Detachable cleaning device for an image forming apparatus
AssigneeSeiko Epson Corporation
InventorsAtsunori Kitazawa, Hidetsugu Shimura, Yujiro Nomura
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An OPC 2, a charger 9, a cleaner 10 for cleaning the charger 9, a holder 11 for holding the charger 9, a support frame 12 for supporting the holder 11, a pair of springs 13 and 14 and a driver 15 for driving the holder are accommodated in a single process cartridge 8. The cleaner 10 can be brought into contact with the charger 9 and separated from the same. The driver 15 moves the cleaner 10 between a position of contact at which the cleaner 10 is brought into contact with the charger 9 and a position of separation at which the cleaner 10 is separated from the charger 9.
Claims19
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a photosensitive member on which an electrostatic latent image is to be formed;
- a rotative charger brought into contact with the photosensitive member to charge the same;
- a cleaner brought into contact with the charger to clean the same;
- a cleaner driver for bringing the cleaner into contact with the charger and for separating therefrom;
- and
- a single cartridge detachably provided in the image forming apparatus for accommodating the photosensitive member, the charger, the cleaner and the cleaner driver.
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a photosensitive member on which an electrostatic latent image is to be formed;
- a rotative charger brought into contact with the photosensitive member to charge the same;
- a cleaner brought into contact with the charger to clean the same;
- and
- a cleaner driver for bringing the cleaner into contact with the charger and for separating therefrom,
- wherein the cleaner driver brings the cleaner into contact with the charger to execute a cleaning operation at least immediately before a patch control for adjusting a density of image to be formed is performed.
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a photosensitive drum on which an electrostatic latent image is to be formed;
- a rotative charger brought into contact with the photosensitive drum to charge the same;
- a cleaner brought into contact with the charger to clean the same;
- and
- a cleaner driver for bringing the cleaner into contact with the charger and for separating therefrom,
- wherein the photosensitive drum is rotated after the cleaner which has terminated a cleaning operation has been separated from the charger, and continues rotating until a portion of the photosensitive drum, which corresponds to a portion from which the cleaner has separated, passes a position where a developed image thereon is to be transferred onto an image transfer member.
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a photosensitive drum on which an electrostatic latent image is to be formed;
- a rotative charger brought into contact with the photosensitive drum to charge the same;
- a cleaner brought into contact with the charger to clean the same;
- and
- a cleaner driver for bringing the cleaner into contact with the charger and for separating therefrom,
- wherein the photosensitive drum is rotated at least one time after the cleaner which has terminated a cleaning operation has been separated from the charger.
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a photosensitive member on which an electrostatic latent image is to be formed;
- a rotative charger brought into contact with the photosensitive member to charge the same;
- a cleaner brought into contact with the photosensitive member to charge the same;
- a cleaner brought into contact with the charger with a contact pressure which is enough to float residual toner adhered on the charger, and not enough to allow the floated toner to pass through to a downstream portion of the cleaner, in order to clean the charger,
- wherein a wettability of the charger with respect to toner used for developing the latent image is lower than that of the photosensitive member.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.