JP2006276387A - Meandering prevention guide and endless belt - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an endless belt with long durable life which is driven with high precision. <P>SOLUTION: The endless belt 21 on which a meandering prevention guide 22 is arranged on the endless belt 21 made of resin via an adhesion layer or an adhesive layer is characterized that reinforcement tape 23 is applied to the inner surface or both inner and outer surfaces of the belt. In addition, it is characterized that a surface dynamic friction coefficient of the reinforcement tape 23 to be stuck on the inner surface is ≤0.4. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an endless belt provided with a meandering prevention guide, and is useful for an electrophotographic recording apparatus such as a printer, a copying machine, and a video printer.

  Conventionally, endless belts are used in intermediate transfer devices such as electrophotographic recording devices, transfer devices, and transport devices. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, the endless belt is used as an intermediate transfer belt 6 of an intermediate transfer device of a copying machine, and intermediate transfer is performed by the following process. That is, the photosensitive drum 1 is charged by the charger 3 and exposed by the fogging device 2, and the toner image is formed by the developing device 5. The toner image is transferred to the intermediate transfer belt 6 by the electrostatic transfer machine 10, and the transferred toner image is transferred again to the recording paper 11 by a pair of pressing rollers 9 and 12. The intermediate transfer belt 6 is supported by rollers 7, 8, and 9 that are in contact with the inner surface of the intermediate transfer belt 6. In such a transfer belt, if it is not driven with high accuracy, the endless belt is likely to meander, and if meandering, the exposure position and the transfer position are shifted during the transfer, causing image unevenness and image misalignment, or the endless belt meandering. May cause a problem of destruction.

In order to prevent such meandering, a technique for installing a meandering prevention member (guide) on an endless belt is known (see Patent Documents 1 and 2).
JP 2000-310291 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-87568

  Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an endless belt having a long durability life that can be driven with high accuracy in response to the problem that the endless belt breaks due to meandering.

  As a result of intensive studies to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present inventors have found that the above object can be achieved by the endless belt shown below, and have completed the present invention.

  The present invention is characterized in that, in an endless belt in which a meandering prevention guide is disposed on a resin endless belt via an adhesive layer or an adhesive layer, a reinforcing tape is applied to the inner surface or both inner and outer surfaces of the belt. Thus, by applying a reinforcing tape to at least the surface (inner surface) between the meandering prevention guide and the belt, stress concentration associated with the driving of the belt can be alleviated, the endless belt body can be prevented from being broken, and the meandering can be prevented. It is possible to effectively prevent the prevention guide from being displaced or dropped. In particular, by applying reinforcing tape to both sides (internal and external sides) of the endless belt, it becomes possible to prevent the endless belt body from being broken during long-term use.

  In the endless belt with meandering prevention guide, the surface dynamic friction coefficient of the reinforcing tape to be attached to the inner surface is 0.4 or less. Since the endless belt is subjected to various stresses such as stress at the roll bending portion when the belt is driven, it preferably has a function of releasing such stress for long-term use. The reinforcing tape to be affixed to the inner peripheral surface of the belt has a function of absorbing such stress by mechanically reinforcing the belt and setting the coefficient of dynamic friction between the reinforcing tape and the belt within a predetermined range. That is, in the present invention, it has been found that the surface dynamic friction coefficient of the reinforcing tape is preferably 0.4 or less from the viewpoint of reducing friction with the belt.

  As described above, the meandering prevention guide disposed on the inner and outer surfaces or the inner surface of the endless belt main body with the reinforcing tape disposed on one or both ends can prevent the belt from being broken and thereby endless with a long durability life. A belt can be obtained.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described.

  The present invention relates to an endless belt in which a meandering prevention guide is disposed on a resin endless belt via an adhesive layer or an adhesive layer, and a reinforcing tape is provided between the belt and the meandering prevention guide (inner surface) or both inside and outside of the belt. It is characterized by giving. That is, the endless belt with a meandering prevention guide of the present invention is a resin endless belt in which a reinforcing tape is disposed on both inner and outer end surfaces or inner end surfaces, and a meandering prevention guide is further disposed. Specifically, an endless belt as exemplified in FIG. 2 can be mentioned. A meandering prevention guide 22 is bonded through a reinforcing tape 23 over the entire inner edge of the endless belt 21. FIG. 2A illustrates the overall view, and FIG. 2B illustrates a local enlarged view. When reinforcing tape is provided on both the inner and outer surfaces of the endless belt, the configuration is as illustrated in FIG. 2C, and the endless belt can be reinforced more firmly.

  Here, the reinforcing tape and the meandering prevention guide are usually provided at both end portions or one end portion of the endless belt from the viewpoint of meandering prevention effect, durability, and reinforcement effect. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the meandering prevention guide 22 is bonded to the entire inner surface end of the endless belt 21 through an adhesive (contact) layer. In FIG. 2, the reinforcing tape 23 and the meandering prevention guide 22 are disposed on the inner surface of the endless belt 21, but the reinforcing tape 23 may be disposed on both the front and back surfaces. The joints of the reinforcing tape 23 may or may not be wrapped, but it is usually desirable to wrap the joint parts by 10 to 20 mm. Further, it is preferable that one end surfaces of the meandering prevention guide 22 and the reinforcing tape 23 are aligned with the end surface of the endless belt 21. By forming a triple layer at the end face, it is considered that the reinforcing function can be effectively performed.

  As described above, the endless belt of the present invention is a meander-preventing guide member disposed on the reinforcing tape disposed on both the inner and outer surfaces or the inner surface at both ends or one end of the belt, and further via the adhesive (contact) adhesive layer. However, the deformation of the roller portion or the like can prevent the meander prevention guide from dropping and the belt body from being broken. Moreover, although it seems that there exists an effect if it arrange | positions a reinforcement tape on both outer and inner surfaces, a sufficient effect is acquired only by arrangement | positioning to an inner surface. This is considered to be because stress concentration due to meandering of the belt main body is more relaxed when it is arranged on the inner surface than when it is arranged on the outer surface.

  Here, the material, shape, size, function, and the like of the meandering prevention guide member, the resin endless belt, and the adhesive or adhesive are not particularly limited, and any conventionally known ones can be used.

  Examples of the resin endless belt include endless belts used in electrophotographic copying machines, laser printers, photosensitive devices, intermediate transfer devices, transfer separation devices, transport devices, charging devices, developing devices, and the like. The material, shape, size, etc. are appropriately set according to these uses and functions. For example, in the case of an intermediate transfer belt and a transfer conveyance belt in an electrophotographic recording apparatus or the like, a semiconductive belt made of a polyimide resin containing a conductive filler is used.

  Examples of the material of the endless belt in the present invention including other uses include polyimide resins, polyester resins, polyurethane resins, polyamide resins, and fluorine resins. The endless belt may or may not have a joint.

  Specific examples of the reinforcing tape member include polyester resins, polypropylene resins, polyamide resins, polyimide resins, and the like, and there is no particular limitation as long as the resin has a reinforcing effect. Here, the width and thickness of the film used for the reinforcing tape are not particularly limited, and are preferably 5 to 20 mm in width and 20 to 200 μm in thickness, but are not particularly limited.

  Here, it is preferable that the surface dynamic friction coefficient of the reinforcing tape attached to the inner surface of the belt is 0.4 or less. That is, since the inner peripheral surface of the belt is subjected to stress such as stress on the roll bending portion when driving the belt, stress on the rib adhesive portion for preventing meandering applied to the belt end, stress on the belt edge portion, etc. It is preferable to release such stress by setting the coefficient of dynamic friction between the reinforcing tape and the belt within a predetermined range. In the present invention, it has been found that the surface dynamic friction coefficient of the reinforcing tape is preferably 0.4 or less.

  The surface dynamic friction coefficient of the reinforcing tape refers to a value measured by the following method. In other words, an arbitrary point is sampled in a state of being bonded to the inner surface edge of the belt, and the reciprocating friction tester (Baden-Leben) (Orientec Co., Ltd., AFT-15B) is used as a counterpart material in the circumferential direction of each tape. Using a steel ball, the dynamic friction coefficient was measured under the conditions of a test load of 200 g, a moving speed of 150 mm / min, and a moving frequency of 5 reciprocations, and an average value was obtained.

  The method for adhering or adhering the endless belt and the meander-preventing member is not particularly limited, and a known pressure-sensitive adhesive or adhesive is applied by a known method to form a pressure-sensitive adhesive layer or an adhesive layer. However, from the viewpoint of ease of handling, a method of sticking with an adhesive or a double-sided tape having an adhesive is preferable.

  The meandering prevention guide member is preferably made of a material that follows the driving of the roll, such as urethane rubber, silicon rubber, or fluorine rubber, but is not particularly limited. Moreover, the method to adhere | attach is not specifically limited, It can stick (contact) by the well-known sticking (contact) attachment method.

  The thickness of the meandering prevention guide member is preferably about 0.05 mm to 3 mm from the viewpoint of the meandering prevention effect and durability. The width and length of the meandering prevention guide are appropriately set according to the shape and size of the endless belt.

  In addition, about the relationship between the width | variety of a meander prevention guide, and the width | variety of a reinforcement tape, it is preferable that the same width | variety or the width | variety of a reinforcement tape is larger. This is because, in addition to being able to increase the reinforcing function, it is possible to effectively prevent the meander prevention guide from falling off.

  Examples of the pressure sensitive adhesive or adhesive include acrylic, silicon, and rubber. There is no restriction | limiting in particular also in the thickness of an adhesion layer or an adhesive agent, and thickness of 5-100 micrometers is desirable.

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be further described with reference to specific examples. In addition, the evaluation items in Examples and the like were measured as follows. In addition, it cannot be overemphasized that this invention is not limited to this Example and evaluation method.

<Evaluation method>
(1) Durability test Endless belt with 300 mm outer diameter and endless belt with 300 mm outer diameter is continuously driven for 100 hours under the conditions of roll diameter φ30 mm, roll speed 100 mm / min, belt tension 5 kg / 300 mm. evaluated. The case where there was no change was rated as ◯, and the case where the belt was broken was rated as ×.

<Materials used>
(1) Meandering prevention guide member: Urethane rubber (Tigers polymer tyrene TR100-50)
(2) Endless belt: Polyimide endless belt (3) Reinforcement tape: Polyester tape (Nitto Denko NO.31B)
<Example 1>
Reinforcing tape having a width of 10 mm and a thickness of 100 μm (adhesive layer 50 μm) was attached to both ends of the inner and outer surfaces of a polyimide endless belt having a thickness of 80 μm, an outer diameter of 300 mm, and a width of 300 mm. The surface dynamic friction coefficient of the reinforcing tape at this time was 0.4. Urethane rubber (Tigers polymer type lenth TR100-50) having a thickness of 1.0 mm and a width of 5 mm serving as a meandering prevention guide member was attached with a double-sided tape. Subsequently, as a result of evaluating in the durability test using the obtained endless belt, the belt did not break even after the durability test.

<Example 2>
An endless belt with a meandering prevention guide was prepared in the same manner as in Example 1 except that the reinforcing tape was attached to the inner surface of the endless belt end. As a result of durability test evaluation on the obtained endless belt, the belt did not break even after the test.

<Comparative Example 1>
An endless belt with a meandering prevention guide was produced in the same manner as in Example 1 except that the reinforcing tape was attached to the outer surface of the belt end. As a result of durability test evaluation with the obtained endless belt, a crack of the belt occurred at the boundary of the reinforcing tape in 35 hours after the start of the durability test.

<Comparative example 2>
An endless belt with a meandering prevention guide was produced in the same manner as in Example 1 except that the reinforcing tape was not attached. As a result of endurance test evaluation on the obtained endless belt, belt breakage occurred in 15 hours after the start of the test endurance test.

<Comparative Example 3>
An endless belt with a meandering prevention guide was produced in the same manner as in Example 1 except that a reinforcing tape having a surface dynamic friction coefficient of 0.5 was used. As a result of durability test evaluation on the obtained endless belt, belt failure occurred after the start of the durability test.

<Test results>
The test results are summarized in Table 1.

表１より、実施例１および２で得られた蛇行防止ガイド付エンドレスベルトは、１００時間の連続耐久試験期間中、ガイド部材の剥がれもベルトの破壊も起きなかった。一方、比較例１〜３で得られた蛇行防止ガイド付エンドレスベルトは、１００時間の連続耐久試験期間中、それぞれ２５時間あるいは３５時間経過後にガイド部材の剥がれが生じ、１００時間後にはベルト本体の端部に割れが発生していた。

From Table 1, the endless belt with meandering prevention guide obtained in Examples 1 and 2 did not peel off the guide member nor break the belt during the continuous durability test period of 100 hours. On the other hand, in the endless belt with meandering prevention guide obtained in Comparative Examples 1 to 3, the guide member peeled off after 25 hours or 35 hours, respectively, during the continuous durability test period of 100 hours. Cracks occurred at the edges.

Schematic configuration diagram for explaining a use state of an endless belt in an intermediate transfer device of an electrophotographic copying machine The perspective view of the endless belt with a meander prevention guide of the present invention

Explanation of symbols

1 Photosensitive drum 6 Intermediate transfer belt (endless belt)
7, 8, 9 Roller 11 Recording paper 21 Endless belt 22 Meander prevention guide 23 Reinforcement tape

Claims (2)

  An endless belt with a meander-preventing guide, wherein a reinforcing tape is applied to the inner surface or both inner and outer surfaces of the endless belt in which a meander-preventing guide is disposed on a resin endless belt via an adhesive layer or an adhesive layer. The endless belt with meandering prevention guide according to claim 1, wherein the surface dynamic friction coefficient of the reinforcing tape to be attached to the inner surface is 0.4 or less.

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