JPS6375769A - Toner replenishing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily attach and detach a container, and also, to prevent a toner from being scattered, by engaging a projection of an opening side of a toner container and a recessed part of the bottom face to a container holder and holding horizontally the container, and oscillating it to the second position. CONSTITUTION:An opening 2 of a toner container 1 is kept horizontal and inserted into a rotary cylinder 7 of a container holder 5, and thereafter, when a recessed part 20 of the bottom face of the container and a projection of a container holder 19 are engaged and the opening 2 is rotated downward, a toner in the container is led by a spiral projection 4, passes through the opening and dropped down into a toner receiver 11. When the bottom side of the container is oscillated to this side in the horizontal direction, a cam 17 presses the presser 19 against a spring 18 and the container becomes freely attachable and detachable. Since a projection 3 of the container is engaged to a groove 9 of the cylinder 7, when the opening 2 has been set to the lower side, the container cannot be removed from the holder 5, and the toner does not spill. In this way, the toner container can be attached and detached easily, and also, scattering of the toner can be prevented.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a toner replenishing device for supplying toner to a developing section of an electrostatic transfer copying machine.

(Prior art) Dry young colored particles called toner are used in the developing device of an electrostatic transfer copying machine, and each time a copy is made, the toner that adheres to the copy paper and is carried away is constantly transferred into the developing device at a constant rate. It is necessary to replenish.

Conventionally, as this replenishment means, a device for replenishing a fixed amount of toner called a toner hopper is provided, and toner is transferred from a container such as a bottle into this hopper, and some of the various methods are transferred from this hopper during copying. A metering mechanism is used to supply a fixed amount of toner into the developer device.

With this method, when toner is put into the hopper from a container such as a bottle, fine powder toner flies up.

This had the disadvantage of staining the surrounding area and the operator's hands.

Another method is to use a container such as a bottle as it is as the hopper container, and attach the toner container to the joint of the hopper with the opening of the bottle facing upward, so that the mounting part is sealed. There is a method in which the toner container bottle is rotated to nearly 90'' or 180'', and the L-toner that falls due to gravity is sent into a fixed amount metering mechanism to supply the toner into the developing device. Since there is no need for the operator to transfer the toner into the hopper, the surrounding area will not be contaminated, but the toner container must be rotated from a vertical position to a 90" or 180° position. This rotation required a large space, which was an obstacle in designing a compact copying machine.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) In the conventionally used toner supply device as described above,
Do not allow toner to stain the operator or the area around the toner replenishment device.
Furthermore, the toner replenishing device was large-scale, making it difficult to create a compact copying machine.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to eliminate the drawbacks of the prior art, and to provide a toner container that can be mounted with the container holder swung to the second position, and then replenished with toner and locked when the holder is swung to the first position. Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a toner replenishing device that does not cause toner scattering and allows easy attachment and detachment of a toner container.

(Means for Solving the Problems) The toner replenishing device of the present invention includes a cylindrical toner container having an opening at one end, four parts at the other end, and a spiral protrusion on the side surface of the inner wall; a container holder that holds a cylindrical toner container horizontally and is swingable between a first position and a second position about a rotation axis, and a container rotation cylinder that is provided on the container holder and rotates the cylindrical toner container. and a container holder that engages with a recess at the other end of the cylindrical toner container when the cylindrical toner container swings from the second position to the first position.

Furthermore, when the container holder is moved from the first position to the second position, the cylindrical toner container held by the container holder is detachable.

(Function) According to the present invention, with the above-mentioned configuration, the toner container is attached and detached by swinging the container holder to the second position, so attachment and detachment is extremely easy, and when the container holder is pivoted to the first position, the toner container Since it is locked, toner can be easily replenished without causing toner scattering.

(Example) An example of the present invention will be described based on FIGS. 1 to 6.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a cylindrical toner container of the present invention. In the figure, a semicircular opening 2 is formed in a part of the upper surface of a cylindrical toner container 1, and a protrusion 3 is provided near the opening 2. Furthermore, a spiral protrusion 4 is provided on the cylindrical inner surface of the cylindrical toner container 1 . The inside of the cylindrical toner container 1 is filled with 1-toner, and when the container 1 is held horizontally and the opening 2 is placed in the upper position as shown in FIG. 2, the toner leaks out from the opening 2. It is filled with a small amount.

When setting the cylindrical toner container 1 in the toner replenishing device, hold the cylindrical toner container 1 horizontally with the opening 2 facing upward, and insert it into the container holder 5 of the toner replenishing device. The container holder 5 is composed of a container holding and fixing part 6 as shown in FIG. 3 and a container rotating cylinder 7 shown in FIG.

The container rotating cylinder 7 is fitted into the container holding and fixing part 6 so that it can rotate. As shown in FIG. 2, the container rotating cylinder 7 is guided by the container holding and fixing part 6 and rotated by the drive motor 8 inside thereof. As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the container rotating cylinder 7 is provided with a groove 9 on its second side that can be engaged with the protrusion 3 of the cylindrical toner container 1, and a groove 9 is provided at a position opposite to the opening 2. An opening 10 is made.

When the container rotating cylinder 7 is rotated by the motor 8, a positioning switch (not shown) is used to ensure that the cylinder 7 rotates once and then stops at a position where the groove 9 and the opening 10 are on the upper side. When the cylindrical toner container 1 is rotated once by the drive motor 8, the toner inside spills out when the opening 2 of the cylindrical toner container 1 is rotated once by the drive motor 8, and the toner inside spills out into the toner receiver 11 provided on the lower side of the container holding and fixing part 6. drop down. There is a coil 12 inside the toner receiver 11, which is rotated by a drive motor 8. The toner coming out of the opening 2 of the cylindrical toner container 1 flows through the toner receiver 11 and into the coil 1.
2, it is sent to the right in FIG.
Go inside. Therefore, in one rotation of the cylindrical 1-toner container 1, a certain amount of toner coming out of the opening 2 is sent to the developing device 14. The receptacle for the cylindrical toner container 1 of the container holding/fixing part 6 is provided with a notch 15 on the upper side around the opening. The container cannot be attached or detached. Therefore, when the cylindrical toner container 1 is rotating and the opening 2 is on the lower side, the toner cannot be pulled out of the toner replenishing device and the toner will not spill out.

A spiral protrusion 4 is provided on the inner wall of the cylindrical toner container 1, and as the cylindrical toner container 1 rotates, the toner at the bottom is gradually sent out toward the opening 2.

As shown in FIG. 3, the container holder 5 has one end connected to the rotating shaft 1.
6 is swingably attached to the main body, and a cam 17 is provided at the other end. The cam 17 is attached to the main body, and the spring 1
It engages with a cam of a container holder 19 which is pressed and biased at 8.

As shown in FIG. 2, when the container holder 5 is in the first position in the 1-toner replenishment state, the cylindrical toner container 1
A pressing protrusion 21 of the container holder 19 engages with the other end recess 20 to rotatably hold the cylindrical toner container 1 . Then, when the container holder 5 is tilted to the second position in front of the figure, the cam 17 moves the container holder 19 to the sixth position against the biasing force of the spring 18.
Push the container holder 5 to the right as shown in the figure. At this time, the suppressing protrusion 21 is disengaged from the concave portion 20 at the other end of the cylindrical toner container 1, so that the container holder 5 can continue to be tilted down.

When the container holder 5 is in the second position, the cylindrical toner container 1 can be freely attached and detached.

(Effects of the Invention) According to the present invention, the container holder that holds the cylindrical toner container can be swung between the first position and the second position with respect to the main body, and during this swiveling, the cylindrical toner container is suppressed. By configuring the holding container holder to be detachable, the cylindrical toner container can be easily attached and detached with the container holder tilted to the second position, and toner can be replenished extremely easily without causing toner scattering. . Furthermore, when the toner container is swung to the first position, the cylindrical toner container is automatically locked by the container holder, thereby preventing it from slipping off during toner replenishment. Further, since the container holder is simply swung between the first position and the second position, the replenishing device can be made compact and has many practical effects.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a toner container according to an embodiment of the present invention;
2 is a sectional view of the toner replenishing device, FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the main parts of the container holding and fixing part, FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the container holding and rotating part rotating in the container holding and fixing part, and FIG. FIG. 5 is a perspective view of FIG. 4 seen from the opposite direction, and FIG. 6 is a plan view of a main part for explaining the swinging structure of the container holder. 1...Cylindrical toner container, 2...Opening. 3... Protrusion, 4... Spiral protrusion, 5...
Container holder, 6... Container holding fixing part, 7...
・Container rotating cylinder, 8... Drive motor, 9...
Groove, 10... Opening, 11... Toner receiver, 1
2... Coil, 13... Dropping port, 14... Developing device, 15... Notch, 16... Rotating shaft, 17...
Cam, 18... Spring, 19... Container holder, 2o.
・Concavity. 21... Protrusion. Patent Applicant Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. Figure 1 Figure 2 Old (2″ Ne19 Najihei) Mae 20・Concave 2P 21- Kudatsu Figure 3 Figure 1?16 Tatsun Glaze District 4 Figure 5

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A cylindrical toner container that has an opening at one end, a recess at the other end, and a spiral protrusion on the side surface of the inner wall; the cylindrical toner container is held horizontally, and the cylindrical toner container is rotated about a rotation axis. a container holder that is swingable between a first position and a second position; a container rotating cylinder that is provided on the container holder and rotates the cylindrical toner container; and a container rotating cylinder that rotates the cylindrical toner container from the second position to the first position. 1. A toner replenishing device comprising: a container holder that engages with a concave portion at the other end of the cylindrical toner container when the toner container is swung. (2) When the container holder is swung from the first position to the second position, the cylindrical toner container held by the container holder is detachable.
1) The toner replenishing device described in item 1).