JPH04161355A - Toner jet type image recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To simplify structure by providing an exciting means for transferring the toner supplied onto an aperture electrode to the opening part thereof. CONSTITUTION:An aperture electrode 4 consists of an insulating layer 11 having an opening part 10, a conductive reference electrode layer 9, a conductive control electrode layer 12 provided on the side opposite from the reference electrode layer and around the opening part 10 separately and an exciting means 5 at the end of the electrode 4. The excitation by the exciting means 5 causes a progressive wave to occur from the exciting means 5 to a toner recovery tank 18 and a toner T is moved toward the opening part 10. At this time, the passage of the toner T through the opening part 10 is freely controlled by the amount of voltage given to the control electrode layer 12 or voltage application time. In this way a toner supply source becomes a simple structure with compact and inexpensive devices. Moreover, the controllability of the charging and supply amount of the toner is substantially improved.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a toner jet image recording device that is applied to copying machines, printers, and the like.

=Prior art] A conventional toner jet image recording device is composed of a toner supply source, an aperture electrode, and a counter electrode. Charged toner is supplied from the toner supply source to the vicinity of the aperture electrode, and the aperture electrode Toner flow is modulated. The modulated toner is attracted toward the opposing electrode, and the toner adheres to a medium such as recording paper that is conveyed to the opposing electrode to form an image. This recording device is
For example, it is disclosed in US Pat. No. 3,689,935.

Incidentally, the toner supply source includes a toner case, a supply roller, a layer thickness regulating member, a brush roller, and a scraping member. The toner stored in the toner case is
First, a uniform toner layer is formed by a layer thickness regulating member carried by the supply roller and provided in contact with the supply roller. A fixed amount of toner is supplied to a brush roller provided in contact with the supply roller, and at this time, the toner is charged by contact and friction with the brush roller. Further, the toner carried on the brush roller is scratched by the brush roller, so that the toner is formed into a cloud and is supplied to the aperture electrode. The configuration for generating this toner cloud is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No.
No. 10906, etc.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, the image recording device as described above requires a large number of parts for the toner supply source, resulting in a complicated configuration, resulting in a large and expensive image recording device. was.

Further, since the configuration of the toner supply source is complicated, it is difficult to control the amount of charge of the toner and the amount of toner supplied, and as a result, the quality of the output image is not necessarily good enough.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention solves the above problems and aims to provide a toner jet image recording device that is compact, inexpensive, and has high output image quality by applying a simple toner supply configuration. .

Means for solving the two-section problem To achieve the above object, the present invention provides an aperture @
An image forming apparatus that applies an image #A signal to a pole, supplies toner particles in a cloud form to an aperture electrode, and forms an image on a medium, includes an insulating layer having an opening, and a conductive layer provided on one side of the insulating layer. an aperture electrode composed of a reference electrode layer, which is a layer, and a control electrode layer, which is a conductive layer provided independently around the opening on the opposite side thereof, and the reference electrode layer and control electrode layer of the aperture electrode; an image signal voltage applying means for applying an image signal voltage between the aperture electrode and the reference electrode layer; a toner supply means for supplying toner to the reference electrode layer side of the aperture electrode; The toner is provided with excitation means for transporting the supplied toner to the opening of the aperture electrode.

[Operation 1] According to the above configuration, the toner supplied onto the aperture electrode is carried to the opening by riding the traveling wave sent from the excitation means, and at this opening, the toner is transported by the image signal voltage applying means. It is modulated by the voltage applied between the reference electrode layer and the control electrode layer to form a toner image on the fIX body.

[Embodiment] Hereinafter, an embodiment of the toner jet type image recording apparatus of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a toner jet recording apparatus according to the present invention.

On the side of the device main body 1, there is a
An insertion port 2 and an ejection port 3 for <hereinafter referred to as medium P) are provided. Inside the device main body 1, an aperture electric current [
! 4 is provided, and an excitation means 5 is provided at the end of this aperture electrode 4. This excitation means 5 is
It is composed of a piezoelectric element 6 made of barium titanate, PZT, PLZT, etc. and an electrode WA7, and is excited by applying an oscillating voltage to the electrode film 7 from an oscillator 8. In addition,
A reference electrode film for the electrode film 7 is used together with a reference electrode layer 9 of the aperture electrode 4, which will be described later.

As shown in FIG. 2, the aperture electrode 4 includes an insulating layer 11 having an opening 10, a reference electrode layer 9 which is a conductive layer provided on the upper surface of the insulating layer 11, and an opening 10 on the opposite surface. and a control electrode layer 12, which is a conductive layer provided independently around the control electrode layer 12. The reference electrode layer 9 is connected to ground, and the control electrode layer 12 is connected to an image signal voltage applying means 13. By applying an image signal voltage between the control electrode layer 12 and the reference electrode layer 9, this aperture is The pole 4 is driven, and the passage of the toner T through the opening 10 is controlled.

A toner tank 14 is provided at the end of the aperture electrode 4, and an agitator 1 is provided inside the toner tank 14.
5 is set! The agitator 15 is configured to enable agitation of the toner T and prevent the stored toner T from agglomerating. Further, a toner injection hole 16 is provided at the lower end of the toner tank 14, and is configured so that only a small amount of toner T is supplied to the aperture electrode 4. Further, a layer thickness regulating member 17 is provided around the toner jetting port 16 in order to keep the toner supply constant.

On the opposite side of the toner tank 14 at the end of the aperture electrode 4, a toner recovery tank 18 is also provided.
On the lower side (control electrode layer 12 side), there is a rotatable opposing! A polar roller 19 is provided, and a medium transport belt 22 is stretched outside the counter electrode roller 19 by a pair of auxiliary rollers 20,21. Here, the counter electrode roller 19 is
Toner T obi @ 'If! It is connected to a power supply E of opposite polarity.

A heat fixing device 23 is provided next to the auxiliary roller 21.
The toner T attached to the medium P is fixed.

Next, the operation of the toner jet recording apparatus of the present invention will be explained.

The toner T stored in the toner tank 14 is transferred to the agitator 1.
The toner is supplied to the aperture electrode 4 from the toner ejection hole 16 while being stirred by the toner 5 . In the abachi electrode 4, a traveling wave is generated from the excitation means 5 toward the toner collection tank 18 due to excitation from the excitation means 5. Due to this excitation, the toner T supplied to the aperture electrode 4 moves toward the opening 10 . At this time, the supplied toner T is
A uniform amount of toner is moved over the aperture electrode 4 by a layer thickness regulating member 17 attached to the toner tank 14 .

Due to this movement, the toner T rubs against the aperture electrode 4, becomes positively charged (÷), and is supplied to the vicinity of the opening 10.

The toner T moved and supplied in this way is moved to the aperture @
[! 4. That is, when a positive (+) voltage is applied from the image signal voltage applying means 13 to the control electrode layer 12, a positive (+) voltage is generated inside the opening 10.
The charged toner T is transferred from the control electrode layer 12 to the reference electrode layer 9.
Passage through the opening 10 is obstructed by the generation of an electric field directed toward the aperture 10 . Further, when no voltage is applied from the image signal voltage applying means 13, no electric field is generated inside the aperture electrode 4, and therefore, the toner T remains in the opening 1.
Pass through 0. As described above, the passage of the toner T through the opening 10 can be freely controlled by the magnitude of the voltage applied to the control electrode layer 12 or the duration of the applied voltage.

The toner T modulated by the aperture electrode 4 heads toward a counter electrode roller 17 connected to a negative (-) power source. Furthermore, the toner T that has not passed through the opening 10 moves on the aperture electrode 4 and is collected in the toner collection tank 18 .

Note that this collected toner T can be used again.

On the other hand, the medium P inserted into the device through the insertion port 2 passes through the guide 24 and is attracted to the medium conveying belt 22.
The medium P is conveyed onto the counter electrode roller 19, where the modulated toner T adheres to the medium P to form an image.

Thereafter, the medium P is peeled off from the medium conveying belt 22 by the blade 25 and conveyed to the thermal fixing device 23, where the image on the body P is thermally fixed.

The medium P that has passed through the heat fixing device 23 is taken out from the takeout port 3 via the guide 24 .

As explained above, simply by attaching the excitation means 5 to the aperture electrode 4, toner can be directly supplied from the toner tank 14, so that the toner supply source, which was conventionally said to be complicated, has a simple configuration, and the device Moreover, it is compact and inexpensive. Furthermore, since the configuration of the toner supply source is simple, the controllability of the toner charge amount and toner supply amount is greatly improved, and as a result, the quality of the output image is also improved.
Significantly improved.

It goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, and that modifications can be made without departing from the spirit thereof.

For example, the toner transport surface of the aperture electrode 4 and the reference electrode 9
It is also possible to provide a film of a substance that promotes charging of the toner, that is, an exciter layer, on the top). For the exciter layer, it is effective to use a material that is located at a position on the charge chain away from the constituent substances of the toner. According to this configuration, the amount of charge on the toner increases and the controllability becomes more reliable.

[Effects of the Invention] As is clear from the above explanation, toner can be supplied directly from the toner tank by simply attaching the excitation means to the aperture electrode, so the toner supply source, which was conventionally complicated, can be simplified. The device is compact and
Moreover, it is inexpensive.

Furthermore, since the configuration of the toner supply source is simple, the controllability of the toner charge amount and toner supply amount is greatly improved.
As a result, the quality of the output image is also significantly improved.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a toner jet recording device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view of an aperture electrode in the same device. 2... Insertion port, 3... Output port, 4... Aperture electrode, 5... Excitation means, 6... Piezoelectric element, 8...
...Oscillator, 9...Reference electrode layer, 10...Aperture,
11... Insulating layer, 12... Control electrode layer, 13...
Image II signal voltage applying means, I4... Toner tank, 1
9... Counter electrode roller, 22... Media conveyance belt,
23... Heat fixing means, P... Medium, T... Toner,
E...Power supply.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) An image forming apparatus that applies an image signal to an electrode with an aperture, supplies toner particles in the form of a cloud to the aperture electrode, and obtains an image on a recording medium, comprising an insulating layer having an opening, and one side of the insulating layer. an aperture electrode composed of a reference electrode layer, which is a conductive layer provided on the surface of the aperture electrode, and a control electrode layer, which is a conductive layer provided independently around the opening on the opposite side thereof; and a reference electrode layer of the aperture electrode. and a control electrode layer; toner supply means for supplying toner to the reference electrode layer side of the aperture electrode; and a toner supply means for applying a traveling wave to the aperture electrode to What is claimed is: 1. A toner jet image recording device comprising: excitation means for transporting toner supplied onto the electrode to an opening of an aperture electrode.