JP2018069629A - Electronic apparatus and image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

To cool elements that are arranged at different positions by changing the direction of air flow while having a simple configuration.
In an electronic device 20 of the present invention, a fan 22, a blower passage 23 through which air blown from the fan 22 passes, and an air outlet 23a of the blower passage 23 are provided on the air outlet 23a side. A wind direction changing member 24 that receives the air blown from the air and changes the direction of the air flow, and a control unit 41 that controls the amount of air blown from the fan 22. The direction of the wind direction changing member 24 changes according to the amount of air blown from the blowout port 23a, and the flow direction of the blown air changes.
[Selection] Figure 2

Description

  The present invention relates to an electronic device and an image forming apparatus including the electronic device, and more particularly to a technique for cooling elements in the electronic device.

  The image forming apparatus is provided with a plurality of types of circuits such as a power source and a control circuit. When these elements are provided with elements such as transistors and integrated circuits that generate a large amount of heat, these It is necessary to take measures against heat of the elements. There is a technique for cooling a cooling target by generating a flow of air with a motor fan and applying this air to the cooling target.

  For example, in Patent Document 1, an air flow is generated by a motor fan, and this air is blown to an infrared heating element through a wind tunnel and is discharged from a cover window provided in the wind tunnel.

  Further, in Patent Document 2, a storage battery and a circuit board for charging are arranged opposite to each other, a heat shielding plate for blocking heat generation of the circuit board is provided between the storage battery and the circuit board, and the air board has two or more layers. The influence of the storage battery due to the heat generation is reduced.

  Further, in Patent Document 3, a duct is provided between a fan for cooling a power supply device or the like and an exhaust port, and the duct is formed by bending a sheet material appropriately cut.

Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 58-89747 JP-A-6-70864 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-6578

  However, in both Patent Documents 1 and 3, since the direction of the air flow is maintained constant, the element at a position deviated from the air flow cannot be cooled. Alternatively, all the elements to be cooled must be arranged so as to touch the air flow, and the positions of these elements are limited.

  Moreover, in the said patent document 2, although the air layer is made into two or more layers and the influence of the storage battery by the heat_generation | fever of a circuit board is reduced, it is not the technique which cools the cooling object with the air generated with the motor fan.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to change the direction of air flow while allowing simple cooling of elements disposed at different positions. To do.

  An electronic apparatus according to an aspect of the present invention is provided with a fan, an air passage through which air blown from the fan passes, and an air outlet port side of the air passage formed by an elastically deformed material. A wind direction changing member that changes its direction by being deformed by an elastic deformation amount corresponding to the amount of air blown from the mouth, and a controller that drives the fan to control the amount of air blown from the fan. The wind direction changing member guides the air from the fan to each cooling target by the fan by changing the direction of the air by the elastic deformation.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to cool the respective elements arranged at different positions by changing the direction of air flow with a simple configuration.

1 is a perspective view illustrating an image forming apparatus to which an embodiment of an electronic apparatus according to the invention is applied. It is a side view which shows roughly the electronic device of this embodiment. It is a perspective view which shows the structure of an electronic device. (A) is a figure which expand | deploys and shows the film containing the wind direction change member in the electronic device, the liner for fire prevention, etc., and (b) is a perspective view which shows the state which bent the film. It is a block diagram which shows the control system of an electronic device. It is a side view which shows roughly the modification of an electronic device.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating an image forming apparatus to which an embodiment of an electronic apparatus according to the invention is applied. An image forming apparatus 10 illustrated in FIG. 1 is a multifunction machine having a plurality of functions such as a copy function, a printer function, a scanner function, and a facsimile function. The image forming apparatus 10 is generally configured by an image reading unit 11, an image forming unit 12, a paper feeding unit 13, a discharge tray 14, and the like.

  When the image forming apparatus 10 performs an image reading operation, the image reading unit 11 reads a document placed on a document placing table, and generates image data indicating an image of the document. This image data is stored in an image memory (not shown).

  When the image forming apparatus 10 performs an image forming operation, the image forming unit 12 forms a toner image on recording paper fed from the paper feeding unit 13 based on the image data stored in the image memory. Thereafter, the toner image formed on the recording paper is thermally fixed by a fixing device (not shown). The recording paper on which the fixing process has been completed is discharged to the discharge tray 14.

  FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view schematically showing the electronic apparatus of the present embodiment. The electronic device 20 according to the present embodiment constitutes a low-voltage power source that supplies power to the image forming apparatus 10, and defines a housing 21, a fan 22, and a blower passage that partitions and passes air blown from the fan 22. (Duct) 23, a wind direction changing member 24, a stopper 25, a low voltage, which is provided at the air outlet 23 a of the air passage 23, receives the air blown from the outlet 23 a and changes the direction of the air flow. A switching element 26 and a triac 27, which are components of a power supply circuit, are provided.

  The wind direction changing member 24 is made of a film-like material having independence and flexibility, and maintains a posture inclined obliquely upward from the lower side of the air outlet 23a of the air passage 23, for example, the casing 21. Is attached. Further, the wind direction changing member 24 is curled with the upper surface 24a of the wind direction changing member 24 that receives the air blown out from the outlet 23a being inward. The wind direction changing member 24 is deformed by an elastic deformation amount corresponding to the amount of air blown from the blowout port 23a and changes its direction.

  The stopper 25 protrudes from the bottom of the housing 21, and the upper end of the stopper 25 is separated from the wind direction changing member 24.

  The switching element 26 is for generating a DC voltage output from a low voltage power supply. The triac 27 is for adjusting the duty ratio of the voltage signal applied to the heater of the fixing device in the image forming apparatus 10. The switching element 26 and the triac 27 are examples of objects to be cooled by the fan 22.

  FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the internal structure of the housing 21. As shown in FIG. 3, the air blowing path 23 includes a sheet metal 31 and a substrate 32 that are arranged to face each other, and a fire-proof liner 33 that is attached to the inner surface of the sheet metal 31. The sheet metal 31 and the substrate 32 protrude from the bottom of the casing 21 and are arranged along the direction of air blowing from the fan 22, and the space between the sheet metal 31 and the substrate 32 is blown out from the fan 22. It is an air passage.

  The fireproof liner 33 is a film having flame retardancy.

  A plurality of elements constituting the low-voltage power supply circuit are mounted on the substrate 32 together with the switching element 26.

  Here, the wind direction changing member 24 and the fireproof liner 33 are formed by cutting and bending a single film having self-standing property, flexibility, and flame retardancy. FIG. 4A is a diagram showing the film F including the wind direction changing member 24 and the fireproof liner 33, and FIG. 4B is a perspective view showing a state in which the film F is bent.

  As shown in FIG. 4A, the film F includes a first rectangular portion f <b> 1 that becomes the fireproof liner 33, a second rectangular portion f <b> 2, and a third rectangular portion f <b> 3 that becomes the wind direction changing member 24. The first rectangular part f1 and the third rectangular part f3 are extended from the respective sides of the second rectangular part f2.

  As shown in FIG. 4B, the film F is bent at a right angle at the boundary between the first rectangular portion f1 and the second rectangular portion f2, and is bent at an obtuse angle at the boundary between the second rectangular portion f2 and the third rectangular portion f3. Then, the first rectangular portion f1 (fireproof liner 33) and the second rectangular portion f2 are attached to the sheet metal 31 and the bottom of the housing 21 via a double-sided tape or the like, respectively, and the third rectangular portion f3 (wind direction changing member). 24) is projected from the air outlet 23a of the air passage 23 to the outside of the air passage 23. Thereby, the wind direction changing member 24 and the fireproof liner 33 are provided.

  When the film F is bent at an obtuse angle at the boundary between the second rectangular part f2 and the third rectangular part f3, the fold at the boundary is rounded so that the waist strength of the film F is not lost at the obtuse angle part. . Thereby, the wind direction changing member 24 receives the air blown from the blowout port 23a of the blower passage 23 and can be elastically deformed repeatedly in the vertical direction. Furthermore, the air direction changing member 24 is curled with the upper surface 24a of the air direction changing member 24 that receives the air blown from the blowing port 23a inside, and the air blown from the blowing port 23a is reliably received by the air direction changing member 24. To be able to.

  The first rectangular portion f1 (fireproof liner 33) is attached to the inner surface of the sheet metal 31 so as to be opposed to the plurality of elements mounted on the substrate 32, and the fire spread due to the ignition of each element is obviated. To prevent.

  As the film F having such self-supporting property, flexibility, and flame retardancy, for example, Lumirror (registered trademark) manufactured by Toray Film Processing Co., Ltd. is available.

  FIG. 5 is a block diagram schematically showing a control system in the electronic device 20. The control unit 41 controls the on / off period of the triac 27 to adjust the duty ratio of the voltage signal applied to the heater of the fixing device of the image forming apparatus 10 via the triac 27 to increase or decrease the power supplied to the heater. Let When the image forming apparatus 10 is on standby, the power supplied to the heater is reduced by adjusting the duty ratio, and when the image forming apparatus 10 is operating, the power supplied to the heater is increased by adjusting the duty ratio. When the power to the heater is increased, the amount of heat generated by the triac 27 increases.

  Further, the control unit 41 controls the drive of the fan 22 to adjust the amount of air blown from the fan 22, and blows out from the fan 22 when the power supplied to the heater of the fixing device is reduced. The amount of air blown from the fan 22 is increased when the amount of air that is blown is reduced and the power supplied to the heater of the fixing device is increased.

  In the electronic device 20 having such a configuration, the air blown from the fan 22 flows through the air blowing path 23. Each element mounted on the substrate 32 inside the air passage 23 is cooled by the air flow.

  Further, when the power supplied to the heater of the fixing device by the control unit 41 is reduced and the amount of air blown out from the fan 22 is reduced, the air direction is blown out from the air outlet 23a of the air passage 23. The amount of air received by the changing member 24 is reduced. At this time, the wind direction changing member 24 hardly bends downward, and the air direction changing member 24 guides the direction of the air flow obliquely upward, and guides the air in the obliquely upward direction to the switching element 26. That is, the air direction changing member 24 is set with an elastic deformation amount corresponding to the amount of air so as to face the switching element 26 when the air amount is a predetermined small amount A. Thereby, the switching element 26 is cooled effectively.

  In addition, when the amount of air received by the wind direction changing member 24 becomes larger than the small amount A, the air direction changing member 24 guides the direction of the air flow obliquely upward. The amount increases, and the air in the diagonally upward direction is guided to the triac 27. That is, the air direction changing member 24 is set to have an elastic deformation amount corresponding to the amount of air so as to face the triac 27 when the air amount is a small amount B larger than the small amount A. Thereby, even if the direction of the air flow is changed by the wind direction changing member 24, the air passing through the wind direction changing member 24 is diffused, so that the triac 27 is also cooled.

  The switching element 26 is for generating a DC voltage output from the low voltage circuit, and is always performing a switching operation. Therefore, the switching element 26 needs to be constantly cooled. Further, when the electric power supplied to the heater of the fixing device is reduced, the triac 27 generates a small amount of heat, so the triac 27 may be cooled by the diffused air. For this reason, the switching element 26 and the triac 27 can be efficiently cooled by the deformation of the wind direction changing member 24 corresponding to the small amount A and the small amount B of air.

  For example, when the power supplied to the heater of the fixing device is increased by the control unit 41 and the amount of air blown out from the fan 22 is increased, the air direction is blown out from the air outlet 23 a of the air passage 23. The amount of air received by the change member 24 increases. Therefore, as shown by the dotted line in FIG. 2, until the wind direction changing member 24 comes into contact with the upper end of the stopper 25, the wind direction changing member 24 is greatly bent and deformed downward, the direction of the wind direction changing member 24 is changed, and the wind direction is changed. The air flow through the changing member 24 is directed to the triac 27. Thus, by providing the stopper 25, it becomes possible to effectively guide the air to the triac 27 to be cooled.

  Accordingly, when the amount of heat generated by the triac 27 is increased with the increase in power to the heater of the fixing device, a large amount of air flows to the triac 27 via the wind direction changing member 24, which makes the triac 27 effective. To be cooled. Even if the direction of the air flow is changed by the wind direction changing member 24, the amount of air passing through the wind direction changing member 24 is large and the air diffuses, so that the cooling effect of the switching element 26 is not impaired.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, the switching elements disposed at different positions with the increase / decrease in the amount of air blown from the fan 22 only by providing the air direction changing member 24 at the air outlet 23a of the air passage 23. 26 and the triac 27 can be cooled effectively.

  In the above embodiment, the wind direction changing member 24 and the fireproof liner 33 are formed by cutting and bending one film, but the wind direction changing member 24 may be separated from the fireproof liner 33. Good. In this case, one end of the wind direction changing member 24 is attached to the bottom of the housing 21 via a double-sided tape or the like.

  Further, instead of the stopper 25 that restricts the elastic deformation of the wind direction changing member 24, a stopper 25A as shown in FIG. 6 may be applied. This stopper 25A is a film obtained by folding a self-supporting and flexible film. When the amount of air received by the wind direction changing member 24 is increased and the wind direction changing member 24 is greatly bent downward and deformed, The wind direction changing member 24 contacts the stopper 25A, and the stopper 25A is also deformed. Thereby, the deformation amount of the wind direction changing member 24 can be moderately suppressed.

  In the above-described embodiment, a multifunction peripheral is illustrated as an image forming apparatus according to the present invention. However, this is merely an example, and other image forming apparatuses such as a printer, a copier, and a facsimile apparatus may be used.

  The configuration and processing described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 6 are only an embodiment of the present invention, and the present invention is not limited to the configuration and processing.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Image forming apparatus 11 Image reading part 12 Image forming part 13 Paper feed part 14 Ejection tray 20 Electronic device 21 Case 22 Fan 23 Air passage 24 Air direction changing member 25 Stopper 26 Switching element 27 Triac 31 Sheet metal 32 Substrate 33 Fire prevention liner 41 Control unit

Claims (7)

With fans,
An air passage for partitioning and passing air blown from the fan;
A wind direction changing member that is formed of an elastically deformable material and is provided on the air outlet side of the air passage, and is deformed by an elastic deformation amount according to the amount of air blown out from the air outlet, and changes direction.
A controller that drives the fan to control the amount of air blown from the fan, and
The said wind direction change member is an electronic device which guides the said air from the said fan to each cooling object by the said fan by changing the direction of the said air by the said elastic deformation.   The electronic device according to claim 1, further comprising a stopper that limits elastic deformation of the wind direction changing member.   The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the wind direction changing member is made of a film-like material having self-supporting properties and flexibility.   The electronic device according to claim 3, wherein the wind direction changing member has a curled shape with the surface of the wind direction changing member receiving the air blown out from the blowout port inward.   5. The electronic device according to claim 3, wherein the wind direction changing member is formed by extending a part of a film for fire prevention provided inside the air passage.   The direction of air changed by the wind direction changing member when the amount of air blown from the fan is decreased by the control unit, and the time when the amount of air blown from the fan is increased by the control unit The electronic device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the element to be cooled is arranged in a direction of air changed by the wind direction changing member elastically deformed. . An electronic device according to any one of claims 1 to 6,
An image forming apparatus comprising: an image forming unit that forms an image on a recording medium.