JPS58159570A - Cleaning blade device of electrophotographic device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent toner from scattering into a cleaning device and the constituents of the peripheral part of a photoreceptor from dirtying with a toner cloud, by providing sealing members for sectioning a toner recovery zone and the inside of the cleaning device. CONSTITUTION:In a main device 23, a cleaning blade comes into press contact with and leaves the photoreceptor through a holding means B. Toner on the surface of the photoreceptor 1 is scraped with the blade 3 in the press-contacting state, and the recovered toner falls freely along the photoreceptor 1 and is guided downward by a toner guide plate 12 and contained in a recovery container through a toner conveying auger 14. Flexible sealing members 28 and 29 move following up the press-contacting and leaving operation of the cleaning blade 3 to and from the photoreceptor 1 to isolate the inside G of the cleaning device from the toner recovery zone F, so a toner cloud is prevented from flying into the cleaning device 2.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a cleaning device for cleaning untransferred toner on a photoreceptor in an electrophotographic apparatus.

Conventionally, various devices have been proposed for cleaning the surface of an image bearing member of an image forming apparatus that uses a photoreceptor repeatedly.

The blade cleaning device has a structure that scrapes off and removes untransferred residual toner by applying pressure to the surface of the photoreceptor.The device is small, has high cleaning efficiency, makes less noise, makes less dirt inside and outside the machine, and can be easily collected. It has excellent advantages such as easy reuse of toner.

However, in the above-mentioned blade cleaning device, a means such as sucking the collected toner using a vacuum, as seen in brush cleaning devices, is not adopted.
The cleaned toner is collected by free-falling the toner or by rotating or swinging a member that assists the free-fall.

For this reason, if the collected toner accumulates inside the cleaning device, or sometimes there is a transport failure, the toner cloud will fill the cleaning device and even blow out of the device, causing stains on the optical system, corotron stains, etc. The components around the photoreceptor were contaminated with toner cloud.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and its purpose is to separate the inside of the device from the toner collection zone with a sealing member, thereby preventing toner from scattering into the cleaning device and surrounding the photoreceptor. To prevent contamination of component parts by toner cloud.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained with reference to the drawings. In the drawings, 1 is a photoreceptor as an image carrier, and 2 is a cleaning device. The cleaning device 2 includes a main body 23, and a toner transport mechanism 24 is provided at the bottom of the main body 23. The device main body 23 is provided with a rotation shaft 11, and the second holding member 6 is rotatably attached to this rotation shaft 11. A first holding member 4 is connected to the second holding member 6 by a pivot screw 5, and the first holding member 4 holds the cleaning blade 3, and together they constitute a holding means B.

The shaft portion 7 at the end of the second holding member 6 projects outward from a window portion 25 formed in the device main body 23. A support portion 26 is formed in the device main body 23.
The upper end of the pressure applying spring 8 is attached to the shaft 6 via a spring engagement shaft 9, and the lower end of the pressure applying spring 8 is engaged with the shaft 7 of the second holding member 6. , these constitute the pressure contact means C.

A blade separation lever 10 is provided outside the apparatus main body 23, and one end of the blade separation lever 10 is attached to the apparatus main body 23 by a support shaft 22 so as to be able to swing vertically.

A solenoid 17 is fixedly installed on the lower side of the device main body 23, and a plunger 18 of the solenoid 17 is connected to one end of the second link 20 via a first link I9. The other end of the two links 20 is connected to the blade spacing lever 10 via a third link 21, and these constitute a spacing means E. The shaft portion 7 of the second holding member 6 is in contact with the lower edge of the blade separation lever 10.

The toner transport mechanism 24 includes a toner guide paddle 13 and a toner transport auger 14.

A seal member support portion 26.2 is provided at the upper and lower portion of the apparatus main body 23, sandwiching the holding means B for the cleaning blade 3.
7 is formed by these seal member support parts 26 and 27.
The bases of flexible sealing members 28, 29 are attached, the free ends of these sealing members 28, 29 being pressed against the cleaning blade 3 from above and below.

The material for the sealing member 28 and 29 has a thickness of 30 μm to 75 μm.
μ polyethylene terephthalate film or fluorinated ethylene propylene film, or polyester film is used.

It is also possible for the sealing members 28, 29 to be electrically conductive.

However, during the cleaning operation, the cleaning blade 3 is often charged to the ■ side in copying machines that use Se-based photoreceptors, and this band'IJL phenomenon, for example, removes paper dust from the transfer sheet 3, etc., from the cleaning blade 3. It can be observed that the edges are electrically gripped, but the seal members 28 and 29 that come into contact with the cleaning blade 3 as described above
By making it conductive, an electrically neutralized state of the sifting blade 3 can be obtained, and the above-mentioned drawbacks can be eliminated.

Next, the operation will be explained.

The collected toner falls freely on the photoreceptor i, and the toner guide plate 1
2 to the bottom of the cleaning equipment 2. The flow of this toner is promoted by the toner guide paddle 13 which rotates in a clockwise direction, thereby preventing the toner from accumulating on the toner guide plate 12.

The collected toner led to the bottom of the cleaning device 2 in this way is carried by the toner transport auger 14 to the front side or the back side of the machine, and is stored in a toner collection container by means not shown or stored in the developing machine. transported to and reused.

In such a case, the cleaning blade 3 is separated from the surface of the photoreceptor 10.

Cleaning of the surface of the photoreceptor 1 is performed by pressing the cleaning blade 3 against the surface of the photoreceptor 1.

That is, the tensile force of the pressure applying spring 8 is
Using the fulcrum as a fulcrum, pressure is applied to the cleaning blade 3 to perform desired cleaning.

To release this pressure contact force, that is, to separate the cleaning blade 3 from the photoreceptor 1, current is applied to the solenoid 17, which is activated to move the plunger 18 backward. Second
．． The blade spacing lever 10 is rotated downward about the support shaft 22 via the third link 19, 20° 21, and the shaft portion 7 of the second holding member 6 is rotated downward by the blade spacing lever 10. This is done by moving the cleaning blade 3 in the direction of the arrow, that is, in the upward direction.

On the other hand, the release of the separation, that is, the pressing operation is automatically performed by cutting off the current to the solenoid 17 to release the plunger 18, and at the same time by the force of the pressure application spring 8.

As described above, the separating and pressing operations of the cleaning blade 3 are performed at high speed because the solenoid 7 and the pressure application spring 8 are used. As a result, the toner adhering to the cleaning blade 3 flies around and contaminates the interior of the cleaning device 2.
Eventually, toner starts to blow out from the cleaning device 2.

Therefore, the cleaning grade 3 pressure welding is used.

The sealing members 28 and 29 move in accordance with the separating operation to block the interior G of the cleaning device 2 from the toner collection zone F, thereby preventing toner cloud from floating inside the cleaning device 2.

The seal members 28 and 29 are always in close contact with the cleaning blade 3 when the cleaning blade 3 is in pressure contact with the photoreceptor 1, as shown in FIG. 2, and when they are separated, as shown in FIG.

For this reason, the part to the right of the sealing member 28, 29 and the part of the toner transport mechanism 24 can be distinguished as a toner recovery zone F, and the opposite side of this toner recovery zone F is blocked off from the toner cloud.

The lower seal member 29 also serves as a type of guide plate for the toner scraped off the surface of the photoreceptor 1 by the cleaning blade 3 during cleaning.

The cleaning blade 3 is held by the holding means B such that the angle between the cleaning blade 3 and the tangential plane of the line of contact with the photoreceptor 1 on the downstream side of the photoreceptor 1 is an acute angle.

Since the present invention has been described in detail above, the sealing members 28 and 29 follow the movement of the cleaning blade 3 into contact with and away from the photoreceptor 1, and the sealing members 28 and 29 are attached to the cleaning blade 3.
The seal member 28.2 moves while being in close contact with the
9 separates the toner recovery zone F from the inside of the cleaning device 2, thereby preventing toner from scattering into the cleaning device 2 and preventing contamination of components around the photoreceptor by toner cloud.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a side view of one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a side view of an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3, a sectional view taken along the n-line, is an explanatory view when the cleaning blade is separated. 1 is a photoreceptor, 3 is a cleaning blade, 23 is an apparatus main body, and 28 and 29 are seal members. Applicant Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. Agent Patent Attorney Masaaki Yonehara Patent Attorney Tadashi Hamamoto Figure 2 Figure 3

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A cleaning blade 3 is provided in the apparatus main body 23 via a holding means B so as to be able to press against and separate from the photoconductor IK, and the cleaning blade 3 is attached to the apparatus main body 23 while following the movement of the cleaning blade 3. 3 and separates the inside of the apparatus main body 23 from the toner collection zone.
g. 29. A cleaning blade device for an electrophotographic apparatus, characterized in that a cleaning blade device is provided with a cleaning blade device.