KR20200114717A - A toner recovery method for preventing toner scattering - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a toner recovery method for preventing toner scattering. In a waste toner cartridge consisting of a residual amount of toner, a toner container in which the toner is accommodated, and a cartridge body, the toner recovery method comprises: a steam heating step of injecting the waste toner cartridge and steam into a heating tank and performing steam heating at 80-150°C to form a toner aggregate for which the residual amount of toner is agglomerated; a hot air drying step of drying the toner aggregate with hot air; and a pulverizing step of sending the waste toner cartridge dried with hot air to a pulverizing tank for pulverization.

Description

A toner recovery method for preventing toner scattering

The present invention relates to a toner recovery method for preventing toner scattering.

In general, an electrophotographic image developer such as a laser printer or a copier is a device that forms an image using toner, and transfers and fixes it to a print medium.

In the image developer, most of the toner cartridges are applied to provide convenience for supplying and replacing toner due to consumption of toner, and for collecting waste toner, and to prevent internal contamination of the image developer.

When the toner cartridges used as described above are at the end of their useful life, companies that collect the waste toner and the waste cartridge together collect the waste toner and the waste cartridge together, and they are buried in a designated landfill or incinerated.

At this time, the waste toner was collected by suction with a dust collector or heated and compressed by an electric heater method and then buried or incinerated.The toner dust penetrated into the worker's respirator despite the wearing of the yellow dust mask due to the toner dust, which is ultra-fine dust. It is very harmful to the human body, and there is a problem that the risk of fire is very high due to static electricity generated by toner dust, and there is a disadvantage that the workplace is contaminated by the scattering of toner dust.

Accordingly, the present inventors have developed a method for recovering toner that can prevent toner dust from scattering to prevent toner dust from penetrating into the respirator, minimize contamination of the workplace, and prevent fire due to static electricity caused by toner dust. I want to provide.

Korean Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 10-2015-0035000 is proposed as a similar prior document for this.

Republic of Korea Patent Publication No. 10-2015-0035000 (2015.04.06)

In order to solve the above problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a toner recovery method capable of minimizing contamination and generation of dust in a workplace and preventing fires from occurring due to static electricity caused by toner dust.

One aspect of the present invention for achieving the above object is in a waste toner cartridge comprising a residual amount of toner, a toner container in which the toner is accommodated, and a cartridge body, in which the waste toner cartridge and steam are put into a heating tank, and 80 to 150°C A steam heating step of forming a toner agglomerate in which the remaining amount of toner is agglomerated by steam heating; A hot air drying step of hot air drying the steam-heated waste toner cartridge; And a pulverizing step of sending the hot air-dried waste toner cartridge to a pulverizing tank and pulverizing it.

In the above aspect, the recovery method may further include a vibration recovery step of further pulverizing the toner aggregate through vibration after the pulverization step, and recovering through a net, wherein the vibration recovery step is performed by vibration of a vibrator. The toner aggregate may be removed from the toner container, further pulverized, and recovered as fine powder passing through a 20 to 100 mesh network.

In the above aspect, the pulverizing step may be pulverizing the cartridge body to a size of 5 to 50 mm.

In the above aspect, the hot air drying step may be performed using a hot air fan having an output of 0.1 to 20 kW.

The toner recovery method for preventing toner scattering according to the present invention is to prevent the toner from scattering in the form of dust by converting toner dust into a form of toner aggregate by steam heating a waste toner cartridge with high temperature steam, and then pulverizing the waste toner cartridge. can do. From this, it is possible to minimize contamination of the workplace, prevent a fire due to static electricity caused by toner dust, and prevent toner dust from penetrating into the respirator, thereby preventing harm to the human body. have.

Hereinafter, a toner recovery method for preventing toner scattering according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The drawings introduced below are provided as examples so that the spirit of the present invention can be sufficiently conveyed to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the present invention is not limited to the drawings presented below and may be embodied in other forms, and the drawings presented below may be exaggerated to clarify the spirit of the present invention. Also, throughout the specification, the same reference numerals indicate the same elements.

At this time, unless there are other definitions in the technical terms and scientific terms used, they have the meanings commonly understood by those of ordinary skill in the technical field to which this invention belongs, and the gist of the present invention in the following description and accompanying drawings Descriptions of known functions and configurations that may be unnecessarily obscure will be omitted.

In addition, in describing the constituent elements of the present invention, terms such as first, second, A, B, (a) and (b) may be used. These terms are only used to distinguish the component from other components, and the nature, order, or order of the component is not limited by the term.

Existing waste toner was collected by suction with a dust collector or heated and compressed by an electric heater method and then buried or incinerated.Due to the toner dust, which is ultra-fine dust, despite wearing a yellow dust mask, toner dust penetrates into the human body. There is a problem that the risk of fire is very high due to the generation of static electricity due to toner dust, and there is a disadvantage that the workplace is contaminated by the scattering of toner dust.

Accordingly, the present inventors have developed a method for recovering toner that can prevent toner dust from scattering to prevent toner dust from penetrating into the respirator, minimize contamination of the workplace, and prevent fire due to static electricity caused by toner dust. I want to provide.

In detail, in the toner recovery method for preventing toner scattering according to an embodiment of the present invention, in a waste toner cartridge comprising a residual amount of toner, a toner container in which the toner is accommodated, and a cartridge body, the waste toner cartridge and vapor are supplied to a heating tank. A steam heating step of forming a toner agglomerate in which the remaining amount of toner is aggregated by steam heating at 80 to 150°C; A hot air drying step of hot air drying the steam-heated waste toner cartridge; And a grinding step of sending the hot air-dried waste toner cartridge to a grinding tank for grinding.

As described above, the waste toner cartridge is steam heated with high-temperature steam to convert the toner dust into a form of toner aggregate, and then the waste toner cartridge is pulverized to prevent the toner from scattering in the form of dust. From this, it is possible to minimize contamination of the workplace, prevent a fire due to static electricity caused by toner dust, and prevent toner dust from penetrating into the respirator, thereby preventing harm to the human body. have.

First, a steam heating step of forming a toner agglomerate in which the remaining amount of toner is aggregated may be performed by putting the waste toner cartridge and steam into a heating tank and steam heating at 80 to 150°C.

As described above, by steam heating the waste toner cartridge with high-temperature steam, the toner remaining in the cartridge can be converted from a dust state to an aggregate state. Unlike dust, toner aggregates do not scatter, so the workplace can be minimized from being contaminated by toner dust, and fires due to static electricity caused by toner dust can be prevented, and toner dust can be prevented from penetrating into the respiratory system. There is an advantage that it can prevent harm to the human body of the worker.

In an example of the present invention, the heating tank is a box-type device for steam heating the waste toner cartridge, and a toner aggregate obtained by agglomerating the remaining amount of toner by putting the waste toner cartridge into the heating tank and then introducing high-temperature steam into the heating tank is prepared. Can be formed.

Accordingly, the heating tank according to an embodiment of the present invention may include a waste toner cartridge entrance formed on one side of the heating tank to insert the waste toner cartridge or take out the steam-heated waste toner cartridge, and also introduces high-temperature steam. In order to do this, it may include a steam inlet formed on the other surface of the heating tank.

In an example of the present invention, the waste toner cartridge may be one used in an electrophotographic image developer such as a laser printer, a copier, etc., and refers to a toner cartridge recovered after use. It may be in a state of being left behind.

In an example of the present invention, the steam introduced into the heating tank is a high-temperature steam heated at 80 to 150°C, and for this purpose, the heating tank is the other end of the heating tank. May be connected to The steam generator refers to a device capable of generating steam and may be used without particular limitation as long as it is a steam generator that is commonly used.

In this case, the steam may mean water vapor, and the temperature of the steam may be 80 to 150°C, more preferably 100 to 145°C, and most preferably 120 to 140°C. While the toner is effectively agglomerated in this range, it is possible to reduce waste of electric power used to generate high-temperature steam in the steam generator.

In an example of the present invention, the duration of the steam heating step is sufficient as long as the toner is sufficiently agglomerated, and specifically, for example, 3 minutes or more, more preferably 5 to 120 minutes, and most preferably 10 to The steam heating step can be carried out for 60 minutes. In this range, most of the remaining amount of toner can be converted into a toner aggregate.

In the steam heating step according to an example of the present invention, the pressure may be adjusted for easy steam heating. Specifically, for example, the pressure in the steam heating step may be 0.015 to 1 kpsi, more preferably 0.05 to 0.8 kpsi, and most preferably 0.1 to 0.5 kpsi. In such a range, the toner may be melted to have excellent agglomeration efficiency.

Next, a hot air drying step of hot air drying the steam-heated waste toner cartridge may be performed.

This step is to dry the toner aggregate containing vapor by steam heating.Since the toner aggregate containing vapor is inconvenient to separate from the toner container, etc., the dried toner aggregate is dried by removing vapor by hot air drying. Can be prepared, and through this, the separation efficiency of the toner aggregate can be improved. In this way, the toner agglomerates through the steam heating step and then hot air drying to produce a dried toner agglomerate, thereby preventing the toner dust from scattering and causing a fire Can be prevented. In addition, since the toner is agglomerated into a hard mass, it is good to prevent the toner dust from being sucked into the human body even if the operator does not wear a mask. In addition, as the amount of toner dust collected by the dust collector decreases, the amount of toner to be incinerated or buried decreases, thereby reducing environmental pollution.

In this case, the hot air drying condition is sufficient as long as the toner agglomerates containing steam are sufficiently dried. Specifically, for example, the hot air drying step may be performed using a hot air fan having an output of 0.1 to 20 kW. More preferably, the hot air drying step may be performed using a hot air fan having an output of 0.3 to 10 kW, and most preferably, 0.5 to 3 kW. In such a range, the vapor is sufficiently removed to produce a dried toner aggregate. In addition, the hot air drying time is sufficient if the toner aggregate is sufficiently dried, and as an example, it may be performed for 3 minutes or more, preferably 10 to 120 minutes, and most preferably 20 to 60 minutes.

Next, before the waste toner cartridge is pulverized, a step of separating and sorting the waste toner cartridge into a toner container containing a toner aggregate and a cartridge body may be further performed. Since most of the toner cartridges are composed of a toner container made of synthetic resin and a cartridge body made of ferrous and non-ferrous materials, it is possible to increase the recycling rate of the waste toner cartridge by performing pulverization for each material through separation and sorting.

Next, a grinding step of sending the hot air-dried waste toner cartridge to a grinding tank and grinding it may be performed.

The pulverizing step may be used without particular limitation as long as it is a method commonly used by a person skilled in the art, and the toner container and the cartridge body may be pulverized through different methods.

As a specific example, the toner container containing the hot air-dried toner aggregate according to an example of the present invention may be pulverized through a blade grinder. Since the toner container is made of a synthetic resin as described above, it is good to be able to pulverize sufficiently well using a blade grinder, and to minimize the scattering of toner dust by not pulverizing the toner agglomerates into a dust state again.

At this time, the toner container containing the hot air-dried toner aggregate may be pulverized to a size of 5 to 50 mm, more preferably 10 to 45 mm, and most preferably 20 to 40 mm. Although the toner container containing the hot air-dried toner aggregate in such a range is rapidly pulverized, the scattering of toner dust can be minimized as the toner agglomerate is not pulverized again into a dust state.

In addition, the cartridge body according to an example of the present invention may be crushed with a hammer crusher. As the cartridge body is composed of a mixture of ferrous and non-ferrous materials as described above, it is difficult to use a blade grinder, and thus, after crushing with a hammer crusher, ferrous and non-ferrous materials may be separated and sorted. In this case, in the separating and sorting, the ferrous materials are magnetically selected using a magnet, and then the non-ferrous materials can be sorted and separated by materials manually by an operator.

As such, it is good for the cartridge body to be crushed into rather large particles as it is easy to sort and separate the non-ferrous materials by manual identification and separation by the operator.

As a specific example, the cartridge body may be crushed to a size of 5 to 50 mm, more preferably 10 to 45 mm, most preferably to a size of 20 to 40 mm. In this range, the ferrous material and the non-ferrous material can be easily separated by magnetic force, and the non-ferrous material can be easily separated by material through manual operation of the operator. In addition, toner scattering according to an example of the present invention The method of recovering toner for prevention may further include a vibration recovery step of further pulverizing the toner aggregate through vibration after the pulverizing step and recovering through a net.

In this step, the hot air-dried waste toner cartridge is separated into a toner agglomerate and a toner container, and is collected into a toner and a toner container, respectively.The toner agglomerate removed from the toner container by the vibration is further pulverized to a smaller fine powder state. In this case, the fine powder may have a size that is smaller than the toner aggregate and has a larger particle size than the waste collected toner dust and is not easily scattered. At this time, the toner container from which the toner aggregate is desorbed may be a toner container pulverized product pulverized by a pulverizing step, and specifically, may be a synthetic resin pulverized product constituting the toner container.

More specifically, in the vibration recovery step according to an example of the present invention, the toner aggregate is separated from the toner container by vibration of the vibrator, further pulverized, and recovered as fine powder passing through a 20 to 100 mesh network, The fine powder may be more preferably a fine powder passing through a network of 20 to 80 mesh, more preferably a network of 25 to 50 mesh. Grinding of the toner agglomerates to the size of the mesh range may prevent the toner agglomerates from being pulverized and scattered back into dust. At this time, the mesh may be based on the mesh standard body KS A 5101.

In an example of the present invention, the vibrator may be used without particular limitation as long as it can apply a certain level of vibration to the hot air-dried waste toner cartridge.

In addition, in the toner recovery method for preventing toner scattering according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, in the steam heating step, alkoxyethanol vapor may be added together with water vapor as vapor. That is, a waste toner cartridge, water vapor, and alkoxyethanol vapor may be added to a heating tank, followed by steam heating at 80 to 150°C to form a toner aggregate in which the remaining amount of toner is agglomerated. In this way, by mixing water vapor and alkoxyethanol vapor with steam and heating it with steam, agglomeration of toner dust is further promoted, and generation of dust can be almost completely prevented even in the grinding process after cooling. In addition, when the toner aggregate is desorbed from the cartridge body and further pulverized through vibration, the separation efficiency can be further improved since the pulverized plastic material constituting the cartridge body is desorbed better.

In an example of the present invention, the alkoxyethanol vapor may be 3 vol% or less, more preferably 1 vol% or less with respect to the total volume of the vapor. The aggregation effect of the toner can be improved without significantly changing the chemical properties of the toner recovered in such a range. At this time, the volume lower limit of the alkoxyethanol vapor is not particularly limited, but may be greater than 0% by volume.

In addition, in an example of the present invention, it is preferable to use the alkoxyethanol having a boiling point of 80 to 150°C, and as a specific example, the alkoxyethanol may be methoxyethanol or ethoxyethanol, and must be It is not limited thereto.

Hereinafter, a toner recovery method for preventing toner scattering according to the present invention will be described in more detail through examples. However, the following examples are only one reference for describing the present invention in detail, and the present invention is not limited thereto, and may be implemented in various forms.

Further, unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which the present invention belongs. The terms used in the description herein are merely to effectively describe specific embodiments and are not intended to limit the invention. In addition, the unit of the additive not specifically described in the specification may be a weight %.

[Example 1]

After the recovered waste toner cartridge was placed in a heating bath (self-manufactured), water vapor heated to 130°C was added to the heating bath for 30 minutes using a steam generator (self-manufactured).

Next, the steam-heated waste toner cartridge was removed from the heating bath and hot air dried for 30 minutes with a 1 kW electric hot air blower.

Thereafter, after separating and sorting the toner container and the cartridge body, the toner container was pulverized into an average size of 30 mm using a blade grinder (self-made). The cartridge body was crushed to an average size of 30 mm using a hammer crusher, and then ferrous materials were separated using a magnet, and the remaining non-ferrous materials were sorted and separated by material by hand.

In addition, by applying vibration to the pulverized product pulverized through the blade grinder using a vibrator (self-made), the toner aggregate is removed from the toner container and further pulverized, and the toner in the fine powder state and the pulverized toner are passed through a 30 mesh net. Each barrel was recovered.

By collecting the toner after steam treatment and hot air drying in the same way as described above, it was possible to prevent the toner dust from scattering, thereby minimizing the contamination of the workplace, and largely the worker It was able to prevent the toner in the state of ultra-fine dust from seeping into the human body, and it could prevent the occurrence of fire due to static electricity from the dust.

Although the present invention has been described through the above-specified matters and limited embodiments, this is only provided to help a more general understanding of the present invention, and the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and the present invention pertains to Those of ordinary skill in the field can make various modifications and variations from these descriptions.

Therefore, the spirit of the present invention is limited to the described embodiments and should not be defined, and all things that are equivalent or equivalent to the claims as well as the claims to be described later fall within the scope of the spirit of the present invention. .

Claims (5)

A waste toner cartridge comprising a residual amount of toner, a toner container in which the toner is accommodated, and a cartridge body,
A steam heating step in which a waste toner cartridge and steam are put in a heating tank and steam heated at 80 to 150°C to form a toner aggregate in which the remaining amount of toner is agglomerated;
Hot air drying step of hot air drying the steam-heated waste toner cartridge; And
A pulverizing step of sending the hot air-dried waste toner cartridge to a pulverizing tank for pulverization;
A toner recovery method for preventing toner scattering, comprising a. The method of claim 1,
The recovery method further comprises a vibration recovery step of further pulverizing the toner aggregate through vibration after the pulverizing step and recovering through a net. The method of claim 2,
In the vibration recovery step, the toner aggregate is removed from the toner container by vibration of the vibrator, and further pulverized to be recovered as fine powder passing through a 20 to 100 mesh mesh. The method of claim 1,
The pulverizing step is to pulverize the cartridge body to a size of 5 to 50 mm, the toner recovery method for preventing toner scattering. The method of claim 1,
The hot air drying step is performed using a hot air fan having an output of 0.1 to 20 kW.