JP6534879B2 - 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 adhering to a charging roller in an OA apparatus such as a copying machine, a printer, and a facsimile machine.

  For example, in an OA apparatus 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 or the like in an electrophotographic system. FIG. 6 is a view schematically showing the structure of the electrophotographic system. Reference numeral 81 denotes a photosensitive drum, 83 denotes a charging roller, 85 denotes a cleaning roller, 87 denotes a laser transmitter, 89 denotes a toner supply device, 91 denotes a blade, 93 denotes a transfer belt, and P denotes a sheet. The cleaning roller 85 is provided to remove fine particles such as residual toner and paper powder adhering to the surface of the charging roller 83, and comprises a shaft 85a and an elastic foam layer 85b provided on the outer periphery of the shaft 85a. The elastic foam layer 85b is pressed against the surface of the charging roller 83, and the fine particles on the surface of the charging roller 83 are removed by the elastic foam layer 85b. The cleaning roller 85 does not have a rotation drive unit, and the cleaning roller also follows as the charging roller rotates.

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

Moreover, in order to eliminate the problem of the said abrasive powder, the cleaning roller which wound the cleaning member which consists of a string-like urethane sponge helically around the outer periphery of a shaft is proposed (patent document 1).
However, the cleaning roller in which the string-like cleaning member is spirally wound around the outer periphery of the shaft has a problem that the cleaning performance is inferior because the contact between the charging roller and the cleaning member becomes line contact and the contact area is small.

In addition, a cleaning roller in which a band portion made of an elastic foam is spirally wound around the circumferential surface of the shaft, and the thickness of one end in the direction in which the spiral advances is thinner toward the tip so that the one end does not contact the charging roller It is proposed (patent document 2).
The cleaning roller in which one end of the elastic foam in the spiral advancing direction is not in contact with the charging roller can eliminate the possibility that one end of the elastic foam in the spiral advancing direction contacts the surface of the charging roller and is peeled off . However, in order to prevent one end of the elastic foam in the direction in which the spiral travels from coming into contact, another member is required, and the elastic foam has a strength compared to the non-foamed one because it has a cellular structure. Due to its low value, it is not always possible to eliminate the risk of peeling if one end in the direction in which the spiral advances does not contact the charging roll alone.

  Further, in the cleaning roller in which one end of the elastic foam in the spiral advancing direction is not in contact with the charging roller, the elastic foam contacts the shaft or the fixing layer at the resin skeleton portion, so the contact area is small substantially. Power is low. Therefore, in order to reduce the stress applied to the tip due to the friction with the charging roller, it is necessary to set the thickness thin over the wide range of the tip of the elastic foam. That is, it is necessary to increase the area of the portion that is bonded to the shaft side and does not contact the charging roller. As a result, since the cleaning performance at the end of the elastic foam becomes inferior, it is necessary to extend the shaft to prevent the lowering of the cleaning performance, and there is a problem that the cleaning roller becomes large.

Therefore, the applicant first provides a pressure sensitive adhesive or adhesive on one side of the belt-like elastic foam, and spirally winds around the outer periphery of the shaft and fixes it with the pressure sensitive adhesive or adhesive. Patent Document 3 proposes a hot-pressed cleaning roller.
According to the cleaning roller obtained by heat-pressing the end portion of the band-like elastic foam, peeling of the end portion can be reduced, but there is a problem that it takes time and labor in the operation of heat-pressing both ends, and the cost increases.

  As a result of further investigation of the cleaning roller in which the belt-like elastic foam is spirally wound around the outer periphery of the shaft, the inventor has found that when using the cleaning roller, the elastic foam is larger on the front side in the rotational direction than on the rear side. It was found that stress was applied and it was easy to peel off on the front side. Moreover, the belt-like elastic foam of the cleaning roller has a range (length along the axial direction of the shaft) of helical winding around the outer periphery of the shaft so that the entire width of the charging roller can be cleaned efficiently. Because it is made larger than the width, the stressed position in contact with the edge of the charging roller is not in the tip of the shaft length but in the inner position away from the tip in the elastic foam band.

  As a result of further investigations, the inventor of the present invention has found that, in a belt-like elastic foam spirally wound around the outer periphery of the shaft, only the front end side of the elastic foam that becomes the front side in the rotational direction at the time of cleaning The present invention has been made according to the finding that the peeling strength of the elastic foam can be effectively prevented by increasing the adhesion strength to the shaft.

JP 2008-070532 A JP, 2010-286713, A Patent No. 5701099 gazette

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned point, and it is difficult to peel off an elastic foam spirally wound around the outer periphery of a shaft, and easy to manufacture, which can suppress an increase in manufacturing cost. The purpose is to provide.

In the cleaning roller according to the first aspect of the present invention, a belt-like elastic foam is spirally wound around the outer periphery of a shaft and fixed to the outer surface of the shaft with an adhesive or an adhesive. In the belt-like elastic foam spirally wound around the outer periphery of the belt, a part of the belt-like elastic foam is compressed by heat pressing only on the end side of the front side in the rotational direction during the cleaning. It is characterized in that an impregnated and fixed portion fixed to the outer peripheral surface of the shaft in a state where the adhesive is impregnated in the elastic foam is provided at an inner position apart from an end of the elastic foam in a band shape.
Further, the impregnated and fixed portion is characterized by being compressed into a circular shape. By making it a circular impregnated fixed part, the force applied to the periphery of the compressed elastic foam can be dispersed.
The impregnated and fixed portion is characterized in that it is located outside the end of the charging roller in contact with the cleaning roller. By setting the vicinity of the end portion of the charging roller in contact with the most loaded cleaning roller as the impregnation fixing portion, the end portion of the elastic foam which is hard to peel off can be obtained.

  According to the present invention, at a position on the front end side in the rotation direction where a large stress is applied to the belt-like elastic foam when the cleaning roller is used, a position where the stress is applied by contacting the widthwise edge of the charging roller Since the impregnation fixing portion can be provided at the inner position away from the end to increase the fixing strength with the shaft, it is possible to efficiently prevent peeling of the end portion of the elastic foam. In addition, since it is sufficient to provide the impregnation fixing portion only on the front side in the rotational direction in the belt-like elastic foam, the manufacturing operation can be simplified and the cost can be reduced.

It is a perspective view of a cleaning roller concerning one embodiment of the present invention. It is an expansion perspective view of the rotation direction front-end part vicinity of the strip | belt-shaped elastic foam in FIG. It is a schematic plan view which shows the strip | belt-shaped elastic foam before the winding to a shaft and a shaft. It is sectional drawing which shows the example at the time of heat press. It is a schematic plan view which shows the other example of the strip | belt-shaped elastic foam before the winding to a shaft. FIG. 1 schematically shows the structure of an electrophotographic system.

  The cleaning roller 10 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 is, for example, mounted so as to rotate while contacting the surface of the charging roller 83 shown in FIG. 6, and removes particulates such as toner adhering to the surface of the charging roller 83. It is suitable for The cleaning roller 10 is composed of a shaft 11 and a band-like elastic foam 21 spirally wound around the outer periphery of the shaft 11 and fixed to the outer peripheral surface of the shaft 11 by adhesion or adhesion. To rotate.

  The shaft 11 is a rod-like body made of metal or the like, and constitutes a core of the cleaning roller 10. The shaft 11 has a length and a diameter corresponding to the device to which the cleaning roller 10 is attached. For example, the length 11 of the shaft 11 shown in FIG. 3 is 226 to 350 mm, and the diameter φ is 3 to 8 mm. L is a center line of the shaft 11.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the band-like elastic foam 21 is provided with an adhesive layer 27 having adhesiveness or adhesiveness on one side facing the shaft 11, and is fixed to the outer surface of the shaft 11 by the adhesive layer 27. It is done. The adhesive layer 27 is preferably a double-sided adhesive tape in which an adhesive or an adhesive is attached to both sides of a substrate. The top view of the strip | belt-shaped elastic foam 21 before the winding to the shaft 11 is shown in FIG.

  The belt-like elastic foam 21 is wound in a spiral shape on the outer periphery of the shaft 11 so that both end surfaces 28 a and 28 b in the longitudinal direction of the shaft 11 are in a direction orthogonal to the shaft 11. The strip-like elastic foam 21 is cut obliquely with respect to the length direction Y, and both tip ends 22 and 22 of the strip-like elastic foam 21 in the length direction Y are substantially V-shaped.

  The belt-shaped elastic foam 21 has an appropriate width and height, but as shown in FIG. 3, for example, the width (length direction Y) of the belt-shaped elastic foam 21 before being wound around the shaft 11 The case where width orthogonal to d) is 3.0-13.0 mm, and thickness of the strip-like elastic foam 21 before being wound around the shaft 11 is 2.0-4.0 mm will be mentioned.

As an elastic foam which comprises the said strip | belt-shaped elastic foam 21, foams, such as an open-celled polyurethane foam and open-celled polyolefin, are preferable, and a polyurethane foam is especially suitable. In the case of polyurethane foam, apparent density (JIS K 7222) 24 to 80 kg / m ³ , hardness (JIS K 6400-2, 25% compression hardness) 100 to 410 N, tensile strength (JIS K 6400-5) 69 to 300 kPa, elongation ( JIS K 6400-5) 100 to 220% of those are preferable.

When the apparent density of the band-like elastic foam 21 is less than 24 kg / m ³ , the deposit on the surface of the charge roller can not be scraped off, and the cleaning performance is reduced. On the other hand, when the load exceeds 80 kg / m ³ , the load for contacting and following the charging roller increases.
When the hardness of the elastic foam is less than 100 N, the stress applied to the charging roller decreases, and the scraping performance and the cleaning performance decrease. On the other hand, when exceeding 410 N, the stress applied to the charging roller becomes too high. The load on the driving device is increased to rotate the cleaning roller.

When the tensile strength (JIS K6400-5) of the elastic foam 21 in the form of a strip is less than 69 kPa, the surface of the elastic foam is torn or scraped off.
The elongation (JIS K6400-5) of the elastic foam 21 in the form of a band is set in a predetermined range so that the charging roller and the cleaning roller are in surface contact. Moreover, the unwinding force after winding an elastic foam on a shaft is also relieved by the expansion.

  Further, the belt-like elastic foam 21 is spirally wound around the outer periphery of a predetermined range b along the length direction (axial direction) of the shaft 11. The range b in which the belt-like elastic foam 21 is spirally wound is larger by a predetermined amount than the range (that is, the cleaning range) in which the elastic foam 21 of the cleaning roller 10 contacts the charging roller when the cleaning roller 10 is used. It is set. In FIG. 3, F is the front side in the direction in which the shaft 11 rotates, and R is the rear side in the rotation direction. When the belt-like elastic foam 21 is spirally wound around the outer periphery of the predetermined range b of the shaft 11, the end of the end in the rotation direction front (F) side of the belt-like elastic foam 21 (that is, The position to be the end along the longitudinal direction of the shaft is F1, while the end of the end on the rear (R) side in the rotational direction (that is, the end of the elastic foam along the longitudinal direction of the shaft) is R1 is there. In the belt-like elastic foam 21 wound in a spiral shape, the end on the front (F) side in the rotational direction is the end facing the front in the rotational direction. On the other hand, the end on the rear (R) side in the rotational direction is an end facing in the direction opposite to the rotational direction.

  As shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the belt-like elastic foam 21 helically wound around the outer periphery of the shaft 11 has the end 25 side on the front (F) side in the rotational direction during cleaning (in use). The impregnation fixing portion 26 is formed at an inner position apart from the end (end in the longitudinal direction of the shaft) 28a of the elastic foam 21 in the form of a band. The position of the impregnated and fixed portion 26 is set near the position where it abuts on the edge of the charging roller when the cleaning roller 10 is used. In FIG. 3, the position F2 at which the impregnated and fixed portion 26 is provided is a position that is the end of the end on the front (F) side in the rotation direction (that is, the end of the elastic foam along the longitudinal direction of the shaft An example is shown in which the inner position separated by distance c from F1) is set. The c is different depending on a range b in which the belt-like elastic foam 21 is spirally wound around the outer periphery of the shaft 11 and a range abutted on the charging roller, but a distance larger than a half periphery of the shaft 11 is I will list. R2 is at an inner position by a distance of c from R1. The portion e is a portion between the position F2 and the position R2. Preferably, the charging roller and the cleaning roller are supported by a bearing, and the cleaning roller follows the rotation of the charging roller so that cleaning can always be performed. The bearing may be an integral structure supporting the charging roller and the cleaning roller integrally, or may be different, but the outer diameter of the cleaning roller is smaller than the outer diameter of the charging roller. Therefore, there is no rubbing of toner and the like due to the following, and good scraping is possible. Further, the load applied to the front side in the rotational direction (F) in the case of following is larger than the load applied in the case of independently driving and rotating.

  The impregnation fixing portion 26 is at an inner position F2 at a predetermined distance c from the tip position F1 on the front side in the rotational direction shown in FIG. It is compressed by heat press, whereby the adhesive or adhesive of the adhesive layer 27 adheres to the outer peripheral surface of the shaft 11 in a state of being impregnated in the elastic foam 21. By fixing the impregnated fixed portion 26 in the compressed shape, the apparent density is higher than that of the other portions, and the strength is increased. Further, in the impregnated and adhered portion 26, since the adhesive or the adhesive of the adhering layer 27 adheres to the shaft 11 in the impregnated state in which it enters into the elastic foam, the elastic foam in the shape of a belt The bonding strength between the shaft 21 and the shaft 11 is increased, and the end portion side of the belt-like elastic foam 21 is more difficult to be peeled off from the shaft. In the illustrated example, the shape of the impregnated and fixed portion 26 is a circular recess recessed from the surface of the elastic foam 21. However, the shape is not limited to a circular shape, and may be another shape such as a square or a groove. It may be a recessed portion.

  An embodiment of a method of manufacturing the cleaning roller 10 will be briefly described. First, the adhesive layer 27 made of a double-sided adhesive tape or the like having adhesiveness or adhesiveness is provided on one side of the elastic foam 21 facing the outer surface of the shaft 11 as shown in FIG. It is spirally wound at a predetermined angle θ around the outer periphery of a predetermined range b along the length direction (axial direction), and is fixed by the fixing layer 27. Since the contact surface of the elastic foam with the shaft is merely contacted by the resin skeleton forming the porous property of the foam, the substantial contact area is smaller than the area occupied by the elastic foam, and the unit area The adhesion of

  Next, as shown in (4-1) and (4-2) of FIG. 4, in the strip-like elastic foam 21 spirally wound around the outer periphery of the shaft 11, the tip position of the end in the rotational direction front side An inner position F2 separated from the F1 by a predetermined distance c is pressed against the outer surface of the shaft 11 by the heated metal piece 31 and hot pressed. The heat press temperature is preferably a temperature at which the band-like elastic foam 21 is plastically deformed and the adhesive or the adhesive of the adhesive layer 27 can be melted, for example, 165 to 330 ° C. The surface of the metal piece 31 for pressing the elastic foam 21 in the form of a band is not limited to a circular shape, and may have a quadrangular shape or a linear protrusion shape.

  The elastic foam 21 is plastically deformed in the portion of the elastic foam 21 which is compressed by heat press, and the adhesive or adhesive of the fixing layer 27 is melted and impregnated in the elastic foam 21. The impregnated fixed portion 26 is fixed to the outer surface of the shaft 11. The impregnated and fixed portion 26 is fixed in a compressed shape by curing the impregnated adhesive or pressure-sensitive adhesive, the apparent density of the elastic foam 21 increases, the strength is enhanced, and it adheres to the shaft 11 and does not easily peel off. . Furthermore, the melted adhesive and the adhesive enter the elastic foam 21 and the space between the elastic foam 21 and the shaft 11 so that the end 25 side of the elastic foam 21 in the form of a strip is in contact with the shaft 11. The contact area with the shaft 11 is increased, and the adhesion to the shaft 11 is further improved.

  The strip-like elastic foam 21 is not limited to one in which both ends in the length direction Y are processed into a V shape, and for example, both ends in the length direction Y are long as shown in (5-1) of FIG. The elastic foam 21A processed at right angles to the longitudinal direction Y, and the elastic foam 21B processed at both ends in the length direction Y into an L-shaped bent shape as shown in (5-2) of FIG. 5 Or the like.

  When the cleaning roller 10 is used by being attached to an OA apparatus together with a charging roller, a band-like elastic foam 21 spirally wound around the shaft 11 is impregnated and fixed on the front end side in the rotational direction. Since the portion 26 is provided, the end side of the elastic foam 21 is less likely to be peeled off. Further, since the apparent density of the elastic foam 21 is increased and the strength thereof is increased in the impregnated and adhered portion 26, the band-like elastic foam 21 is broken or peeled off even when it contacts the edge of the charging roller. Can be reduced.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 cleaning roller 11 shaft 21 strip-like elastic foam 26 impregnation fixing part 27 fixing layer which consists of an adhesive layer or an adhesive layer 28a end face in the longitudinal direction of the shaft in the rotational direction of the strip-like elastic foam

Claims (1)

In the cleaning roller, a belt-like elastic foam is spirally wound around the outer periphery of the shaft and fixed to the outer surface of the shaft with an adhesive or an adhesive, and rotates in one direction during cleaning;
In the belt-like elastic foam wound in a spiral shape around the outer periphery of the shaft, a part of the belt-like elastic foam is compressed by a heat press only on the end side of the front side in the rotational direction during cleaning A cleaning roller, characterized in that the impregnation fixing portion fixed to the outer peripheral surface of the shaft in a state in which the agent or the adhesive is impregnated in the elastic foam is at an inner position apart from the end of the elastic foam band.

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