Processing box

Abstract

The utility model discloses a processing box, which comprises a shell, a first end and a second end, the shell comprises a first shell and a second shell connected with the first shell, and the shell is provided with the first end and the second end which are oppositely arranged in a first direction; the photosensitive drum is supported on the second shell and can rotate around the axis of the photosensitive drum extending along the first direction; the developing roller is supported on the first shell and can rotate around the axis of the developing roller extending in the first direction; the first coupling piece is located at the first end of the shell, and the first coupling piece can receive external force and drive the photosensitive drum and the developing roller to rotate; the second coupling piece is located at the first end of the shell, the second coupling piece can receive the external force different from the external force received by the first coupling piece so as to rotate relative to the shell, and the rotation of the second coupling piece and the rotation of the photosensitive drum are mutually independent.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The utility model relates to the technical field of electrophotographic imaging, especially to a process cartridge. BACKGROUND

[0002] A process cartridge is disclosed in the prior art, which is detachably installed into an image forming apparatus, wherein the image forming apparatus comprises a driving force applying member capable of outputting a driving force, the process cartridge comprises a coupling member capable of being coupled with the driving force applying member and receiving the driving force output therefrom, and the process cartridge further comprises a housing, a rotatable developing roller supported on the housing, and a photosensitive drum supported on the housing, and a developing roller gear arranged at one end of the developing roller and a photosensitive drum gear arranged at one end of the photosensitive drum, the driving force received by the coupling member can be transmitted to the photosensitive drum gear through the developing roller gear, thereby driving the developing roller and the photosensitive drum to rotate; in order to avoid the developing roller from being deformed due to long-time pressure contact with the photosensitive drum when the process cartridge does not perform a printing task, affecting the printing quality, the developing roller is configured to be movable between a contact position in contact with the photosensitive drum and a separation position separated from the photosensitive drum, so that the developing roller is separated from the photosensitive drum when the process cartridge does not perform a printing task, and in this process, the first housing supports the developing roller to move together.

[0003] However, the image forming apparatus comprises a component reciprocally extended and retracted when performing a printing task, and no structure is arranged on the process cartridge to limit the reciprocating movement of the component, resulting in a relatively large abnormal sound during printing. In addition, in the existing process cartridge, the developing roller supported on the first housing is away from the swing shaft of the first housing, so that the developing roller gear moves a relatively large amount relative to the photosensitive drum gear during the separation of the developing roller, and when the developing roller moves from the separation position to the contact position, the teeth of the developing roller gear and the teeth of the photosensitive drum gear have a relatively large probability of not being completely meshed, and interference between the two may occur. Once the two start to rotate after receiving the driving force, the instantaneous increase in torque is extremely easy to damage the developing roller gear or the photosensitive drum gear, reducing the service life of the two. SUMMARY

[0004] To solve the above problems, the utility model provides a new process cartridge, which is mainly realized by the following technical scheme:

[0005] A process cartridge can be installed into an image forming apparatus, and the process cartridge comprises:

[0006] A housing comprising a first housing and a second housing connected to the first housing, the housing having a first end and a second end oppositely arranged in a first direction;

[0007] A photosensitive drum supported on the second housing and rotatable about a photosensitive drum axis extending in the first direction;

[0008] The developing roller is supported on the first housing and is rotatable about a developing roller axis extending in the first direction;

[0009] The processing cartridge further comprises:

[0010] The first coupling member is located at the first end of the housing and is configured to receive an external force and drive the photosensitive drum and the developing roller to rotate;

[0011] The second coupling member is located at the first end of the housing and is configured to receive an external force different from the external force received by the first coupling member and rotate relative to the housing, and the rotation of the second coupling member is independent of the rotation of the photosensitive drum.

[0012] Further, the photosensitive drum is provided with a photosensitive drum gear at one end thereof, the photosensitive drum gear is engaged with the first coupling member, and the second coupling member is spaced apart from the photosensitive drum gear in the first direction.

[0013] Further, the rotation axis of the second coupling member coincides with the photosensitive drum axis.

[0014] Further, the second housing comprises a first cover provided at the first end of the housing, a second cover provided at the second end of the housing, and a main body portion located at least partially between the first cover and the second cover.

[0015] The second coupling member is connected to the first cover.

[0016] Further, the first cover is integrally formed with the main body portion, or the first cover, the second cover and the main body portion are integrally formed.

[0017] Further, the processing cartridge further comprises a force receiving protrusion, when the processing cartridge is placed in a posture in which the photosensitive drum and the developing roller are located at the lower end of the processing cartridge and the photosensitive drum axis is located at the lower end of the developing roller axis, the force receiving protrusion is located at the lower end of the housing, and the force receiving protrusion is configured to receive a pushing force of the image forming apparatus and move the developing roller in a direction away from the photosensitive drum.

[0018] Further, the image forming apparatus comprises a braking force applying member, the second coupling member comprises a driving force receiving portion and a braking force receiving portion, the driving force receiving portion is configured to receive a driving force of the image forming apparatus and force the second coupling member to rotate, and the braking force receiving portion is configured to engage with the braking force applying member of the image forming apparatus.

[0019] Further, the processing cartridge further comprises a transmission gear, one end of the developing roller is provided with a developing roller gear, the first coupling member is engaged with the transmission gear and the developing roller gear, and the transmission gear is engaged with the photosensitive drum gear.

[0020] Further, the number of transmission gears is odd, and the transmission gears are arranged on the second housing.

[0021] Further, the developing roller gear and the photodrums gear are spaced apart, and the developing roller gear is farther from the second end of the housing than the photodrums gear in the first direction.

[0022] The utility model provides a kind of processing box, by setting second coupling and reciprocating component in imaging equipment connection of extension and retraction, limit reciprocating component in imaging equipment, can effectively reduce the abnormal sound when executing printing task.In addition, the transfer gear of processing box is arranged closer to the swing shaft of first housing, so that in the process that developing roller and photodrums contact and separate, the tooth portion of first coupling has smaller movement amount relative to transfer gear, so that they are basically not disengaged, compared with prior art, can improve the service life of gear to some extent. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0023] Figure 1 It is the first perspective schematic diagram of the utility model processing box;

[0024] Figure 2 It is the second perspective schematic diagram of the utility model processing box;

[0025] Figure 3 It is the third perspective schematic diagram of the utility model processing box;

[0026] Figure 4 It is the gear train exploded schematic diagram of the utility model processing box;

[0027] Figure 5 It is the gear train schematic diagram of the utility model processing box;

[0028] Figure 6 It is the fourth perspective schematic diagram of the utility model processing box. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0029] To facilitate the description of the processing box 100 in the utility model, the directions of the processing box 100 will be defined next, the extension direction of the rotation axis of the photodrums 105 (the rotation axis of the photodrums) is the first direction, the housing 101 has opposite first end and second end in the first direction, the first coupling 111 is arranged at the first end of the housing 101, and the chip electrical contact surface 102a is arranged at the second end of the housing 101.

[0030] As Figures 1-6 shown, the utility model discloses a kind of processing box 100, it is detachably installed to the imaging equipment with power supply component, electrical contact and first driving force exerting member, second driving force exerting member and brake force exerting member, in the utility model, the imaging equipment is electronic photographic imaging device (i.e. printer).

[0031] The processing cartridge 100 comprises a housing 101 having a first housing 101a and a second housing 101b connected to each other, wherein the first housing 101a can accommodate a developer, the second housing 101b comprises a first cover 101b1 arranged at a first end of the housing 101 and a second cover 101b2 arranged at a second end of the housing 101, and a main body portion 101b3 located between the first cover 101b1 and the second cover 101b2, the first cover 101b1 and the main body portion 101b3 are integrally formed, which makes it only need one set of molds in the process of producing the first cover 101b1 and the main body portion 101b3, thus can reduce the production cost of the processing cartridge 100, and in the process of assembling the processing cartridge 100, the first cover 101b1 and the main body portion 101b3 also do not need to be additionally assembled with each other, thus can also help to improve the assembly efficiency of the processing cartridge 100; further, the first cover 101b1, the second cover 101b2 and the main body portion 101b3 are integrally formed, which can further reduce the production cost of the processing cartridge 100 and improve the assembly efficiency of the processing cartridge 100.

[0032] The processing cartridge 100 further comprises a developing roller supported on the first housing 101a, a powder feeding roller (not shown in the drawings), a photosensitive drum 105 supported on the second housing 101b and a charging roller (not shown in the drawings), wherein when the processing cartridge 100 performs a printing work, the developing roller carries the developer, the charging roller can uniformly charge the photosensitive drum 105, the charged photosensitive drum 105 can form an electrostatic latent image on the outer surface of the photosensitive drum 105 after being selectively irradiated by a laser in the image forming device, the developing roller can deliver the developer carried thereon to the photosensitive drum 105 to develop the electrostatic latent image thereon and form a developer image on the photosensitive drum 105 through the contact with the photosensitive drum 105, then the developer image can be transferred to a transfer belt of the image forming device through the contact between the photosensitive drum 105 and the transfer belt, and finally the transfer belt can transfer the developer image to a recording medium (such as paper).

[0033] The process cartridge 100 further includes an electrode 103 provided on the casing 101, the electrode 103 having an electrode electrical contact surface 103a that is electrically contactable with a power supply part of the image forming apparatus, the electrode electrical contact surface 103a being disposed at the second end of the casing 101 in the first direction, specifically, the electrode 103 is disposed on the second cover 101b2, the electrode electrical contact surface 103a being configured to supply the electric power to the charging roller, that is, the electrode 103 is capable of receiving the electric power from the image forming apparatus and supplying the received electric power to the charging roller to ensure that the charging roller is capable of charging the photosensitive drum 105. Furthermore, the process cartridge 100 further includes a chip 102 having a chip electrical contact surface 102a that is electrically contactable with an electrical contact of the image forming apparatus, the chip electrical contact surface 102a and the electrode electrical contact surface 103a being spaced apart in the second direction to avoid mutual electrical interference therebetween, and, in the first direction, the chip electrical contact surface 102a is disposed at a position further away from the first end of the casing 101 than the electrode electrical contact surface 103a.

[0034] With reference to 4-5 in particular, the processing cartridge 100 further comprises a first coupling member 111 (a first coupling protrusion 111) disposed at the first end of the first casing 101 in the first direction, at least a portion of which can be covered by the first cover 101b1 so as to facilitate stable positioning of the first coupling member 111 and prevent it from being loosened from the processing cartridge 100, the first coupling member 111 can be coupled with the first driving force applying member of the image forming device and receive the first driving force output by the first driving force applying member; further, the processing cartridge 100 further comprises a developing roller gear 113 disposed at one end of the developing roller for driving the developing roller to rotate and a powder feeding roller gear 114 disposed at one end of the powder feeding roller for driving the powder feeding roller to rotate, in the processing cartridge 100, the developing roller gear 113 and the powder feeding roller gear 114 are in contact and engagement with the tooth portion of the first coupling member 111, thus the first coupling member 111 can drive the developing roller gear 113 and the powder feeding roller gear 114 to rotate, and in turn the developing roller gear 113 can drive the developing roller to rotate and the powder feeding roller gear 114 can drive the powder feeding roller to rotate; further, the processing cartridge 100 further comprises a transmission gear 115 in contact and engagement with the first coupling member 111 and a photosensitive drum gear 116 disposed at one end of the photosensitive drum 105 and in contact and engagement with the transmission gear 115, wherein the rotation axis of the transmission gear 115 is closer to the swing axis of the first casing 101a than the rotation axis of the developing roller gear 113, the photosensitive drum gear 116 is configured to have a power transmission relationship with the photosensitive drum 105, that is, the driving force of the photosensitive drum gear 116 can be transmitted to the photosensitive drum 105, preferably, the photosensitive drum gear 116 is fixedly connected at one end of the photosensitive drum 105, in this way, the driving force output by the first coupling member 111 can be transmitted to the photosensitive drum gear 116 through the transmission gear 115, and in turn the photosensitive drum gear 116 can drive the photosensitive drum 105 to rotate; that is, after receiving the driving force, the first coupling member 111 can drive the developing roller, the powder feeding roller and the photosensitive drum 105 to rotate, that is, the processing cartridge 100 only needs to be provided with one coupling member to drive the rotating members in the processing cartridge 100 to rotate, which greatly simplifies the structure of the processing cartridge 100; from the above description, it can be known that the number of the transmission gear 115 is 1, but in the present utility model, the number of the transmission gear 115 of the processing cartridge 100 can also be an odd number such as 3, 5, 7, 9, etc., in this way, the rotation direction of the photosensitive drum 105 and the rotation direction of the developing roller can be opposite, which avoids the developing agent on the developing roller from being difficult to be delivered to the photosensitive drum 105 when the rotation directions of the two are the same, and in turn avoids the problem of printing quality, but the transmission gear 115 of the processing cartridge 100 of the present utility model is preferably 1, on the one hand, this helps to reduce the number of the transmission gear 115 and reduce the production cost, on the other hand, because the space of the processing cartridge 100 is relatively small, too many transmission gears 115 are difficult to be arranged, therefore, the transmission gear 115 is preferably 1;Further, considering the space size of the processing cartridge 100, the transmission gear 115 is arranged on the second housing 101b, of course, in some embodiments, it can also be arranged on the first housing 101a, just the processing cartridge 100 of the utility model adopts the preferred embodiment.

[0035] Generally, in the processing cartridge 100, in order to avoid that the developing roller is deformed due to the long time contact with the photosensitive drum 105 under a certain pressure when the processing cartridge 100 does not perform the printing task, and affect the printing quality, therefore, the processing cartridge 100 is provided with the force receiving protrusion 104 located at the lower end of the housing 101, when the printing task is not performed, the force receiving protrusion 104 can receive the pushing force of the pushing protrusion of the image forming device and move, after moving, the force receiving protrusion 104 can drive the first housing 101a to move, so that the developing roller supported on the first housing 101a can move away from the photosensitive drum 105, that is, the developing roller can move from the contact position in contact with each other to the separation position separated from each other in response to the movement of the force receiving protrusion 104, thus, in this way, the developing roller can be separated from the photosensitive drum 105 at a certain time, and thus the probability of deformation of the developing roller can be reduced to a certain extent; based on the above structure, in order to avoid that the developing roller gear 113 connected to one end of the developing roller and the photosensitive drum gear 116 connected to one end of the photosensitive drum 101 are also in contact with each other and interfere with each other in the process of frequent contact or separation between the developing roller and the photosensitive drum 105, therefore, in the processing cartridge 100 of the utility model, the developing roller gear 113 and the photosensitive drum gear 116 are arranged at intervals, and the interval distance d1 is provided therebetween, more specifically, in the first direction, compared with the photosensitive drum gear 116, the developing roller gear 113 is arranged at a position farther away from the second end of the housing 101, which will help the processing cartridge 100 to better arrange the gears in space.

[0036] Further, the processing cartridge 100 further comprises a second coupling member 112, which is arranged on the first end of the first housing 101 in the first direction and is mounted on the first cover 101b1, preferably, the second coupling member 112 can be mounted on the first cover 101b1 by elastic buckling or interference fit to avoid its loosening from the first cover 101b1; the second coupling member 112 comprises a driving force receiving portion 112a, which can receive the second driving force of the second driving force applying member of the imaging device to force the second coupling member 112 to rotate, that is, the second coupling member 112 is rotatable relative to the first cover 101b1, in order to avoid the abnormal sound of the braking force applying member of the imaging device due to the reciprocating extension and retraction, the second coupling member 112 further comprises a braking force receiving portion 112b, which can be axially engaged with the braking force applying member of the imaging device to not only receive the braking force but also limit the reciprocating extension and retraction of the braking force applying member, thereby avoiding the above-mentioned problems; for details, please refer to Figure 6 Further, the rotation axis of the second coupling member 112 coincides with the rotation axis of the photosensitive drum gear 116, that is, the rotation axis of the second coupling member 112 and the rotation axis of the photosensitive drum gear 116 are coaxially arranged, but it is worth mentioning that in the processing cartridge 100 of the present application, the second coupling member 112 has no power transmission relationship with the photosensitive drum gear 116 or the photosensitive drum 105, that is, the second driving force received by the second coupling member 112 cannot be transmitted to the photosensitive drum 105, and the driving force received by the photosensitive drum 105 still comes from the first coupling member 111; therefore, in this case, the second coupling member 112 is arranged separately from the photosensitive drum gear 116 and the photosensitive drum 105, preferably, as one of the preferred embodiments of the processing cartridge 100, the second coupling member 112 is spaced apart from the photosensitive drum gear 116 in the first direction, and the two have a first spacing distance d2 in the first direction, but the arrangement structure of the two is not limited to this, the second coupling member 112 can also be configured to overlap with the photosensitive drum gear 116 in the first direction, but the two do not maintain contact, which is not limited, but the present application adopts the preferred embodiment to simplify the structure of the second coupling member 112.

[0037] The transmission gear of the processing cartridge is arranged closer to the swing shaft of the first housing, so that the tooth portion of the first coupling member has a smaller movement amount relative to the transmission gear during the contact and separation process of the developing roller and the photosensitive drum, so that the two basically do not disengage, and compared with the prior art, the service life of the gear can be improved to a certain extent.

Claims

1. A process cartridge mountable in an image forming apparatus, the process cartridge comprising: a housing including a first housing and a second housing connected to the first housing, the housing having first and second ends oppositely arranged in a first direction; a photosensitive drum supported on the second housing and rotatable about a photosensitive drum axis extending in the first direction; a developing roller supported on the first housing and rotatable about a developing roller axis extending in the first direction; characterized in that the process cartridge further comprises: a first coupling member at the first end of the housing, the first coupling member being configured to receive an external force and to drive the photosensitive drum and the developing roller to rotate; a second coupling member at the first end of the housing, the second coupling member being configured to receive an external force different from the external force received by the first coupling member and to rotate relative to the housing independently of the rotation of the photosensitive drum.

2. The process cartridge according to claim 1, wherein, one end of the photosensitive drum is provided with a photosensitive drum gear, the photosensitive drum gear being engaged with the first coupling member, the second coupling member being spaced apart from the photosensitive drum gear in the first direction.

3. The process cartridge of claim 1, wherein, an axis of rotation of the second coupling member coincides with the photosensitive drum axis.

4. The process cartridge of claim 1, wherein, the second housing includes a first cover provided at the first end of the housing, a second cover provided at the second end of the housing, and a main body portion at least partially located between the first cover and the second cover; the second coupling member is connected to the first cover.

5. The process cartridge of claim 4 wherein, the first cover is integrally formed with the main body portion; or the first cover, the second cover and the main body portion are integrally formed.

6. The process cartridge of claim 1, wherein, the process cartridge further comprises a force receiving protrusion, the force receiving protrusion being located at a lower end of the housing when the process cartridge is placed in an attitude in which the photosensitive drum and the developing roller are located at a lower end of the process cartridge and the photosensitive drum axis is located at a lower end of the developing roller axis, the force receiving protrusion being configured to receive a pushing force of the image forming apparatus and to move the developing roller in a direction away from the photosensitive drum.

7. The process cartridge of claim 1, wherein, the image forming apparatus includes a braking force applying member, the second coupling member includes a driving force receiving portion configured to receive a driving force of the image forming apparatus and to force the second coupling member to rotate, and a braking force receiving portion configured to be engaged with the braking force applying member of the image forming apparatus.

8. The process cartridge of claim 1, wherein, the process cartridge further comprises a transmission gear, one end of the developing roller is provided with a developing roller gear, the first coupling member is engaged with the transmission gear and the developing roller gear, and the transmission gear is engaged with the photosensitive drum gear.

9. The process cartridge of claim 8 wherein, a number of the transmission gears is odd, and the transmission gears are provided on the second housing.

10. The process cartridge of claim 1, wherein, the developing roller gear and the photosensitive drum gear are spaced apart from each other, the developing roller gear being located farther from the second end of the housing than the photosensitive drum gear in the first direction.

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