JPH0815884A - Electrophotographic photoreceptor drum base, method for producing the base and device therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the defective coating and picture defect due to the burrs by forming the base from a specified tube, removing the periphery and specifying the lengths of all the metal-coated parts and burrs on the periphery. CONSTITUTION:The base consists of an aluminum or aluminum alloy tube 10, the periphery is removed, and the lengths of all the metal-coated parts and burrs on the periphery are controlled to <=10mum. Consequently, when the base is cleaned and then a photosensitive layer consisting of an org. photoconductor is provided on the periphery to produce an electrophotographic photoreceptor drum, the uniformity in thickness is not hindered by the burrs, and the defective coating and picture defect due to the burrs are prevented. A stabilized-quality photoreceptor drum without causing uneven pictures is obtained when an electrophotographic photoreceptor drum base is produced by controlling the maximum surface roughness to 0.2-6.0mum.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a base of an electrophotographic photosensitive drum used in a copying machine, a printer, etc., a method of manufacturing the same, and an apparatus thereof.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, JIS 1050 is used for manufacturing the above-mentioned photosensitive drums in view of corrosion resistance, processability and cost.
(Purity 99.5% or more pure Al), JIS 1100 (Cu0.05-0.
20% Al), JIS 3003 (Cu 0.05 to 0.20% and M
n1.0 to 1.5% Al), JIS 6063 (Si 0.20 to 0.6)
% And Al containing 0.45 to 0.9% of Mg), a tube made of pure aluminum or an aluminum alloy is used.

As described above, a high surface accuracy is required for the outer peripheral surface of the aluminum tube which is the base of the photosensitive drum or the like. Therefore, as a method for producing such an aluminum tube, first, an extruded, drawn, and drawn product is cut into an appropriate length to form a raw pipe having a maximum surface roughness of 5 to 10 μm, Rough cutting and finish cutting of the outer peripheral surface of the raw pipe with a lathe etc. to finish the outer peripheral surface to a maximum surface roughness of 2 μm or less, and to remove oxide film, surface processing layer, and surface scratches are common. Has been done.
Further, in recent years, application of polishing or grinding such as centerless polishing or super-finishing has been considered in order to improve the processing efficiency and reduce the cost. (JP-A-4-
No. 301647, JP-A-5-237755, etc.).

[0004]

When the removing process such as the centerless polishing process is performed, the abrasive grains 94 bite on the outer peripheral surface 90 of the aluminum pipe and then fall off as shown in FIG. Scratches may occur on the outer peripheral surface 90, and a portion 92 having a form in which metal is covered (hereinafter referred to as a metal cover) may be formed in the scratched portion, as shown in FIG. 7A. When an electrophotographic photosensitive drum is manufactured by disposing a photosensitive layer made of an organic photoconductor on such a substrate, the metal covering portion 92 rises in the cleaning process at the time of coating the photosensitive layer, and the substrate burr is generated. 92 'occurs. Then, it was confirmed that such a substrate burr 92 'hinders the uniformization of the film thickness of the coating film having the laminated structure of the charge generation layer, the charge transport layer, etc., and causes coating defects and image defects.

In view of such circumstances, it is an object of the present invention to provide a high-quality electrophotographic photosensitive drum base which does not cause coating defects due to burrs, and a manufacturing method and apparatus therefor.

[0006]

The present invention comprises a pipe material made of aluminum or an aluminum alloy, the outer peripheral surface of which is removed, and all the metal-covered portions and burrs on the outer peripheral surface have a length of 10 μm or less. It is an electrophotographic photosensitive drum substrate.

Further, according to the present invention, after the outer peripheral surface of the pipe material made of aluminum or aluminum alloy is removed and machined, the outer peripheral surface is machined so that all the metal-covered portions and burrs on the outer peripheral surface have a length of 10 μm or less. And a method of manufacturing an electrophotographic photosensitive drum substrate.

In this method, it is more preferable that the maximum surface roughness of the outer peripheral surface is 0.2 μm or more and 6.0 μm or less.

Further, according to the present invention, a conveying means for conveying a tubular material made of aluminum or an aluminum alloy in an axial direction while rotating it, and a surface of the tubular material conveyed by the conveying means is polished while being pressed against the outer peripheral surface thereof. A polishing grindstone to be processed is provided, and a pressing member that suppresses radial displacement of the pipe material by pressing the pipe material from the same direction as the pressing direction of the polishing grindstone to the pipe material is provided on the downstream side of the polishing grindstone. In the apparatus for manufacturing an electrophotographic photosensitive drum base, an abrasive material for removing a metal covering portion and a burr on the outer peripheral surface of the pipe material by sliding contact with the outer peripheral surface of the pipe material on a surface of the pressing member that is pressed against the pipe material. It is provided.

[0010]

According to the electrophotographic photosensitive drum base, since the lengths of all metal coverings and burrs existing on the outer peripheral surface thereof are not more than 10 μm, the organic photoconductor is applied to the outer peripheral surface through the washing step. When an electrophotographic photosensitive drum is manufactured by disposing a photosensitive layer made of, burrs do not hinder the uniformization of the film thickness of the photosensitive layer, and therefore, coating defects and image defects caused by burrs are prevented. It is prevented.

Here, after removing the outer peripheral surface of the pipe material made of aluminum or the like and then machining the outer peripheral surface, the length of all the metal-covered portions and burrs on the outer peripheral surface is set to 10 μm or less. According to this, it is possible to surely remove burrs by the above-mentioned machining, and it is possible to manufacture a high-quality electrophotographic photosensitive drum substrate which is low in cost and has almost no burrs.

In the production of this electrophotographic photosensitive drum base, it is difficult to control the surface roughness if the maximum surface roughness is to be less than 0.2 μm, and conversely, the maximum surface roughness is greater than 6.0 μm. Then, image unevenness easily occurs. Therefore, by setting the maximum surface roughness to 0.2 μm or more and 6.0 μm or less, it is possible to obtain an electrophotographic photosensitive drum of stable quality without image unevenness. Become.

Further, according to the above-mentioned manufacturing apparatus, when the pipe material is rotated by the conveying means and conveyed in the axial direction thereof, the outer peripheral surface of the pipe material is pressed against the polishing grindstone to polish the surface thereof. On the downstream side of the means, by pressing the pipe material with a pressing member from the same direction as the pressing direction of the polishing grindstone to the pipe material, radial displacement of the pipe material is suppressed to secure high processing accuracy and at the same time The abrasive material provided on the surface of the member that comes into pressure contact with the pipe material removes the metal-covered portion and the burr on the outer peripheral surface.

[0014]

EXAMPLES An example of a method for manufacturing a photosensitive drum base according to the present invention will be described below.

1) JIS 6063 (Si 0.20-0.6% and Mg
A solid round bar billet (outer diameter 200 mm) is manufactured from Al containing 0.45 to 0.9% as raw material, and this is hot extruded and drawn to obtain an outer diameter of 30 mm and an inner diameter of 28.5 m.
m, 260 mm long aluminum tube (aluminum alloy tube)
To manufacture.

2) With the centerless polishing machine shown in FIG.
The outer peripheral surface of the aluminum alloy tube is roughly machined, and the maximum surface roughness Rmax is suppressed within the range of 3 to 7 μm.

Specifically, referring to FIG. 1, the blade 5
0, the aluminum tube 10 is arranged, and the feed roll 51 and the polishing roll 52 are arranged along the longitudinal direction of the aluminum tube 10. Then, while the aluminum pipe 10 is sandwiched by the rolls 51 and 52, the aluminum pipe 10 is rotated in opposite directions with the central axis thereof as a rotation axis. At this time, the aluminum tube 10 tries to rotate at the same rotation speed as the high-speed rotating polishing roll 52, but since the aluminum tube 10 is braked by the frictional force received from the low-speed rotating feed roll 51 and the blade 50, the aluminum pipe 10 is rotated. Rotates at about the same speed as. As a result, the outer peripheral surface of the aluminum tube 10 can be polished by the polishing roll 52, and since the central axis of the feed roll 51 is slightly inclined, the aluminum tube 10 is conveyed in its longitudinal direction and sequentially polished. Can be used for

3) Superfinishing is performed using the superfinishing grinder shown in FIG. 2 to improve the maximum surface roughness Rmax of the outer peripheral surface of the aluminum tube 10 to a range of 0.2 μm or more and 6.0 μm or less.

The above-mentioned super-finishing polishing machine has an aluminum tube 1
A cylindrical object supporting device 20 for supporting 0 and a polishing device 60 for superfinishing the aluminum tube 10 are provided.

The cylindrical object supporting device 20 includes supporting rollers 23 and 24 fixed to a pair of left and right rotating shafts 21 and 22,
Each of the support rollers 23, 24 is formed in a drum shape whose diameter continuously decreases from the front and rear ends toward the center. Both rotary shafts 21 and 22 are vertically inclined by a predetermined angle α.
It is arranged in a state of only tilting, and both rotary shafts 21 and 22
With the aluminum tube 10 mounted on the
22 and the support rollers 23 and 24 are rotated in the same direction, respectively, so that the aluminum tube 10 is rotated around its central axis in the opposite direction to the rotation direction of the support rollers 23 and 24 (counterclockwise direction in FIG. 2B). ) Can be transferred in the axial direction while rotating.

The polishing device 60 is the same as the cylindrical support device 20 described above.
A plurality of (6 in the illustrated example) block-shaped grindstones 61 to
66 are arranged side by side in the axial direction, and each grindstone 61 to 6
The lower surface of 6 has an arc shape along the outer peripheral surface of the aluminum tube 10, and the finer the grindstone on the downstream side (left side in FIG. 2A) is used.

Further, a pressing block (pressing member) 67 having substantially the same shape as the block-shaped grindstones 61 to 66 is provided on the further downstream side of the block-shaped grindstone 66 on the most downstream side. The pressing block 67 is made of a hard synthetic resin or the like, and the block-shaped grindstones 61 to 66 are formed by the air pressure or the like.
Similarly to the above, it is pressed against the aluminum tube 10 from above, and the block-shaped grindstone 66 allows the aluminum tube 1
The front end of the aluminum tube 10 is prevented from rising backwards by the reaction force of 0 being pushed down, thereby stabilizing the polishing process of the aluminum tube 10.

Further, as shown in FIG. 3, an abrasive material 68 made of an abrasive cloth or an abrasive paper is adhered to the arcuate lower surface of the pressing block 67, that is, the surface which comes into pressure contact with the outer peripheral surface of the aluminum tube 10. , The abrasive 68 during the pressing
Is in sliding contact with the outer peripheral surface of the aluminum tube 10.

According to such a device, while the aluminum pipe 10 is being conveyed by the cylindrical object supporting device 20 in a rotating state, the grindstones 61 to 61 can be driven with a relatively low pressure by pressurized air or the like.
The lower surface of 66 is sequentially pressed onto the surface of the aluminum tube 10,
Moreover, the outer peripheral surface of the aluminum tube 10 can be superfinished by applying vibrations to the grindstones 61 to 66 in the axial direction. At this time, since the outer peripheral surface of the aluminum tube 10 that has passed through the block-shaped grindstone 66 also comes into sliding contact with the abrasive 68 of the pressing block 67, the aluminum tube 1 generated by this super-finishing polishing or the centerless polishing before that is performed.
The metal cover or burr on the outer peripheral surface is removed by a simple structure using the existing pressing block 68.

The abrasive in the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned abrasive cloth or abrasive paper, and a nylon brush 69 for abrasive may be provided on the lower surface of the pressing block 67 as shown in FIG. . In this case, the length of each bristle of the nylon brush 69 may be set so that the lower end of each bristle has an arc shape along the outer peripheral surface of the aluminum tube 10.

Ultrasonic degreasing (ie, cleaning) of the test material manufactured by the above procedure with an organic solvent such as triethanolamine
Then, by observing with a scanning electron microscope, the length L (see FIG. 7A) of the metal-covered portion (the portion including this burr if the burr is already raised) is measured, and the length is measured. Is 10 μm or less and the maximum surface roughness Rmax is 0.2.
Those having a size of μm or more and 6.0 μm or less were classified as Examples, and the others were classified as Comparative Examples, and their visual appearances were checked. Then, a function-separated photosensitive layer (charge generation layer 1 μm +
The charge transport layer 20 μm = film thickness 21 μm) was provided to prepare an electrophotographic photosensitive drum, and the uniformity of the coating film was evaluated. Table 1 shows the results.

[0027]

[Table 1]

As is apparent from Table 1, in Examples 1 to 6, since the metal covering lengths were all suppressed to 10 μm or less, no remarkable burr was generated even after the subsequent cleaning step. Therefore, the uniformity of the coating film is good,
There are no coating defects. Further, since the maximum surface roughness Rmax is within a proper range, the visual appearance is also excellent.

On the other hand, the maximum surface roughness Rmax is 0.1.
In Comparative Example 7 in which the thickness is controlled to μm, it is difficult to control the surface roughness by polishing with a grindstone, and the result is difficult to manufacture. In addition, the maximum surface roughness Rmax immediately after removal processing
In Comparative Example 8 having a value of more than 6.0 μm, the unevenness of the copy image is caused because the uneven polishing of the surface of the aluminum tube is remarkable. On the other hand, in Comparative Examples 9 and 10 in which the length of the metal covering portion exceeds 10 μm, the metal covering rises as burrs in the cleaning step at the time of coating the photosensitive layer. It was hindered and the result was difficult to put to practical use.

However, when the above polishing unevenness is not a serious problem, the maximum surface roughness Rmax is 0.2 μm to 6.
It may be set outside the range of 0 μm.

In the present invention, the type of removing process before removing the burrs is not particularly limited, in addition to the centerless polishing and super-finishing polishing, turning with a cutting tool, and as shown in FIG. 5, the aluminum pipe 10 is passed through a ring-shaped die 70. It is also possible to apply a peeling process for scraping off the outer peripheral surface by the thickness t, or a shot wire brush or the like.

Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the polishing material, which is a means for removing the metal-covered portion, is arranged online, but in the present invention, the metal-covered portion is completely independent from the previous removal processing. You may make it perform the removal work of a part.

[0033]

As described above, according to the present invention, a pipe material made of aluminum or aluminum alloy is used, the outer peripheral surface of which is removed, and all the metal-covered portions and burrs on the outer peripheral surface have a length of 10 μm or less. Because it is a certain electrophotographic photosensitive drum base, after undergoing a cleaning process,
When a photosensitive layer made of an organic photoconductor is arranged on the outer peripheral surface to produce an electrophotographic photosensitive drum, the burr does not hinder the uniformization of the film thickness of the photosensitive layer, and thus, the burr is prevented. This has the effect of preventing coating defects and image defects caused by the phenomenon.

Here, after removing the outer peripheral surface of the pipe material made of aluminum or the like, the outer peripheral surface is machined so that all the metal-covered portions and burrs on the outer peripheral surface have a length of 10 μm or less. According to this, there is an effect that the burr can be surely removed by the above-mentioned machining, and a high-quality electrophotographic photosensitive drum substrate can be manufactured at a low cost with almost no burr.

Further, by setting the above-mentioned maximum surface roughness to 0.2 μm or more and 6.0 μm or less, it is possible to obtain an electrophotographic photosensitive drum of stable quality without causing image unevenness.

According to the manufacturing apparatus of claim 4,
While rotating the pipe material by the conveying means and conveying it in the axial direction, when a polishing grindstone is pressed against the outer peripheral surface of this pipe material to polish its surface, on the downstream side of this polishing means,
By pressing the pipe material with the pressing member from the same direction as the pressing direction of the polishing grindstone to the pipe material, radial displacement of the pipe material is suppressed to ensure high processing accuracy, and at the same time, the press member is pressed against the pipe material. The metal-covered portion and the burr on the outer peripheral surface can be removed by the abrasive material provided on the surface to be covered, and the burr can be surely prevented from remaining with a simple structure using the existing pressing member.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of a centerless polishing apparatus used in a method of the present invention.

FIG. 2 (a) is a partial cross-sectional side view showing an example of the super-finishing polishing apparatus used in the method of the present invention, and FIG. 2 (b) is a cross-sectional front view of the super-finishing polishing apparatus.

FIG. 3A is a sectional side view of a pressing block provided in the superfinishing polishing apparatus, and FIG. 3B is a sectional front view of the pressing block.

FIG. 4A is a sectional side view showing a modified example of the pressing block, and FIG. 4B is a sectional front view of the modified example.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view showing an example of a peeling process used in the method of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory view showing burrs generated on the outer peripheral surface of the aluminum tube after the removal processing in the conventional processing method.

7 (a) and 7 (b) are explanatory views showing a generation process of the burr.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Aluminum tube 60 Polishing device 61 to 66 Block-shaped grindstone (polishing grindstone) 67 Pressing block (pressing member) 68 Abrasive material 69 Nylon brush (abrasive material)

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Ryoi Iwai 14-14, Chofu Minatomachi, Shimonoseki City, Yamaguchi Prefecture Kobe Steel Co., Ltd. Chofu Factory (72) Inventor Yukio Inoue 14-1, Chofu Minatomachi, Shimonoseki City, Yamaguchi Prefecture Kobe Steel Co., Ltd.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An electrophotography comprising a pipe material made of aluminum or an aluminum alloy, the outer peripheral surface of which is removed, and the length of all metal-covered portions and burrs on the outer peripheral surface is 10 μm or less. Photoconductor drum base. 2. The length of all metal-covered portions and burrs on the outer peripheral surface is set to 10 μm or less by removing the outer peripheral surface of the pipe material made of aluminum or aluminum alloy and then machining the outer peripheral surface. And a method for manufacturing an electrophotographic photosensitive drum substrate. 3. The maximum surface roughness of the outer peripheral surface is 0.2 μm.
3. The method for manufacturing an electrophotographic photosensitive drum substrate according to claim 2, wherein the thickness is 6.0 μm or less. 4. A transporting means for transporting a tubular material made of aluminum or an aluminum alloy in an axial direction while rotating the tubular material, and a polishing for polishing the surface of the tubular material transported by the transporting means while being in pressure contact with the outer peripheral surface of the tubular material. A grinding member is provided, and a pressing member that suppresses radial displacement of the pipe material by pressing the pipe material from the same direction as the pressing direction of the polishing grindstone to the pipe material is provided on the downstream side of the grinding stone. In the apparatus for manufacturing a photographic photosensitive drum base, a polishing member is provided on a surface of the pressing member that comes into pressure contact with the pipe material to remove a metal-covered portion and a burr on the outer peripheral surface of the pipe material by sliding contact therewith. An apparatus for manufacturing an electrophotographic photosensitive drum base, which is characterized by: