Image fixing apparatus and image-fixing endless film
AssigneeNitto Denko Corporation
InventorsAkira Ishizaki, Yoshinari Takayama
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An image fixing apparatus using an endless film in which abrasion resistance is largely improved by presence of the high-hardness releasable resin outer layer so that the endless film is provided with practically satisfactory mechanical strength as well as satisfactory abrasion resistance, whereby the image fixing apparatus can obtain a sharp image for a long term; and to provide such an image-fixing endless film for use in the image fixing apparatus.
Claims3
An image fixing apparatus comprising a drive roll, and an endless film facing the drive roll so as to in contact with the drive roll to thereby form a nip portion between the drive roll and the endless film,
- wherein the endless film is a thin-tube like material comprising:
- a heat-resistant resin tube-like inner layer containing heat-conductive particles;
- and a releasable resin outer layer formed on an outer surface of the heat-resistant resin tube-like inner layer,
- the releasable resin outer layer has a coating film hardness of not lower than 12 Hv in terms of Vickers hardness;
- the thin tube-like material has a tensile modulus of elasticity of not smaller than 6000 N/mm2, and
- the tube-like material has a ring-crash compression load of not higher than 5.0 g, the ring-crash compression load being a load which is given when a tube-like material having a length of 40 mm is compressed vertically so that a vertical diameter (h) of the tube-like material is deformed to be halved (h′=h/2).
An image-fixing endless film, which comprises a thin tube-like material comprising:
- a heat-resistant resin tube-like inner layer containing heat-conductive particles;
- and a releasable resin outer layer formed on an outer surface of the heat-resistance resin tube-like inner layer,
- wherein the releasable resin outer layer has a coating film hardness of not lower than 12 Hv in terms of Vickers hardness;
- the thin tube-like material has a tensile modulus of elasticity of not smaller than 6000 N/mm2;
- and
- the tube-like material has a ring-crash compression load of not higher than 5.0 g, the ring-crash compression load being a load which is given when a tube-like material having a length of 40 mm is compressed vertically so that a vertical diameter (h) of the tube-like material is deformed to be halved (h′=h/2).
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.