JPS6019511B2 - Fusing device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention has a toner image fixing device used in an electrophotographic copying device, an electrostatic printing device, etc., and in particular has a fixing roller that presses a toner image support to fix it. The present invention relates to a fixing device adapted to apply a template liquid to a surface.

Generally, in a heat roller fixing device or a pressure roller fixing device, an offset prevention layer such as silicoso rubber or Teflon is provided on the circumferential surface of the fixing roller that contacts the toner image bearing surface of the support on which a visible toner image has been formed. It is well known to provide an anti-offset layer such as a mirror surface or hard chrome plating on the peripheral surface of the roller, and to apply a template anti-offset liquid such as silicone oil to the anti-offset layer.

For example, in the conventional fixing device shown in FIG. 1, the fixing roller and the pressure roller 2 rotate in the direction of the arrow while being in pressure contact with each other, and the powder image carrying surface passes between the two rollers and supports 4 carrying a powder image 3 thereon. When the powder image 3 is passed through the roller 1 so as to be in pressure contact with the roller 1, the powder image 3 is heated and/or pressurized between both rollers and is fixed.

In the case of heat fixing, at least one of the rollers, for example roller 1, is heated by a heat source. A mold release liquid, such as silicone oil, in the oil van 5 is supplied to the circumferential surface of the coating loofu 7 via an oil pumping felt 6.
The coating roller 7 rotates together with the fixing roller 1 before the support 4 is sent, and the silicone oil on the circumferential surface of the rotating coating roller 7 is applied to the surface of the rotating fixing roller 1, and the powder image is transferred to the fixing roller 1. Prevent it from adhering to the surrounding surface.

As mentioned above, when the powder image on the support passes between both rollers, it is permanently fixed to the support by heat fixing or pressure fixing, but at this time, silicone oil is applied to the circumferential surface of the fixing roller. If the amount of oil applied is too large, there is a problem that a large amount of oil will adhere to the support, resulting in a poor texture and the formation of oil stains on the support, and if the amount of oil applied is too small, the support will not be coated with the fixing roller. There were problems such as the wires getting wrapped around each other.

Therefore, it is necessary to uniformly apply a template liquid such as silicone oil to an appropriate thickness on the surface of the fixing roller. If there is an area where the coating is too thin and uneven, the powder image pressed against that area will partially adhere to the fixing low-fu, and then the toner will adhere to the support that passes between both rollers, resulting in the so-called offset phenomenon and the fixing low-fu of the support. A winding phenomenon occurs.

For example, in an apparatus using the felt 6 shown in FIG. 1, this uneven coating tends to occur particularly when the amount of oil applied is small.

In other words, the amount of coating applied to the fixing roller 1 can be reduced by reducing the thickness of the coating felt 6 or increasing the height of the coating roller 7 from the liquid level in the oil pan 5, but especially in such cases, fibrous It was found that fine streak-like unevenness, which is thought to be caused by the felt 6 made of the material, frequently occurs in areas where a large amount of mold release agent was applied and areas where it was not applied. It has been found that this streak-like unevenness substantially controls the cause of toner offset in the fixing device and the wrapping of the support, and prevents the deterioration of the release agent application effect. Therefore, in order to solve the above-mentioned problems with the apparatus shown in FIG. Not only does the amount of oil increase and the texture becomes rough, or a large amount of oil accumulates at the contact area between the felt 6 and the roller 7 during the pause, and stains due to this oil occur when fusing is started next time. Furthermore, the amount of mold release agent consumed increases, which is uneconomical. According to experiments, when a recording paper with toner transferred to the entire surface of the felt 6 shown in Fig. 1 was continuously fed and fixed using a fixing device used to transfer silicone oil, problems caused by the uneven coating were observed. The amount of silicone oil required to solve this problem is approximately 1'100 cc per sheet of B4 paper, and if the amount of silicone oil applied is less than this amount, the recording paper may wind around the fixing roller.

Next, the apparatus shown in FIG. 1 was modified, the oil supply from the coating felt 6 was stopped, and the coating roller 7 was changed from a metal roller to a silicone rubber roller swollen in silicone oil and rotated under pressure of 30 kg. Then, the fixing roller 1 was coated with silicone oil. Then, as before, when the recording paper with the toner transferred to the entire surface was continuously fed and fixed, the amount of silicone oil required to prevent the paper from wrapping is B4 if the application method is uneven.
It was confirmed that the amount could be reduced to about 1/1000 to 1/10000 cc per sheet. However, although this method allows silicone oil to be applied thinly and evenly to the fixing roller, the amount of oil in the silicone oil-containing roller eventually decreases and it becomes necessary to replace it, and the oil content also decreases. As the temperature decreases, the diameter of the roller becomes smaller and the pressure relationship with the fixing roller changes, resulting in a change in the amount of oil applied.Furthermore, a very small amount of toner adhering to the fixing roller contaminates the silicone oil-containing roller, causing oil damage. It also has drawbacks such as poor application and uneven coating. The present invention has been made in view of the various problems mentioned above, and the main purpose is to supply the template liquid in small quantities without changing the thickness of the template liquid, and to produce thin scales that are uniform and even. It is an object of the present invention to provide a fixing device equipped with a release liquid supplying means that can form a mold liquid layer on one fixing roller and has a simple structure that can maintain such an effect permanently, and thus can efficiently and economically supply toner. This prevents the toner from adhering to the fixing roller and the toner moat support from being wrapped around the fixing roller.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a fixing device with a thin film supply means that has a simple structure and can easily stop the supply of a template liquid film and easily control the thickness of the mold release liquid film formed. be. Therefore, the present invention uses a multi-stage roller series that transfers and supplies release liquid from a liquid source to a fixing roller by sequentially rotating in contact with the fixing roller.

Incidentally, the circumferential speed of the fixing roller is generally as fast as 50 to 100 m/Sec, and the rotation circumferential speed of all the rollers in the multi-stage low-fu series for transferring and supplying the template liquid is reduced by the rotation of the fixing roller at such high speed. If the circumferential speed is matched, a thick liquid layer will be formed on the fixing roller. As described above, forming a thick liquid layer causes various disadvantages, so in the present invention, at least one of the multi-stage roller series, for example, the roller that pumps out the liquid from the template liquid source, is moved at a circumferential speed higher than that of the fixing roller. It is also driven at a low constant circumferential speed. This makes the release liquid layer applied to the fixing roller thin and uniform. Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of one embodiment of the present invention. 1 and 2 are a fixing roller and a pressing roller, respectively, as explained in FIG.

The fixing roller is formed by coating a hollow metal cylinder la with a coating lb of tetrafluoroethylene resin. A heat source lc is disposed in the hollow portion of the cylinder la, and heats the roller 1 to melt the toner. ld is a gear fixed to the rotating shaft of the fixing roller 1, which receives rotational force from a drive gear 8 which receives rotational driving force from a motor (not shown) via an idler le, thereby causing the fixing roller 1 to copy in the direction of the arrow. It rotates at a predetermined circumferential speed (generally about 50 to 100 m/sec). The pressure roller 2 is made of a metal core roller 2a coated with a silicone rubber layer 2b, is pressed against the fixing roller 1 to form a fixing nip, and rotates by friction following the rotation of the fixing roller 1. There is.

The support (such as paper) 4 carrying the toner image 3 as described above is
The toner image is fed in the direction of arrow EO and passes through the nip while the toner image supporting surface is pressed against the fixing roller. At this time, the toner is heated, melts, and sticks to the support 4. Reference numeral 9 denotes a coating roller, which is heated by the fixing roller, rotates in the direction of the arrow as the roller rotates, and uniformly coats the roller 1 with the silicone oil sent from the oil pan 5 as described later. do.

The applicator roller 9 has a gear (not shown) coaxially fixed to the end of the roller I, which has a pitch circle that is approximately the same diameter as the roller diameter, and a gear (not shown) having a pitch circle that is approximately the same diameter as the roller I is fixed to the end of the roller I. It is rotatably driven by fixing gears (not shown) having pitch circles of the same diameter coaxially and meshing both gears. As described above, the application roller 9 is rotated at approximately the same circumferential speed as the fixing roller. If the rollers 9 are driven to rotate at approximately the same circumferential speed, the wear of both rollers can be significantly reduced, the fixing roller 1 will not be damaged, and the amount of oil applied can be maintained stably, uniformly, and in a small amount. can. In addition, the sliding friction between low rollers 1 and 9 is small, and both rollers 1 and 9
If the surface of the hard material is difficult to wear, the circumferential speed of the roller 9 may be lower than the circumferential speed of the roller. 10 is a silicone oil pumping roller whose lower part is partially immersed in silicone oil 5a in oil pan 5.

This eliminates uneven brushing in the felt using device.The gear 10a is fixed coaxially to the rotating shaft of the roller 10, and is meshed with the gear 8 to be rotated at a constant speed. As a result, the fixing roller 1
0 rotates in the direction of the arrow to pump out oil 5a from pan 5. At this time, a uniform silicone oil layer is formed on the surface of the roller 10. Now, as it becomes clear from the figure,
The ratio of the number of teeth between gears 10a and 8 is larger than that between gears ld and 8, and the peripheral speed of the pumping roller 10 is considerably slower than the peripheral speed of the fixing roller 1, so that it rotates at a constant speed at a very low speed. It looks like this.

This is because, as described above, if the circumferential speed of the pumping roller 10 is the same as or approximately the same as the circumferential speed of the fixing roller 1, a large amount of silicone oil will be pumped up. This is because a large amount of oil will be applied to the fixing roller 11 if the fixing roller 11 is rotated at the same speed or approximately the same circumferential speed as the fixing roller. FIG. 3 is a graph showing the relationship between the circumferential speed of the pumping roller 10 and the amount of oil pumped up. However, as Lofu 9, one with a length of 300 skins was used. As described above, if the fixing roller 1 is uniformly coated with silicone oil, it is sufficient to use about 1/1000 to 1'10000 cc of silicone oil for the fixing process after B. By the way, if silicone oil is applied to the fixing roller 1 in a multi-stage low-fu series having a roller partially immersed directly in oil as shown in Fig. 2, an even and uniform oil layer can be formed on the roller. By reducing the amount of oil pumped up by the roller 10, that is, by reducing the circumferential speed of the roller 10 to a slow speed, it is possible to form a uniform thin silicone oil layer on the fixing roller. For example, when using the apparatus shown in FIG. 2 to fix one B sheet in 1 second, it is sufficient to apply silicone oil to the fixing roller 1 at a rate of about 1'1000 cc/sec. As shown in the figure, it is sufficient to rotate at a circumferential speed of about 1 rib/sec. At this time, the circumferential speed of the fixing roller 1 is equal to the speed at which the B4 paper passes through the nip between the rollers 1 and 2.
Assuming that the paper is transported in the longitudinal direction, it takes 360 seconds
It is. Therefore, the fixing roller 1 and the pumping roller 10
The relationship between circumferential speed is generally shown.

The circumferential speed of roller 1 is V, and the distance between rollers 10 is V.
Then, V,o=CV. However, C is a constant determined by the distance between papers, oil viscosity, paper size, toner, roller material, and roller configuration, and the value of C is generally about 0.1 to 0.001.

Reference numeral 11 denotes an intermediate roller, which is provided on the arm 11a.

The arm 11a is rotatably supported on a shaft 11M,
The spring 11c rotates it counterclockwise in the figure by a certain angle. That is, when an input is applied to the solenoid 11d, the intermediate roller 11 moves to the solid line position in the figure due to its operation, and the pumping roller 10
and application roller 9, and when the input is cut off, the spring 11c returns to the position shown by the broken line in the figure. Here, the roller 11 is rotatably supported by the arm 11a. A gear (not shown) having the same pitch circle as the roller diameter is coaxially fixed to the end of the roller 11, and the roller 11 is moved to the roller 9 by the operation of the solenoid 11d.
When the rollers 9 and 11 are brought into contact with each other, they mesh with the gears at the ends of the rollers 9 described above, thereby driving the rollers 9 and 11, and therefore the rollers, to rotate at approximately the same constant circumferential speed. Alternatively, a sprocket may be provided coaxially with the gear 8 and the low foot 11, and a chain may be placed between the two sprockets to rotate the roller 11 at a constant circumferential speed between the rotational circumferential speeds of the rollers 9 and 10.
When the rollers 11 and 9 are rotated at the same circumferential speed, there is no slippage between the rollers 9 and 9, which prevents wear of the roller 9 and permanently maintains the contact with the roller 1. By rotating at a circumferential speed between the gears 10a and 10, the oil conveyance speed by the roller 11, that is, the amount of oil conveyed per unit time, can be reduced, so the rotational speed of the roller 10 can be increased. The tooth ratio of 8 can be made smaller. In any case, when the intermediate roller 11 is brought into contact with the pumping roller 10 and the coating roller 9 by the operation of the solenoid 11d, the roller 10 transmits the uniform thin film of silicone oil pumped up from the pan 5 to the coating roller 9, and this roller Spread a uniform thin film of oil on roller 9 and
The silicone oil thin film spread on top is fixed.

- It is applied uniformly to the surface of the film 1 as a thin film.
Note that the time when the intermediate roller 11 is brought into contact with both the pumping roller 10 and the application roller 9 by the operation of the solenoid 11d corresponds to the time of the fixing process.
This prevents a large amount of silicone oil from adhering to the fixing roller. That is, in performing the fixing process, before the toner image support 4 reaches the nip between the rollers 1 and 2, the intermediate roller 11 pumps up the toner image, and both the coating rollers 10,
9 to apply silicone oil from the pan 5 to the fixing roller 1, so that the support 4 reliably contacts the oil-applied surface of the fixing roller 1 from the tip,
When the support 4 finishes passing through the nip (when fixing a large number of sheets continuously, when the last support finishes passing through)
The low foot 11 is immediately separated from the rollers 9 and 10. During the fixing operation period, contact between the intermediate roller 11 and the pumping and coating rollers 10 and 9 is released. If the circumferential speed of the roller 10 is particularly low, the toner image is pumped up at the same time as the copying operation starts, and even when the roller 10 starts rotating, the toner image support 4 passes through the fixing device.
In some cases, the silicone oil is not pumped up to the position where the rollers 10 and 11 contact, and due to this delay, the silicone oil is not applied to the surface of the fixing roller where the tip of the support 4 contacts, so the pumping roller is used for copying. Preferably, it rotates prior to operation and at all times.

Even in this case, it is preferable to select a speed such that at least the silicone oil can be pumped up to the position where the rollers 10 and 11 are in contact with each other by the time the copying machine is turned on and preparations for copying operation are completed.

Note that lb is an elastic blade that is pressed against the roller at a position after contacting the copy paper and before contacting the application roller 9;
Clean toner, paper dust, etc. that has adhered to the. This blade can also be used in the following examples. FIGS. 4 and 5 show a modification of the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, which uses a slow-speed pumping roller 10.

In FIG. 4, first, the intermediate roller 11 is the application roller 9.
The roller 10 is kept in contact with the roller 10 at all times, and is moved away from the drawing roller 10 in response to the fixing process as described above.

To do this, the rotation axis 11b of the arm 11a supporting the roller 11 in FIG. 2 may be made coaxial with the axis of the roller 9. The rotation driving means for each roller is the same as described above. Next, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 4, an elastic blade 12 made of rubber or the like is pressed against the circumferential surface of the pumping roller 10, which has a speed sufficiently lower than that of the fixing roller l, at a position before the oil is transferred to the intermediate roller 11. 10 further reduces the layer pressure of the silicone oil pumped from the pan 5.

When the roller 10 is rotating at a high circumferential speed comparable to that of the fixing roller 1, the effect of controlling the oil layer thickness by the blade 12 is small, but as the circumferential speed of the roller decreases, the effect of the blade increases. That is, with this blade 12, the lower the circumferential speed of the pumping roller 10, the thinner the liquid consistency of silicone oil can be formed.
sec, by increasing the blade pressure to 500 min.
It is possible to form a uniform liquid film at a rate of about 1000 cc/sec. Then, by using a means for adjusting the pressure at which the blade 12 is pressed against the roller 1, for example, a means screwed into an adjusting screw 12c rotatably supported by a support 12a fixing the base of the blade 12, the screw 12b is screwed. The thickness of the oil layer on the roller 10 that passes through the blade and is transferred to the intermediate loaf 11 can be adjusted by rotating the support body 12b to advance or retreat in the direction of the roller 10 and adjusting the pressing force of the blade 12 on the roller 10. can be controlled uniformly. The oil dammed up by the blade 12 returns to the pan 5. Since the amount of oil is regulated by the blades, the circumferential speed of the roller 10 can be increased somewhat, and the gear ratio mentioned above can also be reduced.

Incidentally, when the pumping roller 9 is rotating, silicone oil is always attached to its surface, so when the silicone oil runs out, the blade 12 is removed from the pumping roller 1.
01, it can be prevented from acting as a brake.

In addition, since a multi-stage roller series is used and the pumping roller 10 is at a low speed, the fixing roller 1 is connected to the heat source lc.
When heated, the thermal energy on the surface of the fixing roller is transferred from the application roller 9 to the intermediate roller 11 to the pumping roller 9, and then from the roller 9 to the silicone oil in the container 5, during which most of the heat is transferred. It was also possible to prevent the silicone oil from dissipating, turning green and emitting smoke, and contaminating other means within the device and the surrounding environment.

(This effect can also be applied to the devices shown in FIGS. 2 and 5.) Therefore, since the coating amount regulating blade 12 pushed by the coating roller 9 does not require high heat resistance, the blade 12 may be made of oil such as nitrile rubber. It has also become possible to use rubbers that have good layer thickness control effects.

In addition, if the circumferential speed of the blade 12 is sufficiently slower than that of the fixing roller 1, the blade 12 can also be pressed against another low-fu, for example, the intermediate roller 11, and in that case as well, the oil layer thickness can be effectively regulated. can.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 5, the circumferential speeds of the rollers 10 and 11 are sufficiently slower than the circumferential speed of the coating roller 9, which has the same circumferential speed as that of the fixing roller 1, and the pressure applied between the rollers 10 and 11 is This is a device that controls the amount of liquid supplied to the coating roller 9.

(The rotation driving means for each roller is the same as described above.) The intermediate roller 11 is always in contact with the pumping roller 101, but as described above, it is brought into contact with the application roller 9 in response to the fixing operation. It has become.

This bush separation control is performed by an arm 11a which is acted upon by a spring 11c and a solenoid 11d as shown in FIG. The arm is provided with a long hole extending toward the roller 10 that supports the shaft of the roller 11, and an adjustment screw 11e is rotatably attached thereto. One end of this screw 11e is connected to the shaft of the roller 11, and the screw 11e is connected to the shaft of the roller 11. The end of the spring 11f that urges the spring 11f in the direction of the roller 10 and presses the spring 11f is screwed into a fixed movable female screw 11g. Therefore, by rotating the screw 11e, the force exerted by the intermediate roller 11 on the pumping roller 10 is changed, and the thin layer of silicone oil conveyed by the roller 10 is squeezed between the two rollers 10 and 11, and the thin layer of silicone oil conveyed by the roller 10 is squeezed between the two rollers 10 and 11. Can form an oil layer. As the pressing force increases, the thickness of the oil layer formed on the roller 11 and, therefore, the thickness of the oil layer formed on the fixing roller 1 becomes thinner. The squeezed oil returns to pan 5. By the way, the reason why the thickness of the silicone oil layer can be effectively controlled by controlling the pressure force between the rollers 11 and 10 is that the circumferential speed of the rollers 10 is very slow.

When the roller 10 rotates at a peripheral speed as high as the fixing roller 1, it is extremely difficult to obtain a sufficiently thin oil layer by squeezing the roller 11. For example, "Roller 10,1
When the circumferential speed of roller 10 is set to 250 side/sec, roller 10,
I tried increasing the pressure between 1 and 1 to a total pressure of 100k9, but the supply amount of silicone oil was 7/1 per sheet of B.
0cc/sec was too much. Therefore, in the case of pressure rollers with far peripheral speeds, in order to regulate the liquid thickness of the supply amount suitable for the fixing roller, the roller pressure must be extremely high, and the pressure between the rollers alone is sufficient to properly squeeze the silicone oil. It turned out that there were practical problems in doing so.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 5, the circumferential speed of the rollers 10 and 11 is set to
sec, oil can be conveyed at 1/1000 cc'sec by pressing the rollers 10 and 11 together with a force of 5×9. In the embodiment of FIGS. 4 and 5, the blade 12
, or the pumping roller 10 with the pressure intermediate roller 11
Since the amount of silicone oil transferred from the pump to the roller 11 is further reduced, the circumferential speed of the pumping-up roller 10 is considerably smaller than the circumferential speed of the fixing roller 1, but the circumferential speed of the roller 10 in the embodiment shown in FIG. It can be done faster than

Therefore, for example, the ratio of the number of teeth of the gears 10a and 8 in FIG. 2 can be made smaller, and the device can be made more compact. Figure 4,
In the embodiment shown in FIG. 5, the circumferential speed of the pumping roller 10 can be increased to about twice to 200 times that in the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, respectively. As described above, in FIGS. 2 and 4, the pumping roller 10 rotates at a constant circumferential speed that is slower than the fixing roller 1,
In the case where the intermediate coating rollers 11 and 9 rotate at a constant circumferential speed that is almost the same as that of the fixing roller 1, and in FIG. 9 has been mainly described in the case where the roller rotates at a constant circumferential speed that is almost the same as that of the fixing roller 1, but in each embodiment, any one or two of the rollers 9, 10, 11, or The present invention is achieved by setting the rotational circumferential speed of at least one of the three rollers to a constant circumferential speed that is lower than the circumferential speed of the fixing roller.

However, if the roller 10 that pumps out the silicone oil from the pan 5 is rotated at a high circumferential speed and the other rollers are rotated at a slow speed, the amount of oil brought into the multistage roller series increases, while the fixing roller Since the amount of oil applied to the roller 1 is small, it is necessary to provide means for removing the difference in oil from the multistage roller series or collecting it in the oil pan 5. Furthermore, in order to prevent the above difference in oil from being transferred to the fixing roller 1, it is necessary to improve the precision of the device, and care must be taken during manufacturing. For these reasons, it is desirable to drive the pumping lo-fu 10 to rotate at a constant slow speed, and to keep the amount of oil applied to the fixing roller and the amount of oil pumped out from the liquid source approximately the same. In addition, the roller 9 or the roller 10
The roller 11 is not necessary if the timing of applying oil to the roller 1 is controlled by controlling the rotation drive timing of the roller.
As explained above, in the present invention, slippage occurs between the rollers that are in contact with each other due to the difference in circumferential speed.

Therefore, another object of the present invention is to select the material and combination of rollers between the low-speed roller and the high-speed roller that are in contact with each other to ensure liquid transfer, reduce abrasion wear between the rollers, and drive the low-speed roller. The object of the present invention is to reduce torque, realize a device with a simple structure, good release liquid coating properties, and good durability. Therefore, regarding the two rollers according to the present invention that are in direct contact with each other and have a speed difference, in order to achieve a good contact state between the two rollers, a reliable combination, and low frictional resistance, the following various materials were used. We conducted experiments on combinations.

■ Elastic loaf on silicone rubber surface ■ Elastic loaf coated with tetrafluoroethylene ■ Rigid loaf coated on tetrafluoroethylene ■ Rigid loaf on metal surface ■ Loaf on fiber surface - As a result, in a combination of rigid rollers, the surface properties of both rollers Precision is required, and the friction and wear between the rollers is large, and if there are scratches on the roller surface, uneven application of silicone oil may occur on the fixing roller 1.

(However, when using rigid rollers coated with tetrafluoroethylene, the sliding friction was small and the wear was also low.) However, by bringing the elastic roller into contact with the rigid roller, there is no need for high precision in the surface properties of the rollers, and light pressure welding is possible. By doing so, the liquid was transferred reliably, and the friction and wear on both rollers was kept to a minimum. Examples of good elastic rollers include the above-mentioned silicone rubber loaf 1, which has a low hardness silicone rubber surface coated with a tube of tetrafluoroethylene, and the one sold by DuPont under the trade name /-MEX. The surface of the rollers was coated with heat-resistant nylon fibers or flocked with hair, and the rollers were able to maintain good surface contact under low pressure between the two rollers.

In particular, when a roller having a fiber coating of cilia such as wire or wool on the roller surface is used as the intermediate roller 11 in the embodiments of FIGS. 2 and 4, the roller 11 with a speed difference and metal or The frictional resistance of the rigid roller 10 having an ethylene surface was particularly 4.<<, and the contact condition between both rollers was also good, allowing uniform and even oil distribution.

Here, using a ciliary fiber surface that does not have high heat resistance, such as cotton or wool fiber, for the intermediate roller 11 where the heat from the fixing roller 1 does not directly apply to the cilia prevents heat deterioration of the cilia and increases the elasticity of the bristles. It is also preferable from the viewpoint of maintaining it for a long period of time. On the other hand, in the embodiments shown in FIGS. 2, 4, and 5, the intermediate roller 1
The silicone oil may be applied directly to the fixing roller I with the intermediate roller 11, using a fiber surface roller with high heat resistance as the roller 1 and omitting the application roller 9.

That is, the intermediate roller 11 may be used as a coating roller. In this case, the fiber material of the fiber surface roller is a heat-resistant nylon manufactured by DuPont, which is sold under the name Nomex, and ciliated lo-fu and flocked rollers using this fiber have good heat resistance, contact properties, etc. It was suitable. When using fiber surface rollers such as cilia or flocked fibers as rollers, if the fibers are particularly susceptible to uneven flaking, set the rotational speed of only the fiber roller to a higher speed than the rotational speed of the fixing roller 1 to prevent uneven flaking. I was able to remove it.

Furthermore, if rollers made of oil-absorbing fibers or RTV silicone rubber that can contain oil as the surface material of the intermediate roller 11 or coating roller 9 are used, as described above, the rollers may be coated at the beginning of the copying operation. Even if oil is not supplied to the intermediate roller 11 from the pan 5 and is supplied after a certain period of time, the necessary oil is retained near the surface of the roller, so that the prescribed oil of the fixing roller 1 can be continuously supplied. can be supplied.

Examples of good rigid rollers include metal rollers, tetrafluoroethylene coated rollers, and the like. The fixing device of the embodiment described above is of a heated roller type in which the roller 1 is heated by a heat source lc, but the present invention does not heat the roller but presses the rollers 1 and 2 with strong pressure to apply toner. It can also be applied to a fixing device that performs pressure fixing on the support.

In that case, both rollers 1 and 2 are rigid metal rollers whose surfaces are plated with hard chrome. In addition, when a large number of toner image supports are continuously fixed, an intermediate roller 1 is used depending on the number of supports passing through the fixing roller.
1 and rotating pump.

The amount of mold release liquid supplied to the fixing roller 1 can be adjusted by repeatedly separating the mold release liquid from the intermediate roller 11 and controlling the number of times or time when both rollers contact each other to adjust the amount of template liquid on the intermediate roller 11. In addition, in the above embodiment, the fixing roller was explained as rotating even when the paper is not passing.
For example, the intermediate loaf 11 in FIGS. 2, 4, and 6 had to be attached and detached each time paper passes, but in a fixing device in which the fixing roller rotates only when paper passes, intermediate roller 1 1
It is also possible to omit this and bring the roller 10 into direct contact with the roller 9 to provide the same function.

According to the present invention described above, since the release liquid can be easily and thinly applied to the fixing roller in contact with the toner image supporting surface of the toner support, it is possible to economically and reliably apply the release liquid to the fixing roller in contact with the toner image supporting surface of the toner support. It is possible to prevent the fixing material from being wrapped around the fixing roller, and also to prevent the support from being contaminated with the release liquid and from being difficult to handle.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 shows a conventional fixing device, FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of the present invention,
FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of the relationship between the circumferential speed of the roller 10 and the amount of oil pumped up, FIG. 4 is another embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of still another embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a fixing loaf, 2 is a pressing loaf, 5 is an oil pan, 9 is an application loaf, 10 is a pumping loaf, and 11 is an intermediate roller. Younger brother's figure 2 figure 4 Tsutomu figure 5

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In a fixing device that supplies a release liquid to a fixing roller that is brought into pressure contact with a toner image support to apply a thin layer, A multi-stage roller series including a pumping roller partially immersed in a mold solution and an applicator roller in contact with a fixing roller,
a multi-stage roller series consisting of a plurality of rollers that supply the release liquid from the bath to the fixing roller by rotating at a constant circumferential speed while in contact with each other; at least one roller in the multi-stage roller series; A fixing device configured to rotate at a constant circumferential speed smaller than the circumferential speed of the fixing roller. 2. The fixing device according to claim 1, wherein the application roller is driven to rotate at substantially the same peripheral speed as the fixing roller, and the pumping roller is driven to rotate at a constant peripheral speed slower than the fixing roller. 3. The fixing device according to claim 2, wherein a liquid layer regulating blade is brought into contact with the pumping roller. 4. The fixing device according to claim 3, wherein the blade is an elastic body. 5. The multi-stage roller series has an intermediate roller that is brought into contact with and separated from at least one of the pumping roller and the coating roller, and the contact and separation interrupts mold release transmission from the pumping roller to the coating roller. A fixing device according to claim 1. 6. The application roller according to claim 5, wherein the application roller is driven to rotate at approximately the same peripheral speed as the fixing roller, and at least one of the pumping roller and the intermediate roller is driven to rotate at a constant peripheral speed that is slower than the fixing roller. Fusing device. 7. The fixing device according to claim 6, wherein the pressure contact force between the intermediate roller and the pumping roller is controlled. 8. The fixing device according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the surface layer of each pair of rollers in the multi-stage roller series that are in contact with each other and have different circumferential speeds is made of different materials. 9. The fixing device according to claim 8, wherein the surface layer of the pair of rollers is made of fibrous material, and the other surface is made of metal or synthetic resin. 10. The fixing device according to claim 8, wherein one of the pair of rollers is an elastic roller and the other is a rigid roller. 11. The fixing device according to any one of claims 1 to 10, wherein the fixing roller is heated.