Designing Toner Particles Using a Particle Coating Method and its Evaluation

Abstract

Toner particles were perimentally produced in a high-speed shear mill by applying multiple coatings of three toner constituent materials to core (resin) particles having an average diameter of 14μm. To discover the optimal toner particle characteristics, the order of coating application and shear mill rotation velocity were varied. The following findings were obtained:
It was possible to design toner particles using the dry coating method in which toner constituent materials, such as a coloring agent, a charge control agent (CCA) and a flowability-enhancing agent were coated sequentially on thermoplastic resin core particles. This result suggests that the composite production process currently used in the kneading and pulverizing method can be simplified.
It was demonstrated that to design toner particles of superior functionality, such as improved charging and fixing characteristics, coatings of coloring agent, CCA, and flowability-enhancing agent, in that order, yielded the best results. Also, a high-speed shear mill rotation velocity of 16.7rps yielded the best toner particles having high functionality and good flowability.