JPS5833553B2 - Applicator - cleaner - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an applicator cleaner that provides a release and anti-offset fluid to the surface of a cylindrical pressure fuser roller and cleans developer powder from the fuser roller.

Electrostatographic copiers generally use a developer, or toner powder, which is transferred to a piece of paper in the same image as the original being reproduced, and the toner powder is permanently attached to the paper.

Most developer powders currently in use are made primarily of thermoplastic resins, which raise the powder temperature to its melting point, causing the particles to coalesce and flow together while simultaneously adhering to the receiving paper. It is pasted onto paper.

Although heat fusion methods have been widely used with good success, they suffer from several drawbacks.

First, the time required to raise the thermoplastic powder to its melting point for paper fusing is usually the slowest step in photocopying.

Adding more heat accelerates the process, but this is limited by the receiver paper since the temperature of the fuser must always be below the carbonization point of the paper.

Thermoplastic resins with low melting points have been used to speed up the fusing process.

However, this creates other problems such as poor character definition in the final image and loss of sharpness in imaging.

A second disadvantage of thermal fusing methods is the presence of thermal energy emanating from the fusing equipment, which generally makes personnel working in the area surrounding the copier machine uncomfortable.

A third drawback is the requirement that startup cannot be performed immediately after a period of rest, since the fuser must be at the proper operating temperature.

And in order for the copier to be ready to respond to copy requests at any time after startup, the copier must be kept at near operating temperature, resulting in wasted thermal energy during periods when the copier is not in use. .

Recently, the drawbacks of heat-sealing have been overcome by using powder-free developing powders that can be fixed under pressure on receiving paper.

Therefore, instead of a fuser, -41 hard surfaced cylindrical rollers are brought into circumferential contact, and the powder-loaded receiving paper is fed and passed through the nib between the rollers to remove the original to be copied. Fix the powder to the receiving paper in the image.

In pressure fusing, it is important that during the fixing of the powder to the receiving paper, the powder is not disturbed as far as its position on the receiving paper is concerned, and that the powder is not offset from the desired image position in a way that distorts the quality of the image. .

Furthermore, it is necessary to compensate for the undesirable tendency of the receiving paper to stick to one of the pressure fuser rollers after passing through the nip between the rollers.

The unavoidable small amount of developer powder adhering to the pressure fixing roller in contact with the developer powder on the receiving paper must then be removed or later undesirably transferred to the receiving paper.

These problems have previously been overcome by applying an anti-offset fluid, such as silicone oil, from a reservoir onto the roller in contact with the developer powder.

However, this has been found to transfer sufficient anti-offset fluid to the receiving paper to prevent subsequent writing on the receiving paper with a pencil or pen.

The present invention provides an applicator cleaner that applies a release and anti-offset fluid to the surface of a cylindrical pressure fuser roller and cleans developer powder from the fuser roller.

A rigid frame having a length corresponding to the length of the pressure fuser roller is formed with one surface having two longitudinal hem areas separated by a central recess extending the length of the frame, and a predetermined amount of delamination. and an anti-offset fluid are secured to the frame and stretched over one surface of the frame to contact the two longitudinal edge areas.

The support is resiliently pressed with one surface thereof in a direction forcing it into contact with the pressure fuser roller to forcefully engage the portion of the application blanket against the pressure fuser roller over the longitudinal edge area of the frame. Match.

The applicator-cleaner of the present invention uniformly applies a very small amount of release and anti-offset fluid to the surface of the cylindrical pressure fuser roller throughout its useful life.

The stripping and anti-offset fluid is applied over the front longitudinal edge area of the frame with respect to the direction of rotation of the pressure fuser roller, and the developer powder is removed from the pressure fuser roller in the rear longitudinal edge area.

The recesses separating the longitudinal edge areas effectively separate the cleaning area from the area where the release membrane and anti-offset fluid are applied so that all of the useful anti-offset fluid can be applied from the flankerato.

The applicator-cleaner of the present invention includes a rigid frame 10;
It includes a coating blanket 12 containing an anti-peel and anti-offset fluid and a resilient pressing device including a pair of compression coil springs 14 and 15.

The frame 10 is, for example, extruded aluminum and the pressure fixing roller 1T should be used with an applicator-cleaner.
has a length that corresponds to the length of .

The frame 10 has a central recess 22 extending along its length.
two longitudinal edge sections 19 and 20 separated by
One surface is formed with a

The opposite surface of the frame is also recessed and has a longitudinal groove 24 of rectangular cross section formed therein, which groove runs parallel to the length of said one surface and extends over the support bar 26. The support rod is slidably supported by the groove 24, and the support rod is complementary in cross-sectional shape to the groove 24.

The frame 10 further has longitudinally extending cylindrical holes 28 and 29 formed in parallel rows adjacent to the longitudinal edges.

Each hole 28 and 29 is grooved through the adjacent edge wall to permit access into and out of the hole through the edge wall, said communicating groove being smaller than the diameter of the hole 28 and 29. Has a small width.

Application blanket 12 is, for example, felt application material and has a length equal to the length of frame 10 and a width greater than the width of the frame.

The coating blanket is stretched over the surface of the frame with depressions 22 and in contact with longitudinal edge areas 19 and 20.

The edges of the application blanket are similarly folded back and inserted into holes 28 and 29 where similar retaining rods 31 and 32 are inserted.
respectively, and the retaining rods are held in holes 28 and 29, respectively.
and is inserted through the folded edge of coating blanket 12 along holes 28 and 29.

In the photocopier, a pair of stationary brackets 35 and 36 extending from main vertical walls 38 and 39 pivotally support an applicator-cleaner on pressure roller 17, respectively.

Brackets 35 and 36 are formed with an encircling portion 37 providing facing vertical portions of each, with facing pivot pins 41 extending through the brackets of a pair of similar end pieces 44 and 45 of the applicator-cleaner. Each is threaded to engage a contoured recess formed near the top.

Each end piece 44 and 45 is generally cylindrical with a pair of in-row flanges 47 and 48 extending perpendicular to the axis of the end piece at its base.

The male parts of reinforcing bars 49 cut into the support rods 26 of the frame and extending parallel to each other between the end pieces 44 and 45 are secured to the flanges 47 and 48 of the end pieces 44 and 45.

The end pieces 44 and 45 are formed with an axially extending central rectangular cross-section hole 52 within which a rectangular cross-section shaft 54 can slide.

One end of each shaft 54 is fixed to the support rod 26 with a screw 55, and the other end is formed with a holding flange at 900 in the longitudinal direction.

Helical compression springs 14 and 15 surround a shaft 54 of rectangular cross-section and are held between end pieces 44 and 45, respectively, and support rod 26.

A retaining flange at the upper end of shaft 54 causes compression coil springs 14 and 15 to pull the shaft through end pieces 44 and 45, respectively, when frame 10 pivots out of contact with pressure fusing roller 17. to prevent

As shown in FIG. 1, the frame 10 with the coating blanket 12 attached and the handle 33 is picked up by the handle 33 during use.

The support rod 26 and the remainder of the pivot structure pivot to the left as viewed in FIG. 3 and out of alignment with the axis of the pressure fuser roller 17.

The longitudinal groove 24 in the frame 10 is aligned with the support bar 26 and the frame is then slid onto the support bar.

Finally, the handle 33 is squeezed and pushed to the right as viewed in FIG. 3 into the groove in the bracket 36, pivoting the applicator-cleaner to the position shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 for application. A straight line connecting the axis of the device cleaner and the rotational axis of the pressure fixing roller 17 passes through the center of the coating blanket 12 and the width of the frame 100.

The applicator-cleaner is then in a stable position and the helical compression springs 14 and 15 exert equal pressure throughout both the longitudinal edge areas 19 and 20.

FIG. 3 shows the applicator-cleaner in use, with the pressure fixing roller 17 rotating clockwise.

Toner powder 57 adhering to the pressure fixing roller 17 is removed by a coating blanket over the left hand longitudinal edge area 19 of the frame 10, and an anti-offset fluid 59, such as silicone oil, is applied to the right hand longitudinal edge area. The pressure fixing roller 17 is coated by a portion of the coating blanket over 20 minutes.

The cleaning and coating functions are thus effectively separated and the toner powder 57 removed from the pressure fixing roller 17.
The silicone oil 59 does not contaminate the area of the coating blanket that is applied (thereby enabling the applicator-cleaner until all useful anti-offset fluid has been applied to the coating blanket 12 and the pressure fuser roller 17). Activate it.

In a particular test, the applicator-cleaner illustrated and disclosed herein was utilized in a pressure fuser, in which the pressure fuser roller was rotated once along a length of 271 mrn.
A fixing pressure of 3.6 kg per nm is applied.

A polyester felt application blanket 12 was used which had a width of 70 mm and was in contact with the pressure fixing roller 17 over 20 mm of its width.

The frame 10 and coating blanket were brought into contact with the pressure fixing roller 17 by compression coil springs 14 and 15 with a total force of 4.5 ky.

Dow Corning A2
Five to nine grams of silicone oil of 00 Fluid-200C8 was used over the applicator-cleaner's copying life of 18,000 to 40,000 copies.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 is a perspective view showing the top, one longitudinal edge, and one end of a portion of an applicator-cleaner constructed in accordance with the present invention; FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the portion shown in FIG. 1; Longitudinal elevation of configured applicator-cleaner;
and FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 3--3 of FIG. In the figure, 10...frame, 12...
... Application blanket, 17 ... Pressure fixing roller, 19°20 ... Longitudinal edge area, 22
・・・・・・The hollow in the center.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 includes a rigid support frame and a coating blanket fixed to the frame, applies a release and anti-offset fluid to the surface of a cylindrical pressure fuser roller, and removes developer powder from the pressure fuser roller. In an applicator-cleaner; the rigid frame 10 has a length corresponding to the length of the pressure fixing roller 17, and two parts are separated by a central recess 22 extending the length of the frame. one surface having longitudinal edge areas 19, 20; the coating blanket 12 is stretched over the one surface of the frame and contacts the two longitudinal edge areas of the frame; A quantity of release and anti-offset fluid is included in the application blanket, and the support frame is resiliently pressed to force the one surface thereof toward contact with the pressure fuser roller, and the frame Applicator-cleaner characterized in that the applicator-cleaner is adapted to forcefully engage a portion of the applicator blanket over the longitudinal edge area of the pressurized fuser roller.