US 9,766,569 B2Granted

Image forming apparatus with corona charger cleaning

AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha

InventorKentarou Yamana

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

An image forming apparatus includes a corona charger, first and second supporting members for supporting the corona charger on the respective sides of the corona charger with respect to the circumferential direction of a photosensitive member, and first and second urging portions for urging a shield of the corona charger in the first and second supporting members. The first urging portion and the second urging portion urge the shield at non-opposing positions relative to each other with respect to a longitudinal direction of the corona charger. The image forming apparatus enables suppression of charging non-uniformity due to vibration of the corona charger without impairing motion of a grid cleaning member.

Claims16

Dependent claims

An image forming apparatus comprising:

a rotatable photosensitive member;
a corona charger detachably mountable to an image forming apparatus main assembly, configured to electrically charge said photosensitive member, and including a discharging electrode, a first shield portion, a second shield portion, a cleaning member, and a movable member;
and
a first urging member and a second urging member, provided in said image forming apparatus main assembly and having elasticity, configured to urge said corona charger in directions crossing a longitudinal direction of said corona charger when said corona charger is mounted in said image forming apparatus main assembly,
said discharging electrode effecting electric discharge under application of a voltage and being provided along the longitudinal direction,
said first shield portion and said second shield portion, having a plate shape, being provided along the longitudinal direction at opposing positions with respect to said discharging electrode,
said cleaning member cleaning a portion-to-be-cleaned in said corona charger and being moved while contacting the portion-to-be-cleaned,
said movable member, holding said cleaning member, being moved in the longitudinal direction while being guided by said first shield portion and said second shield portion,
said first urging member urging said first shield portion toward said second shield portion,
said second urging member urging said second shield portion toward said first shield portion, and
said first urging member and said second urging member being provided so that a first portion-to-be-urged of said first shield portion urged by said first urging member and a second portion-to-be-urged of said second shield portion urged by said second urging member are in non-opposing positions relative to each other with respect to the longitudinal direction when said corona charger is mounted in said image forming apparatus main assembly.

8 more elements

An image forming apparatus comprising:

a rotatable photosensitive member;
a corona charger detachably mountable to an image forming apparatus main assembly, configured to electrically charge said photosensitive member, and including a discharging electrode, a first shield portion, a second shield portion, a cleaning member, and a movable member;
and
a first urging member and a second urging member, provided in said image forming apparatus main assembly and having elasticity, configured to urge said corona charger in directions crossing a longitudinal direction of said corona charger when said corona charger is mounted in said image forming apparatus main assembly,
wherein said discharging electrode effects electric discharge under application of a voltage and is provided along the longitudinal direction, and said first shield portion and said second shield portion have a plate shape and are provided along the longitudinal direction at opposing positions with respect to said discharging electrode,
wherein said cleaning member cleans a portion-to-be-cleaned in said corona charger and is moved while contacting the portion-to-be-cleaned,
wherein said movable member holds said cleaning member and is moved in the longitudinal direction while being guided by said first shield portion and said second shield portion,
wherein said first urging member urges said first shield portion toward said second shield portion,
wherein said second urging member urges said second shield portion toward said first shield portion, and
wherein said first urging member and said second urging member are provided so that a first portion-to-be-urged of said first shield portion urged by said first urging member and a second portion-to-be-urged of said second shield portion urged by said second urging member are not in opposing positions relative to each other with respect to the longitudinal direction when said corona charger is mounted in said image forming apparatus main assembly.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 15/098,874Filed 14 Apr 2016 · continuation
Priority: JP 2013-22260325 Oct 2013
Published: US 2016/0223931 A14 Aug 2016
Granted: 19 Sep 2017
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification6 codes

G03G 15/0258
For laying down a uniform charge, e.g. for sensitising; Corona discharge devices: provided with means for the maintenance of the charging…
G03G 15/0291
For laying down a uniform charge, e.g. for sensitising; Corona discharge devices: corona discharge devices, e.g. wires, pointed electrodes, means…
G03G 2215/0129
The linear arrangement being horizontal or slanted: horizontal medium transport path at the secondary transfer
G03G 2215/027
By coronas: using wires

Family

PCT/JP2014/079002Parent of this continuation · filed 24 Oct 2014
US 2016/0223931 A1Pre-grant publication · published 4 Aug 2016
US 9,766,569 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.

Timeline

Citations

Open elsewhere

Building an agent or pulling many patents? Use the API or MCP server instead of scraping pages. Get an API key