JPS59214054A - Developing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent toner from being supplied insufficiently nor excessively by displaying the indication of toner supply when the remaining amount of toner in a toner supplementing device decreases below a lower-limit value, and continuing the display until toner is supplied above an upper-limit value. CONSTITUTION:When toner T in a container 3 is consumed and becomes less, a grooved roller 13 is rotated as shown by an arrow with the detection signal of a sensor which detects the consumption, and the toner is supplied gradually from the toner supplementing device 10 to a developing device 1. The remaining amount of the toner in the container 11 decreases by the supplementation, and when there is no toner at the circumference of the 2nd sensor 16 for a low level, the exhaustion is detected to display the indication of toner supply. When toner is supplied to the container 11 up to the high level of the 1st sensor 15 for the high level, the display of the exhaustion is turned off for the 1st time. Thus, a deficiency in toner supply and an overflow due to excessive toner supply are prevented.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a developing device, and particularly to a developing device equipped with a toner replenishing device.

Conventionally, in this type of developing device, the amount of toner remaining in the toner replenishing device is detected by a single sensor provided at the bottom of the toner replenishing device, and the above-mentioned sensor detects when the remaining amount of toner falls below a specified value. The output displays an instruction to supply toner to the toner supply device.

However, with the above configuration, even though a sufficient amount of toner is not supplied into the toner supply device, the toner supply instruction display disappears, so toner supply is stopped.
Particularly in high-speed developing devices that consume a large amount of toner, it is necessary to frequently supply toner. Furthermore, since the amount of toner to be supplied is not known, there are inconveniences such as overfilling the toner replenishing device and overflowing the toner replenishing device, contaminating the surrounding area.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention aims to solve the above-mentioned disadvantages, and provides a developing device equipped with a toner replenishing device, at least a first sensor that detects that toner has been put into the toner replenishing device in an amount exceeding an upper limit value. and a second one for detecting that the toner in the toner replenishing device has decreased below the lower limit value.
and displays an instruction to supply toner to the toner replenishing device when both the first and second sensors no longer detect toner, and displays an instruction to supply toner to the toner supply device until the first sensor detects toner. It is characterized by being configured so that the display continues.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows an example in which the developing device t and the toner replenishing device 10 are configured separately. The developing device 1 includes a toner container 3 having an opening 2 on its side surface, a non-magnetic cylindrical member (hereinafter referred to as a sleeve) 4 provided inside the container 3 with a part of its circumference exposed to the outside through the opening 2. A magnet 5 arranged concentrically inside the sleeve, a magnetic blade that applies a uniform thin layer of toner T to the surface of the sleeve 4, a swinging member 7 that stirs the toner T inside the container 3, and a rotating member 7 that stirs the toner T inside the container 2. Sensor 8 that detects the amount of toner remaining
It is made up of etc. The toner replenishing device 10 includes the container 3
A container 11 that is airtightly assembled into a two-part opening, and this container 1
A grooved roller 13 rotatably provided at the position of a hole 12 formed in the center of the bottom of the container 1, a rotating member 14 that stirs the toner T in the container 11, and a rotating member 14 that stirs the toner T in the container 11. A first sensor 15 is provided on the side surface of the container 11 to detect that the toner has been put into the container, and a second sensor 15 is provided at the bottom of the container to detect that the toner in the container 11 has decreased below the lower limit. It is composed of two sensors 16, etc.

The second part of the sensor 8.15.16 is one that detects a change in inductance when the toner is magnetic, and one that detects a change in toner pressure for non-magnetic and magnetic toner. A visual element, or an optical detection element that detects the presence or absence of toner between a light emitting element and a light receiving element may be used.

This embodiment has the above-mentioned structure, and the toner T in the container 3 is regulated between the minute gap between the sleeve 4 and the magnetic blade 6 by the magnetic field action of the magnet 5, and forms a uniform thin layer on the surface of the sleeve. is applied to.

Then, the applied toner is transported in the direction of the arrow by the relative rotation of the sleeve 4 and the magnet 5, comes into contact with or comes close to the image holding member 20, and visualizes the latent image on the image holding member.

When the toner T in the container 2 is consumed and decreases, a detection signal from the sensor 8 that detects this actuates a drive device (not shown) to rotate the grooved roller 13 in the direction of the arrow, and the toner replenishing device 10 supplies the developing material. The device l is gradually refilled. As a result of this replenishment, the amount of toner remaining in the container 11 decreases, and when there is no more toner around the second sensor 16 installed at a lower level, it detects that there is no toner and supplies toner to an operation panel (not shown). Display instructions. The user reads this instruction display and replenishes toner from the replenishment toner container into container 11, but if the toner is not replenished to the position of the first sensor 15 installed at the upper level of the container 11, there will be no toner. In other words, the instruction display continues, and the toner 5
When the toner is supplied until it reaches the first sensor 15 at a higher level, the no-toner indication disappears for the first time.

Even if the toner in the container 11 is consumed by replenishing the toner in the developing device 1 again, and the amount of toner becomes less than the first sensor 15 at a higher level, no toner is not displayed.
The amount of toner is lower than that of the second sensor 16 at the lower level, and the out-of-toner message is displayed.

FIG. 3 shows that the toner replenishing device 10, that is, the container 1-
This shows an example of a circuit that instructs toner supply to the first
The sensor 15 is connected to the D terminal of a D flip-flop (hereinafter abbreviated as DFF) 21 via an inverter 20, and directly to the RS terminal of the DFF. Second
The sensor 16 is connected to the DFF CK via the inverter 22.
The Q terminal of the DFF is connected to the base of the switching transistor 23.

Now, when the toner in the container 11 reaches the position of the first sensor 15, the output of the first sensor 15 is the old GH,
Since this output is supplied to the R3 terminal, the DFF 21 is reset and the Q terminal is LOW. and,
When the amount of toner remaining in the container 11 decreases compared to the first sensor 15 due to toner replenishment to the developing device l, the first sensor
The output of the sensor 15 becomes LOW (point 1 in Figure 4) and the reset is released, but the Q terminal of the DFF 21 is
Until a signal is input to the K terminal, it remains LOW and no toner supply instruction is displayed.

Toner supply continues and the remaining amount of toner is detected by the second sensor 16.
When it decreases further, a rising -1 repulse is input from the second sensor 16 to the CK terminal of the DFF via the inverter 22, and the Q terminal of the DFF becomes the old gh, making the switching transistor 23 conductive. The light emitting diode 24 connected in series with is turned on to indicate the need to supply toner to the toner replenishing device 10 (point 12 in FIG. 4).

When the supplied toner reaches the position of the second sensor 16 based on this instruction display, the output of the sensor 16 changes to the old gh
(point t3 in Figure 4), and when the continuously supplied toner reaches the position of the first sensor 15 and the output of the sensor 15 becomes the old gh, the DFF 21 is reset and its Q
The output of the terminal becomes LOW, turning off the switching transistor 23 and turning off the light emitting diode 24 (point t4 in FIG. 4).

If the copying machine is turned off when the door of the copying machine is opened to supply toner to the toner replenishing device 1o, only the central control unit (CPU) and display unit should be turned on, or a backup capacitor or Batteries are required.

FIG. 2 shows a second embodiment of the present invention in which a part of the container 3 of the developing device 1 is used as a toner replenishing device 10. In this embodiment, the sensor 8 in the first embodiment and the second one 1= 7+)'
-16 can also be used, so the number of sensors can be reduced by one. The toner supply instruction to the toner supply section 10 is the same as in the first embodiment.

Note that the first sensor 1 in the first and second embodiments
It is necessary to consider the installation position of item 5 so that the toner can be stored with sufficient margin to prevent it from overflowing.

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, when the remaining amount of toner in the toner replenishing device becomes less than the lower limit value, a display instructing to supply toner is displayed, and the above display continues until the toner is supplied to the upper limit value or more. This prevents the toner supply from being stopped when it is insufficient, or from overflowing due to an excessive supply amount. Also, - the above toner supply can be carried out from 2 to 3 small toner containers.
Since it can be supplied in batches, the supply operation is easy and there is less chance of spilling and staining the surrounding area.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view showing a first embodiment of the developing device of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is the same diagram as above of the second embodiment, FIG. 3 is an example of a circuit for instructing toner supply, and FIG. 4 is a timing chart showing the operation of the circuit. l is the developing device, 10 is the toner supply device, 8 fists 15 16
is the remaining toner level detection sensor. Figure 3 Figure 4 Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 59-214054 (4) Figure 1. Figure 2 ``t+n t-7chi, t3j:4 \7'・甫・71

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) In a developing device equipped with a toner replenishing device, at least a first sensor detects that toner has been put into the toner replenishing device at an upper limit value or more, and a toner in the toner replenishing device has decreased to a lower limit value or less. and a second sensor for detecting that the toner has been detected, and when both the first and second sensors no longer detect toner, an instruction to supply toner to the toner replenishing device is displayed; A developing device configured to continue displaying the instruction until toner is detected.