JP6350436B2 - Image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus.

  An electrophotographic image forming apparatus charges a photosensitive drum by discharging. An electrostatic latent image is formed on the peripheral surface of the charged photosensitive drum by the light beam emitted from the beam emission port of the optical scanning device. The electrostatic latent image formed on the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum is developed into a toner image by supplying toner from the developing device.

  When the photosensitive drum is charged by discharge, ozone is generated. If ozone stays around the photosensitive drum, there is a risk that the charging performance of the photosensitive drum will deteriorate and the image quality will deteriorate. For this reason, various techniques for suppressing the retention of ozone around the photosensitive drum have been proposed.

  For example, Patent Document 1 discloses an image forming apparatus including a fan and an ozone adsorption filter. The fan discharges the air around the photosensitive drum through the ozone adsorption filter to the outside of the image forming apparatus.

JP-A-5-11576

  However, in the image forming apparatus described in Patent Document 1, wind generated by the fan may reach the optical scanning device. When the wind reaches the optical scanning device, foreign matter may adhere to the dust-proof glass that covers the beam emission port, and image quality may deteriorate.

  In view of the above problems, an object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus capable of suppressing adhesion of foreign matter to dust-proof glass while suppressing stagnation of ozone in the vicinity of a photosensitive drum.

  The image forming apparatus of the present invention includes an image carrier, a charging device, an optical scanning device, a fan, and a wind direction changing member. The charging device charges the image carrier by discharging. The optical scanning device has a beam exit through which beam light is emitted and irradiates the image carrier charged by the charging device with the beam light. The fan generates wind. The wind direction changing member changes the direction of the wind generated by the fan so as to be directed to the image carrier before the wind reaches the beam exit.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to suppress adhesion of foreign matter to the dust-proof glass while suppressing stagnation of ozone around the photosensitive drum.

1 is a perspective view showing an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a partial cross-sectional perspective view showing the inside of the right side surface of the housing included in the image forming apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is an enlarged view which shows the wind direction change member of FIG. 3, and its vicinity. It is a perspective view which shows the wind direction change member which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a front view which shows the wind direction change member which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the flow of the wind generate | occur | produced with the suction fan which concerns on embodiment of this invention.

  An image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In the drawings, the same or corresponding parts are denoted by the same reference numerals and description thereof is not repeated.

  First, the configuration of the image forming apparatus 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. As shown in FIG. 1, the image forming apparatus 1 is, for example, an electrophotographic printer. The image forming apparatus 1 includes a housing 100. The housing 100 has a right side surface 101. As shown in FIG. 2, the image forming apparatus 1 further includes a suction fan 110. The suction fan 110 is disposed inside the housing 100 on the right side surface 101 side, and sucks air from the outside of the housing 100. As a result, wind is generated inside the housing 100.

  Next, the configuration of the image forming apparatus 1 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 3 is the right side 101 side of the image forming apparatus 1 and the far side is the left side of the image forming apparatus 1. In FIG. 3, the suction fan 110 is indicated by a two-dot chain line for easy understanding.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the image forming apparatus 1 includes a conveyance unit 2 that conveys the sheet S, a sheet feeding unit 3 that feeds the sheet S one by one to the conveyance unit 2, and a sheet S. The image forming unit 4 further includes an image forming unit 4 that forms an image, a fixing unit 5 that fixes the image to the sheet S, a discharge unit 6 that discharges the sheet S to the outside of the housing 100, and a wind direction changing member 10. In the present embodiment, the image forming unit 4 faces the suction fan 110. The image forming unit 4 is at least partially cooled by the wind generated from the suction fan 110.

  The image forming unit 4 includes a charging device 41, an optical scanning device 42, a developing device 43, a photosensitive drum 44 that is an example of an image carrier, a transfer roller 45, a cleaning device 46, and a charge removal device 47.

  The photosensitive drum 44 carries an electrostatic latent image and a toner image. In the present embodiment, the photosensitive drum 44 has a rotation shaft 44 a (an example of a long axis) that extends in the left-right direction of the image forming apparatus 1. The photosensitive drum 44 rotates in the rotation direction R1 about the rotation shaft 44a. The photoconductor drum 44 is, for example, an OPC (Organic Photo Conductor) drum.

  The charging device 41, the developing device 43, the transfer roller 45, and the cleaning device 46 are arranged around the photosensitive drum 44 in this order along the rotation direction R1 of the photosensitive drum 44.

  The charging device 41 charges the photosensitive drum 44 to a predetermined potential by discharging. In the present embodiment, the charging device 41 is disposed above the photosensitive drum 44.

  The optical scanning device 42 includes an optical system 421, a beam emission port 422, and a dustproof glass 423. The optical system 421 can include, for example, a light source, a polygon mirror, and a condenser lens. The dust-proof glass 423 covers the beam exit port 422. Beam light L <b> 1 is emitted through the beam emission port 422 and the dust-proof glass 423. In the present embodiment, the optical scanning device 42 is disposed above the charging device 41. The light beam L 1 passes between the charging device 41 and the developing device 43 and is irradiated onto the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 44. Specifically, the peripheral surface of the photoconductive drum 44 is scanned along the main scanning direction (direction parallel to the rotation axis 44a of the photoconductive drum 44) by the beam light L1. The optical scanning device 42 irradiates the photosensitive drum 44 with the beam light L1 based on the image data. As a result, an electrostatic latent image corresponding to the image data is formed on the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 44.

  The developing device 43 supplies toner to the photosensitive drum 44 and develops the electrostatic latent image formed on the photosensitive drum 44 to form a toner image.

  The transfer roller 45 is disposed to face the photoconductive drum 44 and transfers the toner image formed on the photoconductive drum 44 to the sheet S. The sheet S on which the toner image is transferred is conveyed to the fixing unit 5.

  The cleaning device 46 removes the toner remaining on the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 44.

  The static eliminator 47 irradiates the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 44 with the neutralizing light L <b> 2 to remove residual charges on the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 44. In the present embodiment, the neutralization device 47 irradiates the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 44 with the neutralization light L <b> 2 from between the cleaning device 46 and the charging device 41. The static eliminator 47 is supported by a support member 471 provided in the image forming apparatus 1. The support member 471 extends in the left-right direction of the image forming apparatus 1. In the present embodiment, the support member 471 is disposed above the cleaning device 46 and the charging device 41 and below the optical scanning device 42.

  In the present embodiment, the developing device 43 is cooled by the wind generated from the suction fan 110. Further, part of the wind generated by the suction fan 110 flows upward to cool the optical scanning device 42 and the charge removal device 47.

  The wind direction changing member 10 changes the direction of the wind generated by the suction fan 110. In the present embodiment, the wind direction changing member 10 is formed integrally with the support member 471.

  Next, the wind direction changing member 10 will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. FIG. 4 shows the wind direction changing member 10 as viewed from the right side of the image forming apparatus 1.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the wind direction changing member 10 includes a protruding shape that protrudes from the front surface 471 a of the support member 471 toward the front of the image forming apparatus 1. In the present embodiment, a part of the wind generated from the suction fan 110 and flowing upward flows along the front surface 471a and hits the wind direction changing member 10. As shown in FIG. 5, the wind direction changing member 10 has a slope 11 on the right side. Hereinafter, the slope 11 is referred to as a wind direction changing slope 11. In the present embodiment, the wind that flows along the front surface 471 a hits the wind direction changing slope 11.

  As shown in FIG. 6, the wind direction changing member 10 is provided closer to the suction fan 110 side (right side surface 101 side) than the beam emission port 422. The wind direction changing slope 11 has one end 11a on the side close to the photosensitive drum 44 and the other end 11b facing the one end 11a. The wind direction changing inclined surface 11 is inclined such that one end 11a is located on the left side of the image forming apparatus 1 with respect to the other end 11b. As a result, the one end 11a is located on the leeward side in the wind flow W than the other end 11b. In the present embodiment, the wind direction changing inclined surface 11 faces the photosensitive drum 44. Further, the surface direction f of the wind direction changing slope 11 intersects with the rotation axis 44 a of the photosensitive drum 44, and the perpendicular h to the wind direction changing slope 11 intersects with the rotation axis 44 a of the photosensitive drum 44.

  Next, the wind flow W generated from the suction fan 110 will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

  A part of the wind generated by the suction fan 110 rises to the vicinity of the front surface 471a of the support member 471 through the right inner wall surface of the image forming apparatus 1, as shown in FIG. The wind that has reached the vicinity of the front surface 471a of the support member 471 flows along the front surface 471a of the support member 471 from the right side to the left side. The wind that flows along the support member 471 strikes the wind direction changing slope 11 before reaching the beam exit port 422. As a result, the direction of the wind is changed to the direction toward the photosensitive drum 44 (downward) with the effort of the wind reaching the beam exit port 422.

  When the wind generated by the suction fan 110 reaches the dust-proof glass 423, dust and foreign matters such as dust may adhere to the dust-proof glass 423. If foreign matter adheres to the dust-proof glass 423, there may be a portion that is not exposed on the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 44. However, according to the present embodiment, the direction of the wind generated by the suction fan 110 is changed to the direction toward the photosensitive drum 44 with the effort of the wind reaching the beam exit port 422. Thereby, it can suppress that a wind reaches | attains the dust-proof glass 423, and can suppress that a foreign material adheres to the dust-proof glass 423. FIG. As a result, a decrease in image quality can be suppressed.

  Further, the wind guided to the photosensitive drum 44 flows along the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 44. Thereby, the ozone staying around the photosensitive drum 44 is diffused. As a result, a decrease in charging performance of the photosensitive drum 44 can be suppressed. Therefore, it is possible to suppress a decrease in image quality.

  The embodiment of the present invention has been described above. According to the present embodiment, it is possible to suppress adhesion of foreign matter to the dust-proof glass 423 while suppressing stagnation of ozone around the photosensitive drum 44. As a result, a decrease in image quality can be suppressed.

  Further, according to the present embodiment, the wind direction changing member 10 is formed integrally with the support member 471 that supports the static eliminator 47. Thereby, the number of parts of the image forming apparatus 1 can be reduced.

  In the present embodiment, the wind direction changing member 10 is integrally formed with the support member 471, but the present invention is not limited to this. The wind direction changing member 10 may be separate from the support member 471.

  The embodiments of the present invention have been described above with reference to the drawings. However, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and can be implemented in various modes without departing from the gist thereof. For ease of understanding, the drawings schematically show each component as a main component, and the thickness, length, number, etc. of each component shown in the drawings are different from the actual for convenience of drawing. There is a case. Moreover, the shape, dimension, etc. of each component shown by said embodiment are an example, Comprising: It does not specifically limit, A various change is possible in the range which does not deviate substantially from the structure of this invention.

  For example, in the embodiment of the present invention, the form in which the present invention is applied to a monochrome type multifunction peripheral has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the present invention can also be applied to a color type multifunction peripheral.

  In the embodiment of the present invention, the image forming apparatus 1 in which the suction fan 110 is provided on the right side surface 101 side has been described as an example. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the present invention can be applied to an image forming apparatus in which the suction fan 110 is provided on the left side.

  The present invention is useful for an image forming apparatus.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Image forming apparatus 4 Image forming part 10 Wind direction changing member 41 Charging apparatus 42 Optical scanning apparatus 44 Photosensitive drum 110 Suction fan

Claims (6)

An image carrier having a long axis ;
A charging device for charging the image carrier by discharging;
An optical scanning device having a beam exit from which beam light is emitted, and irradiating the image carrier charged by the charging device with the beam light;
With fans that generate wind,
A wind direction changing member that changes the direction of the wind generated by the fan so as to be directed to the image carrier before the wind reaches the beam exit;
The wind direction changing member includes a wind direction changing slope on which the wind hits,
The image forming apparatus , wherein a perpendicular to the wind direction changing slope intersects the major axis .   The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the wind direction changing member includes a protruding shape. 3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein one end of the wind direction changing slope closer to the image carrier is located on the leeward side of the wind than the other end facing the one end. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the wind direction changing inclined surface faces the image carrier. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein a surface direction of the wind direction changing slope intersects the major axis. A static eliminator for neutralizing the image carrier;
A support member for supporting the static eliminator,
Wherein the air deflecting member to the support member are integrally formed, the image forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5.

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