JPH02255455A - Image former - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable cooling and suction of a sheet to a conveyor belt with one fan by using a cooling duct, being interconnected to a fan and inhaling air in device body for cooling, and a suction duct being interconnected to the fan and inhaling air on the conveyor belt and attracting the sheet on this belt, respectively. CONSTITUTION:At time of image formation, a fan 61 is rotated, while air in a device body 1 is inhaled from suction holes 64 of a cooling duct 62 and exhausted to the outside as shown in an arrow, thus cooling in the device body 1 takes place. At this time, air in the top part of a conveyor belt 35 is inhaled in a suction duct 63 via suction holes 66 and suction holes 65 of this duct 63. With this constitution, the top part of the conveyor belt 35 comes to a vacuum state so that a sheet is attracted to the top part of the conveyor belt 35, thus its dropping is prevented from occurring.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that is applied, for example, as an electronic copying machine.

(Prior Art) For example, there is an electronic copying machine as shown in FIG.

When making a copy using this electronic copying machine, first, a document is set on the automatic document feeder 102 of the main body 101 of the apparatus, and then a copy button (not shown) is turned on. As a result, the automatic document feeder 102 is activated, and the document is sent and set onto the document placement table (hereinafter referred to as platen glass) 103, and the exposure lamp 141 of the first carriage 150 is turned on to The second carriages 150 and 151 move along the platen glass 103. As a result, the original is scanned with light, and the light reflected via the original is transmitted to the first to third reflecting mirrors 142 and 142.
43, 144 to the lens 145, and further,
The light passes through this lens 145 and is imaged onto the photoreceptor 120 via the fourth to sixth reflecting mirrors 146, 147, and 148 and the slit glass 149. The surface of the photoreceptor 120 is charged by a charging device 121, and an electrostatic latent image of the document is formed by the above-mentioned image formation. Then, this electrostatic latent image is developed by being supplied with developer by the developing device 123.

On the other hand, at this time, the paper feed cassette 110 or 11
A pickup 136 takes out the sheets from the recording medium 1, and a separating and conveying means 137 separates the sheets one by one and sends them to the registration rollers 132. After the paper is aligned by the registration rollers 132, it is sent to the image transfer section 130 between the photoconductor 120 and the transfer charger 125.
The developer image on 20 is transferred. Then, the paper onto which this image has been transferred is processed by the peeling charger 126.
It is peeled off from the photoreceptor 120 and conveyed by a conveyor belt 135. Then, this paper is sent to a fixing device 133, the image is fixed thereon, and the paper is ejected onto the ejection tray 112 via an ejection roller 138. Further, the developer remaining on the photoconductor 120 is removed and cleaned by the cleaning device 104, and after this cleaning,
The surface of the photoreceptor 120 is neutralized by the static eliminating lamp 105 in preparation for the next cycle.

By the way, during this copying, the cooling fan (line flow fan) 1 provided on one side of the apparatus main body 101 is
58 is rotated, and as shown by the arrow, the air inside the device body 101 is sucked in and exhausted to the outside to cool the inside of the device body 101.

Furthermore, during this copying, a suction fan (square fan) 159 provided at the lower part of the conveyor belt 135 is rotated, and a large number of suction holes ( (not shown) to attract the paper onto the conveyor belt 135 and prevent it from falling.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) However, in the past, a fan 159 for cooling the inside of the apparatus main body 101 and a fan 159 for sucking paper were each required separately, which resulted in a large number of fans and increased costs. It had become.

Furthermore, since the cooling fan 158 was provided on the paper ejection side within the apparatus main body 101, there was a problem in that the operating sound of the fan 158 was emitted through the pipe, resulting in a large amount of noise.

Therefore, this invention reduces the number of fans and
An object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus that can reduce noise.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) In order to solve the above problems, the present invention includes an image bearing member in the main body of the apparatus, and transfers the image carried by the image bearing member onto a transfer medium. In an image forming apparatus that conveys the transferred material to a fixing section by a conveyor belt after being transferred, a fan provided at the rear side of the apparatus main body and a fan connected to the fan suck air inside the apparatus main body. The apparatus is characterized in that it includes a cooling duct that cools the paper sheet, and a suction duct that is communicated with the fan and sucks the air above the conveyor belt to adsorb the paper onto the conveyor belt.

(Function) By providing the above-mentioned cooling and adsorption ducts, -
It is possible to cool the inside of the apparatus main body and to attract paper to the conveyor belt using a single fan, and by providing the fan on the rear side of the apparatus main body, it is possible to reduce noise.

(Example) The present invention will be described below with reference to an example shown in FIGS. 1 to 3.

Figure 2 shows the internal configuration of the entire device.
Includes charging, exposure, development, transfer, peeling, cleaning, static elimination,
Image forming process configuration means 2 such as fixing is built in, and the top surface of the main body 1 includes an original placing table (on which originals are placed).
Hereinafter, a platen glass (hereinafter referred to as a platen glass) 3 is provided.

Furthermore, an automatic document feeder 4 is provided on the upper surface of the apparatus main body 1 for automatically conveying and setting a document onto the platen glass 3.

Furthermore, a paper feed cassette 10.11 containing paper such as plain paper to be supplied to the image forming process configuration means 2 is inserted on the right side of the apparatus main body 1, and a fixing unit is installed on the left side of the apparatus main body 1. A tray 12 is provided for collecting sheets of paper.

The image forming process configuration means 2 has the following configuration. That is, a drum-shaped photoreceptor 20 as an image carrier is arranged approximately in the center of the apparatus main body 1, and around this photoreceptor 20, along the rotation direction,
Charging device 21, exposure section 22a of exposure device (optical system) 22
1 developing device 23, transfer device 25. Peeling device 26. A cleaning device 27, a static eliminator 28, etc. are arranged in this order.

Furthermore, the paper feed cassette 10 is provided in the apparatus main body 1.
．． The paper automatically fed from 11 or manually fed through the manual paper feed table 29 is transferred to the main body 1 of the apparatus via the image transfer section 30 between the photoreceptor 20 and the transfer device 25. A paper transport path 31 leading to the tray 12 provided on the left side is formed.

A pair of registration rollers 32 is arranged on the upstream side of the image transfer section 30 of the paper conveyance path 31, and a fixing device 3 is arranged on the downstream side.
3 and a pair of paper ejection rollers 34 are arranged. Further, a conveyor belt 35 is disposed between the peeling device 26 and the fixing device 33.

Also, in the vicinity of the mounting portion of the paper feed cassette 10.11, there is a pickup roller 36 that takes out sheets one by one, and a pickup roller 36 that receives the sheets taken out via the pickup roller 36 and sends them to the paper conveyance path 31. Separation and conveyance means 37 consisting of a conveyance roller and a separation roller is provided.

Further, the exposure device 22 illuminates the back of the document set on the platen glass 3 provided on the top surface of the device main body 1 with an exposure lamp 41 as a light source surrounded by a reflector 40, and uses reflected light from the document. , first reflective mirror 4
2. The light is guided to the lens 45 via the second reflecting mirror 43 and the third reflecting mirror 44 in order, and then the light transmitted through the lens 45 is guided to the fourth reflecting mirror 46 and the fifth reflecting mirror 4.
7, a sixth reflecting mirror 48 and a slit glass 49 in order to guide the light to the photoreceptor 20.

The exposure lamp 41 and the first reflection mirror 42 surrounded by the reflector 40 are mounted on a first carriage 50 that is movable back and forth along the lower surface of the platen glass 3.
Further, the second reflecting mirror 43 and the third reflecting mirror 44 are mounted on a second carriage 51 that moves in the same direction at half the speed of the first carriage 500. The carriages 50 and 51 move from left to right in the state shown in FIG. 2 with the carriage shaft and the like as guides, thereby scanning the original set on the platen glass 3 with light and transferring the original onto the photoreceptor 20. The image corresponding to the image is subjected to slit exposure.

Further, a suction port 56 is formed on one side of the apparatus main body 1, and a discharge port 57 is formed on the other side.

When copying, a document is first set on the automatic document feeder 4, and then a copy button (not shown) is turned on. As a result, the original is conveyed and set on the platen glass 3, and the exposure lamp 41
is turned on and the first and second carriages 50, 51 are moved along the platen glass 3. As a result, the original is scanned with light, and the light reflected through the original is sent to the lens 45 via the first to third reflection mirrors 42, 43, 44, and further passes through this lens 45. An image is formed on the photoreceptor 20 via the fourth to sixth reflecting mirrors 46, 47° 48 and the slit glass 49. The surface of the photoreceptor 20 is charged by a charging device 21, and an electrostatic latent image of the document is formed by this image formation. This electrostatic latent image is developed by being supplied with developer by the developing device 23.

On the other hand, at this time, sheets are taken out from the paper feed cassette 1o or 11 by the pickup 36, separated one by one by the separating and conveying means 37, and sent to the registration rollers 32. After the paper is aligned by registration rollers 32, it is sent to an image transfer section 30 between the photoreceptor 20 and the transfer charger 25, where the developer image on the photoreceptor 20 is transferred. The paper to which this image has been transferred is peeled off from the photoreceptor 20 by the action of the peeling charger 26, and is conveyed by the conveyor belt 35. Then, this paper is sent to a fixing device 33 to have the image fixed thereon, and then is ejected to the ejection tray 12 via an ejection roller 38.

By the way, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, a fan (square fan) 61 is provided on the rear side of the device main body 1, and this fan 61 has a cooling and suction duct that is branched into two. 62 and 63 are connected and communicating. The cooling duct 62 is provided along the photoreceptor 20, and the suction duct 63 is inserted into the lower part of the conveyor belt 35. A large number of suction holes 64 are formed in the wall of the cooling duct 62, and a large number of suction holes 65 are formed in the upper surface of the suction duct 63. Also, a large number of suction holes 66 are formed in the conveyor belt 35, and these suction holes 66 communicate with the suction holes 65 of the suction duct 63.

Therefore, during image formation, the fan 61 is rotated,
The air inside the device body 1 flows through the suction holes 64 of the cooling duct 62.
... is sucked in and exhausted to the outside as shown by the arrow, thereby cooling the inside of the device main body 1.

Also, at this time, the air on the upper surface of the conveyor belt 35 is absorbed into the suction holes 66 and the suction holes 65 of the suction duct 63.
... is sucked into the suction duct 63. As a result, the upper surface of the conveyor belt 35 is brought into a negative pressure state, and the paper is attracted to the upper surface of the conveyor belt 35, thereby preventing it from falling.

As described above, the - fans 61 cause the device main body 1 to
The number of fans can be halved by cooling the inside and attracting the paper to the conveyor belt 35.

Further, since the fan 61 is provided on the rear side of the device main body 1, the operation noise of the fan 61 is difficult to reach the user, and noise can be reduced.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, the inside of the apparatus main body can be cooled and the paper can be attracted to the conveyor belt using - number of fans, and the number of fans can be halved. Cost can be reduced.

Furthermore, although the fan is provided on the rear side of the device body, the operating noise of the fan is difficult to reach the user, resulting in the effect that noise can be reduced.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figures 1 to 3 show one embodiment of the present invention, with Figure 1 being a perspective view showing the arrangement of a fan and duct within the main body of the device, and Figure 2 showing the internal configuration of the electronic copying machine. FIG. 3 is a front view showing the arrangement of the fan and duct within the main body of the apparatus, and FIG. 4 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a conventional example. 1... Apparatus main body, 20... Photoreceptor (image carrier), 3
5... Conveyor belt, 61... Fan, 62... Cooling duct, 63... Suction duct. Applicant's agent Patent attorney Takehiko Suzue

Claims (1)

[Claims] In an image forming apparatus that includes an image carrier in the apparatus main body, transfers the image carried by the image carrier onto a transfer material, and then conveys the transfer material to a fixing section by a conveyor belt, the apparatus main body a cooling duct that is connected to the fan and sucks the air inside the device body to cool it; and a cooling duct that is connected to the fan and sucks the air on the conveyor belt to cool the conveyor belt. An image forming apparatus comprising: a suction duct for sucking paper onto the top of the image forming apparatus.