JP2010164674A - Image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image forming apparatus which achieves reduction in cost, decrease in dispersion of radiated noise that is generated from a radiated noise generating source, and prevention of a malfunction in a function member that is influenced by surrounding metal and that can execute stable image formation. <P>SOLUTION: The image forming apparatus 1 is provided with a metal plate case 17 and a synthetic resin case 18 and has a member that can become the radiated noise generating source arranged in the metal plate case 17 and has the function member that is influenced by surrounding metal arranged in the synthetic resin case 18. Thus, there is no need for a metal cover that surrounds the member that can become the radiated noise generating source or a synthetic resin mounting base for the function member that is influenced by the surrounding metal to be separately provided. Therefore, cost reduction in the image forming apparatus 1 can be obtained. Then, dispersion of radiated noise that is generated from the generating source of the radiated noise can be reduced and prevention of malfunction in the function member that is influenced by surrounding metal due to existence of the metal case can be achieved. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus represented by a copying machine or a printer.

  Image forming apparatuses such as copying machines, printers, and facsimiles include various components such as an image forming unit provided with a photosensitive drum, a charging device, and a developing device, a paper feeding cassette, a fixing device, a paper transport mechanism, and a toner cartridge. It is prepared. These constituent elements are respectively arranged and attached to a sheet metal casing or a synthetic resin casing which can be seen in Patent Document 1. Synthetic resin casings are employed to solve problems such as difficult workability, a reduction in design freedom, and an increase in the number of parts in a sheet metal casing.

  On the other hand, electronic devices used in offices and homes require various electric / electronic components and functional members for controlling operations, and the image forming apparatus is no exception. Among them, the electrical / electronic components are collectively mounted and bonded to a printed circuit board on which circuit patterns necessary for operation control are formed in advance, and constitute a circuit board such as a power supply board, a high voltage board, and a controller board. The functional members include sensors such as a toner sensor, an RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) tag, and a paper detection sensor. The functional members are arranged in the vicinity of a paper feed cassette, a paper conveyance path, a toner cartridge, and the like to be operated. There are many. The circuit board and the functional member are connected by a plurality of electric wires to supply power and exchange signals.

JP-A-8-101546 (2nd page, FIG. 1)

  Here, circuit boards such as a power supply board, a high-voltage board, and a controller board can be radiation noise generating sources that generate radiation noise, and interfere not only inside the equipment but also external equipment as an electromagnetic environment. When these circuit boards are arranged in a synthetic resin casing, there is a high possibility that radiation noise generated from the circuit board spreads to various places. As a result, there is a concern that a functional member that is easily affected by radiation noise may be adversely affected, and erroneous detection or malfunction may occur. Therefore, when the circuit board is disposed in the synthetic resin casing, it is necessary to provide a metal cover surrounding the circuit board to shield the radiation noise. As a result, there is a risk that the component cost and the assembly cost increase.

  On the other hand, sensors such as a toner sensor, an RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) tag, and a paper detection sensor are functional members that are influenced by surrounding metal. For example, a toner sensor detects the magnetism of toner, and if a magnetic material such as an iron member is present around the toner sensor, erroneous detection may occur. In addition, since RFID performs communication using radio waves, if a metal member is present nearby, radio waves may be absorbed and attenuated, resulting in poor communication. Therefore, if sensors such as these are arranged in a sheet metal casing, the sensors are liable to erroneously detect and malfunction due to the presence of the sheet metal casing, resulting in trouble in control and the operation of the image forming apparatus. There is a concern that may become unstable. As a result, when the sensors are arranged in a sheet metal casing, it is necessary to provide a separate synthetic resin mounting base to avoid the adverse effects caused by the sheet metal (metal). As a result, there is a risk that the component cost and the assembly cost increase.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and has achieved cost reduction, reduced diffusion of radiation noise generated from a radiation noise generation source, and prevention of malfunction of a functional member affected by surrounding metal. An object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus that can be realized and can perform stable image formation.

  In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a sheet metal casing and a synthetic resin casing in an image forming apparatus, and a member that can be a source of radiation noise is disposed in the sheet metal casing. Then, the functional member influenced by the surrounding metal is arranged in the synthetic resin casing.

  Further, in the image forming apparatus having the above configuration, the member that can be a radiation noise generation source is a circuit board such as a power supply board, a high-voltage board, and a controller board, and the functional member that is affected by the surrounding metal is a toner sensor, The sensor is a RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) tag or a paper detection sensor.

  According to the configuration of the present invention, the image forming apparatus includes a sheet metal casing and a synthetic resin casing, and a member that can be a radiation noise generation source is disposed in the sheet metal casing, Since the functional member affected by the metal is arranged in the synthetic resin casing, the metal cover that surrounds the member that can be a source of radiation noise and the functional member affected by the surrounding metal There is no need to prepare a separate mounting base made of synthetic resin. Therefore, the cost of the image forming apparatus can be reduced. And diffusion of the radiation noise which generate | occur | produces from a radiation noise generation source can be reduced, and it can avoid that the bad influence by radiation noise exerts on the functional member which is easy to receive the influence of radiation noise. Further, it is possible to prevent malfunction caused by the presence of the sheet metal casing of the functional member influenced by the surrounding metal. Thus, an image forming apparatus capable of performing stable image formation can be provided.

  The member that can be a source of radiation noise is a circuit board such as a power supply board, a high-voltage board, or a controller board, and the functional member that is affected by the surrounding metal is a sensor such as a toner sensor, an RFID tag, or a paper detection sensor. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the diffusion of radiation noise generated from the circuit board, and to prevent the sensors from being adversely affected by the presence of the sheet metal casing. Therefore, it is possible to prevent erroneous detection and malfunction of the sensors, realize suitable control, and perform more stable image formation.

1 is a schematic vertical sectional front view of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is an external perspective view of the image forming apparatus illustrated in FIG. 1. FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the image forming apparatus shown in FIG. 1 viewed from above a main body housing.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

  First, an image output operation of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described while explaining the outline of the structure with reference to FIGS. 1 is a schematic vertical sectional front view of the image forming apparatus, FIG. 2 is an external perspective view of the image forming apparatus, and FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the image forming apparatus as viewed from above the main body housing. In FIG. 1, a solid line arrow indicates a sheet conveyance path and a conveyance direction, and a one-dot chain line arrow indicates a laser beam L.

  As shown in FIG. 1, a paper feed cassette 3, which is a paper feed unit, is disposed below the inside of the main body 2 of the image forming apparatus 1. The paper feed cassette 3 stores and accommodates paper P such as cut paper before printing. The sheets P are separated and sent one by one toward the upper left of the sheet cassette 3 in FIG. The paper feed cassette 3 can be pulled out horizontally from the front side of the main body 2.

  A vertical paper transport unit 4 is provided inside the main body 2 and on the left side of the paper feed cassette 3. The vertical paper transport unit 4 is formed substantially vertically along the left side surface of the main body 2. The vertical paper transport unit 4 receives the paper P delivered from the paper feed cassette 3 and transports it to the transfer unit 12 vertically upward along the left side surface of the main body 2.

  A manual paper feed unit 5 is provided on the left side of the main body 2 where the vertical paper transport unit 4 is formed, on the left side of the upper paper feed cassette 3. In the manual paper feed unit 5, paper of a size that is not in the paper feed cassette 3, or paper that is to be manually fed, such as thick paper and OHP sheets, is placed. The sheets placed on the manual sheet feeder 5 are separated and sent one by one toward the upper right of the manual sheet feeder 5 in FIG.

  On the other hand, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a document conveying device 6 is provided on the upper surface of the main body 2 of the image forming apparatus 1, and an image reading device 7 is provided below the document conveying device 6. An operation panel 8 is provided on the front surface of the main body 2 and above the paper feed cassette 3 at a position where the user can confirm the display from the outside and can operate by pressing a button (see FIG. 2). . When a user copies a document, the document carrying device 6 is loaded with a document on which images such as characters, graphics, and patterns are drawn, and printing conditions are input to the operation panel 8 to start printing. . The document conveying device 6 separates the documents one by one and sends them out, and the image reading device 7 reads the image data. The information of the image data is sent to the scanning optical device 9 disposed above the paper feed cassette 3 and in the center of the main body 2. The scanning optical device 9 emits laser light L controlled based on the image data toward the image forming unit 10.

  An image forming unit 10 and a transfer unit 12 are provided above the vertical sheet conveying unit 4 and to the left of the scanning optical device 9. In the image forming unit 10, an electrostatic latent image of a document image is formed by the laser light L emitted by the scanning optical device 9, and a toner image is developed from the electrostatic latent image. The toner is supplied to the image forming unit 10 from a toner cartridge 11 provided below the scanning optical device 9. The toner image formed by the image forming unit 10 is transferred by the transfer unit 12 to the pre-printing paper P sent in synchronization by the vertical paper transport unit 4.

  A fixing device 13 is provided above the transfer unit 12. The paper P carrying the unfixed toner image in the transfer unit 12 is sent to the fixing device 13 where the toner image is heated and pressed by a heat roller and a pressure roller to be fixed.

  A branch portion 14 is provided above the fixing device 13. When the double-sided printing is not performed, the paper P discharged from the fixing device 13 is discharged from the branching unit 14 to a cylinder paper discharge unit 15 (see FIG. 2) provided in the cylinder of the image forming apparatus 1.

  The discharge port portion from which the paper P is discharged from the branch portion 14 toward the in-body paper discharge portion 15 functions as the switchback portion 16. When performing duplex printing, the switchback unit 16 switches the transport direction of the paper P discharged from the fixing device 13. Then, the sheet P is sent downward through the branching unit 14, the left side of the fixing device 13, and the left side of the transfer unit 12, and is sent again to the transfer unit 12 through the vertical sheet transport unit 4.

  The image forming apparatus 1 configured as described above includes a sheet metal casing 17 and a synthetic resin casing 18 shown in FIG. 3 as casings. Note that FIG. 3 illustrates the housing of the main body 2 of the image forming apparatus 1. Further, in FIG. 3, in order to easily distinguish the sheet metal casing 17 and the synthetic resin casing 18, hatching is drawn on the synthetic resin casing 18.

  The sheet metal housing 17 is made of an iron plate, for example, SECC (electrogalvanized steel plate), and mainly forms a skeleton near the exterior such as the front surface, the back surface, the right side surface, and the beam portion connecting these surfaces. Yes. In the sheet metal casing 17, circuit boards such as a power supply board 19, a high voltage board 20, and a controller board (not shown), which are members that can be radiation noise sources, are arranged.

  On the other hand, the synthetic resin casing 18 is made of ABS resin, PS resin, or the like, and is similar to the periphery of the components such as the paper feed cassette 3, the vertical paper transport unit 4, the image forming unit 10, and the toner cartridge 11 in FIG. Further, it is applied to a place where a finer shape is required. The synthetic resin casing 18 is provided with sensors such as a toner sensor 21, an RFID tag 22, and a paper detection sensor (not shown), which are functional members that are influenced by surrounding metal. The toner sensor 21 detects the amount of toner in the toner cartridge 11 and notifies the user of the information via the operation panel 8 as necessary. The RFID tag 22 stores information on the toner cartridge 11 itself, and is used for holding a use history and detecting unauthorized use.

  As described above, the image forming apparatus 1 includes the sheet metal casing 17 and the synthetic resin casing 18, and a member that can be a source of radiation noise is disposed in the sheet metal casing 17, and the surrounding metal is attached to the surrounding metal. Since the affected functional member is disposed in the synthetic resin casing 18, a metal cover surrounding the member that can be a source of radiation noise, or a synthetic resin for a functional member that is affected by surrounding metals. There is no need to prepare a separate mounting base. Therefore, the cost of the image forming apparatus 1 can be reduced. And diffusion of the radiation noise which generate | occur | produces from a radiation noise generation source can be reduced, and it can avoid that the bad influence by radiation noise exerts on the functional member which is easy to receive the influence of radiation noise. Further, it is possible to prevent malfunction caused by the presence of the sheet metal casing 17 of the functional member influenced by the surrounding metal. Thus, the image forming apparatus 1 capable of performing stable image formation can be provided.

  Further, members that can generate radiation noise are circuit boards such as a power supply board 19, a high-voltage board 20, and a controller board, and functional members that are affected by surrounding metal include a toner sensor 21, an RFID tag 22, and a paper detection sensor. Therefore, the diffusion of radiation noise generated from the circuit board can be reduced, and adverse effects caused by the presence of the sheet metal casing 17 can be avoided. Therefore, it is possible to prevent erroneous detection and malfunction of the sensors, realize suitable control, and perform more stable image formation.

  Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the scope of the present invention is not limited to these embodiments, and various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention.

  For example, the member that can be a radiation noise generation source and the functional member that is affected by the surrounding metal are not limited to the members described in the above embodiment, and may be other members.

  The present invention can be used in general image forming apparatuses.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Image forming apparatus 2 Main body 17 Sheet metal case 18 Synthetic resin case 19 Power supply board (circuit board)
20 High-voltage board (circuit board)
21 Toner sensor (sensor)
22 RFID tag (sensor)

Claims (2)

  A sheet metal casing and a synthetic resin casing are provided, a member capable of generating radiation noise is disposed in the sheet metal casing, and a functional member influenced by surrounding metal is disposed in the synthetic resin casing. An image forming apparatus arranged on a body.   The member that can be a source of radiation noise is a circuit board such as a power supply board, a high-voltage board, or a controller board, and the functional member that is affected by the surrounding metal is a toner sensor, an RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) tag, paper detection The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image forming apparatus is a sensor such as a sensor.

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