JPS5827169A - Powder feeder - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to electrophotographic printing machines, and more particularly to a development apparatus having an improved powder feed and movement apparatus for use in electrophotographic printing machines.

Generally, the electrophotographic printing process involves charging a photoconductive member to a substantially uniform potential to render its surface photosensitive. The charged portion of the photoconductive surface is exposed to a beam of light from the original document to be reproduced. This records an electrostatic latent image on the photoconductive member that corresponds to the informational area contained in the original document. After the electrostatic charge m@ is recorded on the photoconductive member, this electrostatic latent image is developed by contacting it with a developer material. This forms a toner powder image on the photoconductive member, which is then transferred to a copy sheet. Finally, the toner powder image is heated and permanently affixed to the copyant as a gap.

Suitable developers generally include carrier particles to which toner powder is triboelectrically adhered. This two-component mixture is contacted with a static latent image recorded on the photoconductive surface. A portion of the toner powder is attracted from the carrier particles to the electrostatic groove r*. These toner powders are deposited on the electrostatic latent image to form a toner powder image on the photoconductive surface.

Various methods have been proposed for applying developer to electrostatic latent images. For example, developer material may flow onto the electrostatic latent image so that toner powder is deposited from the carrier particles onto the electrostatic latent image. Other techniques use magnetic field generating devices that form plan-like tufts that extend outwardly into contact with the photoconductive surface. It is clear that in either case, toner powder is consumed from the developer during the development process. Therefore, additional toner powder must be added to the developer to maintain copy density at a substantially optimum level. Typically, the source of toner powder is stored in a hopper from which the developer is periodically or continuously supplied. Various methods have been proposed for supplying toner powder to the developer. I will list what seems to be related below.

US patent number! No. 1659556 Patentee: Mucheller Grant date: May 2, 1972 U.S. Patent No. 4,142,655 Patentee: Fantuzo Grant date? March 6, 1979 Japanese Publication No. 50-29145 Applicant: Canon■ Application date: July 11, 1973 IBM Technical Disclosure Publication yo1.
15, Trash 4. September 1972, page 1262 Author: Queener Related U.S. Application No. 104,225 Assignee: Spaley Jr. Filed date: December 17, 1979 The relevant portions of the above documents may be summarized as follows: Mucheller discloses a development device that supplies toner powder to a development mixture. An auger drive transports the developer mixture to the donor roll.

Fantuzo discloses a pair of flexible augers that transfer toner powder from spaced apart containers to a toner dispenser located adjacent to the imaging device.

The Japanese publication discloses a toner container in which a rotationally driven vane member is disposed within an opening for supplying toner powder to a supply passage. A screw conveyor moves the toner powder to the developer unit.

Queener discloses a flexible auger for transferring toner powder from a first station to a second station located within an office copier.

Speyley φ Jr. discloses a toner powder dispenser having a hopper containing a supply of toner powder therein. An auger is connected to the hopper for receiving toner powders and uniformly dispensing them into the sump of the nozzle having developer therein.

According to one concept of the invention, an apparatus for dispensing powder is provided. Means for regulating the open ended chambers 7 contain a source of powder therein.

Means having an inlet area and at least one outlet area displaces the powder received in the inlet area from the open end of the chamber of the receiving means. Means are provided between the powder and said moving means for imparting relative movement in a direction substantially perpendicular to the direction of movement of the powder between the inlet and outlet areas of the moving means. This facilitates conveying the powder from the inlet area to the outlet area for discharge. According to another concept of the invention, an electrostatic latent image recorded on a photoconductive member used in an electrophotographic printing machine is used. An apparatus for developing is provided. There is a means for transporting a developer consisting of carrier particles and toner powder into contact with the electrostatic a-image. A portion of the toner powder is attracted from the carrier particles to the electrostatic latent image, forming a toner powder image on the photoconductive member.

Means defining a chamber having an open end receives toner powder therein. Means having an inlet area and at least one outlet area displaces toner powder received in the inlet area from the open end of the chamber of the receiving means. Means are provided between the toner powder and said moving means for imparting relative movement in a direction substantially perpendicular to the direction of movement of the toner powder between the inlet and outlet areas of the moving means. This facilitates transporting the toner powder from the inlet area to the outlet area where it is discharged and replenishing the toner powder used to develop the electrostatic latent image.

According to another concept of the invention, a device for transferring powder is provided. This device has one inlet area and at least one
and a means for transferring powder received in the inlet area to the outlet area. Means are provided between the powder and said moving means for imparting relative movement substantially perpendicular to the direction of movement of the powder between the inlet and outlet areas of the moving means. This facilitates the transfer of powder from the inlet area to the outlet area.

Other concepts of the invention will become apparent from reading the following description and referring to the drawings.

While the invention will be described below with reference to preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood that the invention is not intended to be limited to those embodiments. On the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, variations, and equivalents included within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

For a complete understanding of the inventive features, please refer to the drawings. In the drawings, the same reference numerals are used to indicate the same parts. FIG. 1 schematically shows various parts of an electrophotographic printing machine incorporating the powder supply device of the present invention. It will be seen from the following description that this apparatus is equally suitable for use in a wide variety of electrostatographic printing machines, or other types of equipment in which particles or powder are conveyed from an inlet boat to an outlet port, and the specific It will be clear that there is no need to limit the application to the embodiments of the present invention.

Since the technology of electrolytic printers is well known, the various processing stations used in the printer shown in FIG.
This will be briefly explained with reference to the figure.

Referring to FIG. 1, an electrophotographic printing machine utilizes a belt 10 having a photoconductive surface 12 formed on a conductive substrate. Preferably, the photoconductive surface 12 is made of a selenium alloy and the conductive substrate is made of an electrically grounded aluminum alloy. Other suitable photoconductive surfaces and conductive substrates can also be used. Belt 10 moves in the direction of arrow 16, advancing successive portions of photoconductive surface 12 through various processing stations located along its path of travel.

As shown, the belt 10 is wrapped around a strip roller 18, a tension roller 20, and a drive roller 22. Drive roller 22 is rotatably mounted and engages belt 10 . Motor 24 rotates roller 22 to advance belt 10 in the direction of arrow 16. Roller 22 is in communication with motor 24 by suitable means such as a drive belt. Drive roller 22 includes a pair of opposing spaced edge guides. These edge guides define a space between them which determines the desired path of belt 10. belt 10
is maintained in tension by a pair of springs (not shown) which resiliently urge tension roller 20 against belt 10 with the desired spring force. Both strip roller 18 and tension roller 200 are configured to be rotatable. These rollers are idlers and are free to rotate as belt 10 moves in the direction of arrow 16.

With further reference to FIG. 1, a portion of belt 10 is first passed through charging station A. As shown in FIG. At charging station A, a corona generator, generally designated 26, charges belt 100 and light guide 12 to a relatively high, substantially uniform potential.

Next, the charged portion of the photoconductive surface 12 is placed at the exposure station B.
You can proceed through. At exposure station B, original document 28 is placed face down on transparent platen 30.

A lamp 32 illuminates the original document 28. Light rays reflected from original document 28 are transmitted through lens 34 to form an optical image thereof. Lens 34 forms this optical image on the charged portion of photoconductive surface 12 and selectively dissipates the charge. This creates an electrostatic latent image on the photoconductive surface 1 corresponding to the information area contained in the original document 28 placed on the transparent platen 3o.
It is recorded on 2. Belt 1o then transfers this electrostatic latent image recorded on photoconductive surface 12 to development station C.
Proceed to. At development station C', a magnetic brush development device, generally designated 36, conveys a developer mixture consisting of carrier particles and toner powder into contact with the electrostatic latent image recorded on photoconductive surface 12. Magnetic brush developer 36 includes developer roller 38 . Magnetic brush developer roller 38 forms a brush comprised of carrier particles and toner powder. The toner powder is attracted from the carrier particles to the electrostatic latent image, forming a toner powder image on the photoconductive surface 12 of the bell 10. The detailed structure of the magnetic brush developing device 36 will be described later with reference to FIG.

After development, belt 10 advances the toner powder image to transfer station D. At transfer station D1, a support member sheet 40 is moved 5 into contact with the toner powder image. The supporting sheet is conveyed in its entirety to transfer station D by a sheet feeding device 42. Preferably, the sheet feeding device 42 includes a feeding roll 44 that receives the top sheet of a sheet stack 46. Feed roll 44 rotates to advance the top sheet from stack 46 into chute 48 . Chute 48 directs the advanced sheet of support member into contact with photoconductive surface 12 of belt 10, and at transfer station D, directs the advanced sheet of support member into contact with the photoconductive surface 12 of belt 10. The developed powder images are brought into contact with each other in a time sequence.

Transfer station D includes a corona generator 50 that injects ions onto the backside of sheet 40. This attracts the toner powder image from photoconductive surface 12 to sheet 40. After transfer, the sheet continues to be moved in the direction of arrow 52 and is applied onto a conveyor (not shown in FIG. 2) for advancing the sheet to the fuser stay.

Day station E includes a day assembly, generally designated 54, which permanently fixes the transferred toner powder image to sheet 40. Preferably, the seven user assembly 54 comprises a heated seven day roller 56 and a backup roller 58.

40 passes the toner powder image between a fuser roller 56 and a backup roller 58 in contact with the roller 56. After processing the prints, a chute 60 is advanced to guide the sheets 40 to a catch tray 62 so that the operator can take them out of the printing machine.

A certain amount of toner powder is applied to the photoconductive surface 1 at the seraglio, where the sheet serving as a supporting member is separated from the photoconductive surface 12 of the bell) 10.
2 remains on top. These residual toner powders are removed from photoconductive surface 12 at cleaning station F. Cleaning station F includes a pre-clean corona generator (not shown) and a fiber brush 64 rotatably mounted in contact with photoconductive surface 12 .

This pre-clean corona generator neutralizes the charge attracting toner powder to the photoconductive surface.

These toner powders are removed from photoconductive surface 12 by rotation of bluff 640 in contact therewith. Following this cleaning, a static elimination lamp (not shown) is applied to the photoconductive surface 12.
is illuminated to dissipate any residual charge on the photoconductive surface prior to charging the photoconductive surface for the next imaging cycle.

It is believed that the foregoing description is sufficient for the purposes of this application to explain the general operation of an electrophotographic printing machine incorporating features of the present invention.

Referring now to FIG. 2, developer device 36 is shown in greater detail. As shown here, the developer device 36 includes a developer roller 38 having a non-magnetic tubular member 66. An elongated magnetic member 68 is disposed within tubular member 66 and spaced from the interior surface of tubular member 66 . Tubular member 66 rotates in the direction of arrow 70 to bring developer material into contact with the electrostatic latent image recorded on the conductive surface of belt 100. As tubular member 66 rotates in the direction of arrow 70, it passes through the tube within chamber 72 of housing 74. Developer material located within chamber 72 is attracted to tubular member 66 by the magnetic field generated by elongate magnetic member 68 . In this way, the developer is transferred to the tubular member 66.
and are moved together into contact with the electrostatic charge a@ recorded on the photoconductive surface 12 of the belt 10.

The electrostatic latent image attracts toner powder from the developer. In this way, l.ner powder is continuously consumed from the developer. If additional toner powder is not replenished into the developer,
Copies become increasingly rare and of poor quality. To this end, a toner powder supply, generally designated 76, replenishes the chamber 72 of the washer 74 with additional toner powder. The toner powder supply device 76 includes a hopper 78;
Hopper 78 contains a toner powder source within its chamber 80. The lower end of the chamber 80 has an opening,
An inlet port with a value of -82 is located there. The auger 82 includes a tubular member having a plurality of apertures and a helical portion 5 material. As the helical member rotates, toner powder is directed from chamber 80 along the tubular member. Toner powder is transported along the tubular member and dispensed through the apertures formed therein. A large number of fibers engage the toner powder being transported to create slippage between the toner powder and the helical member in a direction substantially perpendicular to the direction of movement of the toner powder. This prevents the toner powder from simply rotating with the helical member and ensures that the toner powder is transported. This toner supply device 7
The detailed structure of 6 will be described later with reference to FIGS. 6 and 4.

By way of example, elongate magnetic member 68 is preferably cylindrical and made of barium ferrite with a plurality of magnetic poles positioned around its circumferential surface.

Preferably, the tubular member 66 is made of aluminum and has a roughened outer circumferential surface.

Now referring to FIG. 6, chamber 8 of hopper 78
The toner powder in the auger 82 falls into the input slot *r-184. Auger 82 includes a tubular member 86 extending across chamber 72 (Fig. 2) of nozzle 674 (Fig. 2). In this manner, toner powder is ejected substantially uniformly across chamber 72 of housing 74. This facilitates mixing of the toner powder and the stripped carrier particles. Tubular member 86
includes a plurality of substantially equally spaced apertures 88.

A helical member 90 is disposed within this tubular member 86.

As helical member 90 rotates, toner powder is directed in the direction of arrow 92. A motor 94 is coupled to helical member 90. The helical member 90 is rotated by the operation of the motor 94. A number of substantially flexible fibers extend inwardly from a region of tubular member 86 substantially opposite the apertured region. The free end portion of fiber 96 is in contact with helical member 90 . The flexible fibers 96 exert a force on the toner powder in a direction substantially perpendicular to its direction of movement. In this way, the toner powder and the spiral member 90
A slippage occurs between the two.

This ensures that the toner powder does not merely rotate with the helical member 90, but rather is transported in a ripple onto the wall surface. Additionally, this vertical force also prevents toner powder from occluding tubular member 860 opening 88 and facilitates toner powder being dispensed through tubular member 86.

As shown in FIG. 4, a flexible fiber 96 is secured to an elongated member 98. Member 98 extends substantially parallel to the longitudinal direction of tubular member 86. One end of flexible fiber 96 is secured to elongate member 98 by ultrasonic bonding. Flexible fibers 96 extend downwardly through slots 100 in tubular member 86. Elongated member 98 is mounted on tubular member 86 and positioned over slot 100. As helical member 90 rotates in the direction of arrow 102, the free end portions of flexible fibers 96 are brought into contact with helical member 90. Additionally, the flexible fibers 96 come into contact with the toner powder rotating in the direction of arrow 102 along with the helical member 90. The flexible 7-eyeper 96 exerts a force on the toner powder in a direction opposite to the direction of arrow 102. This force is substantially perpendicular to the desired direction of transport of the toner powder, indicated by arrow 92 (FIG. 3). In this way, slippage occurs between the toner powder and the spiral member 90. If no slippage occurs between the toner powder and the spiral member 9o, the toner powder will simply rotate together with the spiral member 90.
It is not transported in the direction of arrow 92. It is therefore necessary to create slippage between the helical member and the toner powder to ensure transport of the toner powder in the direction of arrow 92. Additionally, the force exerted on the toner powder by fibers 96 is such that the toner powder is directed to the exit port, i.e., to the tubular member 8.
This prevents the opening 88 of No. 6 from being blocked. Konoyo 5
A lack of blockage or slippage can cause device failure, such as blockage or inability to transfer toner powder under conditions of high relative humidity and temperature.

For example, about 20-1 mm outside diameter and about 12.6 mrt
For a helical member with a small diameter of t, the fiber is approximately 6 m
It was placed about 1 inch in length from the small diameter location of the helical member and extended about 4 mm into the tubular member. The fibers were extended longitudinally for approximately 262 mrn; the fiber density was approximately 60/cm, and each fiber was of approximately 0.2 mm diameter. Preferably, each fiber is made of plastic material.

The fibers maintain a shear or sliding surface on the toner powder near the small diameter of the helical member and are delivered by the helical member. It becomes obvious to control the effective amount of toner powder. If the sliding surface moves too far away from the helical member small diameter position, the effective amount of toner powder delivered by the helical member is reduced.

This results in a change in the amount of toner powder supplied. Such changes cannot be tolerated by the equipment. If fibers are not used, the toner powder feed rate is significantly reduced under conditions of high relative humidity and temperature.

Due to the adhesion of toner powder in operating conditions, the sliding surface changes significantly without the use of fibers.

This results in clogging of the feeder.

Furthermore, as the sliding surface moves further away from the small diameter of the helical member,
The effective amount of toner powder transferred becomes smaller. Test results: Without fiber, feed rate is 0 stress condition i.e. 26.5°0 (28″F), 80
It was shown that the relative humidity decreases rapidly.

Although the present invention has been described as being used in a toner powder dispenser, it is understood by those skilled in the art that the powder or particles are transferred from an inlet port to an outlet port and that a helical member is used to effect the transfer of the powder or particles. It will be obvious that it can be used for any device that The basis is that a slippage occurs between the powder or particles and the helical member to ensure their transport.

The present invention provides sliding or relative motion between the helical member and the powder or particles to ensure transfer of the powder or particles.

To reiterate, the feeding apparatus of the present invention includes a hopper containing a source of toner powder therein and an auger for feeding the toner powder substantially uniformly through the developer housing chamber.

In order to uniformly supply the toner powder, slippage is created between the toner powder and the spiral member, and the toner powder is transferred through a tubular member having a plurality of openings formed at substantially equal intervals. Make sure to do the following. In this way, a precise amount of toner powder is metered from the opening substantially uniformly across the developer housing.

Therefore, according to the invention, from one inlet boat at least one
It is clear that a device has been provided for transferring powder or particles to two outlet ports.

This device fully satisfies the objects and advantages mentioned above. Although the invention has been described with respect to specific embodiments,
Many alternatives, modifications and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, it is intended to cover all such alternatives, modifications and variations as fall within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic elevational view of an electrophotographic printing machine incorporating features of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic elevational view showing the developing device used in the printing machine shown in FIG. 6 is a schematic elevational view showing a toner powder supply device used in the developing device of FIG. 2. FIG. FIG. 4 is a partially cut away elevational view of the toner powder supply device of FIG. 6; 36...Developing device 38...Developing roller 66...Tubular member 68...Magnetic member 74...Housing 76...Powder feeder 78...Hopper 80...Chamber 82... Auger 86...Tubular member 88...Opening 96...Fiber representative Asamura Akigai 4 people 3 F/G, I 4eFIG, 4

Claims (1)

Claims: A powder or particle supply device comprising means for defining a chamber having an open end for accommodating a source of powder or particles, an inlet area and at least one outlet area. means for transferring the received powder or particles from the open end of the chamber of the receiving means at an inlet area; an inlet area of the transfer means and an inlet area of the transfer means between the powder or particles and the transfer means; means for effecting relative motion between the outlet zones in a direction substantially perpendicular to the direction of movement of the powder for transferring powder or particles received in the inlet zone to the outlet zone for discharge; A powder supply device characterized by comprising: