JPH0487901A - Powder filling method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To densely fill powder in a container without using a large device or apparatus by a method wherein an auxiliary vessel is mounted on a filling port of the container main body to fill powder, and dismounted after the powder in the auxiliary vessel settles down into the container main body. CONSTITUTION:After an auxiliary vessel 12 is mounted on a container 11 and the tare is measured, powder material 14 is filled by a filling equipment 13. Then, the gross weight is measured to check whether or not the specified amount of powder material is filled. When the powder material settles down and the auxiliary vessel becomes empty, the auxiliary vessel is removed and the container is sealed. The auxiliary vessel preferably has a funnel-shaped bottom and the angle of the funnel-shape is preferably larger than 45 deg.. A vibration may be given during settling step to stimulate settling of the powder material. This powder filling method is suitable for filling toner used in an image processing apparatus, and when this method is applied to a developer container of an image processing apparatus such as a copying machine, a printer, etc., the developer container can be made compact.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (1) Object of the invention (industrial application field) This invention relates to a method for filling fine powder, and a filling method suitable for filling a container with toner used in an image forming apparatus. It's a method.

(Conventional technology and issues to be solved) Many methods have been proposed for filling containers with fine powder, but there are few methods that can be applied to fine powder with an average particle size of 20 Itm or less, and electrostatic The reality is that means that can quantitatively fill fine powder with good fluidity such as toner in a copying machine without flushing are limited to auger feeders, table-type feeders, vibrating feeders, etc.

To briefly explain these, FIG. 4 briefly describes the configuration of an auger feeder, in which powder in a hopper 22 is discharged from below by rotating a screw-shaped auger 21. This allows even fine powder with good fluidity to be filled without flushing, and is most widely used for filling toner in image forming apparatuses.

Figure 5 shows the table feeder, table 31
As it rotates, a stable powder layer is formed on top of it,
By scraping this off with a scraper 32, a fixed amount of powder is supplied to the container.

FIG. 6 shows an example of a vibration feeder, with a hopper 42
The powder inside is conveyed to the right in the figure at a constant speed by the vibrating trough 41 while the discharge amount is controlled by the gate 43.

By the way, as is well known, unlike solid solids or liquids, powders have variations in particle size, shape, etc., and therefore do not always have a constant density when filled into a container. The apparent specific gravity is not constant depending on the amount of air included.

When a certain amount of air is included, the overall fluidity increases and it is possible to process it in a state close to a fluid, but when the amount of air is reduced, the fluidity becomes extremely poor and it becomes a solid. The situation will be close.

For this reason, for example, in the case of the auger feeder described above, a stirring means is provided in the hopper to stir the powder and actively mix air into the powder.

In this way, when filling a container with powder, it is necessary to incorporate air to increase fluidity. Naturally, the absolute amount of powder in the container is small (so, after filling, leave the container to let the air out, and even give a moderate amount of vibration to promote air removal, to reduce the volume of powder in the container. It is normal to wait for a while and then perform further filling.

However, in such a method, when there is only one filling station, after the secondary filling, the powder is prevented from settling in the container, and then the setting conditions of the filling station are changed as necessary to perform the secondary filling. Then, when performing even higher-density filling, tertiary filling and fourth filling are performed in the same way. However, the separation rate is poor and the filling tact (filling time per container) is long.

In order to solve such problems, for example,
As seen in Publication No. 31355, filling stations are provided for the number of filling ports, and the first station performs primary filling and the second station performs secondary filling. A system has been proposed in which the system is configured to carry out the process during transportation, thereby improving the efficiency of the system as a whole.

However, such a device also has problems when filling processing with toner used in an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine.

In other words, this type of toner container is constantly becoming more compact in order to make the main body of copiers and printers more compact, to extend the life of cartridges, to improve the operability of developer replenishment operations, and to reduce costs. is requested. In particular, when the developer container is built into the process cartridge, or when the developer container doubles as the hopper of the main body and is used while being installed inside the main body, the size and shape of the toner container will remain the same as the main body. Since the size and shape are affected, the requirements for toner containers are especially severe.

For this reason, it is desirable to fill the toner container with toner at a higher density. Considering the known methods mentioned above as a standard, there are several ways to: 1) increase the number of filling stations, 2) lengthen the sedimentation time, and 2) shape the container. Countermeasures can be considered, such as making it difficult for dead spaces to occur.

However, in the case of (2) above, there is a problem that a large amount of investment is required to add one more filling station, and the space required for the entire filling system is large. Since the sedimentation speed of the powder slows down over time, the amount that can be added to the powder decreases rapidly even if the number of times of filling is increased (this means that the packing density cannot be increased as the equipment becomes larger.Also, Does increasing the settling time increase the distance between stations?
Although this slows down the conveyance speed of the container, in the former case the apparatus as a whole becomes larger, and in the latter case, the processing efficiency decreases.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned current situation, and is capable of storing fine powder in a container at a higher density without requiring particularly complicated or large-scale equipment or equipment, and is particularly suitable for use in image forming apparatuses. It is an object of the present invention to provide a powder filling method suitable for application to toner filling.

(2) Structure of the invention (technical means for solving the problem, its effect) In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an auxiliary container that is attached to the filling opening of the container body, and a container that includes the auxiliary container. This powder filling method is characterized by filling powder, leaving the auxiliary container portion until the powder settles into the container body, and removing the auxiliary container from the container body after the powder settles.

Such a filling method simplifies the filling system and allows the container to be filled with powder at a much higher density than known means.

(Description of Examples) FIG. 1 shows a filling process when the present invention is applied to filling toner for an image forming apparatus.

Illustrative symbols a to h indicate each stage of the toner filling process, and (a)
After the auxiliary container 12 is attached and the weight of the tare is measured (b), the toner 14 is filled with the auger type filling device 13 (c).

Next, the weight after filling is measured at position d to confirm that a predetermined amount of toner has been filled.

Reference numeral e denotes a portion where the toner in the container settles. When the toner finishes settling by passing through this position, the auxiliary container 12 becomes empty and enters the state shown by reference numeral f.

Next, remove the auxiliary container 12 (g), and then remove the container 1.
1 is sealed with a stopper 16 (h, ), and the work is completed.

In the above case, the size of the auxiliary container 12 should be such that it can accommodate a predetermined amount of toner together with the volume of the toner container 11;
A size of about 10 to 70% of the container 11 is suitable.

Although there is no particular restriction on the shape of the auxiliary container 12, the shape of the auxiliary container 12 is
In order to allow the hetoner to fall smoothly, it is best to have a smooth inner surface and a funnel-shaped lower part, the angle of which is 45mm.
° or more is preferable. Further, it is preferable that the overall shape of the auxiliary container be elongated in the vertical direction in order to promote sedimentation of the toner.

The material of the auxiliary container is preferably a lightweight and durable synthetic resin.

Since it is necessary to maintain the joint between the container 11 and the auxiliary container 12 in a sealed state, an elastic sealing member 17 such as a polyurethane sponge is provided around the opening on the auxiliary container side, as schematically shown in FIG. It shall be.

The time for settling of the toner after filling is appropriately set in the range of about 30 seconds to 3 minutes depending on the characteristics of the toner.

Next, an experimental example comparing the method according to the present invention and a known filling method will be shown.

Experimental Example A 250 cm'' auxiliary container was attached to a 500 cm 3 toner container, and a toner having a volume average particle diameter of 12 μm and a true specific gravity of 1.5 was filled in the above-described manner.

The sedimentation step (symbol e) was for 1 minute, during which vibration was applied to promote sedimentation.

As a result, it was possible to accommodate 350 gr of toner. (The filling rate at this time was 0.7 gr/cm3) Comparative Example As shown in FIG. 3, toner filling was carried out under the same conditions as in the case of FIG. 1, except that no auxiliary container was used.

In this figure, parts corresponding to those in FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and a description thereof will be omitted.

In this case, it was possible to fill up to a maximum of 250 gr by secondary filling, and by performing secondary filling, it was possible to fill up to a total of 280 gr.

Although an auger-type filling device is used as the filling device in FIG. 1, it is needless to say that the filling device is not limited to this, and filling devices such as the table feeder type and vibration feeder type described above can also be used. It is also possible to fill it manually.

(3) As described in detail, the present invention enables high-density filling in one filling operation without increasing the number of filling stations, and has a large diameter discharge port. Since it is possible to use a filling device with a similar structure, the filling tact time can be shortened, and this, combined with the simplicity of the filling system, has a remarkable effect on cost reduction.

Furthermore, by applying the present invention to a developer storage part of an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine or a printer, it is possible to make the developer container smaller and more compact, improve operability, and reduce costs. This facilitates downsizing of the image forming apparatus itself.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a process diagram showing the filling method according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a sectional side view of the main part showing how the container main body and the auxiliary container are connected, FIG. 3 is a process diagram showing the known filling method, and FIG. Figures to 6th
The figures are all side views of essential parts showing examples of known filling devices. 11... Container, 12... Auxiliary container, 13... Auger feeder, 17... Elastic sealing member. A one

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) Attach an auxiliary container to the filling opening of the container main body, fill the inside of the container including the auxiliary container with powder, and leave it until the powder in the auxiliary container part settles into the container main body. A powder filling method in which the auxiliary container is removed from the container body after settling. (2) The powder filling method according to claim 1, wherein the air in the powder is forcibly discharged by a venting means until the powder settles into the container body. (3) The powder filling method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the powder is a developer used in an image forming apparatus.