JP2009051037A - Method and apparatus for continuous manufacture of blade - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve the molding precision and the yield in a continuous molding method. <P>SOLUTION: The method of the continuous manufacture of a material for a blade makes a synthetic resin as the molding raw material using a molding drum having a molding groove in the periphery and a heater within the drum. In the method, the width of the molding groove corresponds to that of two or more elastic rubber members for the blade, and the process of cutting a wide strip of blade material carried from the molding drum into pieces of the width of the elastic rubber members for the blade is arranged. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a continuous manufacturing method of blades used in an electrophotographic copying machine, a printer, a facsimile, or a complex machine thereof, and a continuous manufacturing apparatus thereof. In addition, the blade obtained by the present invention is not limited to blades for removing toner or regulating toner, but is used for writing by removing other powders and liquid films existing on a certain surface or other powders and liquid films. It can be used for blades used in applications that regulate

In devices such as electrophotographic copying machines and printers, a cleaning blade in which a rubber elastic member made of synthetic resin such as polyurethane is bonded to a supporting member made of metal or the like for scraping or rubbing excess toner A developing blade is used.
As a method for producing a rubber elastic member made of a synthetic resin used for these cleaning blade and developing blade, the present applicant uses a molding drum in which a molding groove corresponding to the width of the rubber elastic body used for the blade is formed on the outer peripheral surface. Then, liquid synthetic resin is supplied from near the top, the synthetic resin is cured and molded at a rotation angle of less than one rotation, and a series of continuous tapes are formed. The continuous tape is cut to the length of the blade. A continuous molding method has been developed in which a blade is manufactured by bonding to a support. For example, Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent No. 2645980), Patent Document 2 (Japanese Patent No. 2942183), Patent Document 3 (Japanese Patent No. 3004586), Patent Document 4 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-7676), Patent Document 5 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-241662) continues to propose a series of continuous molding methods, and further intensive research and development.

Moreover, as a method for producing a general rubber elastic member, a centrifugal molding method or a mold molding method is used.
Centrifugal molding is a method of supplying a liquid synthetic resin to the inner surface of the cylindrical body and rotating it to form a thin film on the inner surface of the cylindrical body, and taking out and developing the thin film from the inner surface of the cylindrical body to obtain a large synthetic resin sheet, In this method, a synthetic resin sheet is subdivided into rubber elastic members each having the size of an individual blade. This method is a batch process. While there is an advantage that a large number of rubber elastic members for blades can be obtained by one molding, it is a batch process and requires a long time from injection to extraction. Also, in the blade molding process, a large amount of blades are molded at one time, but after the molding process it is necessary to bond the blades one by one to the holder. It is difficult to automate. In addition, the thickness of the molded product is likely to vary due to fluctuations in the runout and injection amount that occur when the molding drum is rotated at high speed.
The mold forming method is a method in which a synthetic resin is poured into a mold having cavities of individual sizes and manufactured one by one. It is necessary to change the mold for each type of product, such as different blade dimensions and holder shapes.In addition, for mass production, a considerable number of each type of mold must be prepared. The heating furnace that accommodates and conveys these molds also becomes large, requiring a large space in the installation place of the entire equipment, and the equipment cost increases. In addition, since the setup change takes time, the production efficiency is low. Furthermore, it is necessary to inject intermittently into the molds that are transported one by one. Loss shot (continuous discharge of polyurethane liquid material) is required between the molds or intermittent operation of the casting machine is required. In the former, material loss is likely to occur, and in the latter, measurement errors are likely to occur. In addition, this mold forming method is a method in which a holder is set in a mold, and a synthetic resin rubber elastic body is cured by polymerization and simultaneously bonded to the holder. There has also been proposed a method of manufacturing two blades by disposing two holders facing the mold and cutting and separating them at the center after demolding (Patent Document 6: Japanese Patent No. 3458540). The above problem is inherent.

Japanese Patent No. 2645980 Japanese Patent No. 2942183 Japanese Patent No. 3004586 JP 2005-7676 A Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2005-241662 Japanese Patent No. 3458540

  The continuous molding method that has been proposed so far by the present applicant was an invention in which molding was continuously performed to the width of a rubber elastic body used for a target blade. In addition, when the blade tip side is cut to create the edge ridgeline, the cut tip portion (the portion not bonded to the holder) is lost. A cleaning blade that presses the edge of the edge against the surface of the roll to which the toner is attached and scrapes off the toner needs to be cut to cut the edge of the edge very accurately. In particular, the toner diameter has recently become minute, and precision is required. In order to make a cut that gives an accurate ridgeline, unless the both sides of the sheet member to be cut are made to be in a uniform condition, the cutting line will be wavy, resulting in inaccuracy. For this reason, it is necessary to set a stable cutting condition by increasing the width of the portion to be cut and discarded. For this reason, when manufacturing a blade in which precise ridges are formed by a continuous molding method, there is a problem that the ratio of discarding becomes large and the yield is poor.

  In the present invention, the width of the synthetic resin tape formed continuously from the molding drum is a plurality of the width of the rubber elastic body used for the blade, and the continuously supplied tape-like blade material is cut into the integers and divided. By doing so, it is possible to obtain a plurality of blade blades of a predetermined width that are accurately divided and cut, to reduce the portion to be discarded due to the cut, and to improve the yield and productivity. is there. Further, by changing not only the equal division but also the division ratio, synthetic resin rubber elastic bodies having different width standards can be manufactured at the same time.

The main solution of the present invention is as follows.
(1) In a method of continuously producing a blade material using synthetic resin as a raw material for molding, using a molding drum having a molding groove on the outer periphery and a heating device inside, the width of the molding groove is set to a plurality of blade elasticity. A blade material having a width corresponding to the width of the rubber member, and a step of cutting a wide belt-shaped blade material carried out of the forming drum into a width corresponding to the elastic rubber member for individual blades is manufactured. Method.
(2) A step of forming a wide belt-like blade material having a width of a plurality of elastic rubber members for blades from a liquid synthetic resin raw material using a forming drum having a forming groove on the outer periphery and a heating device inside,
A fixed length cutting step of cutting the wide belt-like blade material into a predetermined length of the elastic rubber member for blades to obtain a wide fixed length blade material;
A fixed-width cutting step for cutting the wide-width fixed-length blade material into a plurality of fixed-widths to form an elastic rubber member for the blade;
A continuous manufacturing method of a blade, comprising:
(3) The continuous manufacturing method of a blade according to (2), wherein in the dimension width cutting step, the both sides of the cut portion are equally pressed and cut.
(4) The continuous production method of a blade according to any one of (1) to (3), wherein the wide-band blade material has a rough surface portion formed in a longitudinal direction surface including a fixed width cut portion. .
(5) The wide band-shaped blade material has a layer of a different resin composition formed on a longitudinal surface including a fixed width cut portion, and the blade according to any one of (1) to (4), Continuous manufacturing method.
(6) A cleaning blade or a developing blade produced by the production method described in any one of (2) to (5).
(7) In an apparatus for continuously producing a blade material using synthetic resin as a raw material for molding, using a rotating molding drum provided with a molding groove on the outer periphery and a heating device inside,
The width of the forming groove provided on the outer periphery of the forming drum is set to be equal to or larger than the width of the plurality of blade elastic rubber members, and the wide band-shaped blade material unloaded from the forming drum is cut to a predetermined length of the blade elastic rubber member. An apparatus for continuously producing a blade material, characterized in that a long cutting device and a predetermined width and constant width cutting device are provided.
(8) A band-shaped blade material for forming a wide band-shaped blade material having a width of a plurality of elastic rubber members for blades from a liquid synthetic resin raw material using a molding drum having a molding groove on the outer periphery and a heating device on the inside Molding equipment,
A fixed length cutting device that cuts and cuts a wide belt blade material continuously supplied from the belt-shaped blade material forming apparatus into a wide fixed length blade material that is a predetermined length of the elastic rubber member for the blade,
A fixed-width cutting device for cutting a wide-width fixed-length blade material cut by the fixed-length cutting device into a predetermined width of a blade elastic rubber member to form a plurality of blade elastic rubber members;
A joining device for joining the elastic rubber member for the blade to a support member;
A blade continuous manufacturing apparatus characterized by comprising:
(9) A cooling device is provided at a position immediately before the molded product formed into a strip shape from the forming groove of the forming drum is peeled off from the forming groove, and directed from the outside of the forming drum toward the forming groove. An apparatus for continuously producing the blade material according to (7) or (8) or a continuous production apparatus for blades.
(10) The blade material according to any one of (7) to (9), in which the constant width cutting device includes a pressing member on both sides of the cutting blade and the cutting blade. Equipment or blade continuous manufacturing equipment.
(11) The blade material according to any one of (7) to (10), wherein the pressing members of the fixed-size cutting device are arranged above and below, and a receiving space for the cutting blade is provided. Continuous production equipment or continuous production equipment for blades.
(12) A rough surface portion is provided on the bottom surface of the forming groove of the forming drum, and the rough surface portion is formed in a portion including a position of a predetermined width of the elastic rubber member for blades (7) A device for continuously producing the blade material according to any one of (11) or a continuous production device for blades.

(13) An apparatus for continuously producing a blade material or a continuous blade described in (12), wherein a release agent is not adhered to the bottom surface of the forming groove of the forming drum provided with the rough surface portion. Manufacturing equipment.
(14) A rough surface manufactured using an apparatus for continuously manufacturing a blade material described in (7) to (13) or a continuous manufacturing apparatus for a blade has a ten-point average roughness Rz of 1 to 10 μm. A developing blade material or a developing blade characterized by being a surface.

1. Since the present invention divides the width of a wide belt-shaped blade material sheet that is continuously formed into the widths of a plurality of blade materials, the productivity of the continuous molding method can be doubled or tripled. . By this method, when the cutting is performed, the pressing portion is widened, and both sides of the cut surface can be pressed widely and evenly, and the cutting balance is improved. Therefore, the cutting accuracy is improved.
2. The present invention can improve the yield. Since the cut surface can be the rubbing end of the blade and the non-cut side can be the adhesive surface with the support, it is possible to reduce the cut loss associated with ridge line formation.
3. Since the present invention can stably hold both sides of the longitudinal section of the wide belt-like blade material, the cutting resistance becomes uniform on both sides, the cut proceeds smoothly, a clean cut surface is obtained, and the ridge line is processed. Accuracy is improved.
4). By making the width of the wide strip blades a width corresponding to the width of the plurality of blades, productivity, yield, and processing accuracy can be improved. For example, continuous productivity can be improved by setting the integral width to twice or three times the width for a specific blade.
5. Moreover, it is possible to continuously produce blades of different types in parallel. The ability to produce different types of blades in parallel allows them to be provided as a set to an assembly process such as an electrophotographic apparatus. In the assembly line, supplying an assembly set at the part supply stage such as a just-in-time production method is an important factor, but the present invention makes it easy to combine and supply different types of blade materials or blades. For example, one cleaning blade and one developing blade can be set. In addition, for color, three or four can be supplied as a set. There are three types in three divisions, and four types in four divisions.
6). It is possible to continuously manufacture and provide a blade in which a high-precision frictional friction surface having a small variation due to individual products is formed on a rough surface. In particular, the molding method is close to individual production, and individual variations are likely to occur.
7. By dividing and cutting the multilayer portion of the blade material that is partially made of multiple layers such as two layers, a blade having the multilayer portion as a ridge line portion can be formed and provided efficiently and continuously.
8). A blade material made of synthetic resin with a roughened frictional friction surface can be produced continuously and efficiently. In particular, the rough surface forming accuracy is improved because a rough surface can be formed in the streak of the blade along the groove of the forming roll with a mold. Since the roughness is made with a mold, a uniform rough surface is obtained, and since it is not a roughing process in a subsequent process, the processing accuracy is good and the cost is low. A developing blade having a rough surface and a cleaning blade that is not roughened may be integrally formed. That is, a wide width obtained from a molding drum provided with a molding groove having a wall surface that is narrowed and roughened on one wall surface of the molding groove of the molding drum and a bottom surface continuous from the wall surface, and the other surface is not roughened. Since the continuous blade material has a rough surface in part from one side, it is separated into a developing blade and a cleaning blade. Thus, it is possible to simultaneously manufacture a cleaning blade whose ridgeline is clearly drawn.
9. Since it is not necessary to use a release agent on the molding surface, it is possible to continuously produce a synthetic resin blade material that faithfully transfers the rough surface of the mold. Unlike the rubbing surface, the front end surface cannot be directly roughened with a split mold or a centrifugal drum. Since the sheet | seat shape | molded by centrifugal molding etc. is cut in strip shape, the front end surface (cut surface) is a mirror surface. In addition to the method of roughening the tip surface by post-processing such as polishing and sandblasting, there are problems such as high cost and difficulty in uniformly roughening the elastic body.
10. Since no release agent is used, the surface of the obtained urethane developing blade is solid urethane, and stable chargeability can be obtained without disturbing the triboelectric chargeability to the toner by the release agent.

1. Blade 1-1 Blade The blade targeted by the present invention is obtained by joining a tape made of an elastic rubber body made of synthetic resin along one side edge of a metal support member, and is used for a developing blade or a cleaning blade. Is done. In the cleaning blade, it is important to form a ridge line at the tip of the rubber elastic body. In the case of the developing blade, at least the properties of the frictional sliding portion (nip) that is the portion that becomes the charge imparting surface are important. As the synthetic resin, thermosetting polyurethane is mainly used.
The use of the blade obtained in the present invention is the same as that used in the conventional electrophotographic system. A device using the electrophotographic apparatus is a copying machine, a printer, a FAX, or a complex machine of these. In addition, the tape-like synthetic resin rubber elastic body obtained by the present invention is not limited to blades for removing toner or regulating toner, but for removing other powders and liquid films existing on a surface for writing. Can be used for blades used in In particular, since there is no restriction on the length, it is suitable for applications requiring a length.

  For example, the following blades are used in electrophotographic copying machines. Referring to FIG. 3 of Japanese Patent No. 360289, filed earlier by the present applicant, the toner is thinned on a cleaning blade and a developing roll for removing the toner remaining on the photoconductor and transfer belt after transfer. Various blade bodies such as a developing blade for carrying and a charging blade for charging a photosensitive member are used. As the rubber elastic member of the blade, an elastic body made of polyurethane having a JIS A hardness of 60 to 80 is often used because it is excellent in mechanical strength, wear resistance and the like and does not damage the contacted material. FIG. 1 shows a fixing blade 109, a cleaning blade 110, a charging blade 111, a toner thinning blade 112, and a transfer blade 113.

Examples of typical cleaning blades and developing blades (also referred to as “charging blades”) are shown in FIGS.
FIG. 2A shows an example of a cleaning blade for an electrophotographic apparatus. The cleaning blade 101 is obtained by bonding an elongated polyurethane sheet 102 (also referred to as “blade elastic rubber member”) to a support body 103 (also referred to as “holder”) such as an elongated metal plate having a cross-section “he”. And the front-end | tip part which does not adhere | attach the support body 103 of the polyurethane sheet 102 forms the sharp ridgeline linearly. When this electrophotographic blade 101 is used as a cleaning blade, an elastic rubber member 102 is bonded to the support 103 via an adhesive, and the leading edge of the elastic rubber member 102 is connected to the outer peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum. Abut. By rotating the photosensitive drum, residual toner adhering to the outer peripheral surface is scraped off from the drum. It is important to precisely configure the ridgeline because it affects the print quality. Recently, with the adoption of toner miniaturization and spheroidization, there has been a demand for higher precision cleaning blades. As one solution, a cleaning blade having a composition different from that of the base material of the ridge line portion has been proposed.

  FIG. 2B shows an example of a developing blade for an electrophotographic apparatus. In the developing blade 121, an elastic rubber member 123 made of a polyurethane sheet is joined to the support 122 by an adhesive, like the cleaning blade. The joined part is referred to as a joining part 124. The developing blade is provided so as to be in pressure contact with the developing roller, and is triboelectrically charged when passing between the polyurethane elastic rubber member provided on the developing roller and the developing blade. The friction surface is called a friction friction surface (also referred to as “nip”) 125, and a smooth surface or a roughened surface is used. The roughened portion is shown as a roughened portion 126. In the illustrated example, the front end surface 127 is also roughened. Development blades are also required to improve frictional charging performance due to changes in toner quality, and attempts have been made to roughen the frictional friction surface.

1-2 Outline of Elastic Rubber Member (Blade Material) The elastic rubber member provided by the present invention is made of a synthetic resin such as two-component thermosetting polyurethane, and uses a molding rotary drum provided with molding grooves on the outer periphery. It is obtained by longitudinally cutting a wide belt-like blade material that is continuously formed into a tape shape and traversing it. The width of the tape that is continuously formed is an integral multiple of the width size to be attached to the support, and it is vertically cut to the specified dimensions, so the cut surface is finished neatly, and there is no need for re-trimming. The process after the longitudinal cutting can be made into a plurality of continuous production lines. For example, in the case of a double-width tape, the width center can be cut vertically, and the longitudinal section can be used as a toner scraping edge such as a cleaning blade as it is. Since trimming for width dimensioning and ridgeline marking is not required, cut loss does not occur in principle, yield is improved, and waste is reduced. Further, since trimming is not necessary, the process can be omitted.
The wide strip blade material that can be provided according to the present invention has a width of 10 to 33 mm and a thickness of 0.4 to 3.0 mm (preferably 0.8 to 2.0 mm), for example. This width is divided into 2 to 6 to obtain an elastic rubber member for a predetermined blade. This division is not limited to equal division, and for example, a 30 mm width can be divided into 10 mm and 20 mm.
In the present specification, the predetermined width and the predetermined length of the polyurethane elastic rubber member attached to the blade may be referred to as a fixed width and a fixed length, respectively.

2. Production Method The molding process of the present invention is shown in FIG. This is a continuous molding method using a molding drum having molding grooves formed on the outer periphery, and is a polyurethane wide-band blade material S1 using a molding drum in which molding grooves having the width of a plurality of blade elastic rubber members are formed on the outer periphery. A continuous molding process, a fixed-length cutting process in which the wide-band blade material S1 is cut into a fixed length for use in the blade, and a wide fixed-length blade material S2 cut into a fixed length is formed into an elastic rubber member for blades. A fixed width cutting process that cuts the width vertically into a fixed width blade material, a fixed width and fixed length polyurethane sheet formed into a predetermined width and length as an elastic rubber member for the blade is joined to the support member It consists of a supporting body joining process, and after that, processes such as inspection, packing, and shipping are added as necessary. In addition, it is also possible to arrange | position the process cut | disconnected to fixed size width | variety before a fixed dimension length cutting process.
In the present invention, a tape having a width corresponding to a plurality of tapes made of elastic rubber made of synthetic resin, which is the target product, is continuously formed, and then cut into a specified length and a specified width in a subsequent process. Post-processes that are continuous with joining, inspection, and packing are made into a plurality of continuous production lines to improve productivity several times. In addition, quality and yield can be improved.

The continuous molding method using a molding drum in which molding grooves are formed on the outer periphery is a manufacturing method that has been proposed by the applicant of the present application, and Patent Document 2 (Japanese Patent No. 2942183) discloses a manufacturing method for cutting a ridgeline. , The width required for the cleaning blade is obtained by continuously cutting the cutting margin of one side edge portion of the belt-shaped blade material (blade molded product S) by using the conveying force of the endless belt with the blade. There is a method of creating a ridge line having linearity. If only the cutting blade is applied to the strip blade material on the endless belt, the cutting may not be stable. As a means to improve the accuracy of the cut ridgeline, a method of cutting by pressing the strip blade material on both sides of the cutting blade is also employed, but it is difficult to hold both sides evenly because the cutting margin side is narrow.
In the present invention, since the belt-like blade material is wide, both sides of the cutting blade can be pressed evenly, the cutting action can be performed stably, and the accuracy of the formed ridgeline is improved.

  In addition, according to the method of manufacturing the blade material of the present invention, the molding groove of the molding drum is covered with a metal endless belt from a position slightly downstream of the casting portion of the synthetic resin to the removal position, and the endless belt is the rotational speed of the molding drum. It is designed to move in synchronism with. The molding groove is sealed in this section to form a molding cavity. In the section where the polymerization of the synthetic resin proceeds, the molding pressure is not applied, so that the synthetic resin is not pressed onto the molding groove surface more than necessary. In addition, the time from casting to removal is as short as about 30 to 120 seconds. Since the manufacturing method of the present invention is formed in a short time without applying pressure, peeling is easy because there is no pressure-bonding force on the groove bottom side.

In the present invention, the molding drum is polymerized and solidified while rotating, and the molding range is between about 2 to 8 o'clock in a clockwise rotation display. During this time, it is in the shape of a tunnel formed by a forming groove and a belt that runs around the forming groove, and the forming proceeds without pressure except for its own weight. Since most of the weight itself is received on the belt side, it is not loaded on the bottom surface side and the side surface side of the forming groove, and therefore the peeling resistance can be small. In addition, as a method for continuously casting a two-component curable polyurethane liquid material, a means for supplying two liquids while mixing them immediately before casting is adopted, and fluidity is required to fill the molding groove in a short time. In addition, a resin designed to allow polymerization to proceed in about 60 seconds that rotates halfway is used.
Furthermore, in the present invention, since the film is peeled off from the outer peripheral surface of the forming drum at a constant angle in the tangential direction, the peeling force is small, the risk of the molded tape being torn or torn is small, and stable and safe. Can be peeled off.

  In order to peel off at a constant angle in the tangential direction, it is necessary to peel off from the outer peripheral surface of the forming drum in close contact with the belt side. As this means, a method of cooling the portion immediately before peeling from the outside is employed. While the groove bottom surface side of the high temperature portion maintains a high flexibility state, the metal endless belt side is cooled and is in close contact with the metal endless belt, so that the safe peelability can be improved. . For example, a cold air blowing means or a cooling roll can be adopted as the cooling means.

Further, as a means for promoting the initial polymerization, a means for heating from the outside of the forming groove immediately after casting can be provided.
By taking these measures, a blade material having a thickness of 0.4 to 3.0 mm can be manufactured.
The wide strip blade material drawn from the forming drum is vertically cut into a plurality of strip blades in the conveyance path, and is divided into a plurality of strip blades of each specified width, and sent to the subsequent process.

<Width cutting mechanism>
The width cutting mechanism can use a fixed blade, a rotary blade, or a laser cutter, and can be performed while pressing from above and below with a wide blade material placed thereon. As the pressing member, a fixed member or a rotating member can be used. In order to perform cutting accurately and stably, it is important to hold the wide blade material in a stable state on both sides of the cutting blade, and the wide strip blade material is the width of the blade material on both sides of the cutting blade. It can be held sufficiently stably and the cutting accuracy can be improved.
In the case of a fixed blade, the blade can be fixed to the blade holder, and the wide blade material fixed to the fixed base can be cut by moving the holder. The blade fixed to the holder is easy to stabilize the mounting and fixing of the blade, and it is easy to ensure the straightness of the cutting line. For cutting, a thin double-edged blade is desirable and cutting resistance is preferably small. For example, a thin ceramic blade can be used. The receiving side of the cutting blade can be a slit-shaped space, a fixed surface, or a rotating surface. In order to stabilize the conveyance speed, a pinch roller can be arranged. As a means for reducing the cutting resistance, an ultrasonic cutter that applies ultrasonic vibration to the blade may be used.
The laser cutter can be cut in a non-contact manner, and if it is installed immediately after being peeled off from the forming drum that can be cut in a state where the width direction posture of the wide belt is constant, the cutting width accuracy is good.

A cutting mechanism can be constructed by variously combining the above configurations.
For example, a cutting blade and a belt-like blade upper pressing member on both sides thereof are arranged on the upper surface side, and a belt-like blade lower pressing member facing the upper surface blade pressing member provided with a blade receiving space on the lower side. It is also possible to arrange the cutting blade on the lower surface side.
Moreover, when setting it as a rotation mechanism, it can be set as the receiving side roll facing the cutting blade side rotation roll mechanism which arranged the circular blade between the two pressing rolls coaxially, and this cutting blade side roll. The receiving-side roll can receive the blade directly, or can be provided with a circumferential groove as a receiving space. In the case of a rotating mechanism, it can be cut by a circular force that is rotated at a constant speed in the conveying direction. On the other hand, when the rotation is reverse, high-speed cutting can be performed.
These cutting mechanisms can appropriately determine the number of cutting blades and the arrangement of the pressing mechanism according to the number of divisions.

  When cutting in the width direction with a blade, it is preferable to fix the position by abutting one side of a wide blade material against a ruler in order to accurately perform the width cutting, and fixing from above and below. In the process of making the posture of these wide blade materials constant, it is necessary to prevent the blade material from being rubbed or indented due to vertical pressing. When fixing a wide blade material to the fixed base, it is possible to contact the ruler without leaving a rubbing mark by providing fine holes on the table surface and supplying and discharging air from below. The posture can be maintained by suction. In addition, a fixing device such as a fixing bar that is sandwiched from above and below in order to resist cutting resistance can prevent press-contact marks by attaching an R to the corner. Since a sufficient width can be taken on both sides of the blade, a sufficient pressure contact width can be obtained even if the fixing device is provided with an R, and a pressing function can be sufficiently exhibited. In particular, since the developing blade functions to be frictionally charged by the surface being rubbed with the toner, it is important to prevent the surface properties from remaining abnormal.

<Multilayer blade>
A multilayer blade in which the rubbing ridge line portion of the cleaning blade is changed to the composition of the synthetic resin of the base portion can be manufactured. It is possible to manufacture a wide belt blade formed in multiple layers such as two layers on the entire surface, or a wide belt blade partially formed in two layers on the streak. For example, when the partial width is doubled and the partial two layers are formed on the streak in the central portion, the partial layer can be formed on the ridge line portion by dividing the width into two. Such a multi-layer blade can be manufactured by first casting a liquid synthetic resin that forms a partial layer in a molding drum molding groove, and then casting a liquid synthetic resin as a base, followed by polymerization and curing. .
FIG. 5 (a) shows an example in which a semicircular partial layer is provided at the center of a double-width wide band blade material. If the central portion is divided into two, an elastic rubber member for a cleaning blade having a partial layer formed on the ridgeline portion can be manufactured without loss.
For example, the central semicircular portion can be an ester polyurethane resin and the base layer can be an ether polyurethane resin. Two blade materials can be obtained by dividing the central semicircular portion into two to form ridge portions. When used in a cleaning blade for scraping toner, the ester polyurethane resin has high wear resistance, and the ether polyurethane resin can exhibit stable physical properties such as pressure contact properties. It is possible to obtain a blade with improved toner compatibility and high environmental compatibility such as temperature change.
Also, for example, the central portion is a polyurethane resin having a hardness (HS) of 70 to 85, and the base layer is 60 to 70 HS hardness, and is divided into two from the central portion to be a ridge line portion that contacts the high hardness portion. The base layer can be made a sticky layer. In the case of the cleaning blade, functions such as improving the scraping performance of the toner having a small particle diameter and suppressing the occurrence of noise (abnormal noise) in a high temperature environment can be exhibited.

<Rough surface forming blade>
In order to cope with fine toner and the like, with a charging blade such as a developing blade, a band-shaped blade material having a rough nip surface can be produced. This is possible by forming a rough surface on the bottom surface of the forming groove of the forming drum. By using a rough surface for the streak, the rough surface can be formed at a predetermined position of the wide belt-like blade, and the rough surface can be formed at a predetermined position of the individual blade even when divided into a plurality of parts. FIG. 5B shows an example in which a rough surface is formed on the nip surface of a double-width band-shaped blade material. A developing blade (charging blade) having a rough rubbing portion that is triboelectrically charged when divided into two at the center can be obtained. In the drawing, the rough surfaces are not formed on both ends, but the entire surface may be formed, or a plurality of rough surfaces of the streaks may be provided.
The rough surface state can be made into a desired state according to the properties of the object such as toner. However, the surface roughness is 10 points average roughness Rz for the toner to be spherically refined. 1 μm <Rz <13.3 μm Preferably 1 μm ≦ Rz ≦ 10 μm, more preferably 1.8 μm ≦ Rz ≦ 9.0 μm.
As the roughening means applied to the groove (bottom surface, side surface) of the forming drum, cutting processing, polishing processing, sand blasting, etching, laser processing, or the like can be used. For example, glass beads # 100 to 300 can be used for the blast projection material. By partially masking the non-processed portion, a rough surface treatment can be performed. For example, by using a suction nozzle type sand blasting apparatus, the entire bottom surface and side surface of the molding groove are blasted with a glass bead particle size # 200 (particle size range 88 to 74 μm, 76 to 52 μm) at an air pressure of 23 to 5 kg / cm ^2. A rough surface having a ten-point average roughness Rz of 1.8 to 4.0 to 9.0 μm can be formed. Even if such rough surface treatment is performed, a wide blade material can be produced without using a release agent.

<Other blade combinations>
In the present invention, different types of blades can be manufactured simultaneously. It is also possible to divide the wide strip blades into the widths of the respective blades, and to manufacture blades with different surface properties. FIG. 5C shows an example in which a cleaning blade and a developing blade having a rough surface are obtained simultaneously. In addition, these are examples having different widths. A cleaning blade material having a width W1 and a developing blade material having a width W2 are shown. The nip portion and the tip surface of the developing blade are roughened. This rough surface formation has a forming groove (refer to FIG. 5 (d)) in which the side wall and the bottom surface of the forming groove of the forming drum corresponding to the rough surface are roughened, and the other surfaces are mirrored without being roughened. Can be obtained by using a molding drum. In this way, a wide belt blade can be manufactured and divided into two types, a cleaning blade and a developing blade.
The developing blade having a rough surface formed from the front end surface to the bottom surface shown in FIG. 5C cannot be manufactured by another manufacturing method such as other centrifugal molding. In the case of manufacturing, there is no other way than post-processing to roughen the surface. By roughening the blade tip surface, it is possible to maintain the charging characteristics even in a highly humid environment where the electric power tends to decrease. The rough surface provided on the blade front end surface starts rotating when the toner particles mounted on the rotating developing roller come into contact with the rough surface formed on the front end surface of the blade, and also on the toner particles adjacent to the rotating particles. The charging function is strengthened by fulfilling the effect of propagating the rotational motion. By this action, it is considered that a sufficient charge amount can be secured even under high temperature and high humidity where aggregation and discharge are likely to occur and a sufficient charge amount is difficult to obtain. In order to maintain the rotation of the toner particles that have started to rotate in contact with the blade tip surface, it is desirable that the rubbing surface from the tip surface to the nip is also subjected to a roughening treatment. Furthermore, it is desirable to provide a roughened region to some extent after the nip portion in order to apply the rotational force so that the rotation is not suddenly stopped after passing through the nip. The properties of the rough surface are as described above.

<Release agent>
The use of a release agent is not always necessary as described above, but it can be used as necessary according to the composition of the synthetic resin to be molded. If no release agent is used, the roughened surface of the forming drum groove can be accurately reflected, and the accuracy can be improved. Further, if the release agent remains on the surface, it may affect the frictional charging performance, but there is no such concern. In the present invention, the mold release agent is indispensable because centrifugal molding strongly presses against the inner surface of the molding drum by centrifugal force. In addition, when an air surface that is not directly pressed against the drum is used, a rough surface cannot be formed directly. In the mold forming method, since it is held in the mold for a long time, it is difficult not to use a release agent. The present invention has a short polymerization polymerization time of about 60 seconds or less, and since the liquid synthetic resin is naturally filled in the space, no special pressure injection or centrifugal force is applied, and rotation of the molding drum Accordingly, since the weight of the resin itself is borne by the endless belt, the pressure contact force becomes small with respect to the molding groove, and therefore, the resin can be peeled off without using a release agent. Furthermore, peeling is further facilitated by providing a cooling device at the take-out portion.

2-1 Resin Examples The synthetic resin used in the present invention is mainly a thermosetting polyurethane resin. In particular, a non-solvent two-component thermosetting polyurethane is suitable. The time from casting to taking out is within one rotation of the forming drum, and it is necessary to be polymerized and solidified to such an extent that it can be taken out in about 30 to 60 seconds. Select and design isocyanates and polyols, crosslinking agents, and catalysts that satisfy these conditions. In the post-removal step, secondary cross-linking and aging steps can be performed.

For example, the following polyurethane can be used.
A bifunctional polyol having a number average molecular weight of 1000 to 3000, a trifunctional polyol having a number average molecular weight of 92 to 980, and a high molecular weight polyol component mixed in at least one of a liquid material of a urethane prepolymer and a liquid material of a crosslinking agent, Is mixed with a polyol having an average functional group number of 2.02 to 2.20 and a diisocyanate compound having an isocyanate group content of 5 to 20% to prepare a prepolymer, and the prepolymer is mixed with an OH group / NCO. A polyurethane liquid (uncured polyurethane composition) is prepared by mixing the cross-linking agent in an amount such that the equivalent ratio of groups is 0.90 to 1.05 at 40 to 70 ° C.

The number average molecular weight of the high molecular weight polyol component is preferably in the range of 1000 to 3000. By casting this composition, the reaction is carried out smoothly, and the properties of the resulting blade are also preferred. That is, the number average molecular weight of the bifunctional polyol used is in the range of 1000 to 3000, and if it is less than 1000, the finished urethane rubber becomes too hard to obtain the necessary physical properties (flexibility). If it exceeds 1, the viscosity at the time of molding is high, and it becomes difficult to perform casting.
In addition, when the average number of functional groups (f) is f = 1, it becomes monool, so that it does not polymerize, and when f ≧ 5, it becomes too polyfunctional, so that the viscosity of the polymer increases and the physical properties decrease.

  The following can be used as a component for producing the polyurethane elastomer according to the present invention. High molecular weight polyols include polyoxyalkylene glycols such as polyethylene glycol, polypropylene glycol, and polyoxytetramethylene glycol, or polyether-type polyols and adipine of alkylene oxide adducts such as bisphenol A, glycerin ethylene oxide, and propylene oxide. By polymerization reaction of dibasic acids such as acid, phthalic anhydride, isophthalic acid, maleic acid and fumaric acid with glycols such as ethylene glycol, propylene glycol, 1,4 butanediol, 1,6 hexanediol and trimethylolpropane The polyester type polyol obtained, polycaprolactone diol, polycarbonate diol, etc. can be mentioned.

  Examples of the diisocyanate compound include tolylene diisocyanate, 4,4 diphenylmethane diisocyanate (MDI), hexamethylene diisocyanate, isophorone diisocyanate, and 1,4 cyclohexane diisocyanate. Examples of the chain extender include low molecular weight diols such as ethylene glycol, 1,4 butanediol, diethylene glycol, 1,6 hexanediol, and neopentyl glycol, and diamines such as ethylenediamine, hexamethylenediamine, and isophoronediamine. Desirably, a low molecular weight diol is used. Furthermore, you may add a trimethylol propane, a triethanolamine, glycerol, and these ethylene oxide and a propylene oxide adduct as a polyfunctional component as needed.

  In the production of the above polyurethane, the equivalent ratio of OH group / NCO group is preferably 0.8 to 1.05, preferably 0.90 to 1.05 in view of the physical properties of the polyurethane to be produced. Moreover, reaction accelerators, such as a general amine compound and an organic tin type compound, are used as needed. For example, it is an imidazole derivative represented by the general chemical formula disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 2942183, paragraph 0022, and specific examples thereof include 2-methylimidazole having high reaction temperature dependence and 1 , 2-dimethylimidazole and the like.

  Such a reaction accelerator is used in an amount of 0.001 to 0.5 parts by weight, preferably 0.01 to 0.3 parts by weight, based on 100 parts by weight of the prepolymer as an effective amount. Desirably, those having a temperature sensitivity or a slow-acting property are preferably used because the usable time of the mixed resin can be increased and the demolding time is shortened. Specific examples thereof include 1,8-diazabicyclo (5,4,0) undecene-7-organic acid salt called block amine, 1,5-diazabicyclo (4,3,0) nonene-5-organic acid. Examples thereof include a salt or a mixture thereof. In this invention, a commercially available thing can be used for the two-component mixing casting machine used for mixing and stirring the liquid material of the urethane prepolymer which is the raw material component of the thermosetting polyurethane and the liquid material of the crosslinking agent. In consideration of the quantitative accuracy, the metering pump preferably uses three or more plunger types, but a gear pump type can also be used. In particular, in the production apparatus of the present invention, it is necessary to use a reaction accelerator in order to obtain a predetermined hardness at the time of demolding, and therefore, a stirring and mixing chamber is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 6-11389. A small-capacity type that prevents stagnation in the mixing chamber and suppresses heat generation due to reaction heat is preferable.

  Although the two-component thermosetting polyurethane resin is illustrated in detail, the blade resin that can be used in the present invention is not limited to this. Either a thermoplastic resin or a thermosetting resin can be used. Since a heated rotating forming drum is used, the non-solvent type containing no solvent is preferable because the heat curing reaction starts immediately after casting.

3. Operation The present invention has a forming groove of the forming drum as a plurality of widths of the elastic rubber member used for the blade, continuously forms a wide band blade material, and then vertically cuts into a plurality of individual band width blades. A continuous continuous manufacturing process is possible until it is divided into two parts and joined to the support. Thereby, manufacturing efficiency can be doubled, cutting surface accuracy can be improved, yield can be improved, and waste can be reduced.
In the present invention, the molding drum is polymerized and solidified while rotating, and the molding range is between about 2 to 8 o'clock about half a rotation. During this time, a tunnel-like space is formed by a forming groove and a belt that goes around the outside of the forming groove, and the forming proceeds without pressure except for its own weight. Since most of the weight itself is received on the belt side, it is not loaded on the bottom surface side or side surface side of the forming groove, and therefore, it is not pressed onto the rough surface more than necessary, so that the peeling resistance can be small. Also, the molding resin used is a two-component curable polyurethane resin, which employs a means for continuously supplying the two components while mixing them immediately before casting, and has a fluidity that fills the molding groove in a short time. And a resin designed so that the polymerization proceeds in about 30 to 120 seconds, which is half-rotated. Also from the nature of the resin used, the peeling resistance is small because it does not penetrate into the rough surface for a long time and solidify.
Furthermore, since the peeling is performed in the tangential direction of the drum, the fact that the stress acting at the time of peeling is small also enables safe peeling. In addition, if measures are taken to cool the belt side immediately before peeling, the bottom side of the molding groove, which is hot, is flexible, but the belt side becomes harder and tightly attached, making it easy to peel off from the groove side. Can do.
For this reason, it is possible to continuously form the blade material even if the molding groove width is widened.

  On the other hand, in the conventional centrifugal molding or the split mold method in which molds are molded one by one, a mold release agent is used for pressure welding or long-time molding. In these conventional methods, since a long time is required for polymerization and curing, the pressure bonding is strongly performed for a long time. As a result, a release agent is required for demolding.

4). Apparatus FIG. 4 shows a schematic example of the continuous production apparatus of the present invention. A manufacturing apparatus for forming and drawing out the wide band blade material S1 centering on the forming drum 3, a fixed length cutting device 14 via the cooling conveyor 10, a fixed width cutting device 30 via the conveying conveyor 15, It is an example of an apparatus in which a blade material molded to a prescribed size is arranged in the order of a support joint 40 that joins a support.
The manufacturing apparatus for a tape made of synthetic resin such as a blade material of the present invention forms a concave groove for forming a plurality of widths of a rubber elastic member used for a product blade over the entire circumference of the outer peripheral surface, A molding drum that is horizontally supported and rotates about a horizontal central axis, and a heating mechanism inside, and when the rotation direction is clockwise, the liquid discharge outlet at the lower end faces the molding groove and the molding is performed. Quantitative mixing for measuring, mixing, stirring, and discharging the liquid material of urethane prepolymer and the liquid material of the cross-linking agent, which are arranged near the top of the drum (between about 9 and 2 o'clock) and are the raw material components of thermosetting polyurethane A casting machine, an external heating device disposed above the molding drum as required, a metal endless belt that is in contact with the outer peripheral surface of the molding drum and rotates following the molding drum; Peel if necessary An external cooling device disposed immediately before, a wide belt-shaped blade material molded product taken out and then conveyed (coolable), a cooling device for cooling the conveyor as necessary, and the formed wide belt shape A cutting device for cutting the blade material into a predetermined sizing length and a vertical cutting device for dividing the blade material into a predetermined sizing width are provided.

According to the above manufacturing apparatus, the polyurethane liquid material is discharged from the discharge port of the quantitative mixing and casting machine to the molding groove of the rotating molding drum heated from the inside, and heated by the molding drum as necessary. The polyurethane liquid material is heated by an external heating device above the molding drum, and further molded in the cavity for a predetermined time while filling the space (cavity) composed of the molding groove and the metal endless belt. Polymerization reaction is performed by heating with a drum, and a continuous polyurethane elastomer (a molded material such as a blade) is continuously formed in a wide band shape.
The molded product that is continuously peeled off from the molding groove of the molding drum and taken out is cut into a plurality of blade materials with a predetermined length and a predetermined width, and successively into a size of a developing blade as a product by a cutting device one after another in a vertical and horizontal direction. Thus, an elastic rubber member for a developing blade made of thermosetting polyurethane having a predetermined width, thickness and length is completed. By using ceramic for the blade, it can slide smoothly with polyurethane, has a sharp cut surface and can be cut continuously for a long time.

4-1 Apparatus Each component Embodiment of the braid | blade of this invention and its manufacturing apparatus is described based on a figure with a manufacturing method.
FIG. 4 schematically shows a continuous production apparatus for blades used in an electrophotographic apparatus. The blade manufacturing apparatus includes a forming drum 3, a discharge port 1 for supplying resin, an external heating device 2, an endless belt 4, a cooling conveyor 10, a longitudinal (width cutting) device 30, a fixed length cutting device 14, a distribution conveyance 35. , And the conveyor 15 for carrying out.
The polyurethane resin liquid discharge port 1 is disposed at a clockwise position of about 10 o'clock from the top of the molding drum 3, followed by the external heating device 2, and subsequently in contact with the outer peripheral surface of the molding drum. Then, an endless belt 4 covering about half of the belt is disposed. Subsequently, the peeled wide belt-shaped blade material S1 is cooled, conveyed, cut into a fixed width, and vertically cut into two or more belt-shaped blade materials S2 having a predetermined width. A longitudinal cutting device, a cutting device for cutting to a fixed length, and a conveying device are arranged in the order of the processes. The external heating device can be omitted. When omitted, the position of the discharge port 1 of the polyurethane resin liquid material can be moved near the apex. The forming drum 3 is made of, for example, hard aluminum or stainless steel, and includes a rotational drive, a forming groove, and a built-in heating structure.
FIG. 7A shows an outline of the forming drum. The molding groove 20 has a bottom surface 21 and a side surface 24. FIG. 7B shows a schematic cross section of the forming groove, and the groove width WL is set to a plurality of predetermined widths of the elastic rubber member for the blade. It is also possible to manufacture a blade material in which the bottom surface 21 is roughened to form a rough surface. Roughening can be provided on the entire surface, in the center, on the streaks. In the developing blade, the portion subjected to the roughening treatment is a nip portion that becomes a frictional sliding portion and its front and rear. In the case of double width, when the entire bottom surface and both side surfaces of the forming groove are roughened, a rough surface is continuously formed from the nip surface to the tip surface on the elastic rubber member for the developing blade obtained by dividing into two. be able to. In this case, the rough surface portion is extended from the nip to the tip surface, so that there is no sudden change in the properties of the blade surface.
FIG. 8 is an outline of molding of the wide strip blade S1 using a molding drum.

  The roughness formed in the forming groove is that the surface of the developing blade is roughened so that the surface roughness is 1 to 10 μm with a ten-point average roughness Rz (based on JISB0601-1994). Is preferred. The molding drum has a built-in heating means, and supplies heat for curing a resin such as polyurethane to the molding groove. The heating means is an electric heater, heating oil, steam or the like, and is not particularly limited. The heating temperature is appropriately determined depending on the resin used, the rotation speed, and the like. For example, it is set to 100 ° C. to 150 ° C. The rotational drive is rotatably supported by a horizontal rotary shaft 5 and is rotated at a predetermined speed by a driving device (not shown). The rotation direction is set clockwise in the drawing.

The discharge port 1 that supplies the resin mixes and adjusts the components of the resin to be used and supplies a constant amount continuously to the forming groove 20 of the forming drum 3.
In the case where the external heating device 2 is provided, the resin cast into the molding groove 20 from the discharge port 1 is irradiated with heat and heated. This heat promotes curing of the resin surface side. Curing of the cast resin is accelerated by the heat of the molding drum and heat from the outside, the viscosity is increased, and the flow of the endless belt into the contact start end can be controlled. Examples of the external heating means include far-infrared rays, laser light, ultraviolet rays, and induction heating that are non-contact types. The adjustment of the heating temperature needs to be changed depending on the resin used, the production speed, the thickness of the blade, and the like. The heating conditions can also be adjusted by adjusting the output and adjusting the distance to the groove. In relation to the resin to be used, when a resin to which an ultraviolet curing agent is added is used, curing can also be promoted by irradiating with ultraviolet rays. Further, the installation position of the external heating device can be adjusted between the discharge port 1 and the preheating roll 6. This position can also be determined by the type of resin and the thickness of the blade. In this example, it is installed near the top of the forming drum.
By performing external heating, the thickness of the elastic rubber member for blades can be increased, or the molding speed can be increased.
Moreover, when the elastic rubber member for multilayer blades is molded, the initial curing of the partial layer cast in advance can be promoted.

The metal endless belt 4 has a structure in which a space is formed so as to cover the molding groove 20 and the polyurethane liquid material is filled. A cavity for molding is formed by the endless belt 4 and the molding groove 20, the outer shape of the blade material is adjusted, and the resin curing reaction proceeds. The section where the endless belt 4 covers the molding groove 20 of the molding drum 3 needs to be designed to such an extent that the resin can be hardened and peeled off from the molding groove 20 as a belt-like tape. For example, 180 ° corresponding to a section from 2 o'clock to 8 o'clock on the watch is an easy-to-operate area.
Immediately before peeling, a cooling device 18 for cooling by blowing cold air or the like from the outside of the endless belt is installed as necessary.

The cooling conveyor 10 conveys the blade material formed on the resin wide strip tape S1 peeled from the three molding grooves of the molding drum to the subsequent process while cooling.
Note that this cooling conveyor may not require cooling depending on the blade material. If cooling is not necessary, this conveyor can be a transfer device to a subsequent process or can be omitted.

The fixed length cutting device 14 is a device that cuts a continuous belt-like material into the length of a rubber elastic member for blades. By this fixed length cutting, the wide band blade material is formed into the final shape of the wide fixed blade material (S2). A conventional cutting mechanism can be used as the fixed cutting mechanism. In order to synchronize with the operation of the fixed length cutting device, a feed roll 13 for controlling the feed is arranged immediately before the fixed length cutting device 14, and in order to cope with the speed of feed by the feed roll 13, the feed roll 13 is provided with a space for slacking the tape, and the timing adjustment of the pre-process and the fixed length cutting device 14 is performed.
After this, it is sent to the process cut | disconnected by fixed size width.

FIG. 10 shows an example of the fixed width cutting device 30. FIG. 10A is a front view showing a state cut from the width direction, and FIG. 10B is a side view seen from the right side of FIG.
A width cutting machine 31 that can move in the longitudinal direction is provided in the middle part of the table 33 that also serves as a lower pressing member, and an upper pressing member 32 that presses the cutting blade 35 from above on both sides is provided on the upper surface of the table so as to be movable up and down. A wide ruler blade material S2 is placed along a ruler 37 provided at one end of the table and pressed from above and below, and then the cutting machine 31 is moved to execute width cutting. Since the area | region which fully presses the wide fixed length blade raw material S2 can be ensured on both sides of a cutting blade, a linear width cutting can be performed correctly.
In FIG. 10, the cutting blade protrudes from the lower side of the table, but it can also be arranged above the table.

It is carried out to the adhering step to a support made of metal or the like.
In addition, a heating step can be added as necessary as a subsequent step for secondary crosslinking for finally carrying out the curing reaction.
Next, a configuration example of each part of the apparatus will be further described.

  An almost end surface of the outer periphery of the forming drum 3 is in contact with an endless belt 4 for forming a molding space (die) made of a metal strip such as stainless steel, and a preheating roll 6 for preheating the endless belt 4. The belt is wound around a guide roll 7 for adjusting belt travel, a tension roll 8 for applying tension to the endless belt 4, and a cooling roll 9 for cooling the endless belt 4, and rotates following the rotation of the forming drum 3. Further, the endless belt 4 is heated to a predetermined temperature (for example, around 145 ° C., which is about the same as that of the forming drum) by a heater, and the temperature of the polyurethane liquid material is prevented by this temperature.

Adjacent to the cooling roll 9, a cooling conveyor 10 is provided horizontally. The cooling conveyor 10 is made of a metal endless conveyor belt made of stainless steel or the like and is stretched between two rolls. A cooling device 11 is disposed below the cooling conveyor 10 to cool the blade molding through an endless conveyor belt.
When arrange | positioning a laser cutter, it is preferable to provide between a cooling roll and a cooling conveyor.

  On the downstream side of the roll of the cooling conveyor 10, a fixed length cutting device 14, a transport mechanism 15 such as a conveyor, and a fixed width cutting device 30 are arranged. Since the fixed length cutting device is intermittently operated and needs to be adjusted for conveyance with the previous process, a slack portion is provided to prevent an excessive tension from being applied by the slack detector 12. The feed roller 13 receives a signal from the slack detector 12 in conjunction with the cutting device 14 and feeds the blade molding to the cutting device 14 at a predetermined speed to cut the belt-shaped blade molding material into a predetermined length. The conveyor 15 conveys the cut blade forming material to the next process (crosslinking process, support bonding process, inspection process, etc.).

FIG. 10 shows an example of the fixed width cutting device 30. FIG. 10A is a front view showing a state cut from the width direction, and FIG. 10B is a side view seen from the right side of FIG.
A table 33 on which the wide-width blade material S2 to be subjected to the width cutting is placed, and a ruler 37 for positioning along one side of the wide-width blade material S2 is provided on the left end side of the table 33. A blade passage portion 33a that allows the movement of the cutting blade 35 is provided at the center of the table. The cutting blade 35 has a width cutting machine 31 fixed to a blade holder 36 disposed below the table 33. An upper presser member 32 having a blade receiving space 32a through which a cutting blade 35 protruding from below to the table surface can pass is disposed above the table 33. Positions are set so that the distance between the ruler 37 and the cutting blade 35 and the distance from the cutting blade 35 to the other side of the wide-width-length-blade material S2 are equal to the fixed width of each blade. By installing the ruler position so as to be adjustable, it is possible to variably adjust to a plurality of cutting positions. The figure (b) is a straight cut by holding the wide fixed blade material S2 placed on the table 33 with the upper holding member 32 longer than the fixed length and moving the width cutting machine 31 to the left. can do.
The table 33 functions as a lower pressing member of the wide-width standard-length blade material S2. The upper pressing member 32 can secure an area for sufficiently pressing the left and right sides of the cutting blade 35. The corner portion that is in contact with the wide-width long blade material S2 in a pressed state is chamfered to form an R. By forming R, it is possible to obtain a clean surface without causing a pressure contact mark on the wide-width standard-length blade material S2.
When a large number of small holes penetrating the table 33 are provided and an air cushion and an air suction function for blowing and sucking air are provided below, a wide fixed length blade material S2 is slid on the table 33 and moved. The risk of rubbing marks can be prevented, and the deterioration of quality can be prevented.

  Next, the blade manufacturing apparatus of the present embodiment is configured as described above. Using the example provided with the external heating device, the manufacturing process of the blade for an electrophotographic apparatus by this manufacturing apparatus will be described with reference to FIG. The prepolymer and the cross-linking agent are weighed and polyurethane is placed in the molding groove of the molding drum 3 whose temperature is adjusted to a predetermined temperature, for example, 145 ° C. by a built-in heating mechanism, while stirring and mixing uniformly. The liquid material is discharged and cast. At this time, the forming drum 3 is rotating clockwise at a predetermined speed (for example, 80 seconds / revolution), and the necessary amount corresponding to the peripheral speed of the drum 3 and the engraving depth and width of the forming groove 20 is continuous. Injected into.

The polyurethane liquid material is between the point A just below the discharge port 1 arranged at the clock position at about 10 o'clock from the upper side of the molding drum 3 to the point C just above the molding drum (heating position by the external heating device). After the reaction is started, the surface side is heated by an external heating device at point C, and then heated only by the forming drum, and then heated from the point E at the contact start position E of the endless belt, for example, to 145 ° C. The endless belt is heated and held between point E and point G of the forming drum 3. Thereby, the urethane polymerization reaction of the liquid material is almost completed, and a wide blade molding material having a necessary width and thickness is continuously formed into a strip shape.
The position of the discharge port 1 is adjusted by the type of resin, the thickness of the blade, the manufacturing speed, and the like. In this example, it is installed at a clock position from 9 o'clock to 12 o'clock in the counter-rotating direction of the forming drum. Preferably, it is installed around 10:00. The synthetic resin liquid discharged toward the counter-rotation direction tends to fall according to gravity, and is lifted toward the top of the molding drum as the molding drum rotates.

When the discharge port is arranged in the counter-rotating direction from the top and the resin is discharged in the counter-rotating direction, a balance is achieved by the falling force that tends to drop in the counter-rotating direction by its own weight and the lifting force by the rotation of the molding drum. The configuration in which the discharge port is arranged in the counter-rotating direction from the top produces a blade with a uniform thickness by the balance between the flow-down force in the counter-rotating direction due to the weight of the synthetic resin liquid and the lifting force due to the rotation of the molding drum. This is an effective configuration.
And by shaking the position of the discharge outlet 1, a space can be made between the preheating roll 6 and the freedom degree of arrangement | positioning of the external heating apparatus 2 can also be enlarged.
In this example, the time for the polyurethane liquid to move by rotating from point A to point E is set to 13 seconds, and the time for moving from point E to point G is set to about 40 seconds. By changing the position of point E by the approaching / separating operation of the preheating roll 6 with respect to the forming drum 3, and changing the angle between the point A and the point E and the angle between the point C and the point G, the reaction of the liquid substance and the forming time Can be fine-tuned.

The wide band-shaped blade molded product S1 continuously formed in this way is peeled from the forming groove 20 of the forming drum 3 at the point G and guided onto the endless conveyor belt of the cooling conveyor 10.
A cooling device 18 for blowing cool air is installed immediately before point G to cool the endless belt 4 for molding from the outside.

  In this apparatus, it is not necessary to use a release agent. Of course, the use of a release agent is not limited for products that are inconvenient.

  Since the endless conveyor belt 10 is cooled by the cooling device 11, the wide band blade forming material S <b> 1 is conveyed while being cooled to near normal temperature (around 20 ° C.) on the endless conveyor belt. As described above, it is not necessary to actively cool the cooling conveyor depending on the type of the object to be used. In this case, the wide strip-shaped polyurethane tape naturally dissipates heat while being conveyed on the conveyor 10.

The wide belt-shaped blade forming material S1 is cut into a fixed length by the cutting device 14 and processed into a wide fixed blade material S2.
The wide strip blade material S1 is led from the cooling conveyor 10 to the slack detector 12, the feed roll 13, the cutting device 14 and the conveyor 15. The slack detector 12 guides the belt-shaped blade molding material to the feed roll 13 through between the sensors attached to the support columns. Since the feed roll 13 sandwiches the belt-shaped blade molding material and travels faster than the cooling conveyor 10, it stops when the belt-shaped blade molding material contacts the upper sensor 16, and starts feeding when it contacts the lower sensor 17. Then, the production speed of the strip-shaped blade molding material and the processing speed of the cutting device 14 are adjusted (do not apply excessive tension to the strip-shaped blade molding material). The cutting device 14 guides the developing blade molded product between the upper blade and the lower blade, and cuts the product into a predetermined length (a length corresponding to the product). As a result, a wide, constant-length blade material S2 cut to a predetermined length is obtained.
The cutting device is not limited to the upper and lower blades, and can be configured by a configuration in which a blade is provided on the table and the upper side. The tape placed on the table from the feed roll can be pressed to act on the blade and cut into a predetermined length.

The wide-width regular-length blade material S2 is cut into the width of the elastic rubber member for blades by the constant-width cutting device 30 to obtain a blade material in which the length and width are formed to the specified dimensions. The blade material cut into left and right is joined to the support in the support joining process 40 to complete the blade. The blade material can be separately bonded to the support as it is, or can be combined into one bonding line. In the case of a single joining line, a reversing mechanism or a horizontal rotating mechanism is interposed to match the posture. As shown in FIG. 2, the elastic rubber member for blades continuously produced in this way is bonded to one side edge of the support 32 with an adhesive as shown in FIG. The blade 31 is completed.
With the manufacturing method and the manufacturing apparatus of the present invention, the cut loss in the width direction can be made zero, and the yield and quality can be improved.

[Example]
<Cleaning blade>
As Examples 1 and 2 and Comparative Example 1, cleaning blades of the following sizes were manufactured.
Elastic rubber member made of polyurethane: thickness 2.0 mm, length 315.5 mm, fixed width 14.5 mm.

<Width cut manufacturing conditions>
Cutting blade: Microtome knife T-25, manufactured by Japan Microtome Research Co., Ltd.
Cutting speed: 2000-2500mm / sec
Cut angle: 20 °

<Support bonding>
Steel plate: thickness 1.2mm,
Adhesive Main agent Cemedine EP-001 Main agent 100 parts
Catalyst Nitto Kasei Co., Ltd. Neostan u220 2 parts
Accelerator Cemedine Co., Ltd. PM accelerator 2 parts
Hardener Cemedine Co., Ltd. EP-001 Hardener 100 parts
Catalyst Mitsui Toatsu Co., Ltd. Minico L-1020 2 parts (The main agent and curing agent are stirred and mixed, applied to an elastic rubber member for blades, pressed onto a steel plate support, and thermally cured to form a blade.)

<Thermosetting polyurethane>
Diisocyanate having an isocyanate group content of 5 to 20% in a polyol having a number average molecular weight of 1000 to 3000 and a high molecular weight polyol component mixed in at least one of the liquid material of the urethane prepolymer and the crosslinker. A compound is mixed to prepare a prepolymer, and the prepolymer is mixed with an amount of OH group / NCO group equivalent ratio of 0.90 to 1.05 at 40 to 70 ° C. to form a polyurethane liquid (uncured) Polyurethane composition). Then, the urethane prepolymer liquid and the cross-linking agent are put into separate tanks in the casting machine, and the respective amounts are weighed, and while stirring and mixing uniformly, a predetermined temperature from the casting port, for example, 145 ° C. The polyurethane liquid was sequentially discharged and cast into the molding groove of the molding drum 13 whose temperature was adjusted to obtain a thermosetting polyurethane.

<Manufacturing equipment and manufacturing method>
Using a forming drum equipped with an internal heating mechanism set to a roll dimension (diameter d) d = 940 mm, groove width 29 mm, groove depth 2.0 mm of the forming drum, further adopting a far infrared device as an external heating device, A cold air blower was placed just before peeling.
The urethane prepolymer and the cross-linking agent were respectively charged into a two-component quantitative mixing and casting machine, and heated and stirred so that the liquid temperature became 70 ° C. Molding of the molding drum 3 whose temperature was adjusted to 145 ° C. by internal heating from the discharge port 1 of the manufacturing apparatus shown in FIG. 4 while uniformly stirring and mixing this so that the equivalent ratio of OH group / NCO group is 0.95. The product was discharged into the groove. A cleaning blade was manufactured according to the manufacturing process described in FIG.
The flow of the polyurethane liquid material was suppressed, and unstable dents were not observed. Thus, elastic rubber members for developing blades of Examples and Comparative Examples were obtained. In addition, when cold air was supplied immediately before peeling and the steel belt side was cooled, stable peeling at a constant angle in the tangential direction from the outer peripheral surface of the forming drum was confirmed.

[Example 1]
A wide belt-like blade material S1 having a width three times as large as the fixed width W of the elastic rubber member for the blade was manufactured, and was cut into three fixed widths W, and the cut sides were ridgelines of the cleaning blade. The state is shown in FIG. In this case, there is no waste associated with cut forming for ridge line formation. The production efficiency with one molding drum can be tripled.

[Comparative Example 1]
In Comparative Example 1, the band-shaped blade material formed to have a width W ′ slightly larger than the fixed width W was cut into the fixed width W to form a ridgeline, and the width ΔW was discarded. In this case, the production with one molding drum is a single line production line as in the conventional case, a cut loss occurs, and a disposal process is added.

[Example 2]
Example 2 is an example in which a wide belt-like blade material having twice the fixed width was manufactured. FIG. 11A shows a state of the fixed width cut according to the second embodiment.
As shown in FIG. 11 (a), when cutting, the width of both sides of the cutter is a fixed width W, and both sides of the cutter can be pressed evenly from above and below, and the resistance when the cutter enters the strip blade material. Becomes uniform on both sides. For this reason, the cut progresses smoothly, so that the edge accuracy is improved.
As shown in FIG. 11 (b), since the sufficient upper and lower pressing allowance can be ensured even when divided into three, stable insertion and progression of the blade can be realized.
On the other hand, in FIG. 11C, a cut loss occurs on the tip side, and when trying to reduce the cut loss, a narrow press margin is obtained, and it is difficult to obtain a stable cut surface. For example, when the right side presser is weak, there may occur a problem that a cutting surface that undulates by being dragged by the cutting resistance of the cutting blade or a blade that enters at an angle and a right-angled ridge line cannot be obtained.

[Example 3]
Example 3 is an example in which a wide belt-like blade material that is three times the fixed width was manufactured. FIG. 10B shows a state of the fixed width cut according to the third embodiment.
As shown in FIG. 10 (b), there are two blades when cutting, but it is possible to secure a sufficient width to hold both sides of each blade, and to hold both sides of the blade equally from above and below. The resistance when entering the material is uniform on both sides. For this reason, the cut progresses smoothly, so that the edge accuracy is improved.

[Comparative Example 2]
Comparative Example 2 shows a state in which the width W ′ of the conventional belt-shaped blade material shown in Comparative Example 1 is cut to a fixed width. In order to ensure the cutting accuracy, it is necessary to press both sides of the cutter, and at least the width of the pressing tool must be set as the cutting loss. However, the resistance of the blade and the conveyance balance may be lost, and the balance between the fixed width side and the loss side presser will be lost, resulting in poor cutting accuracy. In this case, the cut loss is 20%.

[Example 4]
<Examples of different blades (cleaning blade, developing blade)>
The surface not to be roughened is masked, and the whole surface on the right side is roughened by using a suction nozzle type sandblasting device with glass bead particle size # 200 (particle size range 88-74 μm) and air pressure 23 kg / cm ^2. And the blast process was carried out from the outer side surface to the bottom face part used as a nip part, and the rough surface of 1.83-4 micrometers was formed by 10-point average roughness Rz. The state of the molding groove after removing the masking is as shown schematically in FIG. In this embodiment, no mold release agent is used in the molding groove. The obtained wide blade material was divided into a 19 mm wide cleaning blade W1 and a 10 mm wide developing blade W2 as shown in FIG.
The cutting surface becomes a ridge line portion of the cleaning blade, and the end surface portion on which the rough surface is formed can be a developing blade that is a nip portion that is a rubbing portion. As a result, two types of blades for an electrophotographic apparatus could be manufactured simultaneously in parallel without causing a cut loss in the width direction. These can be supplied as a set to the assembly process.

[Example 5]
<Example of cleaning blade with partial layer>
The specific manufacturing conditions of this example are shown below, and others are the same as above.
In this example, the groove depth is set to 2.0 mm, the height of the partial layer is 0.3 mm, and a wide blade material is manufactured using a polyurethane resin having a composition shown in Formulation Examples 1 to 5 in Table 1 below. did. An outline of the molding state of the wide blade material is shown in FIG. First, a first synthetic resin liquid, which is an ester-based polyurethane resin that forms a partial layer, is cast into a streak (a) (b) in the center, and then a second synthetic resin, which is an ether-based polyurethane resin that becomes a base portion (C) and (d), and covered with a steel endless belt (e) and (f), polymerization hardening proceeds and a wide blade material (g) having a partial two-layer formed at the center is obtained. Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 5 (a), a blade material was prepared by dividing it into two parts from the center.
Table 1 below shows the results of an evaluation test conducted by bonding this to a support as a cleaning blade and incorporating it into an electrophotographic apparatus. The result was good.

[Reference Example 3]
In the case of manufacturing a cleaning blade in which a partial two-layer is formed using a conventional single-chip manufacturing method, as shown in FIG. As a result, partial layers having different properties such as high hardness were revealed on the ridge line. The tip side is a discarded part.

[Example 6]
The entire bottom surface of a groove having a groove width of 29 mm corresponding to two rough surface blades was roughened. The roughening treatment is performed by using a suction nozzle type sandblasting device, blasting the entire bottom surface and side surface of the forming groove with zircon bead count # 120 (particle size range 76 to 52 μm) at an air pressure of 8 kg / cm ^2. A rough surface having an average roughness Rz of 9.0 μm was formed. In this example, a wide band-shaped blade material having a rough surface was obtained without using a release agent. A rough surface of Rz 9.0 μm could be measured on the surface of the wide band blade material, and it was confirmed that the rough surface of the forming groove was faithfully transferred. According to the process of the present invention, this was cut into a specified width of a fixed size, and then joined to a support to produce a developing blade. In addition, since the image of the shaping | molding groove state of the shaping | molding drum which formed the rough surface is the state which expanded the roughened bottom face shown in FIG.5 (d), illustration is abbreviate | omitted.
This developing blade was loaded into a developing device of an integrated cartridge using a monocomponent magnetic toner having an average particle size of 8 μm, and image unevenness was confirmed on a 50% gray scale image. The toner charge amount was evaluated using a suction toner charge measuring device. In addition, up to 10,000 images were displayed on a character chart, and the presence or absence of character thickening was visually evaluated. Even at room temperature and high temperature and high humidity, it was confirmed that the printing durability was sufficiently 10,000 sheets.

Example of developing device of electrophotographic apparatus Example of cleaning blade Example of developing blade Process schematic of the present invention Example of continuous molding apparatus of the present invention (A) Schematic cross section of wide blade material forming part 2 layer, (b) Schematic cross section of rough blade forming wide blade material, (c) Schematic cross section of multiple types of wide blade material, (d) Heterogeneous blade shown in (c) Schematic diagram of molding groove state of molding drum for material Molded part schematic Diagram showing examples of drums Schematic drawing of belt-shaped blade using a forming drum Example of wide strip blade material (a) and conventional strip blade material (b) Example of fixed width cutting device, (a) front view, (b) side view Example of longitudinal section of belt-shaped blade material, (a) Example of the present invention divided into two parts, (b) Example of the divided part of invention of the present application, (c) Conventional example Partial 2-layer wide blade material molding process schematic Partial 2-layer blade ridgeline machining schematic

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Polyurethane liquid discharge port 2 External heating device 3 Molding drum 4 Endless belt 5 Molding roll rotating shaft 6 Preheating roll 7 Guide roll 8 Tension roll 9 Cooling roll 10 Cooling conveyor 11 Cooling device 12 Slack detector 13 Feeding roll 14 Constant Scale cutting device 15 Conveyor 16 Upper sensor 17 Lower sensor 18 Cooling device 20 Molding groove 21 Molding groove bottom surface 24 Side surface 30 Longitudinal (fixed width) cutting device 31 Width cutting machine 32 Upper pressing member 32a Blade receiving space 33 Table (lower) Presser member)
33a Blade passing portion 35 Distribution conveyance 35a, 35b Fixed width band-shaped blade material conveyance path 101 Cleaning blade 102 Polyurethane sheet (elastic rubber member for blade)
103 Support (holder)
108 Paper sheet conveyance level 109 Fixing blade 110 Cleaning blade 111 Charging blade 112 Toner thinning blade 113 Transfer blade 121 Development blade 122 Support member 123 Elastic rubber member 124 Joining portion 125 Friction rubbing surface 126 Rough surface portion S1 Wide band blade material S2 Fixed width Fixed length blade material W Fixed width WL Wide molding groove width

Claims (12)

  In a method of continuously manufacturing a blade material using synthetic resin as a raw material for molding using a molding drum having a molding groove on the outer periphery and a heating device inside, the width of the molding groove is set to be a plurality of elastic rubber members for blades. A method of manufacturing a blade material, comprising a step of cutting a wide band-shaped blade material carried out of a forming drum into a width corresponding to a width, and a width corresponding to an elastic rubber member for individual blades. A step of forming a wide belt-like blade material having a width of a plurality of elastic rubber members for blades from a liquid synthetic resin raw material using a forming drum having a forming groove on the outer periphery and a heating device inside,
A fixed length cutting step of cutting the wide belt-like blade material into a predetermined length of the elastic rubber member for blades to obtain a wide fixed length blade material;
A fixed-width cutting step for cutting the wide-width fixed-length blade material into a plurality of fixed-widths to form an elastic rubber member for the blade;
A continuous manufacturing method of a blade, comprising:   The continuous manufacturing method of a blade according to claim 2, wherein in the constant width cutting step, both sides of the cut portion are equally pressed and cut.   The continuous production method of a blade according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the wide-band blade material has a rough surface portion formed on a longitudinal surface including a fixed-width cut portion.   The continuous production method of a blade according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the wide-band blade material is formed with layers of different resin compositions on a longitudinal surface including a fixed-size width cut portion.   A cleaning blade or a developing blade produced by the production method according to claim 2. In an apparatus for continuously producing a blade material using synthetic resin as a raw material for molding, using a rotating molding drum provided with a molding groove on the outer periphery and a heating device inside,
The width of the forming groove provided on the outer periphery of the forming drum is set to be equal to or larger than the width of the plurality of blade elastic rubber members, and the wide band-shaped blade material unloaded from the forming drum is cut to a predetermined length of the blade elastic rubber member. An apparatus for continuously producing a blade material, characterized in that a long cutting device and a predetermined width and constant width cutting device are provided. A belt-shaped blade material molding apparatus for molding a wide belt-shaped blade material having a width of a plurality of blade elastic rubber members from a liquid synthetic resin raw material using a molding drum having a molding groove on the outer periphery and a heating device inside,
A fixed length cutting device that cuts and cuts a wide belt blade material continuously supplied from the belt-shaped blade material forming apparatus into a wide fixed length blade material that is a predetermined length of the elastic rubber member for the blade,
A fixed-width cutting device for cutting a wide-width fixed-length blade material cut by the fixed-length cutting device into a predetermined width of a blade elastic rubber member to form a plurality of blade elastic rubber members;
A joining device for joining the elastic rubber member for the blade to a support member;
A blade continuous manufacturing apparatus characterized by comprising:   8. A cooling device is provided at a position immediately before the molded product formed in a strip shape from the molding groove of the molding drum is peeled off from the molding groove and directed from the outside of the molding drum toward the molding groove. Or the apparatus which manufactures the braid | blade raw material of 8 continuously, or the continuous manufacturing apparatus of a braid | blade.   10. The apparatus for continuously producing a blade material according to claim 7 or a continuous blade, wherein the fixed-width cutting device includes pressing members on both sides of the cutting blade and the cutting blade. Manufacturing equipment.   The blade material according to any one of claims 7 to 10, wherein the pressing member of the fixed-size cutting device is arranged above and below, and a receiving space for the cutting blade is provided. Equipment or blade continuous manufacturing equipment.   12. The rough surface portion is provided on the bottom surface of the forming groove of the forming drum, and the rough surface portion is formed in a portion including a position of a predetermined width of the elastic rubber member for blades. An apparatus for continuously manufacturing the blade material according to any one of the above or a continuous manufacturing apparatus for a blade.