TRANSFER BELT FOR ELECTROPHOTOGRAPHY AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS EQUIPPED THEREWITH

• US 20090016787A1
• Filed: 06/16/2008
• Published: 01/15/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/10/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Konica Minolta Business Technologies Incorporated (Konica Minolta Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Konica Minolta Business Technologies Incorporated (Konica Minolta Inc.)
• Inventors: KURACHI, Yasuo
• Granted Patent: US 8,103,202 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 399/313
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 15/161 with means for handling the intermediate support, e.g. heating, cleaning, coating with a transfer agent
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 15/162 details of the the intermediate support, e.g. chemical composition
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 7/0013 Inorganic components thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 7/004 obtained by reactions only involving carbon-to-carbon unsaturated bonds
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 7/0046 obtained otherwise than by reactions only involving carbon-to-carbon unsaturated bonds

Abstract

A transfer belt for electrophotography comprises

• • at least a polyphenylene sulfide resin and a conductive agent, preferably further a nylon resin,
  • wherein a deviation in surface resistivity is 1 or less; and an image-forming apparatus comprises a latent-image supporting member, and
  • a transfer member that supports a toner image transferred thereon from the latent-image supporting member and transfer the supported toner image onto an image-receiving material, comprising at least a polyphenylene sulfide resin and a conductive agent, and having a deviation in surface resistivity of 1 or less.

Claims

1. A transfer belt for electrophotography comprising:

at least a polyphenylene sulfide resin and a conductive agent,

wherein a deviation in surface resistivity is 1 or less.

2. The transfer belt for electrophotography according to claim 1, further comprising:

a nylon resin.

3. The transfer belt for electrophotography according to claim 1, wherein the conductive agent is carbon, the carbon being dispersed as aggregates having an average particle size in a range from 100 to 10000 nm.

4. The transfer belt for electrophotography according to claim 1, wherein the deviation in surface resistivity is in a range from 0.1 to 1.0.

5. The transfer belt for electrophotography according to claim 2, wherein a compounding ratio of the polyphenylene sulfide resin and the nylon resin is 20% to 1% by weight of nylon resin to 80 to 99% by weight of polyphenylene sulfide resin on the total amount of the PPS resin and the nylon resin being 100% by weight.

6. The transfer belt for electrophotography according to claim 3, wherein the carbon is dispersed as aggregates having an average particle size in a range from 100 to 1000 nm.

7. An image-forming apparatus comprising:

a latent-image supporting member, and

a transfer member that supports a toner image transferred thereon from the latent-image supporting member and transfer the supported toner image onto an image-receiving material, comprising at least a polyphenylene sulfide resin and a conductive agent, and having a deviation in surface resistivity of 1 or less.

8. The image-forming apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the transfer member further comprises a nylon resin.

9. The image-forming apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the conductive agent is carbon, the carbon being dispersed as aggregates having an average particle size in a range from 100 to 10000 nm.

10. The image-forming apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the deviation in surface resistivity is in a range from 0.1 to 1.0.

11. The image-forming apparatus according to claim 8, wherein a compounding ratio of the polyphenylene sulfide resin and the nylon resin is 20% to 1% by weight of nylon resin to 80 to 99% by weight of polyphenylene sulfide resin on the total amount of the PPS resin and the nylon resin being 100% by weight.

12. The image-forming apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the carbon is dispersed as aggregates having an average particle size in a range from 100 to 1000 nm.