JP2011022238A - Toner-recovering device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a toner-recovering device which requires no exclusive driving means and prevents occurrence of abnormal sound and image noise due to oscillation to convey a toner in a good state. <P>SOLUTION: The toner-recovering device has a conveying screw 20, which has conveying blades 22 provided in a conveyance part which conveys a waste toner removed from a photoreceptor drum, and conveys the waste toner by the rotation of the conveying screw 20. A wire-like stirring member 30 is swingably arranged to the conveying blades 22 a fulcrum part 33 as a fulcrum. The stirring member 30 includes the fulcrum part 33, an oscillating part 32 and a long stirring part 31. Furthermore, lifting parts 22a are formed on the stirring blades 22 located at both end parts of the conveying screw 20, and the oscillating part 32, which contacts the lifting parts 22a, reciprocally moves in association with the rotation of the conveying screw 20, and the stirring part 31 contacts and leaves the outer peripheries of the conveying blades 22 to collapse a waste toner adhering to the conveying blades 22. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a toner recovery apparatus, and more particularly to a toner recovery apparatus that recovers residual toner from an image carrier such as a photoreceptor or an intermediate transfer belt in an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a printer, or a facsimile machine.

  Usually, in an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a printer, or a facsimile, toner remaining without being transferred from the surface of the photosensitive drum is removed by a cleaning blade or the like, and the waste toner is transported with an inner wall portion having an arc-shaped cross section. It is configured so as to be collected in a waste toner container by being driven into rotation and rotationally driving a screw having a conveyance blade provided in the conveyance unit.

  By the way, this type of toner recovery device has problems such as waste toner adhering to the surface of the transport blades to prevent good transport and clogging of waste toner at the transport section. Conventionally, a comb-like scraping member made of a polyester film is brought into contact with a conveying blade to prevent clogging of waste toner, or as described in Patent Document 1, a conveying portion is formed by a protrusion formed on a conveying screw. The toner is prevented from aggregating on the inner wall of the toner, and as described in Patent Document 2, the toner is prevented from aggregating with a buffer member provided between the conveying screw and the inner wall of the conveying unit. . However, in recent years, the bulk density of waste toner tends to increase as the diameter of the toner is reduced and the melting point is lowered.

  Therefore, Patent Document 3 proposes a cleaning device in which a vibration member is provided between a brush roller that removes waste toner from the photosensitive drum and the conveying screw, and the vibration member prevents bridging of the waste toner. ing. However, this apparatus has a problem that a driving means for vibrating the vibration member is required and the apparatus is enlarged, and noise due to vibration and image noise such as uneven pitch on the photosensitive drum are generated.

  On the other hand, in Patent Document 4, an elastic member is provided on a wire-like stirring member as a bridging prevention means that interlocks with the rotation of the conveying screw without providing a dedicated driving means for the vibrating member, and the elastic member is conveyed. There has been proposed a toner recovery device in which a stirring member is brought into contact with and separated from the conveying blade by vibration when contacting with the conveying blade of the screw. However, in this apparatus, the stirring member receives a load in the thrust direction due to the load resistance caused by the angle of the conveying blade and the surface roughness, and there is a problem that excessive vibration occurs when the load is released. Excessive vibration of the agitating member leads to generation of abnormal noise and generation of image noise by applying vibration to an image forming element such as a photoconductor.

JP-A-5-257410 JP 2007-93640 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-319811 JP 2008-224726 A

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a toner recovery device that can transport waste toner satisfactorily by preventing generation of noise and image noise due to vibration without requiring a dedicated driving means.

In order to achieve the above object, a toner recovery device according to an aspect of the present invention includes:
In a toner recovery device that removes residual toner from the surface of an image carrier,
A transport unit for transporting the waste toner removed from the surface of the image carrier;
A transport screw having a transport blade for transporting waste toner in the transport section;
A stirring member that is composed of a stirring portion, a vibration portion, and a fulcrum portion, and is slidably installed around the fulcrum portion;
With
Forming a lifting part for reciprocating the vibration part in the direction substantially perpendicular to the axial direction of the conveying screw in the conveying screw;
The vibration unit reciprocates with the rotation of the conveying screw, and the stirring unit contacts and separates from the outer peripheral portion of the conveying blade.
It is characterized by.

  In the toner collecting device, the lifting unit reciprocates the vibration unit with the rotation of the conveying screw, and the agitating unit contacts and separates from the outer peripheral part of the conveying blade, so that the waste toner attached to the conveying blade is broken. Therefore, the bulk density of the waste toner that has moved to the transport unit is reduced, and the waste toner can be transported well by the screw without causing clogging. In addition, since the vibrating portion of the stirring member contacts the lifting portion and reciprocates based on the rotation of the conveying screw, the load applied to the stirring member in the thrust direction is reduced, and no noise or image noise is generated. . Furthermore, the apparatus can be configured compactly without requiring dedicated drive means for the stirring member.

  As described above, according to the present invention, waste toner can be transported satisfactorily by preventing generation of abnormal noise and image noise due to vibration without the need for dedicated drive means.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing a basic structure of a toner recovery device according to the present invention. FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view illustrating the operation of a stirring member in the toner recovery device. FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a relationship between a conveying screw and a stirring member in the toner recovery device. FIG. 4 is a plan view showing a relationship between a conveying screw and a stirring member in the toner recovery device.

  Embodiments of a toner recovery device according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  First, referring to FIG. 1, a basic configuration of a toner recovery apparatus 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described. This toner recovery device 1 is a device in which a cleaning blade 10 made of polyurethane or the like is brought into contact with a photosensitive drum 2 that is rotationally driven in the direction of an arrow A at a predetermined pressure. It is fixed. The casing 11 constitutes a housing of an imaging unit including the photosensitive drum 2 and the like. A part of the casing 11 is a conveying portion 12 which is a concave portion having a circular arc shape in cross section. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the conveying portion 12 includes a conveying screw 20 in which conveying blades 22 are spirally formed on a shaft 21. Is arranged.

  The toner collecting apparatus 1 having such a basic configuration has been conventionally mounted in an image forming apparatus such as an electrophotographic copying machine or a printer. The toner image formed on the photosensitive drum 2 is transferred to a sheet (not shown), and the toner remaining without being transferred is removed by the cleaning blade 10. The removed waste toner falls into the transport unit 12, is transported in the axial direction of the screw 20 based on the rotation of the transport screw 20, and is collected in a waste toner container (not shown).

  By the way, in recent years, the bulk density of the waste toner has increased with the reduction in the toner diameter and the melting point, and the waste toner removed by the blade 10 adheres to the surface of the transport blade 22 and is clogged by the transport unit 12. End up.

  Therefore, in the toner recovery apparatus 1, the stirring member 30 is provided in the transport unit 12. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the stirring member 30 is formed by integrating a long stirring portion 31, a vibrating portion 32 bent in a crank shape, and a fulcrum portion 33 by bending both ends of the wire. Is formed. The stirring member 30 is inserted into a hole 13 (see FIG. 1) in which a fulcrum portion 33 is formed in the casing 11, the long stirring portion 31 is opposed to the outer peripheral surface of the conveying blade 22, and is positioned in the axial direction. Can be swung around the fulcrum 33 as a fulcrum.

  On the other hand, the vibration blades 32 of the stirring member 30 are reciprocated in a direction substantially perpendicular to the axial direction of the conveyance screw 20 on the conveyance blades 22 positioned at both ends of the conveyance screw 20, that is, due to the weight of the agitation unit 31. A lifting portion 22a that lifts up against it is formed. The positional relationship between the lifting portion 22a and the stirring member 30 in the initial state of operation is as shown in FIGS. 2 (A), 3 (A), and 4 (A), and the vibrating portion 32 is the root portion of the lifting portion 22a. The stirring unit 31 is close to or in contact with the outer peripheral surface of the conveying blade 22.

  When the conveying screw 20 rotates, the vibrating unit 32 is pushed upward by the lifting unit 22a, and the stirring member 30 is moved as shown in FIG. 2 (B), FIG. 3 (B), and FIG. The fulcrum part 33 is turned upward with the fulcrum part 33 as a fulcrum, and the stirring part 31 is separated from the outer peripheral surface of the conveying blade 22. Further, when the conveying screw 20 is rotated, the vibration part 32 reaches the lowest point along the outer peripheral surface of the lifting part 22a, the agitating member 30 rotates downward with the fulcrum part 33 as a fulcrum, and the agitating part 31 becomes the conveying blade. 22 is close to or in contact with the outer peripheral surface.

  As described above, in the toner collecting apparatus 1, the agitating member 30 vibrates in the vertical direction for each rotation of the conveying screw 20, and the agitating unit 31 contacts and separates from the outer peripheral surface of the conveying blade 22 based on the vibration. As a result, the waste toner adhering to the conveyance blade 22 is broken and falls to the conveyance unit 12. The waste toner that has fallen on the conveyance unit 12 has a low bulk density and is conveyed in one direction by the conveyance screw 20 without being clogged.

  Further, since the vibration of the stirring member 30 is generated when the vibration unit 32 comes into contact with the lifting portion 22a, the load that the stirring member 30 receives in the thrust direction is reduced, and abnormal noise and a toner image formed on the photosensitive drum 2 are reduced. No noise is generated. Further, since the agitating member 30 vibrates with the rotation of the conveying screw 20, no dedicated drive means is required, and the enlargement of the toner recovery device 1 can be avoided.

  By the way, the lifting portion 22a is formed by widely forming the tip end portion of the conveying blade 22, and the outer peripheral surface in contact with the exciting portion 32 is gently changed. Thereby, the operation of the stirring member 30 becomes smoother.

(Other examples)
The toner collecting apparatus according to the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various modifications can be made within the scope of the gist thereof.

  In particular, the toner collecting apparatus is not limited to the photosensitive drum, and can be applied to an image carrier such as an intermediate transfer belt for forming a color image. Further, the member for removing the residual toner on the image carrier may be other than the cleaning blade.

  Further, the stirring member 30 may be formed by combining a plurality of members. However, if it consists of one wire as in the above embodiment, it can be easily manufactured as a simple structure. Further, the lifting portion 22 a may be formed separately from the conveying blade 22. Furthermore, the shape of the stirring part 31, the vibration part 32, and the fulcrum part 33 of the stirring member 30 can be arbitrarily changed, and the mounting structure to the casing 11 is also arbitrary.

  As described above, the present invention is useful for a toner recovery device, and in particular, waste toner can be transported satisfactorily by preventing generation of noise and image noise due to vibration, without requiring a dedicated drive unit. Excellent in terms.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Toner collection apparatus 2 ... Photoconductor drum 10 ... Cleaning blade 12 ... Conveying part 20 ... Conveying screw 22 ... Conveying blade 22a ... Lifting part 30 ... Stirring member 31 ... Stirring part 32 ... Excitation part 33 ... Supporting point part

Claims (5)

In a toner recovery device that removes residual toner from the surface of an image carrier,
A transport unit for transporting the waste toner removed from the surface of the image carrier;
A transport screw having a transport blade for transporting waste toner in the transport section;
A stirring member that is composed of a stirring portion, a vibration portion, and a fulcrum portion, and is slidably installed around the fulcrum portion;
With
Forming a lifting part for reciprocating the vibration part in the direction substantially perpendicular to the axial direction of the conveying screw in the conveying screw;
The vibration unit reciprocates with the rotation of the conveying screw, and the stirring unit contacts and separates from the outer peripheral portion of the conveying blade.
A toner collecting device.   The toner collecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the lifting unit lifts the vibration unit against a weight of the stirring unit.   The toner collecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an outer peripheral surface of the lifting portion that is in contact with the vibrating portion is gently changed.   The toner collecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the lifting portion has a wide tip end portion of the conveying blade.   The stirrer member is formed by bending a wire and integrally forming a stirrer portion, a vibrating portion, and a fulcrum portion, according to claim 1, claim 2, claim 3, or claim 4. The toner collecting device according to claim.

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