Drum cartridge including a cleaning member, for use with an image forming apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10983473-B2
Application number	US-201916672948-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 4, 2019
Priority date	Nov 13, 2018
Publication date	Apr 20, 2021
Grant date	Apr 20, 2021

Abstract

A drum cartridge is mountable in and dismountable from an image forming apparatus without including a developing device. The drum cartridge includes an image bearing member, a charging member, and a cleaning member. The cleaning member includes an elastic layer contacting the charging member. The elastic layer includes a foam member and is made of a material having Asker-C hardness of 5-30 degrees.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A drum cartridge mountable in and dismountable from an image forming apparatus without including a developing device, the drum cartridge comprising:
an image bearing member;
a rotatable charging roller configured to electrically charge the image bearing member in contact with the image bearing member, the charging roller including unevenness on a surface thereof contacting the image bearing member; and
a cleaning member configured to clean the charging roller in contact with the charging roller,
wherein the cleaning member includes an elastic layer contacting the charging roller, and the elastic layer comprises a foam member and is made of a material having Asker-C hardness of 5-30 degrees, the foam member being made of a sponge material having voids,
wherein the charging roller satisfies the following relationship:
Sm≥h,
where Sm is an unevenness average interval on the surface of the charging roller, and when the distance to the nearest void in each voids is defined as a skeleton width, h is an average skeleton width which is an average value of the skeleton width on the surface of the sponge material in each void.

2. A drum cartridge according to claim 1 , wherein the charging roller satisfies the following relationship:
1 μm≤Rz≤30 μm
where Rz is a ten point average roughness of the surface of the charging roller.

3. A drum cartridge according to claim 1 , wherein the cleaning member has a roller shape.

4. A drum cartridge according to claim 1 , further comprising,
a second cleaning member configured to remove a developer on the image bearing member in contact with the image bearing member,
wherein when the drum cartridge is mounted in the image forming apparatus a contact position between the second cleaning member and the image bearing member is below a rotation center of the image bearing member with respect to a direction of gravitation.

5. An image forming apparatus comprising:
a developing cartridge including a developer, a developing device configured to develop an electrostatic latent image on an image bearing member with the developer, and a developer accommodating portion configured to accommodate the developer, wherein the developing cartridge is mountable in and dismountable from the image forming apparatus; and
a drum cartridge according to claim 1 which is mountable in and dismountable from the image forming apparatus separately from the developing cartridge.

6. An image forming apparatus according to claim 5 , comprising a cartridge including the drum cartridge and the developing cartridge, wherein the cartridge is mountable in and dismountable from the image forming apparatus.

7. A drum cartridge mountable in and dismountable from an image forming apparatus without including a developing device, the drum cartridge comprising:
an image bearing member;
a charging member configured to electrically charge the image bearing member in contact with the image bearing member; and
a cleaning member configured to clean the charging member in contact with the charging member, the cleaning member including a nonwoven fabric contacting the charging member,
wherein the cleaning member includes an elastic layer contacting the charging member, and the elastic layer comprises a foam member and is made of a material having Asker-C hardness of 5-30 degrees,
wherein the charging member and the cleaning member satisfy the following relationship:
Sm>r,
where Sm is an unevenness average interval on a surface of the charging member, and r is a fiber diameter of the nonwoven fabric.

8. A drum cartridge according to claim 7 , wherein the charging member has a structure in which the nonwoven fabric is bonded to a surface of the foam member contacting the charging member.

9. A cartridge comprising:
a drum cartridge including an image bearing member;
a rotatable charging roller configured to electrically charge the image bearing member in contact with the image bearing member; and
a cleaning member configured to clean the charging roller in contact with the charging roller, wherein the drum cartridge is mountable in and dismountable from an image forming apparatus; and
a developing cartridge including a developer, a developing member configured to develop an electrostatic latent image on the image bearing member with the developer, a supplying member configured to supply the developer to the developing member at a contact portion which is the supplying member is in contact with the developing member and a developer accommodating portion configured to accommodate the developer, wherein the developing cartridge is mountable in and dismountable from the image forming apparatus,
wherein the supplying member and the developing member are rotated so that a surface of the supplying member and a surface of the developing member move in a same direction at the contact portion therebetween,
wherein the cleaning member includes an elastic layer contacting the charging roller, and the elastic layer comprises a foam member and is made of a material having Asker-C hardness of 5-30 degrees, and wherein the charging roller satisfies the following relationship:
10μm≤Sm≤200μm,
where Sm is an unevenness average interval on the surface of the charging roller.

Assignees

• Canon Kk

Inventors

• Baba Daisuke

Classifications

• G03G21/1814

  Details of parts of process cartridge, e.g. for charging, transfer, cleaning, developing (G03G21/1835 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G03G2215/1657

  of transfer drum · CPC title

• G03G21/0058 Primary

  using a roller or a polygonal rotating cleaning member; Details thereof, e.g. surface structure (G03G21/0064 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G03G15/751 Primary

  relating to drum (G03G15/757 takes precedence) · CPC title