JPH04274274A - Cleaning blade and manufacture thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide such a cleaning blade that is able to join a platelike holder and a blade member to a support plate simultaneously, and that thickness in a bonded part between the support plate and the platelike holder becomes uniformized with that in a bonded part between the support plate and the blade member. CONSTITUTION:One end of a support plate 11 is lapped on an end of the top of a platelike holder 13, and this lap is joined and unified in one via an urethane resin layer 14 of specified thickness, and moreover an urethane resin blade member 12 is formed on the other end of the support plate 11 by means of integral forming with the urethane resin layer 4.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cleaning blade for removing toner remaining on the peripheral surface of a photosensitive drum of an electrophotographic copying machine, etc., and a method for manufacturing the cleaning blade.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art An electrophotographic copying machine is equipped with a photosensitive drum having a photoconductor surface layer, and the outer circumferential surface of the photosensitive drum is uniformly charged. An electrostatic latent image is formed on the outer peripheral surface by exposing to light, and toner is attached to this electrostatic latent image to form a toner image, which is then transferred to copy paper etc. to perform copying. be. After the above copying, as shown in FIG. 5, the toner 2 remains on the outer peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 1, so it becomes necessary to remove this residual charged toner 2, and this removal is performed by the cleaning blade 3. It's on. As shown in FIG. 6, this cleaning blade 3 has a metal plate-shaped holder 5 with a substantially L-shaped cross section attached to one end of a support plate 4 made of stainless steel, and a thick-walled metal plate holder 5 having a substantially L-shaped cross section attached to the other end of the support plate 4. A plate-shaped blade member 6 made of soft urethane resin is attached. This cleaning blade 3 is, for example,
It is manufactured as follows. First, one end side of the plate surface of the support plate 4 and the end side of the plate surface of the plate-like holder 5 are adhered with adhesive 7, and then the other end side of the plate surface of the support plate 4 and the blade member 6 are bonded together. It is manufactured by bonding the three parts with adhesive 7 to integrate the three parts.

0003

However, the method for manufacturing the cleaning blade 3 described above requires a complicated process of bonding the support plate 4 and the plate-like holder 5 and the support plate 4 and the blade member 6 using an adhesive 7. In addition,
Manufacturing efficiency is poor because it takes time for the adhesive 7 to harden. Furthermore, if the amount of adhesive 7 applied is too large or the curing time is short, the adhesive 7 will protrude onto the surfaces of the support plate 4 and the plate-shaped holder 5 and become dirty. Furthermore, the cleaning blade 3 has non-uniformity in the thickness of the seven adhesive layers between the support plate 4 and the plate-shaped holder 5 and the thickness of the seven adhesive layers between the support plate 4 and the blade member 6. It has the disadvantage of poor dimensional accuracy. Furthermore, in some cases, the plate surface of the blade member 6 is not adhered parallel to the plate surface of the plate-shaped holder 5, making it difficult for the blade member 6 to slide into uniform contact with the circumferential surface of the photosensitive drum 1. cause inconvenience.

The present invention was developed in view of the above circumstances, and allows a plate-like holder and a blade member to be bonded to a support plate at the same time. To provide a cleaning blade in which the thickness of a bonded part between a plate and a blade member is uniform, and a method for manufacturing the same.

[0005]

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a blade member, a support plate that supports the blade member, and a blade member that partially overlaps one end side of the support plate. The cleaning blade is provided with a plate-like holder that is attached to the cleaning blade in a state where the overlapping portion of the support plate and the plate-like holder are bonded and integrated through the interposition of an elastic layer having a predetermined thickness; The first aspect is a cleaning blade whose member is formed of an elastic body integrally molded with the elastic layer, and a mold having a molding space for forming the blade portion on the back side of the mold is prepared, and this One end of the support plate is arranged to protrude into the molding space for forming the blade portion of the mold, and one end of the plate-shaped holder is placed on the front side of the mold with a predetermined gap with the other end of the support plate. The second gist is a method for manufacturing a cleaning blade, in which an elastic molded member is injected into the molding space for forming the blade portion and the gap and cured.

[0006]

[Function] That is, the cleaning blade of the present invention has
A part of the plate-shaped holder is overlapped on one end side of the support plate, and the overlapping portion of the support plate and the plate-shaped holder are bonded and integrated by interposing an elastic layer having a predetermined thickness. Therefore, since the support plate is integrated with the plate-shaped holder in a parallel state, the blade portion can come into uniform sliding contact with the circumferential surface of the photosensitive drum. Further, the cleaning blade of the present invention has a predetermined overlap between a molding space for forming a blade portion of a molding die in which one end of the support plate is arranged to protrude, and one end side of the plate-shaped holder and the other end side of the support plate. It is manufactured by injecting an elastic molded member into the gap and hardening it. Therefore, the plate-shaped holder and the support plate can be integrated at the same time as the blade portion is formed, and the support plate and the plate-shaped holder can be reliably bonded in a parallel state.

Next, the present invention will be explained based on examples.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIGS. 1 and 2 show an embodiment of the cleaning blade of the present invention. This cleaning blade 10 has a thick plate-shaped soft urethane resin blade member 12 fixedly formed on one end edge of a support plate 11 made of stainless steel. The other end side of the support plate 11 is superimposed on the upper surface of a metal plate-like holder 13 having a substantially L-shaped cross section, and the overlapping portion of the support plate 11 and the plate-like holder 13 is a soft urethane resin layer of uniform thickness. 14, which are integrally bonded together. In addition, in FIG. 2, 11a
is a hole for positioning the support plate 11 on the plate-shaped holder 13.

The cleaning blade 10 can be manufactured, for example, as follows. First, as shown in Figure 3, a molding space 1 for forming the blade part is located at the back of the mold.
5 and is divided into an upper mold 16 and a lower mold 17. Next, after positioning the plate-shaped holder 13 in front of the lower mold 17 of this mold 18, one end of the support plate 11 is placed so as to protrude into the molding space 15 for forming the blade part, and the other end is The two sides are stacked on the edge of the upper surface of the plate-shaped holder 13 with a predetermined gap 19 maintained therebetween, and in this state the upper mold 16 and the lower mold 17 are clamped. Then, the molding space 15 and the air gap 1 for forming the blade part of the clamped molding die 18 are
A molded member made of urethane resin is injected into each of the molded parts 9 and removed from the mold after being cured. As a result, a cleaning blade 10 as shown in FIG. 1 is manufactured.

The thickness of the stainless steel plate used as the support plate 11 (indicated by S in FIG. 1) is from 0.06 to
The thickness is preferably in the range of 0.10 mm, and the thickness of the blade member 12 made of urethane resin (indicated by T in FIG. 1) is preferably in the range of 1 to 3 mm. In addition, the void 19
The thickness (indicated by U in FIG. 1) is preferably in the range of 0.05 to 0.30 mm from the viewpoint of adhesive strength.

[0011] Furthermore, if an undercoat capable of fixing the urethane resin is applied in advance to the parts of the support plate 11 and the plate-like holder 13 to which the urethane resin molded member is fixed, the urethane resin can be fixed more firmly. .

In the cleaning blade 10 obtained as described above, the thickness of the urethane resin layer 14 bonding the support plate 11 and the plate-shaped holder 13 is uniform, and the blade member 12 has a uniform thickness with respect to the support plate 11. extending in parallel. Therefore, the cleaning blade 10 can come into uniform sliding contact with the circumferential surface of the photosensitive drum. Further, according to the above manufacturing method, the blade member 12 is fixedly formed on the support plate 11 and the plate-like holder is simultaneously formed without the complicated process of adhering the support plate and the plate-shaped holder and the support plate and the blade member, as in the past. 13 and the blade member 12 can be integrated.

FIG. 4 shows another embodiment of the cleaning blade of the present invention. This cleaning blade 20
In this case, the urethane resin layer 14 interposed between the plate-shaped holder 13 and the support plate 11 is attached to the support plate 1 along the support plate 11.
1 blade member 12 . In this way, the urethane resin layer 1 adheres the plate-shaped holder 13 and the support plate 11.
4 is integrally molded with the blade member 12, the adhesive strength of the blade member 12 to the support plate 11 is improved.

[0012] Note that the cleaning blades 10, 2
0 can be applied not only to electrophotographic copying machines, but also to laser beam printers and the like that have a similar mechanism to electrophotographic copying machines.

[0013]

As described above, in the cleaning blade of the present invention, a part of the plate-like holder is overlapped on one end of the support plate, and the overlapping part of the support plate and the plate-like holder is covered with an elastic layer of a predetermined thickness. They are adhesively integrated by intervening. Therefore, since the support plate is bonded to the plate-shaped holder in a parallel stacked state, the sliding contact accuracy between the blade member formed at the other end of the support plate and the circumferential surface of the photosensitive drum can be greatly improved. can be improved. Note that if the elastic layer interposed at the overlap between the support plate and the plate-shaped holder is extended along the support plate to the other end of the support plate and integrated with the blade member, the blade member can be firmly attached to the support plate. be able to. Further, according to the manufacturing method of the present invention, it can be easily manufactured without the complicated process of bonding the support plate and the plate-shaped holder with an adhesive as in the past. Furthermore, an elastic molding member is injected into the molding space for forming the blade part of the mold and hardened to form the blade part, and at the same time, the elastic molding member is injected into a predetermined gap between the plate-shaped holder and the support plate. Since the plate-like holder and the support plate can be integrated by curing, productivity can be improved.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view showing one embodiment of a cleaning blade of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the cleaning blade.

FIG. 3 is a manufacturing explanatory diagram of the cleaning blade.

FIG. 4 is a longitudinal sectional view showing another embodiment of the cleaning blade of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing how a conventional cleaning blade is used.

FIG. 6 is a longitudinal sectional view of the cleaning blade.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 Support plate 12 Blade member 13 Plate holder 14 Urethane resin layer 15 Molding space 18 Molding mold 19 Voids

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A cleaning blade comprising a blade member, a support plate for supporting the blade member, and a plate-shaped holder attached to one end of the support plate with parts of the support plate overlapping the blade member, the cleaning blade comprising: The overlapping portion of the support plate and the plate-like holder are bonded and integrated through an elastic layer having a predetermined thickness, and the blade member is formed by an elastic body formed integrally with the elastic layer. A cleaning blade characterized in that: 2. A mold having a molding space for forming a blade portion on the back side of the mold is prepared, and one end side of a support plate is arranged so as to protrude into the molding space for forming a blade portion of this mold, and , one end side of the plate-shaped holder is arranged on the front side of the mold so as to overlap the other end side of the support plate with a predetermined gap maintained, and in this state, the molding space for forming the blade part and the above A method for manufacturing a cleaning blade, characterized by injecting an elastic molded member into a gap and curing it.