Patent Publication Number: US-2012027453-A1

Title: Image forming apparatus

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION AND RELATED ART 
     The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus of an electrophotographic type such as a copying machine, a laser beam printer or a facsimile machine. 
     An intermediary transfer type image forming apparatus in which a toner image formed on an image bearing member is once transferred onto an intermediary transfer member, and then, is transferred onto a transfer material, is characterized in that it can form images on various transfer material. The type is therefore used for a color image forming apparatus in which a plurality of color images are superposed. 
     For a method for collecting the toner deposited on the intermediary transfer member from such an intermediary transfer member, a fur brush cleaning or blade cleaning are used. 
     Japanese Laid-open Patent Application 2009-205012 discloses a structure in which a charging brush and a charging roller as a charging member are provided between the primary transfer portion and the secondary transfer portion to collect the toner from the intermediary transfer member. The toner scattered on the intermediary transfer member by the charging brush is charged by the charging roller, by which deposited toner can be efficiently transferred onto the photosensitive drum from the intermediary transfer member at the primary transfer portion. 
     The free ends of the brush of the charging brush are in a free state, and therefore, if the voltage is applied in the state that the charging brush is spaced from the intermediary transfer member, the current may leak from the free ends of the brush member to the structural member therearound. 
     It would be considered that to provide a sufficient insulation distance to avoid the leakage, but then a complicated spacing mechanism would be required, or the main assembly of the image forming apparatus would be upsized. 
     In addition, in the case that the voltage source for applying a voltage to the charging means is commonly used as another structural member such as a voltage source for transfer bias voltage, the voltage may be applied also when the charging means is spaced for the purpose of maintaining a printing speed equivalent to that when the voltage source exclusively for the charging means is provided. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Accordingly, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus, comprising an image bearing member for carrying a toner image; a rotatable intermediary transfer member; a first transfer member for transferring the toner image formed on said image bearing member onto said intermediary transfer member at a first transfer position; a second transfer member for transferring toner images transferred and superposed on said intermediary transfer member onto a transfer material at a second transfer position; a charging member provided downstream of the second transfer position and upstream of the first transfer position with respect to the rotational moving direction of said intermediary transfer member; a first voltage source portion for applying a voltage to said charging member; a charging brush provided downstream of the second transfer position and upstream of said charging member with respect to the rotational moving direction; a second voltage source portion for applying a voltage to said charging brush, wherein second voltage source portion is capable of applying voltage to said charging brush in a state that a voltage is applied to said charging member by first voltage source portion; and a regulating member, provided between said charging member and said charging brush with respect to the rotational moving direction, for regulating a position of a brush of said charging brush. 
     These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent upon a consideration of the following description of the preferred embodiments of the present invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a schematic sectional view of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 2  is an enlarged sectional view illustrating structures around an intermediary transfer member in the image forming apparatus of  FIG. 1 . 
         FIG. 3  is a schematic view illustrating contacted state of charging means for intermediary transfer member cleaning in a comparison example. 
         FIG. 4  is an illustration of the comparison example in which charging means for the intermediary transfer member cleaning is in a spaced state. 
         FIG. 5  is an illustration of a first embodiment of the present invention in which the charging means for the intermediary transfer member cleaning is in the contact state. 
         FIG. 6  is an illustration of the first embodiment of the present invention in which the charging means for the intermediary transfer member cleaning is in the spaced state. 
         FIG. 7  is an illustration of a second embodiment of the present invention in which the charging means for the intermediary transfer member cleaning is in the contact state. 
         FIG. 8  is an illustration of the second embodiment of the present invention in which the charging means for the intermediary transfer member cleaning is in the spaced state. 
     
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     An image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Here, the dimensions, the sizes, the materials, the configurations, the relative positional relationships of the elements in the following embodiments and examples are not restrictive to the present invention unless otherwise stated. 
     Embodiment 1 
     General Arrangement of Image Forming Apparatus 
       FIGS. 1 and 2  illustrate a substantial structure according to an embodiment of the present invention. An example of the image forming apparatus according to this embodiment is a color image forming apparatus of a four-path superimposing transfer type using an intermediary transfer belt as an intermediary transfer member. 
     The image forming apparatus of this embodiment comprises a drum type electrophotographic photosensitive member (photosensitive drum) as an image bearing member. Around a peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum  1 , there are provided a charger  2 , exposure unit  4  for irradiating the photosensitive drum  1  with a laser beam, a developing unit, an intermediary transfer belt  80  as intermediary transfer member and a photosensitive drum cleaning unit  3  arranged in the order named in the direction R 1  in the Figure. The developing unit  8  is a rotary type development unit in this embodiment, and includes a rotary  22  (rotatable member) carrying four color developing devices  8   a,    8   b,    8   c,    8   d.  The rotary  22  is controlled by unshown driving means to bring a predetermined developing device to a developing position where the developing device faces the photosensitive drum  1 . 
     The photosensitive drum  1  is rotated in the rotational moving direction R 1  at a surface speed of 100 mm/sec, and the surface thereof is charged to the negative polarity by the charger  2 . The charger  2  is supplied with a charging bias voltage comprising a DC voltage component and an alternating voltage component by a charger voltage source. The potential of the surface of the photosensitive drum  1  charged by the charger  2  is ordinarily about −500V. 
     On the surface of the charged photosensitive drum  1 , an electrostatic latent image is formed by exposure  5  by the exposure unit  4  in accordance with image information. Here, the exposure unit  3  comprises a light source such as a laser, 6-surface polygonal mirror for raster scanning, an imaging lens, a fold-back mirror or the like. The electrostatic latent image is visualized with yellow toner charged negative by the yellow (first color) developing device  8   a  which is positioned at the developing position by the rotary  22  of the developing unit  8 , into a toner image. 
     The intermediary transfer belt  80  is supported by a plurality of supporting rollers including a driving roller  11 , an assisting roller  12  and a tension roller  13 . The intermediary transfer belt  80  comprises an endless resin material belt having a thickness of 0.05 mm-0.3 mm and having a resistance adjusted to a volume resistivity of about 10 7 -10 11  Ωcm by electroconductive filling material such as carbon, ZnO, SnO2, TiO2 or the like. Here, the material of the resin material belt may be PVdF (polyvinylidene fluoride), Nylon, PET (polyethylene terephthalate), PEN (polyethylenenaphthalate), PI, PEEK, PPS, polycarbonate, for example. 
     With rotation of the driving roller  11  in the direction R 2  in the Figure, the intermediary transfer belt  80  rotates in the direction R 3  in the Figure. A primary transfer roller  81  as first transferring means is disposed at a first transfer position and is driven by the intermediary transfer belt  80  and is supplied with a primary transfer bias of a positive polarity from a bias voltage source  84 . By this, the toner image on the photosensitive drum  1  is primary-transferred onto the intermediary transfer belt  80  through a primary transfer nip N 1 . Here, the primary transfer bias is a DC voltage. Ordinarily, the primary transfer roller  81  comprises an EPDM, urethane rubber, CR, NBR or the like which is added with resistance adjusting material such as carbon to adjust the volume resistivity thereof. 
     From the surface of the photosensitive drum  1  after the primary transfer, primary untransferred toner is removed by a photosensitive drum cleaning unit  3  including an elastic blade. 
     The above-described a series of image forming process including charging, exposure, development, primary transfer and cleaning is carried out by the developing devices  8   b,    8   c  and  8   d  using second color (magenta) toner, third color (cyan) toner and fourth color (black) toner. More particularly, the rotary  22  is rotated to bring the respective development devices to the developing position, and four color toner images are overlaid on the intermediary transfer belt  80 . 
     Then, a secondary transfer bias of the positive polarity is applied from a bias voltage source  85  to a secondary transfer roller  82  as a second transferring means rotating in the R 4  in the Figure and disposed in the second transfer position. By this, the toner image on the intermediary transfer belt  80  is secondary-transferred all together onto a surface of the transfer material P through a secondary transfer nip N 2  on the secondary transfer opposing roller  86 . The secondary transfer bias is a DC voltage. 
     The transfer material P carrying the toner image is fed to the fixing device  20 , where the toner image is fixed, thus completing the image formation. 
     On the other hand, later the completion of the above-described secondary transfer, the deposited toner remaining on the intermediary transfer belt  80  not having been transferred to the transfer material P comes to the position where a charge portion brush  89  and a charging member  88  are provided. The charging member  88  is desirably a charging roller for the reason which will be described hereinafter, but similarly to the charging brush, it may be a brush member. 
     Here, the charging brush  89  and the charging roller  88  are provided between the secondary transfer roller  82  and the primary transfer roller  81  and are opposed to the intermediary transfer belt  80 . The charging roller  88  is disposed downstream of the charging brush  89  with respect to the moving direction of the intermediary transfer belt  80 . 
     The charging brush  89  and the charging roller  88  are supplied with the voltages from the  85  and the positive bias voltage source, respectively, in this embodiment. The bias voltage source  84  functions as both of bias voltage sources for the primary transfer roller  81  (primary transfer bias voltage) and the charging roller  88 . The bias voltage source  85  functions as bias voltage sources for the secondary transfer roller  82  (secondary transfer bias) and for the charging brush  89 . 
     The functions of the charging brush  89  and the charging roller  88  will be described. 
     In this embodiment, the charging brush  89  is made of Nylon, and fineness thereof is 7 decitex, pile length is 5 mm, brush width is 5 mm, and the electric resistance is 10 6  Ω. 
     Most of the toner deposited on the intermediary transfer belt  80  is charged to the polarity (positive) opposite the regular charge polarity (negative in this embodiment). However, not all the deposited toner is charged to the positive, a part of the toner is neutralized (no charge), and the other remains negative. In addition, the deposited toner is overlaid on the intermediary transfer belt  80  as multiple layers. The multi-layer toner is not easily charged uniformly by the charging roller. 
     Therefore, the deposited toner on the intermediary transfer belt  80  is first dispersed on the intermediary transfer belt  80  by the charging brush  89 . By the dispersion, the deposited toner on the intermediary transfer belt  80  is made a single layer toner, and therefore, the toner is relatively easily charged by the charging roller  88  disposed downstream. Furthermore, by applying a positive voltage to the charging brush  89 , a part of the negative toner of the deposited toner on the intermediary transfer belt  80  can be recovered by the charging brush  89 . By doing so, the amount of the toner passing by the charging roller  88  can be reduced. In addition, by applying the positive voltage to the charging brush  89 , not only the negative toner is recovered, but also an electric discharge is produced between the charging brush  89  and the deposited toner, by which the toner is charged to the positive polarity. By doing so, the charging efficiency of the deposited toner by the charging roller  88  can be further improved. 
     In this manner, the charging brush  89  can stabilize the toner charging of the charging roller  88 , and therefore, better cleaning property can be assured. 
     In this embodiment, the charging roller  88  is made of NBR rubber in which carbon black is dispersed to provide a volume resistivity of about 1.0×10 8  Ωcm, the rubber being provided on a core metal. Moreover, the surface of the roller is abraded up to approx. Rz0.2 μm. When the after-secondary-transfer residual toner is charged, it is contacted to the intermediary transfer belt  80  using the contacting-spacing unit  51 , the driving roller  11  is contacted to a back side of the intermediary transfer belt  80  at the nip N 3  and the nip N 4  is grounded to increase the charging efficiency. The charging roller  88  (charging member) may be a brush member if it can charge the untransferred toner uniformly. 
     The deposited toner recharged by the charging brush  89  and the charging roller  88  to the positive polarity moves electrostatically to the photosensitive drum  1  (back-transfer) in the primary transfer nip N 1 , that is, the deposited toner remaining on the intermediary transfer belt  80  is removed. The deposited toner returned onto the photosensitive drum  1  is scraped off by the photosensitive drum cleaner  3  and it is recovered It is a possible alternative that the deposited toner recharged to the positive polarity by the charging brush  89  and the charging roller  88  is moved electrostatically to the photosensitive drum  1  simultaneously with the primary transfer of the next toner image 
     Contacting and Spacing of Charging Member for Intermediary Transfer Member Cleaning 
     Referring to  FIGS. 3-6 , the operation of contacting and spacing of the charging member for the cleaning will be described. In the image forming apparatus of the embodiment, the charging brush  89  and the charging roller  88  are contacted to the intermediary transfer belt  80  only during the cleaning operation for the intermediary transfer belt  80 . During image forming process in which the toner images being superimposedly transferred onto the intermediary transfer belt  80 , they are spaced from the intermediary transfer belt  80 . 
       FIG. 3  and  FIG. 4  illustrate contacted and spaced state of the charging member for the intermediary transfer member cleaning.  FIG. 5  and  FIG. 6  illustrate the contacted state and the spaced state of the charging member for the intermediary transfer member cleaning according to this embodiment. 
     In  FIG. 3  and  FIG. 5 , the charging brush  89  and charging roller  88  are contacted to the intermediary transfer belt  80 . As shown in  FIG. 2 , the charging brush  89  is supplied with a DC voltage from the bias voltage source  85  which is a common voltage source also for the secondary transfer bias, and the charging roller  88  is supplied with a DC voltage from the bias voltage source which is a common voltage source also for the primary transfer bias. 
       FIG. 4  and  FIG. 6  are illustrations in the case that the charging brush  89  and the charging roller  88  are spaced from the intermediary transfer belt  80 . The charging brush  89  and the charging roller  88  are moved from the contacted state to the spaced state relative to the intermediary transfer belt  80  by respective contacting-spacing units  52 ,  51  using solenoids or the like by predetermined distances. 
     In this embodiment, as described hereinbefore, the charging brush  89  is supplied with a DC voltage from the bias voltage source  85  which is a common voltage source also for the secondary transfer bias. The charging roller  88  is supplied with a DC voltage from the bias voltage source  84  which is a common voltage source also for the primary transfer bias. Therefore, in this embodiment, in the primary transfer step or in the secondary transfer step, a voltage may be applied when the primary transfer step and the charging roller  88  are spaced from the belt. In view of this, additional voltage sources for the provision and the charging roller  88  may be provided, so that the charging brush  89  and the charging roller  88  are not supplied with voltages when they are spaced from the belt. 
     In addition, the distances and directions with which the charging brush  89  and the charging roller  88  are spaced from the intermediary transfer belt  80  may be different from each other. 
       FIGS. 3 and 4  illustrate contacting and spacing operation states in the case of comparison example.  FIGS. 5 and 6  illustrate contacting and spacing operation state in the case that a sheet  90  of this embodiment for regulating attitudes of the fur ends. 
     As shown in  FIG. 3 , when the charging brush  89  is contacted to the intermediary transfer belt  80 , the charging brush  89  receives a force in the moving direction of the intermediary transfer belt  80 , and therefore, the free ends  89   c  of the charging brush  89  bends in the moving direction of the intermediary transfer belt  80 . 
     When there is a potential difference between the bias voltages applied to the charging brush  89  and to the charging roller  88 , a leak current flows unless a sufficient insulation distance is provided between the charging brush  89  and the charging roller  88 . For example, when the voltage source for the bias voltage to be applied to the charging brush  89  is common to the voltage source for the secondary transfer bias, the potential difference is larger than that in the charging roller  88  for which the voltage source is common with the voltage source for the primary transfer bias. Generally, the secondary transfer bias is higher than the primary transfer bias taking the resistance of the transfer material into consideration, and therefore, when the voltages are applied to the charging brush  89  and the charging roller  88 , a potential difference results between them. 
     And wherein  FIG. 4 , when the charging brush  89  is spaced from the intermediary transfer belt  80 , and there is a potential difference between the bias voltages applied to the charging brush  89  and to the charging roller  88 , an electrostatic attraction force is produced, with the result that the free ends  89   c  of charging brush  89  bend toward the charging roller  88 . Similarly to the case of contact, a leak current produces unless the insulation distance between the charging brush  89  and the charging roller  88  is sufficient. 
     Referring to  FIGS. 5 and 6 , there is shown a charging member comprising a charging brush  89  and a charging roller  88 . In this embodiment, the brush  89   b  of the charging brush  89  is supported by a holding member  89   a,  and the holding member  89   a  is connected to the contacting-spacing unit  52 . The contacting-spacing unit  52  functions to move the holding member by a solenoid, for example. In addition, in this embodiment, there is provided a regulating member  90  for regulating the attitude of the fur ends  89   c  of the charging brush  89 . The regulating member  90  is in the form of a sheet.  FIGS. 5 and 6  illustrate contacted and spaced states between the charging brush  89  and the charging roller  88  according to this embodiment. 
     The sheet  90  is disposed downstream of the charging brush  89  with respect to the feeding direction (moving direction) of the intermediary transfer belt  80 , and in order to regulate the attitude of the fur ends  89   c  of the brush  89   b,  the sheet  90  is contacted to the brush  89   b  with a angle θ, as shown in  FIG. 6 , and an upper portion  90   a  of the sheet  90  is fixed to the holding member  89   a.  In this embodiment, the free end  90   b  of the sheet  90  is slightly projected toward the intermediary transfer belt  80  beyond the fur ends of the brush  89   b.    
     In this embodiment, as described hereinbefore, the sheet  90  is fixed to a member  89   a  to which the brush  89   b  is fixed, and when the charging brush  89  is moved toward and away from the intermediary transfer belt  80 , the relative positional relation between the sheet  90  and the charging brush  89 . 
     Since the sheet  90  contacts the intermediary transfer belt  80 , it is made of thin polyurethane film, for example, which has a relatively lower rigidity to avoid damage resulting from sliding contact to the surface of the intermediary transfer belt  80 . Therefore, as shown in  FIG. 5 , when the charging brush  89  is in contact with the intermediary transfer belt  80 , the free ends (free end portion  90   b ) of the sheet  90  are bent in the moving direction of the intermediary transfer belt  80 , and the free ends  90   b  of the sheet  90  are contacted to the free end portions  89   c  of the brush  89   b  with the angle. 
     Therefore, as shown in  FIG. 5 , when the charging brush  89  is in contact with the intermediary transfer belt  80 , the force is applied in the moving direction of the intermediary transfer belt  80 , and therefore, the free ends  89   c  of the charging brush  89  tend to bend in the moving direction of the intermediary transfer belt  80 . However, the sheet  90  is effective to confine the fur ends  89   c  of the brush  89   b.    
     Therefore, even when there is a potential difference between the bias voltages applied to the charging brush  89  and to the charging roller  88 , the insulation distance required to prevent the leak current may be smaller when the sheet  90  is provided than when there is no sheet  90 . 
     In this embodiment, when the charging brush  89  contacts the intermediary transfer belt  80 , the free end portion  90   b  of the sheet  90  also contacts to the intermediary transfer belt  80 , but this is not inevitable, and the sheet  90  may be out of contact with the intermediary transfer belt  80 . 
     As shown in  FIG. 6 , in this embodiment, when the charging brush  89  is spaced from the intermediary transfer belt  80 , the free end portion  90   b  of the sheet  90  inclined at a angle θ regulates the entire brush  89   b  of the charging brush  89 . From the foregoing, if there is a potential difference between the bias voltages applied to the charging brush  89  and to the charging roller  88 , an electrostatic attraction force is produced, with the result that the free ends of the charging brush  89  tend to bend toward the charging roller  88 , but the sheet  90  functions to confine the fur end  89   c  of the brush  89   b,  thus preventing the further movement toward the charging roller  88 . 
     Therefore, even when there is a potential difference between the bias voltages applied to the charging brush  89  and to the charging roller  88 , the insulation distance required to prevent the leak current may be smaller when the sheet  90  is provided than when there is no sheet  90 . 
     Embodiment 2 
     A second embodiment of the present invention will be described. In the description of the general arrangement of the image forming apparatus of this embodiment, the same reference numerals as in Embodiment 1 are assigned to the elements having the corresponding functions in this embodiment, and the detailed description thereof is omitted for simplicity. 
     This embodiment is different from Embodiment 1 in that the relative positional relation between the charging brush  89  and the sheet  90  for regulating the attitude of the fur ends  89   c  of the charging brush  89  are different depending on whether they are in the contacted state or the spaced state. More particularly, in this embodiment, as shown in  FIG. 7 , even when the charging brush  89  is contacted to the intermediary transfer belt  80 , the free end portion  90   b  of the sheet  90  does not contact the intermediary transfer belt  80 . 
       FIGS. 7 and 8  illustrate contacting and spacing operation state between the charging brush  89  and the intermediary transfer belt  80 . 
     The sheet  90  is disposed downstream of the charging brush  89  with respect to the moving direction of the intermediary transfer belt  80 , and the free end portion  90   b  of the sheet  90  is contacted to the brush  89   b  with an angle θ to regulate the attitude of the fur ends  89   c,  and the upper portion  90   a  thereof is fixed to the supporting member  91 . 
     In this embodiment, the sheet  90  is fixed to the member  91  which is different from the member  89   a  to which the charging brush  89  is fixed. Therefore, even when the charging brush  89  is contacted to or spaced away from the intermediary transfer belt  80  by a contacting-spacing unit  52 , the absolute position of the sheet  90  does not change. 
     Since the sheet  90  does not contact the intermediary transfer belt  80 , there is no liability of the damage due to the sliding contact, and therefore, the rigid may be high, and therefore, the latitude for the material selection is wide. 
     As shown in  FIG. 7 , when the charging brush  89  is contacted to the intermediary transfer belt  80 , the force is applied in the moving direction of the intermediary transfer belt  80 , and therefore, the free ends  89   c  of the charging brush  89  tend to bend in the moving direction, but the sheet  90  is effective to confine the fur ends of the brush  89   b.    
     Therefore, even when there is a potential difference between the bias voltages applied to the charging brush  89  and to the charging roller  88 , the insulation distance required to prevent the leak current may be smaller when the sheet  90  is provided than when there is no sheet  90 . 
     As shown in  FIG. 8 , when the charging brush  89  is spaced from the intermediary transfer belt  80 , and there is a potential difference between the bias voltages applied to the charging brush  89  and to the charging roller  88 , an electrostatic attraction force produces, and the free ends  89   c  of the brush  89   b  tend to bend toward the charging roller  88 , but the sheet  90  is effective to confine the fur end  89   c  of the brush  89   b.    
     Therefore, even when there is a potential difference between the bias voltages applied to the charging brush  89  and to the charging roller  88 , the insulation distance required to prevent the leak current may be smaller when the sheet  90  is provided than when there is no sheet  90 . 
     While the invention has been described with reference to the structures disclosed herein, it is not confined to the details set forth and this application is intended to cover such modifications or changes as may come within the purpose of the improvements or the scope of the following claims. 
     This application claims priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 171816/2010 filed Jul. 30, 2010 which is hereby incorporated by reference.