JP2820280B2 - Manufacturing method of rubber coated roller - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a rubber-coated roller, and more particularly to a method of manufacturing a rubber-coated roller used as a fixing roller and a pressure roller of a copying machine.

[Prior art] Rollers used in heat fixing units of copying machines are important components that directly affect image quality. Silicone rubber-coated rollers are mainly used because of their excellent heat resistance, abrasion resistance, and moldability. Used. Further, there are a rubber-coated roller provided with a fluoro rubber latex on a silicone rubber layer (hereinafter referred to as an FS roller) and a roller provided with a fluoro resin on a fluoro rubber layer (hereinafter referred to as an FF roller).

By the way, such a rubber-coated roller is coated with a rubber material on a surface-treated and primer-coated core metal as shown in FIG.
It is manufactured by forming a rubber film of ~ several mm. In the case of an FS roller or FF roller having an outer layer, the rubber film after the grinding is coated (applied) with a fluoro rubber latex or a fluoro resin and is baked and cured. Here, the coating cross-linking process differs depending on the rubber material used, and includes casting curing, electrostatic powder coating, spray coating, dip coating, etc., but a rubber film having a thickness of 1 mm or less is formed on the outer peripheral surface of the roller. The latter three methods are generally used.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, such a conventional method of manufacturing a rubber-coated roller has the following disadvantages. That is, in the case of the spray coating method, a large amount of material is lost, and in order to form a uniform film, the amount of one application must be several tens μm.
In order to form a thick film having a thickness of 10 μm or more, overcoating is required and productivity is poor, and there is a problem that uniformity of the film cannot be obtained. Air bubbles easily enter the formed film, and particularly when the rubber film is the outermost layer of the roller, pinholes caused by the air bubbles directly lower the image quality. Such bubbles are also likely to occur in the case of electrostatic coating.

On the other hand, in the case of the dip coating method, since the core metal is immersed in a container containing a rubber material for coating, it is difficult to control the film thickness and to obtain a uniform film thickness.

Therefore, in order to form a rubber film having no material loss and a uniform film thickness, the roller 1 is held horizontally and the blade 2 is held at a predetermined gap 3 as shown in FIG. There has been a method of disposing the rubber material 4 to the predetermined gap 3 and rotating the roller 1 to perform rubber coating. (Japanese patent application
No. 63-321712) In this method, after applying while rotating the roller 1, the blade 2 is retracted and the roller 1 is further idled so that no trace of formation of the blade 2 is left on the rubber coating film. However, at the time of this idling, the flexible rubber coating 5
Due to surface tension and centrifugal force, the rubber material swells at both ends of the roller 2 to form a thick portion 6 as shown in FIG. 10, and the roller obtained by firing and curing such a coating film has a nip width. Is non-uniform, causing poor fixing, paper wrinkles, and the like, and has a drawback that the function as a fixing roller cannot be achieved.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks, and is intended to provide a rubber-coated roller capable of forming a rubber coating film having no loss of material, uniform thickness, and excellent performance. It is intended to provide a manufacturing method.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve such an object, a method of manufacturing a rubber-coated roller of the present invention includes a method of manufacturing a rubber-coated roller by applying a rubber material to an outer periphery of the roller and curing the applied rubber material. Holding the roller horizontally, disposing a first blade facing the roller and having a predetermined gap with the outer periphery of the roller at the tip, and the rubber material between the first blade and the roller. After supplying the rubber material to the outer periphery of the roller while simultaneously supplying the rubber material, the first blade is retracted from the roller, and a second blade is disposed so as to maintain a predetermined gap with the roller. Rotating the roller to cut the coating film on both ends of the roller,
Is retracted from the roller, and the roller is further rotated to equalize the thickness of the rubber material applied to the roller.

Further, the first blade and the second blade may be integral with each other, and may be a blade facing the roller and having projections at both ends.

[Operation] In the present invention, first, a rubber material is supplied to a gap between a horizontally supported roller and the first blade, and a rubber film having a thickness determined by the size of the gap is applied to the outer periphery of the roller by rotating the roller. . After the application, the rubber film is shifted due to centrifugal force or surface tension during idling of the roller, which is performed to further erase the formation trace of the blade.
Is disposed in a gap smaller than the gap between the first blade and the roller, and the roller is rotated to cut the rubber so as to be thinner than a desired rubber coating film thickness. Then, while further rotating the roller to remove the second blade mark, the rubber material is transferred to both ends by centrifugal force or the like, and the thin film thickness at both ends is offset, so that the desired film thickness is obtained, The film thickness of the entire roller is made uniform.

In addition, according to the above-described principle, the first blade and the second blade are integrated to provide projections at both ends of the blade, and when the blade is installed relative to the roller, the center portion has a wide gap, The gap becomes narrower at both ends. The rubber material is supplied to this gap and the roller is rotated to form a coating film with a thin film at both ends all at once.Furthermore, the roller is idled to remove blade marks and simultaneously apply a coating film to both ends by centrifugal force. Is offset, and the thinness of the film thickness is canceled out, and becomes uniform over the entire roller.

Example A preferred example of the method for producing a rubber-coated roller of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

In FIG. 1, a roller 10 is made of a core metal coated with a primer for surface treatment such as degreasing and the like, and for enhancing adhesion to a rubber material. ) Is a predetermined peripheral speed, for example, a peripheral speed of 2 cm / sec.
Spin at ~ 60cm / sec. The first blade 20 is installed so as to be horizontal to the axial direction of the roller 10 and to maintain a predetermined gap from the outer periphery of the roller 10. The first blade 20 is slightly longer than the longitudinal direction of the roller 10, and the cutting edge has an inclined portion 21 inclined at an angle of about 30 ° with respect to the lower surface to form a gap 30 for supplying a rubber material. Further, the roller 10 is provided with a second blade 22 having a shape which determines a gap 31 between the both ends 11 of the roller as shown in the top view of FIG. The first blade and the second blade can be moved horizontally (in the direction of arrow B) by driving means (not shown),
Adjustable 30 and 31 and rotatable upward (direction of arrow C).

The rubber material 40 applied to the outer periphery of the roller 10 is supplied to the gap 30 formed between the roller 10 and the first blade 20, and is, for example, liquid silicone rubber, an organic solvent solution of silicone rubber, an organic solvent solution of fluororubber, a fluororesin. In the case of fluoro rubber, it is latex or the like, and has a viscosity of 500 to 2000 cp.
These rubber materials 40 are, for example, appropriately compounded and adjusted so as to have an appropriate viscosity. For example, the supply amount can be adjusted by opening and closing a valve or the like.

A method for manufacturing a rubber-coated roller having the above configuration will be described. The roller 1 is arranged horizontally, and is moved by horizontal moving means (not shown) so that the first blade 20 can form a desired film thickness, and the width of the gap 30 is adjusted. The gap 31 between the second blade 22 and the roller 10 is formed by horizontal moving means (not shown) so as to form a smaller gap than the gap 30 between the first blade 20 and the roller 10.
Is moved, and after adjustment, it is rotated in the direction C and installed at a position away from the roller 10. Next, a necessary amount for forming a coating film of a predetermined thickness of the rubber material 40 is supplied to the gap 30 and the roller is supplied.
The roller 10 is rotated at a predetermined speed in the direction A to form a coating film on the outer periphery of the roller 10. Thereafter, the first blade 20 is slightly separated from the roller 10 in the direction B, and is rapidly rotated in the direction C so that excess rubber material does not adhere to the roller 10. Thereafter, the roller 10 is idled so that no blade mark remains on the coating film. At this time, the rubber coating film shifts due to centrifugal force or the like, and a thick wall is formed at both ends of the roller 10. In order to remove this thick portion, the second blade 22 is turned upside down, arranged so as to have a gap 31 with the roller 10, and the roller 10 is again rotated in the direction A so that both ends of the roller are formed at the center of the roller. The film thickness becomes smaller than the film thickness to be formed.

Thereafter, the second blade 22 is slightly moved in the direction B by the roller 10.
And rotate it in the C direction to rotate the second blade 22
After separating from the roller 10, the roller 10 is, for example, 20 cm / sec to 60 cm / sec.
As a result, the rubber material having fluidity moves to both ends due to centrifugal force, and the thin film thickness at both ends is canceled, thereby forming a coating film having a very uniform film thickness over the entire roller.

Thereafter, the solvent in the rubber material is removed by a known vulcanization or curing step, and the rubber material is vulcanized and cured to obtain a rubber-coated roller.

As another embodiment, a method using a blade in which the first blade and the second blade are integrated is also suitable. As shown in FIG. 2, a blade 23 in which a first blade and a second blade are integrated has projections 24 at both ends and has both ends (for example, 10 to 20 mm) of a roller 10 for applying a rubber material to the outer periphery. A thin, thick coating film is formed at the center. Here, the length of the protrusion 24 is defined as b, and both ends 11 of the roller 10 are
When the blade 23 is arranged so that the gap between the blades 23 and a becomes a, a coating film having a thickness of a + b is formed at the center portion, and a coating film having the thickness a is formed at both end portions. The length b of the protrusion 24 is a length corresponding to the amount of the rubber material that is shifted to both ends by the rubber film being shifted by centrifugal force when the roller 10 is idled after the rubber material is applied to the roller 10 in order to erase the trace of the area blade. You can choose. The amount of transfer of the rubber material varies depending on the peripheral speed of the roller during idling and the viscosity of the rubber, and the length of the protrusion b may be determined as needed based on these conditions.

The shape of the blade projection is not limited to that of FIG.
7 to FIG. 7, and the present invention is not limited to this, and any rubber material having a shape that offsets the amount of shift to both ends when the roller idles can be suitably used.

The rubber-coated roller thus obtained is itself used for a pressure roller or a fixing roller.A primer is further applied to the rubber film, and a rubber such as a fluoro rubber latex is formed in the same manner as described above. A coating of the material may be formed.

That is, the method of manufacturing a rubber-coated roller of the present invention is applicable to rubber films of any rollers, such as an outer layer or an inner layer rubber film formed on a cored bar, and further, an outermost layer rubber film formed on an inner layer rubber film. Can be applied.

[Effects of the Invention] As is clear from the above embodiments, according to the method of manufacturing a rubber-coated roller of the present invention, since a required rubber material is supplied, there is no loss of material, and the blade mark is eliminated. Therefore, the rotation of the rubber material offsets the deviation of the rubber material, thereby making it possible to efficiently produce a highly uniform rubber coating over the entire surface.

[Brief description of the drawings]

1 and 2 are views showing an embodiment to which the method for manufacturing a rubber-coated roller of the present invention is applied, FIG. 3 is a view showing another embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. FIG. 3 is a view showing another embodiment of the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, FIG. 8 is a view showing a manufacturing process of a rubber-coated roller, FIG. 9 is a view showing a conventional example, and FIG. FIG. 10 Roller 11 Both ends 20 First blade 22 Second blade 23 Blade 24 Projection 30, 31 Gap 40 Rubber material

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Yoshiaki Kanekura 2-1-1, Oda Sakae, Kawasaki-ku, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture Inside Showa Electric Wire & Cable Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Naruri Kusaka Oda, Kawasaki-ku, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture 2-1-1, Sakae Electric Wire & Cable Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Masaaki Oya 2-1-1, Oda-Ei, Kawasaki-ku, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture Inside Showa Electric Wire & Cable Co., Ltd. (56) References JP-A-63- 34574 (JP, A) JP-A-59-59345 (JP, A) JP-A-2-168014 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) G03G 15/20 G03G 13 / 20 F16C 13/00

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A method of manufacturing a rubber-coated roller by applying a rubber material to an outer periphery of a roller and curing the applied material, wherein the roller is held horizontally, and a tip of the roller is opposed to the roller and a tip is a predetermined gap from the outer periphery of the roller. After the first blade is arranged so as to have the rubber material supplied between the first blade and the roller, the roller is simultaneously rotated to apply the rubber material to the outer periphery of the roller, A first blade is retracted from the roller, a second blade is arranged so as to maintain a predetermined gap with the roller, and the roller is rotated to cut a coating film on both ends of the roller. The roller is further retracted from the roller, and the roller is further rotated to equalize the thickness of the rubber material applied to the roller, thereby producing a rubber-coated roller. 2. The rubber-coated roller according to claim 1, wherein said first blade and said second blade are integral with each other, and are opposed to said roller, and have tips at both ends. Method.