JPH02178682A - Toner carrying device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the rotating defect of a screw member and screw fracture by providing a blade member on the top of the screw member in a toner carrying pipe and forming the opening of a toner discharge port and the blade member so that the opening length of the toner discharge port is longer than the length of the blade member. CONSTITUTION:A first half of the toner carrying screw 40 is disposed almost linearly along a toner receiving groove 38, and a second half of the screw is arranged to reach the tip 41b of the toner carrying pipe 41 by vertically passing through the pipe. The blade member 40a for discharging toner is fitted to the top of the toner carrying screw 40 to be rotatable with the carrying screw 40, and the length L of the blade member 40a is determined to satisfy L>l, where l is the opening length of the toner discharge port 41c. Thus, the rotating defect of the screw member in the toner carrying pipe and screw fracture are prevented to obtain an efficient carrying force.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention [Field of Industrial Application] This invention converts an electrostatic latent image formed on an image forming body such as a photoreceptor drum by an electrophotographic recording method or an electrostatic recording method into a visible image using toner. The present invention relates to a device for conveying the toner that has been scraped off by a cleaning device from an image forming body after being transferred to recording paper.

[Conventional technology]

In image recording devices that use electrostatic latent images, such as electrophotographic copying machines and electrostatic recording devices, an electrostatic latent image is formed on a photoreceptor drum, and this electrostatic latent image is developed by a toner developing device. The toner image is transferred and fixed onto recording paper to obtain the desired recorded matter.

In this case, the photosensitive drum after the toner image transfer is
The residual charge on the surface of the photoreceptor drum is erased by the static elimination electrode, and the residual toner on the photoreceptor drum is further scraped off by the cleaning device in preparation for the next electrostatic latent image forming operation.

In the above-mentioned developing device, approximately 70% of the total amount of toner supplied from the toner supply container is consumed for visualization, and the remaining approximately 30% is stored on the photoreceptor drum by the cleaning device. will be removed from. The used toner removed from the photosensitive drum is collected in a toner collecting section within the copying machine, and is sent from the toner collecting section to a collected toner container through a conveying pipe.

The relationship between the toner conveying pipe and the collected toner container in a conventional toner transporting device is shown in FIGS. 11(a) to 11(d). The conveyance pipe P is installed so that the toner T collected in the collected toner container C through the conveyance pipe P is piled up in a mountain shape. FIG. 11(b) shows a state in which the conveying pipe P is installed on the left side surface of the collected toner container C, and the collected toner T is deposited diagonally.

11(C) and (d), the conveyance pipe P is connected to an opening C' provided above one end of the collected toner container C, and the toner T sent through the conveyance pipe P is transferred to the collected toner container C.
This represents the state in which the particles are deposited in a unilateral mountain-shaped shape.

The cause of the mountain-shaped or oblique deposition phenomenon as described above is a problem with the conveying vibrator P itself. That is, a conventional general conveyance pipe P has a screw member S extending vertically through the inner cavity of the pipe member, and the toner is force-fed by the driving force generated by the rotation of the screw member S, and the toner is collected by this feeding force. Although the toner is packed into the toner container C, the toner gradually adheres to the inner wall of the conveying pipe near the toner outlet, reducing the conveying force and causing blocking, which may lead to damage to the screw.

For this reason, in any of the above cases, the amount of toner stored is unstable, causing a phenomenon in which toner overflows from the opening of the collected toner container C before the collected toner container C is full.

Therefore, in order to eliminate the above phenomenon, conventionally, a photoelectric detection means is used to monitor the vicinity of the entrance of the collected toner container, and when the toner is piled up in a mountain shape or diagonally, an appropriate vibration is applied to the collected toner container. There was no other choice but to configure it so that the toner could be leveled evenly.

Therefore, the present applicant has provided a screw member in a toner conveying pipe that connects a toner discharge port to a collection opening of a collected toner container, and has provided a blade member at the tip of the screw member to discharge the toner from the toner discharge port. By devising a toner conveying device, it is possible to improve the feeding force of a screw member in a conveying pipe and the force of packing toner into a collected toner container.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

In the technique devised by the applicant, if the blade member at the tip of the screw member provided in the toner transport pipe is smaller than the toner discharge port provided in the pipe, the blade member may get caught in the discharge port during rotation. There was a risk that this could cause problems such as rotation failure or screw breakage.

This invention is intended to solve the above-mentioned problems, and it prevents the screw member in the toner conveying pipe from rotating poorly or breaking, provides efficient conveying force, and packs the toner into the collected toner container. l・ with improved power
The purpose of the present invention is to provide a toner conveying device.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a screw member in a toner conveying pipe in which a toner discharge port is connected to a collection opening of a collected toner container, and a screw member is provided at the tip of the screw member to discharge the toner from the toner discharge port. In the toner conveying device provided with a blade member, the length of the blade member is formed to be larger than the opening length of the toner discharge port, so that the blade member does not get caught in the discharge port when the screw member rotates. be.

〔Example〕

The present invention will be described below based on an embodiment shown in the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an example of a structure around a photosensitive drum of a copying machine to which the present invention is applied.
Reference numeral 0 designates a process cartridge, and the process cartridge IO includes a photosensitive drum 11, which is known per se, and a charging device 12, a developing device 13, and a cleaning device 14 arranged around the photosensitive drum 11. 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 photoreceptor drum 11.

The developing device 13 is equipped with a developing sleeve 15, a main stirring member 16, and an auxiliary stirring member 17, and a portion of the developer scraped up by the main stirring member 16 is transferred to a doctor 18.
It is used to develop the electrostatic latent image formed on the surface of the photoreceptor drum 11, and is sent rearward through the gap with the regulating piece 19. The other part of the developer is stored in the opening 2 provided in the partition plate 20.
1 to the auxiliary stirring member 17 via the inclined plate 22 as shown by arrow A.
It is designed to circulate to

A toner concentration sensor 23 for detecting magnetic permeability is provided on the flow path surface of the developer flowing through the opening 21 as shown by arrow A, and a control signal corresponding to the detected value is sent to the drive source of the replenishment roller 25 (not shown). ). That is, when a drive signal or a stop signal from this sensor 23 is output to the drive source of the replenishment roller 25 provided in the toner replenishment chamber 24, the replenishment roller 25 rotates and the toner in the toner replenishment chamber 24 is removed. The toner particles pass between the opening end member 26 of the opening groove and fall into the developing section 13, and the toner density is adjusted to a predetermined density.

27 is a toner storage chamber, and 28 is a ladder chain provided in the toner storage chamber 27, which connects the toner storage chamber 27 to the window 2.
Toner is fed into the toner supply chamber 24 through the toner supply chamber 24. To replenish the toner storage chamber 27 with new toner, a toner cartridge 30 having a structure as shown in FIGS. 2 to 4 is used. The toner cartridge 30 is configured as a cylindrical container, for example, and is partitioned by an internal partition plate 33 into a replenishment toner container 31 and a cylindrical recovery toner container 32, as shown in FIG. The toner storage chamber 27 of the process cartridge 10 is loaded into a loading section 271 with the side 31 at the top.

The replenishment toner container 31 has a cylindrical body 3.
11 is sealed by a cap member 313,
Moreover, a replenishment opening 312 having an elongated shape is formed in one side wall along the axial direction. In addition, this supply opening 3
12 is configured to be sealed with a flexible seal member 314 as shown in FIG. 4 after storing toner for replenishment into the cylindrical body 311.

On the other hand, the collected toner container 32 is formed so that its interior has two continuous spaces, the one closer to the partition plate 33 mentioned above is connected to the first cylindrical body 321, and the part closer to the outside (right side in the figure) is connected to the first cylindrical body 321. It is a two-cylindrical body 322. A collection opening 323 is provided in the peripheral wall of the second cylindrical body 322 in an arc shape along the circumferential direction, and a shutter 324 that is closed when not in use is slid in the axial direction in the collection opening 323. possible. This recovery opening 323 is provided upside down (180" opposite) with respect to the installation position of the replenishment opening 312, but this is because the toner cartridge 30 is loaded into the loading section 271, and In other words, when loading the toner cartridge 30, the flexible seal member 314 is peeled off in advance, but if the replenishment opening 312 is turned upward, the toner in the replenishment toner container 31 can be removed from the replenishment opening. 312 (see Figure 5), after loading the toner cartridge 30, rotate it 180 degrees and open it in the replenishment opening 31.
If you point 2 straight down, the toner will fall into storage part 2 due to the action of gravity.
At the same time, the collection opening 323 on the side of the collected toner container 32 becomes in an upward position, and is ready to receive the collected toner (see FIG. 3).

The cleaning device 14 is provided with a cleaning blade 34 that is pressed against the photoreceptor drum 11 and scrapes off the toner remaining on the surface of the photoreceptor drum 11 after the toner image is transferred. This cleaning blade 34 is attached to the front edge side of a support frame 37 to which a counterclockwise rotational force is applied by the biasing force of a compression spring 36 about a suitable shaft 35.

Reference numeral 38 indicates a groove for receiving the collected toner scraped off by the cleaning blade 34, reference numeral 39 indicates a toner guide plate provided between the groove 38 and the surface of the photosensitive drum 11, and reference numeral 40 indicates a toner receiver disposed within the groove 38. This is the toner ejection screw.

As shown in FIGS. 6 to 8, this toner delivery screw 40 is made, for example, as a long coil-shaped member, and the toner receiving screw 40 is arranged in a substantially straight line along the inside of the groove 38 in the lower half thereof. The other part enters the toner conveying pipe 41 through the protruding wall part 10a of the cleaning part 14 of the process cartridge 10, and after changing its direction approximately at right angles near this protruding wall part 10a, the toner It is provided so as to extend vertically through the transport pipe 41 and reach its tip 41b.

At the tip of the toner delivery screw 40, an eighth
As clearly shown in the figure, a toner discharging blade member 40a having a shape similar to that of a table tennis racket is attached to be rotatable integrally with the discharging screw 40.

The structure and shape of the blade member 40a itself and the relationship between the blade member 40a and the toner discharge screw 40 or the toner conveyance pipe 41 will be described later.

On the other hand, the base end 41a of the toner conveying pipe 41 is rotatably connected to the toner receiver 38 at the above-mentioned protruding wall 10a, and the toner receiver is approximately connected to the axis of the groove 38 in the vicinity of the base end 41a. After turning at a right angle, the toner receiver passes through the outer space of the process cartridge 10 and is installed so as to communicate between the toner cartridge 38 and the toner cartridge 30 loaded in the loading portion 271 of the toner storage chamber 27 .

Therefore, as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the tip end 41b of the toner conveying pipe 41 swings (upwards and down) relative to the toner cartridge 30 about the base end 41a, and the tip end 41b of the pipe 41 The toner discharge port 41c provided on the lower side can be connected to or removed from the collection opening 323 of the collected toner container 32.

The aforementioned toner discharge blade member 40a is installed so as to satisfy the following conditions.

That is, as shown in FIGS. 9(a) to 9(C), the radius of the toner conveying screw 40 is
The inner diameter of the blade member 40a is D (ma+), and the radius of rotation of the blade member 40a (from its rotation center O to the blade end on the longer diameter side) is R (0111).
Then, it is determined so that r≦R<D/2. As a result, the toner discharge port 41c
It is possible to efficiently scrape off toner adhering to the inner wall of the toner conveying pipe 41 in the vicinity, thereby preventing toner adhesion/accumulation and blocking at the toner discharge port 41c, and also prevents damage to the toner discharging screw 40, etc. It becomes possible to prevent this. That is, the residual toner scraped off from the surface of the photoreceptor drum 11 by the cleaning blade 34 is moved from the groove 38 in the toner conveying pipe 41 by the action of the conveying screw 40 to the toner outlet 41c. Then, by the action of the blades 40a formed under specific conditions, the used toner is efficiently scraped off and falls into the collected toner container 32 of the toner cartridge 30. If the relationship between the radius r of the toner discharge screw 40 and the rotation radius R of the blade 40a deviates from the above-mentioned condition, that is, if the relationship between the two is r>R as shown in FIG. 10(a), As shown in FIG. 10(b), the toner outlet 41
Phenomena such as toner T adhesion and toner clogging (dot pattern area) occur near the opening of c, and the toner ejection screw 40
If there is too much clearance between the blade member 40a and the inner wall of the toner conveying pipe 41, the screw 40 may become loose inside the toner conveying pipe 41.
This may cause damage or interference with the toner discharge port 41c.

Furthermore, even if the shape of the blade member 40a is formed symmetrically with respect to the axis of the toner discharging screw 40 as shown in FIG. The blade member 40a may be formed only on one side of the shaft of the screw 40, or may be formed in combination with the tip of the toner discharging screw 40 as shown in FIG. ) is L>f with respect to the opening length l (ms) of the toner discharge port 41c.
fi. If this is reversed (L<ff1), the blade member 40a may get caught in the discharge port 41c during rotation, causing trouble such as rotation failure or screw breakage. There is no such catch, and the force of stuffing the toner into the collected toner container 32 is improved.

6 and 7, reference numeral 42 denotes an operating lever, and when replacing the toner cartridge 30, the lever 42 moves the toner conveying pipe 41 to its use position (position when connected).
This is a member that is raised and raised between the position and the retracted position (position at the time of disconnection). The operating lever 42 is rotatably supported by a shaft 421 implanted in the frame fixed portion of the process cartridge 10, and when the operating lever 42 is raised to the use position (connection position) shown in FIG. , a pin 422 installed in the central part of the lever 42 wraps around the lower surface side of a frame member 423 fixed to the outer periphery of the toner transport pipe 41, and rotates the tip 41b of the toner transport pipe 41 in a counterclockwise direction (upward direction). ). The upright state of the operating lever 42 is maintained by the biasing action of a coil spring 424 stretched between the lever 42 and the frame member 423.

On the other hand, a ring-shaped shutter 43 is slidably provided on the outer periphery of the toner conveying pipe 41 near the tip 41b. This is the tip 41b of the toner conveying pipe 41.
This is for opening and closing the toner discharge port 41c provided on the lower surface of the toner outlet 41c in conjunction with the upward and downward movements of the operating lever 42.

Therefore, the shutter 43 is configured to interlock with the operating lever 42 via a link member 44 rotatably supported by a pin 425 set in the central portion of the operating lever 42.

Therefore, when the operating lever 42 is raised and the toner conveying pipe 41 is rotated upward, the toner discharge port 41c of the toner conveying pipe 41 is closed, and conversely, this lever 42 is
When rotated in the direction shown in the figure, the toner outlet 4
1c will be released. In addition, each of these members 4
0 to 44 constitute the toner conveying pipe means of this embodiment.

In the above embodiment, the flexible seal member 314
Load the toner cartridge 30 with the replenishment opening 312 fully open by peeling it off into the loading section 271 at the top of the toner storage chamber 27 with the replenishment opening 312 facing upward, and rotate the toner cartridge 30 approximately 180 degrees to open the replenishment opening. 31
2 facing straight down, the toner in the replenishment toner storage section 31 falls into the storage chamber 27 due to the action of gravity, and new toner is replenished.

Note that when the toner cartridge 30 is rotated approximately 180 degrees, the collection opening 323 on the side of the collected toner container 32 is in an upward position, and is ready to receive the collected toner during collection.

Further, after the loading of the toner cartridge 30 is completed, a shutter 32 that covers the collection opening 323 of the collection toner container 32 is opened.
4 is in the open state, and the toner conveying pipes 40 to 44 including the toner conveying pipe 41 are set in the use position shown in FIG.

However, the new toner that has fallen into the storage chamber 27 is
The replenishment roller 2 is gradually carried into the toner replenishment chamber 24 by a ladder chain 28 and driven by a signal from the sensor 23.
By the operation of step 5, an appropriate amount is supplied into the developer.

On the other hand, the toner remaining on the surface of the photoreceptor drum 11 after the toner image is transferred is scraped off by the cleaning blade 34, and the toner receiver passes through the toner guide jf1.39 into the groove 3.
They will be gathered within 8.

The used toner collected in the groove 38 of the toner receiver is transported through the toner transport pipe 41 in the use position by the rotational movement of the toner transport screw 40, and is delivered to the toner discharge port 41c on the lower surface of the tip of the toner transport pipe 41. The toner is guided from there to the collection opening 323 of the toner cartridge 30, and from there it falls into the collected toner container 32 and is accommodated therein.

When the collected toner container 32 is full, the operating lever 42 is raised to replace the toner cartridge 30 with a new one.

That is, when the operating lever 42 is raised, the toner conveying pipe 41 rotates upward about its base end 41a, and the distal end 41b of the toner conveying pipe 41 separates from the collection opening of the collected toner container 32. Become.

In this case, since the shutter 43 slides in conjunction with the rising operation of the operating lever 42 and closes the toner discharge port 41c,
Even if there is toner in the toner conveying pipe 41, the toner can be prevented from overflowing from the toner discharge port 41c.

Although the illustrated embodiments have been described above, it should be noted that the present invention is not limited thereto and can be modified in various ways without changing the gist thereof.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, the present invention provides a screw member in a toner conveying pipe in which a toner discharge port is connected to a collection opening of a collected toner container, and a blade is provided at the tip of the screw member for discharging toner from the toner discharge port. In the toner conveying device including the toner member, the length of the blade member is formed to be larger than the opening length of the toner discharge port, so that the blade member does not get caught in the discharge port when the screw member rotates, and the toner is removed. It has the excellent effect of effectively preventing rotational failure and screw breakage of the screw member in the conveyance pipe, obtaining efficient toner conveyance force, and improving the force of packing toner into the collected toner container. It is.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an example of the structure around the photosensitive drum of a copying machine to which the present invention is applied, FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an example of the structure of a toner cartridge, and FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the toner cartridge with the replenishment opening facing upward; FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the toner cartridge loaded; FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the toner cartridge with the toner conveying pipe in the use position A side view of the set state when the toner conveying pipe and the collected toner container are connected, and Figure 7 shows the toner conveying pipe moving to the retracted position and the connection between the toner conveying pipe and the collected toner container being released. FIG. 8 is a schematic plan view of a toner conveying pipe communicating with a toner collection section of a cleaning device installed around the photosensitive drum;
9(a) to (C) are explanatory diagrams showing aspects of the vane member for toner discharge; FIGS. Figures (a) to (d)
) is an explanatory diagram of a conventional example. 10...Process cartridge 30--Toner cartridge 31--Replenishment toner container 32--Collected toner container 312--Replenishment opening 323--Shutter 38--Toner receiver groove 40-)Toner carrying out screw 40a - - Vane member 41 - - Toner conveying pipe 41 a - - Base end 41 b - - Tip 41 cm - Toner discharge port Fig. 10 (b) Fig. 9 (b) (C) No.! 1 Figure (C)

Claims (1)

[Claims] A toner conveying device comprising: a screw member provided in a toner conveying pipe that communicates a toner discharge port with a collection opening of a collected toner container; and a blade member provided at the tip of the screw member for discharging toner from the toner discharge port. The toner conveying device according to the invention, wherein the length of the blade member is larger than the opening length of the toner discharge port.