Cleaning device and image forming apparatus therewith

• US 10,642,196 B2
• Filed: 06/25/2019
• Issued: 05/05/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 08/20/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: KYOCERA Document Solutions, Inc. (Kyocera Corporation)
• Original Assignee: KYOCERA Document Solutions, Inc. (Kyocera Corporation)
• Inventors: Ueda, Yoji, Kamiyama, Yuji
• Primary Examiner(s): Villaluna, Erika J
• Application Number:
  US16/451,875
• Publication Number:
  US 20200057403A1
• Time in Patent Office: 315 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 15/0131 for transferring a pattern to a second base
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 15/161 with means for handling the intermediate support, e.g. heating, cleaning, coating with a transfer agent
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 21/00 Arrangements not provided for by groups G03G13/00 - G03G19/00, e.g. cleaning, elimination of residual charge
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 21/0035 using a brush; Details of cleaning brushes, e.g. fibre density G03G21/0064 takes precedence; magnetic brushes G03G21/0047
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 21/007 Arrangement or disposition of parts of the cleaning unit
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 21/10 Collecting or recycling waste developer
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 2215/1661 of transfer belt

Abstract

A cleaning device has a housing where an opening and a toner storage portion are formed, a cleaning member arranged in the opening, a collection roller collecting toner attached to the cleaning member, a blade scraping off toner attached to the collection roller, a sheet member dividing between the toner storage portion and the opening, and a sealing member arranged to be in contact with the housing and both end parts of the outer circumferential surface of the collection roller in the axial direction. A first region having a predetermined surface roughness is formed in a middle part of the circumferential surface of the collection roller in the axial direction, and a second region having a lower surface roughness than the first region is formed next to both end parts of the first region in the axial direction.

Claims

1. A cleaning device comprising,

a housing that is formed therein

an opening facing an image carrying member carrying a toner image and

a toner storage portion storing toner removed from a surface of the image carrying member;

a cleaning member that is arranged at a position the image carrying member;

a collection roller that collects toner attached to the cleaning member;

a blade that scrapes off toner attached to the collection roller while in contact with the collection roller, on a downstream side of the cleaning member with respect to a rotation direction of the collection roller;

a sheet member that is arranged over an entire range of the collection roller in a longitudinal direction thereof on the downstream side of the cleaning member and on an upstream side of the blade with respect to the rotation direction of the collection roller so as to divide between the toner storage portion and the opening; and

a sealing member that is arranged so as to be in contact with the housing and both end parts of a circumferential surface of the collection roller in an axial direction and that prevents toner from leaking out of a gap between the housing and the collection roller,

the cleaning device removing toner left unused on the surface of the image carrying member,

wherein

a first region that has a predetermined surface roughness is formed in a middle part of the circumferential surface of the collection roller in the axial direction,

a second region that has a lower surface roughness than the first region is formed next to both end parts of the first region in the axial direction, and

the second region is formed so as to extend, in the axial direction of the collection roller, at least past a border of a contact part between the collection roller and the sealing member toward a middle part of the collection roller in the axial direction.

2. The cleaning device according to claim 1, wherein

the second region is formed outside the maximum width, in the axial direction of the collection roller, of a recording medium to which the toner image carried on the image carrying member is transferred.

3. The cleaning device according to claim 1, wherein

The surface roughness in the first region is, in terms of ten-point average roughness Rz, equal to or more than 4 μ

m but equal to or less than an average particle diameter of the toner.

4. The cleaning device according to claim 1, wherein

the surface roughness in the second region is, in term of ten-point average roughness Rz, equal to or less than 3 μ

m.

5. The cleaning device according to claim 1, wherein

the sealing member

extends in an arc shape as seen in a side view so as to be in contact with an outer circumferential surface of the collection roller in a range from the upstream side of the blade to a downstream side of the sheet member with respect to the rotation direction of the collection roller, and

is arranged so as to extend downward along the sheet member.

6. An image forming apparatus comprising:

a plurality of image forming portions that form images of different colors;

an intermediate transfer unit that includes

an endless intermediate transfer belt moving along the image forming portion and

a plurality of primary transfer members arranged opposite photosensitive drums arranged in the image forming portions across the intermediate transfer belt and transferring a toner image formed on the photosensitive drums to the intermediate transfer belt;

a secondary transfer member that secondarily transfers a toner image primarily transferred to the intermediate transfer belt to a recording medium; and

the cleaning device according to claim 1 that removes toner left unused on the surface of the intermediate transfer belt.