JPS6014249A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To simplify positioning operation between the process apparatus in a process cartridge and the process apparatus on the body side of an image forming device by forming said device in such a way that the cartridge is directly positioned and held in the body of the device when said cartridge is housed in the home position of the body. CONSTITUTION:A cartridge 17 is held apart from a holding frame 18 when the cartridge is set in the home position in the body of an image forming device. The pins 34, 38 on the cartridge 17 side are fitted respectively in the positioning holes 35, 27 on the chassis side of the body and the pins 36, 26 on the chassis side are respectively fitted and positioned in the holes 37, 39 on the cartridge 17 side and therefore a photosensitive drum 3, an electrostatic charger 4, a developing device 5 and a cleaner unit 14 are positioned exactly with respect to the apparatus on the outside of the cartridge 17. When the handle 30 of the cartridge 17 is pulled in an arrow X direction, the cartridge 17 is disengaged from the body chassis and is held to the frame 18. The cartridge is thus drawn from the body of the device to the outside.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a method for attaching and detaching a process cartridge of an image forming apparatus.
It relates to positioning means.

Conventionally, as an image bearing member of image forming apparatuses such as electronic copying machines and facsimile laser beam printers, photoreceptors are replaced, developer is replenished, waste toner is disposed of, charging wires are cleaned, and developing devices are maintained. Most of these tasks were performed by professional service personnel.

However, with small and personal copying machines, the number of machines installed is larger than in the past, and the number of copies per user varies widely, making it difficult for specialized service personnel to perform maintenance. It's coming.

In conventional copying apparatuses, maintenance work was performed individually on each individual device component for which maintenance was to be performed. For example, when performing maintenance on a photosensitive drum, members close to the photosensitive drum are temporarily evacuated using a retraction mechanism, and then the photosensitive drum is removed from the apparatus to achieve the purpose. In this poem, sometimes it is necessary to interfere with nearby parts and damage the photosensitive drum, touch the photosensitive drum directly with your hands and get it dirty, or to perform maintenance by loading it on a special maintenance loading platform after removing it from the device. was occurring.

Even in the developing device, the surface of the developing roller is sometimes scratched, and foreign matter tends to get mixed into the developer storage container. Further, similar problems occur in chargers and the like, which often have an adverse effect on images after maintenance, and great care must be taken when operating them.

Furthermore, when it comes to cleaners, for example, in a copying machine where the waste toner processing body is divided into two parts (upper and lower), the waste toner is scattered inside the machine, and in consideration of the scattering, it is necessary to remove paper, etc. in advance so as not to affect other parts. I had to cover it with Copying machines that are removed from the machine body for maintenance require a loading stand or the like exclusively for maintenance.

When changing the developed color, operations similar to those for maintenance are required.

For example, in the electronic copying machine shown in FIG. 1, a part or all of the photosensitive drum 3, charger 4, developer 5, cleaner unit 14, etc. are integrated into a process cartridge 17, and it is attached to the main body of the copying machine. On the other hand, there are copying machines that are removably attached to facilitate maintenance and change of developing colors.

However, the process equipment inside the cartridge as a whole is quite heavy. Therefore, it is very inconvenient to remove the cartridge from the guide member after pulling it out from the apparatus main body, or to attach it to the guide member when storing it in the apparatus main body.

There is also the risk of accidentally dropping it. For this reason, it is necessary to attach and detach using reliable holding means.

On the other hand, a highly accurate positional relationship is required between the process equipment inside the cartridge and the process equipment located outside the cartridge on the apparatus main body side. For example, the relative positions of the photosensitive drum and the transfer charger must be accurately positioned. This positioning work requires a considerable amount of effort, and simplification of the work is required.

The present invention was made in view of this fact, and aims to eliminate the inconveniences of conventional devices and to satisfy the above requirements.

In order to achieve this object, the present invention provides (1) an image forming apparatus in which process cartridges 1 and 7 containing an image carrier 3 and image forming process equipment disposed around the image carrier 3 are removably attached to the main body of the image forming apparatus; In this case, the process cartridge 17 is held by a holding frame 18 so that it can be inserted into and removed from the apparatus main body, and when the process cartridge 17 is stored in a fixed position in the apparatus main body, the process cartridge 1
This image forming apparatus is characterized in that 7 is directly positioned and held on the apparatus main body.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of an electronic copying machine which is an image forming apparatus to which the present invention is applied.

3 is a photosensitive drum that rotates in the direction of the arrow around an axis 3a. 2 is a short focus lens array, 4 is a primary charger, 5 is a developer, 8 is a transfer charger, 9 is a separation charger, 7 is a fixer,
14 is a cleaner unit. Each of these devices is for forming a copy image of the original O on the transfer material P sent from the transfer material storage box S.

Among these process devices, the photosensitive drum 3, charger 4, and developing device No. 5 cleaner unit 14 are housed in the process cartridge 17 as described above.

In the state shown in the figure, the cartridge 17 is directly supported by the main body of the apparatus by means of engagement between pins and holes, which will be explained in detail later, and is not engaged with the holding frame 18, leaving a gap.

As shown in FIG. 2, the cartridge 17 is separated from the holding frame 18 when it is in a fixed position within the apparatus main body, and is directly positioned on the chassis of the apparatus main body. Cartridge 17
A taper pin 34 attached to the front side of the main body chassis fits into a positioning hole 35 provided in the front plate 24 of the main body chassis. A taper pin 36 attached to the chassis front plate 24 fits into a positioning hole 37 provided on the front side of the cartridge. Similarly, on the rear side, the pin 38 on the rear side of the cartridge is inserted into the hole 27 provided in the rear chassis plate 25 of the main body.
The pins 26 provided in the cartridges fit into the holes 39 on the rear side of the cartridge. The cartridge 17 is thus positioned in the body by these pins and holes.

When the handle 30 attached to the front of the cartridge 17 is pulled in the direction of the arrow X, the cartridge 17 is released from being held in position with the apparatus main body chassis, is held by the holding frame 18, and is pulled out from the apparatus main body.

FIG. 7 shows details of this engagement relationship.

In the figure, cartridge 17 is pushed in and pin 3 is shown by the solid line.
8 is still held in the holding frame 18 just before it engages with the hole 27, and the chain line shows the state when it is engaged and held in the main body of the device.

Therefore, in the state shown by the chain line, the process equipment outside the cartridge and the cartridge are in the correct positional relationship. Assuming that when the pin 38 is held in the holding frame 18 and held in the device main body, it can be lifted by a amount a as shown in the figure, by making the wall thickness of the tapered portion of the pin 38 slightly larger than a. , when the cartridge 17 is pushed in, the pin 38 will definitely enter the hole 27. The left and right positional relationships also have similar dimensional relationships.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the car I ridge 17 with it pulled out. The device main body and the holding frame 18 are engaged by a hollow movable rail 32 loosely fitting into a rail guide frame 31 attached to the main body, and a fixed rail 33 attached to the holding frame 18 fitting loosely into the hollow part. Each rail can be slid by pushing or pulling the holding frame 18. A long hole 32a drilled in the center of the rail 32 engages with a pin 33a attached to the rail 33 and a pin (not shown) attached to the guide frame 31, and when pulled out to the position shown in the figure. The stopper roars.

In addition, in the operating state of the copying machine (Fig. 1), the cartridge 17 is located at the opening A where it becomes the optical path from the lens 2 and the light source Q, and the charging area of the chargers 8 and 9 is located at the opening B, from the light source. The position of the optical path is the aperture C. In conjunction with the action of pulling out the cartridge 17, the opening A is covered by a rotating lid 19 that rotates clockwise, and the opening C is covered by a moving M21 that moves in two directions to the right along the upper lid 22. The opening B is closed by a cover 20.

- When the process cartridge 17 is pulled in an electronic copying machine configured as described in , the device main body chassis and the cartridge 17
As the tapered pins and holes slide, the cartridge 17 gradually lowers and is released from its positioning and holding. At this time,
The cartridge 17 is held silently by the holding frame 18 without dropping shockingly, and is safely and reliably pulled out from the apparatus main body. To store the cartridge in the device body,
When the cartridge 17 on the holding frame 18 is pushed in, the tapered pins and the holes have a dimensional relationship as shown in FIG. 7, so that they fit and are accurately housed in a fixed position.

Since it is automatically performed in conjunction with a series of these operations, there is an advantage that even if a general user who is not a professional service person replaces the process cartridge, there will be no failure.

What is shown in FIG. 4 are details of each device in the process cartridge. In the figure, dashed lines indicate attachment mechanisms for each device attached to the front and rear side plates of the cartridge 17, respectively. Lever 60, spring 61, groove parts 62
is the one to which the cleaner unit 14 is attached, and the lever 63
- The spring 64 is used to attach the developing device 5, and the U member 65 is used to attach the bearing 3b of the photosensitive drum 3 to the upper plate 22 of the cartridge 17.
・It is fixed by a restraining member 66 that can be removed. K-F-E・I arrow indicates cleaner unit 1
4. The direction in which the charger 4, photosensitive drum 3, and developer 5 are removed from the cartridge is shown.

FIG. 5 shows another embodiment of the process cartridge, in which the photoreceptor and each image forming process device are integrally constructed. This process cartridge has a photosensitive drum 41, a charger 42, a developing device 43, and a cleaner 44 integrated into a frame 45.

In addition to the process cartridge shown in the above embodiment, there is a process cartridge shown in FIG. The same mechanism as in the above embodiment can be applied to any of these. (A) is the embodiment shown in FIG. 5 with an imaging lens 2 added, (B)
) is the one with the lens 2 and separation means (separation belt) 46 added, (C) is the one without the charger and cleaner,
(D) is without the charger and developer, (E) is without the cleaner, and CF) is without the developer. In addition to these, it is possible to install a corona discharger for static elimination under the cleaner, but in any case, the present invention is applicable to cartridges that include a drum and at least one other image forming process device. can.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a front view of an embodiment of an electronic copying machine to which the present invention is applied, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the state in which the process cartridge and the main body of the apparatus are engaged, and FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the same state with the process cartridge pulled out. " - perspective view, Figure 4 is a front view of an embodiment of the process cartridge, Figures 5 and 6 are front views of another embodiment of the process cartridge, and Figure 7 is the engagement relationship between the taper pin and the hole. FIG. 3 is a photosensitive drum, 4 is a charger, 5 is a developer, 14 is a cleaner unit, 17 is a process cartridge, 18 is a holding frame, 26, 34, 36, 38 are taper pins, 27
- 39 between 35 and 37 is a positioning hole. l 382-? 8 Kaisho GO-14249 (5) and

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) In an image forming apparatus in which a process cartridge containing an image carrier and image forming process equipment disposed around it is removably attached to the main body of the image forming apparatus, the process cartridge is held in a holding frame. The image forming apparatus is characterized in that the process cartridge is held and can be inserted into and removed from the apparatus main body, and when the process cartridge is stored in a fixed position in the apparatus main body, the process cartridge is directly positioned and held in the apparatus main body. Device.