JPS63200181A - Cleaning device for electrophotographic device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To bring a blade into uniform contact with a photosensitive body to surely remove a remaining toner by setting a housing, to which the blade is fixed, to a supporting part consisting of an elastic material and providing an elastic means which energizes this housing to the photosensitive body. CONSTITUTION:One end of a spring 11 is fixed to the upper part of a side wall 6 of a cleaning device 1, and the other end of the spring 11 is fixed to the body of an electrophotographic device. Consequently, the cleaning device 1 is freely turned around a supporting part 9 and is always energized to a photosensitive body 5 with a prescribed elastic force. Since the cleaning device 1 is energized to the photosensitive body with the prescribed force, a blade 2 and a seal member 4 are always brought into contact with the photosensitive body 5 with a prescribed pressure. Consequently, the blade 3 is stably slided on the photosensitive body 5 to prevent the variance of the contacting pressure and the contacting angle, and the blade 3 is uniformly slided on the photosensitive body 5 in the axial direction. Thus, the remaining toner on the photosensitive body 5 is surely removed and a satisfactory cleaning performance is ensured.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a cleaning device for an electrophotographic apparatus, and more particularly to a cleaning device equipped with a blade for scraping off toner remaining on a photoreceptor.

[Conventional technology]

In an electrophotographic apparatus, after a toner image formed on a photoreceptor is transferred to an image receiving paper, toner remaining on the photoreceptor is removed by a cleaning device.

Some cleaning devices include, for example, a blade that comes into contact with the photoreceptor to scrape off residual toner. This blade is usually made of a wear-resistant rubber material and comes into elastic contact with the surface of the photoconductor, removing residual toner with its edge. This type of cleaning device has a simple and compact structure. Therefore, it is very useful for electrophotographic equipment.

The blade is, for example, integrally fixed to the housing of the cleaning device, but if the cleaning device and the photoreceptor are not arranged in parallel, the blade will not come into uniform contact with the photoreceptor. In addition, the relative position between the blade and the photoreceptor depends on the accuracy with which the blade is fixed to the housing and the accuracy with which the cleaning device is attached, or needs to be adjusted after installation.

Instead, there is also known a cleaning device in which the cleaning device itself has a mechanism in which the blade is brought into pressure contact with the photoreceptor in parallel. In this device, the blade is rotatably supported and fixed at the center by a pin or the like, and after the cleaning device is attached, the blade is rotated to be positioned parallel to the photoreceptor. Therefore, high precision is not required for mounting the cleaning device, and the blade can be easily arranged parallel to the photoreceptor, so that the entire area of the blade comes into contact with the photoreceptor along the axial direction.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

However, in this cleaning device, since only the central portion of the blade is supported and fixed, both ends in the longitudinal direction are lifted up from the support portion and bent due to sliding friction with the photoconductor, which is in contact with the photoconductor. As a result, the blade cannot contact uniformly in the longitudinal direction, and the cleaning performance particularly at both ends deteriorates, causing residual toner on the photoreceptor to 1. , there is a problem that they are not removed reliably.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems, and to provide a cleaning device having a configuration in which a blade uniformly contacts a photoreceptor to reliably remove residual toner.

[Means and operations for solving the problems] The above object of the present invention is to provide a cleaning device for an electrophotographic device having a blade for removing residual toner on a photoreceptor, the blade being fixed to a housing, This is achieved by a cleaning device characterized in that the housing is attached to a support made of an elastic material, and is provided with elastic means for biasing the housing against the photoreceptor.

In other words, since the fulcrum of the cleaning device is elastically deformed,
The position of the blade is automatically adjusted when the cleaning device is installed, and the cleaning device can be installed without requiring high installation accuracy. Furthermore, since the cleaning device is biased against the photoreceptor by the elastic means, the contact force and contact angle of the blade are stabilized, ensuring highly reliable cleaning performance.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail based on the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of the cleaning device. The cleaning device 1 has a blade 3 fixed to the upper edge of the housing 2 and a sealing member 4 fixed to the lower edge, and the blade 3 and the sealing member 4 are formed to have approximately the same length as the photoreceptor 5. . A shaft 7 is provided at the lower part of the side wall 6 of the cleaning device, and is supported by a support block 8 provided in the main body of the electrophotographic device.

The shaft 7 has a substantially prismatic shape obtained by cutting out a cylinder so as to have a pair of surfaces parallel to the axial direction, while the support block 8 has a substantially annular support portion 9, with a part of the ring being open. There is. axis 7
may extend between the side walls 6, or may have a length supported by the support portion 9.

The support portion 9 is made of an elastically deformable rubber material, for example, and supports the curved surfaces of both ends of the shaft 7 elastically and rotatably. Therefore, the cleaning device 1 is rotatably supported by the support block 8.

The support block 8 has an open part 1G that guides the shaft 7 to the support part 9.
The width of the open portion 10 is larger than the width of the shaft 7 and smaller than the length of the shaft 7. Therefore, in order to accommodate the shaft 7 in the support portion 9, the shaft 7 may be inserted with the longitudinal direction of the shaft cross section parallel to the open portion 10. After the shaft 7 is housed in the support part 9, by rotating the cleaning device 1, the shaft 7 is brought to a position intersecting the open part 10 within the support part 9, and does not come off from the support part 9. .

One end of a spring 11 is fixed to the upper part of the side wall 6, and the other end of the spring 11 is fixed to the main body of the electrophotographic bag-1. Therefore, the cleaning device l is rotatable around the support portion 9, but always maintains a predetermined elastic force to clean the photoreceptor 5.
is energized by Since the cleaning device 1 is urged against the photoreceptor 5 with a predetermined force, the blade 3 and the seal member 4 are also always in contact with the photoreceptor 5 with a predetermined pressure. Further, since the other side wall (not shown) is similarly biased by a spring, the blade 3 and the seal member 4 contact the photoreceptor 5 with uniform force in the axial direction.

Here, if the axis of the photoconductor 5 is inclined with respect to the proper position or if the circumferential surface of the photoconductor 5 is a tapered surface, the cleaning device 1 is moved to the shaft 7 by the biasing force of the spring 11.
moves by deforming the support portion 9, the positional deviation between the photoreceptor 5 and the cleaning device 1 is automatically adjusted.

Note that when the blade 3 comes into sliding contact with the photoconductor 5, the blade 3 tends to move in the photoconductor rotation direction A by receiving frictional force and repulsive force from the photoconductor 5, so the cleaning device 1 similarly moves in the A direction. There is a tendency to move to Since the cleaning device 1 is elastically supported by the shaft 7, it can be moved slightly in the A direction. Therefore, in order to prevent the cleaning device 1 from moving, it is preferable to install the spring 11 in a direction in which the elastic force of the spring 11 acts in a direction opposite to the resultant force of the frictional force and the repulsive force that the blade 3 receives. Furthermore, by providing the camera body with a locking member 12 that locks the upper edge of the side wall 6 at the position shown in the figure, movement of the cleaning device 1 in the direction A is reliably prevented, and the blade 3 is connected to the photoreceptor 5. Provides stable sliding contact.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, since the cleaning device is rotatably supported and urged against the photoreceptor, the blade can stably slide into contact with the photoreceptor, and fluctuations in the pressing force and the pressing angle can be prevented. In addition, since the cleaning device is supported by an elastically deformable support section, even if the cleaning device and the photoconductor are not arranged parallel to each other, the blade is biased toward the photoconductor by the elastic means so that the blade is parallel to the photoconductor. The mounting position of the cleaning device is automatically adjusted so that the blade comes into contact with the photoreceptor, and the blade can come into uniform sliding contact with the photoreceptor in the axial direction.

Therefore, according to the present invention, by bringing the blade into contact with the photoreceptor at an appropriate pressure and at an appropriate position, residual toner on the photoreceptor can be reliably removed, and good cleaning performance is guaranteed.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view of the cleaning device. Symbols in the figure: 1...Cleaning device 2...Housing 3.
...Blade 4...Seal member 5...Photoreceptor 6...Side wall 7...Shaft End...Support block 9...Support part 10...Opening part 11...Spring 12...・Locking member (3 others) Fig. 1

Claims (1)

[Claims] A cleaning device for an electrophotographic apparatus having a blade for removing residual toner on a photoconductor, the blade being fixed to a housing, the housing being attached to a support made of an elastic material, and the housing being attached to the photoconductor. A cleaning device characterized in that it is equipped with an elastic means for applying pressure.