JP2001013798A - Transfer fixing method and image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain good fixing ability even in the case of an image holding body whose surface ruggedness is rough by integrating powder particle state image forming substance at least coming in contact with the image holding body before transferring and fixing the image forming substance on the image holding body. SOLUTION: Before a toner 2 on the image holding body 1 is transferred to transfer paper 3, it is integrated on the image carrier 1 or an intermediate transfer body, and then the toner 2 is transferred and fixed on the paper 3 whose surface is rugged. When the toner 2 is transferred to the paper 3 whose surface is rugged after integrating the toner 2 on the image carrier 1 or the intermediate transfer body, the toner 2 on many recessed parts of the paper 3 exists to be supported by the toner 2 existing on the projecting part on the side thereof, and the toner falling in the recessed part of the paper 3 is reduced. By increasing the binding point of the toner, an anchor effect is increased and the fixing ability is excellent. It is desirable to heat or heat and press the toner 2 on the intermediate transfer body in order to integrate the toner 2.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a transfer and fixing method for transferring and fixing an unfixed image formed of an image forming substance in the form of powder particles formed on an image carrier such as a photoreceptor or an intermediate transfer member to an image carrier. And an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a printer, a facsimile, and a printing machine.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Many image forming apparatuses such as copiers, printers, facsimile machines, and printing machines use a dry electrophotographic system using a powder toner, which is an image forming substance in the form of powder. Many of the devices electrostatically transfer the powder toner on the image carrier consisting of a photoreceptor or an intermediate transfer member to the image carrier, and then heat and press the powder toner on the image carrier to fix it on the image carrier. Let me. As the image carrier, transfer paper is the most common, and the types thereof are abundant.

There is also a method called a simultaneous transfer and fixing method in which a powder toner image is transferred from an intermediate transfer member to a transfer sheet by fusing and heat. According to this method, since the transfer of the powder toner image onto the transfer paper is performed in a non-electrostatic manner, the deterioration of the image quality as described above hardly occurs.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 09-114282 discloses that the toner powder on the intermediate transfer member is heated by a heating roller which is circumscribed, and a sponge having open cells is used as the intermediate transfer member, so that good fixability and high fixability are obtained. It is described that energy efficiency is obtained, the purpose of which is to save energy, and no mention is made of the integration of the powder toner particles by heating and the increase of the anchor effect.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 09-230646 discloses that the form in which powder toners are collected in an island shape (n / m = (number of powder toners in close contact) / (total number of powder toners) is 0.8). By forming a visible image using the powder toner described above and transferring and fixing this visible image, a high-quality image (including an improvement in the fixing rate) is formed as a whole from a low density portion to a high density portion. And that the aggregation of powder toner is advantageous for improving the transfer and fixing rate.

[0006]

The transfer paper has a structure in which cellulose fibers are overlapped in a sashimi tatami shape, and the surface thereof has irregularities. When the powder toner on the transfer paper is heated and pressed by the fixing unit after the powder toner is electrostatically transferred to the transfer paper having the irregularities on the surface, the powder toner falls into the recesses on the surface of the transfer paper, and the image is formed. Blurring occurs, and the powder toner that has fallen into the concave portion has poor heat conduction in the fixing portion, resulting in poor fixing.

Further, the transfer paper and the image carrier comprising the photosensitive member or the intermediate transfer member do not completely adhere to each other due to the unevenness of the surface of the transfer paper, and the image carrier comprising the transfer paper and the photosensitive member or the intermediate transfer member. , A non-uniform gap is generated, the transfer electric field is disturbed, and Coulomb repulsion is generated between the powder toners, thereby deteriorating the quality of the halftone image.

In the above method, since the powder toner image is transferred from the intermediate transfer member to the transfer paper by fusion heat, even if the powder toners in contact with each other on the intermediate transfer member are not heated enough. The powder toner may come into contact with the transfer paper and fall into the concave portion of the transfer paper before the powder toner is integrated.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a transfer and fixing method in which fixability is improved even on an image carrier having a rough surface. It is another object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus having good fixability even on an image carrier having a rough surface. It is another object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus capable of reliably integrating an image forming substance and having good fixability even on an image carrier having a rough surface.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, at least the contacting image forming substance can be surely integrated, a part of the non-contacting toner can also be integrated, and the image holding with rough surface unevenness can be achieved. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus having good fixability even on a body. An object of the invention according to claim 6 is to provide an image forming apparatus capable of preventing deterioration of image quality.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus capable of simplifying the apparatus. Claim 8
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus capable of preventing toner offset to a pressure roller. An object of the invention according to claim 9 is to provide an image forming apparatus having better fixability.

[0012]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the invention according to claim 1 is a method for transferring and fixing an image forming substance in the form of powder particles formed on an image carrier to an image carrier. In the method, before transferring and fixing the powdery particulate image-forming substance formed on the image carrier to the image carrier, at least integrating the powdery particulate image-forming substance in contact with the image carrier. It is characterized by.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, an unfixed image is formed on an image carrier using an image forming substance in the form of powder particles, and the unfixed image on the image carrier is transferred and fixed to an image carrier. An image forming material integrating means for integrating at least a powdery particle of the image forming material on the image carrier before transfer-fixing the image carrier on the image carrier; A transfer and fixing unit for transferring and fixing the image forming substance in the form of powder particles on the body to the image holding member after the integration by the image forming substance integrating unit is performed.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus of the second aspect, the powdery particulate image forming material on the image carrier is transferred to an intermediate transfer member, and the powder on the intermediate transfer member is transferred to the intermediate transfer member. The image forming substance in the form of body particles is heated by the image forming substance integrating means so that at least the image forming substance in the form of powder particles in contact therewith is integrated.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus of the third aspect, the temperature at which the powdery particulate image forming material on the intermediate transfer body is heated is determined by the surface temperature of the intermediate transfer body. The temperature is set to a temperature not lower than the glass transition temperature of the substance and not higher than 200 ° C.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the image forming apparatus according to the third or fourth aspect, further comprising a pressing roller for pressing the powdery particulate image forming substance on the intermediate transfer member. A roller is used to press the powdery particle-form image forming substance on the intermediate transfer member, so that at least the powdery particulate form of the image forming substance that is in contact therewith is integrated.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus of the fifth aspect, the pressing force of the pressure roller is determined by a pressure applied during transfer and fixing of the image forming substance from the intermediate transfer member to the image holding member. It is a low pressure.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus of the fifth or sixth aspect, heating and pressing of the powdery image forming substance on the intermediate transfer body are performed by the same means. .

According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to any one of the fifth to seventh aspects, the adhesive force between the surface of the pressure roller and the image forming material is determined by the image forming material and the intermediate transfer member. It is weaker than the adhesion to the surface.

According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to any one of the third to eighth aspects, the intermediate transfer body includes at least an elastic body.

[0021]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS First, an embodiment of the present invention will be described. The transfer paper, which is a commonly used image carrier, has irregularities formed by fibers on the surface, and the toner, which is an image forming substance in the form of powder particles having a size of about 10 μm or less, easily falls into recesses on the surface of the transfer paper. . As shown in FIG. 2, in the image forming apparatus, even if the toners 2 are in contact with each other on the image carrier 1, the toner 2 often does not come into contact after the transfer due to irregularities on the surface of the transfer paper 3.

In this state, the toner 2 on the image carrier 1
When heat is applied to the toner particles, heat is not easily transmitted to the toner particles that have fallen into the concave portions of the transfer paper 3 and the distance between the toner particles is large. Become. Further, when the toner particles fall into the concave portions of the transfer paper, the visible portion of the white transfer paper 3 increases, and the image may be blurred.

Therefore, in the first embodiment of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 3, an unfixed image is formed on an image carrier 1 using a toner 2 which is an image forming substance in the form of powder particles. In an image forming apparatus for transferring and fixing an unfixed image composed of the toner 2 on the carrier 1 directly or via an intermediate transfer body as an image carrier, the toner 2 on the image carrier 1
The above problem is solved by integrating the toner 2 on the image carrier 1 or the intermediate transfer body before transferring the toner 2 onto the transfer paper 3 and then transferring and fixing the toner 2 to the transfer paper 3 having the uneven surface. I do.

The term “integration” as used herein refers to a state in which at least a part of the toner is bonded by adhesion, fusion, bonding, or the like due to softening or melting of the toner, and a force is applied to a part of the integrated part. When applied, the force is physically transmitted and moves or is held together. In addition, the bound portion is called a binding point.

When the toner 2 is integrated on the image carrier 1 or the intermediate transfer member and then transferred onto the transfer paper 3 having an uneven surface, the toner in many concave portions of the transfer paper 3 is Since the toner is present in a form supported by the toner in the portion, the toner falling into the concave portion of the transfer paper 3 is reduced. Further, as the number of binding points between the toners increases, the anchor effect also increases, and the fixability is improved. Further, the concave portion of the transfer paper 3 can be covered with the toner, so that the occurrence of image blur can be reduced and the image quality can be improved.

As a means for integrating the toner, it is possible to heat or pressurize the toner on the photoreceptor which is an image bearing member. However, in order to maintain the characteristics of the photoreceptor (particularly, the organic photoreceptor). Since it is often not preferable to heat the toner on the photoconductor, the toner image formed on the photoconductor is primarily transferred onto the intermediate transfer member, and then the toner on the intermediate transfer member is heated or heated and pressed. Is preferred.

Here, the generally used toner uses a thermoplastic resin, and the toner is heated to be softened or melted to be adhered, fused or bonded.
Can be integrated. FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention. This embodiment is an embodiment of the invention according to claims 1 to 4. In the image forming apparatus of this embodiment, a photoconductor, for example, a drum-shaped photoconductor 1 is used as an image carrier, but a belt-shaped photoconductor, a sheet-shaped photoconductor, or the like may be used.

Around the photosensitive member 1, a charging device (not shown), an exposing device, a developing device, an intermediate transfer belt 4 as an intermediate transfer member, a cleaning device and the like are arranged.
Is rotationally driven by a drive unit (not shown). Photoconductor 1
Is charged uniformly by a charging device and then exposed by an exposure device to form an electrostatic latent image. The electrostatic latent image is developed by a developing device, and the toner 2 as a powder particle image forming substance is formed. The toner image is formed by the adhesion.

The intermediate transfer belt 4 is rotated around a roller 5 and a heating roller 6 and is driven to rotate. A transfer bias is applied from a bias applying unit (not shown), and the toner image on the photoreceptor 1 is primarily transferred. Inside the intermediate transfer belt 4, a sheet heater 7 as an image forming substance integrating means is arranged in contact with the toner, and the toner 2 on the intermediate transfer belt 4 is transferred by the sheet heater 7 through heat transfer through the intermediate transfer belt 4. It is softened or melted by heating, and is integrated by sticking, fusing or bonding.

The heating roller 6 and the pressure roller 8 constitute a transfer fixing device. The heating roller 6 is pressed by the pressing means such as a spring (not shown) through the intermediate transfer belt 4 via the intermediate transfer belt 4.
Is pressed. Transfer paper 3 as an image carrier is fed from a paper feeder (not shown). When the transfer paper 3 passes between the intermediate transfer belt 4 and the pressure roller 8, the heat roller 6 and the pressure roller 8, the integrated toner on the intermediate transfer belt 4 is transferred by heating and pressurizing.
Be established.

When the heating capacity of the planar heater 7 is sufficiently large, the heater 6a in the heating roller 6 is not always necessary. Further, after transferring the toner on the intermediate transfer belt 4 to the transfer paper 3, a cleaning unit for cleaning the intermediate transfer belt 4 before the toner of the next image is transferred from the photoconductor 1 to the intermediate transfer belt 4 is provided. Is also good.

If the temperature is not higher than the glass transition point, the toner does not soften and has no adhesive strength. In addition, when the toner temperature is 200 ° C. or higher, the fluidity of the toner becomes too high, and there is a possibility that an image may flow. Therefore, the temperature at which the surface heater 7 heats the toner 2 on the intermediate transfer belt 4 is set to a temperature at which the surface temperature of the intermediate transfer belt 4 becomes equal to or higher than the glass transition temperature of the toner 2 and equal to or lower than 200 ° C.

According to the first embodiment, the image carrier 1
The image forming substance 2 in the form of powder particles formed on the
When the image forming substance 2 in the form of powder particles formed on the image carrier 1 is transferred and fixed to the image carrier 3, at least the image of the powder particle Since the forming material 2 is integrated, it is possible to prevent toner particles from falling into the concave portions of the image holding member, and the fixing property is improved even in an image holding member having a rough surface.

Further, according to the first embodiment, an unfixed image is formed on the image carrier 1 using the image forming substance 2 in the form of powder particles, and the unfixed image on the image carrier 1 is In the image forming apparatus for transferring and fixing the image on the image carrier 3, the image carrier 1
At least in contact with the powdered particulate imaging substance 2
A sheet heater 7 as an image forming material integrating means for integrating the image forming material before transferring and fixing the image forming material onto the image holding member 3; After the integration by the integrating means 7 is performed, the image carrier 3
Since the heat roller 6 and the pressure roller 8 are provided as transfer and fixing means for transferring and fixing the toner onto the image carrier, it is possible to reduce the toner particles from falling into the concave portions of the image carrier, and the fixing property is improved even in the image carrier having a rough surface. It will be good.

According to the first embodiment, the image forming substance 2 in the form of powder particles on the image carrier 1 is transferred to the intermediate transfer member 4, Is heated by the image forming material integrating means 7 so that at least the powdered particle forming image forming material 2
Are integrated, so that the photoreceptor 1 as an image carrier is not heated and deterioration of the image carrier can be prevented. Further, it is possible to use an organic photoreceptor which is relatively weak to heat as the image carrier.

According to the first embodiment, the temperature at which the powdery particulate image forming substance 2 on the intermediate transfer body 4 is heated is such that the surface temperature of the intermediate transfer body 4 is the glass of the image forming substance 2. Because the temperature was higher than the transition point temperature and lower than 200 ° C,
The image forming substance can be surely integrated by adhesion or fusion.

Further, by applying pressure to the toner only by heating, the spread of the toner is increased, the binding between the toners can be strengthened, and the fixing property can be further enhanced. Therefore, in the second embodiment of the present invention, a rotatable pressure roller 9 is provided on the outer peripheral surface of the intermediate transfer belt 4 as shown in FIG. Presses the toner 2 on the intermediate transfer belt 4.

On the other hand, if the pressure applied to the toner 2 is too high, the toner 2 is crushed on the intermediate transfer belt 4 which is flatter than the transfer paper 3, so that the thin line becomes thicker or the character is crushed and the character is read. The image quality deteriorates, for example, it becomes difficult to perform. Therefore, the pressure applied to the toner 2 by the pressure roller 9 on the intermediate transfer belt 4 should be lower than the pressure applied to the toner on the intermediate transfer belt 4 by the transfer and fixing means 6 and 8 between the toner and the transfer paper 3. preferable. This second embodiment is one embodiment of the invention according to claims 5 and 6.

According to the second embodiment, there is provided a pressure roller 9 for pressing the powdery particulate image forming substance 2 on the intermediate transfer member 4, and the pressure roller 9 By pressurizing the powdered particle-shaped image forming substance 2 on the surface 4, at least the powdered particle-shaped image forming substance that is in contact is integrated, so that the image forming substance can be integrated more reliably and more reliably. The fixability becomes good.

Further, according to the second embodiment, the pressing force of the pressure roller 9 is set to a pressure lower than the pressure applied at the time of transferring and fixing the image forming substance from the intermediate transfer member 4 to the image holding member 3. Therefore, there is no deterioration in image quality such as thickening of thin lines or crushing of characters to make it difficult to read.

FIG. 5 shows a third embodiment of the present invention. This third embodiment is one embodiment of the invention according to claim 7. In the third embodiment, a heating roller 10 and a backup roller 11 having a built-in heater 10a are used in place of the sheet heater 7 and the pressure heater 9 as the image forming substance integrating means in the second embodiment. The apparatus can be simplified by heating and pressing the toner by the same means.

The heating roller 10 is disposed outside the intermediate transfer belt 4 and is driven to rotate at the same peripheral speed as the intermediate transfer belt 4 by a drive unit (not shown).
Is disposed at a position facing the heating roller 10 with the intermediate transfer belt 4 interposed therebetween. The toner 2 on the intermediate transfer belt 4 is
Before being conveyed to the transfer and fixing unit including the heating roller 6 and the pressure roller 8, the heat and pressure are heated and pressed by the heating roller 10 and the backup roller 11 to be integrated. In addition,
The toner 2 on the intermediate transfer belt 4 can be pressed by the heating roller 6 using the tension of the intermediate transfer belt 4 without using the backup roller 11.

As described above, according to the third embodiment, the heating and pressurizing of the powdery image forming substance 2 on the intermediate transfer member 4 are performed by the same means 10 and 11, so that the apparatus is simplified. can do.

When the toner 2 on the intermediate transfer belt 4 is pressed by the pressing rollers 8 and 10, the pressing rollers 8 and 10 are in contact with the toner in order to prevent toner offset from occurring. The adhesive strength between the toner and the toner should be weaker than the adhesive strength between the toner and the surface of the intermediate transfer belt 4 under use conditions.

Therefore, in the fourth embodiment of the present invention, in the second embodiment and the third embodiment, the adhesive force between the pressure rollers 8 and 10 and the toner 2 is set to an intermediate value between the toner 2 and the toner 2. It is made weaker under use conditions than the adhesive force with the surface of the transfer belt 4.

This is because, for example, the outermost layers of the pressure rollers 8 and 10 are made of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVdF), polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), tetrafluoroethylene-ethylene copolymer (ETFE), Fluoroethylene (PCTFE), tetrafluoroethylene-hexafluoropropylene copolymer (FE
P), a fluororesin such as tetrafluoroethylene-hexafluoropropylene-vinylidene fluoride copolymer (THV) or a release agent such as silicone oil applied to the surfaces of the pressure rollers 8 and 10 However, the present invention is not limited thereto.

As described above, according to the fourth embodiment, the adhesive force between the surfaces of the pressure rollers 8 and 10 and the image forming material 2 is smaller than the adhesive force between the image forming material 2 and the surface of the intermediate transfer member 4. Since it is weak, it is possible to prevent toner offset to the pressure roller when integrating at least the image forming substance that is in contact with the intermediate transfer member.

If an elastic material is used for the intermediate transfer member,
The adhesion between the image carrier and the image forming substance and the intermediate transfer member is increased,
By increasing the adhesion area and the anchor effect between the image carrier and the image forming substance and the intermediate transfer member, the fixability becomes better.
Therefore, in the fifth embodiment of the present invention, the intermediate transfer belt 4 in each of the above embodiments is formed using an elastic material. Rubber and sponges such as chloroprene rubber, EPDM rubber, silicone rubber, epichlorohydrin rubber, and fluoro rubber sponge can be used as the elastic material.

In the fifth embodiment, since the intermediate transfer member 4 contains at least an elastic body, the image forming substance image can be extended to some extent on the surface irregularities of the image holding member to increase the bonding area. The fixability becomes better.

In the present invention, examples of an image forming substance constituting an image which can be fixed on an image holding member include toners used in electrophotographic copying machines, laser printers and the like. This toner is mainly composed of a resin component, a colorant, a polarity control agent, and the like, as is well known in the art. Here, examples of the resin component include thermoplastic resins such as stainless steel resins, acrylic resins, methacrylic resins, styrene-acrylic copolymers, styrene-butadiene copolymers, polyester resins, and epoxy resins. Resins, thermosetting resins, and mixtures of two or more of these resins are exemplified. These resins generally have a glass transition point of 55 to 70 ° C and a softening point of 60.
~ 140 ° C.

Next, each embodiment of the present invention will be described. The first embodiment of the present invention is an embodiment of the present invention according to claims 1 to 4, and includes an ordinary plain paper copying machine (Spirio6 manufactured by Ricoh).
000 (trade name)), a flat heater was inscribed on the inner peripheral surface of the intermediate transfer belt, and the toner on the intermediate transfer member was heated by the flat heater before transfer and fixing to the image holding member. In this copying machine, a toner image is formed on a photosensitive member, the toner image is electrostatically transferred to an intermediate transfer belt, and the surface temperature of the intermediate transfer belt is set to 80 ° C. by a flat heater to heat the toner image on the intermediate transfer belt. Thus, at least the toner particles in contact were integrated. In this state, the toner on the intermediate transfer belt was transferred and fixed to transfer paper having a surface roughness of 30 and 60 Beck seconds by applying heat and pressure.

Table 1 below shows the measurement results of the image density, copy image density and fixing rate of the original in Example 1. In this measurement, the image density was measured using a densitometer SPM50 (trade name, manufactured by GRETAG), and the fixing rate was measured by a clock meter method. From the measurement results, it was found that the surface roughness was <30.
It can be seen that good fixability was obtained also on the transfer paper of <Beck second>.

[0053]

[Table 1]

Next, Comparative Example 1 will be described. Comparative Example 1 is the same as Example 1 except that the planar heater inscribed in the intermediate transfer belt was turned off in Example 1, and the planar heater was turned off. Table 1 shows the results of the measurement. In Comparative Example 1, even in the case of the transfer paper having a rough surface of <30 Beck seconds>, the image density is particularly low and the fixing rate is considerably low as compared with Example 1.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. The second embodiment is an embodiment of the invention according to the first, second, fifth, sixth and eighth aspects. In the first embodiment, the toner image on the intermediate transfer belt is formed by the pressure roller circumscribing the intermediate transfer belt. This embodiment is similar to the first embodiment except that the toner image on the intermediate transfer belt is pressed by a pressing roller.

Here, the outermost surface of the pressure roller was made of polytetrafluoroethylene to prevent toner offset to the pressure roller. The pressure applied to the pressure roller was の of the transfer fixing pressure on the transfer paper. Table 1 shows the results of measurements performed in Example 2 in the same manner as in Example 1.
Shown in In the second embodiment, the toner image on the intermediate transfer belt is pressed, so that the fixing rate is further improved as compared with the first embodiment.

Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described. The third embodiment is an embodiment of the invention according to the first, second and seventh to ninth embodiments.
rio6000 (trade name)), and provided a rotatable heating / pressing roller to press against the intermediate transfer belt by using the tension of the intermediate transfer belt against the outer peripheral surface of the intermediate transfer belt. The pressure roller heats and presses the toner on the intermediate transfer belt.

In the third embodiment, a toner image is formed on a photosensitive member, the toner image is electrostatically transferred to an intermediate transfer belt, and the toner image on the intermediate transfer belt is heated and pressed by a heating and pressing roller. At least the toner particles in contact were integrated. In this state, the toner on the intermediate transfer belt was transferred and fixed to the transfer paper by applying heat and pressure.

Here, the outermost surface of the heating and pressing roller was made of polytetrafluoroethylene to prevent toner offset to the heating and pressing roller. The intermediate transfer belt contains chloroprene rubber as an elastic body. After the toner was heated and pressed on the intermediate transfer belt by a heating and pressing roller, transfer fixing was performed on transfer paper having a surface roughness of 30 Beck seconds. Table 1 shows the results of the measurement performed in the same manner as in Example 1 in Example 3. In the third embodiment, since the intermediate transfer belt includes an elastic body, the fixing property is further improved as compared with the second embodiment.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments and examples, but can be applied to, for example, an image forming apparatus such as a printer, a facsimile, and a printing machine. Further, an intermediate transfer member such as an intermediate transfer drum may be used instead of the intermediate transfer belt.

[0061]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, it is possible to reduce the fall of the image forming substance into the concave portion of the image holding member by the above configuration, and to fix the image forming member even on the image holding member having a rough surface. Is good. According to the second aspect of the present invention, with the above configuration, it is possible to prevent the image forming substance from falling into the concave portions of the image holding member, and the fixing property is improved even in an image holding member having a rough surface.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, with the above structure, the image carrier can be prevented from being deteriorated without heating the image carrier. Further, it is possible to use an organic photoreceptor which is relatively weak to heat as the image carrier.

According to the fourth aspect of the invention, the image forming substance can be surely integrated by the above configuration.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, with the above configuration, the image forming substance can be more reliably integrated, and the fixing property can be more reliably improved. According to the invention according to claim 6,
According to the above configuration, there is no deterioration in image quality such as thickening of thin lines or crushing of characters to make it difficult to read.

According to the seventh aspect of the invention, the device can be simplified by the above configuration. According to the invention according to claim 8, with the above configuration, it is possible to prevent toner offset to the pressure roller when integrating at least the image forming material that is in contact with the intermediate transfer body. According to the ninth aspect of the present invention, with the above configuration,
The adhesion area can be increased so that the image-forming substance image follows the surface irregularities of the image carrier, and the fixing property is further improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a conventional image forming apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing a third embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Photoconductor 2 Toner 3 Image holder 4 Intermediate transfer belt 6, 10 Heating roller 7 Planar heater 8, 9 Pressure roller

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F term (reference) 2H032 AA14 BA01 BA05 BA09 BA13 BA21 BA23 CA02 2H033 AA02 BA12 BA25 BB01 BB12 BB19 BB28 BB37 BE09

Claims (9)

[Claims] 2. A transfer fixing method for transferring and fixing an image-forming substance in the form of powder particles formed on an image carrier to an image carrier, the method comprising forming an image of the powder particles formed on the image carrier. Before transferring and fixing a substance to the image holding member, at least a powdery particle-forming image forming substance that is in contact is integrated. 2. An image forming apparatus for forming an unfixed image on an image carrier using a powdery particulate image forming substance and transferring and fixing the unfixed image on the image carrier to an image carrier. An image forming substance integrating means for integrating at least a powdery particle of the image forming substance on the image carrier before being transferred and fixed to the image carrier; and a powder particle on the image carrier. An image forming material, wherein the image forming material is integrated by the image forming material integrating device and then transferred and fixed to the image carrier. 3. An image forming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said powdery particulate image forming substance on said image carrier is transferred to an intermediate transfer member, and said powdery particulate image formation on said intermediate transfer member is performed. An image forming apparatus, wherein a substance is heated by the image forming substance integrating means so as to integrate at least a powdery particle of the image forming substance. 4. The image forming apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the temperature at which the powdery particulate image forming substance on the intermediate transfer body is heated is such that the surface temperature of the intermediate transfer body is the glass transition temperature of the image forming substance. As described above, the image forming apparatus has a temperature of 200 ° C. or lower. 5. An image forming apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising a pressure roller for pressing a powdery particulate image forming substance on said intermediate transfer member, said pressure roller using said pressure roller. By pressing the powdery particulate imaging material above,
An image forming apparatus, wherein at least an image forming substance in the form of powder particles in contact is integrated. 6. The image forming apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the pressure of the pressure roller is lower than the pressure applied during transfer and fixing of the image forming substance from the intermediate transfer member to the image holding member. Characteristic image forming apparatus. 7. An image forming apparatus according to claim 5, wherein heating and pressurization of the powdery image forming substance on said intermediate transfer member are performed by the same means. 8. The image forming apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the adhesive force between the surface of the pressure roller and the image forming material is smaller than the adhesive force between the image forming material and the surface of the intermediate transfer member. An image forming apparatus characterized by being weak. 9. The image forming apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said intermediate transfer member includes at least an elastic body.