CLEANING BLADE, PROCESS CARTRIDGE, AND ELECTROPHOTOGRAPHY IMAGE FORMING DEVICE

• Main Authors: KIMURA HITOAKI, YAMAMOTO ARIHIRO, KAWAKAMI TOMOYA
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; Japanese
• Published: 03.08.2017
• Subjects: CINEMATOGRAPHY; ELECTROGRAPHY; ELECTROPHOTOGRAPHY; HOLOGRAPHY; MAGNETOGRAPHY; PHOTOGRAPHY; PHYSICS

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a cleaning blade where a chipping of the blade top end part is not generated even in a long-time use, while securing a contact pressure necessary for the cleaning of the surface of a member to be cleaned.SOLUTION: A cleaning blade comprises: an elastic member; and a support member for supporting the elastic member. The cleaning blade includes: an edge; and a first surface and a second surface constituting the edge in a free end portion of the elastic member. Either or both of the first surface and the second surface include a hardened surface. A dynamic hardness of the hardened surface is assumed as DHs(mN/μm), and when a distance L from the edge on a straight line that divides an angle of the edge in half in the cross-section orthogonal to a longitudinal direction of the elastic member assumes a maximum value from among the dynamic hardness at each position of 0 μm<L≤100 μm as DHm(mN/μm), the cleaning blade satisfies the following equations (1) and (2). Equation (1) 0.1≤DHs≤0.4, Equation (2) DHs<DHm.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2 【課題】被クリーニング部材の表面のクリーニングに必要な当接圧を確保しつつ、かつ長期の使用によってもブレード先端部の欠けが生じないクリーニングブレードを提供する。【解決手段】弾性部材と、該弾性部材を支持する支持部材とを具備するクリーニングブレードであって、該弾性部材の自由端部分に、エッジと該エッジを構成する第一の面および第二の面を有し、該第一の面および該第二の面のいずれか一方または両方が硬化表面を有し、該硬化表面のダイナミック硬度をＤＨｓ（ｍＮ／μｍ２）とし、該弾性部材の長手方向に直交する断面内において、該エッジの角度を二等分する直線上の、該エッジからの距離Ｌが０μｍ＜Ｌ≦１００μｍの各位置におけるダイナミック硬度のうちの最大値をＤＨｍ（ｍＮ／μｍ２）としたとき、下記式（１）および式（２）で示される関係を満たすクリーニングブレード。式（１）０．１≦ＤＨｓ≦０．４、式（２）ＤＨｓ＜ＤＨｍ。【選択図】図２