JPH08305240A - Manufacture of cleaning blade for electrophotographic device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To manufacture a cleaning blade excellent in economy and high in bonding strength for use in an electrophotographic device by melting and applying a hot-melt adhesive having a specific melt viscosity to a support member, bringing the surface of adhesion of a blade member into contact with the adhesive, and bonding them together through heating and pressurization. CONSTITUTION: A hot-melt adhesive with a melt viscosity of 5,000 to 10,000cps is melted by heating and then applied by means of an applicator or the like to the support member of a blade in such a way as to have a uniform thickness. The wettability of the hot-melt adhesive to the support member is therefore good without heating of the support member, and the blade member can be firmly bonded thereto in a short pressurization and heating time. Also, since the hot-melt adhesive can be applied in such a way as to have a uniform thickness, high bonding strength is provided. Further, a polyamide type of dimer acid base is preferably used as the hot-melt adhesive, in which case the strength of the adhesive layer at a relatively low molecular weight is high due to hydrogen bonds among the molecules, resulting in high adhesive strength.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a cleaning blade for an electrophotographic apparatus, which is excellent in production efficiency.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An electrophotographic apparatus has a photoconductor provided with a photoconductive layer on its surface. During operation, the outer peripheral surface of the photoconductor is uniformly charged, and then the object to be copied is covered. An electrostatic latent image is formed by exposing the outer peripheral surface through a copy image, toner is attached to the electrostatic latent image to form a toner image, and the toner image is transferred to paper or the like and fixed. Is.

In this process, a part of the toner remains on the outer periphery of the photoconductor after the transfer, and it is necessary to remove this residual toner. Such toner removal is performed by a cleaning blade. The cleaning blade is usually formed of a support member made of a metal plate, a blade member made of an elastic body, and an adhesive layer for attaching the blade member to the support member.

In order for the cleaning blade to continue to exhibit stable performance for a long period of time, it is necessary that the tip edge of the blade member is always in contact with the surface of the photoconductor uniformly with an appropriate pressure. Not only the smoothness of the blade member tip edge is good, but the mounting of the blade member to the support member is performed with high accuracy without displacement.
In addition, it must be firmly fixed so as not to peel off from the support member or rise from the support member.

As a method for fixing the blade member to the supporting member, for example, JP-A-61-130975 discloses a method using an adhesive tape, and JP-A-63-269188 discloses a method using an instant adhesive. No. 6-5439 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 61-145578 disclose methods using hot melt adhesives.

[0006]

However, although the method using the adhesive tape can easily perform the high-precision initial fixing, the adhesive force between the supporting member and the blade member is small, and the adhesive property is not sufficient especially at high temperature. , There is a problem in cleaning. The method using the instant adhesive has the same problems as in the case of the pressure-sensitive adhesive tape, and also has drawbacks such as poor impact resistance and durability.

In the method using a hot-melt adhesive, the temperature of the supporting member is raised in advance so that the hot-melt adhesive is easily wetted by the supporting member, and the film-shaped hot-melt adhesive is slit into a desired width. , A tape-like material is attached to a support member, and after the adhesive portion of the support member is positioned and fixed on the blade member, it is melted and pressure-bonded by heating and pressurizing, and then bonded by a method such as cooling and curing. , Sufficient adhesion can be obtained.

However, in this method, the temperature of the supporting member must be raised in advance in order to improve the wettability of the hot-melt adhesive to the supporting member, and it takes time to melt and press-bond by heating and pressing. Therefore, productivity efficiency is low. Furthermore, after thinning the hot melt adhesive into a film,
Since the process of slit cutting is involved, the cost of the adhesive increases, and since the hot-melt adhesive is made into a thin tape shape, it is difficult to make the position where it is attached to the heated support member constant. However, there is a problem that it is difficult to have a uniform thickness due to wrinkles or the like.

In view of the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method of manufacturing a cleaning blade for an electrophotographic apparatus, which can be manufactured in a short time, is highly economical, and has a high adhesive force. Is.

[0010]

The gist of the present invention is to provide a method for manufacturing a cleaning blade for an electrophotographic apparatus, which comprises adhering a blade member and a supporting member to each other. A hot melt adhesive having a melt viscosity of 5000 to 10000 cps is melt-coated, the adhering surfaces of the blade members are overlapped, and heating and pressing are performed for adhering.

The blade member used in the present invention is not particularly limited as long as it is a commonly used member, and examples thereof include urethane elastomer and fluororubber. Examples of the urethane elastomer include those which are composed of an isocyanate compound, a high molecular weight polyol, and a cross-linking agent and which have undergone a thermosetting reaction.

Examples of the above-mentioned isocyanate compound include diphenylmethane diisocyanate (MDI), tolylene diisocyanate (TDI), naphthylene diisocyanate (NDI), and tolidine diisocyanate (TDI).
ODI) and the like.

Examples of the high molecular weight polyol include polyester polyol, polycarbonate polyol, polyether polyol, polycarbonate ether polyol and the like. Examples of the cross-linking agent include polyhydric alcohols such as butanediol, ethylene glycol, trimethylolpropane, and glycerin.

The above-mentioned blade member is obtained, for example, by cutting a urethane elastomer sheet obtained by a centrifugal molding method, a mold molding method or the like into a predetermined size and washing it as necessary.

The support member used in the present invention is not particularly limited as long as it is a commonly used member, and for example,
Examples include those manufactured from rigid metals, elastic metals, plastics, ceramics, etc. Among them, untreated steel sheets because they do not change over time and have corrosion resistance; zinc phosphate treatment, chromate treatment It is preferable to use a steel plate that has been subjected to a surface treatment such as; The supporting member may be preliminarily subjected to degreasing treatment with a solvent or the like.

In the manufacturing method of the present invention, the melt viscosity of the support member adhered to the blade member is from 5000 to 10.
000cps hot melt adhesive is melt coated,
The adhering surfaces of the blade members are superposed and heated and pressed to adhere them.

The hot melt adhesive has a melt viscosity of 50.
If it is less than 00 cps, the fluidity becomes too high, and the adhesive will squeeze out from the adhesive portion during heating and pressurization, and a sufficient adhesive force cannot be obtained.
Since it becomes difficult to apply it to a required thickness, it is limited to the above range.

Examples of the hot melt adhesive include polyamide, dimer acid-based thermoplastic polyamide, ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer and the like. Of these, dimer acid-based polyamides are preferable, and examples thereof include Macromelt 6239 and 6238 manufactured by Henkel Hakusui Co., Ltd.

The melt coating is carried out by heating and melting the hot melt adhesive and then coating it so as to have a uniform thickness. The apparatus used in the melt coating is not particularly limited as long as the relative positional relationship between the nozzle and the supporting member is maintained and the relative moving speed is kept constant, and for example, a commercially available applicator or the like is used. be able to.

In the present invention, after the melt coating, the supporting member and the blade member are superposed and heated and pressed. It is preferable that the above heating and pressurization are performed simultaneously. If not done at the same time, it will take time and the efficiency will be poor. As the heating and pressurizing, high frequency induction heating and pressurizing with an air cylinder are preferable.

[0021]

In the manufacturing method of the present invention, the melt viscosity is 5000 to 1
Since hot melt adhesive of 0000 cps is melt-coated with an applicator, etc., the wettability of the hot melt adhesive to the supporting member is good without heating the supporting member, and it firmly adheres with a short pressurization and heating time. can do. Also,
Since the hot melt adhesive can be applied to a uniform thickness, it has high adhesive strength.

Further, the step of forming the hot-melt adhesive into a film, the step of slitting into a tape shape, the tape with the release paper being pulled out and temporarily attached along the adhesive portion of the support member, the release paper Since the step of peeling off the adhesive is unnecessary, the cost of the adhesive can be reduced.

Furthermore, when a dimer acid-based polyamide-based adhesive is used as the hot melt adhesive, the strength of the adhesive layer at a relatively low molecular weight is high due to intermolecular hydrogen bonds, and a strong adhesive force is obtained. Obtainable.

[0024]

The present invention will be described in more detail below with reference to examples, but the present invention is not limited to these examples.

EXAMPLE 1 A special chromate-treated steel plate (S
A support member manufactured by using ECC-C, a plate thickness of 1.0 mm) was washed with methylene chloride, and as shown in FIG. 1, a hot melt adhesive was applied to the adhesive surface of this support member by heating and melting by driving a gear pump. Using a dimer acid-based polyamide hot melt adhesive (manufactured by Henkel Hakusui Co., Macromelt 6239, melt viscosity 7000 cps (190 ° C.)) using an applicator capable of quantitatively discharging the agent, 190
It was heated and melted at 0 ° C., and applied so as to have a thickness of 100 μm from a nozzle.

Next, the adhesion surface of the supporting member has JIS hardness of JIS.
2mm thick made of polyurethane elastomer with 65 degree A
High frequency induction heating device (output 3kW, frequency 40.6MHz, application time 5 seconds)
At the same time, the pressure was applied at 245 kPa to obtain a cleaning blade. The obtained cleaning blade,
As shown in FIG. 2, a 90 ° peeling load at a tensile speed of 20 mm / min was applied in the direction of the arrow to measure the adhesive force, and the results are shown in Table 1.

Example 2 Polyamide type hot melt adhesive (Sekisui Chemical Co., Ltd., Esdyne 9886, melt viscosity 6500)
A cleaning blade was obtained in the same manner as in Example 1 except that cps (190 ° C) was used. The results of measuring the adhesive strength are shown in Table 1.

Comparative Example 1 The same procedure as in Example 1 was carried out except that a polyamide-based adhesive (Meltron A-703T, melt viscosity 4000 cps (190 ° C.) manufactured by Diabond Industrial Co., Ltd.) was used as the hot melt adhesive. A cleaning blade was obtained. The results of measuring the adhesive strength are shown in Table 1. In this case, the protrusion of the adhesive was observed during the high frequency induction heating.

Comparative Example 2 As a hot melt adhesive, a polyamide adhesive (Sekisui Chemical Co., Ltd., Esdyne 9888, melt viscosity about 120)
A cleaning blade was obtained in the same manner as in Example 1 except that 00 cps (190 ° C.) was used. The results of measuring the adhesive strength are shown in Table 1. In this case, waviness was observed on the adhesive-coated surface.

Comparative Example 3 As a hot melt adhesive, a modified polyolefin-polyamide type film-like material (manufactured by Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., melt viscosity 5500 cps (190 ° C.)) was used, and 190 was prepared in advance.
After sticking to a supporting member heated to ℃, positioning and fixing the supporting member on the blade member, it is heated by high frequency induction heating (output 3 kW, frequency 40.6 MHz, application time 30 seconds) and simultaneously applied at 245 kPa. Pressed to obtain a cleaning blade. The results of measuring the adhesive strength are shown in Table 1.

[0031]

[Table 1]

[0032]

Since the cleaning blade for an electrophotographic apparatus of the present invention is manufactured by the above-mentioned method, it is not necessary to raise the temperature of the supporting member in advance and the wettability is good, so that the heating and pressurizing time can be shortened. Since it is possible and the hot melt adhesive does not need to be processed into a tape shape, it is economical and has a high adhesive force.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of a method for manufacturing a cleaning blade for an electrophotographic apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a method for evaluating the adhesive force of a cleaning blade for an electrophotographic apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Support Member 2 Applicator Nozzle 3 Blade Member 4 Adhesive Layer

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A method of manufacturing a cleaning blade for an electrophotographic apparatus, comprising adhering a blade member and a supporting member, wherein a hot melt having a melt viscosity of 5000 to 10000 cps on an adhesive surface of the supporting member with the blade member. A method for manufacturing a cleaning blade for an electrophotographic apparatus, comprising melt-coating a melt adhesive, superposing the bonding surfaces of the blade members, and heating and pressing to bond them. 2. The method for producing a cleaning blade for an electrophotographic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the hot melt adhesive is a dimer acid-based polyamide-based adhesive.