Compliant fuser roller or pressure roller for fusing station

摘要

An elastically deformable fusing-station roller (10) for use in a fusing station of an electrostatographic machine, comprises a base cushion layer (14), which is a thermally cured polyorganosiloxane material made by an addition-polymerization of an uncured formulation, including hollow filler particles (18) in form of microballoons having flexible walls, and solid filler particles. An elastically deformable fusing-station roller for use in a fusing station of an electrostatographic machine, comprises a core (16), which is rigid and having a cylindrical outer surface; a base cushion layer formed on the core; and a protective layer coated on the base cushion layer. The base cushion layer is a thermally cured polyorganosiloxane material made by an addition-polymerization of an uncured formulation, including hollow filler particles in form of microballoons having flexible walls, and solid filler particles. The microballoons have a predetermined hollow-filler concentration in the uncured formulation. The addition-polymerization of the uncured formulation is carried out at below 100[deg]C. An independent claim is also included for a method of making a fusing-station roller for use in a fusing station of an electrostatographic machine, comprising mixing of ingredients to produce an uncured formulation, the ingredients including: a vinyl-substituted polyorganosiloxane, a silane-substituted polyorganosiloxane, 1-100 ppm by weight of a platinum curing catalyst, flexible hollow filler particles, strength-enhancing solid filler particles, and thermal-conductivity-enhancing solid filler particles, where the flexible hollow filler particles have a concentration in the uncured formulation of 0.25-3 wt.%; degassing the uncured formulation; contacting the substrate with a thermally curable layer of the uncured formulation, the substrate coated with a uniform coating of an adhesive primer, the contacting coincident with forming the thermally curable layer with a uniform thickness on the substrate; ramp heating the thermally curable layer and the substrate from a room temperature to an elevated temperature, preferably not >100[deg]C; continuing to heat the thermally curable layer and substrate at not >100[deg]C, until the thermally curable layer is fully cured via an addition-polymerization reaction; cooling the thermally curable layer and substrate to a room temperature, to obtain the base cushion layer as an addition-polymerized layer adhered to the substrate; and coating the protective layer on the base cushion layer.