JPH09325503A - Placing bobbin for manufacturing cylindrical electrophotographic photoreceptor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a placing bobbin for preservation or conveyance whose contact area with a photoreceptor is minimized in order to evade a faulty image being formed by suppressing dust caused by dried powder generated in the manufacturing process of the photoreceptor. SOLUTION: This placing bobbin is provided with inside surface contact parts 6d for holding the cylindrical photographic photoreceptor by the inside surface and placing legs 6b for placing the lower end surface of the photoreceptor so as to preserve or convey the photoreceptor by vertically holding it in the manufacturing process. Then, it is constituted so that the whole contact area of the contact area where the contact parts 6d are brought into contact with the inside surface of the photoreceptor and the contact area where the legs 6b are brought into contact with the lower end surface of the photoreceptor becomes <=20mm<2> . Besides, it is effective to use resin provided with a function preventing static electricity from being charged for the material of the placing bobbin.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a manufacturing apparatus for storing or transporting an electrophotographic photoreceptor.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The technology of electrophotography has been developed in the field of copiers, and has recently been applied to laser printers and the like, and boasts high image quality, high speed, and quietness comparable to conventional impact printers. Spreading rapidly. As shown in the laminated sectional view of the electrophotographic photosensitive member of FIG. 2, the photosensitive member used in these devices has a lower surface containing an organic resin as a main component on the outer surface of a cylindrical raw tube 8a made of aluminum or the like. Forming a subbing layer 8b made of an undercoat layer or an anodic oxide film, and a charge generation layer 11 made of a photoconductive material on the outer surface thereof.
The photosensitive layer 11 composed of a and the charge transport layer 11b is formed. Undercoat layer 8b and photosensitive layer 1 containing organic resin as a main component
1 is formed by coating, and the dip coating method is predominant among them.

In a general dip coating method, the coating liquid is adhered to the surface of the coating liquid by immersing it in a predetermined coating liquid with one end sealed so that its cylindrical axis is almost vertical. A series of film forming steps of drying is sequentially repeated in the film forming order to complete the photoreceptor. Particularly in mass production, individual photoconductors that have undergone the prescribed processing for each manufacturing process such as cleaning, coating, and drying are retained and stored, and then multiple photoconductors are grouped together and then collectively processed. Various types of manufacturing equipment are used that have been provided with comprehensive productivity improvement measures so as to be transported to the next step.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a conventional example of a mounting bobbin group for holding or storing a plurality of electrophotographic photosensitive members vertically for storage or transportation. The mounting table has a horizontal surface of an appropriate size. A plurality of frustoconical mounting bobbins 9 that can be fitted to the inner surface of the lower end of the photoconductor 8 are arranged and fixed on the upper surface of the photoconductor 10, and the photoconductors 8 that have undergone predetermined processing are sequentially mounted and stored or transported. It is a manufacturing apparatus that is designed to perform.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the conventional truncated cone-shaped mounting bobbin shown in FIG. 3, in which a mounting edge 9b is formed at the lower end of a support 9a having a shape in which a circular truncated cone is superposed on a cylinder. The photosensitive drum mounted on the photosensitive drum has a lower end surface mounted on the mounting edge 9b, and a mounting hole 9c for fixing is penetrated through the central portion of the peripheral surface. Are supported by fitting into the cylindrical contact portion 9d of the support 9a.

[0006]

In the manufacturing process for coating and forming the photosensitive layer of the electrophotographic photosensitive member, when the photosensitive member which is dipped in the coating solution and pulled up is mounted on the mounting bobbin, the lower end of the photosensitive member is lowered. The coating liquid adhering to the vicinity of the part spreads on the mounting edge of the mounting bobbin and the contact part of the support, and dry powder is formed with each drying. In addition to being directly mixed inside, the outer surface of the mounting bobbin is also contaminated, and the cleaning bobbin is also contaminated by repeated use of the mounting bobbin. The electrophotographic apparatus using the photoconductor has a problem that a fatal image defect called "black spot" or "white spot" may occur.

With reference to the drawings (FIGS. 5 to 7), dust generation and contamination due to the dust generation in the manufacturing process of the photoconductor after the formation of the undercoat layer will be described in detail. FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of a main part of a coating apparatus using a general dip coating method. The coating tank 1 is filled with a coating liquid 2 for coating and forming a photosensitive layer, and the coating liquid 2 is supplied to the coating tank 1. A supply pipe 5 connected to the bottom of the coating tank 1, and a coating tank for forming an overflow surface 2a at the upper edge of the coating tank 1 and allowing the overflowing coating solution 2 to flow out to the recovery pipe 4. 1 is provided with a gutter 1a provided around the upper part of the gutter 1, and an elevating mechanism 3 for immersing the photoconductor 8 therein.
When the photoconductor 8 having the sealing lid 7 connected to the upper end is immersed in the coating liquid 2, the coating liquid 2 is applied to the outer surface of the photoconductor 8.
Adheres.

FIG. 6 is a partial cross-sectional perspective view of the photosensitive member in the dip coating process showing the details of the portion surrounded by the circle R in FIG. 5, in which the air pressure and the coating liquid pressure sealed in the hollow portion 8c of the photosensitive member 8 are applied. The coating liquid penetrates into the inner surface of the lower end of the photoconductor 8 to a portion where it is in equilibrium with and becomes the adhering liquid 2b and is attached. Immediately after the photoconductor 8 is pulled out of the coating liquid in a small amount of production. 7 is a partial cross-sectional perspective view showing the situation of wiping off the adhering liquid in the dip coating process, the conical-shaped wiping member 12 made of sponge containing the coating liquid solvent is rotated in the direction of the arrow to expose the photoconductor 8 Although it is possible to remove the adhering liquid 2b adhering to the inner surface of the lower end of each of the photosensitive drums 8 in mass production, since a plurality of photoconductors are collectively handled as a group, the inner surface of each lower end of each photoconductor 8 is treated. Difficult to wipe Becomes therefore, the photosensitive member 8 which terminates the coating process is allowed to be mounted once on the placement bobbin in a state in which the adhering solution 2b to the lower end inner surface attached.

In the above process, the coating liquid spread on the mounting edge of the mounting bobbin and the contact portion of the support by the contact between the photosensitive member and the mounting bobbin and the adhering liquid remaining on the inner surface of the lower end of the photosensitive member. And dry to form dry powder, which becomes dust and mixes as foreign matter into the coating liquid or coating film of the photoconductor directly as foreign matter, and also adheres to the outer surface of the mounting bobbin as foreign matter. If the mounting bobbin contaminated in this way is repeatedly used as a manufacturing device for storage or transportation in each manufacturing process, a clean photosensitive member in the process of finishing the cleaning process and shifting to the coating process is mounted. In addition, the mounting end surface is also contaminated, and when the foreign matter that has become the contamination source is transferred to the coating process and immersed, the foreign matter is mixed into the coating liquid. Become.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is extremely difficult to fundamentally eliminate the process of forming a dry powder which is a pollution source and the opportunity to generate dust. A storage bobbin that can prevent the occurrence of image defects by suppressing the contamination caused by dust by devising a mounting bobbin that minimizes the amount of dust generated by contact with the mounting bobbin. It is an object of the present invention to provide a manufacturing apparatus for the electrophotographic photoconductor.

[0011]

According to the present invention, the above-mentioned object is to hold a photosensitive member on an inner surface in order to hold or transport the cylindrical electrophotographic photosensitive member vertically during the manufacturing process. In the mounting bobbin, each of which has an inner surface contact portion for mounting and a mounting leg for mounting the lower end surface of the photoconductor, the contact area where the inner surface contact portion contacts the inner surface of the photoconductor and the mounting leg are This is achieved by setting the total contact area by the contact area of the lower end surface of the photoreceptor to 20 mm ² or less.
It is effective that the material of the mounting bobbin is a resin having an antistatic function.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of a mounting bobbin according to the present invention. For example, a disk-shaped bottom plate 6e having a size capable of mounting a photosensitive member is provided with a prism or a cylinder at the center. A shaft core 6f is erected at the center through which a mounting hole 6c for fixing passes, and three or more rods, plates, or linear supports 6a are radially arranged around the shaft core 6f.
On the side surface of the bottom plate 6e, three or more mounting legs 6 in the form of a rod, a plate, or a line for receiving the lower end surface of the mounted photoconductor.
b is attached radially.

The support 6a is provided at its lower portion with an inner surface contact portion 6d for contacting the inner surface of the mounted photosensitive member and holding the photosensitive member, and the upper portion continuous thereto is guided when the photosensitive member is mounted. The taper shape is tapered toward the upper part of the shaft core 6f so that the virtual envelope surface formed by these supports 6a is like the truncated cone-shaped mounting bobbin shown in the conventional example (FIG. 4). Has a smooth surface shape.

In the mounting bobbin configured as described above, the inner surface contact portion 6d of the support 6a and the contact surface of the mounting leg 6b can be formed into any shape such as a flat surface, a convex surface or a spherical surface. As a result, the contact form can be made to approach point contact as much as possible from surface contact, and as a result, the total contact area of the mounting bobbin can be set extremely smaller than in the past, so that the formed dry powder can be mounted. It works to significantly reduce the amount of dust generated by contact with the stationary bobbin. In order to significantly reduce the occurrence of image defects caused by the inclusion of foreign matter, the total contact area of the mounting bobbin should be 20 mm ²
It has been verified by experiments that the following should be done. Note that it is effective to use a resin mounting bobbin provided with an antistatic function in order to prevent electrostatic dust from adhering.

[0015]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An embodiment of the present invention relates to an electrophotographic photosensitive member manufacturing apparatus in which a mounting bobbin for mounting a photosensitive member for storage or transportation is fixed on the upper surface of a mounting table. The conventional frustoconical mounting bobbin (see FIG. 4) is replaced with the radial mounting bobbin according to the present invention (see FIG. 8).
To replace.

The embodiment of the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to FIGS. 8 and 9. FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing another embodiment of the mounting bobbin according to the present invention. A mounting hole 6c for fixing is provided at the center of a cylinder at the center of a disk-shaped bottom plate 6e having the same size as the inner diameter of the photoconductor. Axis 6 through which
f is provided upright, a corner of an upper outer end is obliquely cut off around the shaft core 6f, and a plate-like support having an inner surface contact portion 6d in contact with the inner surface of the photoconductor mounted on the lower portion continuous with the corner Four bodies 6a are radially arranged and fixed to a shaft core 6f and a bottom plate 6e, and rod-shaped mounting legs 6b are provided on the side surface of the bottom plate 6e.
4 are radially attached.

When the photoconductor is mounted on the mounting bobbin, the photoconductor is guided along the virtual envelope surface formed by the supports 6a arranged radially, and the positioning is performed. Mounting legs 6b radially attached
Axial balance is maintained by abutting the photoreceptor on.
In order to form the virtual enveloping surface for guiding, at least three support bodies 6a must be radially arranged around the shaft core 6f at substantially equal intervals, and a stable equilibrium state in which three support points are supported. At least three mounting legs 6b for forming
Need to be radially attached to the side surface of the bottom plate 6e at substantially equal intervals.

9 (a) and 9 (b) are perspective views of a main part showing an example of the shape of the contact form according to the present invention. FIG. 9 (a) shows a plane contact, FIG. 9 (b) shows a corner contact, and FIG. FIG. 6C is a diagram showing curved surface contact, and FIG. 7D is a diagram showing spherical surface contact.
Based on FIG. 9, the inner surface contact portion of the mounting bobbin and the inner surface contact portion of the mounting bobbin are selected by selecting the surface shape processing of the mounting leg so that the contact form with the photoconductor is as close as possible to point contact. Also, the total contact area where the mounting leg contacts the photoconductor is reduced to 20 mm ² or less.

Therefore, the radial mounting bobbin according to the present invention is basically provided with three or more supporting members 6a and three mounting legs 6b, and in consideration of mechanical strength and contact form. It is configured.
In addition, in the case where the support of the mounting bobbin is formed of a flexible material such as a wire rod, the inner surface contact portion can be flexibly contacted with the inner surface of the photoconductor, so that the inner surface contact portion has a high rigidity, for example. It is expected that a greater effect can be expected in suppressing the amount of dust generated due to contact, as compared with the case of using a plate material or the like. (Embodiment) Eight mounting bobbins according to the present invention shown in FIG. 8 are fixed on the upper surface of a mounting table having a width of about 35 cm and a depth of about 24 cm, and the photoconductors 8 which have been subjected to predetermined processing are sequentially mounted thereon. Thus, a manufacturing apparatus for storing or carrying is constructed. This mounting bobbin is formed by using a material in which carbon is mixed with polybutylene terephthalate to give conductivity, and the thickness is 1
Four plate-shaped support members 6a made of mm are provided, and the inner surface contact portion 6d of one support member 6a has a planar shape of 15 mm × 1 mm.

Outer diameter 30 mm, inner diameter 28 mm, length 300
Mounted on the mounting bobbin of the mounting table with this manufacturing device configuration, using an aluminum base pipe (JIS6063) of mm, which has been subjected to a predetermined degreasing and cleaning treatment and then subjected to an undercoat layer forming treatment according to a normal manufacturing procedure. Then, the charge generation layer is formed by applying the charge generation layer coating liquid that is usually used, and then mounting it on a mounting bobbin of another mounting table with the same manufacturing equipment configuration. The table is brought into a drying oven and dried at 80 ° C for about 1 hour, then the table is left in a standby state with the platform removed from the oven, and the charge transport layer is usually used to individually transfer charges. After coating the layers to form a film, the original mounting bobbin was returned to the original mounting table, and the mounting table was again loaded into a drying oven and dried at 90 ° C. for about 2 hours to complete a photoreceptor.

The occurrence rate of "black spots", which is a factor of image defects, was investigated for the photoconductors that have undergone the above manufacturing process, and the total contact area of the mounting bobbin was measured. (Comparative Example) The same as the example except that the radial mounting bobbin according to the embodiment is replaced with the conventional frustoconical mounting bobbin shown in FIG. As the frustoconical mounting bobbin, a contact portion 9d having a cylindrical surface shape with a diameter of 28 mm and a height of 15 mm and a width of 10 mm and a thickness of 8 m are used.
It has a mounting edge 9b of m and is made of the same material as that of the embodiment.

The results of these investigations and measurements are shown in Table 1.

[0023]

[Table 1] According to the above results, when the radial mounting bobbin according to the present invention is used, the total contact area between the photosensitive member and the mounting bobbin is about 10% as compared with the case where the conventional frustoconical mounting bobbin is used.
It can be seen that the occurrence rate of “black spots”, which is a factor that causes image defects, is extremely small.

[0024]

According to the present invention, in order to hold or transport a cylindrical electrophotographic photosensitive member in a vertical state during the manufacturing process, an inner surface contact portion for holding the photosensitive member on the inner surface, In a mounting bobbin each having a mounting leg for mounting the lower end surface of the photosensitive member, a contact area where the inner surface contact portion contacts the inner surface of the photosensitive member and the mounting leg contacts the lower end surface of the photosensitive member. By setting the total contact area based on the contact area to 20 mm ² or less, the total contact area between the photoconductor and the mounting bobbin can be extremely reduced, so that the formed dry powder can contact the mounting bobbin. It is possible to significantly reduce the amount of dust generated, and it is possible to suppress contamination caused by dust and avoid the occurrence of image defects. Since the material of the mounting bobbin is a resin having an antistatic function, it is possible to avoid the attachment of electrostatically charged dust.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of a mounting bobbin according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a laminated cross-sectional view of a photoconductor for electrophotography.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a conventional example of a mounting bobbin group for vertically holding a plurality of electrophotographic photoconductors for storage or transportation.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a conventional frustoconical mounting bobbin.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of a main part of a coating device by a general dip coating method.

FIG. 6 is a partial sectional perspective view of a photosensitive drum in a dip coating process.

FIG. 7 is a partial cross-sectional perspective view showing a situation of wiping off an adhering liquid in a dip coating process.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing another embodiment of the mounting bobbin according to the present invention.

9A and 9B are perspective views of a main part showing a shape example of a contact mode according to the present invention, in which FIG. 9A shows a plane contact, FIG. 9B shows a corner contact, and FIG. 9C shows a curved contact. Figure, (d) shows spherical contact

[Explanation of symbols]

 6a Support body 6b Mounting leg 6c Mounting hole 6d Inner surface contact part 6e Bottom board 6f Shaft core

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An inner surface contact portion for holding a photosensitive member on an inner surface and a lower end surface of the photosensitive member in order to vertically hold and store a cylindrical electrophotographic photosensitive member during a manufacturing process. In a mounting bobbin each having a mounting leg for mounting, a contact area where the inner surface contact portion contacts the inner surface of the photoconductor and a contact area where the mounting leg contacts the lower end surface of the photoconductor. A mounting bobbin for manufacturing a cylindrical electrophotographic photoreceptor, which has a total contact area of 20 mm ² or less. 2. The mounting bobbin for manufacturing a cylindrical electrophotographic photosensitive member according to claim 1, wherein the mounting bobbin is made of a resin having an antistatic function.