# US 2021/0341859 A1 · Electrophotographic belt and electrophotographic image forming apparatus using the electrophotographic belt

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- Number: US 2021/0341859 A1
- Document ID: US20210341859A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 17/245,984
- Filed: 2021-04-30
- Published: 2021-11-04
- Earliest claimed: 2020-05-01
- Assignees: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
- Applicants: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
- Inventors: Naoto Kameyama; Kaoru Okamoto; Atsushi Hori
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20210341859A1

## CPC

- G03G 15/162: {details of the the intermediate support, e.g. chemical composition}
- G03G 15/161: {with means for handling the intermediate support, e.g. heating, cleaning, coating with a transfer agent}
- G03G 15/1685: {Structure, details of the transfer member, e.g. chemical composition}
- G03G 2215/1623: Transfer belt
- G03G: ELECTROGRAPHY; ELECTROPHOTOGRAPHY; MAGNETOGRAPHY

## Abstract

An electrophotographic belt having an endless shape and including an endless-shaped base layer, an elastic layer on an outer peripheral surface of the base layer, and a surface layer on the outer peripheral surface of the elastic layer, and the surface layer contains a urethane resin as a binder, polytetrafluoroethylene particles, and a compound having a perfluoropolyether structure and an oxyalkylene structure.

## Claims

### Claim 1

An electrophotographic belt having an endless shape, comprising:
an endless-shaped base layer;
an elastic layer on an outer peripheral surface of the base layer; and
a surface layer on the outer peripheral surface of the elastic layer,
wherein the surface layer comprises:
a urethane resin as a binder;
polytetrafluoroethylene particles, and
a compound having a perfluoropolyether structure and an oxyalkylene structure.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The electrophotographic belt according to claim 1, wherein the oxyalkylene structure is an oxyethylene structure or an oxypropylene structure.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The electrophotographic belt according to claim 1, wherein a number average molecular weight of the perfluoropolyether structure is 500 to 10,000.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The electrophotographic belt according to claim 1, wherein the perfluoropolyether structure is at least one structure selected from the group consisting of structures represented by the following structural formulae (i) to (iv):
—CF2O— (i)
—CF2CF2O— (ii)
—CF2CF2CF2O— (iii)
—CF(CF3)CF2O— (iv).

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The electrophotographic belt according to claim 1, wherein when a number average molecular weight of the oxyalkylene structure is defined as Mn1 and the number average molecular weight of the perfluoropolyether structure is defined as Mn2, a value of (Mn1/Mn2) is 0.3 to 2.0.

### Claim 6 (depends on 5)

The electrophotographic belt according to claim 5, wherein the value of (Mn1/Mn2) is 0.5 to 1.0.

### Claim 7 (depends on 1)

The electrophotographic belt according to claim 1, wherein the base layer has a thickness of 10 to 500 μm.

### Claim 8 (depends on 1)

The electrophotographic belt according to claim 1, wherein the elastic layer has a thickness of 100 to 1000 μm.

### Claim 9 (depends on 1)

The electrophotographic belt according to claim 1, wherein the surface layer has a thickness of 0.5 to 20 μm.

### Claim 10 (depends on 1)

The electrophotographic belt according to claim 1, wherein a number average particle diameter of the polytetrafluoroethylene particles is in a range of 0.05 to 1.80 μm.

### Claim 11

An electrophotographic image forming apparatus, comprising:
an image carrier that carries a toner image; and
an intermediate transfer belt that carries and conveys the toner image primarily transferred from the image carrier so as to secondarily transfer the toner image onto a transfer material,
wherein the intermediate transfer belt is an electrophotographic belt having an endless shape, comprising
an endless-shaped base layer,
an elastic layer on an outer peripheral surface of the base layer, and
a surface layer on the outer peripheral surface of the elastic layer,
wherein the surface layer comprises
a urethane resin as a binder,
polytetrafluoroethylene particles, and
a compound having a perfluoropolyether structure and an oxyalkylene structure.

### Claim 12 (depends on 11)

The electrophotographic image forming apparatus according to claim 11, further comprising a cleaning member,
wherein in the cleaning member, at least a portion of the cleaning member is disposed in contact with an outer surface of the surface layer of the electrophotographic belt.

### Claim 13 (depends on 12)

The electrophotographic image forming apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the cleaning member is a cleaning roller.

### Claim 14 (depends on 12)

The electrophotographic image forming apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the cleaning member is a cleaning blade.