of the supply brush 10 in contact with the lubricant 8 is in a state where the tip is bent. Therefore, the bite amount D is, in other words,
It can be said that this is the maximum displacement when the deformation of the unit brush body 10a as the elastic body is finally restored.

When the supply brush 10 rotates, the lubricant 8 is scraped off by the tip of the unit brush body 10a, and the scraped lubricant 8 is carried while being attached to the unit brush body 10a. Moved to Photoconductor 1
When the lubricant 8 is added to the surface of the photoconductor 100, the friction coefficient of the surface of the photoconductor 100 is reduced by the lubrication of the lubricant 8, and the contact friction with the cleaning blade 110 on the downstream side in the rotation direction of the photoconductor 100 is reduced. Is done. Lubricant 8
Is set to be equal to or less than the amount of penetration D, the amount of penetration exists until the lubricant 8 (strictly, the portion 8a) is used up, or the amount of penetration remains even after the lubricant 8 is used up. Since it is present, the residual amount of the lubricant 8 can be minimized. In addition, since the change in the thickness of the lubricant 8 over time at the initial stage is small, the change over time in the contact pressure of the unit brush body 10a with the lubricant 8 is small, and the occurrence of uneven supply to the photosensitive member 100 is suppressed as much as possible. .

As described above, since the pressurizing structure of the lubricating material 8 is not required as in the prior art, the structure can be reduced in size, simplified, and reduced in cost. Further, since the lubricant 8 is formed in a sheet shape, the lubricant 8 can be cut into an arbitrary shape and used, so that the lubricant 8 can be arbitrarily adapted according to the configuration of the apparatus main body in which the lubricant supply mechanism 2 is installed. Can be. In addition, since the lubricant 8 is fixed to the device component 6, the mechanical strength, rigidity, and dimensional accuracy in the longitudinal direction of the conventional lubricant 8 are determined by allowing the device component 6 to carry a basic part thereof. The lubricating material 8 itself only needs to have the rigidity necessary to fix it to the device component 6. After being fixed to the device component 6, the mechanical strength, rigidity, and dimensional accuracy in the longitudinal direction of the lubricant 8 are guaranteed by the device component 6 as a rigid body, and deflection or the like occurs over time. There is no. Therefore, the delicateness with respect to the manufacturing accuracy and the like of the lubricant 8 can be reduced, and the manufacturing easiness and the handleability can be improved. The device constituent member 6 is not necessarily a component to be newly added, and a part of the device main body may be directly used as the device constituent member 6.

In this embodiment, the material of the lubricant 8 is PT
FE (polytetrafluoroethylene) is employed.
The reason is that the following properties are effective for the above-described configuration, and the effect of reducing the friction coefficient is high. Since the polarizability of the fluorine molecule is small, the intermolecular cohesive energy of the fluorine-containing compound is low. The molecular chain surface is structurally smooth. Orientation reduces frictional resistance. Chemically stable. In addition, it has been confirmed that the supply amount is very small because of its excellent lubricity, and a sufficient effect can be obtained even in the case of a sheet. According to an experiment conducted by the present inventors, a aging test was performed with the thickness t of the lubricant 8 set to 2 mm under the above configuration. The amount of scraping of the 100 photosensitive layers was about 1/4 of that of the conventional case of the same number. PTFE has been commercialized in various forms such as powder, sheet material, tape material, film material, etc.
Use of off-the-shelf products can further reduce costs. Its workability is as excellent as other molded products, and it can cope with various kinds of processing such as cutting, cutting, and grinding, and the shape can be easily optimized according to the situation.

Here, the level of the coefficient of static friction of the image carrier (photoreceptor 100) aimed at by the present invention will be described with reference to data measured by an Euler belt method. In this case, a medium-quality high-quality paper as a belt is stretched around the drum circumference ド ラ ム of the photoreceptor 100 with the paper gap in the longitudinal direction, and a load of, for example, 100 gr is applied to one of the belts and a force gauge is applied to the other. Is installed, the force gauge is pulled, and the load at the time when the belt moves is read and calculated by the following equation. μs = 2 / π × 1n (F / w) where μs: coefficient of static friction, F: measured value, w: load

In this case, it has been found that the above effect can be obtained when the coefficient of static friction of the surface of the photoreceptor 100 is 0.4 or less by the Euler belt method from the viewpoint of abrasion.
Therefore, in the present invention, the goal is to reduce the coefficient of static friction of the photoconductor 100 to 0.4 or less, and an example of the realization is the configuration of the lubricant supply mechanism 2. However, when the wear amount is controlled to a certain level in addition to always maintaining the value of 0.4 or less, the purpose may be such that the value may temporarily exceed 0.4 for an arbitrary time. Further, as a region having a higher effect on abrasion, 0.1.
It can be controlled to 3 to 0.1. In this case, it has been experimentally confirmed that the wear amount is further reduced. When the static friction coefficient becomes 0.08 or less,
It has been experimentally confirmed that image defects occur due to the effects of ionized adhering substances and the like.
It is desirable not to drop below 8. However,
Since these values fluctuate depending on environmental conditions, etc.,
0.08 or less is not always defective. Therefore, the lower limit value of the coefficient of static friction may be arbitrarily set according to the environmental conditions and the like.

As the material of the lubricant 8, in addition to the above-mentioned PTFE, various fluorine-containing resins such as PFA and PVDF, silicone resins, polyolefin resins, silicone grease, fluorine grease, paraffin wax, and fatty acid metals such as zinc stearate. Solid lubricants such as salt, graphite and molybdenum disulfide can be employed. Further, a liquid lubricant such as silicon oil or fluorine oil can be used. In the case of a liquid lubricant, it is used by impregnating it with a felt material or the like. In this case, the entirety including the liquid lubricant holding body such as a felt material corresponds to the lubricant 8. Therefore, if a liquid lubricant holding body such as a felt material is formed in a sheet shape and impregnated with the liquid lubricant, a material corresponding to the sheet-shaped lubricant 8 is completed. The material of the lubricant 8 is not limited to one type, and may be a mixed composition of two or more types.

In the above embodiment, the lubricating material 8 is a molded product. However, the lubricating material 8 may be directly coated on the device component 6 or the device body. In the case of a molded product, there is a danger of cracking or the like during handling until the molded product is fixed to the device constituent member 6 or the like, but in the case of a coating, there is an advantage that this can be eliminated. Further, in the case of coating, there is an advantage that the shape of the portion to be coated is hardly limited, and the desired lubricant shape can be freely formed. Further, as shown in FIG. 5, one surface of the sheet-shaped or tape-shaped elastic body 12 may be coated with a lubricant 14 so as to be handled in the same manner as the lubricant 8 of the molded product. In this case, since the back surface of the thin lubricating material 14 is reinforced and held by the elastic body 12, even if cracks occur, no displacement occurs, and there is almost no influence from the viewpoint of uneven supply. Therefore, the lubricant 8
Strict composition distribution is not required, and production becomes easy. In this case, the other surface of the elastic body 12 is a fixing surface to the device component 6.

In the above embodiment, the lubricant 8 is supplied to the supply brush 1.
0 is added to the photoreceptor 100.
As shown in (1), even when the elastic roller 16 is used, the same lubricant supply function can be obtained. Also in this case, the thickness t of the lubricant 8 is set to be equal to or less than the bite amount D. As a member to be supplied to the photoreceptor 100 in contact with the lubricant 8, a charging brush, which is an existing element, can be used.

FIG. 7 shows still another modification of the lubricant supply mechanism 2. The device component member 20 has a substantially semicircular bottom surface 20a having a diameter smaller than the diameter of the supply brush 10, and a sheet-like lubricant 8 is adhered along the bottom surface 20a. The lubricating material 8 is adjusted in bending rigidity and the like as in the above-described embodiment. The thickness t of the lubricant 8 is set to be less than or equal to the bite D of the lubricant 8 into the supply brush 10. At both ends of the bottom surface 20a of the device component member 20, flat portions 20b and 20c are continuously provided.
The ends of the lubricant 8 are also adhered to b and 20c. That is, similarly to the above embodiment, the portion adhered to the bottom surface 20a of the lubricant 8 is not peeled off by the scraping force of the supply brush 10. The supply amount of the lubricant 8 is affected by the size of the contact area with the supply brush 10, but if the fixed shape of the lubricant 8 is made to follow the surface shape of the supply brush 10 as described above, the device configuration The bottom surface 20 of the member 20
By changing the arc length of a, the supply amount of the lubricant 8 can be controlled, and an optimal friction coefficient reduction configuration can be realized from the balance between the consumption amount and the supply amount of the lubricant 8. Also in this embodiment, the mechanical strength and the like of the lubricating material 8 are borne by the device constituting member 20.

In each of the above-described embodiments, the biting amount D is obtained by the deformation of the supply brush 10 in contact with the lubricant 8, more precisely, the deformation of the tip of the unit brush body 10 a. It is also possible to adopt a configuration for obtaining the same.
One example is shown in FIG. The lubricant supply mechanism 24 according to the present embodiment includes a device component 6, an elastic body 26 fixed to the bottom surface of the device component 6, and both end portions surrounding the elastic body 26 and having side surfaces of the device component 6. And a sheet-like lubricating material 8 fixed to the sheet. Unlike the above embodiments, the photoconductor 100 is configured to directly contact the lubricant 8. The lubricant 8 is deformed so as to fit the surface shape of the photoconductor 100, and the amount of bite D is obtained by the deformation of the lubricant 8. When the bite amount D exists, the lubricant 8 is constantly pressed against the photoconductor 100 by the elastic force of the elastic body 26, and this pressing force is applied to the photoconductor 1.
A lubricant scraping force of 00.

Therefore, the thickness t of the lubricant 8 is determined by the amount of penetration D
Since it is set as follows, the portion of the lubricant 8 facing the photoconductor 100 is used up over time. Further, since the thickness of the lubricant 8 in the initial stage and the change with time is small, the change in the contact pressure of the lubricant 8 with the photosensitive member 100 with time is small, and the occurrence of uneven supply is suppressed as much as possible. In the case of this embodiment, in addition to the device constituent member 6, the elastic body 26
Will bear the strength. As a material of the elastic body 26,
An expandable molding material, rubber, or the like can be employed.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 8, the photosensitive member 100 is applied to the elastically deformable lubricant 8 under the backup of the elastic member 26.
Are in direct contact with each other, but an indirect supply method in which the elastic roller 16 shown in FIG. Also,
A supply system in which the supply brush shown in FIG. 4 is brought into contact may be used. In this case, since the elasticity of both the lubricant 8 and the elastic roller 16 can be controlled, a highly accurate optimized configuration can be obtained.

In each of the above embodiments, the photosensitive member 1 is used as an image carrier.
00, but is not limited to this.
As shown in FIG. 9, the intermediate transfer belt 4 as an image carrier
It is also effective for 0. FIG. 9 shows a full-color image forming apparatus. Four developing units 32, 34, 36, and 38 of different colors are provided around the photoreceptor 30, and the toner images of each color are superimposed and transferred onto an intermediate transfer belt 40 as an image carrier. Is transferred collectively by the transfer unit 44 to the sheet P fed at a predetermined timing by the pair of registration rollers 42, 42. Although not shown, a cleaning blade for cleaning the toner remaining on the intermediate transfer belt 40 is provided, and has a problem due to abrasion, that is, a decrease in transfer characteristics as in the above-described embodiment. To cope with this, a lubricant supply mechanism 2 is provided. The configuration and function of the lubricant supply mechanism 2 are the same as those in the above-described embodiment, and will not be described. Thereby, the friction coefficient of the surface of the intermediate transfer belt 40 can be reduced, and the early life of the intermediate transfer belt 40 can be prevented from shortening. Further, the modified example of the lubricant supply mechanism 2 in each of the above embodiments can be similarly applied to the intermediate transfer belt 40. Note that the same applies to the case where the intermediate transfer member has a roller shape.

[0034]

According to the first or fourth aspect of the present invention, the lubricating material is fixed and the thickness of the lubricating material is set to be equal to or less than the bite amount, so that the remaining amount of the lubricating material is minimized. The apparatus can be reduced in size, the configuration can be simplified, and the cost can be reduced while eliminating waste and suppressing occurrence of uneven supply to the image carrier. Further, by fixing the lubricant, the rigidity and the like of the lubricant can be assigned to the member to be fixed, and the function of the lubricant can be separated, so that the manufacturing conditions of the lubricant can be eased.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the lubricant is formed in a sheet shape, in addition to the effect of the first aspect, the lubricant can be processed into an arbitrary shape, so that the installation form of the lubricant can be variously and easily. Can be

According to the third aspect of the invention, since the lubricant is coated, the shape and thickness of the lubricant can be arbitrarily set in addition to the effects of the first aspect. Is less affected by the shape of the lubrication material, so that the ease of installation of the lubricant can be further enhanced.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, since the elastic body is provided so as to always restore the deformation of the lubricant, in addition to the effect of the fourth aspect, even if the elasticity and rigidity of the lubricant are small. The occurrence of supply unevenness can be reduced.

According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, since the image carrier is brought into direct contact with the lubricant, in addition to the effects of the fourth and fifth aspects, the apparatus can be downsized, the configuration can be simplified, and the cost can be reduced. Can be further improved.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, since polytetrafluoroethylene is used as the lubricant, in addition to the effects of the first, second, third, fourth, fifth or sixth aspect, the lubricant is reduced. Since a high coefficient of friction reduction function can be obtained, the size of the device, the simplification of the configuration, and the cost reduction can be further improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a perspective view showing a fixed state of a lubricant of a lubricant supply mechanism in the image forming apparatus shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing a peeled state in one fixed form of a lubricant.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of a lubricant supply mechanism in the image forming apparatus shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a modified example of a lubricant.

FIG. 6 is a schematic sectional view of a lubricant supply mechanism according to another embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a schematic sectional view of a lubricant supply mechanism according to another embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a schematic sectional view of a lubricant supply mechanism according to another embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of an image forming apparatus according to another embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of a conventional image forming apparatus.

11 is a perspective view of a lubricant in the image forming apparatus shown in FIG.

FIG. 12 is a schematic sectional view showing a modification of a conventional lubricant supply mechanism.

[Explanation of symbols]

6 Device Constituent Member 8 Lubricant 10 Supply Brush as Member Contacting Lubricant 16 Elastic Roller as Member Contacting Lubricant 26 Elastic Body 40 Intermediate Transfer Belt as Image Carrier 100 Photoconductor as Image Carrier D Penetration t Lubricant thickness

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Hiroshi Nagame 1-3-6 Nakamagome, Ota-ku, Tokyo, Ricoh Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Minoru Kojima 1-3-6 Nakamagome, Ota-ku, Tokyo Ricoh Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Hiroyuki Fushimi 1-3-6 Nakamagome, Ota-ku, Tokyo Ricoh Co., Ltd.

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. An image forming apparatus having a function of supplying a lubricant to the surface of an image carrier, wherein the lubricant is fixedly provided on a component member of the apparatus, and the thickness of the lubricant is equal to that of the lubricant. An image forming apparatus characterized in that it is set to be less than or equal to the bite amount of one of the members contacting the lubricant. 2. An image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said lubricant is formed in a sheet shape and is fixed to an apparatus constituent member. 3. An image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said lubricant is provided by coating the constituent members of the apparatus. 4. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said bite amount is obtained by deformation of said lubricant. 5. The image forming apparatus according to claim 4, wherein an elastic body is provided inside the lubricant so as to always restore the deformation of the lubricant. 6. The image forming apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the member that contacts the lubricant is the image carrier itself. 7. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said lubricant is polytetrafluoroethylene.