KR101070619B1 - Developing cartridge - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a developing cartridge comprising a photosensitive member for applying a developer to a paper, a charging roller for charging the photosensitive member to a predetermined potential, and a casing for accommodating the photosensitive member and the charging roller. A cleaning blade including a photosensitive member cleaning blade for removing the remaining residual developer from the photosensitive member surface, and a charging roller cleaning blade configured to be bent at one end of the photosensitive member cleaning blade to clean the residue on the surface of the charging roller; A residual developer storage unit storing the developer of the photoconductor removed by the photoconductor cleaning blade; And a residue storage unit provided on one side of the developer storage unit independently to store the residue of the charging roller removed by the cleaning blade. Thereby, the output quality can be improved by removing the contaminants of the charging roller.

Description

Developing cartridge {DEVELOPING CARTRIDGE}

1 is a schematic diagram schematically showing a configuration of a general image forming apparatus;

2 is a schematic view showing a cleaning structure of a conventional charging roller;

3 is a schematic diagram schematically showing a configuration of a developing cartridge according to the present invention;

4 is a cross-sectional view showing the configuration of a charging roller according to the present invention.

Explanation of symbols on the main parts of the drawings

200: developing cartridge 210: casing

220: photosensitive member 230: charging roller

240: developing roller 250: feeding roller

260: cleaning blade 261: photosensitive member cleaning blade

263: Daejeon roller cleaning blade 270: Residual inflow prevention unit

280: residual developer storage unit 290: residue storage unit

The present invention relates to a developing cartridge, and more particularly, to a developing cartridge having an improved cleaning structure of a charging roller.

In general, an image forming apparatus is a device coupled to a host apparatus and visualizing image data generated or stored in the host apparatus according to an output signal applied from the host apparatus.

Such an image forming apparatus includes a photosensitive member on which an electrostatic latent image is formed, a developing device for developing a developer on the photosensitive member, a transfer means for transferring the developer developed on the photosensitive member to a paper, and the like. The desired image is made visible on the paper, which is called an electrophotographic method. The electrophotographic image forming apparatus includes a printer, a copier, a multifunction printer, and the like.

1 is a cross-sectional view showing the configuration of a general electrophotographic image forming apparatus 1. As shown in FIG. 1, the electrophotographic image forming apparatus 1 includes a paper feeding unit 10 for loading paper, an image forming unit 40 for forming an image on the paper supplied from the paper feeding unit 10, and an image. A fixing unit 50 for fixing the developer coated on the forming unit 40 to the paper surface by applying heat and pressure, and a discharge unit 60 for discharging the paper on which the image is formed to the outside.

Here, the image forming unit 40 receives the image information of the image data as an optical signal to form an electrostatic latent image on the surface of the photosensitive member 21, and the photosensitive member formed by the optical scanning unit 30 ( And a developing cartridge 20 which applies a developer to the electrostatic latent image 21, contacts the paper and applies the developer to visualize the image on the paper.

The developing cartridge 20 is detachably provided in the main body 70 of the image forming apparatus, and is a consumable used to replace the developing cartridge 20 when the developer stored therein is exhausted. The developing cartridge 20 is charged with a charging roller 21 for charging the photosensitive member 22 to a predetermined potential, and then charged to a predetermined electric potential through the charging roller 21, and then exposed to an electrostatic latent image on the surface by exposure of the optical scanning unit 30. The photosensitive member 22 formed thereon, a developing roller 23 in contact with the photosensitive member 22 and applying the developer to the electrostatic latent image on the surface of the photosensitive member 22, and a supply roller supplying the developer to the developing roller 23. (24), a developer regulating member (29) for regulating the amount of the developer supplied to the developing roller (23), and a developer storing portion (26) in which the developer is stored.

Looking at the operation process of the conventional developing cartridge 20 having such a configuration, when the output signal is applied, the developing roller 23 received the developer from the supply roller 24 is rotated and fixed by the developer regulating member 29. The developer layer is kept in thickness. The developing roller 23 is in contact with the photosensitive member 22 while being rotated in the same direction as the photosensitive member 22, and the developer on the surface of the developing roller 23 has a potential difference with the photosensitive member 22. The latent image is attached to the electrostatic latent image to form a visible image on the photosensitive member 22. Then, the developer on the photosensitive member 22 is transferred to the paper by the transfer roller 41 to form an image on the paper.

By the way, when the developer on the photosensitive member 22 is transferred to the paper by the transfer roller 41, when the transfer efficiency does not reach 100%, the untransferred developer and the share of the paper are attached to the photosensitive member 22 surface. do. In this case, when there is no cleaning device for cleaning the surface of the photoconductor 22, there is a problem that the untransferred developer and the equity contaminates the charging roller 21 when the photoconductor 22 is in contact with the charging roller 21 and charged. Occurred.

In order to solve this problem, the conventional charging roller 21 is provided at the end of the elastic body 25a and the elastic body 25a provided to apply a constant pressure toward the charging roller 21, as shown in FIG. 21) A charging roller cleaning unit 25 including a fibrous brush 25b for cleaning the surface was provided.

However, when the photosensitive member 22 transfers the developer to a predetermined number of sheets or more due to long operation of the developing cartridge 20, the developer moves from the photosensitive member 22 to the charging roller 21 between the fibrous brushes 25b. As the saturation and the like are saturated, there is no problem of cleaning the contaminants on the surface of the charging roller 21 any more.

In this case, since the photoconductor is charged with a contaminant attached to the surface of the charging roller and the photoconductor is not partially charged, the output quality of the paper may be degraded.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a developing cartridge which can improve the output quality by simultaneously cleaning the surface of the photosensitive member and the charging roller.

According to the present invention, there is provided a developing cartridge comprising a photosensitive member for applying a developer to a sheet, a charging roller for charging the photosensitive member to a predetermined potential, and a casing for housing the photosensitive member and the charging roller, And a photosensitive member cleaning blade which removes the remaining developer applied to the paper from the photosensitive member surface, and a bent extension formed on one end of the photosensitive member cleaning blade to clean the residue on the surface of the charging roller. A cleaning blade; A residual developer storage unit storing the developer of the photoconductor removed by the photoconductor cleaning blade; It is achieved by a developing cartridge, which is provided on one side of the developer storage unit and includes a residue storage unit for storing the residue of the charging roller removed by the cleaning blade.

Here, the developer storage unit and the residue storage unit is preferably partitioned by a predetermined partition.

In addition, the partition wall, one end is preferably coupled to the casing and the other end is coupled to the cleaning blade.

On the other hand, the charging roller is preferably coated with a conductive rubber material to be in contact with the charging roller cleaning blade.

And, it is provided to be in contact with one side of the charging roller may include a residue inflow prevention unit for preventing the residue of the residue storage unit from flowing into the casing.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Prior to description, the general configuration of the image forming apparatus will be described with reference to FIG. 1.

3 is a schematic diagram briefly showing the configuration of a developing cartridge 200 according to the present invention. As shown in the drawing, the developing cartridge 200 according to the present invention includes a photosensitive member 220 for applying a developer to a sheet, a charging roller 230 for charging the photosensitive member 220 to a predetermined potential, and a photosensitive member 220. A developer roller 240 for applying the developer to the present invention, a supply roller 250 for supplying the developer to the developer roller 240, a developer storage portion (a) for storing the developer, and a surface of the photoconductor 220 The remaining developer of the undeveloped residual developer and the cleaning blade 260 for cleaning the residue on the surface of the charging roller 230, and the residual developer on the photoreceptor surface cleaned by the cleaning blade 260. 280, a residue storage unit 290 storing residues on the surface of the charging roller 230 cleaned by the cleaning blade 260, and the residues of the residue storage unit 290 are photosensitive members 220. Residual inflow prevention unit 270 to prevent the side is transmitted to.

The photosensitive member 220 is charged at a predetermined potential by the charging roller 230, and irradiated with light by a light scanning device (see 30 in FIG. 1) to form an electrostatic latent image corresponding to image data. Since the structure and shape of the photosensitive member 220 are the same as in the related art, detailed description thereof will be omitted.

The charging roller 230 charges the photosensitive member 220 to a predetermined potential. The charging roller 230 according to the present invention is provided with a rotating shaft 231 of a metallic material and a conductive rubber layer 233 coated on the surface of the rotating shaft 231. The conductive rubber layer 233 is preferably coated with a thickness of 50 μm or less with conductive rubber (eg, PC) having a hardness of 40 degrees or more in order to reduce wear due to contact pressure and friction when contacting the cleaning blade 263. At this time, it is preferable that the coating layer is coated so that the thickness of the coating layer is uniform over the entire area, since the surface of the photoconductor 220 may be uniformly contact-charged.

On the other hand, the resistance of the charging roller 230 is generally provided to have a resistance value within the range of 1.0E + 04 ~ 1.0E + 07 (Ω).

The developing roller 240 receives the developer from the supply roller 250 and applies the developer to the electrostatic latent image of the photosensitive member 220. The developing roller 240 is rotatably provided in a drum shape so as to transfer the developer to the photosensitive member 220. Then, the developing roller 240 is preferably provided with a conductive rubber roller which is a nonmagnetic material. Since the structure and shape of the developing roller 240 are the same as in the related art, detailed description thereof will be omitted.

The supply roller 250 supplies the developer stored in the developer storage unit a to the developing roller 240. The developer storage unit (a) stores a developer, and a predetermined agitator (not shown) rotates to agitate the developer and supply the developer to the supply roller 250. Since the structure and shape of the feed roller 250 is also the same as in the related art, a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

The cleaning blade 260 has a photosensitive member cleaning blade 261 that cleans the surface of the photosensitive member 220, and an extension of the photosensitive member cleaning blade 261 that is bent at an end of the photosensitive member cleaning blade 261 to clean the surface of the charging roller 230. It includes.

The photoconductor cleaning blade 261 is in contact with the photoconductor 220 surface and separates the untransferred residual developer on the photoconductor 220 surface from the photoconductor 220 surface to clean the photoconductor 220 surface. The photosensitive member cleaning blade 261 is provided in a direction opposite to the rotation direction of the photosensitive member 220 to provide a constant contact pressure on the surface of the photosensitive member 220 so as to remain on the surface of the photosensitive member 220, and paper and Contact and remove the stake attached.

The charging roller cleaning blade 263 is bent and extended from an end portion of the photosensitive member cleaning blade 261 that is in contact with the photosensitive member 220 to remove the residue on the surface of the charging roller 230. The charging roller 230 contacts and charges the photoconductor 220, and a residue of the surface of the photoconductor 220 which is not removed by the photoconductor cleaning blade 261 may be attached to the surface of the charging roller 230. The bending angle ?? of the charging roller cleaning blade 263 and the photosensitive member cleaning blade 261 may be provided to correspond to the contact position of the photosensitive member 220 and the charging roller 230, and the charging roller 230 It is desirable to be provided to effectively remove the residues on the surface.

Here, the cleaning blade 260 is preferably used a metal plate having an elastic force, it is preferable that the cleaning blade 260 is provided with a stainless plate, a phosphor bronze plate or a beryllium copper plate.

The cleaning blade 260 is provided to have a length corresponding to the length of the charging roller 230 and the photosensitive member 220, and is supported in the casing 210 by the partition wall 215.

The residual developer storage unit 280 stores residual developer and stakes separated from the photosensitive member 220 surface by the photosensitive member cleaning blade 261. The residue storage unit 290 stores the residue separated from the charging roller 230 by the charging roller cleaning blade 263. The residual developer storage unit 280 and the residue storage unit 290 are partitioned by the partition wall 215 to form an independent space.

The partition wall 215 extends from the casing 210 to support the cleaning blade 260 to clean the surface of the photoreceptor 220 and the charging roller 230 with a predetermined contact angle. Here, the location of the partition wall is preferably located so that the space of the residual developer storage unit 280 is larger than the space of the residue storage unit 290. This is because the size of the residual developer and the stake stored in the residual developer storage unit 280 is larger than the size of the residue stored in the residue storage unit 290, and the amount thereof is large.

Residual inflow prevention unit 270 is coupled to one end of the casing 210 and the other end is in contact with one side of the charging roller 230 is the residue of the residue storage unit 290 is introduced into the photosensitive member 220 side To prevent them. Residual inflow prevention unit 270 is preferably coupled to the upper end of the casing 210 to be in contact with one side of the charging roller 230 can effectively prevent the inflow of the residue inside.

The residue inflow prevention unit 270 is preferably made of a film material because the residue having a fine size should be prevented from entering the photoreceptor 220 side.

An operation process of the developing cartridge 200 according to the present invention having such a configuration will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 3.

First, when the print signal is driven, the charging roller 230 contacts the photosensitive member 220 and charges the photosensitive member 220 surface at a predetermined potential. The optical scanning device 20 irradiates light to form an electrostatic latent image corresponding to image data on the surface of the photosensitive member 200.

The supply roller 240 supplies the developer of the developer storage unit a to the development roller 240. The developer regulating member 241 frictionally charges the developer while regulating the thickness of the developer supplied to the developing roller 240 to a predetermined thickness. The developing roller 240 rotates in the same direction as the photosensitive member 220 and applies a developer tribostatically charged to the electrostatic latent image.

The photosensitive member 220 is in contact with the paper, and the transfer roller 41 applies a constant transfer voltage to transfer the developer attached to the electrostatic latent image of the photosensitive member 220 to the paper to form an image. The photoconductor 220 is rotated to be in contact with the photoconductor cleaning blade 261 and separated from the residual developer remaining on the surface without being transferred to the paper. The residual developer is separated from the photoconductor 220 and stored in the residual developer storage unit 280.

The photoconductor 220 from which the residual developer is removed is charged to a predetermined potential while contacting the charging roller 230 again. At this time, the charging roller 230 is in contact with the photosensitive member 220, the residue on the surface of the photosensitive member is attached to the surface, the charging roller cleaning blade 263 removes the residue on the surface of the charging roller 230. The charging roller 230 is coated with a conductive rubber and provided to be in contact with the charging roller cleaning blade 263.

On the other hand, the residue removed from the surface of the charging roller 230 is stored in the residue storage unit 290. And it is blocked by the partition wall 215 does not flow into the residual developer storage 280. In addition, it is blocked by the residue inflow prevention unit 270 may not flow into the photosensitive member 220 side.

As a result, the surface of the charging roller 230 may be kept clean at all times, and the surface of the photoconductor 220 may be kept clean.

As described above, the developing cartridge according to the present invention is integrally provided with a cleaning blade capable of simultaneously cleaning the photosensitive member and the charging roller, thereby maintaining the same print quality even when used for a long time.

In addition, since the residue separated from the surface of the photosensitive member and the charging roller is stored in a separate storage space by a partition wall of a simple structure, contaminants can be managed separately.

As a result, it is possible to improve the print quality deterioration problem due to saturation of contaminants, maintain continuous image quality, and provide a long life development cartridge.

As described above, according to the present invention, a developing cartridge capable of simultaneously cleaning the photosensitive member and the charging roller is provided to provide a developing cartridge capable of maintaining the same print quality even when used for a long time.

Claims (5)

A developing cartridge comprising a photosensitive member for applying a developer to a sheet, a charging roller for charging the photosensitive member to a predetermined potential, and a casing for housing the photosensitive member and the charging roller, And a photosensitive member cleaning blade which removes the remaining developer applied to the paper from the photosensitive member surface, and a bent extension formed on one end of the photosensitive member cleaning blade to clean the residue on the surface of the charging roller. A cleaning blade; A residual developer storage unit storing the developer of the photoconductor removed by the photoconductor cleaning blade; A residue storage unit provided independently on one side of the residual developer storage unit and storing a residue of the charging roller removed by the cleaning blade; And a residue inflow preventing portion provided to be in contact with one side of the charging roller to prevent residue of the residue storage portion from being introduced into the casing. The method of claim 1, And the residual developer storage unit and the residue storage unit are partitioned by a predetermined partition wall. The method of claim 2, The partition wall, A developing cartridge, characterized in that one end is coupled to the casing and the other end is coupled to the cleaning blade. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, The charging roller, A developing cartridge, characterized in that the coating is coated with a conductive rubber material to be in contact with the charging roller cleaning blade. delete

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