JPH11338310A - Photoreceptor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make it possible to obtain high-quality images by specifying the bore of a cylindrical body consisting of aluminum formed with an a-Si photosensitive layer on its outer peripheral surface and the outside diameter of flanges to a specific relation. SOLUTION: The cylindrical body 2 is formed by extruding, drawing, etc., of an aluminum metal. Next, the inside surfaces at both ends of the cylindrical body 2 are cut in to form socket-and-spigot parts 7 in order to enhance the inside surface accuracy. The flanges 8 formed of material, such as aluminum metals, resins, stainless steel and ceramics, to a disk shape are press fitted into the socket-and-spigot parts 7. The through-holes 8a are formed nearly in the central parts of the flanges 8 and a shaft is passed through these through- holes 8a. The shaft is fixed into an electrophotographic device to rotate the photoreceptor. In such a case the bore of the socket-and-spigot parts 7 is defined as A and is so set that the relation thereof with the outside diameter B of the flanges 8 satisfies 0<=B-A<=0.12 mm, more adequately 0.02<=B-A<=0.08 mm. As a result, excellent roundness is obtd. and the occurrence of the deflection of rotation is averted.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a photosensitive member having an amorphous silicon photosensitive layer formed thereon.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A photosensitive member having a photosensitive layer of amorphous silicon (hereinafter, amorphous silicon is abbreviated as a-Si) has already been commercialized, but this a-Si photosensitive member is a cylindrical member made of aluminum metal. A-S on the outer peripheral surface of
The i photosensitive layer is formed by plasma CVD.

[0003] Then, flanges are mounted on both ends of the cylindrical body, and the a-Si photosensitive member is mounted on the electrophotographic apparatus with this. A cut-out part called a spigot part is provided on the inner surface of the end of the cylindrical body. The flange is attached to the spigot portion to fix and attach the flange.

[0004]

However, by forming the spigot portion, the thickness is reduced, and the mechanical strength is reduced as compared with other regions.
Heating to 300 ° C., forming an a-Si photosensitive layer extending to the outer surface of the end portion to form a film, and then cooling the film. Large stress is generated, the a-Si photosensitive layer compresses the cylindrical body,
As a result, the end of the cylindrical body was contracted or deformed.

As a result, the flange cannot be mounted on the spigot portion, or the inner diameter of the end of the cylindrical body varies. Therefore, the outer diameter of the flange is made smaller than the inner diameter of both ends (the spigot portion) of the cylindrical body so that the flange can be easily attached to the spigot portion.

However, even if the diameter is set to be small and the flange is mounted on the spigot portion, when the a-Si photoreceptor is mounted on the electrophotographic apparatus and rotated, the end of the cylindrical body is shrunk and deformed. The roundness was reduced, and the cylindrical body was rotated, resulting in a decrease in image quality.

Therefore, a technique has been proposed in which the inner surface of the formed photoreceptor is tapered to correct the deformation and increase the inner diameter accuracy (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-146632). Processing resulted in a significant increase in production costs.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to accurately and reliably mount flanges on both ends of a cylindrical body of an a-Si photoreceptor, and then attach and rotate the electrophotographic apparatus.
An object of the present invention is to provide a high-quality image by preventing rotational vibration from occurring in a cylindrical body.

[0009]

The photoreceptor of the present invention comprises a cylindrical body made of aluminum having an a-Si photosensitive layer formed on the outer peripheral surface, and disk-shaped flanges are press-fitted at both ends of the cylindrical body. The inner diameter A at both ends of the cylindrical body and the outer diameter B of the flange are set so as to satisfy 0 ≦ BA ≦ 0.12 mm.

[0010]

1 to 3 show a process sequence of a photoreceptor 1 of the present invention. FIG. 1 is an end sectional view of a cylindrical body before forming an a-Si photosensitive layer. FIG. 3 is an end cross-sectional view of a cylindrical body on which an a-Si photosensitive layer is formed, and FIG. 3 is an end cross-sectional view of a photoreceptor of the present invention into which a flange is press-fitted. FIG. 4 shows a-
FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing a layer configuration of a Si photosensitive layer.

The cylindrical body 2 shown in FIG. 1 is made of aluminum metal and is formed into a cylindrical shape by extrusion or drawing, and is subjected to cutting or grinding with a lathe before forming the a-Si photosensitive layer. Through a roughing process and a finishing process, for example, to obtain a desired cylindrical shape and dimensional accuracy.

When formed into a cylindrical shape as described above, the accuracy of the inner surface is inferior. Therefore, there is a disadvantage that the coaxiality with the outer periphery is deteriorated even if the inner surface is fixed and held during the subsequent film formation. is there. Therefore, the inner surface accuracy is enhanced by shaving the inner surfaces of both ends of the cylindrical body 2 to provide the spigot portions 7.

Next, an a-Si photosensitive layer 3 is formed on the outer peripheral surface of the cylindrical body 2 as shown in FIG. The a-Si photosensitive layer 3 is formed, for example, by sequentially forming a carrier injection blocking layer 4, a photoconductive layer 5, and a surface protective layer 6, and is formed by vacuum deposition, active reactive deposition, ion plating, RF sputtering, or the like. , DC sputtering, RF magnetron sputtering, DC magnetron sputtering, heat C
A film is formed by a VD method, a plasma CVD method, or the like.

However, after such a film forming step, the film is heated during the film forming step, so that a compressive stress is generated in the film, and as shown in FIG. is there. Therefore, in the present invention,
A disk-shaped flange 8 made of a material such as aluminum metal, resin, SUS, or ceramics is press-fitted into the spigot portion 7. In such a flange 8, a through hole 8a is formed substantially at the center, and a shaft is passed through the through hole 8a, and the shaft is fixed in an electrophotographic apparatus, and the photosensitive member 1 is fixed.
Is rotating.

If the outer diameter B of the flange 8 is slightly larger than the inner diameter A of the spigot portion 7 during the press-fitting, the aluminum portion of the spigot portion 7 that has been contracted and deformed by the press-fitting is pushed open. Thereby, the flange 8 is securely fixed to the cylindrical body 2. The inner diameter A of the spigot portion 7 is a value measured at the outermost end after the formation of the a-Si photosensitive layer 3.

In this case, the relationship between the inner diameter A of the spigot portion 7 and the outer diameter B of the flange 8 is such that 0 ≦ BA ≦ 0.12 mm, preferably 0.02 ≦ BA ≦ 0.08 mm. It is preferable to set the value. If BA exceeds 0.12 mm, the outer diameter B of the flange becomes too large, and the spigot portion 7 is expanded and the a-Si photosensitive layer 3 is peeled off. Further, regarding the size of the cylindrical body 2, the outer diameter is 30 to 400 mm.
The longitudinal dimension is preferably set to 100 to 1000 mm. Further, when the thickness of the substrate before forming the spigot portion 7 is 1 to 8 mm, preferably 3 to 6 mm, both the processing accuracy and the material cost can be satisfied.

Further, the lower limit of the width of the press-fitted portion of the flange 8 may be determined in order to obtain the effect of press-fitting, or the upper limit may be determined in relation to the film formation region. It is desirable to make the width of 7 to 15 mm.

Thus, according to the photoreceptor 1 of the present invention, 0 ≦
By setting the inner diameter A of the spigot part 7 and the outer diameter B of the flange 8 so as to satisfy the relationship of B−A ≦ 0.12 mm, it is possible to accurately and precisely press the flanges 8 at both ends of the cylindrical body 2 respectively. It is securely mounted, and when mounted on an electrophotographic device, it has excellent roundness so that rotational runout does not occur,
As a result, a high quality image was obtained.

Further, in the present invention, the end face corner a of the spigot portion 7 is treated on the C surface or the R surface, or the insertion destination corner b of the flange 8 is treated on the C surface or the R surface. Thus, the flange 8 can be easily pressed into the spigot portion 7.

[0020]

EXAMPLE A cylindrical body made of aluminum having a purity of 99.9% is subjected to rough processing and finishing processing such as cutting and grinding to form a cylindrical body 2 having an outer diameter of 100 mm, a longitudinal dimension of 350 mm and a thickness of 3 mm. Produced. Subsequently, spigot portions 7 are formed at both ends of the cylindrical body 2.
The spigot portion 7 is formed by cutting using an L-shaped cutting tool while holding the vicinity of the center of the inner surface of the cylindrical body. Both spigot portions 7 were formed with a width of 6 mm from the end of the cylindrical body 2, and various samples in which the inner diameter of the spigot portion was changed in various ways depending on the cut amount were produced.

Next, the plasma C was applied to the outer peripheral surface of the cylindrical body of each sample.
The a-Si photosensitive layer 3 was formed by the VD method. The a-Si photosensitive layer 3 has a carrier injection blocking layer 4 having a thickness of 2 μm, a photoconductive layer 5 having a thickness of 70 μm, and a thickness of 1 under the conditions shown in Table 1.
A μm surface protective layer 6 was formed sequentially.

[0022]

[Table 1]

Each sample (sample N
o. No. 1 to No. 1 When the inner diameter A of each spigot portion 7 was measured for the photoconductor of 10), the results shown in Table 2 were obtained. The inner diameter A of each sample is measured in four directions at an angle of 45 ° with respect to the rotation axis of each cylinder, and is represented by the average value.

[0024]

[Table 2]

Next, a flange 8 having an outer diameter A of 95,000 mm was press-fitted into the spigot portion 7 of each sample, and the state of peeling of the film was examined. The results shown in Table 2 were obtained. ○ mark is when it did not come off at all,
The mark Δ indicates that the film peeled off when the end of the cylindrical body was 2 mm or less in width.

Further, each sample was mounted on an electrophotographic apparatus, and rotational runout at the outer periphery was measured by a measuring apparatus S shown in FIG.

This measuring device S has a pair of V blocks 10 disposed on a surface plate 9 to face each other. Further, a shaft 11 is passed through a photosensitive member 12 of each sample, and both ends of the shaft 11 are It is fixed to the block 10. Then, the dial gauge 16 was brought into contact with the outer peripheral surface of the photoreceptor 12, and the rotational vibration of the photoreceptor 12 for one rotation was measured by the vibration of the dial gauge 16. The measurement site is the central portion of the photoconductor 12 (site 14)
The parts 13 and 15 were 50 mm from both ends.

The measurement results are as shown in Table 2. When the rotational shake is less than 50 μm, the image density does not become uneven, and when it exceeds 50 μm, a potential fluctuation occurs in the circumferential direction of the photosensitive member 12. The image density becomes uneven.

Then, the evaluation was made by both the film peeling and the rotational runout. The mark ○ indicates that neither film peeling nor rotational runout occurred, and there was no problem in practical use. The mark △ indicates that there was some problem with either the film peeling or rotational runout. This is a case in which run-out occurs and cannot be put to practical use.

Thus, the sample No. of the present invention was used. 2 to sample N
o. In No. 8, film peeling did not occur, and the rotational vibration was extremely small, so that there was no unevenness in image density. However, the sample No. In Sample No. 1, the inner diameter A of the spigot portion 7 was small, so that the film peeled off at the end of the cylindrical body. In No. 9, the inner diameter A of the spigot portion 7 became large, and a slight rotational runout occurred, resulting in a slight unevenness in image density. Further, the sample No. In No. 10, large rotation runout occurred, and image density unevenness was remarkably generated, and the sample was not practical.

[0031]

As described above, in the photoreceptor of the present invention, the inner diameter A of the cylindrical body having the a-Si photosensitive layer formed on the outer peripheral surface is obtained.
At both ends of the disk-shaped flange of outer diameter B 0 ≤ B
By press-fitting under the relationship of −A ≦ 0.12 mm, the flange is accurately and reliably mounted, and when mounted on an electrophotographic apparatus, the cylindrical body does not run out, and as a result, A high quality image without image density unevenness was obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an end sectional view of a cylindrical body before an amorphous silicon photosensitive layer is formed.

FIG. 2 is an end sectional view of a cylindrical body on which an amorphous silicon photosensitive layer is formed.

FIG. 3 is an end sectional view of the photosensitive member of the present invention into which a flange is press-fitted.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view showing a layer structure of an amorphous silicon photosensitive layer.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a measuring device for measuring rotational vibration of a photoconductor.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Photoreceptor 2 Substrate (cylindrical body) 3 Amorphous silicon photosensitive layer 4 Carrier injection blocking layer 5 Photoconductive layer 6 Surface protection layer 7 Inlay part 8 Flange 8a Through hole A Inner diameter of inner part B Outer diameter of flange S Rotation runout measuring device

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A disk-shaped flange having an outer diameter B is provided at both ends of an inner diameter A of a cylindrical body made of aluminum having an amorphous silicon photosensitive layer formed on an outer peripheral surface thereof, respectively, in a range of 0 ≦ BA ≦ A.
Photoreceptor pressed in under a relationship of 0.12 mm.