JPH02153385A - Toner collecting device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To stabilize the collection quantity of collected toner and to surely prevent the overflow of toner by forming a collected toner housing room in an internal and external dual structure and providing a vibration adding means for intermittently beating an internal room. CONSTITUTION:After a toner cartridge 30 is loaded on the upper part of the toner housing room 27 of a developing part 13 in a state where a replenishing port 312 is fully opened, the opening 312 is made to turn just downward, so that the toner in a replenishment toner housing part 31 is dropped with gravity in a storing room 27 to be supplied. The toner is gradually conveyed in a toner replenishing room 24 with a ladder chain 28 and replenished to developer by proper quantity by actuating a replenishing roller 25 which is driven by the signal of a sensor 23. Meanwhile, after the image is transferred, the tone on a photosensitive drum 11 is scraped by a cleaning blade 34 and collected in a receiving groove 38 through a guiding plate 39. Then it is conveyed out by a convey-out screw 40 and housed in the internal room 32b vibrated by the vibration adding means 46 in the housing room 32 through a pipe 41, an exit 41C and a collection opening 323, then evenly housed without being accumulated in a round shape.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Industrial Application] This invention visualizes an electrostatic latent image formed on an image forming body by an electrophotographic recording method or an electrostatic recording method using toner,
The present invention relates to a toner collecting device that scrapes off and collects toner remaining on an image forming body after transferring the toner to a recording paper.

[Conventional technology]

Generally, image recording devices that utilize electrostatic latent images, such as electrophotographic copying machines and electrostatic recording devices, form an electrostatic latent image on an image forming body such as a photoreceptor drum, and develop this electrostatic latent image. A device visualizes the image using toner, and the toner image is transferred and fixed onto recording paper to obtain the desired recorded matter. After the image has been transferred, the photoreceptor drum has its residual charge erased by a static elimination electrode, and the residual toner is removed by a cleaning device, so that the drum is ready for the formation of the next electrostatic latent image.

In the above-mentioned developing device, approximately 70% of the total toner supplied from the toner supply container is consumed to obtain a recorded matter.
Approximately 30% of toner is recovered from the image forming body by a cleaning device and stored in a recovery container, but if the toner supply container and recovery container are installed separately, this will only lead to an increase in the size and cost of the developing device. When replacing the supply container, there is a risk of forgetting to replace the toner collection container and overflowing the collected toner.To prevent this, there is a technique known in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 59-184373. It is a combination of.

In addition, conventionally, recovered toner has lower fluidity than replenishment toner (external additives, especially fluidizing agents, etc., are lost), so it is difficult to simply feed recovered toner into the toner recovery chamber through the recovery opening. There is a risk that the tank will overflow before it is full, and the amount collected will be insufficient. Therefore, Utility Model Application Publication No. 61-112364 and Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 56-57076 were developed. The former applies a certain amount of vibration to the toner collection chamber when the front door is opened and closed, and the latter applies vibration when the cartridge is attached or removed, thereby making it possible to collapse the toner.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, with the above conventional technology, vibrations are generated due to uncertain factors such as opening/closing the front door or attaching/detaching the cartridge, and the mountain collapse phenomenon is insufficient, making the collected amount unstable and ensuring that toner does not overflow. There were cases where it could not be prevented.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a new toner collection device that can stabilize the amount of collected toner and reliably prevent overflow of toner.

[Means for solving problems]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a toner recovery device equipped with a cartridge in which a collected toner storage chamber and a replenishment toner storage chamber are integrated, in which the collected toner storage chamber is made into a dual-layered structure, with the inner and outer chambers being intermittent. A vibrating device is provided to vibrate continuously.

〔Example〕

Next, the present invention will be described based on embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 10 denotes a process cartridge of a copying machine. Inside the process cartridge 10, there is an image forming member (hereinafter referred to as a photosensitive drum) 11 at the center, a charging device 12, a developing device 13, a cleaning device 14, etc. is located.

Note that the transfer device is not shown here because it is provided on the copying machine main body side corresponding to the lower surface of the photosensitive drum 11.

The developing device 13 includes a developing sleeve 15 and a main stirring member 1.
6 and an auxiliary stirring member 17, a part of the developer scraped up by the main stirring member 16 passes through the gap between the developing sleeve 15 and the doctor blade 18 and reaches the developing sleeve 1.
5 and is used to develop the electrostatic latent image on the surface of the photoreceptor drum 11, and some of the developer is sent rearward through the gap between the main stirring member 16 and the regulating piece 19. , as indicated by the arrow, the liquid circulates from an opening 21 provided in the partition plate 20 to the lower surface of the auxiliary stirring member 17 via the inclined plate 22.

A toner concentration sensor 23 that detects magnetic permeability is provided on the flow path surface of the developer flowing through the opening 21 as shown by arrow A, and the detected value drives the replenishment roller 25 provided in the toner replenishment chamber 24. It is possible to output a drive signal or a stop signal to the source. When the replenishment roller 25 rotates, the toner in the toner replenishment chamber 24 falls through a gap with the opening end member 26 of the opening groove.

27 is the toner storage chamber, 28 is the window 2 from the toner storage chamber 27
This is a ladder chain that feeds toner into the toner supply chamber 24 through 9.

30 is a toner cartridge; the toner cartridge 3
0 integrally includes a replenishment toner storage chamber 31 divided by a partition plate 33 and a recovered toner storage chamber 32, as shown in FIGS. 2 to 4.

The replenishment toner storage chamber 31 includes a cylindrical body 311,
One end (left end) is sealed with a cap member 313, and a supply opening 312 is provided along the axial direction in the peripheral side wall.
is provided. The supply opening 312 is connected to the cylindrical body 31.
After the toner is stored in the container 1, it is sealed with a flexible seal member 314 as shown in the fourth figure.

The recovered toner storage chamber 32 has a double structure including an outer chamber 32a and an inner chamber 32b. The outer chamber 32a is formed by combining a first cylindrical body 321 whose inner end surface (left end) is closed (points to the partition plate 33) and a second cylindrical body 322 having an outer end surface. A collection opening 3 is provided in the peripheral wall of the body 322 along the circumferential direction.
23 are provided. The collection opening 323 is opened and closed by a shutter 324 that is slidable in the axial direction. The recovery opening 323 is provided upside down with respect to the replenishment opening 312, that is, at a position opposite to the supply opening 312 by 180 degrees. As a result, when loading the toner cartridge 30 into the loading section 271 provided at the upper part of the toner storage chamber 27, the replenishment opening 312 is turned upward as shown in FIG. Frontage 3
12 is fully opened, the cap member 313 side is pushed in first, and then the cap member 313 side is pushed in and installed. Then, the outer end of the collected toner storage chamber 32 is grasped by hand and rotated 180 degrees to open the replenishment opening 312 to the third position. When facing straight down as shown in the figure, the toner in the replenishment toner storage chamber 31 falls due to gravity and is replenished into the toner storage chamber 27 as shown by the arrow. On the other hand, the collection opening 323 is oriented upward so that collected toner can be taken in.

The inner chamber 32b of the collected toner storage chamber 32 is for directly storing collected toner, and the collection opening 32 matches the collection opening 323 of the second cylindrical body 322 constituting the outer chamber 32a.
3'. A vibration imparting means 46 is provided to prevent the toner contained in the inner chamber 32b from the collection opening 323' from accumulating in a mountain shape. Details of the vibration applying means 46 will be described later.

A cleaning blade 34 is pressed against the photosensitive drum 11 and scrapes off toner remaining on the drum surface after transfer.The cleaning blade 34 is rotated counterclockwise around a shaft 35 by a compression spring 36. It is attached to the front edge side of the supported support frame 37.

Reference numeral 38 designates a receiving portion for the collected toner scraped off by the cleaning blade 34, reference numeral 39 designates a toner guide plate, and reference numeral 40 designates a toner conveyance screw disposed within the toner receiving portion. As shown in FIGS. 6 to 8, the toner conveyance screw 40 extends vertically from the outside of the process cartridge 10 through the toner conveying pipe 41 whose base end 41a is rotatably connected to the toner receiving portion 38 to the distal end 41b. I'm passing through. What makes the base end 41b of the toner conveying pipe 41 rotatable is a toner outlet 41c provided on the lower surface side of the tip end 41b.
This is so that the toner can be connected to or disconnected from the collection opening 323 of the collected toner container 32. That is, the toner scraped off from the photosensitive drum 11 is conveyed from the cleaning area through the toner conveying pipe 41 by the conveying screw 40 and stored in the collected toner storage chamber 32.

Reference numeral 42 denotes a lever for rotating the toner conveying vibrator 41 to a position out of the way when replacing the toner cartridge 30, and the lever 42 can be raised clockwise around the shaft 421. However, the lever 42
When it stands up as shown in Figure 7, the pin 42 planted on it
2 is a frame member 42 fixed to the outer periphery of the toner conveying vibrator 41;
3 and rotates the tip of the toner conveying vibrator 41 upward. The upright state of the lever 42 is maintained by the action of a coil spring 424 stretched between it and the frame member 423.

Reference numeral 43 denotes a shutter for opening and closing the toner outlet 41c provided on the lower surface of the tip end 41b of the toner conveying vibrator 41, and the shutter 43 is connected to the lever 42 via a ring member 44. Therefore, when the lever 42 is raised and the toner conveying vibrator 41 is rotated upward, the toner outlet 41c is closed in conjunction with this operation, while when the lever 42 is pushed down as shown in the seventh figure, the outlet 41c is opened. It has become.

As shown in the third figure, the vibration imparting means 46 has a compression spring 461 interposed between the inner chamber 32b and the partition plate 33 which is the inner end surface of the first cylindrical body 321, and also connects the inner chamber 32b to the second cylindrical body. It is configured to be pushed back by a push rod 462 through a small window 322' provided on the outer end surface of the shaped body 322. That is,
The push rod 462 is pivotally supported by a bearing 463 so as to be slidable in the horizontal direction, and is in sliding contact with a cam 465 by a spring 464. Therefore, when the cam 465 receives linked rotation from an appropriate driving source, the push rod 462 reciprocates in the horizontal direction, pushing and returning the inner chamber 32b from the small window 322' against the compression spring 461. By applying vibration, it is possible to flatten the inside of the inner chamber 32b without accumulating it in a mountain shape.

When the toner collected from the cleaning area is conveyed in the manner shown in FIG. 9, the vibration imparting means 46 is internally operated by a spatula member 466 provided at the tip of a screw 40 which is passed longitudinally within the toner conveying vibrator 41. A protrusion member 467 provided on the inner surface of the collection opening of the chamber 32b is struck. This prevents the collected toner from piling up in a mountain shape inside the inner chamber 32b, and flattens the collected toner.

In the above embodiment, after loading the toner cartridge 30 in the upper part of the toner storage chamber 27 of the developing section 13 as specified with the replenishment opening 312 fully open, when the replenishment opening 312 is directed directly downward, the toner cartridge 30 is inside the replenishment toner storage chamber 31. The toner is replenished by falling into the storage chamber 27 by gravity. The toner stored in the storage chamber 27 is gradually carried into the toner replenishment chamber 24 by a ladder chain 28, and is supplied into the developer in appropriate amounts by the operation of a replenishment roller 25 driven by a signal from the sensor 23. It happens.

On the other hand, after the image transfer, the toner remaining on the photoreceptor drum 11 is scraped off by the cleaning blade 34, passed along the temporary toner guide 39, collected in the toner receiver groove 38, and carried out by the toner carrying screw 40, and then transferred to the toner carrying pipe 41. A toner outlet 4 is provided at the bottom of the tip.
1c through the collection opening 323 to the collected toner storage chamber 32.
contained within. In this case, the collected toner is contained in the inner chamber 32b which is vibrated by the vibration imparting means 46, and is not piled up in a mountain shape as shown by the dotted lines in FIGS. 3 and 9.
It is flattened as shown by the dotted chain line, and the storage capacity is always stable.

Thus, when the inner chamber 32b of the collected toner storage chamber 32 becomes full, in order to replace it, the lever 4 is pressed.
2 and rotate the toner conveying pipe 41 upward around the base end, so that the toner outlet 41c is separated from the collection opening of the collected toner storage chamber 32 and pulled out. At this time, the toner outlet 41c of the toner conveying pipe 41 is closed by the shutter 43.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, the present invention provides a toner recovery device equipped with a cartridge in which a collected toner storage chamber and a replenishment toner storage chamber are integrated, in which the collected toner storage chamber has a dual structure, inside and outside, and vibration is applied to the inner chamber. Because it is characterized by the provision of a means, the collected toner does not pile up in the inner chamber, making it possible to stabilize the collected amount and reliably prevent toner from overflowing before the tank is full. It is something that plays.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The figures show one embodiment of the present invention, in which Fig. 1 is an enlarged sectional view of a Procel cartridge, Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a toner cartridge, Fig. 3 is a front sectional view of the same cartridge, and Fig. 4 shows a replenishment opening. FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the toner cartridge when it is facing upward; FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing the loaded state of the toner cartridge; FIG. 6 is a side view of the toner conveying pipe and the collected toner container connected; FIG. A side view of the transport pipe and the collected toner container when they are released, FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional plan view showing the relationship between the toner transport pipe and the collected toner container, and FIG. 9 shows the internal vibration imparting means of the collected toner storage chamber and other components. It is a sectional view showing an example. 14- Cleaning section 0 - Toner cartridge 1 - Replenishment toner storage chamber 2 - Recovered toner storage chamber 2a - Outer chamber 2b - Inner chamber 8 ... Toner receiver section (cleaning section) 1 - Toner transport piping ---Vibration imparting means patent Applicant Konica Co., Ltd. Figure 1c 1b

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a toner recovery device equipped with a cartridge in which a recovered toner storage chamber and a replenishment toner storage chamber are integrated, the recovered toner storage chamber has a dual structure, inside and outside, and is provided with a vibration imparting means that intermittently hits the inner chamber. A toner collection device featuring: