JPS58196567A - Cleaning device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To maintain always the finest image forming state, by making use of the high hardness characteristic of amorphous silicon thereby removing the residual toner powerfully and polishing away the denatured part on the extreme surface layer. CONSTITUTION:A cleaning device 2 is provided with a casing 20 which is provided with amorphous silicon as a photoconductive layer on the surface thereof and is disposed in proximity to a photoreceptor 1. A wire brush 21 is disposed in said casing and the casing turns in arrow B direction. A storage part 22 for an abrasive is further formed in the casging 20, and a fine granular abrasive G is contained therein so that said abrasive is supplied by each adequate amt. to the tuft of a wire brush 21. Since the hardness on the surface of the photoreceptor 1 is extremely high, the use of stainless steel wires and piano wires for the wires is possible. The toner stuck on the surface of the photoreceptor 1 is swept away forcibly; at the same time, the surface layer part of the photoreceptor 1 is polished successively by the hard abrasive G, so that the condition for forming the picture image having good quality is maintained at all times in the next stage of forming the latent image.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a cleaning device for an image forming apparatus using a hard electrostatic latent image carrier.

An image carrier provided with a photoconductive layer and means for charging, dew-curing, developing, transferring, cleaning, etc. disposed close to the image carrier are provided, and the image carrier and each of the means are moved relative to each other to transfer the toner. Devices that repeatedly form images as a medium have been widely used in the past, such as electrostatic copying machines.

In this type of image forming apparatus, in order to properly form the next image I, it is essential to sufficiently remove the toner remaining on the surface of the image carrier after each process to obtain a high quality image. be.

Conventionally, methods for cleaning such residual toner include a method of wiping off the residual toner with a fur brush or a fiber brush, a method of wiping off the residual toner with a fibrous web, a method of scraping off the residual toner depending on the grade, or a method of wiping off the residual toner with a magnetic brush. Many proposals have been made, including methods for electrostatically adsorbing and removing this.

The above-mentioned leaning means are suitable for cases in which the photoconductive layer on the surface of the image carrier is made of a relatively soft material such as selenium or 1 (oil coating). Studies have been made from the viewpoint of how to adjust two factors: an excellent residual toner removal function and prevention of damage to the image bearing surface by the cleaning means.

On the other hand, in recent years, it has been confirmed that amorphous silicon can be used as a photoconductive layer, and the present applicant has also developed this type of electrostatic image carrier in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 54-863.
As shown in Publication No. 41, the feasibility of this was discussed in detail.

In products using such amorphous silicon, the hardness of the silicon photoconductive layer is much higher than that of known selenium (approximately 50 times the hardness of selenium), and the outermost layer Due to adsorption phenomena, chemical reactions, etc., the resistance of the latent image decreases, making it difficult to form and maintain latent images. Therefore, simply applying the known cleaning methods described above will not maintain good quality over a long period of time under changing environments. It is impossible to obtain a copy of.

The present invention has been made in view of the current state of the art as described above, and utilizes the high hardness properties of amorphous silicon to powerfully remove residual toner using a tough cleaning means such as a wire brush, and to The object of the present invention is to provide a cleaning device that can constantly maintain the best image forming condition by polishing off the denatured portion of the surface layer and obtain good image forming conditions.

A practical example in which the present invention is applied to a copying machine will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In the figure, reference numeral 1 is a cylindrical photoreceptor (image carrier) with a photoconductive layer on its surface, and around it, an electrostatic latent image forming area, a latent image manifestation area, a transfer area, etc. (not shown) are arranged. It is assumed that the residual toner T that did not contribute to one copy reaches the position of the cleaning device 2 together with the photoreceptor traveling in the direction of arrow A in the figure.

The cleaning device 2 includes a casing 20 disposed close to the photoreceptor 1, and a wire brush 21 is disposed inside the casing 20, and is rotated in the direction of arrow B by an appropriate driving source (not shown).

The tip of the wire bran 21 is in contact with the surface of the photoreceptor.
It is best to let it flutter slightly when you touch it. Furthermore, an abrasive reservoir 22 is formed within the casing.

This contains fine particles of abrasive Gi, which are supplied in appropriate amounts to the ears of the wire brush.

As mentioned above, the surface of the photoreceptor is extremely hard, so stainless steel wire or piano wire can be used as the wire, and Ae203IS102 can be used as the abrasive.
Use granules such as

The toner adhering to the surface of the photoreceptor 1 is forcibly swept away by the ears of the wire brush 21, and at the same time, the surface layer of the photoreceptor is sequentially polished by a hard abrasive agent supplied to the ears of the wire brush. Good quality image forming conditions are always maintained during the next latent image formation.

The abrasive remaining on the wire brush, the powder scraped off from the surface of the photoreceptor, and the residual toner are removed by squeezing the brush with a baffle plate 23 disposed in the casing, and the waste toner receiver is collected in the waste toner receiver.

Inside the casing 20, a wire brush 24 is further disposed on the downstream side of the wire run 21 when viewed in the traveling direction of the photoreceptor 1, so that the tip of the brush lightly rubs against the surface of the photoreceptor. It is preferable to completely sweep away residual toner, abrasive powder from the photoreceptor, and the like.

In addition, those shown with the same symbol E1 in the drawings are respectively deloading electrodes.
The cleaning effect can be improved by neutralizing the surface potential of the photoreceptor in advance using a light source for static elimination, which is different from the case of conventionally known image forming apparatuses of this type. The same is true.

Since the present invention has the above-described configuration, the cleaning action can be performed extremely efficiently in an apparatus using a highly hard image forming surface such as amorphous silicon, and a high-quality latent image can be maintained for a long period of time. It is possible to maintain the formation conditions.

Although it is not shown in the drawing, when removing waste toner etc. from the location corresponding to the wire brush 24 in the attached drawing, stainless steel, phosphorus and copper can be used instead of a wire brush, since the waste toner is already in a state where it easily flakes off. A grade made of a strong material with appropriate elasticity may be configured to abut against the image forming section.

Although the present invention has been described above as being applied to an electrostatic copying plate, it is easy to understand that the present invention is not limited to this and can also be applied to various types of printers.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The accompanying drawings are schematic side views of embodiments of the invention. 1... Image carrier, 2... Cleaning device, 20
...Casing, 21.24...Wire brush. 22... Polishing side storage part, 23... Baffle plate,
T... Toner, B... Abrasive 433

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A moving hard image bearing surface 1fC, electrostatic a image forming means. An image forming apparatus in which a means for visualizing a latent image using all toner, a means for transferring the latent image, and a means for cleaning residual toner remaining on the image bearing surface after transfer are arranged in close proximity to each other, wherein the cleaning means is attached to the image bearing surface. A cleaning device comprising a wire brush that is brought into pressure contact, and configured to supply an abrasive to a portion of the image bearing surface and the wire brush that come into pressure contact.