Patent Grant
7831162
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, in image forming apparatuses such as printers, copy machines, fax machines, and multifunction devices, a surface of a photosensitive drum, is charged by a charge roller, an electrostatic latent image is formed by exposing the photosensitive drum with an LED head, a toner image is formed by electrostatically affixing to the electrostatic latent image a thin layer of toner as developer on a development roller, and the toner image is transferred to paper by a transfer roller. The paper onto which the toner image is transferred is sent to a fusion device by which the toner image is fused to the paper.
In the aforementioned printer, toner that cannot be charged until a regular potential (negative polarity) or toner that is charged with reversed polarity (positive polarity) is generated as fogging toner and affixed to the surface of the photosensitive drum (negative polarity) and then to the paper to cause further fogging. To prevent generation of this fogging toner, the surface potential of the photosensitive drum is set to a potential that makes it difficult for fogging toner to be affixed. (see Japanese Patent Application Publication 2002-169343).
However, in conventional printers, generation of fogging cannot reliably be prevented because the amount of fogging toner generated changes according to the idle time of the printer, the environment in the printer is placed, and the like.
The present invention aims to solve the problems of conventional image forming apparatuses and to provide an image forming apparatus that can reliably prevent the generation of fogging.
To achieve this, the image forming apparatus of the present invention contains an image holding body, a developer holding body for holding developer that forms a developer image by being affixed to the electrostatic latent image formed on the image holding body, a transfer unit for transferring the developer image to a medium, a fusion apparatus for fusing the transferred developer image onto the medium, an idle time judgment process section for making a judgment as to whether an idle time, from when printing is completed to when printing is initiated, of the image forming apparatus is long, and a surface potential setting process section for changing and setting a surface potential of the image holding body to a reference value at which fogging is not generated in a case where the idle time is long.
According to the present invention, the image forming apparatus may also contain an image holding body, a developer holding body for holding developer that forms a developer image by being affixed to the electrostatic latent image formed on the image holding body, a transfer unit for transferring the developer image to a medium, a fusion apparatus for fusing the transferred developer image onto the medium, and a surface potential changing unit for changing the surface potential before the surface potential reaches a point at which fogging is generated.
In a case where the idle time of the image forming apparatus is long, the generation of fogging can reliably be prevented because the surface potential of the image holding unit is changed and set to a reference value at which fogging is not generated.
This invention may take physical form in certain parts and arrangements of parts, a preferred embodiment and method of which will be described in detail in this specification and illustrated in the accompanying drawings which form a part hereof, and wherein:
The following is a detailed description referencing diagrams concerning the embodiments of the present invention. In this case, the image forming apparatus is described as relating to a printer.
As shown in
At an anterior end of the paper cassette, a hopping roller is disposed as a supply roller to separate and supply the papers P one by one to a medium feeding path. The paper P supplied by the hopping roller is fed by a feeding roller and a pinch roller disposed downstream in the medium feeding path from the hopping roller and sent between the drum cartridge 10 and the transfer roller 17.
The drum cartridge 10 makes up the image formation section and contains image formation elements for forming the image such as the photosensitive drum 11 serving as an image holding body, a charge roller 12 serving as a charge device for uniformly and evenly charging the surface of the photosensitive drum 11, a development roller 14 serving as a holding body for the developer that forms the toner image by developing the image by affixing the toner serving as developer to the latent image formed by the exposure using the LED head 13, a toner supply roller 15 serving as a developer supply section for charging and supplying the toner to the charged development roller 14, a development blade 16 serving as a developer regulation section for forming a toner layer as a uniform developer layer on the development roller 14, a cleaning blade, not shown, serving as a cleaning device for recovering the toner remaining on the photosensitive drum 11 after transfer of the toner image, and a toner feeding unit (not shown) serving as a developer feeding unit that feeds the recovered toner into a recovery receptacle, not shown. The charge roller 12, development roller 14, transfer roller 17, and cleaning blade are disposed in a manner directly contacting the photosensitive drum 11.
The LED head 13 that forms the electrostatic latent image by exposing the surface of the photosensitive drum 11 is disposed above the drum cartridge 10, and the transfer roller 17 that transfers the toner image formed on the photosensitive drum 11 onto the paper is disposed below the drum cartridge 10. The fusion device is disposed downstream in the medium feeding path from the drum cartridge 10 and the transfer roller 17. The fusion device contains a heat roller as a first rotating body and a pressure roller as a second rotating body.
The photosensitive drum 11 is made up of a conductive support body and a photoconductive layer, and is defined as an organic photosensitive body that is formed by sequentially layering a charge generation layer and a charge conveyance layer as the photoconductive layer on an aluminum metal pipe serving as the conductive support body. In addition, the charge roller 12 is made up of a metallic shaft and a semiconductive rubber layer, and the development roller 14 is made up of a metallic shaft and a semiconductive urethane rubber layer or the like.
The development blade 16 is made up of, for example, a thin board with a thickness of 0.8 mm and a longitudinal length approximately equal to the outer diameter of the developer roller 14. A longitudinal edge of the development blade 16 is affixed to a frame, not shown, and the surface slightly inwards from the tip directly contacts the development roller 14.
Further, numeral 20 is a charge power source for supplying voltage to the charge roller 12, and numeral 21 is a transfer power source for supplying voltage to the transfer roller 17. When voltage is applied to the charge roller 12 by the charge power source 20, the charge roller 12 charges the surface of the photosensitive drum 11 to form a surface potential v0.
Next, the performance of the printer having the aforementioned structure will be described.
First, the surface of the photosensitive drum 11 is charged to an arbitrary polarity and potential by the charge roller 12. When the image data is sent from a control unit, not shown, to the LED head 13, the LED head 13 generates an LED light, thereby irradiating the surface of the photosensitive drum 11 and forming the electrostatic latent image. The toner supply roller 15 directly contacts the development roller 14 and supplies toner to the development roller 14 by rotating. The toner on the development roller 14 is charged by friction occurring with the development blade 16. In addition, the thickness of the toner layer on the development roller 14 is determined by the pressure exerted on the development roller 14 by the development blade 16.
Further, the development roller 14 directly contacts the photosensitive drum 11 and the toner is affixed to the electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive drum 11 by the application of voltage, thereby forming the toner image. Next, the toner image on the photosensitive drum 11 is transferred to the paper P by the transfer roller 17 and the toner image on the paper P is fused by the fusion device. In addition, the toner remaining on the photosensitive drum 11 after transfer is removed by the cleaning blade.
In the printer, when toner that cannot be charged until a regular potential (negative polarity) or toner that is charged with reversed polarity (positive polarity) is generated as fogging toner and affixed to the surface of the photosensitive drum (negative polarity), causing fogging by affixing the fogging toner to the paper P. On the other hand, the toner charged with a regular potential (negative polarity) is affixed to the surface of the photosensitive drum 11 (negative polarity), thereby affixing more toner to the paper P and causing blurs in the development.
Next, the amount of fogging generated when printing is executed, in other words, the change of the fogging level, will be described.
In
Further, NN, HH, and LL indicate that the environment in which the printer is placed is of normal temperature and normal humidity, high temperature and high humidity, and low temperature and low humidity, respectively. In this case, NN represents a temperature of 25 degrees Celsius and a humidity of 50%, HH represents a temperature of 28 degrees Celsius and a humidity of 80%, and LL represents a temperature of 10 degrees Celsius and a humidity of 20%.
As shown in
In this case, a printer executing reversal development in which the toner is charged with a negative polarity will be described. Because the surface potential v0 is a negative value, each potential from v1 to v3 also has a negative value and therefore the relationship between the surface potential v0 and the potentials v1 to v3 are described in terms of a negative direction.
In
The range of the surface potential of v2≦v0≦v3 indicates the favorable area in which fogging is not generated and the toner on the development roller 14 is not affixed to the surface of the photosensitive drum 11. Here,
However, there is a tendency for the potential of the toner layer that makes up the potential v1 to be lowered when the printer is idle for a long period of time, which results in a lowering of the potential v3, which is the maximum potential necessary to prevent fogging, and also causes the surface potential v0 to enter into the fogging area, generating fogging in such a case.
In the present embodiment, in a case where the printer is idle for a prescribed period of time, the setting for the surface potential v0 of the photosensitive drum 11 is lowered, thereby preventing the generation of fogging.
In
As shown in
Next, printing is completed at a time t1, and the printer is idle if there is no print job sent from an external source such as an upper level apparatus, not shown.
The idle time calculation process section initiates time measurement by the timer 25 and completes the time measurement when printing is initiated at a time t2. T1, which is the time from t1 to t2 when the printer is idle, is then calculated.
Next, an idle time judgment process section, not shown, of the control unit 26 executes an idle time judgment process to make a judgment as to whether the idle time period T1 is long based on whether T1 is above a previously set threshold Tth. In such a case, because the idle time period T1 is shorter than the threshold Tth, the surface potential setting process section sets the surface potential v0 to the reference value α1.
When printing is completed at a time t3 and the printer again becomes idle, the idle time calculation process section initiates time measurement by the timer 25 and completes the time measurement when printing is initiated at a time t4. T2, which is the time from t3 to t4 when the printer is idle, is then calculated.
Next, the idle time judgment process section makes a judgment as to whether the idle time period T2 is above the previously set threshold Tth. In such a case, because the idle time period T2 is greater than the threshold Tth, the surface potential setting process section sets the surface potential v0 to a value α2, which is lower than the reference value α1.
In the present embodiment, when the idle time period of the printer is above the threshold, because the surface potential v0 is set as the value α2 that is lower than the reference value α1, the surface potential v0 does not fall into the fogging area even if the voltage of the toner layer that makes up the potential v1 (
In the present embodiment, the printer power source is left on during the period when the printer is idle, but the printer power source can be composed of a secondary power source such as a battery and a primary power source such as a commercial power source, so that even in a case where the primary power supply is off, electricity is provided by the secondary power supply so that the timer 25 can operate.
Next, the second embodiment of the present invention will be explained. Parts having the same construction as those described in the first embodiment are given the same number and an explanation thereof is omitted. The effect of the invention brought about by having the same structure of the first embodiment is incorporated in the same embodiment. Further, the structure of the printer according to the present embodiment is the same as that of the printer according to the first embodiment and therefore is described referencing
In
In a case where printing is initiated after the printer is idle for a long period of time, as shown in
As shown in
The idle time calculation process section initiates time measurement by the timer 25 and completes the time measurement when printing is initiated at a time t11. T11, which is the time from t10 to t11 when the printer is idle, is then calculated.
Next, the idle time judgment process section makes a judgment as to whether the idle time period T11 is long based on whether T1 is above the previously set threshold Tth. In such a case, because the idle time period T11 is greater than the threshold Tth and is long, the surface potential setting process section sets the surface potential v0 to α2, which is lower than the reference value α1.
Next, printing is executed in the time period between the times t11 and t13, and the page number calculation process section initiates counting by the printed pages counting unit 28 at the time t11 and calculates the number of printed pages. The surface potential setting process section changes the surface potential v0 to the reference value α1 through a prescribed pattern in a manner to set the surface potential v0 to the reference value α1 at a time when the number of printed pages reaches the set value m.
In the present embodiment, in the aforementioned pattern, the surface potential v0 is set to the value α2 at the time t11, and then after the passage of a prescribed amount of time, the surface potential v0 is temporarily raised and set to the reference value α1 at the time t12 at which the number of printed pages reaches the prescribed value m. To realize this setting, a pattern generation process section of the surface voltage setting process section executes a pattern generating process to set and generate a pattern that changes the surface potential v0 for a time period between t11 and t12 based on the value α1, the value α2, and the like. In the present embodiment, the surface potential v0 changes linearly over time, but can also change in a manner such as a curved or stepped manner using other prescribed functions.
In the present embodiment, in a case where the surface potential v0 is changed after the printer is idle, generation of blurring caused by toner on the development roller 14 can be prevented because the surface potential v0 can be returned to the reference value α1 by printing a certain number of pages in a case where the potential of the toner layer making up the potential v1 is increased by repeated printing.
In addition, in the present embodiment, the surface potential v0 is increased according to the number of printed pages but can also be increased according to the printing time. In such a case, a printing time calculation process section, not shown, of the control unit 26 initiates time measurement by the timer 25 at the time t11 and calculates the printing time. The surface potential setting process section then, along with the passage of printing time, changes the surface potential v0 to the reference value α1 according to the prescribed pattern.
Next, the third embodiment of the present invention will be explained. Parts having the same construction as those described in the first and second embodiments are given the same number and an explanation thereof is omitted. The effect of the invention brought about by having the same structure of the first and second embodiment is incorporated in the same embodiment. Further, the structure of the printer according to the present embodiment is the same as that of the printer according to the first embodiment and therefore is described referencing
In
In the present embodiment, each toner making up the toner image on the paper P is affixed to the paper P by being heated, melted, and pressed to the paper P after being sent to the fusion device. Because of this, the fusion device contains a heating roller serving as a primary rotating body made up of aluminum, iron, or the like and a pressure roller serving as a secondary rotating body, and the heating roller contains a heating body such as a halogen lamp, for example. In addition, a fusion device containing a heating body such as a halogen lamp can also be used inside the belt.
A fusion device temperature is set within a prescribed temperature range, such that fusion cannot be executed when the temperature is too low, and adequate fusion cannot be executed when the temperature is too high because the toner cannot be affixed to the heating roller. Therefore, the fusion temperature sensor 31 is disposed facing the heating roller.
Here, the present embodiment is described in a case where the printer does not contain a secondary power source such as a battery, but rather the user turns the power source off after using the printer.
In
For example, when printing is completed at the time t21 and the user turns off the power supply, the surrounding temperature τ1 of the apparatus does not change significantly, but the fusion device temperature τ2 gradually decreases. In addition, the amount by which the fusion device temperature τ2 decreases is determined by heat capacity of the heating roller of the fusion device or the like.
Next, when the power source of the printer is turned on by the user at the time t22, a temperature difference calculation process section, not shown, of the control unit 26 executes a temperature difference calculation process to read the surrounding temperature τ1 of the apparatus and the fusion device temperature τ2 from the apparatus surrounding temperature sensor 30 and the fusion temperature sensor 31, respectively, and to calculate the temperature difference Δτ (Δτ=τ2−τ1) by subtracting the surrounding temperature τ1 of the apparatus from the fusion device temperature τ2.
Next, an idle time inference process section, not shown, of the control unit 26 executes an idle time inference process to make a judgment as to whether the temperature difference Δτ is less than or equal to a previously set threshold τth, and in a case where the temperature difference Δτ is less than a previously set threshold τth, infers that the time that has passed since the power source was turned off, in other words, the idle time, is greater than the threshold Tth and makes a judgment that the idle time period is long. In the same manner as the first embodiment, the surface potential setting process section then sets the surface potential v0 to value α2, which is lower than the reference value α1.
On the other hand, in a case where the temperature difference Δτ is greater than a previously set threshold τth, the idle time inference process section infers that the idle time is less than the threshold Tth, and makes a judgment that the idle time period is short. In the same manner as the first embodiment, the surface potential setting process section then sets the surface potential v0 to the reference value α1.
In the present embodiment, in a case where the printer does not contain a secondary power source, the generation of fogging can be prevented even if the printing is completed and the user turns the printer power supply off, because a judgment can be made as to whether the idle time period is short.
Each of the previous embodiments was described as pertaining to a printer, but the present invention can also be applied to fax machines, copy machines, and multifunction devices.
Further, each of the previous embodiments was described as pertaining to a case where direct voltage is applied to the charge roller 12 by the charge power source 20, but alternating voltage superimposed on direct voltage can also be applied to the charge roller 12.
Yet further, each of the previous embodiments was described as pertaining to a case where the charge roller 12 is used as a charge device, but a blade, brush (including magnetic brushes), or the like can also be used as the charge apparatus.
The foregoing description of preferred embodiments of the invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description, and is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed. The description was selected to best explain the principles of the invention and their practical application to enable others skilled in the art to best utilize the invention in various embodiments and various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. It is intended that the scope of the invention should not be limited by the specification, but be defined by the claims set forth below.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006-080234 | Mar 2006 | JP | national |
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4474455 | Hirakura et al. | Oct 1984 | A |
| 5708915 | Noguchi et al. | Jan 1998 | A |
| 5878298 | Nakano | Mar 1999 | A |
| Number | Date | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 2000347531 | Dec 2000 | JP |
| 2002-169343 | Jun 2002 | JP |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20070223949 A1 | Sep 2007 | US |
