JPH0844262A - Cleaning blade for electrophotographic device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To accurately fit a blade member to a supporting member and to firmly fix it so that the positional deviation thereof caused by peeling, the floating thereof from the supporting member and the like do not occur with respect to a cleaning blade. CONSTITUTION:A pressing member 5 provided with higher rigidity than the blade member 1 consisting of elastomer is made to adhere to the back surface of the adhesion part of the blade member 1 with respect to the supporting member 2 by a double coated adhesive tape 4. By preventing the blade member 1 from being peeled from the supporting member 2 unless the pressing member 5 is peeled from the blade member 1 extending over the wide range or the whole thereof, the adhesion of the blade member 1 with respect to the supporting member 2 is secured high.

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 an electrophotographic apparatus, and more particularly to measures for improving the adhesiveness of a blade member to a supporting member.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Electrophotographic devices such as copiers, facsimiles and printers have a photoconductor having a photoconductive layer provided on the surface thereof. Then, for example, during copying, the outer peripheral surface of the photoconductor is uniformly charged, and then the outer peripheral surface is exposed through the image to be copied of the object to be copied, whereby an electrostatic latent image is formed on the outer peripheral surface. An image is formed. After that, toner is attached to the electrostatic latent image to form a toner image, and the toner image is transferred to a copy paper or the like to perform copying.

Further, since a part of the toner remains on the outer peripheral surface of the photoconductor after the copying, it is necessary to remove the residual toner, and this removal is performed by a cleaning blade. As shown in FIG. 3, the cleaning blade a is usually a blade member b formed of urethane elastomer as a raw material and a support member c with an adhesive d or the like.
It is manufactured by adhering to.

The supporting member c is made of a rigid metal, a metal having elasticity, a plastic, a ceramic, or the like. Usually, an untreated steel plate or a surface treatment such as zinc phosphate treatment or chromate treatment is performed. A product manufactured from a steel plate or other plated steel plate is used.

Further, as a method for adhering the blade member b to the supporting member c, for example, a method using an adhesive tape (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 61-130975) and a method using an instant adhesive (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 63-269188) have been conventionally used. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 61-145578.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2004-242242), a method using a reactive hot melt adhesive, a method using a UV adhesive containing a photoinitiator, and the like.

[0006]

In order for the cleaning blade a to continue to exhibit stable cleaning performance for a long period of time, the tip edge b1 of the blade member b is always in contact with the outer peripheral surface of the photoconductor at an appropriate pressure. It is necessary to be made uniform. For that purpose, the blade member tip edge b1 is not only smooth, but also the blade member b is attached to the support member c with high accuracy, and the blade member b is displaced from the support member c due to the displacement. It must be firmly bonded so that it does not rise.

However, in the method using the above-mentioned adhesive tape, although the initial fixing with high accuracy can be easily performed, the adhesive force between the supporting member c and the blade member b is small,
Particularly, there is a problem that the adhesiveness at high temperature is not sufficient and the cleaning property is insufficient.

Further, the method using the instant adhesive has the same problems as in the case of the pressure-sensitive adhesive tape, and also has a problem that it is inferior in impact resistance and inferior in durability.

Further, in the method using a hot melt adhesive, a sufficient holding state of the adhesive force at a high temperature cannot be obtained due to the temperature-sensitive characteristic peculiar to the adhesive, and when a hot melt adhesive excellent in heat resistance is used. Has to be bonded at a considerably high temperature, and there is a problem in the dimensional accuracy of the blade member b. Further, the hot melt adhesive is poor in vibration damping property and has a problem of vibration of the blade member caused by friction between the blade member and the photoconductor and generation of abnormal noise due to the vibration.

Further, the method using a reactive hot melt adhesive can solve the problems in the case of the above hot melt adhesive, but the handling of the adhesive itself is complicated, and the development of the final adhesive force takes a long time. There is a problem such as.

The UV adhesive method has a problem that the urethane elastomer blade member swells due to the radial reaction monomer contained in the adhesive.

As described above, in the structure in which the blade member b is simply adhered to the supporting member c, the supporting member c of the blade member b is
It is difficult to mount the product on the board with high accuracy, and Fig. 3
As shown in (a), the blade member may be peeled off from the supporting member, which may cause positional deviation and floating from the supporting member.

There is also a method of screw fixing, but this method has a problem that it is difficult to uniformly press the entire blade member b onto the supporting member c and the assembling accuracy is poor.

The present invention has been made in view of these points, and the blade member can be attached to the supporting member with high accuracy, and the positional deviation due to peeling or the like and the lifting from the supporting member are caused. It is an object of the present invention to provide a cleaning blade for an electrophotographic apparatus, which is hard to occur and which suppresses the vibration of the blade member.

[0015]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides a blade member by attaching a pressing member having high rigidity to the back surface of the blade member as long as the both members are adhered. It was designed so that it would not bend and separate from the support member.

Specifically, the invention according to claim 1 has a supporting member having an adhesive surface having predetermined width and length dimensions, and a length dimension substantially the same as the length dimension of the adhesive surface, It is premised on a cleaning blade for an electrophotographic apparatus, which comprises an adhesive portion formed on a part of the front surface, and a blade member adhered to the adhesive surface of the support member at the adhesive portion. Then, a pressing member having a rigidity higher than that of the blade member and having a length dimension corresponding to the bonded portion is bonded to the back surface of the blade member so that at least a part thereof corresponds to the bonded portion.

According to a second aspect of the invention, in the cleaning blade for an electrophotographic apparatus according to the first aspect, the blade member is adhered to the support member and the pressing member is adhered to the blade member by a double-sided adhesive tape.

According to a third aspect of the invention, in the electrophotographic apparatus cleaning blade according to the first or second aspect, the pressing member is made of a resin material.

According to a fourth aspect of the invention, in the cleaning blade for an electrophotographic apparatus according to the first or second aspect, the pressing member is made of a ceramic material.

According to a fifth aspect of the invention, in the cleaning blade for an electrophotographic apparatus according to the first or second aspect, the pressing member is made of a metal material.

[0021]

With the above construction, the present invention provides the following actions. In the invention according to claim 1, the rigidity of the pressing member suppresses the bending of the portion of the blade member that is pressed by the pressing member, and suppresses the occurrence of a situation in which the blade member is separated from the support member. As a result, the blade member has a strong adhesiveness to the support member, and the accuracy of the mounting position can be maintained. That is,
The blade member does not separate from the support member unless the pressing member separates from the blade member over a wide area or in its entirety. Therefore, the blade member has high adhesiveness to the support member.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the members are adhered by the double-sided adhesive tape, the adhering operation can be completed in a short time, and the blade member can be easily positioned accurately with respect to the supporting member. The correction of the bonding position can be performed relatively easily. Furthermore, when it becomes necessary to replace the blade member due to wear or the like, it is only necessary to replace the blade member and the double-sided adhesive tape, and the support member and the pressing member can be recycled. Further, due to the vibration damping effect of the double-sided adhesive tape, it is possible to suppress the vibration generated in the blade member due to the rubbing against the photoconductor, and it is possible to suppress the generation of abnormal noise.

In the inventions according to claims 3, 4, and 5, the material forming the pressing member can be embodied, and the practicality of the cleaning blade can be improved.

[0024]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a cleaning blade A for removing the toner remaining on the outer peripheral surface of the photoconductor of the copying machine.
As shown in FIG. 1, in the cleaning blade A of the present embodiment, the upper half of the front surface (the other side surface in FIG. 1) of the blade member 1 made of an elastomer is attached to the adhesive surface 2a extending in the longitudinal direction of the support member 2 by the double-sided adhesive tape 3. Glued,
Further, a pressing member 5 having a predetermined rigidity is attached to the back surface (front side surface in FIG. 1) of the blade member 1 corresponding to the adhesive surface 2a by a double-sided adhesive tape 4 in the blade longitudinal direction. Hereinafter, each member will be specifically described.

The supporting member 2 may be made of a rigid metal, an elastic metal, a plastic, a ceramic, or the like. In particular, an untreated steel plate, zinc phosphate treatment or chromate is used. Steel plate that has been surface treated, such as
In addition, it is preferable to use a plated steel plate or the like from the viewpoint of temporal change, particularly corrosiveness.

The blade member 1 is made of a polyurethane elastomer having high abrasion resistance, particularly a thermosetting type urethane elastomer. This urethane elastomer is obtained by thermosetting reaction with an isocyanate compound, a high molecular weight polyol and a crosslinking agent. More specifically, as the isocyanate compound, 4,4'-diphenylmethane diisocyanate (MDI), tolylene diisocyanate (TDI) is used. , 1,5-naphthalene diisocyanate (NDI), tolidine diisocyanate (TO
DI) and the like are used, and as the high molecular weight polyol, polyester polyol, polycarbonate polyol,
Polyether polyol, polycarbonate ether polyol and the like are used, and as the cross-linking agent, polyhydric alcohol such as butanediol, ethylene glycol, trimethylolpropane and glycerin is used.

Each of the double-sided adhesive tapes 3 and 4 is generally commercially available.

The holding member 5 is made of synthetic resin such as hard vinyl chloride, polypropylene, polyethylene, polyester, phenol resin, polyamide, polystyrene, epoxy resin, polyacetal, FRP made of these synthetic resin and glass fiber or carbon fiber, metal powder, or the like. It is manufactured from a reinforced resin containing a filler such as an inorganic powder and a ceramic or metal material.

Then, as a concrete procedure for producing the cleaning blade A, the elastomer sheet is cut into a predetermined size and washed as needed, thereby obtaining the blade member 1. On the other hand, the supporting member 2 and the pressing member 5
Is degreased in advance with a solvent or the like. afterwards,
The blade member 1 is attached to the support member 2 with the double-sided adhesive tape 3. Further, thereafter, the pressing member 5 is attached to the back surface of the blade member 1 corresponding to the attachment surface of the supporting member 2 with the double-sided adhesive tape 4. As a result, the cleaning blade A is obtained.

Since the cleaning blade A is obtained in this manner, the bending of the blade member 1 is suppressed by the rigidity of the pressing member 5, and the cleaning blade A is supported by the blade member 1 as in the conventional case. Member 2
The occurrence of a situation in which it is peeled off is suppressed, and high adhesiveness is obtained.

This operation will be described in detail. In the case where a pressing member as shown in FIG. 2 (a) is not provided as a conventional example, when an external force as shown by an arrow acts on the blade member 1, the blade member 1 While being bent, it was supposed to be peeled off from the support member 2 from the edge portion.
On the other hand, in the cleaning blade of this example shown in FIG. 2B, when an external force as indicated by an arrow acts on the blade member 1, the rigidity of the pressing member 5 causes the pressing member 5 to press down the blade member 1. It is possible to suppress the bent portion from bending. In order for the blade member 1 to bend, the pressing member 5 must be in a wide area or entirely separated from the blade member 1 as shown in FIG. 2 (b) so that the blade member 1 does not bend. . In other words, the blade member 1 does not separate from the support member 2 unless the pressing member 5 separates from the blade member 1 over a wide area or in its entirety. Therefore, the blade member 1 does not adhere to the support member 2 well. It will be secured high.

As described above, according to the cleaning blade A of this embodiment, the blade member 1 has a simple structure in which the pressing member 5 is attached to the back surface of the blade member 1.
Can be mounted on the support member 2 with high accuracy, and the accuracy of the mounting position can be maintained without causing displacement due to peeling or the like, or lifting from the support member 2.
It is possible to continue to exhibit stable cleaning performance for a long period of time. That is, like the conventional method using a pressure-sensitive adhesive tape or instant adhesive, the adhesive strength at high temperature is not sufficiently obtained, or the impact resistance is poor, and like the method using a heat-resistant hot melt adhesive, Adhesion processing at high temperature is required, leading to problems in dimensional accuracy of blade members,
Like a method using a reactive hot melt adhesive, it takes a long time to develop the final adhesive force, or a method using a UV adhesive causes swelling of a blade member, or a method using a screw, The blade member 1 can be firmly bonded to the support member 2 with high accuracy without causing various problems such as poor assembly accuracy. Further, the adhesion of the blade member 1 to the support member 2 is reduced, and the occurrence of abnormal noise during operation of the copying machine due to the blade member 1 fluttering is also suppressed.

Further, in this example, since the bonding operation of each member is performed by the double-sided adhesive tapes 3 and 4, the bonding operation can be completed in a short time, and the accurate positioning of the blade member 1 with respect to the support member 2 is facilitated. Moreover, the bonding position can be corrected relatively easily. Furthermore, when it becomes necessary to replace the blade member 1 due to wear or the like, the blade member 1 and the double-sided adhesive tapes 3 and 4 need only be replaced, and the support member 2 and the pressing member 5 can be recycled. You can

In this embodiment, the blade member 1 and the supporting member 2 and the supporting member 2 and the pressing member 5 are adhered to each other by the double-sided adhesive tapes 3 and 4, respectively. You may make it adhere | attach.

(Experimental Example) Next, an experimental example conducted for confirming the durability of the cleaning blade A according to this example will be described. Here, four types of cleaning blades as the cleaning blade A according to this example and a conventional cleaning blade as a comparative example were subjected to durability experiments.

The cleaning blades of each type will be described below.

-Type 1-The supporting member 2 and the pressing member 5 manufactured by using a phosphoric acid-treated steel plate (Bonde steel plate) are washed with a solvent (methylene chloride), and then the supporting surface of the supporting member 2 is advanced. Is JI
SA made of 65 ° polyurethane elastomer 2mm thick
Blade member 1 of double-sided adhesive tape 3 (Nitto Denko No.
500), and then the pressing member 5 was attached to the back surface of the blade member 1 by the double-sided adhesive tape 4 in the blade longitudinal direction.

-Type 2- The holding member 5 of the cleaning blade A of the above type 1 is made of aluminum extrusion (A6063S-T5).

-Type 3-Pressing member 5 of the cleaning blade A of Type 1 above
Was made of hard vinyl chloride having a thickness of 3 mm and washed with alcohol.

-Type 4-Pressing member 5 of the cleaning blade A of type 1 above
Was made of polystyrene having a thickness of 3 mm and washed with alcohol.

Comparative Example The pressing member 5 is not used in the cleaning blade A of the above type 1.

Each of the cleaning blades obtained as described above was mounted on a commercially available dry plain paper electrophotographic apparatus, and 5
Repeated image copying under 0 ° C atmosphere, blade life (number of sheets until image defects occur) and occurrence of abnormal noise (dry plain paper about 10 cm from front door of electrophotographic device)
(Checked by the listening feeling at the position). The results are shown in Table 1 below.

[0043]

[Table 1] Thus, in the comparative example not including the pressing member 5, 65
In contrast to the blade life reached with a single sheet, each type of this example is capable of copying over 35,000 sheets of image, greatly extending the blade life, and It can be seen that the generation of abnormal noise due to rubbing is suppressed.

[0044]

As described above, according to the present invention, the following effects are exhibited. According to the invention of claim 1, a pressing member having a rigidity higher than that of the blade member and having a length dimension corresponding to the adhesive portion of the blade member is provided at least partially on the rear surface of the blade member. Are adhered in a corresponding manner, and since the bending of the blade member is suppressed by the rigidity of the pressing member, the occurrence of a situation in which the blade member is separated from the supporting member is suppressed, and the blade member is firmly fixed to the supporting member. It is possible to adhere to, to maintain the accuracy of the mounting position, and to continue to exhibit stable cleaning performance for a long period of time. Further, by the damping effect of the double-sided pressure-sensitive adhesive tape in which the blade member is pressed to the supporting member and the pressing member is bonded to the blade member, the vibration of the blade caused by the sliding friction between the blade member and the photoconductor is absorbed, and when the copier or the like is operated. Generation of abnormal noise can also be suppressed.

According to the second aspect of the invention, since the blade member is adhered to the supporting member and the pressing member is adhered to the blade member by the double-sided adhesive tape, the blade member can be easily positioned with respect to the supporting member, and at room temperature. Since the bonding operation can be completed in a short time, it is possible to perform highly accurate bonding without positional displacement or waviness due to expansion / contraction of the blade member. Further, the correction of the bonding position can be performed relatively easily.
Furthermore, when it becomes necessary to replace the blade member due to wear or the like, it is only necessary to replace the blade member and the double-sided adhesive tape, and the supporting member and the pressing member can be recycled. It is possible to improve the sex.

According to the inventions of claims 3, 4 and 5,
The material forming the pressing member can be embodied, and the practicality of the cleaning blade can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a cleaning blade according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining a peeling operation of a blade member.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a conventional cleaning blade.

[Explanation of symbols]

 A Cleaning blade 1 Blade member 2 Support member 2a Adhesive surface 3,4 Double-sided adhesive tape 5 Holding member

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A support member having an adhesive surface having predetermined width and length dimensions, and a length dimension substantially the same as the length dimension of the adhesive surface, wherein an adhesive portion is formed on a part of the front surface. A cleaning blade for an electrophotographic apparatus comprising a blade member adhered to an adhesive surface of a supporting member at the adhesive portion, wherein the back surface of the blade member has higher rigidity than the blade member, A cleaning blade for an electrophotographic apparatus, wherein a pressing member having a corresponding length dimension is adhered so that at least a part thereof corresponds to the adhering portion. 2. The cleaning blade for an electrophotographic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the blade member is adhered to the support member and the pressing member is adhered to the blade member by a double-sided adhesive tape, respectively. 3. The cleaning blade for an electrophotographic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the pressing member is made of a resin material. 4. The cleaning blade for an electrophotographic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the pressing member is made of a ceramic material. 5. The cleaning blade for an electrophotographic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the pressing member is made of a metal material.