JPS60107664A - Detector for remainder of developer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent malfunctions due to deflection of a toner and to improve the detection precision by detecting the remainder of a developer with the operation of an operator interlocked with an agitating member. CONSTITUTION:A crank 26 and a shaking shaft 27 are connected to a gear 23, which is fixed to a shaft 22a of a supply roll 22 in the bottom part of a vessel body 1, through a gear 25, and an agitating member 28 is attached to the shaft 27 to agitate the toner in the vessel. A magnet 33 stuck to the tip of a supporting arm 30a of an operator 30 attached to a stay 29 makes a magnetic sensing element 34 sensitive by its turning, and the lack state of the toner is detected by plural outputs of this element 34. Consequently, the detection precision is improved without the influence of deflection of the toner because the remainder of the toner is detected while agitating it, and rotation impossibility due to blocking of the toner does not occur because the operator 30 is shaked.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to a developer remaining detection device for detecting the amount of developer remaining in a developer supply container of an electrophotographic recording apparatus.

[Technical landscape of invention]

Conventionally, an actuator is swingably provided in a developer replenishment container for appropriately replenishing the developer consumed during copying, and as the amount of developer decreases, the actuator rotates downward to the detection position. A developer remaining amount detection device that detects the remaining amount of developer by operating a switch provided was developed in 1972.
-128042 and Utility Model Application Publication No. 55-123950.

In the above remaining amount detection device, as the amount of developer decreases, the actuator rotates downward due to its own weight, so if the developer aggregates due to the influence of humidity etc., the actuator swings irregularly, making it difficult to accurately place the remaining amount. Could not be detected.

On the other hand, several developer remaining amount detection devices have been developed that prevent malfunctions due to vibrations of machines and the like by intermittently swinging an actuator at predetermined timings.

An example thereof will be explained using FIG. In the figure, l is a toner hopper main body, and a replenishment roller 2 made of a porous material such as foamed urethane is rotatably supported in an opening formed in the lower part of the main body 1, and replenishment toner is thrown into the upper part. A lid body 3 is provided so as to be openable and closable. A gear 4 for driving the supply roller 2 is provided on one side 1a of the main body 1, and a gear 6 having a protruding pin 5 is meshed therewith. An arm 7 is engaged with this pin 5, and this arm 7 is fixed to one end of a swing shaft 8 rotatably supported on the upper part of the main body 1. At the center of this swing shaft 8 is an actuator 1 with a magnet 9 attached to its tip.
0 is provided integrally. A reed switch 11 is provided at a position opposite to the magnet 9 when the actuator 10 is at its lowest point.

Next, the operation of this detection device will be explained.

When the driving force is transmitted from the copying machine main body to the gear 4 during toner replenishment, the gear 4 rotates in the direction of the arrow shown in the figure. At this time, as the pin 5 rotates, the arm 7 comes into contact with the pin 5 and rotates at a predetermined angle. , and the actuator 1o is rotated upward via the swing shaft 8. Then, when the gear 6 rotates further, the engagement between the pin 5 and the arm 7 is released, and the actuator 1o becomes free and tries to rotate downward due to its own weight. Therefore, if the driven gear 6 continues to rotate, the actuator 1o will swing in the vertical direction.

At this time, when the toner hopper main body l is sufficiently filled with toner, the actuator 10 stops upward due to the resistance of the toner, as shown in FIG. If it is in the state shown in Figure 2 fbl
As shown in FIG. 3, the actuator rotates to the lowest point, and the magnet 9 approaches the reed switch. At this time, the reed switch 11 detects the magnetic field generated from the magnet 9 and sends a signal indicating that the amount of replenishment toner stored is insufficient.

However, this developer remaining amount detection device also uses the actuator 1.
Since it is configured to rotate downward due to its own weight of 0, it may malfunction due to mechanical vibration of the copying machine.

Moreover, a drive mechanism for rotating the actuator lO upward at a predetermined timing is required, making the device complicated.

Furthermore, since this detection device is not equipped with a stirring mechanism, if the toner in the toner hopper main body 1 causes blocking, the actuator 1o will be rotated by the toner mass when the arm 7 is disengaged from the pin 5. There is a risk that brutality detection may become impossible as a result.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a device for detecting the amount of developer remaining in a developer supply container.

[Summary of the invention]

In this invention, an actuator is interlocked with a stirring member that stirs the developer filled in a developer supply container and is rotatably provided in the container, and the remaining amount of developer is adjusted in response to the operation of the actuator. A detector is provided to detect and generate a developer shortage signal, and in response to multiple developer shortage signals output from this detector, a developer shortage state is notified and the remaining amount of developer is detected. It is characterized by this.

[Embodiments of the invention]

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

In Fig. 3, 21 is a box-shaped developer replenishment container body filled with a developer such as toner, and this main body 21 is made of a porous elastic material such as foamed urethane or the like so as to cover the four openings. A roller 22 is rotatably supported. The shaft 22a of the supply roller 22 is attached to the side surface 2 of the main body 21.
A gear 23 is fixed to one end of the shaft 228, projecting outward from the shaft 1b, for transmitting driving force from the copying machine. A gear 25 having a protruding pin 24 is meshed with this gear 23, and a link 26 constituting a crank 26 is attached to the pin 24.
One end of the link 26a is connected to the other end of the link 26a, and an arm 26b is connected to the other end of the link 26a. Further, the other end of the arm 26b is fixed to one end of the swing shaft 27. This swing shaft 27 is connected to the main body 2
1, which is rotatably supported by a shaft, and is formed into a mouth shape here;
=9 Stirring member 28 is attached.

This stirring member 28 swings along the bottom portion 21a due to the clockwise and counterclockwise rotation of the swing shaft 27, and stirs the toner filled in the main body 21.

A swing shaft 27 is provided between the legs 28a, 28a of the stirring member 28.
A stay 29 is attached parallel to the actuator 30.
is rotatably attached. As shown in FIG. 4, this actuator 30 is constructed by attaching a wing 30b to the middle part of a support arm 30a, and forming a stopper 30C at the rear end for preventing rotation. At this time, the stay 29
It is rotatably supported by a pin 32 on a pair of L-shaped angles 31a fixed to the. A detector is provided which detects the remaining amount of toner and generates a developer failure signal in response to the operation of the actuator 30. In the illustrated example, a magnetically sensitive element 34 such as a reed switch or a Hall element is provided at a position facing the magnet 33 when it is rotated to the support A, thereby configuring the detector. At this time, the actuator 30 is made of a material with relatively light specific gravity, such as plastic resin, and has a weight that prevents the actuator 30 from sinking into the accumulated toner due to the resistance received by the wings 30b.

On the other hand, a magnetically sensitive element 34 as shown in FIG.
A control circuit 35 that generates a toner shortage state signal when a toner shortage signal is detected a plurality of times is electrically connected to the output terminal of the control circuit 35, and a display 536 that displays an out-of-toner display is connected to the downstream of the control circuit 35. 〇Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained.

Now, the developer supply container 21 is opened in response to a predetermined toner supply signal.
When replenishing toner to the developing device from
The gear 23 meshes with the gear 5 and rotates. As the gear 23 rotates, the toner supply roller 22 rotates and supplies toner to the developing device located below.

Further, the swing shaft 27 swings via the crank 26 connected to the pin 24 of the gear 25, and as a result, the stirring member 2
The leg portions 28a of No. 8 rotate clockwise and counterclockwise as shown by arrows X in FIG.

When the leg portion 28a of the stirring member 28 rotates from the solid line position X1 to the broken line position X2, the stopper 30c moves the f stay 2
9 and is lifted up to position A indicated by the broken line in the figure. When the leg portion 28a rotates from this state to the solid line position The arm 30a rotates downward while remaining in contact with the stay 29 until the wing 30b contacts the surface of the toner layer. When this wing 30b comes into contact with the surface of the toner layer,
The wing 30b receives resistance from the toner and the support arm 30
a stops at point A2.

At this time, the contact between the stopper 30c and the stay 296 is released when the wing 30b contacts the surface of one layer of toner. When the leg portion 28a further rotates from this state to point X1, the support arm 30a moves horizontally along the surface of the toner layer to point A8.

In this manner, when a sufficient amount of toner is filled in the replenishment container 21, the actuator 30 does not sink into the toner layer due to the action of the wings 30b, and the magnet 33 does not come close to the magnetically sensitive element 34. , no toner shortage signal is generated.

The actuator 30 is pushed up lζ every time the stirring member 28 moves forward.

Next, as shown by the dashed line L/L/ in FIG. When rotating, the support arm 30a is always resisted by the wings 30b, so it is difficult to swing downward. That is, while the leg portion 28a is rotating from X2 to The support arm 30a is moved almost horizontally and returned to point A31. Conversely, when the leg portion 28a rotates from the point X1 to the point X2, the wing 30b rotates downward due to the resistance of the toner with the stopper 30C and the stay 29 initially released from contact. , the support arm 30a moves from point A31 to A2'. Thereafter, the stopper 30c comes into contact with the stay 29, and as described above, the support arm 30a is gradually rotated upward and pushed up to the entry point. At this time, the support arm 30
Since the tip of a is located at a position entry point that is sufficiently far from the magnetically sensitive element 34 by 4 ttn, the magnetically sensitive element 34 does not detect the magnetic field generated from the magnet 33 and generate a toner-out signal.

On the other hand, when the replenishment toner is consumed and the toner runs out, when the leg portion 28a rotates from X2 to Xl, the support arm 30a receives no resistance from the wing 30b, so it swings to point Ao in FIG. Magnet 33 in magnetically sensitive element 34
are close together. This causes the magnetically sensitive element 34 to detect the magnetic field from the magnet and generate a toner shortage signal. This toner shortage signal is sent to the control circuit 35 as shown in FIG. At this time, when the actuator 30 swings, the magnet 33
Since the toner repeatedly approaches and separates from the magnetically sensitive element 34, the magnetically sensitive element 34 repeatedly generates the toner shortage signal as a pulse. When the circuit 35 detects the control toner shortage signal pulse a plurality of times, the circuit 35 determines that there is a toner shortage condition, and displays the toner shortage condition on the display 36.

Therefore, with this configuration, the remaining amount of toner can be detected while stirring the toner with the stirring member 28, which reduces the effects of toner bias and blocking, and improves detection accuracy. be able to. Moreover, since the actuator 30 swings in conjunction with the stirring member 28, it is possible to prevent the actuator from being unable to rotate due to toner blocking at the center of rotation of the actuator.

Furthermore, since the wing 30c is provided on the actuator 30, the resistance of the toner applied to the actuator 30 increases.
The actuator 30 does not displace the toner and rotate downward due to its own weight, and stable detection can be performed regardless of the fluidity of the toner.

Furthermore, by determining that there is no toner when the toner shortage signal from the magnetically sensitive element 34 is detected multiple times,
Since malfunctions caused by mechanical vibrations of the copying machine can be prevented, the remaining amount of toner can be accurately detected.

Next, another embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 8 to 12.

CUP42. R,0M43. It is possible to adopt a control method including timer/counter operation according to the program stored in the RAM44ζ and stored in the R,0M43.

As shown in FIG. 9, the output of the magnetically sensitive element 34 and the operation signal of the stirring member 28 are connected to an AND circuit 51 as a means for notifying the developer shortage state, and the logical product is sent to the control circuit 50 as a toner shortage signal. can be entered. In this case, when the stirring member 28 is activated, the stirring member operation signal is “H-
level. According to such a configuration,
If the clamshell is opened and closed several times in succession while the stirring member 28 is stopped, that is, the actuator 30 is not rocking, the actuator 30 may come into contact with and separate from the magnetically sensitive element 34 while the toner remains uneven. Even if the steps are repeated, the toner shortage signal is not sent to the control circuit 50 when the actuator 30 is not activated.
Malfunctions can be prevented.

As shown in FIG. 10, the control circuit 60 is set at the rising edge of the toner shortage signal when the stirring member is activated.1. The circuit includes a timer 61 that counts a predetermined time and generates a counter reset signal when the predetermined time elapses, and a counter 62 that counts the number of times the toner waste signal has been generated and resets it by the counter reset signal. I can do it.

In this control circuit 60, when the magnetic sensing element 34 generates a toner shortage signal, a counter 62 is first incremented by one, and a timer 61 is set at the fall of the toner shortage signal. At this time, if the oscillating periodic sound of the stirring member 28 is set to about 2 times, and the predetermined time is set to about 3 seconds, the toner shortage signal will be generated once every 2 seconds when there is no toner, so the counter 62 will To count a predetermined number of times without being reset. The counter 62 counts the toner shortage signal a predetermined number of times, generates a toner shortage processing start signal, and displays the toner shortage state on the display 36. According to such a configuration, when a toner shortage signal is suddenly generated due to toner imbalance, etc., it takes more than 3 seconds from the first toner shortage signal to the next signal to be generated, so the timer 6 is activated.
1, the control circuit 60 does not generate a toner shortage processing start signal, preventing malfunctions! You can watch it.

In addition, as shown in FIG. 11, the control circuit 6 shown in FIG.
It is also possible to include a timer 63 that generates a toner shortage processing cancellation signal after counting a predetermined time, for example, 5 seconds.

When executing the toner shortage process, this control circuit 60' generates a toner shortage signal once every two seconds as the stirring member 28 swings, so the timer 63 is reset before the 5 seconds are counted. Therefore, the toner shortage process continues. This can prevent erroneous cancellation of toner shortage processing.

In this case, if the timer time required to reset the counter 62 and the timer time required to cancel the toner shortage process are set to the same time from a functional perspective, one timer 61 can be used for both purposes as shown in FIG. can.

Further, in the above embodiment, the drive transmission mechanism for the replenishment roller and the stirring member are simultaneously driven when replenishing toner, but the drive mechanism for the pushing member may be provided separately.

As a result, the stirring member can be oscillated at times other than when toner is being replenished, so it is possible to constantly stir one layer of toner and prevent blocking, thereby preventing mechanical vibrations of the copying machine, vibrations that occur during movement, and crumbs. Malfunctions due to toner bias caused by opening and closing of the shell can be prevented.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, by providing the actuator in conjunction with the stirring member, the remaining amount of toner can be detected while stirring the toner, thereby preventing toner bias and blocking. Malfunctions due to influence can be prevented.

Furthermore, by notifying the developer shortage state in response to multiple developer shortage signals output from the detector, it is possible to prevent malfunctions caused by sudden developer shortage signals. The remaining amount of developer can be detected more accurately.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing a conventional toner remaining amount detection device;
1al lb) is a sectional view taken along line I-I in FIG. 1 to explain the operating state of the actuator, FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is the same. An enlarged perspective view of the actuator of the embodiment, and FIG. 5 or 7 is a sectional view taken along the line ■-■ in FIG. 3 to explain the operating state of the actuator of this embodiment. , FIG. 6 is a circuit diagram of the same embodiment,
8 to 11 are circuit diagrams showing another embodiment of the invention, and FIG. 12 is a perspective view showing another drive mechanism of another embodiment of the invention. l...Toner hopper body 1a...Side side 2...
Supply roller 3... Lid body 4.6... Gear 5... Pin 7... Arm 8... Swing shaft 9... Magnet 10... Operator 11... Reed switch 21 ...Developer supply container body 21a...bottom 21
b...Side surface 22...Toner replenishment roller 22a
・-dll 23.23', 25.25'--Gear 2
4... Pin 26... Crank 26a... Link 26b... Arm 27... Swing shaft 28... Stirring member 28a... Pa leg portion 29...
・Stay 30... Actuator 30a... Support arm 30b...
・Wing 30c...Stopper 318...Ll
l Angle 32...Pin 33...Permanent magnet 34
...Magnetic sensing element 62...Counter function 1~ Figure 5, Figure 6, Figure 7, Figure 8') 1j Director General of the Agency Kazuo Wakasugi 51 1
・1 display Japanese Patent Application No. 1982 215645 2 Name of the invention Developer residue 11 Detection placement 3, hli+1: Relationship with neutrality Patent applicant (037) Olympus Hikari-≠ Kogyo Corporation 7, Amendment Contents (1) rCUP described in the second line of page 14 of the specification of the present application
,,1 is corrected as [cPUJ. (2) In the specification in the same order, page 19, line 12, 1, r
cUP” is corrected to rcPUJ. (3) "Ant circuit" stated on page 19, line 13 of the same specification is corrected to "AND circuit".

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] (1) A developer supply container, a stirring member that is swingably provided in the container and that stirs the developer filled in the container, and a stirring member that is interlocked with the stirring member and is located inside the container. an actuator rotatably provided on the actuator, a detector that detects the remaining amount of developer and generates a developer shortage signal in response to the operation of the actuator, and a detector that outputs multiple times from the detector. 1. A developer remaining amount detecting device comprising means for notifying a developer shortage state in response to a developer shortage signal. (2) The developer remaining amount detecting device according to claim 1, wherein said means notifies the developer shortage state in synchronization with the operation of the stirring member. (2) The means described in claim 1 or 2 is characterized in that the means notifies the developer shortage state when a developer shortage signal is generated a predetermined number of times within a predetermined time. Remaining developer amount detection device. (4) The above means cancels the notification of the developer shortage state if the developer shortage signal does not occur continuously at a predetermined time during the operation of the stirring member. 1 to 3. The agent residual amount detection device described in item 3.