JPH0453955A - Positioning device for cylindrical drum - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To allow the easy positioning of cylindrical drums without flawing the entire part of the drums by providing means for correcting steps by gripping the outside surfaces of the parts for connecting the cylindrical drums to each other from the outside by a gripping member. CONSTITUTION:The outside surfaces of the parts for connecting the cylindrical drums 1 to each other are gripped from the outside by the gripping member 10 to correct the steps. Then, the need for spacers is eliminated and the need for the device or operator to be exclusively used for inserting and removing the spacers is eliminated. Further, the outside surfaces of the adjacent cylindrical drums are positioned flush with each other with good accuracy by gripping the outside surfaces of the parts for connecting the cylindrical drums to each other from the outside by its gripping member. In addition, only the connecting parts are required to be corrected at the time of correcting the steps and, therefore, the flawing of the entire part in the longitudinal direction of the drums like heretofore is obviated. The cylindrical drums are positioned easily without flawing the entire part of the drums in this way.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an apparatus for positioning a cylindrical drum when manufacturing an electrophotographic photosensitive member by coating the cylindrical drum with a photosensitive liquid.

[Conventional technology]

In manufacturing an organic photoconductor photosensitive drum, which is a photosensitive member used in an electrophotographic apparatus, a photosensitive coating liquid is applied to a cylindrical drum. In applying the coating, it is necessary to position a slide hopper or the like at a predetermined position around the cylindrical drum and to maintain a constant clearance between the two in the circumferential direction. In this case, since the required thickness of the coating layer is extremely thin, even if the cylindrical drum shifts by 0.1 degrees, it will cause a large deviation in the thickness of the coating layer as a whole in the circumferential direction.

It is a well-known fact that such deviations in the thickness of the coating layer cause various problems such as changes in the amount of charge, non-uniform sensitivity, and changes in residual potential in the circumferential direction of the cylindrical drum. Accurate positioning of the cylindrical drum is therefore extremely important.

Conventionally, this type of drum positioning device has been disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 60-50537 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 60-955.
As in the technology described in Publication No. 46, position regulating rollers are provided around the drum in contact with each other, or a group of drive rollers provided in plurality in the conveyance direction of the drum are continuously applied to the coating head while in contact with the drum. It is known to adjust the relative positional relationship of the coating head with respect to the outer circumferential surface of the drum while supplying the coating head and moving the coating head in the horizontal direction via a trochanter.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, all of the conventional devices perform positioning using a position regulating roller or a group of drive rollers, which has the disadvantage that the entire length of the cylindrical drum is damaged. It is well known that electrophotographic properties deteriorate if the drum is scratched.

On the other hand, with the device described in the latter publication, it is essential to adjust the position of the coating head in addition to regulating the drum position. However, if the coating head is made slidable, the position of the coating head relative to the drum is likely to shift, especially when the drum is It becomes difficult to maintain the coating head in a coaxial state at all times.

On the other hand, in the former example, the -
Even if positioning is possible for two cylindrical drums, it is not possible to align the axes of the subsequent cylindrical drum with the previous cylindrical drum, and a separate means for aligning the axes of the subsequent cylindrical drum with the previous cylindrical drum is required.

If the succeeding cylindrical drum does not closely match the preceding cylindrical drum, e.g. when raising the cylindrical drum,
When the subsequent cylindrical drum is raised relative to the coating chamber, it may collide with the lower surface of the coating chamber, making it impossible to enter the inside thereof. Furthermore, if the cylindrical drum group is raised in a state where there is a difference in level, the coating liquid will drip or run out at the difference in level, resulting in uneven coating thickness or uneven coating. Furthermore, even if only the leading cylindrical drums are made to have the same precision using the technique described in the above-mentioned publication, if the following cylindrical drums are arranged in series and moved upward with a difference in level, the precision of the preceding cylindrical drums will be is often supplied to the coating head at an angle.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 6, a step IA is formed on the inner surface of the end of the cylindrical drum 1, and each time a subsequent cylindrical drum 1 is connected, a spacer S having an outer diameter corresponding to the inner surface of the step IA is formed. It is conceivable that the drum be installed internally to eliminate the level difference between the preceding cylindrical drum 1 and the succeeding cylindrical drum 1.

However, although this embodiment requires a highly accurate spacer, a certain amount of clearance is required to insert the spacer into the step on the inner surface of the cylindrical drum, so there is a limit to the accuracy of correcting the step. Furthermore, it is necessary to insert and remove the spacer each time the spacer is installed in series and each time the application is completed, which requires a great deal of effort and manual labor, or requires two dedicated devices for insertion and removal. Furthermore, when removing and inserting the spacer, the bare spacer gets dirty with spray from the coating solution, and because the accuracy of level difference correction is inherently poor, the coating solution penetrates inside the spacer through the small gap created between the cylindrical drums, causing the spacer to become dirty. often gets dirty and requires cleaning at regular intervals.
Spacer management is extremely complicated.

Therefore, the main object of the present invention is to easily position a cylindrical drum without damaging the entire drum.

[Means to solve the problem]

The problem described above is a device that positions the cylindrical drum when it surrounds the outer circumferential surface of the cylindrical drum and applies a coating liquid to the outer circumferential surface of the cylindrical drum in the process of moving the cylindrical drum while being connected in the axial direction. However, this problem can be solved by having a means for correcting the difference in level by gripping the outer surface of the connecting portion between the cylindrical drums from the outside with a gripping member.

[For production]

In the present invention, the outer surface of the connecting portion between the cylindrical drums is gripped from the outside by a gripping member to correct the level difference.

Therefore, the spacer described above becomes unnecessary, and
No dedicated equipment or personnel are required to insert and remove the spacer. Furthermore, by gripping the outer surfaces of the joints between the cylindrical drums from the outside with the gripping member, the outer surfaces of adjacent cylindrical drums can be matched with high precision.

Moreover, since only the connecting portion is sufficient for correcting the step difference, the entire length of the cylindrical drum is not damaged in the longitudinal direction as in the conventional publications.

〔Example〕

The present invention will be explained in more detail below with reference to Examples.

1 and 2 show an embodiment, in which 1 is, for example, a hollow cylindrical drum, and the bottom surface of the cylindrical drum is connected by a conveying means (not shown), such as a cylinder, so as to be continuously raised. It has become.

Reference numeral 2 denotes an annular coating head for applying photosensitive liquid to the outer circumferential surface of the cylindrical drum 1, which is fixed to the ground and continuously applies the photosensitive liquid from an outlet opening on the inner surface during the rising process of the cylindrical drum 1. It is applied by discharging it.

As long as the coating head as the coating means used in the present invention has a basic structure that is arranged around the outer surface of the cylindrical drum 1 and applies a coating liquid to the outer surface of the cylindrical drum 1, No. 58-189061, Japanese Patent Publication No. 1983-
50537 and the like can be adopted as appropriate.

An example of this is shown in FIG. This coating head 2 is a slide hopper type coating head.

To explain this, a narrow coating liquid distribution slit 22 having a coating liquid outlet 21 opening toward the cylindrical drum 1 side is formed in the coating head 2 in the horizontal direction. This slit 22 communicates with a liquid reservoir header 23, and this liquid reservoir header 23
The photosensitive liquid is supplied by a pressure pump (not shown).

On the other hand, a liquid slide surface 25 is formed below the coating liquid outlet 21 of the slit 22 so as to continuously slope downward and terminate at a dimension slightly larger than the outer dimension of the cylindrical drum 1. Further, a lip-like portion 26 is formed extending downward from the terminal end of the liquid slide surface 25.

When such a coating head 2 is used, in the process of pulling up the cylindrical drum 1, the photosensitive liquid is pushed out from the slit 22 and the coating liquid outlet 21, and is caused to flow down along the liquid sliding surface 25. The photosensitive liquid that has reached the lip-shaped portion 26 is removed from the lip-shaped portion 26.
It is applied to the outer surface of the cylindrical drum 1 to a thickness corresponding to the clearance between the cylindrical drum 1 and the cylindrical drum 1.

In order to concentrically supply the cylindrical drum 1 to this type of coating head 2 in a state in which it is connected without any difference in level, a gripping member 10 for preventing a difference in level and preferably a gripping member 11 for lifting according to the present invention are also provided. There is.

The level difference prevention gripping member IO has, for example, a plurality of chuck parts 10A in the circumferential direction, and each of the chuck parts 10A is pushed into the outer surface of the connecting part of the cylindrical drum 1 by a contact/separation cylinder 10B to eliminate the level difference, and also to eliminate the level difference. After the problem is resolved, it quickly retreats. Further, if necessary, in order to eliminate the level difference while rising synchronously during the raising process of the cylindrical drum l, each of the approaching and separating cylinders IOB, IOB can be raised and lowered by means of screw screws IOC, 100, etc.

Under the device configured in this way, when there is a step between the preceding cylindrical drum 1 and the succeeding cylindrical drum 1 brought in by other means, as shown in FIG. Holding member 11.1 for lifting the connecting part of cylindrical drum 1.1
1, each contact/separation cylinder 10B, I
The OB is activated, and the chuck part 10A110A moves forward to press the joint between the lower cylindrical drums I, I, and move the following cylindrical drum 1 in the horizontal direction to eliminate the level difference as shown in FIG. When this level difference correction is completed, cylindrical drum 1, ■
This will result in an increase in

When raising the cylindrical drum 1, it can be raised using a lifting cylinder (not shown) provided below, and the gripping member 10.
It can also be raised by rotating the OC and IOC. On the other hand, the lifting gripping member 11.11 has the function of holding the upper cylindrical drum I when eliminating a level difference, and raises the drum either by itself or in conjunction with the level difference prevention gripping member 10.10. You can also do it like this.

For example, each lifting gripping member 11.11 can be raised and lowered by a screw like the step prevention gripping member 10.10, and by repeating gripping, raising, releasing, and lowering each cylindrical drum 1.1, the cylinder can be successively The drum 1 can be raised.

The chuck portion of the gripping member 10 for level difference prevention according to the present invention may be a chuck 50 having a dogleg-shaped gripping surface as shown in FIG. A chuck 51 or the like having a curvature of In addition, this type of chuck does not require a one-to-one gripping/releasing means, for example, a cylinder, but rather uses the operating force of one cylinder or the like to hold two or more chucks via an appropriate link mechanism. It is also possible to grasp and release at the same time.

As described above, the present invention is extremely effective as a coating device for manufacturing electrophotographic photoreceptors.

In this case, the photosensitive liquid may be one in which an inorganic photosensitive material such as zinc oxide or cadmium sulfide or an organic photosensitive material such as polyvinylcarbazole or trinitrofluorene is dispersed in a polymer binder. Furthermore, in recent years, in order to increase sensitivity and improve durability, functionally separated photosensitive layers in which a charge generation layer and a charge transport layer are laminated can also be used.

For example, the charge generation layer is made by dispersing azo pigments, quinone pigments, perylene pigments, phthalocyanine pigments, anthanthrone pigments, etc. in a polymeric binder such as polycarbonate, and the charge transport layer is made by dispersing polycyclic aromatic compounds, nitrogen-containing cyclic compounds, etc. It can be obtained by dispersing it in a molecular binder. The thickness of the charge generation layer is 0.01 to 10 μm, preferably 0.05 to 10 μm.
5 μm, and the thickness of the charge transport layer is preferably 5 to 30 μm.
It is μm.

The viscosity of the photosensitive liquid is in the range of 0.5 to 700 cp, preferably in the range of 1 to 5 oocp.

Further, hollow drums for electrophotography include aluminum, stainless steel, plastic on which a conductive layer is formed, and the like. Alternatively, an undercoat layer and a charge generation layer may be formed in advance.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, the apparatus of the present invention provides advantages such as being able to easily position the cylindrical drum without damaging the entire drum.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a positioning device according to the present invention in a state before level difference correction, and FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a state after level difference correction is completed.
FIG. 3 is a longitudinal sectional view of an example of a coating head, FIGS. 4 and 5 are plan views of an example of a chuck, and FIG. 6 is a longitudinal sectional view of a main part of an example in which a spacer is used to prevent a difference in level. ■...Cylindrical drum, 2...Applying head, IO・
...Gripping means for preventing steps. Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 2 Figure Figure 2

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A device that positions the cylindrical drum when the cylindrical drum is moved while being connected in the axial direction, and the cylindrical drum is surrounded and coated with a coating liquid on the outer periphery of the cylindrical drum. A cylindrical drum positioning device characterized by having means for correcting a step by gripping the outer surface of the joint between the cylindrical drums from the outside with a gripping member.