Synthetic resins or natural rubbers -- part of the class 520 ser – Synthetic resins – Mixing of two or more solid polymers; mixing of solid...
Reexamination Certificate
2001-12-19
2004-03-16
Seidleck, James J. (Department: 1711)
Synthetic resins or natural rubbers -- part of the class 520 ser
Synthetic resins
Mixing of two or more solid polymers; mixing of solid...
C525S276000, C525S326200
Reexamination Certificate
active
06706819
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a fluorine-containing material having heat resistance and non-tackiness while having flexibility.
BACKGROUND ART
Fluorine-containing materials such as fluorine-containing resins and fluorine-containing rubbers are used as various starting materials in various fields by utilizing specific properties thereof Particularly the fluorine-containing materials play an important role in the field of OA equipment.
In that field, hitherto a urethane rubber, EP rubber, silicone rubber and the like have been used for rolls for printing machine and platen rolls. Also a silicone rubber roll, a fluorine-containing rubber roll and the like are known as a fuser roll for electro photographic copying machine. However in those rolls, even in case of use of a toner having releasing property, since releasing property (non-tackiness against toner) is not enough, a non-elastic roll coated with a fluorine-containing resin, an elastic roll covered with a shrinkable fluorine-containing resin tube on its surface, or the like has been proposed. Further there have been proposed an elastic roll obtained by coating a mixture of fluorine-containing rubber and fluorine-containing resin powder and then baking to form a fluorine-containing resin powder layer on the surface of roll (JP-B-1-36622), a roll obtained by coating a fluorine-containing rubber and fluorine-containing resin powder, baking and then further coating a fluorine-containing resin powder to form a fluorine-containing resin layer PJP-B-6-100876), and the like roll.
In fixing operation of electrophotographic copying machine, coating of a releasing oil, generally a silicone oil on a fuser roll is carried out to improve releasing property of the fuser roll. In that case, in order to prevent a silicone oil from permeating inside the fuser roll and causing swelling of the roll, there have been proposed a fuser roll obtained by covering a shrinkable fluorine-containing resin tube on an elastic roll or a fuser roll provided with a silicone rubber layer, a fluorine-containing rubber layer or a fluorosilicone rubber layer and a silicone rubber layer in that order on its metallic core roll as described in JP-A- 1-205188, etc.
Also in JP-A-62-285839, the inventors of the present invention proposed an elastic roll obtained by forming, on its metallic core roll, a layer of a heat resistant elastomer material impregnated and integrated with fibrillated polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), particularly stretched porous polytetrafluoroethylene.
On the other hand, in the roll for printing machine and platen roll which are produced by using a urethane rubber, EP rubber or silicone rubber, elasticity of the roll is good, but releasing property cannot always be said to be good. For that reason, there were problems that troubles such as adherence of toner, contamination of printed matters due to adherence of paper powder and winding of paper on a roll occurred.
Particularly in case of the fuser roll for electrophotographic copying machine, a non-elastic roll coated with a fluorine-containing resin such as PFE or PFA (copolymer of tetrafluoroethylene and perfluoro(alkyl vinyl ether)) has a defect that the roll has no elasticity, and a roll obtained by covering a surface of elastic roll with a shrinkable fluorine-containing resin tube is not always satisfactory from the viewpoint of surface elasticity since the fluorine-containing resin is hard and small in elongation. Further an elastic roll having a fluorine-containing resin powder layer on its surface (formed by powder coating of PFA, etc.) is good in elasticity and releasing property at an initial stage of its use, but since the fluorine-containing resin powder on its surface is easily peeled or separated, a life of the releasing property is short and further in application for a fuser roll in which its temperature becomes as high as 150° to 200° C., heat resistance of the roll is not enough. Particularly since the fluorine-containing rubber component is deteriorated and strength thereof is decreased, durability of the roll is lowered.
Also as described in JP-A-1-205188, etc., with respect to the roll having a silicone rubber layer on a fluorine-containing rubber layer or fluorosilicone rubber layer, strength of the silicone rubber layer on the roll surface is insufficient. If an amount of a filler is increased to increase the strength, releasing property is lowered. Further since an adhesive strength between the silicone rubber layer and the fluorine-containing rubber layer or fluorosilicone rubber layer is not enough, there is a problem that coating of a silicone oil and fixing operations are carried out repeatedly, thereby causing cracking on the surface silicone rubber layer and peeling thereof in the worst case. Further in application for a fuser roll in which its temperature becomes as high as 150° to 200° C., the surface silicone rubber layer and the inside fluorine-containing rubber layer or fluorosilicone rubber layer are deteriorated and abraded due to lowering of strength since heat resistance thereof is insufficient.
Also the elastic roll disclosed in JP-A-62-285839 is very excellent in releasing property and good in affinity and anti-swelling property with a silicone oil, but is poor in elastic properties, particularly elasticity recovering ability. Further the elastic roll is poor in heat conductivity and has a problem that its surface temperature is lowered particularly at the time of copying continuously.
In recent years, in a copying machine, the tendency is toward color printing and higher copying speed, and thus a surface material for rolls of fixing part which has more flexibility, heat resistance and non-tackiness is demanded.
In LBP having a tendency toward color printing, high quality image and high speed, a toner itself also has a tendency of multi-colors and low viscosity. From the viewpoint of prevention of offsetting, more non-tackiness is also demanded on a material to be used on a surface of the fuser roll.
An object of the present invention is to provide a flexible fluorine-containing material which can cope with the above-mentioned problems in the field of OA equipment and naturally can be applied on various products, parts and coating in other fields.
The present inventors have found that a specific fluorine-containing multi-segment polymer having an elastomeric fluorine-containing polymer chain segment capable of giving flexibility to the whole polymer and a non-elastomeric fluorine-containing polymer chain segment is suitable for applications where heat resistance, flexibility and non-tackiness are demanded, and also have found that the above-mentioned problematic points can be further improved by a combination of the specific fluorine-containing multi-segment polymer and a specific fluorine-containing resin.
The flexible fluorine-containing material can be preferably used particularly as a material for rolls of OA equipment to be used for electronically fixing and photo-sensing applications. Particularly by using on a fuser roll, excellent fixing property, color developing property, oil resistance, non-tackiness against toner and releasability of a paper can be exhibited and further heat resistance, non-tackiness, durability and abrasion resistance can be given to the surface of the roll.
DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION
The present invention relates to a flexible fluorine-containing material which comprises (a) a fluorine-containing multi-segment polymer having an elastomeric fluorine-containing polymer chain segment A and a non-elastomeric fluorine-containing polymer chain segment B in which the elastomeric fluorine-containing polymer chain segment A comprises not less than 90% by mole of perhaloolefin units and (b) a fluorine-containing resin having a crystalline melting point or glass transition temperature of not less than 150° C., in which a weight ratio (a)/(b) is 1/99 to 99/1.
It is preferable that the elastomeric fluorine-containing polymer chain segment A contained in the fluorine-containing multi-segment polymer (a) is non-crystalline
Araki Takayuki
Hirano Nobuhiro
Oka Noritoshi
Daikin Industries Ltd.
Seidleck James J.
Tran Thao
LandOfFree
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