JP2001249573A - Photoreceptor for electrophotography - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a photoreceptor for electrophotography in which the necessary bond strength between a resin flange and a aluminum base body is obtained in the real use of the photoreceptor for electrrophotography with in an electrophotography application device, and the flange is easily detached from the base body when discarding the used photoreceptor of which the service life is exhausted. SOLUTION: In the photoreceptor for electrophotography equipped with a photoreceptor drum where a photosensitive layer is formed on the outer peripheral surface of a cylindrical substrate consisting of aluminum or its alloy, and with the flange having a fitting part combined with the opening edge of the drum through an adhesive, the flange is a formed part using hardly adhesive resin as a main construction material, a recessed groove provided it the outer peripheral surface of the flange fitting part has the tilt angle of the 5 to 70 degrees to the circumferential direction, and is formed spirally so that the rotary driving force applied to the photoreceptor may work in the screw-down direction.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electrophotographic photosensitive member mounted on a copying machine, a printer, a facsimile, or the like, which is an electrophotographic applied product, and more specifically, to be fitted to an end of a photosensitive drum constituting the photosensitive member. The structure of the resin flange.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An electrophotographic apparatus using a photoconductor for electrophotography has been widely applied to a copying machine. In recent years, it has been applied to a laser beam printer, a facsimile, and the like, and its application field is rapidly expanding due to features such as high speed, high image quality, high quality, and low noise.

As is well known, the electrophotographic photoreceptor used in these electrophotographic apparatuses has a function related to electrophotography on the surface of a cylindrical substrate mainly composed of a conductive metal such as aluminum. A photosensitive layer including a photoconductive material is formed to form a photosensitive drum, and a flange for transmitting a rotational driving force from the apparatus side to a cylindrical substrate in an electrophotographic application apparatus is connected to an end. . In recent years, organic compounds have been increasingly used as photosensitive layer materials from the viewpoints of material diversity and toxicity.

An electrophotographic photoreceptor rotates in a circumferential direction around a cylindrical axis in an electrophotographic apparatus, thereby executing an electrophotographic process to perform a main function of the apparatus. In order to obtain the rotational force, many photosensitive drums are provided with a flange that transmits the rotational driving force from the apparatus side via a gear and functions as a bearing. The flange is generally made of a resin molded product in which gears and bearings are integrally molded. The adhesive between the flange and the substrate is sufficiently strong using an adhesive to reliably transmit the rotational driving force to the cylindrical substrate of the photosensitive drum. I am doing something.

FIG. 2A is a partial cross-sectional view showing an electrophotographic photosensitive member in which such a conventional flange 20 is fitted to an end of the photosensitive drum 10. FIG. 2B is a side view of the flange 2. The electrophotographic photosensitive member shown in FIG. 2A is manufactured by fitting a flange 20 inside the end of the photosensitive drum 10 to which an adhesive 50 has been applied in advance. A gear 30 for receiving a rotational driving force from a device (not shown) is formed on the outer periphery of the flange portion 30 of the flange 20. A shaft hole 20a through which the shaft body passes is provided at the center of the flange 20. Most of the adhesive 50 for fixing the flange 20 and the photosensitive drum 1 is collected in the rectangular concave groove 40a formed on the outer periphery of the fitting portion 40 of the flange 20, so that the adhesive force is enhanced. .

On the other hand, from the viewpoint of cost, the flange 20
A synthetic resin such as polyacetal is used for the material of the first substrate, and aluminum is used for the cylindrical substrate. Adhesion or close contact between such a synthetic resin and aluminum is strongly increased to a practically acceptable strength by appropriately selecting the adhesive 50.

On the other hand, for a used photoreceptor having a long life, it is desired that aluminum and resin can be easily separated from the viewpoint of separation and disposal, which is strongly demanded in recent years.

[0008]

However, since the conventional photoreceptor is firmly adhered as described above, it is not always easy to remove the resin flange from the aluminum base. Although it is not impossible to do so, there is a problem in meeting the demands of the society for easy separation and disposal because it requires extremely powerful power.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and the bonding strength required between a resin flange and an aluminum substrate during the actual use of an electrophotographic photosensitive member in an electrophotographic application apparatus. An object of the present invention is to provide an electrophotographic photoconductor in which a flange can be easily removed from a substrate when a used photoconductor having a long life is discarded.

[0010]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a photosensitive drum having a photosensitive layer formed on the outer peripheral surface of a cylindrical substrate made of aluminum or an alloy thereof, and a photosensitive drum which is bonded to the open end thereof via an adhesive. An electrophotographic photoreceptor provided with a flange having a fitting portion, wherein the flange is a molded product whose main constituent material is a poorly-adhesive resin, and a concave groove provided on an outer peripheral surface of the flange fitting portion has a circular shape. This is achieved by providing an electrophotographic photosensitive member having a helical concave groove having an inclination angle of 5 to 70 degrees with respect to the circumferential direction and having a rotational driving force applied to the photosensitive member in a screw tightening direction. You.

In the present invention, the concave groove has a width of 0.5 to 5 m.
m and a depth of 0.05 to 2 mm are preferable.

Further, the present invention is a helical groove in which the groove has an inclination angle of 40 to 50 degrees with respect to the circumferential direction, and the rotational driving force applied to the photosensitive member acts in the screw tightening direction. It is desirable to use an electrophotographic photosensitive member.

Further, in the present invention, it is preferable that the main constituent material of the flange is a photoreceptor for electrophotography in which a fluorine resin is used.

Further, the present invention desirably provides an electrophotographic photosensitive member in which the adhesive to which the flange is bonded is a cyanoacrylate adhesive.

According to the above configuration, when the electrophotographic photosensitive member is actually working in the electrophotographic application device, the rotational driving force of the electrophotographic photosensitive member acts in a direction to push the flange toward the photosensitive drum. A strong coupling force can be maintained without weakening the coupling between the flange and the photosensitive drum. In addition, when the photoconductor for electrophotography has reached the end of its life and is discarded, if the flange is rotated in the direction opposite to the direction of the rotational driving force, the flange acts in a direction to come off from the photosensitive drum. It becomes easy to separate the drum, and it is possible to meet the social demands for separation and disposal.

[0016]

FIG. 1 shows a specific embodiment of the present invention, but the present invention is not limited to this embodiment.

FIG. 1A is a partial cross-sectional view of an electrophotographic photosensitive member according to the present invention, in which a flange 2 is fitted to and coupled to an end of a photosensitive drum 1. FIG. 1B is a side view of the flange 2. As shown in FIG. 1 (a), the electrophotographic photosensitive member has a flange 2 fitted and connected to the inside of the end of a photosensitive drum 1 to which an adhesive has been applied in advance. A gear 3 for receiving a rotational driving force from a device (not shown) is formed on the outer periphery of the flange 3 of the flange 2. This flange 2
Is provided with a shaft hole 2a through which the shaft body passes.
Most of the adhesive bonding the flange 2 and the photosensitive drum 1 is collected in a spirally inclined concave groove 4a formed on the outer periphery of the fitting portion 4 of the flange 2 to make the bonding force effective. I have.

The flange 2 is formed from a tetrafluoroethylene (Teflon-registered trademark) resin which is a fluororesin, and a cyanoacrylate instant adhesive is used as the adhesive 5. An aluminum alloy was used for the cylindrical substrate of the photosensitive drum 1. On the outer peripheral surface of the fitting portion 4 of the flange 2, a concave groove 4 a inclined at an angle of 45 degrees with respect to the circumferential direction is provided at the same time when the flange 2 is formed. The width of the concave groove 4a was 5 mm, and the depth was 1 mm.

Since the flange 2 is made of such a shape material, when the flange 2 is fitted to the photosensitive drum 1, the adhesive 5 previously applied to the inside of the fitting portion of the drum 1 is excellent in the aluminum of the base. Although they are bonded, the flange 2 is a resin with poor adhesion, so that it is not sufficiently and firmly bonded, and the adhesive 5 only enters the concave groove 4a and densely fills the space of the concave groove 4a. However, the concave groove 4a is helical, and the adhesive 5 densely fills the concave groove 4a, so that the two can keep the bonding force firmly as they are. In addition, when the electrophotographic photosensitive member actually operates in the apparatus, the rotational driving force for the electrophotographic photosensitive member acts in the direction of pressing the flange against the photosensitive drum, so that the coupling force between the flange and the photosensitive drum is not weakened. On the other hand, when the flange and the base of the photosensitive drum 1 are separated in order to discard the electrophotographic photosensitive member after the end of its life, the photosensitive drum 1 is fixed and the flange 2 is separated.
When a force opposite to the above-mentioned rotational driving force is applied to the drum 1, the flange 2 can be easily removed from the drum 1 by a screw loosening effect.

[0020]

As described above, according to the structure of the present invention, the flange is a molded product whose main constituent material is poorly adhesive resin, and the concave groove formed on the outer peripheral surface of the flange fitting portion is formed. The electrophotographic photosensitive member is a helical concave groove having a tilt angle of 5 to 70 degrees with respect to the circumferential direction, and a rotational driving force applied to the photosensitive member in a screw tightening direction. During the actual use of the photoreceptor in the electrophotographic application equipment, the required bonding strength is obtained between the resin flange and the aluminum substrate. Thus, an electrophotographic photosensitive member from which the flange can be easily removed can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partial cross-sectional view showing an embodiment of an electrophotographic photoconductor of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partial cross-sectional view showing a conventional electrophotographic photoconductor.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1: photosensitive drum, 2: flange, 4a: concave groove

Claims (5)

[Claims] A photosensitive drum having a photosensitive layer formed on an outer peripheral surface of a cylindrical substrate made of aluminum or an alloy thereof;
An electrophotographic photoreceptor having a flange having a fitting portion fixed at an opening end thereof via an adhesive, wherein the flange is a molded product having a hardly-adhesive resin as a main constituent material,
A helical groove provided on the outer peripheral surface of the flange fitting portion has an inclination angle of 5 to 70 degrees with respect to the circumferential direction, and a rotational driving force applied to the photoreceptor acts in a screw tightening direction. An electrophotographic photoconductor, wherein the photoconductor is a concave groove. 2. A groove having a width of 0.5 to 10 mm and a depth of 0.5 mm.
2. The electrophotographic photoconductor according to claim 1, wherein the thickness is from 0.05 to 2 mm. 3. The groove according to claim 1, wherein the groove has a tilt angle of 40 to 50 degrees with respect to a circumferential direction, and a rotational driving force applied to the photoreceptor acts in a screw tightening direction. The electrophotographic photoreceptor according to claim 1 or 2, wherein 4. The electrophotographic photoconductor according to claim 1, wherein a main constituent material of the flange is a fluorine resin. 5. The electrophotographic photoconductor according to claim 1, wherein the adhesive to which the flange is fixed is a cyanoacrylate adhesive.