JPS59192275A - Cleaning device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make the titled device and a cleaning blade simple, small-sized, and light-weight easily and make it possible to hold blade having various shapes, by adhering directly the blade to a cleaning vessel to hold and fix it. CONSTITUTION:The inside of a cleaning device is partitioned partially by a fixed partitioning plate 10, and a toner scraped by a blade 3 is pressed into an inner space 11 of a vessel by a rotating scraping-in member 9. This rubber blade 3 is held directly by a cleaner vessel 2 through an adhesive layer 12, and therefore, conventional holding plate and spacer are unnecessary. Not only an ordinary double-face adhesive tape but also a cyanoacrylate adhesive of an instantaneous hardening adhesive may be used as the adhesive layer 12. Thus, the device is made simple, light-weight, and small-sized.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a cleaning device, and more particularly to a cleaning device that removes developer remaining on the surface of a circulating image carrier and makes it reusable.

Conventionally, in image forming apparatuses such as electrophotographic apparatuses, a developed image is formed on the surface of an image carrier such as a photoreceptor, and after transfer, the surface is cleaned and reused. For example, in an electrophotographic copying machine, first, an optical image corresponding to the original is projected onto a photoconductive photosensitive layer provided on the circumferential surface of the drum to form an electrostatic latent image, and then a developer is applied to this latent image. A toner image is formed by the adhesion. Furthermore, the transfer material is pressed against the photosensitive drum, and the image on the drum is transferred. Finally, this is fixed and a copy is created. After transfer, the drum is cleaned of residual toner by a cleaning device and is ready for the next image formation.

As a cleaning device, there has conventionally been a blade cleaning method. In this method, a wear-resistant rubber material is usually brought into pressure contact with the surface of the photoreceptor, and the toner remaining on the surface of the photoreceptor is removed by friction at the edge of the rubber material. The device based on this method has a simple structure and can be assembled compactly, so
It is very useful as a cleaning device for electrophotographic copying machines.

Conventionally, such a cleaning blade is manufactured by sandwiching the cleaning blade between two members, as shown in FIG. 1, for example. In FIG. 1, 1 is a photosensitive drum, 4 and 6 are holding plates that hold the cleaning blade 6, and are made of metal plates.By sandwiching the cleaning blade 6 through a spacer 5 and tightening it with screws, etc. 6. However, such a method has the following drawbacks.

First, a large number of parts are lost in order to hold just one rubber blade, which makes it difficult to make mechanical equipment smaller and more compact, which has been required in recent years.

Second, since the blade is held through a number of parts, the tolerances of those parts increase the variation in the position of the tip of the blade. That is, the first
In the method shown in the figure, the position of the tip of the blade 6,
If the area of contact with the photosensitive drum differs, the degree of contact of the blade with the photosensitive drum will change, and the cleaning performance will change. For example, cleaning may not be performed in some cases, resulting in inconvenience to the image. Sixth, with the method shown in Figure 1, the screws may be tightened too tightly due to the thickness of the rubber blade and the thickness tolerance of the spacer 5, resulting in the tip of the blade being wavy, or conversely, being too weak, the blade may easily fall off. It may happen.

Furthermore, in the past, cleaning blades generally needed to be replaced after forming 50,000 to 150,000 images, and this was usually done by a service technician who observed the degree of wear or by periodically replacing them. It has been. Therefore, it was necessary to adopt a holding method that allows the cleaning blade to be easily replaced. However, in recent years, a new method has been proposed and realized in which a part of the image forming means, such as a photosensitive drum or a cleaner, is constructed integrally, and the user replaces the entire unit after making a certain number of copies. . In such a case, there is no need to take care that the blade can be easily replaced during service, and for this reason a very simple method for attaching and holding the blade has become possible.

The present invention takes into account the drawbacks of the conventional cleaning method, eliminates the above drawbacks, and provides a simple means for holding a cleaning blade.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 shows one embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a photosensitive drum, and the toner remaining on the photosensitive drum 1 is scraped off by a rubber blade 6.
A scooping sheet 7 made of a polyester film with a thickness of about 75 μm, for example, located below the crease container 2
Stored inside.

This scooping sheet 7 is in light contact with the surface of the drum 1, and the degree of contact is such that the residual toner can pass through this sheet. This contact of the sheet 7 with the drum prevents the toner scraped off by the blade 6 from leaking from inside the container 2 to the outside. Reference numeral 8 at the bottom of the cleaning container 2 is a magnet for collecting toner that has fallen to the outside.

A portion of the interior of this cleaning device is partitioned by a fixed partition plate 10, and the toner dropped by the blade 6 as described above is pushed into a space 11 at the back of the container by a rotating scraping member 9.

This increases the apparent density of the toner.
The container can be made smaller. The scraping member 9 is made of an elastic body such as a polyester sheet or rubber-impregnated cloth, for example.

In FIG. 2, the rubber blade 6 is directly held on the cleaner container 2 via the adhesive layer 12, and therefore the holding plates 4, 6 and spacer 5 as shown in FIG. 1 are not required. Therefore, it is easy to make the device light and compact. The adhesive layer 12 may be a commercially available double-sided tape or may be a cyanoacrylate needle thread adhesive called an instant adhesive. Various other adhesive layers are possible. Further, the cleaner container 2 to which the rubber blade is bonded may be made of plastic made by molding, such as polycarbonate or Noryl, or may be made integrally by aluminum pultrusion molding, aluminum die casting, or the like.

According to these, it is easy to form a uniform and smooth surface to which the cleaning blade 6 is bonded, and if high precision is required, the surface may be subjected to mechanical processing such as grinding before bonding. . Since the cleaning blade is held by adhering to such a flat surface, it is possible to completely eliminate undulations caused by uneven pressure being applied to the blade due to screw tightening or the like. Further, since it is directly attached to the cleaner container 2, the position of the tip of the cleaning blade 6 can be determined with high precision. The position of the grade may vary depending on the adhesion position during adhesion, but for example, the position of the second grade
As shown in the diagram, you can eliminate the fear of crinkling by pressing one side against the other and gluing. .

Another embodiment of the invention is shown in FIG.

In Figure 71.5, 13 is a photosensitive drum, which has a relatively small radius of curvature (1-0
~20 mm). A cleaning blade 14 is similarly bonded and fixed to the cleaner container 16 by an adhesive layer 15.

'For such an ultra-small machine, it is clear that the conventional fixing method shown in Figure 1 is impossible, but it is possible to attach it directly to the cleaner container as shown in Figure 3. becomes. Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 3, cleaning blades having various shapes can be easily fixed. Generally, when trying to downsize the cleaning blade,
If you want to do this without changing the contact pressure of the cleaning blade against the photosensitive drum, shorten the free surface (the length from the fixed end of the blade to the supporting end of the blade) to reduce the pressure and increase the pressure accordingly. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the thickness of the blade by 5 to produce the same pressure. In such a case, if it is used alone, the cleaning blade will become small and flimsy, and its strength will become unstable.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 6, it is conceivable to make the base of the cleaning blade thicker and thin the area near where it contacts the drum. In addition, various shapes other than the one shown in FIG. 6 are also conceivable, such as a diagonal cross section.

Even in such a case, in the method of directly adhering to the cleaner container as in the present invention, the thickness of the blade may vary.

It can be held and fixed regardless of the shape. In addition, in the case of such a special shape, the sandwiching method shown in Figure 1 requires a certain area or more of the sandwiching area on both sides, but with adhesive, it is only one side and the adhesive strength is sufficient. For example, only a small adhesive area is required, and the device and blade can be easily miniaturized.

As explained above, by directly adhering and fixing the cleaning blade to the cleaner container, it is possible to: ■ simplify, downsize, and reduce the weight of the device and cleaning blade; and ■ position the cleaning blade relative to the photosensitive drum. Accuracy is further improved; ■ There is no need to worry about the cleaning blade waving due to tightening screws, etc.; ■ It is possible to hold cleaning blades of various shapes, and the cleaning blade can be easily installed, which naturally results in low-cost cleaning. equipment becomes possible.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a conventional cleaning device, FIG. 2 is a sectional view of a cleaning device using one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 6 is a sectional view of a cleaning device using another embodiment. In this regard, 1... Photosensitive drum 2... Cleaner container 6...
・・Cleaning blade 12・15・・・Liquid applicant Canon Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A cleaning device for removing substances remaining on the surface of an image carrier with an elastic cleaning blade, characterized in that the cleaning blade is held and fixed by directly adhering to a cleaner container.