Patent Grant
9658558
This application is based on and claims priority under 35 USC 119 from Japanese Patent Application No. 2011-285454 filed Dec. 27, 2011.
(i) Technical Field
The present invention relates to a blower pipe, a blowing device, and an image forming apparatus.
(ii) Related Art
In image forming apparatuses that form an image constituted with developer on a recording paper, for example, there is an image forming apparatus using a corona discharger that performs corona discharge in the process of charging a latent image holding member, such as a photoreceptor, or the process of neutralization, the process of transferring a non-fixed image to the recording paper, or the like.
Additionally, in the corona discharger, in order to prevent unnecessary substances, such as paper debris or a discharge product, from adhering to component parts, such as a discharge wire or a grid electrode, a blowing device that blows air against component parts may also be provided. The blowing device in this case is generally constituted by a blower that sends air, and a duct (blower pipe) that guides and sends out the air sent from the blower up to a target structure, such as a corona discharger.
In the related art, improvements for enabling air to be uniformly blown in the longitudinal direction of the component parts, such as a discharge wire, are variously performed on the blowing device or the like. Particularly, as such a blowing device or the like, there is proposed a blowing device that does not adopt a configuration in which the shape of a passage space of a duct through which air is caused to flow is formed in a special shape or a configuration in which a straightening vane or the like that adjusts the direction in which air flows is installed in the passage space of the duct, or the like, but adopts a separate configuration as illustrated below.
According to an aspect of the invention, there is provided a blower pipe provided with an inlet that takes in air, and an outlet that is arranged so as to face a portion of a long target structure in a longitudinal direction against which the air taken in from the inlet is to be blown and that has a long opening shape that is parallel to the portion of the target structure in the longitudinal direction and is different from the opening shape of the inlet, the blower pipe including: a passage part formed with a passage space for connecting between the inlet and the outlet to cause air to flow therein; and plural suppressing parts that are provided in different parts in a direction in which air in the passage space of the passage part is caused to flow and that suppress the flow of the air, wherein an outlet suppressing part constructed so that the passage space in the outlet is closed by a permeable member dotted with plural ventilation portions is provided in the outlet of the passage part as one of the plural suppressing parts, and wherein the permeability of an end region present at least at one end in a lateral direction orthogonal to the longitudinal direction among regions along the longitudinal direction of the opening shape of the outlet in the permeable member of the outlet suppressing part is set to a smaller value than the permeability of regions other than the end region.
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail based on the following figures, wherein:
Hereinafter, the modes (hereinafter referred to as “exemplary embodiments”) for carrying out the invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
In the image forming apparatus 1, as shown in
The above image forming unit 20 is constructed, for example utilizing a well-known electrophotographic system, and is mainly constituted by a photoreceptor drum 21 that is rotation driven in the direction (the clockwise direction in the drawing) indicated by an arrow A, a charging device 4 that charges a peripheral surface that becomes an image formation region of the photoreceptor drum 21 with a required potential, an exposure device 23 that forms an electrostatic latent image with a potential difference that irradiates the surface of the photoreceptor drum 21 after charging with light (dotted line with an arrow) based on image information (signal) input from the outside, a developing device 24 that develops the electrostatic latent image as a toner image with a toner, a transfer device 25 that transfers the toner image to a sheet 9, and a cleaning device 26 that removes the toner or the like that remains on the surface of the photoreceptor drum 21 after transfer.
Among these, a corona discharger is used as the charging device 4. As shown in
Additionally, the charging device 4 is arranged such that the two corona discharge wires 41A and 41B are present at least in an image forming target region along the direction of a rotational axis of the photoreceptor drum 21 in a state where the wires face each other at a predetermined interval (for example, a discharge gap) from the peripheral surface of the photoreceptor drum 21. Additionally, the charging device 4 is adapted such that charging voltages are respectively applied to the discharge wires 41A and 41B (between the wires and the photoreceptor drum 21) from a power unit (not shown) when an image is formed.
Moreover, with the use of the charging device 4, substances (undesired substances), such as debris of a sheet 9, a discharge product generated by corona discharge, and external additives adhere to the corona discharge wires 41 or the grid electrode 42, and are contaminated, and the corona discharge is no longer sufficiently or uniformly performed. As a result, poor charging, such as uneven charging, may occur. For this reason, in order to prevent or keep unnecessary substances from adhering to the discharge wires 41 and the grid electrode 42, a blowing device 5 for blasting air against the discharge wires 41 and the grid electrode 42 is provided together at the charging device 4. Additionally, the top face 40a of the shielding case 40 of the charging device 4 is formed with an inflow opening 43 for allowing the air from the blowing device 5 to flow thereinto. The inflow opening 43 is formed so that the opening shape thereof becomes oblong. In addition, the blowing device 5 will be described below in detail.
The sheet feeder 30 includes a sheet accommodation member 31 of a tray type, a cassette type, or the like that accommodates plural sheets 9 including a required size, required kind, or the like to be used for formation of an image, in a stacked state, and a delivery device 32 that delivers the sheets 9 accommodated in the paper accommodation member 31 one by one toward a transporting path. If the timing for sheet feeding comes, the sheets 9 are delivered one by one. Plural sheet accommodation bodies 31 are provided according to utilization modes. A one-dot chain line with an arrow in
The fixing device 35 includes, inside a housing 36 formed with an introduction port and a discharge port through which a sheet 9 passes, a roller-shaped or belt-shaped heating rotary member 37 of which the surface temperature is heated to and maintained at required temperature by a heating means, and a roller-shaped or belt-shaped pressing rotary member 38 that is rotationally driven in contact with the heating rotary member at a required pressure so as to extend substantially along the direction of the rotational axis of the heating rotary member 37. The fixing device 35 allows a sheet 9 after a toner image is transferred to be introduced into and pass through a contact portion (fixing treatment section) that is formed as the heating roller member 37 and the pressing roller member 38 come into contact with each other.
Image formation by the image forming apparatus 1 is performed as follows. Here, a fundamental image forming operation when an image is formed on one side of a sheet 9 will be described as an example.
In the image forming apparatus 1, if the control device or the like receives a start command for an image forming operation, in the image forming unit 20, the peripheral surface of the photoreceptor drum 21 that starts to rotate is charged with predetermined polarity and potential by the charging device 4. At this time, in the charging device 4, corona discharge is generated in a state where charging voltages are applied to the two corona discharge wires 41A and 41B, respectively, and an electric field is formed between each of the discharge wires 41A and 41B and the peripheral surface of the photoreceptor drum 21, and thereby, the peripheral surface of the photoreceptor drum 21 is charged with required potential. In this case, the charging potential of the photoreceptor drum 21 is adjusted by the grid electrode 42.
Subsequently, an electrostatic latent image, which is constructed with a required potential difference as exposure is performed on the basis of image information from the exposure device 23, is formed on the peripheral surface of the charged photoreceptor drum 21. Thereafter, when the electrostatic latent image formed on the photoreceptor drum 21 passes through the developing device 24, the electrostatic latent image is developed with toner that is supplied from the developing roller 24a and is charged with required polarity, and is visualized as a toner image.
Next, if the toner image formed on the photoreceptor drum 21 is transported to a transfer position that faces the transfer device 25 by the rotation of the photoreceptor drum 21, the toner image is transferred by the transfer device 25 to a sheet 9 to be supplied through a transporting path from the sheet feeder 30 according to this timing. The peripheral surface of each photoreceptor drum 21 after this transfer is cleaned by the cleaning device 26.
Subsequently, the sheet 9 to which the toner image is transferred in the image forming unit 2 is transported so as to be introduced into the fixing device 35 after being peeled off from the photoreceptor drum 21, is heated under pressure when passing through the contact portion between the heating roller member 37 and the pressing roller member 38 in the fixing device 35, and is fixed on the sheet 9. The sheet 9 after this fixing is completed is ejected from the fixing device 35, and is transported and accommodated in an ejected paper accommodation section (not shown) formed, for example outside the housing 10.
A monochrome image constituted by a single-color toner is formed on one side of one sheet 9, and the fundamental image forming operation is completed. When there is an instruction for the image forming operation for plural sheets, a series of operations as described above are similarly repeated by the number of sheets.
Next, the blowing device 5 will be described.
As shown in
As the blower 50, for example, an axial flow type blower fan is used and the driving thereof is controlled so as to send a required volume of air. Additionally, as shown in
The passage part 54 of the blower duct 51 has one end portion provided with the inlet 52 and opened and the other end portion closed, and the overall passage part is constituted by an angular-tube-shaped introduction passage part 54A formed so as to extend along the longitudinal direction B of the charging device 4, an angular-tube-shaped first bending passage portion 54B formed so as to extend after being almost at a right angle to a substantially horizontal direction (direction substantially parallel to the coordinate axis X) in a state where the width of the passage space is increased from a part near the other end portion of the introduction passage part 54A, and a second bending passage portions 54C formed so as to extend after being finally bent in a downwardly perpendicular direction (direction substantially parallel to the coordinate axis Y) so as to approach the charging device 4 in a state where the width of the passage space remains equal from one end portion of the first bending passage portion 54B. A termination end of the second bending passage portion or bending part 54C is formed with an outlet 53 including an opening shape that is slightly narrower than the cross-sectional shape of the passage space of the termination end (however, the longitudinal length of the oblong shape is almost the same). The width (dimension along the longitudinal direction B) of both the passage spaces 54a of the first bending passage portion 54B and the second bending passage portion 54C is set to almost the same dimension.
The inlet 52 of the blower duct 51 is formed so that the opening shape thereof becomes substantially square. A connection duct 55 for connecting between the blower duct and the blower 50 to send the air from the blower 50 up to the inlet 52 of the blower duct 51 is attached to the inlet 52 (
Here, in the blower duct 51 in which the inlet 52 and the outlet 53 are formed in mutually different opening shapes in this way, the portion in which the cross-sectional shape of the passage space 54a is changed on the way is present the passage part 54 that connects between the inlet 52 and outlet 53. Incidentally, in the blower duct 51, the cross-sectional shape of the passage space 54a including a substantially square shape, of the introduction passage part 54A is changed to the cross-sectional shape of the passage space 54a including an oblong shape that spreads only in the horizontal direction (irrespective of height) in the first bending passage portion 54B. In other words, the cross-sectional shape of the passage space 54a of the introduction passage part 54A is the cross-sectional shape of the passage space 54a that abruptly becomes wide in the first bending passage portion 545.
Additionally, in the case of the blower duct 51 in which such a portion in which the cross-sectional shape of the passage space 54a changes is present, disturbance, such as flaking or swirling, occurs in the flow of air in the portion in which the cross-sectional shape of the blower duct changes. For this reason, even if air with a uniform wind speed is taken in from the inlet 52, the wind speed of the air that comes out from the outlet 53 tends to become non-uniform. In addition, the tendency for the wind speed of the air that comes out from the outlet in this way to occur substantially similarly even in a case where the direction in which the air in the blower duct 51 is caused to flow (advanced) changes irrespective of the presence of a change in the cross-sectional shape of the passage space 54a.
Therefore, as shown in
The first upstream suppressing part 61 is provided almost at an almost intermediate position in the direction in which air is caused to flow in the passage space 54b of the first bending passage portion 54B. The first upstream suppressing part 61 is constructed in such a manner to interrupt a portion of the passage space 54b in a state where the portion of the passage space runs along the direction parallel to the longitudinal direction (the same direction as the longitudinal direction B of the charging device 4) of the opening shape of the outlet 53, and so as to have a gap 63 in a shape that extends in the longitudinal direction of the opening shape of the outlet 53.
The first upstream suppressing part 61 in the exemplary embodiment 1 is constructed by causing a plate-shaped partition member 64 to be present within the passage space 54b of the bending passage portion 54B without changing the appearance of the first bending passage portion 54B. Specifically, the partition member 64 closes an upper space portion in the passage space 54b of the first bending passage portion 54B, and is arranged so that a lower end 64a of the partition member has a required interval (height) H with respect to the bottom (inner wall) 55a of the passage space 54b. This forms a structure where the gap 63 is present in a lower part of the passage space 54b. The partition member 64 is formed by molding integrally with the same material as the duct 51 or is formed from a material separate from the duct 51.
The height H, path length M, and width (longitudinal length) W of the gap 63 are selected and set from the viewpoint of making the wind speed of air that has flowed into the first bending passage portion 54B from the introduction passage part 54A as uniform as possible, and are set in consideration of the dimension (capacity) of the duct 51, the flow ratio per unit time of air caused to flow to the duct 51, the charging device 4, or the like. For example, the height H of the gap 63 may be set to the dimension uniformly or partially changed from the above viewpoint or the like without being limited to a case where the dimension is the same in the longitudinal direction of the width W.
On the other hand, the outlet suppressing part 62 is formed by bringing about a state where the passage space (opening) in the termination end (outlet 53) of the second bending passage portion 54C is closed by a permeable member 70 having plural ventilation portions 71. Additionally, the permeable member 70 that constitutes the outlet suppressing part 62, as will be described in detail is divided into a ventilation adjustment region or first area 70a where the permeability that is a degree at which air passes is reduced and adjusted, and a ventilation non-adjustment region or second area 70b where the permeability is not particularly reduced.
All the plural ventilation portions 71 in the ventilation non-adjustment region 70b (the ventilation adjustment region 70a may be included) are through holes that extends so that each opening shape is substantially circular and passes through in the shape of a straight line, as schematically shown in
Additionally, the blower duct 51 of the blowing device 5 is influenced by, for example, the presence of the first suppressing part 61 of the blower duct 51, the presence of the second bending passage portion 54C, or the like. Thereby, even when there is the strength of flow in the air that has reached the passage space 54c before the outlet 53 of the blower duct 51, the air that comes out from the outlet 53 comes out in a state where the unevenness of wind speed is reduced in both directions of the longitudinal direction B of the outlet 53, and the lateral direction C orthogonal to the longitudinal direction. Therefore, as shown in
That is, only by providing the blower duct 51 with the above-mentioned two suppressing parts 61 and 62 (refer to
For this reason, the end region 70a present at one end of the permeable member 70 of the outlet suppressing part 62 in the lateral direction C becomes a means for reducing the unevenness in the wind speed of the air that comes out from that outlet 53 in both the directions. In addition, the above end region 70a present at one end in the lateral direction C will also be referred to as the “ventilation adjustment region” as mentioned above, and the other region 70b will also be referred to as the “ventilation the non-adjustment region” as mentioned above.
As for the one end of the outlet 53 in the lateral direction C that specifies the end region (ventilation adjustment region) 70a, one end on the side where the wind speed of the air that comes out from the outlet 53 is relatively fast (flow is strong) is selected.
In the end region (ventilation adjustment region) 70a in the exemplary embodiment 1, the outlet suppressing part 62 is provided at the outlet 53 at the terminal of the second bending passage portion 54C of the blower duct 51. Therefore, one end of the outlet 53 in the lateral direction C that specifies the end region 70a becomes one end on the side present at a termination position outside (inner wall portion 55b) of the second bending passage portion 54C in the bending direction K as shown in
Additionally, it is preferable that the end region 70a be provided in a region with a ratio of from 5% to 20% with respect to the entire region of the outlet 53 in the lateral direction C. That is, as shown in
The end region 70a in the exemplary embodiment 1 has a form in which the portion of the permeable member 70 corresponding to the region 70a is not provided with the ventilation portions (through holes) 71 (in other words, a form in which the ventilation portions 71 are closed). Thereby, the permeability in the end region 70a is made lower than the permeability of the other region (ventilation non-adjustment region) 70b.
The ratio in which the permeability in the end region 70a is reduced is set according to the strength of the flow of air that arrives at the passage space 54c present before the outlet suppressing part 62 of the ventilation duct 50, for example, but is for example a ratio in which the value of 50% to 100% of the permeability in the other region 70b is reduced. The ratio in which the value of 100% is reduced corresponds to a case where the permeability of the other region 70b is set to zero. This corresponds to an aspect that the permeability of the end region 70a in the present embodiment is reduced.
Here, the permeability becomes the occupancy of the opening area (value when all the opening areas of respective holes are totaled) of all the through holes 71 to the total area of the surface of a perforated plate, for example in a case where the permeable member 70 is a perforated plate formed with the plural through holes 71 described earlier. That is, the permeability D that in this case is expressed by the following equation “(Opening area of all through holes/Total area of plate member)×100”. Additionally, the permeability in a case where the permeable member 70 is a member other than this will be described below.
The permeable member 70 is formed by integrally molding from the same material as the duct 51 or is formed from a material separate from the duct 51 and mounted on the outlet 53. The opening shape, opening dimension, hole length, and hole presence density of the ventilation portions (holes) 71 in the ventilation non-adjustment portion 70b are selected and set from a viewpoint of making the wind speed of air that has flowed out of the second bending passage portion 54C through the outlet 53 as uniform as possible, and are set in consideration of the dimension (capacity) of the duct 51, the flow rate per unit time of air caused to flow to the duct 51, the charging device 4, or the like.
In addition, in a case where the ventilation adjustment portion 70a is provided, ventilation holes (73, 75) that are constituents that reduce the permeability (refer to
The operation of the blowing device 5 will be described below.
If the blowing device 5 arrives at driving setting timing such as image forming operation timing or the like, the blower 50 is first rotationally driven to send out a required volume of air. The air (E) sent from the started blower 50 is taken into the passage space 54a of the passage part 54 through the connection duct 55 from the inlet 52 of the blower duct 51.
Subsequently, as shown in
In this case, the air (E2) when passing through the gap 63 of the first upstream suppressing part 61 has its flow suppressed by the gap 63 of the first upstream suppressing part 61 (the pressure of the air is brought into a raised state), and tends to flow out of the gap 63 in a uniform state. Moreover, as for the air (E2) when flowing into the passage space 54c of the first bending passage portion 54B, the direction of the air when flowing out of the gap 63 of the suppressing part 61 is aligned substantially in a direction orthogonal to the longitudinal direction (B) of the outlet 53.
Subsequently, the air (E2) that has flowed into the passage space 54c of the second bending passage portion 54C, as indicated by an arrow E3, flows into the passage space 54c of the second bending passage portion 54C whose volume is larger than the passage space 54a of the introduction passage part 54A or the space of the gap 63, and is thereby swirled and stagnated within the passage space 54c of the second bending passage portion 54C, and the unevenness of the wind speed is reduced.
At this time, a portion E2a of the air (E2) that has passed through the gap 63 of the first upstream suppressing part 61 and has flowed into the passage space 54c proceeds almost linearly almost the path of a gap 63. Additionally, the other air E2b proceeds in such a curved manner that the air is diffused within the passage space 54a of the second bending passage portion 54C. Particularly in a case where the air volume introduced from the inlet 52 of the blower duct 51 is relatively large, the flow of the air E2a that proceeds linearly from the gap 63 becomes stronger than that of the other air E2b.
Finally, the air (E2) that has flowed into and stagnated in the passage space 54c of the second bending passage portion 54C, as shown in
In this case, the air (E3) blown out from the outlet 53 passes through the plural ventilation portions 71 in the region 70b of the permeable member 70 that is relatively narrower than the opening area of the outlet 53, and is thereby sent out in a state where the flow thereof is suppressed (at this time, the pressure of the air is brought into a raised state).
On the other hand, the air (E2a) that proceeds linearly and flows into the passage space 54c of the second bending passage portion 54C tends to collide with the inner wall portion 55b present outside of the bending passage portion 540 in the bending direction K, and a portion thereof tends to flow out towards one end 53a of the outlet 53 near the termination end of the inner wall portion 55b. For this reason, in a case where the outlet suppressing part 62 is constructed using the permeable member 70 simply formed by dotting the ventilation holes 71 in a region corresponding to the entire region of the outlet 53 so as to have a permeability (
However, the air Eta has its flow interrupted by the end region 70a where the permeability of the permeable member 70 that constitutes the outlet suppressing part 62 is reduced (brought into a zero state), and finally moves to the region 70b that is finally the other ventilation non-adjustment region.
Finally, the air (E3) that passes through the outlet suppressing part 62 and is blown out from the outlet 53 passes through the plural ventilation portions 71 that are almost uniformly dotted in the region 70b except for the end region 70a of the permeable member 70 present at the one end 53a of the outlet 53 and that are formed on the same conditions, and is thereby sent out from the outlet 53 in a uniform state. Moreover, the air (E3) blown out from the outlet 53 has its traveling direction changed to a direction facing the charging device 4 in the direction substantially orthogonal to the longitudinal direction B of the outlet 53, and is sent out.
From the above, all air (E3) that passes the outlet suppressing part 62 and comes out from the outlet 53 is sent out in a state where the traveling direction thereof becomes the direction substantially orthogonal to the longitudinal direction of the outlet 53, and the wind speed thereof is brought into a substantially uniform state. Additionally, the wind speed of the air (E4) that comes out from the outlet 53 is brought into a substantially uniform state in the longitudinal direction (B) of the opening shape (oblong shape) of the outlet 53, and is brought into a substantially uniform state also in the lateral direction C.
Additionally, the air (E3) sent out from the outlet 53 of the blower duct 51, as shown in
Thereby, unnecessary substances, such as paper debris, an additive agent of toner, and a discharge product, that are going to adhere to the two discharge wires 41A and 41B and the grid electrode 42, respectively, may be kept away. As a result, degradation, such as unevenness may be prevented from occurring in discharge performance (charge performance) owing to sparse adhesion of unnecessary substances to the discharge wires 41A and 41B or the grid electrode 42 in the charging device 4, and the peripheral surface of the photoreceptor drum 21 may be more uniformly (uniformly in both directions of the axial direction and the circumferential direction along the rotational direction A) charged. Additionally, a toner image formed in the image forming unit 20 including the charging device 4, and an image finally formed on a sheet 9 are obtained as excellent images in which occurrence of image defects (uneven density or the like) resulting from charging defects, such as uneven charging, is reduced.
In the tests, the blower duct 510 shown in
The tests include the blower duct 510 of the reference standard example, and are performed by preparing, as the blower duct 51 in the exemplary embodiment 1, plural blower ducts of a form in which the rows from first to fifth rows that are present at the one end 53a of the outlet 53 among the rows of the ventilation holes 71 in the lateral direction C of the outlet 53 are not formed in the permeable member 70 that constitutes the outlet suppressing part 62 while being increased one row by one row (in other words, a form in which the ventilation holes are closed while being increased one row at a time) and by using blowing devices 5 mounted with the respective blower ducts 510 and 51, respectively.
Regarding test contents, air with an average air volume of 0.25 m3/min is introduced from the blower 50, and then, the wind speed (wind speed in the entire region of the outlet in the longitudinal direction B) of the air blown out from the outlet 53 of each of the blower ducts 51 and 510 is measured. The measurement of the wind speed is performed by using an air speedometer (UAS1200LP made by DEGREE CONTROLS, INC), and the moving the air speedometer in the longitudinal direction B at two places including the position of the discharge wire 41A that approximately corresponds to the end position P1 (pre-position) located on the upstream side in the outlet 53 in the rotational direction A of the photosensitive drum 21 as shown in
As the blower ducts 51 and 510, there are used blower ducts in which the overall shapes are those as shown in
The end region (ventilation adjustment region) 70a present at the one end 53a of the outlet 53 of the permeable member 70 corresponds to a region where the rows (first row to fifth row) of the ventilation holes 71 that are present in order from the one end 53 of the outlet 53 among a larger number of ventilation holes 71 formed in the permeable member 70 in the blower duct 510 of the reference standard example. Incidentally, the respective end regions 70a in this case becomes regions with ratios of 5.9% (in a case where the first row is not formed: one row closed), 11.8% and 17.6% (in a case where the ventilation holes are not formed up to the third row), and 23.5% and 29.4% (when the ventilation holes are not formed up to the fifth row: five rows closed) with respect to the entire region L of the outlet 53 (=17.5 mm).
First, in a case where the blower duct 510 (
In addition, as for the blower ducts 510 of the reference standard example, in a case where the volume of air introduced from the inlet 52 is changed to, for example a reduced value of 0.17 m3/min from, for example 0.25 m3/min, the measurement results are as follows. That is, as shown in
Next, in a case where the respective blower ducts 51 in which the ventilation holes 71 in the permeable member 70 of the outlet suppressing part 62 are not formed in some end regions, and the permeability is adjusted is used, the measurement results become the results as shown in
In contrast, the measurement results in cases where the ventilation holes 71 are not formed up to the fourth row and the fifth row, respectively (four rows closed and five rows closed) are as follows. That is, as shown in
In the exemplary embodiment 1, the blower duct 51 of the blowing device 5 may also be changed to blower ducts that adopt other aspects illustrated below as the aspect in which the permeability in the end region 70a of the permeable member 70 that constitutes the outlet suppressing part 62 is reduced more than the permeability of the other region (ventilation non-adjustment region) 70b.
A configuration example shown in
The configuration example shown in
Additionally, in the exemplary embodiment 1, as the blower duct 51 of the blowing device 5, it is also possible to apply a blower duct 51B that has no second bending passage portion 54C (refer to
In the blower duct 51B, the first upstream suppressing part 61 and the outlet suppressing part 62 (refer to
In the blowing device 5 to which the blower duct 51B is applied, if the evaluation test regarding the above-mentioned performance characteristics is performed, almost the same excellent results as those in the case where the blower duct 51 in the exemplary embodiment 1 is applied (
Although the case where two suppressing parts 61 and 62 are provided as plural suppressing parts that in the blower duct 51 of the blowing device 5 is shown in the exemplary embodiment 1, three or more suppressing parts may be provided. Additionally, it is preferable to provide suppressing parts other than the outlet suppressing part 62 in a part whose cross-sectional shape is changed in the passage space 54a of the passage part 54 of the duct 51 or in a part after (immediately after or the like) the direction in which air is caused to flow in the passage space 54a is changed.
Although the case where the outlet suppressing part 62 is constructed using the permeable member 70 formed so that the plural ventilation portions (through holes) 71 are almost uniformly dotted with is illustrated in the exemplary embodiment 1, the outlet suppressing part 62 may also be constructed using the permeable member 70 represented by, for example, porous members (in which the plural ventilation portions 71 are irregular through-gaps), such as a nonwoven fabric applied to filters. Incidentally, in a case where the above-described porous member is applied as the permeable member 70 is incidentally applied, the measurement of the permeability of the permeable member 70 may be performed, for example, according to the “Frazier Type Measuring Method of Evaluating The Permeability of Fabric (Nonwoven Fabric Or The Like)” on the basis of L1096 of Japanese Industrial Standard (JIS). Specifically, the permeability of the end region 70a may be obtained by using a Frazier type air permeability tester or the like, measuring the permeability in the end region 70a and the other region 70b of the permeable member 70 that constitutes the outlet suppressing part 62, respectively, and obtaining a ratio (percentage) to the permeability of the region 70b other than the end region.
Additionally, as the blower duct 51, blower ducts having other shapes without being limited to the case in which the overall shapes are those illustrated in the exemplary embodiment 1 or the like may be applied. For example, the blower ducts 510 (510A to 510C) illustrated to
Moreover, the charging device 4 to which the blowing device 5 is applied may be a charging device of a type in which the grid electrode 24 is not installed, a so-called corotron type charging device. Additionally, the charging device 4 may be charging devices using one corona discharge wire 41 or three or more corona discharge wires. Additionally, as the long target structure to which the blowing device 5 is applied, a corona discharger that performs neutralization of the photosensitive drum 21 or the like, or a corona discharger that charges or neutralizes charged member other than the photosensitive drum may be used. In addition, a long structure that requires blowing-off of air other than the corona discharger may be used.
Additionally, an image forming method or the like is not particularly limited if the image forming apparatus 1 includes the long target structure that needs to apply the blowing device 5 that adopted the blower duct 51 or the like or the corona discharger 4 equipped with the blowing device 5. If necessary, an image forming apparatus that forms an image formed from materials other than developer may be used.
The foregoing description of the exemplary embodiments of the present invention has been provided for the purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Obviously, many modifications and variations will be apparent to practitioners skilled in the art. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and its practical applications, thereby enabling others skilled in the art to understand the invention for various embodiments and with the various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. It is intended that the scope of the invention be defined by the following claims and their equivalents.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011-285454 | Dec 2011 | JP | national |
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3471695 | Cranch et al. | Oct 1969 | A |
| 3862420 | Banks et al. | Jan 1975 | A |
| 4745282 | Tagawa et al. | May 1988 | A |
| 5128720 | Creveling | Jul 1992 | A |
| 5742874 | Koshimura et al. | Apr 1998 | A |
| 6308024 | Nakayama et al. | Oct 2001 | B1 |
| 6917773 | Maeda et al. | Jul 2005 | B2 |
| 7585352 | Dunn | Sep 2009 | B2 |
| 7829848 | Takada et al. | Nov 2010 | B2 |
| 8498548 | Nishikawa et al. | Jul 2013 | B2 |
| 8759766 | Momomura et al. | Jun 2014 | B2 |
| 8824915 | Makino | Sep 2014 | B2 |
| 8855519 | Katahira et al. | Oct 2014 | B2 |
| 20070036577 | Okabe et al. | Feb 2007 | A1 |
| 20070065170 | Kimura | Mar 2007 | A1 |
| 20080063425 | Idehara et al. | Mar 2008 | A1 |
| 20080226334 | Ohno et al. | Sep 2008 | A1 |
| 20090074463 | Nishio et al. | Mar 2009 | A1 |
| 20100025576 | Adams | Feb 2010 | A1 |
| 20100213370 | Nakasuji et al. | Aug 2010 | A1 |
| 20110121510 | Tsuda et al. | May 2011 | A1 |
| 20110200350 | Kumazawa | Aug 2011 | A1 |
| 20110262176 | Yamamoto | Oct 2011 | A1 |
| 20120033379 | Lam et al. | Feb 2012 | A1 |
| 20120155913 | Jung | Jun 2012 | A1 |
| 20130101309 | Inami et al. | Apr 2013 | A1 |
| 20140119767 | Inami et al. | May 2014 | A1 |
| 20140140718 | Kudo et al. | May 2014 | A1 |
| 20150110518 | Nagamori et al. | Apr 2015 | A1 |
| Number | Date | Country |
|---|---|---|
| A-10-198128 | Jul 1998 | JP |
| 2006-276175 | Oct 2006 | JP |
| 2011-158843 | Aug 2011 | JP |
| 2011-227368 | Nov 2011 | JP |
| Entry |
|---|
| Sep. 29, 2015 Office Action issued in Japanese Patent Application No. 2011-285454. |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20130165036 A1 | Jun 2013 | US |
