Process cartridge and image forming apparatus cleaning method and cleaning device with improved lubricity
AssigneeFuji Xerox Co., Ltd.
InventorNoriaki Kojima
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A process cartridge detachably mounted on an image forming apparatus, includes a cleaning blade which comes into contact with a surface of a member to be cleaned incorporated in the image forming apparatus and removes a residual toner adhering to the surface, and a toner feeding unit which is disposed on the cleaning blade at a side where the residual toner adheres to the surface and re-adheres the residual toner having been removed from the surface to the surface.
Claims23
A process cartridge detachably mounted on an image forming apparatus, comprising:
- a cleaning blade which comes into contact with a surface of a member to be cleaned incorporated in the image forming apparatus, and removes a residual toner adhering to the surface;
- a toner feeding unit which is disposed on the cleaning blade at a side where the residual toner adheres to the surface of the member to be cleaned, and re-adheres the residual toner having been removed from the surface to the surface;
- the toner feeding unit is in contact with the surface of the member to be cleaned;
- and
- a bias applied to the toner feeding unit has the same polarity as that applied to the toner.
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a cleaning blade which comes into contact with a surface of a member to be cleaned incorporated in the image forming apparatus, and removing a residual toner adhering to the surface;
- a toner feeding unit which is disposed on the cleaning blade at a side where the residual toner adheres to the surface of the member to be cleaned, and re-adhere the residual toner having been removed from the surface to the surface;
- the toner feeding unit is in contact with the surface of the member to be cleaned;
- wherein the residual toner electrostatically adheres to the surface of the member to be cleaned,
- the toner feeding unit feeds the residual toner to the surface by charging the residual toner, and a bias applied to the toner feeding unit has the same polarity as that applied to the toner.
A cleaning method comprising:
- a feeding step of feeding an adhesion substance to a not-yet-cleaned region on a surface of a member to be cleaned by bringing a toner feeding unit to be in contact with the surface of the member to be cleaned;
- a cleaning step of cleaning the not-yet-cleaned region, to which the adhesion substance has been fed in the feeding step, by a cleaning blade which comes into contact with the surface of the member to be cleaned;
- and
- applying a bias to the toner feeding unit, the applied bias having the same polarity as that applied to the toner.
A cleaning device comprising:
- a cleaning blade which comes into contact with a surface of a member to be cleaned, and removes an adhesion substance adhering to the surface;
- a feeding unit which is disposed on a side of the cleaning blade at a side where the adhesion substance adheres to the surface, and feeds the adhesion substance to the surface, the feeding unit is in contact with the surface of the member to be cleaned;
- and
- a bias applied to the toner feeding unit has the same polarity as that applied to the adhesion substance.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.