JPS58159569A - Cleaning device of electrophotographic device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent solenoids from overheating and decrease in attracting force even during successive copying operation, by allowing a cleaning blade to leave and come into press contact with a photoreceptor through the associative operation of the 1st and the 2nd solenoids. CONSTITUTION:Once copying operation starts, the 1st solenoid 17 is energized instantaneously and a blade leading member 10 rotates downward around a supporting shaft 22 as a fulcrum through the 1st - the 3rd links 19-21. At this time, the leaving member 10 moves momentarily in a blade releasing direction, but a shaft part 7 is elevated by a pressure impressing spring 8 right after the 1st solenoid 17 is released from being energized, thereby bringing the blade into press contact. On the completion of the copying operation, the 1st and the 2nd solenoids 17 and 30 are energized momentarily at the same time and the cleaning blade leaves the photoreceptor. In this state, the 1st and the 2nd solenoids 17 and 30 are released from being energized and the cleaning blade is held at the separate position as it is.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a cleaning device for cleaning untransferred toner on a photoreceptor in an electrophotographic apparatus.

Conventionally, various devices have been proposed for cleaning the surface of an image bearing member of an image forming apparatus that uses a photoreceptor repeatedly.

Among these, the blade cleaning device has a structure in which a blade is brought into pressure contact with the surface of the photoconductor to scrape and remove untransferred residual toner.The device is small, has high cleaning efficiency, and has low noise and dirt inside and outside the machine, and is easy to collect. It has excellent advantages such as easy reuse of toner.

However, even if the blade cleaning method is used, there are various drawbacks.

That is, when the photoreceptor is made of selenium (St) or the like, if the cleaning edge of the cleaning blade is left in pressure contact with the photoreceptor for a long time, selenium of the photoreceptor < S
t> damage the layer or cause crystal changes in the selenium (Se) layer, changing the photoconductivity, which causes defects in the latent image formed on the photoreceptor, resulting in abnormal image quality. There is a problem.

For this reason, in the case of a photoconductor using a selenium (Sg) photoconductor, the cleaning blade is separated from the photoconductor when the duplex charger is not operating, and the cleaning blade is pressed against the photoconductor only when the copying device is used. For this reason, the cleaning device provides a rotating shaft in the holding member that holds the cleaning blade, and rotates the cleaning edge of the cleaning blade around the rotating shaft to separate the cleaning blade from the photoreceptor. It is composed of

Normally, a solenoid is used as the driving source for the above operation, but a major disadvantage of using a solenoid is that when the duplex device enters the operating state, the cleaning blade must be brought into pressure contact at the same time, and the duplicator must be kept in pressure contact with the cleaning blade. One of the reasons for the noise during operation is the need to keep the solenoid energized. Particularly for continuous copying operations, problems such as overheating of the solenoid and reduction in suction force arise, which is also undesirable from the standpoint of increased power consumption.

Although the case where the solenoid is energized during the press-contact operation has been described above, the same applies to the case where the solenoid is energized during the separation operation.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and its purpose is to ensure that even during continuous copying operations, the solenoid does not overheat and the suction power does not decrease, and that it is possible to carry out good reading and to reduce power consumption. An object of the present invention is to provide a cleaning device for an electrophotographic device that can achieve a wide reduction.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained with reference to the drawings. In the drawings, 1 is a photoreceptor as an image carrier, and 2 is a cleaning device. The cleaning device 2 includes a main body 23, and a toner transport mechanism 24 is provided at the bottom of the main body 23. The device main body 23 is provided with a rotation shaft 11, and the second holding member 6 is rotatably attached to the rotation shaft 11. A first holding member 4 is connected to the second holding member 6 by a pivot screw 5, and the first holding member 4 holds the cleaning blade 3, thereby forming a holding means B.

The shaft portion 7 at the end of the second holding member 6 projects outward from a window portion 25 formed in the device main body 23. A support portion 26 is formed in the device main body 23.
The upper end of the pressure applying spring 8 is attached to the shaft 6 via a spring engagement shaft 9, and the lower end of the pressure applying spring 8 is engaged with the shaft 7 of the second holding member 6. , these constitute the pressure contact means C.

A blade spacing member 10 is provided on the outside of the device main body 23, and this blade spacing member 1° is attached to the device main body 23 at one end via a support shaft 22, so that it can freely swing up and down. ing.

A first solenoid 17 is fixed to the lower side of the device main body 23, and a plunger I8 of the first solenoid 17 is connected to one end of the second link 20 via a first link 19. The other end of this second link 20 is the third link 2
A foot connected to the blade spacing member 10 via I,
These constitute the first spacing means E. The shaft portion 7 of the second holding member 6 is attached to the lower edge of the blade spacing member IO.
are in contact with each other.

The toner transport mechanism 24 includes a toner guide paddle 13 and a toner transport auger 14.

A blade spacing member engagement plate 27 is fixed to one side of the device main body 23, and this grade spacing member engagement plate 27
The blade pressure contact position opening 28α and the blade separation position opening 28b are formed in vertical communication. The free end of the blade spacing member 1° passes through the blade pressure contact position opening 28α.

A second solenoid 30 is fixed to the mounting seat 29 on the outer surface of the device main body 23, and a bracket 31 is fixed to the blade spacing member 10. A long hole 32 is formed. A spiral pin 34 provided on the plunger 33 of the second solenoid 30 is movably inserted into the elongated hole 32, and a spring 35 is interposed between the second solenoid 30 and the bracket 3. These constitute the second spacing means F.

The cleaning blade 3 is provided with a holding means such that the angle formed by the cleaning blade 3 and the tangent plane of the contact line between the cleaning blade 3 and the photoreceptor 1 on the uncleaned side of the photoreceptor 1 is an acute angle. It is held in B.

Next, the operation will be explained.

The collected toner falls freely on the photoreceptor 1 and passes through the toner guide plate 1.
2 to the bottom of the cleaning device 2. This toner is transferred to the toner guide pad/I/l that rotates in a clockwise direction.
3 promotes the flow and prevents the toner from accumulating on the toner guide plate 12.

The collected toner led to the bottom of the cleaning device 2 in this way is carried by the toner transport auger 14 to the front side or back side of the machine, and is stored in a toner collection container or stored in the developing machine by a means not shown. transported to and reused.

Cleaning of the surface of the photoreceptor 1 is performed by pressing the cleaning blade 3 against the surface of the photoreceptor 1.

That is, the tensile force of the pressure applying spring 8 is
Using the fulcrum as a fulcrum, pressure is applied to the cleaning blade 3 to perform the desired welding IJ+.

To release this pressure contact force, that is, to separate the rotating blade 3 from the photoreceptor 1, current is applied to the first solenoid 17, which is actuated to move the plunger 18 backward.
Second. 3rd s/ri 1'? , 20.21, the blade spacing member 10 is rotated downward about the support shaft 22, and the blade spacing member 10 rotates the shaft portion 7 of the second holding member 6.
This is done by moving the cleaning blade 3 downward and moving the cleaning blade 3 in the direction of the arrow, that is, upward.

On the other hand, the release of the separation, that is, the pressing operation is automatically performed by cutting off the current to the solenoid 17, releasing the suction of the plunger 18, and at the same time by the force of the pressure applying spring g.

The above is an explanation of the independent operations of pressing the cleaning blade 3 against the photoreceptor 1 and separating them, but the mutual relationship between the pressing and separating operations will be explained below. That is, a case where a copying operation as shown in FIG. 5 is performed will be explained.

When the print switch is turned on and the copying operation begins, the first solenoid 17 is instantaneously energized and the blade spacing member 10 is pulled downward in the direction of arrow P in FIG.

At this time, the blade spacing member 10 receives a force from the spring 35 in the right direction in FIG. 3 in the direction of the arrow Q perpendicular to the arrow P. Immediately, the first solenoid 17 is de-energized, but the position of the blade spacing member 10, which is continuously receiving force in the right direction by the spring 35, is at the blade pressure contact position opening 28α of the blade spacing member engaging plate 27. move into position.

That is, since the blade spacing member 10 is free in the vertical direction at the position of the blade pressure contact position opening m28α,
Immediately, the force of the pressure applying spring 8 is transmitted to the shaft portion 7, and the cleaning blade 3 is maintained in the pressure contact position, thereby achieving the desired cleaning.

On the other hand, when the copying operation is completed, the first solenoid 17
, the second solenoid 30 is simultaneously and instantaneously energized. The blade spacing member 10 is pulled downward in the direction of arrow P by the suction force of the first solenoid 17, so that the cleaning grade 3 is separated from the photoreceptor 1.

On the other hand, due to the action of the second solenoid 30 which is excited at the same time, the blade spacing member 10 is moved to the left in the direction of arrow Q in FIG. come into position.

In this state, the first. When the second solenoid 17.30 is de-energized, the force of the pressure applying spring g starts to work again, but the blade spacing member 10 is removed from the blade spacing position opening 28.
Since it is at position b, it is hooked at this position, and the cleaning blade 3 is held at the separated position.

In general, in a copying machine, in order to avoid unnecessary pressure contact between the cleaning edge of the cleaning blade 3 and the photoreceptor 1, it is preferable to keep the cleaning blade 3 separated from the photoreceptor 1 when the machine is shipped. In this case, the blade spacing member 10 is engaged with the blade spacing position opening 28h. After that, before the copying machine was installed and put into use, it did not have a means to almost automatically press the cleaning blade 3 into contact with it. I was going.

However, according to the cleaning device according to the present invention, as described above, the cleaning blade 3 is automatically held in the separated position when the copying operation is completed, and is held in the pressure contact position when the copying operation is started, so that the troublesome work as described above is caused. No manual operation is required during installation.

As described in detail above, the present invention does not energize the solenoid during the copying operation, but by instantaneously energizing the solenoid immediately after the start of the copying operation and before the end of the copying operation. 3 can be maintained in the pressure-contact state during copying operation and in the separated state during non-copying operation, and even during continuous copying operation, there is no overheating of the solenoid and decrease in suction force, allowing for good cleaning. It becomes possible to significantly reduce the

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a side view of one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a side view of an embodiment of the present invention.
3 is a sectional view taken along the line m--m in FIG. 1, FIG. 4 is a view taken from the direction ① in FIG. 1, and FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of the compound operation. 3 is a cleaning blade, 17 is a first solenoid, 2
3 is the device main body, 30 is the second solenoid, B is the holding means,
C is a pressure contact means, D is an image carrier, E is a first separation, and F is a second
Separation means. Applicant Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. Agent Patent Attorney Masaaki Yonehara Patent Attorney Tadashi Hamamoto (12)

Claims (1)

[Claims] A cleaning blade 3 provided on the apparatus main body 23 to clean substances remaining on the surface of the image carrier, and a cleaning blade 3 provided on the apparatus main body 23
a holding means B provided in the apparatus main body 23 for holding the cleaning blade 3; a pressure contact means C provided in the apparatus main body 23 for pressing the cleaning blade 3 against the surface of the image carrier; and a first solenoid 17 provided in the apparatus main body 23. Due to the operation, the cleaning blade 3 is separated from the image carrier.
The first separating means E that performs the ball receiving operation, and the device main body 23
1. A cleaning device for an electrophotographic apparatus, comprising a second spacing means F, which is provided at a second solenoid 30 to hold the cleaning blade 3 in a spaced position with respect to the image carrier.