JPH04316861A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide an image forming device which can obtain a stable output image by reduction of staining and hole cologging of an electrode having an aperture. CONSTITUTION:A corotron 61 moves just under an aperture 6 to generate an ion, and a toner 22 which has stuck to the aperture is intensively charged. Further, a remover electrode 62 moves just under the aperture 6 to impress negative high voltage, and the toner 22 stuck to the aperture 6 is attracted with the remover electrode 62 to be stuck thereto.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

[Industrial Application Field] The present invention is applicable to copying machines, printers,
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that can be used for plotters, facsimile machines, etc.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an image recording apparatus for controlling the passage of toner particles through an aperture and obtaining an image on a support by applying an image signal to an electrode having an aperture was proposed in US Pat. No. 3,689,935. There is. This proposal consists of a continuous reference electrode on one side with an insulator layer in between, and a plurality of control electrodes insulated from each other on the other side, with each insulated control electrode penetrating through three layers. an aperture electrode body having one row of apertures;
means for selectively applying an electric potential between the control electrode and the reference electrode; means for projecting charged particles such that the flow of toner particles through the aperture is modulated by the applied electric potential; and a support and an aperture electrode assembly. means for moving the support relative to each other to position the support in the particle flow path.

0003

However, the electrodes having apertures are often contaminated or clogged by toner, causing problems in the output images.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus that can obtain stable output images by reducing dirt and clogging of electrodes having apertures. The purpose is

[0005]

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve this object, the image forming apparatus of the present invention controls the passage of charged toner through an aperture by applying an image signal to an electrode provided with an aperture. In an image forming apparatus that forms an image on a support provided on the opposite side of a cloud toner supply source and an electrode with an aperture, the image forming apparatus includes a charging means for strongly charging toner stuck in an aperture, and an aperture charged by the charging means. and removal electric field generating means for attracting and removing the toner clogged in the toner.

[0006]

[Operation] According to the present invention having the above configuration, the charging means strongly charges the toner stuck in the aperture, and the charging means draws the charged toner stuck in the aperture to the removal electrode, thereby eliminating the clogging of the aperture. do.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment embodying the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of an image forming apparatus 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in detail in FIG. 2, the aperture electrode body 1 has a reference electrode 3 on the toner supply source side of the insulating layer 2 and a control electrode 4 on the support side.
A large number of apertures 6 penetrating the insulating layer 2 and the control electrode 4 are formed in a line corresponding to the width of the support. In FIG. 1, on the left side of the image forming apparatus 100, there is a cassette 50 that stores the support 10, and a half-moon roller 5 that supplies the support 10 one by one.
1, a support supply roller 52 for feeding out the support 10, and a chute 53 are disposed downstream.

Downstream, on the control electrode side of the aperture electrode body 1, there are a support conveying roller 14, a sensor 57, and
A back electrode 11 is disposed in contact with the back surface of the support 10, and each control electrode 4 is connected to a control voltage drive circuit 8 that generates a voltage based on an image signal. The back electrode 11 is connected to a negative high voltage power source 12.

On the reference electrode side of the aperture electrode body 1, a toner conveying belt 26 is wound between a drive roller 20 and a backup roller 24.
A cam roller 27 having an elliptical cross section is disposed on the back side of the surface facing the aperture electrode body, and a static elimination brush 31 is disposed on the upstream side thereof. These are connected to the toner case 22 along with the toner 22 stored near the supply roller 23 and the carrier roller 30 that is in contact with the supply roller 23 and has a gap of 0.1 to 0.4 mm with respect to the toner transport belt 26.
It is stored inside. The supply roller 23 is made of sponge, etc.
The surface of the supporting roller 30 is made of resin.

A corotron 61, a removal electrode 62, and an elastic blade 63 are disposed on the outer peripheral side of the toner conveying belt 26, on the downstream side of the surface facing the aperture electrode body with respect to the traveling direction of the toner conveying belt 26. The corotron 61 and the removal electrode 62 are fixed to the same frame (not shown), and can be moved in parallel to the left at the same time by a driving source (not shown).

Further downstream, a fixing device 13 and a chute 5 are installed.
4, a discharge roller 55, and a tray 56 are provided.

The operation of the above-described configuration will be explained in detail below.

The support body 10 housed in the cassette 50 is
The sheets are fed out one by one by the half-moon roller 51 and placed in the chute 5.
3, and is conveyed to the support conveyance roller 14 by the support supply roller 52. When the tip of the support 10 is detected by the sensor 57, the toner conveying belt 26 rotates between the backup roller 24 and the drive roller 20 due to the rotation of the drive roller 20 in the direction of the arrow, and the toner 22 is rotated by the rotation of the supply roller 23 in the direction of the arrow. After being rubbed by the carrier roller 30 and positively charged by friction, the toner is carried on the toner conveying belt 26 by electrostatic coating using a high-voltage power source.

The supported toner is conveyed toward the surface facing the aperture electrode, and at the upstream side of this position, the conveying belt 26 is neutralized by a static eliminating brush 31 from the back side of the conveying belt 26. Since the cam roller is rotating at the position facing the aperture electrode, the surface of the conveyor belt 26 vibrates. Therefore, the toner carried on the conveyor belt 26 receives a force due to the vibrational acceleration of the conveyor belt 26 and is released from adhesion forces such as mirror image force, van der Waals force, and electrostatic force with the conveyor belt 26 .

On the other hand, at this time, when a negative voltage is applied to the control electrode 4 in accordance with an image signal from a storage means (not shown), a voltage is applied to the aperture 6 of the applied control electrode 4 from the back surface of the aperture 6 to the front surface. The toner 22, which is positively charged with electric lines of force formed therein, is pulled out from the back surface of the aperture 6 to the front surface, and is further blown onto the support by the flying electric field formed by the back electrode 11. is held to form an image portion. By applying the same potential as the reference electrode 3 or a positive voltage to the control electrode 4 of the aperture 6 corresponding to the non-image area, the flying electric field caused by the back electrode 11 can be shielded, or the electric field from the front surface to the back surface inside the aperture 6 can be shielded. The toner 22 is prevented from passing through the aperture 6 by forming electric lines of force directed toward the reference electrode 3 . By repeating this process while transporting the support 10, a toner image is formed on the entire surface of the support 10.

The support on which the toner image is formed is fixed to the fixing device 1.
3, the image is fixed on the support 10. Furthermore, the tray 5 is guided by the chute 54 and is driven by the ejection roller 55.
It is discharged at 6.

Before proceeding to the next toner image forming step, the corotron 61 is driven by a drive source (not shown) to open the aperture 6.
, and the state shown in Figure 3 is reached. Here, ions are generated by the corotron 61, and the toner 22 attached to the aperture 6 is strongly positively charged.

Furthermore, the removal electrode 62 is moved directly below the aperture 6 by a drive source (not shown), resulting in the state shown in FIG. Here, by applying a negative high voltage to the removal electrode 62, the toner 22 adhering to the aperture 6 is attracted to and adheres to the removal electrode 62.

Then, the corotron 61 and removal electrode 62 are returned to their original positions by a driving source (not shown). At this time, the elastic blade 63 scrapes off the toner 22 on the removal electrode 62 and cleans the removal electrode.

Therefore, since the toner 22 adhering to the aperture 6 is removed before the aperture 6 is clogged with toner 22, a stable toner image is formed.

Furthermore, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and can be modified within the scope of the invention.

[0023]

[Effect of the invention] As is clear from the detailed description above,
According to the present invention, a stable toner image can be formed because dirt and clogging of the electrode having an aperture can be reduced.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing an embodiment embodying the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing details of an aperture electrode body.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the present embodiment in a first operating state.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the present embodiment in a second operating state.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Aperture electrode body 2 Insulating layer 3 Reference electrode 4 Control electrode 6 Aperture 8 Control voltage drive circuit 10 Support 11　Back electrode 12 High voltage power supply 22 Toner 23 Supply roller 26 Toner conveyance belt 27 Cam roller 61 Corotron 62 Removal electrode

Claims (1)

[Claims] Claim 1: Controlling the passage of charged toner through the aperture by applying an image signal to an electrode provided with an aperture, and applying an image signal to an electrode provided with an aperture on a support provided on the opposite side of the apertured electrode. An image forming apparatus that forms an image on an aperture is comprised of a charging means for charging toner clogged in an aperture, and a removal electric field generation means for attracting and removing the toner clogged in an aperture charged by the charging means. Featured image forming device.