JPS60235180A - Cleaning device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent damage to the surface of the image carrier of an image forming device and improve the durability by providing a heating means to the image carrier and changing image carrier rubbing functions which use toner deposited in the cleaning device according to the temperature of the image carrier. CONSTITUTION:A scraper member 6 which contacts and leaves a magnet roller 4 is arranged in the cleaning device. This scraper member 6 consists of a plate body 6b with a proper number of openings 6c and a support lever 6a fitted thereto and is arranged in the cleaning device rotatably between the position of contacting with the magnet roller 4 shown by a solid line and a dotted-line position. A spring 7 is provided to one terminal of a wire 8 wound around a pulley 9 fitted to an end part of the support lever 6a of the scraper member 6 to give the plate body 6b a habit of invariably counterclockwise turning, and a solenoid SOL is turned on to turn the scraper member 6 clockwise.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (1) Object of the Invention (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus using an electrostatic photographic process, such as an electrophotographic copying machine or a printer, and particularly to a cleaning apparatus therefor.

(Prior art and problems to be solved) Forming a transferable toner image on a moving image carrier [2. Transferring the toner image to a transfer material mainly made of paper, and at this point, transferring! j. Conventionally, a cleaning blade made of an elastic material such as urethane comb has been used as a residual toner removing means in a well-known image forming apparatus that repeats the process of removing residual toner from the surface of a dirty image bearing member. It is widely used because of its excellent toner removal function.

However, the substances that adhere to the surface of the image carrier are not only toner but also fine paper particles generated from the transfer paper.

There are various foreign substances such as dust in the air, precipitates such as rosin and talc deposited from the transfer paper, and corona products caused by the presence of high pressure parts in the image forming apparatus. Although it exhibits an excellent function in removing foreign substances, it is not necessarily effective against the various foreign substances mentioned above.

When such foreign matter adheres to the surface of the image carrier, it absorbs moisture in the air and becomes resistive, which may cause image deletion.

This situation is particularly noticeable when the surface temperature of the image carrier is low under high humidity, so the surface of the image carrier may be heated to II[I? Even if there are proposals to change the situation, there is no power. Even if the heater is turned on after being stopped for a long time, the image carrier has a relatively large heat capacity, so it takes a long time to heat it to the desired temperature, which significantly reduces the workability of the image forming apparatus. If there is not enough power supply capacity for heating, the temperature of the image carrier will drop and stable operation will occur due to unavoidable heat dissipation to the surrounding area, heat being taken away by the transfer material during transfer, etc. It was difficult to expect this, especially in high pitched atmospheres.

Of course, it is also possible to avoid the above-mentioned inconvenience by removing the above-mentioned foreign matter adhering to the surface of the image carrier, for example, by supplying an abrasive agent, or as Mr. Honda has already suggested from proposal 1. In particular, when all magnetic toner is used, the toner is piled up near the magnetic rollers that capture and convey the L-toner removed from the surface of the image carrier, and the L-toner is rubbed against the image carrier to remove foreign matter. There are known ways to remove the toner, but the former is unstable, and the latter is difficult to remove.Continuous rubbing may cause the toner in the raised areas to scatter or remain. If the amount is large, the cleaning load becomes large, resulting in poor cleaning.

The present invention has been made in view of the current state of the art as described above, and is configured to humidify an image bearing member, and in particular, to detect the humidity of the image bearing member in a cleaning device for an image forming apparatus using magnetic toner. The image bearing member is rubbed with toner only when necessary to remove foreign matter, thereby reducing the negative effects of foreign matter due to low temperatures as mentioned above, and reducing the damage caused by the aforementioned Jj% of Honda 1 and Stable 1. It is possible to avoid the disadvantages of devised methods, and to maintain the power consumption as low as possible and maintain stable functions over a long period of time.
I: The purpose is to provide a portable cleaning device.

(2) Structure of the invention (technical means and effects for solving the problem) In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the cleaning link device according to the present invention uses a magnet for capturing and transporting the toner scraped off by the cleaning plate. A scraper member is provided that can move toward and away from the roller at will as needed. The image carrier is provided with a means for heating it, and the temperature of the image carrier is detected and the scraper member is heated for a predetermined period of time according to the temperature of the image carrier. The scraper is operated to supply a deposit of l.toner to the surface of the image carrier, and foreign matter on the surface of the image carrier is removed by rubbing the toner only at the relevant time, that is, at a necessary time. It is something.

(Description of Embodiments) Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a side view of essential parts showing a case where a cleaning device according to the present invention is applied to a copying machine using a rotating cylindrical photoreceptor. A cleaning device 2 is disposed at a predetermined position near the photoreceptor 1 and extends parallel to the axial direction of the photoreceptor, and magnetic toner is used as the toner.

Around the photoreceptor, a means for uniformly charging the photoconductive layer on the surface of the photoreceptor, a means for irradiating a light image onto the photoconductor to form an electrostatic latent image, a developing means for visualizing the latent image, and a means for uniformly charging the photoconductive layer on the surface of the photoreceptor; Means for transferring the toner image to the transfer plate are provided (7), but since they are not directly related to the present invention, their explanation will be omitted.

The cleaning device 2 includes a cleaning blade 3.
The edge of the edge presses against the surface of the photoreceptor and does not contribute to the transfer in the transfer means and does not adhere to the photoreceptor.
- Scrape off the toner when it reaches the blade. The scraped off toner is captured by the magnetic roller 4, and as the magnetic roller rotates, it reaches a waste toner storage section within the cleaning device, and is further discharged from the cleaning device by the scraper IJ knee conveyor 5 as necessary. shall be.

In such a leaning device, according to the present invention, a scraper portion 6 that moves toward and away from the magnetor L-roller 4 is disposed within the device.

The scraper section 6 has an appropriate number of openings, as shown in FIG.
”6C plate 6b and the support rod 6 attached to it
It is installed in the cleaning device, and is rotatable in that position.The position where it comes into contact with the magnet roller and the dotted line position where it will be used from now on are shown as solid lines in Figure 1. can be taken selectively.

FIG. 3 schematically shows the means for swinging the scraper member 6 as described above, in which a spring 7 is attached to one side of the wire 8 wound around a pulley 9 attached to an appropriate end of the support rod 6a. The other end of the wire is attached to the solenoid SQL so that the plate 61) always rotates counterclockwise in the drawing. Therefore, by energizing the wire 8, the wire 8 is pulled by the force I~ under the action of the spring 7, and the pulley 9
Therefore, it is assumed that the tescraper member 6 can be rotated clockwise in the drawing.

As shown in Figure 1, a heater 10 is built into the photoreceptor J, and a temperature sensor (not shown) is provided on the wall of the photoreceptor to detect the temperature of the photoreceptor. As shown in FIG. 4, the output of the humidity sensor is converted into a Tezotal signal by an A/D converter and inputted to the CPU. ℃ or below, a signal is applied to the driver to energize the solenoid +-8or of the scraper member to bring the scraper member 6 into contact with the magnet roller 4, and the scraper is scraped off by the cleaning roller. Toner is deposited in the space S above the adjacent portion of the photoreceptor 1 and the Magui roller 4, and the surface of the photoreceptor is rubbed with this accumulated toner 7.
to remove foreign substances such as corona products.

When the photoreceptor surface temperature reaches 40° C. or higher, the solenoid SQL is deenergized to separate the scraper member 6 from the magnet roller and stop the toner from rubbing the photoreceptor surface.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart 1 showing the selective operation of the scraper member and the progress of the copying operation.

In an experiment, in a copying machine cleaning device using a magnetic roller 4 and a magnetic roller as shown in Figure 2, the surface temperature of the photoreceptor was 4.0°C IR.
In the case of 1 and 2, the scraper part 6 is not used, and the foreign matter that does not contain moisture can be sufficiently removed by rubbing with a magnetic brush formed by a magnetic roller. Even in a high-temperature environment of 32° C. and 90% relative humidity, image deletion occurred frequently, probably because the moisture content of the foreign matter itself was reduced by the surface humidity of the l-ram.

In the embodiments described below, the toner supply device and the rubbing device are toner brushes attached to the magnetic roller of the cleaning device, but the toner supply device may also be a developing device. Further, the same effect can be obtained even if the rubbing device is a single sponge.

Hereinafter, the present invention has been described in terms of its application to a cleaning device that uses magnetic toner to collect and transport toner. It is easy to understand that the present invention can be used commercially in a cleaning device using a cleaning roller, or in an image forming apparatus using a non-magnetic (in this case, a non-magnetic) material.

In addition, in carrying out the present invention, the cost is relatively low. When starting up from fM degrees, the photoconductor -11≧
Even if the temperature reaches a certain temperature, it is natural that the moisture on the foreign matter that adheres to the surface cannot be removed immediately.
It is preferable to set a sequence so that the scraper member is then rubbed for a designated period of time.

Of course, it is possible to supply toner for a longer period of time or to supply more toner when the temperature of the surface of the carrier is initially lower, based on the same thinking as above.

(3) Detailed Description of the Invention As described in 1-, in the present invention, a heating means is disposed on the image bearing member of the image forming apparatus, and a heating means is provided in the cleaning device according to the temperature of the image bearing member. Since the rubbing function of the image bearing member by the toner is changed from 1 to 1, the strong rubbing action of the toner is performed only when necessary, which saves the required power and prevents damage to the surface of the image bearing member. This can be avoided as much as possible to increase durability.

Since a large amount of toner does not rub against the surface of the image carrier, it is possible to avoid toner dissipation, contamination inside the image forming device, and adverse effects on the image forming function, and stable images can be obtained over a long period of time. It contributes to

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a side view of the main parts showing the case where the cleaning device according to the present invention is applied to a copying machine, Fig. 2 is a partial plan view showing the configuration of the scraper member, and Fig. 3 is a diagram of the mechanism for operating the scraper member. FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of the control system of the present invention, and FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the present invention. 1. Photoconductor, 2. Cleaning device, 3. Cleaning device-1, 4. Madai two roller, 6. Scraper section. Patent applicant Akira Go, agent of Gyanon Co., Ltd. and patent attorney. , No Pa Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) means for heating the surface of the image carrier or its vicinity;
A means for detecting the temperature of the surface or the vicinity thereof, a means for supplying toner to the surface of the image carrier, and a means for rubbing the surface of the image carrier supplied with I. toner, and a set temperature. A cleaning device characterized in that, in the following cases, toner is supplied to the surface of an image carrier, and the surface of the image carrier supplied with the toner is rubbed by a rubbing means. (2) After the image carrier reaches a set temperature, toner is further supplied to the surface of the image carrier for a predetermined period of time, and the surface of the image carrier supplied with the toner is rubbed by a rubbing means. cleaning equipment. (3) The cleaning device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the amount of toner supplied is increased as the detected temperature is lower.