Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G03—PHOTOGRAPHY; CINEMATOGRAPHY; ANALOGOUS TECHNIQUES USING WAVES OTHER THAN OPTICAL WAVES; ELECTROGRAPHY; HOLOGRAPHY
  • G03G—ELECTROGRAPHY; ELECTROPHOTOGRAPHY; MAGNETOGRAPHY
  • G03G15/00—Apparatus for electrographic processes using a charge pattern
  • G03G15/20—Apparatus for electrographic processes using a charge pattern for fixing, e.g. by using heat
  • G03G15/2003—Apparatus for electrographic processes using a charge pattern for fixing, e.g. by using heat using heat
  • G03G15/2014—Apparatus for electrographic processes using a charge pattern for fixing, e.g. by using heat using heat using contact heat
  • G03G15/2053—Structural details of heat elements, e.g. structure of roller or belt, eddy current, induction heating
  • G03G15/2057—Structural details of heat elements, e.g. structure of roller or belt, eddy current, induction heating relating to the chemical composition of the heat element and layers thereof
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G03—PHOTOGRAPHY; CINEMATOGRAPHY; ANALOGOUS TECHNIQUES USING WAVES OTHER THAN OPTICAL WAVES; ELECTROGRAPHY; HOLOGRAPHY
  • G03G—ELECTROGRAPHY; ELECTROPHOTOGRAPHY; MAGNETOGRAPHY
  • G03G15/00—Apparatus for electrographic processes using a charge pattern
  • G03G15/20—Apparatus for electrographic processes using a charge pattern for fixing, e.g. by using heat
  • G03G15/2003—Apparatus for electrographic processes using a charge pattern for fixing, e.g. by using heat using heat
  • G03G15/2014—Apparatus for electrographic processes using a charge pattern for fixing, e.g. by using heat using heat using contact heat
  • G03G15/2064—Apparatus for electrographic processes using a charge pattern for fixing, e.g. by using heat using heat using contact heat combined with pressure
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G03—PHOTOGRAPHY; CINEMATOGRAPHY; ANALOGOUS TECHNIQUES USING WAVES OTHER THAN OPTICAL WAVES; ELECTROGRAPHY; HOLOGRAPHY
  • G03G—ELECTROGRAPHY; ELECTROPHOTOGRAPHY; MAGNETOGRAPHY
  • G03G2215/00—Apparatus for electrophotographic processes
  • G03G2215/20—Details of the fixing device or porcess
  • G03G2215/2003—Structural features of the fixing device
  • G03G2215/2016—Heating belt
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G03—PHOTOGRAPHY; CINEMATOGRAPHY; ANALOGOUS TECHNIQUES USING WAVES OTHER THAN OPTICAL WAVES; ELECTROGRAPHY; HOLOGRAPHY
  • G03G—ELECTROGRAPHY; ELECTROPHOTOGRAPHY; MAGNETOGRAPHY
  • G03G2215/00—Apparatus for electrophotographic processes
  • G03G2215/20—Details of the fixing device or porcess
  • G03G2215/2003—Structural features of the fixing device
  • G03G2215/2048—Surface layer material
  • G03G2215/2051—Silicone rubber

Definitions

• the present invention relates to a fixing device to be mounted in an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, such as a photocopier, printer, and facsimile, and also relates to a fixing member having high release properties, which is mounted in the fixing device.
• electrophotographic system e.g. an image forming member such as a photocopier, printer, and facsimile
• an image forming member such as a photocopier, printer, and facsimile
• an image forming member generally contains a rotatable photoconductor drum, and forms a latent electrostatic image on the photoconductor drum by uniformly charging a photosensitive layer of the photoconductor drum, followed by exposing the charged photosensitive layer of the photoconductor drum with laser beams emitted from a laser scanning unit.
• the image forming apparatus further contains a system for
• the developed image is transferred to a transfer paper as a recording material, and is then thermally fixed on the transfer paper by passing the transfer paper through a thermal fixing device.
• the fixing member having sufficient elasticity for attaining the fixing ability suitable for color images has a problem that it has poor abrasion resistance, and release properties for a toner.
• the fixing system generally applies a fixing system for fixing a toner image on a recording sheet by passing the recording sheet between a fixing roller or fixing belt and a pressure roller in contact with the fixing roller or belt with a certain pressure, and softening and pressurizing the deposited toner on the recording sheet with sheet.
• a surface layer of the fixing member is formed in the film thickness of 15 ⁇ to 30 ⁇ with a material having high release properties (e.g. a fluororesin).
• This material has a disadvantage that the material has a high degree of hardness due to the characteristics of the resin. If the material has the high degree of the hardness, the material cannot correspond to the irregularities of the paper fibers when the toner image electrostatically formed is fixed by heat and pressure, and therefore high quality images cannot be formed. Especially, because of the polularities of full-color image formation, the fixing is currently performed on a plurality of color toners in the manner that the fixing member is brought into contact with the color toners to cover the shapes of the toners to thereby melt the color toner. Therefore, the hardness of the material greatly affects the fixation and resulting images.
• an elastic material e.g., silicone rubber and fluororubber
• the fixing member using the elastic material tends to be scratched by the frictions with transfer paper or by the scratches formed on the transfer paper by a separation claw for separating the transfer paper. These scratches are transferred during the fixing process to thereby form abnormal images.
• a large amount of silica powder or alumina powder is formulated into a silicone rubber composition of an elastic material for the purpose of improving abrasion resistance.
• This silicone rubber however has high rubber hardness, which as described earlier, cannot attain sufficient elasticity to provide high quality images. Therefore, there is proposed an invention which related to a material for improving the hardness of the elastic material by reducing crosslink density to provide low hardness of the rubber, for example as in PTL 1.
• inorganic fillers may fall out as the rubber strength reduces, and therefore sufficient abrasion resistance cannot be attained.
• the inorganic filler functions as an abrasion agent, which may accelerate abrasion in some cases.
• a fixing member using an elastic material cannot secure its release properties to the extend that that of the fluororesin does, and therefore offset needs to be prevented by coating or dipping the fixing member with or in a compatible low molecular oil component to supplement the release properties.
• this method there are various problems such as staining transfer paper by smearing of the oil component during the standing period, a problem in maintenance, and problem in continuity of the release ability, and furthermore there is a problem that a device is required for supplying a liquid for preventing offset, which makes a configuration of a fixing device complex.
• PTL 5 discloses a fixing member which uses an
• organic-inorganic hybrid material obtained by heating a sol containing a metal alkoxide and a solid silica compound to form a gel, as an elasticity material, to thereby improve heat
• JP-B Japanese Patent Application Publication
• JP-B Japanese Patent Application Publication
• JP-A Japanese Patent Application LaidOpen
• PTL 5 JP-A No. 2002-82558
• the present invention solves various problems in the art, and achieves the following object.
• the object of the present invention is to provide a fixing member having an outermost surface whose durability and release properties have been improved, with sufficient elasticity for giving high image quality to correspond to full color printing, to thereby provide a fixing device and electrophotographic image forming apparatus realizing both high image quality and high reliability, as well as stable fixing over a long period.
• the present invention includes the following
• a fixing member containing:
• polyoranosiloxane layer provided on the base, where the polyoranosiloxane layer contains polyoranosiloxane
• the fixing member including a silicon atom bonded to three or four oxygen atoms, wherein the fixing member is designed to be used in a process for heating a toner image on a recording medium to fix the toner image onto the recording medium.
• ⁇ 2> The fixing member according to ⁇ 1>, wherein the polyorganosiloxane layer has the maximum value of an oxygen atom concentration in an area of the polyorganosiloxane layer, which is 5 nm to 50 ⁇ in depth from an outermost surface of the polyorganosiloxane layer.
• polyorganosiloxane layer which is 5 nm to 50 ⁇ in depth from an outermost surface of the polyorganosiloxane layer.
• ⁇ 4> The fixing member according to any one of ⁇ 1> to ⁇ 3>, wherein a depth of the polyorganosiloxane layer where the oxygen atom concentration has the maximum value and a depth of the polyorganosiloxane layer where the carbon atom
• ⁇ 5> The fixing member according to any one of ⁇ 1> to ⁇ 4>, wherein the polyorganosiloxane layer has a surface to which a perfluoroalkyl ether group is bonded via an oxygen atom.
• ⁇ 6> The fixing member according to any one of ⁇ 1> to ⁇ 5>, further containing an elastic layer provided between the base and the polyorganosiloxane layer.
• ⁇ 9> The fixing member according to any one of ⁇ 1> to ⁇ 8>, wherein the fixing member has a universal hardness of 0.5 N/mm 2 or lower with an indentation depth of 5 ⁇ .
• a fixing device containing:
• the fixing member as defined in any one of ⁇ 1> to ⁇ 9>.
• the fixing device contains a fixing belt and a pressure belt provided to face the fixing belt, where at least either of the fixing belt or the pressure belt is the fixing member.
• An image forming apparatus containing:
• the fixing device as defined in any one of ⁇ 10> to ⁇ 12>.
• the effect of the embodiments ⁇ 1> to ⁇ 4> of the invention includes providing a fixing member realizing "high durability by improving the abrasion resistance of the fixing member".
• the effect of the embodiments ⁇ 5> to ⁇ 9> of the invention includes, in addition to the effect of the embodiments ⁇ 1> to ⁇ 4> of the invention, improving release properties of the outermost surface of the fixing member to reduce adhesion force of a melted toner, or reduce occurrences of jamming of paper due to adhering or wrapping around of paper, and realizing stable fixing over a long period.
• the effect of the embodiments ⁇ 10> to ⁇ 12> of the invention includes, in addition to the effects of the embodiments ⁇ 1> to ⁇ 9> of the invention, providing a fixing device whose durability and reliability have been improved by using these embodiments of the fixing member.
• the effect of the embodiment ⁇ 13> of the invention includes, in addition to the effect of the embodiments ⁇ 10> to ⁇ 12> of the invention, being capable of using
• electrophotographic photocopiers, facsimiles, and laser printers having high durability and high reliability by using these embodiments of the fixing device, and contributing to "reduction in environmental loads” or "customer satisfaction.”
• FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating one example of the image forming apparatus of the present invention.
• FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating one example of a belt fixing device of the present invention.
• FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating one example of the structure of the fixing member of the present invention.
• FIG. 4A is a diagram illustrating one example of the measurement result of the surface of the fixing member
• FIG. 4B is a diagram illustrating one example of the measurement result of the surface of the fixing member
• FIG. 5A is a diagram illustrating one example of the measurement result of the surface of the fixing member
• FIG. 5B is a diagram illustrating one example of the measurement result of the surface of the fixing member
• FIG. 1 schematically illustrates the structures of a photoconductor, image forming section, and fixing device of the image forming apparatus.
• this electrophotographic image forming apparatus contains: after uniformly charging a photosensitive layer of a rotating photoconductor drum 101 by a charging roller 102, exposing the charged photosensitive layer to laser beams 103 emitted from a laser scanning unit, which is not illustrated in the diagram to form a latent electrostatic image on the
• photoconductor drum 1015 developing the latent electrostatic image with a toner to form a toner image! transferring the toner image onto a recording sheet 107, ' passing the recording sheet 107 through the fixing device to heat and press the toner image to thereby fix the image onto the recording sheet 107.
• 104 denotes a developing roller
• 105 denotes a power pack (power source)
• 106 denotes a transfer roller
• 108 denotes a cleaning device
• 109 denotes a surface electrometer.
• the fixing device employs a heat fixing roller 110 which contains a base and an elastic layer provided on the base.
• the heat fixing roller 110 has a heater such as a halogen lamp, provided in a void space within a core rod along with the rotation center line, and the heat fixing roller 110 is heated from inside with radiant heat.
• a pressure roller 111 is provided parallel to the heat fixing roller 110 in the manner that the pressure roller 111 is in contact with the heat fixing roller 110 with a certain pressure.
• the fixing device contains a fixing roller and a pressure roller provided to face the fixing roller, where at least either of the fixing roller or the pressure roller is the
• the fixing device may be a belt fixing device.
• FIG. 2 illustrates a belt fixing device 112.
• 113 denotes a fixing belt
• 114 denotes a fixing roller
• 115 denotes a pressure roller
• 116 denotes a heat roller.
• four color toners, magenta, cyan, yellow, black, are used. These color toners need to be mixed in the melted state during the fixing of the color image, and need to be uniformly mixed while covered with a surface of the fixing belt 113 in the melted, as well as designing the toners to have low melting points so that they can be easily melted.
• the fixing device contains a fixing belt and a pressure belt provided to face the fixing belt, where at least either of the fixing belt or the pressure belt is the below-mentioned fixing member.
• the fixing roller and the fixing belt may be referred to collectively as a "fixing member” hereinafter.
• a fixing belt member for use in the present invention will be specifically explained hereinafter.
• a fixing belt as a heating member is suspended around and supported by a fixing roller 114 and a heat roller 116.
• FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating a structure of a fixing member, and the fixing member is
• the base 201 is appropriately selected depending on the intended purpose without any restriction, provided that it is formed of a heat resistant material.
• a resin material such as polyimide, polyamideimide, polyether ether ketone (PEEK), polyether sulfone (PES), polyphenylene sulfide (PPS), and a fluororesin, can be used.
• a material in which magnetic electrical conductive particles are dispersed may also be used. In this case, the magnetic
• the magnetic electrical conductive particles are added in an amount of 20% by mass to 90% by mass relative to the resin material.
• the magnetic electrical conductive particles are dispersed in the resin material in the state of a varnish by means of a disperser such as a roll mill, sand mill, and a centrifugal defoaming device.
• the viscosity of the resultant is appropriately adjusted with a solvent, and is molded by a mold to have a predetermined layer thickness.
• the base can be formed of a metal, such as alloys of nickel, iron, and chrome, which may generate heat itself.
• a thickness of the base is 30 ⁇ to 500 ⁇ in view of a thermal capacity thereof, and strength thereof.
• a thickness of the base is ideally 100 ⁇ or thinner considering bending of the belt.
• a predetermined Curie point can be attained by
• the base can also be formed of an elastic material.
• examples thereof include natural rubber, styrene butadiene rubber (SBR), butyl rubber, chloroprene rubber, nitrile rubber, acrylic rubber, urethane rubber, silicone rubber, fluorosilicone rubber, fluororubber, and liquid fluoroelastomer.
• SBR styrene butadiene rubber
• butyl rubber chloroprene rubber, nitrile rubber
• acrylic rubber urethane rubber
• silicone rubber, fluorosilicone rubber, fluororubber, fluorocarbon siloxane rubber, and liquid fluoroelastomer are preferable particularly in view of heat resistance.
• a heat resistant elastic material preferably a heat resistant rubber is used.
• heat resistant elastic material examples include natural rubber, SBR, butyl rubber, chloroprene rubber, nitrile rubber, acrylic rubber, urethane rubber, silicone rubber, fluorosilicone rubber, fluororubber, and liquid fluoroelastomer.
• silicone rubber, fluorosilicone rubber, fluororubber, fluorocarbon siloxane rubber, liquid fluoroelastomer are preferable
• a surface modification treatment is performed on the elastic material.
• the surface modification treatment is not
• the plasma generating device for use includes those of a horizontal plate, capacitive coupling, and inductive coupling, as well as including a device for a corona discharge treatment and an atmospheric plasma generator.
• a vacuum plasma treatment is preferable in view of the durability.
• the reaction pressure for the plasma treatment is 0.05 Pa to 100 Pa, preferably 1 Pa to 20 Pa.
• the reaction gas used for the plasma treatment is not 5 particularly limited, and for example, inert gas, rare gas, and gas such as oxygen are effectively used.
• argon is particularly preferable in view of its long lasting effect.
• the irradiated electric energy is defined by (output x irradiation duration), and is set in the range of 5 Wh to 200 Wh, preferably i o 10 Wh to 50 Wh.
• reaction is carried out in the presence of oxygen to effectively introduce reactive groups (hydroxyl groups) in this method, the
• the plasma treatment is carried out in a reaction environment where oxygen is low and the pressure is reduced. Therefore, re-crosslinking and/or re-bonding at the surface are accelerated to improve the durability owing to "increase of Si-0 bonds having high bonding energy," and to improve release properties owing to "the improved fine surface texture due to the increase crosslink density.”
• active groups are partially generated in the embodiment of the present invention, but the active groups are deactivated by treating with a coupling agent, which will be described later, to thereby improve release properties.
• the fixing member formed in the manner mentioned above is analyzed with XPS along with the depth direction thereof from the outermost layer to the inner portion thereof.
• XPS is a device capable of detecting an atom concentration of atoms of the measuring sample, or a bonding state thereof by capturing electrons jumped due to the photoelectron effect.
• silicone rubber that can be used as the elastic layer in the present invention
• a wide scan spectrum is measured with targeting the main components to Si, O, and C owing to the siloxane bond, and an atomic
• the horizontal axis indicates the analysis depth from the surface towards the inner portion, and the longitudinal axis indicates the atomic ratio.
• atoms bonded to the silicon atom and the bonding state can be detected by measuring the energy at which electrons of 2p orbital of Si jump.
• the peak is separated from the narrow scan spectrum of the Si 2p orbital depicting the bonding state of Si as in FIG. 4B, the state of chemical bonds is analyzed.
• the horizontal axis indicates the bonding energy
• the longitudinal axis indicates the intensity ratio.
• the arrow showing the direction from the bottom to the up indicates the measurement spectrums in the depth direction.
• the oxygen concentration increases from the outermost layer to the inner portion to have the maximum value, and the carbon concentration decreases from the outermost layer to the inner portion to have the minimum value.
• the atom concentration of each atom in the entire portion is appropriately identical to that of untreated rubber.
• the maximum value of the oxygen detected at a of FIG. 4A matches the phenomenon that the Si 2p bonding energy shifts to the higher energy side (a of FIG. 4B), which indicates that the increase in the oxygen concentration is related to the number of oxygen atoms bonded to Si.
• the fixing member of the present invention preferably has the maximum value of the oxygen atom concentration in an area which is 5 nm to 50 ⁇ in depth from the outermost surface thereof as measured by XPS depth profiling presented in Table 1. Moreover, at the depth where the maximum value of the oxygen atom concentration can be attained, the coefficient A of the following formula 1 is preferably 0.5 or more.
• a thickness of the polyorganosiloxane layer is
• the thickness thereof is preferably 0.01 ⁇ to 5 ⁇ , more preferably 0.01 ⁇ to 1.0 ⁇ .
• the thickness thereof is greater than 5 ⁇ , the hardness thereof increases so that the resulting fixing member may not correspond to the irregularities of the paper or toner.
• the thickness thereof is thinner than 0.01 ⁇ , a sufficient durability of the polyorganosiloxane layer may not be obtained.
• the outermost surface of the elastic layer may be appropriately modified, and for example, the outermost surface may be modified with a coupling agent, various monomers, a photosensitive functional group, a hydrophobic group, or a hydrophilic group.
• a fluorine-based polymer may be formed at the outermost surface of the elastic layer.
• the outermost surface is formed of an amorphous resin containing at least one functional group
• the amorphous resin is appropriately selected depending on the intended purpose without any restriction, and examples thereof include a resin having a perfluoropolyether in a principle chain thereof.
• the group capable of hydrolysis is not particularly limited, and examples thereof include ⁇ an alkoxy group such as a methoxy group, and an ethoxy group! and an alkoxysilane group such as a methoxysilane group, and an ethoxysilane group.
• the coupling agent is appropriately selected depending on the intended purpose without any restriction, and examples thereof include a metal alkoxide, and a solution containing a metal alkoxide.
• the metal alkoxide include, for example, a silicone alkoxide-based monomer represented by the following general formula (l), partially hydrolyzed polycondensate thereof having a polymerization degree of about 2 to about 10, a mixture thereof, and/or a solution containing the foregoing monomer or compounds and an organic solvent.
• Ri and R2 are each
• n is an integer of 2 to 4.
• Specific examples of the compound represented by the general formula (l) include dimethyl dimethoxysilane, diethyl diethoxysilane, diethyl dimethoxysilane, diethyl diethoxysilane, diphenyl dimethoxysilane, diphenyl diethoxysilane, methyl trimethoxysilane, methyl triethoxysilane, tetramethoxysilane, tetraethoxysilane, and tetrapropoxysilane.
• ethoxysilane is particularly preferable in view of durability.
• R i may be a fluoroalkyl group, or may be a fluoroalkyl acrylate or perfluoropolyether bonded via oxygen.
• a perfluoropolyether group is particularly preferable in view of flexibility and durability.
• ⁇ vinyl silane such as vinyltris(6-methoxyethoxy)silane, vinyltriethoxysilane, and vinyltrimethoxysilane
• acryl silane such as
• epoxy silane such as 6-(3,4-ethoxycyclohexyl)ethyl trimethoxysilane
• amino silane such as N-6(aminoethyl)-Y-aminopropyl trimethoxysilane, N-6-(aminoethyl)-Y-aminopropylmethyl dimethoxysilane,
• a monomer represented by the general formula (l) provided that the metal atom is changed from Si to Ti, Sn, Al, or Zr may be used independently or in combination.
• the treatment with a surface treating agent such as the coupling agent can be performed by impregnating (e.g., coating and dipping) a surface of the elastic material with the surface treating agent after performing the surface modification
• a modified layer having the maximum value of the oxygen atom concentration can be formed.
• the surface treating agent By impregnating the surface of the elastic material with a surface treating agent such as the coupling agent by coating or dipping, the surface treating agent penetrates into the base so that the polyorganosiloxane is presented with the concentration distribution.
• This distribution gives a distribution of the oxygen atom concentration contained in the polyorganosiloxane to have the maximum value in the area which is 5 nm to 50 ⁇ in depth from the outermost surface.
• the fixing member of the present invention preferably has universal hardness HU of 0.5 N/mm 2 or lower with an indentation depth of 5 ⁇ .
• the universal hardness HU can be obtained, for example, according to DIN50359, by gradually pressing an indenter against the fixing member using a micro hardness tester Win-HUD, and determining the universal hardness from the pressing load and contact area of the indenter at the time when the depth of the indentation reaches 5 ⁇ .
• the fixing member has the outermost surface having flexibility and movable in the vertical direction, and corresponding to bumps formed of a toner or irregularities on transfer paper, and can secure sufficient elasticity for attaining high quality images corresponding to full color image formation.
• the aforementioned structure can realize the fixing member, in which durability of the outermost surface has been significantly improved, by giving sufficient strength owing to the hardness against the state (abrasion loads) where the stress is horizontally applied to the interface and the shear stress is applied onto the surface.
• a fixing device and electrophotographic image forming apparatus realizing both high image quality and high reliability, and stable fixing over a long period can be provided.
• a primer layer for silicone was formed as a base on a cylindrical support (polyimide) having a length of 320 mm, and thickness of 50 ⁇ , and was dried. Thereafter, fluorosilicone rubber (X36-420U, manufactured by Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.) was formed in the thickness of 200 ⁇ on the base, and heated at 150°C for 10 minutes.
• fluorosilicone rubber X36-420U, manufactured by Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.
• the formed fluorosilicone rubber was subjected to a plasma treatment under the following conditions.
• the fixing member produced in the aforementioned manner was mounted as a fixing belt in a fixing device of imagio MPC3000, manufactured by Ricoh Company Limited, and using this device a paper feed test was carried out by printing a toner solid image on 30,000 sheets of paper.
• a paper feed test was carried out by printing a toner solid image on 30,000 sheets of paper.
• multipaper super white available from Askul Co., Ltd.
• the results of the abrasion resistance and release properties were evaluated based on the criteria presented in Table 3. The evaluation results thereof are presented in Table 4.
• the XPS depth profiling was carried out under the conditions presented in Table 1, and evaluated based on the criteria presented in Table 3. Moreover, the coefficient A of the following formula 1 was obtained from the result of XPS depth profiling.
• a fixing member was produced in the same manner as in Example 1, provided that instead of the fluorosilicone rubber, silicone rubber (DY35-2083, manufactured by Toray Industries, Inc.) was coated in the thickness of 200 ⁇ , heated at 150°C for 30 minutes, and subjected to secondary cure at 200°C for 4 hours.
• the produced fixing member was evaluated in the same manner as in Example 1.
• a fixing member was produced in the same manner as in Example 1, provided that instead of OPTOOL DSX, tetraethoxysilane (i.e., tetraethyl orthosilicate) (manufactured by Wako Pure Chemical Industries, Ltd.) was applied by dip coating.
• the produced fixing member was evaluated in the same manner as in Example 1.
• a fixing member was produced in the same manner as in Example 2, provided that instead of OPTOOL DSX,
• tetraethoxysilane i.e., tetraethyl orthosilicate
• Wako Pure Chemical Industries, Ltd. tetraethyl orthosilicate
• a fixing member was produced in the same manner as in Example 1, provided that as the plasma reaction gas, nitrogen was used instead of argon.
• the produced fixing member was evaluated in the same manner as in Example 1.
• a fixing member was produced in the same manner as in Example 1, provided that as the plasma reaction gas, nitrogen was used instead of oxygen.
• the produced fixing member was evaluated in the same manner as in Example 1.
• a fixing member was produced in the same manner as in Example 1, provided that the resultant from the plasma treatment was used as a final product, i.e. the fixing member.
• the produced fixing member was evaluated in the same manner as in Example 1.
• a fixing member was produced in the same manner as in Example 1, provided that instead of OPTOOL DSX, tetraethyl orthsilicate (manufactured by Wako Pure Chemical Industries, Ltd.) was applied by dip coating, and acrylic rubber (Nipol AR51, manufactured by Zeon Corporation) was used instead of the fluorosilicone rubber.
• OPTOOL DSX tetraethyl orthsilicate
• acrylic rubber Nipol AR51, manufactured by Zeon Corporation
• a fixing member was produced in the same manner as in Example 8, provided that the acrylic rubber was replaced with butyl rubber (BR51, manufactured by JSR Corporation). The produced fixing member was evaluated in the same manner as in Example 1.
• a fixing member was produced in the same manner as in Example 8, provided that the acrylic rubber was replaced with ethylene propylene rubber (EP11, manufactured by JSR
• Example 11 A fixing member was produced in the same manner as in Example 1, provided that instead of OPTOOL DSX, an ethanol solution of 50% titanium isopropoxide (manufactured by Japan Pure Chemical Co., Ltd.) was applied by dip coating. The produced fixing member was evaluated in the same manner as in Example 1.
• a primer layer for silicone was formed as a base on a cylindrical support (polyimide) having a length of 320 mm, and thickness of 50 ⁇ , and was dried. Thereafter, fluorosilicone rubber (X36-420U, manufactured by Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.) was formed in the thickness of 200 ⁇ on the base, and heated at 150°C for 10 minutes, to thereby prepare a fixing member. The produced fixing member was evaluated in the same manner as in Example 1.
• a fixing member was produced in the same manner as in Comparative Example 1, provided that instead of the
• fluorosilicone rubber, silicone rubber (DY35-2083, manufactured by Toray Industries, Inc.) was coated in the thickness of 200 ⁇ , heated at 150°C for 30 minutes, and subjected to secondary cure at 200°C for 4 hours.
• the produced fixing member was
• the resulting image fixing member was an abnormal image caused by friction because there was a abrasion with paper difference in glossiness in edges or abrasion the image due to the by contact with a traces of the abrasion separation claw 3: Acceptable level though there was a difference in glossiness in the image due to the traces of the abrasion (but not at the level regarded as an abnormal image)
• Example 1 In comparison to Comparative Examples 1 and 2, the fixing member of Example 1 reached the highest acceptable levels in the ranks in all of the evaluation items of the abrasion resistance, and the release properties, and the effect of the invention could be confirmed.
• the present invention can provide a fixing member, which has excellent abrasion
• the present invention can provide a fixing member having sufficiently preferable release properties for not causing image offset.
• a fixing device the duration and reliability of which has been improved can be provided. Because of this fixing device, an electrophotographic photocopier, facsimile, or laser printer having high durability and reliability can be achieved, and be used, which contributes to "reduction in environmental loads" or "improvement in customer satisfaction.”
• the fixing member of the present invention can achieve both high image quality and high reliability, and can achieve stable fixing over a long period, and thus is suitably used as a fixing member for electrophotographic photocopiers, facsimiles, and laser printers.

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• Fixing For Electrophotography (AREA)

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• 2011
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