JP6348001B2 - Cleaning roller - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a cleaning roller, and more particularly to a cleaning roller for removing fine particles such as residual toner and paper dust attached to a charging roller in OA equipment such as a copying machine, a printer device, and a facsimile device.

  For example, in OA equipment such as a copying apparatus, an image recording apparatus, a printer apparatus, and a facsimile apparatus, a cleaning roller is used for a charging system in an electrophotographic system. FIG. 15 is a diagram schematically showing the structure of the electrophotographic system. Reference numeral 81 is a photosensitive drum, 83 is a charging roller, 85 is a cleaning roller, 87 is a laser transmitter, 89 is a toner supply device, 91 is a blade, 93 is a transfer belt, and P is paper. The cleaning roller 85 is provided to remove fine particles such as residual toner and paper dust attached to the surface of the charging roller 83, and includes a shaft 85a and an elastic body layer 85b provided on the outer periphery of the shaft 85a. The elastic body layer 85a rotates while being pressed against the surface of the charging roller 83, and fine particles on the surface of the charging roller 83 are removed by the elastic body layer 85b. The rotating cleaning roller 85 does not have a driving unit, and the cleaning roller is also driven in accordance with the driving rotation of the charging roller.

As the cleaning roller, there is one in which the elastic body is made into a cylindrical shape by inserting a shaft into the center of the elastic body processed into a square column shape and polishing the outer periphery of the elastic body.
However, in the cleaning roller formed by polishing, the polishing powder generated at the time of polishing enters fine irregularities on the surface of the elastic body, which may adversely affect the use.

  In order to solve the problem of the abrasive powder, there has been proposed a cleaning roller in which a strip-like foam made of an elongated parallelogram is spirally wound around the outer periphery of a shaft (Patent Documents 1 and 2).

However, when a long and narrow strip of foam is wound around the shaft in a spiral, tension is applied to the foam when it is wound around the shaft, and the material to be wound is easy to expand and contract like urethane foam, so wind it from the beginning. It is difficult to wind with a uniform tension halfway through, and the material is stretched toward the end of winding. Since it is difficult to wind with a constant tension, the thickness of the foam wound around the roll varies, and the resilience of the foam is impaired by being stretched. In some cases, this causes variation and causes a quality problem with respect to the cleaning property.
Particularly in recent years, due to the downsizing of printers and the like, the overall length of the cleaning roller is shortened, the error in the length of the foam after sticking is within a few millimeters, and there is a slight variation in length when sticking the foam. It is a problem.

Further, the cleaning roller in which a strip-like foam having a long and narrow parallelogram shape is spirally wound around the outer periphery of the shaft has a problem that the foam tends to be peeled off at both ends due to the restoring force of the foam returning to a flat plate shape. .
In addition, a strip-like foam having an elongated parallelogram has a problem that material loss is large when it is cut out from a foam having a substantially rectangular shape in plan view.
Further, the strip-like foam having the long and parallelogram shape is elongated and easily deforms, and there is a problem that it is difficult to install and transport the material even if an automatic feeding device is used.

JP 2012-103641 A JP 2012-247479 A

  The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to provide a cleaning roller with good quality capable of correctly attaching a foam to the outer periphery of a shaft and suppressing peeling of the foam. To do. Furthermore, the foam attached to the shaft can be easily conveyed, and the material loss of the foam can be reduced.

The invention according to claim 1 is a cleaning roller comprising a shaft and an elastic body adhered to the outer periphery of the shaft, wherein the elastic body is shorter than the length of the shaft and more than the circumference of the shaft. It consists of a plurality of foam pieces having a short width, and the plurality of foam pieces are adhered to the outer periphery of the shaft by shifting the positions of the adjacent foam pieces in the circumferential direction and the length direction of the shaft. It is, and the adjacent said foam pieces gap rather free in the length direction of the shaft, the foam pieces adjacent to each other, characterized in that connected in some.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect , each of the plurality of foam pieces is a quadrangle in a plan view.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, a plurality of foam pieces each having a length shorter than the length of the shaft and a width shorter than the circumferential length of the shaft are adhered to the outer periphery of the shaft. Compared to the case where a strip-shaped foam consisting of a shape is wound around the outer periphery of the shaft, it is less affected by the expansion of the foam pieces when sticking, and multiple foam pieces are correctly attached to the outer periphery of the shaft. A cleaning roller of good quality that can be worn and can suppress the peeling of the foam piece is obtained. Furthermore, since there is no gap in the length direction of the shaft between the foam pieces adjacent to each other on the cleaning roller, there is no possibility that the cleaning performance is deteriorated at the boundary portion between the foam pieces.

  In the cleaning roller according to the first aspect of the present invention, a plate-shaped jig provided with a recess into which a plurality of foam pieces are fitted when the plurality of foam pieces are attached to the outer periphery of the shaft. The foam piece is fitted into the concave portion of the jig so that the sticking surface is exposed, and then the shaft is rolled on the surface of the jig to stick the plurality of foam pieces to the outer periphery of the shaft. Therefore, it is possible to attach a plurality of foam pieces without stretching, compared with the case of winding a strip-like foam consisting of a series of elongated parallelograms around a shaft, making the manufacturing operation easy and good quality Is obtained.

  Further, in the cleaning roller according to the first aspect of the present invention, the adjacent concave portions on the surface of the jig are arranged so that the foam pieces adjacent to each other are shifted from the positions in the circumferential direction and the length direction of the shaft. Since they are provided with the positions shifted from each other, when a plurality of foam pieces are fitted in the recesses on the jig surface, and when the shaft is rolled on the jig surface to stick the foam pieces to the surface of the shaft, The foam piece is difficult to shift and stretch, and a cleaning roller with good quality can be obtained.

According to the invention of claim 1 , since the foam pieces adjacent to each other are partially connected to each other, the foam pieces are attached to the shafts when the foam pieces are adhered to the shaft. This makes it easier to handle the required number of foam pieces.

According to the invention of claim 2 , since each of the plurality of foam pieces has a square shape in plan view, when the plurality of foam pieces are cut from the foam block or the like, the foam material may be cut into a lattice shape. Can reduce waste.

It is a front view of the cleaning roller which concerns on the 1st reference form of this invention. It is a figure which expands and shows a part of FIG. It is sectional drawing of each part shown in FIG. It is the schematic which shows the time of sticking a foam piece to the cleaning roller of a 1st reference form. It is a front view of the cleaning roller which concerns on 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the elastic body of 2nd Embodiment. It is a figure which shows before sticking a foam piece to a shaft in a 3rd reference form. It is a figure which shows before sticking a foam piece to a shaft in 4th Embodiment. It is a figure which shows before sticking a foam piece to a shaft in a 5th reference form. It is a figure which shows before sticking a foam piece to a shaft in 6th Embodiment. It is a figure which shows before sticking a foam piece to a shaft in a 7th reference form. It is a figure which shows before sticking a foam piece to a shaft in 8th Embodiment. It is a front view of the cleaning roller which concerns on a 9th reference form. It is a front view of the cleaning roller which concerns on a 10th reference form. It is a figure which shows the structure of an electrophotographic system typically. It is the schematic which shows the measuring method of cleaning property.

The cleaning roller of each embodiment and each reference embodiment of the present invention will be described below. The cleaning roller of each embodiment and each reference embodiment is mounted so as to rotate while contacting the surface of the charging roller 83 shown in FIG. 15, for example, to remove fine particles adhering to the surface of the charging roller 83. Is preferred.

The cleaning roller 10A according to the first reference embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 includes a shaft 11A and an elastic body 21A attached to the outer periphery of the shaft 11A.
The shaft 11A is composed of a rod-shaped body made of metal or the like, and constitutes the core material of the cleaning roller 1A. The shaft 11A has a length and a diameter corresponding to a device to which the cleaning roller 10A is attached. General shaft length is 140-370mm, shaft diameter is 3-8mm

The elastic body 21A is composed of a plurality of foam pieces 22A. The foam piece 22A is preferably a foam such as open-cell polyurethane foam or open-cell polyolefin, and polyurethane foam is particularly suitable. In the case of polyurethane foam, density (JIS K7222) 24-80 kg / m ³ , hardness (JIS K6400-2, 25% compression hardness) 100-410 N, tensile strength (JIS K6400-5) 69-300 kPa, elongation (JIS) K6400-5) 100 to 220% is preferable.
When the density is less than 24 kg / m ^3, the adhering matter on the surface of the charging roller cannot be scraped off and the cleaning property is deteriorated. On the other hand, when it exceeds 80 kg / m ³ , the load becomes large to follow the charging roller closely.
When the hardness is less than 100N, the stress applied to the charging roller is reduced, and the scraping performance and the cleaning performance are deteriorated. On the other hand, when the hardness exceeds 410N, the stress applied to the charging roller is too high, and the cleaning roller is The load on the drive device is increased for the driven rotation.
When the tensile strength (JIS K6400-5) is less than 69 kPa, the elastic body surface is torn off or scraped.
The elongation is set within a predetermined range so that the charging roll and the cleaning roll are in surface contact.

  The plurality of foam pieces 22A are separated from each other, and have a length a shorter than the length of the shaft 11A (dimension in the length direction L) and a circumferential length of the shaft 11A (outer dimension in the circumferential direction L). ) And a width b shorter than the plan view, and the illustrated example is a rectangle. Although the dimension of the said foam piece 22A is determined suitably, length (a) = 10-50 mm, width (b) = 3-20 mm, and thickness = 1-4 mm are mentioned as an example.

The plurality of foam pieces 22A are arranged such that the adjacent foam pieces 22A and 22A are displaced from the positions in the circumferential direction R and the length direction L of the shaft 11A, and 23A between the adjacent foam pieces 22A and 22A. Is attached to the outer periphery of the shaft 11A without a gap in the length direction L of the shaft 11A. In the example of the first reference form, the plurality of foam pieces 22A are spirally arranged and adhered to the outer periphery of the shaft 11A. That is, the plurality of foam pieces 22A are arranged and adhered in a state where adjacent foam pieces 22A and 22A are shifted by a predetermined angle in the circumferential direction of the shaft 11A and are in contact with each other at both ends in the length direction. . Symbol α is a step angle, which is an angle between an auxiliary line connecting the tips of the adjacent foam pieces 22A and 22A and the length direction (horizontal direction) of the shaft 11A.

  An adhesive layer 221A is provided on the surface of the foam piece 22A attached to the shaft 11A, and the foam piece 22A is attached to the shaft 11A by the adhesive layer 221A. The type of the adhesive layer 221A is not particularly limited, and examples thereof include a double-sided adhesive tape (including a pressure-sensitive adhesive layer), an adhesive, and the like. In particular, a double-sided adhesive tape is preferable because of its good workability. When the adhesive layer 221A is composed of a double-sided adhesive tape, the foam piece and the double-sided adhesive tape are strongly pressed at both ends in the longitudinal direction of the foam piece 22A so that the foam piece and the double-sided adhesive tape are It is preferable to increase the adhesive strength. It can also heat at the time of a press, and it is preferable to press, heating for 160 to 300 degreeC and 5 minutes-8 second. By doing in this way, after sticking the plurality of foam pieces 22A to the shaft 11A, it is possible to prevent more reliably that both ends of the foam pieces 22A in the length direction are peeled off from the shaft 11A. it can.

The method of attaching the plurality of foam pieces 22A to the outer peripheral surface of the shaft 11A is not limited, but as shown in the plan view of FIG. 4, the concave portions into which the plurality of foam pieces 22A are fitted. A plate-like jig 31A provided on the surface is used, and the foam pieces 22A are fitted in the recesses of the jig 31A so that the adhesive layer 221A is exposed, and the shaft on the surface of the jig 31A. A method of sticking the plurality of foam pieces 22A to the outer periphery of the shaft 11A by rolling 11A is simple. In the first reference embodiment, the plurality of foam pieces 22A are lined up in a step shape that is inclined with respect to the length direction L of the shaft 11A, and are fitted and held in the recesses on the surface of the jig 31A. The Each of the plurality of foam pieces 22A has a shorter length than a series of strips, and each is accommodated and held in the recess of the jig 31A. When fitting and when rolling the shaft 11A on the surface of the jig 31A and sticking the plurality of foam pieces 22A to the outer peripheral surface of the shaft 11A, the foam pieces 22A are difficult to shift and stretch, The quality of the cleaning roller 10A is constant and good.

The elastic body 21A may be one in which the adjacent foam pieces 22A are partially connected. As shown in FIG. 6, the cleaning roller 10B of the second embodiment shown in FIG. 5 includes a series of elastic bodies 21B in which the adjacent foam pieces 22B are connected at the end portions in the length direction to form a step shape. 11B is wound around and spirally attached to the outer periphery of 11B. The plurality of foam pieces 22B are connected in a state in which the adjacent foam pieces 22B and 22B are shifted in position with respect to the circumferential direction R of the shaft 11B (that is, rotated by a predetermined angle). The material of the shaft 11B, the plurality of foam pieces 22B, and the adhesive layer is the same as that of the shaft 11A, the foam piece 22A, and the adhesive layer 221A of the first reference embodiment. When the adhesive layer is composed of a double-sided adhesive tape, the foam piece and the double-sided adhesive tape are strongly pressed at both ends in the length direction of the elastic body 21B to increase the adhesive strength between the foam piece and the double-sided adhesive tape. It is preferable to raise it. It can also heat at the time of a press, and it is preferable to press, heating for 160 to 300 degreeC and 5 minutes-8 second. By doing in this way, after sticking the plurality of foam pieces 22B to the shaft 11B, it is possible to more reliably prevent the foam pieces 22B from peeling off at both ends in the length direction of the shaft 11B. it can.

In the cleaning roller 10B of the second embodiment, the elastic body 21B is fitted to a jig similar to the first reference embodiment so that the adhesive layer is exposed, and then the shaft 11B is rotated on the surface of the jig. Thus, the plurality of foam pieces 22B constituting the elastic body 21B can be attached to the outer periphery of the shaft 11B. At that time, each of the plurality of foam pieces 22B is fitted into a recess on the surface of the jig, and the shaft 11B is rolled on the surface of the jig to place the plurality of foam pieces 22B on the outer periphery of the shaft 11B. When adhering to the surface, the foam piece 21B is difficult to shift and stretch, and the quality of the cleaning roller 10B is good.

The arrangement of the plurality of foam pieces on the outer surface of the shaft is not limited to a spiral shape. Other embodiments and reference embodiments are shown below.
In the third reference embodiment shown in FIG. 7, the plurality of separated foam pieces 22C constituting the elastic body 21C are zigzag alternately shifted by a predetermined angle with respect to the outer peripheral direction R of the shaft 11C. It is an example stuck on the outer periphery.
The fourth embodiment shown in FIG. 8 is an example in which instead of the elastic body 21C of the third reference embodiment, an elastic body 21D in which a plurality of adjacent foam pieces 22D are partially connected is attached to the outer periphery of the shaft 11D. is there.

The fifth reference form shown in FIG. 9 is an example in which a plurality of separated foam pieces 22E constituting the elastic body 21E are V-shaped and attached to the outer periphery of the shaft 11E.
The sixth embodiment shown in FIG. 10 is an example in which, instead of the elastic body 21E of the fifth reference embodiment, an elastic body 21F in which a plurality of foam pieces 22F are connected in a V shape is attached to the outer periphery of the shaft 11F. is there.

The seventh reference form shown in FIG. 11 is an example in which a plurality of separated foam pieces 22G constituting the elastic body 21G are formed in a W shape and attached to the outer periphery of the shaft 11G.
In the eighth embodiment shown in FIG. 12, instead of the elastic body 21G of the seventh reference embodiment, an elastic body 21H in which a plurality of foam pieces 22H are connected in a W shape is attached to the outer periphery of the shaft 11H. is there.

The ninth reference embodiment shown in FIG. 13 is an example in which a plurality of separated foam pieces 22I constituting the elastic body 21I are spirally attached to the outer periphery of the shaft 11I in a substantially right triangle in plan view. Reference numeral 10I denotes a cleaning roller.

  In each of the above embodiments, adjacent foam pieces are in contact with each other at the ends (sides) in the longitudinal direction L of the shaft, as shown in FIG. Adjacent foam pieces 22J and 22J may contact each other at the end (side) in the circumferential direction R of the shaft 11J. Reference numeral 10J denotes a cleaning roller, and 21J denotes an elastic body.

・Reference Example 1
The foam piece was formed of a polyurethane foam having a thickness of 3 mm and a rectangular shape of 23.8 × 11.1 mm in plan view, and an adhesive layer made of double-sided adhesive tape was provided on the back surface of the foam piece. As shown in FIG. 4, 13 pieces of the foam pieces were fitted into the recesses formed in the flat plate jig made of aluminum so that the double-sided adhesive tape was exposed upward. The recesses on the surface of the jig are adjacent to each other in a stepped manner with the step angle α shown in FIG. 1 being 25 degrees so that a part of the adjacent recesses is in contact with the end in the length direction of the shaft. There was no gap between the foam pieces. Next, the shaft was rolled on the jig surface, and a plurality of foam pieces were spirally attached to the outer periphery of the shaft to produce the cleaning roller of Reference Example 1.

The used shaft is made of iron having a diameter of 6 mm and a length of 330 mm. Therefore, the outer diameter of the cleaning roller is about 12 mm, which is twice the thickness of 3 mm of the foam piece adhered to the shaft having a diameter of 6 mm.
The polyurethane foam used has a density (JIS K7222) of 70 kg / m ³ , a hardness (JIS K6400-2, 25% compression hardness) of 300 N, a tensile strength (JIS K6400-5) of 150 kPa, and an elongation (JIS K6400-5) of 150. %, Soft slab polyurethane foam manufactured by Inoac Corporation, product name: EP-70S. After adhering a double-sided adhesive tape to the back surface of this soft slab polyurethane foam, a plurality of foam pieces were punched out.
As for the double-sided adhesive tape used, the material of the support is non-woven fabric, the type of the pressure-sensitive adhesive is an acrylate copolymer resin, manufactured by Nitto Denko Corporation, product name: No. 500. Moreover, about the foam piece used as the both ends of a shaft, the length direction edge part and double-sided adhesive tape of a foam piece were pressed strongly, and the adhesion | attachment of a foam piece and a double-sided adhesive tape was strengthened.

・Reference Example 2
A cleaning roller of Reference Example 2 was produced in the same manner as Reference Example 1 except that the foam piece had a rectangular shape of 23.8 × 5.6 mm in plan view.

Comparative example 1
After inserting a shaft coated with an adhesive into a prismatic polyurethane foam and integrating it, the outer periphery of the polyurethane foam was polished to produce a cleaning roller of Comparative Example 1 having a polyurethane foam outer diameter of 12 mm and a length of 330 mm. . The shaft is the same as in Reference Example 1. The polyurethane foam used is EP-70S.

The cleaning properties of the cleaning rollers of Reference Examples 1 and 2 and the cleaning roller of Comparative Example 1 were measured.
The measuring method of the cleaning property is as follows. As shown in FIG. 16, a black roller is uniformly applied to a surface of a rubber roller having a diameter of 11.5 mm and a length of 340 mm with a thickness of 15 μm. Press against the rubber roller. In this state, the ratio of the peripheral speed of the rubber roller to the peripheral speed of the cleaning roller [the peripheral speed of the rubber roller / the peripheral speed of the cleaning roller] is set to 1.4 / 1, and the cleaning roller is rotated once. Thereafter, a transparent tape is attached to the surface of the rubber roller, and the toner remaining on the surface of the rubber roller is transferred to the transparent tape. Thereafter, the density of the portion of the transparent tape where the toner was transferred was measured with a Macbeth densitometer (product name: RD-918, manufactured by GretagMacbeth). The smaller the value of the measurement result, the smaller the amount of toner remaining on the surface of the rubber roller, that is, the higher the cleaning property of the cleaning roller.

The measurement result by the Macbeth densitometer was 0.40 in Reference Example 1 and 0.37 in Reference Example 2, whereas 0.43 in Comparative Example 1 which is an abrasive product, and the cleaning roller of the reference example was It was confirmed that the cleaning property was higher than that of the cleaning roller of the comparative example.

Further, regarding the cleaning rollers of Reference Examples 1 and 2, the difficulty in peeling off each foam piece was judged by leaving the cleaning roller in an environment of 50 ° C. for 2 weeks and the peeling distance of the foam piece being 0 mm. . As a result, the cleaning rollers of Reference Examples 1 and 2 were such that the foam pieces were difficult to peel off.

10A, 10B, 10I, 10J Cleaning roller 11A to 11J Shaft 21A to 21J Elastic body 22A to 22J Foam piece 221A Adhesive layer

Claims (2)

In a cleaning roller comprising a shaft and an elastic body attached to the outer periphery of the shaft,
The elastic body comprises a plurality of foam pieces each having a length shorter than the length of the shaft and a width shorter than the circumferential length of the shaft.
The plurality of foam pieces are adhered to the outer periphery of the shaft by shifting the positions of the adjacent foam pieces in the circumferential direction and the length direction of the shaft, and between the adjacent foam pieces, gaps in the longitudinal direction of the shaft rather free, cleaning the foam pieces adjacent to each other, characterized in that connected in some roller. The cleaning roller according to claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of foam pieces is a quadrangle in a plan view .

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