JPS63155171A - Cleaning apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a cleaning device used for various image forming apparatuses, and particularly to a leaning apparatus suitable for face-down type image forming apparatuses.

(Prior Art) Various image forming apparatuses using electrophotography, including copying machines and printers, have been put into practical use.

These image forming devices are configured to form an electrostatic latent image on a photoreceptor, develop the electrostatic latent image to form a toner image, and transfer this toner image onto recording paper to create a hard copy. has been done. In such an image forming apparatus, since the toner image cannot be completely transferred to the recording paper side, it is necessary to dispose a cleaning device after the transfer process to remove untransferred toner on the photoreceptor. Various types of cleaning devices, such as a blade type cleaning device and a fur brush type cleaning device, have been put into practical use. Both cleaning devices use a cleaner box placed opposite to the photoreceptor, and a leaning plate, a fur brush, etc. are placed inside the cleaner box, and the toner removed from the photoreceptor is temporarily stored in the cleaner box. On the other hand, in order to facilitate maintenance of the image forming apparatus, the photoreceptor and cleaning device are integrated into a unit.
This photoreceptor unit is often removed from the main body of the image forming apparatus and replaced. Therefore, when the photoreceptor unit is taken out, it is necessary to seal the opening between the cleaner box and the photoreceptor to prevent the recovered toner in the cleaner box from scattering to the outside through the opening.

In conventional electrophotographic copying devices, the recording paper is ejected from the machine in a face-up state (with the recording surface of the recording paper facing upward), so the transfer process is performed at the bottom of the photoreceptor travel path. A cleaning device is disposed at a position where the photoreceptor moves upward from below. Then, a leaning plate is placed on the upper side across the opening of the cleaner box, and a guide plate whose tip touches the photoreceptor is placed on the lower side, and the toner scraped off by the leaning plate is collected by the guide plate. It is configured so that it is collected into a cleaner box after passing through. For this reason, the upper gap between the cleaner box and the photoreceptor is sealed by the filling plate, and the lower gap is sealed by the guide plate, so the recovered toner can be leaked outside without the need for a special sealing device. It was prevented from scattering.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) Unlike conventional electrophotographic copying devices, image forming devices such as printers eject recording paper from the machine in a face-down state (with the recording surface facing downward). Because of this necessity, it is ideal to provide the transfer process at the top of the travel path of the photoreceptor. This ideal design requires the cleaning device to be located at a location where the photoreceptor travels from top to bottom. In this case, a cleaning blade is provided below the opening of the cleaner box, and the toner scraped off by the cleaning plate is dropped to the bottom of the cleaner box along the back side of the blade and collected. In such a configuration, it is necessary to provide a gap above the opening of the cleaner box to guide untransferred toner to a cleaning point within the cleaner box. However, if a gap is provided, there will be a problem in that when the photoreceptor unit is taken out, the collected toner will scatter to the outside through this gap. Furthermore, while the image forming apparatus is in operation, the toner scraped off by the cleaning blade forms a plume, which scatters outside through the gap between the image forming apparatus and the photoreceptor, causing the inconvenience of contaminating surrounding components. .

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a cleaning device that can guide residual toner to a cleaning point within a cleaner box and can prevent collected toner from scattering to the outside.

(Means for Solving the Problems) A cleaning device according to the present invention is arranged at a position where the image forming member travels from approximately upward to downward, and an opening is formed on the side facing the image forming member. a cleaner box, a cleaning plate whose tip is pressed against the image forming member to remove residual toner on the image forming member, and which is arranged substantially above the cleaning plate, one end fixed to the cleaner box, and the other end forming the image forming member. a sealing member of resilient sheet material abutting the member and extending at an acute angle to the uncleaned side of the imaging member.

(Function) A cleaner box having an opening formed on the side facing the image forming member is placed at a position where the image forming member travels from approximately upward to downward, and a cleaner box is provided with an opening formed on the side facing the image forming member. A cleaning plate is installed on the top of the cleaning plate, and a sealing member is placed on the upper side. This sealing member is made of an elastic sheet material made of polyurethane, for example, and one end of the sealing member is fixed to a cleaner box, and the sealing member is extended so as to form an acute angle with respect to the uncleaned side of the image forming member, and its elastic restoring force is utilized. and lightly abut the other end against the image forming member.

By arranging the elastic sealing member at an acute angle with respect to the image forming member on the uncleaned side, the sealing member is separated from the image forming member when residual toner on the image forming member comes into contact with the sealing member. Since it is pressed, it can easily slip through the seal. On the other hand, when the photoreceptor unit is taken out from the main body of the apparatus and placed horizontally, the recovered toner inside the cleaner box acts to press the sealing member toward the image forming member.
Even if the sealing member contacts the image forming member with a light pressing force, it is reliably sealed and the collected toner can be prevented from scattering to the outside from the opening of the cleaner box.

(Embodiment) FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of an image forming section of a printer device including a cleaning device according to the present invention. In this example, a belt-shaped photoreceptor having a predetermined recording width is used as the image forming member. A photoreceptor bell (10) is suspended between two drive rollers Ila and Ilb arranged substantially vertically opposite each other and is caused to run in the direction of arrow a. The entire surface of the photoreceptor belt 10 is charged to a predetermined potential by a charging charger 12 and then exposed to light by an exposure device 13 to form an electrostatic latent image. The exposure bag W13 can be, for example, a light emitting diode array in which a large number of light emitting diode elements are linearly arranged in the recording width direction (perpendicular to the paper surface).

The electrostatic latent image formed on the photoreceptor belt 10 is transported to a developing position and developed by a developing device 14 to form a toner image. This toner image is transported to a transfer position and is transferred onto the recording paper 15 by a transfer charger 16 disposed on the back side of the recording paper 15 that is being transported. The recording paper 15 is conveyed in the direction of the arrow, passes through a fixing device (not shown), and is ejected out of the machine in a face-down state.

By providing the transfer process at the top of the travel path of the photoreceptor belt in this way, the recording paper can be ejected from the machine in a face-down state without changing the orientation of the recording surface of the recording paper after transfer. This design is extremely ideal in terms of the configuration of the printer device. On the other hand, since untransferred toner remains on the surface of the photoreceptor belt 100 after the transfer process, the cleaning device 17 removes this untransferred toner from the surface of the photoreceptor belt. The cleaning device 17 is the photoreceptor belt 1
The cleaning plate 18 has a cleaning plate 18 extending over almost the entire recording width of 0, and the leading edge of the cleaning plate 18 is pressed against the running photoreceptor belt 10 and is regulated to the opposite side with the photoreceptor belt 10 in between. A plate 19 is placed to scrape off residual toner from the traveling photoreceptor belt. The scraped off toner is collected by a screw roller 21 disposed within the cleaner box 20, transferred to the side of the cleaning device 17, and removed. The photosensitive belt io from which the toner has been removed is uniformly neutralized by the static eliminating lamp 22 and brought to a predetermined potential, and the next image forming operation is repeated.

2a and 2b show the detailed configuration of the cleaning device according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a state in which the photoreceptor unit is removed from the apparatus main body and placed on, for example, a floor surface. FIG. In the present invention, the photoreceptor belt 10, drive rollers lla and ll
The photoreceptor unit including b and the cleaning device 17 are integrally constructed, and when the photoreceptor unit is removed from the main body of the apparatus, the cleaning device 17 is also removed together with the photoreceptor unit. A cleaner box 20 is arranged facing the photoreceptor belt 10. One end of the cleaning blade 18 is attached to the downstream end of the cleaner box 20 on the side facing the photoreceptor belt 10. The cleaning plate 18 is composed of an elastic chip 18a that extends over the recording width of the photoreceptor belt 10 and an elastic support member 18b that supports the elastic chip 18a. The tip edge portion of the chip 18a is pressed against the photoreceptor belt IO to forcefully scrape off the residual toner on the photoreceptor belt NO. The scraped toner falls to the bottom of the cleaner box due to its own weight, and is transferred to the side by a collecting screw roller 21 and collected. Therefore, the opening on the exit side between the cleaner box 20 and the photoreceptor bell 10 is sealed by the cleaning plate 18, and toner does not spill out through this opening. Next, the seal on the entrance side between the cleaner box 20 and the photoreceptor heald 10 will be explained. As shown in Figure 2, if you take the vertical photoconductor unit outside and place it horizontally on the bottom, the toner inside the cleaner box will spill out from the opening on the entrance side, so a seal is required. becomes. Therefore, in the present invention, a sealing member 30 made of an elastic sheet material is attached to the artificial part of the Ririnabosox. The sealing member 30 is made of a sheet-like elastic member such as a polyurethane sheet, a polyester sheet, a nylon sheet, a thin metal plate, etc., with a thickness of 0.1 m+*, and extends over almost the entire recording width. The seal member 30 has one end fixed to the cleaner box 20, extends to form an acute angle with respect to the uncleaned side of the photoreceptor belt 10, and uses the elastic restoring force of the seal member 30 itself to expose the other end to the photoreceptor. Lightly contact the body belt 10. Therefore, the tip of the sealing member 30 lightly contacts the photoreceptor bell 1-10 to seal the entrance side of the cleaner box. On the other hand, the untransferred toner image remaining on the photoreceptor belt 10 is attached to the photoreceptor belt due to the electric attraction force caused by the latent image charge formed on the photoreceptor belt, so it is sealed by the transfer of the photoreceptor belt. The tip of the member 30 is pushed up in the direction of arrow C, and the member 30 is moved to the cleaning point by passing through the space between the member 30 and the cleaning plate 18.
scraped off by.

In this case, the residual toner acts to press the seal member 30 away from the photoreceptor belt, so that the seal member can be easily pushed up and easily slip through the seal portion. On the other hand, when the photoconductor unit 7 is taken out from the main body of the apparatus, the opening on the entrance side of the cleaner box 20 is sealed by the sealing member 30 as shown in FIG. 2, thereby preventing the collected toner from scattering outside. be done. In this case, since the sealing member 30 extends at an acute angle with respect to the non-transferred side of the photoreceptor belt 20, the collected toner conversely presses the sealing member 30 toward the photoreceptor belt 10 and seals it. The operation becomes more reliable, and the collected toner is prevented from scattering to the outside from the sealing portion.

In addition, when the sealing member 30 is brought into contact with the photoreceptor belt 10, the sealing member can be brought into contact with the photoreceptor belt 1O in a belly-contact state, as shown in FIG. 2C. Even in this case, even if the photoreceptor unit is taken out and placed aside, the collected toner presses the sealing member and the collected toner is prevented from scattering to the outside. If the seal member 30 is brought into contact with the patient in this manner, the setting action of the seal member becomes easier.

The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, and various modifications are possible. In the above embodiments, a belt-shaped photoreceptor was used as the image forming member, but a photoreceptor drum having a photoreceptor layer formed on the surface of a cylindrical AI substrate may also be used. It is also possible to use a material in which an insulating dielectric film is formed on the material.

(Effects of the Invention) As explained above, according to the present invention, an elastic sheet member is used as the seal member, one end of which is fixed to the cleaner box, and the elastic sheet member is extended so as to form an acute angle with respect to the uncleaned side of the image forming member. Since the other end of the elastic sheet member is brought into light contact with the image forming member using the elastic restoring force of the elastic sheet member itself, the toner on the image forming member can pass through the seal member and move to the cleaning point. When the force photoreceptor unit is taken out and placed horizontally, the recovered toner presses the sealing member toward the image forming member to reliably seal the opening. As a result, even if the photoreceptor unit is taken out and placed horizontally, the collected toner can be effectively prevented from scattering outside through the gap between the cleaner box and the photoreceptor.

Further, since the entrance side opening of the cleaner box is sealed even during operation of the apparatus, the collected toner in the form of a plume is prevented from scattering to the outside through the opening of the cleaner box.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the structure of an example of a printer device having a cleaning device according to the present invention, and FIGS. 2a to 2c are diagrammatic cross-sectional views showing the detailed structure of the cleaning device. 17... Cleaning device 18... Cleaning plate 19... Regulating plate 20... Cleaner box 30... Seal member

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A cleaner box which is disposed at a position where the image forming member travels approximately from above to below and has an opening formed on the side facing the image forming member, and a cleaner box whose tip is pressed against the image forming member to form an image. a cleaning plate for removing residual toner on the member; a cleaning plate disposed substantially above the cleaning plate; one end fixed to the cleaner box; the other end abutting the imaging member; a sealing member of elastic sheet material extending at an acute angle.