US 5,689,768 AGranted

Electrophotographing apparatus for collecting toner from a photosensitive member and conveying it to developing means

AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha

InventorsToshiyuki Ehara, Koji Yamazaki, Tetsuya Karaki

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Abstract

An electrophotographing apparatus with a reusable toner system includes a photosensitive member capable of bearing toner thereon, a latent image forming unit for forming a latent image on the photosensitive member, a developing unit for developing the latent image with toner as a toner image, a transfer unit for transferring the toner image formed on the photosensitive member onto a transfer material at a transfer position, and a collection unit for collecting the toner from a surface of the photosensitive member after the surface passes through the transfer position. The collection unit includes a rotary member rotated while contacting the surface of the photosensitive member at a contact position. The rotary member is rotated in a direction opposite to a shifting direction of the photosensitive member at the contact position in such a manner that the relative speed of the rotary member with respect to the surface of the photosensitive member at the contact position becomes 110% or more of a shifting speed of the surface of the photosensitive member. The apparatus also includes a toner convey unit for conveying the toner collected by the collection unit to the developing unit so that the latent image formed on the photosensitive member can be developed by the toner collected by the collection unit.

Claims18

Dependent claims

An electrophotographing apparatus comprising:

a photosensitive member capable of bearing toner thereon, wherein when the thickness of said photosensitive member is d and measured in millimeters and the shifting speed of the surface of said photosensitive member is v and measured in millimeters per second, the relation d.times.v.gtoreq.9 is satisfied, and
wherein the shifting speed of the surface of said photosensitive member is at least 300 millimeters per second;
latent image forming means for forming a latent image on said photosensitive member;
developing means for developing the latent image with toner as a toner image;
transfer means for transferring the toner image formed on said photosensitive member onto a transfer material at a transfer position;
collection means for collecting the toner from a surface of said photosensitive member after said surface passes through said transfer position, said collection means including a rotary member rotated while contacting the surface of said photosensitive member at a contact position, and said rotary member being rotated in a direction opposite to a shifting direction of said photosensitive member at said contact position in such a manner that the relative speed of said rotary member with respect to the surface of said photosensitive member at said contact position becomes 110% or more of the shifting speed of the surface of said photosensitive member;
and
toner convey means for conveying the toner collected by said collection means to said developing means so that the latent image formed on said photosensitive member can be developed by the toner collected by said collection means.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.