JP2002351273A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image forming device which can perfectly remove a colored layer constituting an image from a transfer material on which the image is formed using the device and which features that the amount of residues on the transfer material after the colored layer is removed does not exceed a predetermined value. SOLUTION: The image forming device has a means to form a release layer, which does not affect reuse even when it remains on the transfer material, between the colored layer constituting an image and the transfer material.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION An image forming apparatus for forming an image on a transfer material such as paper or resin.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An image forming apparatus for forming an image on a transfer material such as paper or resin is widely used, and a large amount of the transfer material is consumed every day. Paper is used for much of the transfer material consumed in large quantities, and most of it is used for temporary transmission of information. Therefore, a lot of paper becomes waste. Since paper is made from trees, it is not preferable to use paper as waste from the viewpoint of environmental protection.

[0003] On the other hand, discarded paper is melted, deinked, and reused as a raw material for paper. However, the quality of the paper is reduced due to damage to paper fibers in the recycling process. The number is very limited. Also,
Due to the high cost, it is used only in a limited area.

In addition, a method and an apparatus have been proposed which enable a transfer material on which an image has been formed using a resin toner to be reused as it is by removing the resin toner or decoloring the resin toner. However, since the toner cannot be completely removed, and the lamination of the resins interferes with the image formation, the number of possible reproductions is small,
It has not been widely used.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, it is possible to completely remove a colored layer constituting an image from a transfer material on which an image is formed by using the same, and to remove the colored layer from the transfer material after removing the colored layer. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus in which the amount of residue does not exceed a certain amount.

[0006]

According to the present invention, an image forming apparatus is provided with a release layer between a colored layer constituting an image and a transfer material which does not cause visual smear of the transfer material even if the release layer remains on the transfer material. It is suggested to give a means to form. This can prevent the colored layer from directly contacting the surface structure of the transfer material.

When an unnecessary image on a transfer material is removed by some physical means, if the color layer of the image is in direct contact with the surface structure of the transfer material, the color layer is completely damaged without damaging the transfer material. It is extremely difficult to remove. On the other hand, if there is a release layer between the colored layer of the image and the transfer material, it is easy to remove the colored layer. Therefore, if the release layer remaining on the transfer material is made of a material that does not cause visual smear of the transfer material, the transfer material can be reused.

In this case, although depending on the image removing means, it is generally easy to prevent the residue per unit area on the transfer material from being repeatedly used more than a certain value, and the characteristics of the transfer material are significantly deteriorated. And reuse is possible many times.

[0009]

[Embodiment 1] A continuous transfer material from a paper supply means for supplying roll paper is formed with a release layer on its surface by a release layer forming means. Thereafter, a colored layer constituting an image is formed on the release layer by the image forming unit, and post-processing such as cutting, stacking, and binding is performed by the post-processing unit (FIG. 1).

The image forming means includes an offset printing means, an image information storing means for editing and storing an image, and a computer typesetting means. The offset printing unit performs printing by transferring ink, which is a colored layer constituting an image, to a transfer material by using a printing plate created by computer engraving based on information of the image storage unit. At this time, the image information storage unit sends the image information, and the offset printing unit sends the printing timing information to the release layer forming unit.

The release layer forming means comprises a release layer transfer fixing means for forming a release layer on the transfer material and a release layer formation control means for controlling the formation of the release layer. Release layer transfer fixing means includes an image carrier, a latent image forming means for forming an electrostatic latent image on the image carrier, a developing means for developing a resin toner constituting a release layer on the electrostatic latent image, A transfer unit for transferring the toner image onto the transfer material; a fixing unit for fixing the resin toner image on the transfer material; and a cleaning unit for cleaning the image carrier after the transfer. A release layer can be formed.

The peeling layer formation control means has an area designating means for designating an image area and a margin input means for designating a margin for forming a peeling layer. An area designating signal from the area designating means and a margin inputting means from the margin input means are provided. Based on margin information, image information from the image forming means, timing information,
A release layer forming pattern is generated and transferred to a release layer transfer / fixing means to form the release layer at an appropriate position on the transfer material.

Basically, the pattern for forming the release layer may be such that the entire surface on which the image is formed is uniformly covered (FIG. 2). A pattern corresponding to the colored layer forming portion constituting the obtained image is good (FIG. 2). As a result, it is possible to form a necessary minimum peeling layer.

By forming a release layer in a region where a predetermined margin is added to the outside of the colored layer formation site, it is possible to cope with a displacement between formation of the release layer and image formation (FIG. 2). If the margin is small, characters printed on the transfer material may be unreadable from the pattern of the release layer remaining on the transfer material after reproduction, or the pattern of the remaining release layer may appear visually unpleasant. It may roll (Fig. 3).
To prevent this, the margin for forming the peeling layer may be increased (FIG. 3). This makes the release layer fill up the details of the character, making it difficult to read the original character after reproduction.

Further, since the release layer forms a circular solid pattern having a diameter of at least twice the margin, it does not have a very complicated structure and can improve the appearance of the transfer material after reproduction. The image can be divided into several regions by the region specifying means, and a release layer forming method suitable for each region can be specified. By prohibiting the formation of a peeling layer in a predetermined area, it is possible to perform recording in which it is preferable that history information and the like cannot be erased in that area.

In order to realize the above, it is necessary that the release layer forming position in the release layer forming unit and the image forming position in the image forming unit match with a predetermined accuracy. This is realized by using timing information sent from the image forming unit to the release layer forming unit.

It is usual to use a transparent resin for the release layer. A colored resin may be used depending on the purpose. Also,
The image forming method can be applied to any other method such as ink jet.

[Embodiment 2] A transfer material fed from a paper feeding device (not shown) is conveyed on a transfer belt (broken line arrow in FIG. 4), and a release layer and an image are formed on the basis of image information from image forming control means. After passing through the release layer forming station and the image forming station to be formed, the resin toner constituting the release layer and the color toner forming the image are respectively transferred. Thereafter, the toner is fixed by a fixing unit.

The release layer forming station and the image forming station each include an image carrier, a latent image forming means for forming an electrostatic latent image on the image carrier, and a release layer or a colored layer constituting an image on the electrostatic latent image. The image forming apparatus includes developing means for developing the resin toner to be formed, transfer means for transferring the toner image on the image carrier to a transfer material on the transfer belt, and cleaning means for cleaning the image carrier after the transfer.

The image forming control means is arranged to transfer the colored toner layer constituting the image and the corresponding resin toner layer forming the release layer so as to be overlapped on the transfer material within a predetermined shift range. Then, an image and a pattern to be a release layer are formed in the image forming station and the release layer forming station.

In the image formed by the above-described image forming apparatus, a release layer is formed between the colored layer forming the image and the transfer material, and the colored layer can be completely removed during reproduction.

[0022]

According to the present invention, it is possible to completely remove the colored layer constituting the image from the transfer material on which the image has been formed as described above, and to remove the residue on the transfer material after removing the colored layer. An image forming apparatus that does not exceed a certain amount can be achieved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of an image forming apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of Embodiment 1 of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view of Embodiment 1 of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of an image forming apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Roll transfer material 2 Image carrier 3 Electrostatic latent image forming means 4 Developing means 5 Transfer means 6 Cleaning means 9 Printing plate 10 Ink applying roller 11 Backup roller

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Junichi Nakayama 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo F-term in Canon Inc. (reference) 2H005 AA25 AA29 2H027 DB00 ED08 2H072 CA07 CB07 CB08 DA01 DA04 JA02 JA03 2H134 PA01 PA10 PB10 PC20 PD30 PE05

Claims (13)

[Claims] 1. An image forming apparatus for forming an image on a transfer material, comprising: an image forming means; and a means for forming a peelable layer which can be peeled off as necessary on the transfer material, wherein the transfer is performed prior to the image formation. An image forming apparatus comprising: forming a release layer on a material; and then forming an image. 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the means for forming the release layer forms the release layer on the entire surface of the transfer material on which an image is formed. 3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the means for forming the release layer forms the release layer in a region where an image can be formed on the surface of the transfer material on which the image is formed, based on image information from the image forming means. Item 2. The image forming apparatus according to Item 1. 4. A method for forming a peeling layer, the peeling layer being wider by a predetermined or designated margin in a region where an image is formed on a surface of a transfer material on which an image is formed, based on image information from the image forming means. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein
The image forming apparatus as described in the above. 5. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an image area designating means, wherein the means for forming the peeling layer does not form the peeling layer based on the area information from the image area designating means. apparatus. 6. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the means for forming the release layer forms the release layer using a resin toner. 7. A means for forming a peeling layer develops a resin toner constituting the peeling layer on the electrostatic latent image formed on the image carrier to form a toner image, and transfers the toner image on the transfer material. 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a mechanism for forming a toner image on the image forming apparatus. 8. An image forming apparatus for forming an image on a transfer material using a colored toner, the device having a means for forming a release layer with a resin toner between the toner for forming an image and the transfer material. Characteristic image forming apparatus. 9. The image forming apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the means for forming the release layer forms the release layer on the entire surface of the transfer material on which the image is formed. 10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the means for forming the release layer forms the release layer in a region where an image on the surface of the transfer material on which the image is to be formed can be formed based on image information from the image forming means. Item 10. The image forming apparatus according to Item 8. 11. A method for forming a peeling layer, the peeling layer being wider by a predetermined or designated margin in a region where an image is formed on a surface of a transfer material on which an image is formed, based on image information from the image forming means. 9. The image forming apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the image is formed. 12. The image forming apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising an image area designating means, wherein the means for forming the peeling layer does not form the peeling layer based on the area information from the image area designating means. . 13. A means for forming a peeling layer develops a resin toner constituting the peeling layer on the electrostatic latent image formed on the image carrier to form a toner image, and transfers the toner image to a transfer material. 9. The image forming apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising a mechanism for forming a toner image on the image forming apparatus.