JPS5914993A - Color typing or printing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To carry out color printing simply in low cost, by a method wherein paper having plural color layers laminated thereto is irradiated with laser luminous flux and the surface layer is peeled by the energy of said laser luminous flux to expose the desired color layer. CONSTITUTION:Plural color layers, for example, 3a, 3b, 3c are formed on a sheet like member 2 as a substrate and light absorbable black thin layers 4a, 4b, 4c are respectively formed between the color layers and on the surface thereof to obtain paper 1 having a laminated structure. Above this paper 1, one or more laser beam source 6 of which the output and the diameter of a luminous flux spot are controlled by a control circuit 7 is arranged and, when the paper 1 is irradiated with single laser luminous flux L with low intensity, a fine hole 8 is opened to expose the color layer 3c and, when two continuous pulse luminous fluxes are oscillated, a hole 9 is opened to expose the color layer 3b. By this mechanism, color printing is performed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a novel color printing method that performs multicolor printing on printing paper using a laser beam, and paper used therefor.

Various multi-color printing methods have been proposed and put into practice, but they involve placing a wrapper such as a ribbon between the print head and the paper, or placing a large number of heads for each color. These are troublesome to handle, difficult to perform multicolor printing with high resolution, and unsuitable for printing images.

Recently, methods and apparatus have been proposed for electrically printing television images in color on paper. This is yellow, magenta,
Using four special color sheets of four colors, cyan and black, these color sheets are layered one after another on printing paper and thermally transferred using a thermal head with many tiny heating elements. However, this method requires four color sheets in addition to the paper, and these must be thermally transferred four times one after another, making the process extremely complicated and the printing time long. Furthermore, a set of four color sheets is disposable, which is economically disadvantageous.

The present invention proposes a new method that can solve all the drawbacks of the above-mentioned methods, and its structure is such that at least one color layer is layered on a sheet of paper made by laminating a plurality of color layers on a sheet-like member. A laser beam is irradiated, the laser beam and the paper are moved relative to each other, and a specific irradiation point (A) is
It is characterized by color printing or a printing method in which the total intensity of the laser beam is controlled to expose the desired color layer.

Further, the paper used in the method of the present invention is characterized by comprising a sheet-like member serving as a base, a plurality of color layers laminated thereon, and a thin black layer formed between each color layer and on the surface.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention, in which numeral 1 is a sheet of paper that plays an important role. As can be seen from the cross-sectional view of FIG. 2, this paper has a plurality of (for example, three) color layers 3a on a sheet-like member 2 serving as a base.

3b, 3C (yellow, magenta, cyan from the bottom)
is formed, and thin black layers 4a, 4b, and 4c with good light absorption properties are formed between and on the surface of each color layer to form a laminated structure. Reference numeral 5 denotes an effective area, which is a portion where the lamination is applied. Such paper is made into strips or rolls depending on the purpose, and is available in various sizes.

Returning to FIG. 1, at least one laser beam 16 is disposed above the paper 1, and the output and/or diameter of the spot of the beam is controlled by a control circuit 7. This laser light source is moved in the X direction and the Y direction by a known mechanism (not shown), or the paper is moved in the direction perpendicular to it (the Y direction) while moving in only one direction (the X direction). A relative movement is performed.

4 and 5 are for explaining the printing method according to the embodiment shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 4 shows the output of the laser beam, and FIG. 5 shows the state of paper processing (printing) resulting from this. First, FIG. 4(a) shows a case where a single laser beam I- of relatively low intensity is irradiated onto the paper 1 from the laser beams 8!6 as a result of being controlled by the signal from the control circuit 7. The laser beam burns out (scattering) the black layer 4C on the surface and a part of the next color layer (cyan layer 3C). the result,
As shown in FIG. 5(a), the colored layer 3C has minute holes 8.
is exposed. Next, when two consecutive pulsed beams as shown in FIG. 4(b) are emitted from the laser beam 86, the total intensity of these beams becomes the intensity of the two pulses shown in FIG. 4(a). As shown in FIG. 5(b), the surface black layer 4a, the color layer 3C1, the black layer 4b, and a very small part of the color layer 3b are burnt out and holes 9 are formed.
It's dark. Therefore, the color layer 3b (magenta) is exposed.

Further, when three pulsed lights are irradiated as shown in FIG. 4(C), a hole 10 is opened as shown in FIG. 5(C'), and the deepest color layer (yellow) is exposed. Therefore, by controlling the number of pulses of the laser beam for each location, marking or printing in any color becomes possible.

The above laser beam can be pulsed by placing a dye cell in the optical path and controlling this dye cell with a control circuit, or by placing a rotating mirror and a slit in the optical path, and by rotating and scanning the mirror, the light transmitted through the slit is This can be achieved by a method such as making it intermittent. Also, the total intensity (
Even if the pulse width is changed instead of changing the output (output), the output intensity value of the laser beam (single pulse) can be doubled compared to Fig. 4(a), as shown in Fig. 4(d). Similar results can be obtained even if the value is changed to 3 times as much.

FIG. 6 shows another embodiment, in which a high speed scanner 11 is used for scanning the laser beam. Reference numeral 12 denotes a drive circuit, to which a signal is sent from the control circuit 7 and drives the scanner 11 at a constant cycle. The scanning direction of the laser beam by the scanner 11 is perpendicular to the plane of the paper, and the paper 1 is moved in a direction perpendicular to this (in the direction of the arrow).

By controlling the laser light source 6 and the drive circuit 12 by the control circuit 7, it is possible to draw a profile or image in any color on the XY plane. The manner in which the color layer is exposed in this case is the same as in the case of FIG.

FIG. 7 shows yet another embodiment, which differs from FIG. 6 in that there are three laser light sources <68, 6b.

6c) It is useful. Each of the light sources oscillates laser beams 1 to a, lb and lc, which are reflected by the scanner 11 and irradiated onto the paper 1.

For example, 68 of these light sources are for cyan, 6b is for magenta, and 6G is for yellow, and each set of three oscillates a pulse train of laser beams as shown in FIG. Draw one pixel on 1. By supplying a color signal to each laser light source from the control circuit 7, driving the scanner 11, and moving the paper 1, multicolor printing can be performed at high speed.

In this case, the laser beams 1a, 1-b, 1-
If the diameter of the slots 1 to c can also be changed, any intermediate color can be obtained, which is convenient for color printing.

As detailed above, the present invention irradiates a laser beam onto a sheet of paper on which a plurality of color layers are laminated, and uses the energy to peel off the surface layer to expose the desired color layer. , the printing method and structure become very simple,
It is also advantageous in terms of cost.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a sectional view of a sheet used in the present invention, FIG. 3 is a plan view thereof, and FIGS. 4 and 5 are explanatory diagrams of the present invention. 6 and 7 are diagrams showing other embodiments of the present invention, respectively. 1: Paper, 2: Sheet-like member, 3a, 3b, 3
c: color layer, 4a, 4b, 4c: black WjFm, 5: effective area, 6: laser light source, 7: control circuit, L:
Laser beam.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. At least one laser beam is irradiated onto a sheet of paper formed by laminating a plurality of color layers on a sheet-like member, and the laser beam and the paper are moved relative to each other. A color printing or printing method characterized by controlling the total intensity of a laser beam at a specific irradiation point so as to expose a desired color layer. 2. The color printing or printing method according to claim 1, wherein the laser beam is scanned in one direction at a high speed, and the paper is fed in a direction perpendicular to the scanning direction. 3. The color printing or printing method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a plurality of the laser beams are used to expose different color layers. 4. Used to implement the method described in claim 1, which comprises a sheet-like member serving as a base, a plurality of color layers laminated thereon, and a thin black layer formed between each color layer and on the surface. Paper to cover. 5. The paper according to claim 4, wherein the plurality of color layers include cyan, magenta, and yellow.