Patent Application
20240353789
The present invention relates to a cartridge detachably mountable to an electrostatic image forming apparatus and relates to the electrostatic image forming apparatus.
The electrostatic image forming apparatus may, e.g., include an electrophotographic copying machine, an electrophotographic printer (a laser beam printer, an LED printer, or the like), etc.
Here, the cartridge can be mounted in and demounted from an apparatus main assembly by a user himself (herself). Therefore, maintenance of the apparatus can be performed by the user himself (herself) without relying on a service person. As a result, a maintenance operation of the image forming apparatus is improved.
With respect to a conventional cartridge, in order to receive a rotational driving force for rotating a drum-shaped electrophotographic photosensitive member (hereinafter referred to as a photosensitive drum), the following constitution has been known.
On a main assembly side, a rotatable member for transmitting a driving force of a motor and a non-circular twisted hole, in which a plurality of rectangular portions in cross section is provided, which is provided at a central portion of the rotatable member and is rotatable integrally with the rotatable member are provided.
On a cartridge side, a non-circular twisted projection, having a plurality of rectangular portions in cross section, which is provided on one longitudinal end of the photosensitive drum and is engageable with the above-described hole is provided.
In the case where the cartridge is mounted in the apparatus main assembly, when the rotatable member is rotated in a state in which the projection is engaged in the hole, the rotational force of the rotatable member is transmitted to the photosensitive drum in a state in which the projection receives an attracting force with respect to a direction toward the hole. As a result, the rotational force for rotating the photosensitive drum is transmitted from the main assembly to the photosensitive drum (U.S. Pat. No. 5,903,803).
However, in the conventional constitution described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,903,803, when the cartridge is mounted in and demounted from the main assembly by movement of the rotatable member in a direction substantially perpendicular to an axial direction of the rotatable member, the rotatable member is required to be moved in the axial direction. That is, during the mounting and demounting of the cartridge, the rotatable member is required to be moved in the axial direction by an opening and closing operation of a main assembly cover provided on the apparatus main assembly. As a result, by an opening operation of the main assembly cover, the hole is moved in a direction in which the hole is spaced from the projection. On the other hand, by a closing operation of the main assembly cover, the hole is moved in a direction in which the hole is engaged with the projection.
Therefore, in the conventional constitution, by the opening and closing operation of the main assembly cover, there is need to provide the main assembly with a constitution for moving the rotatable member toward the rotatable axial direction of the rotatable member.
The present invention has developed the above-described prior art. A principal object of the present invention is to provide a cartridge demountable from an apparatus main assembly which is not provided with a mechanism for moving an apparatus main assembly-side cartridge member, for transmitting a rotatable force to the cartridge, in an axial direction of the cartridge member.
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a cartridge for a main assembly of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, wherein the main assembly includes a rotatable driving coupling member including a driving force transmitting portion for transmitting a driving force and a driving side abutment portion, wherein the cartridge is demountable in a direction substantially perpendicular to a rotational axis of the driving coupling member, comprising:
wherein a distance between the rotational axis of the driven coupling member and the abutment portion of the receiving abutment portion is not more than a distance between the rotational axis of the driven coupling member and the driving force receiving portion.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a cartridge for a main assembly of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, wherein the main assembly includes a rotatable driving coupling member including a driving force transmitting portion for transmitting a driving force and a driving side abutment portion, wherein the cartridge is demountable in a direction substantially perpendicular to a rotational axis of the driving coupling member, comprising:
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a cartridge for a main assembly of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, wherein the main assembly includes a rotatable driving coupling member including a driving force transmitting portion for transmitting a driving force and a driving side abutment portion, wherein the cartridge is demountable in a direction substantially perpendicular to a rotational axis of the driving coupling member, comprising:
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electrophotographic image forming apparatus comprising:
According to a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electrophotographic image forming apparatus comprising:
According to a still further aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electrophotographic image forming apparatus comprising:
According to the present invention, it is possible to provide the cartridge demountable from the apparatus main assembly which is not provided with the mechanism for moving the apparatus main assembly-side cartridge member, for transmitting a rotatable force to the cartridge, in the axial direction of the cartridge member.
These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent upon a consideration of the following description of the preferred embodiments of the present invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
Embodiments to which the present invention is applied will be described with reference to
First, an electrostatic image forming apparatus (laser beam printer) to which a cartridge, to which the present invention is applicable, is detachably mountable will be described with reference to
The electrostatic image forming apparatus is constituted by an electrostatic image forming apparatus main assembly A (hereinafter referred to as an apparatus main assembly A) and a cartridge B. The apparatus main assembly A forms, as shown in
Then, in synchronism with the formation of the toner image, a life-up plate 3b provided at an end of a sheet feeding tray 3a accommodating therein a recording material (medium) 2 is raised, so that the recording material 2 is conveyed by a conveying means including a conveying roller 3c, a separation pad 3d, registration rollers 3e, and the like.
Thereafter, the toner image formed on the photosensitive drum 10 provided in the cartridge B is transferred onto the recording material 2 by applying a voltage of a polarity opposite to a charge polarity of the toner image to a transfer roller 4 as a transfer means. The recording material 2 is conveyed to a fixing means 5 by a conveying guide 3f.
The fixing means 5 is constituted by a driving roller 5a and a fixing roller 5c containing therein a heater 5b and fixes the transferred toner image by applying heat and pressure to the recording material 2 passing through the fixing means 5.
Then, the recording material 2 is conveyed by a sheet discharge roller pair 3g and is discharged on a sheet discharge portion 6.
Incidentally, a cartridge mounting portion 7 is a chamber (space) in which the cartridge B is to be mounted (disposed). In a state in which the cartridge B is located in the chamber, a driven coupling member 220 (described later) is connected to a driving shaft of the apparatus main assembly A. In this embodiment, the disposition of the cartridge B at the mounting portion 7 is referred to as mounting of the cartridge B in the apparatus main assembly A. Further, removal of the cartridge B from the apparatus main assembly A is referred to as demounting of the cartridge B from the apparatus main assembly A.
The cartridge to which the present invention is applicable will be described.
As shown in
The developing means 13 feeds the toner in a toner accommodating container 13a into a developing container 13f through an opening of the toner accommodating container 13a by a rotatable toner feeding member 13b as a toner feeding means. Thereafter, on the surface of a developing roller 13d which is a rotatable member containing a fixed magnet 13c, a triboelectrically charged toner layer is formed by a developing blade 13e. The developing roller 13d is urged toward the photosensitive drum 10 by an urging spring (not shown) while keeping a certain clearance with respect to the photosensitive drum 10 by spacer rollers 13k as a spacing member. By transferring the toner layer formed on the surface of the developing roller 13d onto the photosensitive drum 10 depending on the electrostatic latent image, the toner image is formed, thus visualizing the electrostatic latent image.
Thereafter, the toner image is transferred onto the recording material 2 by applying a voltage of an opposite polarity to the charge polarity of the toner image to a transfer roller 4 provided in the apparatus main assembly A. The toner remaining on the photosensitive drum 10 is removed by a cleaning blade 20a provided on a cleaning means 20 and is scooped by a scooping sheet 22 and then is collected in a removed toner containing portion 21a.
The cartridge B is constituted by a first frame unit 18 and a second frame unit 19 which are integrally supported.
The first frame unit 18 is, as shown in
Further, the first frame unit 18 is provided with a rotational movement hole 15a at one end thereof and is provided with a rotational movement hole 15b at the other end of thereof.
The second frame unit 19 is, as shown in
The second frame unit 19 is provided with a fixed hole 23a at one end thereof and is provided with a fixed hole 23b at the other end thereof.
The cleaning frame 21 is provided with a holding portion T.
As shown in
By urging springs 30 provided between the first frame unit 18 and the second frame unit 19, the developing roller 19 is urged and abutted toward the photosensitive drum 10 while keeping the certain clearance through the spacer rollers 13k.
Incidentally, the cartridge B is mountable in and demountable from the apparatus main assembly A by a user.
In the following description, a direction (axial direction) parallel to a rotational axial line of the photosensitive drum 10 is referred to as a longitudinal direction.
A coupling unit U2 will be described with reference to
The coupling unit U2 is constituted by a housing 200, the driven coupling member 220, a cartridge urging spring 215, and a cover member 210. As shown in the figures, the driven coupling member 220 is mounted into the housing 200, so that a sliding shaft 220a of the driven coupling member 220 is supported coaxially and movably in the axial direction by a shaft supporting portion 200d of the housing 200. Similarly, driving grooves 220b and 220c of the driven coupling member 220 are supported movably in the axial direction by driving ribs 201a and 201b, respectively, of the housing 200. By the support of the driving grooves 220b and 220c by the driving ribs 201a and 201b, a circumferential position of the driven coupling member 220 is determined in the housing 200.
Further, an abutting portion 220d of the driven coupling member 220 abuts against an abutting portion 200e of the housing 200, so that the driven coupling member 220 is retained.
The driven coupling member 220 is provided with the cartridge urging spring 215 at one end thereof, and the cartridge urging spring 215 is compressed by the cover member 210. Claw portions 210a and 210b provided at two positions of the cover member 210 are mounted in the housing 200 while being elastically deformed during the assembly, and end portions 210a1 and 210b1 enter engaging holes 202a and 202b, respectively, thus being engaged in the housing 200. By the cover member 210, the cartridge urging spring 215 and the driven coupling member 220 are retained in the housing 200.
As described above, the driven coupling member 220 is supported movably along the axial direction of the driven coupling member 220 by the housing 200 and is urged toward a right side in
When a rotational driving force is transferred from the apparatus main assembly A to the driven coupling member 220, the driving grooves 220b and 220c of the driven coupling member 220 and the driving ribs 201a and 201b of the housing 200 contact each other to transmit the driving force. In other words, the driven coupling member 220 and the housing 200 are coaxially rotated.
Next, with reference to
The photosensitive drum 10 is prepared by applying a photosensitive layer 10b onto an electroconductive drum cylinder 10a of aluminum or the like. At both end portions of the drum cylinder 10a, openings 10a1 and 10a2, which are coaxial with the drum surface, through which a drum flange 150 and the coupling unit U2 are engageable with the drum unit U1.
The coupling unit U2 is provided at one end side of the drum unit U1 on which the driving force is transmitted from the apparatus main assembly A to the drum unit U1 (hereinafter referred to as a driving side).
Incidentally, a gear 200c through which the coupling unit U2 transmits the driving force, received from the apparatus main assembly A, to the developing roller 13d (
The drum flange 150 is provided at the other end side of the drum unit U1 opposite from the driving side of the drum unit U1 (hereinafter referred to as a non-driving side).
In the drum flange 150, a drum engaging portion 150b and a shaft supporting portion 150a are coaxially disposed. Further, in the drum flange 150, a grounding plate 151 is disposed. The grounding plate 151 is an electroconductive thin plate-like member (principally of metal). The grounding plate 151 includes drum contact portions (abutment portions) 151b1 and 151b2 contactable to an inner circumferential surface of the electroconductive drum cylinder 10a and includes a contact portion contactable to a drum grounding shaft 154 (described later). The grounding plate 151 is electrically connected with the apparatus main assembly A in order to ground the photosensitive drum 10.
With respect to the drum flange 150, the drum engaging portion 150b engages in the opening 10a1 provided at one end of the drum cylinder 10a. Further, with respect to the coupling unit U2, the drum engaging portion 200b engages in the opening 10a2 provided at the other end of the drum cylinder 10a. Each of the drum engaging portions 150a and 200b is fixed in the drum cylinder 10a by bonding, clamping, and the like.
Thus, the coupling unit U2 and the drum cylinder 10a are coaxially fixed and one rotated integrally.
On the non-driving side, a shaft hole 25 provided in the cleaning frame 21 and the shaft supporting portion 150a of the drum flange 150 are shaft-supported by the drum grounding shaft 154. At this time, the drum grounding shaft 154 is press-fitted in the shaft hole 25, so that the shaft supporting portion 150a and the drum grounding shaft 154 are rotatable.
On the other hand, on the driving side, a coupling shaft 200a of the coupling unit U2 is rotatably supported by a shaft supporting portion 24a of a drum shaft supporting member 24. The drum supporting member 24 is fixed in the cleaning frame 21 on the driving side through a screw 26.
Thus, drum unit U1 is rotatably supported by the first frame unit 18.
In the case where the cartridge B is mounted in the apparatus main assembly A, as shown in
On the other hand, as shown in
The mounting of the cartridge B in the apparatus main assembly A is performed by inserting the cartridge B into the apparatus main assembly A after the driving side positioning boss 31 provided on the driving side of the cartridge B is engaged with the upper guide groove 40a of the driving side main assembly guide member 40 and the rotation preventing boss 32 is engaged with the lower guide groove 40b (
When the cartridge B is further pushed in, as shown in
On the other hand, on the non-driving side, the cartridge B is inserted into the apparatus main assembly A after the non-driving side positioning boss 33 provided on the non-driving side of the cartridge B is engaged with the upper guide groove 45a of the non-driving side main assembly guide member 45 and the guide boss 34 is engaged with the lower guide groove 45b (
When the cartridge B is further pushed in, as shown in
As described above, the cartridge B is inserted into the apparatus main assembly A while mounting loci thereof are regulated by the driving side upper guide groove 40a, the driving side lower guide groove 40b, the non-driving side upper guide groove 45a, and the non-driving side lower guide groove 45b.
When the cartridge B is demounted, the holding portion T is held and the cartridge B is pulled out. The cartridge B comes out of the apparatus main assembly A while loci of the respective bosses described above are regulated by the respective guide grooves of the apparatus main assembly A. That is, the cartridge B is moved in the above-described intersecting direction, thus being taken out. In this way, the cartridge B is demounted from the apparatus main assembly A.
An operation of the coupling unit U2 when the cartridge B is mounted in and demounted from the apparatus main assembly A will be described.
As shown in
Further, in a state in which the cartridge B is mounted at the cartridge mounting portion 7, a driving coupling member 350 as a rotatable driving transmitting member is provided at a position in which its opposes the driven coupling member 220.
With reference to
As shown in
A state in which both of the cartridge portions are engaged and are in a driving force receiving phase is shown in
When the driving coupling portion 260 is rotated in a direction indicated by an arrow R in the figure, the two drive transmitting portions 262 of the driving coupling portion 260 and the driving force receiving portions 222 of the driven coupling member 220 oppose and contact each other to transmit the driving force.
The drive transmission is effected by abutment between the projection constituting the drive transmitting portion 262 and the projection constituting the driving force receiving portion 222. In the following description of this and subsequent embodiments, the drive transmitting portion 262 means the radially outermost part of the abutment area of the drive transmitting portion 262, and the driving force receiving portion 222 means the radially outermost part of the abutment area of the driving force receiving portion 222.
A state of the coupling unit U2 when the cartridge B is mounted in the apparatus main assembly A is shown in
As another constitution for retracting the driven coupling member 220, a constitution in which a tilted surface 253 as a second driving side contact portion (another driving side contact portion) is provided around the driving coupling portion 260 is shown in
When the cartridge B is mounted at the mounting portion 7, the driven coupling member 220 and the driving coupling member 250 are coaxially disposed. At the same time, by the above-described cartridge urging spring 215, the driven coupling member 220 is placed in a surface in which it is urged toward the driving coupling portion 260.
At this time, the two drive transmitting portions 262 of the driving coupling portion 260 and the two driving force receiving portions 222 of the driven coupling member 220 do not oppose and contact each other in some cases in which both of the coupling members are not necessarily in the drive transmitting phase (
In the phase shown in
In the phase shown in
When the driving coupling portion 260 is rotated in a direction indicated by an arrow R2 in
Further, the longitudinal contact portion 221 of the driven coupling member 220 and the longitudinal contact portion 264 of the driving coupling portion 260 contact each other, so that positions of both coupling members with respect to their longitudinal directions are determined. Thus, the longitudinal positions of the drum unit U1 and the driving coupling member 250 are determined.
Incidentally, in this embodiment, in this embodiment, the example in which both of the drive transmitting portion 262 and the driving force receiving portion 222 are tilted is described but a similar effect can be obtained when either one of the transmitting portions is tilted and the drive transmitting axial direction component force Fa acts in a direction in which the coupling members are attracted to each other.
A constitution in which only the drive transmitting portion 262 is tilted is shown in
Next, the case where the cartridge B is taken out from the apparatus main assembly A will be described.
When the cartridge B is started to be pulled out of the apparatus main assembly A, as shown in
When the cartridge B is further pulled out, the cartridge B is taken out of the apparatus main assembly A.
A further detailed description will be made with reference to
In the case where the cartridge B is pulled out of the apparatus main assembly A in the direction of the arrow N indicated in
When the couplings perform this releasing operation, a surface 265a of the projection constituting the drive transmitting portion 262 on the side where there is no contact portion P and a surface 224a of the projection constituting the driving force receiving portion 222 come near to each other (
The constitution of the interference avoidance in this embodiment will be described more specifically with reference to
Further, on the assumption that the driving side contact portion 300 is not provided and the retracting operation of the driven coupling member 220 is not performed, a distance at which the driven coupling member 220 is movable in the pulling-out direction N while being rotated in the indicated arrow R1 direction is & (
In this constitution, in any pulling-out direction, α≥β is satisfied. As a result, before the driven coupling member 220 is rotated and the surface 265a of the projection contacts the surface 224a of the projection, the driven coupling member is retracted in the indicated arrow L direction, so that the interference between both projections can be avoided.
Another constitution of the interference avoidance will be described. In
In this constitution, the above-described contact (abutment) between the surface 265a of the projection and the surface 224a of the projection by the movement of the driven coupling member 220 in the direction N and the rotation operation of the driven coupling member 220 in the direction R1 do not occur. Therefore, the interference by the releasing operation of the coupling members can be avoided without relying on the retraction of the driven coupling member 220.
Further, as shown in
By constituting the distances La and Lb so as to satisfy: Lb≥La, it is possible to release the engagement between the coupling members with reliability (
Further, as shown in
In this embodiment, the case where the driven coupling member 220 is rotated by the pulling-out force of the cartridge B when the engagement between the coupling portions is released is described. However, even when the driving coupling member 250 rotated, the engagement between the coupling portions is also released by the same action as the above-described constitution. A state in which the engagement is released by the rotation of the driving coupling member 250 is shown in
As shown in these figures, in the state in which the driving coupling member 250 and the driven coupling member 220 contact each other at the contact portion P, the driving coupling member 250 is rotated in a direction of an arrow R2 by the pulling-out force for the cartridge B. At the same time, the driven coupling member 220 is moved in the indicated arrow N direction and is retracted in the indicated arrow L direction by the action of the driving side contact portion 300. Thus, the coupling engagement is released.
Further, even when both coupling members are rotated at the same time, the coupling engagement is released by the same action.
By the above-described operations, it is possible to demount the cartridge B from the apparatus main assembly A.
Incidentally, as shown in
Next, another embodiment according to the present invention will be described.
A constitution other than the driving side contact portion 300 is similar to that in Embodiment 1. For this reason, redundant description will be omitted and members having the same functions as those in Embodiment 1 are represented by the same reference numerals or symbols.
In this embodiment, another constitution for determining the longitudinal positions of the driving coupling portion 260 and the driven coupling member 220 will be described.
The driving side contact portion 300 provided on the driving coupling portion 260 shown in
As shown in
Further, in this constitution, the rotational axis of the driving side contact portion 300 of the driving coupling portion 260 and the rotational axis of the driven side contact portion 320 of the driven coupling member 220 can be aligned with each other with accuracy.
Similarly, a constitution shown in
In the constitution, described in this embodiment, in which the driving side contact portion 300 and the driven side contact portion 320 are caused to contact each other to align the rotational axis of the driving coupling portion 260 and the rotational axis of the driven coupling member 220 with each other with accuracy, the driving axis (shaft) of the apparatus main assembly A and the rotational axis of the drum unit U1 can be aligned with each other with accuracy. As a result, positional accuracy of the photosensitive drum 10 relative to the optical system 1 of the apparatus main assembly A is enhanced, so that improvement in image quality can be realized.
Another embodiment according to the present invention will be described.
In this embodiment, a constitution in which the drive transmitting portion is provided at three portions will be described.
Incidentally, a constitution other than the drive transmitting portion is similar to that in Embodiment 1. For that reason, redundant description will be omitted and members having the same functions as those in Embodiment 1 are represented by the same reference numerals or symbols.
As shown in
In this constitution, a position in which the three drive transmitting portions 262 simultaneously contact the three driving force receiving portions 222 corresponds to the phase shown in
In this embodiment, each of the drive transmitting portion 262 and the driving force receiving portion 222 is provided at the three portions with the shifted phase of 120 degrees, so that the phases of both coupling members coincide with each other every 120 degrees.
When the cartridge B is mounted at the cartridge mounting portion 7 of the apparatus main assembly A and the driving coupling member 250 is rotationally driven by the driving motor, the drive transmitting portions 262 of the driving coupling portion 262 and the driving force receiving portions 222 of the driven coupling member 220 are started to contact each other.
At this time, in the case where the rotational axes of both coupling members are deviated from each other, the contact portion can be one point P1 as shown in
In the one point contact of
Further, in the two point contact of
Thus, finally, both coupling members are moved so that the three drive transmitting portions 262 equivalently contact the three driving force receiving portions 222 as shown in
Thus, by constituting the drive transmitting portions 262 and the driving force receiving portions 222 so that the rotational axes of both coupling members substantially coincide with each other, it is possible to align the driving axis of the apparatus main assembly A and the rotational axis of the drum unit U1 with each other with accuracy. As a result, the positional accuracy of the photosensitive drum 10 relative to the optical system 1 of the apparatus main assembly 1 is enhanced, so that improvement in image quality can be realized. Further, according to this embodiment, by the contact between the drive transmitting portions 262 and the driving force receiving portions 222, the driven coupling member 220 is relatively attracted to the driving coupling member 250. For that reason, compared with Embodiment 2, a force for urging the driven coupling member 220 against the driving coupling member 250 can be decreased. Further, the (attracting) constitution of Embodiment 1 or Embodiment 2 may also be employed in combination.
Another embodiment according to the present invention will be described.
Incidentally, in this embodiment, a constitution other than the driving side contact portion 300 (tilted portion) and the driven side contact portion 320 is similar to that in Embodiment 1, and the constitution of the drive transmitting portion is similar to that in Embodiment 3. For that reason, redundant description with respect to the respective embodiments will be omitted and members having the same functions as those in Embodiment 1 and Embodiment 3 are represented by the same reference numerals or symbols.
As shown in
Phases of both coupling members during the drive transmission are shown in
As described in Embodiment 3, the driving force is transmitted in the state in which the rotational axis of the driving coupling member 250 and the rotational axis of the driven coupling member 220 are aligned with each other with accuracy.
A state in which the cartridge B is demounted from the apparatus main assembly A will be described with reference to
In the case where the cartridge B is pulled out of the apparatus main assembly A in the indicated arrow N direction in
At the same time, as shown in
When the cartridge B is further pulled out, the driven side contact portion 320 of the driven coupling member 220 completely passes through the driving side contact portion 300, so that the engagement between both coupling members is released as shown in
When the cartridge B is pulled out further, the cartridge B is taken out of the apparatus main assembly A.
In this constitution, the driven side contact portion 320 is not provided at the outer peripheral surface of the driven coupling member 220 but is located between adjacent driving force receiving portion 222 with respect to the circumferential direction of the driven coupling member 220. Further, the driven side contact portion 320 is located at the same position as or inside the driving force receiving portion 222 with respect to a radial direction of the driven coupling member 220. In other words, a distance α between the rotational axis of the driven coupling member 220 and the driven side contact portion 320 may only be required to be equal to or less than a distance β between the rotational axis of the driven coupling member 220 and the driving force receiving portion 222 (
Further, the driving side contact portion 300 is not provided at the outer peripheral surface of the driving coupling member 250 but is located between adjacent driving force transmitting portions (driving force transmitting portion) 262 with respect to the circumferential direction of the driving coupling member 250. Further, the driving side contact portion 300 is located at the same position as or inside the driving force transmitting portion 262 with respect to a radial direction of the driving coupling member 250. In other words, a distance between the rotational axis of the driving coupling member 250 and the driving side contact portion 300 may only be required to be equal to or less than a distance between the rotational axis of the driving coupling member 250 and the driving force receiving portion 222. Here, as described above, the driving force transmitting portion 262 means the radially outermost part of the abutment area of the driving force transmitting portion 262 when the drive transmission is effected by the abutment between the projection constituting the drive transmitting portion 262 and the projection constituting the driving force receiving portion 222. As a result, a diameter of the coupling member can be reduced, so that a small-size coupling member can be prepared. Further, according to the present invention, the driving force transmitting portion 262 can be located further outward with respect to the radial direction. Therefore, the drive transmission can be effected with a smaller force.
The interference avoidance, between the surface 265a of the projection constituting the drive transmitting portion 262 with no contact portion P and the surface 224a of the projection constituting the driving force receiving portion 222, described with reference to
In this embodiment, the driving side contact portion 300 is provided at the portion corresponding to the surface 224a of the projection constituting the driving force receiving portion 222 of the driven coupling member 220, and the driven side contact portion 320 is provided at the portion corresponding to the surface 265a of the projection constituting the drive transmitting portion 262 of the driving coupling portion 260. Therefore, the interference between the surface 265a of the projection and the surface 224a of the projection (another projection) is the contact between the driving side contact portion 300 and the driven side contact portion 320.
As has already been described above, by this contact, the driven coupling member 220 is retracted in the drum rotational axial direction, so that the interference does not occur. For that reason, there is no need to provide the clearance for avoiding the interference (contact), so that the projection 226 and the projection 266 can be increased in size. As a result, the drive transmitting portion can be increased in strength, so that accurate drive transmission can be effected.
Further, as shown in
Further, in this embodiment, the constitution of Embodiment 1 (attracting constitution), Embodiment 2 (attracting constitution), or Embodiment 3 (constitution for aligning the coupling rotational axes) may also be employed in combination.
According to the above-described embodiments, even when the driving coupling member provided in the apparatus main assembly is not retracted in the axial direction, the cartridge B is moved in the direction substantially perpendicular to the axis of the driving shaft, so that the cartridge B can be mounted in and demounted from the apparatus main assembly A.
While the invention has been described with reference to the structures disclosed herein, it is not confined to the details set forth and this application is intended to cover such modifications or changes as may come within the purpose of the improvements or the scope of the following claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009-111127 | Apr 2009 | JP | national |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 17963245 | Oct 2022 | US |
| Child | 18645633 | US | |
| Parent | 17378877 | Jul 2021 | US |
| Child | 17963245 | US | |
| Parent | 16739602 | Jan 2020 | US |
| Child | 17378877 | US | |
| Parent | 16253903 | Jan 2019 | US |
| Child | 16739602 | US | |
| Parent | 15690602 | Aug 2017 | US |
| Child | 16253903 | US | |
| Parent | 14063091 | Oct 2013 | US |
| Child | 15690602 | US | |
| Parent | 12766134 | Apr 2010 | US |
| Child | 14063091 | US |
