KR20080070166A - Image forming apparatus and cleaning unit therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

An image forming apparatus and a cleaning unit are provided to prevent rapid degradation of a cleaning performance in a low temperature environment by maintaining elasticity of a cleaning blade by more than a certain level by complementing it with a metal plate material. A cleaning blade is in contact with image carriers and removes toner therefrom. One side of a metal plate member(120) is combined with the cleaning blade and includes a reinforcing portion(122) formed at an end portion facing the image carriers to prevent deformation. A cleaning support member(110) is combined with the metal plate member to support the cleaning blade and the metal plate member. The reinforcing portion includes a bent portion(122a) formed to be bent in a direction it becomes away from the cleaning blade. The metal plate member is fixed to the cleaning support member through laser welding. An adhesive member(140) is interposed between the metal plate member and the cleaning blade.

Description

IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS AND CLEANING UNIT THEREFOR}

      1 is a view showing a cleaning unit applied to a general image forming apparatus.

      2 is a cross-sectional view showing the configuration of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention;

      3 is a cross-sectional view showing the configuration of a cleaning unit according to the present invention.

      4 is a view for explaining the operation of the cleaning unit shown in FIG.

      * Description of symbols on the main parts of the drawings *

      31: photosensitive medium 34: intermediate transfer belt

      100: cleaning unit 110: cleaning support member

      120: metal plate 122: reinforcement

      122a: bend 30: cleaning blade

      140: adhesive member

      The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, and more particularly, to an image forming apparatus having a cleaning unit for removing toner remaining on a photosensitive medium or an intermediate transfer member during a printing process.

      The image forming apparatus refers to an apparatus for printing an image on a paper which is a print medium according to an input image signal. An electrophotographic image forming apparatus, which is a type of image forming apparatus, scans light on a photosensitive medium charged to a predetermined potential to form an electrostatic latent image on its outer circumferential surface, adds toner to the electrostatic latent image, and develops it as a toner image. It is transferred to and fixed on paper to print an image.

      In such an image forming apparatus, the toner image developed on the photosensitive medium is transferred directly to the paper or transferred to the paper via an intermediate transfer member. However, the toner image is not completely transferred during the process of transferring the toner image from the photosensitive medium to the paper or intermediate transfer member or the process of transferring the toner image from the intermediate transfer medium to the paper, and part of the toner image remains on the photosensitive medium or intermediate transfer body. Done. The waste toner remaining in this way is removed by the cleaning unit and collected in the waste toner collecting container.

      1 is a view showing a cleaning unit applied to a general image forming apparatus. As shown in FIG. 1, the cleaning unit 2 includes a cleaning blade 3 which scrapes waste toner remaining on the surface of the consultation member 1 such as a photosensitive medium or an intermediate transfer member, and the cleaning blade 3. It comprises a support member (4) for supporting the. The cleaning blade 3, which comes into contact with the consultation body 1 and removes waste toner, is generally made of polyurethane.

      In order to improve the cleaning performance in such a cleaning unit, the cleaning blade 3 should increase the pressure (N, hereinafter referred to as “blade pressure”) applied to the surface of the consultation body 1 or increase the cleaning angle θ. . However, when the blade pressure (N) is increased, the counseling body 1 wears out, resulting in a decrease in life. Therefore, in consideration of this, the cleaning pressure can be maintained by lowering the blade pressure (N) and increasing the cleaning angle (θ). Then, the cleaning blade 3 is rolled along the rotation direction (arrow direction) of the consultation member 1. Entering phenomenon occurs and the reliability of the device is lowered.

      Polyurethane cleaning blades have the advantage of low material cost, but the resilience of polyurethane is characterized by a sharp drop in low-temperature environment. There is a problem that the cleaning performance is sharply lowered.

      SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus having an improved structure for maintaining a good cleaning performance without reducing the life of the counseling agent and the reliability of the cleaning unit. To provide a cleaning unit.

      Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved image forming apparatus and its cleaning unit such that the cleaning performance is not degraded even in a low temperature environment.

An image forming apparatus according to the present invention for achieving the above object comprises a cleaning unit for removing the toner remaining on the surface of the consultation body, the cleaning unit in contact with the consultation body to remove the toner A cleaning blade coupled to one surface thereof, the metal blade having a reinforcement part for preventing deformation at an end facing the counseling member; and a cleaning supporting the cleaning blade and the metal plate by being combined with the metal sheet. Support member; characterized in that it comprises a.

The reinforcement part may include a bent part bent in a direction away from the cleaning blade.

The metal plate may be fixed to the cleaning support member through laser welding.

The cleaning unit may further include an adhesive member interposed between the metal plate and the cleaning blade, and a heat fusion film may be used as the adhesive member.

In addition, the cleaning unit according to the present invention is a cleaning unit for removing the toner remaining on the surface of the consultation body of the image forming apparatus, the cleaning support member; and the metal plate member is fixed to the cleaning support member; And a cleaning blade attached to remove the toner remaining in the counseling member, wherein the metal sheet includes a bent portion formed at a free end to prevent deformation of the metal sheet.

      Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing the configuration of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention.

      As shown in FIG. 2, the image forming apparatus according to the present invention forms an appearance, and a paper feeding unit for supplying a main body 10 supporting various components installed therein and a paper S which is a printing medium. 20, the developing unit 30 for developing the image on the paper, the fixing unit 40 for fixing the image to the paper by applying heat and pressure to the paper, and the printed paper to the outside of the main body 10. It is provided with a discharge unit 50 for.

      The paper feeding unit 20 develops a paper feed tray 21 on which paper S is loaded, a pickup roller 22 for picking up the paper S loaded on the paper tray 21 one by one, and the picked paper. It comprises a feed roller 23 for moving toward the unit (30).

     The developing unit 30 develops the photosensitive medium 31 on which the electrostatic latent image is formed on the surface by the exposure unit 60, the charging roller 32 for charging the photosensitive medium 31, and the photosensitive medium 31. 4 developer (33Y, 33M, 33C, 33K) to develop the electrostatic latent image into toner image through yellow, magenta, cyan and black color toner, and intermediate transfer belt 34 and a first transfer roller 35 and a second transfer roller 36 are provided. The photosensitive medium 31 and the intermediate transfer belt 34 are counseling members for accommodating a toner image to be transferred to a sheet.

      Each developing unit 33Y, 33M, 33C, 33K rotates while being in contact with the developing roller 37 and the developing roller 37 for supplying and developing the toner to the electrostatic latent image formed on the photosensitive medium 31. And a supply roller 38 for supplying the toner to the developing roller 37.

      The intermediate transfer belt 34 is supported by the support rollers 34a and 34b to travel at the same speed as the rotational linear speed of the photosensitive medium 31. The first transfer roller 35 faces the photosensitive medium 31 so that the toner image developed on the photosensitive medium 31 is transferred to the intermediate transfer belt 34. The second transfer roller 36 is installed to face the intermediate transfer belt 34. The second transfer roller 36 is spaced apart from the intermediate transfer belt 34 while the toner image is transferred from the photosensitive medium 31 to the intermediate transfer belt 34, and the toner image is completely transferred to the intermediate transfer belt 34. The intermediate transfer belt 34 is in contact with a predetermined pressure. When the second transfer roller 36 contacts the intermediate transfer belt 34, the toner image of the intermediate transfer belt 34 is transferred to the paper.

      In this process, some of the toner remains in the counseling member (photosensitive medium 31 or intermediate transfer belt 34) in the process of transferring the toner image to the photosensitive medium 31, the intermediate transfer belt 34 and the paper. do. Since the waste toner remaining on the photosensitive medium 31 and the intermediate transfer belt 34 must be removed for printing the next sheet, the image forming apparatus includes a cleaning unit 100 for this purpose.

      3 is a cross-sectional view showing the configuration of a cleaning unit according to the present invention, Figure 4 is a view for explaining the operation of the cleaning unit shown in FIG. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the cleaning unit 100 includes a cleaning support member 110, a metal plate 120 fixed to the cleaning support member 110, and a cleaning blade attached to the metal plate 120. 130).

      The cleaning support member 110 is used to support the metal plate 120 and the cleaning blade 130, and is fixed to the waste toner collection box 70 (see FIG. 2) disposed under the cleaning unit 100, or is burned. It may be fixed to the forming apparatus main body 10. Meanwhile, the cleaning support member 110 may be manufactured using cold rolled steel sheet.

      The cleaning blade 130 contacts the consultation bodies 31 and 34 to scrape off the waste toner remaining on the surfaces of the consultation members 31 and 34. The cleaning blade 130 is attached to one surface of the metal plate 120, and for this purpose, the adhesive member 140 is interposed between the cleaning blade 130 and the metal plate 120. As the adhesive member 140, a double-sided tape, a heat-sealed film, or an adhesive primer may be used.

      One end 121 of the metal plate 120 is fixed to the cleaning support member 110, laser welding may be used as a fixing method. In FIG. 3, reference numeral 101 denotes a laser welded part. By using laser welding as described above, the metal plate 120 may be firmly fixed to the cleaning support member 110 while minimizing deformation (heat deformation, shrinkage, or distortion) of the metal plate 120 generated during the fixing operation.

      If only one end 121 of the metal plate 120 is fixed, the other end, which is not fixed, becomes a free end, and the metal plate 120 is elastically deformable when an external force is applied. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 4, when the cleaning blade 130 is pressed against the surfaces of the consultation bodies 31 and 34, the cleaning blade 130 and the metal plate 120 are deformed, and the pressure N is constant according to the deformation amount. ) Will act on the counseling delay (31, 34). At this time, the pressure (N) acting on the counseling members 31 and 34 becomes the sum of the restoring force due to the deformation of the cleaning blade 130 and the restoring force due to the deformation of the metal plate 120. Therefore, even when the resilience of the urethane cleaning blade 130 changes abruptly according to the ambient temperature, the elasticity of the metal sheet 120 is not significantly affected by the temperature, so the cleaning unit 100 of the present invention is always at a predetermined level or more. (N) can be maintained. In addition, when the cleaning blade 130 is supported using the metal plate 120, the cleaning blade 130 is not curled due to the rotation of the consultation members 31 and 34 even when the cleaning angle θ is increased. do.

      As the metal plate 120, phosphor bronze, a copper plate or a stainless steel plate may be used, and the thickness thereof is preferably determined within the range of 0.05 mm to 0.2 mm in consideration of the blade pressure (N).

      In addition, the metal plate 120 has a reinforcing part 122 provided at an end, ie, a free end, facing the counseling members 31 and 34 as shown in FIG. 3. The reinforcement part 122 may prevent the deformation such as the thin metal sheet 120 crying so that the cleaning blade 130 may be firmly attached to the metal sheet 120, and unnecessary deformation of the metal sheet 120 may be performed. To prevent. For example, the reinforcement part 122 may prevent the metal plate 120 from being thermally deformed when the heat fusion film is used as the adhesive member 140.

     The reinforcement part 122 may be configured as a bent part 122a that is bent in a direction away from the cleaning blade 130 as shown in FIG. 3.

      As described above, according to the present invention, even if the cleaning angle is increased, the cleaning blade does not occur. Therefore, the cleaning performance can be improved while lowering the blade pressure. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the life of the counseling agent from being shortened while maintaining the desired cleaning performance.

      In addition, in the present invention, even if the resilience of the cleaning blade is changed according to the temperature change, the metal sheet material compensates for this to maintain the elastic force above a certain level, thereby preventing the cleaning performance from being drastically reduced in a low temperature environment.

     In addition, the present invention is provided with a reinforcing part to prevent deformation of the metal plate having a thin thickness to improve the durability of the cleaning unit.

Claims (5)

An image forming apparatus comprising a cleaning unit for removing toner remaining on a surface of a consultation member, the cleaning unit comprising: A cleaning blade contacting the consultation member to remove toner; and A metal plate coupled to one surface of the cleaning blade and provided with a reinforcing part for preventing deformation at an end facing the consultation member; and A cleaning support member coupled to the metal plate to support the cleaning blade and the metal plate; Image forming apparatus comprising a. The method of claim 1, And the reinforcing part includes a bent part bent in a direction away from the cleaning blade. The method of claim 1, And the metal plate is fixed to the cleaning support member through laser welding. The method of claim 1, And the cleaning unit further comprises an adhesive member interposed between the metal plate and the cleaning blade, wherein the adhesive member comprises a heat fusion film. A cleaning unit for removing toner remaining on a surface of a consultation body of an image forming apparatus, Cleaning support member; and A metal plate having one end fixed to the cleaning support member; and And a cleaning blade attached to the metal plate to remove toner remaining in the counseling member. The metal plate member comprises a bent portion formed at the free end to prevent deformation of the metal plate member.

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