The present disclosure relates to an image forming apparatus.
In an image forming apparatus, a conveyance guide is disposed to covey a sheet and the sheet is conveyed while being in contact with the conveyance guide. As the sheet conveyance continues, the conveyance guide is abraded, which can lead to a paper jam or image defect.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-321650 discusses a configuration in which a part to be in hard contact with a sheet in a conveyance guide unit is a detachable conveyance guide with higher rigidity.
However, in a case where the conveyance guide unit is partially worn down by contact between the conveyance guide unit and a sheet, an image defect can occur.
According to an aspect of the present disclosure, an image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit configured to form an image on a sheet, a conveyance guide unit configured to convey the sheet on which the image is to be formed by the image forming unit, and a conveyance unit configured to convey the sheet toward a first conveyance guide unit, wherein the conveyance guide unit includes an urging member, a rotary member configured to be urged by the urging member and to rotate while abutting the sheet, a holding unit holding the urging member and the rotary member, and the first conveyance guide unit that is detachably attached to the holding unit to guide the sheet, and wherein the first conveyance guide unit includes a pressed portion, and the pressed portion is to be pressed by the sheet conveyed by the conveyance unit and has strength less than strength of the holding unit.
Exemplary embodiments will be described in detail below with reference to the attached drawings. The following exemplary embodiments are not intended to limit the disclosure according to the scope of claims. A plurality of features is described in the exemplary embodiments, but not all of these features are necessarily required for the disclosure, and the plurality of features may be freely combined. Further, in the attached drawings, identical or similar configurations will be assigned the same reference number, and the description thereof will not be repeated. Three arrows indicating an x-direction, a y-direction, and a z-direction can be illustrated in the drawings. These arrows will help understanding of the positions of the respective members.
Sheets S are stacked in a feeding cassette 10. The sheets S are fed by a pickup roller 15. The fed sheets S are separated one by one by a separation unit 19 consisting of a conveyance roller 16 and a separation roller 17 containing a torque limiter. Afterward, a registration roller 3 and a registration roller 4 perform skew correction, and the sheet is subsequently conveyed to a secondary transfer portion.
The printer 100 includes a photosensitive drum 1 serving as an image bearing member inside a process cartridge 7. The process cartridge 7 corresponds to each of four colors of yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C), and black (K). In
A charging roller (not illustrated) inside the process cartridge 7 charges a surface of the photosensitive drum 1. A laser scanner unit 2 emits laser light L onto the photosensitive drum 1 based on image information, thereby forming an electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive drum 1. A development roller (not illustrated) inside the process cartridge 7 visualizes the electrostatic latent image formed on the photosensitive drum 1 using toner, so that a toner image is formed. The toner images of the respective colors thus formed on the photosensitive drums 1 are sequentially superimposed on each other on an intermediate transfer belt 9 and are each thereby primarily transferred thereto by primary transfer rollers 5, so that a color toner image is formed. The intermediate transfer belt 9 is rotated by a drive roller 8, and the color toner image formed on the intermediate transfer belt 9 is transferred to the sheet S by a secondary transfer roller 6 serving as a secondary transfer member held in a secondary transfer unit 18. In the present exemplary embodiment, an image forming unit that forms an image on a sheet is composed of each of the process cartridges 7 and the intermediate transfer belt 9.
These image forming units form the image on the sheet S. Downstream from the secondary transfer portion is a fixing unit 12 that fixes the toner image on the sheet S by heat. In one-sided printing, the sheet S is ejected to a sheet discharge tray 13 through a sheet discharge unit 11. The sheet S is conveyed below the under surface of a flapper 20 to the sheet discharge unit 11.
Meanwhile, in two-sided printing, the flapper 20 is operated to be in a position indicated by a dotted line in
The secondary transfer unit 18 serving as a conveyance guide unit of the present exemplary embodiment will be described. The secondary transfer unit 18 includes the secondary transfer roller 6 serving as a rotary member, and an urging member (not illustrated) that urges the secondary transfer roller 6 toward the intermediate transfer belt 9. The secondary transfer roller 6 abuts the sheet S, and forms the secondary transfer portion with the intermediate transfer belt 9. The secondary transfer unit 18 further includes a guide unit that guides the sheet S passing on the two-sided conveyance path 22, on the opening/closing door 23 side. The guide unit of the present exemplary embodiment includes at least a detachable guide 30 serving as a first conveyance guide unit and detachable from the main body (a holding unit) of the secondary transfer unit 18, and a conveyance guide 25 serving as a second conveyance guide unit and disposed downstream from the detachable guide 30 in the conveyance direction.
It may be desirable to apply a large pressure to the secondary transfer roller 6 so that the toner image formed on the intermediate transfer belt 9 is transferred to the sheet S by the secondary transfer roller 6. In the present exemplary embodiment, a compression spring (not illustrated) serving as the urging member urges the secondary transfer roller 6 toward the intermediate transfer belt 9 by applying a pressure of about 5 kilogram-force (kgf) thereto. Therefore, it may be desirable to use a material having high rigidity for the secondary transfer unit 18 so as to be able to withstand a high pressure. To increase the rigidity of the material, there can be used a method of adding a filler (such as glass fiber, carbon fiber, or potassium titanate) that can increase the rigidity to the material and molding the material.
In the present exemplary embodiment, the secondary transfer unit 18 is configured by molding acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) to which the glass fiber is added as the filler. However, in a case where the filler is added to the material, the filler can project from a surface to be in contact with the sheet S when the conveyance surface is worn down by continuous conveyance of the sheet S. When the sheet S comes into contact with the filler, an image defect can occur.
The contact portion U in hard contact with the sheet S can be abraded by continuous conveyance of the sheet S. Therefore, in the present exemplary embodiment, the contact portion U to be in hard contact with the sheet S is a part of the detachable guide 30 detachably attached to the secondary transfer unit 18. Further, a material not including the filler is used for the detachable guide 30, and therefore, the detachable guide 30 has strength less than that of the secondary transfer unit 18.
Because the material not including the filler is used for the detachable guide 30, damage to the sheet S and damage to an image formed on the sheet S can be limited even if the conveyance surface is worn down, so that an image defect can be suppressed. Further, in a case where the amount of abrasion of the detachable guide 30 increases thereby affecting the conveyance of the sheet S in contact with the detachable guide 30, the abraded detachable guide 30 can be detached from the secondary transfer unit 18 and a new detachable guide can be attached. The configuration in which the entire detachable guide 30 does not include the filler is described, but a configuration in which only the contact portion U of the detachable guide 30 does not include the filler may be adopted.
In the present exemplary embodiment, ABS, or polycarbonate and ABS (PC+ABS), is used as the material of the detachable guide 30.
Next, a configuration of the detachable guide 30 will be described.
Next, a procedure for attachment of the detachable guide 30 will be described.
Owing to the use of the configuration of the present exemplary embodiment, a part including the contact portion to be in hard contact with the sheet S can be configured as the detachable guide 30 detachable from the secondary transfer unit 18, while high rigidity of the entire secondary transfer unit 18 serving as the conveyance guide unit is maintained. Because the filler is not added to the detachable guide 30, it is possible to prevent a fall of the filler from the secondary transfer unit 18 even if the sheet S comes into contact with the contact portion U, so that occurrence of an image defect can be prevented.
In the present exemplary embodiment, the secondary transfer unit 18 is described as the conveyance guide unit, but the present exemplary embodiment is also applicable to other type of conveyance guide unit. For example, the present exemplary embodiment may be applied to a registration guide unit 70 including a detachable guide 71 having a contact portion that comes into hard contact with the sheet S, as illustrated in
In a second exemplary embodiment, there will be described a configuration in which the detachable guide 30 is detached from the secondary transfer unit 18 serving as the conveyance guide unit of the first exemplary embodiment, and an image reading unit 50 is attached in place of the detachable guide 30. In the following description, configurations similar to those of the first exemplary embodiment are assigned the same reference numerals as the first exemplary embodiment, and the description thereof will be omitted.
As with the first exemplary embodiment, at a point in hard contact with the sheet S, the sheet S is pressed against the conveyance surface and thus the conveyance state of the sheet S is stable. Therefore, image information representing an image formed on the sheet S can be stably read by disposing an image reading unit 50 opposite the conveyance path with a glass interposed therebetween. From the read image information, a failure part of the entire image forming apparatus can be identified or a sign of a failure can be detected.
As illustrated in
The image reading unit 50 is slidable relative to the secondary transfer unit 18 by engaging a protrusion 50a with a recess portion 18b (see
Further, as illustrated in
The white reference board 60 is fixed to the opening/closing door 23, so that the white reference board 60 and the contact glass 54 of the image reading unit 50 can be accessed and cleaned when the opening/closing door 23 is open.
How to attach the image reading unit 50 will be described.
The conveyance guide 25 is set in an open state with respect to the secondary transfer unit 18 as illustrated in
In other words, the recess portions 42 and 43 of the secondary transfer unit 18 are the positioning portion for the detachable guide 30 and a positioning portion for the urging member for the image reading unit 50, and therefore are members serving as a positioning portion for two members.
The protrusion 50a on the back side in the x-direction of the image reading unit 50 is inserted into the recess portion 18b on the back side in the x-direction of the secondary transfer unit 18, and then the protrusion 50a on the front side in the x-direction is also similarly inserted into the recess portion 18b on the front side in the x-direction. Subsequently, as illustrated in
Finally, the conveyance guide 25 is rotated to engage an engagement claw 25e of the conveyance guide 25 with the image reading unit 50, so that the image reading unit 50 is attached. The engagement claw 25e has a hook shape, so that the image reading unit 50 can be attached by snap-fitting, and thus the conveyance guide 25 and the image reading unit 50 can be easily engaged with each other.
The present exemplary embodiment is described to provide the configuration in which the detachable guide 30 attached to the secondary transfer unit 18 in the first exemplary embodiment is replaced with the image reading unit 50. Thanks to this configuration, the image reading unit 50 can be set as an option to be used later. Because the detachable guide 30 is replaced with the image reading unit 50, a replaceable unit can be smaller than in a case where the entire secondary transfer unit 18 is replaced, so that usability in replacement can be improved.
While the present disclosure has been described with reference to exemplary embodiments, it is to be understood that the disclosure is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments. The scope of the following claims is to be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and equivalent structures and functions.
This application claims the benefit of Japanese Patent Application No. 2020-119404, filed Jul. 10, 2020, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2020-119404 | Jul 2020 | JP | national |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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20090022514 | Fujiwara | Jan 2009 | A1 |
20140210159 | Kobayashi | Jul 2014 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country |
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2001026341 | Jan 2001 | JP |
2006321650 | Nov 2006 | JP |
2009145469 | Jul 2009 | JP |
2015068992 | Apr 2015 | JP |
2017178549 | Oct 2017 | JP |
2018065258 | Apr 2018 | JP |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20220011707 A1 | Jan 2022 | US |