Cleaning apparatus with scraping member, and image forming apparatus including the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10114330-B2
Application number	US-201514688780-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 16, 2015
Priority date	May 28, 2014
Publication date	Oct 30, 2018
Grant date	Oct 30, 2018

Abstract

A cleaning apparatus includes a scraper and a support member. The scraper is in contact with a surface of a recovery roller to clean out residuals from the surface. A base portion of the scraper is held between and a fixing plate and a supporting plate. In this case, a leading end of the scraper is in contact with the surface of the recovery roller while an edge of the supporting plate serving as a fulcrum. Also, a base length d of the scraper from the fulcrum to the base portion is selected to make uniform the contact pressure of the scraper.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A cleaning apparatus comprising:
a plate-like scraping member which is in contact with a surface of a member to be cleaned in order to clean out residuals from the surface of the member to be cleaned;
a support member configured to support the plate-like scraping member;
a cleaning roller located in parallel with an image bearing member which bears toner, and positioned in contact with the image bearing member;
a recovery roller located in parallel with the cleaning roller and positioned in contact with the cleaning roller; and
a voltage application unit configured to generate an electric field by applying a voltage with a polarity opposite to that of the toner, the voltage application unit further configured to apply a bias voltage from 200 V to 2000 V to the recovery roller, wherein
the plate-like scraping member is in contact with a surface of the recovery roller, as the member to be cleaned, in order to clean out residuals from the surface of the recovery roller,
the support member comprises:
a supporting plate configured to support a base portion of the plate-like scraping member, the supporting plate arranged to allow contact between the supporting plate and the plate-like scraping member; and
a fixing plate located opposite the supporting plate at a distance (g) from the supporting plate to hold the base portion of the plate-like scraping member between the fixing plate and the supporting plate, the plate-like scraping member having a thickness (t), there being an empty space present between the plate-like scraping member and the fixing plate while the plate-like scraping member is in contact with the surface of the member to be cleaned, wherein
the empty space corresponds to g minus t, and the empty space is greater than t,
the support member causes a leading end of the plate-like scraping member to make contact with the surface of the member to be cleaned by making use of an edge of the supporting plate as a fulcrum,

and wherein
the plate-like scraping member has a base length from a position of the fulcrum on the supporting plate to an engagement position at which the support member engages the plate-like scraping member, and the base length is capable of pivoting on the fulcrum and allows the plate-like scraping member to contact, with uniform contact pressure, the member to be cleaned,
the plate-like scraping member has a Young's modulus of 1 to 400 GPa,
a hardness of the recovery roller being equal to or higher than the hardness of the plate-like scraping member, and
the recovery roller having a surface roughness Rz of 0.25 to 2.00 μm.

2. The cleaning apparatus of claim 1 , wherein
the plate-like scraping member is provided with a positioning hole through which a protruding dowel of the supporting plate is inserted to perform positioning the plate-like scraping member, and wherein
the engagement position with the support member corresponds to an edge of the positioning hole.

3. The cleaning apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the cleaning roller configured to move at a rotational speed that is from 0.8 to 1.2 times that of the image bearing member.

4. The cleaning apparatus of claim 1 , wherein
the base portion of the plate-like scraping member extends rearward from the leading end of the plate-like scraping member, the base portion has a rear tip located opposite the leading end, and an area immediately rearward of the rear tip is unoccupied by the support member.

5. An image forming apparatus comprising:
an image forming unit provided with an image bearing member for bearing toner and configured to transfer an image to a sheet;
a cleaning apparatus configured to clean the surface of the image bearing member,
a cleaning roller located in parallel with the image bearing member which bears the toner, and positioned in contact with the image bearing member;
a recovery roller located in parallel with the cleaning roller and positioned in contact with the cleaning roller; and
a voltage application unit configured to generate an electric field by applying a voltage with a polarity opposite to that of the toner, the voltage application unit further configured to apply a bias voltage from 200 V to 2000 V to the recovery roller, wherein
the cleaning apparatus comprises:
a plate-like scraping member which is in contact with a surface of the recovery roller in order to clean out residuals from the surface of the recovery roller; and
a support member configured to support the plate-like scraping member,
the support member comprising:
a supporting plate configured to support a base portion of the plate-like scraping member, the supporting plate arranged to allow contact between the supporting plate and the plate-like scraping member; and
a fixing plate located opposite the supporting plate at a distance (g) from the supporting plate to hold the base portion of the plate-like scraping member between the fixing plate and the supporting plate, the plate-like scraping member having a thickness (t), there being an empty space present between the plate-like scraping member and the fixing plate while the plate-like scraping member is in contact with the surface of the recovery roller, wherein
the empty space corresponds to g minus t, and the empty space is greater than t,
the support member causes a leading end of the plate-like scraping member to make contact with the surface of the recovery roller by making use of an edge of the supporting plate as a fulcrum,
and wherein
the plate-like scraping member has a base length from a position of the fulcrum on the supporting plate to an engagement position at which the support member engages the plate-like scraping member, the base length is capable of pivoting on the fulcrum and allows the plate-like scraping member to contact, with uniform contact pressure, the recovery roller,
the plate-like scraping member has a Young's modulus of 1 to 400 GPa,
a hardness of the recovery roller is equal to or higher than the hardness of the plate-like scraping member, and
the recovery roller has a surface roughness Rz of 0.25 to 2.00 μm.

6. The image forming apparatus of claim 5 , wherein
the plate-like scraping member is provided with a positioning hole through which a protruding dowel of the supporting plate is inserted to perform positioning the plate-like scraping member, and wherein
the engagement position with the support member corresponds to an edge of the positioning hole.

7. The image forming apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the cleaning roller configured to move at a rotational speed that is from 0.8 to 1.2 times that of the image bearing member.

8. The image forming apparatus of claim 5 , wherein
the base portion of the plate-like scraping member extends rearward from the leading end of the plate-like scraping member, the base portion has a rear tip located opposite the leading end, and an area immediately rearward of the rear tip is unoccupied by the support member.

Assignees

• Konica Minolta Inc

Inventors

• Meguro Taichi

Classifications

• B08B1/005

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• G03G21/0011 Primary

  using a blade; Details of cleaning blades, e.g. blade shape, layer forming · CPC title

• G03G21/007

  Arrangement or disposition of parts of the cleaning unit · CPC title

• B03C7/06

  with cylindrical material carriers · CPC title

• B08B1/007

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic