Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture – Methods – Surface bonding and/or assembly therefor
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-22
2002-03-19
Yao, Sam Chuan (Department: 1733)
Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture
Methods
Surface bonding and/or assembly therefor
C156S203000, C156S218000, C156S259000, C156S271000, C156S304500, C083S013000, C219S121690
Reexamination Certificate
active
06358347
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Disclosed in the embodiments herein is an improved, simple, low cost, process and system for continuous manufacturing imageable seamed belts from sequential portions of a roll fed web transverse a web of suitable width and material, as opposed to an interrupted and/or separate manual operation of forming such belts from lengths of such material in the elongate dimension and direction of movement of such a web.
Heretofore, most of the endless belts for intermediate image transfer belts or photoreceptor belts for xerographic printers have been expensively made as endless belts (without any seam) by individual electroforming or the like, to allow continuous and non-synchronized image formation and/or transport around the entire belt circumference; or, have been seamed belts with seams which cannot be imaged over, thus requiring synchronized seam-skipping skipped-pitch systems, which reduce the effective printing rate. Thus, a long-term goal in this art, as described in some of the references cited below, is to be able to provide a belt which will have the lower manufacturing cost of a seamed belt, yet have a belt seam which can be imaged over substantially as if there were no seam, thus allowing the seamed belt to handle continuously closely spaced non-synchronized images extending around the entire belt circumference like a seamless belt.
A small batch processing method or system of making a seamed belt having a so-called “puzzle cut” seam is to make each belt individually starting with an blank planar sheet of suitable belt material of a suitable length for the desired belt circumference, and to puzzle-cut the opposite ends thereof, one at a time, with an expensive puzzle-cutting die extending across the width of the belt. (Thus, requiring the belt blank to be aligned twice with this elongated die.) This small batch processing method is not suitable for large scale low cost manufacturing.
In contrast, in the disclosed embodiment herein, for production of multiple such belts in a continuous and more automatic manner at lower cost, a continuous web of material having a width slightly wider that the desired length or circumference of the finished belt may be roll fed and continuously simultaneous puzzle-cut on both opposing edges by much smaller, and stationary, laser (or rotary mechanical) puzzle-cutting stations in correspondence or coordination, and those opposing edges of the belt automatically brought together with their puzzle-cuts mating (interdigitated) together and cemented and coated or otherwise treated, and the resulting belts cut (before or after) to their desired width with intermittent operation of a simple linear transverse or circumferential laser or mechanical cutting or chopping system, which may also be a laser cutter.
To express this in other words, in the disclosed embodiment a large number of seamed belts may be continuously automatically produced from a continuously fed web of suitable supply material that is at least as wide as the finished belt loop must be long, so that the puzzle-cutting may be done continuously along the edges of the supply web as the supply web advances, rather than in intermittent full width transverse puzzle-cuts. This embodiment also allows the use of small fixed station high power laser puzzle-cutting systems needing only small movements of cutting laser beams in the edge areas of the continuously moving belt blank to form the puzzle-cut pattern on each side of a steadily moving web of belt material.
By way of background on imageable seamed belts, for intermediate image transfer belts or photoreceptor (PR) belts, for xerographic printers, and especially such seamed belts having so-called “puzzle cut” seams, and suitable materials therefor, there is noted, for example: Xerox Corp U.S. Pat. No. 5,487,707, by Lucille M. Sharf, et al., filed Aug. 29, 1994 and issued Jan. 30, 1996 entitled “Puzzle Cut Seamed Belt With Bonding Between Adjacent Surface By UV Cured Adhesive”; Xerox Corp U.S. Pat. No. 5,514,436 by Edward L. Schlueter, Jr., issued May 7, 1996, entitled “Puzzle Cut Seamed Belt”; Xerox Corp. U.S. Pat. No. 5,549,193, issued Aug. 27, 1996 entitled “Endless Seamed Belt with Low Thickness Differential Between the Seam and the Rest of the Belt”; Xerox Corp U.S. Pat. No. 5,997,974, issued Dec. 7, 1999 by Ed Schlueter, et al., the EPO foreign equivalent application of which was published on Mar. 31, 1999 as EPO Publication No. 905570; Xerox Corp pending U.S. App. No. 08/721,418 filed Sep. 9, 1996 as and Xerox Corp pending U.S. App. No. 09/004,636 filed Jan. 8, 1998 by Robert C. U. Yu, as for which the EPO equivalent was published Jul. 14, 1999 as EPO Publication No. 928907. Other, additional, Xerox Corp. patent applications on suitable such belt materials and properties are being filed contemporaneously herewith.
Although the present system is particularly suited for manufacturing such imageable seam belts for printers, especially, intermediate image transfer belts for electrophotographic printing systems, it is not limited thereto.
Further by way of background as to intermediate image transfer belts for electrophotographic printing systems, in operation, an intermediate transfer belt is typically brought into contact with a toner image-bearing member such as a photoreceptor belt with a previously exposed and developed latent image. In the contact zone an electrostatic field generating device such as a corotron, a bias transfer roller, a bias blade, or the like, creates electrostatic fields that transfer each toner image onto the intermediate transfer belt, which moves to carry that toner image on the intermediate transfer belt over into contact with a receiver, such as a copy sheet or other image substrate. A similar electrostatic field generating device may then transfers the toner image from the intermediate transfer belt to the receiver. Depending on the system, a receiver can be another intermediate transfer member or the image substrate onto which the toner will eventually be fixed. In either case the control of the electrostatic fields in and near the transfer zone is a significant factor in toner transfer.
As shown in the above-cited and other art, intermediate transfer belts may take the form of seamed belts fabricated by fastening two ends of a web material together, such as by welding, sewing, wiring, stapling, or gluing. While seamless intermediate transfer belts are also possible, they require manufacturing processes that make them much more expensive than similar seamed intermediate transfer belts. This is particularly true when the intermediate transfer belt is relatively long. While seamed intermediate transfer belts are relatively lower in cost, the seam introduces a discontinuity that interferes with the electrical, thermal, and mechanical properties of the belt. While it is possible to synchronize a printer's operation with the motion of the intermediate transfer belt such that toner is not electrostatically transferred onto the seam, such synchronization adds to the printer's expense and complexity, and results in loss of productivity. Additionally, since some high speed electrophotographic printers produce images on paper sheets that are then cut from a continuous paper “web,” if a belt seam must be avoided, the resulting unused portion of the paper web may have to be cut out, producing paper waste. Furthermore, even with synchronization, mechanical problems related to the discontinuity, such as excessive cleaner wear and/or mechanical vibrations, may still exist.
Acceptable intermediate transfer belts require sufficient seam strength to achieve a desired operating life. While the desired operating life depends on the specific application, typically it will be at least 100,000 operating cycles, and preferably 1,000,000 cycles. Considering that a seamed intermediate transfer belt suffers mechanical stresses from belt tension, traveling over rollers, moving through transfer nips, and passing through cleaning systems, achieving such a long operating life is not trivial. Seam f
Lovallo Theodore
Schlueter Jr. Edward L.
Swift Joseph A.
Thornton Constance J.
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