JPH02297572A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To keep ambient environments clean by providing a means adding ozone to air from a heating and fixing device and a means decomposing or adsorbing ozone before the air including ozone is discharged outside the device. CONSTITUTION:Vapor, exhauste heat and odor generated from a fixing device 8 are discharged through a fixing duct 20 above the fixing device. During the discharge, an ozone generator 19 adds ozone and oxidizes odorous components to make them inodorous. Since the discharged, deodorized vapor incorporates ozone, it is decomposed or adsorbed by an ozone filter 17 to be removed, after which an exhaust fan 14 discharges it outside the device. Consequently, the release of heat of the fixing device 8 and deodorization are achieved, and moreover ozone generated from a primary electrifier 4 can be removed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a device for deodorizing odors generated from copying machines, laser beam printers, etc. using ozone.

“Conventional technology” Conventionally, copying devices and laser beam printers (LBP)
, LED printers, etc. use powder toner on paper or OHP.
A heat fixing device is used to fix the image onto the film. Among thermal fixing devices, a thermal roller fixing device that fixes a transfer material by passing a transfer material between a pair of rollers is commonly used.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in a method of fixing toner to a transfer material by heating, such as a heat roller fixing device, a bad odor may be emitted from the toner and the transfer material during heating. This smell is
There are two types of toner: one is generated when the monomers and resins that make up the toner are thermally decomposed, and the other is generated when the sizing agent, bleach filler, etc. added to the transfer material are heated.

Although the odor of toners when heated is being improved by improving toner resins, the odor of transfer materials when heated remains unimproved. Furthermore, with the recent progress in office automation, LBPs and LED printers have come to be used in offices as well. Therefore, when such a printer is used in a small room, many people tend to notice a bad odor even though the odor emitted from the printer body is small. This tendency is especially strong in winter, when room ventilation tends to be poor.

Conventionally, methods known to prevent bad odors include adsorbing them on activated carbon, using fragrances to cover up the bad odors, and decomposing the chemicals that cause the bad odors by evaporating them. There is.

However, these methods are not suitable for reducing odors that occur in large quantities or in areas where the amount of airflow is large.

[Object of the Invention] According to the present invention, it is an object of the present invention to maintain the surrounding environment clean by decomposing bad odors generated from printers and copying machines using ozone.

[Embodiment] An embodiment of the image forming apparatus of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is an explanatory cross-sectional view of the image forming apparatus, and FIG. 2 is an explanatory plan view thereof.

First, the I! of the image forming apparatus is shown in the figure. The general configuration will be explained. In the figure, a laser beam modulated according to an image signal is scanned and outputted from a scanner unit 1 including a laser and a polygon mirror correction lens system, and is reflected by a folding mirror 2 onto a photosensitive drum 3 which becomes an image carrier. is irradiated. The photosensitive tram 3 has a primary charger 4 which is a corona discharger.
It is uniformly charged and an electrostatic latent image is formed by irradiation with laser light. The electrostatic latent image is developed with toner 5a in the developing device 5 to form a toner image.

On the other hand, a recording material 7 such as plain paper or plastic film stored in a cassette 7a is fed to a registration roller r by a paper feed roller p in synchronization with the formation of a latent image on the photosensitive drum 3. The recording material 7 is a registration roller "
In synchronization with the leading edge of the latent image formed on the photosensitive drum 3, the toner image is conveyed to a transfer charger 6, which is a corona discharger, and the toner image is transferred onto a recording material 7 by the transfer charger 6. The recording material 7 onto which the toner image has been transferred is conveyed along the conveyance guide g, permanently fixed by the fixing device 8, and discharged to the outside of the apparatus.

Further, toner remaining on the photosensitive tram 3 is removed by a cleaning device 9. Further, the charging history of the photosensitive drum 3 is erased by a pre-exposure device 10 which is a corona discharger.

Said photosensitive tram3. -Charger 4. The developing device 5, the cleaning device 9, and the cover 11 are integrally formed as an image forming unit (hereinafter referred to as a cartridge) K, which is detachably attached to the main body of the apparatus. The cover 11 has the function of blocking light and preventing dust from adhering to the photosensitive tram 3 when the cartridge K is removed from the main body of the apparatus.

The air with high ozone concentration around the charger 4 and the pre-exposure device 10 is sucked by the fan 14 serving as a suction means, and is drawn through the pre-exposure window 13 as shown by arrow a in FIGS. 1 and 2. The air passes through the main body duct 16 that forms an air passage in parallel with the air passage 13 (in Fig. 1, the flow is from the top to the bottom of the drawing and is indicated by ■), and is led to the guide duct 18 and passes through the ozone filter 17. and is exhausted to the outside of the device. The fan 14 not only exhausts ozone-containing air from the cartridge K, but also functions to exhaust heat from the power source 15.

On the other hand, the steam, exhaust heat, and odor generated from the constant R unit 8 are either exhausted through the fixing duct 20 above the fixing unit, or ozone is added to the ozone generator 19 in the middle to oxidize odor components. This fixing duct 20 becomes odorless.
It is adjusted by the size of if.

Odorless steam exhaust contains ozone, so
After ozone is removed by decomposing or adsorbing it with an ozone filter 17, it is exhausted to the outside of the machine with an exhaust fan 14.

Here, a corona discharge using a thin wire may be used as the ozone generator, or a needle end discharge may be used. Alternatively, AC discharge using a ceramic plate may be used. The amount of osine generated by this ozone generator is preferably about 0.1 to 5 PPM, preferably about 01 to 1.5 PPM. This is because ozone leaks to the outside due to the limited capacity of 17.

It is best to use a catalyst such as activated carbon or manganese dioxide as the ozone filter 17. Activated carbon has good initial characteristics but has a relatively short lifespan, while a catalyst has poor initial characteristics but has a long lifespan. , can be used depending on the purpose. As the exhaust fan 14, an axial fan is used here, but if there is space, a cross flow fan may be used. By configuring the exhaust fan 14 as above, it is possible to exhaust heat and make the fuser odorless. can.

At the same time, ozone generated from the temporary charger can also be removed.

Here, the air collected from the fixing device also contains the vapor of silicone oil used as a mold release agent.
If this vapor goes directly to the ozone filter, it will adhere to the surface of the activated carbon or catalyst, reducing its performance.

Therefore, it is preferable to insert a non-woven filter for removing silicone oil vapor before the ozone filter, preferably before adding ozone.

FIG. 3 shows another embodiment using the present invention, in which the exhaust gas C from the fixing device 8 is sent to the guide duct 18 without passing through the ozone generator.
guided by.

On the other hand, the air α from the negative charger flows inside the main body tact 16 and is also guided to the guide duct 18. Inside this guide duct, the exhaust gas C from the fixing device that contains a bad odor and the exhaust gas α from the charger that contains ozone are mixed, and the ozone oxidizes the substances that cause the bad odor, making them odorless. Ru. At this time, the ozone concentration in the exhaust gas from the negative charger is 0.
1 to 5 PP-less, more preferably 0.3 to 1.5 PP- is good, so if the ozone concentration is high,
6 may be provided with an ozone filter to lower the ozone concentration.By doing this,
There is no need to attach an ozone generator, and the device can be made more compact.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, by decomposing the bad odor generated from the fixing device with ozone, the odor could be reliably reduced.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 2 is a plan view of the embodiment shown in Fig. 1; FIG. 3 is a plan view of another embodiment of the invention. 1...Scanner unit 3...Photosensitive drum 4...-forming charger 5...Developer 16...Main duct 18...Guide duct 19...Ozone generator 20-...Fuser duct

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In an image forming apparatus having a heat fixing device, means for adding ozone to the air from the heat fixing device, and means for decomposing or adsorbing the ozone before exhausting the ozone-containing air outside the machine; An image forming apparatus comprising: