JPH0713771B2 - Developer supply container - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a developer supply container for supplying a developer to an electrophotographic copying machine, a printer or the like.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, this type of container is a container body 1 made of synthetic resin, paper or the like having an opening for discharging a developer as shown in FIG. 3, and a synthetic resin, paper or metal foil for sealing the opening. The sheet-shaped sealing member 2 is formed of the same material. Discharge opening 5
Is generally rectangular, and the seal member is a heat seal, hot melt, impulse seal,
It was adhered to the container by means of a high-frequency welder or the like. One end of the seal member is folded back (6) and extended to form a grip portion, and when used, the grip member is pulled and the seal member is peeled off and opened.

In this structure, a particularly large force is required at the beginning and the end of pulling the seal member. In order to improve this and make it possible to pull it out even with a weak force, various ideas have been proposed for the shape of the bonded portion (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 58-14865).
No. 59-53868, No. 58-115752, 62-43372.
No. 63-366).

There are also cases in which the operability is improved by winding the sealing member instead of directly pulling it (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Sho 60-41068, No. Sho 58-71756, No. 61-117170).
62-2063, 62-110954, 63-14264).

[Problems that the invention is trying to solve]

 The above conventional example has the following problems.

By changing the shape of the seal member, the peeling force is reduced, but the start and end are inevitably heavy.
In particular, at the end, the resistance suddenly disappears when the seal member is removed, so the reaction causes the toner to leak out and scatter / float to stain the surrounding area, or the seal member with the removed toner adheres to the operator. There was a problem of touching his hands and clothes and soiling them. On the other hand, the adhesive strength of the seal member must be strong enough to prevent it from being opened due to vibrations and drop impacts in the distribution process, or environmental changes, especially decompression, and cannot be weakened.

When the container is discarded after the replenishment is completed, the container and the sealing member must be disposed of at two points. In particular, the seal member is a flexible film, and since it is folded back, it becomes a considerable length (generally about 300 to 800 mm), and it is easy to carry an electrostatic device, it is easy to stick to hands and others, and it is difficult to handle. However, there is a problem in that the hands, clothes, etc. are soiled even in the disposal work because of the adherence.

In the case of the seal member winding type, there is a problem that the structure is very complicated and the number of parts is large, so that the productivity is poor and the manufacturing cost is high.

[Means for solving problems]

The present invention has the following configuration in order to solve the problems of the conventional example.

That is, the present invention relates to a developer replenishing container for replenishing the developer to the developer supplying section of the image forming apparatus, which has an opening for replenishing the stored developer to the developer supplying section. In a peeling direction of peeling the seal member from the container, the container having a container for storing the seal member and a seal member bonded to the container so as to seal the opening, in a downstream portion of the opening, The force required to peel off the seal member from the container is larger than the upstream side of the opening, so that the seal member is adhered to the container by the adhesive regions arranged in the peeling direction at intervals. A developer supply container characterized in that a part of the sealing member is maintained in a state of being adhered to the container even after the opening is opened.

Here, the shape of the adhesive portion for adhering the sealing member and the container is, on the upstream side of the opening, a substantially chevron shape having a crest on the upstream side in the peeling direction of peeling the sealing member from the container, On the downstream side of the opening, adhesive regions arranged at intervals in the peeling direction are provided substantially orthogonal to the peeling direction. Further, the sealing member is a sealing portion that seals the opening, a folded back portion obtained by folding one end of the sealing portion, and a gripping portion at the tip of the folded back portion when the sealing member is peeled off from the container, Have. Further, the seal member is provided with a mark for notifying the completion of peeling of the seal member from the container.

〔Example〕

1 and 2 show an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a plan view best showing the features of the present invention.

In the embodiment described below, the shape of the adhesive portion between the seal member and the container is peeled off so that the rear end is perpendicular to the peeling direction, and the length in the peeling direction is preferably longer than double. By making it heavy, this portion is hard to peel off, and the seal member is not pulled out. Further, by printing the seal member, the operator is notified of the position where the pulling of the seal member is stopped. It is desirable that this is done in both directions, but only one of them is effective.

Now, when the container with the above configuration is set in the developer input section of the main body of a copying machine, printer, etc. and the seal is pulled, printing of the seal member appears in due course, and at the same time the force to peel off the seal member is remarkable. Increase and inform the operator that it is in a position to stop pulling on the sealing member. At this time, the toner supply port is opened as much as necessary.

With the seal member still adhered to the container, remove it from the body and discard. At this time, if the seal member is pushed into the container through the container opening, the seal member to which the toner is attached does not stain hands or clothes and can be disposed in a compact and disposed state.

Now, a detailed description will be given with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

First, in FIG. 1, 1 is a container body, 2 is a seal member,
3 (hatched portion) is an adhesion portion between the container body 1 and the seal member 2, 4
Is a print to inform the operator when the sticker has been pulled,
Reference numeral 6 (broken line) indicates a folded portion of the seal member 2.

As shown in FIG. 1, the container body 1 and the sealing member 2 are bonded to each other by reducing the peeling force by forming a trapezoidal portion at the beginning of the sealing member 2 (the right side in the figure) to form an inclined portion. (The same as the conventional example), however, the end of the pulling (the left side in the figure) is configured so as to increase the peeling force at right angles to the peeling direction and by making it double. There is. One end of the seal member 2 extends longer than the entire length of the container body 1 and is folded back at a position indicated by 6 (broken line) to serve as a grip portion when the seal member is peeled off. The word "STOP!" Is printed on the folded-back portion to inform the operator of the completion of peeling off the seal member (4). This printing is performed by the developer supply port 5
Is placed in such a position that it will appear just outside the container when completely opened.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a usage state of the developer supply container embodying the present invention. As shown in this figure, the developer supply container is
The developer supply port 5 faces downward and is set in a developer supply unit (not shown) of a copying machine or a printer. Next, the operator grasps the arrow-printed portion at the end of the seal member and peels off the seal. Eventually, when the developer supply port 5 is fully opened,
The "STOP!" Print appears on the outside of the container. FIG. 2 shows the situation at this time. At the same time, the adhesive portion 3 of the seal member 2 reaches a portion at right angles to the peeling direction, the peeling force becomes extremely large, and the operator knows that the peeling of the seal is completed from the feeling of the hand. It has become. As can be seen from FIG. 1, the developer supply port 5 is fully opened at this time. Up to this point, no toner was blown out or scattered.

When toner supply is completed, lightly tap the outside of the container several times to remove the toner adhering to the inside surface of the container. Next, the container is detached from the copier or printer body and discarded. At this time, the container has the developer supply port 5 facing upward, and by further pushing the seal member 2 to which the toner adheres from the developer supply port 5 into the container, the hand, clothes, etc. are not soiled at all, and the used container is not used. Can be disposed of.

FIG. 3 shows a conventional example of a developer supply container. Seal member 2
The adhesive 3 to the container body 1 has the same shape at the end of pulling as at the beginning of pulling, and aims at reducing the peeling force. The seal member 2 is printed only by the arrow indicating the peeling direction.

The developer replenishing container of this conventional example was replenished in the same manner as in the example. The force for peeling off the seal member 2 was low due to the shape of the adhesive portion, but still 3 at the beginning and the end. Since the resistance of 3 to 5 kgf is about 5 kgf and about 1 to 2 kgf in the middle part, and the resistance of 3 to 5 kgf suddenly becomes 0 at the end part, no matter how slowly the peeling is performed, some toner is blown out by reaction. In addition, the entire sealing member is pulled out and it is in a free state, so that there is some toner that comes out of the container when it reaches the sealing member, and the surroundings are soiled.

Regarding the disposal after the completion of the replenishment, the container body has no problem, but the sealing member is troublesome. The arrow portion (holding portion) at one end of the seal member is good because it is held by hand, but the other end is free and is the side to which toner adheres. The seal member is generally 350-700mm long and 100μ thick.
It is a thin plastic film of about m, which is extremely light and easily charged with static electricity. For this reason, the free portion of the seal member is likely to adhere to the operator's body, surrounding equipment, etc., and often stains them. Therefore, in order to make it compact by folding it, it is necessary to hold the toner-attached portion of the seal member, and the hand is slightly soiled.

Next, a drop test was conducted to evaluate the logistics performance. In each of the example and the conventional example, 24 pieces were made into one package, and in accordance with JIS-Z-0202, the three sides of one square and six sides were dropped in this order from a height of 90 cm.

As a result, no abnormalities such as leakage of the contents were found in the examples, but in 5 out of 24, the inner adhesive part of the double adhesive part at the rear end was partially peeled off. Was there. In the conventional example, the adhesive portion at the rear end was peeled off from three of the 24 pieces, and the contents leaked out.

It is considered that the powder developer of the contents presses the seal member from the inside due to the impact and inertia at the time of dropping, and the seal member is peeled off. It is speculated that the power will be concentrated. It is considered that the present embodiment reinforces one of the short sides where the force is most concentrated, so that it has the effect of significantly improving the physical distribution characteristics.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments.

Although the peeling force is extremely increased at the end of pulling and the operator is notified of the end of pulling in the above-described embodiment, the same effect can be obtained even if only one of them is used.

As a means for increasing the peeling force, the adhesive shape is doubled in the above-mentioned embodiment, but it may be tripled or more. Alternatively, other means such as changing the adhesive or the bonding method may be used only in this portion.

As a means for notifying the operator of the end of pulling, characters are printed, but pictograms, symbols, patterns, etc. may be used. Further, a method of printing a bar code or applying a magnetic material, and providing a detecting means on the main body of the copying machine or the printer, and displaying it on the panel of the main body or making a sound such as a buzzer may be used.

[Effects of the Invention] According to the present invention, even after the opening of the container is opened, a part of the sealing member is maintained in a state of being adhered to the container, so that it is possible to prevent contamination due to toner scattering. Furthermore, according to the present invention, on the downstream side of the opening, the adhesive regions arranged at intervals in the peeling direction so that the force required for peeling the seal member from the container is larger than that on the upstream side of the opening. Since the seal member is adhered to the container by means of the above, the force required for peeling the seal member from the container can be effectively increased on the downstream side of the opening. Therefore, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a developer supply container capable of maintaining a state in which a part of the sealing member is adhered to the container even after opening the opening.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a developer supply container according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a usage state of the developer supply container according to the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a plan view of a conventional example. In the figure, 1 is a developer container main body, 2 is a seal member, 3 is an adhesive portion between the developer container main body and a seal film, 4 is printing for notifying the end of pulling the seal, 5 is a developer discharge port, 6 Indicate the folded portions of the seal film.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A developer replenishing container for replenishing a developer to a developer supply unit of an image forming apparatus, the developer having an opening for replenishing the stored developer to the developer supply unit. And a seal member adhered to the container so as to seal the opening, in a peeling direction of peeling the seal member from the container, on a downstream side of the opening, The force required to peel off the seal member from the container is larger than the upstream side of the opening, so that the seal member is adhered to the container by the adhesive regions that are arranged side by side in the peeling direction. A developer supply container, characterized in that a part of the sealing member is maintained in a state of being adhered to the container even after opening the opening. 2. The shape of an adhesive portion for adhering the seal member and the container is a substantially chevron shape having an apex on the upstream side in the peeling direction of peeling the seal member from the container on the upstream side of the opening. The developer replenishing container according to claim 1, wherein, on the downstream side of the opening, adhesive regions arranged at intervals in the peeling direction are provided substantially orthogonal to the peeling direction. 3. A sealing member for sealing the opening, a folded back portion obtained by folding one end of the sealing portion, and a peeling member for peeling the sealing member from the container at the tip of the folded back portion. The developer supply container according to claim 1, further comprising a grip portion. 4. The developer supply container according to claim 1, wherein the seal member is provided with a mark for notifying the end of peeling of the seal member from the container.