JPS59205052A - Belt drive method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make it possible to simply and surely prevent a belt from being biased, by providing such an arrangement that the belt is rotated with being biased only to one end side, and as well a bias preventing means is provided only to the other end side which is in opposite to the side to which the belt is biased. CONSTITUTION:A belt 1 is formed, on the back surface of its one end side, with a circumferential ridge 1a which is received in grooves 2a, 3a formed in the outer peripheries of support rollers 2, 3. Further, one support roller 3 is inclined with respect to the other roller 2 so that the inter-axial distance between both rollers 2, 3 at the side where the groove 3 is formed is different from that at the other side where no groove is formed. With this arrangement, the belt 1 is biased to the side on which the inter-axial distance is short, and therefore, the ridge 1a on the belt 1 is made into contact with the side surfaces of the grooves 2a, 3a in the support rollers 2, 3, which are on the belt biasing side, thereby the belt 1 is prevented from being biased.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an improvement in a method for driving a belt such as a conveyor belt, and particularly to a belt driving method suitably used for intermediate transfer belts in copying machines and the like.

[Prior art]

Conventionally, in belt conveying devices such as conveyor belts, there have been methods to prevent the belt from shifting, such as making the support roller shaped like a medium drum, installing flanges on the support roller, installing perforations on the heddle, and using the support roller. a method of providing a sprocket portion that engages with a perforation;
A method is adopted in which circumferential convex ridges are provided on the back surface of both ends of the belt, and grooves are provided on the outer periphery of the support roller into which the belt's convex ridges fit. However, intermediate transfer belts for copying machines and the like are made of steel strip, polyimide, or polyimideamide.

Polyarylate, polytetrafluoroethylene.

It consists of a transfer layer made of silicone rubber, fluorine rubber, etc. on the surface of a belt base made of a resin film such as polyether sulfone or polyester, or a laminate thereof. Since the belt is wide on the width plate of copying paper, etc., and is brought into pressure contact with the surface of the toner image forming body, the conveying device of the intermediate transfer belt does not have a belt that easily interferes with the pressure contact with the toner image forming body. , methods of making the support roller drum-shaped, which tend to cause wrinkles on the intermediate transfer belt, methods of providing flanges on the support roller, which are more likely to cause wrinkles on the intermediate transfer belt, methods of supporting rollers, which tend to damage the perforation part. The method of installing a sprocket part is adopted, and qj [i. In this respect, the method of providing convex ridges on the belt is relatively less likely to cause wrinkles or damage to the intermediate transfer belt. However, since this method provides convex ridges on both sides of the belt, it is troublesome to attach the belt to the support roller, the manufacturing cost of the belt increases, and it is thin and has a high tensile strength like an intermediate transfer belt. Although the strength is sufficient, the buckling strength during bending is low, and when used with wide belts, sagging occurs in the axial direction near the convex ridges that engage with the grooves of the support roller on the side that is offset. However, it has the disadvantage of being prone to wrinkles.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems of the 1F method for preventing deviation by providing convex ridges on the belt. To provide a belt driving method that prevents the belt from shifting.

[Structure of the Invention] The present invention provides a belt drive method in which a belt is stretched across a plurality of rollers, a deviation preventing means is provided at the end position i of the belt, and the belt is rotated. A belt driving method characterized in that the belt is rotated so as to have a tendency to shift to one side, and a belt to prevent the belt from shifting is provided only at an end position opposite to the direction in which the belt shifts.

In addition, in the present invention, as the deviation prevention means provided only on one end side, a means using a convex ridge of the belt and an engagement groove of the support roller is preferable, and in this case, the convex ridge of the belt is
It is not limited to the one that forms the end edge of the belt, but may be provided at a portion slightly inside from the end, and is not limited to continuous in the circumferential direction, but may be discontinuous. Since the engagement between the side surface of the convex ridges facing toward the center of the belt and the side surface of the groove of the support roller acts to prevent the belt from shifting, the grooved surface of the convex ridge and the retaining side surface of the groove of the support roller are It is preferred that the back surface of the support roller be perpendicular to the outer peripheral support surface of the support roller. Furthermore, the belt can be rotated so that it tends to be biased only to one side by tilting the distance between the axes of the support rollers of the belt. If both 6111 are not on the same plane, the plane containing the axis of one support roller intersects the axis of the other support roller, and the axis of the support roller that intersects with that plane is projected. This is the angle formed between the projection axis and the axis of the one support roller.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained based on illustrated examples.

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an example of a device for implementing the belt driving method of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a partial side view of a copying machine showing an example of an intermediate transfer belt.

In FIG. 1, 1 is a belt, 2 and 3 are support rollers, and the belt 1 has a convex ridge 1 in the circumferential direction on the back side of one end.
a is provided, and the convex ridges 1a of the belt enter the outer periphery of the support rollers 2 and 3.

3a is provided, and one of the support rollers 2 and 3 that suspends the belt 1 is provided with a distance between the axes on the side with a groove and a distance between the axes on the side without a groove with respect to the other support roller. are tilted differently.

In addition, if there are only two support rollers as shown in this figure,
Since the tilt is relative, it goes without saying that either side can be tilted relative to the other.

This inclination of the support roller gives the belt 1 a tendency to rotate (accompanied by a tendency to shift only to one side. For example,
Place the support roller 3 on the drive side in the groove 3 as shown in the first figure.
When the belt 1 is tilted so that the distance between the axes on the side a is larger than the distance between the axes on the non-grooved side, the belt 1 contacts the tilted support roller 3 and a dotted line is formed along its rotating circumferential surface. It rotates as shown in , and as it rotates, the influence of being pulled by the other support roller 2 becomes stronger, and as a result, the direction of rotation gradually becomes toward the support roller 2 (in the α angle direction). As a whole, the distance between the axes is shifted toward the narrow side.Therefore, the convex ridge 1a of the belt 1 engages with the side surface of the grooves 2.a, 3a of the support rollers 2, 3 in the direction of the shift. In this state, the belt 1 is prevented from shifting.

Note that the direction of the inclination of the support roller that causes the belt to deviate on the opposite side to the side on which the deviating prevention means is provided on the belt 1, and the angle of the inclination of the support roller on the side opposite to the side on which the deviating prevention means is provided, and the direction of the inclination and the angle of the inclination are Since this is related to which side is the negative tension side and the difference in tension between them, the point is to tilt the support roller so that the belt 1 tends to shift toward the side where the shift prevention means is not provided.

No. 21:4 shows an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a copying machine using an intermediate transfer belt.

1' is an intermediate transfer belt, and this belt 1', like the belt 1 in FIG. 1, has a convex ridge 1'a on one end to prevent deviation.
I have everything. The support rollers 4 to 6 have first grooves 4a to 6a into which the convex ridges 1a enter, as shown by dotted lines.
has.

Reference numeral 7 denotes an Ichiko photosensitive drum, which is not shown, but is used for charging, exposure, and development using ordinary electrophotography.
A visible image is formed.

As mentioned above, the intermediate transfer belt 1' has a transfer layer made of silicone rubber or fluorine rubber on a heat-resistant, non-stretchable base layer, and the transfer layer is transferred to the photoreceptor by the support roller 4. Pressed by the drum 7, the toner image adheres to the intermediate transfer belt 1' and is transferred.Numbers 1 and 9.10 heat the support roller 5 and the recording pressure roller 8, respectively, using heating elements such as infrared lamps. The toner image on the intermediate transfer belt 1' is heated and melted at this position, and is transferred and fixed onto the transfer paper P.

In this embodiment, the support roller 6 is provided obliquely in the same way as the support roller 3 in FIG.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, it is only necessary to provide the convex ridges on one end of the belt, and it is also necessary to provide the grooves on the support roller at only one location, thereby reducing the manufacturing costs of the belt and the support roller. The advantages are that the VC is inexpensive and the belt can be easily attached. Since the convex ridges on the other end stop the tendency of the entire width of the belt to shift to one side due to the inclination of the support roller, the belt does not wrinkle, and the present invention can be applied to thin belts such as intermediate transfer belts. It is suitably used for.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an example of an apparatus for implementing the belt driving method of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a partial side view of a copying machine showing an example of an intermediate transfer belt. 1 belt, 1'...intermediate transfer belt, la, l'a
...Convex ridge, 2-6...Support roller, 2a-
6a... In addition, 7... Ilj photo frame, optical drum, 8. Recording pressure roller, 9, 10... Heating element, P... Recording paper. 1°! Applicant Konishiroku Photo Industry Co., Ltd. Figure 1 Figure 2 Continued from page 1 0 Inventor Kunio Ito Inside Konishiroku Photo Industry Co., Ltd., 2970 Ishikawa-cho, Hachioji City

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a belt driving method in which the belt is rotated by extending the belt across a plurality of rollers and providing a means for preventing deviation at the end position of the belt, the belt is rotated so that the belt tends to be deviated only to one side, and the belt is also deviated. A belt driving method characterized in that the belt is rotated by providing a deviation prevention means only at an end position opposite to the direction.