JP3014482B2 - Method for manufacturing image holding member - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a process for the preparation of the image holding member for holding an electrostatic latent image and a toner image.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An image holding member for holding an electrostatic latent image and a toner image used in an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine or a printer has various structures depending on the process. Good characteristics are required for characteristics, mechanical strength, toner releasability, cleaning characteristics, and the like. In particular, in recent years, copiers and printers utilizing these processes have been accelerated, and there has been a demand for durability of 500,000 to 1,000,000 copies.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 57-201240 discloses a means for improving the durability of such an image holding member by dispersing a wear-reducing material and a lubricant in a curable resin as a base material. Dispersing the anti-wear material in the image holding member has the effect of improving the mechanical strength of the image holding member and preventing damage by the cleaning means. The surface lubricity of the member is improved, and the cleaning property is remarkably improved. As a result, the durability of the cleaning means and the image holding member is improved. Furthermore, an effect of preventing film formation of toner on the surface layer of the image holding member, that is, so-called filming, can be obtained.

[0004]

However, an image holding member formed by applying a mixed liquid obtained by mixing and dispersing an anti-wear material and a lubricant in a curable resin, and then drying and curing the mixed liquid, In the layer, the distribution of the wear-reducing material and the lubricant is small, and therefore, the resin component is large, and the effect of the wear-reducing material and the lubricant cannot be sufficiently exhibited. That is, in the durability, about 100,000 to 200,000 sheets are remarkably damaged, deep scratches are generated in some places on the surface, and the scratches appear as black streak-like unevenness on the image, which is not practical. is there. Further, there is a disadvantage that filming of the toner occurs due to surface damage.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems of the conventional image holding member in which a wear reducing material and a lubricant are dispersedly contained. It is also an object of the present invention to provide a method of manufacturing a highly durable image holding member capable of sufficiently exhibiting the effects of a wear-reducing material and a lubricating material by adopting a configuration in which the material is uniformly dispersed. I do.

[0006]

In order to improve the durability of the image holding member by dispersing a wear-reducing material and a lubricating material, the effect is sufficiently exerted not only on the inside of the image holding member but also on the surface thereof. It is indispensable that the anti-abrasion material and the lubricating material enough to be exerted are uniformly dispersed.

However, in the coating film forming step, that is, the coating film drying step, when the solvent evaporates on the surface of the coating film,
The solvent inside the coating film starts to permeate or move to compensate for disappearance on the surface, and a flow occurs. Due to the flow of the solvent, the abrasion-reducing material and the lubricating material suspended therein also move. At this time, fine particles having a large surface area ratio move rapidly, while coarse particles having a small surface area ratio have high resistance to movement. As a result, the distribution of the wear-reducing material and the lubricant in the coating film becomes non-uniform, that is, small particles of the wear-reducing material and the lubricant tend to gather on the surface layer, as shown in FIG. In addition, the surface layer has a configuration in which the resin component is larger than that inside.

Therefore, as a result of intensive studies on this point,
It was found that the layer of uneven distribution of the anti-abrasion material or lubricant on the surface was several microns, and the lower part of the layer formed a coating film with uniform distribution. Therefore , the present invention is to remove the surface layer having non-uniform dispersion by means of polishing or the like, and to bring out a new surface. As a result , as shown in FIG. Surface can be obtained, and a highly durable image holding member can be realized.
You.

[0009] Here, similarly to the present invention, the inside of the insulating layer is formed.
And anti-wear material and lubricant are evenly dispersed in the surface layer
Another method for obtaining an image holding member having the above configuration will be described as a reference example.
I do. This method was conceived as follows. That is, it was found that when the thickness of the coating film applied in one application step was 10 μm or less, the non-uniform dispersion of the anti-wear material and the lubricant hardly occurred. Therefore, the thickness of one application is 10 μm.
By applying a number of times as described below, a structure having a desired thickness as shown in FIG. 3 and uniformly dispersing an anti-wear material and a lubricant can be obtained. member can Rukoto obtain a.

Further, it has been found that the addition of a highly oil-absorbing additive such as silica to form a thixotropic structure in the coating film, a so-called kind of network structure, is also a more effective means. This is given as another reference example.

The curable resin used in the present invention may be any resin having mechanical strength, electrical insulation, and surface lubricity, such as alkyd resin, epoxy resin, and the like.
Examples include urea resin, melamine resin, phenol resin, unsaturated polyester resin, polyether resin, urethane resin, and silicone resin. The curing energy is appropriately selected according to the curing characteristics of the paint such as heat, light, and electron beam.

As the wear-reducing material used in the present invention, a material having high hardness and high insulating properties and a small particle size is suitable, for example, SiO ₂ , Si (OH) ₂ .H ₂ O, clay, kaolin, oxidized material. Chromium, Al ₂ O ₃ , iron oxide, SiC and the like can be mentioned. Further, as a pretreatment, it is also effective to perform a surface treatment on the surface of the wear-reducing material with a silane coupling agent so as to improve the adhesion to the resin forming the image holding member.

The content of the wear reducing material is preferably 2 to 75 parts by weight, more preferably 5 to 60 parts by weight, based on 100 parts by weight of the basic resin.
The particle size of the anti-wear material is 0.01 to 30 μm, especially 0.05 to 10 μm
Is preferred.

The lubricant used in the present invention includes polytetrafluoroethylene, polyvinylidene fluoride, polyethylene and the like. Lubricant content depends on the base resin
From 2 to 75 parts by weight, especially from 5 to 60 parts by weight, per 100 parts by weight is suitable. The particle size of the lubricant is 0.01-30 μm, especially 0.05
〜10 μm is preferred.

The mixing and dispersion of the wear-reducing material and the lubricant in the curable resin may be carried out simultaneously or separately. A small amount of a dispersing agent is added to the mixture to form a ball mill, homogenizer, attritor, roll mill, pin mill, ultrasonic dispersion. A commonly used dispersion method is used.

[0016]

Next, an embodiment will be described. (First Embodiment) Polyether resin 100 is used as a curable resin.
Parts by weight, 20 parts by weight of alumina fine powder (high-purity alumina AKP-20 manufactured by Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd.) as a wear reducing material, and low molecular weight tetrafluoroethylene resin powder (Lubron L manufactured by Daikin) as a lubricant
-2) 50 parts by weight, 0.2 parts by weight of polyethylene as an anti-settling agent, thinner for synthetic resin paint No. 7400 10 as a solvent
Add 0 parts by weight, mix and disperse and stir, and put into an attritor to perform dispersion for 3 hours. Then remove the mixture and remove 25μ
After filtration with a filter, diluting with a thinner to adjust the viscosity, coating on an Al cylindrical substrate (50φ × 250 mm) to a thickness of 45 μm by spray coating, drying at room temperature and curing at 170 ° C. for 1 hour Let it. Next, the coating film surface was ground 10 μ with a # 1000 grindstone to obtain an image holding member.

When the image holding member thus obtained was incorporated into a printer and subjected to an image output test, almost no damage was observed on the surface of the image holding member even after repeating one million sheets or more, and the cleaning property was good. The decrease in thickness was 10% or less, and there was no effect on the image.

On the other hand, for comparison, an image holding member which was not subjected to the step of grinding the coating film surface was similarly subjected to a repetitive image forming test of 100,000 sheets. The damage caused by the
Due to the damage, black streak-like unevenness appeared on the image.

( Reference Example 1 ) Next, a specific example of a reference example related to the present invention will be described.
You. 100 parts by weight of a polyether resin as a curable resin, 20 parts by weight of alumina fine powder (high-purity alumina AKP-20 manufactured by Sumitomo Chemical) as a wear-reducing material, and low-molecular-weight tetrafluoroethylene resin powder (Lubron L- manufactured by Daikin) as a lubricant 2) 50 parts by weight, 0.2 parts by weight of polyethylene as an anti-settling agent, and 100 parts by weight of thinner No. 7400 for a synthetic resin paint as a solvent are mixed, dispersed and stirred, and charged into an attritor to perform dispersion for 3 hours. Next, the mixture is taken out, filtered through a 25 μ filter, diluted with a thinner to adjust the viscosity, and spray-coated on an Al cylindrical substrate (50 φ × 250 mm) to a thickness of 5 μm to form a film. This coating process was repeated 10 times to form a 50 μm coating film, which was dried at room temperature.
The composition was cured at a temperature of 1 ° C. for 1 hour to obtain an image holding member.

When an image forming test was carried out using the image holding member thus obtained, almost no damage was observed on the surface of the image holding member even after the repetition of 1,000,000 sheets or more, and the cleaning property was good and the thickness was good. The decrease in the image was less than 10%, and there was no effect on the image.

( Reference Example 2 ) Next, a specific example of another reference example related to the present invention will be described.
I will tell. 100 parts by weight of a polyether resin as a curable resin, 20 parts by weight of fine alumina powder (high-purity alumina AKP-20 manufactured by Sumitomo Chemical) as a wear-reducing material, and low-molecular-weight tetrafluoroethylene resin powder (Lubron L- manufactured by Daikin) as a lubricant
2) 50 parts by weight, 20 parts by weight of silica as an additive for forming a thixotropic structure in the coating, 0.2 parts by weight of polyethylene as an anti-settling agent, and 100 parts by weight of thinner No. 7400 for synthetic resin paint as a solvent Then, the mixture is mixed, dispersed and stirred, and put into an attritor to perform dispersion for 3 hours. Next, the mixture is taken out, filtered through a 25μ filter, diluted with a thinner to adjust the viscosity, applied to an Al cylindrical substrate (50φ × 250mm) by spray coating to a thickness of 40μm, and dried at room temperature. Then, it is cured at 170 ° C. for 1 hour.

When an image forming test was carried out using the image holding member thus obtained, almost no damage was observed on the surface of the image holding member even after repeating 1,000,000 sheets or more, and the cleaning property was good and the thickness was good. The decrease in the image was less than 10%, and there was no effect on the image.

[0023]

As described above with reference to the embodiments,
According to the present invention, a means such as polishing a surface layer having non-uniform dispersion is used.
, So that a new surface comes out,
A surface with uniform dispersibility equivalent to the inside with a simple method
Thus, an image holding member that can sufficiently exhibit the effects of the wear reducing material and the lubricating material and that can prevent filming with high durability can be realized.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a view showing a concentration distribution of an anti-wear material in an insulating layer formed by dispersing and containing an anti-wear material and a lubricant in a curable resin.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a concentration distribution of an anti-wear material in an insulating layer in a case where the surface of an insulating layer applied and formed by dispersing an anti-wear material and a lubricant in a curable resin is removed by polishing or the like.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the concentration distribution of an anti-wear material in an insulating layer formed by applying a curable resin in which an anti-wear material and a lubricant are dispersed and applied a plurality of times.

Continuation of front page (56) References JP-A-57-165848 (JP, A) JP-A-57-201240 (JP, A) JP-A-52-147440 (JP, A) JP-A-61-18470 (JP, A) JP-A-2-188757 (JP, A) JP-A-62-86367 (JP, A) JP-A-53-13420 (JP, A) JP-A-55-157744 (JP, A) 2-59757 (JP, A) JP-A-49-69142 (JP, A) JP-A-2-250059 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G03G 5/00

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] In a method of manufacturing an image holding member for holding an electrostatic latent image and a toner image, a mixed liquid in which a wear-reducing material and a lubricant are uniformly dispersed in a curable resin is applied to a substrate and dried. A method for manufacturing an image holding member, comprising: after hardening, polishing and removing a thinned portion of a distribution of a wear-reducing material on a surface thereof.