JPH03210582A - Toner cartridge for electrophotographic copying 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] The Emperor's Presentation is also ■Progressive! The present invention can be applied to electrophotographic devices that record on paper using an electrophotographic process, such as printers, copiers, and facsimile machines that use lasers. More specifically, the present invention relates to a toner cartridge containing replenishment toner in such an electrophotographic apparatus.

Moxibustion end 1! This type of toner cartridge is a resin product with excellent shape retention and can be attached to the developing means in a replaceable manner.

It replenishes the developing means with toner stored by removing the sealing material of the toner replenishing port, and also serves as a cover that remains as it is even after toner replenishment and closes the toner supply port of the developing means.

Incidentally, in recent years, with the high speed operation of electrophotographic apparatuses, the amount of toner consumed quickly increases, and it is necessary to replenish a large amount of toner. therefore.

If the toner cartridge is small, the amount of toner replenishment is small, so the user has to replenish toner more often.

In order to reduce the number of toner replenishments, it may be possible to use a large toner cartridge that can replenish a large amount of toner at a time, but a large toner cartridge requires a large space within the apparatus main body.

Therefore, in conventional toner cartridges, if the toner cartridge is large, it is removed from the developing means after toner is replenished, and the toner supply port of the developing means is covered with a special cover member. On the other hand, in the case of small toner cartridges, a large amount of toner is replenished by using a plurality of toner cartridges at a time.

However, with conventional toner cartridges, when a large amount of toner is used, it is troublesome to remove the toner after replenishing it and cover the toner supply port of the developing means with a special cover member. On the other hand, if the toner is small, toner must be replenished frequently or multiple toner cartridges must be used.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to eliminate the need to replace a dedicated cover member when replenishing toner, and to reduce the effort required to replenish toner.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a toner cartridge for an electrophotographic apparatus, which is replaceably attached to a developing means and replenishes the developing means with stored toner after removing a sealing material from a toner replenishing port. It is characterized by being provided with a flexible portion that can be bent and compressed.

Function: Then, the toner cartridge is attached to the developing means, the sealing material is removed, and toner is supplied to the developing means. After the toner is replenished, the flexible portion is bent and compressed.

Sue” L-1 Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic overall configuration of a laser printer, which is an example of an electrophotographic apparatus. Reference numeral 10 in FIG. 1 indicates a main body of the apparatus, which is placed on a dedicated table 11 which is an option. A drum-shaped image carrier (photoreceptor) 12 is provided in the center of the apparatus main body 10 and rotates clockwise in the figure. Around the image carrier 12, a charging means 13 and an optical writing means 14, which are electronic processing means, are arranged in order in the rotational direction.
・Developing means 15 ・Transfer means 16 ・Cleaning means 17
Place each of them.

On the other hand, on the right side of the apparatus main body 10 in the figure, paper feed cassettes 18 are removably loaded in the upper and lower directions. and,
A paper feeding device 22 having paper feeding rollers 19, a paper guide 20, a pair of registration rollers 21, 21, etc. is provided at the mounting portion of these paper feeding cassettes 18, 18. On the other hand,
A conveying device 23, a fixing device 24, a switching device 25, etc. are arranged in this order on the opposite side of the paper feeding device 22 across the aforementioned transfer device 16.

A face-down paper discharge path 26, a face-up paper discharge path 271, and a double-sided recording paper discharge path 28 extend separately from the switching device 25. The face-down sheet discharge path 26 communicates with a discharged sheet stack section 30 also on the apparatus main body 10 via a discharge device 29 provided on the apparatus main body 10 . A face-up paper discharge path 27 is connected to a face-up tray 31 which is provided on the side of the apparatus main body 10 so as to be openable and closable.

It leads to a private table 11.

By the way, the dedicated table 11 is provided with a paper reversing device 33 in communication with the above-mentioned double-sided recording paper discharge path 28, and
A paper refeeding device 34 is provided which connects the paper reversing device 33 to the paper feeding device 22 of the apparatus main body 10 described above. Also,
A large quantity paper feed cassette 35 is removably loaded on the right side of the dedicated table 11 in the figure. A large quantity paper feeding device 37 having a paper feeding roller 36 and the like is provided at the mounting portion of the large quantity paper feeding cassette 35.

However, when operating the laser printer now,
The paper feed roller 19 or the paper feed roller 36 is appropriately selected and driven to sequentially feed out the paper 38 from the cassettes 18 and 35.

On the other hand, the image carrier 12 sequentially charges its surface with a charging means 13 while rotating clockwise in the figure, and then irradiates a laser beam with an optical writing means 14 to form an electrostatic latent image on its surface. Then, as the electrostatic latent image passes through the developing means 15, the electrostatic latent image is sequentially visualized. Then, by aligning the image and the resist, the aforementioned registration rollers 21 are driven, and the aforementioned paper 38 that has been in contact with the registration rollers 21 is sent out toward the image carrier 12. The image on the image carrier 12 is then transferred onto the paper 38 by the transfer means 16. After the transfer, the surface of the image carrier 12 is cleaned by the cleaning means 17.

On the other hand, the paper 38 is transferred to the fixing device 24 by the conveying device 23.
The image transferred thereto is fixed by the fixing device 24 thereof. When a large amount of paper 38 is to be discharged, or when it is desired to stack the sheets in page order, the sheets are passed through the face-down paper discharge path 26 to the discharge device 29 and then to the discharge stack section 30.
send it off to

When the paper 38 is thick paper such as a postcard, the switching device 25 switches the discharge direction, sends it out through the face-up paper discharge path 27, and stacks it face-up on the open face-up tray 31.

Furthermore, if it is desired to record on the back side as well, the discharging direction is similarly switched using the switching device 25 and the sheet is conveyed through the one-sided recording and discharging path 28.

The paper is guided to the paper reversing device 33 of the dedicated table 11.

Then, the sheet is reversed and conveyed again to the sheet feeding device 22 of the apparatus main body 10 through the sheet refeeding device 34, and is again stopped by hitting the registration rollers 21. Then, it is recorded on the back side as well and is discharged onto the discharge stack section 30 or the face-up tray 31.

By the way, the illustrated laser printer has an image carrier 12. as shown in FIG. Developing means 15 and cleaning means 1
7 is removably housed in an image forming case 40. Then, the transfer means 16 is attached to the lower side of the image forming case 40 so that it can be pulled out. Therefore, along with the image carrier 12, the developing means 15 and the transfer means 16 of the electrophotographic process means
- The cleaning means 17 is provided in the image forming case 40, and the image forming case 4o, which forms the image forming unit 41 as a whole, is provided with guide rails 40a in the length direction of both side walls. The guide rails 40a, 40a are connected to the device main body 10.
A handle 43 is provided on the front wall portion 40b of the eight-image forming case 40, which is slidably engaged with the longitudinal guide members 42 provided on the sides. Therefore, one image forming unit 41 is connected to the apparatus main body 10.
The front cover 44 of the device can be opened and pulled out to the front (front) side. As a result, the image carrier 12 and the electrophotographic process means 15, 16, 17 in the image forming unit 41
facilitates replacement and maintenance.

By the way, in the laser printer mentioned above.

The developing means 15 in the image forming unit 41 is installed after opening the front cover 44 of the apparatus main body 10 and pulling the image forming unit 41 toward the front (front side) as shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 2, a toner cartridge 51 according to the present invention is attached to a developing case 50, and by replacing the toner cartridge 51, a large amount of stored toner 63 is supplied to the developing means 15.

Now, the toner cartridge 51 according to the present invention has a first
As shown in FIG.
・Form 53. The lower rigid portion 52 is formed into a rectangular frame shape, is open on the upper side and the lower side, and is integrally provided with a peripheral edge portion 52a on the outer periphery of the lower end portion. The rigid portion 5
A pair of engagement recesses 52c are provided in the longitudinal side walls 52b of 2 at approximately the middle. The peripheral edge portion 52a has the engagement recess 5.
A notch 52d is provided near one side of 2C.

A rising piece 52e is provided on the opposite side of the notch 52d.

The rising piece 52e is provided with a slope 52f projecting upward from the lower end on its outer surface, and an engaging stepped portion 52g is provided at the upper end of the slope 52f.

On the other hand, on one short side wall 52h of the rigid portion 52,
A pair of bearings 52i are integrally provided. The bearing 52i is
Winding rollers 55 are provided opposite to each other on both sides of the short side wall 52h.
The shaft portion 55a is rotatably supported. The winding roller 55
The winding start end 56a of the sealing material 56 is wound around. The sealing material 56 is attached to the lower end of the lower rigid portion 52 to releasably seal the toner supply port 52j that opens downward. The upper rigid portion 53 is formed into a box shape with side walls hanging down from the outer periphery of a rectangular upper plate 53a and opening downward. The longitudinal side wall 53b has the engagement recess 52c.
A pair of engaging protrusions 53c are provided correspondingly. A flexible portion 58 is provided between the upper and lower rigid portions 52 and 53. The flexible portion 58 is made of vinyl chloride, for example, and is formed into a large box-like shape with an opening on the bottom side, and its lower end is fixed to the inner circumferential surface of the lower rigid portion 52, and the upper portion is attached to the upper rigid portion 53. It is fixed to the lower side of the upper plate 53a.

However, the toner cartridge 51 described above.

As shown in FIG. 2, while aligning and positioning the notch 52d of the peripheral edge 52a and the bottle 59 on the developer case 5o side, insert the stay 60 of the developer case 50 onto the engagement step 52g of the rising piece 52e. It is engaged and fixed, and the toner supply port 50a of the developing case 50 is closed and attached. As shown in FIG. 1, the shaft portion 55a of the winding roller 55 is
Insert the shaft portion 61a of the handle 61 into the square hole 55b.

Then, by rotating the handle 61, the sealing material 56 is wound up by the winding roller 55 and the toner cartridge 56 is rolled up.
Open the toner supply port 52j of 1 and insert the toner cartridge 5.
A large amount of toner 63 stored in the developing case 50 is supplied to a toner supply chamber 64 in the developing case 50. After such toner replenishment, when the upper rigid portion 53 is pushed down by hand, the flexible portion 58 is bent and compressed as shown in FIG. As the flexible portion 58 compresses, the upper rigid portion 52
is lowered and its engagement protrusion 53c engages with the engagement recess 52c of the lower rigid portion 52.

From the above, according to the toner cartridge according to the present invention, the large toner cartridge can also serve as a cover for the developing means without being removed even after toner is replenished, and therefore can be used as a dedicated cover member. It is possible to save the trouble of replacing the toner, the trouble of preparing such a dedicated cover member, and the trouble of replenishing toner can be reduced.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a toner cartridge according to the present invention;
Fig. 2 is an explanatory diagram of how the toner cartridge is attached to the developing means, Fig. 3 is an explanatory diagram of how the toner cartridge is compressed into the developing means after toner is replenished, and Fig. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a laser printer equipped with the developing means. FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing the replacement of the electrophotographic process means, and FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of the entire internal mechanism of the laser printer. 15...Developing means, 51...
...Toner cartridge, 52/53...
・Rigid part, 56... Sealing material, 58.
......Flexible part. Figure Figure Figure 30 Figure 5

Claims (1)

[Claims] A toner cartridge for an electrophotographic apparatus that is replaceably attached to a developing means and replenishes the developing means with stored toner after removing a sealing material from a toner replenishing port, the toner cartridge having a flexible portion that can be bent and compressed. Toner cartridge for electrophotographic equipment.