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US 6,475,421 B2Granted
Method of manufacturing a regulating blade featuring a curved supporting layer
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsKentaro Niwano, Masahiro Watabe, Noriyuki Yanai
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Abstract
An elastic blade regulates the layer thickness of a toner used in the developing device of an image forming apparatus such as an electrophotographic apparatus. The elastic blade is manufactured by providing a metal layer consisting of a rolled metal. The metal layer has a warped shape including a convex side caused by rolling the metal layer. A rubber layer is provided only on a surface of the metal layer at the convex side thereof.
Claims6
A method of manufacturing a blade for regulating a developer, said method comprising the steps of:
- providing a curved supporting layer, said supporting layer having a convex side surface and a concave side surface on an opposite side of said convex side surface;
- and
- disposing an elastic layer on a convex side surface of said supporting layer while heat is applied,
- wherein a curve amount of said supporting layer is decreased by providing said elastic layer on said supporting layer.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.