JPH04485A - Photosensitive drum unit - 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 a photosensitive drum unit that holds a photosensitive drum in an electrophotographic copying machine or the like.

Conventional technology Conventionally, in electrophotographic copying machines, etc., the photosensitive drum is usually
Rotatably held in the frame of the device. However, with this configuration, there is a problem in that the entire apparatus must be disassembled to some extent when inspecting or replacing the photosensitive drum, which complicates the work. In order to solve these problems, a photosensitive drum unit has been developed in which a unit frame that can be taken in and out is provided in the frame of the apparatus, and the photosensitive drum is held in the unit frame. In this photosensitive drum unit, a drawer handle is formed on the unit frame. Also,
To attach the photosensitive drum to the unit frame, the shaft of the photosensitive drum is inserted into a hole formed in the side plate of the unit frame, a bearing is fitted into the hole from the outside, and the photosensitive drum is fixed to the side plate with screws or the like. It is taken.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention However, in such a configuration, a handle must be provided on the unit frame, and the structure of the unit frame becomes complicated.
Further, there were other problems such as complicated mounting work of the photosensitive drum to the unit frame.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a photosensitive drum unit that eliminates the need to form a handle on the unit frame and that makes it extremely easy to attach the photosensitive drum to the unit frame. shall be.

Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a mechanism for supporting a photosensitive drum on one side plate of a unit frame, that is, a first side plate. A drum support member is used that rotatably supports one end of the drum. The drum support member includes a first shaft portion that supports the photosensitive drum from the tip side, a projection projecting outward in the radial direction, a second shaft portion held by the first side plate, and a stopper portion. , and a handle, and the first side plate is formed with a support hole into which the second shaft portion of the drum support member is fitted, and a groove through which the projection passes.

Function Since the present invention has the above-described configuration, when attaching the photosensitive drum to the unit frame, the center of the photosensitive drum is aligned with the support hole of the first side plate of the unit frame, and then the first side plate of the unit frame is aligned. The first shaft portion at the tip is fitted into a bearing provided on the end surface of the photosensitive drum so that the drum support member is inserted from the outside into the support hole with the protrusion passing through the groove until the stopper portion abuts. the photosensitive drum can be held together, and then the protrusion is moved to a position away from the groove by rotating the drum support member through an appropriate angle;
The drum support member can be held by the first side plate so as not to come off. In this way, the photosensitive drum can be attached by a simple operation of inserting and rotating the drum support member. Furthermore, by reversing this operation, the drum support member can be removed and the photosensitive drum can be removed. Here, since the drum support member is provided with a handle,
The above operations can be easily performed by holding this handle.

Further, since the drum support member is fixed to the unit frame, its handle can be used as a handle when pulling out the photosensitive drum unit from the apparatus, and there is no need to provide a handle on the unit frame itself.

Example Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail as shown in the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view showing an electrophotographic copying apparatus equipped with a photosensitive drum unit according to an embodiment of the present invention, with the photosensitive drum unit partially pulled out. An electrophotographic copying apparatus, generally designated by the reference numeral 1, includes a photosensitive drum unit 2 that is held in a frame within the apparatus so as to be removable. ! 7. Photosensitive) 'The ram unit 2 includes a unit frame 3, a photosensitive drum 4, and a drum support member 6.
etc.

FIG. 2 is a schematic sectional view of this photosensitive drum unit 2, and FIG.
The figure is an exploded perspective view of the main parts. unit frame 3
has a first side plate 7 and a second side plate 8 disposed opposite to each other at both ends. This first side plate 7 has a support hole 9 and a groove 1o formed therethrough.

Furthermore, an arcuate projection 11 centered around the support hole 9 is provided on the outer surface of the first side plate 7 .

This protrusion 11 includes a top slope 11a and a locking groove 11b.

The drum support member 6 is held by the first side plate 7 to hold the photosensitive drum 4, and as can be clearly seen from FIG. 3, it facilitates insertion into the photosensitive drum from the tip side. a first shaft portion 14 for supporting the photosensitive drum; a protrusion 16 projecting inwardly and outwardly in one radius direction formed to be able to pass through the groove 1o; It has a second shaft part 16 of a matching size, a stopper part 17, an L-shaped spring part 18 formed to extend laterally from the stopper part 17, and a handle 19 at the rear end. There is. Here, the gap between the protrusion 16 and the stopper portion 17 is determined to be slightly larger than the thickness of the first side plate.

The mounting position and width of the spring portion 18 are such that the drum support member 6 is inserted into the support hole 〇 so that the protrusion 16 passes through the groove 1o of the first side plate 7, and the protrusion 15 is inserted into the groove 1o of the first side plate 7.
When the drum support member 6 is rotated by an appropriate angle after passing through the groove 9 to move the protrusion 16 to a position away from the groove 10, the spring portion 18 of the spring portion The protrusion 11 is guided along the inclined surface 11a and fitted into the locking groove 11b.

The photosensitive drum 4 has a bearing 2 fitted to the first shaft portion 14 of the drum support member 6 on the end surface facing the first side plate 7.
1, and has a shaft portion 22 on the opposite end surface. This shaft portion 22 is rotatably held by the second side plate 8 of the unit frame 3 via a bearing 23. Here, the bearing 23 may be attached to the second side plate 8 in advance, or after the shaft portion 22 is inserted into the second side plate 8, the bearing 23 is set at the illustrated position from the outside and the second side plate 8 is inserted. It may be fixed to the side plate 8 or the shaft portion 22.

The shaft portion 22 and the bearing 23 constitute support means for rotatably supporting one end of the photosensitive drum on the second side plate. Note that the support means for rotatably supporting one end of the photosensitive drum 4 on the second side plate 8 is not limited to the case where the shaft portion 22 is provided on the end surface of the photosensitive drum 4 as in the illustrated embodiment; A bearing may be provided on the end face side of the second side plate, and a shaft that fits into the bearing may be provided on the second side plate. Although not shown, a drive mechanism for rotating the photosensitive drum 4 is connected to the photosensitive drum 4.

Regarding the photosensitive drum unit configured as above,
The operation will be explained below.

To attach the photosensitive drum 4 to a predetermined position with respect to the unit frame 3, first, the shaft portion 22 at one end of the photosensitive drum 4 is held by the second side plate 8 via the bearing 23, and then the opposite side of the photosensitive drum 4 is The bearing 21 on the side end face is held in a position that corresponds to the support hole 9 of the first side plate 7. In this state, the drum support member 6 is inserted into the support hole 9 from the outside of the first side plate 7 while holding the handle 19 at the rear end. At this time, insert the protrusion 16 of the drum support member 6 into the groove 1.
By passing it through the photosensitive drum 4, the second shaft part 16 of the drum support member 6 can be fitted into the support hole O, and at the same time, the first shaft part 14 at the tip can be fitted into the bearing 21 on the end surface of the photosensitive drum 4. do. Place the drum support member 5 into the support hole 9 using the stopper portion 17.
When the protrusion 16 is pushed in until it reaches the end, the protrusion 16 passes through the groove 10. Thereafter, the drum support member 6 is rotated and the protrusion 16 is moved to a position where it is removed from the groove 10. At this time, the spring portion 18 provided on the drum support member 6
1 along the inclined surface 11a, and is inserted into the locking groove 11b. In addition, at this time, by pressing the tip of the spring part 18 with a finger, the spring part 18 is curved, and the locking groove 11b is
It may be inserted into the

When the spring part 18 is fitted into the locking groove 11b in this way, the drum support member 5 is fixed so as not to rotate, and the spring part 18 biases the drum support member 6 in the direction of pulling it out. The protrusion 16 is pressed against the inner surface of the first side plate 7 and is fixed so as not to move in the axial direction. With this, the mounting operation is completed. In this way, the drum support member 6 is fixed to the first side plate 7 and the photosensitive drum 4 is fixed to the first side plate 7 by the simple operation of simply pushing the handle 19 of the drum support member 6 into the support hole 〇 and rotating it. It can be rotatably supported.

To remove the photosensitive drum 4, support the photosensitive drum 4 with your hand, hold the handle 19 of the drum support member 6 with your hand, and press the tip of the spring portion 18 with your finger to remove the spring portion 1.
8 from the locking groove 11b, and in this state, the drum support member 6 is rotated to align the protrusion 16 with the groove 1o, and then the drum support member 6 is pulled out from the support hole. As a result, the holding of the photosensitive drum 4 on the first side plate T side is released, so that the shaft portion 22 on the opposite side can be pulled out from the bearing 23 after that.

The photosensitive drum unit 2 assembled as shown in FIG. 2 is stored and used in an electrophotographic copying apparatus, but when the photosensitive drum is to be inspected or replaced, it must be removed from the apparatus as shown in FIG. Bring it out from within. In this case, since the handle 19 of the drum support member 6 is located on the front side, the handle 1e can be held by hand and pulled out or pushed in. Therefore, there is no need to provide a handle on the unit frame.

Effects of the Invention As is clear from the above description, the present invention provides support holes in one side plate of the unit frame constituting the photosensitive drum unit, that is, the first side plate, and attaches the drum support member provided with the handle to the first side plate. The photosensitive drum is inserted into the support hole from the outside of the side plate and held, and the photosensitive drum is supported by the drum support member.
It is extremely easy to attach the photosensitive drum to the unit frame, and the handle can be used to take out and put in the photosensitive drum unit as a whole.
There is no need to provide a handle on the unit frame itself, and the structure of the unit frame can be simplified.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

1 is a schematic perspective view showing an electrophotographic copying apparatus equipped with a photosensitive drum unit according to an embodiment of the present invention, with the photosensitive drum unit partially pulled out; FIG. 2 is a schematic sectional view of the photosensitive drum unit; FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view of the main parts. 1... Electrophotographic copying device, 2... Photosensitive drum, unit, 3... Unit frame,
4...Photosensitive tram, 6...Drum support member, 7...First side plate, 8...
...Second side plate, 9...Support hole, 1o
...Groove, 11...Circular projection, 11b
......Latching groove, 14...--First shaft portion, 16
...Protrusion, 16...Second shaft portion, 17.
...Stopper part, 18...Spring part, 19
...Handle, 21...Bearing, 22...
...Shaft part, 23...Bearing. -m- 11th drum unit unit and part of the main tram drum support member original Itf ID plate 1! (＜11jJr' It!1

Claims (1)

[Claims] a unit frame having first and second side plates at both ends; a photosensitive drum disposed between the first and second side plates; and a unit frame that is held by the first side plate and rotates one end of the photosensitive drum. a drum support member that supports the photosensitive drum rotatably; and support means that rotatably supports the other end of the photosensitive drum on the second side plate; a projection projecting outward in the radial direction, a second shaft portion held by the first side plate, a stopper portion, and a handle; A photosensitive drum unit comprising a support hole into which the second shaft portion of the drum is fitted and a groove through which the projection passes.