JPH04147266A - Method for processing surface of electrically conductive substrate for electrophotographic sensitive body - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To execute both processes of the roughing and the cleaning of a surface at the same time, to uniformize the degree of surface roughness and to eliminate a remaining substance by processing the surface of an electrical conductive substrate by using a rotating brush having rigidity and solvent for cleaning by a centerless system. CONSTITUTION:The rotating brushes 2 and 3 are rotated in a direction shown by an arrow by making the rotational speed thereof different. By the difference between the rotational speed, rotating force is given to the cylindrical electrical conductive substrate 5 and the substrate 5 is rubbed while it is rotated in the direction shown by the arrow. Then, the brushing thereof is executed. At this time, since the lower parts of the brushes 2 and 3 are immersed in the solvent for cleaning 4, Al powder or the like left on the surface of the substrate 5 is made to drop in the solvent 4 by the rotation and the roughing and the cleaning are executed at the same time. Then, a brush obtained by planting synthetic fiber such as nylon on a cylindrical body can be used for the brushes 2 and 3 and the group of halogenated hydrocarbon can be used for the solvent 4.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a method for surface processing a conductive substrate for an electrophotographic photoreceptor.

[Conventional technology]

Generally, in a selenium-based photoreceptor, aluminum or an aluminum alloy is used as a conductive substrate, and Se or Se is deposited on the conductive substrate to a thickness of about 60ρ by vacuum evaporation.
An amorphous layer made of an alloy containing Te, As, and a trace amount of 710 Ken is formed.

The photoreceptor produced in this way is used by being attached to an electrophotographic device such as a copying machine or printer, or during copying or printing operations, the toner that adheres or remains on the surface of the photoreceptor is removed by brushes, blurring, etc. mechanically removed by the printer and prepared for the next copy or print operation. However,
In the process of mechanically removing residual toner (cleaning process), a considerable load is applied to the surface of the photosensitive layer of the photoconductor, so there is a problem that the force caused by the load may cause the photoconductor to peel off. In the past, a certain degree of adhesion was required to prevent the photosensitive layer from peeling off. Conventionally, various means have been taken to obtain such adhesive properties.

One method is to provide an intermediate layer between the conductive substrate and the photosensitive layer. This method had the disadvantage that electrophotographic properties deteriorated due to contamination of impurities, increase in residual potential, etc. Another method is to improve adhesion by roughening the surface of the conductive substrate to improve so-called bite.

However, since roughening the surface of the conductive substrate is undesirable in terms of the uniformity of the FFFS-F photographic characteristics of the photoreceptor and the characteristics of copied images, we will introduce a roughening method. It is desirable that the surface be uniformly roughened with the minimum necessary roughness, and that the amount of contamination and adhesion of harmful impurities is as small as possible.

Conventionally known surface roughening methods include, for example, a chemical etching method, a liquid honing method or sandblasting method using 11 abrasive grains, a grinding method using a grindstone,
Examples include a polishing method using a polishing tape.

[Invention or problem to be solved]

By the way, the chemical etching method uses, for example, an aqueous solution containing sodium carbonate and sodium phosphate, and it is said that a large number of conductive substrates can be treated with a single etching operation. There are advantages to raw material cost, and degreasing before and after etching,
This method requires a large number of processing steps such as neutralization, washing, and drying, which has the disadvantage of increasing equipment costs.

In addition, the methods using liquid honing or sandblasting both use abrasive particles dispersed in water or air and are sprayed onto the conductive substrate to roughen the surface, or long-period undulations are used to roughen the conductive substrate. There is also the problem of uneven surface roughness, which leads to unevenness and deterioration of the electrophotographic characteristics of the photoreceptor, and it is difficult to recover the abrasive grains.
The disadvantage was that the cost of raw materials increased.

Furthermore, grinding methods and superfinishing methods that use a whetstone have the problem of uneven surface roughness due to partial clogging of the whetstone, and the abrasive grains may break or fall off during polishing.
There is also the problem that it digs into the surface of the conductive substrate and remains behind. Furthermore, since cutting agents such as water and oil are used to prevent clogging of the grinding wheel and promote self-growth of the cutting edge of the abrasive grains, in addition to the biting of the abrasive grains, these cutting agents also remain. There is also the problem that cleaning after roughening is troublesome, making it difficult to completely remove it.

Furthermore, the method of roughening the surface using an abrasive tape in which abrasive grains are bonded to a flexible base +4 is ineffective in preventing the above-mentioned abrasive grains from biting into the surface; Being able to remove things has two benefits. However, since polishing tape only needs to be polished once on the polished surface, the raw material cost is high, and its grinding power is poor, so it requires cutting, grinding with a whetstone, etc. as a pre-treatment process. In addition, a process of washing the A1 powder, water, oil, etc. was also necessary.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems in the conventional technology.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks in the conventional techniques when surface processing a conductive substrate of an electrophotographic photoreceptor, and to create a rough surface having uniform surface roughness and no residue. The object of the present invention is to provide a surface processing method that can form a surface.

[Means to solve the problem]

The above object of the present invention is achieved by using a synthetic rotating brush and a cleaning solvent in the M finishing process of the surface of a conductive support for an electrophotographic photoreceptor, and applying surface pressure by a so-called centerless method. I can do it.

The surface processing method of a conductive substrate for an electrophotographic photoreceptor of the present invention uses a rigid rotating blank and a cleaning solvent in the final finishing of the surface of the conductive substrate, and the conductive substrate is placed on the rotating blank. The feature is that the surface is roughened using a centerless method.

The present invention uses a so-called centerless method, and in the centerless method, as shown below, a cylindrical object to be processed is placed on two rotating cylindrical blanks. This refers to a method in which a cylindrical workpiece is rotated and processed by varying the rotational speed of the cylindrical workpiece.

The present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a surface processing apparatus for carrying out the present invention, in which (a) is a sectional view and (b) is a side view. Reference numeral 1 denotes a container-shaped frame body, and two cylindrical rotating brushes 2 and 3 are installed.
is rotatably supported.

The inside of the container-shaped frame is filled with a cleaning solvent 4 so that the lower part of the rotating brush is immersed therein. 5 is a cylindrical conductive substrate to be surface-treated, and rotary brushes 2 and 3
The surface is processed by being placed on top of it.

When performing surface processing, the rotating brushes 2 and 3 are rotated at different rotational speeds in the directions of the arrows to create a difference in rotational speed between the two rotating brushes. Due to this rotational speed difference, a rotational force is applied to the cylindrical conductive substrate 5 placed on them, and while rotating in the direction of the arrow, the surface of the conductive substrate is rubbed by both rotating brushes. Even brushing is performed. At that time, the lower part of the rotating swing is
Since it is immersed in the cleaning solvent, the rotating brush rubs the surface of the conductive substrate while holding the cleaning solvent. Therefore, the A1 powder and other foreign substances generated by polishing with the rotating brush are dropped into the cleaning liquid by the rotation of the rotating brush, and the surface roughening and cleaning are performed simultaneously.

In the present invention, the rotary blank is made of a rigid material, such as a cylindrical body made of nylon or other synthetic fibers, or a synthetic fiber such as nylon containing alumina or an abrasive such as C81. etc. can be used. Also, if the direction of hair transplantation is tilted in one direction,
During surface processing, the cylindrical conductive substrate moves in the axial direction on the rotating blank, which can also be used to transport the cylindrical conductive substrate.

In addition, cleaning solvents include halogenated hydrocarbons, specifically methylene chloride, 1.1.1-)lichloroethane, etc., and any solvent used for normal degreasing can be used. I can do something.

In the present invention, as described above, using a cleaning solvent,
Since surface processing is carried out in a centerless manner using a synthetic rotary blower, it is possible to carry out two processes at the same time: cleaning oil, solids, etc., and roughening the surface. Therefore, it is possible to omit the finishing process and cleaning process after the cutting process in normal surface processing, and it is possible to shorten the process.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained by examples.

Examples 1 to 3 The outer peripheral surface was polished to a mirror finish (Rffla
X=0.29B+, Rz -0,13mm) Outer diameter 1
Surface processing was carried out on cylindrical aluminum substrates of 21 books, 4+ oms thick and 410 mm long. As an apparatus, one having the structure shown in Fig. 1 was used, and as a rotating brush, bundles of fibers (length 3 lengths) of the materials listed in Table 1 were implanted at a pitch of 8 mm (Example 1). and 2) and densely flocked hair (Example 3), the first rotating brush was 15 Orllfffl, the second rotating brush was 2
The treatment was performed by rotating at 50 rpm. Processing time and surface roughness Rz of roughened cylindrical aluminum substrate
are shown in Table 1.

Comparative Example 1 A cylindrical aluminum substrate similar to that in Examples 1 to 3 was surface-treated by an etching method.

An aqueous solution containing 3% sodium carbonate and 7% sodium phosphate was used as the etching solution. As a result, a test sample with a surface roughness Rz = 1.5 am was obtained. The surface had random irregularities with no directionality.

Comparative Example 2 A cylindrical aluminum substrate similar to that in Example 1 was surface-processed using an abrasive tape method.

As the polishing tape, a wrapping film LF5 (manufactured by 3M Co., Ltd.) using 5tIIIl alumina was used. As a result, test samples with a surface roughness Rz of 0.3 to 0.6 were obtained.

Example 4 On the aluminum substrates obtained in Examples 1 to 3 and Comparative Examples 1 and 2 and the mirror-finished substrates, a 5eAs alloy layer with a thickness of about 60 mm was formed by vacuum evaporation, and an electron A photographic photoreceptor was created. The formed SeAs alloy layer was evaluated for its adhesion, the state of occurrence of stains, and the pattern. The results are shown in Table 2.

The adhesiveness was evaluated as follows.

A crosshatch cut is made in the S eAs alloy layer so as to reach the aluminum base with a knife, cellophane tape is adhered to the crosshatch cut portion, and then the cellophane tape is forcibly peeled off to remove the 5eAs alloy layer. Evaluation was performed based on the amount of adhesion. The evaluation criteria are as follows.

O...Peeling only at the knife cut line.

△... Some peeling occurred outside the knife cut line.

×...The entire adhesive width of the cellophane tape peeled off.

The evaluation criteria for blurring are as follows.

O: No stains occurred. ×: There are stains.

The evaluation criteria for the pattern is as follows.

O... No pattern generated x... Pattern generated Table 2 In the above example, an electrophotographic photoreceptor having a 5eAs alloy layer was explained, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, it can be applied to those having a 5eTe alloy layer or an organic photosensitive layer. In addition, in an optical printer using a laser beam as a light source, the reflected light reflected by the aluminum substrate without being absorbed by the photosensitive layer interferes with the reflected light from the surface, causing a moiré pattern. can also be effectively used to prevent the occurrence of this moire pattern.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, the present invention processes the surface of a conductive substrate for an electrophotographic photoreceptor by a centerless method using a cleaning liquid and a rigid rotating brush, so that both surface roughening and cleaning processes are performed. can be carried out simultaneously and easily, and the roughened surface formed has a uniform surface roughness without any residue.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an apparatus for carrying out the present invention (
(a) is a cross-sectional view, and (b) is a cross-sectional view taken along the line A-A. 1... Container-shaped frame body, 2, 3... Rotating brush, 4...
- Cleaning solvent, 5... Cylindrical conductive substrate. Applicant Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) In the final finishing of the surface of the conductive substrate, a rigid rotating brush and a cleaning solvent are used, and the conductive substrate is placed on the rotating brush and the surface is roughened using a centerless method. A method for processing the surface of a conductive substrate of an electrophotographic photoreceptor, characterized in that: