Patent ID: 7195853

Claim:
A process for fusing toner residing on a substrate to the substrate, the process comprising transmitting heat to the toner, and also comprising contacting the toner with the fusing surface layer of a fuser member, comprising: (a) a base; and (b) a fusing surface layer comprising: (i) a fluoroelastomer continuous phase; and (ii) discontinuous phase dispersed through the fluoroelastomer continuous phase in the form of domains; wherein, at the temperature of the fusing process: the modulus of the fluoroelastomer continuous phase is greater than the modulus of the discontinuous phase; and the difference between a logarithm of the modulus of the fluoroelastomer continuous phase and a logarithm of the modulus of the discontinuous phase is greater than 1.0; the viscosity of the toner is at least 100 Kpoise at a temperature of from 120 to 200° C.; and the modulus of the discontinuous phase is 8×10 6 Pa or less; and wherein the discontinuous phase comprises one or both of: at least a minimum proportion by volume of the fusing surface layer; and at least a minimum proportion by weight of the fluoroelastomer continuous phase; so that the image generated in the process has a gloss number of about 10 or less; the amount of heat transmitted to the toner being sufficient to fuse the toner to the substrate, and insufficient to raise the gloss number of the image above about 10 or less.