JP6302631B2 - Image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a printer, a facsimile machine, or a complex machine thereof.

  Conventionally, a concave handle is provided to lift the image forming apparatus.

  In a conventional apparatus, when a handle for gripping the apparatus is arranged, it is necessary to secure a space for a finger to enter, and a considerable space is occupied. Also, the position of the handle may be placed next to the paper cassette. If the handle comes to the side of the paper cassette or the lower part of the paper cassette, the impact on the machine size will be large, and the machine will be downsized. It was one of the concerns.

  For example, in Patent Documents 1 to 3, in order to ensure the stability for carrying the apparatus, a concave handle is provided on the side surface of the paper feed cassette disposed on the lower side of the apparatus.

  In Patent Document 4, a concave handle is provided on the upper side of the image forming apparatus and at a height position substantially the same as the height position of the in-body discharge tray space.

JP 2010-197477 JP 2006-182365 A JP-A-2005-301181 JP2011-154219A

  However, in Patent Documents 1 to 3, since a concave handle is provided on the side surface of the paper feed cassette, the size of the device increases in the width direction of the device, and there remains a problem in promoting downsizing.

  In Patent Document 4, although it is an advantage that the image forming apparatus can be easily carried without bending down, there is a problem in stability for carrying the apparatus because it is provided on the upper side of the image forming apparatus. In addition, an effective use of space is not taken into consideration simply by providing a concave handle on the side surface of the image forming apparatus.

  The present invention has been made in view of such a situation, and provides an image forming apparatus that can be provided with a concave handle for carrying the apparatus by effectively utilizing a limited space in the casing. For the purpose.

  In the image forming apparatus according to the present invention, the components of the apparatus are compactly housed in a substantially rectangular parallelepiped casing, and a concave first handle and a concave second handle for carrying the apparatus are provided on one side and the other side of the casing. Each is formed. A first handle is arranged in a space between the transfer device and the optical scanning device, which is arranged vertically in the casing in the height direction.

  According to this configuration, the first handle can be disposed in a space-saving manner in the space between the transfer device and the optical scanning device.

  In addition, an opening / closing portion that is opened to the outside with a pivot shaft set at the lower end as a fulcrum is disposed on the other side surface of the housing, and the second handle is disposed at a position lower than the first handle in the height direction.

  According to this configuration, when carrying the image forming apparatus, when the casing is supported with the first handle and the second handle being at the same height, the casing is tilted so that the other side surface provided with the opening / closing portion faces upward. Therefore, the weight of the opening / closing part acts in the closing direction, and the opening / closing part does not open unexpectedly. For example, the second handle is disposed at the bottom of the housing.

  The transfer device includes an endless intermediate transfer belt that is stretched around a plurality of rollers that are installed in parallel on one side and the other side of the casing, and in which the center of the shaft is placed in a recumbent posture. And a cleaning device that cleans the surface. In the configuration of the intermediate transfer device, when the concave first handle is disposed below the cleaning device, toner spilled from the cleaning device can be received by the first handle, and the optical scanning device is not soiled.

  The image forming apparatus includes a plurality of developing devices arranged in parallel along the circumferential direction of the intermediate transfer belt between the transfer device and the optical scanning device. One side surface of the case of the developing device has an inclination that is separated from one side end of the housing, so that the depth of the concave first handle formed on one side surface of the housing is compact while the width direction of the housing is compact. Can be secured for a long time.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide the casing with a concave handle for carrying the apparatus by effectively using the limited space in the casing.

It is sectional drawing which shows schematic structure of the said image forming apparatus. 1 is a perspective view illustrating an appearance of an image forming apparatus as viewed from a certain direction according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a perspective view which shows the external appearance of the said image forming apparatus seeing from another direction. FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration cross-sectional view of the same image forming apparatus as in FIG. 1, illustrating a posture of the casing when carried.

  Hereinafter, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  As illustrated in FIG. 3, the image forming apparatus 10 includes a casing 100, an automatic document feeder (ADF) 200, and a control unit 300. The casing 100 has a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape.

  The housing 100 includes a first image reading unit 110, an image forming unit 120, and a paper feeding unit 130. The first image reading unit 110 is disposed at the top of the housing 100, the image forming unit 120 is disposed below the first image reading unit 110, and the paper feeding unit 130 is disposed below the image forming unit 120. . The first image reading unit 110 and the ADF 200 constitute an image reading device 400.

  The image forming unit 120 is provided with a space 83 (so-called in-body discharge unit) for providing a paper discharge tray 67 for storing a sheet on which image formation processing has been performed, with the first image reading unit 110. A part of the horizontal cross-sectional area is smaller than that of the first image reading unit 110. Examples of the paper include recording media such as plain paper, photographic paper, and OHP film.

  The image forming unit 120 includes an exposure unit 3, four image generation units 51, 52, 53, 54, an intermediate transfer belt unit 6, a secondary transfer roller 66, a fixing device 7, a paper discharge tray 67, and a paper conveyance path. 68 and 69, and performs image forming processing on the paper.

  The intermediate transfer belt unit 6 includes an intermediate transfer belt 61, a driving roller 62, a driven roller 63, and a tension roller (not shown). The intermediate transfer belt 61 is stretched between the driving roller 62 and the driven roller 63 to form a loop-shaped circulation path. The intermediate transfer belt unit 6 and the secondary transfer roller 66 are examples of the transfer device of the present invention. The intermediate transfer belt 61 is an example of an endless belt of the present invention.

  The image forming unit 120 uses image data corresponding to the four hues of cyan, magenta, and yellow, which are black and three subtractive primary colors obtained by color separation of a color image. , 52, 53, and 54, image forming processing is performed. The image generators 51 to 54 are arranged in a line along the circumferential direction of the intermediate transfer belt 61. The image generation units 52 to 54 are configured in substantially the same manner as the image generation unit 51.

  The black image generation unit 51 includes a photosensitive drum 1, a charging device 2, a developing device 4, a primary transfer roller 5, and a cleaning device 64.

  The charging device 2 uniformly charges the surface of the photosensitive drum 1 to a predetermined potential.

  The exposure unit 3 includes a semiconductor laser, a polygon mirror, a first fθ lens, and a second fθ lens (not shown). Irradiate each of the photosensitive drums 1 of the sections 51 to 54. On each peripheral surface of the four photosensitive drums 1, electrostatic latent images based on image data of each hue of black, cyan, magenta, and yellow are formed. The exposure unit 3 is an example of an optical scanning device of the present invention.

  The developing device 4 supplies toner (developer) of each hue of the image generating units 51 to 54 to the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 1 on which the electrostatic latent image is formed, and converts the electrostatic latent image into a toner image. Visualize.

  The cleaning device 64 collects toner remaining on the surface of the photosensitive drum 1 after development and image transfer.

  The outer peripheral surface of the intermediate transfer belt 61 faces the four photosensitive drums 1 in order. A primary transfer roller 5 is disposed at each position facing the respective photosensitive drums 1 with the intermediate transfer belt 61 interposed therebetween. Each of the positions where the intermediate transfer belt 61 and the photosensitive drum 1 face each other is a primary transfer position.

  The primary transfer roller 5 has a primary transfer bias of a toner charging polarity (minus) and reverse polarity (plus) in order to transfer the toner image carried on the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 1 onto the intermediate transfer belt 61. Applied by constant voltage control. As a result, the toner images of the respective colors formed on the respective photosensitive drums 1 are sequentially transferred (primary transfer) on the outer peripheral surface of the intermediate transfer belt 61, and a full-color toner image is formed on the outer peripheral surface of the intermediate transfer belt 61. It is formed.

  However, when image data of only a part of the hues of yellow, magenta, cyan, and black is input, only a part of the four photosensitive drums 1 corresponding to the hue of the input image data is static. An electrostatic latent image and a toner image are formed. For example, in the monochrome printing mode, an electrostatic latent image and a toner image are formed only on the photosensitive drum 1 of the image generation unit 51 corresponding to the black hue, and the outer peripheral surface of the intermediate transfer belt 61 is black. Only the toner image is transferred (primary transfer).

  At the time of full color image formation in which image formation processing is performed in all of the image generation units 51 to 54, the four primary transfer rollers 5 press the intermediate transfer belt 61 against all the photosensitive drums 1. On the other hand, at the time of monochrome image formation in which image formation processing is performed only in the image generation unit 51, the primary transfer roller 5 presses the intermediate transfer belt 61 against the photosensitive drum 1 only in the image generation unit 51.

  Each primary transfer roller 5 is formed by covering the surface of a shaft made of a metal such as stainless steel with a conductive elastic material, and uniformly applies a high voltage to the intermediate transfer belt 61 with the conductive elastic material. To do.

  The secondary transfer roller 66 is in pressure contact with the drive roller 62 with a predetermined nip pressure across the intermediate transfer belt 61. The secondary transfer roller 66 is a conductive resin and is made of a hard material. The secondary transfer roller 66 transfers (secondary transfer) the toner image carried on the outer peripheral surface of the intermediate transfer belt 61 to a sheet.

  The toner image transferred to the outer peripheral surface of the intermediate transfer belt 61 at each of the primary transfer positions is moved to a secondary transfer position that is a position where the intermediate transfer belt 61 and the secondary transfer roller 66 are opposed by the rotation of the intermediate transfer belt 61. Be transported.

  A sheet is stored in the sheet feeding cassette 81 of the sheet feeding unit 130. In the paper transport path 68, a plurality of transport rollers 12A and 12B are arranged. The paper transport path 68 is substantially used to send the paper stored in the paper feed cassette 81 to the paper discharge tray 67 via the secondary transfer position (transfer section in the present invention) and the fixing device 7. Arranged vertically.

  A plurality of transport rollers 12 </ b> C and 12 </ b> D are arranged in the paper transport path 69. The sheet conveyance path 69 is provided from the downstream side of the fixing device 7 to the upstream side of the secondary transfer position in the sheet conveyance direction. The paper discharged to the paper discharge tray 67 after passing through the fixing device 7 is transferred to the paper transfer path 69 with the rear end up to that point in front. As a result, the sheet is retransmitted to the secondary transfer position with the front and back sides reversed.

  The paper feed unit 130 includes a manual feed tray 82 in addition to the paper feed cassette 81. Paper is stored in each of the paper feed cassette 81 and the manual feed tray 82.

  The paper feed unit 130 feeds paper one by one from either the paper feed cassette 81 or the manual feed tray 82. The paper stored in the paper feed cassette 81 is fed by the pickup roller 11A and conveyed to the secondary transfer position via the paper conveyance path 68. The paper accommodated in the manual feed tray 82 is fed by the pickup roller 11B and conveyed to the secondary transfer position via the paper conveyance path 68.

  A registration roller 13 is disposed on the upstream side of the secondary transfer position in the sheet conveyance direction. The registration roller 13 starts to rotate at the timing when the leading edge of the sheet fed from the sheet feeding cassette 81 or the manual feed tray 82 is aligned with the leading edge of the toner image formed on the surface of the intermediate transfer belt 61, and the secondary transfer position. Supply paper to

  When the sheet fed from the sheet feeding unit 130 passes through the secondary transfer position, a high transfer voltage having the same polarity (minus) as the toner charging polarity (minus) is applied to the driving roller 62. As a result, the toner image is secondarily transferred from the outer peripheral surface of the intermediate transfer belt 61 to the surface of the sheet.

  The developer remaining on the intermediate transfer belt 61 after the toner image is transferred to the paper is collected by the intermediate transfer belt cleaning device 65.

  The sheet on which the toner image is transferred is guided to the fixing device 7. The fixing device 7 includes a heating roller 71 and a pressure roller 72. The pressure roller 72 is in pressure contact with the heating roller 71 to form a fixing portion, and the sheet on which the toner image is transferred is heated and pressed by being passed through the fixing portion. As a result, the toner image is firmly fixed on the surface of the paper. The paper on which the toner image is fixed is discharged onto the paper discharge tray 67 with the surface on which the toner image is fixed facing down.

  The image forming apparatus 10 configured as described above is a color multifunction peripheral having portability that can be used on a desktop. Therefore, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, a concave first handle 103 and a second handle 104 for lifting the image forming apparatus 10 are provided on one side 101 and the other side 102 of the housing 100, respectively. Note that the one side surface 101 and the other side surface 102 are in an opposing relationship.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the intermediate transfer belt unit 6 and the exposure unit 3 are arranged vertically in the height direction in the housing 100. In this embodiment, the relationship is such that the intermediate transfer belt unit 6 is on the top and the exposure unit 3 is on the bottom, but the vertical relationship between the two units may be reversed. The developing device 4 of the image generation units 51 to 54 is disposed between the intermediate transfer belt unit 6 and the exposure unit 3 in the height direction.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the first handle 103 on one side surface 101 of the housing 100 is between the intermediate transfer belt unit 6 and the exposure unit 3 in the height direction, that is, the developing device of the image generation units 51 to 54. 4 is arranged at the installed height. In the image forming apparatus 10 in which the housing 100 is designed to be compact, the bottom of one side surface 101 of the housing 100 is approached by the paper feed cassette 81, so that the dead space in the housing 100 is effectively used and saved. A concave first handle 103 can be arranged in the space.

  As shown in FIG. 1, one side surface and the other side surface of the case of the developing device 4 are inclined so as to approach each other toward the top in the height direction. In the present embodiment, the case where the cross section of the case of the developing device 4 is a trapezoid is shown, but the shape is not necessarily a trapezoid, and the inclination may be a curve instead of a straight line. The shape of the case of such a developing device 4 is inherently capable of compactly arranging the photosensitive drum 1 between adjacent developing devices 4 even when a plurality of developing devices 4 are arranged close to each other. It is what you want to do. As a secondary effect, the case 100 can be compact in the width direction by using an inclination that is separated from one side 101 of the case 100 on one side of the case of the developing device 4 located at the end of the line. The depth of the concave first handle 103 can be secured long. Note that the one side surface 101 and the other side surface 102 are in an opposing relationship.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, the second handle 104 on the other side surface 102 of the housing 100 is disposed at a position lower than the first handle 103 in the height direction. In the present embodiment, as shown in the drawing, the second handle 104 is installed at the bottom of the housing 100, but it is not always necessary to be at the bottom of the housing 100.

  2 and 3 show an example in which two first handles 103 and two second handles 104 are provided, but the number of the first handles 103 and the second handles 104 is not limited.

  A manual feed tray 82 provided on the other side surface 102 of the housing 100 can be opened and closed by a rotation shaft set at the lower end, and is opened outward. The manual feed tray 82 is an example of the opening / closing part of the present invention.

  Since the second handle 104 is installed at a position lower than the first handle 103, the first handle 103 and the second handle 104 are used to lift the image forming apparatus 10 as shown in FIG. By supporting the casing 100 so that the handle 103 and the second handle 104 have the same height, the casing 100 is inclined so that the one side 101 side is low and the other side 102 side is high. Then, the weight of the manual feed tray 82 serving as the opening / closing portion acts in the closing direction, so that the manual feed tray 82 does not open unexpectedly during the conveyance of the image forming apparatus 10 and does not interfere with the operation.

  The intermediate transfer belt 61 is stretched around a plurality of rollers whose axis centers are arranged in parallel on one side surface 101 and the other side surface 102 of the housing 100, and is disposed in a recumbent posture within the housing 100. The first handle 103 is disposed below the intermediate transfer belt cleaning device 65 as shown in FIG. Therefore, the toner falling from the cleaning device 65 can be received by the first handle 103, and the exposure unit 3 disposed thereunder is not soiled.

  The sizes of the concave first handle 103 and the concave second handle 104 are set to such a depth that, for example, four fingers from the index finger to the little finger can be inserted up to the second joint in order to easily lift the image forming apparatus 10. The You may make it the shape which raised the collar part of the concave handle 103 at right angle, the inclination, or the curve so that the front-end | tip of the finger inserted with the reverse hand may be hooked.

  In FIG. 1, the cleaning device is provided on the left side of the intermediate transfer belt. However, as a second embodiment of the present invention, the cleaning device may be provided on the left side of the intermediate transfer belt and above the drive roller 62. As a result, the apparatus can be made compact in a state in which the depth to put the finger of the first handle 103 is secured at a minimum. Alternatively, the secondary transfer roller may be provided as a cleaning device for the intermediate transfer belt. The residual toner on the intermediate transfer belt can be cleaned by transferring the residual toner on the intermediate transfer belt to the secondary transfer roller by applying a bias different from the residual toner to the secondary transfer roller.

  As a third embodiment of the present invention, the first handle 103 can also serve as a guide rail when the intermediate transfer belt unit 6 is attached and detached. In this case, it is preferable to form the first handle 103 in one long recess extending in the longitudinal direction of the housing 100.

  The above description of the embodiment is to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive. The scope of the present invention is shown not by the above embodiments but by the claims. Furthermore, the scope of the present invention is intended to include all modifications within the meaning and scope equivalent to the scope of the claims.

3. Exposure unit (optical scanning device)
6. Intermediate transfer belt unit (transfer device)
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Image forming apparatus 51, 52, 53, 54 ... Image generation part 65 ... Cleaning apparatus for intermediate transfer belts 100 ... Housing 101 ... One side surface 102 ... Other side surface 103 ... First handle 104 ... Second handle

Claims (5)

In the image forming apparatus in which the components of the apparatus are housed in a substantially rectangular parallelepiped casing, and a concave first handle and a concave second handle for carrying the apparatus are formed on one side and the other side of the casing, respectively. A plurality of developing devices arranged in parallel along the circumferential direction of the intermediate transfer belt between the transfer device and the optical scanning device arranged vertically in the housing in the height direction ;
The developing device located at the end of the one side surface of the housing among the plurality of developing devices has one side surface inclined so as to be separated from the one side surface of the housing, and the one inclined side surface. An image forming apparatus in which the first handle is arranged in a space using the .   On the other side surface of the housing, an opening / closing portion is provided that can be opened and closed outward with a pivot shaft set at the lower end as a fulcrum, and the second handle is higher than the first handle in the height direction. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image forming apparatus is disposed at a low position.   The image forming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the second handle is disposed on a bottom portion of the casing. Said transfer device to a plurality of rollers one side and the shaft center to the other side is placed in parallel in the housing, and the endless intermediate transfer belt which is stretched is disposed recumbent posture in the housing , and a cleaning device for cleaning the intermediate transfer belt, the first handle is disposed below the cleaning device, an image forming apparatus according to claim 1. One aspect and other aspects of the case of each of the developing device is inclined so as to approach each other as it goes on in the height direction, the image forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1-4.

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