JPH08262902A - Production of thin pipe for fixing roller - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide a process for production of a thin pipe for a fixing roller capable of making rising time much shorter than that for the conventional fixing rollers when the pipe is used as a fixing roller of a printer. CONSTITUTION: This process for producing the thin pipe includes a stage for forming a ground surface plating layer on the outer peripheral surface of a long-sized material of a matrix, a stage for forming a thin metallic layer by building up a prescribed metal on the ground surface plating layer by an electroforming method, a stage for forming a resin layer on the thin metallic layer by subjecting the layer to resin coating and a stage for detaching and removing the long-sized material of the matrix. The method of using an Al pipe as the long-sized material of the matrix, subjecting the outer peripheral surface of the Al pipe to a zincate treatment and forming an electroless Ni plating layer thereon, then forming a Cu layer by an electroforming method on the electroless Ni plating layer, forming a fluororesin layer by an electrostatic coating method or baking method on the Cu layer and dissolving away the Al pipe with a hot caustic soda soln. is more particularly adequate.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a fixing roller incorporated in a toner fixing device of various electronic printers, and more particularly to a method of manufacturing a thin-walled pipe effective for a fixing roller of a laser beam printer. The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing the thin roller by a casting method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In various electronic printers, toner printed on a printing paper by a photosensitive drum is thermocompression-bonded at a temperature near 170 ° C. by a fixing roller arranged on the downstream side to the printing paper. It is fixed. The fixing roller that has been conventionally used has a thickness A of about 1.6 mm.
l Polytetrafluoroethylene (PT
For example, a halogen lamp is arranged as a heat source at the axial center of a pipe coated with a fluororesin such as FE) to a thickness of about 20 to 25 μm, and both ends of the pipe are sealed with flanges.

In this case, the metal pipe is generally manufactured as follows. First, a method in which a predetermined metal is formed into a pipe having a desired wall thickness by an extrusion molding method, and then cutting and polishing are performed is the mainstream method. There is also a method in which a foil of a predetermined metal is formed by a rolling method, the foil is rolled into a pipe shape, both sides are welded, and then the welded portion is polished to form a smooth outer peripheral surface.

During printing, radiant heat is supplied from a halogen lamp to heat the peripheral surface of the roller to a predetermined temperature, so that the toner on the printing paper is fixed. The fluororesin coating layer formed on the outermost layer serves to improve the releasing property between the toner on the printing paper and the roller and prevent the toner from adhering to the roller.

[0005]

In the case of an electronic printer, from the user's point of view, the fixing roller is heated to a predetermined temperature at the same time when it is switched on for printing, and the printer immediately starts the printing operation. It is preferable. However, in the case of the conventional fixing roller, since the pipe metal (Al in the above example) forming the roller has a predetermined heat capacity, the toner is fixed only after a certain time has elapsed from the time when the heating by the halogen lamp is started. The required temperature is reached. That is, there is a rising time until the fixing roller starts up in a predetermined operation. This rising time varies depending on the thermal conductivity and thickness of the pipe metal used, but is generally 1
It's about a minute.

For this reason, conventionally, even in the standby state, the fixing roller is supplied with electric power of a predetermined value to keep the fixing roller warm at all times. However, such a procedure consumes power that is unrelated to print execution even during the waiting time, which is significantly longer than the time when printing is performed, and is not preferable for the printer. Absent.

Particularly, in the case of a laser printer, even if the power consumption of the personal computer connected to the laser printer is about 1 W,
The power consumption of the fixing roller in the standby state is about 800 W, and most of the power consumption is wasted regardless of direct printing execution. The above-mentioned problems of the conventional fixing roller can be solved to some extent by reducing the wall thickness of the metal pipe forming the roller as much as possible and using a material having a large thermal conductivity as the pipe metal. You can

However, in the above-mentioned manufacturing method of the metal pipe, the wall thickness of the obtained pipe is limited, and for example, in the case of manufacturing from a foil, the foil thickness may be less than 500 μm in the rolling method. This is not possible, and it is difficult to make the wall thickness thinner than 400 μm even when manufactured by the extrusion molding method. Therefore, in the obtained pipe, even if the wall thickness is reduced, it is difficult to inevitably have a heat capacity corresponding to the limit wall thickness and shorten the rise time to the order of seconds. Therefore, in the conventional pipe manufacturing method, the heat capacity is further reduced by making the wall thickness as thin as possible, power consumption in the standby state is unnecessary, and a rise time of the order of several seconds is required. It does not meet the expectations of users.

The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems in the conventional fixing roller, and the thickness of the metal pipe used for the roller can be made thinner than the conventional limit value. Therefore, the heat capacity of the metal pipe is An object of the present invention is to provide a method for manufacturing a thin-walled pipe for a fixing roller, which is smaller than that of the fixing roller and enables the manufacturing of a fixing roller having a rise time of several seconds to 10 seconds during printing.

[0010]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, in the present invention, a step of forming an undercoat plating layer on the outer peripheral surface of a mother die long material (hereinafter referred to as a first step); A step of forming a thin metal layer by overlaying a predetermined metal on the plating layer by electroforming (hereinafter referred to as a second step); a resin coating is applied on the thin metal layer to form a resin layer A step (hereinafter referred to as a third step); and a step (hereinafter referred to as a fourth step) of detaching / removing the master die long material; and a method of manufacturing a thin pipe for a fixing roller. (Hereinafter, referred to as the first method), and a step of forming a base plating layer on the inner peripheral surface of the mother die long material; a predetermined metal is deposited on the base plating layer by electroforming. To form a thin metal layer; a thin pipe is obtained by desorbing and removing the master die long material. A step of inserting a support into the hollow portion of the thin-walled pipe, and applying a resin coating to the outer peripheral surface of the thin-walled pipe to form a resin layer. (Hereinafter referred to as a second method) is provided.

In both the first method and the second method of the present invention, the metal pipe forming the essential part of the fixing roller is manufactured by electroforming. In the case of the first method, the metal pipe is formed on the outer side of the matrix long material, and in the case of the second method,
A metal pipe is formed inside the master die pipe. First, the first method will be described in detail.

In the first step, a mother die long material is prepared, and a base plating layer is formed on the outer peripheral surface thereof. The master die long material used has an outer diameter substantially equal to the inner diameter of the intended thin wall pipe, and a thin wall pipe formed by electroforming on the master die long material in a fourth step described later. Any material can be used as long as it can be detached / removed from, and a rod or a pipe is used.

For example, pipes and rods made of Al, stainless steel, pipes and rods made of metal or alloy such as pipes and rods made of Cu; pipes and rods made of ABS resin, Resin pipes and rods such as silicone rubber pipes and rods; glass pipes and rods; brazing rods and the like can be used. A base plating layer is formed on the outer peripheral surface of the master die long material. As the base plating layer,
For example, a thin silver film formed by a conventional silver mirror method, or an insulating film formed on the surface by, for example, a chromic acid method, which is then subjected to a synthesizer treatment and an activator treatment, for example, Cu formed by electroless plating A layer and a Ni layer can be mentioned. When the long material is made of Al, a zinc layer may be applied to replace Al with Zn, and then a Ni layer formed by electroless plating may be used.

When the long material is an electrical insulating material such as resin or glass, this underplating layer imparts conductivity to the outer peripheral surface thereof and removes the long material in the fourth step described later. It functions as a protective layer for the metal pipe formed on it when it is separated and removed. The thickness of the base plating layer is usually about 1 μm. The second step is the first
This is a step of forming a thin metal layer by overlaying a predetermined metal by electroforming on the base plating layer formed in the step.

The metal used is preferably a metal having a high thermal conductivity, such as Cu, Ni, Ag,
Au, Au-Ag alloy, Au-Cu alloy, etc. can be mentioned. The thin metal layer at this time can be made to have an arbitrary thickness by appropriately selecting the conditions during electroforming, especially the electroforming time.

Considering that the thin metal layer to be formed serves as a metal pipe of the fixing roller, the smaller the heat capacity, the shorter the rising time of the fixing roller. The thinner the thickness of, the better. However, when it becomes extremely thin,
When assembled as a fixing roller, its mechanical strength is low and it may be broken during operation. Therefore, the thickness of this thin metal layer is about 20 to 300 μm, preferably 30 to 300 μm.
It is controlled to about 150 μm.

The third step is a step for forming a resin layer on the outer peripheral surface of the thin metal layer formed in the second step to impart releasability of the toner during operation as a fixing roller. Although the material forming the resin layer is not particularly limited, it is considered that the releasability is good,
For example, a fluororesin such as polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), polytetrafluoroalkyl vinyl ether, a mixture of PTFE and a metal alkoxide, or a silicone-based resin such as diorganopolysiloxane or organohydrogenpolysiloxane is preferable. Can be given as

Regarding the formation of this resin layer, for example, the member obtained in the second step is immersed in a dispersion of the above-mentioned fluororesin powder and then pulled up to burn the fluororesin powder in the dispersion adhered to the surface. Alternatively, it may be formed by applying a fluororesin powder to the outer peripheral surface of the member obtained in the second step and then baking it by a conventional electrostatic coating method.

The fourth step is a step of removing / removing the master die long material to obtain a thin pipe having a structure in which a base plating layer, a metal thin film and a resin layer are laminated in this order. As a method for detaching / removing the master mold long body, various methods can be adopted in relation to the material of the master mold long body. For example, when the mother die long material is made of Al material, the member obtained in the third step may be dipped in a hot alkaline solution such as hot caustic soda solution.

Since Al is an amphoteric element, it is dissolved and removed in an alkaline solution. At this time, the metal thin layer formed by the electroforming method, the inner peripheral surface of which is covered with the base plating layer, and the outer peripheral surface is covered with the resin layer, so that both layers function as a barrier, Dissolution of the thin metal layer is prevented. Further, when the mother die long material is made of a resin, it can be dissolved and removed by using a solvent that dissolves the resin,
Alternatively, the outer periphery of the member obtained in the third step may be coated with an oxidation resistant material, and then the resin may be thermally decomposed and removed in an oxidizing atmosphere. Also at that time, the base plating layer and the resin layer respectively located on the inner peripheral surface and the outer peripheral surface of the metal thin layer function as a barrier to prevent the metal thin layer from being oxidized.

Further, when the master die long material is made of glass, the glass can be broken and removed, and when the master die long material is made of brazing material, the entire melting point of the brazing material is used. The brazing material can be melted and removed by heating to the above temperature. In this way, a thin-walled pipe having a metal thin layer of a predetermined thickness whose outer peripheral surface is covered with a resin layer can be obtained. Therefore, by arranging the halogen lamp in the axial center of this thin pipe and fitting the flanges into the openings at both ends, the fixing roller can be assembled as it is.

Next, the second method will be described. In the case of this method, pipes made of various materials as described above are prepared as the master die long material. Then, a thin metal layer is formed on the inner peripheral surface thereof. In this method, the base plating layer and the metal thin layer are sequentially formed on the inner peripheral surface of the master pipe by applying the first step and the second step in the first method in this order.

Then, the master pipe is detached from the base plating layer. As the desorption method at this time, the method described in the first method can be applied. Also, when the master pipe is made of resin, glass, brazing material, etc., these materials have a higher coefficient of thermal expansion than metal materials such as the base plating layer and thin metal layer, so The master pipe can be detached by simply heating. This is because the thermal stress generated based on the difference in the coefficient of thermal expansion separates the interface between the master pipe and the undercoat plating layer and increases the inner diameter of the master pipe.

The thin-walled pipe obtained by detaching the mother die pipe will be stiff and buckle as it is. Therefore, after inserting a rod having an outer diameter substantially equal to the inner diameter of the pipe into the hollow portion of the pipe, While supporting the thin-walled pipe with the rod, a resin layer is formed on the outer peripheral surface thereof in the same manner as described above. Finally, by pulling out the rod, the target thin pipe can be obtained.

[0025]

Examples of the invention

Example 1 The following first method was performed. Outer diameter 20 mm, length 45
An Al pipe with a thickness of 0 mm and a thickness of 1.6 mm was prepared. Cover both ends of the pipe with a lid, and heat this Al pipe at a temperature of 50 ° C.
Case Clean # 203 (trade name, Kasei Kogyo Co., Ltd.)
Manufactured) to neutral degrease for 5 minutes, and
After immersing in a 0% caustic soda aqueous solution for 1 minute for activation treatment, and further immersing in a 50% nitric acid aqueous solution for 3 to 5 seconds, use a super zincate SZ (trade name, manufactured by Nippon Kagaku Kikai Co., Ltd.) Processed.

Next, this Al pipe was connected to Top Nicolon VS (trade name, manufactured by Okuno Chemical Industry Co., Ltd.) at a temperature of 80 ° C.
Soak for 3 minutes in the outer peripheral surface of electroless Ni with a thickness of 1.0 μm
The plating layer was formed as a base plating layer. The obtained Al
The pipe was dipped in Pyrosol 2X (trade name of copper pyrophosphate plating bath, manufactured by Uemura Kogyo Co., Ltd.) at a constant temperature,
The electroforming treatment was performed at a current density of 3 A / dm ² for about 83 minutes.
It was confirmed that a Cu layer having a thickness of 50 μm was formed on the base plating layer.

After completion of electroforming, the treated member was taken out, set in an electrostatic coating apparatus, and the outer peripheral surface thereof was electrostatically coated with PTFE powder and baked at a temperature of 300 to 400 ° C. to obtain a PTFE having a thickness of about 20 μm. Layers were formed. Then, both ends of the member were cut into a pipe having a length of 330 mm, and the pipe was immersed in a 10% caustic soda aqueous solution controlled at a temperature of 30 to 40 ° C. for about 4 hours. The inner Al pipe is melted and removed, the inner diameter is 20mm and the wall thickness is about 70μ.
m thin-walled pipe was obtained.

In the same way, 6 thin-walled pipes of the same size are
Book manufactured. Then, apply heat-resistant paint (product name, Okutsumo 8000) to the inner surface of each thin-walled pipe, and apply a temperature of 300-
After baking at 400 ° C and applying a black coating, a 440W halogen lamp is housed, and aluminum flanges are attached to both ends of the pipe with EN-4110 (trade name of epoxy resin adhesive, manufactured by Hitachi Chemical Co., Ltd.). Then, the fixing roller was assembled.

For these fixing rollers, the time from when the halogen lamp was switched on to when the surface temperature reached 170 ° C. was measured at 5 points on the surface, and it was 3 seconds on average, and the variation was ± It was 1 second. In addition, these six fixing rollers were incorporated into a commercially available laser printer, and the rise time until the execution of printing was possible was measured. The rise time was 4 ± 1 seconds.

Example 2 The second method was performed as follows. An Al pipe with an outer diameter of 30 mm, a length of 450 mm and a wall thickness of 1.6 mm was prepared. This A
After coating the outer peripheral surface of the l pipe with Turco 59801A (trade name, manufactured by Kakohki Shoji Co., Ltd.), the inner peripheral surface was subjected to neutral degreasing and zincate treatment in the same manner as in Example 1, electroless N
i-plating was sequentially performed.

Then, an electroforming treatment was performed on the electroless Ni-plated layer under the same conditions as in Example 1 except that the electroforming time was set to 166 minutes to form a Cu layer having a thickness of 100 μm. . After sealing the hollow portion of the treated pipe, the whole was immersed in the same caustic soda aqueous solution as in Example 1,
The Al pipe located outside was dissolved and removed.

Next, the sealed state is released, and the hollow portion has an outer diameter of 2
A 6 mm stainless steel rod was inserted, and under the same conditions as in Example 1, a PTFE layer having a thickness of about 20 μm was formed on the base plating layer. Six fixing rollers were assembled in the same procedure as in Example 1, and the rising time thereof was measured and found to be 5 ± 1.
It was seconds.

[0033]

As is clear from the above description, the thin-walled pipe of the present invention has a small heat capacity because its wall thickness is about several tens of μm. Therefore, when it is used as a fixing roller of a laser printer, for example, the rise time until it reaches a predetermined temperature during printing is about several seconds, which is very superior to the conventional fixing roller.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A step of forming an undercoat plating layer on the outer peripheral surface of a master die long material; a step of forming a thin metal layer on the undercoat plating layer by depositing a predetermined metal by electroforming. A method of manufacturing a thin-walled pipe for a fixing roller, comprising: a step of applying a resin coating on a thin metal layer to form a resin layer; and a step of detaching / removing the master mold long material. . 2. An Al pipe is used as the master die length material, an electroless Ni plating layer is formed on the outer peripheral surface of the Al pipe, and then an electroless Ni plating layer is formed, and then on the electroless Ni plating layer. A Cu layer is formed by electroforming, and the Cu
2. The method for producing a thin pipe for a fixing roller according to claim 1, wherein a fluororesin layer is formed on the layer by an electrostatic coating method or a baking method, and then the Al pipe is dissolved and removed with a hot caustic soda solution. 3. A step of forming a base plating layer on the inner peripheral surface of the master die long material; a step of forming a thin metal layer by depositing a predetermined metal on the base plating layer by electroforming. A step of removing / removing the mother die long material to obtain a thin-walled pipe; a step of inserting a support into the hollow portion of the thin-walled pipe and applying a resin coating to the outer peripheral surface of the thin-walled pipe to form a resin layer; A method of manufacturing a thin-walled pipe for a fixing roller, comprising: