TONER REPLENISHING DEVICE

Abstract: A toner replenishing device is improved to prevent unexpected toner drop when attaching a toner storage cartridge (15) to a toner receptacle of a developing means and detaching it therefrom. The cartridge (15) is easily attached to the developing means and hooked thereto when tearing a sheet (22) to seal an open end of the cartridge, further it is easily detached from the developing means after removing the sheet by the work of a particular cam portion to be engaged with a hooking member and by ingeniously utilizing the thickness of the sheet and the sheet tearing member (23) which are removed from the cartridge housing.

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to toner replenishing device for use in developing means of electrophotographic copying machine or facsimile etc. More specifically, it relates to a toner storage cartridge having both a removable tear strip which seals an opening in the cartridge and a slidable cover which protects the tear strip during storage. It also relates to a toner cartridge fixing device to the developing means in such a machine. DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART There is known a toner replenishing cartridge as disclosed in Japanese Utility model Unexamined Publication No.41364 /­ 1984. According to the known cartridge, it is easily practiced to replenish a toner receptacle of the developing means with toner stored in the cartridge housing. And the cartridge is so structured that the toner remaining in the cartridge housing can be prevented from being fallen or scattered around the machine in the case of pulling and detaching the empty cartridge housing out of the device. The known toner replenishing cartridge comprises, as illustrated in FIG. 11, guide members 17, 18 disposed on both sides of an open end 14 of the cartridge housing 15 for restricting the inserting and taking out operation of the cartridge to the axial direction of a toner replenishing roller, a removable flexible sheet 22 sealing said open end 14, a sheet-tearing member 23 formed by folding said sheet 22 at the front end of cartridge housing to the reverse direction of cartridge insertion, a cover 24 slidable along said guide member 17, 18 covering said sheet-tearing member 23 and said sheet 22. The cartridge is inserted in the toner receptacle of developing means in the state of being disengaged from said cover 24, the sheet 22 is torn from the cartridge housing through said sheet-tearing member 23, thereby replenishing the toner receptacle of developing means with the toner stored in said cartridge housing 15. And, an empty cartridge housing 15 can be taken out without dropping and scattering the toner remaining in the cartridge housing 15 around the machine by setting the cover 24 to a predetermined position and pulling out the cartridge, for instance, in the state of closing the open end 14 of said cartridge housing 15 with the cover 24. In this connection, the known cartridge is evaluated as being useful. However, for the known cartridge, there is still remained a subject to be improved with respect to its handling efficiency. That is, in the known toner replenishing catridge A, as shown in FIG.12, the cover 24 is liable to slide to the sheet tearing direction when disengaging the cover 24 without paying much attention, since the cover 24 covering said sheet 22 is relatively slidable in the direction of either inserting the cartridge into or taking out it from the cartridge housing 15 covered by the sheet 22 to which the sheet tearing member is attached. In this connection, there are present some ploblems. That is; the sheet 22 sealing the open end 14 is possibly torn or unexpected toner dropping and/or scattering is liable to be induced by immediate tearing of the sheet 22 in the case of pinching the holded end of sheet 22 together with the cover 24 when disengaging the cover 24; when taking out the empty cartridge 15, as shown in FIG. 13, the cartridge housing 15 is likely to overrun the cover 24. In the case where such events happens, the toner remaining in the cartridge housing 15 will be dropped and scattered as a result of opening the open end 14 of the cartridge housing 15 at the overrunning position; since the device has no mechanism functioning to fix the toner cartridge, there is an inconvenience for the cartridge that the cartridge housing has to be held at a predetermined position by one hand and the sheet has to be torn by the other hand in order to prevent the toner cartridge from being removed when tearing said sheet; the cartridge housing is apt to move undesirably in the direction of inserting and taking out the cartridge due to mechanical vibrations of the machine housing during the copying operation, which are caused, for example, because of the movement of an optical system unit mainly constituted with an exposure lamp or mirror in a locomotive optical system type copying machine, because of the movement of a paper stand in a paper stand locomotive type copying machine, other than these, because of rolling of an phtoconductive drum or various rollers, etc., that invite to remove the toners adhered on the inside walls of the cartridge housing and to scatter them through the open end of the cartridge into the inside of the machine, as a result, bring about ploblems of staining not only the inside of the machine but also papers. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, this invention aims at providing an improved toner replenishing cartridge which is free from the problems as described above and which has an efficient function in handling by making a simple improvement in the structure. One aspect of this invention relates to a toner replenishing cartridge comprising guide members disposed on both sides of the open end of a cartridge housing to restrict the direction for the cartridge to be inserted and taken out, a removable flexible sheet to seal said open end, a sheet-tearing member formed by folding said sheet at the front end of the cartridge housing into the reverse direction for the cartridge to be inserted, a cover slidable along said guide members covering said sheet-tearing member and said sheet, and a stopper functioning to prevent said cover from being slided in the direction for the sheet to be torn from the cartridge housing by the action of the sheet-tearing member in the state that the sheet-tearing member and the sheet are being covered by said cover. Another aspect of this invention relates to a toner replenishing device comprising a toner cartridge whose open end being sealed by a flexible sheet conected to a sheet-­ tearing member folded at the front end of a cartridge housing into the reverse direction of a cartridge to be inserted and which being disposed detachably to a toner receptacle in the axial direction of a toner supplying roller, a hooking member functioning to prevent dislocation of the toner cartridge being inserted at a predetermined position in said toner receptacle by hooking that toner cartridge being disposed in the toner replenishing device so as to be movable in the direction of releasing the hooking following the insertion of the toner cartridge, and a cam portion functioning to move said hooking member in the direction of releasing the hooking along with sliding out the cartridge housing after the removal of the sheet being disposed on at least either said hooking member or cartridge housing. According to the toner replenishing device of this invention, it is impeded for the cover to slide in the direction of tearing the sheet in the state of covering the sheet and sheet-tearing member with the cover, in other words, it can be ensured to prevent the occurrance of an unexpected sheet tearing at the time of disengaging the cover, since the direction of disengaging the cover from the cartridge housing is restricted to the opposite direction of tearing the sheet. Further, when pulling and detaching the empty cartridge housing by utilizing the cover, the stopper functioning to restrict the direction of disengaging said cover enacts effectively, so as to prevent the empty cartridge from overrunning beyond the cover to thereby secure the toner remaining in the empty cartridge housing not to be dropped and/or scattered around the machine. Further, according to the toner replenishing device of this invention, it is possible to insert the toner cartridge by one touch operation and to tear a sheet by single hand operation without dropping and/or scattering the toner in the toner cartridge since the toner replenishing device is provided with a particular hooking member functioning to secure the insertion of the toner cartridge to a predetermined position in the toner receptacle and to prevent it from being dislocated therefrom. Furthermore, according to the toner replenishing device of this invention, it is possible to slide out the cartridge housing after the removal of the sheet without conducting any additional operation since the toner replenishing device is added with a function sliding out the cartridge housing by the work of a partucular cam portion provided therewith and by ingeniously utilizing the thicknesses of the sheet and the sheet tearing member.. Further in addition, the toner replenishing device according to this invention is so structured that it enables one to easily pull out the cartridge housing and undesirable movements of the cartridge housing due to mechanical vibrations of the machine can be effectively prevented whereby the toner in the cartridge housing can be prevented from being scattered into the machine housing, thereby eliminating not only staining the machine inside but also staining a paper with scattered toners. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG.1 is a longitudinal sectional view of the toner replenishing cartridge according to a preferred embodiment of this invention; FIG.2 is a longitudinal sectional view of the developing means, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of this invention, which involves the toner replenishing device; FIG.3 is a exploded perspective view of the main parts constituting the developing means according to a preferred embodiment of this invention; FIG.4 is a explanatory view illustrating insertion of the cartridge housing into the toner receptacle in accordance with a preferred embodiment of this invention; FIG.5 is a longitudinal sectional view illustrating the state of preventing the cartridge housing from coming off according to a preferred embodiment of this invention; FIG.6 is a explanatory view of pulling out the empty cartridge housing in accordance with a preferred embodiment of this invention; FIG.7 is a perspective view illustrating insertion of the cartridge housing into the toner receptacle according to a preferred embodiment of this invention; FIG.8 is a perspective view illustrating detachment of the empty cartridge housing from the toner receptacle in accordance with a preferred embodiment of this invention; FIG.9 is a longitudinal sectional view of the detached empty cartridge housing according to a preferred embodiment of this invention; FIG.10 is a partial longitudinal sectional view of the cam portin in accordance with another preferred embodiment of this invention; and FIGS.11 through 13 are longitudinal sectional views of the known toner replenishing cartridge. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT This invention will be now described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings which show the typical embodiments of the invention, but the invention is no way limited to these embodiments. FIG.1 illustrates a longitudinal sectional view of a toner replenishing cartridge A, and FIG.2 and FIG.3 illustrate detailed views of a developing means. The developing means is constituted as described below; in a developing case 2 opened at the portion facing a photoconductive drum 1, there are disposed a developing sleeve 3, two rotary type mixers 4, 5, a toner supplying roller 6 made of sponge material or the like, a diaphragm 8 to circulate toner wiped by a blade 7 toward a mixer 5 placed on the side of the toner supplying roller 6. A toner supplying hopper 10 is installed in the upper side end of said case 2 in the state that the supplying roller 6 is faced to a toner outlet 9, and a cartridge case 13 having an opening at one end and forming a toner receptacle 11 is disposed to cover said upper opening of the toner supplying hopper 10. A toner supplying device B where a housing 15 of a toner replenishing cartridge A is disposed, is constituted mainly with a toner supplying roller 6, a toner supplying hopper 10 and a cartridge case 13. The specific constitute of the toner replenishing cartridge A will be explained below. Said toner replenishing cartridge A is, as illustrated also in FIG. 7, constituted with a cartridge housing 15 and a cover 24. The cartridge housing 15 is elongated in the axial direction of toner supplying roller 6 and has a consistent shape with the internal shape of said cartridge case 13 and an open end 14 to replenish toner therethrough is positioned at the bottom of the cartridge in the state that the cartridge is being inserted in said toner receptacle 11. Further, in said cartridge, there are disposed a toner inlet 16, rib like members 17 through 20 on the periphery of said open end 14, more specificcally, among said rib like members 17 through 20, those on both longitudinal sides of the open end 14 are formed as guide members 17, 18 to restrict the direction of inserting and taking out the toner replenishing cartridge A to the axial direction of the toner supplying roller 6, and on the upper surface of the rib like member 19 placed at the opposite side of the toner inlet 16, a handle 21 for use in operation of inserting and taking out the cartridge. Said open end 14 is sealed by a removable flexible sheet 22, and a sheet-tearing member 23 is formed by extending the front end of the sheet 22 itself along the direction of cartridge insertion ( at the end of the cartridge being opposite with the end where the handle 21 is disposed ), and the sheet tearing member 23 is folded toward the handle 21, then its end portion is attached on the upper surface of the rib like member 19 by means of label or the like. Outer surface of every corner edge in the cartridge housing 15 is formed as a convex cam surface d. While, there are disposed rail portions 25, 25 which are slidablly engaged with the guide members 17, 18 on the cover 24 shaped consistently with the outer edge shape of the rib like members 17 through 20, open side ends b, b of the rail portions 25, 25 are formed in a outwardly expanding shape to be easily engaged with the guide members 17, 18. Further, there is disposed on the other side end of the rail portions 25, 25 a stopper 26 to catch an outer edge ( or, as described below based on FIG. 8 and FIG. 9, an outer edge of the rib like member 19 disposed on the side being opposite with the side where the toner inlet 16 is placed ) of the rib like member 20 which is disposed on the opposite side of the rib like member 19 where the handle 21 is disposed. Then, the cover 24 is engaged with the guide members 17, 18 from the side end where the sheet tearing member 23 is folded and the cover is slided until the stopper 26 catches the outer edge of rib like member 20, thereby covering the sheet 22 and sheet thearing member 23 with the cover 24. Before or after the engagement of the cover 24, toner for use in replenishment is supplied into the cartridge housing 15 through the toner inlet 16 to fill up the cartridge housing and a cap 31 is put on the toner inlet, to thereby obtain a finished toner replenishing cartridge A as a commodity. According to the constitute as described above, as illustrated in FIG. 7, there is completely no possibility to tear the sheet 22 unexpectedly by disengaging the cover 24 in the operation of attaching the cartridge housing 15 to the toner receptacle 11 since the direction of disengaging the cover 24 is restricted in the opposite direction of tearing the sheet-tearing member 23 by the action of the stopper 26. Said cartridge housing 15, members 16 through 21 connected thereto and cover 24 are respectively made of hard or semi-hard plastics. As illustrated in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 through FIG. 8, two slits C, C are disposed along the direction of inserting and taking out the cartridge on the side of opening 12 in an upper plate 13a of cartridge case 13 which accomodate the toner replenishing cartridge A and a vertically flexible member 13b between the slits c, c is elongated outwardly, thereby forming a handle 27 for releasing hooking. As obviously shown in FIG. 5, there is disposed on the member 13b placed between the slits c, c a hooking member 28 to prevent coming off of the cartridge housing 15 by catching a slightly lower portion than the cam portion d at the upper corner edge on the front end of cartridge housing in the direction of sliding out the cartridge in the state of inserting the cartridge housing 15, from which the cover 24 is disengaged, in a predetermined position of the toner receptacle 11. Further as obviously shown in Fig. 16, the hooking member 28 is so disposed as a hooking portion e of said hooking member 28 may be engaged with said cam portion d at the upper corner edge on the front end of cartridge housing in the direction of sliding out the cartridge, according to a downward displacement of the cartridge housing 15 after removing the sheet 22 from the open end 14, that is, a downward displacement of the cartridge housing 15 equivalent to thickness of the sheet 22 and sheet-tearing member 23. Furthermore, there is disposed a downwardly projected plate g having a inclined plate f on the side of said handle 27 so as to allow the insertion of the cartridge. Accordingly, as illustrated in FIG. 4, by inserting the cartridge housing 15 into the toner receptacle 11 in the state of engaging the guide members 17, 18 of the cartridge housing 15, after removing the cover 24 therefrom, with guide rails 29, 29 formed between said toner hopper 10 and cartridge case 13. The cam portion d at the upper corner edge on the front end of the cartridge housing in the direction of inserting the cartridge housing is engaged with said inclined plate f of downwardly projected plate g so that the handle 27, member 13b disposed between the slits and hooking member 28 are flexibly deformed in the direction of releasing the hooking, that is, upwardly, to thereby enable to insert the cartridge housing 15 into the toner receptacle with simple one touch operation. As illustrated in FIG. 5, in the state that the cartridge housing 15 is inserted in the toner receptacle 11 at a predetermined position where rib like member 20 on the front end of cartridge housing 15 in the direction of insertion is caught by a upwardly projected stopper 30 of the toner replenishing hopper 10, said hooking member 28 returns to the initial position and is engaged with the slightly lower position than said cam portion at the upper corner edge on the front end of cartridge housing 15 in the direction of sliding out the cartridge, thereby preventing the coming off of cartridge housing 15 from the toner receptacle 11. In the state as described above, as illustrated in FIG. 7, by tearing said label a off, the sheet 22 closely adhered around the open end 14 of the cartridge housing 15 is torn off and toner stored in the cartridge housing 15 is supplied into the hopper 10. Futher, as described above, said hooking portion e of the hooking member 28 is engaged with the cam portion d disposed at the upper corner edge on the front end of cartridge housing in the direction of sliding out of the cartridge after removal of the sheet 22, thereby making it possible to prevent the movement of cartridge housing 15 due to mechanical vibrations of the machine. In order to replenish said hopper 10 with toner again, as illustrated in FIG. 6 and FIG. 8, the handle 21 is caught and pulled by a finger, therby moving the hooking member 28 in the direction of releasing hooking with the action of said cam portion d. Accordingly, the empty cartridge housing 15 can be easily slided out without any particular releasing operation. Otherwise, the hooking can be released by the use of handle 27 as occasion demands. In the case of detaching the empty cartridge housing 15, there may be utilized the cover 24 again which was removed from the toner replenishing cartridge A at the last time replenishment and kept, or a cover 24 removed from the toner replenishing cartridge A to supply toner now. The open side ends b, b of the rail portions 25, 25 of the cover 24 on the opposite side of stopper 26 are engaged with the rib like member 19, said handle 21 is pulled in the state of supporting the cover 24 and the empty cartridge housing 15 is taken out from the toner receptacle 11 so as to relatively cover the open end 14 of the empty cartridge housing 15 with the cover 24 until said rib like member 19 catches the stopper 26, thereby avoiding overrun of the cartridge housing 15 beyond the cover 24. Accordingly, as illustrated in FIG.9, the empty cartridge housing 15 can be taken out conveniently without dropping and/or scattering the toner remaining in the empty cartridge housing 15 around the machine. Subsequent insertion of the cartridge housing 15 into the toner receptacle 11 for toner replenishment can be carried out as described above. In the embodiment as described above, although said tearing member 23 of the sheet 22 is formed by elongating the sheet 22 itself, several modifications that, for example, a tape like member separated from the sheet 22 is connected to the sheet 22 etc., can be carried out. Further, although by forming a convex cam portion d at the upper corner edge on the front end of cartridge housing 15 in the direction of sliding out the cartridge, said hooking member 28 is moved in the direction of releasing hooking along with the detachment of cartridge housing 15 after the removal of the sheet, the cam portion d may be formed on said hooking member 28, as illustrated in FIG. 10, or the cam portions d may be formed on both the hooking member 28 and cartridge housing 15.

Claims: 1. A toner replenishing cartridge comprising guide members disposed on both sides of the open end of a cartridge housing to restrict the direction for the cartridge to be inserted and taken out, a removable flexible sheet to seal said open end, a sheet-tearing member formed by folding said sheet at the front end of the cartridge housing into the reverse direction for the cartridge to be inserted, a cover slidable along said guide members covering said sheet-tearing member and said sheet, a stopper functioning to prevent said cover from being slided in the direction for the sheet to be torn from the cartridge housing by the action of the sheet-tearing member in the state that the sheet-tearing member and the sheet are being covered by said cover. 2. A toner replenishing device comprising a toner cartridge whose open end is sealed by a flexible sheet conected to a sheet-tearing member folded at the front end of the cartridge housing into the reverse direction of a cartridge to be inserted and which being disposed detachably to a toner receptacle in the axial direction of a toner supplying roller, a hooking member functioning to prevent dislocation of the toner cartridge being inserted at a predetermined position in said toner receptacle by hooking that toner cartridge being disposed in the toner replenishing device so as to be movable in the direction of releasing the hooking following the insertion of the toner cartridge, and a cam portion functionig to move said hooking member in the direction of releasing the hooking along with sliding out the cartridge housing after the removal of the sheet being disposed on at least either said hooking member or cartridge housing.

Inventors: ODA, KENJI, SHIBATA, KIYOSHI
Applicants: MITA INDUSTRIAL CO. LTD.
Application year: 1987
Main classification: G03G15
IPC codes: G03G15