JPS61204635A - Manufacture device for electrophotographic sensitive body - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To perform layer formation continuously by carrying out a series of processes of coating, drying, and curing while a cylindrical base body is pushed up from a lower stage to an upper stage through an annular blade packing. CONSTITUTION:A coating tank 1 containing a paint 3 and a dryer 4 are arrayed upward vertically and the bottom part of the coating tank 1 is composed of an annular elastic packing 2 for coating which has an internal diameter a little bit less than a drum 20 to be coated. The 2nd stage consisting of coating tank 5 and a dryer 8 is installed above said 1st stage to form the 2nd layer on the 1st layer. A coating tank 9, a dryer 12, and an ultraviolet-ray irradiating device 13 are arrayed upward in this order as the 3rd stage. The bottom part of the coating tank 9 is composed of an annular elastic blade packing 10. Further, the 4th layer is formed on the cured film of the 3rd layer in the 4th stage and an air pressure cylinder 19 and a roller 18 are provided at the lowermost stage as a device which pushing the drum up. Consequently, a large amount of coating liquid is not necessary and the coating is carried out while the coating liquid is stable.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an apparatus for manufacturing a laminated electrophotographic photoreceptor in which layers are continuously formed on a large number of cylindrical substrates by a dip coating method.

[Conventional technology]

The electrophotographic apparatus referred to in the present invention refers to a copying system using a conventionally known electrophotographic process.

That is, from the innermost layer, a conductive layer, a photoconductive layer, a sealing layer, an insulating layer,
A photoreceptor is used in which a surface layer, or in the case of an organic photoconductor, a conductive layer, an undercoat layer, a charge generation layer, and a charge transport layer are sequentially formed on a cylindrical substrate. The surface layer to be charged is uniformly charged positively or negatively in advance, and then the charged surface layer is irradiated with the original image to be copied, and at the same time a corona discharge is applied thereto to attenuate the charge on the irradiated area, thereby reducing the charge of the original image. An electrostatic image is formed on the surface layer due to the difference in surface potential that occurs according to a light and dark pattern, and after the electrostatic image is visualized with a developer mainly composed of charged colored particles, the electrostatic image is transferred to a transfer material such as paper. A visible image is transferred using an internal or external electric field and then thermally layered to obtain an electrophotographic image.

Conventionally, in the production of photoreceptors for this purpose, coating methods include spraying, low-2- or brush coating, flow coater, and dipping.
There are various methods such as (dipping), etc., but there is a method in which a cylindrical substrate is immersed in a coating liquid and the coating liquid is applied to the optical surface of the substrate and cured because it can obtain a relatively uniform coating film. That is, the dipping method was generally employed.

However, since this method involves directly immersing the cylindrical substrate into the coating solution, it has the serious drawback that dust tends to get mixed into the coating solution during the treatment process. When the coating liquid is pulled up from the coating liquid, vibrations of the substrate and uneven lifting speed are likely to occur, and the performance of the coating liquid is deteriorated due to long-term processing. When the layer coated on the upper layer is immersed in another coating solution, the substance in the lower layer may be leached out and mixed into the solution to be coated on the upper layer. It may seep into the coating layer.

The biggest drawback of this dipping method is that when manufacturing a photoconductor with a laminated structure, after coating the first layer, the drum must be moved to a second layer coating device located at a different location. I had to take it with me. For this purpose, a large-sized conveying device is required, and the process requires a large number of conveying machines, which is a major hindrance to automatic coating.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

An object of the present invention is to provide a manufacturing apparatus for a laminated electrophotographic photoreceptor that can continuously form layers on a large number of cylindrical substrates by taking advantage of the characteristics of the dipping method and does not require complicated equipment such as a conveyor. It is about providing.

[Means for solving problems]

According to the present invention, in order to apply a layer-forming coating liquid onto a cylindrical substrate as a first step by a dipping method and dry it to form a first layer, a coating tank and a dryer are arranged in a vertical row upwards in this order. In order to form a second layer on top of the first layer as a second stage, a coating tank and a dryer are arranged in a vertical row above the first stage in the same way as above, and the same goes for the following steps. It has multiple stages, and the bottom stage is equipped with a device for pushing up the cylindrical base.
The bottom of the coating tank is equipped with a ring-shaped elastic blade packing for applying the coating liquid, which has a slightly smaller diameter than the cylindrical base, and the cylindrical base has a ring-shaped blade/? There is provided an apparatus for manufacturing a laminated electrophotographic photoreceptor, characterized in that a series of steps of coating, drying, and curing are performed continuously while the photoreceptor is pushed up from the lower stage to the upper stage through a packing.

The invention will be explained in detail in the accompanying drawings.

The coating tank 1 containing the paint 3 and the dryer 4 are arranged upward in a vertical row, and the bottom of the coating tank 1 is connected to the drum 20 for coating.
It consists of four ring-shaped elastic gratings 2 for coating, each having a slightly smaller inner diameter. A second stage consisting of a coating tank 5 (containing paint 7) and a dryer 8 is installed above this first stage, and a second layer is formed on top of the first layer.

At the bottom of the coating tank 5 is a ring-shaped elastic blade packing 6.
It is composed of a lot of things. Furthermore, as a third stage, a coating tank 9, a dryer 12, and an ultraviolet irradiation device 13 are arranged upward in this order. The bottom of the coating layer 9 is likewise composed of a ring-shaped elastic blade packing 10.

In the fourth step, the coating tank 14 and the dryer 17 are arranged upward to form a fourth layer on the cured film of the third layer. An air pressure cylinder 19 and a push-up roller 18 are provided at the lowest stage as a device for pushing up the drum.
The drum is continuously pushed upwards.

The ring-shaped coating blade at the bottom of the coating tank is made of resin (e.g. polyethylene, Teflon) or rubber (silicone rubber,
It is an elastic material (urethane rubber) or kinda. The coated drum is raised and placed in a dryer (e.g. hot air dryer)
dried and hardened. Thereafter, the drum is raised and the next layer is formed through a series of coating and drying steps.

In the third step, a coating liquid containing an ultraviolet curing resin is used to apply the coating, and after drying, ultraviolet curing is performed using an ultraviolet irradiation lamp 13.

Finally, in the fourth step, a fourth surface layer is formed using the coating tank 14 and the dryer 17, thereby producing a drum photoreceptor.

During this period, the drum is moved at a constant speed (50 to 300 k/m).
Therefore, the length of one drum is 400 Wrlr, and the drum rising speed is 20 Wrlr.
If it is set to 0/m 1 n , it will take 20 minutes from loading the drum to completion, and one drum photoreceptor can be manufactured in 2 minutes, resulting in high efficiency.

In addition, auto hands 21 and 2 are installed in the supply and discharge parts of the drum.
3 and belt conveyors 22 and 24 are installed, and a drum photoreceptor is manufactured completely automatically.

In this device, there were four coating layers, and the third layer was an ultraviolet curing resin, but the number of laminated layers may be any number of five layers.

It is possible to have 6 layers, and if no ultraviolet curing resin is used, no ultraviolet irradiation rung is required.

If the drying temperature is extremely high, a cold air blower is installed immediately after the hot air blower to cool the drum.

As explained above, by vertically arranging coating tanks with ring-shaped elastic plate nozzles at the bottom, it is possible to simplify the structure of the device and continuously manufacture laminated photoreceptors with high efficiency. .

Furthermore, since it is a fully automatic device, it is extremely easy to produce high-quality drum photoreceptors without contamination by dust or dirt. In addition, since the conventional dipping method is not used, there is no need for a large amount of coating liquid at once, and coating can be performed with a stable coating liquid, which also prevents the coating liquid from the upper layer from penetrating into the lower layer and worsening the properties. Second, it is less likely that the coated layer will dissolve and mix into the liquid of the next layer when the next layer is coated.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawing is a schematic cross-sectional view showing an example of the drum photoreceptor manufacturing apparatus of the present invention. 1.5, 9.14... Application tank, 2, 6, 10° 15.
...Ring-shaped blade gloss, king, 3.7°11.1
6... Coating liquid (paint), 4.8, 12° 17... Hot air blower, 13... Ultraviolet irradiation device, 20... Drum, 18... Push-up roller.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) As a first step, a layer-forming coating solution is applied onto a cylindrical substrate by a dipping method and dried to form a first layer. In order to form a second layer on top of the first layer as a second stage, a coating tank and a dryer are arranged in a vertical row above the first stage in the same way as above, and in the same manner, a plurality of A step is provided, and a device for pushing up the cylindrical substrate is provided at the lowest step, and the bottom of the coating tank has a ring-shaped device for applying the coating liquid, which has a slightly smaller diameter than the cylindrical substrate. The laminated layer is equipped with an elastic blade packing, and a series of steps of coating, drying, and curing are continuously performed while the cylindrical substrate is pushed up from the lower stage to the upper stage through the ring-shaped blade packing. Manufacturing equipment for electrophotographic photoreceptors. (2) The manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an ultraviolet irradiation device is disposed above the dryer in at least one of the plurality of steps described above.