Fuser member
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 has a first elastomer continuous phase and a second elastomer discontinuous phase; the discontinuous phase is dispersed through the continuous phase in the form of domains. The second elastomer is wettable by the first elastomer, and at the temperature of the fusing process, the modulus of the second elastomer is greater than the modulus of the first elastomer. The swell levels of the first and second elastomers both are greater than zero, with the swell level of the second elastomer being lower than the swell level of the first elastomer.
Claims18
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:
- the second elastomer is wettable by the first elastomer;
- the modulus of the second elastomer is greater than the modulus of the first elastomer, at the temperature of the fusing process;
- the swell level of the first elastomer with a toner fusing system release agent is from about 0.2 to about 0.005;
- the swell level of the second elastomer with the release agent is greater than zero;
- and
- the ratio of the second elastomer swell level to the first elastomer swell level with the release agent is from about 0.5:1 to about 0.02:1.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.