JPH06118662A - Surface roughening treatment of electrophotographic sensitive body - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable uniform polishing by using a film-like polishing material formed by providing the surface of a carrier film with a binder resin layer and applying a dispersion prepd. by dispersing polishing particulates into a solvent for dissolving the binder resin layer on the binder resin layer. CONSTITUTION:The binder resin layer is dissolved by the solvent and the polishing particulates are partly embedded into the binder resin layer if the polishing particulates are dispersed into the solvent and this dispersion is applied on the carrier film previously coated with the binder resin layer. Since the polishing particulates are uniformly distributed in the dispersion, the easy and uniform distribution of the polishing particulates is possible. The materials for the polishing particulates include aluminum oxide, silicon carbide, etc. The film-like polishing material 1 and a photosensitive body 5 are moved while the film-like polishing material 1 wound around, for example, a feed roller 2 and a take-up roller 3 is pressed to the photosensitive body 5 by a press roller 4 as the means for polishing the photosensitive body by using the film-like polishing material.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for polishing the surface of a photoreceptor in an image forming apparatus such as electrophotography, and more particularly to a method for producing a polishing film.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in an image forming apparatus, toner particles are developed on an electrostatic latent image formed by charging and exposing the surface of a photoreceptor to form a visible image, and the toner image is transferred onto a transfer paper or the like. To form an image. After the transfer process is completed, the photoreceptor remaining on the surface of the photoconductor is removed to move to the next image forming process. As a means for removing the toner, a means for scraping off the toner by rubbing a plate-shaped elastic body called a cleaning blade against the photoconductor is generally used. The method of using a cleaning blade has the advantages of being inexpensive and easy to operate, but if the frictional force between the cleaning blade and the photoconductor is large, the cleaning blade is inverted and cleaning failure occurs. In order to solve this problem, a means for reducing the frictional force between the cleaning blade and the photosensitive member by roughening the surface of the photosensitive member before mounting it in the image forming apparatus and preventing the cleaning blade from reversing is proposed. Has been done. As a means for roughening the surface of the photoreceptor, a means for mechanically polishing the surface of the photoreceptor using an abrasive or the like is most preferable. In particular, when a film-shaped abrasive is used, there is no risk of the abrasive remaining on the surface of the photoconductor and damaging the surface of the photoconductor, and an excellent effect is obtained in that the surface is evenly polished.

[0003]

What is most important in using a film-like abrasive is that the fine abrasive particles on the film-like abrasive are uniformly fixed. If the polishing fine particles are non-uniformly distributed, a portion of the surface of the photoconductor which is not polished is formed, and the cleaning blade is partially inverted to cause cleaning failure. In addition, in a portion where the polishing fine particles are aggregated and distributed, there is a possibility that an excessively large scratch is generated and the image is deteriorated. When a film-like abrasive is prepared, usually, the fine particles are dispersed in a resin solution, and the dispersion solution is applied onto a film such as polyethylene terephthalate and dried. Unavoidably agglomerate, and a resin layer is formed on the surface of the abrasive particles,
It was not possible to obtain a sufficient polishing effect.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method for effectively and uniformly polishing an electrophotographic photosensitive member, and in particular, a method for producing a film-like abrasive used for polishing.

[0005]

The method for roughening the surface of the electrophotographic photosensitive member of the present invention comprises providing a binder resin layer on a carrier film and dispersing abrasive fine particles in a solvent which dissolves the binder resin layer. It is characterized by using a film-like abrasive prepared by coating the dispersion liquid thus obtained on the binder resin layer, whereby the above object can be achieved.

In the film-like abrasive used in the present invention, it is important to disperse the abrasive fine particles in a solvent using an ultrasonic dispersing device or the like. When this dispersion liquid is applied onto a carrier film to which a binder resin layer has been applied in advance, the binder resin layer is dissolved by the solvent, and some of the fine abrasive particles are embedded in the binder resin layer. Since the polishing fine particles are uniformly distributed in the dispersion liquid, the polishing fine particles can be easily and uniformly distributed. The solvent is removed by heat or the like. However, if hot air is blown at this time, the abrasive fine particles uniformly distributed may move and become non-uniform. Therefore, it is preferable that the solvent is naturally dried and then heat treated. By the above means, the fine abrasive particles are firmly fixed to the film, and since the resin layer is not formed on the surface, it is possible to prepare a film-like abrasive capable of effectively abrading the photoreceptor.

As the polishing fine particles used in the present invention, known polishing fine particles such as aluminum oxide, silicon carbide, chromium oxide, diamond, silica, titanium oxide can be used. The particle size of the polishing particles must be smaller than the toner particles used, and 0.001μ
m to 5 μm is used. If the toner particles having a particle size larger than that of the toner particles are used, the toner particles may enter the polishing groove and not be cleaned, or the photoconductor may be scratched. Therefore, the cleaning blade cannot be reversed.

The carrier film used in the present invention includes:
A film having a relatively high strength such as polyethylene terephthalate or polycarbonate is preferably used. As the binder resin, those having a strong binding force with the carrier film and capable of firmly supporting the abrasive fine particles, for example, polyester, styrene, polycarbonate and the like are preferably used. As the dispersion solution, one that dissolves the binder resin to be used and can be easily removed by heat or the like, for example,
Toluene, tetrahydrofuran and the like are preferably used.

When the photosensitive member is polished using the film-like abrasive material prepared as described above, the angle formed between the groove formed on the photosensitive member and the running direction of the cleaning blade is 10.
It is necessary to make it 80 degrees. This is because when the groove formed on the photoconductor and the running direction of the cleaning blade are perpendicular to each other, the toner sticks into the groove to cause cleaning failure, and even when the groove is parallel, the cleaning blade is inverted. .

As a means for polishing a photosensitive member using a film-like abrasive, for example, as shown in FIG. 1, a roller for suppressing the film-like abrasive 1 wound around a feed roller 2 and a take-up roller 3 is used. The film-shaped abrasive 1 and the photoconductor 5 are moved while being pressed against the photoconductor 5 at 4.
At this time, by sliding the photoconductor 5 in the rotation axis direction, the polishing groove can be formed at an angle of 10 to 80 degrees with respect to the rotation direction of the photoconductor.

[0011]

The present invention will be described in more detail based on the following examples. [Example 1] Styrene-acrylic resin (Heimer SB
M-700, Sanyo Kasei Co., Ltd.) 10 parts by weight of toluene 1
It was dissolved in 100 parts by weight, coated on a polyethylene terephthalate film and dried to form a 2 μm binder resin layer. 1 part by weight of titanium oxide fine particles having a particle size of 1 μm was added to 100 parts by weight of toluene and ultrasonically dispersed to prepare a dispersion liquid. The dispersion liquid was applied onto the binder resin layer, naturally dried for about 10 minutes, and then heat-treated at 80 ° C. for 2 hours to remove the solvent to prepare a film-like abrasive 1.

[Embodiment 2] Particle diameter of 1 μm in Embodiment 1
A film-like abrasive 2 was prepared in the same manner as in Example 1 except that titanium oxide having a particle size of 0.5 μm was used instead of titanium oxide. [Example 3] A film-like abrasive 3 was prepared in the same manner as in Example 1 except that titanium oxide having a particle diameter of 2.0 µm was used in place of titanium oxide having a particle diameter of 1 µm. .

[Embodiment 4] Particle diameter of 1 μm in Embodiment 1
A film-like abrasive 4 was prepared in the same manner as in Example 1 except that titanium oxide having a particle diameter of 1.5 μm was used instead of titanium oxide in Example 1. [Comparative Example 1] Styrene-acrylic resin (Heimer SB
M-700, Sanyo Kasei Co., Ltd.) 10 parts by weight of toluene 1
It was dissolved in 100 parts by weight, and 1 part by weight of titanium oxide fine particles having a particle diameter of 0.5 μm was added to carry out ultrasonic dispersion. This dispersion was applied on a polyethylene terephthalate film, naturally dried for about 10 minutes, and then heat-treated at 80 ° C. for 2 hours,
A 2 μm polishing layer was formed to prepare a film-like polishing material 5.

[Comparative Example 2] 1 part by weight of titanium oxide fine particles having a particle size of 0.5 μm was added to 100 parts by weight of toluene and ultrasonically dispersed to prepare a dispersion liquid. The dispersion liquid was applied onto a polyethylene terephthalate film, naturally dried for about 10 minutes, and then heat-treated at 80 ° C. for 2 hours to remove the solvent to prepare a film-like abrasive 6.

[Comparative Example 3] When a dispersion liquid was prepared in Example 3, 1 part by weight of titanium oxide fine particles having a particle size of 2.0 μm was added to 100 parts by weight of toluene, and the dispersion liquid was subjected to ultrasonic dispersion. Created. A film-shaped abrasive 7 was prepared in the same manner as in Example 3 except that ultrasonic dispersion was not performed when preparing the dispersion liquid.

[Comparative Example 4] Particle size of 1.5 in Example 4
A film-like abrasive 8 was prepared in the same manner as in Example 4, except that titanium oxide having a particle diameter of 10.0 μm was used instead of titanium oxide having a diameter of μm. Comparative Example 5 A film-like abrasive 9 was prepared in the same manner as in Example 4, except that titanium oxide having a particle diameter of 0.005 μm was used instead of titanium oxide having a particle diameter of 1.5 μm. Created.

The film-shaped abrasives 1 to 9 produced as described above were mounted on a polishing apparatus as shown in FIG. 1 to polish an amorphous-silicon photoconductor. Surface average roughness (Rz) of the ground photoreceptor and average groove spacing (Sm)
Was measured. Also, the polished photoreceptor is mounted on an electrophotographic copying machine (DC-7085, manufactured by Mita Kogyo Co., Ltd.), and 1000
A copy test of 0 sheets was performed. The measurement results are shown in Tables 1 and 2. The particle size of the toner mounted on the electrophotographic copying machine (DC-7085, manufactured by Mita Kogyo Co., Ltd.) is 10 μm.

[0018]

[Table 1]

[0019]

[Table 2] * 1: Cleaning blade turning up, 2: Cleaning failure * 3: Photoreceptor scratches Since the film-like abrasive 5 of Comparative Example 1 has the abrasive fine particles dispersed in the resin solution, the distribution of the abrasive fine particles in the coating step is Since the surface average roughness of the polished photoreceptor was 0.5, which was an appropriate value because it was slightly non-uniform, the average spacing of the polishing grooves was greatly varied from 0.1 to 2.5. As a result of the copying test, the cleaning blade partly flipped up and black streaks occurred after copying 5000 sheets. In the film-like abrasive 6 of Comparative Example 2, since the dispersion liquid of the polishing fine particles is directly applied on the polyethylene terephthalate film, the polishing fine particles are not uniformly fixed on the film, and therefore the polishing state of the photoreceptor is also high. The result was not sufficient, and the result of the copy test showed that the cleaning blade was inverted and the cleaning failure occurred shortly after the start of the test. In the film-shaped abrasive 7 of Comparative Example 3, since the abrasive fine particles are not ultrasonically dispersed, the abrasive is not uniformly applied. Therefore, the average interval of the polishing grooves was greatly varied, and the result of the copying test was that the cleaning blade partly flipped up and black streaks were generated when 2000 sheets were copied. Further, since the film-shaped abrasive 8 of Comparative Example 4 has a large amount of abrasive fine particles of 10 μm, the average surface roughness of the abraded photoreceptor is as large as 5.0,
The photoconductor became scratched, and the toner entered the polishing groove, causing cleaning failure. Furthermore, since the fine abrasive particles in the film-like abrasive 9 of Comparative Example 5 are as small as 0.005 μm,
The polishing state was not sufficient, and according to the result of the copy test, the cleaning blade was inverted immediately after the start of the test, and cleaning failure occurred. On the other hand, in the photoconductors polished by using the film-like abrasives of Examples 1 to 4, uniform polishing grooves were formed, and no cleaning failure was found in the copying test even after copying 100,000 sheets. .

[0020]

According to the present invention, the electrophotographic photosensitive member can be effectively and uniformly polished.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a polishing apparatus used in the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Abrasive material in film form 2 ... Sending roller 3 ... Winding roller 4 ... Holding roller 5 ... Photosensitive member

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A binder resin layer is provided on a carrier film,
A film-like abrasive material prepared by applying, on the binder resin layer, abrasive fine particles having a particle size smaller than that of a toner in a solvent that dissolves the binder resin layer. Surface roughening method for electrophotographic photoreceptor.