Patent Grant
9304441
The present invention relates to a developer accommodating container for accommodating a developer, a developer accommodating unit including the developer accommodating container, a process cartridge including the developer accommodating container and an electrophotographic image forming apparatus including these members.
Here, the image forming apparatus forms an image on a recording material (medium) by using, e.g., an electrophotographic image forming process and may include, e.g., an electrophotographic copying machine, an electrophotographic printer (such as an LED printer or a laser beam printer), an electrophotographic facsimile machine and the like. The process cartridge refers to a cartridge which is prepared by integrally constituting the developer accommodating container accommodating the developer or the developer accommodating unit accommodating the developer with at least a photosensitive member, and which is made detachably mountable to an image forming apparatus main assembly.
Further, the developer accommodating container and the developer accommodating unit are accommodated in the image forming apparatus or the process cartridge.
In a conventional electrophotographic image forming apparatus using an electrophotographic image forming process, a process cartridge type in which an electrophotographic photosensitive member and a process means actable on the photosensitive member are integrally assembled into a cartridge and the cartridge is made detachably mount able to an electrophotographic image forming apparatus main assembly has been employed.
In such a process cartridge, an opening (portion) provided to a developer accommodating frame for accommodating a developer (toner, carrier and the like) is sealed with a sheet-like sealing member. Further, during use, a bonding portion of the sealing member is peeled off to unseal the opening to permit supply of the developer. Such a type has been widely employed (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application (JP-A) Hei 4-66980). Here, in order to reduce a load when the sealing member is peeled of, a constitution in which a free end of the sealing member is folded back and the sealing member is capable of being pulled in a direction opposite from a folded-back portion has been widely employed.
Further, a constitution in which a bonding pattern is devised in order to alleviate a force for pulling the sheet-like sealing member, thereby to improve an unsealing operation property has been disclosed in JP-A Hei 7-209976. In this constitution, strength when the sealing member having a wide opening width is pulled to unseal the opening is alleviated by forming a leading edge portion and a trailing edge portion of the sealing member with respect to a pulling-out direction en a chevron shape and by making a width of each of the leading edge portion and the trailing edge portion narrower than a width of a middle portion.
However, the above-described conventional examples (constitutions) were accompanied with the following problems.
In JP-A Hei 4-66980, for the purpose of improving operativity of supply of the developer and of preventing scattering of the developer in the apparatus, a method in which the opening of the container is closed to accommodate the developer is described. However, JP-A Hei 4-66980 is orient about a constitution for improving the unsealing operation property when the sealing member is peeled off.
Further, in JP-A Hei 7-203976, the chevron-shaped portions with respect to the pulling-out direction of the sealing member are provided, s that a peeling force is reduced to some extent to improve the unsealing operation property. However, in order to further reduce the peeling force, an apex angle of the chevron-shaped portion is required to be made an acute angle of less than 90 degrees, so that the chevron-shaped portion becomes large. Correspondingly thereto, a space for permitting sealing of the sheet-like sealing member is needed, and therefore the developer accommodating unit is increased in size.
The present invention is a further development of the above-described conventional constitutions. A principal object of the present invention is to stably improving compatibility between a sealing property of a sealing member and an unsealing property of an unsealing members.
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a developer accommodating container for accommodating a developer, comprising: an opening for permitting discharge, of the developer; and a sealing member, mounted on the developer accommodating container, capable of exposing the opening by being moves, wherein at least a part of the sealing member is formed of a material having compatibility with a material for forming the developer accommodating container and a material having incompatibility with the material for forming the developer accommodating container, and wherein either one of the material having the compatibility and the material having the incompatibility is dispersed in the other one of the materials.
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.
Parts (a) and (b) of
Parts (a) and (b) of
Parts (a) and (b) of
Parts (a) and (b) of
Parts (a) and (b) of
Parts (a) and (b) of
With reference to the drawings, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be exemplarily described specifically below. However, dimensions, materials, shapes and relative arrangements of constituent elements described in the following embodiments should be appropriately modified depending on constitutions and various conditions of an apparatus so which the present invention is applied, and therefore, tire scope of the present invention is not limited to the following embodiments, unless otherwise specified.
Incidentally, in one following description, a developer accommodating container; refers to a developer accommodating container as least includes a container for accommodating a developer and a sealing member, provided on the container, for scaling an opening for permitting discharge of the developer.
The developer accommodating container before accommodating the developer is referred to as a developer accommodating container 37 for accommodating the developer.
<Summary of Structure of Process Cartridges>
The process cartridge includes an image bearing member and process means actable on the image bearing member. Here, as the process means, there are, e.g., a charging means for electrically charging a surface of the image bearing member, a developing device for forming an image on the image bearing member, and a cleaning means for removing a developer (containing a toner, a carrier and the like) remaining on a surface of the image bearing member.
A process cartridge A in this embodiment includes, as shown in
<Summary of Structure of Image Forming Apparatus>
A shown in
<Summary of Structure of Developer Accommodating Unit>
Next, a structure are of a developer accommodating unit 25 will be described with reference to
(Developer Accommodating Unit)
The developer accommodating unit 25 is, as shown in
Incidentally, in this embodiment, the developer accommodating unit 25 is the same as the developing device 38. This is because the developer accommodating unit 25 includes the developing roller 13 and the developing blade 15. However, the developing roller 13 and the developing blade 15 may also be supported by a frame other than the frame for the developer accommodating unit 25, thus being separated, from the developer accommodating unit 25. In this case, the developing device 38 is constituted by the developer accommodating unit 25, the developing roller 13 and the developing blade 15 (not shown).
<Structure of Sealing Member>
As shown in
(Portion Having Easy-Unsealing Property of Sealing Member)
Next, a method in which a peeling force for peeling the sealing member 19 at the bonding portion 22 is set at a desired value will, be described. In this embodiment, in order to set the desired value (a force which is as small as possible within a range in which a toner sealing property can be maintained in this embodiment, the following method is employed.
As shown in
Here, as the compatible material 51 (the material having the compatibility), a combination of components formed of the same material is used. However, other than the combination, there is a combination of materials having the compatibility and therefore examples thereof are shown below. It is possible to use a combination of PS (including HIPS), which is a frame material and which is a non-crystalline material, with, as the material having the compatibility, ABS, PPO or the like which is the non-crystal, line material.
On the other hand, as the incompatible material 52 (the material having the incompatibility), it is possible to use PE, PP, PA, PET, POM or the like which are a crystalline material.
Further, in the case where the material for a molded portion 34a of a developer accommodating member 34 is PE which is the crystalline resin material, a material to be combined with the material (PE) is hard to be compatible with the material (PE) unless the material is the same material as the material (PE), and therefore as the material having the compatibility, only PE which is the same as the material (PE) is used. As the material having the incompatibility, it is possible to use PS, ABS, PP, PA, PET, POM and the like which are resin materials other than PE.
Further, as preferred materials described later for the molded portion 34a of the developer accommodating member 34, resin materials such as ABS, PMMA, PC, PP, PET and PVC will be described.
ABS which is the non-crystalline resin material has most excellent compatibility, and as the material having the compatibility, it is possible to use PS, AS, ABS, PMMA, PC, PVC and the like.
In the case of PMMA which is the non-crystalline material, as the material having the compatibility, it is possible to use PC, PVC and the like.
In the case of PC which is the non-crystalline material, as the material, having the compatibility, if is possible to use ABS, PMMA and the like.
In the case of PVC which is the non-crystalline material, as the material having the compatibility, it is possible to use PS, ABS, PMMA and the like.
In the cases of PP and PET, a material to be combined with these materials is hard to be compatible with these materials unless the material is the same as these materials, and therefore as the material having the compatibility, PP and PET are used for the materials (PP and PET), respectively.
Incidentally, as a material having an adhesive property, EVA is used. It is possible to effect welding of a combination of EVA and, e.g., PE, but this combination is not the combination or components having the same material. In this case, the welding is effected by using the adhesive property of EVA, and therefore EVA is the material having the incompatibility.
For example, in the case where the discharging portion 35 of the developer accommodating container 30 is formed of polystyrene (PS), in the sealant layer 39, polyethlene (PE) having the incompatibility is disposed in a state in which PE is three-dimensionally dispersed irregularity in PS which is the same material as the material for the discharging portion 35. Here, “three-dimensionally” refers to with respect to dimensions in three directions consisting of a peeling-off direction (unsealing direction) of the sealing member 19, a widthwise direction perpendicular to the peeling-off direction, and a thickness direction perpendicular to the peeling-off direction. In this way, easy unsealing of the sealing member 19 is enabled at the bonding portion 22.
Further, in the sealant layer 39 of the sealing member 19, a constitution in which an amount, of the incompatible material 52 is less than an amount of the compatible material 51 is employed. By this constitution, it is possible to mere stably improve compatibility between a sealing property and an unsealing property with respect to the sealing member 19.
Here, a sealing member in a comparison example is shown in each of
Compared with the sealing members in these comparison examples, in the sealing member 19 in this embodiment (Embodiment 1), as shown in (a) and (b) of
Next, a structure of the developer accommodating unit 25 will be described with reference to
(Developer Accommodating Unit)
As shown in
(Developer Accommodating Container Accommodating Developer)
As shown in
With, respect to the developer accommodating member 34 of the developer accommodating container 30, as shown in
(Structure of Developer Accommodating Member)
As shown in
As a material for the molded portion 33a, materials such as ABS, PMMA, PC, PP, PE, HIPS, PET and PVC, and composite multi-layer materials of these materials may preferably be used. Further, a thickness of the molded portion 34a may preferably be about 0.1-1 mm in terms of a sheet-like material thickness before the molding. The material and thick the molded portion 34a may appropriately be selected depending on a cost, product specification, a manufacturing condition and the like.
Here, the discharging portion 35 (openings 35a) is provided at the molded portion 34a, and a direction in which unsealing of the developer accommodating member 34 advances is an unsealing direction E. Incidentally, the material constitution and the layer structure of the sealing member 19 are the same as those in Embodiment 1.
(Structure of Unsealing Member)
As shown in
The sealing member 19 may also be configured so as to automatically effect the unsealing by receiving a driving force from the apparatus main assembly B, Or, a user may grip and move the sealing member 19 to unseal the sealing member 19. In this embodiment, as described above, the unsealing member 20 is the rotation shaft provided in the frame, and when the unsealing member is rotated in an arrow C direction, the sealing member 19 engaged with the unsealing member 20 is pulled in the unsealing direction E to unseal the openings 35a of the developer accommodating container 30.
(Portion Having Easy-Unsealing Property of Sealing Member)
Next, an arrangement method of the sealing member 19 in which the peeling strength of the bonding portion 22 is set at a desired value will be described with reference to
Part (a) of
The sealing member 19 cut from the roll-shaped sealing member is moved in the unsealing direction (arrow E direction) to expose the openings 35a. The sealing member 19 is disposed so that the stretching direction (arrow MD direction) of the sealing member 19 shown in (a) of
The reason why the peeling strength of the sealing member 19 is lowered is as follows. The incompatible material 52 contained in the sealant layer 39 of the sealing member 19 is elongated in the stretching direction (arrow MD direction) as described above. For that reason, a time in which the incompatible material 52 is located on a peeling line La when the unsealing direction (arrow E direction in
(Effect of Flexible Developer Accommodating Container)
An effect of disposing the sealing member 19 on the flexible developer accommodating container 30 will be described with reference to
In the above-described embodiments, as the state in which one of the compatible material 51 and the incompatible material 52 is dispersed in another material, the constitution in which the sealing member 19 includes the sealant layer 39 in which the incompatible material 52 is dispersed in the compatible material 51 is illustrated as an example, but an opposite constitution may also be employed. That is, as shown in (a) and (b) of
Further, in the above-described embodiments, the case where the sealant layer 39 as a part of the sealing member 19 is a single layer is illustrated as an example, but the sealant, layer 39 is not limited thereto. That is, a constitution in which, the sealant layer 39 as a part of the sealing member 19 includes a plurality of layers including a first layer to be bonded to the container 30 and a second layer adjacent to the first layer, and the second layer is formed of the compatible material 51 and the incompatible material 52 may also be employed. Specifically, e.g., as shown in (a) of
Further, in the above-described embodiments, as the process cartridge detachably mountable to the image forming apparatus main assembly, the process cartridge integrally including the photosensitive drum and, as the process means actable on the photosensitive drum, the charging means, the developing means and file cleaning means was illustrated as an example. However, the process cartridge is not limited thereto, but a process cartridge integrally including, in addition to the photosensitive dram, either one of the charging means, the developing means and the cleaning means may also be employed.
Further, in the above-described embodiments, the printer was illustrated as an example of the image forming apparatus, but the present invention is not limited thereto. For example, if is also possible to use another image forming apparatus such as a copying machine or a facsimile machine, and another image forming apparatus such as a multi-function machine having a combination of functions of these machines. By applying the present invention to the developer accommodating container, the developer accommodating unit or the process cartridge which are to be used in these image forming apparatuses, a similar effect can be obtained.
According to the present invention, by the material constitution of the sealing member, it is possible to stably improving compatibility of the sealing property and the unsealing property while saving the space.
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.
This application claims priority from Japanese Patent applications Nos. 198056/2012 filed Sep. 10, 2012 and 160961/2013 filed Aug. 2, 2013, which are hereby incorporated by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012-198056 | Sep 2012 | JP | national |
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