Image forming apparatus

• US 20030086732A1
• Filed: 10/30/2002
• Published: 05/08/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 11/05/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation (Seiko Group)
• Original Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation (Seiko Group)
• Inventors: Nomura, Yujiro, Abe, Nobumasa, Aruga, Tomoe
• Granted Patent: US 6,799,011 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 399/299
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 15/0131 for transferring a pattern to a second base
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 2215/0119 Linear arrangement adjacent plural transfer points
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 2215/0132 vertical medium transport path at the secondary transfer
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 2215/0154 Vibrations and positional disturbances when one member abuts or contacts another member

Abstract

To prevent a belt and image forming means from being stained by spilled toner and also reduce the vibration of an exposure means. An image forming apparatus is of a tandem type in which mage forming stations Y, M, C, K for respective colors are arranged along a transfer belt 14. Each image forming station Y, M, C, K has an image carrier 17, a charging means 19 and a developing means 20 which are arranged around the image carrier 17. The image forming apparatus forms a multi-color image by passing the transfer belt 14 through the respective image forming stations. The transfer belt 14 is laid around a driving roller 12 and a driven roller 13 with a constant tension. One of the driving roller and the driven roller is positioned obliquely above the other roller, the driving roller and the driven roller are disposed such that the belt tension side at the time of driving the transfer belt is on the lower side, and the image carriers of the respective image forming stations are in contact with the belt tension side.

Claims

1. An image forming apparatus of a tandem type comprising image forming stations for respective colors arranged along a transfer belt, each image forming station including an image carrier, a charging means and a developing means disposed around said image carrier, wherein the transfer belt is passed through the respective image forming stations, thereby forming a multi-color image, said image forming apparatus being characterized in that

said transfer belt is laid around the driving roller and the driven roller with a constant tension, one of the driving roller and the driven roller is positioned obliquely above the other roller, the driving roller and the driven roller are disposed such that the belt tension side at the time of driving the transfer belt is on the lower side, and the image carriers of the respective image forming stations are in contact with the belt tension side.

2. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 1, being characterized in that said transfer belt is a paper delivery belt, and the driving roller is positioned obliquely above the driven roller.

3. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 1, being characterized in that said transfer belt is an intermediate transfer belt, and the driven roller is positioned obliquely above the driving roller.

4. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 3, being characterized by further comprising a secondary transfer roller to be pressed against the intermediate transfer belt to oppose said driving roller.

5. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 4, being characterized in that the diameter of said driving roller is smaller than the diameter of said driven roller.

6. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 3, being characterized by comprising a cleaning means to be in contact with said belt tension side of the intermediate transfer belt at a position where is wrapped around the driven roller.

7. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 1, being characterized in that a fixing means is located obliquely above the belt slack side at the time of driving the transfer belt.

8. An image forming apparatus comprising image forming stations for respective colors arranged along a transfer belt, each image forming station including an image carrier, a charging means and a developing means disposed around said image carrier, wherein the transfer belt and the respective image forming stations are arranged obliquely or vertically, said image forming apparatus being characterized in that

an exposure means for forming latent images onto said image carriers is located below said respective image forming stations.

9. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 8, being characterized in that said transfer belt is an intermediate transfer belt.

10. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 8, wherein said transfer belt is a paper delivery belt.

11. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 8, being characterized in that a fixing means is located on the opposite side of said image forming stations relative to said transfer belt.

12. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 8, being characterized in that a control unit and a power source unit are located adjacent to each other above said exposure means and that cooling air is introduced to spaces among the exposure means, the control unit and power source unit.

13. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 8, being characterized in that said exposure means has a casing and a single scanning means disposed at the bottom of said casing.

14. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 13, being characterized in that the single scanning means, an f-θ

lens and a reflection mirror, and reflective mirrors, which bend scanning lines for respective colors reflected at the reflection mirror to aim the scanning lines to the image carriers, are disposed.

15. An image forming apparatus comprising image forming stations for respective colors arranged along a transfer belt, each image forming station including an image carrier, a charging means and a developing means disposed around said image carrier, wherein the transfer belt and the respective image forming stations are arranged obliquely or vertically, said image forming apparatus being characterized by further comprising:

a housing body in which said respective image forming stations and the transfer belt are arranged; and

a first movable section and a second movable section which are attached to said housing body such that the first and second movable sections are pivotally movable relative to said housing body, wherein a paper handling means and a fixing means are located in said first movable section and at least one of developing means, image carriers, and the transfer belt is located in said second movable section.

16. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 15, being characterized in that the pivots of said first movable section and said second movable section are located at a lower side of the housing body.

17. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 15, being characterized in that the pivots of said first movable section and said second movable section are located at a lateral side of the housing body.

18. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 15, being characterized in that said transfer belt is a paper delivery belt.

19. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 15, being characterized in that said transfer belt is an intermediate transfer belt.

20. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 19, being characterized in that said respective image forming stations are arranged obliquely and image carriers of said respective image forming stations are disposed in contact with a belt face, of which traveling direction is downward, of the intermediate transfer belt.

21. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 20, being characterized in that the driven roller for said intermediate transfer belt is located obliquely above the driving roller and that said driving roller and a second transfer roller compose a secondary transfer portion.

22. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 20, being characterized in that a fixing means is located obliquely above a belt face, of which traveling direction is upward, of said intermediate transfer belt.

23. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 20, being characterized in that a shifting means for moving the secondary transfer roller into contact with and apart from the intermediate transfer belt is located in said first movable section.

24. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 20, being characterized in that the pivots of said first movable section and said second movable section are located at a lower side of the housing body and the driven roller for said intermediate transfer belt is located obliquely above the driving roller, and being characterized by comprising:

the image carriers for respective colors and the transfer belt which are attached to the second movable section;

a belt driving gear for driving said driving roller;

image carrier driving gears for driving the image carriers for the respective colors, one of which is meshed with said belt driving gear;

idle gears each of which is meshed with each pair of the adjacent image carrier driving gears for the respective colors;

a driving motor which is attached to the housing body and located near the uppermost position of the belt face of which traveling direction is downward; and

a transmission gear which is meshed with the pinion gear of the driving motor and meshed with the uppermost image carrier driving gear.

25. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 24, being characterized in that the uppermost image carrier driving gear is meshed with said transmission gear in the rotation normal direction when said second movable section is pivotally moved to be installed.

26. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 24, being characterized in that the uppermost image carrier driving gear is meshed with said transmission gear in the rotation tangential direction when said second movable section is pivotally moved to be installed.

27. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 20, being characterized in that the pivots of said first movable section and said second movable section are located at a lower side of the housing body and the driving roller for said intermediate transfer belt is located obliquely above the driven roller, and being characterized by comprising:

the image carriers for respective colors and the transfer belt which are attached to the second movable section;

a belt driving gear for driving said driving roller;

image carrier driving gears for driving the image carriers for the respective colors, one of which is meshed with said belt driving gear;

idle gears each of which is meshed with each pair of the adjacent image carrier driving gears for the respective colors;

a driving motor which is attached to the housing body and located near the uppermost position of the belt face of which traveling direction is downward; and

a transmission gear which is meshed with the pinion gear of the driving motor and meshed with the belt driving gear.

28. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 20, being characterized in that the pivots of said first movable section and said second movable section are located at a lower side of the housing body and the driven roller for said intermediate transfer belt is located obliquely above the driving roller, and being characterized by comprising:

the image carriers for respective colors and the transfer belt which are attached to the second movable section;

a belt driving gear for driving said driving roller;

image carrier driving gears for driving the image carriers for the respective colors, one of which is meshed with said belt driving gear;

idle gears each of which is meshed with each pair of the adjacent image carrier driving gears for the respective colors;

a driving motor which is attached to the housing body and located near the lowest position of the belt face of which traveling direction is downward; and

a transmission gear which is meshed with the pinion gear of the driving motor and meshed with the belt driving gear.

29. An image forming apparatus comprising image forming stations for respective colors arranged along a transfer belt, each image forming station including an image carrier, a charging means and a developing means disposed around said image carrier, wherein the transfer belt and the respective image forming stations are arranged obliquely or vertically, said image forming apparatus being characterized by comprising

a housing body in which said image forming stations and said transfer belt are arranged, and a movable section which is attached to said housing body such that the movable section is pivotally movable relative to said housing body, wherein a group of the transfer belt and the image carriers or a group of the transfer belt, the image carriers, and the developing means are arranged inside said movable section.

30. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 29, being characterized in that the pivot of said movable section is located at a lower side of said housing body.

31. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 29, being characterized in that the pivot of said movable section is located at a lateral side of said housing body.

32. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 29, being characterized in that said transfer belt is a paper delivery belt.

33. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 29, being characterized in that said transfer belt is an intermediate transfer belt.

34. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 33, being characterized in that the respective image forming stations are arranged obliquely, and the image carriers of the respective image forming stations are arranged in contact with the belt face, of which traveling direction is downward, of the intermediate transfer belt.

35. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 34, being characterized in that the pivot of said movable section is located at a lower side of the housing body and the driven roller for said intermediate transfer belt is located obliquely above the driving roller, and being characterized by comprising:

the image carriers for respective colors and the transfer belt which are attached to the movable section;

a belt driving gear for driving said driving roller;

image carrier driving gears for driving the image carriers for the respective colors, one of which is meshed with said belt driving gear;

idle gears each of which is meshed with each pair of the adjacent image carrier driving gears for the respective colors;

a driving motor which is attached to the housing body and located near the uppermost position of the belt face of which traveling direction is downward; and

a transmission gear which is meshed with the pinion gear of the driving motor and meshed with the uppermost image carrier driving gear.

36. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 35, being characterized in that the uppermost image carrier driving gear is meshed with said transmission gear in the rotation normal direction when said movable section is pivotally moved to be installed.

37. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 35, being characterized in that the uppermost image carrier driving gear is meshed with said transmission gear in the rotation tangential direction when said movable section is pivotally moved to be installed.

38. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 34, being characterized in that the pivot of said movable section is located at a lower side of the housing body and the driving roller for said intermediate transfer belt is located obliquely above the driven roller, and being characterized by comprising:

the image carriers for respective colors and the transfer belt which are attached to the movable section;

a belt driving gear for driving said driving roller;

image carrier driving gears for driving the image carriers for the respective colors, one of which is meshed with said belt driving gear;

idle gears each of which is meshed with each pair of the adjacent image carrier driving gears for the respective colors;

a driving motor which is attached to the housing body and located near the uppermost position of the belt face of which traveling direction is downward; and

a transmission gear which is meshed with the pinion gear of the driving motor and meshed with the belt driving gear.

39. An image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 34, being characterized in that the pivot of said movable section is located at a lower side of the housing body and the driven roller for said intermediate transfer belt is located obliquely above the driving roller, and being characterized by comprising:

the image carriers for respective colors and the transfer belt which are attached to the movable section;

a belt driving gear for driving said driving roller;

image carrier driving gears for driving the image carriers for the respective colors, one of which is meshed with said belt driving gear;

idle gears each of which is meshed with each pair of the adjacent image carrier driving gears for the respective colors;

a driving motor which is attached to the housing body and located near the lowermost position of the belt face of which traveling direction is downward; and

a transmission gear which is meshed with the pinion gear of the driving motor and meshed with the belt driving gear.