Brushing – scrubbing – and general cleaning – Attachments – Moving surface scraper – wiper – or brush
Patent
1989-05-24
1991-01-15
Roberts, Edward L.
Brushing, scrubbing, and general cleaning
Attachments
Moving surface scraper, wiper, or brush
15 15, 355299, G03G 2100
Patent
active
049843265
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a blade of electrophotographic apparatus using a toner, and more particularly, a blade of an electrophotographic apparatus which is used for controlling frictional charge of a toner, controlling the amount of the toner which is supplied to a photoreceptor in a thin film, cleaning the photoreceptor through scraping, and the like.
BACKGROUND OF THE TECHNIQUE
Conventional blades of electrophotographic apparatus (hereinafter simply referred to as blades) have been made of resin materials to which a metallic plate is adhered for carrying out static charge control of a toner, thinning of a toner layer electrostatically adsorbed to a toner-feeding roller, and removal of the toner remaining on a photoreceptor after toner transfer by scraping to clean the photoreceptor in the development zone of a dry process electrostatic copying machine.
The resin materials which have been generally used in such blades for electrophotographic apparatus (hereinafter simply referred to as blades) include urethane rubbers and silicone rubbers.
The blade is generally composed of resin blade 22 of a plate shape which is adhered to metallic holder 21 of a plate shape on surface of adhesion 23 as shown in FIG. 20. The conventional blade of this type has been manufactured by adhering resin plate 22 to metallic holder 21 and post-finishing the portion of the resin plate 22 to be in contact with a development roller or a photoreceptor by cutting or polishing.
The materials to be used for the blades of electrophotographic apparatus are required to have properties of repelling an object in contact, such as a toner, or allowing no penetration of such an object, as well as charging characteristics. It is also demanded that they can be manufactured through processes requiring no post-finishing, etc.
However, urethane rubbers which have been used in the conventional blades of electrophotographic apparatus have problems in charging characteristics and toner adhesion. Silicone rubbers also have problems in charging characteristics. Compounding of a charge depressant as disclosed in JP-A-No. 61-173270 sometimes brings about slight improvements, but compounding of a charge depressant gives rise to another problem that the blade itself becomes brittle. In addition, since the silicone rubbers are heat-curable resin having a crosslinking structure, they essentially require post-finishing.
Post-finishing including cutting is carried out for obtaining dimensional precision of the tip of the blade. Because the dimensional precision of the blade tip has influences on the state of a thin toner layer and the like, namely great influences on image quality, the post-finishing for obtaining a blade of desired dimensional precision entails much labor with inefficiency and bad economy.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
The inventors have extensively studied the above-described problems and, as a result, settled all these problems at once by using a composition comprising a specific resin admixed with a specific fine powder as a material of blades. The present invention provides a blade of extremely high performance and high dimensional precision which can be obtained through a simple and easy molding method.
That is, the present invention relates to a blade of an electrophotographic apparatus using a toner which is characterized by comprising a fluorocarbon polymer composition which comprises 60 to 95% by weight of a fluorocarbon polymer, 40 to 5% by weight of a positively chargeable and non-conductive inorganic filler having an average particle diameter of 5 .mu.m or less, and 0 to 25 parts by weight, per 100 parts by weight of the total of the fluorocarbon polymer and the non-conductive inorganic filler, of a conductive filler having an average particle diameter of 5 .mu.m or less.
Fluorocarbon Polymer
The fluorocarbon polymer to be used in a blade of an electrophotographic apparatus according to the present invention can appropriately be selected from commercially available fluorocarbon polymers, such as pol
Horie Shinji
Ohmori Michio
Shimizu Hideto
Yui Hiroshi
Mitsubishi Petrochemical Co. Ltd.
Ricoh & Company, Ltd.
Roberts Edward L.
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