JPH0453960A - Positioning device for cylindrical drum - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To allow the easy positioning of cylindrical drums without scratching the entire part of the cylindrical drums by constituting the device in such a manner that gripping means operate to grip connecting parts when the connecting parts arrive at the gripping part position of the gripping means in accordance with the connecting part detection signal detected by a connecting part detecting means. CONSTITUTION:The outside surfaces of the parts for connecting the cylindrical drums 1 to each other are gripped from the outside to correct the steps. Then, the outside surfaces of the adjacent cylindrical drums 1 are positioned flush with each other with good accuracy. In addition, the scratch of the entire part in the longitudinal direction of the cylindrical drums is obviated at the time of correcting the steps. The connecting part detecting means 4 is provided and the connecting parts are gripped after the connecting parts are detected and, therefore, the connecting parts can be gripped only in the objective gripping parts and the operation is assured. The steps are corrected by gripping the cylindrical drums only in the connecting parts without scratching the entire part of the drums in this way. The cylindrical drums are thus easily positioned.

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 base. 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, it causes 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 technique described in Publication No. 46, position regulating rollers are provided around the drum in contact with each other, or a group of driving rollers provided in plurality in the conveyance direction of the drum is continuously applied to the application 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 axis of the succeeding cylindrical drum is not aligned with the preceding cylindrical drum, for example, when the cylindrical drum is raised,
When raised relative to the coating head via the subsequent cylindrical drum, the upper surface of the preceding cylindrical drum collides with the lower surface of the coating head, and a situation may occur in which it is not possible to enter the interior of the coating head. 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, with the technology described in the above publication,
Even if only the leading cylindrical drums are precisely aligned, if the following cylindrical drums are installed in series and moved upwards with a difference in level, the axis of the leading cylindrical drum will be tilted relative to the coating head. is often supplied.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 5, 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 above-mentioned problem is a device that positions the cylindrical drum when it surrounds the outer peripheral surface of the cylindrical drum and applies a coating liquid to the outer peripheral surface of the cylindrical drum in the process of moving the cylindrical drum while being connected in the axial direction. has a joint detecting means for detecting a joint between the cylindrical drums, a gripping means for gripping the outer surface of the joint from the outside to correct the level difference, and a conveying means for transporting the group of cylindrical drums; This can be solved by activating the gripping means to perform gripping when the joint reaches the gripping position of the gripping means based on the joint detection signal detected by the portion detection means.

[Effect]

In the present invention, the outer surface of the connecting portion between the cylindrical drums is gripped from the outside by the gripping means 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 by the gripping means, the outer surfaces of adjacent cylindrical drums can be made to match with high accuracy.

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.

Furthermore, since a joint detection means is provided to detect the joint before gripping, the target can be gripped only at the joint, ensuring reliable operation.

〔Example〕

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

1 to 3 show an embodiment, in which 1 is, for example, a hollow cylindrical drum, which is transported upward while being chucked by a robot or the like. The conveying means 3 in the embodiment is configured to perform chucking using chucks 3A and 3B, and after chucking, raise the chucks 3A and 3B by rotating a screw 3C13C. Instead of this conveying means, it is also possible to use a conveying means configured to be raised by a cylinder or the like via the bottom surface of a cylindrical drum at the lower end.

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

The coating head as the coating means used in the present invention may have 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 sliding 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.

For this type of application head 2, a cylindrical drum 1.1...
- A gripping means 10 is provided in order to concentrically supply the groups in a continuous manner with no difference in level.

The gripping means 10 of the embodiment includes a slide rail 11, a slide block 12 fitted to the slide rail 11, and a contact/separation cylinder 13 that presses and retreats the slide block 12 against the outer surface of the cylindrical drum 1. A plurality of slide blocks 12, for example, four slide blocks 12, as shown in FIG. can be provided.

Furthermore, in order to determine the operation timing of the gripping means 10, a connecting portion detection means 4 is provided.

As the connecting portion detection means 4, it is possible to use an optical means that includes a light emitter and a light receiver and detects that the brightness decreases at the connecting portion.

In a device constructed in this way, as shown in FIG. When the slide block 12 is raised by
．． 12 is located at a position set back from the outer surface of the cylindrical drums IA and IB.

When the ascent continues and the joint between the upper cylindrical tram 1.1 is detected by the joint detecting means 4 as shown in FIG. Since the length is an integral multiple of the length of the drum 1, it is determined that the connecting portion between the cylindrical trams IA and IB has reached the gripping means 1O110 position, and the approaching/separating cylinders 13.13 are operated.
The slide block 12.12 is moved forward, thereby gripping the joint between the cylindrical drums IA and IB and correcting the difference in level between them. At the time of this correction, it is desirable to release the chucking by the chucks 3A, 3A of the conveying means 3.3. When the correction of the level difference is completed, the slide block 12.12 quickly retreats and moves back to the conveying means 3.
A rise by 3 is performed.

Such step correction is basically performed for each joint.

In addition, in the present invention, other modifications of the gripping means, the conveying means, and the connecting portion detection means themselves can be easily deduced by those skilled in the art.

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 7QOC9, preferably in the range of 1 to 500CI).

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, according to the device of the present invention, it is possible to reliably correct the level difference by gripping only the connecting portion without damaging the entire drum, and it is also possible to easily position the cylindrical drum. Benefits such as:

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the positioning device according to the present invention in a state before the level difference is eliminated, FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the state in which the level difference has been eliminated, FIG. 3 is a plan view of an example of the arrangement of slide blocks, and FIG. The figure is a longitudinal sectional view of an example of a coating head, and FIG. 5 is a longitudinal sectional view of a main part of an example in which a spacer is used to prevent a step. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Cylindrical drum, 2... Coating head, 3... Conveyance means, 4... Connecting part detection means, 10... Gripping means, 12... Slide block, 13... Approach/separation Cylinder diagram diagram diagram diagram

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. ; joint detection means for detecting joints between the cylindrical drums;
It has a gripping means for gripping the outer surface of the joint from the outside to correct the level difference, and a conveyance means for transporting the cylindrical drum group, and the joint is detected based on the joint detection signal detected by the joint detection means. 1. A positioning device for a cylindrical drum, characterized in that the gripping means operates to perform gripping when the gripping portion of the gripping means reaches the position.