JP2002162880A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image forming device equipped with a toner recycling classification device capable of effectively removing paper powder and the flocculated lump of toner in the toner recovered from an image carrier or the like and restraining the occurrence of an abnormal image while contriving the effective utilization of resources. SOLUTION: The toner recycling classification device 8 is provided with respective recovered toner carrying devices 60 carrying the toner discharged from cleaning means 30 and 40 or a transfer means, a driving means for driving the respective recovered toner carrying devices, classification means 71 and 200 for classifying the toner, a toner carrying means for carrying the classified toner to a developing means and recycling it, and a recovered toner bottle to which the toner is recovered. The classification means is installed at least at two spots in a distance that the toner discharged from the cleaning means or the transfer means is carried to the developing means.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electrophotographic image forming apparatus provided with a toner recycle classification device, and more particularly, to a toner recycling mechanism for reusing and reusing residual toner collected from an image carrier or the like to a developing means. And a classifier for removing foreign substances and the like from recycled toner with improved classifying ability.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an electrophotographic image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a printer, a facsimile machine, etc., an electrostatic latent image formed on an image carrier is developed by developing with a toner supplied from a developing means. The transferred toner image is transferred to transfer paper by a transfer unit, and then the transfer paper is transported to a fixing device to fix the toner image on the transfer paper. After the toner image is transferred onto the transfer paper, residual toner adhered to the image carrier (image carrier drum) and the like is removed by a cleaning device such as a cleaning blade and collected in a waste toner tank or the like. General.
By the way, in recent years, effective use of resources and reduction of operating costs have been demanded, and in order to reuse the residual toner collected by the cleaning device, the collected toner is transferred to a developing device or a toner supply device by a transfer device. An image forming apparatus is known in which the toner is returned, mixed with a new toner, and reused for forming a toner image on an image carrier again (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-17548).
No. 8). As a device for transferring the collected toner described above, a powder screw pump, commonly called a mono pump, is used as a pump having a high degree of freedom in a transfer path and capable of transferring powder, and further collects the collected toner by blowing air from an air pump. It is also known to fluidize and transport the mixture in a mixed state with air (see JP-A-11-73079). In the transfer device of the collected toner using the powder screw pump described above, the collected toner collected by the cleaning means and conveyed through the elastic body tube as a mixture with the air by the powder screw pump includes paper powder and ,
There is a considerable amount of foreign matter such as toner aggregation soul that is larger than the proper size. If these foreign substances are returned to the developing means or the like as they are and reused, abnormal images often occur such as white spots and black spots on the images due to the paper dust and toner-agglomeration soul, and there is a problem in image quality. Holding a point. It has been proposed to provide a filter device to remove such paper dust and toner-cohesive soul, but no effective sorting device is disclosed.

[0003] Classification is performed by providing a sieve (filter) section as a filter means for separating reusable toner contained in toner collected after image formation in a conveyance path of the collected toner. Devices have been conventionally proposed (for example, JP-A-6-337589, JP-A-10-260583, JP-A-4-72257,
JP-A-6-308828). In these conventional examples, a net made of a resin or a metal wire is used as a material and a member constituting the sieve portion, and the toner that has passed through the mesh of the sieve portion is sent to the developing means as a recycled toner. Was reused. The function required of the recycle toner classifier is to classify the proper size toner of a certain size or less in order to reuse it. The sorting boundary for reuse / disposal is determined by the size of the sieve mesh. Decided. If the mesh is large, the classification rate increases but the image quality decreases. Conversely, if the mesh is small, the image quality is stable, but a lot of toner must be discarded, and clogging is likely to occur. As described above, in order for the classification device for the recycled toner to perform classification stably, it is necessary to make the mesh size of the sieve portion appropriate and to not clog the mesh portion of the sieve portion. It is an important issue.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a liquid crystal display device without complicating the structure and without causing clogging.
Toner that can effectively remove paper dust and toner agglomeration soul in toner collected from an image carrier or the like by a sieve part and suppress occurrence of abnormal images while effectively using resources. An object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus provided with a recycle classification device. In a conventional electrophotographic image forming apparatus using powder toner without toner recycling, about 10% to 15% of the toner used is collected in a waste toner bottle. . On the other hand, in the present invention, by mounting the toner recycling mechanism, the waste toner recovery rate can be suppressed to about 1% to 3%. As a result, toner consumption is improved by about 10%, and the maintenance (replacement) interval of the waste toner bottle is drastically reduced by 3 to 15 times.

[0005]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image forming section for transferring and fixing a toner image formed on an image bearing member to a transfer sheet, and an image bearing section after the image formation. An image forming apparatus comprising: a toner recycling classifier that collects, classifies, and reuses toner remaining on the body, and the image forming unit includes an image carrier, a charging unit, an exposure unit, A developing unit, a transfer unit, a cleaning unit, and a fixing unit, wherein the toner recycle classification device is configured to collect the collected toner that conveys the toner discharged from the cleaning unit or the transfer unit. A conveying device, a driving device for driving each of the collected toner conveying devices, a classifying device for classifying the toner, a toner conveying device for conveying the classified toner to the developing device and reusing the toner, and collecting the toner. A toner collection bottle, wherein the classification means is provided at at least two places before the toner discharged from the cleaning means or the transfer means is transported to the developing means. I do. Claim 2
The classification means comprises a first classification means located on the upstream side of the collected toner transport path and a second classification means located on the downstream side, and constitutes the first classification means. The mesh is characterized in that the opening width of one mesh is smaller than the opening width of one mesh of the mesh constituting the second classification means. According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the mesh of the first classification means, one side of one mesh is 150 mesh.
The mesh of the second classifying means has an opening width of 500 μm or more. According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image carrier, exposure means for irradiating the image carrier with image light to form an electrostatic latent image, and supplying toner to the electrostatic latent image on the image carrier. Developing means for converting the toner image on the image carrier onto transfer paper, and a cleaning means for removing and collecting the toner remaining on the image carrier after the transfer.
Wherein the cleaning means has at least two toner outlets for discharging the removed and collected toner, and one of the toner outlets is used for removing the removed and collected toner. It is characterized in that it is connected to a collected toner conveying device for conveying to the developing means, and the other toner outlet is removed, and the collected toner is connected to a disposal section.

The invention according to claim 5 is characterized in that the cleaning means includes a mesh member for classification between the two toner discharge ports. The invention of claim 6 is
The cleaning means has a cleaning blade, a cleaning fur brush, a flicker member for scraping off toner attached to the cleaning fur brush, the mesh member for toner classification, and a transport coil for transporting toner to the toner discharge port. The cleaning fur brush is arranged with the mesh member with a predetermined penetration amount. The invention of claim 7 is
The cleaning fur brush in the cleaning means is characterized in that bristles constituting the brush are spirally wound around a core. The invention of claim 8 is characterized in that the flicker member is formed of a coil-shaped rotating member. The invention according to claim 9 is characterized in that the transport coil in the cleaning means is coaxial and has two forward and reverse winding directions.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail based on an embodiment shown in the drawings. [First Embodiment] FIGS. 1A and 1B are main structural diagrams of an image forming apparatus provided with a toner recycling mechanism (toner recycling classifier) according to a first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is an overall perspective view of the transport mechanism of the recovered toner, and FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing a configuration including a classification device of the recovered toner. The image forming apparatus includes, for example, a reading optical system (not shown) that generates image light obtained by reading a document image, and an image carrier 1
An image forming section A for transferring and fixing the toner image formed on the transfer paper to a transfer sheet; a toner recycle classification apparatus B for collecting, classifying and reusing toner remaining on the image carrier after image formation; A paper section C and the like are provided. Image forming unit A
Is an image carrier (image carrier drum) 1 for carrying an electrostatic latent image; developing means 2 for supplying toner to the electrostatic latent image on the image carrier 1 to form a toner image; Transfer means 3 for transferring the upper toner image onto transfer paper P, charging means 9 for uniformly charging the image carrier in the dark, and forming an electrostatic latent image by irradiating the image carrier with image light Exposure Means 10 and Registration Roller 1 for Supplying Transfer Paper to Transfer Position
4, fixing means 15 for heating and fixing the unfixed toner image on the transfer paper, and image carrier side cleaning means 30 for removing the toner remaining on the surface of the image carrier after the transfer.
And a transfer unit-side cleaning unit 40 for removing toner attached to the transfer belt 3b constituting the transfer unit.

The outline of the image forming process by the electrophotographic image forming section A is as follows. First, the charging unit 9 is, for example, of a scorotron type, and controls a corona discharge of a negative charge by a grid in the dark to charge the image carrier to a constant potential. The exposure unit 10 emits a laser diode corresponding to the black image, and erases the negative charge on the image carrier. The developing means 2 has a developing roller 2b and the like disposed in a casing 2a for accommodating the toner, and has a toner hopper 2c for replenishing the toner in the casing. Attach negatively charged toner to the
Form a visible image. The registration roller 14 conveys the transfer paper to the transfer section in synchronization with the exposure timing. The transfer unit (separation unit) 3 includes a transfer corotron 3a and a transfer belt 3
The transfer belt 3b is positively charged by the discharge from the transfer corotron 3a, and the negatively charged toner image is transferred onto the transfer paper P. At the same time, the transfer paper is separated from the image carrier 1 and conveyed. The image carrier cleaning means 30 and the transfer body cleaning means 40 scrape off the toner remaining on the image carrier 1 and the toner on the transfer belt 3b with cleaning blades 31 and 41 and a (cleaning) fur brush (not shown), and discharge the toner. The toner is discharged from the units 32 and 43 and collected by the collected toner conveying device 60. Each collected toner transport device 60 is connected to a toner recycling classifier B. The toner recycling classifier B is driven in a toner conveying pipe 61 for conveying the toner discharged from the cleaning means 30, 40, and rotates the toner collecting coil 62 for conveying the toner, and drives the toner conveying coil 62. Driving means (motor) 63 for performing
A first classifying unit 71 for classifying the toner, and a toner conveying unit 9 for conveying the toner classified by the first classifying unit 71 to the toner hopper 2c of the developing unit 2 for reuse.
0, a waste toner bottle 100 for collecting waste toner, a toner transport tube 101, a second classifying means 200 disposed in the toner hopper 2c, and the like. A characteristic feature of the present invention is that the classification means for removing foreign matters such as paper dust and toner agglomerate from the collected toner includes the cleaning means 30,
The point is that it is arranged at least at two places between 40 and the developing means 2. Driving means 63 and gears 63a, 63
Since the driving force from b rotates the toner collecting coil 62, the collected toner discharged from each of the discharge units 32 and 43 is conveyed through the toner conveying pipe 61 into the first classifying unit 71. The first classifying means 71 includes a basket-shaped mesh (sieve portion) 81 arranged inside the outer wall 80 and integrated with the shaft 62 a of the toner collecting coil 62 and driven to rotate, and a mesh (first mesh) 81. The stirrer 82 includes a stirring rod 82 rotatably disposed therein, and an opening 83 for dropping toner that is provided downstream of the mesh 81. Collected toner transport device 60
Is projected into the mesh 81, and the collected toner that has been conveyed is discharged into the mesh 81.

A rotary shaft protruding from the downstream end surface of the mesh 81 has a D-shaped hole as shown in FIG. 4, and a shaft 62a of a toner collecting coil is integrally fitted in the D-shaped hole. It is rotated by the toner collecting motor 63. The first mesh 81 sorts (classifies) the collected toner by its mesh. The size of the mesh is, for example, a quadrilateral having a side of about 100 to 150 μm (FIG. 5), and a toner having a particle size of about 10 μm passes through and is reused as a recycled toner. A stirring rod 82 is provided in the mesh 81 to prevent clogging of the mesh (FIG. 3). Also,
Paper dust (such as paper fibers) and coagulated toner (thickness of the toner) that cannot pass through the mesh 81 are discharged from the opening 83 on the downstream side of the mesh portion to the waste toner bottle 100.
It is dropped and collected. The toner conveying means 90 transfers driving force from a toner pump motor 98 serving as a driving source to the gear 9.
The toner transfer coil 91 includes a toner transfer coil 91 that is transmitted through the first and second transfer rollers 7 and 96 and is driven to rotate. The reusable toner (recycled toner) dropped through the mesh of the mesh 81 is
1 and is transported into the toner pump 92 by the rotation of the toner transport coil 91 driven by the motor 98. The toner pump 92 is composed of a rotatable metal rod 95 called an inner rotor and an outer fixed elastic rubber 94 called a stator. The rotor 95 is engaged with the stator 94 by engaging the rotor 95 with the stator 94. And the air supplied from the air pump motor 102 becomes a mixture with the toner to form a toner mixture.
1 and is recycled to the toner-hopper 2c of the developing device 2 (FIG. 1). The toner hopper 2c has a toner
A pressure release filter 205 is provided for the air to be supplied together with the air. The waste toner bottle 100 is provided with a waste toner full detecting means (not shown). A tuning fork type vibration sensor is used to detect waste toner fullness.
When there is no toner, the vibration frequency is low, and when there is a collected toner, it becomes high, and it is detected that toner has accumulated in the waste toner bottle. At this time, a message is displayed on the operation unit, and thereafter, after a maximum of 1000 copies have been made, the machine stops and the start key remains red. Reset after full detection is performed by waste toner bottle set detection.

As shown in FIG. 1 (a), the second classifier 200 has a second mesh 201 provided at a recycle toner insertion port provided above the toner hopper 2c and having a side having an opening width of about 500 μm. Is provided. That is, the second mesh 201 is interposed between the discharge port of the toner transport tube 101 and the toner hopper 2c. The recycled toner conveyed by the toner conveying tube 101 is cooled while being conveyed so far, and the second mesh 201 forms the first mesh 81 (the mesh is a quadrilateral having a side of about 100 to 150 μm). The agglomerated toner mass that has passed through is also fined again and sent to the toner hopper 2c. As described above, in the above-described embodiment, the toner collected by the cleaning units 30 and 40 is separated into the recycled toner that is reused by the first mesh 81 after the cleaning device is discharged and the foreign matter such as waste toner and paper powder that are discarded. Then, the recycled toner to be reused is cooled while being conveyed to the insertion port of the developing means by the toner conveying means 90, and the aggregated toner mass that has passed through the first mesh 81 is also cooled by the second mesh 201. Since the toner is fined again, stable toner recycling can be performed.

Next, FIG. 1B is an enlarged sectional view showing another embodiment of the second mesh. The second classifier 200 according to this embodiment includes a rotating brush 210 just above the second mesh 211, and the rotating brush 210
Is rotated, so that the toner rubs against the second mesh 211, so that the aggregated toner mass that has passed through the first mesh is again fined and sent to the toner hopper 2c. According to this method, the toner can be sent to the toner hopper without causing more clogging. Further, by rotating the rotating brush 210 in the normal and reverse directions, even if the brush has fallen in one direction, if the brush is rotated in the opposite direction, the tips of the hairs enter the classification mesh 211 to reliably prevent clogging.

FIGS. 6A and 6B are timing charts showing a control method (toner recycle operation timing) of the image forming apparatus according to the present invention, as shown in FIG. The toner pump drive motor 98 rotates normally in synchronization with the toner recovery motor 63. Also,
At the time of copying stop (b), the toner recycle classification device B has the toner pump drive motor 98 and the toner pump clutch 110 (not shown). It is possible to operate it. Thus, for example, even when the copy is not used for a long period of time, the toner attached to the classification means 71 and the toner pump 92 is degraded with time or suddenly heated to a high temperature by driving the toner recycle classification device B after a certain period of time. There is no sticking due to exposure, and it can be used stably without causing toner clogging. The reason that the air pump motor 102 is operated for about 2 to 4 seconds longer than the toner pump clutch 110 is to efficiently transport the toner in the toner transport tube 101 and to prevent toner clogging in the tube. is there. The control of the driving of each unit is performed by a CPU (not shown).
It is needless to say that the control is carried out by the control unit. As described above, in this embodiment, the first mesh 81 has one side
By setting the opening width to 50 μm or less, the second mesh 211 having an opening width of 500 μm or more on one side can be easily separated from a recycled toner to be discarded and a foreign matter such as waste toner or paper powder to be discarded. As a result, the aggregated toner mass can be efficiently refined again without cooling the aggregated toner mass without clogging the recycled toner, and stable classification and toner recycling can be performed.

[Second Embodiment] Next, an image forming apparatus provided with a toner recycling mechanism (toner recycling classifier) according to a second embodiment of the present invention will be described.
FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating a main configuration (image forming unit) of the image forming apparatus. The image forming section of the image forming apparatus includes an image carrier (image carrier drum) 1 for carrying an electrostatic latent image.
Developing means 2 for supplying toner to the electrostatic latent image on image carrier 1 to form a toner image; transfer means 3 for transferring the toner image on image carrier 1 onto transfer paper P; A charge eliminator 8 for eliminating charge by erasing the entire surface of the LED in order to eliminate negative charges remaining on the body, a charger 9 for uniformly charging the image carrier in the dark, and irradiating the image carrier with image light Exposing means 10 for forming an electrostatic latent image on the transfer sheet, a registration roller 14 for supplying a transfer sheet to a transfer position, a fixing means (not shown) for heating and fixing an unfixed toner image on the transfer sheet, An image carrier cleaning means 30 for removing toner remaining on the surface of the image carrier is provided. The outline of the image forming process by the electrophotographic image forming unit is as follows. First, the charging means 9
For example, a scorotron system is used, in which a corona discharge of negative charge is controlled by a grid in the dark, and the image carrier 1 is controlled.
Is charged to a constant potential. The exposure unit 10 emits a laser diode corresponding to the black image, and erases the negative charge on the image carrier. The developing means 2 has a developing roller 2b and the like disposed in a casing 2a for accommodating the toner, and has a toner hopper 2c for replenishing the toner in the casing. A negatively charged toner is attached to the portion where the toner image has been formed to form a visible image. The registration roller 14 conveys the transfer paper to the transfer section in synchronization with the exposure timing. The transfer unit (separation unit) 3 includes a transfer roller 3a, a transfer belt 3b, and the like.
Is positively charged, the negatively charged toner image is transferred to the transfer paper P, and at the same time, the transfer paper is separated from the image carrier 1 and conveyed. The cleaning unit 30 removes the toner remaining on the image carrier 1 from the cleaning blade 31 and the cleaning fur brush 33 (the core 33a, the bristles 33).
scraped off in b), two discharge sections (toner discharge ports) 3
The waste toner is discharged from the collecting toner transport device 60 or the waste toner bottle (disposing unit) 17 to collect the toner.

The discharge section 34 has a transfer coil 34a disposed in the casing 30a of the cleaning means so as to penetrate in the front-rear direction, as will be described later.
Is driven by the driving force from the motor M and the gear 39 to convey the reusable toner to the collected toner conveying device 60 connected to the discharge unit 34. The collected toner conveying device 60 includes a conveying pipe 61 and a conveying pipe 61.
And a transport coil 62 that is disposed inside and is driven to rotate, and is connected to the toner hopper 2 c of the developing unit 2. The discharge unit 35 is directly connected to the waste toner bottle 17. The cleaning means 30 includes a fur brush 33 and a discharge unit (toner discharge port) 3 disposed in the casing 30a.
4 (part for transferring the toner to the collected toner conveying device 60)
And a classifying mesh member 36 between the toner and the toner that can be reused by classifying paper dust and toner-cohesive soul out of the toner scraped by the cleaning blade 31 and the fur brush 33. That is, this classifying mesh member 36 has a net-like member arranged at an appropriate position in the casing 30a,
The configuration is such that all the toner removed from the image carrier cannot be moved to the collected toner conveying device 60 unless classified by the classification mesh member 36.
The mesh member 36 can be exchanged as necessary by being detachably attached to the cleaning means together with the blades and fur brushes as consumables.

FIG. 8 is a schematic side view of the cleaning means when FIG. 7 is viewed from the right side. The image carrier, the developing unit, the transfer unit, and the like are not shown. The left side of FIG. 8 is the front of the image forming apparatus, and the right side is the rear. Cleaning blade 3
The toner scraped from the surface of the image carrier by the cleaning brush 1 and the cleaning fur brush 33 is conveyed to the mesh member 36 by the fur brush 33, pressed against the mesh member 36 by the fur brush bristles 33b, and rubbed.
Then, the reusable toner is discharged downward from the mesh holes of the mesh member, and is sent to the collected toner conveying device 60 below. The mesh member has a quadrilateral with a side of about 100 μm or a circular hole with a diameter of about 100 μm. The reusable toner passes through this hole, is conveyed to the front side (the left side in FIG. 2) by the collected toner conveying device 60, is sent to the toner hopper 2c of the developing means by the next conveying coil 62, and is mixed with new toner. used. However, lint-shaped paper dust and toner-agglomeration soul cannot pass through this hole and are carried along the upper surface of the mesh member 36 to the rear side of the copying machine (in FIG. 2, rightward of the cleaning means). Is carried.) For this purpose, the bristles 33b of the fur brush 33 and the flicker member 37 are wound in a spiral shape (coil shape), so that lint-shaped paper dust or toner-cohesive soul that could not pass through the holes of the mesh member 36. Is transported to the right in FIG.
The toner is discharged to the waste toner conveying coil 38 from a large opening 36a provided outside the image area at the end. The waste toner carrying coil 38 is coaxially and integrally rotated with the above-mentioned reused toner carrying coil 34a. Since the waste toner carrying coil 38 is integrated with the winding direction reversed, the waste toner carrying coil 38 When rotated in the same direction by driving, lint-shaped paper dust and toner-agglomerated soul are sent to the waste toner bottle 17 from the discharge port 35 on the back side of the image forming apparatus and stored.

Further, in order to prevent the toner to be reused from adhering to the holes (mesh) of the mesh member 36 and causing clogging, the bristles 33b of the fur brush 33 enter the holes of the mesh portion. The length of the hair is longer.
Further, the flicker 37 scrapes off the toner of the fur brush to prevent the fur brush from sticking to the fur brush. Further, since the fur brush 33 causes hair fall when rotated only in one direction, the fur brush 33 is controlled to rotate about 1/4 in the opposite direction together with the image carrier 1 at the end of the copying operation so as to prevent hair fall. Since the cleaning blade 31, the fur brush 33, and the mesh member 36 are consumable parts, about 300,000 copies can be replaced as a guide. This is a life that can be replaced at the same time as the image carrier. The fur brush 33, the flicker 37, and the transport coil 34a are gear-coupled on the back side of the image forming apparatus, and are driven by the same drive motor M as the image carrier. The reverse rotation of the fur brush is performed simultaneously with the image carrier 1 by rotating the drive motor in the reverse direction. According to this embodiment, with a small number of parts, the toner on the image carrier recovered by the cleaning unit can be classified for disposal and reuse and sent to the disposal unit and the development unit, respectively.
It is possible to form an image with good image quality by using the collected toner from which foreign matter has been removed.

[0017]

As described above, according to the present invention, the paper dust and the toner aggregated in the toner collected from the image carrier and the like are sieved without complicating the structure or causing clogging. It is possible to provide an image forming apparatus provided with a toner-recycling classifier capable of effectively removing resources and effectively suppressing the generation of abnormal images while effectively using resources. That is, in an electrophotographic image forming apparatus using a conventional toner that does not perform toner recycling,
Approximately 10% to 15% of the used toner is collected in the waste toner bottle. However, in the present invention, by installing the toner recycling mechanism, the waste toner collection rate can be reduced from 1% to 1%.
It became possible to suppress it to about 3%. by this,
The toner consumption was improved by about 10%, and the interval of maintenance (replacement) of the waste toner bottle was drastically reduced by 3 to 15 times. That is, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the toner collected by the cleaning unit is recycled by the first mesh (classifier) located upstream of the discharge path from the cleaning unit, and the waste toner is discarded. The recycled toner, which is separated into foreign matter such as paper and paper dust, is cooled while being transported to the insertion port (toner hopper) of the developing means by the toner transport means, where it passes through the first mesh by the second mesh. The aggregated toner mass that has been cooled is also made finer again in a cooled state, so that stable toner recycling can be performed. In the second and third aspects, the first mesh has an opening width of 150 μm or less on one side, so that the first mesh can be easily separated from the recycled toner and the waste toner and foreign matter such as paper dust. It is possible to prevent the recycled toner from being clogged by the second mesh having an opening width of 500 μm or more on one side,
Efficiently, the aggregated toner mass can be finely divided again in a cooled state, and stable classification and toner recycling can be performed. According to the fourth aspect of the invention, the toner collected by the cleaning unit can be classified into recycled toner for reuse in the cleaning unit and unusable waste toner, and can be discharged from the respective discharge ports.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, a mesh-shaped mesh for classifying toner is provided between a recycled toner outlet for reusing toner in the cleaning means and a waste toner outlet for discharging unusable toner. By providing members, not only can classification within the cleaning means,
The consumable mesh member can be easily replaced like a cleaning blade or a fur brush. According to the sixth and seventh aspects of the present invention, the cleaning fur brush for the image carrier cleans the image carrier and plays a role of preventing clogging by bristle entering the holes of the toner classifying mesh member. Furthermore, by winding the bristles of the brush spirally around the core, the toner can be transported in the thrust direction with respect to the rotation direction of the brush. According to the invention described in claim 8, the flicker member for scraping off the toner of the fur brush in the cleaning unit is a coil-shaped rotating member, so that the toner can be transported in the thrust direction with respect to the rotating direction of the fur brush. it can. According to the ninth aspect of the present invention, since the toner conveying coil in the cleaning unit is coaxial and has two winding directions, the toner can be efficiently recycled by rotating in a fixed direction. Can be transported in any direction.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a main part configuration diagram of an image forming apparatus including a toner recycle classification device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a main part of the image forming apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a configuration of a first classifying unit and a toner pump device.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a saw voice of a mesh portion of the first classifying means.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged view of a main part of a mesh part in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a timing chart of a toner recycling operation.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view of a toner recycling and classifying mechanism according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a side sectional view of the cleaning unit when FIG. 7 is viewed from the right side.

[Explanation of symbols]

A image forming unit, B toner recycling classifier, 1
Image carrier (image carrier drum), 2 developing means, 2a
Casing, 2b developing roller, 2c toner hopper, 3 transfer means, 9 charging means, 10 exposing means, 1
4 registration roller, 15 fixing means, 30, 40 cleaning means, 31, 41 cleaning blade,
32, 43 discharge section (toner discharge port), 34, 35 discharge section (toner discharge port), 34a conveying coil, 36 classifying mesh member, 60 collected toner conveying device, 61 toner conveying pipe, 62 toner collecting coil, 63 driving means (Motor), 71 first classification means, 80 outer wall,
81 mesh (sieve, first mesh), 82 stir bar, 83 opening, 90 toner conveying means, 91 toner conveying coil, 92 toner pump (powder screw pump), 98 toner pump motor, 100 waste toner bottle , 101 toner transport tube, 200 second classification means, 201 second mesh.

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. An image forming section for transferring and fixing a toner image formed on an image carrier to transfer paper, and a toner recycle classification for collecting, classifying and reusing toner remaining on the image carrier after image formation. An image forming apparatus comprising: an image carrier, an image carrier, a charging unit, an exposing unit, a developing unit, a transfer unit, a cleaning unit,
Fixing means, wherein the toner recycle classification device comprises: a collection toner conveyance device for conveying the toner discharged from the cleaning device or the transfer device; and a drive for driving the collection toner conveyance device. Means, a classifying means for classifying the toner, a toner conveying means for conveying the classified toner to the developing means for reuse, and a collecting toner bottle for collecting toner, the classifying means comprising: An image forming apparatus provided at least at two positions before the toner discharged from the cleaning means or the transfer means is transported to the developing means. 2. The classifying unit includes a first classifying unit located on the upstream side of the collected toner conveying path and a second classifying unit located on the downstream side, and constitutes the first classifying unit. 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an opening width of one of the meshes is smaller than an opening width of one of the meshes constituting the second classifying means. 3. The mesh of the first classifying means has an opening width of one side of one mesh of 150 μm or less, and the mesh of the second classifying means has one side of one mesh of 500 μm or more. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the opening width is an opening width. 4. An image bearing member, an exposure device for irradiating image light on the image bearing member to form an electrostatic latent image, and a toner supplying toner to the electrostatic latent image on the image bearing member Developing means for forming an image, transfer means for transferring the toner image on the image carrier onto transfer paper, and cleaning means for removing and collecting toner remaining on the image carrier after transfer. In the image forming apparatus, the cleaning unit includes at least two toner outlets for discharging the removed and collected toner, and one of the toner outlets is a collected toner that conveys the removed and collected toner to the developing unit. An image forming apparatus, wherein the image forming apparatus is connected to a conveying device, and the other toner outlet is connected to a waste unit for removing and collecting toner. 5. The image forming apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the cleaning unit includes a classifying mesh member between the two toner outlets. 6. The cleaning means includes a cleaning blade, a cleaning fur brush, a flicker member for scraping off toner attached to the cleaning fur brush, the mesh member for toner classification, and a transport coil for transporting toner to the toner outlet. 6. The image forming apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the cleaning fur brush is disposed with the mesh member at a predetermined penetration amount. 7. The image forming apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the cleaning fur brush in the cleaning unit has bristles constituting a brush wound spirally around a core. 8. The image forming apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said flicker member comprises a coil-shaped rotating member. 9. The image forming apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the transport coil in the cleaning unit is coaxial and has two forward and reverse winding directions.