JP2000047478A - Elastic developer quantity regulating member and its manufacture - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To attain high-quality development without forming partial stripes or irregularities on a thin layer on a developing sleeve by inclinatorily forming a charge applying material for regulating the electrification quantity applied to a developer passing through a pressure contact portion by friction in a rubber elastic layer from the surface of the rubber elastic layer. SOLUTION: This elastic developer quantity regulating member 4 is constituted of a support layer 4a regulating the pressure to contact-press a developer carrying member and a rubber elastic layer 4b. A charge applying material 4c for regulating the electrification quantity applied to a developer passing through a pressure contact portion by friction is inclinatorily formed in the rubber elastic layer 4b from the surface of the rubber elastic layer 4b. When the charge applying material 4c is inclinatorily formed in the rubber elastic layer 4b from the surface of the rubber elastic layer 4b, a toner is uniformly friction-electrified, a uniform thin layer is formed on a developing sleeve, partial stripes or irregularities are not formed on the thin layer on the developing sleeve, and high-quality development can be attained.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a developing device for developing and visualizing an electrostatic latent image formed on an image carrier, and more particularly, to developing using a one-component developer containing no carrier. The present invention relates to an elastic developer amount regulating member used in a developing device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a developing device for visualizing an electrostatic latent image, as shown in FIG. 3, a developer carrying member 3 attached to a developing container 2 and provided with a small distance from an electrophotographic photosensitive member 1 is provided.
(Hereinafter referred to as a developing sleeve), an elastic developer amount regulating member 4 (hereinafter also referred to as an elastic blade), an elastic roller 5 and a one-component developer 6 (hereinafter also referred to as a toner) are known. As means for regulating the layer thickness of the toner carried and transported by the developing sleeve to the developing section to be a thin layer, an elastic blade is brought into contact with the developing sleeve, and the toner is passed between the abutting portion of the elastic blade and the developing sleeve. In such a case, a thin layer of toner is formed on the developing sleeve, and a frictional charge (tribo) for developing the latent image is applied to the toner by friction at the contact portion. .

As such elastic blades, besides rubber plates and metal thin plates, resin thin plates and those obtained by laminating these have been proposed.

In the case where the toner is a positive toner, a toner in which a charge-imparting layer such as silicone rubber whose charge is controlled is laminated on a thin plate of metal or the like as a support layer is used, and a negative toner containing magnetite is used. Is a urethane rubber plate that has been subjected to charge control and the like.

[0005]

However, in order to improve the quality of an image by applying an electrophotographic process or to make it full-color, a more uniform pressing of the elastic blade to the developing sleeve is required, for example, the particle size of the toner is further reduced. However, with the conventional elastic blade, there is a limit to uniform pressure contact in the axial direction of the developing sleeve, and there is also a limit to uniform charge imparting property and uniform thickness toner application to the developing sleeve.
These were considered to be the causes of image defects such as image unevenness and streaks.

In the case of a negative color toner containing no magnetite, an electron-donating material having a good electric polarity is preferable as the charge-imparting layer. However, since the material satisfying the characteristics is a hard resin-based material, uniform pressure welding is required. Had further problems.

[0007] In view of the above problems, the present invention provides an elastic blade capable of obtaining uniform pressure contact, and by using this elastic blade, the toner is uniformly triboelectrically charged and, at the same time, is uniformly formed on the developing sleeve. It is an object of the present invention to provide high-quality development in which a thin layer is formed on the developing sleeve and partial lines / unevenness is not formed on the thin layer on the developing sleeve.

[0008]

In the present invention, the configuration of the elastic developer amount regulating member is studied, and the elastic developer amount regulating member is provided with a support layer and a rubber elastic layer which regulate the pressure of the pressure contact with the developing sleeve. It has been found that the above-mentioned problems can be solved by adopting a configuration in which the charge imparting material for regulating the charge amount of the toner is formed obliquely from the surface of the rubber elastic layer to the inside of the rubber elastic layer. Was completed.
That is, the present invention is as follows. 1. An image forming apparatus using an electrostatic transfer process, comprising: a developer accommodating container for accommodating a one-component developer; a developer carrying member for carrying and transporting the developer from the container to a developing unit; and the developer carrying member. An elastic developer amount regulating member for regulating an amount of the developer applied on the surface, wherein the elastic developer amount regulating member increases a pressure for the member to press the developer carrying member. A charge-supplying material for regulating the amount of charge applied by friction to the developer passing through the pressure-contact portion from the surface of the rubber elastic layer to the inside of the rubber elastic layer. And an elastic developer amount regulating member formed obliquely. 2. The method for producing an elastic developer amount regulating member according to 1 above, wherein a rubber as a material of the rubber elastic layer is processed into a shape of the elastic developer amount regulating member, and then a monomer as a raw material of the charge-providing polymer is removed. A method for producing a charge-imparting material in a rubber elastic layer, wherein the charge-imparting material is inclined in a rubber elastic layer by immersing the monomer in a solution dissolved in a solvent and infiltrating the monomer with a gradient.

In the conventional discontinuous multilayer structure, the charge-imparting layer has a higher elastic modulus than the rubber elastic layer, and the overall hardness depends on the thickness and the elastic modulus of the charge-imparting layer. Although this was the main cause of the non-uniform contact with the conventional developing sleeve, a structure in which a charge-imparting material that regulates the charge amount is formed obliquely from the surface of the rubber elastic layer to the inside of the rubber elastic layer. By doing so, the charge applying layer is equivalent to being configured as a surface, and the formed inclined member can be almost equal to the hardness of the rubber elastic body, so that it is particularly remarkable as compared with the case where the charge applying layer is made of a resin-based hard material system. Effects can be obtained.

[0010]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION As a support layer of the elastic developer amount regulating member of the present invention, a metal flat plate, for example, a stainless steel plate (tensile strength of about 110 kg / mm ² ), a phosphor bronze plate (about 65 kg / mm). ² ), aluminum plate (about 40kg)
/ Mm ² ) and the like, the thickness is preferably from 20 μm to 500 μm in view of controlling the pressing force to the developing sleeve. Resin plates such as polyethylene terephthalate resin plate (tensile strength of about 20 Kg / mm ^2), a polycarbonate resin plate (same about 10 Kg / mm ^2), the thickness of such stretched polypropylene resin plates (same about 19Kg / mm ²⁾ 5
It may have a thickness of from 0 micrometer to 1000 micrometers, and in particular, a biaxially stretched material having a small creep is more preferable.

The rubber elastic layer is preferably a rubber having a JISA hardness of 80 degrees or less, and may be made of any material such as urethane rubber and silicone rubber.

As the charge-imparting material, a silicone rubber or silicone resin-based toner is preferable for a positive toner.
Urethane rubber or urethane resin is used for the negative mag toner, and nylon elastomer or resin is used for the negative non-mag color toner. In the present invention, these materials are formed so as to be inclined from the surface of the rubber elastic layer.

As a forming method, the reactive charge-imparting monomer is put into a rubber member forming a rubber elastic layer, molded, processed into a shape of a blade for regulating the amount of elastic developer, and then externally irradiated with ultraviolet light. And a method of irradiating ultraviolet rays in the presence of oxygen to promote an oxidation reaction to form a charge imparting material. Further, the rubber elastic body previously processed into a predetermined shape is immersed in a solution in which a reactive monomer is dissolved in a solvent. A method in which the elastic body is placed in a furnace and thermally cured may be used. Alternatively, a method can be used in which a rubber elastic body is put into a gas of a reactive and volatile monomer, the monomer is inclinedly penetrated, and then taken out and heat-treated to form a charge-imparting material.

[0014]

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described.

Example 1 A 0.12 mm thick phosphor bronze plate was previously formed by a centrifugal molding machine and had a JISA hardness of 65 degrees and a thickness of 0.9 mm.
The urethane sheet is adhered by extruding the urethane rubber from the phosphor bronze plate and then sticking the extruded side downward to 100 cc of methyl alcohol with 25 g of ε-caprolactam, 0.2 g of amide obtained from adipic acid and hexamerenediamine.
The rubber portion was immersed in a 30 ° C. liquid mixed with 5 g of water 2.5 for 10 minutes to swell the liquid, taken out, dried in a nitrogen atmosphere, and further heated to 150 ° C. for 2 hours. Thereafter, the protruding portion is cut and removed, and the developing material regulating blade (the coated rubber portion is 5 mm wide × 221 mm long × 0.1 mm thick).
9 mm). This was mounted on a color laser beam printer in which a non-mag color toner having a particle size of about 6 μm was put in the developing device, and streaks and density unevenness of an initial image (50 sheets) were checked and evaluated. The results are shown in Table 1.

COMPARATIVE EXAMPLE 1 A phosphor bronze plate having a thickness of 0.12 mm was previously formed by a centrifugal molding machine and had a thickness of 0.9 mm having a JISA hardness of 65 degrees.
The urethane sheet is adhered by extruding the urethane rubber from the phosphor bronze plate, and then dip the soluble nylon (Amilan CM8000; Toray Co., Ltd.) previously dissolved in methyl alcohol with the protruding side down. Coating was performed so that the coating layer was 10 microns after drying. Thereafter, the protruding portion is cut and removed, and a developer amount regulating blade (the coated rubber portion has a width of 5 mm and a length of 22 mm)
1 mm x thickness 0.9 mm). This was mounted on a color laser beam printer containing non-mag color toner having a particle size of about 6 microns in the developing device, and the initial image (5
(0 sheets) and evaluated for streaks and density unevenness. The results are shown in Table 1.

[0017]

[Table 1] As is clear from the table, the first embodiment has a uniform configuration compared to the first comparative example, because the charge-imparting material that obliquely regulates the charge amount is formed on the support layer that regulates the pressure and the rubber elastic layer. Contact can now be obtained.

[0018]

As described above, the structure of the developer amount regulating member comprises the support layer for regulating the pressure and the rubber elastic layer, and the conventional charge applying layer for regulating the charge amount is formed on the surface of the rubber elastic layer. As a result, a uniform contact can be obtained by using a charge-imparting material that is formed obliquely inside the rubber elastic layer. It is possible to provide high-quality development without forming a thin layer, and without forming a partial streak or unevenness on the thin layer on the developing sleeve.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view illustrating an example of a configuration of an elastic developer amount regulating member of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view illustrating an example of a configuration of a conventional elastic developer amount regulating member.

FIG. 3 is a schematic sectional view illustrating a developing device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Electrophotographic photoreceptor 2 Developing container 3 Developer carrying member (developing sleeve) 4,4 'Elastic developer amount regulating member (elastic blade) 4a, 4'a Support layer 4b, 4'b Rubber elastic layer 4c Charge applying material 4'c Charge-imparting layer 5 Elastic roller 6 One-component developer (toner)

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Yuhiro Yamamoto 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo F-term in Canon Inc. (reference) 2H077 AD06 AD13 AD17 AD23 AE03 EA11 FA22 FA26 GA12

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An image forming apparatus using an electrostatic transfer process, comprising: a developer accommodating container for accommodating a one-component developer; a developer carrying member for carrying and transporting the developer from the container to a developing unit; An elastic developer amount regulating member for regulating an amount of developer applied on the surface of the developer carrying member, wherein the elastic material regulating member presses the developer carrying member. A support layer and a rubber elastic layer that regulate the pressure for applying the pressure to the developer passing through the pressure contact portion from the surface of the rubber elastic layer to the inside of the rubber elastic layer to regulate the charge amount applied by friction. An elastic developer amount regulating member formed by slantingly forming the charge imparting material. 2. The method for producing an elastic developer amount regulating member according to claim 1, wherein the rubber as a material of the rubber elastic layer is
After processing into the shape of the elastic developer amount regulating member, the rubber elastic layer is immersed in a solution in which a monomer as a raw material of the charge-providing polymer is dissolved in a solvent, and the monomer is obliquely penetrated and then heat-treated. The method according to claim 1, wherein the charge imparting material is formed obliquely therein.