Cleaning mechanism and image forming apparatus having the same

Abstract

The invention properly cleans material powder on a surface of an image carrier which is ground by a gap roll coming into contact with the image carrier with a strong pressing force since the gap roll is configured to contact and leave the image carrier. An image carrier surface cleaning mechanism for an image forming apparatus, which has the image carrier (1), a transfer roller (5), and the gap roll (7) capable of contacting and leaving the image carrier to keep them at a proper interval, has a cleaning member (16) arranged corresponding to a gap roll contact area on the image carrier surface. Also, at least a portion of the cleaning member which comes into contact with the image carrier surface is made of a surface porous fiber material.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates to a mechanism for cleaning scraped powder on the surface of an image carrier in image forming devices such as copiers, printers, and facsimiles using electrophotographic image forming technology, and an image forming device provided with the cleaning mechanism. Background technique [0002] In an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, the photoreceptor as an image bearing body and the charging means and developing means arranged around the photoreceptor are integrated into a cartridge, so that the cartridge can be compared to the image forming apparatus body. Loading and unloading, this process cartridge (process cartridge) method is well known. [0003] On the other hand, there is a transfer means, which transfers the toner image on the surface of the photoreceptor to the transfer paper or recording medium through transfer paper or recording media between it and the photoreceptor. As the above-mentioned transfer m...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

However, as mentioned above, the pressing force on the photoreceptor is relatively large, and when the paper passes, for example, thousands of sheets, the gap roller scrapes the surface of the photoreceptor.

In particular, if the Al tube portion used for the OPC photoreceptor is scraped to generate Al scraping powder, the scraping powder is scattered, enters the inside of the developing device, and is discharged in the charging part, damaging the photoreceptor.

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