JP3293239B2 - Dust collection filter for image forming equipment - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as an electrophotographic copying machine, and more particularly, to a filter member disposed at a suction / exhaust port. The present invention relates to a dust collection filter for an image forming apparatus, which is configured to form a heat-sealing layer and prevent fibers constituting the filter from being discharged to a downstream side of a filter member.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Like electrophotographic copying machines and printers,
2. Description of the Related Art In an apparatus for making a copy using an electrophotographic method, a mechanism is provided for discharging heat, dust, toner, ozone, and the like generated inside the apparatus to the outside of the apparatus using an exhaust device. In addition to the exhaust device, air outside the device is introduced into the device, and air is blown to a member requiring strong cooling. Air exhausted from the inside of the image forming apparatus includes heat and water vapor discharged from the fixing device, toner and paper powder discharged from around the photosensitive drum, ozone discharged from corotron, and the like.
And, since such dust and ozone cannot stay inside the machine, for those that need to be eliminated outside the machine, using a duct or the like provided near the source, An exhaust device is provided to exhaust the gas to the outside of the machine.

In an apparatus such as the electrophotographic copying machine,
A large amount of ozone is discharged from the corotron disposed around the photoconductor drum.To discharge the ozone quickly, air is introduced from outside the machine, blown against the corotron, and separated from the air. There is a case where means for discharging the air to the outside using the fan is provided. As described above, when introducing outside air into the machine, a filter is placed at the intake port of the fan to remove fine dust etc. floating in the outside air, and to remove the air blown to the corotron etc. A process is performed to prevent the extra components from being mixed. Furthermore, since the air discharged from the inside of the apparatus contains toner, paper powder, and the like,
A filter is also provided at the exhaust port so that clean air is discharged to the outside so as not to discharge them outside the machine.

As the filter disposed at the intake / exhaust port, for example, as shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 153157/1986, a filter made of charged fibers is used. In the conventional filter,
The fiber is made of a fiber material such as polypropylene, and one side of the fiber is positively charged and the other side is negatively charged. By forming the fiber as described above to a predetermined thickness and attaching it to the intake / exhaust port, the efficiency of removing toner and the like can be maintained in a good state,
It is assumed that the blowing loss can be reduced.

[0005]

However, when a filter formed by compressing a fiber is used as in the filter shown in the above-mentioned conventional example, a short fiber is separated from the filter and enters the air. The problem of mixing occurs. If the filter is placed in the air inlet, short fibers enter the machine along with the sucked air.If such short fibers adhere to the corotron, the discharge in that area will be hindered. This can cause white streaks in the image, which can have a significant effect on image quality. In particular, when making a color copy, if the discharge in the corotron is not performed uniformly, a great obstacle may occur in the image quality of the copy.

[0006] In a general filter member,
When the size of the filter is reduced, the problem that the short fibers are separated hardly occurs, and the performance of removing dust and the like can be improved. However, the fineness of the filter increases the pressure loss of the air passing through the filter, resulting in a disadvantage that the performance of the fan cannot be sufficiently exhibited. On the other hand, if the filter is made coarser, the pressure loss is reduced, but the holding power (adhesive force and electrostatic force) of the fiber is weakened. The problem that it becomes easy to separate occurs. In particular, when the coarse filter is provided in the suction port, a short fibrous material may enter the device together with the outside air and adhere to the surface of the photoconductor drum, the corotron, or the like, causing trouble.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems of the conventional filter member, by heat-treating the surface of the filter to prevent fibers from being liberated, and by using a relatively coarse filter with a suction port. It is an object of the present invention to provide a dust collecting filter for an image forming apparatus that can prevent short fibers or the like from entering the machine even when provided in the image forming apparatus.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an apparatus for arranging a filter together with a fan at an intake port or an exhaust port of an image forming apparatus to purify air sucked into or discharged from the apparatus main body. In the present invention, the filter is configured by using a fiber member that charges static electricity, and a downstream portion of the filter in a direction in which air flows is thermally fused and held by a mesh member, and the upstream portion is supported by a support frame. It is characterized by being supported by.

As described above, the filter member is configured with the filter held between the holding members from both sides,
By performing a heat fusion treatment on the surface of the downstream side of the air flow side of the filter, short fibers are not released from the filter and mixed into the air, and the fibers enter the process unit such as a copying machine. Can be prevented from occurring. Further, in the dust collecting filter of the image forming apparatus of the present invention, it is possible to satisfactorily exert the performance of removing dust and the like by the filter, perform the suction and exhaust processing in a state where the pressure loss is reduced, and perform the heat treatment on the filter. It can be done easily. In a device such as an electrophotographic copier, a filter member can be attached to an arbitrary intake port or an exhaust port, and the processing performance against short fibrous dusts such as paper dust together with minute dusts such as toner. Can be favorably exhibited.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A dust collecting filter of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to the illustrated example. The example shown in FIG. 1 shows a case where a blower 3 for removing ozone is arranged for a corotron 2 for charging a photosensitive drum 1. The blower 3 has a mechanism in which a filter member 10 and a fan 5 are arranged with respect to a suction port 4 for sucking outside air, and the outside air is blown to the charging corotron 2 via a duct. The fan 5 disposed in the blower 3 uses a fan having a relatively large air flow and a quiet sound, such as an axial fan, and a duct connected to the fan 5 is provided between the front and rear of the copying machine. And a horizontal duct 8 connected to the vertical duct 6 through an opening 7. An outlet 9 disposed at an end of the horizontal duct 8 is provided behind the charging corotron 2. And positioned to blow air toward the corotron wire section. Then, the air containing ozone discharged from the charging corotron 2 is discharged to an exhaust device (not shown), and the ozone is processed and dust and the like are removed in the same manner as an exhaust device of a general copying machine or the like. do it,
Let the harmless air be discharged outside the machine.

As shown in FIG. 2, the filter member 10 disposed in the air suction part of the blower 3 has a structure in which the filter 11 is sandwiched between the support frame 15 and the mesh member 18 so as to be integrated. The supporting frame 15 forms a frame 16 using a resin material such as polycarbonate, and uses a frame 16 in which a hole 17 having a predetermined size is formed, and is disposed on the upstream side of an air flow. . The mesh member 18 disposed downstream of the filter 11 uses a plastic mesh member such as a vinyl net, and is configured as a member having a large number of holes of about 5 mm.
The filter 11 is provided in a state where the filter 11 is lightly pressed from the downstream side. Then, in the filter member 10, the filter 11 is integrally formed as described later so as to be sandwiched between the support frame 15 and the mesh member 18,
The filter member 10 is configured to be handled as a single component.

The filter 1 used for the filter member
Reference numeral 1 denotes a structure as shown in FIG. 3, which is formed as a nonwoven fabric 12 by using polypropylene fibers as shown in the above-mentioned conventional example, and is configured as an electrostatic filter. Then, a flat metal plate heated to about 80 ° C. is pressed for a few seconds on the downstream side of the air circulation path of the filter 11 so that the fibers on the surface portion are lightly fused with heat to form a fusion surface 13. And a treatment is performed so that the short fibers are not released by the air flow. Further, the metal plate is made of a nonwoven fabric 12.
The pressure applied to the surface of the non-woven fabric is set such that it is lightly pressed by hand sensuously so that only a part of the surface of the nonwoven fabric can be set as a fused surface. Therefore, as described above, by forming a fusion surface on the downstream side of the air flow with respect to the filter 11 and performing a treatment to prevent short fibers from being separated, the performance of treating dust in the air and the performance of the filter can be improved. It is possible to solve the problem such as separation of fibers from itself, and to set the pressure loss at the filter member to a value of about 5 to 10%.

The filter member 10 of the present invention configured as described above is bonded to the support frame 15 on the upstream side of the air flow of the filter using a double-sided tape or the like, and the mesh member 18 on the downstream side is Adhesion is performed by means of fusing by applying heat. When the mesh member 18 is formed of a vinyl net, a metal plate member heated to a temperature at which vinyl is slightly melted is lightly pressed in a state where the mesh member is stacked on the filter, and the downstream surface of the nonwoven fabric 12 is pressed. 1
3 can be fused. Therefore, in the filter member of the present invention, since the filter 11 and the mesh member 18 are integrally bonded to the support frame 15 configured as a hard frame, the handleability of the filter member is set well. This makes it possible to easily perform the operation of attaching to the intake port or the exhaust port of the duct.

In the filter member of the present invention, when the fiber material constituting the filter is made of polypropylene, the thickness and the like of the fiber can be set arbitrarily. Other materials used as the electrostatic filter of the above can also be used. The thickness of the non-woven fabric formed by the filter is relatively small when removing the dust and the like in the outside air when the filter is disposed at the intake port. When it is arranged in an exhaust port such as the one described above, it is configured so as to exhibit characteristics capable of removing fine powder such as toner. In addition, the fusing surface formed downstream of the filter must be strong enough to keep the short fibers from separating, corresponding to the speed of the air flow flowing through the duct. In such a case, a treatment for strongly bonding the fibers can be performed, and at a low speed, a treatment for bonding the fibers relatively lightly can be performed.

In addition to the above-described structure, in the filter member of the present invention, the size of the hole, the material such as the support frame and the mesh member disposed on both sides of the filter, and the conditions for bonding to the filter can be arbitrarily set. The size of the filter member and the like can be arbitrarily formed in accordance with the size of the duct. The filter member can be used for a general color copying machine, in addition to being used at a suction port, and can be used for a full-color copying machine. In the case of disposing the filter, in addition to being able to remove fine dust and the like in the outside air, it is possible to prevent the fibers constituting the filter from being released and to be attached to the corotron, the photosensitive drum, and the optical system, It is possible to prevent the image quality of the copy from being affected.

[0016]

According to the dust collecting filter of the image forming apparatus of the present invention, the filter member having the above-described configuration is used. Therefore, the filter member is configured such that the filter is sandwiched by the holding members from both sides. Can be easily manufactured. In the present invention,
By performing a heat fusion treatment on the surface of the downstream side of the air flow side of the filter, short fibers are not released from the filter and mixed into the air, and the fibers enter the process unit such as a copying machine. Can be prevented from occurring. Furthermore, in the dust collecting filter of the image forming apparatus of the present invention, it is possible to exhibit good performance of removing dust and the like by the filter, perform the suction and exhaust processing in a state where the pressure loss is reduced, and perform the heat treatment on the filter. It can be done easily. In a device such as an electrophotographic copier, a filter member can be attached to an arbitrary intake port or an exhaust port, and the processing performance against short fibrous dusts such as paper dust together with minute dusts such as toner. Can be favorably exhibited.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of a blower of an image forming apparatus to which a filter member of the present invention can be applied.

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the filter member of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the filter of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

Reference Signs List 1 photoreceptor drum, 2 corotron, 3 blower, 4 inlet, 5 fan, 9 outlet, 10 filter member, 11 filter, 12 nonwoven fabric, 13 fusion surface, 15 support frame, 18 mesh member.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) B03C 3/00-3/88 B01D 46/10 B01D 39/14

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A device for arranging a filter together with a fan at an intake port or an exhaust port of an image forming apparatus to purify air sucked into the apparatus main body or air exhausted from the apparatus main body, wherein a fiber member charged with static electricity is used. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the filter is configured such that a downstream portion of the filter in a direction in which air flows is heat-fused, held by a mesh member, and the upstream portion is supported by a support frame. Dust filter.