JPH09319127A - Production of substrate for electrophotographic photoreceptor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To produce a high quality Al or Al alloy substrate for an electrophotographic photoreceptor in a high production yield. SOLUTION: When Al or Al alloy is hot-extruded and cut to form a rough tube and this rough tube is planed, iron- or cold-drawn and cut to a prescribed length to produce a substrate, the length [L(mm)], outside diameter [D(mm)], thickness [T(mm)] and thickness deviation [H(mm)] of the rough tube before the planing are allowed to satisfy the formula (D/L)×(H/T)=K<=0.2.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a substrate for an electrophotographic photoreceptor. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method for producing a substrate for an electrophotographic photosensitive member, which is made of aluminum or an aluminum alloy (hereinafter, also referred to as aluminum metal) having high dimensional accuracy, with high production yield. Further, the present invention provides
The present invention relates to a method for producing an electrophotographic photosensitive member that can obtain good image formation.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Electrophotographic photoreceptors having a photosensitive layer formed by coating a photosensitive layer-forming coating solution on the surface of a cylindrical aluminum metal substrate have been widely manufactured. However, this thin wall
It is not easy to manufacture a lightweight cylindrical substrate at a lower cost with good dimensional accuracy and high yield.

As a method for producing a cylindrical base body made of aluminum metal, for example, aluminum metal is hot extruded and drawn, the obtained pipe is cut into a predetermined length, and then the outer surface is diamond bite. And the like, a method of finishing the extruded tube by ironing, a method of cold extruding the extruded tube, and the like.

[0004]

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, aluminum metal is hot extruded, the obtained aluminum pipe is cut into a predetermined length, and then the outer surface is subjected to chamfering and ironing. Alternatively, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method of further increasing dimensional accuracy and improving production / yield in a method of manufacturing a substrate for an electrophotographic photosensitive member by performing cold drawing and finally cutting. The present inventor has conducted various studies in order to achieve the above-mentioned object, and in the above-mentioned method, the influence of the size of the aluminum metal pipe raw pipe before the surface-machining processing on the dimensional accuracy of the obtained photoreceptor substrate is affected. The present invention has been completed based on the finding that it is large and that it also affects the quality of a photoreceptor prepared using the substrate.

[0005]

That is, according to the present invention, an aluminum metal pipe obtained by hot extrusion of aluminum metal is cut into a predetermined length, and then the outer surface is subjected to a chamfering process. In the method for producing a substrate for an electrophotographic photosensitive member by further subjecting it to ironing or cold drawing, and finally cutting it, an aluminum tube before chamfering,
That is, the total length (L
(Mm)), outer diameter (D (mm)), wall thickness (T (mm))
And the amount of uneven thickness (H (mm))

[0006]

(2) (D / L) × (H / T) = K ≦ 0.2 ...

A gist of the present invention is to provide a method of manufacturing a substrate for an electrophotographic photosensitive member, which satisfies the following conditions. The amount of uneven thickness means the difference between the maximum value and the minimum value of the measured values at the four points obtained by dividing the tube thickness into four equal parts. Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail.

[0008]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The hot extrusion, chamfering, ironing and cold drawing in the present invention are carried out within the range of the conditions conventionally used. That is, an aluminum metal pipe hot extruded by an ordinary method is cut into a predetermined length to obtain a raw pipe. Next, surface roughening, thickness unevenness, chamfering for removing adhered dirt, etc. are carried out by, for example, cutting with a cutting tool such as a diamond tool, etching, or sand grains, carborundum, glass. The outer surface of the pipe is cut and removed to a thickness of 50 to 300 μm, preferably 100 to 200 μm by a method such as blasting using beads or metal powder, or by appropriately combining these methods. In the ironing process, an aluminum metal element tube having a punch inserted therein is successively passed through a die tube, and is gradually stretched about 3 times to form a desired outer diameter. The cold drawing process also stretches about 3 times.

According to the present invention, it is necessary that the dimensions of the aluminum metal base pipe to be subjected to the chamfering have a value satisfying the expression in the above process. In the case where this formula is not satisfied, the dimensional accuracy defect rate of the substrate is high even if the substrate having a desired product size is obtained by subjecting the substrate to face milling and ironing, and a photoconductor prepared using the substrate. Has a high probability of causing image unevenness. The meaning of the formula shows that it is desirable that the material pipe to be ironed has a small amount of uneven thickness, and that the defective rate is high especially in a thin and long pipe. 0.2 for the value of K
Below, 0.15 or less brings about a preferable result.

[0010]

EXAMPLES The present invention will be specifically described below with reference to examples, but the present invention is not limited to these examples. Example 1 Aluminum alloy A3003 was hot extruded at 500 ° C. to obtain an aluminum pipe having an outer diameter of about 34 mm, which was cut into a length of about 139 mm, and a wall thickness of about 2 mm and a K value of 0.2 or less. 10,000 tubes were obtained. Next, the outer surface was machined to a surface of about 150 μm using a diamond bite, and then ironed, and this was cut into a length of 338 mm to obtain a substrate for a photoreceptor having an outer diameter of 30 mm and a thickness of 1.035 mm. .

The ironing process is a three-stage process using three dies. The manufactured product had a dimensional accuracy defect rate of 15%. The surface of the obtained substrate was anodized according to a conventional method, the coating solution for forming a photosensitive layer was applied, and the obtained photoreceptor was mounted on a copying machine of an actual machine and the obtained image was evaluated. No good photographic image was obtained. Regarding the dimensional accuracy defect rate, the center of the tube was measured, and if the bend was 50 μm or less, there was no problem. When cold drawing was applied instead of ironing, similar results were obtained.

Example 2 In the same manner as in Example 1, an extruded tube having an outer diameter of about 44 mm was obtained, which was cut into about 140 mm, and a raw tube having a wall thickness of about 3 mm and a K value of 0.15 or less was obtained. 000 were manufactured. In the same way, they are chamfered and ironed, 334m
It was cut into m pieces to obtain a photoreceptor substrate having an outer diameter of 40 mm and a wall thickness of 0.75 mm. The obtained product has a dimensional accuracy failure rate of 10%
Met. The photoreceptor prepared in the same manner was of good quality with no image unevenness. Similar results were obtained even when the ironing process was replaced with a normal cold drawing process.

COMPARATIVE EXAMPLE 1 Hot-extruding and cutting under the same conditions as in Example 1 were carried out to obtain a tube having an outer diameter of about 34 mm and a length of about 139 mm. Then, 000 pieces were taken out, similarly subjected to chamfering processing and ironing processing, and cut into 338 mm to obtain a photoreceptor substrate having a thickness of 1.035 mm. The obtained product had a dimensional accuracy failure rate of 80%, and the prepared photoconductor produced almost no image unevenness.

Comparative Example 2 Among the raw tubes having an outer diameter of about 44 mm and a length of about 140 mm obtained by hot-extruding and cutting under the same conditions as in Example 2, 10 having a K value of 0.2 or more were used. 000 pieces are taken out, similarly subjected to chamfering processing, ironing processing, cut and length 334m
m, an outer diameter of 40 mm, and a wall thickness of 0.75 mm were obtained. The dimensional accuracy defect rate of the obtained product was 80%, and image unevenness was observed in almost all prepared photoreceptors.

[0015]

According to the present invention, aluminum metal is hot extruded, cut, chamfered, ironed or cold drawn, and finally cut to produce a substrate for an electrophotographic photoreceptor. By adjusting the outer diameter, length, thickness and uneven thickness of the aluminum metal pipe before the surface-shaping processing to predetermined values, the yield of the finally obtained photoreceptor substrate is improved, and high quality is achieved. The above photoconductor can be manufactured, which is a major contribution to the manufacture of the electrophotographic photoconductor.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. Aluminum or an aluminum alloy is hot extruded to obtain an aluminum pipe, which is cut into a predetermined length to produce a raw pipe, which is then subjected to chamfering.
Further, in producing an electrophotographic photosensitive member substrate by performing ironing and cutting, the length (L
(Mm)), outer diameter (D (mm)), wall thickness (T (mm))
And an amount of uneven thickness (H (mm)) satisfy the following formula: (D / L) × (H / T) = K ≦ 0.2 ... Manufacturing method. 2. The manufacturing method according to claim 1, wherein cold drawing is performed instead of ironing. 3. A method for manufacturing an electrophotographic photosensitive member, which uses the substrate manufactured according to claim 1.