JP2008208888A - Toner seal structure and manufacturing method of toner seal material for this toner seal structure - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a toner seal structure having a sufficient sealing performance and toner seal materials, in which synthetic fiber has good holdability without falling off, inside the electrophotographic image forming apparatus which forms the image by the electrophotographic printing method such as the printer, copying apparatus, facsimile machine and the like. <P>SOLUTION: The toner seal structure is intervened between the two members oppositely and relatively displacing inside the image forming device, and is provided in the opposed surface of either one side member so as to turn crimped to the opposing surface of the other members. In the toner seal structure having a sealing material to prevent toner leakage between the two members, the sealing material is composed of: the synthetic fiber made by the pile stitch consisting of synthetic fiber having a pile portion of average single fiber fineness of 0.001 dtex or more and 5 dtex or less and; and cushion material provided in the back side, and the root of the pile part of the pile stitch cloth is fixed by elasticity macromolecule material, and further, the toner seal structure is characterized by the feature where the seal material is so designed that the pile stitching cloth is made to contact with the other members. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a toner seal having a sufficient sealing property, such as a printer, a copying machine, a facsimile machine, etc., in which an electrophotographic image forming apparatus that forms an image by an electrophotographic method has good fiber retention and does not come off. The present invention relates to a structure and a toner seal material.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, image formation using an electrophotographic method has been widely performed in printers, copying apparatuses, facsimile machines, and the like. When an image is formed using an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, a fine colored powder called toner is used as a developer. In the electrophotographic system, an electrostatic latent image is formed on an image carrier such as a photosensitive drum, developed with toner, transferred to a recording paper, and the toner is fixed on the recording paper. The toner is stored in a container or the like of the developing unit, and moves to the surface of the photosensitive drum or the like while adhering to the outer peripheral surface of the developing roller. While the developing roller and the photosensitive drum rotate, the toner adheres to the outer peripheral surface thereof. The developing member and the photosensitive drum are provided with a sealing member for the rotating body so that the toner does not leak, for example, outward in the axial direction. Further, the toner remaining on the photosensitive drum after the toner is transferred to a recording sheet or the like is removed and collected by a cleaning device arranged in the vicinity of the photosensitive drum. The cleaning device includes a box-shaped housing and a blade supported by the housing. The blade is installed so as to be in sliding contact with the photosensitive drum, and the residual toner is scraped off, and the scraped toner is removed from the housing. It is stored in. At this time, the toner tends to leak out from the gap between the housing and the photosensitive drum. In order to prevent this, sealing materials are attached to both sides of the blade.

  A toner seal member comprising a nonwoven fabric sheet and a support layer made of an elastic material as a conventional sealing material, wherein the nonwoven fabric sheet has a fiber diameter of 2 μm to 10 μm (Patent Document 1) Reference). It is described that by reducing the fiber diameter, the toner can be wiped off without passing through, and the toner is efficiently collected in the voids of the nonwoven fabric. However, the sealing material having the above-described configuration has a problem in that fibers fall off from the nonwoven fabric and fray, and the inside of the apparatus is contaminated, resulting in a decrease in print quality and development accuracy.

Moreover, it is a pile base fabric in which pile yarns made of fluororesin fibers of 6 to 15 denier are arranged at a raised nap density of 40 to 80,000 pieces / In ² , and pile yarns at the fluff portion are arranged in a certain direction using a heat roller. A sealing material (Patent Document 2) is disclosed which is provided with a coating layer or a cushion layer on the back surface of the base fabric. However, when pile yarns with large fineness are arranged densely, the sealing performance against toners such as toner is improved, but as a result of the increase in the number of fibers, the contact load on the movable body with which the pile fibers come into contact also increases, so that the movable A large driving force is required to move the body. Furthermore, when the base fabric that is slanted in this way is cut into a predetermined shape, the base fabric is cut at a position away from the root of the pile yarn, so that it is cut at a position away from the root. The pile yarn falls off, and the portion not covered with the pile yarn is exposed. When the exposed portion on the surface of the base fabric is disposed in the immediate vicinity of the blade, a gap is formed between the blade and the seal material due to a portion where there is no pile yarn, and the toner leaks to the outside through the gap. There was a problem that the sealing material could not fully function.

In addition, a high-strength polyethylene fiber having a fluff pile yarn of 0.1 to 6.0 dtex and a flatness of the fiber cross section of 1.1 or more is a nap density of 13,000 to 346,000 / cm ² A material (Patent Document 3) is disclosed. However, as the fineness of the pile yarn becomes smaller, the fiber becomes less stiff. Therefore, when the seal material is brought into contact with the movable body, the pile yarn falls down and becomes flat, filling the gap between the pile yarns. Not only does the collection capacity decrease, but the collected fine particles accumulate only on the surface of the sealing material, so the retention capacity of the collected toner drops sharply with use and can be moved by dropping the collected toner. There was a problem of contaminating the body.
JP 2004-317995 A JP-A-11-61101 JP 2003-140465 A

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems in the conventional sealing material, and is used in an electrophotographic image forming apparatus that forms an image by an electrophotographic method, such as a printer, a copying machine, and a facsimile machine. The present invention provides a toner seal structure and a toner seal material that have good fiber retention and do not fall off, and have sufficient sealability and toner retention.

  In order to solve this problem, the present invention mainly has the following configuration.

  That is, “by being interposed between two opposing and relatively moving members in the image forming apparatus, being provided on the opposing surface of one of the members, and being in a pressure contact state on the opposing surface of the other member, In the toner seal structure having a toner seal material for preventing toner leakage between the two members, the toner seal material includes a pile knitted fabric having at least a pile portion made of synthetic fibers having an average single fiber fineness of 0.001 dtex or more and 5 dtex or less. And a base of the pile portion of the pile knitted fabric is fixed with an elastic polymer substance, and the seal material is composed of the pile knitted fabric and the other member. The toner seal structure is provided so as to be in contact with each other.

Further, a method for producing a toner seal material used for the toner seal structure is as follows.
“At least the connecting part is provided with an elastic polymer substance at the base part of the connecting part of the knitted fabric having a double connecting structure composed of multi-core composite fibers,
Then cut the connecting part,
After that, the cut multi-core type composite fiber of the connecting portion is made extremely fine,
Furthermore, a cushioning material is provided on the surface opposite to the cut connecting portion.
A method for producing a toner sealant. ".

  According to the present invention, a toner seal having a sufficient sealing property and a good fiber retention in an electrophotographic image forming apparatus that forms an image by an electrophotographic method, such as a printer, a copying machine, a facsimile machine, etc. Structures and toner seals can be provided.

  In the present invention, “knitted fabric” means a general term for a knitted fabric and a woven fabric.

  The pile knitted fabric referred to in the present invention is not particularly limited as long as it is a knitted fabric having a pile on the surface, but the pile is preferably a cut pile. In particular, using a knitted fabric having a specific structure called a knitted fabric having a double-bonded structure, half-cutting (cutting a fabric, a sheet-like object, etc. into a plurality of sheets in the thickness direction) at a double-bonded portion, Pile-formed knitted fabrics are preferred. By cutting the double knotted part, the cut double knot part becomes a pile, but unlike so-called napping such as base surface grinding or needle napping by shearing, pile napping of uniform length Can be easily formed.

  As used herein, the double-bonded structure refers to a structure in which an upper cloth and a lower cloth are connected with a pile, and the upper cloth and the lower cloth are formed with a knitted or woven structure. When the upper fabric and the lower fabric are knitted fabrics, the fabric is typically obtained by knitting with a double raschel knitting machine or the like, and the woven fabric is obtained by weaving with a rapier loom or the like. The production method is not particularly limited as long as it is a knitted fabric having a double-bonded structure.

In the present invention, the fibers used for the upper fabric and the lower fabric in the double knitted fabric used for producing the pile knitted fabric, that is, the ground yarn is not particularly limited, and natural fibers and synthetic fibers. Any of the semisynthetic fibers may be used, or a plurality of them may be used in combination.
The pile average height of the pile knitted fabric in the present invention is preferably 1 mm or more and 5 mm or less from the viewpoint of thickness when the toner sealing material is used.

  The average height of the pile is obtained by photographing a cross section in the thickness direction of the pile knitted fabric with a scanning electron microscope (SEM) at a magnification of 100 times, and the fibers constituting the pile portion (hereinafter referred to as pile fibers) from the average height of the knitted fabric. It refers to the height up to the average height. Place the sample horizontally in the screen, using the average position of the base as the reference line, the average value of the top of the knitted fabric cross section is the average height of the knitted fabric, and the average value of the tip height of the pile fiber is the average of the napped pile fiber The height.

  It is important that the average single fiber fineness of the pile fiber is 0.001 dtex or more and 5 dtex or less. By being in this range, it is possible to obtain good collecting properties even for extremely fine toner particles having a particle size of 10 μm or less, but in order to obtain better collecting properties, average single fibers The fineness is preferably smaller, preferably 0.001 dtex or more and 1.1 dtex or less, more preferably 0.001 d or more and less than 0.1 dtex. If the average single fiber fineness exceeds 5 dtex, the contact load with respect to the movable body with which the pile fibers come into contact is increased, which hinders the movable function of the movable body.

The average single fiber fineness is determined by cutting the pile base fabric so as to be parallel to the thickness, photographing the cut surface with a scanning electron microscope (SEM) at a magnification of 2000 times, and the pile fibers being cut perpendicular to the fiber direction. It is calculated by randomly selecting 100 cross-sections of the fibers, measuring the cross-sectional areas thereof from the photograph, and calculating the average value of the fineness from the density of the polymer constituting the fibers.
As the cross-sectional shape of the pile fiber, a round cross section may be used, but it is preferable because a good toner collecting property can be obtained even if a polygonal shape such as an ellipse, a flat shape, a triangle, a fan shape, a cross shape, etc. is adopted. . It is also possible to mix them.

The fiber type of the pile fiber of the pile knitted fabric in the present invention is not particularly limited as long as it is a thermoplastic synthetic fiber. For example, polyesters such as polyethylene terephthalate, polytrimethylene terephthalate, polybutylene terephthalate, polylactic acid, 6- Examples thereof include polyamide such as nylon and 66-nylon, acrylic, and the like, and these may be used alone or in combination.
By using a multi-core type composite fiber for the pile in a double knitted fabric, and making it into a pile knitted fabric and then subjecting it to ultrafine fiber formation, it is possible to form pile napping made of ultrafine fibers on the pile knitted fabric it can. As the multi-core type composite fiber, a two-component thermoplastic resin having different solvent solubility is used as a sea component / island component, and the sea component is dissolved and removed with a solvent or the like. A two-component thermoplastic resin is alternately arranged so that the cross section of the fiber is radial or multilayered, and a peelable composite fiber that splits into ultrafine fibers by separating and separating each component can be employed. For the sea-island type composite fiber, a polymer inter-array system that uses the sea-island type composite base to spin the two components of the sea and the islands, and the mixed spinning method that mixes and spins the two components of the sea and the islands. However, it is preferable that ultrafine fibers with uniform fineness can be obtained, and that the island components are continuous without interruption, because the ultrafine fibers do not fall off after the sea component is removed. Therefore, in the present invention, a sea-island type composite fiber by a polymer mutual array system is more preferable. As the sea component of the sea-island composite fiber, polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, copolymer polyester copolymerized with sodium sulfoisophthalic acid or polyethylene glycol, polylactic acid, polyvinyl alcohol copolymers that can be dissolved in an aqueous solvent, etc. are used. be able to. Solvents that dissolve sea components can be dissolved in organic solvents such as toluene and trichloroethylene in the case of polyethylene, polypropylene, and polystyrene, and in aqueous solutions such as sodium hydroxide and aqueous solvents in the case of copolymerized polyester and polylactic acid. In the case of polyvinyl alcohol copolymers, hot water or the like can be used, and it can be removed by immersing the sea-island type composite fiber in a solvent and performing a stenosis solution.

In addition, the load applied to the movable body when the surface pile portion is brought into sliding contact with the movable body as a toner seal material by removing the sea component from the sea-island type composite fiber to generate ultrafine fibers. It is possible to increase the nap density of the pile fiber without increasing it. That is, the island component of the sea-island composite fiber may be designed so that the pile fiber is 0.001 dtex or more and 5 dtex or less. Specifically, the number of islands in the fiber cross section of the sea-island composite fiber is not limited, but it is preferable to design between 8 and 1000 islands in terms of spinnability and sea component solubility of the sea-island composite fiber, It is more preferable to design between 8 islands and 400 islands. The island component ratio in the sea-island composite fiber can be appropriately set between 10% and 99% on a weight basis, but is preferably 30% or more from the viewpoint of pile fiber density after dissolution and removal of the sea component. The fineness of the sea-island type composite fiber is preferably 0.5 dtex or more and 10 dtex or less, and more preferably 0.5 dtex or more and 5 dtex or less, from the viewpoint of process stability during pile weaving and weaving. At the time of pile weaving and weaving, the sea-island type composite fibers are bundled into 50 or more and 1000 or less. For example, a sea-island type composite fiber having 100 islands and an island component ratio of 50% is stretched under the condition that the fineness of the island component is 0.01 dtex, and a multifilament of 144 dtex-72 filaments is formed. In this case, after weaving a woven fabric having a double-bonded structure so that the density of pile fibers of sea-island type composite fibers is 10,000 / cm ^2, and fixing the root of the pile with an elastic polymer material, By removing the sea component, a pile fabric having an extremely high pile fiber density of 10 ⁶ fibers / cm ² can be finally obtained. In addition, since the pile fibers are made of ultrafine fibers, no excessive load is applied to the movable body to be slidably contacted, and excellent toner sealability can be obtained. In order to obtain a high pile density, it is also effective to shrink the knitted fabric by heat treatment after forming the knitted fabric with a double bonded structure. The heat shrink treatment may be a dry treatment such as hot air, or may be a wet treatment such as steam treatment or hot water treatment.

  In the pile knitted fabric in the present invention, it is important that the base of the pile portion is fixed with an elastic polymer substance. By fixing the base of the pile part with the elastic polymer material, pile piles that are not lying down even though the pile height is constant and the single fiber fineness is small can be obtained. If the elastic polymer substance is applied to the pile portion that is in the ultrafine fiber state by the ultrafine treatment first, the pile will fall down. However, when the pile is thick and has sufficient rigidity before being thinned, an elastic polymer substance is applied, impregnated, and fixed, so that the upright pile can be maintained as it is. it can. Thereafter, a pile made of ultrafine fibers maintaining the upright direction can be obtained by subjecting the fibers to an ultrafine treatment. The pile knitted fabric obtained in this way is a pile nap made of ultrafine fibers on the surface abutting on the movable body, and even if the number of fibers is densely arranged, the drive of the movable body is hindered. In addition, ultrafine toner of several μm size is efficiently entangled and collected.

  In addition, since the base of the pile portion is fixed with an elastic polymer substance, the pile fiber does not come off from the base fabric of the pile knitted fabric, and also when the toner seal material is cut into a predetermined shape. The pile fiber does not fall off from the cut portion, and the pile base fabric surface can be prevented from being exposed.

  As the elastic polymer substance imparted to the pile knitted fabric, a polyurethane resin or a polymer substance having flexibility is preferably used. In addition to the polyurethane resin, a polyester resin, an acrylic resin, a silicon resin, or the like can also be used. The application of the elastic polymer substance is aimed at the direction of the pile fiber, that is, the prevention of the pile fiber collapse. In particular, it is important in the present invention to apply to the base of the pile portion. Examples of means for applying to the root portion of the pile portion include an impregnation method or a coating method. In the impregnation method, if the pile part is impregnated with a resin that can be easily removed in advance, such as polyvinyl alcohol, and then an elastic polymer substance is applied, the elastic polymer substance adheres to the root of the pile part and hardens the root. It becomes effective.

  The amount of the elastic polymer substance applied is preferably at least 5% by weight or more with respect to the weight of the pile knitted fabric, and a larger amount is more effective for maintaining an upright pile. Since the voids at the roots are lost and the toner holding ability is lowered, it is more preferably 5 wt% or more and 50 wt% or less.

  When solidifying the impregnated polymer elastic material, the pile fiber and the polymer elastic material are selected at the base of the pile by selecting the polymer elastic material so as to have an appropriate foam structure or adjusting the solidification conditions. It is possible to obtain a toner sealing material having an excellent toner retention property in which a void having a complicated three-dimensional structure is formed and the collected toner is not stored and discharged. The composition of the polymer elastic material may be changed so that the polymer elastic material forms an appropriate foamed structure, or an auxiliary agent such as a plasticizer or a coagulation adjusting agent may be added to the elastic polymer material.

  Next, in a state where the elastic polymer material is applied, the two piles having pile piles on the surface are cut by cutting the binding pile portion of the double-bonded knitted fabric, that is, by cutting the center of the pile portion. A knitted fabric can be obtained. As a means for cutting, a slicing machine or the like that can cut the base fabric into a plurality of sheets in the thickness direction is used.

  Thereafter, the pile fiber of the obtained pile knitted fabric is subjected to ultrafine processing. When the pile fiber is a sea-island type composite fiber, the sea component is removed to obtain a knitted fabric in which the pile portion is made of ultrafine fibers. On the other hand, in the case of a peelable composite fiber, it is divided by adding stagnation with an alkaline aqueous solution or hitting with a water jet or the like to obtain a knitted fabric in which the pile portion is made of ultrafine fibers.

  The pile knitted fabric thus obtained is a pile knitted fabric in which the pile portion on the surface is made of ultrafine fibers and the pile root portion is fixed with an elastic polymer substance.

  In the obtained pile knitted fabric, it is important to provide a cushion material on the back surface of the pile knitted fabric in order to bring the pile surface into sufficient sliding contact with the movable body in the image forming apparatus. In this case, the cushion material can be adhered to the back surface of the pile knitted fabric with an adhesive or the like. As the material of the cushion material, resins such as polyurethane, styrene and polypropylene, synthetic rubbers such as EPDM (ethylene propylene rubber) and chloroprene, natural rubbers, and thermoplastic elastomers such as olefins and styrenes can be used. . In order to obtain sufficient flexibility and elasticity so as to be in sliding contact with the movable body and not to inhibit rotation, the cushioning material preferably has an appropriate resilience. For example, a hardness test A method of JIS K 6400 It is preferable to use one having a 25% compressive load value of 0.3 to 3 MPa. Moreover, it is preferable to use the adhesive agent which has a softness | flexibility after hardening also for the said adhesive agent, and adhesive agents, such as a styrene butadiene type | system | group, a rubber type | system | group, an acrylic type, can be used.

  To cut the pile knitted fabric in the present invention or a pile knitted fabric composite having a cushion material on the back of the pile knitted fabric into the shape of a toner seal material and place it at a predetermined position in the image forming apparatus, double-sided tape Alternatively, an adhesive can be used. This adhesive layer can be previously laminated on the seal material, or can be installed at the toner seal material application position in the image forming apparatus.

  FIG. 1 schematically shows a partial configuration of an embodiment of an image forming apparatus to which the toner seal structure of the present invention is applied.

  In the image forming apparatus 11 of the present embodiment, development is performed in which the electrostatic latent image formed on the surface of the photosensitive drum 1 serving as an image carrier is visualized with the toner 5. The photosensitive drum 1 usually exhibits electrical insulation, and a layer of a photosensitive body, which is a photoconductive insulator material that exhibits conductivity when irradiated with a laser (light), is placed on the outer peripheral surface of a cylindrical substrate such as aluminum. It is configured by forming. The photosensitive drum 1 is rotationally driven at a constant peripheral speed in the direction of the arrow shown in the figure (clockwise direction), and the surface thereof is first uniformly charged by a charging roller 2 as a contact charging device. On the downstream side in the rotation direction of the charging roller 2, scanning exposure by laser irradiation 10 that is ON / OFF controlled according to image information is performed on the photosensitive drum 1, and an electrostatic latent image is formed on the photosensitive drum 1. The The electrostatic latent image formed in this manner is developed by the developing unit 3 disposed opposite to the photosensitive drum 1 and visualized as a toner image. Here, the developing unit 3 stores the negatively charged toner 5 in the container 4, and the rotationally driven developing roller 4 a and the toner supply roller for efficiently attaching the toner 5 to the developing roller 4 a. 4b, a developing blade 4c for regulating the thickness of the toner layer adhering to the surface of the developing roller 4a to a certain level or less is provided. The toner supply roller 4b conveys the toner 5 in the container 4 toward the developing roller 4a while stirring the toner 5 while being in contact with the developing roller 4a. A DC voltage is applied as a developing bias to the developing roller 4a and the toner supply roller 4b. In order to smoothly transfer the toner 5 from the supply roller 4b to the development roller 4a, the voltage applied to the toner supply roller 4b is set higher in the absolute voltage. Note that the bias voltage is not limited to the DC voltage but may be superimposed with an AC voltage.

  With respect to the rotation direction, the recording medium P is in contact with the outer peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 1 on the downstream side of the developing unit 3, and a transfer roller 6 is provided below the recording medium P. An image of the toner 5 formed on the outer peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 1 by development is transferred to the surface of the recording medium P. A cleaning device 7 is disposed on the upstream side of the charging roller 2 with respect to the rotation direction. The recording medium P is brought into contact with the outer peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 1 and then conveyed to the fixing roller 9 where it is heated and pressed by the heating roller 9a and the pressure roller 9b. The toner 5 image transferred onto the recording medium P is fused to the toner 5 and fixed on the surface of the recording medium P.

  In electrophotographic image formation, when laser irradiation 10 is performed on the surface of the photosensitive drum 1 that is uniformly charged by the charging roller 2, the charge of the portion irradiated with the laser disappears, and an electrostatic latent image is formed. Is formed. The laser irradiation 10 is, for example, a laser beam whose intensity is modulated corresponding to an image to be recorded in a laser printer, and is reflected light from the surface of a document in a copying apparatus. From the developing unit 3, toner 5 that is a charged powder developer is supplied, and an electrostatic latent image on the surface of the photosensitive drum 1 is made visible. The toner 5 has high electrical insulation, and when the corona discharge having the opposite polarity to the toner 5 is performed in the transfer roller 6, the toner on the surface of the photosensitive drum 1 is sucked and electrostatically transferred to the surface of the recording medium P. The The toner transferred onto the recording medium P is once melted by ripening and pressurization of the fixing device 9 and then fixed to the surface of the recording medium P. The toner 5 remaining on the surface of the photosensitive drum 1 is removed by a cleaning device 7 so that charging by the charging roller 2 is not hindered. The cleaning device 7 is provided with a cleaning blade 8 that scrapes off the toner 5 remaining on the surface of the photosensitive drum 1 into the removed toner storage portion of the cleaning device 7.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a specific installation location and usage of the toner seal material of the present invention. In the present invention, the toner sealant is interposed between two opposing and relatively moving members in the image forming apparatus, is provided on the opposing surface of one of the members, and is in pressure contact with the opposing surface of the other member. As a result, toner leakage between the two members is prevented. The two members facing and relatively moving here correspond to, for example, the toner storage container 4 and the developing roller 4a, or the developing roller 4a and the bearing portion 16 in FIG. That is, the toner seal material 12 at the end of the developing roller 4a is installed at both ends of the developing blade 4c, is in close contact with the outer peripheral surface of the developing roller 4a, and forms a toner layer in the middle of the axial direction according to the print width. It is used to provide blank portions 13 and 14 to which toner does not adhere to both ends in the axial direction, and the toner seal material 15 is a bearing portion of the toner container at the bearing portion 16 of the rotating shaft of the developing roller 4a. It can be installed so that the toner does not leak from between the rotating shaft and the outside, and the rotation of the rotating shaft is not hindered or contaminated.

  Similarly to the toner seal material 12, the cleaning blade 8 is attached to the longitudinal end of the cleaning blade 8 so as to be in pressure contact with the photosensitive drum 1, and the toner 5 remaining on the surface of the photosensitive drum 1 is prevented from leaking and scattering. Or can be installed on the rotating shaft of the toner supply roller 4b in the same manner as the toner seal material 15.

  EXAMPLES Hereinafter, although this invention is demonstrated further more concretely using an Example, this invention is not limited only to a following example.

[Evaluation methods]
(1) Thickness of toner sealing material and toner sealing material composite The thickness when a load of 25 gf / cm ² was applied for 5 seconds to the center of a sample cut out to a 5 cm square was measured, and the average value at 5 measurement points Was calculated.

(2) Pile Fiber Thickness A cross section in the thickness direction of the pile knitted fabric was photographed with a scanning electron microscope (SEM) at a magnification of 100 times, and the thickness from the average height of the knitted fabric to the average height of napped pile fibers was determined. Place the sample horizontally in the screen, using the average position of the base as the reference line, the average value of the top of the knitted fabric cross section is the average height of the knitted fabric, and the average value of the tip height of the pile fiber is the average of the napped pile fiber It was height.

(3) Evaluation of toner seal performance In order to evaluate the material as a toner seal material, a plurality of evaluation toner seal materials 17 having the size (50 mm × 10 mm × 2.5 mm) shown in FIG. 3 are prepared. As shown, an evaluation toner seal material support unit 18 provided downstream from the contact position between the transfer roller 6 of the image forming apparatus main body and the photosensitive drum 1 in the rotational direction of the photosensitive drum 1 and upstream from the cleaning blade 8. The toner remaining on the photosensitive drum 1 after being transferred to a recording medium can be wiped and collected. A plurality of cut-out sealing material composites were arranged in a row horizontally so as to cover the entire width of the photosensitive drum 1. The sealing material composite was pressed against the photosensitive drum so that the thickness of the sealing composite was 2.0 mm. The evaluation was performed using a laser printer (model number: HP LaserJet 5100tn) manufactured by Hewlett-Packard Company. After printing 100 black-painted documents in A3 size, the cleaning device was removed, and the adhered toner remaining on the photosensitive drum The method of scraping off and measuring the weight was taken.

(4) Observation of sealing material after collecting toner Remove the sealing material composite after the evaluation of toner sealing performance, and place it on a desk mat with the surface down, and use a razor blade. Then, it was cut from above perpendicular to the thickness direction, and the cut surface was photographed with a scanning electron microscope (SEM) at a magnification of 100 times to observe how the toner was collected inside the sealing material. .

[Create seal material]
(Example 1)
The sea component is sodium sulfoisophthalic acid copolymer polyester, the island component is made of polyethylene terephthalate, and the sea-island type composite fiber having 16 islands and an island component ratio of 80% by weight is bundled to form a 96 dtex-48 filament multifilament, Using this as a pile part, a polyethylene terephthalate 90 dtex-36 filament multifilament as a ground, knitting with a double raschel knitting machine under conditions of 2.5 mm between the hooks (corresponding to the length of the connecting part) A knitted fabric having a double-bonded structure with a basis weight of 551 g / m ² was obtained. This knitted fabric was immersed in hot water at 90 ° C. for 1 minute, dried with hot air at 120 ° C. for 5 minutes, and heat-shrinked. Next, this knitted fabric was passed through an aqueous solution containing 13% by weight of polyvinyl alcohol having a saponification degree of 87% and then dried to give 23% by weight of polyvinyl alcohol as a solid content. Next, it was immersed in a 12% by weight polyurethane-containing dimethylformamide solvent solution and then squeezed with a mangle to selectively apply polyurethane to the knitted base fabric, and led to water to coagulate the polyurethane and fix pile fibers. Subsequently, polyvinyl alcohol and dimethylformamide were washed away in hot water to obtain a knitted fabric containing 11% by weight of polyurethane as a solid content. Next, the center of the connecting portion (the portion forming the pile portion) of this knitted fabric was sliced to obtain a pile knitted fabric in which the pile portion was sea-island type fibers. The obtained pile knitted fabric was treated under the following conditions using a liquid dyeing machine (Circular Rapid Dyeing Machine manufactured by Nisaka Manufacturing Co., Ltd.) to remove sea components. That is, it was treated at 130 ° C. for 30 minutes in a pH 2.5 acidic aqueous solution to which maleic acid 1 g / L was added, washed with water, and treated with an aqueous solution containing 6% by weight of caustic soda at 90 ° C. for 30 minutes to obtain sea components. (Sodium sulfoisophthalic acid copolymer polyester) was dissolved and removed. The obtained pile knitted fabric was a knitted fabric having pile nappings made of 0.1 dtex ultrafine polyethylene terephthalate fiber, and the pile root portion was fixed by an elastic polymer substance. The pile knitted fabric had a thickness of 1.5 mm and a pile height of 1.0 mm.

  Spray a solvent adhesive (product name: spray paste 77) manufactured by Sumitomo 3M Co., Ltd. on the back of the pile knitted fabric, and paste polyurethane foam (product name: maltoprene) manufactured by INOAC Corporation as a cushioning material. A composite of a pile knitted fabric and a cushion material having a size of 2.5 mm was obtained. Small pieces were cut into a predetermined shape from the pile knitted fabric and cushion material obtained above to obtain a seal material composite.

  The weight of the adhered toner remaining on the photosensitive drum after the evaluation of the toner seal performance was 1 mg. When the cross-sectional structure of the sealing material after toner collection is observed, the toner particles enter the pile root direction and are taken into the voids of the polymer elastic material that solidifies the pile fiber root, or the surface of the polymer elastic material A state of adhering to the surface was observed.

(Comparative Example 1)
The sea component is made of polystyrene and the island component is made of polyethylene terephthalate. After spinning the sea-island type composite fiber having 16 islands and an island component ratio of 50% by weight, the composite fineness is 3.2 dtex by drawing, crimping and cutting. Obtained raw cotton. The obtained raw cotton was made into a web using a cross wrapper and made into a nonwoven fabric by needle punching. The nonwoven fabric composed of this sea-island type composite fiber was impregnated in an aqueous solution containing 10% by weight of polyvinyl alcohol having a saponification degree of 87% and then dried. Thereafter, polystyrene as a sea component was extracted and removed from trichlorethylene, and dried. A nonwoven fabric in which fiber bundles made of ultrafine fibers having an average single fiber fineness of 0.1 dtex were entangled was obtained. Next, this nonwoven fabric was subjected to water jet punching treatment, and after removing polyvinyl alcohol, it was dried to obtain a nonwoven fabric made of 0.1 dtex ultrafine polyethylene terephthalate fibers. The thickness was 1.0 mm.

  A cushion material was attached to the back surface of the obtained nonwoven fabric in the same manner as in Example 1 to obtain a composite of the nonwoven fabric and cushion material having a thickness of 2.5 mm. A small piece was cut out in a predetermined shape from the obtained composite of nonwoven fabric and cushion material to obtain a sealing material composite.

  The weight of the adhered toner remaining on the photosensitive drum after the evaluation of the toner seal performance was 11 mg. Moreover, mixing of the extra fine fiber which fell from the sealing material was observed. When the cross-sectional structure of the sealing material after collecting the toner was observed, it was observed that the toner fine particles were concentrated and adhered to the fibers in the surface layer portion, and almost did not enter the inner layer portion.

(Comparative Example 2)
High-strength polyethylene filament (trade name: Dyneema) manufactured by Toyobo Co., Ltd. Pile fabric with 165 dtex-140 filament as the pile part, polyethylene terephthalate 90 dtex-36 filament multifilament as the ground, and pile fiber density of 30000 / cm ² Was woven. Between the groove roller having a large number of grooves having a groove depth of 1 to 3 mm heated to 100 to 150 ° C. and the flat roller heated to 80 to 120 ° C., the pile fiber side is the groove roller side. As a result, a pile fabric in which the pile fibers were crushed in a certain direction was obtained. The thickness was 1.0 mm and the pile height was 0.5 mm.
A cushion material was affixed to the back surface of the obtained pile fabric in the same manner as in Example 1 to obtain a composite of a pile fabric and a cushion material having a thickness of 2.5 mm. Small pieces were cut into a predetermined shape from the composite of the obtained pile knitted fabric and the cushion material to obtain a seal material composite.

  The weight of the adhered toner remaining on the photosensitive drum after the evaluation of the toner seal performance was 13 mg. When the cross-sectional structure of the sealing material after collecting the toner is observed, the toner fine particles are concentrated on the tip of the pile, and a cake is formed on the surface of the sealing material due to the accumulated toner material. Observed.

  The toner seal material of the present invention has good fiber retention and does not come off, and has excellent sealability and toner retention. By bonding with a cushion material, it can be used in electrophotographic systems such as printers, copiers, and facsimile machines. As a toner seal material in an electrophotographic image forming apparatus for forming an image, for example, on a support provided at the end of a long plate-like blade that scrapes off toner from the surface of a photosensitive drum rotatably supported. To attach and block toner that leaks to the outside through the gap between the support and the photosensitive drum from the end of the blade, and seals toner leakage, and toner such as toner cartridges and toner cases Attached to the rotating shaft for stirring the toner provided in the container, the toner leaking outside from between the bearing portion of the toner container and the rotating shaft is captured. And blocking can be suitably used as a sealing material for sealing the leakage of toner.

1 is a cross-sectional view schematically illustrating an example of a partial configuration of an image forming apparatus. FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a partial structure of a developing unit 3 including a developing roll 4a and a developing blade 4c in FIG. It is a schematic diagram of a toner seal material used for performance evaluation. It is the schematic which shows the performance evaluation method of a toner seal material.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Photosensitive drum 2 Charging roller 3 Developing unit 4 Toner storage container 4a Developing roller 4b Toner supply roller 4c Developing blade 5 Toner 6 Transfer roller 7 Cleaning device 8 Cleaning blade 9a Heating roller 9b Pressure roller 10 Laser irradiation 11 Image forming device 12 Toner seal material 13, 14 Blank portion 15 Toner seal material 16 Bearing portion 17 Evaluation toner seal material 18 Evaluation toner seal material support unit P Recording medium

Claims (5)

  It is interposed between two opposing and relatively moving members in the image forming apparatus, is provided on the opposing surface of one of the members, and is brought into a pressure contact state with the opposing surface of the other member. In a toner seal structure having a toner seal material for preventing toner leakage, the seal material is provided on the back surface of a pile knitted fabric composed of synthetic fibers having at least a pile portion of an average single fiber fineness of 0.001 dtex or more and 5 dtex or less. And the base of the pile portion of the pile knitted fabric is fixed with an elastic polymer material, and the toner seal material is arranged so that the pile knitted fabric comes into contact with the other member. A toner seal structure characterized by being provided.   The toner seal structure according to claim 1, wherein the elastic polymer material is a polyurethane resin or a polymer material having flexibility.   The toner seal structure according to claim 1, wherein an average height of the pile is 1 mm or more and 5 mm or less.   4. The toner seal structure according to claim 1, wherein the elastic polymer substance is contained in an amount of 5 to 50% by weight with respect to the weight of the knitted fabric. An elastic polymer substance is imparted to the base portion of the knitted fabric having a double-bonded structure in which at least the connecting portion is formed of a multicore type composite fiber,
Then cut the connecting part,
After that, the cut multi-core type composite fiber of the connecting portion is made extremely fine,
Furthermore, a cushioning material is provided on the surface opposite to the cut connecting portion.
A method for producing a toner sealant.

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