JPS58174981A - Carrying method of powder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To carry powder on a carrying path having no inclination, and also to exert no stress to powder by utilizing a slide generated between a carrying groove and the powder due to different acceleratin in a forward path and a backward path of a carrying member under vibration. CONSTITUTION:As for an example for applying this device to a cleaning part, a cam 7 axially installed to a motor is engaged with a cam plate 6 fixed to a carrying groove 5 for carrying out a toner removed from a photoreceptor. When the cam 7 turns in the direction as indicated with an arrow, the carrying groove 5 vibrates to the left and right, but in the right vibrating direction, small accerlation A1 is generated, and in the left direction, large acceleration A2 is generated. Acceleration A1 advances a toner T to the right together with the carrying groove 5 by frictional force, and the acceleration A2 generates a slide between the carrying groove 5 and the powder by inertia of the powder to carry the carrying groove 5 and the toner T to the left and right, respectively. Accordingly, no stress is exerted to the powder and the powder is carried with high efficiency and by a simple mechanism.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] The present invention relates to a powder conveying method.

Powders are handled in a very wide range of industrial fields. One of the forms of handling such powder is powder transportation.

Common methods for transporting powder include a method that utilizes the slope of the transport path, or a method that uses the slope of the transport path, or a method that uses a slope of the transport path, or a method that uses a slope of the transport path, or a method that uses a slope of the transport path, or a method that uses a slope of the transport path, or a method that uses a slope of the transport path, or a method that uses a slope of the transport path, or a method that uses a slope of the transport path, or a method that uses a slope of the transport path, or a method that uses a slope of the transport path, or a method that uses a slope of the transport path, or a method that uses a slope of the transport path, or a method that uses a slope of the transport path, or a method that uses a slope of the transport path, or a method that uses a slope of the transport path, or a method that uses a slope of the transport path, or a method that uses a slope of the transport path, or a method that uses the slope of the transport path. Examples include a method of causing high-speed minute vibrations in orthogonal directions, or a method of rotating a spiral conveyance means provided in a conveyance path.

Among these conveyance methods, the method using the slope of the conveyance path is simple in terms of mechanism, but it necessarily requires an inclined conveyance path, and the conveyance path is inclined over the entire conveyance area, so the conveyance device The degree of freedom in design is significantly restricted.

However, with the method of forcibly transporting powder using a transporting means, unnecessary stress is added to the powder, which may cause deterioration of the powder, and the efficiency of transport is also insufficient. Not enough sushi either.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, the present invention provides a novel method for conveying powder, which can perform good conveyance regardless of whether the conveyance path is inclined or not, and which does not impose unnecessary stress on the powder. It is an object.

The present invention will be explained below.

The characteristics of the powder conveying method according to the present invention are as follows.

The conveyance member has a conveyance groove for conveying the powder.

The conveying member is vibrated in the direction of its conveying groove.

In this vibration, the acceleration of the conveying member is set to be different in the forward direction and the backward direction.

When the acceleration of the conveying member is small, the particles move together with the conveying member due to the friction force between the powder duster and the conveying groove.

However, when the acceleration of the conveyance member is large, the powder cannot catch up with the displacement or movement of the conveyance member due to the inertia of the powder, resulting in a blind area between the powder and the conveyance groove.

Therefore, the powder has a movement that moves with the conveying member,
Sliding occurs at the intersection with the conveying member, and the movement due to the frictional force and the sliding cause the conveying member to be conveyed in a fixed direction.

With this transport method, no unnecessary stress is applied to the powder being transported, and the transport efficiency is extremely high. I cut it,
The mechanism to achieve this is extremely ffi'+ +l'
-, and it is easy to downsize and reduce the cost of the transport device. Moreover, since it can be realized with a simple mechanism, when it is implemented as a device, its reliability is high.

Further, since the conveyance member is vibrated in the conveyance direction, powder scattering does not occur during conveyance.

The cross-sectional shape of the conveying groove can be selected from a wide range, such as semicircular, circular, flat-bottomed, etc., depending on the configuration conditions.

With this transport method, if the transport path is sloped,
If the inclination is below a certain level, conveyance from a lower side to a higher side is also possible, which further improves the accuracy of the design of the conveyance device.

Hereinafter, specific embodiments will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 schematically shows only the parts necessary for explanation of an example in which the present invention is applied to a cleaning section of a dry type electrophotographic apparatus.

The photoreceptor l is drum-shaped and rotates -1° in the direction of the arrow.
After the visible image is transferred, the powder toner remaining on the peripheral surface is removed from the photoreceptor 1 by the cleaning device shown, and is conveyed to a collection section (not shown) and collected. That is, in this example, the powder to be transported is fr toner removed from the circumferential surface of the photoreceptor 1.

3. The blade designated by the reference numeral 2 is made of a rubber material such as polyurethane, and presses its edge against the circumferential surface of the photoreceptor to scrape off residual toner from the photoreceptor cylinder. This blade 2 is held by a holding plate 21, and the holding plate 21 is fixed to the support body 9 by fixing means 22.

The toner scraped off from the circumferential surface of the photoreceptor by the blade 2 falls on the upper circumferential surface of the nord roller 3.

The roller 3 is formed by, for example, covering the circumferential surface of a cored roller with an elastic layer, contacts the photoreceptor, rotates together with the photoreceptor 1, and sequentially absorbs toner received on its upper circumferential surface. Send it to the right.

A second grade 4 edge is pressed against the circumferential surface of the shield roller 3 and guides the toner on the knoll roller 3 to the conveyance member 5. This second blade, which comes into contact with the shield roller 3, is made up of, for example, two-layer film, and is fixed to the conveying member 5.

The conveyance member 5 has a conveyance groove having a flat and low cross-sectional shape, and is arranged with the direction of the conveyance groove oriented perpendicular to the drawing.

The direction of this conveyance groove is approximately horizontal.

The conveyance member 5 is fixed to a holding member 51 by a fixing means 52, and this holding member 51 is fixed to the support body 9 by a fixing means 53.

The holding member 9 is, for example, a stainless steel plate with a thickness of Qlmm, and its elastic force allows the conveying member 5 to vibrate in a direction perpendicular to the drawing.

A /-rudo material 10 made of Mylar film or the like is also fixed to the conveying member 5, and its free end is in flexible contact with the lower surface of the holding plate 21.

In this way, the peripheral surface of the photoreceptor 1, the shield roller 3
, blade 4, conveyance member 5, /-rud material 10, holding plate 2
1. The blade 2 forms a closed space.

A cam plate 6 is fixed to the conveyance member 5 by suitable fixing means, and a cam 7 mounted on a motor 8 is engaged with the cam plate 6. The engagement between the cam plate 6 and the cam 7 is always ensured by the elasticity of the holding part material.

The cam 7 has a shape as shown in FIG. 2, and when the cam 7 rotates in the direction of the arrow, the cam plate 6 causes the conveying member 5 to vibrate in the direction of its conveying groove, that is, in the left-right direction in FIG.

At this time, due to the shape of the cam 7, when the moving direction of the conveyance member 5 is rightward, a small acceleration AI is generated, and when it is leftward, a large acceleration A2 is generated.

When the acceleration is small, A, the l-ner T moves in the direction of AJ along with the conveying member 5 due to the friction force with the conveying groove, but when the acceleration A2 occurs, the l・ner T moves toward the conveying groove 5 due to its inertia. At this time, only the conveying member 5 moves to the left. Therefore, due to the vibration of the conveying member 5, the toner T is conveyed to the right and is collected from the end of the conveying groove of the conveying member 5 to the collecting section -\.

The amplitude of the conveying member 5 is 2 mrn, and the frequency is 20 to 50H7.
We conducted an experiment with the toner closed, and found that the ability to transport toner is extremely high, and after transport, virtually no toner remains on the transport member 5, making it extremely difficult to handle the cleaning device during maintenance. It became clear that it was easy.

FIG. 3 shows another example of a photoreceptor cleaning device. The same reference numerals as in FIG. 1 have been used for items that are considered to have no risk of confusion.

The residual toner on the photoreceptor 1 is scraped off by the blade 2, caught on the circumferential surface of the collecting roller 11 to which a high voltage is applied from the high voltage power source H-V, and then removed by the blade 4 into the conveying groove of the conveying member 5. sent to. Reference numeral 12 indicates a knoll member made of mylar or the like, and reference numeral 13 indicates a holder thereof.

The surface of the collection roller 11 may be coated with a thin dielectric layer, and depending on the properties of the toner, the collection roller 11 may be brought into contact with the photoreceptor.

Even in such a leaning device, the present invention can be realized by applying a vibrating mechanism similar to that shown in FIG. 1 to the conveying member 5.

In the above explanation, we have taken as an example the case in which the conveying member is vibrated by a motor and a cam. However, of course, other mechanical means such as a ratchet wheel, or electromagnetic means can be used to generate the desired vibration. can be realized.

Further, the amount of conveyance can be controlled by providing unevenness in the conveying groove, partially changing the width of the groove, or providing a gate portion or a single plate. Additionally, in the illustrated example, upward conveyance is possible at the cost of a slope of a certain degree; however, if minute irregularities are provided in the conveyance groove, even if the conveyance groove is considerably roughened, downward conveyance is possible. Powder conveyance upwards from the base is very well possible.

In the L raising and lowering, the conveyance of powdered toner was taken as an example, but it goes without saying that the present invention is applicable not only to toner but also to general powders.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a side view showing only the main parts of an example in which the present invention is applied to a cleaning section of a dry electronic device 2), FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the present invention, and FIG. t is a side view showing only essential parts of an example of a photoreceptor cleaning device to which the present invention is applicable. 5. Conveying member, 51-. Holding member, 6. Cam plate,
7. Cam, 8. Motor.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A conveying member having a conveying groove for conveying powder is vibrated in the direction of the conveying groove, and the magnitude of the acceleration of the conveying member in this vibration is different in the forward direction and the backward direction. The powder is transported in a predetermined direction by using the grinding force between the transport groove and the powder and the slip between the transport groove and the powder due to the difference in acceleration. A powder conveying method characterized by: