Conductive Roller Surface Micro-Roughness Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conductive rollers in image-forming apparatuses struggle to maintain uniform image density, leading to image unevenness despite controlling surface roughness of the top surface, as recent high-quality image generation requires more precise control of surface micro-roughness and inter-gap distances.
Innovation Solution
A conductive roller with a core, an elastic layer, and a coating layer, where the surface roughness of the roller substrate is regulated through polishing to ensure uniform gap distribution, using specific formulas for mean irregularity intervals and ten-point average roughness, and a coating layer with a controlled particle content to maintain uniformity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If microparticles are incorporated into the coating layer to provide surface roughness, then toner transport can be controlled, but the surface micro-roughness becomes insufficient for high-quality image generation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies mechanics substitution by replacing the chemical/particle-based approach (incorporating microparticles in coating) with a mechanical approach (polishing the roller substrate). Instead of relying on microparticles dispersed in the coating layer to create surface roughness, the invention uses mechanical polishing to directly create the desired surface micro-roughness and inter-gap structures on the roller substrate, achieving higher precision and better uniformity.
Data Source
Figure 1
AI summary
To produce a conductive roller having a core 11, at least one elastic layer 12 which is mainly formed of a conductive rubber body and provided on the core 11, and a coating layer 14 provided on the elastic layer 12, characterized in that a mean irregularity interval (Sm) along the circumferential direction of the elastic layer 12 is defined as circumferential Sm1, and a mean irregularity interval (Sm) along the circumferential direction of the coating layer 14 is defined as circumferential Sm2, wherein circumferential Sm1 and circumferential Sm2 satisfy the following relationships: circumferential Sm1≤135 µm, and circumferential Sm1<circumferential Sm2.