Two-Layer Cleaning Blade for Photoconductor Edge Drooping
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing cleaning blades for electrophotographic photoconductors face challenges in maintaining durability and preventing edge drooping and peeling, especially in varying temperature environments, due to their single-layer structure and material limitations.
Innovation Solution
A two-layer cleaning blade member with an edge layer and a back layer, where the edge layer has a Young's modulus of 8 to 20 MPa and impact resilience of 20 to 40%, and the back layer compensates to provide a total Young's modulus of 7 to 14 MPa, ensuring stable mechanical characteristics and resistance to edge drooping across temperature changes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the cleaning blade is made with a single-layer structure and high hardness to improve durability, then wear resistance is improved, but contact pressure becomes too high causing photoconductor film peeling and blade edge drooping
Solution Approach 1:
The cleaning blade is divided into two distinct layers: a harder edge layer (0.1-2.0 mm thick) that provides wear resistance and durability, and a softer back layer that reduces overall contact pressure on the photoconductor. This segmentation allows each layer to perform its specific function independently, resolving the contradiction between durability and harmful effects.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention uses a composite structure combining two materials with different mechanical properties - a harder material for the edge layer and a softer material for the back layer. This composite approach enables the blade to simultaneously achieve high wear resistance at the contact edge while maintaining low overall contact pressure through the softer backing layer.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If the cleaning blade uses a plural-layer structure to reduce contact pressure and prevent edge drooping, then edge drooping resistance is improved, but mechanical characteristics become unstable in varying temperature environments
Solution Approach 1:
The invention carefully controls specific parameters of the two-layer structure - the thickness ratio (edge layer 0.1-2.0 mm), hardness values (edge layer 60-90° JIS A, back layer 50-75° JIS A), and Young's modulus ratio (0.01-6.0) - to ensure that the blade maintains stable mechanical characteristics across temperature variations while preventing edge drooping.
3Reliability
If the edge layer has high hardness to improve wear resistance, then durability is improved, but the blade edge droops due to excessive contact pressure
Solution Approach 1:
The softer back layer acts as a counterweight that compensates for the hardness of the edge layer. While the hard edge layer resists wear, the softer back layer provides structural support that prevents the blade edge from drooping under contact pressure, effectively balancing the opposing forces.
Data Source
AI summary
A cleaning blade member for use in a cleaning section for removing toner on a toner-deposited body, the cleaning blade member comprising: an edge layer contacting the toner-deposited body; and a back layer provided on a back side of the edge layer, and wherein the edge layer has a Young's modulus of 8 to 20 MPa and an impact resilience at 25° C. of 20 to 40%, and when the Young's modulus of the edge layer is designated as Ea, a Young's modulus of the back layer is designated as Eb, a thickness of the edge layer is designated as Ta, and a thickness of the back layer is designated as Tb, a ratio (Rb/Ra) between a contribution rate Ra of the Young's modulus of the edge layer represented by the following equation (1), and a contribution rate Rb of the Young's modulus of the back layer represented by the following equation (2) is 0.01 to 6.0, and a total Young's modulus (Ra+Rb) of the edge layer and the back layer is 7 to 14 MPa:Ra=[TaEa/(Ta+Tb)] (1)Rb=[TbEb/(Ta+Tb)]. (2)