JP4741305B2 - Sealing material for image forming apparatus and manufacturing method thereof - Google Patents

Description

The present invention is, for example, in the electrophotographic image forming apparatus, the sealing member for an image forming apparatus for sealing the leakage of particulate material such as toner from the end portion in the axial direction of the rotary member such as a photosensitive drum, and It relates to the manufacturing method .

  In general, an electrophotographic image forming apparatus includes a developing unit and a cleaning unit. In the developing unit, the toner charged and attached to the charged developing roller (rotating body) covered with the housing is applied to the photosensitive drum (rotating body), and a toner image is formed on the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum. It has become. A seal material for preventing toner leakage to the outside of the housing is disposed at a portion corresponding to the axial end portion of the developing roller in the housing so as to come into contact with the peripheral surface of the developing roller. In the cleaning unit, a plate-like blade is brought into contact with the peripheral surface of the rotating photosensitive drum to scrape off toner adhering to the peripheral surface. In this case, the toner scraped off from the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum is likely to leak out from the end of the blade (axial end of the photosensitive drum) to the outside of the housing. A sealing material for preventing toner leakage to the outside of the housing is disposed so as to contact the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum.

As a sealing material for preventing toner leakage from the end in the axial direction of the rotating body such as the developing roller and the photosensitive drum to the outside of the housing, a sealing material described in Patent Document 1 has been conventionally known. In the sealing material of Patent Document 1, an adhesive is directly applied onto a foam material (support layer) having elasticity, and a large number of pile yarns (fluff) are electrostatically flocked, and the pile yarns come into contact with the rotating body. As described above, the foam material is bent and deformed at a portion corresponding to the end portion in the axial direction of the rotating body such as the developing roller and the photosensitive drum in the housing.
JP 11-125971 A

  By the way, the sealing material of Patent Document 1 has an advantage that it can be manufactured at a low cost because pile yarn is automatically implanted into the foam material while the foam material is being conveyed through the flocking device, but has a relatively low strength. When the foam material was used, the foam material was easily deformed during the conveyance in the manufacturing process. For this reason, uneven application of the adhesive on the foam material may occur, and uneven flocking of the pile yarn due to this may occur. In addition, when the foam material is permanently deformed, it is often said that the desired height and elasticity of the sealing material cannot be secured. Further, the uneven flocking of the pile yarn and the permanent deformation of the foam material have a great influence on the sealing performance of the sealing material, so that the sealing material may not be able to ensure sufficient sealing performance.

  Further, Patent Document 1 discloses a sealing material in which pile yarn is planted on a base material generally made of a fabric having poor stretchability and the base material and a foam material are joined. In the case of this sealing material, deformation of the foam material during conveyance in the manufacturing process is suppressed by the base material having poor stretchability. However, since a base material with poor stretchability is interposed between the pile yarn and the foam material, the followability to the curved surface peculiar to the foam material (such as the seal material mounting surface in the housing and the peripheral surface of the rotating body) is impaired. When the toner is attached to the image forming apparatus, there is a problem that toner leakage is likely to occur with the recent miniaturization of toner.

The present invention has been made paying attention to such problems. An object of the present invention is to provide a sealing material for an image forming apparatus and a method for manufacturing the same capable of suitably improving sealing performance.

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the invention of the method for producing a sealing material according to claim 1 is knitted by a support layer having elasticity and a warp knitting having elasticity capable of suppressing deformation of the support layer. a reinforcing layer made of knit was, there a number of pile yarn production method of the sealing material for Ru image forming apparatus name are stacked such that the sliding layer formed by flocking the uppermost layer of the sliding contact layer Then , in a state where the support layer and the reinforcing layer are bonded together, in the electrostatic flocking process, the direction in which the elasticity of the reinforcing layer is small is matched with the conveying direction of the bonded support layer and the reinforcing layer The laminated support layer and the reinforcing layer are arranged and conveyed, and a plurality of pile yarns are bonded to the supporting layer or the reinforcing layer via the adhesive layer while the reinforcing layer suppresses deformation of the supporting layer. The sliding contact layer is formed by electrostatic flocking. The gist of the door.

According to the said structure, a deformation | transformation of the support layer at the time of conveyance in the manufacturing process of a sealing material is suppressed by a reinforcement layer. In addition, since the reinforcing layer has elasticity, followability with respect to the curved surface of the support layer (the mounting surface of the sealing material, the surface of the rotating body, etc.) is ensured, and the sealing material when attached to the image forming apparatus is secured. It is possible to suitably improve the sealing performance.
Furthermore, according to the above configuration, since the knitted fabric exhibits a good elasticity with a simple configuration, it is preferable to suitably ensure the followability to the curved surface of the support layer (the mounting surface of the sealing material, the surface of the rotating body, etc.). Is possible.
In addition, a knitted fabric knitted with warp knitting has a direction with a large elasticity and a direction with a small elasticity, so that the direction with a low elasticity of the knitted fabric can be matched with the conveying direction in the manufacturing process of the sealing material. It becomes possible to effectively suppress the deformation of the support layer.

The gist of the invention of the sealing material for the image forming apparatus according to claim 2 is that the sealing material for the image forming apparatus according to claim 1 is manufactured by the method for manufacturing the sealing material for image forming apparatus .

  According to the above configuration, since the sealing material for the image forming apparatus is manufactured by the manufacturing method according to claim 1, the knitted fabric exhibits a good elasticity with a simple configuration. It is possible to suitably ensure followability with respect to the sealing material attachment surface, the surface of the rotating body, and the like.
  In addition, a knitted fabric knitted with warp knitting has a direction with a large elasticity and a direction with a small elasticity, so that the direction with a low elasticity of the knitted fabric can be matched with the conveying direction in the manufacturing process of the sealing material. It becomes possible to effectively suppress the deformation of the support layer.

The gist of the invention of claim 3 is that, in the invention of claim 2, the knitted fabric is knitted by half tricot knitting.
According to the said structure, it becomes possible to make a reinforcement layer thin by knitting a knitted fabric by half tricot knitting. Moreover, since the knitted fabric knitted by the half tricot knitting has appropriate stretchability, the deformation of the support layer is suppressed and the flexibility of the sliding contact layer is maintained.

The invention according to claim 4 is the invention according to claim 2 or 2 , wherein the support layer is made of a foam material, and the number of cells per 25 mm is 20 to 100. The gist is within the range .

  According to the above configuration, it is possible to ensure long-term followability to a curved surface (such as a sealing material mounting surface or a surface of the rotating body) while suitably suppressing the sliding resistance of the sliding contact layer with respect to the rotating body. .

In addition, according to the above configuration, it is possible to apply the adhesive uniformly and flatly on the foam material within a range where the reinforcing layer is necessary. Therefore, the pile yarn is preferably applied to the foam material by the adhesive. It is possible to plant the hair.

ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the sealing material for image forming apparatuses which can improve a sealing performance suitably, and its manufacturing method can be provided.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments embodying the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
First, the cleaning unit of the image forming apparatus will be described.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a photosensitive drum 11 as a rotating member is supported in an electrophotographic image forming apparatus 10 so as to be rotatable in the direction of the arrow in FIG. A developing roller 12 and a cleaning unit 13 are disposed. Although not shown, in addition to the developing roller 12 and the cleaning unit 13, a charging unit, an exposure unit, a transfer unit, a charge removal unit, and the like are disposed around the photosensitive drum 11. The photosensitive drum 11 is charged at its peripheral surface (hereinafter also referred to as “surface”) by a charging unit, and after an electrostatic latent image is formed on the surface by an exposure unit, the toner supplied from the developing roller 12 is used. The electrostatic latent image is developed as a visible image on the surface, and the visible image on the surface is transferred to a recording sheet by a transfer unit. Then, after the visible image is transferred, the toner as powder particles remaining on the surface of the photosensitive drum 11 is removed by the cleaning unit 13, and the remaining charge is erased by the charge eliminating unit. As this toner, a toner having high fluidity is used in order to obtain a transfer image with high resolution. Specifically, a fine toner or a polymerized toner having a particle size of 10 μm or less is used.

  The cleaning unit 13 includes a housing 14 having a substantially long rectangular box shape whose front surface is opened. A support plate 15 is attached to the inner surface of the top plate of the housing 14 so as to extend obliquely downward toward the photosensitive drum 11, and a blade 16 is supported on the back surface of the front end of the support plate 15. The blade 16 is formed in a long plate shape, and is disposed so as to extend substantially in parallel with the axial direction of the photosensitive drum 11, and the base end portion of the blade 16 is in a state of sliding in contact with the surface of the photosensitive drum 11. It is attached to the support plate 15 so as to be swingable. A toner recovery passage 17 is formed between the leading edge of the blade 16 and the lower edge of the opening of the housing 14. The housing 14, the support plate 15, the blade 16, the toner collection passage 17 and the like constitute a cleaning unit 13. The toner remaining on the surface of the photosensitive drum 11 is scraped off by the blade 16 and collected from the toner collecting passage 17 into the housing 14.

  Support protrusions 18 as support members are formed so as to protrude toward the photosensitive drum 11 at positions corresponding to both ends of the toner collection passage 17 on both side walls of the housing 14. Further, the front surfaces 18 a of both the support protrusions 18 are formed in an arc shape (curved surface) along the outer peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 11. A gap is formed between the front surface 18 a of both support protrusions 18 and the surface of the photosensitive drum 11. And the sealing material 21 is each affixed on each front surface 18a of both the support protrusions 18 so that these clearances may be plugged up.

  Each sealing material 21 is disposed on both sides of the blade 16 in a state where the sealing material 21 is stuck to the support protrusion 18. Further, since the front surface 18a of the support protrusion 18 is formed in an arc shape, the seal material 21 is supported in a state of being curved (bent and deformed) in an arc shape along the outer peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 11. The protrusion 18 is affixed to the front surface 18a. The sealing material 21 is formed in a planar L shape so as to correspond to the corner portion 16a of the end portion (that is, the front end portion) of the blade 16 on the side in contact with the photosensitive drum 11. As shown in FIG. 3, the corner portions 16 a of the blades 16 are in contact with the inner side surfaces (surfaces that are the inside of the L shape) 21 a of both the sealing materials 21. Further, the upper surfaces of both the sealing materials 21 are in contact with the surfaces of both end portions in the axial direction of the photosensitive drum 11.

Next, the configuration of the sealing material 21 will be described.
As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the sealing material 21 is formed on the support layer 22, the sliding contact layer 24 bonded to the surface of the support layer 22 via the adhesive layer 23, and the back surface of the support layer 22. The reinforcing layer 25 and the adhesive layer 26 formed on the surface of the reinforcing layer 25 opposite to the support layer 22 are laminated. The sliding contact layer 24 is composed of a plurality of pile yarns 27 planted on the support layer 22 via the adhesive layer 23. And the sealing material 21 is stuck to the said support protrusion 18 (refer FIG. 1) through the sticking layer 26 so that the sliding contact layer 24 may become the uppermost layer among each said layers 22-26.

  The support layer 22 is formed of a foam material, and is provided so as to give elasticity to the seal material 21 so that the sliding contact layer 24 is sufficiently in contact with the photosensitive drum 11 without a gap. This is because the pile yarn 27 is thin and the flocking density is as high as possible in the sliding contact layer 24 in which the pile yarn 27 is implanted as will be described later. Is desirable. For this reason, although depending on the material of the pile yarn 27, the thickness of the pile yarn 27 is preferably set in the range of 0.5 to 5 dtex, and the length of the pile yarn 27 is 0.5 to 3 mm. It is desirable to set within the range. (When the length of the pile yarn 27 is maintained while the thickness thereof is maintained, the density of the pile yarn 27 decreases. That is, the length of the pile yarn 27 is increased while maintaining the density of the pile yarn 27. Is required to increase the thickness of the pile yarn 27.) If the length of the pile yarn 27 is in the range of 0.5 to 3 mm, the elasticity of the sealing material 21 is not sufficiently exhibited. The sealing material 21 needs to be provided with a support layer 22.

  As the foam material for forming the support layer 22, it is preferable to use a foam material made of a material that has elasticity and heat resistance, has high durability against deformation (sagging), and can be bonded with an adhesive. In particular, it is preferable to use a foam material having a 25% compressive load value of 0.3 to 3 MPa in accordance with the hardness test A method of JIS K6400, preferably 0.5 to 2 MPa. More preferably it is used. When the compressive load value of the foam material is excessively low, the sliding contact layer 24 cannot be brought into sufficient sliding contact with the photosensitive drum 11. Further, when the compressive load value is excessively high, the sliding contact resistance generated between the photosensitive drum 11 and the sliding contact layer 24 increases, and the rotation of the photosensitive drum 11 may be hindered.

  The foam material preferably has a tensile strength based on JIS K6400 of 10 to 200 kPa, and more preferably has a tensile strength based on JIS K6400 of 30 to 100 kPa. When the tensile strength of the foam material is less than 10 kPa, the foam material may be destroyed when the sealing material 21 is used. When the tensile strength of the foam material is greater than 200 kPa, the reinforcing layer 25 is not necessary. Become. Furthermore, it is preferable to use a foam material having 20 to 100 cells per 25 mm (the number of pores). When the number of cells per 25 mm of the foam material is less than 20, the surface of the foam material becomes too rough, and an adhesive that forms an adhesive layer 23 described later on the surface of the foam material (support layer 22). Enters the cell of the foam material and is not uniformly applied, and craters and pinholes are generated in the portion where the adhesive is insufficient. On the other hand, when the number of cells per 25 mm of the foam material is more than 100, the reinforcing layer 25 becomes unnecessary.

  Examples of such foam materials include foamed resins such as polyurethane, polystyrene, and polypropylene, synthetic rubbers such as ethylene-propylene-diene copolymer rubber (EPDM) and chloroprene rubber, and thermoplastics such as natural rubber, olefin, and styrene. An elastomer etc. are mentioned. For the support layer 22 of this embodiment, a flame-retardant polyurethane foam (trade name Moltoprene SM-55, thickness 2.5 mm, 55 cells per 25 mm manufactured by INOAC) is used as a foam material. Yes.

  It is preferable to form the adhesive layer 23 with an adhesive having flexibility even after curing. Furthermore, the adhesive layer 23 is preferably formed of a material that has heat resistance and can be deformed into a curved surface so that it can be used even in a bent state. As the adhesive having such properties, acrylic ester emulsion resins such as ethyl acrylate and butyl acrylate are generally used. Although acrylic acid ethyl ester has strong adhesive force, it has slightly lower flexibility. On the contrary, butyl acrylate ester has higher flexibility but weaker adhesive force than acrylic acid ethyl ester. Therefore, these adhesives are appropriately selected according to the required performance of the sealing material 21. In this embodiment, the adhesive layer 23 is formed of an adhesive of butyl acrylate emulsion.

  The plurality of pile yarns 27 constituting the sliding contact layer 24 are bonded to the support layer 22 in a state where the base end portions thereof are in close contact with the adhesive layer 23, and each pile yarn 27 is straightened upward. It extends. In this case, the pile yarns 27 have a uniform height from the support layer 22 and the pile yarns 27 are closely supported with each other, so that appropriate cushioning properties are maintained. In this embodiment, a down method (dispersion-vibration-high voltage electrostatic method) or an up method (high voltage electrostatic method) is employed as a method for flocking a plurality of pile yarns 27 on the support layer 22 by a flocking device (not shown). It can be selected as appropriate according to the required quality of the sealing material 21 and the number of production.

  In the down method, a plurality of pile yarns 27 dropped from above are passed through a high-voltage electrostatic field formed in the flocking device, so that the direction of each pile yarn 27 is aligned along the electric field on the support layer 22. This is a method of piercing the adhesive layer 23 formed by electrostatic attraction and planting hair, and is excellent in productivity. In the up system, a plurality of pile yarns 27 flowing on the belt conveyor are pierced into the adhesive layer 23 formed on the support layer 22 disposed on the upper side by the suction force of the high-voltage electrostatic field formed in the flocking device. This is a method of planting hair, and it is possible to plant hair uniformly and densely with little loss of planting.

  The pile yarn 27 of the present embodiment is made of yarn made of fibers having a fineness of 3.5 dtex, and the length thereof is set to about 2 mm. As the material of the pile yarn 27, polyamide resin fiber, rayon, or the like can be used. Particularly, the polyamide resin fiber has a wide setting range of the thickness of the pile yarn 27, and the pile yarn 27 can be used in accordance with the application. The polyamide resin fiber is used as the material of the pile yarn 27 of the present embodiment.

  Although the woven fabric, the knitted fabric, the resin film, or the like can be used for the reinforcing layer 25, it is necessary for the present application to have an appropriate stretchability while suppressing the deformation of the support layer 22. The knitted fabric is generally rich in stretchability. However, when a woven fabric or a resin film is used for the reinforcing layer 25, the knitted fabric must have stretchability. For this reason, it is preferable to use a knitted fabric for the reinforcing layer 25. In the present embodiment, the reinforcing layer 25 is a half tricot knitting which is a kind of warp knitting, and is formed of a knitted fabric knitted to a thickness of about 0.4 mm with a yarn made of polyamide-based resin fibers. When the reinforcing layer 25 is too thick, the flexibility of the sealing material 21 is hindered. For this reason, a knitted fabric knitted by half tricot knitting is generally easily available and suitable for processing a thin fabric, and is therefore suitable for this application. The reinforcing layer 25 is bonded to the back surface of the support layer 22 by an adhesive (for example, vinyl acetate emulsion resin) or heat fusion.

  The adhesive layer 26 is preferably formed of an adhesive so that the adhesive layer 26 has flexibility after being cured and the used sealing material 21 can be peeled off from the support protrusion 18. In addition, the adhesive layer 26 is preferably formed of a material having heat resistance similar to the adhesive layer 23 and capable of being deformed into a curved surface. The adhesive layer 26 is formed by applying a pressure sensitive adhesive such as rubber or acrylic on the surface of the reinforcing layer 25 opposite to the support layer 22 or applying a pressure sensitive adhesive on both sides of the core material. It is formed by sticking a double-sided adhesive tape. The adhesive layer 26 of this embodiment is formed of a double-sided adhesive tape (trade name # 5000NS manufactured by Nitto Denko Corporation) using an acrylic adhesive.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, when the blade 16 scrapes off the toner from the surface (circumferential surface) of the photosensitive drum 11, the toner is supported from the side end portion of the blade 16, the toner collection passage 17, and the like. Through the gap between the photosensitive drum 11 and the photosensitive drum 11, that is, along the longitudinal direction of the blade 16, it tends to leak outside. The toner that is about to leak to the outside is collected and blocked by the pile yarn 27 of the sealing material 21, and contamination by toner around the photosensitive drum 11 is suppressed. In this case, since the reinforcing layer 25 is formed of a knitted fabric having elasticity, followability with respect to the curved surface of the support layer 22 (the front surfaces 18a of both support protrusions 18 and the surface of the photosensitive drum 11) is ensured, and the sealing material. The sealing performance of 21 is preferably enhanced.

  Further, the reinforcing layer 25 is a knitted fabric knitted by half tricot knitting, which is a type of warp knitting, and therefore has a direction with a large stretch and a direction with a small stretch. For this reason, the deformation | transformation of the support layer 22 is suppressed effectively by match | combining the direction with small elasticity of a knitted fabric with the conveyance direction in the manufacturing process of the sealing material 21. FIG. Therefore, the height dimension failure and the elasticity failure of the sealing material 21 due to permanent deformation of the foam material (support layer 22) are suppressed, and the adhesive layer 23 is formed uniformly and flat on the support layer 22. The uneven planting of the thread 27 is reduced.

According to the embodiment detailed above, the following effects are exhibited.
(1) The followability with respect to the curved surface of the support layer 22 (the front surfaces 18a of the two support protrusions 18 and the surface of the photosensitive drum 11) can be ensured by the reinforcing layer 25 formed of a knitted fabric. Therefore, even when the sealing material 21 is affixed to the front surface 18a formed in the arc shape of the support protrusion 18 in the housing 14 of the image forming apparatus 10, the sealing performance of the sealing material 21 can be suitably improved.

  (2) Since the reinforcing layer 25 is composed of a knitted fabric rich in stretchability, its configuration is simple. Further, since the reinforcing layer 25 is a knitted fabric by warp knitting, the reinforcing layer 25 has a direction with a large stretchability and a direction with a small stretchability, and the stretchability of the knitted fabric is small in the conveying direction in the manufacturing process of the sealing material 21. By matching the directions, deformation of the support layer 22 can be effectively suppressed. Furthermore, since the reinforcing layer 25 is a knitted fabric knitted by half tricot knitting, the reinforcing layer 25 can be thinned. Moreover, since the knitted fabric knitted by the half tricot knitting has an appropriate stretchability, the flexibility of the sliding contact layer 24 can be suitably maintained.

(3) Since the support layer 22 is made of a foam material, the sliding resistance of the sliding contact layer 24 against the photosensitive drum 11 can be suitably suppressed.
(4) Since the tensile strength based on JIS K6400 of the foam material forming the support layer 22 is within the range of 10 kPa to 200 kPa, the durability of the foam material is suitably maintained within the required range of the reinforcing layer 25. be able to.

  (5) Since the number of cells per 25 mm of the foam material forming the support layer 22 is in the range of 20 to 100, an adhesive (adhesive layer 23) is formed on the foam material within the required range of the reinforcing layer 25. ) Can be applied uniformly and flatly, and the pile yarn 27 (sliding contact layer 24) can be suitably planted on the foam material by the adhesive.

(6) The gap between the blade 16 and the photosensitive drum 11 at the end of the blade 16 where toner to the outside easily leaks can be suitably sealed by the sliding contact layer 24.
(Example of change)
In addition, the said embodiment can also be changed and actualized as follows.

  -As shown in FIG. 6, you may comprise the sealing material 21 so that the reinforcement layer 25 may be arrange | positioned between the support layer 22 and the contact bonding layer 23. FIG. In this case, the foam material forming the support layer 22 of the sealing material 21 is a flame-retardant polyurethane foam (trade name Moltoprene SC, manufactured by INOAC, thickness 2.5 mm, 31 cells per 25 mm). in use. The plurality of pile yarns 27 constituting the sliding contact layer 24 are made of polyamide resin fibers having a fineness of 1.5 dtex, and the length thereof is set to about 1 mm.

  By the way, as described above, when the number of cells per 25 mm of the foam material is less than 20, the adhesive enters the cells and is not uniformly applied, and in the portion where the adhesive is insufficient, craters and pins A hole is generated. Even if the number of cells per 25 mm of the foam material is 20 or more, the adhesive tends to be applied unevenly near the lower limit of the number of cells (in the case of 21 or 22). Therefore, unevenness of the pile yarn 27 is likely to occur. The sealing material 21 of this specification is suitable for suppressing unevenness of the pile yarn 27 in such a case.

  If comprised in this way, even if it is a case where the foaming ratio of the foam material which forms the support layer 22 is high, and an adhesive agent penetrates into a cell and is applied unevenly, an adhesive agent is applied to the reinforcing layer 25. By being applied, the adhesive can be prevented from entering the cell. For this reason, since the adhesive can be uniformly applied to the surface of the foam material (the adhesive layer 23 is uniformly formed), a plurality of pile yarns 27 (sliding contact layers 24) are formed on the surface of the foam material by the adhesive. Can be suitably planted.

-In the sealing material 21, you may comprise so that the reinforcement layer 25 may be provided in both the surface of the support layer 22, and a back surface.
The sealing material 21 may be used for sealing toner leakage from the end of the developing roller 12 in the axial direction.

-The foam material which forms the support layer 22 does not necessarily need to be in the range of 20 to 100 cells per 25 mm.
-The foam material which forms the support layer 22 does not necessarily need to have the tensile strength based on JIS K6400 in the range of 10-200 kPa.

The support layer 22 is not necessarily formed of a foam material, and may be any material having elasticity such as rubber.
-The knitted fabric constituting the reinforcing layer 25 does not necessarily have to be knitted by half tricot knitting. Further, the knitted fabric constituting the reinforcing layer 25 does not necessarily have to be knitted by warp knitting.

  The pile yarn 27 may be inclined in the rotational direction of the photosensitive drum 11 by performing an inclination process on the pile yarn 27. In this way, the slidability of the sealing material 21 can be improved.

  The pile yarn 27 may be tilted inward in the axial direction of the photosensitive drum 11 (the direction in which the toner advances) by performing an inclination process on the pile yarn 27. In this way, the sealing performance of the sealing material 21 can be further improved.

  In the above-described inclination process of the pile yarn 27, when the rotation direction of the photosensitive drum 11 is 0 ° and the inner direction in the axial direction of the photosensitive drum 11 is 90 °, the inclination direction of the pile yarn 27 is 0 ° to 90 °. As long as it is within the range between, any direction may be used. In this way, the balance between the sliding performance and the sealing performance of the sealing material 21 can be optimally maintained according to the situation.

1 is a perspective view illustrating an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment. FIG. 3 is a plan view illustrating a cleaning unit of the image forming apparatus according to the embodiment. The principal part enlarged view of FIG. The perspective view which shows the sealing material of embodiment. The principal part enlarged view of FIG. The perspective view which shows the sealing material of the example of a change.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Image forming apparatus, 11 ... Photosensitive drum as a rotating body, 16 ... Blade, 21 ... Sealing material, 22 ... Support layer, 24 ... Sliding contact layer, 25 ... Reinforcement layer, 27 ... Pile yarn.

Claims (4)

An elastic support layer, a reinforcing layer made of a knitted fabric having a warp knitting property capable of suppressing deformation of the support layer, and a sliding contact layer in which a large number of pile yarns are planted the contact layer method for manufacturing a sealing material for Ru image forming apparatus name is laminated to the top layer,
In a state where the support layer and the reinforcing layer are bonded together, in the electrostatic flocking process, the direction in which the elasticity of the reinforcing layer is small is matched with the conveying direction of the bonded support layer and the reinforcing layer. The bonded support layer and the reinforcing layer are arranged and conveyed, and the plurality of pile yarns are electrostatically bonded to the supporting layer or the reinforcing layer via the adhesive layer while the reinforcing layer suppresses deformation of the supporting layer. A method for producing a sealing material for an image forming apparatus, wherein the sliding contact layer is formed by flocking. A sealing material for an image forming apparatus manufactured by the method for manufacturing a sealing material for an image forming apparatus according to claim 1. The seal material for an image forming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the knitted fabric is knitted by half tricot knitting. The sealing material for an image forming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the support layer is made of a foam material, and the number of cells per 25 mm is in a range of 20 to 100. 5.

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