Contact type charging device

Abstract: A contact type charging device (2) having a contact member (21) for making contact with the surface of a charge bearing member (1) so as to apply an electric charge to the surface in an image forming apparatus of the electrophotographic type, and having a charging device (2) which has a high resistance resistor (24) connected serially to the contact member (21) so as to apply a voltage to the contact member (21) therethrough. The contact type charging (21) device has a regulating member (26) for regulating the upper limit of the absolute value of the voltage applied to the contact member (21) to prevent excessive current flow to the contact member (21), or has a regulating member (26) for regulating the lower limit of the absolute value of the voltage applied to the contact member (21) to prevent a greater than necessary drop of the voltage applied to the charge bearing member (1).

Description: The present invention relates to a contact type charging device for imparting an electrical charge to a charge receiving member, for example, an electrostatic latent image bearing member or toner image transfer member, in an electrophotographic image forming process, and more specifically relates to a contact type charging device used in electrophotographic type copying apparatus, printers and the like wherein contact is made with the surface of an electrostatic latent image bearing member to impart an electrical charge to said surface prior to the formation of an electrostatic latent image thereon, and wherein contact is made with a transfer member to transfer to a transfer member a toner image formed on the surface of an electrostatic latent image bearing member. Generally, in copying apparatus and printers of the electrophotographic type, a corona charger is used as the charging device for toner image transfers and charging the electrostatic latent image bearing member. In recent years, however, organic photosensitive members have been used as electrostatic latent image bearing members, the charging potential of said organic photosensitive members having a negative polarity, whereas a corona charger produces ozone (O 3 ) or nitrous oxides (NO x ) via the corona discharge requiring a large current of negative polarity, which is disadvantageous in terms of environmental pollution. Alternative proposals include charging devices of the contact type which impart electrical charges by having an electrically conductive brush, roller, blade and the like come into contact with a transfer member or an electrostatic latent image bearing member such as a photosensitive member and the like, wherein a voltage is applied to the member via said contact. Such charging devices of the contact type do not produce environmental pollutants such as ozone and the like. The amount of the electrical charge imparted to the electrostatic latent image bearing member, e.g., photosensitive member, through the amount of electrical current varies greatly in accordance with the contact type of charging device. The amount of the aforesaid electric current affects the resistance value of the contact element of the charging device, i.e., the charging brush and the like that make contact with the electrostatic latent image bearing member, said resistance value varying in accordance with environmental conditions such as temperature and humidity. An example of a brush charging device is shown in FIG. 1A. The charge brush 91 of the aforesaid device is arranged so as to make contact with the surface of the rotatably driven electrostatic latent image bearing member (photosensitive drum in this instance) 92, and a voltage is applied to said brush from a power supply 93. When the total resistance of the brush 91 including all brush fibers is expressed as Rb and the power supply voltage is expressed as Vo, the equivalent circuit is as shown in FIG. 1B. Vb is the voltage applied to the brush 91. In this circuit, the charging current Ic supplied to the brush 91 is expressed as Vb/Rb. Since Vb=Vo (constant), when the brush resistance Rb changes, the current Ic changes as indicated by line B in FIG. 3. Environmental conditions were set at highs H/H (high temperature/high humidity of 30°C and 85% relative humidity RH) and lows L/L (low temperature/low humidity of 10°C and 15% relative humidity RH). When the brush voltage Vb was changed experimentally under the aforesaid environmental conditions, the actual changes in the charge current Ic are expressed by line H/H (high temperature/high humidity) and line L/L (low temperature/low humidity) in FIG. 3. Accordingly, under the aforesaid H/H and L/L conditions when the brush voltage Vb=Vo, the dispersion of the charge current Ic is expressed as B in FIG. 3. The charging potential of the surface of the photosensitive drum 92 changes depending on the environmental conditions, and results in a dispersion in image density. In addition to the aforesaid disadvantage caused through environmental fluctuations, further disadvantages arise when, for example, the surface of the photosensitive drum 92 has pin holes. When the conductive substrate is exposed on the photosensitive drum 92 through the aforesaid pin holes, the brush 91 comes into contact with said conductive substrate such that a leak is produced between the brush 91 and the substrate of the photosensitive drum. This leak causes excessive current to flow to the brush 91 which may damage or burn the brush 91. The methods considered to eliminate the previously described disadvantages include connecting a resistor 94, which has a very large resistance value compared to the resistor Rb, between the power supply 93 and the charge brush 91, as shown in FIG. 2A. In this case, if the resistance value of the additional resistor is Ro, the equivalent circuit can be expressed as in FIG. 2B. Accordingly, the charge current Ic equals Vo/(Ro+Rb), and when the resistance value Ro is made greatly larger than the value Rb there is minimal fluctuation in the current Ic regardless of some fluctuation in the value Rb due to environmental changes. Therefore, the dispersion of the surface potential of the photosensitive drum induced through environmental changes can be controlled and minimized. When the brush voltage Vb fluctuates, the theoretical change in the current Ic can be expressed by line A in FIG. 3. Actually, the aforesaid line A moves within a range between the previously described H/H line and the L/L line, such that the dispersion in the in the charge current Ic induced by environmental changes is suppressed to the range a, which is much smaller than the conventional dispersion width b. Even when the photosensitive drum has pinholes, the current flow between the brush 91 and the substrate of the photosensitive drum is minimal, thereby allowing control of any excessive current flowing to the brush 91. However, when a resistor 94 is interposed between the charge brush 91 and the power supply 93, or for some reason current flows from the power supply 93 while the photosensitive drum 92 is stopped, the photosensitive drum 92 is overcharged which causes insulation breakdown of the photosensitive drum 92 and deterioration of the photosensitive member characteristics, and giving rise to the disadvantage of adherence of reverse-charged toner during reverse developing. Furthermore, when the transfer paper is wrapped on the photosensitive drum 92 and extremely large contact resistance is produced between the brush 91 and the photosensitive drum 92, causing a rise in the charge brush potential and leakage to peripheral components. An example of a transfer device is described hereinafter. In image forming apparatus of the electrophotographic type, transfer devices which transfer by feeding a recording medium between a photosensitive member and a transfer roller to which is applied a bias voltage having a polarity opposite of the toner polarity are well known as a method for transferring to a recording medium a toner image formed on the surface of a photosensitive member. In the transfer devices of the aforesaid type, when a constant-voltage power supply is directly connected to apply a bias voltage to the transfer roller, the electrical resistance of the transfer roller itself fluctuates in accordance with environmental conditions (particularly humidity), so that when the recording medium moisture absorption state changes, the value of the electrical current flowing to the recording medium from the transfer roller (a factor of variability in transfer characteristics, hereinafter referred to as "transfer current") also changes. That is, excellent transfers may not be accomplished depending on the environment. Transfer devices have been proposed (e.g., Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 56-35159) wherein resistors having a high resistance value are connected (serially) intermediately between the transfer roller and the constant-voltage power supply. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the construction of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus using the aforesaid transfer device. The image forming apparatus briefly comprises a photosensitive drum 101, charge brush 102, developing device 105, transfer device 161 of the roller type, and feed device (only guide plate 111 is labeled). The transfer device 161 of the roller type comprises a transfer roller 161a, power supply (constant-voltage power supply) 162, and bias resistors Rs, and supplies a voltage having the opposite polarity to the toner polarity from said power supply 162 to the transfer roller 161a via the bias resistors Rs. FIG. 5 illustrates an equivalent circuit of the aforesaid device. The resistor R is the combined resistors of the transfer roller 161a, recording medium 112 and photosensitive drum 101. In the aforesaid transfer device, when the current flowing to the transfer roller 161a increases and decreases, fluctuations in the current supplied to the transfer roller 161a are prevented by automatically reducing or increasing the transfer bias voltage applied to the transfer roller 161a. That is, if the value of the bias resistors Rs is sufficiently greater than the value of the combined resistors R, the change in the transfer current is only slight even if the electric capacity of the recording medium changes. In the transfer device 161 of the previously described construction, however, when current from the transfer roller 161a leaks so as to excessively flow to the guide plate 111 or the like of the image forming apparatus frame on high humidity conditions and is conducted to the surface of the recording medium 112, a greater than necessary voltage drop is produced by the bias resistor Rs, whereupon the required voltage is no longer applied to the transfer roller 161a. Therefore, sufficient transfer current does not flow to the recording medium 112 and suitable transfer is not accomplished. EP-A-0 330 820 discloses a brush contact type charging unit for an image forming apparatus having a constant-current regulated power supply for charging a photosensitive medium uniformly. A main object of the present invention is to provide a contact type charging device capable of applying a stable desired electric charge to the surface of a charge bearing member in an image forming apparatus of the electrophotographic type. Another object of the present invention is to provide a contact type charging device capable of preventing damage to the contact member by excessive current flow. A further object of the present invention is to provide a contact type charging device capable of preventing overcharging of the surface of the charge bearing member and current leakage to peripheral components. A still further object of the present invention is to provide a contact type charging device capable of preventing a greater than necessary drop of the voltage applied to a charge bearing member on high temperature/high humidity conditions. These and other objects of the present invention are achieved by a contact type charging device according to claim 1. The remaining claims are related to further developments of the invention. A contact type charging device is provided which makes contact with the surface of a charge bearing member so as to apply an electric charge to said surface in an image forming apparatus of the electrophotographic type, said contact type charging device comprising a contact member for making contact with said charge bearing member, a resistor connected serially to said contact member, constant voltage applying means for applying a voltage to said contact member via said resistor, and regulating means for restricting the upper limit of the absolute value of the voltage applied to said contact member. These and other objects, advantages and features of the invention will become apparent from the following description thereof taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings which illustrate specific embodiments of the invention. In the following description, like parts are designated by like reference numbers throughout the several drawings. FIG. 1A is an illustration showing a conventional brush charging device; FIG. 1B is an illustration showing the equivalent circuit of the device in FIG. 1A; FIG. 2A is an illustration showing an improvement of the device of FIG. 1A; FIG. 2B is an illustration showing the equivalent circuit of the device of FIG. 2A; FIG. 3 is a graph showing the relationship between the charge current and the voltage applied to the charge brush of the charging device shown in FIGS. 1 and 2; FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an electrophotographic copying apparatus including a conventional roller transfer device; FIG. 5 shows an equivalent circuit of a conventional roller transfer device; FIG. 6 is a brief section view of a copying apparatus incorporating a first embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 7 shows details of the construction of a part of the copying apparatus of FIG. 6; FIG. 8A shows an equivalent circuit for the embodiment of the charging device of FIG. 1; FIG. 8B is a graph showing the relationship between the charge current and the voltage applied to the charge brush; FIG. 9 shows an equivalent circuit of a modification of the charging device of the first embodiment; FIG. 10 shows an equivalent circuit of another modification of the charging device of the first embodiment; FIGS. 11 shows an equivalent circuit of still another modification of the charging device of the first embodiment. A preferred embodiment of the present invention is described hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 6 shows an embodiment of the contact type charging device of the present invention, and more specifically shows a charging device for charging a photosensitive drum and a copying apparatus incorporating said charging device. The aforesaid copying apparatus is provided with a photosensitive drum 1. The photosensitive drum 1 is a well known organic photosensitive member of the laminate type and the surface of which is provided with an organic photosensitive outermost layer. In the drawing, the photosensitive drum 1 is rotatably driven in the counterclockwise direction at a system speed (drum circumferential speed) of 150 mm/second. The image forming elements described hereinafter are arranged around the photosensitive drum 1 in the direction of rotation. (1) Brush charging device 2 of an embodiment of the present invention: The brush charging device 2 imparts an electrical charge to the surface of the photosensitive drum 1 to achieve a predetermined electric potential of said surface. The brush charging device 2 comprises a charge brush 21 for making contact with the surface of the photosensitive drum 1, conductive support plate 23 for supporting the brush 21, constant-voltage power supply 25 connected to the support plate 23 via a resistor 24, and varistor 26 connected medially to the resistor 24 and the brush 21, as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7. The resistor 24 has a resistance of 150 MΩ, and the power supply 25 is a direct current (DC) power source supplying -2.0 kV. The charge brush 21 comprises conductive fibers such as rayon, nylon and the like containing carbon, which are embedded in a conductive fabric 22 fixedly attached to the support plate 23. The fibers of the brush 21 have a thickness of about 30 µm and a length of 5 mm. The total resistance value of the brush 21 is 5x10 6 Ω per 1 cm length in the rotational axis direction of the photosensitive drum when 1 kV voltage is applied. The spacing between the support plate 23 and the photosensitive drum 1 is set at 4 mm, i.e., set so that the brush 21 pressed the surface of the drum 1 by about 1 mm. If the resistance of the brush 21 which changes in response to environmental changes is designated Rb, the voltage applied to the brush 21 is designated Vb, the resistance value of the resistor 24 is designated Ro, and the voltage of the power supply 25 is designated Vo, the equivalent circuit of the charging device 2 is as shown in FIG. 8A. When the voltage Vb changes, the theoretical change in the charge current Ic is expressed by line L in FIG. 8B. In FIG. 8B, lines H/H and L/L are identical to the lines H/H and L/L of FIG. 3. The upper limit voltage applied to the charge brush 21 by the varistor 26 is regulated at Vc (varistor voltage), said voltage being set at the intersection position with line L/L, or slightly beyond said intersection position. (2) Image exposure optical system 4 The optical system 4 projects an image of an original document disposed on the glass document platen 19 through lenses and mirrors onto the surface of the photosensitive drum 1 so as to form a positive electrostatic latent image thereon. (3) Developing device 5 The developing device 5 is a well known magnetic brush type device provided with a developing material mixing/transporting means 53 and developing sleeve 51 functioning as a developing electrode. As shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the developing sleeve 51 has a built in magnetic roller 52 which is rotatably driven in the clockwise direction in the drawing, and is connected to the power supply 54 which supplies a bias voltage thereto, as shown in FIG. 7. The developing material comprises a mixture of a magnetic carrier and an insulated toner. The toner is triboelectrically charged with the opposite polarity to that of the charging device 2. A developing bias voltage having the same polarity as the charge brush 21 is supplied from the power supply 54 to the developing sleeve 51. The power supply 54 is a Dc power source supplying -250 V, and the toner is a positive polarity toner. (4) Transfer charger 6 The transfer charger 6 imparts an electric field to act on the copy paper passing and adhered to the bottom of the photosensitive drum 1, and the toner image formed by the aforesaid developing device 5 is transferred onto said copy paper. As shown in FIG. 7, a reverse polarity voltage to that of the charge polarity of the insulated toner is applied to the charge wire from the power supply 61. The power supply 61 is a DC power source supplying -6.0 kV. (5) Separation charger 7 The separation charger 7 eliminates the charge imparted to the copy paper by the transfer charger so as to separate the copy paper from the surface of the photosensitive drum 1 after the toner image transfer. As shown in FIG. 7, an alternating current (AC) voltage is supplied form the power supply 71 to the charge wire. The power supply 71 is an AC power source supplying ±5.7 kV (RMS) at 400 Hz. (6) Cleaning device 8 The cleaning device 8 removes residual toner from the surface of the photosensitive drum 1 by means of a blade. (7) Eraser lamp 9 The eraser lamp 9 removes the residual electric charge remaining on the surface of the photosensitive drum 1 by means of a light exposure. On the other hand, the copy paper is prestacked in the automatic feed cassette 11, the uppermost sheet of the stack is fed sheet by sheet by means of the rotation of the feed roller 10, and is transported to the transfer portion synchronously with the toner image formed on the drum 1 with a predetermined timing via the timing roller 12. After the transfer is completed, the copy sheet is transported to the fixing device 14 by a transport belt 15 provided with an air suction means (not illustrated), and after the toner image is fixed thereon the copy sheet is discharged to a discharge tray 15. The device described above was installed in a copying apparatus and the charge potential on the surface of the photosensitive drum 1 imparted by the charging device 2 was checked; the findings are described below. N/N indicates the normal environmental conditions (20°C, 60% RH); H/H indicates high temperature/high humidity conditions (30°C, 85% RH); and L/L indicates the low temperature/low humidity conditions (10°C, 15% RH). Drum surface charge potential under conditions N/N, H/H and L/L N/N: -700 V H/H: -730 V L/L: -650 V Difference Δ between H/H and L/L = 80 V Even when environmental conditions change from L/L to H/H the fluctuation is only 80 V. This level of change does not effect the image. Excessive current flow to the brush 21 is suppressed even in the presence of pinholes and the like in the surface of the photosensitive drum 1 because the high resistance resistor 24 is provided. Therefore, the anxiety of damage to and burning of the brush 21 by an excessive current is alleviated. Furthermore, because the upper limit of the voltage applied to the charge brush 21 is regulated at the voltage Vc via the varistor 26, (1) overcharging of the drum 1 is prevented even if current is supplied by the power supply 25 while the drum 1 is stopped for whatever reason, and (2) current leakage from the charge brush 21 to peripheral components is avoided even when an extremely large contact resistance is produced because a copy sheet is wrapped around the photosensitive drum 1 and is interposed between the charge brush 21 and the drum 1. The charge potential of the surface of the photosensitive drum 1 was checked under the following charging device conditions to provide comparative examples. Resistor 24: absent Power supply 25: negative polarity of -1.0 kV N/N: -710 V H/H: -790 V L/L: -600 V Difference Δ between H/H and L/L = 190 V When environmental conditions change from L/L to H/H, the fluctuation was 190 V. This level of change greatly affected image density. The value of the resister 24 in the charging device 2 was changed variously including the afore-said resistor value 150 MΩ. The total resistance of the charge brush 21, that is, the resistance value per centimeter in axial direction of the drum 1 times the brush length (in this case, 25 cm) was preset at 125 MΩ and 50 MΩ, and the changes in image density were checked under environmental conditions ranging from H/H to L/L; the findings are shown in Table 1. In Table 1, the symbol O indicates no change, the symbol Δ indicates a change, and the symbol X indicates a large change. As can be readily understood from Table 1, the value of the resistor 24 is preferably set at a value greater than the total resistance value of the charge brush 21. total resistance resistor 24 20 MΩ 50 MΩ 150 MΩ 200 MΩ 125 MΩ X ▵ O O 50 MΩ ▵ O O O The present invention may be adapted for use in reverse developing. Although the upper limit of the voltage applied to the charge brush 21 was regulated using the varistor 26 in the previously described embodiment, a Zener diode may alternatively be used for said voltage control instead of the aforesaid varistor. In the preceding embodiment, the upper limit control voltage is determined from the grounded side by the varistor 26, the upper limit of the voltage applied to the charge brush 21 may be controlled by regulating the lower limit of the voltage of the aforesaid high resistance resistor 24 (resistance value Ro), as shown in FIGS. 9, 10 and 11. In the upper limit voltage control of FIG. 9, a Zener diode 261 is used to set the upper limit control voltage from the power supply voltage Vo side. In the drawing, R1 is a resistor, and D1 is a diode. A varistor may be used instead of the Zener diode 261. In the case of this control, the voltage (Vo-Vc) of FIG. 8B corresponds with the Zener voltage. In the control of FIG. 10, the upper limit control voltage is accomplished through divided voltage output using the resistors R2 and R3. In the drawing, D2 is a diode. In the control of FIG. 11, the power supply 25 of the previous embodiment is constructed in two parts (voltage V1 and voltage V2 parts) to accomplish upper limit voltage control. D3 is a diode. The voltages V1 and V2 may be obtained, for example, by using two transistors or by tapping output from one transistor. In the case of this control, the voltage Vc of FIG. 8B corresponds with the voltage V1, and the voltage difference (Vo-Vc) corresponds with the voltage V2. Although the present invention has been described above in terms of the brush charging device 2 for charging the surface of a photosensitive drum, it is to be noted that the present invention may be applied to, for example, a transfer device of the transfer roller type for transferring a toner image from a photosensitive member to a copy paper. The previously described effect of the charge brush can be obtained by preventing overcharging of the transfer roller, and preventing current leakage from the transfer roller through pinholes in the photosensitive member. An example of preventing overcharging of the charge bearing member and excessive current flow to the contact member via the present invention has been described above.

Claims: A contact type charging device provided in an image forming apparatus and having: a resistor (24), a constant voltage applying means (25) for applying a constant voltage to said resistor (24), a contact member (2) for making contact with a charge bearing member (1) so as to apply an electric charge to the surface thereof, the resistor (24) being serially connected between said contact member (2) and said constant voltage appyling means (25); and regulating means (26) for restricting the upper limit of the absolute value of the voltage applied to said contact member (2). The contact type charging device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the resistance value of said resistor (24) is higher than the resistance of said contact member (2). The contact type charging device as claimed in claim 1, wherein said regulating means (26) restricts the upper limit of the absolute value by restricting the lower limit of the voltage of the resistor. The contact type charging device as claimed in claim 1, wherein said contact member (2) is a charge brush and said charge bearing member (1) is a photosensitive member. The contact type charging device as claimed in claim 1, wherein said regulating means (26) includes a varistor parallelly connected with said contact member.

Inventors: OKA TATEKI, SAITO HITOSHI, TANAKA YASUO, UNO KOJI, OKA, TATEKI, SAITO, HITOSHI, TANAKA, YASUO, UNO, KOJI, OKA, TATEKI, C/O MINOLTA CAMERA K. K., SAITO, HITOSHI, C/O MINOLTA CAMERA K. K., TANAKA, YASUO, C/O MINOLTA CAMERA K. K., UNO, KOJI, C/O MINOLTA CAMERA K. K.
Applicants: MINOLTA CO LTD, MINOLTA CO., LTD.
Application year: 1992
Main classification: G03G15
IPC codes: G03G15