JPS6087367A - Developing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent a detached developer supplement roller from contacting a floor surface and stabilize installation on the floor by providing the supplement port in the internal bottom surface of a hopper and the developer supplement roller adjacently, and forming a support leg part at the lower end peripheral edge of the hopper. CONSTITUTION:The hopper 38 of a supplement device 37 which is unitized and detachable has the supplement port 39 formed widely in the internal bottom surface 38a and also has the support leg part 40 projecting in one body at its lower end peripheral edge, and the developer supplement roller 41 is supported pivotally and adjacently to the supplement port 39. Therefore, even when the hopper 38 is detached and placed on a floor, etc., for toner replacement, it is set stably and the supplement roller 41 never contacts the floor, etc., so the scratching and deformation of the supplement roller are prevented and the floor, etc., are not stained.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to a developing device used, for example, in an electronic copying machine.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems]

Conventionally, in this type of developing device, especially in a device that supplies developer to a supply device body that attaches developer to the surface of an image bearing member such as a photoreceptor, an opening is provided at the bottom of a hopper in which the developer is stored. With the developer replenishment roller facing the replenishment port, this?
Iiii# It is configured so that the developer in the hopper can be replenished at a predetermined edge by the rotational drive of the roller,
The replenishment roller facing the replenishment port of the hopper is installed exposed on the bottom side of the hopper, or even if the replenishment port 2 is provided inside the horazo (-), there is a simple structure with only one replenishment roller. Therefore, the hopper wall surface on the side where the developer is scraped up by the replenishment roller must be sloped at a steep angle of 20 to 30 degrees or less to facilitate the conveyance of the developer, so the bottom area of the hopper is inevitably narrow. For this reason, if you remove the hopper from the supply device body and place it on the floor etc. when replacing the developer, it will be unstable and easily fall over, and the exposed supply roller will touch the floor and stain it.
There were various inconveniences such as being scratched or U-shaped.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention has been made under the above-mentioned circumstances, and its object is to provide a developer replenishment roller adjacent to the replenishment port at the bottom of the hopper, and to prevent the replenishment roller from protruding to the outside. It is an object of the present invention to provide a device that can prevent the hopper from causing problems and also make the bottom of the hopper wide so that it can be stabilized when placed on the floor or the like.

[Summary of the invention]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides a developing device in which a developer replenishment body is removably incorporated into a supply body that supplies developer to a to-be-developed area. A toner replenishment roller facing the replenishment port is provided adjacent to the hopper, and a support leg is formed at the lower edge of the hopper, so that when the developer supply body is removed and placed on the floor, the developer m It is characterized in that the feed roller is positioned so as not to come into contact with the floor surface.

[Embodiment of the Invention] Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the external appearance of an electronic copying machine incorporating a developing device of the present invention, and numeral 1 in the figure is the main body of the copying machine. A paper feed cassette 2 capable of automatic or manual paper feeding is installed on the right side of the copying machine body 1, and a paper ejection tray 3 is installed on the left side of the cassette 2, on which originals (not shown) are placed. A document table 4 is provided on the top document placement plate and is capable of reciprocating in the left-right direction (direction of arrow a). In addition, 5 in the figure
is a display 6 provided on the front edge of the upper surface of the copying machine main body 1;
Numeric keypad 7, exposure setting volume 8 and print key 9
This is an operation display section such as.

Next, the internal mechanism of the copying machine main body 1 will be explained with reference to FIG. The photoreceptor can be rotated in the direction indicated by the arrow in synchronization with the document table 4 by a driver #4 (not shown). This photoreceptor 1
0, a document image uniformly charged by a charger 11 and uniformly irradiated by an exposure lamp 12 is imaged on a photoreceptor 10 by a focusing light transmitter (product name: SELFOC lens array) 13. to form an electrostatic latent image, and develop the electrostatic latent image by applying a developer (hereinafter referred to as toner) to this electrostatic latent image using a developing device described later. (referred to as an image) f: is sent to the transfer charger 14 side.

The transfer charger 14 is formed on the photoreceptor 10 on copy paper P or P' that is fed from a paper feed cassette 2 that is automatically or manually fed via a paper feed roller 15 and a pair of registration rollers 16 and 16. The copy paper P or P' after transfer is AC
The photoconductor 1 is
0 is peeled off from above and passed through the conveyance path 1B to the fixing device jt19.
The toner image is melted and fixed by the discharge roller pair 20.20.
The paper is discharged onto the paper discharge tray 3.

On the other hand, the residual toner on the photoconductor 10 after the toner image is transferred onto the copy paper P or P' is cleaned by the cleaning device 21, and the electric potential on the photoconductor 10 is lowered below a certain level by the neutralization lamp 22, and the next step is performed. to enable copy operation.

Further, in the copying machine main body 1, an upper frame and a lower frame (not shown) are pivotally supported so as to be openable and closable at a desired angle (for example, 30 degrees), and the upper frame has a photoreceptor 1.
0 and around the photoreceptor 10, various devices such as a charger 11, an exposure lamp 12, a focusing light transmitter 13, a cleaning device 21, a static elimination lamp 22, and a developing device to be described later are attached by appropriate means to form an upper unit. It consists of
On the other hand, the lower frame sister transfer charger 14, peeling charger 17, fixing device 19, and discharge roller pair 20.20
, etc., and other mechanisms such as a power supply unit (not shown) are housed in the lower unit, and both units can be opened and closed using the transport path 18 of copy paper P or P' as a boundary for repair and inspection. etc. is facilitated.

The reference numeral 23 in the figure is a developing device positioned around and facing the photoreceptor 10. As shown in detail in FIGS. 3 and 4, the developing device 23 includes a supply main body 24 that supplies the toner T to the surface of the photoreceptor 10 in a brush-like manner. The installed printed circuit board 25
A toner concentration detector 26 is attached to the toner concentration detector 26 . This toner concentration detector 26 includes a rotating sleeve 27 made of a non-magnetic material and a fixed magnet 28 disposed within the sleeve 27 in order to adhere and supply toner T to the surface of the photoreceptor 1θ provided within the supply device main body 24. Detects the toner concentration on the magnetic roller 29, and when the detected toner concentration falls below a certain level, it rotates the developer replenishment roller of the replenisher, which will be described later, to remove the toner in the replenisher. T
can be dropped and fed into the feeder main body 24.

By the way, as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the magnet row 229 has magnetic poles N1. Sl.

Support shaft 2281 of fixed magnet 28 consisting of N,, S2
& is rotatably supported by the wall 24a of the main body 24 of the supply device, and this support shaft 28B is prevented from rotating and an adjustment plate 30 is fitted therein. Screw the adjustment bolt 32 loosely inserted into the long hole 3 from the outside, and then Ml, ! l Leveling plate 3
The pointer portion 30a formed in a triangular shape at one end of the side wall 24a is aligned with the groove-shaped mark 33 formed on the upper surface of the side wall 24a, and then the adjustment bolt 32 is attached to the side wall with an appropriate fixing means such as a nut (not shown). 24a, thereby fixing the fixed magnet 28 so that it does not rotate, and providing a finely adjustable pressure so that the N pole of the fixed magnet 28 can be placed at an appropriate angular position with respect to the photoreceptor 10. ing. On the other hand, in order to further adjust the angle of the fixed magnet 28, loosen the adjustment bolt 32 and move it laterally as shown by arrow C at the opening of the elongated hole 31.
If it is rotated as shown by arrow d, the fixed magnet 28 will also be rotated at the same time, so it is only necessary to tighten and fix the adjustment bolt 32 when the desired proper position is reached.

This adjustment portion can be confirmed by the deviation of the pointer portion 30a with respect to the reference mark 33. Further, the reference mark 33 may be replaced with a scale.

Furthermore, inside the supply device main body 24, there is a doctor 34 that regulates the layer thickness of the toner T adhered to the magnet roller 29, an agitation row 235 that stirs the toner T, and a roller that is used for development from the surface of the magnet roller 29. A scraper 36 or the like is provided on the toner scraping side of the stirring row 235 to scrape off the remaining toner T.

A replenisher 37, which is entirely unitized, is removably mounted on the supply device main body 24.
7 has a hopper 38 in which the toner T to be replenished is stored in the supply device main body 24, and this hopper 38 has a wide inner bottom surface 38h in which a supply port 39 opens, and the supply port 38 is formed on the lower edge of the inner bottom surface 38h. A supporting leg portion 40 that fits into the container body 24 side is integrally formed to protrude and have a slanted shape, and a developer replenishing roller 4 facing the replenishing port 39 is rotatably provided on the inner bottom surface 38IL. It is pivoted.

This replenishment port 241 is connected to the replenisher 3 as shown in FIG.
The rotary support shaft 41a facing the external side wall of 7 is the ratchet 42.
, a ratchet mechanism composed of a ratchet lever 43, a ratchet link 44, and a spring 45, whose rotation is controlled by a solenoid 46 that operates the ratchet link 44, and a gear 42 that rotates the ratchet 42. This can be done by operating the solenoid 46 and gear 47 based on the signal detected by the toner concentration detector 26 described above.

Further, on the inner bottom surface 38m of the hopper 38, a stirring blade-shaped supply o-yts is rotatably supported in parallel with the supply port 241 in a horizontal direction of 1 km, and this supply roller 48 is , through the gear 49, and the above-mentioned supply Lonia 4, and these two ports -241,
48 has a configuration in which it is rotated along the direction of scraping off the toner T from the upper side to the lower side with respect to the left and right inclined inner wall surfaces 38b and 38cK of the hopper 38, as shown by arrows e and f.

In addition, 50 in the figure is the one side inclined wall surface 3 in the hopper 38.
A toner empty lever for detecting the amount of toner in the hopper is rotatably supported on the upper end of the hopper 7f.As shown in FIG. 8, a plurality of detection levers 52, 53.
54 are spaced apart from each other and their free ends 5
2a.

53&, 54a are formed wide in a T-shape so that they can be positioned close to the upper side of the supply roller 41, and a magnet 55 is built in the free end 541L of the detection lever 54 on one side. . These detection levers 52,
53 and 54 are vertically moved by their own weight according to the amount of toner in the hopper 38, and the support shaft 5 has one end 51m having an operation lever 56f, which is connected to the replenishment roller 41.
Facing the outside where the gear 47 that rotationally drives the is arranged,
The operating lever 56 is engaged with an eccentric cam 57 provided coaxially with the gear 47, and the rotation of the eccentric cam 57 biases the detection levers 52, 53, and 54 to constantly swing in the vertical direction. This swinging action causes the hopper 3 to
Toner Tt in 8 can be stirred. In addition, 58 in the figure is a reed switch attached to the printed circuit board 25 of the supply device main body 24, and is located at a position corresponding to the detection lever 54 of the toner empty lever 50 provided in the hopper 38, so that the amount of toner in the hopper is empty. When the detection lever 54 is in a hanging state, the detection lever 54 operates indirectly due to the magnetic action caused by the proximity movement of the magnet 55 built into the free end 54a of the detection lever 54, thereby detecting the empty state of the toner T in the hopper 38. be.

Furthermore, numeral 59 in the figure is a hopper cover that covers the upper end of the hopper 38. This hopper cover 59
A toner supply port 60 is formed in the opening, and this supply port 6
0, a cover plate 61 is pivotally supported to be openable and closable. and,
An elastic sealing material 62 such as a sponge is provided on the back side of the lid plate 61.
is attached, and its pivot end edge 61m side faces the printed circuit board 25 side of the supply device main body 24. As shown in FIG. 9, an inverted-shaped link 64 containing a built-in magnet 63 is rotatably provided on one side of the pivot end edge 61m of the cover plate 61, while the end of the synchronizer 4 A reed switch 65 is attached to the toner empty switch 58 on the printed circuit board 25 of the supply device main body 24 adjacent to the portion 64m when the lid plate 61 is closed, and the magnet 63 built in the link 64 is operated in close proximity. The reed switch 65 is operated by the magnetic action of the reed switch 65, and the closed state of the cover plate 61 is detected.

Further, as shown in FIG. 10, the hopper cover 59
The gap between the opening edge 6Qa of the supply port 60 and the pivot edge 6jh of the cover plate 61 has a thickness of 0.03 to 0.05 mm.
A sealing material 66 such as a polyester sheet is interposed, one end 66at of this sealing material 66 is clamped and fixed between the lid plate 61 and the elastic sealing material 62, and the other end 66b is folded onto the back side of the hopper cover 59. By bending and fixing with adhesive or the like, the toner T in the hopper 38 is prevented from scattering to the outside when the ring plate 6 is opened and closed.

That is, according to the fc configuration described above, the supply roller 48 is attached to the inner bottom surface 38h of the hopper 38 of the supply device 37.
41 in a side-by-side state in the horizontal direction, and the rotation direction of these two ports 241, 48 is set to the hopper inner wall surface 38b,
Since the toner T is rotated in the direction of scraping off the toner T from top to bottom along the inclination direction of 38c, the toner T near the wall surface is always subjected to a downward force, thereby preventing the toner from adhering to the wall surface. , inside bottom of hopper 38
Even if th is wide, the toner T that tends to accumulate on one side can be smoothly conveyed by the supply roller 48 until the side of the supply roller 4 is empty. By forming a protruding support leg 40f on the periphery that fits into the feeder main body 24, the capacity inside the hopper can be increased.Furthermore, the hopper 38 can be removed from the feeder main body 24 and placed on the floor etc. when replacing toner. It can be placed in a stable state even when
is provided in the hopper, and the length of the support leg 4θ is
Since it is located higher than the floor, it does not touch the floor, etc., and prevents the replenishment roller 4.1 from being damaged or deformed.
The floor etc. will not get dirty.

In addition, a replenishment port whose rotation is restricted by a signal from the toner 9 degree detector 26 depending on the toner concentration of the magnetic roller 29 is provided.
, 741 is operated by a solenoid 46 and can be easily controlled.

Furthermore, the toner empty lever 50 that detects the amount of toner in the hopper is a group of detection levers 5 with wide tips.
2, 53, 54, and is biased in a direction away from the toner empty switch 58 so as to be able to swing up and down by the rotation of an eccentric cam 57' coaxially provided with the gear 47 that interlocks the replenishment port 241. When there is enough toner in the hopper, the toner easily enters between the detection lever 52, 53, 54 and the switch 58 corresponding to the outside, and the gap between them can be maintained reliably. In addition to increasing the reliability of the switch,
The toner in the hopper can be stirred at the same time by swinging the detection levers 52, 53, and 54 by the eccentric cam 52, and the toner is conveyed to the replenishing roller 4 side more smoothly.

Furthermore, an opening/closing detection switch 6 of an opening/closing base plate 61 provided on a hopper cover 59 that covers the upper end of the hopper 38 is provided.
5 together with the toner empty switch 58
By installing on the same printed circuit board 25 on the 4th side,
The parts required for these installations can be omitted.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, the developer replenishment roller is provided so as to face the replenishment port on the inner bottom surface of the hopper, and the support legs are formed on the lower edge of the hopper. Even if the developer replenishment roller is removed from the supply device and placed on the floor, etc., it will not touch the floor because it is located at least as far from the floor as the height of the supporting legs and is inside the hopper. Not only does it not stain the floor,
Damaged or deformed sushi, and even worse, the supply roller!
lli! By contacting the hopper, the bottom surface of the hopper can be made wider, which improves stability during loading, and has other practical effects.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an external view of an electronic copying machine incorporating a developing device according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a sectional view schematically showing the internal structure of the electronic copying machine. FIG. 4 is an enlarged vertical sectional view of one embodiment; FIG. 5 is an explanatory view of the main parts showing the adjustment state of the magnet roller; FIG. 7 is an external view of one side of the developing device, FIG. 8 is an explanatory view showing the toner empty lever installed, and FIG. 9 is an external view of the other side of the developing device. FIG. 10 is an enlarged sectional view of the main part of the hopper cover. 23...Developing device, 24...Supplier main body, 32...
- Replenisher, 38...Hopper, 38a...Inner bottom portion, 39...Replenishment port, 40...Support leg portion, 41...Developer supply roller, 48...Developer supply roller. Applicant's agent Patent attorney Takeshi Suzue Buta Figure 3 23 Figure 4 Figure 6 Figure 7 Figure 8 Figure 10 Figure 9

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a parent device in which a developer replenishment body is removably incorporated into a supply body that supplies developer to a developing area, a developer replenishment roller of the supply body facing a supply opening on an inner bottom surface of a hopper is arranged adjacent to the developer replenishment roller. and a support leg is formed on the lower edge of the hopper, thereby positioning the developer replenishment roller so as not to contact the floor surface when the developer replenishment body is removed and placed on the floor surface. Characteristic developing device.