Patent Application
20110170890
This application is based on Application No. 2008-252559 filed in Japan on Sep. 30, 2008, the entire content of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
The present invention relates to an image forming device and a developer supply method.
Conventionally, as an image forming device, the constitution to control the amount of toner to be supplied to a developer bottle on the basis of the concentration of the toner in a developer bottle has been publicly known (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-6090).
In addition, as other image forming device, the constitution to control the supply amount of the toner to a developer bottle in response to the number of printing dots (a dot count value) has been publicly known (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-40408).
Generally, in the image forming device, variations are generated in the aspect of the toner (a capacity, a concentration, and a bulk density or the like) to be supplied depending on a difference in an environmental condition such as a temperature and humidity. However, in the above-described conventional image forming device, it is impossible to appropriately maintain the concentration of the toner in a developing device in consideration of change of the aspect of the toner due to such a difference in an environmental condition. In other words, this is because it is not possible to eliminate the influence of change in the aspect of the toner to be actually supplied to the inside of the developing device merely by measuring the concentration of the toner in the developing device.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an image forming device and a developer supply method that can obtain a desired concentration of the toner in consideration of change in the aspect of a toner to be supplied.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image forming device including:
powder supply means adapted to supply powders containing at least toner;
developing means adapted to develop an electrostatic latent image by agitating and conveying a developer containing the powders that are supplied by the powder supply means;
means of detecting toner amount before supply that is placed in the middle of a conveyance path to connect the powder supply means with the developing means and detects a toner amount per unit volume to be supplied to the developing means; and
control means that controls a correction amount with respect to a reference supply amount due to the powder supply means on the basis of a toner amount per unit volume that is detected by the toner amount detecting means.
Further, the reference supply amount means a supply amount of powder that can supply the toner, which amount is equivalent to a toner consumption amount to be calculated on the basis of the dot count value and a toner consumption amount that is obtained by the toner remaining amount to be calculated in response to a decrease level of the concentration of the toner within the developing means.
According to the above-described constitution, detecting the amount of the toner per unit volume just before the toner is supplied to the developing means and correcting the reference supply amount on the basis of this result, it is possible to consider variation of the aspect of the toner. Accordingly, this makes it possible to control the concentration of the toner within the developing means into a desired value.
In the above aspect, a hopper that accumulates the powders to be supplied once is placed in the middle of a supply path reaching from the powder supply means to the developing means;
agitation means adapted to agitate the accumulated powders is placed in the hopper; and
the toner amount before supply detecting means is placed in the hopper.
According to the above-described constitution, it is possible to detect the amount of the toner per unit volume with the powders just before they are supplied to the inside of the developing means sufficiently agitated to unify the concentration of the toner. As a result, making the toner supply amount to the developing means into a desired value, it is possible to make the concentration of the toner of the developer within the developing means into the desired value.
In the above aspect, the toner amount detecting means comprises a magnetic permeability sensor and a magnetic body that are arranged across the supply path reaching from the powder supply means to the developing means; and
the control means calculates a toner amount to be supplied on the basis of a bulk density of the toner passing through the supply path, which bulk density is detected by the permeability sensor and the magnetic body, so as to control the correction amount with respect to the reference supply amount.
In the above aspect, the powders to be supplied from the powder supply means to the developing means is toner.
In the above aspect, the powder to be supplied from the powder supply means to the developing means is toner and a carrier.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a developer supply method including:
detecting a toner amount per unit volume to be supplied to the developing means in the middle of a conveyance path to connect powder supply means adapted to supply powders containing at least toner with developing means adapted to develop an electrostatic latent image by agitating and conveying a developer containing the powders that are supplied by the powder supply means; and
controlling a correction amount with respect to a reference supply amount due to the powder supply means on the basis of a toner amount per unit volume that is detected.
According to the present invention, the reference supply amount is corrected on the basis of the amount of the toner per unit volume just before the toner is supplied to the developing means, so that it is possible to appropriately supply the toner in consideration of variations in the aspect of the toner, and the concentration of the toner within the developing means can be correctly controlled so as to be a desired value.
Hereinafter, the embodiment(s) according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. However, in the following explanation, unless specifically described, the technical scope of the present invention is not limited only to kinds, combinations, shapes, and relative arrangements or the like of the constituent elements. In addition, as necessary, the terms showing specific directions and positions (for example, “above”, “below”, “one end”, and “other end” or the like) are used; however, these terms are used in order to make the understanding of the invention with reference to the drawings easy and due to meanings of these terms, the technical scope of the present invention is not limited.
Among image forming devices of an electro photographic system using a binary developer,
The image forming units 1 are arranged on four places along an intermediate transcription belt 33 of the transcription unit 2, and by forming images of yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C), and black (Bk), from the left side, respectively, the image forming units 1 form color images on the surface of the intermediate transcription belt 33. As shown in
The charging device 8 forms a predetermined surface potential on the surface of the photo conductor drum 7. This surface potential is made into an electrostatic latent image when the surface of the photo conductor drum 7 is exposed by the exposure unit 3.
As shown in
As shown in
A developer supply port 19 is formed on one end side of the first containing part 16, and as described later, the developer is supplied from a corresponding developer supply container 23. Here, as the developer, a binary developer containing a toner and a carrier is used. However, the developer may further contain an external addition agent or the like.
On the other hand, a developer discharge port 20 is formed on one end side of the second containing part 17 so as to prevent a carrier that is deteriorated from remaining in the developer container 11 over a long period by appropriately discharging the developer.
The agitation screw 12 is structured being provided with a spiral wing 12b around a rotation shaft 12a to be arranged in the first containing part 16. The agitation screw 12 is rotary-driven to agitate the developer, conveying the developer from one end side to other end side.
The supply screw 13 is arranged in the second containing part 17 having a spiral wing 13b placed around a rotation shaft 13a as well as the above-described agitation screw 12. The supply screw 13 is rotary-driven to transport the developer from the side of the communication parts 18b to the side of the communication part 18a and supplies the developer to the developing roller 14.
As shown in
As shown in
The lower surface of the developer supply container 23 and the upper surface of the developer container 11 are connected by a supply tube 26 that forms a supply path. Further, a concentration of a toner of the developer to be contained in the developer container 11 in advance is 7%; and a concentration of a toner of the developer to be supplied from the developer supply container 23 is 80% (a carrier concentration is 20%, generally, 10 to 20%).
In the middle of the supply tube 26, a sub hopper 28 is connected. Paddles 29 (they may be a rotation coil or the like) are contained in the sub hopper 28, and when the paddles 29 are appropriately rotated, the developer is supplied. On the upper side surface of the sub hopper 28, an empty sensor 30 is placed. As the empty sensor 30, a photo sensor, a piezoelectric sensor, and a magnet lead sensor or the like can be used. The empty sensor 30 detects that the amount of the developer in the sub hopper 28 is not more than a predetermined value.
In addition, at a lower surface corner portion of the sub hopper 28, as means of detecting the amount of the toner per unit volume, a second toner concentration detection sensor 31 is provided. As the second toner concentration detection sensor 31, one having a sufficient sensitivity even in a high concentration region with a concentration of a toner (a weight ratio) not less than 50% is available. For example, a magnetic type of a sensor may be used, which is configured to detect a concentration of a toner component in the developer by change in a frequency of a resonance circuit formed by an inductance and a capacitance (in detail, refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-119538). Further, a method of calculating a concentration of a toner from a detection signal detected by the second toner concentration detection sensor 31 is identical with that of the above-described first toner concentration detection sensor 25.
After transcription of the toner to the surface of the photo conductor drum 7, collecting the toner remaining on this surface, the cleaning device 10 cleans this surface.
As shown in
The exposure unit 3 irradiates a laser beam to the above-described photo conductor drum 7 to form an electrostatic latent image corresponding to the image data that is read by a scanner (not illustrated).
The paper feeding unit 4 conveys recording medium 38 contained in a cassette 36 to the secondary transcription part 35 in series via a conveyance roller 37. A toner image is transcribed to the recording medium 38 that is conveyed to the secondary transcription part 35, and after the toner image transcribed by a fuser unit 39 is fixed, the recording medium 38 is conveyed to a discharge tray 40.
The cleaning unit 5 is capable of coming contact with and being detached from the intermediate transcription belt 33 and the cleaning unit 5 collects the remaining toner on the surface of the intermediate transcription belt 33 when the cleaning unit 5 gets close to the intermediate transcription belt 33 and cleans the intermediate transcription belt 33.
The control unit 6 carries out the supply processing of the developer on the basis of the detection voltages to be inputted from respective toner concentration detection sensors 25 and 31 as described later.
Next, the operation of the image forming device that is formed by the above-described constitution will be described.
At the time of forming images, the color print data that is obtained by reading the image, or the image data that is outputted from a personal computer or the like is transmitted to each of the image forming units 1 as an image signal of each color, yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C), and black (Bk) after being applied with predetermined signal processing.
Respective image forming units 1 form latent images by projecting the laser beam that is modulated by image signals on the photo conductor drum 7. Then, respective image forming units 1 supply the toner from the developing device 9 to the photo conductor drum 7.
By rotary-driving the agitation screw 12 and the supply screw 13, the developing device 9 circulates the developer contained in the developer container 11 while agitating the developer. Then, supplying the toner from the supply screw 13 to the developing roller 14, the toner is scraped out by a regulation member 11a to be a constant amount. After that, the developing device 9 conveys the toner to the photo conductor drum 7.
Thereby, on respective photo conductor drums 7, toner images of yellow, magenta, cyan, and black are formed. The formed yellow, magenta, cyan, and black toner images are primarily transcribed by the primary transcription part 34 being superimposed on the moving intermediate transcription belt 33 in series. Thus, the superimposed toner images that are formed on the intermediate transcription belt 33 are moved to the secondary transcription part 35 in accordance with movement of the intermediate transcription belt 33.
In addition, the recording medium 38 is supplied from the paper feeding unit 4. The supplied recording medium 38 is conveyed between the secondary transcription part 35 and the intermediate transcription belt 33 by the conveyance roller 37, and then, the toner images formed on the intermediate transcription belt 33 are transcribed on this recording medium 38. The recording medium 38 having the toner images transcribed is further conveyed to a fuser device 39, and after the transcribed toner images are fixed there, the recording medium 38 is discharged to the discharge tray 40.
In the mean time, in the developing device 9, the concentration of the toner of the contained developer is lowered by supplying the toner to the photo conductor drum 7, and the carrier is deteriorated by usage over a long period. Therefore, by appropriately discharging and supplying the developer, the amount of the developer in the developer container 11 is maintained approximately constant.
For example, the supply processing of the developer will be carried out as follows.
In other words, in the flow chart of
Then, on the basis of the read detection signal, the reference supply amount is calculated (step S3). Then, on the basis of a relation between the preliminarily-obtained reference supply amount and the rotation-driving time of the paddles 29 in the sub hopper 28, the rotation-driving time of the paddles 29 is set. The more the detected concentration of the toner is decreased, the longer the rotation time of the paddles 29 is set.
When the reference supply amount of the developer is calculated in this way, the correction processing for correcting the supply amount of the developer is carried out. According to the correction processing, as shown in the flowchart of
If the developer is judged to be nearly empty, the supply processing in response to the state is carried out (step S13). In other words, without correcting the supply amount of the developer as described later, as shown in the above-described steps S1 to S3, the reference supply amount of the developer is calculated and this reference supply amount is defined as a legitimate supply amount. This is because, if the developer is the state of nearly-empty, the amount of the developer in the sub hopper 28 is decreased, and this makes it impossible to correctly detect the concentration of the toner.
If the developer is not judged to be nearly-empty, a detection signal detected by the second toner concentration detection sensor 31 (means of detecting toner amount before supply) is read (step S14). Then, on the basis of the read detection signal, namely, the concentration of the toner, with reference to the supply amount correction table shown in
If the supply control processing is completed, by rotating the paddles 29 for a time on the basis of the calculated supply amount of the developer, the developer is supplied.
Thus, according to the above-described supply processing of the developer, detecting the concentration of the toner of the developer just before being supplied to the developer container 11, on the basis of this detection result, not only the reference supply amount from the corresponding developer supply container 23 is decided, but also this reference supply amount is corrected. Thereby, it is possible to stabilize the amount of the toner to be supplied to the inside of the developer container 11, so that it is possible to correctly control the concentration of the toner in the developer container 11 to be a desired value.
According to the second supply processing of developer, the developing device 9 and the developer container 23 are configured as shown in
Then, the second supply processing of developer will be carried out as follows. In other words, as shown in the flow chart of
When the reference supply amount of the developer is calculated in this way, the correction processing will be carried out (step S25).
As shown in the flow chart of
If the supply control processing is completed, by rotating the paddles 24 for a time on the basis of the calculated supply amount of the developer, the developer is supplied. In addition, the number of dots stored in the memory of the control unit 6 is cleared (=0) (step S26).
According to the third supply processing of developer, the developing device 9 and the developer container 23 are configured as shown in
In addition, in the middle of the supply tube 26 that supplies the toner from the toner supply container 42 to the developing device 9, a magnetic permeability sensor 43 and a magnetic body 44 are arranged being opposed so as to hold the supply tube 26 from the opposite sides. Then, by using change in the output of the magnetic permeability sensor 43 in response to the amount of the toner passing between the magnetic permeability sensor 43 and the magnetic body 44, a bulk density of the toner is detected.
Further, paddles 45 are arranged in the toner supply container 42 so as to be capable of being rotary-driven. These paddles 45 are normally stopped, and in the case that a supply signal is outputted on the basis of the output from the first toner concentration detection sensor 25, which is arranged in the developer container 11 of the developing device 9, the paddles 45 are rotary-driven for a predetermined time. Thereby, the toner of the amount in response to the rotation time is supplied to the inside of the developing device 9 via the supply tube 26.
Further, since other configurations are the same as the configurations shown in
The third supply processing of developer incorporates the contents of the above-described two supply processing of developer as shown in the flow chart of
According to the correction processing, as shown in FIG. 14, on the basis of the detection signals to be outputted from the magnetic permeability sensor 43, the bulk density of the toner passing, the amount of the toner per unit volume, namely, the concentration of the toner is calculated from this bulk density. Then, the concentration of the toner is read (step S51), and with reference to the supply amount correction table (not illustrated), the correction amount with respect to the reference supply amount of the developer is calculated (step S52). Subsequently, adding the calculated correction amount to the reference supply amount, a legitimate supply amount is obtained (step S53).
If the supply control processing is completed, by rotating the paddles 45 for a time in response to the calculated supply amount of the developer, the developer is supplied. In addition, the number of dots stored in the memory of the control unit 6 is cleared (=0) (step S47).
Further, the present invention is not limited to the configurations described in the above-described embodiment, and various modifications can be made.
The above-described sub hopper 28 is not necessarily needed. In this case, the magnetic permeability sensor may be placed in the middle of the supply tube 26. In addition, as necessary, it is preferable that the concentration of the toner is unified by arranging a coil for agitation or the like in the supply tube 26.
According to the above-described first supply processing of developer, in the configuration that the reference supply amount is decided on the basis of the concentration of the toner of the developer in the developer container 11 that is detected by the first toner concentration detection sensor 25, the correction amount is calculated on the basis of the concentration of the toner of the developer to be supplied to the inside of the developer container 11 that is detected by the second toner concentration detection sensor 31 provided in the sub hopper 28; however, the present invention is not limited to this. Without providing the sub hopper 28, providing a toner concentration detection sensor in the vicinity of the supply port of the corresponding developer supply container 23, the correction amount with respect to the reference supply amount may be calculated on the basis of the concentration of the toner to be detected by this detection sensor.
In addition, according to the above-described first supply processing of developer, the reference supply amount is decided on the basis of only the concentration of the toner of the developer in the developer container 11; however, also considering the estimated consumption amount of the developer to be obtained by counting the number of dots of the image data, the reference supply amount may be decided.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008-252559 | Sep 2008 | JP | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2009/066603 | 9/25/2009 | WO | 00 | 3/18/2011 |
