Bridgestone Corporation

Toru Masuyama

Wataru Takahashi

Kouta Kawano

A toner conveyance roller for an image forming apparatus including a toner image forming mechanism including a developing roller and the toner conveyance roller which is arranged opposite to the developing roller and used for supplying and scraping toner, wherein the toner conveyance roller has a roller part and a shaft part, the roller part includes a substantially cylindrical elastic layer composed of an elastic foaming body on a surface of the roller part, and a density of the elastic layer is higher in a longitudinal center part of the roller part than in both longitudinal end parts thereof, and a method for manufacturing the toner conveyance roller including a step of heat-pressing the crown-shaped elastic foaming body, and thereby, forming the elastic layer.

Toner conveyance roller and method for manufacturing toner conveyance roller

Provided is a technique for manufacturing a toner supply roller in which the toner conveying performance and the scraping performance of unneeded toner are excellent as well as the above-mentioned problems in molding can be resolved. Also provided is a method for manufacturing a toner supply roller including: an insertion process in which a roller membercomprising a shaftand an elastic layercomposed of a foam having a columnar shape supported on the outer periphery of the shaft is inserted into a cylindrical forming tool m having on the inner peripheral surface irregular concaves and convexes or a recessed groove along the longitudinal direction; a transfer process in which the roller member inserted into the cylindrical forming tool is heated and the irregular concaves and convexes or the recessed groove along the longitudinal direction on the inner peripheral surface of the cylindrical forming tool are transferred on the surface of the roller member; and a releasing process in which the roller member on the surface of which the irregular concaves and convexes or the recessed groove along the longitudinal direction are transferred is taken out from the cylindrical forming tool to obtain a roller.

Method for manufacturing toner supply roller

An object of the present invention is to provide a toner-conveying roller that has high toner-conveying property and in which a roller-shape thereof is less likely to be transferred to the image, a mold capable of manufacturing said roller, and a method of manufacturing said mold. The toner-conveying roller according to the present invention has a shaft body and a urethane foam layer formed around the shaft body, and recesses and protrusions are irregularly formed on a circumference surface of the urethane foam layer. The mold for manufacturing the roller according to the present invention has recesses and protrusions irregularly formed on the inner surface of a mold for manufacturing the roller. The method of manufacturing a mold used for manufacturing a roller according to the present invention includes: a powder sintering step of applying particles on an inner surface of a mold member, and forming recesses and protrusions on the inner surface of the mold member by heating the mold member having the particles on the inner surface thereof to sinter the particles; or, a fluorine coating step of applying particles on an inner surface of a mold member, and forming recesses and protrusions on the inner surface of the mold member by coating the inner surface having the particles applied thereon with fluorine resin.

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Yokohama, Japan

Toru Masuyama