Claims
- 1. A fuser member comprising a support and coated thereon a fluoroelastomer layer comprising a metal oxide filler selected from aluminum oxide, cupric oxide, and mixtures thereof, said filler selected from (a)fillers pretreated with a styryl-functionalized silane coupling agent prior to compounding of the fluoroelastomer, and (b) fillers brought into contact with styryl-functionalized silane coupling agent additives during compounding of the fluoroelstomer.
- 2. The fuser member of claim 1 wherein the fluoroelastomer comprises:
- --(CH.sub.2 CF.sub.2).sub.x ;
- --(CF.sub.2 CF.sub.2).sub.y and ##STR3## where x is from 30 to 90 mole percent,
- y is from 10 to 70 mole percent, and
- z is from 0 to 30 mole percent.
- 3. The fuser member of claim 2, wherein x is 52 mole percent, y is 34 mole percent, and z is 14 mole percent.
- 4. The fuser member of claim 2, wherein x is 53 mole percent, y is 26 mole percent, and z is 21 mole percent.
- 5. The fuser member of claim 1 wherein the aluminum oxide is 30 to 280 parts by weight per 100 parts by weight of the fluoroelastomer.
- 6. The fuser member of claim 1 wherein the cupric oxide is 10 to 50 parts by weight per 100 parts by weight of the fluoroelastomer.
- 7. The fuser member of claim 1 wherein the silane coupling agent is in the amout of 0.1-10.0 weight percent of elastomer.
- 8. The fuser member of claim 7 wherein the silane coupling agent has the general structure: ##STR4## wherein: L.sub.1, L.sub.2, L.sub.3 represent alkoxy, alkyl, and halide, with C atom numbers varying from 0-10 and at least one of the L should be alkoxy or halide, and M represents aliphatic or aromatic chain with C atom numbers varying from 0-20.
- 9. The fuser member of claim 8 wherein the silane coupling agent comprises a functional group selected from alkoxy and halide.
- 10. The fuser member of claim 8 wherein the silane coupling agent is styrylethyltrimethoxysilane.
- 11. The fuser member of claim 7 wherein the silane coupling agent is 3-(N-styrylmethyl-2-aminoethyl-amino) propyltrimethoxysilane hydrochloride.
- 12. A fuser member comprising:
- a support;
- a base cushion layer; and
- a fluoroelastomer layer comprising a metal oxide filler selected from aluminum oxide, cupric oxide, and mixtures thereof, said filler being associated with a silane coupling agent having a styryl functional group.
- 13. The fuser member of claim 12 wherein the base cushion layer comprises silicone rubber.
- 14. The fuser member of claim 12 wherein the base cushion layer contains a thermally conductive filler.
- 15. The fuser member of claim 12 further comprising an adhesion layer between the base cushion layer and the fluoroelastomer layer.
- 16. The fuser member of claim 1 or 12, further having a polydimethylsiloxane release agent applied to the fluoroelastomer layer in an amount sufficient to produce, upon incubation at elevated temperature, a surface having toner release properties on said outermost layer.
- 17. The toner fuser member of claim 16 wherein the polydimethylsiloxane release agent has the formula ##STR5## where R is alkyl or aryl, Z is selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, aminoalkyl containing up to about 8 carbon atoms, and mercaptoalkyl containing up to a bout 8 carbon atoms, an d the ratio of a:b is about 1: to 3000:1.
- 18. The toner fuser member of claim 17 wherein Z is aminopropyl or hydrogen.
- 19. The toner fuser member of claim 17 wherein Z is hydrogen, aminopropyl, or mercaptopropyl.
- 20. The toner fuser member of claim 19 wherein Z is hydrogen and the a:b ratio is from about 10:1 to 200:1.
- 21. The toner fuser member of claim 19 wherein Z is aminopropyl and the a:b ratio is from about 200:1 to 2,000:1.
- 22. A method of making a fuser member comprising the steps of
- a) providing a cylindrical core;
- b) compounding a fluoroelastomer with a metal oxide filler selected from aluminum oxide, cupric oxide, and mixtures thereof, the filler having been treated with a styryl-functionalized silane coupling agent; or a styryl-functionalized silane coupling agent is an additive during compounding;
- c) coating the fluoroelastomer on the cylindrical core; and
- d) curing the fuser member.
- 23. The method of claim 22 wherein a base cushion layer is deposited on the core prior to step c).
- 24. The method of claim 22, further comprising the step of coating an adhesion layer on the base cushion layer prior to step c).
- 25. The method of claim 22 wherein the filler has been pre-treated with the styryl-functionalized silane coupling agent prior to compounding step b).
- 26. The method of claim 22 wherein the styryl-functionalized silane coupling agent becomes associated with the metal fillers during compounding step b).
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
The present application is related to the following titled applications.
U.S. Ser. No. 08/962,108, filed Oct. 31, 1997, U.S. Pat. No. 5,935,712, to Tan et al. titled FUSER MEMBER WITH SURFACE TREATED SnO.sub.2 FILLER
US Referenced Citations (10)