Cleaning apparatus, image forming apparatus comprising the same, and cleaning method

Abstract

To provide a cleaning apparatus capable of maintaining high cleaning performance even if surface roughness of an image carrier is increased due to wear and a wet image forming apparatus installing the concerned cleaning apparatus, thereby enabling to form images of a stable quality. The cleaning apparatus for removing liquid developer remaining on the surface of a latent image carrier and an intermediate transfer member, which are an image carrier of the image forming apparatus for forming images with the liquid developer including toner particles and carrier liquid, includes three stages of cleaning sections such as a preliminary cleaning member for making contact with the image carrier and suspending the toner particles adhered to the surface of the image carrier in the carrier liquid, a toner particles removing member for removing the suspended toner particles by electrostatic force, and a carrier liquid removing member for removing the remaining carrier liquid.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of an image forming apparatus having a cleaning apparatus of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of an image forming apparatus having a cleaning apparatus of the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram of an image forming apparatus having a cleaning apparatus of the third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an illustration for the rotational directions of the rollers (counter direction).

FIG. 5 is an illustration for the rotational directions of the rollers (with direction).

FIG. 6 is a schematic block diagram of an image forming apparatus having a cleaning apparatus of the fourth embodiment of the present invention.

Claims

1. A cleaning apparatus for an image forming apparatus which forms an image with liquid developer containing toner particles and carrier liquid, the cleaning apparatus comprising: a preliminary cleaning member which contacts with a surface of an image carrier to suspend the toner particles in the carrier liquid on the image carrier;a toner particles removing member which is provided downstream of the preliminary cleaning member in a moving direction of the image carrier and removes the suspended toner particles in the carrier liquid by an electrostatic force; anda carrier liquid removing member which is provided downstream of the toner particles removing member in the moving direction of the image carrier and removes the carrier liquid.

2. The cleaning apparatus of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the preliminary cleaning member which contacts with the image carrier is spongy or brush-shaped.

3. The cleaning apparatus of claim 1, wherein the cleaning member includes a rotatable roller shaped member.

4. The cleaning apparatus of claim 1, further comprising: a cleaning liquid supply mechanism which is adapted to apply cleaning liquid to the preliminary cleaning member.

5. The cleaning apparatus of claim 4, wherein the cleaning liquid supply mechanism includes: a cleaning liquid tank; anda cleaning liquid application roller which applies the cleaning liquid stored in the cleaning liquid tank to the preliminary cleaning member.

6. The cleaning apparatus of claim 4, wherein the cleaning liquid supply mechanism includes: a cleaning liquid tank; anda supply tube which applies the cleaning liquid stored in the cleaning liquid tank to the preliminary cleaning member.

7. The cleaning apparatus of claim 1, further comprising: an additional toner particles removing member which removes the toner particles staying on the preliminary cleaning member.

8. The cleaning apparatus of claim 1, wherein the toner particles removing member includes a rotatable roller shaped member.

9. The cleaning apparatus of claim 1, wherein the toner particles removing member removes the toner particles staying on the preliminary cleaning member by an electrostatic force.

10. The cleaning apparatus of claim 9, wherein the preliminary cleaning member includes a rotatable roller shaped member, the toner particles removing member includes a rotatable roller shaped member which contacts with the preliminary cleaning member, and a contact region of the both roller shaped members moves in a same direction at a contact position therebetween.

11. The cleaning apparatus of claim 1, further comprising: a mechanism which is adapted to supply cleaning liquid to a region where the toner particles removing member removes the toner particles.

12. The cleaning apparatus of claim 1, wherein the toner particles removing member removes the toner particles at a lower position in a gravity direction than a contact position of the preliminary cleaning member and the image carrier.

13. The cleaning apparatus of claim 1, wherein mass of a liquid component per unit area in the region where the toner particles removing member removes the toner particles is not less than 1 g/m2 and not more than 50 g/m2.

14. The cleaning apparatus of claim 1, the carrier liquid removing member includes a blade.

15. The cleaning apparatus of claim 1, wherein the carrier liquid removing member includes a sponge roller.

16. The cleaning apparatus of claim 1, further comprising: a toner particles collecting mechanism which is adapted to collect the toner particles removed by the toner particles removing member.

17. The cleaning apparatus of claim 16, wherein the toner particles removing member includes a roller, and the toner particles collecting mechanism includes a blade which contacts with the roller.

18. The cleaning apparatus of claim 1, further comprising: a carrier liquid collecting mechanism which is adapted to collect the carrier liquid removed by the carrier liquid removing member.

19. An image forming apparatus, comprising: an image carrier;an image forming mechanism which is adapted to form an electrostatic latent image on the image carrier;a development mechanism which is adapted to develop the electrostatic latent image formed on the image carrier into a toner image with a liquid developer containing the toner particles and the carrier liquid;a transfer mechanism which is adapted to transfer the toner image formed on the image carrier onto an image receiving material; anda cleaning apparatus of claim 1 for cleaning the liquid developer remaining on the image carrier after the transferring of the transfer mechanism.

20. An image forming apparatus, comprising: an image carrier;an image forming mechanism which is adapted to form an electrostatic latent image on the image carrier;a development mechanism which is adapted to develop the electrostatic latent image formed on the image carrier into a toner image with a liquid developer containing the toner particles and the carrier liquid;an intermediate transfer member;a primary transfer mechanism which is adapted to transfer the toner image formed on the image carrier onto an intermediate transfer member;a secondary transfer-mechanism which is adapted to transfer the toner image transferred on the intermediate transfer member onto the image receiving material; anda cleaning apparatus for cleaning the liquid developer remaining on the intermediate transfer member after the transferring of the secondary transfer mechanism; the cleaning apparatus comprising:a preliminary cleaning member which contacts with a surface of the intermediate transfer member to suspend the toner particles in the carrier liquid on the intermediate transfer member;a toner particles removing member which is provided downstream of the preliminary cleaning member in a moving direction of the intermediate transfer member and removes the suspended toner particles in the carrier liquid by an electrostatic force; anda carrier liquid removing member which is provided downstream of the toner particles removing member in the moving direction of the intermediate transfer member and removes the carrier liquid.

21. The image forming apparatus of claim 20, further comprising: the cleaning apparatus of claim 1 for cleaning the liquid developer remaining on the image carrier after the transferring of the first transfer mechanism.

22. A cleaning method for an image forming apparatus which forms an image by using a liquid developer containing toner particles and charier liquid, the method comprising: suspending the toner particles in the carrier liquid by making a preliminary cleaning member contact with an image carrier;removing the toner particles in the carrier liquid suspended by the preliminary cleaning member by an electrostatic force; andremoving the carrier liquid remaining on the image carrier after removing the toner particles.