Patent Application
20090047042
This application is based on application No. 2007-212885 filed in Japan, the content of which is hereby incorporated by references.
(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a rotary developing apparatus rotatably accommodating a plurality of developer units, a developer unit used in the developing apparatus, and an image forming apparatus having the developing apparatus.
(2) Description of the Related Art
An image forming apparatus includes a rotary developing apparatuses that accommodates developer units for respective toner colors of Cyan (C), Magenta (M), Yellow (Y), and Black (K) in a rotatable rack (hereinafter referred to as “rotary rack”), and that drives the rotary rack to rotate in order to bring a targeted one of the developer units to a designated developing position. The reduction in size and manufacturing cost has been demanded for image forming apparatuses provided with such rotary developing apparatuses. Accordingly, a simple and compact structure is demanded for the rotary developing apparatuses.
Usually, each developer unit has a toner storage and a developing chamber that receives toner from the toner storage and supplies the toner to a developing roller. However, for the purpose of the compact and simple structure mentioned as above, toner supply units tends to be omitted such as a stirring blade used for delivering the toner from the toner storage to the developing chamber. (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2005-345536)
The simplified rotary developing apparatus works as follows. When one of the developer units is located within a predetermined rotational range as a result of the rotation of the rotary rack, the toner in the toner storage naturally falls into the developing chamber through an opening of a partition part (partition wall) between the toner storage and the developing chamber. Thus, the toner is supplied from the toner storage to the developing chamber.
As shown in
Each developer unit 1031 has a toner storage 1311 that stores the toner therein and a developing chamber 1312 that is adjacent to the toner storage 1311 via a partition wall 1313. The developing chamber 1312 has a developing roller 1315 and a supply roller 1316.
When the developer unit 1031 reaches a position shown in
However, with the above structure of the developer unit 1031, there can be seen a significant degradation in performance of supplying the toner from the toner storage to the developing chamber 1312 when the toner remaining in the toner storage 1311 gets low.
More specifically, as the rotary rack 1032 rotates in the direction of Arrow A, the toner in the toner storage 1311 flows in the direction of Arrow B. As shown in
As the rotary rack 1032 further rotates in the direction of Arrow A, the toner T remaining in a corner 1311c moves along an inner wall part 1311b, and falls through the toner supply opening 1314. However, it is only a small amount of the toner that falls. As the rotary rack 1032 rotates even further, a large portion of the toner T passes over the toner supply opening 1314 onto the partition wall 1313. Thus, the large portion of toner T does not fall into the developing chamber 1312.
When usable toner still remaining in the toner storage 1311 cannot be supplied to the developing chamber 1312, various problems including the following occur. The developer unit 1031 needs to be replaced earlier, which gives economical burden for users. In addition, in a case of executing job of forming monochrome images, a large number of sheets cannot be continuously printed, and therefore overall speed of image forming gets lower. Moreover, in a type of a printer that estimates, with use of a dot counter, the toner amount remaining in the developing chamber 1312 on the premise that a predetermined amount or more of the toner is supplied to the developing chamber 1312, the developing chamber 1312 becomes empty of the toner earlier than an estimated time, because a smaller amount of the toner is actually supplied from the toner storage 1311 to the developing chamber 1312 than the anticipated amount. Accordingly, the formed image can be scraped, and image deterioration may be caused.
The present invention is conceived in the light of the above problems. In the rotary developing apparatus that naturally supplies the toner from the toner storage to the developing chamber due to the rotation within a predetermined rotation range, it is an object of the present invention to minimize degradation in performance of supplying toner from the toner storage to the developing chamber when there remains a small amount of the toner in the toner storage.
The above object is fulfilled by a developing apparatus with the following features. The developing apparatus includes a plurality of developer units each having a toner storage that stores toner therein and a developing chamber, a rotary rack that accommodates the developer units therein, and a driver that drives the rotary rack to rotate in a predetermined rotational direction to bring a targeted one of the developer units to a developing position. As the rotary rack rotates in the rotational direction, the toner flows in a predetermined flowing direction in the toner storage. When the targeted developer unit is located within a predetermined range of the rotation, the toner is supplied from the toner storage to the developing chamber through a toner supply opening. In the developing apparatus, an inner wall of the toner storage that includes a first part and a second part with the toner supply opening located therebetween, and the first part is located upstream of the second part in the flowing direction. In a section that is orthogonal to a rotation axis of the rotary rack, the first part is sloped toward the second part at a first angle that is smaller than 180°.
Since the first angle smaller than 180° is formed between the first part located upstream of the toner supply opening in the toner flowing direction and the second part downstream of the toner supply opening in the toner flowing direction, the surfaces of the first and second parts serve as a funnel. Thus, especially when there remains a small amount of the toner, the toner remaining upstream of the toner supply opening in the toner flowing direction (hereinafter referred to as “residual toner”) is more smoothly guided to the toner supply opening and supplied to the developing chamber by the rotation. Accordingly, the toner supply performance is improved.
The first angle desirably falls within a range of 120° to 160°, inclusive, which allows the residual toner to be guided into the developing chamber more effectively.
In addition, an edge of the first part toward the toner supply opening may extend to an interior of the developing chamber. Thanks to this arrangement, the residual toner can be securely supplied to the developing chamber. As a result, the toner supply performance is further improved when the toner gets low.
Furthermore, an inner wall of the developing chamber includes a third part and a fourth part with the toner supply opening located therebetween, and in the section that is orthogonal to the rotation axis of the rotary rack, the third part is sloped toward the fourth part at a second angle that is smaller than 180°.
This arrangement allows the toner to easily return from the developing chamber to the toner storage when the rotary rack is at a predetermined rotational position. Since the toner does not stay in the developing chamber for a long period of time, degradation of the toner can be prevented.
The second angle favorably falls within a range of 100° to 140°, inclusive, which improves the return performance of the toner from the developing chamber to the toner storage.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the image forming apparatus of the present invention has the above developing apparatus.
Furthermore, a developer unit is one of a plurality of developer units accommodated in a rotary rack of the developing apparatus that drives the rotary rack to rotate in a predetermined rotational direction to bring a targeted one of the developer units to a developing position. The developer unit includes a toner storage that stores toner therein, a developing chamber that is adjacent to the toner storage via a partition part, and a developing roller that is disposed in the developing chamber. The partition part has a toner supply opening through which the toner flows from the toner storage into the developing chamber. In the developer unit, an inner wall of the toner storage includes a first part and a second part with the toner supply opening located therebetween. In a section that is orthogonal to a rotation axis of the developing roll, the first part is sloped toward the second part at a first angle that is smaller than 180°.
When the developer unit with the above features is used in the rotary developing apparatus, the efficiency of supplying the residual toner can be improved similarly to the developing apparatus.
Furthermore, the developer unit has an inner wall of the developing chamber that includes a third part and a fourth part with the toner supply opening located therebetween. In the section that is orthogonal to the rotation axis of the rotary rack, the third part is sloped toward the fourth part at a second angle that is smaller than 180°. This feature promotes the toner to return from the developing chamber to the toner storage, and therefore the toner is not easily degraded.
These and the other objects, advantages and features of the invention will become apparent from the following description thereof taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings which illustrate a specific embodiment of the invention. In the drawings:
The following describes a developing apparatus and an image forming apparatus consistent with a preferred embodiment of the present invention with reference to the attached drawings. The description is given by way of example of a four-cycle full-color printer (hereinafter, referred to as simply “printer”) using an intermediate transfer belt.
Referring initially to
As shown in
The photosensitive part 10 includes a photosensitive drum 11 that rotates in the direction of the arrow in
The developing part 30 is of a rotary type, and
The electrostatic latent image formed around the photosensitive drum 11 is developed as a toner image by the developer unit of a corresponding color.
The intermediate transfer part 40 has an endless intermediate transfer belt 43 that is supported by a plurality of rollers including a driving roller 41. The driving roller 41 is controlled so that the intermediate transfer belt 43 runs at the same speed as the circumferential speed of the photosensitive drum 11.
The toner image formed around the photosensitive drum 11 is primarily transferred to the intermediate transfer belt 43 by a primary transfer roller 42.
Full-color image forming job is executed as follows. The processes of primary transfer of the respective colors of Y, M, C, and K are executed in sequence, and respective colors are superimposed onto the intermediate transfer belt 43. Subsequently in the secondary transfer part 50, a secondary transfer roller 51 secondarily transfer the image onto a sheet of paper (unshown) that is fed by the paper feeder 60 in a timed relationship with the rotation of the intermediate transfer belt 43. Then, after the fixing part 70 fixes the image on the sheet by heat, the sheet is ejected by ejection rollers 71 to an ejection tray 72.
On the other hand, when monochrome-image forming job using a black color is executed, only the developer unit of the black color is used to develop the image. The primary and secondary transfer operations are executed similarly to the above. When the image is fixed to a sheet of paper, the sheet is ejected.
The controller 80 is mainly composed of CPU, a communication interface, RAM, ROM and the like. The CPU performs necessary processing on image data according to a print job received from an external terminal via the communication interface. In addition, based on a program stored in the ROM, the CPU determines timing, and integrally controls the photosensitive part 10, the exposure scanner 20, the developing part 30, the intermediate transfer part 40, the secondary transfer part 50, the paper feeder 60 and the fixing part 70 to execute smooth image forming operation.
As shown in
The rotary rack 32 is substantially cylindrical. The interior of the rotary rack 32 is divided into four chambers by four partition parts 34 each forms a right angle with one another. Each chamber accommodates a corresponding one of the developer units 31Y, 31M, 31C, and 31K.
The outer circumference of each chamber of the rotary rack 32 can be opened so that the developer units 31Y, 31M, 31C and 31K can be replaced with a new developer unit. (The structure of how to open or close the chamber is omitted.)
The rotary rack 32 is driven to rotate in the direction of Arrow A by a rotary rack driver 35 (shown in
Note that
Besides, for detecting the toner level in the developer unit, heretofore-known techniques, such as a detecting method with use of a dot counter, are applied.
More specifically, a heretofore-known dot counter (unshown) is provided in the controller 80. The dot counter counts the number of pixels (dots) that are to be printed in the bitmap data for every printed page, and transmits the counted value to the CPU in the controller 80.
The toner level can be detected by the CPU in the controller 80 as follows. The toner level is reset to a first default value when the developer unit is replaced with a new developer unit of a corresponding color. Every time when the counted value is transmitted from the dot counter to the CPU, the CPU decreases the first default value. The first default value of a new developer unit that shows the number of dots printable by the developer unit is determined by calculations or experiments, and is stored in the ROM in the controller 80.
The toner level in the developing chamber 312 is reset to a second default value every time when the rotary rack 32 goes into a 360-degree roll. The toner level in the developing chamber 312 can be known from the second default value being decreased every time when the counted value is notified to the CPU in the controller 80.
For example, according to the toner level in the developer chamber, the toner amount supplied from the toner storage 311 to the developing chamber 312 per rotation of the rotary rack 32 for 360 degrees is determined by calculations and experiments. The numbers of dots for printing a good image with use of an amount of toner slightly less than the above calculated toner amount are determined by calculations and experiments, and is stored in a table in the ROM. When resetting the toner level, the controller 80 determines the second default value based on the toner level and by referring to the table.
As a matter of course, instead of the dot counter, a heretofore-known photoelectric sensor can be installed in the toner storage 311 or the developing chamber 312 in order to detect the toner-empty state of the developing unit 31.
As shown in
Both rotational shafts of the developing roller 315 and the supply roller 316 are arranged in parallel to the rotational shaft 33 of the rotary rack 32. The outer circumference of the supply roller 316 is made of a foamed elastic material such as a sponge, which enables the supply roller 316 to carry a large amount of toner. In addition, the distance between the shafts of the development roller 315 and the supply roller 316 can be a little shorter so that the area in which the developing roller 315 contacts with the supply roller 316 can be enlarged. Thus, with the above inventive features, toner can be more efficiently supplied to the developing roller 315.
Both rotational shafts of the developing roller 315 and the supply roller 316 project out from the surface of the developing chamber 312. The developing roller 315 and the supply roller 316 are driven to rotate in a predetermined direction by a publicly-known driving mechanism that is unshown in the figure. This driving mechanism is as follows, for example. At each projecting edge of the developing roller 315 and the supply roller 316, a spur gear or the like is fixed. When the developer unit 31K reaches the developing position, the spur gear is meshed with a gear connected to another driving source.
Each width of the developing roller 315 and the supply roller 316 is substantially equal to the width of the photosensitive surface of the photosensitive drum 11 in the axial direction. The length of the toner supply opening 314 in a direction parallel to the axis of the supply roller 316 is also the same as each width of the developing roller 315 or the supply roller 316.
Each width of the first slope 318 and the second slope 319 in the direction parallel to the axis of the supply roller 316 (hereinafter referred to simply as “rotation axis direction”) is equals to the width of each inner wall of the toner storage 311 and the developing chamber 312 in the rotation axis direction. The first slope 318 and the second slope 319 are fixed to the respective positions of the inner wall by an adhesive agent or the like.
Note that other developer units 31Y-31C have the identical structure with the developer unit 31K except for the toner color.
As mentioned above, the first slope 318 is fixed on the inner wall of the toner storage 311 located upstream of the toner supply opening 314 in the toner flowing direction (Arrow B direction). Thus, the toner storage 311 does not have the corner 1311c where the toner remains in the conventional structure shown in
As shown in the partially enlarged view of
The angle α is angled at 140° in this embodiment.
Note that the width of the toner supply opening 314 in the direction orthogonal to the rotation axis direction is 5 mm. The desirable position of the toner supply opening 314 is as follows. When the developer unit 31 arrives at the developing position (a position where the developing roller 315 comes closest to the circumference of the photosensitive drum 11 as the developing part 30 is further rotated in the direction of Arrow A than that shown in
A portion of the toner once flows into the developing chamber 312 at the toner supply position, and later flows back into the toner storage 311 through the toner supply opening 314 at the developing position. From the standpoint of the stable toner supply to the developing roller 315, it is thus desirable that the top of the toner in the developing chamber 312 is above the supply roller 316 and that the supply roller 316 is completely sunk in the toner. In addition, the higher the position of the toner supply opening 314 is, the more toner the developing chamber 312 can store therein. Thus, numerous monochrome images can be formed continuously when monochrome image forming job is executed.
As shown in
Furthermore, when the developer unit 31K reaches the toner supply position P2 shown in
In the experiment, a conventional developer unit as shown in
The conventional unit and the present invention have the structure substantially identical with each other except for the presence of the first slope 318. Each developer unit can store 60 g of toner in the toner storage.
The experimental results shown in
As shown in the graph of
In the conventional unit, the toner amount supplied to the developing chamber starts to decrease when the total toner amount decreases to approximately 40 g or below. However, in the present invention, a constant amount (20 g) of the toner is supplied till the total toner amount decreases to 25 g or below. Although the toner supply amount decreases when the total toner amount decreases below 25 g, the present invention constantly supplies a larger amount of toner than the conventional unit.
Note that if the angle α formed between the slope surface of the first slope 318 and the surface of the partition wall 313 toward the toner storage 311 is any smaller than 180°, it is ensured that the toner is any more efficiently supplied to the developing chamber than the conventional unit shown in
On the contrary, when the slope surface rises thereby making the angle α too sharp, the volume of the toner storage 311 becomes small, which causes the inconvenience that developer unit replacement is required more frequently. In addition, the residual toner locally exists in the vicinity of the inner wall part 311a of the toner storage 311 may rush into the developing chamber 312. Then, a packing, which is a phenomenon in which toner is agglutinated because of the force (impact) exerted on the toner, can easily occur. This packing hinders smooth toner supply to the developing roller 31, and may cause developing defects. Thus, from such a point of view, the angle α is desirably 120° and over.
Experiments were repeatedly conducted with changing the angle α within a range of 120°≦α≦160°. Even if there remains a small amount of toner in the toner storage 311, according to the experimental results, the present invention shows no packing, supplies a larger toner amount than the conventional unit, and shows few variances in the toner supply amount.
The toner in each developer unit is stirred by the rotation of the rotary rack 32. A long-term stir of the toner may separate additives from the toner particle, and thus the toner can be deteriorated. The additives such as silica are attached to the surface of a toner particle as a lubricant
As the toner deterioration changes its charging characteristics and the like, an excellent image cannot be reproduced. Especially in the developing chamber 312, since the developing roller 315 and the supply roller 316 rotate, and furthermore the regulating blade 317 scrubs away the superfluous toner formed on the surface of the developing roller 315, the toner in the developing chamber 312 deteriorates more than that stored in the toner storage 311.
Therefore, it is desirable that the toner is regularly returned from the developing chamber 312 to the toner storage 311, which prevents the same toner from staying in the developing chamber 312 for a long period of time.
In the developing part 30 of a rotary type, when the developing chamber 312 is above the toner storage 311 as the rotary rack 32 rotates, the toner in the developing chamber 312 returns to the toner storage 311 through the toner supply opening 314.
In the embodiment of the present invention, the second slope 319 is provided in a corner 312c of the developing chamber 312 (the counterpart position of the first slope 318 via the toner supply opening 314) that is radially outward in the rotary rack 32. As shown in
In the conventional unit as shown in
In this embodiment, the angle β (See
As a matter of course, it is desirable that the angle β falls within a given range from the point of view similar to the angle α. Empirically, the angle β desirably falls within a range of 100°≦β≦140°.
The present invention is described based on the above embodiment. The present invention is never limited to the above embodiment, and various modifications can be made as follows.
(1) The above embodiment describes a case that one edge of the first slope 318 toward the toner supply opening 314 is substantially at the imaginary extension of the partition wall 313. As shown in
In addition, when the developer unit 31K arrives at a position shown in
(2) In the above embodiment, the first slope 318 is separately manufactured from the toner storage 311, and is mounted on the inner wall of the toner storage 311 that is the corner part upstream from the toner supply opening 314. However, the following modification can be made that the toner storage 311 and the first slope 318 are integrally formed, and the inner wall of the toner storage 311 may have a shape equivalent to the first slope 318. The same structure can be applied to the second slope 319 in the developing chamber 312.
(3) In the above embodiment, each slope surface of the first slope 318 and the second slope 319 is described on the premise that each slope surface is flat. However, each slope surface may be curved in some degree as long as the curve does not hinder the toner flow. Similarly, both surfaces of the partition wall 313 toward the toner storage 311 and the developing chamber 312 may be curved as well.
(4) In the above embodiment, the first slope 318 is formed on the inner wall of the toner storage 311 that is in the direction of the imaginary extension of the partition wall 313. However, a modification may be made as follows. A new partition wall that has a basically identical structure with the partition wall 313 may be formed on the inner wall part 311a that extends in a direction to the toner supply opening 314, and anew slope surface that is angled at α with the new partition wall may be formed on the original partition wall 313. Since these new partition wall and the new slope surface serve as a funnel, this modification can improve the supplying performance than the conventional unit.
(5) In the above embodiment, a full-color printer is given by way of example of the image forming apparatus in accordance with the present invention. However, the image forming apparatus in accordance with the present invention may be a copy machine or a color facsimile apparatus having the printer, or a complex machine having all these functions.
Although the present invention has been fully described by way of examples with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be noted that various changes and modifications will be apparent to those skilled in the art.
Therefore, unless such changes and modifications depart from the scope of the present invention, they should be construed as being included therein.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007-212885 | Aug 2007 | JP | national |
