Improvement of Abrasion Resistance of Toner on Sheet by Sputter Etching

Abstract

Micro-surface roughening by sputter etching was applied to improve abrasionr esistance of toner on sheet. Sputter etching was carried out on cellophane sheets at various conditions of gas pressure and sputtering energy, and then the etched sheet was printed by using a laser printer. The successive abrasion testing on the printed surface at given conditions of the pressure, times and rate provided a change in area of printed toner quantitatively. The change in toner printed area was determined by using image analysis. Loss of printed area with abrasion testing was clearly decreased by sputter etching i. e., abrasion resistance of toner was improved. The loss of printed area is nearly constant irrespective of the sputtering conditions such as gas pressure and sputtering energy, while the micro structure changes from small and shallow projections sized about 0.1 pm to small cones and further large cones with an increase in sputtering energy and also from dense forests of cone type to dense microcraters type with a decrease in gas pressure and further size of the microstructure increases with change of gas from argon to oxygen. These results show that the improvement of abrasion resistance of printed toner is caused by anchoring effect of the microstructure and the anchoring effect is not depending on the pattern or size of the microstructure.