Patent Application
20080069591
The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention. In the drawings,
Reference will now be made in detail to the present preferred embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the drawings and the description to refer to the same or like parts.
Refer to
The image-receiving module 100 may include the rotating rollers 114 disposed on the image-receiving module frame 110 parallel to the axle 112. The photoconductor 150 may be rolled on the image-receiving module frame 110 and the photoconductor support bars 130 by rotating the rotating roller 114. The image-receiving module 100 may further include a plurality of brackets 120 disposed on opposite sides of the axle 112 on the image-receiving module frame 110. The brackets 120 may be fixed on the image-receiving module frame 110 by mounting a plurality of screws 118 with a plurality of screw holes 116 of the brackets 120 and the image-receiving module frame 110. Each bracket 120 has a plurality of protrusions 122 for positioning and each end of the photoconductor support bars 130 has a corresponding cavity 134. The photoconductor support bars 130 may be floating fixed on the brackets 120 by coupling the protrusions 122 with the cavities 134. The brackets 120 has an incline angle and therefore the photoconductor support bars 130 can adjust position angle corresponding to the toner cartridges 170 by the inclined angle and the photoconductor 150 can smoothly roll on the image-receiving module frame 110. The shape of the cavities 134 and the protrusions 122 may be circles. The image-receiving module 100 may further have a plurality of clamps 140 disposed on opposite sides of the axle 112. The clamps 140 may have a plurality of the position holes 142 to couple with the protrusions 122 of the brackets 120 to restrict a movement parallel to the axle 112 of the photoconductor support bars 130.
The photoconductor support bars 130 may be floating fixed on the brackets 120 in the direction y by coupling the cavities 134 with the protrusions 122 and the deformation caused by the conventional screw-fixed support structure may be reduced and the photoconductor 150 may be rolled on the image-receiving module frame 110 smoothly.
Refer to
Refer to
Refer to
The cambered position shaft 178 and the developer roller 172 may be a coaxial disposition and a radius of the cambered position shaft 178 is slightly larger than a radius of the developer roller 172. But the difference in radius between the cambered position shaft 178 and the developer roller 172 is smaller than the gap d. The roller gap controlling apparatus of the toner cartridge 170 may have at least a gap controlling member stuck on the roller supporter 174 to adjust the gap d for improving the accuracy of positioning the developer roller 172 in the developer unit 160. The gap controlling members may be at least a thin slice 180 and the thin slices 180 are stuck on the cambered position shaft 178. A thickness of the thin slice 180 may approximately compensate the distance between the developer roller 172 and the photoconductor 150 to maintain the gap d. The accuracy of positioning the developer roller 172 may be improve by maintaining the gap d with the thin slices 180 while the roller supporter 174 touches the photoconductor support bars 130 to fix the developer roller 172. Furthermore, the gap d between the developer roller 172 and the photoconductor 150 may also be maintained and improve the quality of the toner image forming. The thin slice 180 may be fixed on the position shaft 178 by a contact force between the position shaft 178 and the photoconductor support bars 130. Two ends of the thin slice 180 not facing the photoconductor 150 may be pasted with a glue to further fix the thin slice 180 on the position shaft 178. The thin slices 180 may also be fix with a flexible structure or a clasp.
A range of the thickness of the thin slices 180 is approximately between 15 μm to 65 μm according to the tolerance. The thickness of the thin slice 180 is selected from a group consisting of 20 μm, 25 μm, 30 μm, 35 μm, 40 μm, 45 μm, 50 μm, 55 μm, and 60 μm or other thickness group. A material of the thin slice 180 may be a metal. The material of the thin slice 180 may also be a plastic, such as a mylar.
The gap controlling structure for image forming apparatus of the invention has several advantages. The gap between the photoconductor and the corresponding developer roller may be maintained by the photoconductor support bars supporting the latent image area of the photoconductor. The deformation of the conventional screw-fixed support structure may be reduced and the photoconductor support bars are floating coupled with the brackets by coupling the protrusions and the cavities. Each toner cartridge of the developer unit may have the roller gap controlling apparatus. The distance between the developer roller and the photoconductor may be adjusted by the thin slices to compensate the distance between the developer roller and the photoconductor 150 to maintain the gap to improve the accuracy of positioning the developer roller while the roller supporter touches the photoconductor support bars. The toner image forming quality may be improved by maintaining the gap between the developer roller and the photoconductor by the gap controlling structure for image forming apparatus.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the present invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the present invention cover modifications and variations of this invention provided they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.
