JP3280112B2 - Cleaning equipment - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cleaning device for removing a developer or the like attached to a photosensitive member of an image forming apparatus such as an electrophotographic copying machine.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a cleaning apparatus of this type, a blade structure shown in FIGS. 9 and 10 is conventionally known as a blade structure for removing a developer or the like adhering to the photosensitive member.

The blade structure shown in FIG. 1 has a receiving plate 82 disposed in the vicinity of a photoreceptor 81 having a developer adhered to the outer periphery thereof along an axial direction thereof, and a support shaft 8 penetrating the receiving plate 82.
A blade holder 84 whose center is supported by 3 and is rotatable in a horizontal direction with the support shaft 83 as a fulcrum, and a blade holder is attached to the blade holder with a protruding edge contacting the outer periphery of the photosensitive member 81. And a rectangular blade 85.

According to this blade structure, the spindle 83
By pivoting (floating) the blade holder 84 and the blade 85 in the horizontal direction with the fulcrum as a fulcrum, a delicate contact position between the protruding end edge of the blade 85 and the outer periphery of the photoconductor 81 can be adjusted.

[0005]

However, in the case of the above-described blade structure, the blade holder 84 to which the blade 85 is attached is only supported by the support shaft 83 at the center thereof, and the blade 85 has a certain degree. (Several tens cm), the backlash in the direction (α, β direction) orthogonal to the length direction of the blade 85 generated with the rotation of the photoconductor 81 in the direction of the arrow, and the end region of the blade 85 Play in the vertical and vertical directions (γ and δ directions) occurs, and as a result, the state of contact of the protruding edge of the blade 85 with the outer periphery of the photoconductor 81 becomes poor, making it impossible to perform a good cleaning operation. There was a problem.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a cleaning apparatus having an improved structure and capable of always performing a good cleaning operation without causing a necessary abnormal play in a blade member.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, a cleaning is performed by bringing a blade member, which is rotatably supported at a central portion thereof in a horizontal direction on a support shaft, into contact with an object to be cleaned which exerts a moment on the blade member. In a cleaning apparatus for cleaning an object, a moment canceling mechanism for canceling a moment acting on the blade member from the object to be cleaned is provided ,
The cancellation mechanism is supported by supporting the blade member via a support shaft.
At the position farthest from the spindle on the receiving member
Consists of a hemispherical receiver that makes point contact with the girder blade member
It was done.

[0008]

[0009]

The operation of the above-described cleaning device will be described below.

According to this cleaning device, since the moment canceling mechanism for canceling the moment acting on the blade member from the object to be cleaned is provided, the cleaning of the object to be cleaned by bringing the blade member into contact with the object to be cleaned is performed. In addition, unnecessary play of the blade member due to the moment acting on the blade member from the object to be cleaned can be eliminated, and the contact state of the blade member with the object to be cleaned becomes good, so that a good cleaning operation can always be performed. Becomes In addition, the moment canceling mechanism
The support shaft in a receiving member that supports the support member via the support shaft
Point contact with the blade member located farthest from
By using a hemispherical holder, you can
Of the moment acting on the blade member
Moment is canceled out and acts on the blade member.
The longitudinal moment of
Unnecessary backlash of the blade member can be eliminated.

[0011]

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below.

FIG. 1 shows a state in which a document holding cover is opened, and FIG. 2 shows an internal configuration of the entire apparatus. In the apparatus main body 1, charging, exposure, development, transfer, peeling, cleaning, charge removal, and fixing are performed. And a document mounting table (hereinafter referred to as a platen glass) 3 on which a document D is set is provided on the upper surface.

A platen cover 4 for pressing a document D set on a platen glass 3 is rotatably attached to the rear end edge of the apparatus main body 1. Indicates a copy key 5 for executing copying, a clear / stop key 6 for stopping a copying operation and the like and canceling a setting state, a numeric keypad 7 for setting the number of copies, and an operation state and the like. An operation panel 9 on which a display unit 8 and the like are arranged is arranged.

Further, a front cover 10 which can be opened and closed is provided on the front surface of the apparatus main body 1, and a sheet P such as plain paper supplied to the image forming process constituting means 2 is accommodated in a lower part of the front surface. The paper cassette is in the inserted state. On the left side of the apparatus main body 1, a tray 12 and a power switch 13 for stacking the fixed paper P are provided.

The image forming process composing means 2 has the following configuration. That is, a drum-shaped photoreceptor 20 as an image carrier is disposed at a substantially central portion in the apparatus main body 1, and an ion stream is applied to the photoreceptor 20 around the photoreceptor 20 along the rotation direction thereof. A charging device 21 for supplying and charging; an exposure unit of an exposure device 22 for exposing a document placed on the platen glass 3 to guide the scattered light to a photoreceptor 20 and forming an electrostatic latent image thereon; 22a, a developing device 23 for visualizing the electrostatic latent image, a pre-transfer exposure device 24 for increasing transfer efficiency, and an ion flow for transferring the visual image on the photoconductor 20 to the paper P Device 25 for removing the charge on paper P
6. As will be described later, a cleaning device 27 for removing the developer remaining on the photoconductor 20 without being transferred onto the photoconductor 20, and a static eliminator 2 for exposing the surface of the photoconductor 20 to erase electric charges
8 and the like are sequentially arranged.

Further, in the apparatus main body 1, the paper P automatically fed from the paper feed cassette 11 or the paper P manually fed through the manual paper feed table 29 is placed in the photosensitive body 20. A paper transport path 31 is formed to lead to a tray 12 provided on the left side of the apparatus main body 1 via an image transfer section 30 between the image transfer section 25 and the transfer apparatus 25.

A pair of registration rollers 32 for aligning the leading end of the visible image on the photosensitive member 20 with the leading end of the sheet P is disposed upstream of the image transfer section 30 of the sheet conveying path 31.
On the downstream side, a fixing device 33 for fusing and fixing a visible image on the sheet P and a sheet discharge roller pair 34 are arranged. Also,
A transport belt unit 35 is provided between the peeling device 26 and the fixing device 33.

In the vicinity of the receiving portion of the paper feed cassette 11, a take-out roller 36 for taking out the paper P one by one, and receiving the paper P taken out via the take-out roller 36, and Separating / conveying means 37 including a conveying roller for feeding into the first branch conveying path forming the upstream side and a separating roller is provided. Further, a manual feed roller 38 is provided at a junction of the first branch transport path and the second branch transport path for manual feed.

The exposing device 22 includes an exposing lamp 41 having a document D set on a platen glass 3 provided on the upper surface of the apparatus main body 1 and having a back portion surrounded by a reflector 40.
And the reflected light from the original D is reflected by the first mirror 4
2, a second mirror 43 and a third mirror 44 are successively guided to a lens 45 as an optical element.
The light transmitted through the fifth mirror 4 is transmitted to the fourth mirror 46 and the fifth mirror 4.
7, the sixth mirror 48, and the slit glass 49 are sequentially guided to the photoconductor 20.

An exposure lamp 41 and a first mirror 42 surrounded by the reflector 40 are mounted on a first carriage 50 which can reciprocate along the lower surface of the platen glass 3. The third mirror 44 is
The carriage 50 is mounted on a second carriage 51 which moves in the same direction at half the speed of the first carriage 50, and these carriages 50, 51 are guided from the left to the right in the state of FIG. The document D set on the platen glass 3 by moving
Is scanned to expose the photosensitive member 20 with an image corresponding to the document D by slit exposure. Note that the fourth mirror 46 and the fifth mirror 47 are incorporated in the mirror support member 53 and are in a unitized state.

The exposure apparatus 20 constructed as described above
Has a unit structure integrated into the frame 54, so that the exposure apparatus 20 can be handled alone.

The apparatus main body 1 is provided with
The upper unit 1A and the lower unit 1B
The upper unit 1A can be opened by about 25 degrees using the support shaft 55 provided on the paper feed side as a pivot point as required.
The support shaft 55 is formed of a shaft portion of a torsion bar that constantly urges the upper unit 1A in the opening direction.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 56 denotes a cooling fan provided above the fixing device, and reference numeral 57 denotes a manual feed guide for guiding paper to be manually fed. 58 is a high voltage transformer, 5
Reference numeral 9 denotes a scale serving as a reference for setting the document D.

Next, the cleaning device 27 will be described in more detail with reference to FIGS.

The cleaning device 27 is shown in FIGS.
The following blade structure is adopted.

This blade structure has a rectangular receiving plate 61 as a receiving member disposed along the axial direction in the vicinity of the photoreceptor 20 to which the developer adheres to the outer periphery, and the receiving plate 6.
1, a blade member 64 composed of a blade holder 62 and a rectangular blade 63 rotatable in a horizontal direction with a support shaft 65 provided as a fulcrum, and a position farthest from the support shaft 65, that is, a receiving plate. 61 at the most rear end side (support shaft 65
At a distance D from the main body) and the blade holder 62
The blade holder 62 provided at both ends in the longitudinal direction of the blade holder 62
5 is provided with a moment canceling mechanism portion comprising a pair of hemispherical receiving members 66 also shown in FIG.

According to the cleaning device 27, when the photoreceptor 20 as the object to be cleaned rotates in the direction of the arrow shown in FIG. 3, the moment acting on the blade 63 of the blade member 64 includes the vertical direction (α, The moment in the (β direction) is canceled by the hemispherical receiver 66, and the moment in the vertical direction (γ, δ direction) of the longitudinal edge acting on the blade 63 of the blade member 64 is also hemispherical receiver 66. This eliminates unnecessary backlash occurring in the blade member 64, and the blade 63
The protruding edge of the photoconductor 20 is brought into good contact with the outer periphery of the photoconductor 20, and the developer adhering to the outer periphery of the photoconductor 20 can be smoothly scraped off.

FIGS. 6 and 7 show the support shaft 6 of the blade structure.
5 shows an example of improvement.

The support shaft 64 is rotatably mounted on the boss 70 protruding from the receiving plate 61, and is disposed, for example, at 180 degrees so as to protrude upward from the flange portion 71a of the shaft tube 71. The shaft cylinder 71 is attached to the blade holder 62 by screwing a pair of screws 72 into the central portion of the blade holder 62. Further, the shaft cylinder 71 is fixed to the shaft cylinder 71 by a disc-shaped pressing plate 73 provided on a set screw 74. The blade member 64 is attached to the receiving plate 61 by screwing the set screw 74 to the boss 70 while holding the upper end.

According to the support shaft 64 having such a configuration, the blade member 64 can be easily detached from the receiving plate 61 as shown in FIG. 7 simply by removing the set screw 74 from the boss 70 using the screwdriver 76. The blade member 64 can be inserted without touching the protruding end of the blade 63.
Can be performed very easily, and a favorable working environment can be realized.

The replacement of the blade member 64 does not necessarily have to be performed from above. For example, as shown in FIG. 8, the blade member 64 may be replaced from below the receiving plate 61. .

The present invention is not limited to the embodiment described above, and various modifications can be made within the scope of the invention.

[0034]

According to the present invention described in detail above, the following effects can be obtained.

According to the present invention, by the moment canceling mechanism, unnecessary play due to the moment acting on the blade member can be eliminated from the object to be cleaned, and the contact state of the blade member with the object to be cleaned can be improved. A cleaning device capable of always performing a good cleaning operation can be provided.

Further, by a hemispherical bracket as placing the pre-Symbol moment cancellation mechanism in the position already described,
A cleaning device capable of eliminating unnecessary play of the blade member can be provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a copying machine including an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an internal configuration diagram of a copying machine including an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a front view of a receiver in the apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram of a support shaft in the embodiment device of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a configuration diagram of a disassembled state of a support shaft in the apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a sectional view showing another example of the apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a sectional view of a conventional cleaning device.

FIG. 10 is a perspective view of a conventional cleaning device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Apparatus main body 20 Photoconductor 27 Cleaning device 61 Receiving plate 62 Blade holder 63 Blade 64 Blade member 65 Support shaft 66 Receiving tool

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Fields surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G03G 21/00-21/12 B60S 1/00-1/68

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] A central portion is supported on a support shaft so as to be rotatable in a horizontal direction.
The held blade member is momentarily attached to this blade member.
Contact the object to be cleaned.
Cleaning equipment that cleans the object to be cleaned
The blade member from the object to be cleaned.
Canceler to cancel the moment acting on
A structure is provided, and the moment canceling mechanism is
The receiving member supporting the blade member through a support shaft;
Point contact with the blade member located farthest from the spindle
A clear, semi-spherical receiver
Cleaning device.