JPH0229221B2 - ZOTANJITAIKURIININGUSOCHI - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cleaning device for an electronic copying machine, and more particularly to a cleaning device for removing and recovering residual toner from an image bearing member.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Conventionally, various types of devices for cleaning residual toner on an image bearing member such as an electrophotographic photoreceptor have been known, and for example, a cleaning device as shown in FIG. 1 has been used. In Figure 1,
1 is an electrostatic latent image carrier, and 2 is powder toner that remains on the electrostatic latent image carrier 1 after the transfer process.

The cleaning device main body 3 includes an electrostatic latent image carrier 1
The blade body 4 is disposed close to a position facing the electrostatic latent image carrier 1 and serves as a cleaner body for reliably removing and collecting the toner 2 from the electrostatic latent image carrier 1, and the brush body 5 is a cleaning auxiliary member. Both are housed in the housing 6.
It is located. The brush body 5 is located on the front side (lower side) of the blade body 4 and is made of conductive fibers, and a bias power source 8 is applied to the conductive fibers via a metal plate 7 in contact with the conductive fibers. is being applied.

The operation of such a cleaning device will be explained below.

The toner 2 remaining on the electrostatic latent image carrier 1 after the transfer process is neutralized by the brush body 5 biased in polarity, some percentage of it is absorbed by the brush body 5, and the rest is the cleaner body. The toner cleaned by the blade body 4 and scraped off by the blade body 4 falls directly above the brush body 5, and is further conveyed by the brush body 5 and collected on a catch pan (not shown).

What is important here is that the brush body 5 neutralizes the electric charge of the residual toner so that the residual toner on the electrostatic latent image bearing member 1 can be completely cleaned by the blade body 4, which is the main body of the cleaner. It is necessary to adsorb some of the toner. In order to provide the brush body 5 with such a function, the brush body 5
Conductive fibers with an electrical property of 10 ⁴ to 10 ¹¹ Ωcm are used, and are planted on the surface of the roll body at a density of 1000 to 300000 fibers/cm ² , and the length of the fibers is 1 to 10 mm.

However, in such a conventional device, when the adsorption of toner on the brush body 5 reaches saturation, toner overflows from the brush body 5, which significantly reduces the copy quality, and also causes toner clouding due to contact with the metal plate 7. There are problems in that a large amount of dust is generated, contaminating not only the inside of the cleaning device but also the entire inside of the copying machine, and furthermore, the entire brush body 5 is deformed into a dumpling-shaped roll, and there is a strong need to solve this problem. It was hot.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to eliminate and improve the problems of the conventional cleaning device as described above, and to prevent overflow of toner from the brush body, and to prevent overflow of toner from the brush body. It is possible to prevent the significant deterioration of copy quality that occurs due to this, and also prevent the brush body from becoming lumpy, suppress the generation of toner cloud, keep the inside of the copying machine clean, and obtain stable copy quality. An object of the present invention is to provide an image carrier cleaning device that can perform the following operations.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a cleaning device for removing and collecting toner remaining on an image bearing member, which includes a cleaner main body and a cleaning auxiliary member. It is characterized by the use of a brush body made of insulating fibers.

Aspects of the Invention The insulating fibers constituting the brush body include:
Teflon, nylon, rayon, polypropylene, acrylic fibers, etc. can be suitably used.

In the present invention, instead of applying a voltage from a bias power source to the brush body and neutralizing the charge of residual toner as in the conventional device, the insulating brush body is used to apply a voltage from a bias power source to the image bearing member. This scrapes the remaining toner and makes it easier to clean with the cleaner itself.

For this reason, the above-mentioned insulating fibers having a fiber thickness of 5 to 50 μm are placed in a roll body with a fiber length of 3
~15 mm, density of 1000 to 400000 brushes/cm ² to form a brush body, and the length of contact with the image carrier (the depth of penetration of the image carrier into the brush body or the depth of embedment) C) It is preferable to arrange them so that they are in contact with each other so as to have a distance of 0.2 to 2 mm.

Embodiments Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail while describing embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings. For convenience of explanation, the same reference numerals are used for members having the same functions as those of the conventional cleaning device shown in FIG. 1, and detailed explanation will be omitted.

Embodiment 1 FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of a blade type cleaning device similar to the conventional device shown in FIG. 1. In FIG. 2, 1 is an electrostatic latent image carrier, 4 is a blade body, and 5a is a brush body, and the blade body 4 and brush body 5a are housed in the housing 6 of the cleaning device main body 3 as in the conventional device. , and the manner of arrangement thereof is the same as that of the conventional device.However, in this embodiment, unlike the conventional device shown in FIG. No metal plate is provided.

In the cleaning device as shown in FIG.
Rayon fibers with a fiber length of 10 mm and a density of 70,000 fibers/
A brush body with a size of 32 mmφ was implanted so as to have a diameter of cm ² , and was placed in contact with the Se-based drum so that the contact length was 1 mm. Although 100,000 copies were collected using such a cleaning device, excessive toner adhered to the brush body 5a and formed a dumpling shape, or the toner overflowed.
Furthermore, no toner cloud occurred.

Embodiment 2 FIG. 3 shows a modification of the above embodiment 1. This embodiment is the same as the first embodiment except that the wiping blade 9 is disposed in contact with the brush body 5a. This wiping blade 9 has the role of wiping off toner adhering to the brush body 5a, and keeps the function of the blade body 5a constant at all times. Although some toner cloud occurs in this embodiment,
Since the insulating brush body 5a is used and no bias voltage is applied, the amount of toner adhering to the brush body 5a is small compared to the conventional apparatus, and has almost no effect.

Embodiment 3 FIG. 4 shows an example of a magnetic brush cleaning device that uses an Se-based drum as the electrostatic latent image carrier and uses a one-component magnetic toner as the toner used for development.

In Fig. 4, 1 is an electrostatic latent image carrier (Se-based drum), 2a is a one-component magnetic toner containing a magnetic material inside the powder toner, and the electrostatic latent image carrier after the transfer process is This remains on the image carrier 1.

The cleaning device main body 3a is disposed close to a position facing the electrostatic latent image carrier 1, and has a magnetic brush cleaner 10 disposed close to the electrostatic latent image carrier 1 therein as a cleaning auxiliary member. It is composed of a brush body (brush roll) 5a. The magnetic brush cleaner 10 is for magnetically adsorbing the one-component magnetic toner 2a, and includes a non-magnetic sleeve 11 that is rotatably fixed, and a plurality of non-magnetic sleeves that are fixed so as not to rotate inside the sleeve 11. It consists of a magnet 12 formed in the shape of a roll made of magnetic poles. The sleeve 11 is rotatable in the same direction as the moving direction of the electrostatic latent image carrier 1,
Further, the rotational speed of the sleeve 11 can be synchronized with the rotational speed of the electrostatic latent image carrier 1, and can also be adjusted to a higher speed. Also,
The sleeve 11 is electrically grounded. Further, at a predetermined position close to the sleeve 11, a non-magnetic (aluminum) regulating blade 13 is provided for regulating the amount of one-component magnetic toner on the sleeve 11.
is fixedly disposed on the cleaning device main body 3a. On the other hand, the brush body 5a is made of insulating fibers as in each of the embodiments described above.

Here, to explain the operation of the cleaning device, the one-component magnetic toner 2a remaining on the electrostatic latent image carrier 1 after the transfer process is removed by the brush body 5a.
, and the magnetic brush cleaner 10 is sent to a cleaning area facing the electrostatic latent image carrier 1 . In the cleaning area, the one-component magnetic toner adsorbed onto the surface of the sleeve 11 of the magnetic brush cleaner 10 is magnetically cleaned while rubbing the toner remaining on the electrostatic latent image carrier 1.

In the magnetic brush cleaning device having the above configuration, as the brush body 5a, Beslon (trade name), which is an acrylic fiber with a thickness of 25 μm, is rolled into a roll body with a fiber length of 7 mm and a density of 200,000 fibers/cm ² . Using a planted brush body with a diameter of 28 mm,
It was placed in contact with the Se-based drum so that the contact length was approximately 1 mm. Approximately 100,000 copies were collected under these conditions, but the brush body 5a did not become lump-shaped, the toner overflowed, or a toner cloud occurred.

In the above-mentioned embodiments, examples of the cleaner main body include a blade body and a magroll body, but other cleaning means such as a fur brush body may also be used.

Effects of the Invention As described above, the image carrier cleaning device according to the present invention uses a brush body made of insulating fibers as a cleaning auxiliary member, and uses a brush body made of conductive fibers to bias the brush body like the conventional device. Since no voltage is applied or a metal plate is brought into contact with the brush body for this purpose, the brush body does not adsorb toner, resulting in the brush body becoming dumpling-like, toner overflowing, and toner clouds. This prevents the generation of dust and conspicuous staining of copies, and thus provides an optimal configuration as a cleaning auxiliary member to be used in the pre-cleaning stage of the cleaner main body. Furthermore, since the brush body does not adsorb toner, it is possible to use a brush body with a higher density than the conventional brush body using conductive fibers.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic explanatory diagram of a conventional cleaning device, FIG. 2 is a schematic explanatory diagram showing an embodiment of the cleaning device according to the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing a modification of the embodiment shown in FIG. 2. The explanatory diagram, FIG. 4, is a schematic explanatory diagram of another embodiment. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Electrostatic latent image carrier, 4... Blade body, 5... Conductive brush body, 5a... Insulating brush body, 9... Wiping blade, 10... Magnetic brush cleaner, 11...
Sleeve, 12...Magnet, 13...Regulation blade.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A cleaning device for removing and collecting toner remaining on an image carrier, which is composed of a cleaner body and a cleaning auxiliary member,
The cleaning auxiliary member is made of Teflon, nylon, rayon, polypropylene, or acrylic fiber, with a fiber length of 3 to 15 mm and a thickness of 5 to 5 mm.
A brush body having a diameter of 50μ, a density of 1000 to 400000 lines/cm ² and a size of 10 to 50 mmφ is used, and the brush body is placed in contact with the image carrier with a fiber contact length of 0.2 to 2 mm. Image carrier cleaning device.