Electrophotographic endless belt, method for producing the same, and electrophotographic apparatus

Abstract

A high-quality electrophotographic endless belt and a method capable of efficiently producing the belt are provided. A method for producing an electrophotographic endless belt comprising a base layer including a thermoplastic resin composition and an inner-surface layer, which includes: (1) forming an energy curable film having a glass transition temperature on an inner surface of a test tube-shaped preform including a thermoplastic resin and then subjecting the preform to blow molding to obtain a blow-molded bottle; (2) irradiating the blow-molded bottle with energy rays to cure the film to form an inner-surface layer; and (3) cutting out an endless belt from the blow-molded bottle having the inner-surface layer obtained in (2).

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A process for producing an electrophotographic endless belt comprising:
 a base layer comprising a thermoplastic resin composition, and   an inner-surface layer,   
       said process comprising the steps of:
 (1) forming an energy curable film having a glass transition temperature on an inner surface of a test tube-shaped preform comprising a thermoplastic resin and then subjecting the preform to blow molding to obtain a blow-molded bottle; 
 (2) irradiating the blow-molded bottle with energy rays to cure the film to form an inner-surface layer; and 
 (3) cutting out an endless belt from the blow-molded bottle having the inner-surface layer obtained in the step (2). 
 
     
     
         2 . The process for producing an electrophotographic endless belt according to  claim 1 , wherein the energy curable film comprises an ultraviolet curable acrylic resin. 
     
     
         3 . An electrophotographic endless belt comprising:
 a base layer comprising a thermoplastic resin composition, and   an inner-surface layer formed on the inner circumferential surface side of the base layer,   
       wherein
 the inner-surface layer comprises a cured film of an energy curable film having a glass transition temperature. 
 
     
     
         4 . The electrophotographic endless belt according to  claim 3 , wherein the hardness based on ISO 15184 of the inner-surface layer is H or more and 3H or less in pencil hardness. 
     
     
         5 . The electrophotographic endless belt according to  claim 3 , wherein the thickness of the inner-surface layer is 0.05 μm or more and 10 μm or less. 
     
     
         6 . The electrophotographic endless belt according to  claim 3 , wherein the surface intrinsic resistivity of the inner-surface layer is 1×10 4  Ω/sq or more and 1×10 8  Ω/sq or less. 
     
     
         7 . The electrophotographic endless belt according to  claim 3 , wherein the tensile elongation based on ISO 527-2 of the inner-surface layer is 3% or more. 
     
     
         8 . The electrophotographic endless belt according to  claim 3 , wherein the thickness of the base layer is 10 μm or more and 500 μm or less. 
     
     
         9 . An electrophotographic apparatus comprising the electrophotographic endless belt according to  claim 3 .