Belt unit, image forming apparatus and belt member exchanging method
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorKohei Koshida
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A belt unit includes: a belt member; a belt supporting unit including a plurality of supporting rollers for supporting the belt member, and a pair of side units for supporting end portions of each of the plurality of supporting rollers; and a cleaning unit, including a cleaning blade for cleaning the belt member, detachably mountable to the belt supporting unit. The cleaning unit includes a connecting portion connectable to one of the side units so that the belt supporting unit from which the cleaning unit is demounted is placed in a standing state such that the one of the side units is directed downward and the other side unit is directed upward.
Claims9
A belt unit comprising:
- a belt member;
- a belt supporting unit including a plurality of supporting rollers for supporting said belt member, and a pair of side units for supporting end portions of each of the plurality of supporting rollers;
- and
- a cleaning unit, including a cleaning blade for cleaning a toner on said belt member, detachably mountable to said belt supporting unit,
- wherein said cleaning unit includes a connecting portion connectable to one of the side units so that said belt supporting unit from which said cleaning unit is demounted is placed in a standing state such that the one of the side units is directed downward and the other side unit is directed upward.
A belt member exchanging method in which a belt supporting unit which includes a side unit and which supports a belt member and a cleaning unit for cleaning the belt member are connected to each other and then the belt member is exchanged through a belt unit detachably mountable to a main assembly of an image forming apparatus, said belt member exchanging method comprising:
- a step of pulling out the belt unit to an outside of the image forming apparatus;
- a step of eliminating connection between the belt supporting unit and the cleaning unit;
- a step of connecting the cleaning unit with the side unit of the cleaning unit;
- a step of standing the belt supporting unit by itself in an attitude such that the belt member is exchangeable;
- and
- a step of exchanging the belt member.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.