Abstract:
A method of molding a toner bottle including separating polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles that have not accommodated oily or colored materials from retrieved PET bottles grinding the separated PET bottles to obtain a flake PET material of which not less than 80% has a form from a triangle to an octagon with a size not greater than 8 mm 8 mm, washing and drying the flake PET material to obtain a flake PET molding material and molding the flake PET molding material to make a toner bottles.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to a toner bottle, a method of molding the toner bottle, a method of including the toner bottle for use in an image forming apparatus in which a developing agent and/or a toner is filled and applied to the developing portion. 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     As shown in  FIG. 1A , polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles used for drinking are collected by a recycling manufacturer. Subsequent to washing and grinding, the collected PET bottles are sent to a recycling PET material processing trader by which the collected PET bottles are processed to materials for molding. Typical processes of collecting and processing PET bottles are: 
     (1) consumers separate PET bottles from other waste materials and take the PET bottles to a collecting place set by a local government; 
     (2) the local government selects and stores the PET bottles which are compressed and packed in bale form; 
     (3) a recycling manufacturer further selects, washes, resorts and grinds the bale material to a size of about 8 mm×8 mm. Subsequent to washing and drying, flake is obtained; 
     (4) A recycling PET material processing trader melts the flake. Thereafter, the melted flake is subject to surface crystallization treatment to obtain pellets (i.e., small particles); and 
     (5) The pellets are blended with flakes flame retardants and polycarbonate, injection molded and thereafter subject to heating and stretch blow molding. 
     In one embodiment of the invention the process of forming pellets from flakes must be carried out before forming the PET toner bottle because of the following reasons: 
     The main reason of forming pellets is to obtain uniform particles. Non-uniform particles tend to clog at a hopper or a mixing and kneading screw in an injection molding device, which causes trouble for continuous production Furthermore, when pellets are formed, moisture in the materials is uniformly contained. That is, when moisture is not uniformly contained, the moisture has an adverse effect when molding pellets to a toner bottle, which leads to deterioration in the strength of the material 
     Published unexamined Japanese patent application no. (hereinafter referred to as JOP) 2001-54911 describes a PET material recycling device for recycling waste plastic containers, for example, PET bottles, having a coarse grinding machine which grinds material to a size at least twice as large as a typically ground size i.e., a size which can pass through a screen mesh having a diameter of from 6 to 12 mm) and an air classifier which can air-classify the coarse light fragments and the coarse heavy fragments which have been ground by the coarse grinding machine. The size of the typical ground fragment is, e.g., from 6 to 12 mm, but a method of suitably obtaining ground fragments for a toner bottle is not disclosed. 
     As described in JOP 2003-221498, PET bottles are not reused because hopper bridging occurs when ground flake PET is placed in a molding machine. In addition, a deterioration in the physical properties of the PET is caused by hydrolysis inducing degradation. 
     Even when such ground flake PET is heated and melted by an extruder to prevent bridging and to obtain pellet PET, the pelletized ground PET is amorphous having a glass transition temperature of from about 70 to 80° C. and a crystallization temperature of from about 120 to 130° C. at temperature rising. Thus, blocking easily occurs during preparatory drying before molding and solidification by crystallization in a molding device cylinder and/or barrel during plasticizing is accelerated, which easily makes the screw of molding device stop. 
     With regard to the process of molding recycled PET to make a toner bottle described in JOP 2002-22188 an expensive phthalic acid based plasticizer is required when only recycled materials are used because the recycled materials do not have a good stretching property. In JOP 2005-193575 recycled materials are adjusted by regulating the melting conditions; however, this is not sufficient for obtaining a good product. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Because of the deficiencies of the prior art processes, the present inventors recognized that a need exists for improving the productivity of producing toner bottles by simplifying the process of recycling PET materials. 
     Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a method of improving the productivity of producing toner bottles from recycled materials and further to provide a method of improving the productivity of producing toner bottles using recycled materials. 
     Another object of the invention is to provide a method of improving the productivity of producing toner bottles from recycled materials and further to provide a method of improving the productivity of producing toner bottles using recycled materials. 
     Briefly these objects and other objects of the present invention as hereinafter described will become more readily apparent and can be attained, either individually or in combination thereof, by a method of molding a toner bottle including; grinding the separated PET bottles to obtain a flake PET material of which not less than 80% by weight based on the weight of the PET have a form from a triangle to an octagon with a size not greater than 8 mm×8 mm; washing and drying the flake PET material to obtain a flake PET material; and molding the flake PET material to make a toner bottle. 
     It is preferred that in the method of molding a toner bottle mentioned above, the moisture content of the flake PET material for molding is not greater than 3% by weight based on the weight of the PET. 
     It is still further preferred that in the method of molding a toner bottle mentioned above, the PET bottles are PET drinking bottles. 
     It is still further preferred that the method of molding a toner bottle mentioned above further includes thermally mixing the flake PET molding materials with at least one of a flame retardant and a toughening agent. 
     It is still further preferred that in the method of molding a toner bottle mentioned above, the mixing ratio of the flame retardant or the toughening agent is from 1 to 5% by weight based on the weight of the flake PST molding material. 
     It is still further preferred that in the method of molding a toner bottle mentioned above, the flame retardant or the toughening agent is a polycarbonate resin or a polyhydric phenol. 
     As another aspect of the present invention a toner bottle is provided which is obtainable using the method of molding a toner bottle mentioned above. 
     It is preferred that the toner bottle mentioned above contains an antistatic agent. 
     It is still further preferred that the method of molding a toner bottle mentioned above further includes sorting PET bottles that have not accommodated oily or colored materials from collected PET bottles to provide the sorted PET bottles 
     These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon consideration of the following description of the preferred embodiments of the present invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       Various other objects, features and attendant advantages of the present invention will be more fully appreciated as the same becomes better understood from the detailed description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings in which like reference characters designate like corresponding parts throughout and wherein: 
         FIG. 1A  is a schematic diagram illustrating the conventional toner bottle molding method; 
         FIG. 1B  is a schematic diagram illustrating the inventive toner bottle molding method; 
         FIG. 2  is a cross section illustrating a lateral side of the toner bottle of the present invention; 
         FIG. 3  is a diagram illustrating an example of an injection molding machine for use in the present invention; 
         FIG. 4A  is a diagram illustrating the basic structure of a preform; 
         FIG. 4B  is a diagram illustrating a toner bottle molding process for use in the present invention; 
         FIG. 5A  is a diagram illustrating a preferred form of a flake; and 
         FIG. 5B  is a diagram illustrating a non-preferred form of a flake. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     The present invention will he described below in detail with reference to several embodiments and accompanying drawings 
     First, the toner bottle of the present invention is described. 
       FIG. 2  represents a diagram showing the shape of a toner bottle  13 . A disc flange  10   b  is present in the toner bottle in  FIG. 2 . The toner bottle  13  has a main body  17  having a long and thin cylinder with a bottom and a mouth  18  extruding and continuing from the main body along its axis. To promote discharging of toner, one pitch spiral rib  19  is provided in the side wall of the main body  17  which has cylindrical form. 
     About a half circumference of the side wall portion of the main body  17  adjacent to the mouth  18  is formed gradually toward to the axis thereto. This toner guiding part  20  continues from a spiral rib  19  and the portion of the toner grinding part  20  close to the side of the mouth  18  is formed crossing the internal diameter of the mouth  18  to assist supply of toner. 
     The mouth  18  includes a toner discharging mouth and a cylindrical portion. The end of the cylindrical portion is fitted in a cylindrical joint portion (typically referred to as packing) provided in an image forming apparatus so that the toner bottle  13  is attached to the image forming apparatus in a horizontal position such as lying. The toner bottle  13  rotates along the axis thereof so that the toner is discharged from the discharging mouth and supplied to a developing portion of the image forming apparatus to form a desired image. The main body  17  of this type of the toner bottle  13  has a wall thickness greater than 1 mm to improve the mechanical strength thereof so that the toner bottle can withstand the stress exerted by the rotation driving device. 
     A resilient sealing material is typically attached to the inner wall of the cylindrical joint portion provided in an image forming apparatus to secure the connection to the toner bottle and prevent the toner from escaping. However, when the toner bottle rotates during image formation the toner leaks from between the cylindrical joint portion and the cylindrical portion and scatters so that the toner may contaminate not only the inside of the image forming apparatus but also the peripheral portion thereof. When a recycling PET material is used for manufacturing a toner bottle of the present invention such leaking is less frequent and less secure in comparison with a toner bottle formed of a virgin resin. 
     As a method of fortifying the strength of a toner bottle, JOP 2002-221858 describes a technology in which the side wall of the main body of a toner bottle is colored white or whitish. The use of the white or whitish sidewall fortifies and stabilizes the toner bottle and further improves the bottles dimensional stability. This is thought to be because the material forming the sidewall is in a semi-crystalline state. The color tone of white is thought to be dependent on the degree of the semi-crystalline state. This whitening is smoothly achieved in the case of a toner bottle using a recycled PET material for use in the present invention, a virgin PET material and other resin materials, for example, olefin resins in combination. Such a toner bottle has a light blocking effect and is effective to protect the quality of toner in the bottle. 
     The PET toner bottle is different from PET bottle for drinking because, e.g., toner bottles are not required to be excessively transparent nor have any constraint based on the food hygiene law. Toner bottles preferably provide uniformity, powder discharging property, dimension stability of the mouth portion of a bottle (i.e., fitting and rotation property of the joint portion of the mouth and a toner receiving mouth of an image forming apparatus), etc. Considering that toner bottles and PET bottles for drinking are formed of the same or similar materials (e.g., bottle), recovered PET drinking bottles satisfy the characteristics mentioned above for a toner bottle. As shown in  FIG. 1B , recycled PET bottles are collected by a recycling trader and sent to a recycling PET material processor. However, the recycling PET material processor does not have to process the recycled bottles to materials for molding. Rather, it is important to separate collected PET bottles and obtain uniform fragments which do not cause problems during molding. 
     In the present invention, collected PET bottles for drinking including labels and caps, which are formed of different materials (i.e., other polyester materials) are ground, washed and separated into PET materials and other materials based on the difference of the relative gravity therebetween. Foreign materials, for example, metals, are removed by magnet or air classification. 
     Dried flakes are sent for further processing but the form and moisture content of the flakes vary. 
     In the present invention, the size and the form of ground flake PET obtained from collected PET bottles is a shape that fits within a square of 8 mm×8 mm at greatest, preferably a square of from 2 to 8 mm×2 to 8 mm and further preferably a square of from 3 to 6 mm×3 to 6 mm. A flake that is too large may clog in an injection molding device. 
     The form of flakes can be controlled by filtering using a sieve. Flakes left on the sieve can be further ground for adjustment 
     In addition, in the present invention, 80% by weight, preferably 90% by weight, of the flake PET mentioned above has polygons ranging from triangles to octagons. 
     The form of the flake particles preferably ranges from triangular to hexagonal and more preferably from triangular to pentagonal. 
     Flakes having a form with the same or more edges than a nonagon, i.e., mica form or frayed form, tend to clog injection molding devices. 
     Flakes having a mica form and/or a frayed form are produced when a blunt blade is used. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the production thereof by sharpening or exchanging blades. 
       FIG. 5A  is a diagram illustrating a preferred form of a flake and  FIG. 5B  is a diagram illustrating a non-preferred form thereof. 
     The wall thickness of a PET bottle for drinking typically ranges from 2 mm at the thickest portion to 0.2 mm at the thinnest. 
     The moisture content of the flake PET is not greater than 3% by weight, preferably not greater than 1% by weight and more preferably not greater than 0.5% by weight based on the weight of the PET resin. 
     Flake PET having an excessive moisture may crystallize in an injection molding device and stop a screw inside thereof. When a thin walled PET bottle is molded, it is generally desired to dry the PET bottle before molding until the moisture content of the PET resin thereof is not greater than 0.01% and preferably not greater than 0.005% to avoid hydrolytic degration during molding caused by heating and melting (See for example pp. 616-617 about PET bottle molding technology in “Saturated Polyester Resin Handbook”, authored by Kazuo Yugi, published on Dec. 22, 1989 by Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun, Ltd.; incorporated herein by reference) 
     The moisture content is preferred to be as less as possible. When the moisture content is high, it is desired to reduce the moisture content as much as possible by air drying. 
     The moisture content can be measured by a PET resin moisture content measuring method described in, for example, JOP 2004-3876, etc., incorporated herein by reference. 
     As a material for use in a toner bottle, a PET bottle for drinking is preferred. 
     One reason therefor is that a PET bottle for drinking is materially stable because the PET bottle for drinking is formed of non-recycled PET in light of safety and health. 
     It is preferred that a toner bottle is not made of only this recycling material but made of a combination of the recycling material and virgin resins. Thereby, the variance of characteristics can be restrained and the molding property is stable. 
     PET bottles for drinking which fail to pass the quality test at a production line can be also used with no problem. 
     In contrast bottles which were filled with soy bean source and/or oil are not suitable because it is difficult to remove the soy bean source and/or oil attached to the inside of the bottles. 
     Flame resistance or strength of a toner bottle is improved by thermally mixing the above described flake PET with a flame retardant and/or a toughening agent. 
     The content of such a flame retardant or a toughening agent is from 1 to 5 wt %, preferably from 1 to 4 wt % and more preferably from 1.5 to 3 wt % based on the weight of the flake PET. 
     An excessive addition thereof may cause peeling (separation) and/or release of PET. 
     Specific examples of flame retardants or toughening agents include polycarbonate resins and polyhydric phenols. Specific examples of polyhydric phenols include tannins and catechins. 
     Injection molding can be made easy by using PET flake material having the shape and dimensional characteristics described above, which enables continuous production. 
     Transparency, which is characteristic to other typically newly used PET materials, is not especially required for a toner bottle. Suitable wall thickness is desired and dimension accuracy has a safety margin therefore. 
     While a toner bottle is used, toner easily attaches the wall of the toner bottle by electrostatic force. To improve this drawback, it is preferred to add an antistatic to the material for use in the toner bottle. Thereby, the amount of toner remaining in a toner bottle can be reduced. 
     Below is a description about a method of injection molding. 
       FIG. 3  is a basic diagram illustrating an example of a device for performing the mixing and/or melting for method mentioned above. In  FIG. 3 ,  101  represents a hopper drier for PET,  102  represents a hopper drier for a mixture of a recycling material, resins other than the PET and plasticizing agent,  103  is a hopper,  104  is a cylinder,  105  is a screw and  106  represents a nozzle. 
     Materials which have passed through the two hopper driers  101  and  102  and collected at the hopper  103  are pulverized and mixed (e.g., kneaded by the screw  105  in rotation. Subsequent to thermo fusion, the mixture is extruded from the nozzle  106  as a material for forming a toner bottle and sent to the next process, injection molding. 
     PET flakes having an unsuitable for clog in the hopper  103 . When the moisture content thereof is not suitable, the PET flakes tend to be crystallized upon application of heat and stop there. 
     A biaxial stretch blow molding method is described with regard to a toner bottle among the toner bottles of the present invention in which the mouth portion and the rain body are integrally formed with a board flange provided on the cylindrical form portion of the mouth. 
     A biaxial stretch blow molding method is preferred to manufacture the toner bottle of the present invention which preferably has a good molding accuracy but the present invention is not limited to bottles manufactured by the biaxial stretch blow molding method. 
     A biaxial stretch blow molding method typically has two steps, which are: a preform process in which a preform is formed by injection molding; and a stretch blow molding process in which the preform (parison) extracted (cooled down) after molding is heated and softened, and blow-molded and stretched simultaneously. Since the mouth portion of a toner bottle is hardly changed from the mouth portion of the preform, the mouth portion of the preform is preferably formed by injection molding such that the requisites of the mouth of the toner bottle of the present invention are satisfied. 
       FIG. 4A  is a diagram illustrating the basic structure of a preform  10  having a mouth portion  10   a , a support ring portion  10   b  and a stretch blow portion  10   c . In the case of the toner bottle of the present invention, the mouth portion  10   a  and the support ring portion  10   b  of the preform  10  actually form the mouth portion of a bottle and a board flange having a circular form, respectively. Circularity and concentricity of the toner bottle substantially depends on the molding accuracy of the preform  10 . 
     Therefore the die for injection molding is a key and it is desired to adjust the die accuracy such that a mouth portion having a desired circularity is formed. The same applies to the concentricity. After forming the preform  10 , it is effective to start the next process of heating and softening before the preform  10  is completely cooled down especially to prevent the distortion of the mouth and the support ring of the preform  10 . 
     To soften the preform  10 , it is desired to heat multiple portions selected depending on the form of a finally obtained toner bottle at different temperatures while rotating the preform  10  around the axis thereof. After achieving the state in which each of the multiple portions is differently softened the preform  10  is stretched and blown to obtain a toner bottle having a desired form. In  FIG. 4A , the portions No.  1  to No.  6  of a stretched and blown portion  10   c  in the preform  10  indicated by the arrows represent the multiple portions heated at different temperatures. 
     In the present invention, the temperature immediately after the heating the preform is desired to be higher than the glass transition temperature of the resin. Subsequent to softening, the preform  10  is gradually cooled down and the next process of stretch blow molding is preferably performed before the preform  10  is completely cooled down. 
     When PET is used as a resin, the glass transition temperature thereof is about 76° C. Meaning, the preform  10  is heated at a temperature not lower than the glass transition temperature. When the preform  10  is heated at a temperature between about 85 to about 100° C., the perform  10  can be easily stretched along the axis (longitudinal) direction during stretching so that the wall thickness can be thinned. When the preform  10  is heated at a temperature between about 105 to about 115° C., the preform  10  is whitened and hard to be stretched along the axis (longitudinal) direction but along the circumference direction so that the wall thickness can be thickened. 
     That is, after naturally cooling down, the preform  10  has a high surface temperature but is crystallized; the preform is difficult to stretch in the longitudinal direction and consequently is stretched in the lateral direction. 
     Therefore, it is desirable to select the heating temperature depending on the form of the toner bottle. For example, the body portion is molded at a temperature from 85 to 100° C. and the toner guiding part  20  (in  FIG. 2 ) is molded a higher temperature, i.e. from 105 to 115° C. Whitened portions have a high strength so that the whitened portions are especially suitable for portions requiring dimension stability and a high strength. 
     In the next step of the biaxial stretch blow molding, the reform  10  is fitted into a carrier pin  12 . Excluding the root portion of the preform  10 , the preform  10  is strongly stretched along the circumference direction by the blowing air in the die and also strongly stretched to the base direction (axis direction) by pressure by a stretching rod (stretching pin) SP. Like when blowing a thin and long rubber balloon, the stretched portion gradually increases from the mouth portion of a tone bottle to the base direction, non-stretched portion to the base direction decreases and finally the base portion is biaxially stretched. This is how a toner bottle having a desired form, in which the mouth portion and the in body are integrally formed, is formed. 
     The biaxial stretch blow molding method is described with reference to  FIG. 4B  as follows. Transfer the preform  10  heated by a heater while set in the carrier pin  12  to a die; Close the die; Insert a stretch pin (SP) into the preform  10  from the mouth thereof; and stretch the base of the preform  10  by the stretch pin (SP) while infusing compressed air. The preform  10  is stretched by moving the stretch pin (SP) back and forth along the axis of the preform  10 . Next, a pair of the side die halves  14  and  15  are mold-opened and a bottom die  16  is transferred in the direction away from a base  13   a  of a bottle  13  to pull out the bottle  13  in this series of process it is possible to optimally adjust the conditions, for example, the temperature and the position of the heater the pressure of the air infused from the carrier pin  12  to the preform  10  and the transfer timing of the stretch pin (SP) to the molding of the toner  13 . 
     As illustrated in  FIG. 4B , the pair of the side die halves  14  and  15  of a die  11  have relatively thin extruding portions  15   a  and  15   b  at the portion adjacent to the support ring  10   b . By these extruding portions  15   a  and  15   b , a base portion  18   a  of the mouth portion  18  and a shoulder portion  22  continuing to the base portion  18   a  are formed as illustrated in  FIG. 2 . 
     Having generally described preferred embodiments of this invention, further understanding can be obtained by reference to certain specific examples which are provided herein for the purpose of illustration only and are not intended to be limiting. 
     EXAMPLES 
     PET recycling and molding a toner bottle of the present invention are described with reference to the Example. In the Example, a toner bottle having a specific for is used for description but the present invention is not limited thereto. 
     Flakes may be obtained by grinding collected PET bottles used for drinking as a raw material as follows, a toner bottle (500 g) illustrated in  FIG. 2  is manufactured by the injection molding machine illustrated in  FIG. 3  and the biaxial stretch blow molding method illustrated in  FIG. 4 . 
     Example 1 
     Using a sieve having 8 mm mesh filter materials are ground from recycled PET drinking bottles. 
     The average size of the resulting filtered flake is 5.2 mm. 
     85% of the filtered flake is in a form of an octagon; frayed or mica form flakes are removed. 
     The moisture content is measured by a method of measuring PET resin moisture ratio described in JOP 2004-3876 (incorporated herein by reference) and is 10% by weight based on the weight of the dried PET. Therefore, the flakes are dried by air until the moisture content thereof is 12 wt %. 
     Polycarbonate is added in amount of 2% based on the weight of fractured PET flakes when injection molding is performed. Toner bottles are continuously manufactured without a stop during the injection molding and the resulting toner bottles have a sufficient strength. 
     Comparative Example 1 
     Injection molding is performed in the same manner as in Example 1 except that filtering with a sieve having 8 mm mesh and moisture adjustment are omitted. 
     The PET flake has an average of 15 mm in size and a moisture content of 10%. 
     When manufacturing toner bottles, the flakes clog in the hopper because of the size thereof. In addition, the flakes contain moisture in a relatively large amount so that the flakes are crystallized, thereby hindering the rotation of the screw. Therefore, it is impossible to manufacture toner bottles. 
     This document claims priority and contains subject matter related to Japanese Patent Application No. 2006-025314, filed on Feb. 2, 2006, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. 
     Having now fully described the invention, it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that many changes and modifications can be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth therein.