Patent Application
20060045562
This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119(a) of Korean Patent Application No. 2004-68170, filed Aug. 27, 2004, the entire contents of which is expressly incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to packaging for a toner cartridge. More particularly, the present invention relates to a shock absorbing apparatus used to safely transport a toner cartridge used in a static type image forming apparatus during its distribution.
2. Description of the Related Art
Static type image forming apparatuses, such as a laser printer, have the advantages of rapid print speed, high quality printing, and low maintenance costs. Therefore, static type apparatuses have been widely used by companies or personal users requiring a large amount of printing operation.
The static type image forming apparatus employs the method of irradiating light, such as a laser beam, onto a photosensitive drum to form a static latent image, applying and developing a developing agent, such as a toner, to the surface of the photosensitive drum using a supply roller and a developing roller, transferring the latent image to a recording medium, such as paper, and settling it to output the printed matter. The developing agent, photosensitive drum and the like generally have a shorter lifetime than that of the image forming apparatus, and should be periodically exchanged or replaced.
Recently, a series of parts, such as the developing agent and the photosensitive drum, have been fabricated as an integrated module. This makes it easier for service personnel or a general user to exchange the developing agent and drum when they are worn or broken, and require replacement.
Referring to
A photosensitive roller 24 is installed adjacent to the developing roller 20. A static latent image is formed on the surface of the photosensitive drum 24 by a laser beam, and the developing agent is applied onto the static latent image to develop the image. The photosensitive drum 24 is electrically charged by a charge roller 26.
In the aforementioned toner cartridge, as sometimes happens, the developing agent may easily leak to the exterior since it is made of fine particles. The outer surface of the storage space 16 of the developing agent is hermetically sealed with a sealing material. During operation of the image forming apparatus, a portion of the developing agent developed at the surface of the photosensitive drum during the developing process flows back to the supply roller to be reused. In order to prevent leakage of the refilled developing agent, a film 28 is attached to the lower frame 12 to perform additional sealing. The film 28 is a very thin film in order to prevent the toner attached on the developing roller from separating.
When the toner cartridge is damaged during shipping, the upper and lower frames formed of a plastic resin have a high probability of leaking the developing agent due to deformation of the frames. Therefore, in the conventional art, as shown in
Generally, the toner cartridge is individually packaged in a box, and four to eight boxes are loaded into a larger container and then shipped. Commercial shipping and distributors rarely drop the larger containers that contain the individually boxed toner cartridges. Thus, it is unusual that the larger containers are damaged enough to excessively leak the developing agent.
Because of the increase in on-line sales individually packaged boxes of the toner cartridges are more frequently shipped. As a result, the probability of leaking the developing agent due to impact has increased in comparison with the cases of transporting the larger containers that contain a plurality of smaller boxes. If the individually packaged toner cartridge is dropped, the plurality of rollers installed at the toner cartridge are fixed to the shock absorbing members at both ends, and the impact around both ends may be somewhat absorbed by the shock absorbing members. The center portion of the toner cartridge, however, which is not protected by the shock absorbing members, has a greater chance of being deformed, thereby increasing the probability of leaking the developing agent.
In order to solve the foregoing and/or other problems, it is an aspect of the present invention to provide means for packaging a toner cartridge capable of preventing a developing agent from leaking by effectively absorbing the impact applied to a center as well as both ends of the toner cartridge when an individually packaged toner cartridge is impacted. It is another aspect of the present invention to provide means for packaging a toner cartridge capable of maintaining a clean toner cartridge without contamination of other parts of the toner cartridge when a small amount of developing agent leaks.
The foregoing and/or other aspects of the present invention can be achieved by providing means for packaging a toner cartridge of an image forming apparatus that comprises first shock absorbing members inserted into both ends of the toner cartridge and having a groove at least partially in contact with lower and upper surfaces of the toner cartridge, a second shock absorbing member located under a center portion of the toner cartridge to support the center portion of the toner cartridge, and a box, in which the toner cartridge inserted into the first and second shock absorbing members is packaged.
The shock absorbing packaging according to an embodiment of the present invention provides the second shock absorbing member located at the center portion of the toner cartridge as well as the first shock absorbing members inserted into the both ends of the toner cartridge to enable the members to uniformly absorb an impact all over the toner cartridge. The first and second shock absorbing members can include protrusions protruded from their outer surfaces to be in contact with inner surfaces of the box.
According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, after the toner cartridge is packed in a sealing bag made of a synthetic resin, the toner cartridge is supported by the first and second shock absorbing members. The sealing bag can be made of a flexible material. A portion where a charge roller and a photosensitive drum are located is referred to as a front portion, and an opposite side is referred to as a rear portion, with reference to the center portion of the toner cartridge. The second shock absorbing member can either support all of upper and lower surfaces and front and rear surfaces, or support only a portion of the surfaces. For example, the second shock absorbing member can include a base part for supporting a bottom surface of the toner cartridge, and a vertical part for supporting a front portion of the toner cartridge. In addition, a plurality of second shock absorbing members can also be used.
According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, when the toner cartridge is packaged into the box, a gap exists between the base part and the bottom surface of the toner cartridge. Therefore, when the box, in which the toner cartridge is packaged, is pressed by external force, it becomes possible to prevent excessive pressure from applying to the center portion by virtue of the gap. Furthermore, a flexible protection pad can be additionally installed at the bottom surface of the toner cartridge corresponding to the gap. The protection pad, which is positioned at the bottom surface of the toner cartridge, can be packed in the sealing bag according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. Therefore, the protection pad can be stably fixed to the toner cartridge without individual fixing means, and the developing agent leaked from the toner cartridge is partially absorbed into the protection pad to prevent the toner cartridge from being contaminated as a whole.
According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the protection pad has a thickness larger than the gap and a hardness lower than that of the second shock absorbing member to allow the second shock absorbing member to secondarily absorb the impact, after the protection pad primarily absorbs the impact when pressure is applied to the box. A protective sheet can be attached to a surface of the protection pad to prevent the developing agent stored in the protection pad from leaking outside the box.
These and/or other aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following description of the embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of which:
Several embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the annexed drawings. In the drawings, the same or similar elements are denoted by the same reference numerals even though they are depicted in different drawings. In the following description, a detailed description of known functions and configurations incorporated herein have been omitted for conciseness and clarity.
Referring to
In addition, the first shock absorbing member 100 has a groove 104 for inserting an end section of the toner cartridge 20. The groove 104 has a shape corresponding to the end section of the toner cartridge 20. As
According to an embodiment of the present invention, a second shock absorbing member 130 is disposed at or near the center of the toner cartridge 20. The second shock absorbing member 130 is formed to be in contact with the front portion 16 and the lower frame 12 of the toner cartridge 20, but not the upper frame 10 or rear portion 18. The second shock absorbing member 130 is therefore not fixed to the toner cartridge 20 by itself, but located in the bottom of the box 150 and the toner cartridge 20 with first shock absorbing members 100 is placed on top of it.
The second shock absorbing member 130 is located parallel to the lower frame of the toner cartridge 20, and includes a base part 132 for supporting the lower frame 12 of the toner cartridge 20 and a vertical part 134 located at one end of the base part 132 to support the front portion 16 of the toner cartridge 20. The vertical part 134 extends upward from the base part 132. Therefore, the second shock absorbing member 130 supports the toner cartridge 20 at two separate surfaces; the front portion 16 and lower frame 12.
If the packaged box 150 is pressed by an external force (i.e., from being dropped or something being dropped on it), the pressure is transmitted to the first shock absorbing members 100 located at the both ends of the toner cartridge to press both ends of the toner cartridge 20 toward the bottom of the box 150. If an excessive amount of force is applied to the top of the box 150 that contains the toner cartridge 20 supported by first and second shock absorbing members 100, 130, the lower frame 12 of the toner cartridge 20 will flex and bow about the second shock absorbing member 130. While the developing agent may not leak from the toner cartridge 20, the deformed lower frame 12 may cause deformation of the roller mounted in the toner cartridge 20. Therefore, it is preferable to prevent the lower frame 12 from deforming by the second shock absorbing member 130 when the pressure is applied to the box 150, by providing a predetermined gap between the second shock absorbing member 130 and the lower frame 12 of the toner cartridge.
If a gap exists between the second shock absorbing member 130 and the lower frame 12, however, the second shock absorbing member 130 loses its supporting function to the center of the toner cartridge 20. Therefore, a protection pad 140 having a hardness lower than that of the second shock absorbing member 130 is inserted into the gap, as shown in
There is no need to individually fix the location of the protective pad 140 if it is installed in the sealing box 152 before the toner cartridge 20 is inserted. The installer can manually locate the protective pad 140 in the desired location and insert the hermetically sealed toner cartridge 20 with the first shock absorbing members 100 onto the previously located second shock absorbing member 130. In order to improve the fix strength, the protection pad 140 and the toner cartridge can be inserted together after the protection pad 140 and the lower frame 12 of the toner cartridge are adhered to each other using an adhesive tape. Since the protection pad 140 is made of a porous material (e.g. a sponge, among other types of materials), a small amount of developing agent leaked during its transportation can be absorbed into the sponge to prevent the toner cartridge 20 from being contaminated as a whole. In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, when the protection pad 140 is provided with a protection sheet made of paper, the developing agent that leaks from the toner cartridge 20 is substantially absorbed by the protection pad 140 and the protection sheet. The protection pad 140 can also be used to wipe off developing agent when the other parts are contaminated. Therefore, the protection pad 140 has a width equal to or larger than that of the toner cartridge.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, when the gap between the lower frame 12 and the second shock absorbing member 130 is about 2 mm, and the protection pad 140 has a thickness of about 6 mm, the ability to absorb shock is optimized. When the gap has a width larger than about 5 mm, the thickness of the protection pad 140 is correspondingly increased, but the shock absorbing effect decreases, thereby increasing leakage of the developing agent. According to other embodiments of the present invention, disposition of a pair of second shock absorbing members can be used to absorb shock and leaked developing agent.
As can be seen from the foregoing, the present invention has the advantage of reducing manufacturing costs since it is no longer necessary to use an expensive, specially designed package even when an individually packaged toner cartridge is transported. Furthermore, leakage of the developing agent is substantially minimized. In addition, the shock absorbing apparatus of the present invention is capable of substantially preventing the toner cartridge 20 from being contaminated as a whole since the leaked developing agent can be absorbed by the protection pad 140 and the protection sheet even when the developing agent leaks during shipping. The toner cartridge 20 remains clean during its distribution since the protection pad 140 keeps the toner cartridge 20 and interior of the box 150 clean by substantially absorbing all the leaked toner cartridge.
Although several embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the invention, the scope of which defined in the appended claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2004-68170 | Aug 2004 | KR | national |
