Fuser member system and process
AssigneeEastman Kodak Company
InventorJerry A. Pickering
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A fuser roller for toner fusing systems and processes, and including a base and a fusing surface layer. The fusing surface layer includes a first elastomer continuous phase, a second elastomer discontinuous phase, and thermally conductive filler, with the discontinuous phase dispersed through the continuous phase in the form of domains, and the thermally conductive filler also dispersed through the continuous phase. The second elastomer is wettable by the first elastomer. The second elastomer discontinuous phase domains are in sufficient number and of sufficient size, and there is a sufficient amount of the thermally conductive filler, so that the thermally conductive filler is concentrated sufficiently to be nonuniformly distributed through the fusing surface layer as a network.
Claims17
A fuser member for a toner fusing system, comprising:
- (a) a base;
- and
- (b) a fusing surface layer comprising:
- (i) a first elastomer, as a continuous phase;
- and
- (ii) a second elastomer, as a discontinuous phase, dispersed through the continuous phase in the form of domains, wherein at least about 25 percent of the second elastomer total repeat units, and at least about 25 percent of the first elastomer total repeat units, are the same monomeric unit;
- and
- (iii) thermally conductive filler, dispersed through the continuous phase;
- wherein:
- the ratio of the mean diameter of the second elastomer discontinuous phase domains to the mean particle diameter of the thermally conductive filler is greater than about 2:1;
- the second elastomer is wettable by the first elastomer;
- and
- the second elastomer discontinuous phase domains are in sufficient number and of sufficient size and the thermally conductive filler comprises a sufficient proportion by volume of the fusing surface layer, so that the thermally conductive filler is concentrated sufficiently in the continuous phase to be nonuniformly distributed through the fusing surface layer as a network in the continuous phase, this network through the fusing surface layer surrounding second elastomer discontinuous phase domains.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.