JPS6143772A - Developing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent a toner from sticking to a blade to prevent the degradation of developed image quality by constituting the part of the blade, which controls the thickness of a one-component developer to supply it to a sleeve, with materials containing fluorine. CONSTITUTION:One end of a blade 6 is adhered and fixed to one face of a supporting member 13 fixed to a hopper omitted in the figure. The front end 6a of the blade 6 is pressed to the sleeve 5 to control the thickness of the toner, which is carried by the sleeve 5, to a prescribed value uniformly. The front end 6a of the blade 6 consists of materials containing fluorine at least to suppress sticking of the toner. Thus, the toner is always uniformly distributed on the sleeve 5, and the variance of transfer performed thereafter is prevented, and excellent images are formed finally.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Kyo 1ji 1j The present invention relates to a developer carrier that carries a developer to be transported, and a layer that contacts the developer on the carrier and regulates the layer thickness of the developer. The present invention relates to a developing device that has a thickness regulating member and visualizes a latent image formed on a latent image carrier by a developer after N thickness regulation.

It has been well known that the above type of developing device is used in image forming devices such as electronic copying machines and printers. In this type of device, a one-component developer containing carrier and toner,
Various developers are used, such as one-component developers that do not contain carriers, but especially when using -component developers, the developer layer on the developer carrier is uniformly thinned, and this is layered. It is desirable to charge the film uniformly over the entire thickness and use it for development.

For this reason, the layer thickness of the developer has conventionally been regulated using a layer thickness regulating member such as a blade, but there is a risk that molten toner may stick to this regulating member over time. When the toner sticks in this way, the amount of developer passing through this area is extremely small compared to other areas, and the W of the developed visible image is
! In addition, in a developing device in which the developer is charged by contact with the layer thickness regulating member, the developer that passes through a portion of the fixed toner contacts the fixed toner, but the layer thickness regulating member does not come into sufficient contact with the surface of the visible image, and as a result, the amount of charge on the visible image is insufficient, and the quality of the visible image is degraded.

An object of the present invention is to provide a developing device that can suppress the adhesion of toner to a layer thickness regulating member, thereby preventing or reducing deterioration in the quality of visible images.

Mr. 1 In order to achieve the above object, the present inventor investigated what kind of material the layer thickness regulating member should be made of to effectively prevent or suppress toner adhesion, and found that a material containing at least fluorine should be used.

Based on this new knowledge, the present invention proposes a developing device in which at least a part of the one-layer thickness regulating member is made of a material containing at least fluorine. It is something to do.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an example of a case where the developing device according to the present invention is used in an electronic copying machine. Contains magnetic toner (or simply toner). tank 1
The toner 2 inside is agitated by an agitator 3, and is driven by a toner supply roller 4 which is rotated counterclockwise. (arrow A).

The toner supplied to the surface of the sleeve 5
As the sleeve rotates, it is carried while being supported on the sleeve surface,
At this time, the thickness is regulated to be thin and uniform by the layer thickness regulating member 6 according to the present invention, and details regarding the regulating member 6 will be explained later.

The toner on the sleeve 5 that has passed through the WJ layer thickness regulating member is
The thickness of the layer is regulated.

At this time, for example, due to friction with this member 6, the toner is charged to a predetermined polarity, for example, positive. Therefore, when this toner layer reaches the development area C facing the photoconductor 7 in the example of one latent image carrier traveling in the direction of arrow B, it electrostatically affects the electrostatic latent image formed on the photoconductor 7. The WI image is visualized.

A sleeve having an appropriate structure can be used as the QL (9+ sleeve 5). For example, as schematically shown in FIG. A sleeve formed by laminating electrode dispersion layers 11 having dispersed therein can be used as appropriate.
10 are insulated from each other and also from the core member 8, and act as float electrodes, but since their function is already known, the details will be omitted (for example, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 57-114163). In addition, if a microelectrode is used, there is a risk that charge may accumulate in the a electrode or the insulating material around it, so it is recommended to contact the static elimination brush 12 with the sleeve portion after passing through the development area to eliminate static electricity. .

Next, the structure of the layer thickness regulating member according to the present invention will be explained in detail.

The illustrated layer thickness regulating member 6 is formed into a blade shape, and has one end adhesively fixed to one surface of a support member 13 fixed to the tank l, for example. In this case, in this example, the regulating member 6
The leading edge 6a of the sleeve 5 is pressed against the sleeve 5 through the toner.

The amount of toner that passes through the regulating member 6 while being carried by the sleeve 5, and therefore the layer thickness thereof, is regulated. In this case, as previously explained, in the past, there was a risk that the toner would stick particularly to the leading edge of the regulating member, resulting in a decrease in the quality of the visible image formed on the photoreceptor. be. Therefore, in the configuration according to the present invention, the one-layer thickness regulating member 6 is made of a material containing at least fluorine, thereby suppressing toner sticking. Since the regulating member 6 containing fluorine has excellent mold releasability, it is thought that it can suppress toner sticking, but regardless of the reason, the fact that it can prevent toner sticking has been confirmed through numerous experiments. There is. As a fluorine material that is actually useful.

Copolymer resin of tetrafluoroethylene and hexafluoropropylene (
Product name: FEP), copolymer resin of tetrafluoroethylene and perfluoroalkyl vinyl ether (same <PFA), 4
Examples include ethylene fluoride resin (PTFE), copolymer resin of ethylene tetrafluoride and ethylene (ETFE), and chlorinated ethylene trifluoride resin (PCTFE). Further, since the layer thickness regulating member 6 made of such a material has elasticity, the member 6 can be brought into contact with the toner on the sleeve 5 with uniform pressure, and a uniform toner thickness can be obtained. It is possible.

However, when the regulating member 6 is composed of only the substances exemplified above, it is too soft and l? When it becomes easy to wear out,
For example, carbon black, Grapheye 1
−, glass fiber, carbon fiber.

It is also advantageous to manufacture the layer thickness regulating member using a material containing a filler such as econol or molybdenum disulfide to improve its wear resistance. In this case, since elasticity generally decreases as the amount of filler is increased, it is better to take this point into consideration when determining the amount of filler.

By using the layer thickness regulating member as described above, charges of a predetermined polarity can be applied to the toner without any problem.

For example, when using an ordinary acrylic styrene toner, it is possible to increase the amount of charge to a level greater than that of conventional layer thickness regulating members.

Further, if a conductive substance such as the above-mentioned carbon black or graphite is used as a filler, the layer thickness regulating member 6 can be made conductive, so that the sleeve 5 can be neutralized using this member 6. That is, when using the sleeve 5 having the microelectrode 10 as described above,
Static elimination brush I removes the electrode 10 or the insulating material around it.
2 eliminates static electricity, but 5 regulating member 6 can also have a static elimination function. In the example shown in FIG. 1, the support member 13 is made of a conductive material such as metal, and is connected to a voltage source 14 that applies a bias voltage to the core member 8 of the sleeve 5 and the static elimination brush 12. Sex regulation member 6 and support member 13
Through this, static electricity is removed from the microelectrode IO of the sleeve 5. If the regulating member 6 is provided with a static elimination function in this way, the electric charges accumulated in the microelectrodes etc. in the area between the static eliminating brush 12 and the regulating member 6 can be released, and development can be performed using this sleeve portion, so that the accumulation of electric charges can be prevented. The resulting decrease in tj'R of the visible image can be effectively prevented.

Various methods can be adopted for supporting the layer thickness regulating member 6. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the rear end side of the member 6 may be held by a holder 15.

Furthermore, when supported by the support member 13 as shown in FIG. In some cases, the toner adheres to the tip of the support member 13 and grows over time to reach the tip edge 6a of the regulating member 6. Therefore,
As shown in FIG. 3, the tip 13a of the support member 13 is covered with a regulating member 6 that prevents toner from sticking to the tip 13a.
It is also possible to prevent the inconvenience of toner sticking to a.

Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. There is a risk of deformation. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 4, it is also advantageous to cover both sides of the support member 13 with regulating members 6 to prevent these thermal deformations. In this case as well, it is advantageous to cover the distal end 13a of the support member I3 with the regulating member 6, as in the case of FIG.

Instead of the entire layer thickness regulating member being made of a material containing at least fluorine, only a portion thereof, particularly a portion that contacts the toner, may be made of this material.

Although FIG. 1 shows an example in which the distal end edge 6a of the regulating member 6 is arranged to face the rotational direction of the sleeve 5 (one direction of the counter), as shown in FIG. 6a along the direction of rotation of the sleeve 5. The present invention can be applied without any problem even when the restricting member 6 is arranged in the so-called trailing direction or when the ventral surface of the regulating member 6 is brought into pressure contact with the sleeve 5. In addition, even when the layer thickness regulating member is configured in a form other than a blade, such as a belt, roller, fur brush, etc., it is possible to prevent toner from sticking by forming at least a portion of the member with a material containing fluorine. .

Further, in the above embodiments, a developing device using non-magnetic toner was shown for convenience of explanation, but a developing device using a magnetic component type developer (magnetic toner), a developing device using a developer carrier consisting of a belt, The present invention can be widely applied to developing devices in image forming apparatuses other than electronic copying machines.

According to the present invention, it is possible to suppress adhesion of toner to the layer thickness regulating member with an extremely simple configuration, and to prevent deterioration in the quality of visible images.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing an example of a developing device according to the present invention, and FIGS. 2 to 5 are partial views showing other embodiments. 2...Developer 6...Layer thickness regulating member Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Procedure 10 Original (self-published) November 19, 1980

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A developer carrier carrying a one-component developer to be transported;
and a layer thickness regulating member that contacts the developer on the carrier to regulate the layer thickness of the developer, and the layer thickness regulating member makes visible the latent image formed on the latent image carrier by the developer after controlling the layer thickness. A developing device for forming an image, wherein at least a part of the layer thickness regulating member is made of a material containing at least fluorine.