JPH04194875A - developing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a more stable developing amount by arranging a toner conveying amount restricting member in two or more parts, and providing a specific relation between a potential difference, generated between the restricting member and a toner conveying unit, and a cavity length. CONSTITUTION:A toner conveying amount restricting member is arranged in at least two parts, and in the case of assuming Vi for potential difference between the toner conveying amount restricting member arranged downstream relating to toner conveyance and a toner conveying unit, gi for cavity length, Vi+1 for potential difference between the toner conveying amount restricting member arranged in the upstream relating to the toner conveyance and the toner conveying unit and gi+1 for cavity length, a relation where (i=1, 2...), ¦Vi¦gi<=¦Vi+1¦gi+1 further gi<=gi+1 is provided. When setting a supporting part 2 of a latent image carrier 1 to 0V, conductive supporter 10 to -300V, sleeve 12 to -900V, blade 13 to -600V, each part cavity to 0.20mm between the latent image carrier 1 and a toner conveying unit 9, 0.15mm between the toner conveying unit 9 and the sleeve 12 and to 0.10mm between the toner conveying unit 9 and the blade 13, a toner image of high contrast and high density gradation can be formed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a developing device that forms an image using non-magnetic toner.

[Prior Art] A conventional developing device is disposed adjacent to a latent image carrier that forms an electrostatic latent image, as shown in Japanese Patent Application No. 63-91000, and conveys toner, which is an image forming body. It has a toner transport body formed by forming an insulating layer on a conductive support, a conductive toner transport amount regulating member is disposed adjacent to the toner transport body, and the conductive support and the toner transport amount regulating member are disposed adjacent to the toner transport body. An electric field is applied by a voltage applying means between the electrostatic latent image and the electrostatic latent image by electrostatically adhering the toner on the toner conveying member to the latent image carrier.

[Problem to be Solved by the Invention] The above-mentioned conventional technology also provides a developing device that can obtain a stable amount of development, but in the above-mentioned conventional technology, the amount of toner on the toner transport body is regulated by the amount of toner transport. When regulating with a member, a transport electric field (= transport bias / Depending on the size of the regulation gap), a discharge phenomenon may occur between the toner transport body and the toner transport amount regulating member, making it impossible to supply toner to the toner transport body, resulting in unstable development. was.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is intended to solve these problems, and its purpose is to provide a developing device using a one-component nonmagnetic developing method that can provide a more stable amount of development.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The developing device of the present invention comprises a conductive support that is disposed adjacent to a latent image carrier that forms an electrostatic latent image and that conveys toner as an image forming body. A conductive toner transport amount regulating member is disposed adjacent to the toner transporting member, and an electric field is applied between the conductive support and the toner transport amount regulating member by voltage application means. is applied to the toner conveyance body, and the toner on the toner conveyance body is electrostatically adhered to the latent image carrier to visualize the electrostatic latent image. , the potential difference between the toner transport amount regulating member disposed on the downstream side with respect to toner transport and the toner transport body is vl, the gap length is gi, and the toner transport amount regulating member and the toner transport body disposed on the upstream side with respect to toner transport. When the potential difference between the
It is characterized by having a relationship of 1 kgi≦g1+1.

[Function] According to the above configuration of the present invention, toner transport amount regulating members are disposed at at least two locations, and the toner transport amount regulating member (hereinafter referred to as the first toner transport amount regulating member) disposed on the downstream side with respect to toner transport. The potential difference between the toner conveyance amount regulating member) and the toner conveyance body is 1, the gap length is gl, and the toner conveyance amount regulating member (hereinafter referred to as the second toner conveyance amount regulating member) disposed on the upstream side with respect to toner conveyance and the toner conveyance body. If the potential difference between the The amount of toner used can always be kept constant. As a result, the development characteristics are stabilized.6 In the developing device of the present invention, when the second toner transport amount regulating member that forms a transport electric field with the toner transport member is a rotating member, the toner is The layer thickness of the toner on the carrier tends to be non-uniform. Therefore, a first toner transport amount regulating member is required downstream of the toner transport amount regulating member that forms the transport electric field in terms of toner transport. At this time, the first toner transport! The regulating member is required to satisfy g1≦g2 in order to make the toner layer thickness on the toner transport body uniform. In addition, the toner is supplied to the toner transport body using the Coulomb force caused by the electric charge of the charged toner and the transport electric field. When attempting to ensure a sufficient amount of charge and amount of toner supplied to the development position, the transport electric field becomes close to the electric field where discharge occurs. Therefore, in the first toner conveyance amount regulating member set to g1≦g2, by satisfying l Vll /gl≦l V217g2, the amount of toner on the toner conveying body is adjusted to a suitable level for development without causing a discharge phenomenon. can be regulated to a certain amount.

In addition, by satisfying l Vll /g1≦IV217g2, the toner on the toner conveying body is removed from the toner conveying body by the Coulomb force caused by the electric field formed by the electric charge of the toner at the first conveyance amount regulating member position. 1 Since a force is applied to the toner transport amount regulating member, the aggregation of toner on the toner transport body is reduced. For these reasons, the toner on the toner conveying body is always conveyed by a certain amount to the development position, and development is stabilized.

Furthermore, by arranging a plurality of toner conveyance amount regulating members, it is possible to limit the amount of toner to be regulated at each location of the toner transfer regulating member. There will be no clogging, and a constant amount of toner on the toner transport body will always be transported to the development position, resulting in stable development.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail with reference to Examples.

Embodiment FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional schematic view of a developing device in an embodiment of the present invention.

The 71-layer support 1 has a photoconductive layer 3 coated on a conductive support 2. After the photosensitive layer 3 is charged to a predetermined potential using a charger 4, the light emitted from a light source 5 such as a laser is scanned using a rotating polygon mirror (not shown), and exposed to light by an imaging optical system 6. An electrostatic latent image was formed on the latent image carrier 1 by forming an image on the layer 3 to obtain a potential contrast. On the other hand, the developing device 7 uses toner 8 as an image forming body.
The toner is charged and conveyed by a toner conveying body 9.

The toner conveying body 9 has a thin insulating layer 11 formed on a conductive support 10, and a second layer is formed adjacent to the toner conveying body 9.
Conductive and cylindrical sleeve 1 as a toner transport amount regulating member
2 and the first toner transport amount regulating member, an electrically conductive flat blade 13 is disposed, and a voltage applying means 14 is connected between the electrically conductive support 10 and the sleeve 12 and between the electrically conductive support 10 and the blade 13, respectively. A high electric field is generated in each gap, and the sleeve 12 and the toner 8 that has been frictionally charged due to friction between the toners are moved onto the toner conveying body 9 by Coulomb force. The toner 8 adhering to the sleeve 12 is peeled off by the scraper 15 to prevent the toner 8 from agglomerating in the gap or clogging the gap. The toner 8 that has passed through the sleeve 12 and the blade 13 is charged, is held by the toner conveying member 9 by electrostatic image force, and is conveyed to the developing gap (latent image carrier 1
and the toner conveying body 9 are moved toward the electrostatic latent image on the latent image carrier 1 to obtain an amount of toner adhesion according to the potential contrast and make the latent image visible, and then the transfer device 17, the toner 8 deposited on the latent image carrier 1 is electrostatically transferred onto the recording paper 18, and the toner 8 is fixed on the recording paper 18 by means such as pressure or heating to obtain a desired image. Also,
When a semiconductor laser is used as the light source 5, a toner image with high resolution and excellent area i@tonality can be formed.

In FIG. 1, arrows indicate the rotation directions of the respective members, but this does not limit the present invention, and the method of constructing the photosensitive layer of the latent image carrier 1 is not limited to this figure.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional schematic view of a developing device in another embodiment of the present invention. Parts having the same names and substantially the same functions as in FIG. 1 are given the same numbers and explanations are omitted, but a second blade 22 is located downstream of the blade 13, which is a toner transport amount regulating member, in the toner transport direction. Place the blade 1
The second blade 22 further reduces the layer thickness of the toner 8 on the toner conveying body whose layer thickness has been regulated in step 3. The toner 8 whose conveyance amount is regulated to an amount suitable for development is transferred to a toner conveyor 9
The image is transported by the developer, supplied to the development position, and developed. Note that in FIG. 2, arrows indicate the rotation direction of each member, but this does not limit the present invention.

More detailed examples will be shown below.

Example 1 In FIG. 1, the potential of each part is
is 0■, the conductive support 10 is set to 1300v2, the sleeve 12 is set to 1900v, and the blade 13 is set to 1600v, and the gaps between the latent image carrier 1 and the toner conveying member 9 are 0.20mm, When the distance between the toner conveying body 9 and the sleeve 12 is set to 0.15 mm, and the distance between the toner conveying body 9 and the blade 13 is set to 0.10 mm, it is possible to form a toner image with high contrast and high density gradation. did it.

When a single-component non-magnetic toner was placed in the toner hopper 21 and images were formed on 10,000 sheets of recording paper with the above configuration, stable image formation was possible with no problems in both recording immersion and fine line reproducibility. .

Comparative Example 1 When an attempt was made to form an image in the same manner as in Example 1, except that the potential of each part was set to -1,300 V for the sleeve 12 and -1,300 V for the blade 13, a discharge phenomenon occurred at the regulation gap. Toner could not be supplied to the toner transport body.

Comparative Example 2 Image formation was carried out in the same manner as in Example 1, except that the potential of each part was set to Ov for the conductive support 10, -900V for the sleeve 12, and -1000V for the blade 13.

When a single-component non-magnetic toner was placed in the toner hopper 21 and images were formed on 10,000 sheets of recording paper with the above configuration, variations in the recording immersion degree were observed, and toner aggregation was observed on the toner transport body 9. It was done.

Example 2 Image formation was carried out in the same manner as in Example 1, except that the potential of each part was set to Ov for the conductive support 10, -900V for the sleeve 12, and -600V for the blade 13.

When a single-component non-magnetic toner was placed in the toner hopper 21 and images were formed on 10,000 sheets of recording paper with the above configuration, stable image formation was possible with no problems in both recording temperature and fine line reproducibility.

Example 3 Image formation was carried out in the same manner as in Example 1, except that the toner transport body 9 was composed only of the conductive support 10.

When a single-component non-magnetic toner was placed in the toner hopper 21 and images were formed on 10,000 sheets of recording paper with the above configuration, stable image formation was possible with no problems in both recording temperature and fine line reproducibility.

Embodiment 4 In FIG. 2, the potential of each part is
is 0■, the conductive support 10 is -3OOV, the sleeve 12 is -900V, the blade 13 is -600V, the second
The blade 22 is set to -400V, and the gaps between the latent image carrier 1 and the toner conveyor 9 are set to 0.0V. 20mm,
0.15 city between the toner conveying body 9 and the sleeve 12,
The distance between the toner conveying body 9 and the blade 13 is 0.10 mm,
0.08 between the toner conveying body 9 and the second blade 22
When set to mm, it was possible to form a toner image with high contrast and high temperature gradation.

When a single-component non-magnetic toner was placed in the toner hopper 21 and images were formed on 10,000 sheets of recording paper with the above configuration, stable image formation was possible with no problems in both recording immersion and fine line reproducibility. .

The present invention is applicable not only to the embodiments described above, but also to a wide range of image forming apparatuses, and is particularly effective as a recording device for pictures and photographs, and to a developing device of a copying machine or a page printer using toner.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, the toner transport amount regulating member is disposed at at least two locations, and the toner transport amount regulating member and the toner transport body are disposed on the downstream side with respect to toner transport. When the potential difference between the toner conveyance member and the toner transport body is Vl, the gap length is gl, the potential difference between the toner conveyance amount regulating member and the toner conveyance member disposed on the upstream side with respect to toner conveyance is v1+1, and the gap length is g2 (i=1.2・・・), l Vil /gi≦l V i+1 l / g i
By having the relationship of +1 g i≦g i+1, the toner on the toner transport body has an I and a charge amount suitable for development, and the amount of toner and charge amount transported to the development position are always kept constant. In addition, it is possible to reduce the aggregation of toner on the toner conveying body and maintain the filling state of the toner layer in a suitable state. As a result, it is possible to obtain clear, high-temperature images regardless of the type of image or environmental changes, and it has the effect of providing a developing device capable of full-color development that produces high-quality images with a simple structure. .

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1121 is a cross-sectional overview of a developing device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional overview of a developing device according to another embodiment of the present invention. 1 : Latent image carrier 2 : Conductive support part 3 : Photosensitive layer 4 : Charger 5 : Light source 6 : Imaging optical system 7 : Developing device 8 : Toner 9 : Toner transport body 10 : Conductive support 11 : Insulating layer 12: Sleeve 13: Blade 14: Voltage applying means 15: Scraper 17: Transfer device 18: Recording paper 21: Toner hopper 22: Second blade and above Applicant Seiko Epson Corporation Agent Patent Attorney Kizobe Suzuki ( (1 person) 1 Latent image carrier Figure 1

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A toner transporting body disposed adjacent to a latent image carrier forming an electrostatic latent image, the toner transporting member having a conductive support as a component for transporting toner serving as an image forming member; A conductive toner transport amount regulating member is disposed adjacent to the toner transport member, and an electric field is applied between the conductive support body and the toner transport amount regulating member by a voltage applying means. In the developing device that electrostatically attaches the toner to the latent image carrier to visualize the electrostatic latent image, the toner transport amount regulating member is disposed at at least two locations,
With respect to toner transport, the potential difference between the toner transport amount regulating member and the toner transport body disposed on the downstream side is Vi, and the gap length is gi.
, when the potential difference between the toner transport amount regulating member disposed on the upstream side with respect to toner transport and the toner transport body is Vi+1, and the gap length is gi+1 (i=1, 2...), |Vi|/gi≦ |Vi+1|/gi+1 and gi≦g
A developing device characterized by having a relationship of i+1.