Cleaning Body Elastic Layer Roughness Ratio for Image Forming Apparatus
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing cleaning bodies for image forming apparatuses have limitations in maintaining high cleaning performance, particularly when dealing with surfaces that have large surface roughness and fine irregularities, as the relationship between line roughness of protruding and center portions of the elastic layer is not optimized.
Innovation Solution
A cleaning body with a shaft and an elastic layer spirally wound around it, where the relationship between the line roughness of the protruding portion and the center portion (RaE/RaV) is greater than or equal to 5, enhancing the scraping and collection of contaminants effectively.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the elastic layer is spirally wound around the shaft to form a cleaning body, then the cleaning body can contact and clean the surface of the body to be cleaned, but the cleaning maintenance property is insufficient when dealing with surfaces having large surface roughness and fine irregularities
Solution Approach 1:
The invention applies local quality by creating distinct regions within the elastic layer with different roughness characteristics. The protruding portions are designed with higher line roughness (RaE) to effectively scrape contaminants from rough surfaces, while the center portions maintain lower line roughness (RaV) for stable contaminant collection. This local differentiation of surface properties enables the single elastic layer to simultaneously address both scraping and collection functions, resolving the contradiction between cleaning maintenance property and effectiveness on rough surfaces.
2Productivity
If the line roughness of the protruding portion is increased to enhance scraping ability, then contaminants can be more effectively removed from surfaces with large irregularities, but the relationship between RaE and RaV becomes unbalanced and reduces overall cleaning performance
Solution Approach 1:
The invention applies parameter changes by establishing a specific quantitative relationship between the line roughness parameters RaE and RaV. By controlling the ratio RaE/RaV to be within the range of 3≤RaE/RaV<5, the invention optimizes the balance between scraping efficiency (provided by higher RaE) and cleaning maintenance property (maintained through appropriate RaV). This parameter optimization ensures that the protruding portions are rough enough to scrape contaminants effectively while preventing excessive roughness that would compromise contaminant collection and overall cleaning performance.
Data Source
AI summary
A cleaning body includes a shaft and an elastic layer disposed by being spirally wound around an outer circumferential surface of the shaft from one end to the other end of the shaft, wherein a relationship between line roughness of a protruding portion formed at an end portion of the elastic layer in a width direction (RaE) and line roughness of a center portion of the elastic layer in the width direction (RaV) satisfies 5≤RaE/RaV.