JP2002311738A - Seamless pipe for fixing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent a conductive layer from peeling from the outer peripheral surface of a tubular body of a heat resistant resin film even if a copper layer is disposed as the conductive layer. SOLUTION: This seamless pipe for a fixing device consists of the tubular body 2 of the heat resistant resin film and a metallic layer 3 exclusive of copper, copper layer 4 and surface release layer 5 successively formed on the outer peripheral surface of this tubular body 2 of the heat resistant resin film. The metal described above is formed by an ion beam-assisted vapor deposition method.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a seamless pipe, and more particularly, to a seamless pipe for a fixing device used for a heat fixing device of an image forming apparatus using an electrophotographic method such as a copying machine, a printer, and a facsimile.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, in copiers and printers, in order to fix a toner image transferred on paper,
A fixing device using a seamless pipe made of a thin film instead of a fixing roller or a pressure roller which has been conventionally used has been frequently used. An image recording apparatus using an electromagnetic induction heating apparatus is also known as a seamless pipe heating method (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-188177). The seamless pipe for a fixing device used in this image recording apparatus has a base layer made of a sheet member having high heat resistance, a conductive layer (electromagnetic induction heating layer) laminated thereon, and a surface release layer which is the uppermost layer. And three layers. Copper is used for the electromagnetic induction heating layer.

As a method for producing a polyimide-metal foil composite film which can be suitably used for a printed wiring board, a copper clad board for TAB, etc., for example, copper is used for a metal foil and an ion plating method is applied to the polyimide. With thickness
It is known that a palladium vapor deposition layer having a thickness of 0.3 to 40 nm is formed (JP-A-7-70762).

On the other hand, in recent years, with the speeding up of copying and full-color images, toners having a lower melting point and higher adhesiveness than conventional toners have been used, so that all toners are fixed on recording paper. The offset phenomenon which remains on the seamless pipe without being generated easily occurs. The seamless pipe for the fixing device prevents the offset phenomenon,
A fired film of a fluororesin is formed as a surface release layer.

[0005]

However, when a copper layer is provided as a conductive layer of a seamless pipe for a fixing device, if a fluororesin layer is applied and fired to form a surface release layer, the copper layer becomes heat resistant. The problem that it peeled off from the outer peripheral surface of the conductive resin film tubular body occurred. The nip portion of the seamless pipe of the fixing device having the electromagnetic induction heating layer is constantly heated to 200 ° C. or higher by electromagnetic induction and moves like a belt. Therefore, even when the above-mentioned ion plating method is used, the copper layer is peeled off from the heat-resistant resin film tubular body. This peeling may occur immediately after the production of the seamless pipe for the fixing device, or may occur easily when the image recording device is used, and there is a problem that the life of the image forming apparatus is determined by the peeling phenomenon of the seamless pipe for the fixing device.

The present invention has been made to address such a problem, and even when a copper layer is provided as a conductive layer, the conductive layer is firmly attached to the outer peripheral surface of the heat-resistant resin film tubular body. An object of the present invention is to provide a seamless pipe for a fixing device which is in close contact with the fixing device.

[0007]

According to the present invention, a heat resistant resin film tubular body, and a metal layer other than copper, a copper layer, and a surface release layer are sequentially formed on the outer peripheral surface of the heat resistant resin film tubular body. A seamless pipe for a fixing device, characterized in that the metal layer is formed by an ion beam assisted vapor deposition method. Further, the metal layer is gold, silver,
It is at least one metal selected from the group consisting of platinum, aluminum, titanium, tungsten, rhodium, tin, nickel, zinc, and chromium.

[0008] The seamless pipe for a fixing device of the present invention comprises:
The surface release layer is a layer containing a fluorine-based resin. The heat-resistant resin film tubular body is an aromatic polyimide resin film tubular body.

A study was conducted on the peeling phenomenon of a seamless pipe for a fixing device provided with a copper layer as a conductive layer. This peeling phenomenon was liable to occur when the conductive layer was a copper layer. Since this peeling phenomenon occurred particularly when a fluororesin layer was applied as a surface release layer and baked, the high temperature (200 to 410 ° C.) at the time of calcination caused the heat-resistant resin film tubular body and the copper layer to be separated from each other. It is considered that the adhesion was reduced, and the reduction in the adhesion was improved by interposing the metal layer formed by the ion beam assisted vapor deposition method. The present invention has been made based on such findings.

[0010]

FIG. 1 shows an example of a seamless pipe for a fixing device according to the present invention. FIG. 1A is a perspective view of a seamless pipe for a fixing device, and FIG. 1B is a partially enlarged cross-sectional view along AA. The seamless pipe 1 for the fixing device is
A heat-resistant resin film tubular body 2 and a metal layer 3 other than copper and palladium, a copper layer 4 and a surface release layer 5 are sequentially formed on the outer peripheral surface thereof. Although not shown, a primer layer may be provided between the copper layer 4 and the surface release layer 5. Hereinafter, each layer will be described.

The heat-resistant resin film can maintain its mechanical strength at a temperature higher than the fixing temperature, 150 ° C. to 250 ° C., and has a temperature of 200 ° C. to 410 ° C. when the fluororesin layer is applied and fired as the surface release layer 5. Any resin film having higher heat resistance may be used. Examples of such a resin film include an aromatic polyimide resin film, an aromatic polyamide-imide resin film, an aromatic polybenzimidazole resin film, and an aromatic polyamide resin film. Among these, an aromatic polyimide resin film is preferable because it can withstand mechanical and thermal loads on a seamless pipe for a fixing device due to high-speed copying. Among the aromatic polyimide resin films, 3,4,3 ', 4'-biphenyltetracarboxylic dianhydride, 2,3,3', 4'-
An aromatic polyimide resin film obtained from biphenyltetracarboxylic dianhydride or a mixed acid dianhydride thereof and paraphenylenediamine, metaphenylenediamine or a mixed diamine thereof is heated by the heat of the seamless pipe itself for the fixing device. It is particularly preferable because the expansion and contraction is small.

As a method for forming the aromatic polyimide resin film into a tubular body, any known method capable of forming a seamless pipe can be used. For example, a method in which a cylindrical mold is immersed in a polyamic acid solution that is an aromatic polyimide precursor or a polyamic acid solution is applied to the cylindrical mold and dried, imidized to form a seamless pipe, the inside of the cylindrical mold, A method of forming a coating film of polyamic acid by a centrifugal method of injecting polyamic acid into the mold and rotating the cylindrical mold, and imidizing the film to form a seamless pipe. In addition, as long as the aromatic polyimide is soluble in the aprotic polar solvent, the solution forming the seamless pipe may be a polyimide state or a mixed solution of polyimide and polyamic acid. For the imidization of the polyamic acid coating film, a thermal method of heating to about 200 ° C. or higher, a chemical method of dipping in a solution of acetic anhydride and pyridine, and the like can be adopted.

The film thickness of the tubular body of the aromatic polyimide resin film varies depending on the diameter of the seamless pipe, but is about 10 to 100 μm.

A metal layer 3 is formed on the outer peripheral surface of the heat-resistant resin film tubular body 2 by an ion beam assisted vapor deposition method. Ion beam assisted vapor deposition is based on IBAD (Ion Be
am Assisted Deposition) method. This method involves alternately or simultaneously performing, on the heat-resistant resin film tubular body 2, vapor deposition of a metal by an electron beam vapor deposition method or cluster ion beam vapor deposition, and irradiation with a reactive gas, a rare gas, or a mixed gas of both. Is a method of forming the metal layer 3 on the surface of the heat-resistant resin film tubular body 2. The IBAD method has a high film forming speed, especially a maximum of 100 Ke.
It is possible to irradiate ions with energy of V, and due to collision and recoil between ions and vapor-deposited atoms, vapor-deposited atoms are driven into the heat-resistant resin film tubular body 2 surface layer together with the ions, and a new mixed layer is formed in the tubular body. 2 and the metal layer 3 to improve adhesion. Therefore, the aromatic polyimide layer and the copper conductive layer via the metal layer are not separated from each other even when the surface release layer is baked or when the fixing device is heated by electromagnetic induction and belt movement. In order to maintain strong adhesion, the applied voltage in the ion beam assisted vapor deposition method is preferably 10 to 1500 V, more preferably 50 to 1000 V
Is used.

The metal forming the metal layer 3 is not particularly limited as long as it is a metal that can be subjected to ion beam assisted deposition and is other than copper. The metal layer 3 is preferably made of gold, silver, platinum, aluminum, titanium, tungsten, rhodium, tin, nickel, zinc, chromium alone, or an alloy thereof. With these metals, the adhesion to the copper layer is further improved.

The thickness of the metal layer is (1) to ensure the adhesion to the copper layer, (2) not to impair the toughness of the heat-resistant resin film, and (3) to obtain electroless plating deposition properties. ,
Or (4) in order to obtain conductivity as an electrode, 0.00
Layer thicknesses of 1 to 3 .mu.m are preferred. If it is less than 0.001 μm, the adhesion will not be improved, and if it exceeds 3 μm, the toughness of the heat-resistant resin film will be impaired. In particular, a layer thickness of 0.005 to 0.03 μm is particularly preferable in consideration of a decrease in productivity and adhesion due to an increase in film formation time.

The formation of the copper layer 4 on the metal layer 3 can be adopted as long as the method can form a metal copper layer. As a method for forming the metal copper layer, electrolytic plating, electroless plating, physical vapor deposition (PVD), epitaxy, chemical vapor deposition (CVD), etc. may be used alone or in combination with these. Method. In the present invention, an electrolytic plating method with low production cost is desirable. As an electrolytic solution in the electrolytic plating method, a copper sulfate solution, a copper pyrophosphate solution, a copper cyanide solution, or the like is used. The thickness of the metal copper layer may be any thickness as long as it can be a heating element by electromagnetic induction, and is specifically 0.05 to 50 μm.

The formation of the surface release layer on the copper layer can prevent adhesion of toner and the like, and is excellent in heat resistance that does not cause thermal fusion or softening even when the copper layer generates heat by electromagnetic induction. Resin layer can be adopted. Specifically, it is a layer containing a fluororesin, such as a single layer of a fluororesin, or a mixed resin of a fluororesin and a heat-resistant resin. Of these, a fluororesin single layer is preferable because the releasability is further improved by firing. As the fluororesin, a tetrafluoroethylene-perfluoroalkylvinyl ether copolymer resin (hereinafter abbreviated as PFA), a polytetrafluoroethylene resin (hereinafter, referred to as PFA)
PTFE), ethylene-tetrafluoroethylene copolymer resin (hereinafter abbreviated as ETFE), tetrafluoroethylene-hexafluoropropylene copolymer resin (hereinafter abbreviated as FEP), and the like. PF
A, PTFE, ETFE, FEP and the like can be used alone or as a mixture, or as a copolymer containing about 1 mol% of a third component. Among these,
PFA is preferred because of its excellent non-toner adhesion. In addition,
In order to improve the adhesion between the copper layer and the surface release layer,
(1) forming a metal layer other than copper on the copper layer surface;
Any of (2) a peroxosulfate treatment of the copper layer surface, (3) a coloring treatment of the copper layer surface, and (4) a rust-proof treatment of the copper layer surface may be employed.

The fluororesin is used as a coating solution dissolved or dispersed in a solvent. When using a PFA coating solution, after treating the copper layer surface with a PFA primer solution,
It is preferable to apply PFA and perform a baking treatment. PFA
The solvent for the primer solution is preferably an organic solvent system rather than an aqueous system. This is because the use of an aqueous solvent as a solvent causes poor affinity, such as repelling on the copper layer surface. As the PFA primer solution, PR made by Mitsui / DuPont Fluorochemicals Co., Ltd.
420-703BK can be exemplified. Further, the PFA coating liquid is a mixed coating liquid of PFA and resin, and PF containing no resin.
A coating solution or the like can be used. Above all, a PFA coating solution containing no binder resin is preferable because of excellent releasability from the toner.

The method of forming the fluororesin coating film on the outer periphery of the heat-resistant resin film tubular body provided with the metal layer and the copper layer is not particularly limited, and a known method is used. For example, a seamless pipe on which a fluororesin coating is formed can be obtained by applying the composition to the outer peripheral surface by a dipping method, a spray coating method, a roll coating method, or the like, and then firing. In the case of the PFA coating liquid not containing the above resin, the firing temperature is 350
~ 410 ° C. If the temperature is lower than 350 ° C, the wear resistance and the releasability are not sufficient.
Further, the adhesion to the copper layer is poor.

The firing is performed in the air, or in an inert gas or a reducing gas. In order to improve the adhesion, an atmosphere of an inert gas such as an argon gas or a nitrogen gas is preferable. In the present invention, since the metal layer is provided between the heat-resistant resin film tubular body and the copper layer, excellent adhesion can be obtained even in the air.

The seamless pipe for a fixing device according to the present invention comprises:
Because of the excellent adhesion of each layer, copiers, printers,
It is suitably used for a heat fixing device of an image forming apparatus using an electrophotographic method such as a facsimile, particularly a fixing belt in a heat fixing device using an electromagnetic induction heating device.

[0023]

Examples 1 to 11 An aromatic polyimide resin seamless pipe was produced by a centrifugal method in which a cylindrical mold was rotated. A polyamic acid solution varnish (manufactured by Ube Industries, Ltd .: U-Varnish-S) was injected into the cylinder, rotated to form a polyamic acid film, and then heated to imidize. The imidation is based on the absorption of the imide group by infrared absorption spectroscopy.
It was confirmed by the formation degree of 780 cm ^-1 . In addition, the thickness of the polyimide resin film was 90 to 100 μm. A metal layer other than copper was formed in a predetermined thickness on the outer peripheral surface of the seamless pipe by the IBAD method. On the formed metal layer,
Further, a copper layer having a thickness of 5 μm was formed. PFA on copper layer
And a primer solution (PR420-703BK, manufactured by Du Pont-Mitsui Fluorochemicals Co., Ltd.) comprising polyimide resin and dried, and then dried to form a primer layer. Note that an organic solvent system was used as a solvent for the primer solution. PFA coating solution (manufactured by Mitsui / Dupont Fluorochemicals: EN510CL)
(High molecular weight type)) was spray-coated on the primer layer, dried, and kept in air at a maximum temperature of 380 ° C. for 30 minutes to form a surface release layer composed of PFA. Thus, a seamless pipe for a fixing device in which a metal layer other than copper, a copper layer, and a surface release layer were formed in this order from the polyimide resin film layer was obtained. The thickness of the surface release layer is
It was between 15 μm and 25 μm.

The obtained seamless pipe for the fixing device is
After heating in air at 00 ° C for 500 hours, evaluation was made by the following two methods. (1) Evaluation test 1: According to JIS K 5400, a cross cut test was performed to evaluate the adhesion between the heat-resistant resin film layer and the copper layer. In the cross-cut test, 100 square cells of 1 mm square were used.
When the peeling was 1 to 5, the evaluation was ○, when the peeling was 6 to 20, the evaluation was Δ, and when the peeling was 21 or more, the evaluation was ×. (2) Evaluation test 2: A seamless pipe for a fixing device was installed on an electromagnetic induction heating device, and the heating state of the seamless pipe was confirmed. Those that were quickly heated were evaluated as ○, and those that were not heated were evaluated as x. Table 1 shows the results.

Comparative Example 1 In the same manner as in Example 1, an aromatic polyimide resin seamless pipe was produced. An attempt was made to perform copper plating directly on the outer peripheral surface of the seamless pipe, but copper plating could not be performed.

Comparative Example 2 In the same manner as in Example 1, an aromatic polyimide resin seamless pipe was produced. A copper layer having a thickness of 0.025 μm was formed on the outer peripheral surface of the seamless pipe by the IBAD method, and a copper layer having a thickness of 5 μm was further formed. A surface release layer was formed in the same manner as in Example 1 to produce a seamless pipe for a fixing device. The obtained seamless pipe for a fixing device was evaluated in the same manner as in Example 1. Table 1 shows the results.

Comparative Example 3 In the same manner as in Example 1, an aromatic polyimide resin seamless pipe was produced. A palladium layer having a thickness of 0.04 μm was formed on the outer peripheral surface of the seamless pipe by an ion plating method, and a copper layer having a thickness of 5 μm was further formed. A surface release layer was formed in the same manner as in Example 1 to produce a seamless pipe for a fixing device. The obtained seamless pipe for a fixing device was evaluated in the same manner as in Example 1. Table 1 shows the results.

[0028]

[Table 1]

As shown in Table 1, the seamless pipes for the fixing devices of the respective examples had excellent adhesion between the aromatic polyimide resin layer and the copper layer. In addition, heating of the seamless pipe was observed in the electromagnetic induction heating test. Example 4 showed good evaluation test results, but it took a long time to form the aluminum layer. Comparative Example 1 could not be plated with copper. In Comparative Example 2, peeling between the aromatic polyimide resin layer and the copper layer after firing of the surface release layer was confirmed. In Comparative Example 3, peeling of 15 cells was observed in the cross cut test.

[0030]

According to the present invention, a seamless pipe for a fixing device includes a metal layer other than copper formed on the outer peripheral surface of a heat-resistant resin film tubular body by an ion beam assisted vapor deposition method, a copper layer, and a surface release layer. Are formed in order,
The heat-resistant resin film layer and the copper layer are tightly adhered,
It can be heated quickly in electromagnetic induction heating. Also, it has excellent durability against heating of 200 ° C or more and belt movement at all times during firing of the surface release layer and operation of the fixing device. As a result, it is possible to cope with high-speed copying and full-color images, thereby extending the life of the image forming apparatus.

Since the above-mentioned surface release layer is a layer containing a fluorine-based resin, it is excellent in releasability from a developer. Further, since the heat-resistant resin film tubular body is an aromatic polyimide resin film tubular body, it is excellent in heat resistance even when used in an image recording apparatus using an electromagnetic induction heating device.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a seamless pipe for a fixing device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 seamless pipe for fixing device 2 heat-resistant resin film tubular body 3 metal layer 4 copper layer 5 surface release layer

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Satoru Fukuzawa NTA Precision Plastics Co., Ltd. 970, Ota-Ana, Toin-cho, Inaba-gun, Mie Prefecture (72) Inventor Fumiri Satoji 3066 Oumita, Kumona-shi, Mie, Japan HA04 HA31 HA35 HA37 HA38 HA43 HA46 HA54 4K029 AA11 AA27 BA02 BA08 BA62 BB02 BD08 CA09 GA03 4K044 AA16 AB03 AB10 BA02 BA06 BA08 BA10 BA21 BB04 BC04 CA13 CA18 CA53

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A seamless pipe for a fixing device comprising a heat-resistant resin film tubular body, and a metal layer other than copper, a copper layer, and a surface release layer sequentially formed on the outer peripheral surface of the heat-resistant resin film tubular body. A seamless pipe for a fixing device, wherein the metal layer is formed by an ion beam assisted vapor deposition method. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the metal layer is at least one metal selected from the group consisting of gold, silver, platinum, aluminum, titanium, tungsten, rhodium, tin, nickel, zinc, and chromium. 2. The seamless pipe for a fixing device according to claim 1. 3. The seamless pipe for a fixing device according to claim 1, wherein the surface release layer is a layer containing a fluorine-based resin. 4. The seamless pipe for a fixing device according to claim 1, wherein the heat-resistant resin film tubular body is an aromatic polyimide resin film tubular body.