KR20070066504A - Method for detecting toner consumption of image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

A method for recognizing a toner consumption quantity in an image forming apparatus is provided to measure whether a toner is consumed in a toner barrel which is mounted in a developing machine body and stores the toner. A consumption quantity of a toner according to the time for which a solenoid(40) is turned on is calculated by using a rotary speed rate of a feeder when the solenoid(40) is turned on. The total number when the solenoid(40) is turned on is measured, and the total toner consumption quantity of a toner barrel(30) is measured. The solenoid(40) is turned on for a uniform time.

Description

Method for detecting toner consumption of image forming apparatus

1 is a configuration diagram schematically showing an embodiment of an image forming apparatus to which a toner consumption recognition method according to the present invention is applied;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing an arrangement of toner supply portions and a toner container corresponding to each of the plurality of developing basic bodies shown in FIG. 1;

3 is an exploded perspective view showing the configuration of a developing base member and a toner container shown in FIG. 2;

4 is a perspective view illustrating an operation of transmitting power to a toner container by a solenoid;

Fig. 5 is a graph showing the correlation of the toner supply amount according to the number of toners supplied to the developing base.

<Description of the symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

10 ..... photosensitive drum 20 .....

21 ..... developing roller 22 ..... feeding roller

23,24 ...... Auger 25 ...

26 ........ Means of transport 27 ..... Regulated blade

28 ..... Supply port 29 ....

30 ..... toner box 31 ..... toner outlet

32 ..... Gear 33 ..... Shutter

34 ..... Connecting gear 36 ..... Stopper

39 ... feeder 40 ..... solenoid

42 ..... 51 ..... Warp Belt

54 ..... 1st Transfer Roller 60 ..... 2nd Transfer Roller

70 .....

The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, and more particularly, to a method of recognizing toner consumption of an image forming apparatus capable of measuring the amount of toner consumption of a developing cartridge.

In general, an electrophotographic image forming apparatus scans light on a photosensitive medium charged at a constant potential to form a vertex latent image corresponding to a desired image, and develops the image after developing the electrostatic latent image into a toner image using toner. Is a device for forming a desired color image by transferring and fusion to a paper.

An electrophotographic image forming apparatus may be divided into a mono image forming apparatus and a color image forming apparatus. The mono image forming apparatus is a device for forming a monochrome image, and the color image forming apparatus superimposes colors of yellow (Y: yellow), magenta (M: magenta), cyan (C: cyan) and black (K: black). To achieve the desired image. Therefore, the image forming apparatus needs one developing cartridge, while the color image forming apparatus requires four developing cartridges each storing the toners of the four colors.

On the other hand, the developing cartridge can be divided into an integral type for storing the toner on its own and a separate type for separating the toner container for storing the toner from the developer body.

In the case of the integrated type, the developing cartridge is replaced with a new developing cartridge after the toner is used up, but in the case of the separating type, after the toner is used up, only the used toner bottle is replaced with a new toner bottle. Therefore, the separation formula can be said to be advantageous in terms of economics.

In the case of the integrated type, the consumption of the toner can be recognized by measuring the presence or absence of the toner in the developing cartridge, whereas in the case of the separate type, the toner is recognized by measuring whether the toner is present in the toner container as well as the developing base. can do. In particular, since the toner container stores the toner directly, it is necessary to accurately measure the presence of the toner to inform the consumer of the replacement time of the toner container.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide a method for recognizing a toner consumption amount of an image forming apparatus, which is detachable from a developing main body and can measure whether toner consumption is stored in a toner container for storing toner.

Toner consumption recognition method of the image forming apparatus of the present invention to achieve the above object is detachably installed on the developing main body, to store the information about the supply and toner for supplying the toner to the developing main body while being turned on / off by the solenoid A toner consumption recognition method of an image forming apparatus for measuring a toner consumption amount of a toner container provided with a memory unit,

Using the rotational speed ratio of the feeder when the solenoid is turned on, calculating the consumption amount of the toner according to the turning-on time of the solenoid, and measuring the total number of turn-on of the solenoid to measure the total toner consumption of the toner container. do.

According to the invention, the solenoid is on for a certain time.

According to the present invention, the number of times the solenoid is turned on is stored in the memory.

According to the present invention, it is determined whether the toner is consumed by comparing the measured total toner consumption of the toner container with a preset reference value.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a configuration diagram schematically showing an embodiment of an image forming apparatus to which the toner consumption recognition method according to the present invention is applied, and FIG. 2 is a toner supply unit of the plurality of developing basic bodies shown in FIG. FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view showing the configuration of the developing main body and the toner container shown in FIG. 2, and FIG. 4 is a perspective view illustrating an operation of transmitting power to the toner container by the solenoid. 5 is a graph showing the correlation of the toner supply amount according to the number of toners supplied to the developing base, and FIG. 6 is a graph showing the toner measurement characteristics of the sensor provided in the developing base.

A feature of the present invention is to recognize the consumption amount of toner loaded in a toner container detachably installed on a developing main body by using the number of times of solenoid turn-on. When the number of turned on solenoids approaches the set number of times, it may be determined that the toner is almost consumed in the toner container. Therefore, it is possible to simply recognize whether the toner is consumed in the toner container by considering only the number of times the solenoid is turned on.

First, the configuration of the image forming apparatus will be described, and then the toner consumption recognition method of the toner container will be described.

Referring to FIG. 1, the image forming apparatus includes a photosensitive drum 10, a plurality of developing bases 20, a plurality of toner cylinders 30, an intermediate transfer belt 51, a first transfer roller 54, and a second transfer. The roller 60 and the fixing unit 70 are provided.

The photosensitive drum 10 is a photoconductive layer formed on the outer circumference of the cylindrical metal drum. Instead of the photosensitive drum 10, a photosensitive belt may be employed. Adjacent to the outer periphery of the photosensitive drum 10, there is provided a charging roller 11, which is an example of a charger for charging the photosensitive drum 10 to a uniform potential. Cleaning means 12 are provided for removing the toner remaining in the photosensitive drum 10 after the toner image is transferred to the intermediate transfer belt 51.

The charging roller 11 supplies electric charge while rotating in contact or non-contact state with the outer circumferential surface of the photosensitive drum 10 to charge the outer circumferential surface of the photosensitive drum 10 to a uniform potential. Instead of the charging roller 11, a corona charger may be employed.

The exposure unit 40 scans the light corresponding to the image information to the photosensitive drum 10 charged to have a uniform potential to form an electrostatic latent image. The exposure unit 40 generally uses a laser scanning unit (LSU) that uses a laser diode as a light source.

The plurality of toner containers 30Y, 30M, 30C, and 30K contain toners of yellow (Y: yellow), magenta (M: magenta), cyan (C: cyab), and black (K: black) colors, respectively. The plurality of developing bases 20Y, 20M, 20C, and 20K develop electrostatic latent images formed on the photosensitive drum 10 by receiving toners corresponding to colors from the plurality of toner containers 30Y, 30M, 30C, and 30K, respectively. do.

The developing base 20 includes a developing roller 21 spaced apart from the photosensitive drum 10 by a developing gap. The developing gap is preferably about tens to hundreds of microns.

The image forming apparatus according to the present invention is a multi pass method in which a plurality of developing primitives 20Y, 20M, 20C, and 20K are sequentially operated to form an image. In the multi-pass method, a developing bias is applied to the developing roller 21K of the selected developing base body 20K, and a developing bias is not applied to the developing rollers 21Y, 21M, 21C of the remaining developing bases 20Y, 20M, and 20C. A development bias can be applied to prevent development of the toner. Further, only the developing roller 21K of the selected developing base body 20K may be rotated, and the developing rollers 21Y, 21M, 21C of the remaining developing cartridges 20Y, 20M, and 20C may not be rotated.

The plurality of developing bases 20Y, 20M, 20C, and 20K are installed side by side in the running direction of the photosensitive drum 10, as shown in FIG. The toner supply portions 25Y, 25M, 25C, and 25K of the plurality of developing bases 20Y, 20M, 20C, and 20K are positioned to be offset from each other in the longitudinal direction of the developing base, so that the plurality of toner containers 30Y, 30M, 30C, 30K) may be arranged so as not to interfere with each other.

When the plurality of toner containers 30Y, 30M, 30C, and 30K are attached to and removed from the developing bases 20Y, 20M, 20C, and 20K, interference with the developing bases 20Y, 20M, 20C, and 20K or the toner containers 30Y and 30M are removed. , 30C, 30K) can be arranged so as not to interfere with each other.

Referring to FIG. 3, the developing base 20 includes a container 29 in which a developing roller 21, a supply roller 22, and a plurality of augers 23 and 24 are installed, a container 29, and a toner. A toner supply part 25 for connecting the cartridge 30, and a conveying means 26 for conveying the toner to the accommodating part 29.

The developing roller 21 develops the electrostatic latent image formed on the photosensitive drum 10 using toner. On the upper side of the developing roller 21, a regulating blade 27 for regulating the thickness of the toner adhered to the outer circumferential surface of the developing roller 21 is provided.

The feed roller 22 is rotated in contact with the developing roller 21 to attach toner (non-magnetic toner) to the developing roller 21 by frictional charging.

The augers 23 and 24 supply the toner supplied through the toner supply unit 25 toward the developing roller 21, and a plurality of rotary wings are provided. Preferably, the plurality of augers 23 and 24 are opposite in direction to each other.

The toner supply part 25 extends rearward from the accommodating part 29, and the supply hole 28 which receives the toner from the toner container 30 is provided in the upper side. The toner container 30 is provided with a toner outlet 31 in communication with the supply port 28. The toner container 30 is provided with a shutter 33 for opening and closing the toner outlet 31. Therefore, when the toner bottle 30 is mounted on the developing body 20, the shutter 33 opens the toner outlet 31, and when the toner bottle 30 is separated from the developing body 20, the toner outlet 31 is opened. To prevent.

A feeder 39 for supplying the stored toner to the toner outlet 31 is provided inside the toner bottle 30, and the feeder 39 is connected to a gear 32 provided on one side of the toner bottle 30. Therefore, when the gear 32 is rotated by receiving power, the feeder 39 is also rotated to send the toner stored in the toner container 30 to the toner outlet 31.

In addition, the memory unit 38 is built in one side of the toner container 30. The memory unit 38 stores information about toner. A part of the memory unit 38 is exposed to the outside through the opening hole 30a formed at one side of the toner container 30. Therefore, when the toner container 30 is mounted on the developing base 20, the memory unit 38 is connected to the main body so that the controller (not shown) utilizes the information stored in the memory unit 38.

Referring to FIG. 4, the gear 32 of the toner container 30 is rotated by receiving power through a connection gear 34 that transmits power from a driving source (not shown). The connecting portion 34 is provided with a driving gear 37 connected to a drive source (not shown) to receive power, and a gear 35 connected to the gear 32 of the toner container 30 is provided on the other side. .

Means are required for regulating the gear 32 of the toner container 30 to be turned on or off, which is done by the solenoid 41. The solenoid 41 turns off or on the driving of the gear 35 while contacting or non-contacting with the stopper 36 provided in the connecting portion 34, so that the gear 32 of the toner container 30 is also the solenoid 41. The drive is controlled according to the on or off of.

The intermediate transfer belt 51 is supported by the support rollers 52 and 53 and travels at the same traveling line speed as the rotational linear speed of the photosensitive drum 10. The length of the intermediate transfer belt 51 should be equal to or at least longer than the length of the paper P of the maximum size used in the image forming apparatus.

The first transfer roller 54 faces the photosensitive drum 10, and a first transfer bias for transferring the toner image developed on the photosensitive drum 10 to the intermediate transfer belt 51 is applied. The second transfer roller 60 is installed to face the intermediate transfer belt 51. The second transfer roller 60 is spaced apart from the intermediate transfer belt 51 while the toner image is transferred from the photosensitive drum 10 to the intermediate transfer belt 51, and then the toner image is completely transferred to the intermediate transfer belt 51. When transferred, the intermediate transfer belt 51 is brought into contact with a predetermined pressure. A second transfer bias for transferring the toner image onto the paper is applied to the second transfer roller 60.

The fuser 70 applies heat and pressure to the toner image transferred to the paper to fuse the toner image to the paper.

Next, a method of recognizing the toner in the toner container 30, which is a feature of the present invention, will be described.

The gear 32 of the toner container 30 is engaged with the gear 35 of the connecting portion 34, and rotates together when the connecting portion 34 is rotated. When the solenoid 41 is turned off, the gear 32 of the toner container 30 is not driven by being brought into contact with the stopper 36. At this time, the feeder 39 does not supply toner to the toner outlet 31, so that toner It cannot be supplied to the developing base 20. When the solenoid 41 is turned on, the gear 32 of the toner container 30 is driven by contacting the stopper 36, and the feeder 39 supplies the toner to the toner outlet 31 at this time.

Referring to Fig. 5, the horizontal axis indicates the number of times the solenoid is turned on, and the vertical axis indicates the amount of toner supplied. It can be said that the amount of toner supplied is linearly increased with respect to the number of turns of the solenoid.

Therefore, since the rotation speed ratio of the gear 32 of the toner container 30 is constant, and the time when the solenoid 41 is turned on is constant, the gear 32 of the toner container 30 during the time when the solenoid 41 is turned on. Is rotated so that the amount of toner is supplied is constant.

That is, a predetermined amount of toner is supplied to the developing base 20 during the time when the solenoid 41 is turned on. Therefore, by measuring the total number of times the solenoid 41 is turned on, the total amount of toner is supplied can be known.

Since the number of times that the solenoid 41 is turned on is continuously stored in the memory unit 38, the total number of times that the solenoid 41 is turned on can be measured.

On the other hand, the controller (not shown) measures and stores the number of times the solenoid 41 is turned on in correspondence with the total amount of toner stored in the toner container 30. That is, how many times the solenoid 41 should be turned on in order to exhaust the toner stored in the toner container 30 is stored in advance. Therefore, when the number of times that the solenoid 41 is turned on is compared with the number of stored times, when the number of times measured exceeds the stored number, it is determined that the toner stored in the toner bottle 30 is exhausted and the replacement of the toner bottle 30 is performed. To the user.

As described above, by measuring the number of times the solenoid 41 is turned on, it is possible to easily determine whether or not the toner stored in the toner container 30 is exhausted, and can inform the user of the replacement time of the toner container 30 by using the same. have.

The developing body 20 is provided with a sensor 42 for measuring the level of toner contained therein. The sensor 42 measures the level of the toner accommodated in the developing base 20 to determine whether an appropriate amount of toner is stored. When the sensor 42 measures that the toner of an appropriate amount or less is stored in the developing base 20, the controller (not shown) informs the user of this.

In addition, even when it is determined that not only the toner stored in the toner bottle 30 is exhausted but also the toner of the appropriate amount is stored in the developing base 20, the printing is continued without replacing the toner bottle 30. The operation can be done, but the picture quality is not reliable. Since the measurement of the consumption amount of the toner at this stage is impossible to measure the level of the toner using the sensor 42, the measurement of the consumption amount of the toner can be performed by a dot count method using video data.

As described above, the toner consumption recognition method of the image forming apparatus according to the present invention accurately recognizes the toner container replacement time by recognizing the amount of toner loaded in the toner container separated from the developing body by measuring the number of times the solenoid is turned on. It can work.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to one embodiment shown in the drawings, this is merely exemplary and will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that various modifications and variations can be made therefrom. Therefore, the true technical protection scope of the present invention will be defined by the technical spirit of the appended claims.

Claims (4)

Toner of the image forming apparatus, which is detachably installed on the developing main body, measures the toner consumption of the toner container including a feeder for supplying toner to the developing main body and on / off by the solenoid, and a memory unit for storing information about the toner. In the consumption recognition method, Using the rotational speed ratio of the feeder when the solenoid is turned on, calculating the consumption amount of the toner according to the turning-on time of the solenoid, and measuring the total number of turn-on of the solenoid to measure the total toner consumption of the toner container. A toner consumption recognition method of an image forming apparatus, characterized in that. The method of claim 1, The solenoid is turned on for a predetermined time, the toner consumption recognition method of the image forming apparatus. The method according to claim 1 or 2, And a number of times the solenoid is turned on is stored in the memory. The method of claim 1, The toner consumption recognition method of the image forming apparatus, characterized in that the toner consumption is determined by comparing the measured total toner consumption of the toner container with a preset reference value.

Images