JPH02199466A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus used in copying machines and printers based on electrophotography.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventional examples of image forming apparatuses for copying machines and printers based on electrophotography are shown in FIGS. 6 to 9.

First, what is shown in FIG. 6 is a housing 10 that faces a transfer section (not shown) with a paper conveyance path (not shown) in between.
0, an image carrier 101, a developing device 1o2, a charger 103, and a cleaning blade 104 are provided, the outer periphery of the image carrier 101 is charged by the charger 103, and this charged portion is exposed to light to form an electrostatic latent image. Then, this electrostatic latent image is transferred to a developing device 10.
2, and after transfer, the waste toner scraped off from the image carrier 101 by a cleaning blade is transferred to the housing 1.
The waste toner is stored in a waste toner reservoir 105 formed inside the waste toner.

FIG. 7 shows an image carrier unit 107 having an image carrier 101 and a cleaning section 106, and a developing device 10.
2 to the main body independently, and the optical part 108 scans the beam light onto the image carrier 101 to form an electrostatic latent image on the charged portion of the image carrier 101, and averages the charges on the image carrier 101. The static eliminator 109 and charger 103 are fixed.

The one shown in FIG. 8 includes a basket 111 that rotates around a fulcrum 110 above the paper conveyance path, and an image carrier unit 112 that includes a cleaning section 106, a charger 103, and an image carrier 101. , developing device 102 are housed in a basket 111, and these image carrier units 1
12 and the developing device 102 are positioned and fixed by a support provided on the main body side, and a handle 113 is formed on the basket 111.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention In the image carrier 101, the developing device 102, the charging device 103, and the cleaning blade 104 that form one unit with the housing 100,
This unit is handled as a unit. Therefore, when the life of any one component expires, the entire unit must be replaced, which is uneconomical.

Furthermore, the one shown in FIG. 7 includes an image carrier unit 107,
Although the developing device 102, the charger 103, the static eliminator 109, etc. can be replaced individually depending on their service life, the paper conveyance path cannot be opened unless the above-mentioned parts are removed individually when handling jams or performing maintenance. Therefore, workability is extremely poor.

Furthermore, the one shown in Fig. 8 is
Grasp the handle 113 and move the basket 11 around the fulcrum 110.
1 to open the paper conveyance path, but when the basket 111 is stored in the main body, the image carrier unit 112 and the developing device 102 may be caught by a part of the basket 111 or a supporting part on the main body side. The mounting position may become unstable, and the particularly important relative position between the image carrier 101 and the transfer section may become incorrect.

Means for Solving the Problems A basket with an opening at the top for accommodating an image forming section including an image carrier unit and a developing unit is removably attached to a main body holding a transfer section, and the image forming section is mounted on the main body. A supporting portion for supporting the image forming portion and a locking means for resiliently engaging the image forming portion are provided, and handles are provided on each of at least both sides of the basket and both sides of the image carrier unit to the extent that the handles can be gripped with one hand. The image carrier unit is provided with a downward finger hook and an upward pressing portion on the handle of the image carrier unit.

Operation When clearing a jam or performing maintenance, the basket can be easily removed from the main body together with the image forming section by grasping the handle of the basket and pulling it up.When assembling, the image carrier unit is attached to the main body together with the basket. At this time, by pressing the pressing part formed on the handle of the image carrier unit, the image carrier unit is securely locked to the locking means of the frame, and the relative distance of the image carrier to the transfer part is accurately adjusted. Moreover, since the pressing part of the handle of the image carrier can be pressed with the fingers of the hand holding the handle of the basket, the image carrier unit can be easily attached to the main body without changing the handle. be able to.

Embodiment An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5. Figure 2 is a longitudinal side view showing the overall structure.
1 is a lower main body constituting a part of the main body of an electrophotographic printer, and this lower main body 1 is formed by combining a base cover 2 and an upper cover 3, and a top cover 4 as an upper main body is mounted on the upper part of this lower main body 1. One end is attached so that it can move up and down. The base cover 2 includes a power supply 5 and a circuit board 6.
is installed. The upper cover 3 is provided with a paper transport path 8 for transporting the paper in the paper feed cassette 7, and at the end of this paper transport path 8, the paper is transported to a paper ejection tray 9 formed on the top surface of the top cover 4. Paper ejection path 1 that ejects paper toward
o is connected, and this connection part is provided with a switching part 11 that switches the paper ejection route to the side surface of the lower main body 1, which is on the extension surface of the paper ejection path 10 or the paper transport path 8. Further, the paper conveyance path 8 includes a paper feed roller 12 that contacts the uppermost sheet of the paper feed cassette 7, a start sensor 13 that optically detects the conveyed paper, and a detection sensor 13 that detects the paper that is being conveyed. A registration roller 14 whose rotational movement is controlled by a signal, a transfer section 15 that transfers a developed image on an image carrier 24 to a sheet of paper, which will be described later, a peeling section 16 that separates the paper from the image carrier 24, and a high-voltage power source 17. and the transfer section 15
Fixing units 18 that clamp the paper that has passed through and fix the transferred image on the paper are sequentially arranged from upstream to downstream.

Further, a basket 19 with vertical openings located above the paper transport path 8 is attached to the upper cover 3, and an image forming unit 2 is detachably housed in the basket 19.
0 consists of an image carrier unit 21 and a developing unit 22. The image carrier unit 21 includes an image carrier 24 rotatably mounted on both sides of a support 23, a charging section 25 that charges the image carrier 24, and a charging section 25 that charges the image carrier 24 and exposes the image carrier 24 to light on its outer periphery. A static eliminator 26 that makes the charge uniform and a waste toner container 2
7 is attached to the support body 23, and a blade 2 is attached to the waste toner container 27 to scrape off the waste toner adhering to the image carrier 24.
8 and a roller 29 that conveys the scraped off waste toner toward the back of the waste toner container 27. The developing unit 22 includes a developing roller 31 and a stirring blade 32 that stirs the toner in a toner container 30 containing toner.
(See Figure 5). Furthermore, an optical section 33 is attached to the inner surface of the top cover 4 to scan the photosensitive surface of the image carrier 24 with a beam of light.

Next, the mounting structure of the basket 19 and the image forming section 20 is shown in FIGS. 1, 3, and 4. FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional side view showing the support structure for the basket 19 and the image forming section 20, FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view showing the relationship between the lower main body 1 and the basket 19, and FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view showing the support structure for the image forming section 20. FIG. 3 is a plan view of the basket 19. As shown in these figures, a pair of handles 34 located above both ends of the image carrier 24 are integrally formed at both ends of the basket 19. A guide groove 36 for vertically movably guiding a bearing 35 protruding from the outside and supporting the image carrier 24, and a guide groove 38 for vertically movably guiding a support shaft 37 protruding from both sides of the toner container 30. It is formed. Further, the transfer portion 15 and the peeling portion 16 are positioned on a frame 39 fixed to the upper cover 3 and fixed by screws, and the bearing 35 and the support shaft 37 are positioned on this frame 39. A support portion 40.41 is formed to support the image carrier unit 21, and a stopper 42 is provided upright to abut the lower end of the support body 23 of the image carrier unit 21. These support portions 40, 41 have a concave shape with an opening at the top and a shape that widens toward the top. Furthermore, the frame 39 is provided with a locking means 4 that elastically engages with the image carrier unit 21.
3 is provided. This locking means 43 includes a lever 45 that rotates around a support shaft 44 and a lever 47 that rotates around a support shaft 46 . The upper portions of these levers 45, 47 are urged in opposite directions by the urging force of a spring 48. A downward slope 49 for pressing the bearing 35 against the bottom of the support portion 40 of the frame 39 is formed on the upper part of one lever 45, and a slope 50 whose slope direction is changed upward from this slope 49. The lever 47 includes a downward slope 52 that presses the bottle 51 protruding from the outer surface of the support 23 of the image carrier unit 21, and
A slope 53 whose slope direction is changed upward from 2 is formed. Furthermore, a handle 54 is integrally formed on the housing of the static eliminator 26, which is a component of the image carrier unit 21, and a handle 56 is integrally formed on the outside of the surface of the toner container 30. . These handles 54゜5
The distance between 6 and the handle 34 of the basket 19 is so close that when the handle 34 of the basket 19 is grasped, the fingers of the same hand can be hung thereon. These handles 54 and 56 also have upward pressing parts 55 and 57, and downward finger hooks 55 and 55 for hanging fingers.
a, 57 a are formed. Further, a motor 58 for driving the developing roller 31 and the stirring blade 32 is fixed to the developing unit 22, and a power input terminal 59 connected to the motor 58 is provided to protrude downward, A knife-shaped connector 60 that resiliently holds these power saw terminals 59 is fixed to the inner surface of the frame 39. This connector 60 is connected to a power source. Further, on the lower surface of the housing of the optical section 33, as shown in FIG. 1, a proximal section 61 is formed which faces the upper edge of the support body 23 of the image carrier unit 21 with a predetermined gap therebetween. .

In such a configuration, when performing jam removal or maintenance, the top cover 4 is rotated upward to open the upper surface of the upper cover 3, and in this state, the basket 19 is attached to the image carrier unit 21 by grasping the handle 34. When it is pulled up together with the developing unit 22, the paper conveyance path 8 is opened. When pulling up the image carrier unit 21 and the developing unit 22 from the basket 19, the finger hooks of the handles 54 and 56 are hooked onto the portions 55a and 57a and pulled up.

When disassembling a jam or assembling after maintenance, insert the bearing 35 of the image carrier unit 21 into the guide groove 36 of the basket 19 taken out from the upper cover 3, and insert the support shaft 37 of the developing unit 22 into the guide groove 38. The handles 34 on both sides of the basket 19 are grasped, and the basket 19 is housed in the upper cover 3 while the bearing 35 and the support shaft 37 are fitted into the support portions 40, 41 of the frame 39. At this time, the bearing 35, whose movement in directions other than the vertical direction is regulated by the guide groove 36,
The bottle 51 is supported by the upward slope 53 of the lever 47, but the pressing portion 55 of the handle 54 can be pressed with a finger that is idle while gripping the handle 34 of the basket 19.

By this operation, the lever 45 is rotated counterclockwise against the force of the spring 48 by the force generated by the contact between the bearing 35 and the slope 50, allowing the bearing 35 to move downward. Similarly, the bottle 51 is also supported by the slope 53 of the lever 47, and by pushing down the pressing part 55 of the handle 54, the lever 47 resists the saw of the spring 48 by the force generated by the contact between the bottle 51 and the slope 53. to allow the bottle 51 to move downward. Then, the lever 45, which has returned to its original state due to the restoring force of the spring 48, presses the bearing 35 against the bottom of the support part 40 with its downward slope 49, and similarly, the lever 47 presses the bottle 51 downward with its downward slope 52, supporting it. The lower edges on both sides of the body 23 are connected to the stoppers 42.
press against.

The developing unit 22 is supported by its own weight with the support shaft 37 positioned on the support portion 41. By positioning the support shaft 37 above the development roller 31 and closer to the image carrier 24 than the center of gravity of the development unit 22, , developing unit 22
The developing roller 31 rotates clockwise around the support shaft 37.
Flanges provided at both ends of the image carrier 24 abut against the outer periphery of the end portion of the image carrier 24 .

As a result, the developing unit 22 is attached to the frame 39 in a stable state with a constant gap between the image carrier 24 and the developing roller 31.

As described above, the image carrier unit 21 and the developing unit 2
2 is stably attached to a frame 39 that positions and fixes the transfer section 15 and the peeling section 16, so the relative position of the image carrier 24 with respect to the transfer section 15 and the peeling section 16 can be determined accurately.

As mentioned above, the basket 19 is pulled up during jam removal and maintenance, but during this process, the bearing 35
presses the downward slope 49 of the lever 45, and the force generated by their contact causes the lever 45 to rotate counterclockwise against the force of the spring 48, allowing the bearing 35 to move upward. Similarly, the bottle 51 presses the downward slope 52 of the lever 47, and the lever 47 rotates clockwise against the force of the spring 48 due to the force generated by the contact between the two, and the bottle 51 moves upward. movement is allowed.

Effects of the Invention Since the present invention is configured as described above, when handling a jam or performing maintenance, the basket can be removed from the main body together with the image forming section by grasping the handle of the basket and pulling it up, or the image carrier unit can be removed from the main body by grasping the handle of the basket and pulling it up. When assembling, the image carrier unit is attached to the frame together with the basket or alone. At this time, an external force is applied from above to the pressing part formed on the handle of the image carrier unit. By providing this, it is possible to reliably lock the image carrier unit to the locking means of the frame, accurately determine the relative distance of the image carrier to the transfer section, and furthermore, Since the pressing portion of the handle of the image carrier can be pressed with a finger, the image carrier unit can be easily attached to the main body without changing the handle.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 to 5 show an embodiment of the present invention,
FIG. 1 is a longitudinal side view showing the support structure for the basket and image forming section, FIG. 2 is a longitudinal side view showing the overall structure, FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view showing the relationship between the lower body and the basket, and FIG. 4 5 is a plan view of a basket in which an image forming section is housed, FIG. 5 is a longitudinal sectional side view of a developing unit, and FIGS. 6 to 8 are side views showing a conventional example.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A basket with an opening at the top for accommodating an image forming section including an image carrier unit and a developing unit is removably attached to a main body holding a transfer section, and a support section supporting the image forming section and the image forming section are attached to the main body. a locking means that elastically engages with the image carrier unit, and handles are provided at least on both sides of the basket and on both sides of the image carrier unit so that the handles are close enough to be grasped with one hand; An image forming apparatus characterized in that the handle of the carrier unit is provided with a downward finger hook portion and an upward pressing portion.