JPS58187978A - Cleaning device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make a blade free end inexpensive by shortening it, and to sufficiently absorbe a shock of the free end, by constituting a link mechanism of a blade holder and a rocking member, and making a blade press-contact to a photoreceptor by a prescribed spring. CONSTITUTION:A blade holder 11 which fits a cleaning blade 10 to its tip, and a rocking member 13 constitute a link mechanism through pins 12, 14, and it is made to press-contact to a photoreceptor 1 by a spring 17 and a coil spring 24. By such a structure, length L of a free end of the blade 10 is set to only 6mm., by which its cost can be reduced. In this regard, in case when the blade free end collides with foreign matter on the photoreceptor, the spring 17 and the coil spring 24 are deformed and absorb its shock sufficiently, by which damage can be prevented.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a cleaning device that uses a blade to wipe the surface of an electrostatic latent image carrier incorporated in an electrophotographic copying machine, an electrostatic recording device, or the like.

A conventional cleaning device will be explained using an electrophotographic copying machine as an example. In FIG. 1, reference numeral l indicates a drum-shaped electrostatic latent image carrier, that is, a photoreceptor 2, and the photoreceptor 1 is rotated in the direction of the arrow. A charging section 2, an exposure section 3, a developing section 4, a transfer section 5, and a cleaning device 6 are arranged around the photoreceptor 1 in the order of the rotation direction. More specifically, the charging section 2 uniformly charges the surface of the photoreceptor 1, and then the exposure section 3 irradiates the photoreceptor surface with a light image of the original image to form an electrostatic latent image. be done. This electrostatic latent image is converted into a visible image by transferring powder developer called toner to the photoreceptor 1 in the developing section 4.

In synchronization with the movement of the photoreceptor l on which the visible image is formed, a transfer paper S is fed from a paper feeding device (not shown) to the photoreceptor l and sent into the transfer section 5 . In the transfer section 5, the visible image is transferred onto transfer paper, and the copy is completed via a fixing device (not shown). On the other hand, after the transfer, a small amount of toner remains on the surface of the photoreceptor l, so by wiping off the toner via the cleaning device 6, the photoreceptor l can be used repeatedly. The cleaning device 6 consists of a bluff 7, a cleaning blade 8, etc.
2, soft bristles such as synthetic fibers or carbon fibers are flocked radially on a paper tube, and the tips are rotated while touching the photoreceptor 1, and the blade 8 is made of soft bristles such as synthetic fibers or carbon fibers. It is a flexible plate, and its proximal end 8a is held by a blade holder 9, and its free end 8b is pressed against the surface of the photoreceptor l. The brush 7 is, so to speak, an auxiliary cleaning means, and has the role of removing all residual toner that has weak adhesion to the photoreceptor, and weakening the adhesion of strong adhesion. The burden on the cleaning blade 8 is completely reduced.

Recently, there has been a strong demand to reduce the cost of machines, and consideration has been given to reducing the length of the free end of the cleaning blade. In other words, if the length of free volatile A of the cleaning blade is reduced to, for example, 6 lengths, it will contribute to reducing the cost of the machine, but it would be better to leave the thickness of the cleaning blade as it was. The stiffness has increased and it doesn't feel good. Therefore, the length of the free end is set to 6
When the thickness is about 1.5 mm, the rigidity of the free end can be maintained approximately the same as before by reducing the thickness to about 1.5 mm.

However, even if the length of the free end can be shortened and the rigidity of the blade can be kept the same, the ability to absorb energy will decrease when the tip is impacted by foreign objects on the surface of the photoreceptor, and the tip will often break. There is a risk that

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a cleaning device that contributes to cost reduction by shortening the length of the free end of a cleaning blade and that has a sufficient ability to absorb energy due to impact at the free end.

The purpose of cleaning is to remove an electrostatic latent image carrier that is rotating in one direction and has residual toner on its surface after transfer, and to remove the free toner on the surface of this electrostatic latent image carrier, facing the direction of movement of the surface. A cleaning blade whose edges are pressed against each other to wipe away residual toner; a blade holder which holds the proximal end of the cleaning blade C; one end is pivotally attached to this blade holder, and the other end is a fixed base plate. a swinging member pivotally connected to the swinging member; and a swinging member interposed between the swinging member and the blade holder to bias the free end of the cleaning blade in a direction that constantly presses the cleaning blade against the latent image carrier. a second biasing means, which is interposed between the swinging member and the immovable substrate, and biases the entire free edge of the cleaning blade in a direction in which the entire free edge of the cleaning blade is always pressed against the electrostatic latent image carrier; This is achieved by a cleaning device equipped with a powering means.

According to the present invention, there are two links of the blade holder and the swinging member and two pivot points between the free end of the cleaning blade and the immovable substrate, and each link has a free end edge. Since the cleaning blade has a tendency to come into pressure contact with the surface of the electrostatic latent image carrier, even if the free edge of the cleaning blade collides with foreign matter on the surface of the electrostatic latent image carrier, the two biasing means Due to the action of 41, each of the two links moves appropriately, acting as if a long cleaning blade were being bent, resulting in sufficient energy absorption and maintaining good cleaning performance. . Fortunately, the length of the free end of the cleaning blade can be reduced, contributing to cost reduction.

The illustrated embodiment will be described in detail below.

In FIG. 2, a drum-shaped electrostatic latent image carrier l is rotating in the direction of the arrow, and the cleaning blade 10 protrudes its free edge 10a in a direction opposite to the rotational direction to hold the electrostatic latent image carrier l. It is pressed against the surface of 1. A base end l1ob of the cleaning blade lO is held in a groove formed in one end 11a of the blade holder 11. Although the length L of the free end of the cleaning blade 10 is exaggeratedly drawn in this figure, it is actually only about 6 lengths. Therefore, it is necessary to clamp the cleaning blade 10 uniformly along the longitudinal direction so that local distortion is not generated in the cleaning blade 10 due to the clamping of the base end 10b.

It is preferable to use an adhesive such as double-sided adhesive tape as the clamping method in order to evenly clamp and fix the cleaning blade to the blade holder.

The other end 11b of the blade holder l is pivotally connected to one end 13a of the swinging member 13 via a pin 12. The other end 13b of the swinging member 13 is pivotally connected via a pin 14 to a platen 16 fixed to an immovable base plate 15.

The swinging member 13 and the blade holder 1 form a pivot via the pin 12, and this pivot is clearly shown in FIG. That is, the opposing ends 11b and 13a of both the blade holder 1 and the swinging member 13 are each formed in a comb-like shape, and the opposite comb-like ends i1c and 13c intersect to form the pin 12.
It is penetrated by.

A coil spring 24 serving as a first biasing means is wound around the pin 12 in the gap between the comb-like ends 11c and 13c of the blade holder 1 and the swinging member 13. The blade holder 1 and the swinging member 13 are biased in a direction that increases the degree of opening of the legs. This means that when the swinging member 13 is fixedly installed, the free end edge 10a of the cleaning blade is biased in a direction in which it comes into pressure contact with the surface of the electrostatic latent image carrier 1. Further, the spring 17 serving as the second biasing means has one end thereof secured to a substantially central portion of the swinging member 13 and the other end thereof to a platen 18 of the immovable base plate 15. It is biased to rotate around the pin 14 counterclockwise in the figure.

Considering that the blade holder 11 is fixed to the swinging member 13, this means that the free end edge 10a of the cleaning blade is urged in a direction to press against the surface of the electrostatic latent image carrier 1.

Therefore, the stiffness of the spring system consisting of the blade holder 11 and the swinging member 13 should be made smaller than the stiffness of the cleaning blade 10 against the impact force acting on the free edge 10a of the cleaning blade from the electrostatic latent image carrier 1. and the first
Due to the deformation of the biasing means 24 (coil spring) and the second biasing means 17 (spring), sufficient absorption can be achieved, and even if a small blade is used, there is no risk of damage to the tip.

As clearly shown in FIG. 3, a coil spring 25 is wound around the pin 12 that connects the blade holder 11 and the swinging member 13 to provide resistance to the pivot between the blade holder 11 and the swinging member 13. It is preferable to keep it set to prevent vibrations during operation. However, the damping properties of the coil spring 24 can be improved by coating the coil spring 24 itself with rubber.
If the coil spring 25 is provided separately, there is no need to provide a separate coil spring 25.

FIG. 4 shows another embodiment of the invention. That is, in this case, the swinging member 20 has a projecting piece 21 formed on the end portion 20b near the pin 14, and a weight 22 is fixed to the projecting piece 21. The weight 22 forms a second biasing means and replaces the spring 17 (see Figure i2) of the previous embodiment. The effects of this example are similar to those of the previous example.

In the above description, a photoreceptor of an electrophotographic copying machine is exemplified as an electrostatic latent image carrier, but the present invention is not limited thereto, and may be a recording member of an electrostatic recording device. Also, the electrostatic latent image carrier is not drum-shaped, but rather an endless belt, which is confusing.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. m1 is a configuration diagram showing an electrophotographic copying machine incorporating a conventional cleaning device, Fig. 2 is a side view showing the cleaning device of the present invention, and Fig. 3 shows a pivoting portion between a blade holder and a swinging member. The explanatory diagram, FIG. 4, is a side view showing another embodiment of the present invention. 1... Photoreceptor, 10... Cleaning blade, 1
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Blade holder, 13, 20... Swinging member, 15... Fixed board, 24... Coil screw, 17
...spring, 22...weight.

Claims (1)

[Claims] An electrostatic latent image carrier that rotates in one direction and has residual toner on its surface after transfer, and a free edge of the electrostatic latent image carrier is in pressure contact with the surface of this electrostatic LD image carrier opposite to the moving direction of the surface. a cleaning blade that wipes off residual toner; a blade holder that holds the base end of the cleaning blade C;
A swinging part ladle having one end pivotally connected to the blade holder and the other end pivotally mounted to an immovable base plate, and a swinging part ladle interposed between the swinging member and the blade holder for cleaning a first urging means for urging the free biiu edge of the blade in a direction in which the free edge of the blade is always brought into pressure contact with the electrostatic latent image carrier; the swinging member;
a second biasing means which is interposed between the ω group, i, and A cleaning device equipped with