JPS6134581A - Cleaning device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To decrease spattering of removed substances from the cleaned surface by providing a part in which the end face width is thinner than the thickness of the effective width at the outside of the cleaning effective width of a blade member. CONSTITUTION:To prevent the escape of the toner which has splattered from a lower edge portion 3a of both end faces of a blade 3, an end seal 13 is provided at the outside of the both ends of the blade 3. Further the blade 3 has construction in which a part of the thickness is removed by cutting it into a triangular pillar shape at the non-contacting side to a photosensitive body surface 2 outside the cleaning effective width at both end parts of the blade in the lengthwise didrection, namely, the side which is not the edge in contact with the photosensitive body surface 2. By providing this notched part 15, the width of the blade 3 at the lower part end surface has become as small as about 1/3-1/4 at both end parts compared with it s center part in the lengthwise direction. The toner which has accumulated on a lower end surface 3b is sent outward under pressure, and thus the amout of the toner is decreased which is spattered from a lower edge part 3a of the blade both-end surfaces.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Scope of Industrial Application] The present invention is applied to image forming equipment such as an electrophotographic copying machine i micro device or a laser beam printer. The present invention relates to a cleaning device that removes deposits by bringing a blade member into contact with them. - [Prior Art] Hereinafter, a cleaning device for removing toner from a photoreceptor of an electrophotographic copying machine will be described as an example.

In an electrophotographic copying machine that uses an electrophotographic method in which a toner image is formed on a photoconductive photoreceptor and then transferred to copy paper, a toner image remains on the surface of the photoreceptor after the toner image is transferred. It is necessary to remove residual toner to prepare for the next transfer process. For this purpose, it is common to install a cleaning device to remove the residual toner; conventionally, as a cleaning device, a plate-shaped cleaning blade is brought into contact with the surface of the photoconductor to remove the residual toner that adheres to the surface of the photoconductor. The remaining toner is removed.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

However, in this blend cleaning device,
The lower part of the blade (accumulated on the surface) across both image field widths
) - is pumped toward both longitudinal end surfaces of the blade, that is, outward from the image area, and as a result, when it reaches the end of the blade, the There were cases where the particles were scattered.

[Purpose of the invention]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems and provide a cleaning device that can remove adherents such as toner from a surface to be cleaned with less scattering. be.

〔Example〕

1 and 2 are side views showing one embodiment of the present invention.

In the figure, a holder 4 rotates around a rotation axis 5.
is biased counterclockwise in FIG. 1 by a spring 8, and a holder 6 is attached to the holder 4 so as to be rotatable around a rotating shaft 7. Also,
A plate-shaped cleaning blade 3 (hereinafter referred to as a blade) for wiping off residual toner on the surface 2 of the photoreceptor 1 is supported by the holder 6 and comes into contact with the surface 2 of the photoreceptor. Note that the contact of the edge portion 3a of the blade 3 is uniform over the entire length of the edge portion 3a because it is supported by the holder 6 which is rotatable around the two shafts 5 and 7 mentioned above. Therefore, this blade support method can provide a more uniform contact state of the blade over the entire surface of the photoreceptor than the fixed support method. Further, reference numeral 9 denotes an auxiliary roller made of silicone rubber, which in addition to the role of increasing the recovery efficiency of residual toner, contacts the photoconductor surface 2 with a desired pressure and moves at a speed higher or lower than the moving speed of the photoconductor surface 2. By rotating, a sufficient sliding force is obtained, and the photoreceptor surface 2 also has the function of removing foreign matter such as paper dust, which may cause image deterioration, in addition to residual toner.

Now, the residual toner remaining on the photoreceptor surface 2 after the transfer passes between the photoreceptor drum 1 and the auxiliary roller 9 rotating in the forward direction, and reaches the edge portion 3a of the blade 3. It is released from the photoreceptor surface 2 by this edge action.

Furthermore, subsequent residual toner is also continuously removed from this edge portion 3.
When it reaches point a, it can be released, and it gradually spreads over the width of the image forming area and accumulates in the valley between the lower end surfaces 3 and b of the blade 3 and the photoreceptor surface 2. When it accumulates to a certain extent, it falls and hits the auxiliary roller 9.

It adheres to the surface, moves to the waste toner house side 12 together with the rotating surface of the auxiliary roller 9, and comes into contact with the surface of the auxiliary roller 9. The waste toner is scraped off by the scraper 10 and collected inside the waste toner house 12).

In this cleaner, in order to prevent the toner scattered from the lower ridges 3a of both end faces of the blade 3 from escaping to the outside of the cleaner as much as possible, a felt material with a diameter of ζ is placed on the outside of both ends of the blade. An end seal 13 is provided. In this cleaner, the blade is supported by a so-called equalization method, so the end seal 13 and the blade end face must be in close contact with each other, with a slight gap (approximately IB).
),have.

Now, as shown in a perspective view in FIG. 3, the blade 3 in this embodiment is located outside the effective turning width and at both end portions in the longitudinal direction, on the side that does not contact the photoreceptor surface 2. A portion of the flesh on the side other than the edge that contacts the photoconductor surface 2 is cut out in the shape of a column. That is, notches 15 are provided at both corners of both end portions. Therefore, the width of the lower end face of the blade 3 is narrower at both ends, approximately 1/3 to 1/4, compared to the central part in the longitudinal direction. Therefore, the toner deposited on the blade lower end surface 3b in the image area width is transferred to the blade 3 and the photoreceptor surface 2.
Even if the blade is pushed outward along the valley formed by the punch, the amount reaching the end of the blade is reduced in accordance with the width of the lower end surface of the blade. Therefore, the width of this width is ≦,
The amount of toner scattered from the lower ridges 3a of both end faces of the blade is also reduced accordingly.

Although the toner scattering problem q) is greatly improved in the above-mentioned embodiment alone, in consideration of the fact that the toner used in this embodiment is a magnetic toner, in addition to this, a magnetic roller 14 is provided. This results in a greater effect. As shown in Figure 2 (however, only one end is shown in the figure), the auxiliary! - A magnet roller 14 is disposed at one end of the roller 9, and falling and flying magnetic toner is attracted to the surface of the magnet roller 14 by magnetic force and captured. This magnet roller 14 is arranged with a gap between it and the photoreceptor surface 2 and is rotated, so when it is arranged coaxially with the auxiliary roller 9 16 as in this embodiment, the diameter The auxiliary roller 9 is smaller than the auxiliary roller 9, and its axial position and length are such that it avoids the image forming area, and at least the portion 15 of the blade 3 where the end face width of the tip is narrower. and the opposing region −ζ
Wander.

Furthermore, a scraper 10 a is in contact with the surface of the magnet roller 14 , similar to the auxiliary roller 9 described above, and the toner adhering to the surface of the rotating magnet roller 14 is scraped off by this, and the toner inside the waste toner house 12 is scraped off. will be collected. Note that a rubber magnet or the like may be used instead of the magnet roller 14 to provide a sufficient effect, but the greater the surface magnetic flux, the greater the effect.

In this way, in this embodiment, at least the portion 15 of the tip of the cleaning blade 3 where the end face width is small.
, a magnet roller 14 that is provided substantially parallel to the cleaning blade 3 across an opposing area, separated by a desired gap, and rotates in the forward direction of the moving direction of the photoreceptor surface 2; It is equipped with a scraper 10a that comes into contact with the.

Next, an example of the effect using this embodiment will be shown.

With the shape of the blade 3 shown in Fig. 3, the image area width X is 297
In the case of mm, the vertical length A is in the order of 330, and the horizontal length B is 2
0M, thickness 2mm, length E of one side of the notch is 5mm, length D of the other side is 11mm, thickness F of the thin part of the notched blade is 0.511Iffi, thinner from the edge of the image area An experiment was conducted using a blade with a distance G of 5.5 mm to clean the photoreceptor, and it was found that
,000~20. After creating images 0 times, conspicuous dirt around the area becomes less noticeable, and it also has a great effect on dirt on the charging wire.
Wire cleaning is no longer necessary for a long time. Note that the effective cleaning width of the blade is at least equal to or larger than the image area width of the photoreceptor.

Further examples are given in other implementations.

In the above embodiment, the cut shape of the blade is a triangular prism.

However, other examples will be shown below.

FIG. 4 shows a rectangular parallelepiped notch 20 provided at both ends of the blade 3 outside the effective cleaning width, and a wall thickness part 21 smaller than the thickness of the effective cleaning width at both ends of the blade.
It has been established.

FIG. 5 shows a curved notch 22 provided at both ends of the blade 3 outside the effective cleaning width, and a wall thickness part 2 smaller than the thickness of the effective cleaning width at both ends of the blade.
3.

FIG. 6 shows a triangular pyramid-shaped notch 24 provided at both ends of the blade 3 outside the effective cleaning width, and a wall thickness portion 25 smaller than the effective cleaning width at both ends of the blade. It has been established.

In FIG. 7, a horizontally long triangular prism-shaped notch 26 is provided at both ends outside the effective cleaning width of the blade 3.
Thickness portions 27 that are smaller than the effective cleaning width are provided at both ends of the blade.

In FIG. 8, the blade 3 is provided with slopes b and C that gradually descend from the center part a in the width direction toward both ends, that is, the thickness of the blade is gradually reduced. Even in this example No.
・27 is provided. The toner, paper dust, and other deposits removed from the surface of the photoconductor gradually move toward the blade end along the slopes b and C as shown by the arrows, but as the thickness of the blade becomes thinner, the deposits The amount of deposits is also reduced, and the scattering of deposits from the blade ends is reduced.

1 Still other embodiments are shown in FIGS. 9 and 10.

In this example, the area is outside the effective cleaning width of the blade 3 and slightly inside the side edge of the blade 3 (□ in this example).
In this case, a recess 28 or a recess 29 is provided on the inner side (about 5 cm). Note that the recess 28 has a rectangular parallelepiped shape, and the recess 29 has a curved shape.

In the case of this example, the deposits that have fallen into the recesses 28 and 29 are restricted from further movement toward the blade ends by the inner ends 30 and 31 (ends of the recesses 28 and 29) of the blade. Scattering of deposits is reduced.

In the embodiment described above, since the blade 3 is rotatably supported, the end seal 13 is not in close contact with the blade and there is a gap (approximately 1 inch) with the end of the blade.
Although this is particularly effective, the same excellent effect can also be obtained in a cleaning device in which the blade 3 is fixedly supported and is provided with a contact type end seal that contacts the blade. Furthermore, in this embodiment, the cleaning device has been described as an example in which the auxiliary roller 9 is disposed facing the blade 3 over the image forming area. Of course, the present invention can also be applied to a cleaning device provided with a scooping sheet that comes into contact with the cleaning device. The surface to be cleaned is the surface of an image bearing member such as a photoconductor or insulator used to form an image, the surface of a fixing roller, or even the surface of a transfer roller, to which toner, paper powder, etc. adhere. .

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, the present invention provides a cleaning device that can reduce the scattering of deposits removed from a surface to be cleaned.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a side view of a cleaning device to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied, Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the main parts thereof, and Figs. 3 to 10 are perspective views of the main parts of the blade applied to the present invention. be. Referring to the figure numbers, 2...Photoconductor surface, 3...Cleaning blade, 9...Auxiliary roller, 10.10a...
・Scraper, 12...Discharge toner house, 13...
End seal, 14...Magnetic roller, 15/20
・22, 24, 26...notch, 21, 23, 25
・27...Thick part of the blade. Ya-2 Pulse.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) In a cleaning device that removes deposits from a surface to be cleaned by contacting a blade member, a portion is provided outside the effective cleaning width of the blade member, the end face width of which is smaller than the thickness of the effective width. A cleaning device featuring: