JP2006276896A - Toner recovery bottle, unit, and image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

A waste toner collecting path from a cleaning mechanism is shortened to simplify the apparatus and reduce costs, and to easily replace a toner collecting bottle.
In a state in which an electrophotographic process unit is mounted on an image forming apparatus main body, a toner collection bottle is made detachable from the electrophotographic process unit at a position for directly receiving toner from a cleaning device.
[Selection] Figure 2

Description

  BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, and more particularly to an arrangement configuration and a replacement mode of a toner collection bottle that collects waste toner from a cleaning mechanism.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in an electrophotographic image forming apparatus such as a printer or a copier, what has been performed by a service person when exchanging consumables has been popularized in recent years. is there. Such a product eliminates the service charge of the service person and can greatly reduce the running cost of the product. One of the conventional methods for collecting waste toner that has been performed by a serviceman is desired, and it is desired that the user can easily collect the waste toner without getting his hands dirty.

  On the other hand, products have been remarkably miniaturized and simplified year by year, and there is a demand for shortening the waste toner collection path.

  As an example of a conventional electrophotographic image forming apparatus, an electrophotographic full-color image forming apparatus as shown in FIG. 1 will be described. The image forming unit includes a belt-like photoreceptor 1 that functions as an image forming medium, The charging device 2, the exposure device 3, the four-color developing devices 4K, 4C, 4M, and 4Y, the cleaning device 5, and the respective color images formed on the photosensitive member 1 are sequentially superimposed and transferred. The intermediate transfer belt 6 and the like are configured.

  The photosensitive member 1 is driven by the rotation of the photosensitive member driving roller 8 transmitted by the frictional force between the belt inner periphery and the roller surface. The surface of the photoreceptor 1 is uniformly charged by the charging member 2 and then exposed with a pattern corresponding to the image to be output by the exposure device 3, and an electrostatic latent image is formed on the surface of the photoreceptor 1.

  The electrostatic latent image is developed by the developing devices 4K, 4C, 4M, and 4Y to form a toner image, and the toner image is transferred to the intermediate transfer belt 6. This process is sequentially performed for each color, and a color image is formed on the intermediate transfer belt 6. A color image can be obtained by transferring this image onto the paper by the paper transfer unit 7. The toner remaining on the surface of the photoreceptor 1 after being transferred to the intermediate transfer belt 6 is removed by the cleaning device 5.

  Here, in collecting the removed toner, conventionally, the toner collection bottle 10 is disposed at a position away from the cleaning device 5, and the waste toner from the cleaning device 5 is removed by the toner collection auger 9 by the toner collection bottle 10. To the toner collection bottle 10. Conventional techniques similar to such a configuration are disclosed in Patent Documents 1 to 4 and the like.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-186891 JP-A-7-261617 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-6978 JP-A-3-38662

  Since replacement of waste toner bottles in a conventional general electrophotographic copying machine or printer is generally performed by a service person, a long conveyance path is provided as shown in FIG. A configuration has been adopted in which a toner collecting bottle with as large a capacity as possible is installed at a position where there is space.

  However, in a product whose concept is user maintenance, such a large-capacity toner collection bottle cannot be replaced. Moreover, it is desired to omit the space and parts of the collection path due to the simplification of the apparatus year by year.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, a first object of the present invention is to simplify the apparatus and reduce the cost by shortening the waste toner collecting path from the cleaning mechanism in an image forming apparatus having a configuration in which the toner collecting bottle is replaced. It is in.

  In addition, the second problem is to improve the maintainability by adopting a configuration in which the toner collection bottle can be easily replaced when the life of the toner collection bottle is shorter than the life of the electrophotographic process unit. .

  Furthermore, a third problem is to prevent toner drop at the time of replacement by replacing the recovery bottle as a unit when replacing the electrophotographic process unit.

  To achieve the first object, the present invention provides an image forming apparatus including a cleaning mechanism for removing toner remaining on a latent image carrier after image formation in an electrophotographic process unit that can be attached to and detached from the main body of the image forming apparatus. The toner collection bottle for collecting the toner removed by the cleaning mechanism is detachable from the image forming apparatus main body at a position where the toner is directly received from the cleaning mechanism.

  In order to achieve the second problem, the toner recovery bottle is detachable from the electrophotographic process unit in a state where the electrophotographic process unit is mounted on the image forming apparatus main body.

  In this case, the toner collection bottle is preferably detachable from the electrophotographic process unit along a rail provided in the electrophotographic process unit. Further, the mounting position of the toner recovery bottle is preferably below the waste toner discharge port of the cleaning mechanism that transports the toner scraped off by the cleaning blade to the front side of the main body of the image forming apparatus by the transport screw and drops it.

  In order to achieve the third problem, the toner collection bottle is detachable from the image forming apparatus main body together with the electrophotographic process unit. Close the waste toner outlet.

  As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus having a configuration in which the toner recovery bottle is replaced, the toner recovery bottle is placed on the main body of the image forming apparatus at the position where the toner is directly received from the cleaning mechanism. Since it is detachable, the toner conveyance path can be remarkably shortened, and the apparatus can be simplified.

  According to the second aspect of the present invention, the life of the toner recovery bottle is shorter than the life of the electrophotographic process unit in the configuration of the first aspect, and even if only the toner recovery bottle is replaced, the electrophotographic process unit is not removed. Since only the toner recovery bottle can be attached and detached, the ease of replacement is increased and the maintainability can be improved.

  In the invention of claim 3, since the toner collection bottle is attached and detached along the rail provided in the electrophotographic process unit, the toner collection bottle can be easily attached to and detached from the electrophotographic process unit by guiding it with the rail.

  According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the toner scraped off by the cleaning blade is transported to the front side of the image forming apparatus main body by the transport screw and dropped from the waste toner discharge port of the cleaning mechanism, and the dropped toner is removed from the toner recovery bottle. The toner can be easily collected.

  According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, when replacing the electrophotographic process unit, the toner collection bottle is also replaced integrally while the waste toner discharge port of the cleaning mechanism is closed with the toner collection bottle. An image forming apparatus with good maintainability can be obtained without incurring.

Next, the best mode for carrying out the invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 2 shows a schematic configuration of an electrophotographic full-color image forming apparatus according to the present invention. In the full-color image forming apparatus, the image forming unit includes a belt-shaped photoconductor 1, a charging device 2, an exposure device 3, a four-color developing device 4K, 4C, 4M, and 4Y, a cleaning device 5, an intermediate transfer belt 6, and the like. Has been.

  The surface of the photoconductor 1 is uniformly charged by the charging member 2 and then exposed by the exposure device 3 to form an electrostatic latent image on the surface of the photoconductor 1. A toner image is formed by development with the developing devices 4K, 4C, 4M, and 4Y, and the toner image is transferred to the intermediate transfer belt 6 to form a color image on the intermediate transfer belt 6.

  A color image can be obtained by transferring this onto the paper by the paper transfer unit 7. The toner remaining on the surface of the photoreceptor 1 after being transferred to the intermediate transfer belt 6 is removed by the cleaning device 5.

  The above is the same as the conventional example shown in FIG. In addition, the electrophotographic process unit 19 including the photosensitive member 1, the developing devices 4K, 4C, 4M, and 4Y, the cleaning device 5, and the like is detachable from the image forming apparatus main body 1 at once.

  However, the toner collection auger 9 used in the conventional example of FIG. 1 is omitted in the example of the present invention shown in FIG. 2, and the toner collection bottle 20 is electrophotographic under the toner dropping port of the cleaning device 5. It is detachably attached to the process unit 19 and receives waste toner from the cleaning device 5 directly.

  That is, the cleaning device 5 transports the toner scraped off by the cleaning blade 18 to the front side of the image forming apparatus main body 17 by the transport screw 11 and discharges the toner from the waste toner dropping port to drop it. The toner falls into the toner collection bottle 20 as it is and is collected there.

  The toner collection bottle 20 is detachable from the electrophotographic process unit 19 and can be removed from the image forming apparatus main body 17 separately even when the electrophotographic process unit 19 is mounted in the image forming apparatus main body 17. It has become.

  As described above, the configuration in which the toner collection bottle 20 is directly attached to the electrophotographic process unit 19 including the cleaning device 5 eliminates the waste toner conveyance path as shown in FIG. it can. However, in this case, it is expected that a large capacity cannot be secured due to restrictions on the arrangement position of the toner collection bottle 20. However, in any case, a large capacity bottle cannot be obtained in the case of user replacement. There is no particular problem.

  By the way, in the configuration of FIG. 2, when the toner collection bottle 20 becomes full before the lifetime of the electrophotographic process unit 19, it is necessary to replace only the toner collection bottle 20.

  Therefore, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, a female rail 14 and a male rail 15 that are detachably fitted to the lower surface of the case 12 of the electrophotographic process unit 19 and the upper surface of the toner recovery bottle 20 are respectively provided. The toner collection bottle 20 is detachable from the front side of the image forming apparatus main body 17.

  Further, when the male rail 15 on the toner recovery bottle 20 side is fitted to the female rail 14 to the end, and the toner recovery bottle 20 is set in the case 12 of the electrophotographic process unit 19, it is provided in the toner recovery bottle 20. The claw 16 having a spring property is engaged with the opening end portion of the female rail 14 so that the inadvertent movement of the toner recovery bottle 20 is restricted, and the cap portion 21 provided in the toner recovery bottle 20 is The waste toner drop port 13 at the end of the conveying screw 11 is fitted and sealed.

  Accordingly, when the toner collection bottle 20 is full, the user releases the claw 16 by pushing it down as shown in FIG. 4 and pulls only the toner collection bottle 20 forward and pulls it out from the image forming apparatus main body 17. it can. Then, the full toner collection bottle 20 is discarded and a new empty toner collection bottle is installed.

  As described above, when the toner collection bottle is replaced, the toner collection bottle 20 can be easily replaced by the user by replacing only the toner collection bottle 20 without pulling out the electrophotographic process unit 19. Maintainability can be improved.

  Further, when the electrophotographic process unit 19 is to be replaced when its life has expired, the electrophotographic process unit 19 must be removed from the image forming apparatus body 17 and replaced after the toner collection bottle 20 is removed. There is a risk that toner will spill out from the waste toner discharge port 13 and stain the floor or the like with a slight shock when pulling out 19.

  Therefore, when the electrophotographic process unit is pulled out from the image forming apparatus main body 17 as shown in FIG. Since it remains sealed by the cap portion 21, waste toner does not spill.

It is a schematic block diagram of a conventional electrophotographic full-color image forming apparatus. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an electrophotographic full-color image forming apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing details of a state in which a toner recovery bottle is attached to an electrophotographic process unit in the electrophotographic full-color image forming apparatus having the configuration of FIG. 2. FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a state where a toner recovery bottle is removed from an electrophotographic process unit. FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a form in which a toner recovery bottle is pulled out from an image forming apparatus main body integrally with an electrophotographic process unit.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Photoconductor 2 Charging member 3 Exposure apparatus 4K * 4C * 4M * 4Y Developing apparatus 5 Cleaning apparatus 6 Intermediate transfer belt 7 Paper transfer part 8 Photoconductor drive roller 9 Toner recovery auger 10 Toner recovery bottle 11 Transport screw 12 Case 13 Waste Toner discharge port 14 Female rail 15 Male rail 16 Toner collection bottle claw 17 Image forming apparatus body 18 Cleaning blade 19 Electrophotographic process unit 20 Toner collection bottle 21 Cap portion

Claims (5)

  In an image forming apparatus that includes a cleaning mechanism for removing toner remaining on a latent image carrier after image formation in an electrophotographic process unit that can be attached to and detached from the main body of the image forming apparatus, for recovering the toner removed by the cleaning mechanism An image forming apparatus, wherein the toner collection bottle is detachable from the main body of the image forming apparatus at a position for directly receiving toner from the cleaning mechanism.   The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the toner collection bottle is detachable from the electrophotographic process unit in a state where the electrophotographic process unit is mounted on the main body of the image forming apparatus.   The image forming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the toner recovery bottle is detachably attached to the electrophotographic process unit along a rail provided in the electrophotographic process unit.   The cleaning mechanism is configured such that the toner scraped off by the cleaning blade is transported to the front side of the image forming apparatus main body by a transport screw and dropped from a waste toner discharge port, and the toner recovery bottle is disposed of the cleaning mechanism. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the image forming apparatus is detachably attached to the electrophotographic process unit below a toner discharge port. The toner collection bottle is detachable from the image forming apparatus main body together with the electrophotographic process unit. When the toner collection bottle is attached to the electrophotographic process unit, the waste toner of the cleaning mechanism is part of the toner collection bottle. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the discharge port is closed.

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