Fusing station including multilayer fuser roller

For use in an electrostatographic machine for forming a toner image on a receiver member, a fusing station for fusing said toner image to said receiver member, said fusing station comprising:

• a fuser roller operated in conjunction with a pressure roller, said fuser roller heated by a source of heat external to said fuser roller and an auxiliary intermittently activated internal source of heat, said fuser roller being elastically deformable and engaged under pressure with said pressure roller so as to form a fusing nip therebetween, said pressure roller relatively harder than said fuser roller, said toner image on said receiver member moved through said fusing nip for said fusing;
• wherein said fuser roller includes a rigid, cylindrical, core member;
• a multilayer in the shape of a deformable annular structure around said core member, said deformable annular structure including an elastomeric base cushion layer innermost around said core member, an elastomeric heat storage layer around said base cushion layer, a polymeric heat distribution layer around said heat storage layer, and a thin flexible outermost gloss control layer around said heat storage layer;
• wherein a thermal conductivity of said heat storage layer is higher than a thermal conductivity of said base cushion layer;
• wherein a thermal conductivity of said heat distribution layer is at least as high as a thermal conductivity of said base cushion layer;
• said source of heat external to said fuser roller is provided by at least one controllably heated, hard, thermally conductive roller in contact with said fuser roller;
• said auxiliary intermittently activated internal source of heat for said fuser roller is provided by a controllably operated lamp located within a hollow interior of said core member;
• and
• said gloss control layer has a G60 gloss value greater than approximately 9.

For use in an electrostatographic machine for forming a toner image on a receiver member, a fusing station for fusing said toner image to said receiver member, said fusing station comprising:

• a fuser roller operated in conjunction with a pressure roller, said fuser roller heated by a source of heat external to said fuser roller;
• said fuser roller being elastically deformable and engaged under pressure with said pressure roller so as to form a fusing nip therebetween, said pressure roller relatively harder than said fuser roller, said toner image on said receiver member moved through said fusing nip for said fusing;
• wherein said fuser roller includes a rigid, cylindrical core member, said deformable annular structure including an elastomeric base cushion layer innermost around said core member, a polymeric heat distribution layer around said base cushion layer, and a thin flexible outermost gloss control layer around said heat distribution layer;
• said thermal conductivity of said base cushion layer divided by a thickness of said base cushion layer is characterized by a ratio RBCL, said ratio RBCL having a preselected value less than approximately 13.3 BTU/hr/ft2/°F.;
• said thermal conductivity of said heat distribution layer divided by a thickness of said heat distribution layer is characterized by a ratio RHDL, said ratio RHDL having a preselected value in a range of approximately between 240 BTU/hr/ft2/°F.-1,680 BTU/hr/ft2/°F.;
• a thermal conductivity of said gloss control layer divided by a thickness of said gloss control layer is characterized by a ratio RGCL, said ratio RGCL having a preselected value in a range of approximately between 600 BTU/hr/ft2/°F.-6,000 BTU/hr/ft2/°F.;
• said thermal conductivity of said base cushion layer is less than approximately 0.2 BTU/hr/ft/°F.;
• said thermal conductivity of said heat distribution layer is in a range of approximately between 0.3 BTU/hr/ft/°F.-0.7 BTU/hr/ft/°F.;
• said thermal conductivity of said gloss control layer is in a range of approximately between 0.10 BTU/hr/ft/°F.-0.15 BTU/hr/ft/°F.;
• and
• said thermal conductivity of said heat distribution layer divided by said thermal conductivity of said base cushion layer is a ratio having a preselected value greater than approximately 1.5.