Toner feeding device and cartridge herefor

Abstract: It is a major object of the present invention to break down and level a heap-up of toner built in the hopper (3) through dropping from the cartridge when feeding toner into the hopper (3) and to prevent toner from leakage from the cartridge due to erroneous operation with a remarkably simple and cheap construction. Namely, the leveling member (29) moves a plurality of number of times in line with engaging and disengaging operation of the cartridge for the hopper (3) and opening and closing operation of the cartridge in the same direction of the shutter, thereby causing a heap-up of toner built in the hopper housing of the hopper to be effectively broken down and leveled. Furthermore, only when the shutter is in its closed status for the cartridge, the cartridge can be removed from the opening of the hopper (3).

Description: TONER FEEDING DEVICE This invention relates to a toner feeding device for feeding toner to a toner hopper of a developing unit provided in an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine. Such a toner feeding device is known, for example, from Japanese Patent Laid Open No. SHO-59-34564 and corresponding EP-A-0 102 002. In this known device a cartridge which accommodates toner is removably installed at an opening provided at the upper part of the hopper. The toner accommodated in the cartridge is fed to the hopper through a feeding port installed at the lower part of the cartridge and an accommodating port installed at the opening of the hopper. Furthermore, at this time, a leveling member projected downwards from the opening of the hopper is moved in the same direction as the movement direction of a shutter in response to opening movements of the shutter installed at the feeding port of the cartridge, and the toner fed into the hopper is leveled by the leveling member. After toner is fed into the hopper, the cartridge is removed from the upper part of the hopper. Furthermore, technologies as disclosed by, for example, in Japanese Patent Official Gazettes No. SHO-59-36268, SHO-59-36270 or SHO-62-978 have been proposed to prevent toner from leaking outsides. In conformity therewith the cartridge is locked in movement linked with the mounting action of the cartridge on the hopper or an opening/closing cover installed at the cartridge and the hopper, thereby causing leakage of toner due to erroneous operation to be prevented. Actually however, in a conventional toner feeding device comprising a leveling member as indicated above, there is a shortcoming due to which sufficient leveling effect can not be obtained, because the leveling member moves almost in line with the shutter only when opening the shutter, and heap-up of toner which is made in the hopper through dropping from the cartridge is not well broken down and leveled by the leveling member. The shortcoming is especially remarkable, for example, in the case that a lump of a heap of toner drops toward the hopper from the cartridge with some delay of time after the shutter is opened and the leveling member finishes its action. In the technologies disclosed by each of the above official gazettes which have been proposed for the purpose of preventing leakage of toner toward outside on the occasion of a series of toner feeding work, a lock mechanism and an interlock mechanism are to be installed, respectively, and the construction thereof will be complicated and complex, along with a problem that the production cost thereof will become high. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a toner feeding device which allows to level a heap-up of toner built in the hopper through effectively breaking down by actuating such a leveling member as described above a plurality of number of times. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a cartridge which can be preferably applicable to such a toner feeding device as described above. In order to achieve the above object, a toner feeding device in which a cartridge accommodating toner is removably installed at an opening provided at the upper part of the hopper, and the toner accommodated in the cartridge is fed to the hopper through a feeding port provided at the lower part of the cartridge and an accommodating port provided at the opening of the hopper and at the same time the toner accommodated in the hopper is leveled by actuating a leveling member projected downwards from the opening thereof, the feeding device comprising opening/closing means which is slidably installed at the lower part of the cartridge and is arranged to open and close the feeding port, is characterized in that guide means which is installed at the opening of the hopper to slidingly guide the cartridge in parallelism with the opening and closing direction of the opening/closing means from an engaging and disengaging position of the cartridge to a mounted position thereof where the feeding port is confronted to the accommodating port; and in that the leveling member is shiftably supported in parallelism with the opening and closing direction of the opening/closing means and said opening/closing means is removably engaged with the leveling member at the engaging and disengaging position of the cartridge, and the leveling member is arranged to be actuated in response to the engaging and disengaging operation of the cartridge for the opening and the opening and closing operation of the opening/closing means. In a toner feeding device according to the above construction, as the leveling member is actuated a plurality of number of times in response to the engaging and disengaging operation of the cartridge for an opening of hopper and the opening and closing operation of the opening/closing means when feeding toner, a heap-up of toner which is made in the hopper can be effectively broken and is leveled almost uniformly. In order to achieve the above further object, a toner cartridge which is mounted only when feeding toner and removed after toner feeding is finished, in relation to a hopper which comprises a leveling member for leveling toner and an opening/closing cover which closes a toner accommodating port and is locked by a locking mechanism, is characterized in that opening/closing means for opening and closing a toner feeding port is provided at the body in which toner is accomodated, and which, is provided with a first projection for releasing the locked status in engagement with the locking mechanism when the body is mounted at the hopper and a second projection which enables leveling actions when in engagement with the leveling member. In the toner cartridge according to the above construction, as the first projection comes in engagement with the locking mechanism when the body is mounted at the hopper, and allows the locked status thereof to be released, and at the same time the second projection comes in engagement with the leveling member thereby causing the leveling action thereof to be permitted, opening of the opening/closing member and leveling action of the leveling member can be easily and simply carried out. Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a hopper which constitutes a part of a toner feeding device according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a front sectional view of Fig. 1, Fig. 3 is a plan view showing major parts of Fig. 1, Fig. 4 is a side sectional view of Fig. 3, Fig. 5 is front sectional view of a cartridge which constitutes a part of the toner feeding device, Fig. 6 is a side sectional view of the cartridge, Fig. 7 is a view equivalent to Fig. 2, with the cartridge mounted to the hopper, Fig. 8 is a plan view showing major parts of Fig. 7, Fig. 9A is a view showing a leveling member according to another preferred embodiment, which is applicable to the hopper, Fig. 9B is a cross sectional view-taken along the line E-E' in Fig. 9A, Fig. 9C is a front elevation view of Fig. 9A, Fig. 9D is a cross sectional view taken along the line F-F' in Fig. 9A, Fig. 10 is an explanatory view showing the operating procedures on mounting the cartridge on and removing it from the hopper, Fig. 11 is an explanatory view showing the operating procedures on mounting the cartridge on and removing it from the hopper, Fig. 12 is an explanatory view showing the operating procedures on mounting the cartridge on and removing it from the hopper, Fig. 13 is an explanatory view showing the operating procedures on mounting the cartridge on and removing it from the hopper, Fig. 14 is an explanatory view showing the operating procedures on mounting the cartridge on and removing it from the hopper, Fig. 15 is a plan view of parts shown with an arrow G in Fig. 10, Fig. 16 is an explanatory view showing the disassembled status of the construction shown with an arrow H in Fig. 10, Fig. 17 is an explanatory view showing the disassembled status of the construction shown with an arrow I in Fig. 11, and Fig. 18 is an explanatory view showing a leveling member according to a still another preferred embodiment, which is applicable to the hopper. The preferred embodiments of the present invention are described with reference to the attached drawings for understanding the present invention. Furthermore, the following preferred embodiments are examples of embodiments of the present invention and are not intend to limit the scope of the present invention. A toner feeding device according to the preferred embodiment is constituted so that, as shown in Fig. 1 through Fig. 8, it consists of a hopper 3 of a developing unit 2 arranged in vicinity of the surface of a photosensitive drum 1 and a cartridge 4 which accommodates toner and is removably mounted on the upper part of the hopper 3. The developing unit 2 has a mixer roller 6, an agitating paddle 7, a developing sleeve 8, a doctor plate 9, and a partition plate 10 inside a developing housing 5, and a hopper housing 11 of the hopper 3 is arranged in parallel at the upper part of the developing housing 5. A plurality of toner feeding members 12, 13, 14 and a toner feeding roller 15 are arranged inside the hopper housing 11. As shown in Fig. 5 and Fig. 6, a shutter 18 which opens and closes a toner feeding port 17 opened at the lower part of a cartridge body 16 is provided with a grip 18a and is arranged slidably in the direction of arrows 19a and 19b. A set of projections 20 is provided downwards at both sides of the extreme closing side edge of the shutter 18. The projection 20 comes in engagement with a leveling member described later and is used for mounting and removing operation of the cartridge 4 for the hopper 3 and actuation of the leveling member in line with opening and closing operations of the shutter 18. A set of projections 21 are provided downwards at a position adjacent to the feeding port 17 at the underside of the cartridge body 16. The projection 21 releases the locking of the opening/closing cover described later of the hopper 3 and opens the opening/closing cover in line with the mounting movements of the cartridge 4. As shown in Fig. 1 through Fig. 4, an opening 22 is formed at the upper part of the hopper housing 11 in the hopper 3, and an accommodating port 23 to accommodate toner in the cartridge 4 is established at the opening 22. At both sides in the lengthwise direction of the opening 22, a set of rails 24, which are formed to be roughly L-shaped as observed in the section thereof, are disposed so as to face each other, and an opening/closing cover 25 which opens and closes the accommodating port 23 is fitted and placed in the rails 24 slidably in the direction of arrows 19a and 19b. A positioning projection 26 to mount the cartridge 4 at the hopper 3 is formed at one side edge of the upper face of the opening/closing cover 25, and the opening/closing cover 25 is stopped and fixed by means of a set of hooks 27 at the extreme closing edge side of the accommodating port 23 when it is closed. The hooks 27 are formed of, for example, plate spring member, and are elastically transposable in the up and down direction thereof. As the hooks 27 are pushed downwards by the projections 21 of the cartridge 4 when mounting the cartridge 4 in the opening 22, engagement between the hooks 27 and an engaged portion 25a at the end of the opening/closing cover 25 is cancelled, and the opening/closing cover 25 becomes shiftable in the direction of arrow 19b. Under this condition, as the opening/closing cover 25 is pushed in the direction of arrow 19b by the projections 21, the opening/closing cover 25 is released. The rails 24 are opened in correspondence to the engaging and disengaging position of the cartridge 4, so that only when the shutter 18 is in its closed status for the cartridge 4 the projections 20, 21 are made to advance toward the side of hopper 3, thereby causing the cartridge 4 to be engaged and disengaged (Refer to Fig. 10). The rails 24 provide for sliding and guiding the cartridge 4, in parallelism with the opening and closing direction of the shutter 18 (direction of arrows 19a and 19b), under a state unreleasable from the opening 22 of the hopper 3 from the engaging and disengaging position of the cartridge 4 toward the mounted position where the feeding port 17 of the cartridge 4 is confronted to the accommodating port 23 of the hopper 3. A set of rails 28 are provided and extend in parallelism with the rails 24 underside the rails 24. A leveling member 29 is slidably fitted to the rails 28. The leveling member 29 is provided downwards from the opening 22, and a heap-up of toner which drops from the cartridge 4 and is formed in the hopper 3 is broken down and leveled thereby. The leveling member 29 is provided with an opening 29a for passage of toner at the central part thereof. Furthermore, both the sides of the leveling member 29 roughly at right angle direction in relation to the direction of movement thereof are inclined and formed so that the right side portion thereof in the moving direction can come behind the left side portion thereof. Thereby toner can be efficiently led to the side of the toner feeding roller 15. Accordingly, it is possible to level toner in the hopper 3 more uniformly and furthermore to prepare toner in advance in the surrounding of the toner feeding roller 15. The leveling member 29 can move in engagement with the projection 20 installed at the cartridge 4 as described above. But, engaging holes 29b for engagement with the projection 20 of the leveling member 29 are arranged so that the upper end thereof can be opened at a distance position from the ends of the rails 24 so that the leveling member 29 and the projection 20 are disengageably engaged only when the cartridge 4 is located at the engaging and disengaging position thereof (Refer to Fig. 1 and Fig. 10). It is possible to use a leveling member 30 shown in Fig 9A through Fig. 9D instead of the leveling member 29 described above, too. The leveling member 30 has an opening 30a for passage of toner at the central part thereof, and regarding the direction of movement thereof, both sides thereof roughly in the right angle direction are inclined to be formed at a specified angle so as to be parallel with each other as observed on the plan view. Therefore, when breaking down a heap-up of toner by using the leveling member 30, the pushing and flowing direction of toner is reversed in the go movement and return movement thereof, thereby causing leveling of toner to be made more effective. A regulating unit 31 for regulating the scope of movement of the leveling member 29 in engagement with a part of the leveling member 29 is provided at the opening 22 of the hopper 3. The regulating unit 31 makes action of regulating, via the leveling member 29, so that the cartridge 4 can not move beyond the area where the shutter 18 corresponds to the accommodating port 23 of the hopper 3, under such a state that the cartridge 4 is engaged with the rails 24. Subsequently, the mounting and removing procedure of the cartridge 4 relative to the hopper 3 is described with reference to Fig. 10 through Fig. 17. Firstly, when the the accommodating port 23 of the hopper 3 is closed by the opening/closing cover 25 and the opening/closing cover 25 is engaged with the hook 27, the cartridge 4 is positioned so that the projections 20, 21 can correspond to the engaging hole 29b of the leveling member 29 and the hook 27, respectively, (Fig. 10, Fig. 15 and Fig. 16), and an edge portion of the cartridge body 16 of the cartridge 4 is pushed in downwards along one edge side of the projection 26 of the opening/closing cover 25 (Fig.1, Fig. 11, and Fig. 17). Thereby, the opening/closing cover 25 is released from engagement with the hook 27 and enters an openable status, and the leveling member 29 enters such a state that it can move together with the cartridge body 16 and the shutter 18. Under this condition, when the cartridge body 16 is made to move in the direction of the arrow 19b (Refer to Fig. 12), the opening/closing cover 25 is opened and the leveling member 29 is made to move in the direction of arrow 19b, too. Subsequently, as shown in Fig. 13, when the grip 18a is grasped and the shutter 18 is made to move in the direction of arrow 19a, the feeding port 17 of the cartridge 4 is gradually opened from the left side in the same Figure. In line therewith, toner drops through the opening portion of the feeding port 17 and the opening portion 29a of the leveling member 29 toward the hopper housing 11 from the cartridge body 16. A part thereof is leveled by the leveling member 29 which moves in line with the opening movement of the shutter 18. As shown in Fig. 14, when the shutter 18 is completely opened, toner accommodated in the cartridge body 16 is completely dropped into the hopper housing 11 by tapping the outside surface of the cartridge body 16. By shifting the shutter 18 in the direction of arrow 19b from this state, the feeding port 17 of the cartridge body 16 will be closed, and a heap-up of toner in the hopper housing 11 is broken down and leveled by the leveling member 29 which moves together with the shutter 18. When the feeding port 17 of the cartridge body 16 is completely closed by the shutter 18 (Refer to Fig. 12), the accommodating port 23 of the hopper 3 is closed by the opening/closing cover 25 which is caused to move by engagement between the cartridge body 16 and the projection 26 as making the cartridge body 16 move in the direction of arrow 19a. At the same time the cartridge 4 reaches the position where it can be disengaged from the hopper 3 (Refer to Fig. 11). Furthermore, at this time, as the leveling member 29 is made to move in line with movement of the cartridge 4, toner in the hopper housing 11 can be furthermore effectively leveled. In a toner feeding device according to the present preferred embodiment, as described above, as the leveling member 29 is necessarily made to operate a plurality of number of times in line with the mounting and removing operation of the cartridge 4 for the hopper 3 and the opening and closing operation of the shutter 18 when feeding toner to the hopper 3, it is possible to effectively break down and level a heap-up of toner built through dropping thereof from the cartridge 4 to the hopper 3. As the top of heaped up toner is leveled so that it can ride on the side of the moving leveling member 29 and be circulated through the opening 29a, it is possible to maintain the fluidity of toner and to prevent blocking of toner inside the hopper 3. In a device of the present preferred embodiment, since the cartridge 4 can be mounted on the hopper 3 and removed therefrom only when the shutter 18 is in its closed status for the cartridge 4, it is possible to prevent toner from leakage from the cartridge 4 with a simple mechanical improvement. Furthermore, in the above construction, even though it is erroneously tried that the cartridge body 16 is made to move in the direction of arrow 19a along the rails 24 for removing the cartridge 4 when the shutter 18 is in its opened status, the feeding port 17 of the cartridge 4 is necessarily closed by the shutter 18 when the cartridge body 16 reaches the engaging and disengaging position releasable from the hopper 3 as the movement of shutter 18 is regulated by the regulating unit 31 by way of the leveling member 29. As a result, even though the cartridge 4 is tried to be removed by mistake, the feeding port 17 of the cartridge 4 is always in its closed status by the shutter 18. The positional regulation of the shutter 18 of the cartridge 4 in relation to the accommodating port 23 of the hopper 3 also can be accomplished by direct engagement between the projection 20 of the shutter 18 and the regulating unit 31. A leveling member 40 having a plurality of leveling plates as shown for example in Fig. 18 may be used instead of leveling members 29, 30. For the leveling member 40 a plurality of supporting axes 41 are disposed in the lengthwise direction (the mounting and removing direction of the cartridge 4) of the accommodating port 23 of the hopper housing 11, and for example, three leveling plates 42, 43, 44 of roughly the same shape are shiftably fitted and inserted on these supporting axes 41 by way of compression springs 45, 46. By engagement between the projection 20 installed at the shutter 18 of the cartridge 4 and a linkage hole 47 of leveling plate 44, the leveling member 40 moves in line with mounting and removal of the cartridge 4 and opening and closing of the shutter 18. In this case, on the occasion of movement of the leveling member 40, toner can be efficiently leveled by mutual action of the three leveling plates and elastic movement of the compression springs.

Claims: A toner feeding device in which a cartridge (4) accommodating toner is removably installed at an opening (22) provided at the upper part of a hopper (3), and the toner accommodated in the cartridge is fed to the hopper through a feeding port (17) provided at the lower part of the cartridge and an accommodating port (23) provided at the opening of the hopper and at the same time the toner accommodated in the hopper is leveled by actuating a leveling member (29; 30; 40) projected downwards from the opening thereof, the feeding device comprising opening/closing means (18) which is slidably installed at the lower part of the cartridge (4) and is arranged to open and close the feeding port (17); characterized in that guide means (24) is installed at the opening (22) of the hopper (3) to slidingly guide the cartridge (4) in parallelism with the opening and closing direction of the opening/closing means (18) from an engaging and disengaging position of the cartridge to a mounted position thereof where the feeding port (17) is confronted to the accommodating port (23); and in that the leveling member (29; 30; 40) is shiftably supported (by 28) in parallelism with the opening and closing direction of the opening/closing means and said opening/closing means (18) is removably engaged (by 29, 29b) with the leveling member (29; 30; 40) at the engaging and disengaging position of the cartridge (4), and the leveling member (29; 30; 40) is arranged to be actuated in response to the engaging and disengaging operation of the cartridge (4) for the opening and closing operation of the opening/closing means (18). A toner feeding device defined in claim 1, wherein the cartridge (4) is mounted at the hopper (3) only when feeding toner and is disengaged from the hopper (3) after toner in the cartridge (4) is fed to the hopper. A toner feeding device defined in claim 2, wherein the accommodating port (23) of the hopper (3) is closed by an opening/closing cover (25) when the cartridge (4) is not mounted and at the same time the opening/closing cover (25) is locked by a locking mechanism (25a, 27). A toner feeding device defined in claim 3, wherein the locking mechanism consists of an engaged part (25a) formed at the opening/closing cover (25) of the hopper (3) and an engaging piece (27) which is installed at the housing body (11) of the hopper (3) and is elastically engageable with the engaged part (25a) and disengageable therefrom. A toner feeding device defined in claim 4, wherein a first projection (21) which can be fitted to the engaging piece (27) and engaged therewith is provided on the cartridge (4), and the opening/closing cover (25) is made to move in the opening direction thereof by releasing the engagement with the engaged part (25a) through operation of the engaging piece (27) by the first projection (21) when mounting the cartridge (4) at the hopper (3). A toner feeding device defined in claim 5, wherein the opening/closing means (18) of the cartridge (4) is provided with a second projection (20) and the leveling member (29; 40) is provided wiht an engaging hole (29b; 47) which is engageable with the second projection (20). A toner feeding device defined in claim 6, wherein opening movement of the opening/closing cover (25) is permitted by engagement of the first projection (21) with the engaging piece (27), thereby permitting the leveling member (29, 40) to reciprocate in line with mounting and removing movements of the cartridge (4) relative to the hopper (3) and with opening and closing movements of the opening/closing means (18) of the cartridge (4) due to engagement of the second projection (20) with the engaging hole (29b; 47). A toner feeding device defined in claim 6, wherein a positioning mechanism (16, 26) for mounting the cartridge (4) at the hopper (3) is provided at the opening/closing cover (25) and the cartridge (4). A toner feeding device defined in claim 3, wherein the opening/closing cover (25) and the leveling member (29; 30; 40) are slidably supported by different guide mechanisms (24; 28; 41). A toner feeding device defined in claim 1, wherein the leveling member (29, 30) is provided, roughly at the central part thereof, with an opening (29a, 30a) through which toner passes. A toner feeding device defined in claim 1, wherein the leading and trailing parts of the leveling member (29; 30) are arranged at such an angle in relation to the direction of movement of the leveling member that one of the sides thereof is disposed ahead of the other side thereof in the direction of movement of the leveling member (29, 30). A toner feeding device defined in claim 11, wherein a toner feeding roller (15) to feed toner into a developing housing (5) is provided at the lower part of a housing body (11) and the hopper (3), and the toner feeding roller (15) is positioned downwards of one side below the leveling member (29, 30). A toner feeding device defined in claim 1, wherein the leading and trailing parts of the leveling member (30) are inclined in the same direction relative to the direction of movement of the leveling member (30) so as to reverse the direction in which toner is pushed by the leveling member (30) during movement of the leveling member in opposition directions. A toner feeding device defined in claim 1, wherein the guide means (24) is arranged to permit the cartridge (4) to be engaged with the hopper (3) and to be disengaged therefrom only when the opening/closing means (18) closes the cartridge feeding port (17) and is arranged to slidingly guide the cartridge (4) from the engaging and disengaging position of the cartridge to the mounted position thereof whereby the cartridge (4) can not be disengaged from the hopper (3), and wherein regulating means (31) is provided to prevent movements of the opening/closing means (18) exceeding the area corresponding to the accommodating port (23) of the hopper (3) when the cartridge (4) is engaged with the guide means (24). A toner feeding device defined in claim 1, wherein the leveling member (40) is composed of a plurality of leveling plates (42, 43, 44). A toner feeding device defined in claim 15, wherein the leveling plates (42, 43, 44) are provided in parallel by way of spring members (45, 46). A toner cartridge (4) which is mounted only when feeding toner and removed after toner feeding is finished, in relation to a hopper (3) which comprises a leveling member (29, 30, 40) for leveling toner and an opening/closing cover (25) which closes a toner accommodating port (23) and is locked by a locking mechanism (25a, 27), characterized in that opening/closing means (18) for opening and closing a toner feeding port (17) is provided at the body (16) in which toner is accommodated and which is provided with a first projection (21) for releasing the locked status in engagement with the locking mechanism (25a, 27) when the body (16) is mounted at the hopper (3) and a second projection (20) which enables leveling action when in engagement with the leveling member (29, 30, 40). A toner cartridge defined in claim 17, wherein the body (16) is engaged for positioning with a positioning engaging part (26), which is installed at the opening/closing cover (25) when mounting the toner cartridge (4) at the hopper (3).

Inventors: HIGASHITANI MASAHIRO, HIRAI YASUYUKI, KISHIGAMI MINORU, KURANDO SHIGEO, MATSUO YASUHIRO, MORI SHINGO, NAKAI KUNIO, NAKANISHI TSUGIO, NAKANO KUNIAKI, NISHIMURA TOSHINORI, SAKO MASAHIRO, HIGASHITANI, MASAHIRO, HIRAI, YASUYUKI, KISHIGAMI, MINORU, KURANDO, SHIGEO, MATSUO, YASUHIRO, MORI, SHINGO, NAKAI, KUNIO, NAKANISHI, TSUGIO, NAKANO, KUNIAKI, NISHIMURA, TOSHINORI, SAKO, MASAHIRO
Applicants: MITA INDUSTRIAL CO LTD, MITA INDUSTRIAL CO. LTD.
Application year: 1992
Main classification: G03G15
IPC codes: G03G15