Support assembly for supporting toner cartridge to be mounted or detached

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2022050414-A1
Application number	US-201917413043-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Dec 17, 2019
Priority date	Jan 28, 2019
Publication date	Feb 17, 2022
Grant date	—

Abstract

An example image forming apparatus includes a main body, a driving motor rotatable in a first direction to provide a driving force to a developing cartridge and rotatable in a second direction opposite to the first direction, and a support assembly to, based on the developing cartridge being mounted to the main body, provide the driving force of the driving motor in the first direction to the mounted developing cartridge, and detach the mounted developing cartridge from the main body using the driving force of the driving motor in the second direction.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An image forming apparatus comprising:
a main body; a driving motor rotatable in a first direction to provide a driving force to a toner cartridge and rotatable in a second direction opposite to the first direction; and a support assembly to:
based on the toner cartridge being mounted to the main body, provide the driving force of the driving motor in the first direction to the mounted toner cartridge, and
detach the mounted toner cartridge from the main body using the driving force of the driving motor in the second direction.

2 . The image forming apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the support assembly comprises:
a support housing; a pressing member to linearly move between a first position in which the pressing member is disposed inside the support housing and a second position in which the pressing member projects from the support housing, the pressing member being disposed outside the support housing; and a driving force transfer member to rotate by receiving driving force from the driving motor and to transfer the driving force to the pressing member when the driving motor rotates in the second direction.

3 . The image forming apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the pressing member is to linearly move to the first position by mounting of the toner cartridge and to linearly move to the second position by rotation of the driving motor in the second direction.

4 . The image forming apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the pressing member comprises a pressing surface capable of being in contact with a mounting surface of the toner cartridge.

5 . The image forming apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the driving force transfer member comprises:
a driving gear to rotate by receiving the driving force from the driving motor; a shaft to rotatably couple to the driving gear; a driving coupler of which one side is to couple to the shaft and another side is to couple to the toner cartridge; a bearing to couple to the shaft to selectively transfer a rotational force of the driving gear to the pressing member; a shifting member to rotatably couple between the bearing and the pressing member to shift the rotational force to a linear movement of the pressing member; and a guide member formed at the support housing and fixedly positioned at an outside of the pressing member to guide a linear movement of the pressing member.

6 . The image forming apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the pressing member is disposed to be linearly movable between the first position and the second position between the shifting member and the support housing.

7 . The image forming apparatus of claim 6 , further comprising:
an elastic member disposed between the pressing member and the support housing to provide an elastic force to the pressing member in a mounting direction of the toner cartridge.

8 . The image forming apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the shifting member comprises a guide surface on an outer surface to guide the pressing member to linearly move.

9 . The image forming apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the guide surface is inclined upwardly in a detachment direction of the toner cartridge.

10 . The image forming apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the pressing member comprises a support surface on an inner surface to guide the toner cartridge to move in the mounting direction by rotation of the shifting member in the second direction.

11 . The image forming apparatus of claim 6 ,
wherein a guide protrusion protrudes from an outer side of the pressing member, and wherein a guide groove extends on an inner side of the housing in a linear direction to guide the pressing member to linearly move.

12 . The image forming apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the toner cartridge comprises:
a locking member to fixedly couple to the driving coupler at a first position in which the toner cartridge is mounted to the main body.

13 . The image forming apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the driving coupler is to transfer the driving force of the driving motor to the toner cartridge through the locking member.

14 . The image forming apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the driving motor is to rotate in the first direction when printing is performed, and the driving motor is to rotate in the second direction when the toner cartridge is replaced.

15 . A support assembly to support a toner cartridge detachably mounted to an inside of a main body of an image forming apparatus, the support assembly comprising:
a driving motor; and a support housing, wherein the support assembly is to, based on the toner cartridge being mounted to the main body, provide a driving force of the driving motor to the toner cartridge in a first direction, and detach the mounted toner cartridge from the main body using the driving force of the driving motor in a second direction.

Assignees

• Hewlett Packard Development Co

Inventors

• Oh Pil Seung
• Jung Taeil
• Kim Byung Woo
• Yoon Taejin

Classifications

• G03G2221/1657

  transmitting mechanical drive power · CPC title

• G03G21/1864

  associated with a positioning function · CPC title

• G03G15/0889

  for agitation or stirring · CPC title

• G03G21/1647 Primary

  Mechanical connection means · CPC title

• G03G21/1814

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