Separating and recovering method of continuously coated photoreceptor drum

A method of manufacturing a photoreceptor drum which has a coated dried photosensitive layer formed thereon, the photoreceptor being usable in electrophotography, comprising the steps of:

• stacking a plurality of base drums in a vertical direction coaxially in a stack so that a lower end portion of a drum higher in the stack comes in contact with an upper end portion of another drum lower in the stack, each drum having an inner wall and an outer wall;
• moving the stacked plurality of base drums in an upward direction, at a predetermined speed;
• coating a photosensitive layer on each of the stacked plurality of base drums while the stacked drums are being moved in the upward direction;
• drying the photosensitive layer on the stacked base drums, wherein the coating and the drying steps occur sequentially from an uppermost base drum toward a lowermost base drum;
• separating the coated and dried uppermost base drum from a next base drum lower in the stack and adjoining the uppermost base drum while conducting the moving step, the coating step and the drying step on drums lower in the stack than the uppermost base drum, the separating step including:
• holding one of the inner wall and the outer wall of the next base drum with a first holding member in such a manner as to maintain the next base drum coaxially aligned with the stacked plurality of base drums and moving the first holding member at a same speed that is equal to the upward predetermined speed of the stacked plurality of base drums;
• and
• holding the uppermost base drum with a second holding member and moving the second holding member so as to cause the uppermost base drum to relatively move from the next base drum so that the uppermost base drum is separated by the second holding member from the next base drum while the next base drum is maintained coaxially aligned with the stacked plurality of base drums by the first holding member, the separated uppermost base drum being a photoreceptor drum which has a dried photosensitive layer thereon.