CN210666348U - Counting gear assembly and processing box - Google Patents

Abstract

Count gear assembly and processing box, count gear assembly includes: the counting gear is provided with an identification part which synchronously rotates with the counting gear; the guide support piece is arranged on the counting gear and can move between a position where the tail part of the guide support piece extends out of the inner end face of the counting gear and a position where the tail part of the guide support piece is at least flush with the inner end face of the counting gear; a return spring disposed between the guide support and the counter gear; the support piece limiting part is arranged on the counting gear, and the guide support piece is positioned at the position where the tail part of the guide support piece protrudes out of the inner end face of the counting gear by the support piece limiting part. The utility model discloses set up direction support piece at the count gear, direction support piece with handle under the mating reaction of removal guide part and the spacing portion of removing on the box casing end wall, can realize that the count gear outwards releases or returns for the discernment portion is handling the box and falling the machine discernment and accomplish the back, can not contact with detection mechanism again at the follow-up rotatory in-process of count gear, thereby can detect out and handle the box whether brand-new.

Description

Counting gear assembly and processing box

Technical Field

The utility model relates to a processing box used in an image forming device.

Background

An image forming apparatus such as a laser printer, a copier, or the like generally has an image processing unit and a developing unit, and develops an electrostatic latent image formed on the image processing unit with a developer such as toner supplied from the developing unit to form a visible image on a medium such as paper. The developing unit includes a process cartridge, which is a cartridge detachably loaded in the main body of the image forming apparatus, as an integral unit including a casing, a photosensitive drum, a developing roller, a chamber for accommodating a developer, and the like.

In order to facilitate the judgment of the residual amount of the developer in the processing box, a counting gear is arranged on some processing boxes and can be matched with a detection mechanism on the image forming device to detect the residual amount of the developer in the processing box. Some of the detecting mechanisms of the image forming apparatuses also determine and recognize whether or not the process cartridge is completely new when the process cartridge is loaded, and therefore, the process cartridge needs to be provided with a recognition structure that cooperates with the detecting mechanism of the image forming apparatus.

SUMMERY OF THE UTILITY MODEL

The utility model aims at providing a can discern whether brand-new processing box's of processing box count gear assembly and have this count gear's processing box.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention adopts the following technical solutions:

a counter gear assembly comprising: the counting gear is arranged on the end wall of the shell of the processing box, an identification part matched with a detection mechanism of the image forming device is arranged on the counting gear, and the identification part and the technical gear rotate synchronously; the guide support piece is arranged on the counting gear and can move along the direction parallel to the axial direction of the counting gear between the position where the tail part of the guide support piece extends out of the inner end face of the counting gear and the position where the tail part of the guide support piece is at least flush with the inner end face of the counting gear; a return spring provided between the guide support and the counter gear, the return spring urging the guide support away from an end wall of the process cartridge housing; the support limiting part is arranged on the counting gear and detachably matched with the guide support, and the guide support is positioned at a position where the tail part of the guide support protrudes out of the inner end face of the counting gear by the support limiting part.

Further, the identification part is arranged on the outer end face of the gear body and protrudes out of the outer end face of the counting gear along the axial direction parallel to the counting gear.

Furthermore, the identification portion is a section of arc-shaped sheet body, and the identification portion is arranged at the outer peripheral edge of the outer end face of the counting gear and extends along the circumferential direction of the counting gear.

Further, the counting gear is a full-tooth gear.

Furthermore, the tail part and the head part of the guide support piece respectively extend out of the inner end surface and the outer end surface of the counting gear; the guide support piece can move between a position where the tail part of the guide support piece penetrates out of the inner end surface of the counting gear and the position where the tail part of the guide support piece is flush with the inner end surface of the counting gear or the position where the tail part of the guide support piece penetrates out of the inner end surface of the counting gear and the position where the tail part of the guide support piece retreats into the inner end surface of the counting gear.

Furthermore, the support limiting part is an elastically deformable convex rib which is parallel to the axial direction of the counting gear, a protruding part is arranged on the convex rib, and the protruding part is buckled with the head part of the guide support.

According to the above technical scheme, the utility model discloses but set up reciprocating motion's direction support piece on the count gear, this direction support piece can be when the count gear rotates certain position, the cooperation through with the removal guide part on the processing box outwards releases the count gear, make the last recognition site of count gear can contact with the detection mechanism on the image forming device, in order to trigger identification signal, and after triggering identification signal, can realize returning of count gear and reset, thereby make recognition site can only once with the detection mechanism cooperation, follow-up count gear rotates the in-process and can not trigger identification signal again, realize the first machine installation that falls of processing box and detect.

The utility model also provides a processing box, including the casing with set up in housing end's end cover, be provided with drive gear and/or drive gear and count gear on the casing end wall, count gear with drive gear and/or drive gear rotates in step, count gear is aforementioned count gear assembly.

Furthermore, a counting gear moving guide part corresponding to the position of the counting gear is arranged on the end wall of the shell, the counting gear moving guide part protrudes out of the end wall of the shell and is in contact with the inner end surface of the counting gear or the guide support part, the counting gear moving guide part at least comprises a first guide section and a second guide section which are sequentially connected from front to back, the height of the first guide section increases from front to back, and the height of the highest point of the first guide section is the same as that of the second guide section; the end cover is provided with a through groove for the identification part to extend out, the inner side surface of the end cover is provided with a limit releasing part which can be contacted with the limit part of the support part, and the limit releasing part is used for enabling the limit part of the support part to release the limit of the guide support part.

Further, the projection of the counting gear moving guide part on the end wall of the shell is arc-shaped.

Furthermore, the limit releasing part protrudes out of the inner side surface of the end cover, and in the rotating process of the counting gear, the limit releasing part can extrude the limit part of the support part to enable the limit part to release the limit of the guide support part.

Further, the counting gear is meshed with the stirring frame gear.

Drawings

In order to illustrate the embodiments of the present invention more clearly, the drawings that are needed in the description of the embodiments or the prior art will be briefly described below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present invention, and that other drawings can be obtained by those skilled in the art without inventive effort.

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of an exploded structure of a counting gear end of a process cartridge according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 is a schematic view of an inner side structure of an end cap of a counter gear end according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3a is a view showing a state of a counter gear when the process cartridge is mounted;

FIG. 3b is a view showing the state of the counter gear, the detecting mechanism and the counter gear moving guide when the process cartridge is mounted;

FIG. 3c is a view showing the state of the identifying portion and the detecting mechanism of the counter gear when the process cartridge is mounted;

FIG. 4a is a view showing a state where the guide support and the counter gear movement guide are moved outward during the rotation of the counter gear;

FIG. 4b is a view showing the state of the guide support and the counter gear movement guide when the identification portion of the counter gear comes into contact with the detection mechanism;

FIG. 4c is a view showing a state where the identifying part of the counter gear is in contact with the detecting mechanism;

FIG. 5a is a view showing the state where the counter gear is rotated until the stopper of the support member comes into contact with the stopper release protrusion of the end cap;

FIG. 5b is a view showing the counter gear rotated to another angle when the stopper of the support member is in contact with the stopper-releasing protrusion of the end cap;

FIG. 5c is a state diagram when the identification part of the counter gear is separated from the detection mechanism;

FIG. 6a is a view showing the support member with the position of the position-restricting portion released;

FIG. 6b is a view showing another angle after the spacing of the spacing portion of the supporting member is released.

The following describes embodiments of the present invention in further detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Detailed Description

The present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein for convenience of illustration, the drawings showing the structure of the device are not to scale and are partially enlarged, and the drawings are only examples, which should not limit the scope of the invention. It should be noted that the drawings are in simplified form and are not to precise scale, which is only used for the purpose of facilitating and clearly assisting in the description of the embodiments of the present invention.

As shown in fig. 1 and 3, the process cartridge of the present embodiment includes a casing 1, a photosensitive drum (not shown), a developing roller (not shown), a powder hopper for containing developer, and the like are provided in the casing 1, and an end cap 2 is provided outside an end portion of the casing 1. A stirring rack gear 3 and a counter gear 4 are provided on one end wall of the housing 1, the stirring rack gear 3 and a stirring rack (not shown) rotate synchronously, and the counter gear 4 of the present embodiment is engaged with the stirring rack gear 3 so as to rotate synchronously with the stirring rack gear 3. In other embodiments, the counting gear can also rotate synchronously with the stirring frame gear through the transmission of other transmission gears, or the counting gear can rotate in a meshed manner with other transmission gears on the processing box or a driving gear (photosensitive drum gear) of the processing box.

The counter gear 4 is provided at the center thereof with a through hole 4a extending in the axial direction thereof, and the through hole 4a is adapted to be engaged with a pin (not shown) to mount the counter gear 4 on the end wall of the housing 1. The counting gear 4 of this embodiment is a full-tooth gear, that is, the meshing teeth are uniformly distributed on the circumferential outer edge of the counting gear 4 in an end-to-end manner. An identification part 4b is arranged on the outer end face of the counting gear 4 (the side of the counting gear far away from the end wall of the shell 1), the identification part 4b is positioned at the outer peripheral edge of the outer end face of the counting gear and protrudes out of the outer end face of the counting gear 4 along the direction parallel to the axis of the counting gear 4, and the identification part 4-2 of the embodiment is an arc-shaped sheet body and extends along the circumferential direction of the counting gear 4 to form a cylindrical surface structure. The identification portion 4b is used to cooperate with a detection mechanism on the image forming apparatus. When the counting gear 4 rotates, the identification part 4b rotates along with the counting gear 4, and during the rotation, the outer side surface of the identification part 4b can be in contact with a detection mechanism on the image forming device, so that the detection mechanism is triggered to send a detection signal to the image forming device. The identification portion may also take the form of a rib extending in a direction parallel to the gear body axis.

A guide support 5 is provided on the counter gear 4, and the guide support 5 is provided in a direction parallel to the axis of the counter gear 4 and is reciprocally movable in a direction parallel to the axis of the counter gear 4. For convenience of description, an end of the guide support 5 close to the end wall of the housing 1 is defined as a tail portion, and an end far from the end wall of the housing 1 is defined as a head portion, that is, the guide support 5 is movable between a position where its tail portion is protruded from the inner end surface of the counter gear 4 and a position where its tail portion is flush with the inner end surface of the counter gear 4 (or is located inside the inner end surface of the counter gear 4), that is, a position where the tail portion of the guide support 5 is protruded from the inner end surface of the counter gear, and a position where the tail portion is at least flush with the inner end surface of the counter gear, including a position where the tail portion is flush with the inner end surface of the counter gear and a. One end (tail) of the guide support 5 of the present embodiment is penetrated through the inner end surface of the counter gear 4, and the other end (head) is penetrated through the outer end surface of the counter gear 4. A return spring 6 is arranged between the guide support 5 and the counting gear 4, one end of the return spring 6 is abutted against the guide support 5, the other end of the return spring is abutted against the counting gear 4, and the return spring 6 provides a force for the guide support 5 to keep away from the end wall of the shell 1, so that the guide support 5 always has a tendency of keeping away from the end wall of the shell 1. The counting gear 4 is provided with a support member limiting portion 4c, and the support member limiting portion 4c is used for limiting the guide support member 5, so that the tail portion of the guide support member 5 is kept protruding out of the inner end face of the counting gear 4. The support limiting portion 4c of this embodiment is a rib disposed along an axial direction parallel to the counting gear 4, and a protrusion 4d is disposed on the rib, and the protrusion 4d can be fastened with the head of the guide support 5, so that the guide support 5 cannot be ejected outwards. The convex rib can elastically deform, and the limit of the limiting part of the support piece can be released when the convex rib deforms.

The end wall of the housing 1 is provided with a counting gear moving guide part 1-1, the counting gear moving guide part 1-1 protrudes out of the end wall of the housing 1, the projection of the counting gear moving guide part 1-1 on the end wall of the housing 1 can be circular arc or circular, and the projection of the counting gear moving guide part 1-1 on the end wall of the housing 1 in the embodiment is arc. The counter gear movement guide 1-1 may be in contact with an inner end surface of the counter gear 4 or the guide support 5, thereby supporting the counter gear 4 during rotation of the counter gear 4. The counting gear moving guide part 1-1 at least comprises a first guide section 1-1a and a second guide section 1-1b which are sequentially connected, wherein the first guide section 1-1a is positioned in front of the second guide section 1-1b, namely when the guide support part 5 rotates along with the counting gear 4, the first guide section 1-1a passes through and then the second guide section 1-1b passes through. The height of the first guide section 1-1a increases from front to back (the distance between the end surface of the guide section and the end wall of the shell), and the height of the highest point of the first guide section 1-1a is the same as that of the second guide section 1-1 b. In other embodiments, the counting gear moving guide part may also be a circular ring structure having a section of a slot or a groove, when the counting gear is in an initial state, the tail part of the guide support member on the counting gear moving guide part is located in the slot (or the groove) of the counting gear moving guide part, and after the counting gear starts to rotate, the counting gear moves out of the slot (or the groove) along the first guide section, so that the counting gear moves outwards.

Referring to fig. 2, a through groove 2a is provided on the end cover 2, through which the identification portion 4b of the counter gear 4 can protrude, the projection shape of the through groove 2a on the end wall of the housing 1 is arc-shaped, and the identification portion 4b can move in the through groove 2a during the rotation of the counter gear 4. The inner side surface of the end cover 2 is provided with a limit releasing part 2b, the limit releasing part 2b is a protruding structure protruding out of the inner side surface of the end cover 2, the limit releasing part 2b can be in contact with a support limiting part 4c on the counting gear 4 and extrudes the support limiting part 4c along with the rotation of the counting gear 4, so that the support limiting part 4c deforms, the guide support part 5 can be separated from the support limiting part 4c after the support limiting part 4c deforms, the guide support part 5 bounces upwards under the action of the reset spring 6 and is far away from the end wall of the shell 1, and the guide support part 5 moves to the level of the tail part of the guide support part and the inner end surface of the counting gear 4 or moves to the inside of the counting gear.

The following describes the detection process of the present invention, in which the counter gear cooperates with the detection mechanism of the image forming apparatus to detect whether the process cartridge is completely new, with reference to fig. 3a to 6 b:

as shown in fig. 3a, 3b and 3c, after the process cartridge is loaded into the image forming apparatus, the counter gear 4 is in the initial position, in which the identification portion 4b of the counter gear 4 does not protrude outside the end cap 2 and is in a state of not contacting the detection mechanism 100 on the image forming apparatus, and the guide support 5 does not contact the first guide section 1-1a of the counter gear movement guide 1-1;

after the processing box falls off, the stirring frame gear 3 is driven by a driving head of the image forming device to rotate and drives the counting gear 4 meshed with the stirring frame gear to rotate together, the identification part 4b rotates together with the counting gear 4, and the identification part 4b approaches to the detection mechanism 100 in the rotating process of the counting gear 4; as shown in fig. 4a, as the counter gear 4 rotates, the guide support 5 comes into contact with the first guide section 1-1a of the counter gear movement guide part 1-1 and moves along the end face of the first guide section 1-1a, and due to the gradual increase in height of the first guide section 1-1a, the guide support 5 pushes the counter gear 4 axially away from the end wall of the housing 1 during the movement, i.e., the counter gear 4 simultaneously moves outward during the rotation, so that the identification part 4b on the counter gear 4 gradually protrudes out of the end cap 2; as shown in fig. 4b, when the guide support 5 moves to and along the second guide section 1-1b of the counter gear movement guide 1-1, the counter gear 4 does not move outward in the axial direction any more during the rotation; as the counter gear 4 continues to rotate, the detection mechanism 100 comes into contact with the outer side surface of the identification part 4b (fig. 4c), and when the detection mechanism 100 and the identification part 4b come into contact, a detection signal is triggered to the image forming mechanism to indicate that the loading of the process cartridge is detected;

as the counter gear 4 continues to rotate, the identifying portion 4b moves away from the detecting mechanism 100 (fig. 5c), completing the identification detection of the process cartridge; when the counting gear 4 moves to the position where the support limiting part 4c contacts the position removing part 2b on the end cover 2, the position removing part 2b presses the support limiting part 4c to deform the support limiting part so that the guide support 5 can be separated from the position of the support limiting part 4c (fig. 5a and 5c), moves outwards (away from the end cover of the shell 1) under the action of the return spring 6 and is not supported on the second guide section 1-1b any more; the counting gear 4 continues to rotate and is pressed back to the recognition part 4b under the action of the limit releasing part 2b to retreat into the end cover 2, and at the moment, the inner end surface of the counting gear 4 is contacted with the second guide section 1-1 b;

as shown in fig. 6a and 6b, the counter gear 4 rotates with the mixer rack gear 3 after the identification portion 4b is separated from the detection mechanism 100, but since the guide support 5 moves to a position where its rear end is at least flush with the inner end surface of the counter gear 4 after being separated from the limit of the support limiting portion 4c, the guide support portion 5 does not push the counter gear 4 outward any more when the counter gear 4 rotates, and thus the identification portion 4b on the counter gear 4 cannot contact the detection mechanism 100 on the image forming apparatus any more, that is, the falling detection process of the counter gear is disposable, and the identification portion 4b cannot trigger the detection mechanism to transmit a detection signal any more, so that it can be detected whether the process cartridge is brand new or not.

After the processing box carries out maintenance operations such as powder adding, can be manual push the inside with guide support part 5, then buckle spacing portion 4c of support piece and guide support part 5 together again, resume to support spacing portion 4c spacing to guide support part 5, after the processing box is installed once more, the count gear just can realize once more that to the quick-witted detection that falls of processing box, realizes used repeatedly.

The above description is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and the present invention is not limited to the above description, and although the present invention has been disclosed with the preferred embodiment, it is not limited to the present invention, and any skilled person in the art can make modifications or changes equivalent to the equivalent embodiment of the above embodiments without departing from the scope of the present invention, but all the modifications, changes and modifications of the above embodiments by the technical spirit of the present invention are within the scope of the present invention.

Claims (10)

1. A counter gear assembly, comprising:

the counting gear is arranged on the end wall of the shell of the processing box, an identification part matched with a detection mechanism of the image forming device is arranged on the counting gear, and the identification part and the counting gear rotate synchronously;

the guide support piece is arranged on the counting gear and can move along the direction parallel to the axial direction of the counting gear between the position where the tail part of the guide support piece extends out of the inner end face of the counting gear and the position where the tail part of the guide support piece is at least flush with the inner end face of the counting gear;

a return spring provided between the guide support and the counter gear, the return spring urging the guide support away from an end wall of the process cartridge housing;

the support limiting part is arranged on the counting gear and detachably matched with the guide support, and the guide support is positioned at a position where the tail part of the guide support protrudes out of the inner end face of the counting gear by the support limiting part.

2. The counter gear assembly of claim 1, wherein: the identification part is arranged on the outer end face of the gear body and protrudes out of the outer end face of the counting gear along the axial direction parallel to the counting gear.

3. The counter gear assembly of claim 2, wherein: the identification portion is one section curved lamellar body, the identification portion set up in the outer peripheral edges department of the outer terminal surface of count gear follows the circumference of count gear extends.

4. The counter gear assembly according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein: the counting gear is a full-tooth gear.

5. The counter gear assembly according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein: the tail part and the head part of the guide support piece respectively extend out of the inner end surface and the outer end surface of the counting gear; the guide support piece can move between a position where the tail part of the guide support piece penetrates out of the inner end surface of the counting gear and the position where the tail part of the guide support piece is flush with the inner end surface of the counting gear or the position where the tail part of the guide support piece penetrates out of the inner end surface of the counting gear and the position where the tail part of the guide support piece retreats into the inner end surface of the counting gear.

6. The counter gear assembly of claim 1, wherein: the limiting part of the supporting piece is an elastically deformable convex rib which is parallel to the axial direction of the counting gear, a protruding part is arranged on the convex rib, and the protruding part is buckled with the head part of the guiding supporting piece.

7. Processing box, including the casing with set up in the end cover of casing tip, be provided with drive gear and/or drive gear and count gear on the casing end wall, count gear with drive gear and/or drive gear synchronous revolution, its characterized in that:

the counter gear is the counter gear assembly of any one of claims 1 to 6;

the end wall of the shell is provided with a counting gear moving guide part corresponding to the position of the counting gear, the counting gear moving guide part protrudes out of the end wall of the shell and is contacted with the inner end surface of the counting gear or the guide support part, the counting gear moving guide part at least comprises a first guide section and a second guide section which are sequentially connected from front to back, the height of the first guide section is increased progressively from front to back, and the height of the highest point of the first guide section is the same as that of the second guide section;

the end cover is provided with a through groove for the identification part to extend out, the inner side surface of the end cover is provided with a limit releasing part which can be contacted with the limit part of the support part, and the limit releasing part is used for enabling the limit part of the support part to release the limit of the guide support part.

8. A process cartridge according to claim 7, wherein: the projection of the counting gear moving guide part on the end wall of the shell is arc-shaped.

9. A process cartridge according to claim 7 or 8, wherein: the limit releasing part protrudes out of the inner side surface of the end cover, and in the rotating process of the counting gear, the limit releasing part can extrude the limit part of the support part to enable the limit part to release the limit of the guide support part.

10. A process cartridge according to claim 7 or 8, wherein: still include the agitator gear, count gear with the agitator gear meshes mutually.

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