JPS6217781A - Toner cleaning device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent scattering of toner and make constitution of a cleaning device simple and small by providing a magnet and attracting and collecting toner stuck on projections of a cleaning roller. CONSTITUTION:Magnetic toner remaining on a photosensitive drum 5 is cleaned by a cleaning roll 10, and sticks to the projections 9. The stuck toner is attracted and collected by a magnet roll 11 provided near the roll 10 without scattering, and further, attracted and recovered by a ferromagnetic fixed magnet 12. By these magnetic processing, scattering of recovered toner is prevented, and a toner scattering prevention filter etc. becomes unnecessary, and constitution of the toner cleaning device can be made simple and small.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] This invention is a method for cleaning magnetic toner (hereinafter referred to as toner) adhering to the surface of a photoreceptor drum in an electrophotographic recording device used in a copying machine, a printer, etc. The present invention relates to a toner cleaning device.

[Conventional technology]

Generally, in an electrophotographic device, an electrostatic latent image is formed on a photoreceptor drum, this is developed with fine particles colored black or the like, i.e., toner, to make it visible, and this is transferred onto a recording medium such as recording paper. A recorded image is obtained by transferring the image. Transfer is performed by electrostatically adsorbing the toner image on the surface of the photoreceptor drum, which is further electrostatically adsorbed onto recording paper.

However, the efficiency of this transfer is not 100%, and several percent or more of the toner remains on the surface of the photoreceptor. Therefore, unless this residual toner is removed before forming a new electrostatic latent image, a high quality recorded image cannot be obtained.

For this reason, conventionally, a toner cleaning device as shown in FIG. 2 has been used. In FIG. 2, (1) C is a brush roll in which fibers such as bristles (lb) are embedded in the outer peripheral surface of a rotating base (1a) made of a cylindrical aluminum pipe, etc.; In order to prevent scattering, the cleaner box (3) is an exhaust fan for sucking the air and toner inside the cleaner box (2), and (4) is a toner filter. (5) is a photoreceptor drum rotating clockwise, for example, and (6) is toner electrostatically adhered to the surface of the photoreceptor drum (5).

In the above configuration, when the brush roll (1) is rotated clockwise in the same direction as the photoreceptor drum (5), at the contact position, the outer surfaces of each other slide in opposite directions at a relatively high speed, Toner (6) with thin and soft fibers (1b)
) can be swept away. Sweeped toner (6)
are extremely light particles, so they are dispersed in the air,
Contaminates the inside and outside of the recording device.

In order to prevent this, the air inside the cleaner box (2) that houses the brush roll (1) is sucked in by an exhaust fan (3), and a filter (4) installed in the middle is used to remove the toner (6).
are being collected.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

As described above, the conventional toner cleaning device is configured to sweep off the toner (6) with the brush roll (1), so scattering of the toner (6) is unavoidable, and the scattered toner ( 6) A means for recovery is needed,
Devices are becoming more complex and are forced to be larger. Furthermore, it is also necessary to periodically replace the toner collection filter (4), which is economically disadvantageous.

The present invention was made in order to solve the problems of the above-mentioned conventional devices, and an object of the present invention is to provide a toner cleaning device that has a simple structure, can achieve downsizing, and can avoid troublesome maintenance work. That is.

[Means for solving problems]

The toner cleaning device according to the present invention rotates a toner cleaning roll having a large number of protrusions made of an elastic material formed on its outer circumferential surface in sliding contact with a photoreceptor drum, and removes the toner from the outer circumferential surface of the photoreceptor drum by the protrusions. The present invention is characterized in that a magnet for attracting and collecting magnetic toner adhering to the protrusions is provided in close proximity to the toner cleaning roll.

[Effect]

In this invention, the toner on the surface of the photoreceptor drum is removed by the scraping action caused by the elastic force of the protrusion of the toner cleaning roll.
Since the toner is efficiently scraped off, the roll can be rotated at a low speed, and the scraped toner is transferred to a predetermined position while remaining attached to the rising portion of the protrusion without scattering to the surroundings.

Furthermore, since the magnet transfers the toner attached to the protrusions, collection can be ensured.

〔Example〕

Figure 1 shows an example of a toner cleaning device according to the present invention. In the figure, (7) is an annular elastic body made of rubber, sponge, etc., and a large number of protrusions (9) are integrally formed around the entire outer circumferential surface. (8) is a rotating base constituting a rotating shaft, and the annular elastic body (7) is fixed to this rotating base (8).

The annular elastic body (7) and the rotating base (8) constitute a toner cleaning roll 00 having a substantially gear-shaped cross section. While in sliding contact, in the same direction as the photoreceptor drum (5),
That is, at the contact position, the outer peripheral surfaces rotate at low speed in directions that move in opposite directions. That is, the protrusion (9) comes into sliding contact with the surface of the photoreceptor drum (5).

Reference numeral (11) denotes a sleeve-rotating magnet roll, and this magnet roll α core attracts the toner (6) attached to the protrusion (9) and transfers it to the outer peripheral surface of the magnet roll α core. The magnet roll αυ is provided close to the toner cleaning roll α0 that rotates clockwise, and rotates in the opposite direction to the toner cleaning roll αQ, that is, in a direction in which the outer circumferential surfaces of each other move in the same direction at the close position. .

(2) is a fixed magnet, and this fixed magnet (A)
As a result, the toner (6) on the magnet roll αη is collected. (to) is the cover of the toner cleaning device.

Next, the operation of the above configuration will be explained. Since the outer peripheral surface of the toner cleaning roll α moves in the opposite direction to the outer peripheral surface of the photoreceptor drum (5) at the position where it comes into sliding contact with the photoreceptor drum (5), a protrusion ( 9)
is deformed by friction into a shape that curves in the rotational direction of the photoreceptor drum (5). Therefore, the toner (6) on the surface of the photosensitive drum (5) is rubbed off by the elastic force of the protrusion (9) and is transferred while remaining attached to the rising portion α→ of the protrusion (9). At this time, since the toner particles have a small shape of several tens of micrometers or less and do not apply a large force to the toner (6), the toner (6) does not scatter.

In this way, the collected toner (6) transferred from the photoreceptor drum (5) to the toner cleaning roll 00 is attracted to the magnet roll αη when it approaches the position where the magnet roll (B) and the toner cleaning roll αQ are close to each other. Then, it transfers to the outer peripheral surface of the magnet roll αυ. The recovered toner (6) is further selected by the magnet roll α, and when it approaches above the fixed magnet 4, which is a ferromagnetic material, than the magnet roll Q, it is attracted by this fixed magnet (6), and the toner ( 9) Collection ends.

The toner cleaning device described above does not require a means for forcibly suctioning and collecting the scattered toner (6), and the device can be simplified.

Further, since the toner cleaning roll αQ rotates and the protrusion (9) comes into contact with the photoreceptor drum (5) so that it can be cleaned, a high cleaning effect can be obtained.

Further, by providing the magnet roll (b), the toner (6) adhering to the toner cleaning roll αQ can be reliably collected. Moreover, a fixed magnet (
By arranging 2), a collection location for the toner (6) can be set, and post-processing of the collected toner (6) can be facilitated. In the above embodiment, in order to more reliably collect the toner (6), the sleeve-rotating magnetic roll (b) was used, but even the fixed magnet (2) alone has a practical collecting effect.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, the toner cleaning roll can be rotated at a low speed, and the toner on the surface of the photoreceptor can be removed by the scraping action of the elastic protrusions provided around the toner cleaning roll. Therefore, the toner can be transported to a predetermined position and collected without applying almost any force to the toner other than stopping the movement of the toner, in other words, without scattering the toner.

Therefore, the device can be made smaller, filters and the like are not required, it can be manufactured at low cost, and the troublesome maintenance work can be eliminated.

Furthermore, since a large number of protrusions can be formed on the toner cleaning roll, abrasion of the protrusions due to contact friction with the photoreceptor drum is suppressed, making it possible to extend the life of the toner cleaning roll.

Furthermore, since the magnet transfers the toner attached to the projections, collection can be ensured.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a toner cleaning device of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a conventional toner cleaning device. (5)...Photosensitive drum, (6)...Toner, (9
)...protrusion, (10...toner cleaning roll, αp・
...Magnet roll, α4...Fixed magnet. In addition, in the figures, the same reference numerals indicate the same or corresponding parts.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A toner cleaning roll that has a large number of protrusions made of an elastic material on its outer peripheral surface and rotates in sliding contact with the photoreceptor drum to clean the magnetic toner on the photoreceptor drum, and a toner cleaning roll that is provided close to the toner cleaning roll. A toner cleaning device comprising: a magnet that attracts and collects magnetic toner adhering to the protrusion.