JPS58114076A - Cleaning device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To stabilize cleaning performance without variance and to maintain high efficiency by equipping an elastic member on the surface of a substrate which mounts a belt-shaped electrostatic latent image carrier to uniform a contacting of a cleaning blade. CONSTITUTION:The blade 7 is made of the elastic plate of urethane rubber, etc., and a photoreceptor (belt) 12 is formed endlessly by using a multilayered elastic belt consisting of an insulating layer, conductive layer, photoconductive layer, etc. The elastic member 30 consists of, for example, foamed urethane or electrostatically flocked member, etc., and is stuck to the top surface of the substrate 8 by a tape having an adhesive on both sides; and since the member slides while clamping the photoreceptor belt 12 by the blade 7 and elastic member 30, so local unevenness of cleaning is eliminated, to improve the cleaning effect.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a cleaning device for an endless belt-shaped electrostatic latent image carrier in a photocopy machine or an electrostatic recording device.

Conventionally, electric f-? Based on the method or electrostatic recording method, an electrostatic image formed on an electrostatic latent image bearing member (hereinafter referred to as an IC-sensitive member) such as a photoreceptor or an insulator is developed with a developer, and Devices for transferring this visible image onto a transfer material are known. In such an apparatus, the surface of the photoreceptor is cleaned after use, and the photoreceptor is used repeatedly.

As such a photoreceptor cleaning device, a fur brush method, a web method, a magnetic brush method, a fixed blade method, and the like have been proposed.

However, with the fur brush method, a rotating brush is brought into sliding contact with the surface of the photoconductor, and the removed powder developer may scatter or float inside the device, impairing the performance of the optical system, or the hairs of the brush may fall off, causing exposure to light. The web method has the drawback that it adheres to the body surface and reduces image quality.The web method presses the moving cloth belt against the surface of the photoreceptor, so the device for driving the cloth belt becomes bulky, and the magnetic brush method It is necessary to provide a non-magnetic sleeve containing a magnet inside, which has the disadvantage of a complicated structure and high cost. The disadvantages of the above three methods are that the photoreceptor is either drum-shaped or endless belt-shaped, and this can be said to be common, but what is the evaluation of the fixed belt method? e,
7+ Divided by a single cedar shape. That is, fixed bell i
・The method is difficult to position and apply pressure to bring the blade into even contact with the curved surface of the drum for a tram-shaped body, and if the contact pressure is increased! +! ”, lC
Although it has the disadvantage of causing scratches on the surface, it is J/Bact and has high cleaning efficiency.

・In the case of an endless belt-like photoconductor, the contact of the blade [
1: There is a risk of the belt slipping, and this tendency is particularly severe when the belt has seams. Also,
There is a drawback that the seam causes scratches on the plate, leading to poor cleaning, and if you try to solve this problem by 9 times, you will have to provide a means for the blade to contact the belt with 11#, which will complicate the configuration and cost) hk The shortcomings of becoming a bull are [ru].

Therefore, in order to eliminate the shortcomings of the fixed plate method, we focused on the fact that the belt-shaped photoreceptor is stopped 1 during 'l'f IFL exposure, and on the surface of the photoreceptor during the stop I. A cleaning method has been proposed in which a fixed plate is brought into sliding contact with a part of the moving exposure means.

FIG. 1 shows an electronic copying machine incorporating the above-mentioned moving plate type cleaning device.

In this figure, a document table 2 made of transparent glass is provided on the -L side of the main body 1.

An optical section 5 and a charging section 4 are integrally formed below the document table 2, and are movable by being attached to a wire 54. The ends of the wire 54 are wound around pulleys 5 and 6 located at the upper corners of the main body, and the pulleys 5 and 6 are driven and controlled in five ways: stop, forward rotation, and reverse rotation, so that the eyes can be seen. The optical section and the charging section (hereinafter referred to as exposure means) described in 1j are adapted to stop, move forward (move rightward in the figure), or move backward (move leftward in the figure) below the document table 2. .

A blade 7 is fixed to the right side of the charging section 4 in the drawing in a direction perpendicular to the reciprocating direction. Further, the blade 7 has a posture bent forward with respect to the forward movement direction. A belt unit 57 is arranged below the path of the exposure means. The belt unit 57 is connected to a substrate 8. which is arranged parallel to the document table 2. rollers 9 and groups arranged at both ends of the substrate 8;
Below the roller 9, the tension roller 11 and these IJ-ra 9.+0.++
The belt consists of an endless belt-like body 12 (hereinafter simply referred to as a belt).The belt 12 moves or stops in the direction of the arrow, but the belt 12 It is designed to be in sliding contact with the top surface of the bell 1 unit 57
Around the developing section, the paper feeding section 14. The rotation section 15 and the static eliminator 16 are arranged in this order in the moving direction of the belt 12.

When a print button (not shown) is pressed, the exposure P stage moves forward from the home position shown, the charging section 4 applies corona discharge to the belt 12, and the surface of the belt 12 is uniformly charged. Subsequently, when the optical image of the document is projected onto the belt 12 via the optical section located on the delayed side of the forward movement direction of the charging section 4, an electrostatic latent image is formed on the belt 12. When the scanning of the document ends rL and the exposure C means reaches the end point of the forward stroke, the belt 12 starts rotating in the direction of the arrow. The electrostatic latent image is visualized by adhesion of a powder developer called toner in the developing section 15. On the other hand belt 1
A transfer paper (not shown) fed from the paper feed device 14 in synchronization with the rotation of the transfer section 2 has the visible image transferred thereon by the action of the transfer section 2, and is discharged outside the machine via the fixing device 17. While the belt 12 is rotating, the exposure means
The blade 7 moves back to the home position at the same speed as the belt 12 while remaining in contact with the belt 12, and when the blade 7 reaches the home position, it is separated from the belt 12.

Now, it is normal for developer to remain on the surface of the belt I2 downstream of the rolling portion 15. The adhesion force of this developer to the belt 12 is weakened by the action of the static eliminator 160.

When the residual portion of the developer whose adhesion has weakened reaches the home position of belt +2, that is, the position facing document table 2, belt 12 stops.

When the belt 12 stops, as shown in FIG.
A cleaning blade 7 fixed to the member moves to the right in the figure and squeezes out the developer remaining on the belt 12''. At this time, the belt 12 is brought into close contact with the substrate 8-L. When the cleaning plate 17 is located at the position indicated by the dotted line in the figure, the gathered developer falls towards the bottom.
Collection roller 2 that rotates at the same speed while contacting the belt 12
It adheres to the circumferential surface of o.

The particles are scraped off by the doctor blade 21 that comes into contact with the 11th f-th roller 20 and stored in the recovery tank 22.

Furthermore, the cleaning plate 7 is connected to I1 indicated by the chain line in the figure.
゛When the device is reached, the 7-g blade 7 is recovered /
The developer that collides with the side plate of the cleaning blade 7 and adheres to the tip of the cleaning blade 7 also falls into the recovery tank 22 due to the impact.

According to this method, the cleaning blade can uniformly contact the belt that is in close contact with the flat surface of the substrate, making it easy to position the cleaning blade. Because it can be used, it has the advantage of having fewer negative effects on scratches, wear, etc. However, this advantage is achieved on the premise that the movement locus (ice surface) of the leading edge of the cleaning blade and the top surface of the belt are parallel to each other. That is,
Considering the parallelism between the rail on which the exposure means that secures the belt runs and the substrate, the uniformity of the belt's wall thickness, and the play between each member, it is difficult for the cleaning blade to work evenly. However, since the substrate is a rigid body, cleaning performance tends to be uneven.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, the present invention eliminates all the drawbacks of the cleaning devices used in electrophotographic copying machines, electrostatic recording devices, etc., and provides a cleaning device that can stably maintain high cleaning efficiency by making the contact of the cleaning blade uniform. The purpose is to

This purpose is to provide a substrate parallel to the document table, an endless belt-shaped electrostatic latent image carrier that moves or stops in one direction on the substrate, and a connection between the electrostatic latent image carrier and the document table. an exposing means disposed in the middle of the electrostatic latent image bearing member and reciprocating in the moving direction of the electrostatic latent image carrier; This is achieved by a cleaning device having a cleaning blade for cleaning developer remaining on the surface of the electrostatic latent image carrier, characterized in that an elastic member is interposed between the electrostatic latent image carrier and the substrate. 1. According to the present invention, the belt-shaped electrostatic latent image carrier is
By attaching an elastic member to the surface of the substrate to be placed, the contact of the cleaning blade is made equal, so that the cleaning performance is stable and highly efficient without fluctuation.

Hereinafter, one illustrated embodiment will be described in detail.

FIG. 5 is the same as FIG. 2 except that an elastic member 5o is provided on the upper surface of the substrate 8. Therefore, components that are the same as or equivalent to the conventional configuration are designated by the same reference numerals and a description thereof will be omitted. To further explain the features of the present invention with reference to FIG. 4, the blade 7 is made of an elastic plate such as urethane rubber, and the photoreceptor (belt) 12 is made of an insulating layer, a conductive layer, a photoconductive layer, etc. It is made of a multi-layered elastic belt and is formed into an endless shape. The elastic member 50 is made of, for example, urethane foam or an electrostatic flocking member, and is adhered to the upper surface of the substrate 8 via a tape coated with adhesive on both sides.

Therefore, as clearly shown in FIG. 5, since the blade 7 and the elastic member 50 come into sliding contact with each other while sandwiching the photoreceptor belt 12, local unevenness in cleaning is eliminated and cleaning efficiency is improved. . By selecting a member that has a low coefficient of friction between the elastic member 50 and the back surface of the belt 12, the load when the belt +2 moves on the substrate 8 can be reduced.

It's great to be able to save on electricity usage.

FIG. 6 shows an example in which the elastic body 50a is an electrostatic flocking member. For manual handling, positions 06 to 1111 are appropriate, but it is also possible to reduce the load caused by frictional charging on the back side of the belt photoreceptor by flocking with conductive fibers.
You will get a lot of money.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing an electronic duplication machine, Fig. 2 is a sectional view showing a conventional cleaning device, Fig. 5 is a sectional view showing an embodiment of the present invention, and Fig. 4 is a sectional view showing an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the present invention in detail; FIG.
FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram when the elastic member is a static IL planting member. 2.] U (manufacturing table, 5. Solo department, 4.. i'j room, 8. Substrate, 12. Static 1Lm image carrier.

Claims (1)

[Claims] a substrate manually installed on a document table; an endless belt-shaped electrostatic latent image carrier that moves or stops the substrate in one direction; and the electrostatic latent image carrier and the original'R: an exposure means disposed at an intermediate position between the & table and reciprocated in the direction of movement Jj of the electrostatic latent image carrier; and an exposure means attached to a part of the exposure means to expose the electrostatic latent image. A cleaning device having a cleaning blade that cleans developer remaining on the surface of the carrier while slidingly contacting the surface, characterized in that an elastic member is interposed between the electrostatic latent image carrier and the substrate. cleaning equipment.