Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Osamu Soutome

Masaaki Takahashi

Kazuo Kishino

Hideo Kawamoto

Yuji Kitano

Jiro Ishizuka

Mitsuhiro Ota

Ken Nakagawa

Katsuhisa Matsunaka

Yasumasa Ohtsuka

Mahito Yoshioka

Toshihiko Ochiai

Hikaru Osada

Satoru Taniguchi

Akira Hayakawa

Mitsuhiro Ohta

Yusuke Nakazono

Kenji Karashima

Yoji Tomoyuki

An object of the present invention is to provide a fixing member which includes a surface layer including fluorine rubber having an ether bond and a polysiloxane having a polyether structure, and which has excellent adhesion between the surface layer and a substrate. A fixing member is provided including a substrate, an adhesion layer and a surface layer disposed in contact with the adhesion layer, wherein the surface layer includes fluorine rubber having an ether bond and a polysiloxane having a polyether structure, and wherein the adhesion layer contains a polyorganosiloxane resin and an existence ratio of carbon combining with oxygen to silicon combining with oxygen in the adhesion layer is 1.0 or more and 20.0 or less.

Fixing member, manufacturing method thereof, and fixing apparatus and electrophotographic image forming apparatus using the same

An image heating apparatus includes a heater: a rotatable member movable while being in contact with contact, the rotatable member including a metal layer and an elastic layer: a pressing member cooperative with the heater to form a nip for nipping and feeding a recording material; wherein the metal layer has a thickness which is not less than 10 &#x3bc;m and not more than 60 &#x3bc;m, and wherein a pressure per unit length with respect to a longitudinal direction of the nip is not less than 0.39N/mm and not more than 0.98N/mm.

Image heating apparatus

A roller has an elastic layer formed by curing a silicone rubber material containing at least expanded resin microballons, wherein, when the roller is placed in a vacuum chamber in which atmospheric pressure is reduced to 0.001 MPa or less over 2 minutes, the roller has a gas permeability indicating the recovery characteristic where an increased amount of the thickness of the elastic layer after 10 minutes from the start of evacuation is two-thirds or less of the maximum increased amount of thickness of the elastic layer during a 10 minute period from the start of evacuation. The elastic layer is formed by curing a silicone rubber material containing the expanded resin microballoons and has air void portions formed by breaking the resin microballoons and passages connecting the air void portions therebetween.

Elastic body, roller, heating and fixing device, and manufacturing method therefor

The invention provides a roll member capable of preventing a sheet of recording paper from wrinkling. A metal compound MmXn and an inorganic fine powder are added to a silicone rubber layer forming the surface layer of the roll member. In the compound formula, M is a cation selected from among ions of Al, Sc, Cr, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn and Ga, and X is an anion selected from among ions of halogens, inorganic acids and organic acids.

Roll member and fusing device using the same

Heating assembly, image-forming apparatus, and process for producing silicone rubber sponge and roller

A fluorine-containing resin-coated pressure roller exhibiting excellent anti-toner soiling characteristic even at low roller temperatures is provided. The pressure roller includes a cylindrical metal substrate, and a rubber elastic layer, an adhesive layer and a fluorine-containing resin release layer disposed in this order on and successively coating the cylindrical metal substrate. The pressure roller has a surface exhibiting a micro-rubber hardness of at most 50 deg., a contact angle with water of at least 105 deg. and a ten point-average surface roughness Rz of at most 3.0 &mgr;m. The pressure roller may be suitably combined with a fixing film to provide a film heating-type fixing device suitably used in an electrophotographic image forming apparatus.

Fluorine-containing resin-coated pressure roller and heat-fixing device

A blade for regulating the amount of a release oil to be supplied is placed so as to abut on a fixing member or on a member for controlling the amount of the release oil to be supplied to the fixing member. The abutting surface of the blade is composed of a silicone rubber layer. Alternatively, the blade includes a plate-shaped elastic body and a silicone rubber layer formed on the tip of the elastic body. A fixing device including the blade and an image-forming apparatus including the fixing device are also disclosed.

Release oil regulating blade, fixing device, and image-forming apparatus

A fixing-unit roller has a fixing roller and/or a pressure roller in which a composite material of an organopolysiloxane and a fluoroelastomer containing no fluorine resin or containing a fluorine resin is used as an elastic material of at least the outermost layer. The composite material has an island-in-sea structure wherein the organopolysiloxane stands as a sea phase and the fluoroelastomer containing no fluorine resin or containing a fluorine resin stands as an island phase. The particles of the island phase have a size ranging from 1 &mgr;m to 10 &mgr;m. The fixing-unit roller has superior toner releasability and superior scratch resistance and wear resistance.

Fixing-unit roller making use of composite material, process for its production, and fixing assembly employing the roller

A heat-pressure fixing device for fixing a toner image is composed of a fixing member, a pressure member and an oil applicator for applying dimethylsilicone oil as a release oil. The fixing member is surfaced with dimethylsilicone rubber having a storage modulus E' satisfying 1.0.times.10.sup.6 dyn/cm.sup.2 &lt;E'&lt;1.5.times.10.sup.7 dyn/cm.sup.2 and a loss modulus E' satisfying 1.0.times.10.sup.5 dyn/cm.sup.2 &lt;E'&lt;7.5.times.10.sup.5 dyn/cm.sup.2, and exhibits a good release performance at a low dimethylsilicone oil application rate of 1-20 mg/A4-size (621 cm.sup.2).

Growing community of inventors

Kawasaki, Japan

Osamu Soutome