JPH0446798A - Method and device for cutting elastic sheet - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To cut elastic sheet well by providing a positioning means for determining positional relation between the elastic sheet fixed on a supporting base and a cutting blade, and providing a cutting and feeding means for keeping a position of a blade tip within a thickness of a tape and while giving a relational movement between the blade and the supporting base. CONSTITUTION:An adhesive layer (pressure sensitive adhesive double coated tape) 2 is provided on the surface of a flat supporting base 1, and an elastic sheet A is attached to the surface of the adhesive layer 2. Next, a cutting tip 4a is kept within the layer 2, and while a cutting blade 4 is fed by a feeding mechanism 5 to cut the sheet A.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a cutting method and apparatus for cutting a sheet made of an elastic material such as rubber with high precision in terms of flatness of the cut surface.

[Prior Art] A cleaning blade for a photoreceptor drum in an electronic copying machine is made of an elastic material such as urethane rubber, and its ridges (edges) have excellent linearity and are not rounded. Desired.

This is because the ridgeline of the blade is pressed against the photoreceptor drum and plays the role of scraping off residual toner from the surface of the photoreceptor drum, so if the blade is uneven or has rounded edges, the toner cannot be completely removed.

Because it is easier to form straight and sharp ridge lines by cutting with a sharp knife than by molding with a mold, this type of blade is usually used by cutting sheet-like colored objects. Manufactured.

However, in that case, considerable precision is required regarding the flatness of the cut surface or the straightness of its ridgeline.

A conventional cutting method (device) for elastic sheets is shown in FIG. As shown in the figure, the elastic sheet A is positioned and attached 1° above the support base 1' and the presser plate 6
It is fixed by being sandwiched between ' and is then cut at a 4° angle with a knife. Along the cutting line, there is a gap 1°& for cutting the blade 4' into the sheet A on one side of the support stand 1'' or the presser plate 6°, and on the other side there is a gap 1° for cutting the blade 4'' into the sheet A. A relief ii!6'a is formed into which 4'a enters.In addition, the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 131196/1983 forms the surface of the support base into a curved surface,
Although the precision of the cut surface is improved by applying tensile stress to the elastic sheet that is brought into close contact with this method, there is no fundamental difference compared to the above-mentioned cutting method.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] The conventional method shown in FIG. 2 has the following disadvantages when cutting an elastic sheet.

b) There may be unevenness on the cut surface and the flatness may not be sufficient. The reason is: ■ Near the cutting line (second
Since the sort cannot be fixed in the 1° gap between the support base (in the figure), the sheet is likely to deform.
In addition, ■Since both sides of the cutting line are sandwiched and the sheet is fixed under pressure, a considerable reaction force acts on the cutting blade from the sheet, increasing cutting resistance and causing the blade to move slightly during cutting. It can be thought of as the act of causing (chattering).

However, the part where the sheet is not fixed (the gap 1°a in Figure 2)
) Reducing the width would be unfavorable in terms of ■, and conversely increasing the width would be unfavorable in terms of ■, so solving this problem is not easy.

Note) The cutting line may be curved at the beginning or end of the cut, making it impossible to cut the sheet completely straight. The end faces of the sheet, which are the starting and ending ends of the cut, deform to bulge outward even if they are sandwiched between the support stand and the presser plate, which acts to reduce the pressure, so the force that holds the sheet in place is As a result of the lower cutting resistance, the sheet shifts during cutting and the cutting line bends. To solve this problem, it is necessary to either increase the scissor pressure mentioned above or increase the scissor area (scissor margin).
The cutting resistance (see item (a) above) may increase, or there may be a waste of purposefully providing a scissor margin (as a part that will not be commercialized).

c) It is extremely difficult to accurately form a flat cut surface having an arbitrary angle other than 90° with respect to the sheet surface.

Insertion pressure (or tensile stress described in the above publication)
Because the sheet near the cutting line is undergoing uneven elastic deformation due to such factors, in this state, even if the sheet is cut on a plane other than the plane that is the center of deformation (the plane at 90 degrees to the surface), A cut surface with accurate flatness cannot be obtained.

An object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for cutting an elastic sheet that has excellent flatness of the cut surface and straightness of its ridgeline, and that can make the cut surface at a desired angle with respect to the sheet surface. It is to be.

[Means for solving the problems] Focusing on the fact that the above-mentioned problems are caused by inserting elastic sheets for fixation,
The present invention is mainly composed of means for fixing a sheet on a support base without pinching the sheet.

That is, in the cutting method of the present invention, an adhesive layer is provided on the surface of a flat plate-shaped support, an elastic sheet is pasted on the surface of the adhesive layer, and the cutting edge is kept within the layer. The cutting blade is sent to cut the sheet.

In addition, the cutting device of the present invention includes: (1) a flat support base with double-sided adhesive tape pasted, which can be fixed by pasting an elastic sheet on the surface of the tape; and (2) an elastic sheet fixed on the support base. It has a positioning means that determines the positional relationship with the cutting blade, and (2) a cutting feed means that provides relative movement between the blade and the support while keeping the position of the cutting edge within the range of the thickness of the tape.

[Function] In the cutting method of the present invention, the elastic sheet is attached and fixed to the surface of the adhesive layer on the support base in the vicinity including the cutting line, and in this state, the cutting tip is kept within the same layer. It is cut by a blade sent by the machine.

Therefore, during cutting, the following characteristic effects occur.

b) Since the sheet is fixed at the part that includes the cutting line, the sheet will not bend or deform during cutting. The sheet is cut with a cut surface that has excellent flatness because of the following two points: - the reaction force (cutting resistance) exerted on the blade is small.

Note that the above point (■) is also related to 2) below.

Since the force with which the adhesive fixes the sheet is the same regardless of its position within the sheet, the cutting line will not bend at the beginning or end of the cut.

C) Since the sheet is fixed on the support base without being subjected to pressure or tensile force and without deformation, the angle accurately reflects the angle of the blade that cut into the sheet (i.e., the desired angle) with respect to the sheet surface. A flat cut surface is formed.

2) Since the cutting edge is kept within the adhesive layer before being fed, it does not damage the cutting edge, and since there is no need for relief grooves for the cutting edge, the flatness of the cut surface can be improved as shown in item (i) above. In addition to being advantageous for improvement, it also has the advantage that even narrow sheets can be securely fixed and cut with high precision. If there is a relief groove on the surface of the support base, the sheet is allowed to deform within that area, which tends to reduce the flatness of the cut surface, and the sheet cannot be fixed unless the sheet has a width exceeding that width. be.

Further, the cutting device of the invention realizes the above-mentioned cutting method, and has the following functions in addition to the above.

That is, first of all, since the support base (2) uses double-sided adhesive tape as the adhesive, it is easy to form and replace the adhesive layer. In addition, since the positioning means (2) determines the position of the elastic sheet or the blade relative to it, efficient cutting at a predetermined location is possible when a large number of elastic sheets are to be cut. The sheet is cut by the cutter and feeder (◎) that feeds the blade or moves the support base.

[Example] As an example of the present invention, FIG. 1 shows a cutting device for a cleaning blade for a photosensitive drum of a copying machine. The same figure (a
) is a front view of the main part of the same device during cutting, and FIG. 2(b) is a side view of the main part. The illustrated cutting device linearly cuts a predetermined portion of the sheet A of the blade (semi-finished product) C made by adhering a urethane rubber sheet A and a fitting B for mounting on a copying machine. This is a device for forming ridge lines that have a cleaning effect.

This device has a blade C placed and fixed on a support table l and cuts it with a movable knife 4, and has the following configuration.

First, the support stand l is a flat plate-like integrated stand with a flat horizontal surface formed on the upper surface, and a depression 1a with a depth of about 0.2 mm is provided in the central part of the upper surface, which is below the moving path of the cutter 4. A double-sided adhesive tape 2 with a thickness of 0.2 to 2.0 mm is pasted on. Tape 2 is one that has an acrylic adhesive on both sides of a polyester base material, the adhesive is non-migration (does not peel off from the base material), and the adhesive can be washed with water and dried to remove dust and other deposits. If so, choose one from commercially available products that can recover its stickiness. In addition, the adhesive strength of the surface of the tape 2 to the sheet A does not exceed the adhesive strength of the back surface to the support base l, so that the sheet A can be peeled off smoothly from the tape 2. Being able to fix sheet A against resistance;
is the condition.

As shown in FIG. 5A, a pin 3 is attached to the side of the recess 1a on the support l for positioning the blade C, with a variable setting position. When the blade C is placed on the support stand 1 by passing the hole Ba provided in the metal fitting B through the bottle 3, the sheet A is fixed at a predetermined position with respect to (the movement path of) the blade 4.

The cutter 4 has a pair of holders 4b and 4 with the tip 4a facing downward.
In addition to being held by C, they are incorporated into the feeding mechanism 5. The feed mechanism 5 has the cutter 4 (and holders 4b and 4c) placed at a standby position (not shown) above the support base 1 and at the height shown, that is, at a height where the cutting edge 4a is within the thickness of the tape 2. It has the function of vertically moving between the support bases 1 and 2, and horizontally moving the support base l over almost the entire length thereof. Note that the cutter 4 used is a thin one (about 0.5 mm thick) made of steel or ceramics. The inclination angle of the cutting edge of the cutter 4 with respect to the sheet A, that is, the angle θ in FIG.
is best between 20 and 30 degrees.

In order to cut the sheet A of the blade C at a desired cutting line using this device, the following procedure may be performed.

■ Adjust the position of the pin 3 in advance so that when the blade C is placed on the pin 3 through the hole Ba of the metal fitting B, the desired cutting line of the sheet A overlaps with the moving path of the blade 4.

■ Position the blade C using the pin 3 above and place the blade C on the support stand L, then use your fingertips or a roller to remove the sheet A.
Press down to release any air bubbles between it and tape 2. This results in
Based on the adhesive force of the tape 2, the back surface (lower surface in the figure) of the sheet A near the cutting line is fixed.

■Starting the feed mechanism 5? Lower the cutter 4 from the standby position, insert the tip 4a into the thickness of the tape 2, drop the cutting fluid onto the cutter 4, and then move the cutter 4 along the arrow in FIG. send. [Effect]
As mentioned in the column, it is possible to cut with excellent flatness and straightness.

■When the cutting is finished, the blade 4 is raised by the feed mechanism 5, moved horizontally and returned to the original standby position, and the cut blade C (and part of the sheet A) is removed from the support base I. .

By repeating steps ① to ② above, blades C of the same size can be cut one after another. However, if the adhesive strength of the surface of tape 2 decreases due to adhesion of dust, etc., wash the surface with water or The tape 2 may be replaced with an unused one.

The following points will be supplemented in relation to the cutting device introduced in the above embodiments.

b) As shown in Figure (a), in this example, the cutter 4 is fed perpendicular to the sheet A and the support l, and the angle between the surface of the sheet A and the cutting surface is 90°. Although not limited to this, as described in [Operation], a highly accurate cut surface can be obtained by this device.

Note) The cleaning blade C can be used to cut a single elastic sheet instead of the sheet A integrated with the metal fitting B. This is because if the sheet can be positioned by setting pins or providing steps on the support base so as to engage with holes, edges, etc. of the sheet, the sheet can be cut in the same manner as described above.

c) In addition, the positioning means for determining the positional relationship between the sheet A and the cutter 4 is a method for determining the positional relationship between the sheet A and the cutter 4.
The position of the reference portion such as the edge of the blade may be detected and the position of the blade 4 may be adjusted accordingly.

2) Instead of the blade 4 moving vertically and horizontally relative to the immovable support 1, the support 4 may be configured to be movable vertically or horizontally. In short, it is only necessary to provide a cutting feed means that provides relative movement between the support base l and the cutter 4 under a predetermined height relationship.

e) The thicker the tape 2 used, the easier it is to set the height of the cutting edge 4a by the feed mechanism 5, but the sheet A becomes easier to displace with respect to the support l due to the thickness. Therefore, the cutting accuracy is somewhat reduced. Also,
The opposite is true when tape 2 is thin.

f) Instead of the tape 2, it is also possible to form an adhesive layer on the support 1 by applying an acrylic adhesive, for example. However, in that case, care must be taken to make the thickness of the adhesive uniform.

[Effects of the Invention] According to the cutting method of the present invention (claim 1), an elastic sheet can be cut at a cut surface and a ridge line with excellent flatness and straightness, and the cut surface can be cut on the sheet surface. However, it can also be set at any desired angle.

Since the cutting resistance is low, the force required to move the blade or the support for cutting is small, and the progress of wear of the blade 4 is slow. Even if the width of the sheet is narrow, that is, the width that straddles the cutting line is small, it can be securely fixed on the support base and cut with high precision.

Further, according to the cutting device R of the invention (claim 2), in addition to the above, there are also advantages such as easy formation and replacement of the adhesive layer and efficient cutting using a positioning means.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a drawing showing a cutting device for a cleaning blade for a photosensitive drum of a copying machine as an embodiment of the present invention. Figure (a) is a front view of the main parts of the device during cutting;
b) is also a side view of the main part (bb-b sectional view of the same figure (a))
It is. On the other hand, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a conventional technique for cutting an elastic sheet. ■...Support stand, 2...Double-sided adhesive tape, 3...Pin (positioning means), 4...Knife, 4a...Cutting tip,
5... Feeding mechanism, A... Sheet, C... Cleaning blade.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A layer of adhesive is provided on the surface of a flat support,
After pasting an elastic sheet on the surface of the adhesive layer,
A method for cutting an elastic sheet, characterized in that the sheet is cut by feeding a cutting blade while keeping the cutting edge within the layer. 2. (a) With a flat support stand pasted with double-sided adhesive tape,
(b) positioning means for determining the positional relationship between the elastic sheet fixed on the support base and the cutting blade; and (c) the cutting edge of the tape. An elastic sheet cutting device having a cutting and feeding means that provides relative movement between a blade and a support base while maintaining the position within the range of the thickness of the tape.