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US 2003/0147676 A1Published application
Elastic member and image forming apparatus comprising the same
AssigneeBridgestone Corporation
InventorsJunji Sakata, Hirotaka Yamazaki
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AssigneeBridgestone Corporation
InventorsJunji Sakata, Hirotaka Yamazaki
Estimating the term…
A foamed elastic member according to the invention comprises an elastic member made of polyurethane foam molded by an in-mold foaming process, and has properly determined physical properties of its surface and/or properly determined shape and arrangement of foam cells opened on the surface. The foamed elastic member is suitably used for a toner feed roller in a developing device for electrically charging toner from a toner storage portion, feeding the toner onto the surface of a photosensitive member and forming a toner image corresponding to an electrostatic latent image on the surface of the photosensitive member. In this case, it exhibits an excellent toner scraping and toner feeding performance, to form an image free from such defect as irregularity in pitch and density, or free from reduction in density.
A foamed elastic member comprising an elastic member made of polyurethane foam molded by an in-mold foaming process and having a plurality of openings regularly arranged on the surface of the polyurethane foam, said openings each having a basic shape approximate to a circle, ellipse, racetrack shape, triangle, tetragon or hexagon.
A toner feed roller for a developing device for electrically charging toner from a toner storage portion, feeding the toner onto the surface of a photosensitive member and forming a toner image corresponding to an electrostatic latent image on the surface of the photosensitive member, said toner feed roller comprising a foamed elastic member having a plurality of openings on its surface, said foamed elastic member being composed of polyurethane foam having a plurality of openings regularly arranged on its surface, said openings each having a basic shape approximate to a circle, ellipse, racetrack shape, triangle, tetragon or hexagon.
A foamed elastic member comprising a polyurethane foam elastic member molded by an in-mold foaming process, satisfying the following conditions:
A toner feed roller for a developing device for electrically charging toner from a toner storage portion, feeding the toner onto the surface of a photosensitive member and forming a toner image corresponding to an electrostatic latent image on the surface of the photosensitive member, said toner feed roller comprising a foamed elastic member having a plurality of openings on its surface, said foamed elastic member satisfying the following conditions:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.