JPH11300849A - Production of rubber belt - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method for producing a rubber belt by which work can be simplified and each process can be efficiently performed and the rubber belt with high dimensional accuracy can be surely and stably produced. SOLUTION: In a method for producing a rubber belt wherein an unvulcanized rubber sheet is wound on the outer periphery of a mandril and an endless belt- like rubber molded article is obtd. by heating and vulcanizing the rubber sheet and after this is abraded and is coated with a coating, it is dried to produce the rubber belt with a coating on the surface, after the endless belt-like rubber molded article obtd. by heating and vulcanizing is abraded, coated with a coating and dried without demolding the under a condition where it is held on the outer periphery of the mandril as it is, it is demolded from the mandril.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing an endless rubber belt such as an intermediate transfer belt of an electrophotographic apparatus such as a copying machine or a printer or an electrostatic recording apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in an electrophotographic apparatus such as a copying machine or a printer or an electrostatic recording apparatus, toner is electrostatically attached to an electrostatic latent image formed on the surface of a photoconductor (image forming body). 2. Description of the Related Art An image is formed and transferred to a recording medium such as paper to obtain a printed image.

In recent years, various types of copiers and printers corresponding to color images have been proposed, and as a method of obtaining a color image, four color toners of magenta, yellow, cyan, and black are superposed at a predetermined ratio. To obtain a color tone. In this case, an intermediate transfer belt for temporarily transferring and holding the toner image on the photoreceptor is provided as a method for superposing these four color toners to obtain a predetermined color tone, and a magenta toner image, a yellow toner image, and a cyan toner image are provided. A color image is formed on the intermediate transfer belt by sequentially transferring the toner images of four colors, i.e., a toner image of black and a toner image of black, on the intermediate transfer belt, and the color image is formed on a recording medium such as paper. An intermediate transfer system for transferring has been proposed, and some have already been implemented.

The intermediate transfer belt used for image formation of the intermediate transfer system is made of a soft and elastic material because it is in direct contact with a photoreceptor, a toner image, a recording medium, and the like. An elastic body formed into an endless belt shape is used. In this case, since the intermediate transfer member comes into direct contact with the recording medium such as the photoconductor, toner, and paper, a coating film made of resin is formed on the surface for the purpose of preventing contamination of the photoconductor, preventing toner adhesion, and reducing the coefficient of friction. It has also been done.

Conventionally, such an intermediate transfer belt has an unvulcanized rubber sheet wound around a cylindrical mandrel, and is heated and vulcanized to obtain an endless belt-shaped rubber molded product, which is polished to reduce the thickness. It is manufactured by a method of adjusting and applying a coating material on the surface, and then drying it to form an intermediate transfer belt having a resin coating film on the surface.

[0006]

However, this conventional manufacturing method still leaves room for improvement in terms of working efficiency and dimensional accuracy of the obtained belt.

That is, in the conventional production method, an endless belt-shaped rubber molded product vulcanized and molded using a mandrel is set in a polishing machine and polished, and then subjected to various treatments as necessary. The coating is applied by holding it on a suitable support and then dried by heating with a dryer.In this case, the belt must be set again in the device that performs the treatment for each process, and this operation is It was very complicated.

In the above polishing step, a very large load is applied to the rubber belt, and if the polishing is not performed in a state where the belt is firmly supported and fixed to the support, the belt may expand and contract due to the load during the polishing. In some cases, the belt may be damaged. Further, in the drying step, since the rubber belt is contracted by being exposed to a high temperature of 100 ° C. or more, the rubber belt is set on a cylindrical or columnar support whose outer peripheral length is adjusted to the final dimension of the belt, and the coating is performed. It is necessary to prevent dimensional change due to shrinkage by performing coating and drying, but it is very difficult to set the belt on the outer periphery of the support having the same outer peripheral length as the inner peripheral length of the belt. Become.

[0009] For this reason, conventionally, in consideration of workability in the coating process, a belt is previously formed into an inner peripheral length slightly larger than a predetermined dimension at the time of vulcanization molding, and this belt is formed into an outer peripheral section having the same final dimension. A method of obtaining a belt having the final target dimensions by shrinkage during drying by setting the support on the support having a long length and applying and drying the paint has been adopted, which further complicates the work. ing.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has been made in consideration of the above circumstances. Accordingly, the present invention provides a rubber belt capable of simplifying operations, efficiently performing each step, and reliably and stably producing a rubber belt having high dimensional accuracy. It is intended to provide a manufacturing method.

[0011]

In order to achieve the above object, the production method of the present invention is to wind an unvulcanized rubber sheet around an outer periphery of a mandrel, and heat and vulcanize the rubber sheet to form an endless belt-shaped rubber molded product. After obtaining and polishing this and applying paint,
When dried, when producing a rubber belt having a coating film on the surface, the endless belt-shaped rubber molded product obtained by heating and vulcanizing, without removing the mold, while holding the outer periphery of the mandrel After being polished, coated with a paint and dried, it is released from the mandrel.

That is, according to the rubber belt manufacturing method of the present invention, the endless belt-shaped rubber molded article wound around the outer periphery of the mandrel and vulcanized and formed is not removed from the mold, but is held on the outer periphery of the mandrel. In order to perform each step of polishing, coating of paint, and drying, the mandrel can be moved between each step, and the belt can be set in the processing device that performs each step of this mandrel, and the processing in each step can be performed. Each step can be performed much more easily than when the processing is performed by setting the belt removed from the mandrel in each apparatus.

Further, since the belt after vulcanization molding is firmly adhered to the outer periphery of the mandrel, the belt is polished as it is with the mandrel as a support.
The belt is polished while being firmly held by the support, so that the belt does not expand or contract due to the load during polishing. Furthermore, since each process of polishing, coating of paint, and drying is performed while being held on the outer periphery of one mandrel,
By adjusting the outer circumference of the mandrel to the inner circumference of the target belt, there is no need to consider shrinkage during drying, and no complicated operation is required, ensuring a rubber belt with excellent dimensional accuracy. It can be obtained stably.

As described above, according to the method for manufacturing a rubber belt of the present invention, each step can be performed efficiently by simplifying the operation, and a rubber belt having high dimensional accuracy can be reliably and stably manufactured. Things.

[0015]

Embodiments and examples of the present invention will be described below.
The present invention will be described more specifically. 1 and 2 show a method of manufacturing a rubber belt according to an embodiment of the present invention. Here, a manufacturing process of an intermediate transfer belt having two layers of coating films on its surface is illustrated.

In the manufacturing method of the present invention, an unvulcanized rubber sheet 2 is first wound around a cylindrical mandrel 1 as shown in FIG. In this case, the unvulcanized rubber sheet 2
Can be performed by an ordinary method. For example, a method in which the unvulcanized rubber sheet 2 is wound around the mandrel 1 while the unvulcanized rubber sheet 2 is unwound from a sheet roll by rotating the mandrel 1 is preferably adopted. Is done.

In this case, when the rubber belt is reinforced with a woven fabric or a reinforcing thread, when the unvulcanized rubber sheet 2 is wound, a reinforcing thread is spirally wound around the outer peripheral surface of the mandrel 1 or the like. What is necessary is just to wind a reinforcing woven fabric impregnated with rubber and wind the unvulcanized rubber sheet 2 thereon. Further, the unvulcanized rubber sheet 2 may be wound in a plurality of layers, and in this case, the woven fabric or the reinforcing yarn may be arranged between the layers of the rubber sheet 2.

Next, as shown in FIG.
The mandrel 1 around which the unvulcanized rubber sheet 2 is wound is set in the vulcanizing pot 3 and the unvulcanized rubber sheet 2 is heated and vulcanized. Thus, the unvulcanized rubber sheet 2 is vulcanized and molded into an endless belt-shaped rubber molded product 2a (hereinafter, this is referred to as a "rubber belt 2a"). The vulcanization method in this case is not particularly limited, and vulcanization can be performed by a known method. In particular, a so-called bladder vulcanization method using a vulcanization pot equipped with a rubber bladder is preferably employed. Is done.

After completion of the vulcanization molding, the rubber belt 2a together with the mandrel 1 is taken out of the vulcanizing pot 3 and, as shown in FIG. Adjust the surface smoothness. In this case, the polishing method is not particularly limited, but as shown in FIG. 1 (C), the rubber belt 2a held on the outer peripheral surface of the mandrel 1 is uniformly applied to the rotating drum-shaped grindstone 4 at a predetermined pressure. And the mandrel 1 is slowly rotated to grind the entire outer peripheral surface of the rubber belt 2a while rotating the rubber belt 2a using the mandrel 1 as a support.

Next, the polished rubber belt 2a together with the mandrel 1 is removed from the polishing machine, and a paint is applied to the outer peripheral surface of the rubber belt 2a held on the outer periphery of the mandrel 1, as shown in FIG. I do. In this case, FIG. 2 shows an example in which the paint is applied by a spray method, but the coating method is not limited to this, and for example, a dip method,
The coating may be performed by another method such as a roll coater method. In short, any method can be used as long as the coating can be uniformly applied to the outer peripheral surface of the rubber belt 2a while the rubber belt 2a is held on the outer periphery of the mandrel 1. Good.

FIG. 2 shows an example in which the paint is applied twice, that is, undercoating and overcoating, to form a two-layered coating film. Or three or more layers. The “layer” of the coating film referred to here is one in which one layer of one kind of paint is used as one layer, and one layer of one kind of paint is divided into several layers to form a plurality of layers. May be.

After the application is completed, as shown in FIG. 2 (E), while the rubber belt 2a is held on the outer periphery of the mandrel 1, the mandrel 1 and the mandrel 1 are put into the dryer 5, and the paint is heated and dried. In this case, the drying conditions are appropriately set according to the type of the paint. In this case, it is ideally preferable to dry at a temperature as low as possible. However, if the temperature is too low, the drying takes a long time. Is adopted.

After the drying is completed, the rubber belt is taken out of the dryer 5 together with the mandrel 2, and the rubber belt 2a is removed from the mandrel 1 as shown in FIG. In this case, the demolding operation may be performed by an ordinary method according to the structure of the mandrel 1.

Then, the removed rubber belt 2a is cut and inspected as necessary to obtain a completed intermediate transfer belt.

The mandrel 1 used in the present invention is not particularly limited, and a winding machine for winding the unvulcanized rubber sheet 2, a vulcanizing pot 3, a polishing device, a coating device, a dryer, Depending on the structure of the device, etc., it may be appropriately designed so that the device can be reliably and easily set in these devices.

As described above, according to the method for producing a rubber belt of the present invention, the unvulcanized rubber sheet 2 is wound around the outer periphery of the mandrel 1, and the rubber sheet 2 is heated and vulcanized to obtain an endless belt-shaped rubber molded product 2a. After polishing and applying paint,
In the case of drying and producing a rubber belt having a coating film on the surface, the endless belt-shaped rubber molded product 2a obtained by heating and vulcanizing is held on the outer periphery of the mandrel 1 without demolding. After being polished, applied with a paint, dried, and then released from the mandrel 1, the work can be simplified and each step can be performed efficiently, and the dimensional accuracy can be improved. It is possible to reliably and stably produce a rubber belt having a high hardness.

That is, according to the rubber belt manufacturing method of the present invention, the endless belt-shaped rubber molded product 2a wound around the outer periphery of the mandrel 1 and vulcanized is held on the outer periphery of the mandrel 1 without demolding. In order to carry out each step of polishing, coating of paint, and drying in the state as it is, the mandrel 1 is moved between each step, and the belt 2a is set on a processing device which performs each step of the mandrel 1, and the process is performed in each step. Processing can be performed, and each step can be performed much more easily than when the processing is performed by setting the belt removed from the mandrel 1 in each device.

Further, the belt 2a after vulcanization molding is in a state of being tightly adhered to the outer periphery of the mandrel 1. By performing polishing with the mandrel as a support, the belt 2a is firmly held by the support. The belt does not expand or contract due to the load during polishing. Further, since the respective steps of polishing, coating and drying are performed while being held on the outer periphery of one mandrel 1, the outer peripheral length of the mandrel 1 should be adjusted to the target inner peripheral length of the belt. Accordingly, it is possible to reliably and stably obtain a rubber belt having excellent dimensional accuracy without having to consider shrinkage during drying or the like and without requiring complicated operations.

As described above, according to the method for manufacturing a rubber belt of the present invention, each step can be performed efficiently by simplifying the operation, and a rubber belt having high dimensional accuracy can be reliably and stably manufactured. Things.

The method for producing a rubber belt according to the present invention comprises:
The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and may be changed as appropriate without departing from the scope of the gist of the present invention. For example, the processing method in each step, such as a method of winding an unvulcanized rubber sheet, a heating vulcanization method, a polishing method, a coating method, and a drying method, can be appropriately changed. As long as the method can be performed while being held on a mandrel without molding, a specific method of implementing each step may be any method. Also,
Although omitted in the above embodiment, other processing steps may be added between the respective steps as necessary. For example, a hole is formed in the belt between the polishing step and the paint application step, or the belt adheres to the belt surface. A cleaning step for removing polishing debris can also be added, and if the step can be performed while holding the belt on the mandrel, other steps from the heating vulcanization step to the demolding are added. That's fine.

Furthermore, the belt manufacturing method of the present invention is particularly preferably employed when manufacturing an intermediate transfer belt used in an electrophotographic apparatus such as a copying machine or a printer or an electrostatic recording apparatus as in the above embodiment. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, an air spring, a timing belt, and other endless belt-shaped rubber molded products manufactured using a mandrel such as a small belt may suitably employ the manufacturing method of the present invention. Is done.

[0032]

As described above, according to the method for manufacturing a rubber belt of the present invention, an unvulcanized rubber sheet is wound around the outer periphery of a mandrel, and the rubber sheet is heated and vulcanized to form an endless belt-shaped rubber molded product. When a rubber belt having a coating film on its surface is manufactured, the operations can be simplified and each step can be performed efficiently, and the dimensional accuracy can be improved. A tall rubber belt can be manufactured reliably and stably.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a process diagram showing an unvulcanized rubber winding step to a polishing step in a method of manufacturing a rubber belt according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a process diagram showing a process from a coating application step to a demolding step in the manufacturing method.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Mandrel 2 Unvulcanized rubber sheet 2a Endless belt-shaped rubber molded product (rubber belt) 3 Vulcanizing pot 4 Whetstone 5 Dryer

Claims (1)

[Claims] An unvulcanized rubber sheet is wound around the outer periphery of a mandrel, and the rubber sheet is heated and vulcanized to obtain an endless belt-shaped rubber molded product, which is polished, coated with a paint, and dried. In the method for producing a rubber belt for producing a rubber belt having a coating film on the surface, the endless belt-like rubber molded product obtained by heating and vulcanizing is held on the outer periphery of the mandrel without demolding. A method for producing a rubber belt, comprising: polishing, applying a paint, drying, and removing the mold from a mandrel.