JP2000238317A - Recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To execute image recording in a plurality of resolutions by one electrophotographic recorder. SOLUTION: A photosensitive body 101 and a light emitting element array 102 for exposing the photosensitive body 101 are provided in an integrated process cartridge 103. A plurality of process cartridges each having the light emitting element array 102 of which the interval of the arranged light emitting points is different from the other can be selectively loaded to this recorder. The recorder discriminates the arrangement interval based on a combination of discrimination electric contact points 108, 109 provided to each process cartridge 103, then a process speed is selected corresponding to the arrangement interval.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a recording apparatus such as an electrophotographic copying machine and a printer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a recording device such as an electrophotographic copying machine or a printer, a device using a process cartridge having a photosensitive member or the like has been widely used. This type of apparatus has a light emitting section of exposure means built in a main body, and is configured separately from a process cartridge. Thus, image recording is performed at one type of image resolution depending on the arrangement interval of the light emitting units in the recording apparatus main body (the arrangement interval of the light emitting points).

[0003]

However, in the above-described conventional recording apparatus, one apparatus can record an image only with one kind of image resolution. Has to use a recording apparatus capable of performing image recording at the image resolution, which is troublesome.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and has as its object to provide a recording apparatus which can perform image recording with a plurality of image resolutions by one unit. .

[0005]

The recording apparatus according to the present invention is configured as follows.

(1) In a recording apparatus for performing image recording by exposing a photoreceptor, a plurality of cartridges having light-emitting portions for exposing the photoreceptor and having different exposure characteristics can be selectively mounted. .

(2) In a recording apparatus for performing image recording by exposing a photoreceptor, a configuration in which a plurality of cartridges having different arrangement intervals of light emitting points in a light emitting unit for exposing the photoreceptor can be selectively mounted. And

(3) In a recording apparatus for performing image recording by exposing a photosensitive member, a structure is provided in which a plurality of cartridges having different light emitting point areas in a light emitting portion for exposing the photosensitive member can be selectively mounted. did.

(4) In any one of the recording devices (1) to (3), the photosensitive member and the light emitting section are provided in an integrated cartridge.

(5) In any one of the recording apparatuses (1) to (4), the recording operation is performed at an image forming speed corresponding to the mounted cartridge.

(6) In the recording apparatus of the above (5), the image forming speed is slower when a cartridge having a narrow array of light emitting points is mounted than when a cartridge having a wide array of the light emitting points is mounted. To perform the recording operation.

(7) In the recording apparatus of (5), when a cartridge having a small light emitting point area is mounted, the image forming speed is slower than when a cartridge having a large light emitting point area is mounted. The recording operation was performed.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS (First Embodiment) A first embodiment will be described below with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing the construction of a process cartridge having a photosensitive member and a light emitting section for exposing the photosensitive member according to the first embodiment. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 101 denotes a photosensitive drum, and 102 denotes a photosensitive drum 101. A light emitting element array 103 for exposing the light to the photosensitive drum 103, a light emitting element array 102, a developing unit 104, a charging unit 105, a cleaning unit 106, and a rod lens array 107 are a process cartridge.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing the process cartridge identifying electrical contacts arranged on the process cartridge 103. In FIG. 2, reference numerals 108 and 109 denote electrical contacts.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the internal structure of the luminous body array of the exposure means according to the first embodiment. In FIG. 3, reference numeral 201 denotes a light emitting section, 202 denotes a driving section for driving the light emitting section 201, and 203 Is a control unit for controlling the drive unit 202, and 204 is a controller unit normally set in the main unit of the printing apparatus.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a light emitting unit arrangement interval according to the first embodiment. In FIG. 4, 301a (FIG.
(A)), 301b (FIG. 4 (b)) are light emitting points, 201a
(FIG. 4 (a)) and 201b (FIG. 4 (b)) show light emitting units, respectively. As shown in FIGS. 4 (a) and 4 (b), the arrangement intervals of the light emitting points of the light emitting unit are a and a, respectively. is different from b.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the structure of the illuminant drive control unit according to the first embodiment.
1 is a CPU, 402 is a ROM in which light emission data of each light emitter at the time of shipment is recorded in advance, 403 is a RAM,
404 is a control data line.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory view showing the light emission principle of the organic EL type light emitter according to the first embodiment.
Reference numeral 501 denotes a glass substrate, 502 denotes a transparent anode electrode, 503 denotes an organic EL unit, 504 denotes a power supply, and 505 denotes a cathode electrode.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view showing the structure of an electrophotographic recording apparatus using the above-described process cartridge. In FIG. 7, 102a to 102d denote light emitting arrays, 104a to 104d denote developing means, and 105a to 105d.
d is a charging unit, 101a to 101d are photosensitive drums,
7a to 107d are rod lens arrays, 602a to 60d
2d is a transfer means, 603 is a printing paper transport means, 604
Reference numerals a and 604b denote paper feeding means, and 605 denotes printing paper.

The process speed (image forming speed) changing operation according to the above configuration will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. This operation is performed by the controller unit 2
The program is executed based on a program stored in advance in a ROM in the controller unit 204 in accordance with an instruction from the CPU in the controller 04.

First, when the power is turned on in step S101, the mounted process cartridge is identified in step S102. And step S
A process speed corresponding to the process cartridge identified in 103 is selected, and an exposure operation is performed in step S104.

The above operation will be described in detail. When the process cartridge 103 is mounted on the recording apparatus and the power is turned on, the electric contacts 108 and 109 come into contact with the electric contacts (not shown) on the recording apparatus side. With this combination of contacts, the mounted process cartridge can be identified.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 4, the light emitting units provided in the process cartridge have a plurality of light emitting units arranged at intervals. By matching the difference between the arrangement intervals with the identification by the electrical contacts, it becomes possible for the recording apparatus to identify which of the light emitting point arrangement intervals of the installed process cartridge.

For example, if the interval a between the light emitting points of the light emitting unit 201a in FIG. 4 is about 42 μm, the light emitting point arrangement interval becomes a recording device with an image resolution of 600 DPI.
If the interval between the light emitting points of 01b is 2a, it becomes about 84 μm, which is a recording device having an image resolution of 300 DPI.

As described above, by installing the process cartridge having the image resolution required by the user in the recording apparatus, a desired recording result can be easily obtained.
However, the difference in the arrangement interval causes the number of light emitting points to be different, and at the same time the print data transfer speed to each light emitting point to be different. That is, if the transfer speed is the same, in the case of this embodiment, a 600 DPI process cartridge requires twice as long a transfer time as a 300 DPI process cartridge.

For this reason, at the same process speed, it takes time to transfer print data to the light emitting point, and as a result, printing cannot be performed. Therefore, based on the information obtained by the identification means, an appropriate process speed for the mounted process cartridge is selected. The detachment of the process cartridge can be performed by repeating the above-described identification operation every time the process cartridge is detached even when the power of the recording apparatus is turned on.

After that, the image data sent from the computer or the like is processed by the controller unit 204 and the control unit 203
Sent to Here, how to turn on / off each drive unit is processed, and the driver in the drive unit is selectively controlled.

Also, since the initial light amount of each light emitting unit is stored, control of the voltage, current or driving time to the light emitting unit is performed in order to expose each light emitting unit to the photosensitive member with a uniform light amount. . Light emitted from the light emitting body arrays 102a to 102d is exposed to the photosensitive drums 101a to 101d by the rod lens arrays 107a to 107d, and the developing means 1
Transfer means 602a-6
02d is transferred to the printing paper 605. After that, the image is fixed by a fixing unit (not shown), and a series of electrophotographic recording is completed.

(Second Embodiment) FIG. 9 is an explanatory view showing a light emitting portion arrangement interval and a light emitting point area according to a second embodiment.
9, 801a (FIG. 9 (a)) and 801b (FIG. 9 (b)) indicate light emitting points, and 701a (FIG. 9 (a)) and 701
b (FIG. 9B) are light emitting units, respectively, and the light emitting unit 70
In 1a, the arrangement interval of the light emitting points is a, the vertical length of the light emitting points is b, the horizontal length is c, and in the light emitting section 701b, the arrangement interval of the light emitting points is 2a, and the vertical length of the light emitting points is 2b, and the length in the horizontal direction is 2c, and both have different arrangement intervals of light emitting points and areas of light emitting points.

Since it is difficult to perform printing at the same process speed due to differences in arrangement intervals and light emitting areas, the mounted process cartridge is identified and printing is performed at an optimum process speed. Since the configuration of this method and apparatus is the same as that of the first embodiment, the description is omitted.

As described above, in the first and second embodiments, the light-emitting portion of the exposure means is installed in the process cartridge, and the arrangement interval of light-emitting points of the light-emitting portion and the area of the light-emitting points are different (exposure characteristics are different). By enabling a plurality of process cartridges to be mounted on a recording apparatus, a plurality of image resolutions can be realized by one recording apparatus. Further, by installing (integrating) the light-emitting portion of the exposure means in the process cartridge, the relative positional relationship between the light-emitting portion of the exposure means and the photoconductor becomes highly accurate, and the printing quality can be improved.

Insufficient amount of exposure which can occur when a process cartridge having a light emitting unit having a small light emitting area is mounted can be avoided by reducing the process speed.

[0034]

As described above, according to the present invention,
There is an effect that image recording with a plurality of resolutions can be performed by one recording device.

Also, there is an effect that the user can easily select a required resolution.

A reduction in the amount of exposure light due to differences in the arrangement intervals of the light emitting points and the area of the light emitting points can be prevented by changing the image forming speed, and the exposure light amount can be optimized, thereby improving the print quality. It has the effect of being connected.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a configuration of a process cartridge according to a first embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing identification electrical contacts arranged on the process cartridge according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of a light emitter array according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a light emitting unit array interval according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a light emitting element drive control unit according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory view showing the light emitting principle of the organic EL system according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view showing the configuration of an electrophotographic recording apparatus using a process cartridge according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a process speed change processing operation according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing a light emitting unit array interval and a light emitting point area according to the second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 101 photosensitive drum 102 light emitter array 103 process cartridge 104 developing device 105 charging means 106 cleaning means 107 rod lens array 108 identification electric contact 109 identification electric contact 201 light emitting section 201a light emitting section 201b light emitting section 202 drive section 203 control section 204 controller Unit 301a Light emitting point 301b Light emitting point 401 CPU 402 ROM 403 RAM 501 Glass substrate 502 Transparent anode electrode 503 Organic EL unit 504 Power supply 505 Cathode electrode

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A recording apparatus for recording an image by exposing a photoreceptor, wherein a plurality of cartridges having light-emitting portions for exposing the photoreceptor and having different exposure characteristics can be selectively mounted. A recording device, comprising: 2. A recording apparatus for recording an image by exposing a photoconductor, wherein a plurality of cartridges having different light emitting point arrangement intervals in a light emitting unit for exposing the photoconductor can be selectively mounted. A recording device having a configuration. 3. A recording apparatus for recording an image by exposing a photosensitive member, wherein a plurality of cartridges having different light emitting point areas in a light emitting section for exposing the photosensitive member can be selectively mounted. A recording device, characterized in that: 4. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the photosensitive member and the light emitting section are provided in an integrated cartridge. 5. A recording operation is performed at an image forming speed according to a mounted cartridge.
5. The recording device according to any one of claims 4 to 4. 6. A printing operation is performed at a lower image forming speed when a cartridge having a narrow interval between light emitting points is mounted than when a cartridge having a wide interval between light emitting points is mounted. The recording device according to claim 5. 7. A recording operation is performed at a lower image forming speed when a cartridge having a small light emitting point area is mounted than when a cartridge having a large light emitting point area is mounted. Item 6. The recording device according to Item 5.