Solid lubricant, solid lubricant coater and image forming apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10466642-B2
Application number	US-201816183086-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 7, 2018
Priority date	Nov 27, 2017
Publication date	Nov 5, 2019
Grant date	Nov 5, 2019

Abstract

The present invention relates to a solid lubricant to be coated on an image bearing member included in an electrophotographic image forming apparatus. The solid lubricant contains a resin particle and metal soap. The resin particle includes a particle body containing an amorphous resin as a principal component, and a fluorine atom supported on a surface of the particle body. The resin particle is a particle having a volume average particle size of 70 nm or more. The solid lubricant can sufficiently increase a cleaning effect in the image forming apparatus.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A solid lubricant to be coated on an image bearing member included in an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, comprising:
resin particles and metal soap,
wherein the resin particles are contained within the metal soap,
each of the resin particles includes a particle body containing an amorphous resin as a principal component, and a compound containing a fluorine atom supported on a surface of the particle body, and
the resin particles have a volume average particle size of 70 nm or more.

2. The solid lubricant according to claim 1 , wherein the resin particles have a volume average particle size of 1,000 nm or less.

3. The solid lubricant according to claim 1 , wherein each of the resin particles has a fluorine atom abundance on a surface thereof of 5 atom % or more.

4. The solid lubricant according to claim 1 , wherein the resin particles are contained in an amount corresponding to a rate of introducing the resin particles into the solid lubricant of 3 vol % or more.

5. The solid lubricant according to claim 1 , wherein the resin particles are contained in an amount corresponding to a rate of introducing the resin particles into the solid lubricant of 50 vol % or less.

6. The solid lubricant according to claim 1 , wherein each of the resin particles has a fluorine atom abundance on a surface thereof of 60 atom % or less.

7. A solid lubricant coater for coating a solid lubricant on a surface of an image bearing member included in an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, comprising:
a coating member that coats the solid lubricant according to claim 1 on the surface of the image bearing member; and
an abutment member that brings the solid lubricant into contact with the coating member by pressing.

8. An electrophotographic image forming apparatus, comprising:
an image bearing member;
a cleaner that removes an untransferred toner from a surface of the image bearing member by bringing an elastic member into contact with the surface; and
the solid lubricant coater according to claim 7 that coats the solid lubricant on the surface of the image bearing member.

9. The solid lubricant according to claim 1 , wherein the amorphous resin is selected from the group consisting of an acrylic resin, a styrene resin, and a styrene-acrylic resin.

10. The solid lubricant according to claim 1 , wherein the compound containing the fluorine atom is a fluororesin or a fluorine-containing surfactant.

Assignees

• Konica Minolta Inc

Inventors

• Amemiya Taiki
• Hosoya Yukio
• Ogura Kunihiro

Classifications

• C10N2040/14

  Electric or magnetic purposes · CPC title

• C10M2229/051

  containing halogen · CPC title

• C10N2030/06

  Oiliness; Film-strength; Anti-wear; Resistance to extreme pressure · CPC title

• C10N2020/06

  Particles of special shape or size · CPC title

• G03G5/005

  Materials for treating the recording members, e.g. for cleaning, reactivating, polishing · CPC title