JPH02250076A - Toner recovery device for image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a toner recovery device which has almost no danger of toner scattering through a simple constitution by giving an initial load to an elastic supporting means supporting a recovery box. CONSTITUTION:The toner recovery device is provided with a locking body 16 which presses a placing stand in the gravity direction and is erectly fixed on a substrate 14. The resilience of a repulsive spring 13 is restrained in such a way that catching piece 16a formed on the upper edge part of the locking body 16 is locked at the placing stand 12 or the recovery box 11. Toner scraped off by a cleaning device 8 is recovered by a recovery pipe 10 to be fed into the recovery box 11. The recovery box 11 increases its weight by the cumulative increase in the recovered toner. When the amount of the recovered toner exceeds 90% of full capacity, the placing stand 12 separates from the catching piece 16a and begins to descend, and the recovery box 11 is guided by a guide 17 to descend. When it comes to full capacity, a light-shielding projecting piece 12a shields the light of a photosensor 15 and turns it off. Consequently, full capacity, that is, limit detection information is issued, then, an alarm lamp is turned on and in addition, the operation of the whole device stops. Finally discarding the toner in the recovery box 11 is accelerated.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a toner collection device for an image recording apparatus, and more particularly to a toner collection device that can effectively prevent toner scattering.

[Conventional technology]

2. Description of the Related Art Electrostatographic copying machines and the like are equipped with a collection device that collects toner scraped off when cleaning a photosensitive drum. The recovery device, as shown in FIG. 4(a),
A toner collection vibrator 1 having a rotating spiral body therein for transporting toner scraped off by a photosensitive drum cleaning device, a toner collection box 2 disposed at the end of the collection vibrator 1, and a mount for mounting and supporting the collection box 2. Equipped with 3 pedestals. The mounting table 3 is attached to the substrate 14 by a resilient spring 4.
The toner particles are supported by the toner particles, and settle according to the total amount of toner recovered in the recovery box 2.

In this collection device, the protrusion piece 3a provided on the mounting table 3 is detected by the photosensor 5 provided on the substrate 14 (FIG. 4(b)), so that the projection piece 3a provided on the mounting table 3 is detected by the photosensor 5 (Fig. 4(b)). Output limit detection information indicating that the collected toner amount is full.

Then, based on this information, the device lights up a warning light of the device or, following the lighting, stops the operation of the entire device machine and prompts the operator to discard the collected toner.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

With the above toner collection device, the limit of toner collection (full)
In order to perform detection with as high precision as possible, it is necessary to use a spring 4 with a coefficient as small as possible, that is, a spring with a large expansion/contraction width.

Therefore, the height of the collection box 2 varies greatly depending on the amount of toner collected.

By the way, the distal end of the collection pipe 1 is inserted into the insertion port formed in the collection box 2, but the position of the collection pipe 1 with respect to the insertion port is greatly displaced due to the above displacement, so the vertical length of the insertion port is It is necessary to set the length to be relatively long according to the amount of vertical displacement of the collection box 2.

For this reason, the portion of the insertion port other than the portion where the collection pipe 1 is present, that is, the opening portion becomes wider, and there is a risk that toner may scatter from there.

Therefore, various countermeasures have been taken to prevent such toner scattering, but the present invention does not solve the above problem, as it requires a special mechanism, which inevitably increases the number of parts and complicates the device. This was done in consideration of the following points,
The purpose is to provide a toner collection device that has a simple configuration and has almost no risk of toner scattering.

[Means to solve the problem]

To this end, the present invention provides image recording in which a toner collection box that receives and collects toner from a toner collection path is supported by an elastic support means, and the limit of the amount of collected toner is detected based on the amount of sedimentation of the toner collection box. In the toner recovery device of the apparatus, an initial load was applied to the elastic support means.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, a toner collection device according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 is a mock diagram showing the entire color image copying apparatus equipped with the toner collection device, where A is an image reading device, B is a laser writing system unit, C is an image forming section, and D is a paper feeding section. .

The image reading bag fiA optically reads the image of the document, performs image processing such as color correction, and inputs it as image information to the laser writing system unit I-B. The beam scans the surface of the photosensitive drum 6 disposed in the image forming section C. In the image forming section C, a latent image is formed on the surface of the photosensitive drum 6 by the above-described scanning, and this latent image is developed in a single color using, for example, yellow (Y) toner.

The above operations such as image reading and latent image formation are performed for each color signal. That is, following the operation for yellow, development with magenta (M), cyan (C), and black (BL) toner is performed sequentially every time the photosensitive drum 6 rotates, and a full-color toner image is formed on the photosensitive drum. be done. Thereafter, this full-color toner image is transferred to a sheet of paper fed from the paper feeding section, and the toner image on the transfer sheet is fixed by a fixing device 7.

8 is a cleaning device disposed in the image forming section C, and a blade 8A scrapes off toner remaining on the surface of the photosensitive drum 6.
is in place.

IO is a recovery pipe connected to the preening device 8 as a toner recovery path, and is equipped with a flexible rotating spiral body (not shown) for forcibly recovering toner.

11 is a collection box disposed at the end (toner discharge part) of the collection pipe 10; 12 is a mounting table on which the collection box 11 is mounted; It is supported by 14 and can float up and down. Reference numeral 15 denotes a photosensor fixed to the substrate 14 side, which is turned off by a light-shielding protrusion 12a formed on the mounting table 12 to detect the limit of the amount of collected toner.

Now, in this embodiment, in addition to such a configuration, the mounting table 1
A locking body (initial load body) 16 is provided to press 2 in the direction of gravity. The locking body 16 is fixed to the substrate 14 in an upright manner, and by locking a hook piece 16a formed at the upper end to the mounting table 12 or the collection box 11 (in this example, the mounting table 12), the elastic spring 13 is fixed. suppresses the elasticity of

The suppressing force in this case, that is, the initial load, is set to correspond to the load (sedimentation amount) when the amount of collected toner in the collection box 11 is 90% full, for example. Therefore,
The collection box 11 is held in that position even when it is empty, with no toner collected, or when 90% of the toner has been collected. Then, when it starts to exceed 90%, the mounting table 12 separates from the hooking piece 16a and starts to sink. Note that this initial load can be adjusted by changing the height h of the locking body 16. That is, if the height h of the locking body 16 is increased,
The amount of load can be reduced, and conversely, it can be increased by reducing it.

What is important about the present invention is that the displacement width of the recovery box 11 can be reduced by applying an initial load, and the recovery pipe 1
The length in the vertical direction of the insertion opening 11a of the collection box 11 into which the zero is inserted can be reduced to an extent slightly larger than the diameter of the pipe 10.

Note that 17 is a collection box guide installed along the side surface of the collection box 11.

Now, the toner scraped off by the cleaning device is collected by the collection pipe 10 and sent to the collection box 11. Due to the cumulative increase in collected toner, the collection box 11
The weight increases, and the toner collection amount increases as described above.
When the threshold is exceeded, the mounting table 12 separates from the hook piece 16a and begins to sink, and the collection box 11 is guided by the guide 17 and descends. When the box is full, the light shielding protrusion piece 12a blocks the light from the photosensor 15 and turns it off. Make it. As a result, a full or limit detection information is issued, a warning light is turned on, or in addition, the operation of the entire mechanical device is stopped, prompting the toner in the collection box 11 to be discarded.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a toner recovery device according to another embodiment (the toner recovery pipe is not shown). In this embodiment, a cantilevered mounting table 18 is used. This mounting table 18 has a shaft 18a at one end attached to a bearing 19a of the board 19, and the other end is pulled upward by a tension spring 20 to hold the locking piece 1 of the board 19.
An initial load is applied by pressing against the lower edge 19C of 9b.

The collection box 21 has its lower rear end 21a placed on the collection box rotating/retrieving device section 22, and the approximately central portion 2 of its lower surface.
1b is mounted on the force point protrusion 18b formed on the mounting table 18 and loaded. 22a is a door.

In this embodiment as well, the other end of the mounting table 18 remains in contact with the lower edge 19c to maintain the initial state until about 90% of the toner from the collection box 21 is full, and once the toner reaches 90% When the mounting table 18 moves away from the lower edge 19c and the other end starts to sink, and the table becomes full, the photosensor 23 detects the sinking and transmits limit detection information. In this case, the center of rotation of the recovery box 21 is the rear end 21a held by the rotational take-out device section 22.

In this embodiment, the collection box 21 is removed by rotating the removal device 22 in the direction of arrow E.

As is clear from the above configuration, also in this example,
The same action as in the previous embodiment is performed, for example, the locking piece 19b
The lower edge of 19c! ! An initial load is applied to the mounting table 18,
By changing its height position, its initial load can be adjusted as in the previous embodiment.

Note that the initial load of 90% explained above is not limited to this, and can be set lower or higher.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, since an initial load is applied to the elastic support means that supports the collection box, it is possible not only to accurately detect the limit of the amount of collected toner, but also to prevent toner scattering as much as possible. The structure is simple and requires only a small number of parts.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a mock diagram of a color image recording apparatus equipped with a toner recovery device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. 2(a) and (b)
3 is a perspective view of the toner recovery device of another embodiment, and FIG. 4(a) (bl is an explanation diagram of the operation of the conventional toner recovery device.・Image reading device, B...Laser writing system unit, C...Image forming section, D...Paper feeding section, 6...Photosensitive drum, 7...Fixing device, 8...Cleaning device , 8A...Blade, 10...Recovery pipe, 11
...Collection box, 12...Placement stand, 12a...
Light shielding protrusion piece, 13... Elastic spring, 14... Board, 1
5... Photo sensor, work 6... Locking body, 17...
Collection box guide, 18...Placement stand, 18a...
Support shaft, 18b... Force point protrusion, 19... Substrate, 19a
...bearing, 19b...locking piece, 19c...lower edge, 20...tension spring, 1...recovery box, a...rear end, ■ b...center part, 22...Collection box rotation take-out device section 23...Photo sensor.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) Toner of an image recording apparatus in which a toner collection box that receives and collects toner from a toner collection path is supported by an elastic support means, and a limit of the amount of collected toner is detected based on the amount of sedimentation of the toner collection box. A toner recovery device characterized in that an initial load is applied to the elastic support means.