CLEANING DEVICE, AND FUSING DEVICE AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS, PROVIDED WITH THE CLEANING DEVICE

Abstract

A cleaning device includes a cleaning web, a supply roller, a take-up roller, and a control section. Positioned in contact with a circumferential surface of a fuser roller, the web removes toner particles on the circumferential surface. The supply roller has the web wound thereon. The take-up roller takes up the web withdrawn from the supply roller. The control section controls rotation of the take-up roller. The control section performs a first process of causing the take-up roller to take up a first length of the web each time a predetermined taking-up condition is satisfied. The control section also performs a second process, instead of the first process, of causing the take-up roller to take up a second length of the web each time after a first predetermined number of the first processes are performed.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a drawing illustrating a schematic configuration of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a drawing illustrating a configuration of a fusing device according to the embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a partially enlarged view of the fusing device;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating steps of a process of taking up a cleaning web performed by a control section;

FIG. 5 is an explanatory drawing showing experimental results on a state of collected toner on the cleaning web when a taking-up process according to the embodiment of the invention is performed;

FIG. 6 is an explanatory drawing showing experimental results on a state of collected toner on a cleaning web provided in a type of conventional image forming apparatus when a series of image forming processes are performed by the conventional apparatus; and

FIG. 7 is an explanatory drawing showing experimental results on a state of collected toner on a cleaning web provided in another type of conventional image forming apparatus when a series of image forming processes are performed by the conventional apparatus.

Claims

1. A cleaning device adapted, for use in an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, to clean a fuser roller provided in the apparatus, the cleaning device comprising: a cleaning web for removing toner particles on a circumferential surface of the fuser roller, the cleaning web positioned in contact with the circumferential surface;a supply roller having the cleaning web wound thereon;a take-up roller for taking up the cleaning web withdrawn from the supply roller; anda control section for controlling rotation of the take-up roller,wherein the control section performs a first process of causing the take-up roller to take up a first length of the cleaning web each time a predetermined taking-up condition is satisfied, andperforms a second process, instead of the first process, of causing the take-up roller to take up a second length of the cleaning web each time after a first predetermined number of the first processes are performed.

2. The cleaning device according to claim 1, wherein the taking-up condition is that a second predetermined number of image forming processes are performed.

3. The cleaning device according to claim 1, wherein the first length is shorter than a length of a portion of the cleaning web in contact with the fuser roller.

4. The cleaning device according to claim 1, wherein the first length and the first number are set in such a manner that a value obtained from multiplication of the first length and the first number is smaller than the length of the contact portion of the cleaning web.

5. The cleaning device according to claim 1, wherein the second length is equal to the length of the contact portion of the cleaning web.

6. A fusing device adapted for use in an electrophotograhic image forming apparatus, the fusing device comprising: a fuser roller for pressurizing and heating recording paper; andthe cleaning device of claim 1.

7. An image forming apparatus adapted to perform an electrophotographic image forming process to recording paper based on image information, the apparatus comprising: a fuser roller for pressurizing and heating recording paper; andthe cleaning device of claim 1.

8. The image forming apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the taking-up condition is that a predetermined second number of image forming processes are performed, andthe second number is set according to image density data included in the image information and size of recording paper for an image forming process to be performed to.

9. The image forming apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the second length is set according to image density data included in the image information and size of recording paper for an image forming process to be performed to.