JPH10171270A - Cleaning device for transfer conveyor belt - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Problem] To provide a cleaning device capable of constantly refreshing a portion in contact with a transfer conveyance belt and performing stable removal of paper dust over time. SOLUTION: A sponge roller 20 is rotatably supported in opposition to a driving roller 1 of a transfer / transport belt 4, and is brought into contact with the surface of the transfer / transport belt 4. At the time of normal rotation of the transfer conveyance belt 4, the sponge roller 20 is rubbed against the transfer conveyance belt 4 by the stopper 22 and the stop claw 21 in a stationary state,
Paper dust and the like are removed from the surface. After the completion of one job such as copying, the sponge roller 20 rotates along with the transfer conveyance belt 4 when the transfer conveyance belt 4 is rotated in the reverse direction to remove paper dust and the like from the tip of the cleaning blade 2, and is transferred to the sponge roller 20. The contact surface of the conveyor belt 4 changes.
By repeating this, the sliding contact between the sponge roller 20 and the transfer conveyance belt 4 becomes uniform, and the removal effect is maintained with time.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a cleaning device for a transfer belt used in an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine and a facsimile.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A transfer / transport belt in an image forming apparatus is for transferring a transfer sheet electrostatically attracted to a transfer section after transfer at a transfer section. And it is important to remove it. What is problematic in forming the transfer / conveying belt is how to coat a material having a low coefficient of friction, that is, a hard material, on an elastic elastic belt. A material having a low coefficient of friction has a lower coefficient of friction as it is harder, and exhibits its original properties. However, if the material is coated on an elastic belt, the tension of the belt increases and the belt does not elongate. If the belt in this state is forcibly stretched, the coating layer on the surface of the belt will crack and toner will enter the cracked area. There is a problem of doing.

On the other hand, if a relatively soft material is used as the material having a low coefficient of friction so that the belt can follow the elastic belt, the tension of the belt does not increase so much and the generation of cracks is suppressed, but the friction of the belt surface is reduced. There is a problem that the coefficient is increased and the releasability of the toner is not good, which also causes the cleaning failure of the transfer conveyance belt.
As described above, there are many problems in cleaning the transfer conveyance belt, and it is difficult to completely maintain the cleaning property over time.

[0004] Another problem is the problem of poor cleaning due to paper dust. Since the transfer conveyance belt comes into contact with the paper, if paper dust adhering to the belt digs into the cleaning blade edge, the toner scraping ability of the blade edge is reduced, and cleaning failure is likely to occur. In particular, a large amount of paper dust is generated in a portion where the paper is rubbed by the paper feed roller (generally, the central portion of the paper is large), and in particular, cleaning failure in a belt region (generally, the central portion of the belt) corresponding to that portion of the paper is increased. .

Here, the following measures have conventionally been implemented as measures against paper dust cleaning failure. That is, FIG.
As shown in (1), the transfer unit faces the drive roller 1 and is upstream of the cleaning blade 2, specifically, the transfer from the transfer unit to a fixing and discharging unit (not shown) (located on the left side in FIG. 1). A seal member 3 is provided downstream of the transfer section and upstream of the cleaning blade 2 along a direction (indicated by an arrow in FIG. 1). The seal member 3 is in the form of a brush that has been planted, and is generally made of a material of conductive acrylic fiber or insulating polyester fiber, and is provided in contact with the transfer / transport belt 4. As a result, the paper dust on the transfer / conveyance belt 4 is removed to some extent, and the seal member 3 also has a seal function for preventing the toner scraped off by the cleaning blade 2 from scattering and soiling the periphery of the unit. However, since the paper dust cannot be removed by the 100% sealing member 3, the paper dust passing through the sealing member 3 stays at the edge of the cleaning blade 2. As the paper dust removal, when the transfer / conveyance belt unit is stopped at the end of one job of the copying machine, the drive motor is rotated in the reverse direction to reverse the transfer / conveyance belt 4 to remove the paper dust that has bitten into the edge of the cleaning blade 2. Have done that. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 5 denotes a toner collecting coil, 6 denotes a lower case, 7 denotes a bias roller, 8 denotes a photosensitive drum, 9 denotes a pre-transfer neutralizing lamp, 10 denotes a registration roller, and 11 denotes a driven roller.

[0006]

In the conventional apparatus described above, a seal member 3 is provided on the upstream side of the cleaning blade 2 opposite to the drive roller 1 as shown in FIG. Since the lower case 6 is fixed, the paper dust removing effect is high at the beginning of the operation of the apparatus, but there is a problem that the paper dust gradually accumulates in the seal member 3 and the removing effect decreases with time.

In recent years, there has been a problem due to an increase in the use of recycled paper called recycled paper. That is, the recycled paper is more fragile than the genuine pulp paper and easily generates a large amount of paper powder from the cut surface. As a result, when such a large amount of recycled paper is used, the fixed seal member 3 is not used. The durability of paper dust removal is further reduced.

Accordingly, the present invention provides a method for cleaning a transfer / transport belt which can constantly refresh a portion in contact with the transfer / transport belt, remove paper dust stably with time, and can cope with the use of recycled paper in recent years. It is intended to provide a device.

[0009]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a transfer / conveying belt cleaning apparatus for transferring a transfer sheet at a transfer section to achieve the above object.
In the cleaning device for the transfer / conveying belt which is conveyed to the fixing / discharging unit by being electrostatically attracted and fixed to the downstream side of the transfer unit along the conveying direction from the transferring unit of the transfer / conveying belt to the fixing / discharging unit. A sponge roller is rotatably arranged on the upstream side of the cleaning blade so as to be in sliding contact with the surface of the transfer conveyance belt, and the transfer conveyance belt is rotated in reverse for removing paper dust from the edge of the cleaning blade. In operation, the sponge roller is interlocked with the transfer conveyance belt.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the rotational drive system of the sponge roller is gear-connected to the rotational drive system of the transfer / transport belt via a one-way clutch.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the sponge roller is detachably supported by a case supporting the transfer / transport belt.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in place of the sponge roller, a brush roller formed by implanting a brush material in a loop shape is used.

[0013]

Embodiments and examples of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In the following, portions common to the conventional example will be denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description will be omitted.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged side sectional view showing a main part of an embodiment of a transfer / conveying belt cleaning apparatus according to the present invention. In the present embodiment, the sponge roller 2 is located at a position facing the drive roller 1 with the transfer / transport belt 4 interposed therebetween.
0 is rotatably supported and arranged. The width of the sponge roller 20 in the depth direction in the drawing is the maximum width of the transfer paper (not shown). For example, if the transfer paper having the maximum width is A3 length, it may be about 300 mm. Further, the sponge roller 20 is brought into contact with the surface of the transfer / conveying belt 4 so as to bite by a predetermined dimension t (for example, about 1.5 mm).

On the same axis as the axis of the sponge roller 20,
The stop claw 21 is provided so as to engage with the stopper 22, and the transfer conveyor belt 4 rotates forward (counterclockwise in the figure).
At this time, the stopper 22 is caught by the stop claw 21, and the sponge roller 20 slides on the surface of the transfer conveyance belt 4 in a stationary state. As a result, toner, paper dust, dust, and the like adhering to the surface of the transfer and transport belt 4 are removed from the sponge roller 20.
To be removed. Further, the sponge roller 20 is provided with a mylar 23 so as to clean the surface of the sponge roller 20 to further extend the removal effect.

After one job such as copying is completed, the transfer / conveyor belt 4 is rotated in reverse (clockwise in the figure) to remove paper dust and the like from the tip of the cleaning blade 2 as described above. The rotation prevention by the pawl 21 and the stopper 22 does not work.
0 rotates with the transfer conveyance belt 4 and the sponge roller 2
The contact surface of the transfer conveyor belt 4 changes from 0. By repeating this operation, the foreign matter on the transfer / conveying belt 4 can be uniformly attached to the sponge roller 20, and the effect of removing the foreign matter over time can be reduced as compared with the conventional fixed seal member. Can be maintained.

The number of teeth of the stop claw 21 is represented by θ, the rotation angle of the sponge roller 20, and the number of teeth of the stop claw 21 is represented by Z.
Then

Equation 1 is set such that θ> (360 / Z) × a. However, the coefficient a is 1 or more, and it is better to increase the number of teeth of the stop claw 21 so that a is actually about 2. As an example, the stop claw 21 is a resin molded product and has 16 teeth, and the rotation angle θ of the sponge roller 20 is about 50 degrees. The stopper 22 is made of a leaf spring made of stainless steel.

In the first embodiment, the sponge roller 20 is brought into contact with the transfer / transport belt 4 and the transfer / transport belt 4
However, in this case, slipping is likely to occur between the transfer conveyance belt 4 and the sponge roller 20, and the rotation of the sponge roller 20 tends to have a large variation. Therefore, in order to reduce such variations, in the apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 2, a gear 24 with a one-way clutch is provided coaxially with the axis of the sponge roller 20. Connected to a gear 25 that is coaxial with the shaft,
The sponge roller 20 is surely rotated. In this embodiment, when the transfer / conveyance belt 4 rotates forward (ie, during copying or the like), the one-way clutch incorporated in the gear 24 idles, and the sponge roller 20 is stopped by the stop claws 21 to stop. While the surface of the transfer belt 4 is rotated in reverse, the rotational driving force of the transfer belt 4 is transmitted via the gears 26 and 24, and the sponge roller 20 is reliably rotated in accordance with the rotation of the transfer belt 4. To rotate.

As shown in FIG. 3, the sponge roller 20 of this embodiment can be easily removed from the lower case 6 by removing the snap ring 26 and the gear 24 including the one-way clutch. This makes it convenient to periodically perform maintenance such as cleaning and replacement.

In addition, instead of the sponge roller 20, a flocking brush roller 30 shown in FIG. 4 can be used. The flocked brush roller 30 is obtained by flocking the brush material 32 in a loop on the base 31, paper dust is caught on the loop-shaped portion of the brush material 32, and furthermore, the effect of removing paper dust on the surface of the transfer conveyance belt 4 is improved. Can be expected.

[0021]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the transfer / conveying belt cleaning device uses the rotatable sponge roller to move the surface of the transfer / conveyor belt in contact with the surface of the transfer / conveyor belt in the reverse direction. It is always rotated so that it is always refreshed, so that paper dust can be removed with stability over time, and it can be used even when using paper that generates a lot of foreign matter such as paper dust, such as recycled paper. is there.

In the transfer / transport belt cleaning device of the present invention, the rotational drive system of the sponge roller and the rotational drive system of the transfer / transport belt are connected by a gear via a one-way clutch. In addition, there is an effect that the sponge roller can be surely rotated without being affected by deformation of the sponge, slip at the time of sliding contact, and the like.

In the transfer / transport belt cleaning device according to the third aspect, since the sponge roller is detachably supported by the case supporting the transfer / transport belt, the cleaning device is provided with the same effects as those of the first and second aspects, and also performs periodic cleaning. And maintenance such as replacement can be easily performed.

In the transfer / transport belt cleaning device according to the fourth aspect, instead of the sponge roller, a brush roller formed by implanting brush material in a loop shape is used. In addition, there is an effect that the paper dust removing effect can be further improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a conventional transfer and transport belt cleaning device.

FIG. 2 is a side sectional view showing an enlarged main part of an embodiment of a transfer and transport belt cleaning device according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged perspective view showing a main part of a second embodiment of a transfer / conveying belt cleaning device according to the present invention;

FIGS. 4A and 4B are an enlarged perspective view and a cross-sectional view, respectively, showing a main part of a brush roller that can be used in the transfer / conveying belt cleaning device according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Driving roller of transfer unit 2 Cleaning blade 4 Transfer conveyance belt 5 Toner collection coil 6 Lower case 8 Photoreceptor drum 9 Pre-transfer static elimination lamp 10 Registration roller 11 Follower roller 20 Sponge roller 21 Stop claw 22 Stopper 23 Mylar 24 Gear with one-way clutch 25 Gear 26 Snap ring 30 Flocked brush roller 32 Brush material

Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Ryo Tagami 1-3-6 Nakamagome, Ota-ku, Tokyo Inside Ricoh Co., Ltd.

Claims (4)

[Claims] An apparatus for cleaning a transfer conveyor belt, which transfers a transfer sheet to a transfer unit and then electrostatically attracts and fixes the transfer sheet to a sheet discharge unit, wherein the fixing and discharging of the transfer sheet from the transfer unit of the transfer transfer belt is performed. A sponge roller is disposed rotatably and slidably in contact with the surface of the transfer conveyance belt on the downstream side of the transfer unit and on the upstream side of the cleaning blade along the conveyance direction to the paper unit, and the edge of the cleaning blade A cleaning device for the transfer conveyance belt, wherein the sponge roller is interlocked with the transfer conveyance belt during a reverse driving operation of the transfer conveyance belt for removing paper dust from the transfer conveyance belt. 2. The transfer / transport belt cleaning device according to claim 1, wherein the rotational drive system of the sponge roller is gear-connected to the rotational drive system of the transfer / transport belt via a one-way clutch. 3. The transfer and transport belt cleaning device according to claim 1, wherein the sponge roller is detachably supported by a case that supports the transfer and transport belt. 4. The transfer / conveying belt cleaning apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a brush roller formed by implanting a brush material in a loop is used instead of the sponge roller.