JPS6010317B2 - Method for activating unused organic electrophotographic photoreceptor - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method for activating a virgin organic electrophotographic photoreceptor.

A photosensitive layer consisting of a binder and an organic photoconductor is provided on the conductive layer to produce a long strip-shaped organic electrophotographic photoreceptor, which is wound inside a drum, and one end of the strip is pulled out to open the drum. The electrophotographic process is carried out by rotating the drum, and as the photoreceptor becomes obsolete. By winding up the organic electrophotographic photoreceptor, the unused portion of the photoreceptor is newly stretched around the drum circumferential surface and used for the electrophotographic process. This makes it possible to provide an electrophotographic apparatus that can obtain accurate copies.

By the way, when an organic electrophotographic photoreceptor is unused, it is initially in an inactive state, and therefore, when performing transfer, after making a copy of about 2 qm, a copied image of normal density will not be produced. It was about as much as I could get.

An object of the present invention is to provide a method for activating an organic electrophotographic photoreceptor in the above-described copying apparatus, thereby eliminating the above-mentioned disadvantages.

The present invention will be explained below.

Note that the term "activation of a photoreceptor" as used herein means performing a normal electrophotographic process to bring the photoreceptor into a state in which a good image can be obtained.

A feature of the present invention is that each time an unused photoreceptor portion is spread around the circumference of the drum by winding up a band-shaped organic electrophotographic photoreceptor, the entire surface of the unused photoreceptor portion is charged. The process consisting of the following steps of development and cleaning is repeated at least twice. below,
The present invention will be explained in more detail with reference to the drawings.

In the figure, slits la and lb are provided in the circumferential surface of a drum 1 made of aluminum or the like in all directions, and a photoconductor receiving member 5 having smooth surfaces 50a and 51a is provided on the long circumferential side edge of the slits la and lb.
0 and 51, and shielding members 48 and 49 made of a flexible material are fixed to the edges of the short circumferential sides, respectively.

Inside the drum 1, at a position near the receiving member 501, a photoreceptor winding cylinder 4 is supported by a shaft 5, and at a position near the receiving member 51, a photoreceptor Z is disposed.
A supply cylinder 6 is arranged supported by a shaft 7. The photoconductor supply cylinder 6 is provided with a conductive layer such as an aluminum vapor deposited layer on a support such as a polyester film, and an organic photoconductor such as poly-ZN-vinylcarbazole is deposited on the conductive layer using Pryolite S- 7
An organic electrophotographic photoreceptor 2, which is formed by applying a synthetic resin binder such as (trade name), is wound into a roll.

Note that the composition of this photoreceptor 2 may be any two. The drawn-out end 2a of the photoreceptor 2 is guided onto the outer circumferential surface of the drum 1 via the receiving member 51, and after being spread out on this outer circumferential surface, it is guided into the inside of the drum 1 via the other guide member 50. Then, the end portion 2b is inserted into a fixing slit 4a provided on the circumferential surface of the photoreceptor winding cylinder 4.

A lever 41 rotatably attached to a fixed shaft 38 is provided on the side of the photoreceptor supply cylinder 6.
1, the arm portion 41a next to the photoreceptor supply cylinder 6 has a
A brake shoe 42 made of soft rubber or the like is fixed. A screw 44 is fixed to the shaft 38, and this screw 4
The spring 43, which is stretched between the lever 41 and the bar 41, gives the lever 41 a right-handed rotation in the figure, brings the brake shoe 42 into contact with the roll circumferential surface of the photoreceptor 2, and prevents the photoreceptor 2 from unwinding. ing. On the other hand, the photoreceptor winding cylinder 4 is provided with an arrow a centered on the shaft 5 by suitable means.
Given the weak rotational behavior of the orientation, in this way,
The drawn-out end 2a of the photoreceptor 2 is tightly attached to the circumferential surface of the drum 1 under tension. The drum 1 has the organic electrophotographic photoreceptor 2 wound around its circumferential surface in this way, is supported by the core 3, and is driven by a drive device (not shown), as shown by the arrow b.
The photoreceptor 2 is rotated in this direction, and the photoreceptor 2 is made to correspond to the charging device, exposure device, development device, and transfer device (not shown) provided along its circumferential surface, and the desired copy is produced. Create.

This copy production cycle is repeated as many times as necessary.
Since the photoreceptor 2 becomes obsolete after approximately 500 copies of the original photoreceptor, it becomes necessary to replace it with a new one when the time comes.

This rewinding is automatically performed by driving the photoreceptor winding cylinder 4 in the direction of arrow a by suitable means. That is, when the cylinder 4 is driven in the direction of the arrow a, the drawn-out end 2a of the photoreceptor 2 is wound around the cylinder 4, and when a predetermined length is wound, a rolled photoreceptor is formed on the drum circumferential surface. A new or unused part of the body 2 is expanded. This unused electrophotographic photoreceptor is currently in an inactive state, but in the present invention, in order to activate the unused electrophotographic photoreceptor, for example, the apparatus shown in FIG. When a new part of the body 2 is spread onto the inter-drum surface, the following steps are applied to this photoreceptor 2 (controlled by a suitable counter):
Charging, development, and cleaning are a series of steps, and if this step is repeated at least twice, the process will be fine.

Note that by providing a counter in this way and electrically controlling the device, automation can be achieved.

Here, the role of cleaning the surface of the photosensitive layer 0, which is included in the activation process, will be explained. One of the reasons why an unused electrophotographic photoreceptor is initially in an inactive state is that toner is difficult to adhere to the surface of the photosensitive layer composed of an organic photoconductor and a binder, or It is conceivable that substances that are easy to remove once attached to the toner particles appear and simmer during the manufacturing process or due to changes over time. The contribution of this substance to the inert state appears to be considerable. As proof of this, experiments have shown that when copies are made after wiping the surface of the photoreceptor thoroughly with absorbent cotton soaked in the solvent Aisopa (commercial product), good copies are obtained from the first copy. I was able to do that. However, considering the cleaning ability of a typical cleaning device incorporated in a copying machine, it seems that the drum must be rotated a considerable number of times in order to obtain the same cleaning effect as in the above experiment through the cleaning process alone.

However, compared to the case where activation is performed only by repeating charging and development, the time required for activation can be effectively shortened. EXAMPLE When a counter was attached to the apparatus shown in FIG. 1 and 500 copies of a woman were made, no more good copies could be obtained.

The take-up shaft 4 is rotated 10 times to wind up the organic photoreceptor and its unused portion is exposed to the drum circumference, the charging bag layer, the developing device, and the cleaning device are each activated, the drum is rotated twice, and then the drum is rotated twice. When only the charging device and the cleaning device were activated and the drum was rotated three times, copying was possible from the next cycle, and clear copied images could be obtained.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The figure is a sectional view showing an example of an electrophotographic drum to which the present invention is applied. 1...Electrophotographic conductive drum, 2...Unused organic photoreceptor, A...Full surface charging process, B...
...Full exposure process.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A band-shaped organic electrophotographic photoreceptor, in which a photosensitive layer consisting of a binder and an organic photoconductor is provided on a conductive layer, is wound inside a drum, and one end is pulled out to spread it around the drum circumference. , the one end is drawn into the drum and wound up within the drum, and the drum is rotated to perform an electrophotographic process. In a copying method in which the photoreceptor is rolled up, the unused photoreceptor portion is newly spread out on the circumference of the drum and subjected to the electrophotographic process. An unused organic electrophotographic photoreceptor characterized in that the unused photoreceptor portion is subjected to at least two consecutive steps of charging the entire surface, followed by development and cleaning. activation method.