Patent ID: 7955690

Claim:
A fuser member comprising: a core; a first cushioning layer adjacent to said core; a second cushioning layer on top of said first cushioning layer; and a plastic sleeve comprising a fluoroplastic and having a tensile hardness of from about 3*10 7 to about 30*10 8 pascals at 175° C.; wherein said sleeve, first cushioning layer, and second cushioning layer have a thickness, and wherein said second cushioning layer has a thickness of at least about three times said thickness of said sleeve to no more than about equal to said thickness of said first cushioning layer; wherein said plastic sleeve has a thickness of from about 10 to about 200 microns; wherein the second cushioning layer has a shore A hardness of at least 5; the first and second cushioning layers have a hardness difference of about 5 shore A or greater; when the second cushioning layer has a shore A hardness of greater than a shore A hardness of said first cushioning layer, the shore A hardness of said second cushioning layer is from about 40 to about 90 and the shore A hardness of said first cushioning layer is from about 20 to about 70; and when the second cushioning layer has a shore A hardness of less than a-shore A hardness of said first cushioning layer, the shore A hardness of said second cushioning layer is from about 5 to about 70 and the shore A hardness of said first cushioning layer is from about 40 to about 90; and the fuser member has an apparent shore A hardness of at least about 45, such that said first and second cushioning layers have a hardness sufficient to allow said fuser member to make sufficient contact with a toned media surface to provide fusing properties and also limit strain on said sleeve to minimize wrinkling of said sleeve.