EP0864943A1 - Fixage par fusion en une seule passe de copies double face à couches multiples - Google Patents

Fixage par fusion en une seule passe de copies double face à couches multiples Download PDF

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Publication number
EP0864943A1
EP0864943A1 EP98200707A EP98200707A EP0864943A1 EP 0864943 A1 EP0864943 A1 EP 0864943A1 EP 98200707 A EP98200707 A EP 98200707A EP 98200707 A EP98200707 A EP 98200707A EP 0864943 A1 EP0864943 A1 EP 0864943A1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
fusing station
rollers
toner
sheet
fusing
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Withdrawn
Application number
EP98200707A
Other languages
German (de)
English (en)
Inventor
Marc De Niel
Serge Tavernier
Luc Van Aken
Luc Van Goethem
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Xeikon Manufacturing NV
Original Assignee
Agfa Gevaert NV
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Agfa Gevaert NV filed Critical Agfa Gevaert NV
Priority to EP98200707A priority Critical patent/EP0864943A1/fr
Publication of EP0864943A1 publication Critical patent/EP0864943A1/fr
Withdrawn legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • G—PHYSICS
    • G03—PHOTOGRAPHY; CINEMATOGRAPHY; ANALOGOUS TECHNIQUES USING WAVES OTHER THAN OPTICAL WAVES; ELECTROGRAPHY; HOLOGRAPHY
    • G03D—APPARATUS FOR PROCESSING EXPOSED PHOTOGRAPHIC MATERIALS; ACCESSORIES THEREFOR
    • G03D15/00—Apparatus for treating processed material
    • G03D15/02—Drying; Glazing
    • G03D15/022—Drying of filmstrips
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G03—PHOTOGRAPHY; CINEMATOGRAPHY; ANALOGOUS TECHNIQUES USING WAVES OTHER THAN OPTICAL WAVES; ELECTROGRAPHY; HOLOGRAPHY
    • G03G—ELECTROGRAPHY; ELECTROPHOTOGRAPHY; MAGNETOGRAPHY
    • G03G15/00—Apparatus for electrographic processes using a charge pattern
    • G03G15/20—Apparatus for electrographic processes using a charge pattern for fixing, e.g. by using heat
    • G03G15/2003—Apparatus for electrographic processes using a charge pattern for fixing, e.g. by using heat using heat
    • G03G15/2014—Apparatus for electrographic processes using a charge pattern for fixing, e.g. by using heat using heat using contact heat
    • G03G15/2039—Apparatus for electrographic processes using a charge pattern for fixing, e.g. by using heat using heat using contact heat with means for controlling the fixing temperature
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G03—PHOTOGRAPHY; CINEMATOGRAPHY; ANALOGOUS TECHNIQUES USING WAVES OTHER THAN OPTICAL WAVES; ELECTROGRAPHY; HOLOGRAPHY
    • G03G—ELECTROGRAPHY; ELECTROPHOTOGRAPHY; MAGNETOGRAPHY
    • G03G15/00—Apparatus for electrographic processes using a charge pattern
    • G03G15/20—Apparatus for electrographic processes using a charge pattern for fixing, e.g. by using heat
    • G03G15/2003—Apparatus for electrographic processes using a charge pattern for fixing, e.g. by using heat using heat
    • G03G15/2014—Apparatus for electrographic processes using a charge pattern for fixing, e.g. by using heat using heat using contact heat
    • G03G15/2053—Structural details of heat elements, e.g. structure of roller or belt, eddy current, induction heating
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G03—PHOTOGRAPHY; CINEMATOGRAPHY; ANALOGOUS TECHNIQUES USING WAVES OTHER THAN OPTICAL WAVES; ELECTROGRAPHY; HOLOGRAPHY
    • G03G—ELECTROGRAPHY; ELECTROPHOTOGRAPHY; MAGNETOGRAPHY
    • G03G15/00—Apparatus for electrographic processes using a charge pattern
    • G03G15/20—Apparatus for electrographic processes using a charge pattern for fixing, e.g. by using heat
    • G03G15/2003—Apparatus for electrographic processes using a charge pattern for fixing, e.g. by using heat using heat
    • G03G15/2014—Apparatus for electrographic processes using a charge pattern for fixing, e.g. by using heat using heat using contact heat
    • G03G15/2053—Structural details of heat elements, e.g. structure of roller or belt, eddy current, induction heating
    • G03G15/2057—Structural details of heat elements, e.g. structure of roller or belt, eddy current, induction heating relating to the chemical composition of the heat element and layers thereof
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G03—PHOTOGRAPHY; CINEMATOGRAPHY; ANALOGOUS TECHNIQUES USING WAVES OTHER THAN OPTICAL WAVES; ELECTROGRAPHY; HOLOGRAPHY
    • G03G—ELECTROGRAPHY; ELECTROPHOTOGRAPHY; MAGNETOGRAPHY
    • G03G2215/00—Apparatus for electrophotographic processes
    • G03G2215/20—Details of the fixing device or porcess
    • G03G2215/207—Type of toner image to be fixed 
    • G03G2215/2074—Type of toner image to be fixed  colour
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G03—PHOTOGRAPHY; CINEMATOGRAPHY; ANALOGOUS TECHNIQUES USING WAVES OTHER THAN OPTICAL WAVES; ELECTROGRAPHY; HOLOGRAPHY
    • G03G—ELECTROGRAPHY; ELECTROPHOTOGRAPHY; MAGNETOGRAPHY
    • G03G2215/00—Apparatus for electrophotographic processes
    • G03G2215/20—Details of the fixing device or porcess
    • G03G2215/207—Type of toner image to be fixed 
    • G03G2215/2083—Type of toner image to be fixed  duplex
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G03—PHOTOGRAPHY; CINEMATOGRAPHY; ANALOGOUS TECHNIQUES USING WAVES OTHER THAN OPTICAL WAVES; ELECTROGRAPHY; HOLOGRAPHY
    • G03G—ELECTROGRAPHY; ELECTROPHOTOGRAPHY; MAGNETOGRAPHY
    • G03G2215/00—Apparatus for electrophotographic processes
    • G03G2215/20—Details of the fixing device or porcess
    • G03G2215/2093—Release agent handling devices

Definitions

  • This invention relates to a fixing-system to be used within an electrographic copying or printing apparatus capable of fusing, in a single pass, toner material to both sides of a support member. More in particular, it relates to a heat and pressure fusing of electrographic multi-layer images on sheets.
  • a light image of an original document to be copied or printed is recorded in the form of a latent electrostatic image on a photosensitive member.
  • the generated electrostatic latent image is subsequently rendered visible by application of electroscopic particles, commonly called toner.
  • the toner particles preferably have a definite electric charge sign and as such are attracted by the electrostatic charge pattern of opposite charge sign in proportion to the field strength of the respective areas defining the pattern.
  • the toner particles forming the visual image are then transferred from the photosensitive member to a support member or receptor support, such as a sheet of plain paper or a plastic film, further indicated as “support material”, or shortly indicated as "sheet". Since the toner image is then in a loose powdered form which may be easily disturbed or destroyed, it has to be permanently fixed or fused on said sheet in a fusing or fixing device.
  • a support member or receptor support such as a sheet of plain paper or a plastic film, further indicated as "support material”, or shortly indicated as "sheet”. Since the toner image is then in a loose powdered form which may be easily disturbed or destroyed, it has to be permanently fixed or fused on said sheet in a fusing or fixing device.
  • electrostatic printing is performed directly from a toner delivery means, e.g. a magnetic brush assembly, on a receiving meter substrate, called "sheet", by means of an electronically addressable printhead structure.
  • a toner delivery means e.g. a magnetic brush assembly
  • sheet a receiving meter substrate
  • electrostatic printing is performed directly from a toner delivery means, e.g. a magnetic brush assembly, on a receiving meter substrate, called "sheet”
  • sheet receiving meter substrate
  • electrostatic printing is performed directly from a toner delivery means, e.g. a magnetic brush assembly, on a receiving meter substrate, called "sheet"
  • the toner is deposited directly in an imagewise way on said sheet without occurrence of any latent electrostatic image.
  • An overall applied propulsion field between the toner delivery means and a receiving member support projects charged toner particles through a row of apertures of the printhead structure.
  • the intensity of the toner-stream is modulated according to the pattern of potentials applied to the control electrodes.
  • duplex or recto/verso copies poses problems due to a severely occurring offset problem, which will be discussed in great detail on the next pages.
  • Duplex printing in electrographic systems e.g. in electrophotographic copiers, working according to the two pass method may be carried out in one of the following ways.
  • Multi-layer electrographic printing may seem equivalent to multiple monochrome (commonly black and white) printing of various toner layers. Yet, successive part images have to be recorded in superposition. These successive part images may comprise a superposition of different toner separation images.
  • the traditional colour components cyan C, magenta M and yellow Y are augmented with at least one extra colour component according to one toner type. This extra colour component may have another density or colouring power (obtained by a different degree of pigmentation) of either cyan, magenta or yellow.
  • a traditional black component K is added to the three usual colour components.
  • CMY or CMYK for each traditional colour component, CMY or CMYK, at least a second colour component, having a lower pigmentation level, C'M'Y'(K') is added.
  • some tone levels of the original image are reproduced by applying two different toners, having substantially the same chromaticity, or more specifically by applying two achromatic toners, i.e. greyish or black toners of which the chromaticity is substantially zero.
  • each single toner image is transferred to the receptor sheet in superimposed registration, thereby creating a multi-layered toner image on the receptor sheet. Thereafter, the multi-layered toner image is permanently fixed to the receptor sheet creating a multi-layer or colour copy or print.
  • the fixing of monochrome toner images does not raise major problems in practice, the fixing of multi-layer or colour images is much more difficult.
  • colour images which are a specific case of multi-layer images.
  • a first restriction of the solution disclosed in US-4 427 285 is that it is not intended for and hardly can be applied for fusing multi-layer toner images.
  • US-4 427 285 A second and important restriction of US-4 427 285 is that its solution needs heat isolation means between the fusing station and the photoreceptor.
  • US-4 427 285 also discloses a heat shield disposed between a transfer station and a heat applying device, thereby carrying out two distinct functions, namely
  • fusing stations of the type described above are unsuitable for being installed in electrographic apparatus designed for single-pass fusing of sheet-fed multi-layer or colour duplex copies.
  • Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic view of a fusing station according to the current invention, comprising a pressure roller pair.
  • Figure 1 gives a schematic cross-sectional representation of a fusing station according to the present invention.
  • support material stands for a sheet of opaque paper, a white bond paper, a resin coated paper, a transparent film, a plastic, a laminate of both, an adhesive label and the like onto which the transferred image is received.
  • This sheet may be an end-product as such but it may also form an intermediate step in a reproduction process.
  • it may be used, after a suitable treatment, as a so-called transfer element, e.g. as a printing plate for printing images by planographic printing techniques onto a final support.
  • transfer element e.g. as a printing plate for printing images by planographic printing techniques onto a final support.
  • colour is not strictly limited to the development of usual colour separation images by conventional magenta, cyan and yellow and optionally also black toners (abbreviated as CMY or CMYK). It encompasses also the production of images by means of less or more than three colours; by means of different shades of one colour, e.g. different grey shades, or even multiple layers of one toner; the covering or coating of an image by an image-wise applied transparent, coloured, fluorescent or otherwise treated varnish, and the like.
  • printing stands in the first place for a printer which creates an output printing image by laying out the image in a series of horizontal scan lines, each line having a given number of pixels or picture-elements per inch.
  • An exposure station for exposing the recording may comprise a laser with a rotating mirror block, a LED array, a uniform light source and a plurality of individually controllable light valves, an arrangement with deformable micro-mirror devices (DMD), etc.
  • DMD deformable micro-mirror devices
  • the term printing encompasses also an apparatus in which the exposure of the recording member occurs by the optical projection of an integral image, such as in a copier. Further, the term printing also encompasses DEP-devices.
  • an electrostatographic colour printing apparatus which comprises exposure units for forming successive electrostatic colour part images on both surfaces of a recording member in the form of an endless belt.
  • the application addresses developing stations for sequentially developing such electrostatic latent images to form toner images on such belt, and electrostatic transfer stations for sequentially transferring the toner images from such belt in superposition onto a receptor sheet fed through the transfer stations while the receptor sheet is in contact with a belt section to produce a multi-colour duplex image.
  • FIG. 1 of the instant application shows an embodiment of a heat and pressure fusing device 25, the construction of which is described below.
  • Fusing station 25 comprises a pair of rollers 1, 11.
  • Each roller comprises a solid of revolution made of heat conductive materials 3, 13, e.g. a cylindrical aluminium core or tube.
  • Both heat conductive solids preferably have substantially equal diameters, and are mounted for rotation about their axis by means known in the art.
  • Their peripheral surfaces are provided with a resilient covering 2, 12 of non-adhesive material, e.g. silicone rubber.
  • the resilient covering preferably may be coated with a tetrafluoroethylene resin, a fluorocarbon resin or the like.
  • Both rollers 1 and 11 may be provided with an internal heating source 4, 14 such as a tubular infrared lamp.
  • the fusing device comprises means for urging the rollers 1, 11 against each other.
  • a nip is formed with an appropriate length. In our experiments a nip length of about 9 mm was highly preferred.
  • the urging means may comprise a spring or a pneumatic mechanism (not shown in Fig. 1).
  • rollers 1 and 11 there may be provided means 5, 15 for coating an inhibitor solution, release agent, or oil onto the rollers. This prevents toner offset for an easy release of a sheet 9 from the rollers 1, 11.
  • stripping means (not shown) or the like may be provided for ensuring a reliable release of the sheet from rollers 1, 11.
  • said rollers 1, 11 are preferably driven by a suitable motor and suitable belts or gears (not shown) so that the outer surfaces of said rollers 1, 11 advance synchronously to the advancement of the sheet of support material 9 through the fusing station 25. In this way no offset due to friction occurs between said rollers 1, 11 and said sheet of support material 9.
  • said heated rollers are preferably covered with a release material or resilient covering 2, 12 and an additional release agent 5, 15 such as silicone oil is preferably used to reduce the offset problem due to the adhesion of toner material to said heated rollers.
  • the temperature of the rollers 1, 11 may be kept substantially constant at a predetermined value by introducing a thermistor, e.g. a bimetal within said roller or, more preferably, by a temperature detecting element provided near the surface of the roller, and connecting said thermistor to a thermostatic control circuit (not shown).
  • a thermistor e.g. a bimetal within said roller or, more preferably, by a temperature detecting element provided near the surface of the roller, and connecting said thermistor to a thermostatic control circuit (not shown).
  • Even more than one temperature sensor may be used, preferably situated on different positions relative to the roller.
  • one temperature sensor can be in rolling contact with the resilient covering 2, 12 of a fixing roller 1, 11 within the image zone, and another temperature sensor can be in contact with the same fixing roller but outside the image zone.
  • a contactless temperature sensing is highly preferred for measuring the temperature of the surface of the rollers 1 and 11, especially within the image zone.
  • the sheet of support material 9 leaves the fusing station 25, it may be taken by an additional pair of rollers (not shown) for further transport to a copy paper tray and for subsequent removal.
  • a first embodiment of a fusing station 25 for use in an electrographic apparatus; comprising as well electrophotographic (comprising an electrical photoconductor), electrophoretic (referring to toner images formed by liquid toner particles), as electrostatic (e.g. DEP-devices) apparatus.
  • a multi-layer toner image is fused to a support material in sheet-form 9 while said sheet 9 is moved over a predetermined path 7.
  • the fusing station comprises two heated fixing rollers 1 and 11, each for rotating in contact with one side of the sheet.
  • a driving means may be used to rotate the fixing rollers.
  • the outer surface of both rollers is moving synchronously with the speed of advancement of the sheet 9. Pressing means applies an urging force on said fixing rollers 1 and 11.
  • the heating sources 4 and 14 have substantially identical characteristics (geometry, spectrum, power ...) and are preferably radiant. Both fixing rollers each have a resilient covering 2 and 12, which by the pressure between both rollers forms a heating nip. As such, a symmetrical fixing operation on both sides 8 and 18 of said sheet is provided by said fixing rollers which preferably have a substantially equal construction and are positioned substantially symmetrically to the path 7 of the sheet.
  • the thickness t1 of the resilient covering 2 of the first roller 1 is substantially equal to the thickness t2 of the resilient covering 12 of the second roller 2. More particularly, the ratio (t1/t2) of the thicknesses (t1 and t2) of the resilient coverings 2, 12 of the respective fixing rollers_ which exemplary are about 2.5 mm_, is in a range between 0.9 and 1.1; more preferably between 0.95 and 1.05.
  • the ratio (D1/D2) of the diameters (D1 and D2) of the outer circumferences of the respective fixing rollers_ which diameters D1 and D2 exemplary are about 73.5 mm_, is in a range between 0.9 and 1.1; more preferably between 0.95 and 1.05.
  • a separate power-control controls each heating source such that the outer circumferences of both fixing rollers have a substantially equal temperature; say e.g. about 443 K (or 170 °C).
  • the urging force without sufficient heating is not sufficient to produce fusing, without offset, at said predetermined speed; which may be about 95 mm/s.
  • a fusing device may comprise means for treating the surface of the fixing roller to release a fixed sheet more easily. Stripping of a fixed sheet may be done by means of release agent, e.g. oil, applied to the fixing roller, but also by means of mechanical or pneumatic systems.
  • a system for fusing a toner image on a sheet then comprises heated fixing rollers exerting a pressure on at least one portion of a toner image on the sheet by a nip formed by pressure between the fixing rollers.
  • it further comprises an oil application system for application of oil to the fixing rollers.
  • said fusing station further comprises release agent applicators or oiling devices 5 and 15, allocated individually to each fixing roller.
  • These oiling devices have a construction, a position relative to the fixing rollers and an individual oiling control such that the outer circumferences of both fixing rollers receive a substantially equal layer of release agent.
  • said fusing station also comprises cleaning devices 6 and 16, allocated individually to each fixing roller. These cleaning devices preferably have a construction, a position relative to the fixing rollers and an individual drive control such that the outer circumferences of both fixing rollers are cleaned substantially equally.
  • each of said heating sources comprises an infrared or a halogen quartz lamp, mounted individually within each fixing roller.
  • one lamp or a plurality of lamps is mounted within each roller.
  • a resistive heater may be used to heat the heat conducting core 3,13.
  • said fixing roller is made of a suitable heat conducting core 3 and 13 and is resiliently covered with a suitable surface layer of a deformable material 2 and 12. More particularly, the outer surface of the fixing roller is covered with a suitable surface layer of a deformable material or resilient covering, which preferably comprises at least
  • said heat conducting core 3 and 13 is made of copper, of aluminium, or an alloy of one of these materials.
  • a thickness of e.g. 4,25 mm has been preferred in the experiments carried out by the inventors.
  • said resilient covering 2 and 12 is silicone rubber or a fluor-elastomer.
  • a thickness of e.g. 2,5 mm silicone rubber with a hardness of 40 Shore has been preferred.
  • a thermal sensor e.g. a thermistor
  • the temperature of the roller is kept substantially constant at a predetermined value, said value being set between the temperature at which the resinous toner powder becomes tacky or melts and the fusing temperature of said toner.
  • each heating means has an individual power-control for keeping the resilient covering of each roller at a substantially equal temperature, the temperature deviation between said rollers being less than 20 K, preferably less than 5 K.
  • the outer surface of the resilient covering 2 and 12 of the fixer rollers advances synchronously with the advancement of the support materrial 9 through the fusing station 25 and at least one of the devices _ e.g. sensor, cleaning, release agent applicator ..._ which are in contact with the fixing rollers 1 and 11, have a synchronously rolling contact.
  • said path 7 of the support material is substantially rectilinear.
  • a radius of curvature of said path preferably is larger than two times the outside diameter of the rollers, more preferably larger than five times.
  • both fixing rollers In order to obtain a good and equal thermal behaviour of both fixing rollers, they preferably comprise substantially the same materials _ as well for the core 3, 13 as for the resilient covering 2, 12_, in substantially same thicknesses, etc. Further, said fixing rollers preferably are mounted with their longitudinal axes in parallel. Generally, both fixing rollers have a same geometry, mostly being cylindrical. Nevertheless, convex and/or concave geometries of the fixing rollers (e.g. in order to prevent possible wrinkling of the sheets) also fall within the scope of the present invention.
  • toner image 8 and 18 is a multi-layer image composed of superimposed colour separation images.
  • the path 7 of the support material 9 is substantially horizontal.
  • substantially horizontal is meant a path within a range of [-5°, +5°] to a horizontal path.
  • the path 7 of the support material 9 is substantially vertical.
  • substantially vertical is meant a path within a range of [-5°, +5°] to a vertical path.
  • a further preferred method comprises a preheating step, acting symmetrically on both sides 8 and 18 of the blank sheets 9, thus before said sheets receive any toner particles.
  • Fuser station 25 melts the toner images 8, 18 transferred to the sheets 9 in order to affix them. It will be understood that this operation requires a certain minimum time, since the temperature of the fuser is subject to an upper limit which must not be exceeded. Otherwise the roller lifetime becomes unsatisfactory. In other words, the speed of fuser station 25 is limited.
  • the speed of the image formation stations (not shown), on the other hand, is in principle not limited for any particular reason. On the contrary, it is advantageous to use a high speed of image formation and image transfer, since the (e.g. four) colour separations of each colour image are preferably written by an exposure station in succession.
  • the recording time of one colour image amounts to at least four times the recording time of one part image. All this means a relatively high speed of the photoconductive belts, and thus of the synchronously moving sheets, as compared with a maximum usable travelling speed through the fuser station.
  • the speed of the photoconductive belts amounted to 295 mm.s -1 , whereas the fusing speed was 100 mm.s -1 .
  • the image processing speed in the imaging stations is preferably constant.
  • the length of the buffer station needs to be sufficient large for receiving the largest sheet size to be processed in the apparatus.
  • the speed of this buffer station is reduced to the processing speed of fuser station 25 as the trailing edge of the sheet has left the image forming station.
  • the amount and/or the dispersion of pigment in the toner particles, for a single colour is preferably adjusted such that a full saturated density in said colour is achieved by the deposition of a thin, almost single, layer of toner particles.
  • maximum optical density for each of the single colours is meant an optical density on a reflecting support between 1.4 and 1.6 for yellow, magenta and cyan and an optical density between 1.6 and 2.0 for black.
  • the amount of toner particles TM being deposited to reach maximum optical density for black (i.e. an optical density between 1.6 and 2.0 on a reflecting support) follows the equation TM ⁇ 0.8 x d v50 x ⁇ wherein TM is expressed in mg/cm 2 , d v50 is the average volume diameter of the toner particles expressed in cm, and ⁇ is the bulk density of the toner particles in g/cm 3 .
  • the amount of toner particles TM being deposited to reach maximum optical density for each of the single colours yellow, magenta, cyan also follows the same equation TM ⁇ 0.8 x d v50 x ⁇ wherein TM is expressed in mg/cm 2 , d v50 is the average volume diameter of the toner particles expressed in cm, and ⁇ is the bulk density of the toner particles in g/cm 3 .
  • this colourless toner is preferably deposited in an amount TM fulfilling the equation [1]. Also in this case, the present invention remains applicable.
  • a contact heat and pressure fixing according to the present invention is more advantageous than fixing by utilising irradiated heat in that it needs less electric power, and in that the danger of fire hazard and burning of the sheets is much lower.
  • the latent electrostatic image may be formed by an exposure of an electrostatically charged photosensitive member to a light image of an original document.
  • the latent electrostatic image may be generated by exposing the photosensitive member to a plurality of appropriately activated discrete spot-like sources of radiation.
  • Said discrete spot-like sources of radiation may be constituted by a linear array of light emitting diodes (LED's) or by a laser, the beam of which is modulated to determine during each scan movement a plurality of elementary image sites that may receive radiation or not depending on the modulation of the radiation beam.
  • the present invention also may be used in a method for producing double simplex copies or prints by means of a single pass duplex copier or printer.
  • a single pass duplex system having a discrete receptor sheet feed system.
  • a web paper feed system may be used with the concept of a symmetrical fixing operation as laid down in the present application.
  • the present invention also may be carried out on toner images formed by liquid toner particles, e.g. applied by electrophoretics.
  • a fixing device As also mentioned in the introduction of this specification, the use of a fixing device according to the present invention is particularly interesting for the fusing of electrographic multi-layer images, e.g. electrophotographic colour images, even for simplex or single-sided copies.
  • the previously mentioned buffering device between imaging and fusing can be used advantageously also in other types of fusing stations, as e.g. in fusing stations using directly radiating radiators (thus not being built in rollers) as short-wave (e.g. infrared lamps), mid-wave or long-wave radiators (e.g. resistive or ceramic elements) or flash lamps, in fusing stations using electromagnetic waves (e.g. micro-waves), in fusing stations using hot air, etc.
  • directly radiating radiators e.g. infrared lamps
  • mid-wave or long-wave radiators e.g. resistive or ceramic elements
  • flash lamps e.g. resistive or ceramic elements
  • electromagnetic waves e.g. micro-waves
  • sheets fed from the input-stack (not shown in Fig. 1) can occasionally be subjected to a drying operation prior to the toner image transfer, in order to get a sufficiently low moisture content, e.g. below 60 %.
  • Another modification also protected by the present application comprises a preheating step acting on the blank sheets prior to the fusing step, even prior to the transfer step or even prior to the development step.

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  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Fixing For Electrophotography (AREA)
EP98200707A 1997-03-14 1998-03-06 Fixage par fusion en une seule passe de copies double face à couches multiples Withdrawn EP0864943A1 (fr)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
EP98200707A EP0864943A1 (fr) 1997-03-14 1998-03-06 Fixage par fusion en une seule passe de copies double face à couches multiples

Applications Claiming Priority (3)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
EP97200780 1997-03-14
EP97200780 1997-03-14
EP98200707A EP0864943A1 (fr) 1997-03-14 1998-03-06 Fixage par fusion en une seule passe de copies double face à couches multiples

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EP0864943A1 true EP0864943A1 (fr) 1998-09-16

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Cited By (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
EP0997795A2 (fr) * 1998-10-28 2000-05-03 Xeikon Nv Dispositif de fixage par chaleur et pression
EP1004944A1 (fr) * 1998-10-28 2000-05-31 Xeikon Nv Dispositif de fusion par application de chaleur et de pression
EP1353242A2 (fr) * 2002-04-11 2003-10-15 Ricoh Company Dispositif de fixation et appareil de formation d'images utilisant un tel dispositif

Citations (10)

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GB2197619A (en) * 1986-10-13 1988-05-25 Hitachi Metals Ltd Toner heat-fixing apparatus
JPH03177874A (ja) * 1989-12-06 1991-08-01 Hitachi Ltd 熱ローラ定着装置
US5051780A (en) * 1990-10-24 1991-09-24 Eastman Kodak Company Fusing temperature control device for a printer or similar apparatus
EP0486723A1 (fr) * 1990-11-22 1992-05-27 Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme Aktiengesellschaft Unité de chauffage pour chauffer un support d'enregistrement dans une imprimante ou un copieur
US5481349A (en) * 1992-12-11 1996-01-02 Hitachi, Ltd. Electrophotographic image fixing device avoiding offset in the image by means of differential roller speed
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EP0997795A2 (fr) * 1998-10-28 2000-05-03 Xeikon Nv Dispositif de fixage par chaleur et pression
EP1004944A1 (fr) * 1998-10-28 2000-05-31 Xeikon Nv Dispositif de fusion par application de chaleur et de pression
EP0997795A3 (fr) * 1998-10-28 2000-10-25 Xeikon Nv Dispositif de fixage par chaleur et pression
EP1353242A2 (fr) * 2002-04-11 2003-10-15 Ricoh Company Dispositif de fixation et appareil de formation d'images utilisant un tel dispositif
EP1353242A3 (fr) * 2002-04-11 2004-06-09 Ricoh Company Dispositif de fixation et appareil de formation d'images utilisant un tel dispositif
US6925280B2 (en) 2002-04-11 2005-08-02 Ricoh Company, Ltd. Fixing device and image forming apparatus including the same

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