A method of preventing toner leakage during pre-mounting transportation of a new developing unit

Abstract: This invention relates to a developing unit for use in developing a latent image on a medium, wherein a cartridge setting portion (5a) of the developing unit (15) is provided with a means for preventing the leak of the developing powder during the transportation of the developing unit (15). The leak preventing means consists of a tubular member (210) having an opening (240) and formed to a shaped identical with that of a supplementary toner cartridge, whereby the leak of the toner can be prevented simply.

Description: Technical Field The present invention relates to a method of preventing toner leakage during pre-mounting transportation of a new developing unit. Background Art An image forming apparatus such as a duplicator or a printer utilizing toner of the electrophotographic system and electrostatic recording system provides a developing apparatus comprising a developing means which supplies toner on a medium and develops an electrostatic latent image formed on the medium and a developing chamber accommodating such developing means and toner to be supplied to the medium from the developing means. Since the toner in the developing chamber is gradually reduced after use, this developing apparatus is also provided with a cartridge mounting section on which the cartridge accommodating toner therein is mounted and the toner is supplied to the developing chamber via this cartrige. Recently, in view of facilitating maintenance and replacing work of the developing apparatus (particularly, the carrier which has passed its life is considered as the object, in case 2-element developer consisting of toner and carrier is used), the developing apparatus as a whole is formed as a unit, as is described in the official gazette of the Japanese Patent Laid-lopen No. 62-17763, for example, and thereby it can be mounted/dismounted to/from the image forming apparatus. However, such developing unit has been accompanied by a problem that the toner spills from the opening of cartridge mounting section due to vibration during transportation since transportation is carried out while the toner is accommodated within the developing chamber. Patent Abstracts of Japan, Vol. 9, No. 289 (and JP-A-60 128468) discloses a copying machine with a developing tank which is separately provided from a toner tank which can be placed on the developing tank to supply toner to the developing tank. A shutter 6 is employed to seal the developing tank when the toner tank is not in place on the developing tank. Patent Abstracts of Japan, Vol. 10, No. 101 (and JP-A-60 233678) discloses that a toner container is to be mounted in a toner container holder, and that this toner container can also be used as a receptacle for toner waste. The toner container is placed in the holder and toner is emptied from the toner cartridge into the toner compartment of the developing unit through an opening in the cartridge and a toner supply opening of the toner compartment. Then, the (empty) toner cartridge is rotated until its opening faces an opening through which waste toner is delivered. A waste toner feed delivers waste toner to the opening. Disclosure of the Invention According to the present invention there is provided a method of preventing toner leakage during pre-mounting transportation of a new developing unit having a toner cartridge mounting portion, an empty toner case in communication with the toner cartridge mounting portion, a developing tank having a supply of toner encased therein prior to transportation, and a toner supply mechanism disposed between the developing tank and the toner case, characterised by the steps of: placing a hollow cylindrical member having an opening in the toner cartridge mounting portion; and positioning the opening opposed to a connecting section provided between the toner cartridge mounting portion and the toner case so that toner from the developing tank enters the hollow cylindrical member and is thus prevented from leaking during transportation. With the problem described above, it is thus the object of the present invention to provide for the prevention of toner spills from the opening of cartridge mounting section even if vibration is applied to the developing unit during transportation. Moreover, it is another object of the present invention to make provisions which allow transportion of toner while it is enclosed within the developing unit and thereby facilitates mounting of the developing unit thereto. In order to attain the object described above, the present invention makes provisions for a developing unit for developing a latent image on a medium, comprising a developing means which supplies toner on a medium to develop latent image, a developing chamber acommodating the developing means and toner, a toner case for encasing toner to be supplied to the developing chamber, a developing toner supply means for supplying the toner to the developing chamber from the toner case, a cartridge mounting section for allowing mounting of cartrige accommodating the toner therein to supply the toner to the toner case and a preventing means which is mounted to the cartridge mounting section during the transportation of developing unit to prevent leak of toner in the developing chamber to the outside of developing unit via the cartridge mounting section. In the constitution described above, the toner is previously encased, before transportation, to the developing chamber of developing unit and a preventing means prepared is mounted to the cartridge mounting section. Under this condition, the preventing means perfectly seals the cartridge mounting section and thereby prevents entrance of humidity into the interior. Therefore, solidification of toner in the developing unit can be prevented. The developing unit is transported under this condition, but the toner overflowing the developing chamber to the area near the cartridge mounting port (mounting port of preventing means during the transportation is stopped to spill by the preventing means mounted to the cartridge mounting section and is no longer leak to the outside of unit. Moreover, as this preventing means, a cylindrical member having an opening is used and in this case the circumferencial position of cylindrical member is determined so that the opening is located at the lower side. Thereby, the overflowing developer enters the cylindrical member passing through the opening. Accordingly, if the preventing means does not perfectly close the cartridge mounting section, namely even if a certain insertion gap exist between the cylindrical member and cartridge mounting section, leak of toner to the outside can be prevented. Here, the toner collected in the cylindrical member is generally supplied to the developing chamber by the toner sypply means during operation. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. 1 illustrates a constitution of an electrophotographic recording apparatus; Fig. 2 illustrates an example where an upper frame is opened; Fig. 3 illustrates a constitution of the upper frame; Fig. 4 illustrates relationship between the upper frame and a lower frame; Fig. 5 shows a side elevation indicating a constitution of a developing unit; Fig. 6 shwos a perspective view indicating a constitution of a toner cartridge; Fig. 7 shows a perspective view indicating the cartridge inserting procedures to a cartridge mounting section of the developing unit; Fig. 8 illustrates mounting condition of cylindrical member; Fig. 9 illustrates packing procedures of the developing unit; and Fig. 10 shows a perspective view indicating mounting procedures of the other cylindrical member. Description of the Preferred Embodiment An embodiment of the present invention will be described hereunder in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Fig. 1 illustrates a constitution of an electrophotographic recording apparatus. In this figure, a photosensitive drum 11A is rotatably driven by a rotating motor not illustrated using a belt transmission mechanism to form an image with process members such as a precharger, an exposure optical system, a developing unit, a transcription unit and a cleaner; a precharger 11B uniformly charges the entire part of photosensitive drum 11A; a laser optical unit 14 forms an electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive drum 11A by utilizing a semiconductor laser, a rotatable polygon mirror and a f-0 lens and driving the semiconductor laser depending on the information to be recorded; a developing unit 15 is removably provided, as described later, and develops an electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive drum 11A with the toner; a transcription unit 13, comprising a transcription charger in the left side in Fig. 1 and an AC separator in the right side, is energized in the direction of photosensitive drum 11A with a spring 22 and a guide member 23 and is provided with two pairs of rollers 21 which in contact with pressure with non image forming region of the phososensitive drum 11A in order to transcribe a toner image on the photosensitive drum 11A to a cut sheet type recording paper transferred; a fixing unit 16 is provided with a thermo roller and a pressurizing roller in order to permanently fixe the toner image on the recording paper. A sheet cassette 17 is provided with a supporting plate 114 on which many sheets of cut sheet type recording papers for transcription of toner image are stacked, a spring for energizing upward the supporting plate 114 and a slit 45 for permitting passage of papers fed from the other cassette not illustrated and arranged at the lower stage thereof, and is mounted removably in the left side in the figure. A pick roller 27 is provided for feeding papers within the sheet cassette 17; a feed roller 28 for transferring supplied paper through a transfer route 29; a standby roller 30 for permitting a pinch roller 47 provided in the photosensitive drum unit comprising the precharger 11B, cleaner 46 and photosensitive drum 11A to be in contact with pressure therewith and sending papers to the transcription part 31 by being rotatably and synchronously driven by rotation of the photosensitive drum 11A. A pretranscription sheet guide 12 is provided for guiding a paper having passed the standby roller 30 to the transcription part 31. This sheet guide is mounted to an arm 20 rotatable around a shaft 19 and can be located to the desired position by being in contact with a stopper 26, by its own weight, provided to the transcription unit 13. A sheet guide 32 is provided for guiding papers after image transcription to the fixing unit 16. The paper having fixed an image through the fixing unit 16 is guided and transferred along the sheet guide 34 by the transfer rollers 35, 36, 37 and finally ejected on an exhaust stacker 38. Moreover, as shown in Fig. 2, the upper frame 41 of the frames divided into the upper and lower frames on the paper transfer route is provided rotatably around the shaft 40 provided to the lower frame 39 and 44, 43 designate paper transfer detection sensors and 42, manual paper inserting port. 46 designates a cleaner consisting, for example, of a fur brush to remove the toner remaining on the photosensitive drum 11A. The upper frame 41 is provided, removably in the axial direction of the photosensitive drum 11A, with a photosensitive drum unit 50, as shown in Fig. 3, comprising a photosensitive drum 11A, a cleaner 46, a precharger 11B and a pinch roller 47. The photosensitive drum unit 50 is mounted to the upper frame 41 or can be removed therefrom by being guided along the guide rails 51a, 51b. In addition, after the photosensitive drum 50 is mounted to the upper frame 41, it can be fixed thereto by screwing a screw 52a to a screwing hole 52b. On the other hand, the developing unit 15 can also be removably mounted to the upper frame 41 by being guided toward the upper frame 41 along the guide rail 53. This removing operation is carried out when the carrier of the double-element developer consisting of the carrier and toner enclosed within the developing unit 15 reaches its life expectancy. After the developing unit 15 is mounted, the guide holes 15a1, 15a2, 15a3 bored to a side plate 15a of the developing unit 15 are inserted to the guide pins 54a 54b, 54c provided in the side of upper frame 41 for positioning. The relative positioning of shaft-to-shaft distance between the photosensitive drum 11A and magnet roller in the developing unit 15 is carried out by mutually setting in contact rotatable disks respectively provided to the shafts of a gear fitted to a drive shaft for driving the photosensitive drum 11A and a gear for rotating magnet roller in the developing unit 15. The toner is also supplied to this developing unit 15 by mounting a toner catridge of the well known constitution to the toner cartridge case 15b from tne opening thereof under the condition that the developing unit 15 is attached to the upper frame 41. In Fig. 3, a laser optical unit 14 is not illustrated and this unit 14 is mounted to the mounting area 41a of upper frame 41. Accordingly, the photosensitive drum 11A is irradiated with the laser beam through the opening 41b provided to the upper frame 41. On the other hand, this upper frame 41 is provided opposed to the lower frame 39 as shown in Fig. 4, and the pinch roller 47, photosensitive drum 11A, pinch roller 35 pressurized in contact with the transfer roller 35 and a protruded part 15b provided at the botton part of developing unit 15 form the upper transfer section, while the standby roller 30, pretransfer sheet guide 12, sheet guide 32 and transfer roller 35 form the lower transfer section. In Fig. 4, the photosensitive drum unit and developing unit 15 are mounted on the upper frame 41 and the toner cartridge can be mounted to the toner cartridge case 15b and removed therefrom under this condition. Moreover, the fixing unit 16 is removably mounted to the lower frame 39. Namely, the fixing unit 16 is positioned to the lower frame 39 with the guide pins 16a, 16b, a couple of screws 55a, 55b provided to the fixing unit 16 are engaged with the screw hole 39x of the lower frame 39 and thereby the fixing unit 16 may be tightened to the lower frame 39. Fig. 5 illustrates a constitution of the developing unit described above. In this figure, a developing roller 3 is constituted by a stationarily arranged magnet roller and a rotatable cylindrical sleeve made of nonmagnetic material comprising such magnet roller. With rotation of this sleeve, a magnetic brush is formed by toner and carrier and an electrostatic latent image formed on the photosensitive drum 11A provided opposed to the magnetic brush can be developed. The double-element developer 100 is composed of toner and carrier and is encased within the developing tank 4 together with the developing roller 3. At the bottom of developing tank 4, a toner concentration sensor is provided to measure the concentration of toner for the carrier. The developing tank 4 also comprises a flow restriction plate 4b which restricts flow of double-element developer 100 restricted by the blades 4a, 4b to restrict height of magnetic brush formed by the developing roller 3 only to the one direction for the width direction of photosensitive drum 11A and a screw-shaped stirring roller 2 which sends the double-element developer 100 in the developing tank 4 in the reverse direction to the flowing direction at the flow restriction plate 4b so that the toner supplied from the toner supply roller described later and the double-element developer 100 falling from the flow restriction plate 4b can be stirred. The toner supply section 5 is provided integrally with the developing tank 4 and also comprises a cartridge mounting section 5a on which the toner cartridge described later is mounted and a toner case 5b in which the toner supplied from the toner cartridge mounted on the cartridge mounting section 5a is reserved. Moreover, in the boundary to the developing tank 4 at the lower part of toner supply section 5, is provided a toner supply roller 6 made of a sponge material to supply the toner in the toner case 5b to the developing tank 4. This toner supply roller 6 is intermittently driven (the driving system is not illustrated) and rotated depending on the toner concentration detection result of concentration sensor 7 provided at the bottom of developing tank 4. This developing unit 15 is arranged to the predetermined position of the electrophotographic recording apparatus to develop the electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive drum. For the developing, the stirring roller 2 and developing roller 3 are rotated. Thereby, the double-element developer 100 in the developing tank 4 is supplied to the developing roller 3 by the stirring roller 2. The developer or the developing roller 3 is carried to the developing position (a) through restriction of height by the doctor blade 4a for the development therein. When the development advances and toner concentration of double-element developer 100 is lowered to the specified value, it is detected by the concentration sensor 7 to rotate the toner supply roller 6. Thereby, the toner in the toner supply section 5 is supplied to the developing tank 4 by the toner supply roller 6 for adjustment of concentration. When the toner supply section 5 becomes empty, the sensor not illustrated detects this condition, indicating that the toner must be supplied. In this case, toner can be supplied as explained hereunder. Supply of toner may be done using a well known toner cartridge as shown in Fig. 6. This toner cartridge 110 is for example disclosed in the of official gazette of Japanese Device Application No. 62-41325 Namely, the toner is encased within the cylindrical body 120 of toner cartridge 110. An opening 130 formed on the cylindrical body 120 is closed by a sealing member 140. For the supply of toner, the opening 130 is placed upper side and the toner cartridge 110 is inserted from the opening 5Z of toner supply section 5 while removing the sealing member 140. In this case, as shown in Fig. 7, an extruded area 150 is provided at the end part of cylindrical body 120 in the side of forming the opening 130 and a recessed area 160 corresponding to such extruded area 150 is also provided at the region near the inlet of toner supply section 5. In addition, the extruded area 150 is inserted while engagement with the recessed area 160. Thereby, the opening 130 can certainly be placed in the upper side. Moreover, removing of sealing member 140 can be done easily, as shown in Fig. 6, by bending the sealing member 140 and inserting the cartridge 110 while pulling the end 140a of the sealing member 140. Upon insertion of cartridge 110, the cylindrical body 120 is rotated for 180° by operating a handle 180 of the flange 170 provided to the cylindrical body 12. rhereby, the toner in the cartridge drops from the opening 130 and is supplied to the toner case 5b through a connecting port 5y connecting the cartridge mounting section 5a and the toner case 5b. Here, as described previously, supply of toner by the toner cartridge 110 is repeated for several times and when the carrier or other element reaches its life expectancy, the developing unit 15 is replaced. This developing unit 15 is transported as described hereunder. That is, as shown in Fig. 5, the toner and carrier are sealed within the developing tank 4 of developing unit 15 and meanwhile, the cylindrical member 210 is set to the cartridge mounting section 5a. The cylindrical member 210 is constituted integrally with a side plate 230 with the flange, as shown in Fig. 8, at the one end of cylindrical body 220 engaging with the cartridge mounting section 5a of toner supply section 5 and the opening 240 is formed to the cylindrical body 220. The application procedures of cylindrical member 210 are as follow. This cylindrical member 210 can directly use the cartridge 110 which does not seal the toner therein and is not provided with the sealing member 140. The cylindrical member 210 is not always required to be in the same size and shape as the toner cartridge 110 and it is enough when it can cover the hollow section and connecting inlet 5y and has the opening 240 which allow passage of toner sent from the toner case 5b. In the developing unit, the toner and carrier which are constitutents of double-element developer 100 are encased within the tank 4 before transportation and the prepared cylindrical member 210 is mounted to the cartridge mounting section 5a of the toner supply section 5. In this case, the position in the circumferencial direction of cylindrical member 210 is set so that the opening 240 is located in the lower side and when the cylindrical member is mounted, as shown in Fig. 8, the flange 230a of side plate 230 engages with the circumference 50a of toner cartridge mounting port 50a of toner supply section 5 to seal this area. Under this condition, as shown in Fig. 9, the developing unit 15 is housed within the upper and lower styrene cases 101, 102 and the joint of both cases 101, 102 is sealed with a vinyl tape 103 for the packing. In this case, the exposed area of developing roller 3 and side surface of unit are held by the packings 104 and 105 and moreover aa desiccating agent 106 is put into both cases 101, 102. Under this condition, the toner supply section 5 is perfectly sealed to prevent entry of humidity. Transportion of unit is carried out under this condition but the developer 100 overflowing to the toner case 5b passing through the gap, during the transportion, between the toner case 5b and toner supply roller 6 from the developing tank 4 is stopped by the cylindrical member 210 mounted to the cartridge mounting section 5a and cannot leak to the outside. Since the opening 240 is provided at the lower side of cylindrical member 210, the overflowing developer is collected within the cylindrical member 210 passing through this opening 240. In case the developing unit 15 is to be stored after completion of transportation, the developer 100 in the cylidrical member 210 almost drops into the toner case 5b. The developing unit 15 transported and stored as described above can be mounted to the recording apparatus by unpacking and then mounting it to the specified position of the apparatus. While the cylindrical member 210 is mounted, operation can be strated. Thereby, the toner in the toner case 5b can gradually be returned to the developing tank 4 by the toner supply roller 6. Even if a part of developer 100 is remained within the cylindrical member 210 at the time of mounting, the developer 100 dros due to the vibration during the operation thereof and finally returned perfectly to the developing tank 4. After continuation in operation of the apparatus, when concentration of toner is lowered, supply of toner is required as described. In this case, the cylindrical member 210 is removed and the toner cartridge is mounted in the procedures described above for supply of toner. In above explanation, a particularly designed cylindrical member is used as an example, but the toner cartridge can also be used as the cylindrical member. In this case, it is enough, as shown in Fig. 10, that an empty toner cartridge 110 from which the toner is removed by removing the sealing member 140 is mounted to the cartridge mounting section 5 as indicated by the arrow mark of dotted line with the opening 130 placed in the lower side. Thereafter, as described above, the unit is packed using the packing materials 104, 105 for the purpose of transportation.

Claims: A method of preventing toner leakage during pre-mounting transportation of a new developing unit (15) having a toner cartridge mounting portion (5a), an empty toner case (5b) in communication with the toner cartridge mounting portion (5a), a developing tank (4) having a supply of toner (100) encased therein prior to transportation, and a toner supply mechanism (6) disposed between the developing tank (4) and the toner case (5b), characterised by the steps of: placing a hollow cylindrical member (210) having an opening (240) in the toner cartridge mounting portion (5a); and positioning the opening (240) opposed to a connecting section (5y) provided between the toner cartridge mounting portion (5a) and the toner case (5b) so that toner from the developing tank (4) enters the hollow cylindrical member (210) and is thus prevented from leaking during transportation. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the hollow cylindrical member (21) is formed with the same shape as a toner cartridge.

Inventors: NAGAKURA MASANAO FUJITSU-INADA, NAGAKURA, MASANAO FUJITSU-INADARYO
Applicants: FUJITSU LTD, FUJITSU LIMITED
Application year: 1989
Main classification: G03G15
IPC codes: G03G15