Konica Minolta, Inc.

Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.

Hirofumi Koga

Izumi Mukoyama

Takao Yamanouchi

Shingo Fujimoto

Naoko Uemura

Asao Matsushima

Makoto Kobayashi

Shiro Hirano

Junya Onishi

Kazuya Isobe

Masaaki Kondo

Hiroyuki Yasukawa

Yoshiyasu Matsumoto

Akira Ohira

Go Yamaguchi

A silicone rubber composition is a silicone rubber composition, in a fixing member having a rubber member on a surface, for forming the rubber member, and an integrated value of a high-molecular component from 32 minutes to 37 minutes of retention time in measurement of gas-chromatography mass spectrometry (GC/MS method) conducted under a predetermined condition is 3.0 or more.

Silicone rubber composition, fixing member, manufacturing method of fixing member, and image forming apparatus including fixing member

A fixing belt contains a base layer made of a heat-resistant resin, an elastic layer made of an elastic material, and a release layer, laminated in this order. The elastic layer has a linear thermal expansion coefficient of &#x2212;4.0&#xd7;10(1/K) or more and 1.0&#xd7;10(1/K) or less.

Fixing belt and fixing device and image forming apparatus using the same

A fixing belt includes: a base layer having heat resistance; an elastic layer disposed on the base layer and made of an elastic material; and a releasing layer disposed on the elastic layer, wherein a storage elastic modulus of the base layer is 3.8 to 4.8 GPa.

Fixing belt, fixing device, and image forming apparatus

A fixing belt according to the present invention has an endless shape and includes a base layer made of a heat-resistant resin; an elastic layer made of an elastic material; and a releasing layer which are stacked on one another in this order in which: the loss tangent tan &#x3b4; of the elastic material at 20 Hz is 0.1 or smaller; and the fixing belt is mounted in a fixing device in the state where the belt is rotatably supported by two or more rollers including a heating roller, whereby favorable fixation performance and favorable separativeness relative to a recording medium can be achieved even in high speed image formation of an electrophotographic process.

Fixing belt, fixing device, image forming apparatus and image formation method

A fixing belt includes a base layer, an elastic layer made of an elastic material, and a release layer. The elastic layer includes a first elastic layer disposed on a side of the base layer, and a second elastic layer disposed on a side of the release layer. The second elastic layer has a lower hardness than that of the first elastic layer. A Universal hardness of the second elastic layer is 3 to 7 N/mm. A thickness ratio of the second elastic layer to the elastic layer is 5 to 15%.

A fixing belt includes a base layer made of a heat-resistant resin, an elastic layer made of an elastic material, and a releasing layer, which are laminated in this order, and the difference between the maximum value and the minimum value of viscoelastic modulus within a range of 100 to 200&#xb0; C. is 0.8% or less. Further, the viscoelastic modulus of the fixing belt within the range of 100 to 200&#xb0; C. is within a range of 50 to 62%.

Disclosed is an electrophotographic image forming method which comprises steps of forming a toner image on an image support, fixing the toner image on the image support in a fixing nip section of a fixing device employing a contact heating system and the toner contains a first releasing agent, a dynamic viscosity of the first releasing agent is 4-20 mm/sec; and a fixing temperature in the fixing nip section of the fixing device is 75-100&#xb0; C. higher than a melting point of the first releasing agent.

Image forming method

An electrophotographic toner is disclosed, meeting the requirement that a ratio of a storage modulus at 60&#xb0; C. [G'(60)] to a storage modulus at 80&#xb0; C. [G&#x2032;(80)], G&#x2032;(60)/G&#x2032;(80) is from 1&#xd7;10to 1&#xd7;10; a ratio of a storage modulus at 100&#xb0; C. [G&#x2032;(100)] to a storage modulus at 120&#xb0; C. [G&#x2032;(120)], G&#x2032;(100)/G&#x2032;(120) is from 1 to 10; and a storage modulus at a temperature of from 140 to 160&#xb0; C., [G&#x2032;(140-160)] is not less than 10dyn/cm.

Electrophotographic toner and electrophotographic developer by use thereof

An electrophotographic toner is disclosed, comprising a binding resin, a colorant and a releasing agent, wherein the releasing agent comprises a first releasing agent component of a monoester compound represented by formula (1) and a second releasing agent component composed of a hydrocarbon compound having a branched chain structure, and the first releasing agent component accounting for 40% to 98% by mass of the total amount of the first and second releasing agent components:R&#x2014;COO&#x2014;R&#x2003;&#x2003;(1)wherein Rand Rare each independently a hydrocarbon group having 13 to 30 carbon atoms.

Electrophotographic toner

In an image forming method in which a toner image, which is visualized via an electrostatic latent image formed on an electrophotographic photoreceptor, employing a developer incorporating toner, is transferred onto a recording material followed by fixing, and any residual toner remaining on the electrophotographic photoreceptor is removed, an image forming method in which an electrophotographic photoreceptor and a toner which satisfy specified requirements are employed and image formation is carried out while feeding a surface energy lowering agent from the developer onto the aforesaid electrophotographic photoreceptor, and an image forming apparatus employing the same.

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Hino, Japan

Hirofumi Koga