Patent Grant
7116930
Many toner containers are shaped like conventional bottles, where a cylindrical body containing a powder is joined with a smaller diameter bottle opening by a conically-shaped converging shaped like a funnel that helps to contain and direct the toner discharge flow. This classical bottle design works well with liquids. However, when the bottle-like cartridge is filled with a powder comprising, for example, toner particles, the substance exiting process is often hampered by well-known effects, known as “bridging” and “rat-holing” effects, which effects are inherent exit flow problems of all symmetrically-shaped funnel-like containers.
The foregoing bridging effect occurs when the toner powder forms internal spherical structure (arches), thus restricting or completely blocking the flow. When this happens in an image forming device such as an xerographic machine, the bottle must be removed from the image forming device (xerographic machine), then shaken well and reinserted into the image forming device. This process results in substantial annoyance or irritation in the machine users or customers.
Further, the foregoing rat-holing effect occurs when, due to the different friction forces between toner particles with other toner particles and toner particles and bottle walls, a hole is formed in the toner mass at the bottle exit. This hole is also shaped like a funnel in the dense, plug-like toner mass that remains in the bottle after all fluidized toner is discharged. Thus, the toner that forms the “rat-hole” remains in the bottle, unused and, as far as the customer is concerned, is wasted.
One known solution to these problems is to equip toner containers with internal agitators. However, this solution is costly compared to a simple blow molded toner bottle design.
In a first aspect of the invention, there is described a dispenser bottle including a conduit partition assembly, the dispenser bottle having a dispenser bottle top end and an opposite dispenser bottle bottom end and comprising a tapered top dispenser portion and a cylindrical bottom container portion, the dispenser portion forming a dispenser mouth at the dispenser bottle top end, the container portion defining a container hollow, the dispenser portion having a dispenser portion inner wall that defines a dispenser conduit whose inner diameter becomes increasingly narrower along the dispenser portion from the container hollow towards the dispenser mouth; the dispenser conduit partition assembly having a shaft, the shaft having a shaft top end, an elongated shaft body defining a shaft axial and an opposite shaft bottom end, the shaft bottom end having a multiplicity (N) of substantially identical partition members attached thereto; the shaft bottom end with the attached multiple partition members disposed in the dispenser conduit; each partition member comprised of a sheet of flexible elastic material of a small thickness, the partition member forming two opposing generally flat and smooth outer surfaces, each outer surface defining a perimeter of four partition member edges, the four partition member edges including a generally straight partition member shaft-attaching edge and an opposite partition member outer edge, the partition member shaft-attaching edge fixed to the shaft body along the shaft axial near the shaft bottom end, the multiple partition members extending outwardly away from the shaft axial; the partition member outer edge of each partition member having a profile shape that is generally congruent with the shape of the dispenser portion inner wall so that urging the shaft towards the dispenser mouth causes the partition member outer edge of each partition member to substantially contact the dispenser portion inner wall, the multiplicity of partition members thus partitioning the dispenser conduit into a corresponding multiplicity (N) of dispenser component conduits.
In a second aspect of the invention, there is described an image forming device comprising a dispenser bottle arranged to dispense toner particles, the dispenser bottle including a conduit partition assembly, the dispenser bottle having a dispenser bottle top end and an opposite dispenser bottle bottom end and comprising a tapered top dispenser portion and a cylindrical bottom container portion, the dispenser portion forming a dispenser mouth at the dispenser bottle top end, the container portion defining a container hollow, the dispenser portion having a dispenser portion inner wall that defines a dispenser conduit whose inner diameter becomes increasingly narrower along the dispenser portion from the container hollow towards the dispenser mouth; the dispenser conduit partition assembly having a shaft, the shaft having a shaft top end, an elongated shaft body defining a shaft axial and an opposite shaft bottom end, the shaft bottom end having a multiplicity (N) of substantially identical partition members attached thereto; the shaft bottom end with the attached multiple partition members disposed in the dispenser conduit; each partition member comprised of a sheet of flexible elastic material of a small thickness, the partition member forming two opposing generally flat and smooth outer surfaces, each outer surface defining a perimeter of four partition member edges, the four partition member edges including a generally straight partition member shaft-attaching edge and an opposite partition member outer edge, the partition member shaft-attaching edge fixed to the shaft body along the shaft axial near the shaft bottom end, the multiple partition members extending outwardly away from the shaft axial; the partition member outer edge of each partition member having a profile shape that is generally congruent with the shape of the dispenser portion inner wall so that urging the shaft towards the dispenser mouth causes the partition member outer edge of each partition member to substantially contact the dispenser portion inner wall, the multiplicity of partition members thus partitioning the dispenser conduit into a corresponding multiplicity (N) of dispenser component conduits, so that the toner particles are dispensed by the multiple dispenser component conduits to thereby form a corresponding multiplicity of toner particle discharge flows.
As described below, each drawing figure of
Briefly, dispenser conduit partitions are used to improve the discharge flow of toner particles from a toner dispenser bottle in a host image forming device. A dispenser conduit partition assembly is inserted into the funnel-like dispenser conduit of the toner dispenser bottle. The conduit partition assembly is arranged with multiple partition members. The multiple partition members act to partition the single symmetric dispenser conduit into a corresponding multiplicity of asymmetric dispenser component conduits. As a result, the toner particles are dispensed by the multiple dispenser component conduits to thereby form a corresponding multiplicity of asymmetric toner particle discharge flows, thus reducing toner bridging.
Referring now to
As shown, the dispenser portion 1 includes a dispenser portion inner wall 8 that defines a dispenser conduit 40 whose inner diameter 50 becomes increasingly narrower along the dispenser portion 1 from the container hollow 60 towards the dispenser mouth 6.
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As described below, the foregoing multiple dispenser component conduits 40B, 40C, 40D and 40E are depicted in
In one embodiment, shown in
In another embodiment, shown in
In a further embodiment, shown in
In still another embodiment, shown in
It will be understood that, in still further embodiments, not shown in the drawing, the dispenser conduit partition assembly 20 comprises a multiplicity (N) of partition members 30 wherein N is greater than 5, thus N equals 6, 7, 8, 9, etc.
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In summary, the present invention comprises inserting into a toner bottle 10 a partition (conduit partition assembly 20) that acts to change the symmetric, funnel-like, bottle exit area (dispenser conduit 40) into several (2, 3, 4 or 5) asymmetric funnels (dispenser component conduits 40B, 40C, 40D, 40E) and thus prevent toner bridging.
In one embodiment, the conduit partition assembly 20 is attached to the toner bottle 10's screw-in plug 21 by a shaft 22 and is made from a flexible and elastic plastic material. This plastic partition 20 is wrapped around the shaft 22 to allow its insertion into the toner bottle's dispenser conduit 40 and then, when inserted, due to elasticity, the plastic partition 20 assumes its original rocket fin-like shape, as depicted in
In one embodiment, the plug 21 includes a sealing surface 26 facing the attached shaft 22 and conduit partition assembly 20, the sealing surface 26 being conically-shaped to ease the toner discharge when the plug 21 is unscrewed, as depicted in
Thus, the resulting asymmetric dispenser component conduits 40B, 40C, 40D, 40E act to substantially reduce any bridging and rat-holing since there are no opposing parallel areas in the new conduits 40B, 40C, 40D and 40E.
A further advantage of a toner dispenser bottle 10 including a conduit partition assembly 20 is that, as the conduit partition 20 is attached to the screw-in plug 21, when the plug 21 is unscrewed, the attached conduit partition assembly 20 thereby acts like an agitator to further ease the discharge of the toner.
The conduit partition assembly 20 is relatively easy and inexpensive to manufacture.
A further advantage of a toner dispenser bottle 10 including a conduit partition assembly 20 is increased productivity of the host image forming device 100 and corresponding increased customer satisfaction.
A further advantage of the toner dispenser bottle 10 including a conduit partition assembly 20 is that it substantially reduces the need for the customer to shake the toner bottle 10. This reduction is particularly advantageous in view of the fact that toner particles will more easily empty from a bottle that has not been shaken. Also, in toner bottles without the benefit of the present invention, proper shaking is still required to appropriately agitate the toner so it can empty from the bottle. This customer shaking, however, is problematic, and is a compliance and ergonomic issue.
The table below lists the drawing
While various embodiments of a dispenser bottle including a conduit partition assembly, and an image forming device including the same, in accordance with the present invention, have been described hereinabove, the scope of the invention is defined by the following claims.
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6085056 | Okada | Jul 2000 | A |
| 6249655 | Baek et al. | Jun 2001 | B1 |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20060024091 A1 | Feb 2006 | US |
