Patent Grant
9541863
The present invention relates to a developer accommodating unit, and a developing device, a process cartridge and an image forming apparatus which use the developer accommodating unit.
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.
Further, the process cartridge is prepared by integrally assembling a photosensitive member as an image bearing member and process means, such as a developing means, acting on the photosensitive member into a cartridge, which is detachably mountable to a main assembly of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus.
In a conventional electrophotographic image forming apparatus using the electrophotographic image forming process, a cartridge type in which an electrophotographic photosensitive member and process means acting on the photosensitive member are integrally assembled into a cartridge and this cartridge is detachably mountable to a main assembly of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus is employed.
In such a cartridge, as shown in
Further, a cartridge in which the developer accommodating container 100 is made deformable in order to solve a problem that the developer is scattered in the cartridge in a developer filling step during manufacturing of the cartridge has been devised (JP-A Hei 4-66980).
However, when the toner seal was intended to be peeled off at one time, there was a possibility that a torque necessary for unsealing became large to exert a large load on a motor for a main assembly of the image forming apparatus. For that reason, when output specification of the motor of the main assembly of the image forming apparatus is increased, the motor is upsized or a high-output motor is needed, so that a cost is increased.
A principal object of the present invention is to provide a developer accommodating unit capable of reducing a load exerted on a motor when an opening of a developer accommodating member is unsealed.
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a developer accommodating unit comprising: a developer accommodating member, provided with an opening for permitting discharge of a developer, for accommodating the developer; a sealing member including a connecting portion for being connected to the developer accommodating member so as to seal the opening; and an unsealing member for exposing the opening by moving the sealing member to peel the connecting portion from the developer accommodating member, wherein the connecting portion includes a first connecting portion and a second connecting portion with respect to a longitudinal direction thereof, and wherein when the connecting portion is peeled from the developer accommodating member, the unsealing member is flexed so that the first connecting portion is peeled earlier than the second connecting portion.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a developer accommodating unit for accommodating the developer; comprising: a developer accommodating member provided with an opening for permitting discharge of a developer; a sealing member including a connecting portion for being connected to the developer accommodating member so as to seal the opening; and an unsealing member for exposing the opening by moving the sealing member to peel the connecting portion from the developer accommodating member, wherein the unsealing member has an outer configuration different between at its longitudinal central portion and at its longitudinal end portion.
According to a further aspect of the present invention, there are provided a developing device, a process cartridge and an image forming apparatus which use the above-described developer accommodating units.
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), (b) and (c) of
Parts (a) and (b) of
Parts (a), (b) and (c) of
Parts (a) and (b) of
Parts (a) to (d) of
Parts (a) to (d) of
In the following description, a developer accommodating container refers to at least a flexibility container and a sealing member for sealing an opening, provided to the sealing member, for permitting discharge of a developer.
<Process Cartridge>
The process cartridge includes an image bearing member, which is an electrophotographic photosensitive member, and process means acting on the image bearing member and is detachably mountable to the image forming apparatus. Examples of the process means include 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 (toner, carrier, etc.) remaining on the image bearing member surface.
The process cartridge A in this embodiment includes, as shown in
<Image Forming Apparatus>
The process cartridge A is, as shown in
<Developer Accommodating Unit>
Next, a structure of the developer accommodating unit 25 will be described with reference to
The developer accommodating unit 25 in this embodiment is constituted, 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, by supporting the developing roller 13 and the developing blade 15 by a frame which is separate from the developer accommodating unit 25, the developing roller 13 and the developing blade 15 may also be 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.
(Developer Accommodating Container)
As shown in
Before use of the process cartridge A, the sealing member 19 is connected to the developer accommodating member 34 so as to cover the discharging portion 35, so that the developer is sealed in the developer accommodating member 34. The sealing member 19 is constituted by a sheet-like member having flexibility, and includes a connecting portion connected to the developer accommodating member 34 so as to seal the openings. Further, the sealing member 19 is peeled (pulled) off from the developer accommodating member 34 at the time of start of the use of the process cartridge A, so that the connecting portion is removed (peeled) to expose the openings, and thus the developer is dischargeable from the developer accommodating container 26.
Further, as shown in
As shown in
(Discharging Portion)
Next, a structure of the discharging portion 35 will be described with reference to
A state in which the sealing member 19 is bonded to the developer accommodating member 34 is shown. The sealing member 19 seals openings 35a provided at the molded portion 34a and exposes the openings 35a by being moved. A movement direction (in which the sealing member 19 is pulled by the unsealing member 20) of the sealing member 19 is an arrow direction D. By the movement of the sealing member 19, the connecting portion is peeled, so that the exposure of the openings 35a in an unsealing direction E is advanced.
As shown in
Each of the plurality of openings 35a in First Embodiment has a round shape. Further, the discharging portion 35 is continuously surrounded by a connecting portion (bonding portion) 22 of the sealing member 19, and the sealing member 19 is unsealable connected to the discharging portion 35 to seal the discharging portion 35 of the developer accommodating member 34 in which the developer is accommodated.
As shown in
<Unsealing Member>
The unsealing member 20 in this embodiment will be specifically described with reference to
The unsealing member 20 is used for the purpose of moving the sealing member 19 to be peeled off from the developer accommodating member 34. In the following, the unsealing member 20 will be described with reference to
As shown in (a) and (b) of
In this embodiment, as shown in (b) and (c) of
Further, the unsealing member 20 is constituted by a material having elasticity. As the material, e.g., a mold of polyacetal (POM), polystyrene (PS), ABS resin, or the like is used. Incidentally, the shape and material of the unsealing member 20 may only be required that the unsealing member 20 compatibly realizes positive flexure against peeling strength of the sealing member 19 and sufficient breaking strength, and therefore may appropriately be selected in view of a balance between the flexure and the breaking strength at that time.
<Unsealing of Developer Accommodating Member>
The unsealing of the developer accommodating member 34 will be described with reference to
In this embodiment, as shown in (a) of
That is, for the unsealing, as shown in (b) of
When the sealing member 19 is pulled, the developer accommodating member 34 is pulled via the connecting portion A (22a). Then, a force is applied to the portions-to-be-fixed 34g, so that the developer accommodating member 34 is further pulled by the fixing portion 18a. Then, as shown in (c) of
The flexure has the same system as a flexure model of a single beam on which a uniform load acts. Therefore, a flexure amount of the unsealing member 20 can be calculated from equations shown below. Here, L is a full length of the beam, X is a beam length from a beam-supported position, I is geometrical moment of inertia, E is Young's modulus, and w is load per unit length.
A flexure amount va of the unsealing member 20 at the central portion with respect to the rotational axis direction is obtained by formula 1 below.
va=(5wL4)/(384EI) (formula 1)
Further, a flexure amount vb of the unsealing member 20 at each of the end portions with respect to the rotational axis direction is obtained by formula 2 below.
vb=(wX)L2+2LX2+X)2/(24EI) (formula 2)
Here, with respect to the flexure amount at the end portion of the unsealing member 20 with respect to the rotational axis direction, the unsealing member 20 is supported by the first and second supporting portions 18d and 18f and therefore X=0, so that vc=0. As a result, a relationship between vb and va is represented by formula 3 below.
vc=0<(5wL4)/(384EI)=va (formula 3)
Further, the sealing member 19 is fixed to the unsealing member 20 by engaging the portion-to-be-engaged 19b of the sealing member 19 with the engaging portion 20b of the unsealing member 20. At this time, in this embodiment, as shown in (a) of
Therefore, the central portion of the unsealing member 20 with respect to the rotational axis direction is peeled larger than the end portions of the unsealing member 20 supported by the first supporting portion 18d and the second supporting portion 18f ((c) of
Therefore, by the rotation of the unsealing member 20, the first connecting portion at each of the end portions of the unsealing member 20 with respect to the rotational axis direction is peeled earlier than the second connecting portion at the central portion of the unsealing member 20 ((c) of
Then, when the unsealing member 20 is further rotated, the peeling of the connecting portion B (22b) is performed. Also when the peeling of the connecting portion B (22b) is performed, similarly as when the connecting portion A (22a) is peeled, the unsealing member 20 is smaller in flexure amount at the end portions than at the central portion with respect to the rotational axis direction. For that reason, the movement amount of the sealing member 19 by the unsealing member 20 is larger at the end portions of the unsealing member 20 than at the central portion of the unsealing member 20. Therefore, also at the connecting portion B (22b), with advance of the rotation of the unsealing member 20, the end portions of the unsealing member 20 with respect to the rotational axis direction are peeled earlier than the central portion. That is, the peeling of the connecting portion B (22b) is started first from the first connecting portion and then is performed at the central second connecting portion.
Thus, the constitution in which the elasticity is imparted to the unsealing member 20 and the sealing member 19 is unsealed while positively flexing the central portion of the unsealing member 20 with respect to the rotational axis direction is employed. As a result, with respect to the direction (the longitudinal direction of the connecting portions 22a and 22b) perpendicular to the direction in which the exposure of the openings 35a advances, timing of the unsealing can be shifted.
Therefore, it is possible to suppress the pulling of the sealing member 19 performed at once by the unsealing member 20 during the unsealing. As a result, a torque load exerted on the motor of the image forming apparatus main assembly during the unsealing can be reduced and therefore a small-sized motor can be used, so that the cost can be reduced. Further, deformation of the openings 35a of the developer accommodating member 34 can be suppressed, so that the openings 35a can be unsealed with reliability.
Second Embodiment will be described. In this embodiment, a constitution different from the constitution of the unsealing member 20 in First Embodiment is employed, and in this embodiment a different portion of the constitution different from that in First Embodiment will be described and thus the same constitution portion (another portion) will be omitted from the description.
<Unsealing Member>
Parts (a) and (b) of
The unsealing member 20 in this embodiment has, as shown in (b) of
Incidentally, the material for the unsealing member 20 in this embodiment may have elasticity or rigidity. For example, as the material having elasticity, a mold of POM, PS or ABS may be used. As the material having rigidity, metal such as stainless steel or iron may be used.
<Unsealing of Developer Accommodating Member (Bag)>
The unsealing operation of the developer accommodating member 34 will be described with reference to
Incidentally, phantom points S and M show a position of a bent portion 19d of the sealing member 19 at the times of (a) of
In (b) of
First, the unsealing member 20 is rotated in the arrow C direction by the transmission of the driving force from the main assembly by the unshown driving means. Then, a state immediately before start of the unsealing of the connecting portion A (22a) by further rotation of the unsealing member 20 to pull the sealing member 19 is shown in (b) of
As shown in (b) of
The movement amount of the sealing member 19 by the rotation of the unsealing member 20 is larger at the end portions than at the central portion with respect to the rotational axis direction of the unsealing member 20. This is because the circumferential of the unsealing member 20 is longer in the neighborhood of the end portions than at the central portion with respect to the rotational axis direction of the unsealing member 20 and therefore the sealing member 19 is wound up in a larger amount at the end portions than at the central portion. Therefore, as shown in (c) of
Then, when the unsealing member 20 is further rotated, the peeling spreads from the end portions of the unsealing member 20 toward the central portion of the unsealing member 20 and thus the central portion is finally peeled, so that the peeling of the connecting portion A (22a) is completed.
Then, the peeling of the connecting portion B (22b) is similarly performed from the end portions toward the central portion with respect to the rotational axis direction of the unsealing member 20.
As described above, by constituting the unsealing member 20 so that the circumferential of the unsealing member 20 becomes longer from the central portion toward the end portions with respect to the rotational axis direction, even when the unsealing member 20 is the rigid member, unsealing timing can be shifted with respect to the direction perpendicular to the direction in which the exposure of the openings 35a advances.
Therefore, it is possible to reduce a degree of the pulling of the sealing member 19 performed at once by the unsealing member 20 during the unsealing and therefore the deformation of the openings 35a of the developer accommodating member 34 can be suppressed, so that the openings 35a can be unsealed with reliability. Further, by shifting the timing of the unsealing, the torque load exerted on the motor of the image forming apparatus main assembly during the unsealing can be reduced, so that the unsealing can be performed with reliability.
In the above-described embodiments, the case where the developer accommodating member for accommodating the developer is the flexible container is illustrated, but the developer accommodating member is also applicable even when the developer accommodating member has no flexibility.
Further, the sealing member 19 is mounted on the unsealing member 20 rotationally supported by the supporting portion 18d of the first frame 18 at its end portions. The unsealing member 20 is formed of the elastic material as described above and is rotatably supported at its end portions by the supporting portion 18d provided on the second frame 18.
Also in this case, it becomes possible to perform the unsealing while positively flexing the unsealing member 20 at the central portion, and thus the unsealing timing can be shifted in the direction perpendicular to the direction in which the exposure of the opening 35a advances, so that effects similar to those in the above-described embodiments can be obtained.
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. 113246/2012 and 097299/2013 filed May 17, 2012 and May 7, 2013, respectively, which are hereby incorporated by reference.
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| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20150227085 A1 | Aug 2015 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 13894828 | May 2013 | US |
| Child | 14694408 | US |
