JP2003145845A - Combination imaging apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a combination imaging apparatus having an ink jet system and an electrophotographic system in which the problem of image flow due to adhesion of an ink drop from a transfer material to the photosensitive body of electrophotographic system can be prevented without complicating the apparatus. SOLUTION: A combination imaging apparatus comprising a first imaging means of ink jet system and a second imaging means of electrophotographic system is further provided with means for coating the image carrier of the second imaging means with ink adsorption particles.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a composite image forming apparatus having a plurality of image forming means of different image forming systems.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Image forming apparatuses such as copiers and printers are frequently used in offices and the like, and image quality and recording speed have been conventionally improved. In recent years, due to the introduction of color technology, demand for color copiers, printers and the like has increased even in offices. However,
Although high-speed output and high image quality can be expected in electrophotographic color recording, one page of memory is required for each color of yellow, magenta, and cyan, and it is necessary to arrange each color process unit with high positional accuracy. It was much more expensive than monochromatic recording. On the other hand, since the inkjet color recording is a serial printer, it may have a memory for several lines for each color, and by arranging the ink heads side by side on one carriage, it is possible to perform color registration easily and at low cost. Although it can be expected, the recording speed was significantly slowed down, and for the frequently used monochrome and text images, the image quality and output speed were not suitable for office use.

Therefore, recently, a color copying machine or a printer in which different image forming means are combined has been proposed.
As an example of the structure, as shown in FIG. 5, an image forming unit C by an inkjet recording system for performing color recording on a recording medium P sent from a paper feed tray 57 by a plurality of inkjet heads 56 and the periphery of the photosensitive drum 50. A charger 51, an exposure device 52, a developing device 53, and a transfer device 5
4. In combination with the toner cleaning means 60 and the like, in combination with the electrophotographic image forming means D in which the toner transferred to the recording medium P is fixed by the heat fixing device 55,
There is an apparatus in which the recording medium P is conveyed from the image forming unit C to the image forming unit D, and after the image forming unit D forms an image, the recording medium P is discharged to the discharge unit 58.

In the above apparatus, in the case of color recording, the image forming means C is used to obtain an inexpensive color image which is an advantage of the ink jet recording system. On the other hand, in the case of monochrome recording, the image forming means D is used to obtain a high-speed and high-quality image which is an advantage of the electrophotographic system. By adopting such a configuration, the price of color recording is lower than that of an electrophotographic color image forming apparatus, and the quality of monochrome recording is higher and higher than that of an inkjet recording type image forming apparatus. Will be provided. Then, a composite image in which the monochrome text image and the color image are mixed can be obtained on the recording medium.

[0005]

In the above-mentioned conventional example, an inkjet type image forming means, which is low in cost for color images less frequently used than monochrome text in an office environment, is used, and a monochrome image frequently used in an office environment is used. In the text part, by using an electrophotographic image forming means capable of high-speed and high-quality image output, various documents suitable for an office environment can be colorized at low cost.

However, in the conventional composite image forming apparatus, the color image formed by the ink jet type image forming means C is converted into the electrophotographic type image forming means D.
The ink on the recording medium P when being carried into the image forming means D
This causes a problem of contaminating the photoreceptor inside.

Particularly when an OHP sheet (transparent film used in a projector or the like) is used as a recording medium,
When the OHP sheet formed by the first image forming unit C (inkjet system) is conveyed to the second image forming unit D (electrophotographic system), the ink image-formed on the OHP sheet becomes a photoconductor. Easily adheres to the
0 When the ink is a resistance value of approximately ⁶ ohms adheres, charges on the photosensitive member would cause image degradation, such as would "image deletion" is an electrostatic latent image is moved bleeding. These above-mentioned problems are caused by the fact that no measures are taken against the ink adhering to the photoconductor, that is, as in the conventional example, a conventional inkjet recording device and a conventional electrophotographic device are combined. It was difficult to provide the ideal low-cost color printer by itself.

On the other hand, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-272258, it has been proposed to provide an ink removing means pressed against the image carrier.

However, in the above proposal, there is a concern that the image carrier may be scratched due to the mechanical contact of the ink removing means. Further, it has been difficult to achieve downsizing of the apparatus by providing the ink removing means.

According to the present invention, there are provided a plurality of image forming means of different image forming methods, which prevent contamination of the image carrier of the electrophotographic image forming means by the recording medium supporting the ink image by the ink jet type image forming means. An object is to provide a composite image forming apparatus having the above.

[0011]

In order to solve the above problems, the first invention according to the present application comprises a first image forming means by an ink jet system and a second image forming means by an electrophotographic system. In the composite image forming apparatus, the second image forming means by electrophotography has a particle applying means for applying the ink adsorbing particles on the image carrier.

With the above construction, even when a recording member such as an OHP sheet having extremely poor water absorption is passed through the composite image forming apparatus, the ink removing means removes the ink on the photoconductor and the "image By preventing image defects due to ink adhesion such as "flow", a good composite image in which a color image by an inkjet system and a monochrome text image by an electrophotographic system are mixed can be obtained.

A second invention according to the present application is characterized in that the particle coating means also serves as a charging means.

According to a third invention of the present application, in the first invention, the first image forming means of the ink jet system is provided with an electrothermal converter for generating thermal energy for ink ejection. Is characterized by.

A fourth invention according to the present application is the third invention according to the third invention, in which the film boiling caused in the ink is caused by the thermal energy applied by the electrothermal converter by the first image forming means by the ink jet method. It is characterized in that the ink is ejected from the ejection port by utilizing it.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the electrophotographic image forming means is an image carrier comprising at least one of a charging means, a developing means, a cleaning means, and an ink removing means. Therefore, the image forming apparatus main body is provided with a detachable process cartridge.

[0017]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

[Embodiment 1] As Embodiment 1, FIG. 1 shows the configuration of a composite image forming apparatus according to the present invention. The composite image forming apparatus is an image output terminal device of information processing equipment such as a computer, and the information is obtained by inputting an image signal sent from the information processing equipment HC through an interpreter I in the composite image forming apparatus to obtain an image (not shown). The processing section separates the color image and the monochrome text section into image forming means A, respectively.
Send to B. The image forming means A prints a color image portion by an inkjet method, and the image forming means B prints a monochrome text portion by an electrophotographic method.

The structure of each image forming means will be described in detail below.

(Structure of First Image Forming Means A) The structure of the first image forming means A is shown in FIG.

The first image forming means A is for performing simple and inexpensive color recording, and the recording means uses an ink jet recording system in which ink is ejected from the recording head 16 for recording. . That is, the recording head 16 has a fine liquid discharge port (orifice), a liquid passage, and an energy acting portion provided in a part of the liquid passage, and energy for generating droplet forming energy that acts on the liquid in the acting portion. Equipped with generating means.

As the energy generating means for generating the energy, a recording method using an electromechanical transducer such as a piezo element is used, and an electromagnetic wave such as a laser is irradiated to generate heat, and the generated heat causes the droplets to be ejected. There is a recording method using a means, or a recording method using an energy generating means for heating a liquid by an electrothermal converter such as a heating element having a heating resistor to eject the liquid.

Among them, a recording head used in an ink jet recording method for ejecting a liquid by thermal energy has a high density of liquid ejection ports (orifices) for ejecting recording liquid droplets to form ejection liquid droplets. Since they can be arranged, high resolution recording is possible. Among them, the recording head using the electrothermal converter as the energy generating means can easily be made compact, and has the advantages of the IC technology and the microfabrication technology, which have been remarkably improved in technology and reliability in the recent semiconductor field. This is advantageous because it can be used in two parts, high-density mounting is easy, and the manufacturing cost is low.

As shown in FIG. 2, in the recording means, the recording head 16 has a plurality of arrays of ink ejection openings indicated by arrows a.
The heads for the respective color inks of cyan C, magenta M, yellow Y, and black BK. Each ink is supplied to each recording head 16 from an ink tank 18 via an ink supply tube 17. The recording head 16 is mounted on a carriage 19. The carriage 19 is fixed to a part of a belt 21 stretched between a drive pulley 20a and a driven pulley 20b, and along a guide (not shown) in the direction of arrow b in FIG. Driven with high precision. The ink tank 18 is a drive pulley 22.
It is fixed to a part of a belt 23 stretched between a and a driven pulley 22b, and is movable in a direction of an arrow b along a guide (not shown) like the recording head 16. Recording head 16
Is 25.4 mm in the direction of arrow b along a guide not shown
During the movement, one liquid ejection port can eject ink 300 times. By eliminating the stress applied to the ink supply tube 17 and driving the ink supply tube 17 separately from the carriage 19, a propagation path to the recording head 16 side such as a vibration generated by moving the ink tank 18, which is a relatively heavy body, is provided. I refuse.

The recording medium P is the first registration roller pair 12
a, 12b and conveying roller pair 13a, 13b, and
Recording is performed by the recording head 16 between both roller pairs 12a, 12b and 13a, 13b. It should be noted that the transport roller pair 13
The conveyance speeds of a and 13b are the first registration roller pair 12a,
It is set to be slightly higher than the conveying speed of 12b, and the recording medium P is configured to maintain a flat surface between both roller pairs 12a, 12b and 13a, 13b. In order to keep the recording medium P flat, the recording medium P may be electrostatically attracted or sucked and attracted by air to the platen 24 having a flat portion.

Then, for the recording medium P that is stopped,
The recording by the recording head 16 is started from the left end side of the recording medium P according to the image signal and is performed like the recording line L to the right end. When the recording for one line is completed, the carriage 19 and the ink tank 18 are reached to the left end. Return. During this time, the recording medium P is moved by the length W of one line in the direction of arrow a in FIG.
sent by a, 13b and stop again. By repeating such an operation, color recording is performed on the recording medium P.

The recording medium P on which a color image has been formed by the first image forming means A is the first registration roller pair 12
The sheet a, 12b and the pair of conveying rollers 13a, 13b discharge the sheet from the first image forming unit A and convey the sheet to the second image forming unit B.

(Structure of Second Image Forming Means B) Next, FIG. 3 shows the structure of the electrophotographic apparatus as the second image forming means. The second image forming means B gives a high-definition monochrome text image at high speed on the recording medium P on which the color image is formed by the first image forming means.

The photosensitive drum 1 as a latent image carrier can be formed of a photoconductive semiconductor material such as an organic semiconductor or amorphous silicon.

In this embodiment, the photosensitive drum is exemplified as the image bearing member, but the image bearing member is not limited to this, and includes, for example, the following. First, a photoconductive layer is used as the photoconductor, and examples of the photoconductor include amorphous silicon, amorphous selenium, zinc oxide, titanium oxide, and the above-mentioned organic photoconductor (OPC). The shape on which the photoconductor is mounted includes, for example, a drum-shaped, belt-shaped rotating body, a sheet-shaped body, and the like. Generally, a drum-shaped or belt-shaped member is used. For example, in a drum-type photosensitive member,
As described above, the photoconductor is applied or vapor-deposited in the shape of a cylinder of aluminum alloy or the like.

In the examples, a negatively chargeable organic semiconductor is used for the photosensitive drum. The charging roller 2 that is brought into contact with the photosensitive drum 1 with a predetermined pressure has a resistance value of 10 ⁵ to 10 ⁷ Ω. The charging roller 2 is driven to rotate according to the rotation of the photosensitive drum 1, and charges the photosensitive drum 1 to a predetermined charging potential. Here, the charging roller 2 is designed to uniformly charge the photosensitive drum 1,
In addition to the DC voltage corresponding to the charging potential, an AC voltage having a peak value that is at least twice the discharge threshold value is superimposed and applied to the charging roller 2. In the first embodiment, as an example, the DC voltage is −700.
V and AC voltage 2 kV (Vpp) are applied. By using this charging method, the surface of the photosensitive drum 1 is uniformly charged to a charging potential of -700V. Next, the photosensitive drum 1 is exposed by the semiconductor laser light 3 that is turned on in response to the image signal to form an electrostatic latent image. The developing sleeve 28 is arranged with a gap of 300 μm from the photosensitive drum 1. The developing sleeve 28 has a thickness of 50 with a negatively chargeable developer T (hereinafter referred to as toner T) provided by a regulating member 29.
The photosensitive drum 1 is applied with a thickness of μm and is conveyed to the photosensitive drum 1 side, and the electrostatic latent image is developed on the photosensitive drum 1 by the developing bias applied from the developing power source 28a. Although the urethane elastic body having a thickness of 1 mm is used as the regulating member 29, various elastic bodies and various metal thin plates may be used.

In the present invention, titanium oxide fine particles having an average particle diameter of 50 nm and having an ink adsorbing property are added to the toner T as externally added particles. The fine particles of titanium oxide exist in a state of being covered with the toner T or in a cloud state separated from the toner T in the developing container 4. The toner T is developed on the photosensitive drum 1 by the developing bias, and the titanium oxide fine particles also adhere to the surface of the photosensitive drum to form a thin layer.

The toner image on the photosensitive drum 1 formed by development is transferred onto the recording medium P by the transfer roller 5. Here, the transfer roller 5 is an EPDM sponge (ethylene propylene rubber) having a resistance of 10 ⁸ Ω, and by applying a DC voltage of +2 kV from the transfer power source 5a to the transfer roller 5, the toner image on the photosensitive drum 1 is recorded. Transferred onto the medium P. After that, the recording medium P is separated from the photosensitive drum 1, is subsequently conveyed between the fixing roller 6 and the pressure roller 7, and becomes a permanent image after fixing, and is discharged to the paper discharge tray 25. The fixing roller 6 here is an on-demand type,
Heater 6a in a 50 μm thick polyimide resin film
Is installed, and the film is supported so as to circulate endlessly. The heater 6a includes a fixing roller 6 and a pressure roller 7
The recording medium P is heated over the width of the nip to fix the toner T. Since the polyimide resin film has a small heat capacity, it is possible to quickly raise the temperature only in the nip portion. On the other hand, the developer T on the photosensitive drum 1 left untransferred by the transfer roller 5 is removed by the toner cleaning device 8, and the photosensitive drum 1 is subjected to the next image forming process.

Next, referring to FIG. 1, the ink stain caused by the conveyance of the recording medium P will be described in detail. Initially, the recording media P are stacked in the paper feed tray 11, and the uppermost one is fed from the paper feed tray 11 to the image forming unit A by the paper feed roller 10.
Sent to. The recording medium P is a first registration roller pair 12a, 12b and a conveyance roller pair 13 in the image forming means A.
A color image is formed by the ink jet recording head 16 while moving one line or a plurality of lines or a plurality of lines by a and 13b (incremental movement). That is, ink droplets are present on the recording medium P after passing through the recording head 16, and the ink droplets are conveyed without penetrating the recording medium P having poor water absorption such as an OHP sheet.

Since the upper roller 13b may come into contact with the ink surface, the surface of the upper roller 13b is coated with a fluorine-containing polymer to prevent the ink from adhering, and to reduce the contact area with the ink. As shown in FIG. 4, the roller 13b is composed of a plurality of narrow rollers 13b-1 which are spaced apart from the core shaft 13 and the shaft 13b-2. The conveyance upper roller 13b conveys the recording medium P to the conveyance lower roller 1
3b is uniformly and sufficiently pressed to generate a frictional force so that the recording medium P can be reliably conveyed without idling. When the color image recording by the image forming means A is completed, the recording medium P moves along the platen 24, the position is detected by the paper leading edge detecting means 14, and then the recording medium P is carried into the image forming means B and the second registration roller pair. Pause at 9a, 9b. Here, the paper leading edge detecting means 14 is for detecting the timing of starting the second image formation. Similarly to the upper conveying roller 13b, the second upper resist roller 9
Since b may also come into contact with the ink droplets, like the above-described upper conveying roller 13b, the shape shown in FIG. 4 is adopted to prevent the ink from adhering to the surface in order to reduce the contact area with the ink surface. . The second registration roller pair 9a, 9b continuously moves the recording medium P at a constant process speed in synchronization with the toner image formation on the photosensitive drum 1 after a fixed time after passing through the front end detecting means 14, and the photosensitive drum 1 And the transfer roller 5. After the monochrome text image is transferred to the recording medium P, the recording medium P is conveyed between the fixing roller 6 and the pressure roller 7 to be thermally fixed, and is discharged to the paper discharge tray 25.

According to the above procedure, a hybrid image composed of an ink jet type color image and an electrophotographic type monochrome text image is formed on the recording medium P, but the photosensitive drum 1 forms an excellent image. Must be in close contact with the recording medium P. Therefore, when ink droplets are present on the recording medium P, the photosensitive drum 1 comes into contact with the ink surface and "ink stain" occurs.

However, in the present invention, as described above, fine particles having an ink adsorbing function are added as toner externally added particles, and a thin layer of the ink adsorbing particles is formed substantially uniformly on the photosensitive drum 1 in the developing section. ing.

Therefore, the ink droplets on the recording medium P are absorbed by the ink adsorbing particles almost at the same time when they come into contact with the photosensitive drum 1.

After that, the ink adsorbed particles are transferred to the recording medium P or are cleaned from the photosensitive drum 1 by the cleaner 8.

Titanium oxide is used as the ink adsorption particles in this example, but the invention is not limited to this. Inorganic particles such as alumina and silica, acrylic organic fine particles such as polyacrylate, polymethacrylate, and polymethylmethacrylate, and acrylic particles are used. Acid / vinyl alcohol copolymer, sodium acrylate polymer, polyethylene oxide modified product,
It is also possible to use a water-absorbing polymer such as an acrylic acid / vinyl alcohol copolymer.

With such a structure, when a recording medium having ink drops comes into contact with the photosensitive drum, there is no need to introduce a new device structure or complicated control.
We were able to solve the problem of image deletion due to ink stains at a low cost and in a compact size.

[Other Embodiments] In the above-described embodiments, the electrophotographic method and the ink jet recording method are exemplified as the plurality of image forming means having different image forming methods, but the present invention is not limited to this recording method. It is also possible to employ, for example, a thermal recording system or a thermal transfer recording system.

Further, although the ink jet system is used as the recording means in the above-mentioned embodiment, it is more preferable to have the following constitution in this ink jet recording system. That is, the electrothermal converter is energized in response to a recording signal, and the thermal energy applied by the electrothermal converter utilizes the film boiling generated in the ink to grow and contract the bubbles generated in the ink, thereby ejecting the ink. More preferably, the recording is performed by discharging from the outlet.

Regarding its typical structure and principle, see, for example, US Pat. Nos. 4,723,129 and 4,740,79.
What is carried out using the basic principle disclosed in No. 6 is preferred. This method can be applied to both the so-called on-demand type and continuous type, but in the case of the on-demand type in particular, it is arranged corresponding to the sheet or liquid path holding the liquid (ink). By applying at least one drive signal which corresponds to the recorded information and which causes a rapid temperature rise exceeding the film boiling to the electrothermal converter, the electrothermal converter is caused to generate thermal energy,
This is effective because film boiling is caused on the heat-acting surface of the recording head, and as a result, bubbles can be formed in the liquid in a one-to-one correspondence with this drive signal. Due to the growth and contraction of the bubbles, the liquid is ejected through the ejection openings to form at least one droplet. It is more preferable to make this drive signal into a pulse shape, because the bubble growth and contraction are immediately and appropriately performed, so that particularly excellent liquid ejection can be achieved.

As the pulse-shaped drive signal, those described in US Pat. Nos. 4,463,359 and 4,345,262 are suitable.

If the conditions described in US Pat. No. 4,313,124 of the invention relating to the rate of temperature rise of the heat acting surface are adopted, more excellent recording can be performed.

As the constitution of the recording head, in addition to the combination constitution of the ejection port, the liquid passage, and the electrothermal converter (the straight liquid passage or the right-angled liquid passage) as disclosed in the above-mentioned respective specifications. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,558,333 and 4,459 which disclose a configuration in which a heat acting portion is arranged in a bending region.
The structure using the specification of No. 600 is also included in the present invention.

Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 59-123670 discloses a structure in which a common slit is used as a discharge portion of a plurality of electrothermal converters, and an opening for absorbing a pressure wave of thermal energy. The effect of the present invention is effective even if the configuration based on Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 59-138461, which discloses a configuration in which the above is associated with the discharge portion, is effective. That is, according to the present invention, recording can be surely and efficiently performed regardless of the form of the recording head.

Further, the present invention can be effectively applied to a full line type recording head having a length corresponding to the maximum width of a recording medium which can be recorded by the image forming apparatus.

As such a recording head, a combination of a plurality of recording heads to satisfy the length thereof or a structure of one recording head integrally formed may be used.

In addition, even in the case of the serial type described above, it is possible to electrically connect to the apparatus main body or supply ink from the apparatus main body by mounting the recording head fixed to the carriage or the carriage. A replaceable chip-type recording head or a cartridge-type recording head in which an ink tank is integrally provided in the recording head itself may be used.

Further, as the ink jet recording system used in the image forming apparatus of the above-mentioned embodiment, it is preferable to add a recovering means for the recording head, a preliminary auxiliary means, etc. because the effect of the present invention can be further stabilized. is there. Specific examples thereof include capping means for the recording head, cleaning means, pressurization or suction means, electrothermal conversion type or other heating element or preheating means by a combination thereof, It is also effective to perform stable recording by performing a preliminary ejection mode in which ejection is performed separately from recording.

Regarding the type or number of recording heads mounted on the carriage, for example, only one is provided corresponding to a single color ink, or a plurality of inlets having different recording colors and densities are supported. Then, a plurality of them may be provided. That is, for example, the recording mode of the recording apparatus is not limited to a recording mode of only the mainstream color such as black, but may be a combination of a plurality of recording heads integrally formed, but may be a mixed color of different colors or a mixed color. It can also be applied to a device with at least one full color.

In addition, although the ink is explained as a liquid in the above-mentioned embodiments, it is an ink which solidifies at room temperature or lower and softens or liquefies at room temperature, or an ink jet recording system. Then the ink itself 30
It is common to adjust the temperature within a range of ℃ to 70 ℃ to control the temperature of the ink so that the viscosity of the ink is in a stable ejection range. good. In addition, whether to prevent the temperature rise due to thermal energy from being positively used as the energy for changing the state of the ink from the solid state to the liquid state,
Alternatively, an ink that solidifies in a standing state is used for the purpose of preventing the evaporation of the ink, and in any case, the ink is liquefied by applying thermal energy according to the recording signal and the liquid ink is ejected, or the recording sheet. It is applicable when using an ink that has a property of being liquefied only by thermal energy, such as one that has already started to solidify when it reaches.

The ink in such a case is disclosed in JP-A-54-5.
As described in Japanese Patent No. 6847 or Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 60-71260, it is opposed to the electrothermal converter in a state of being held as a liquid or a solid in the concave portion or through hole of the porous sheet. It may be in the form. What is effective for each of the above-mentioned inks is to execute the above-mentioned film boiling method.

Further, the form of the above-mentioned image forming apparatus is not only that used as an image output terminal device of information processing equipment such as a computer, but also the form of a copying machine combined with a reader or the like, and a facsimile machine having a transmitting / receiving function. It may be a thing or the like.

In each embodiment, the inner image forming portion of the electrophotographic image forming means B may be a process cartridge. This process cartridge includes at least one of the charging roller 2, the developing unit 4, the toner cleaning device 8, and the ink removing unit 26, and the photosensitive drum 1.
Is an integral cartridge that can be attached to and detached from the main body of the image forming apparatus.

By using such a process cartridge, inspection of the image forming means B by electrophotography,
Easy to maintain.

[0059]

As described above, in the composite image forming apparatus having the first image forming means of the ink jet system and the second image forming means of the electrophotographic system, the second image forming means of the electrophotographic system is provided. In the above, since the image carrier has a particle applying means for applying ink adsorbing particles, even when a recording member such as an OHP sheet having poor water absorption is passed through the composite image forming apparatus, "image deletion" or the like occurs. Image defects due to ink adhesion can be prevented without a mechanical ink removal means, and a good composite image in which a color image by an inkjet method and a monochrome text image by an electrophotographic method are mixed causes the device to become complicated and large. I was able to achieve it without any trouble.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional view showing a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of an inkjet image forming unit.

FIG. 3 is a schematic sectional view of an electrophotographic image forming unit.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a conveyance upper roller and a first registration roller upper roller.

FIG. 5 is a schematic sectional view of a conventional composite image forming apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 photosensitive drum 2 charging roller 6 fixing roller 7 Pressure roller 8 Toner cleaning device 9 Second registration roller 10 Paper feed roller 12 First registration roller 13 Conveyor rollers 16 Inkjet recording head

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI theme code (reference) G03G 15/22 103 B41J 3/04 103B 2H078 F term (reference) 2C055 KK00 KK06 2C056 EA16 EA30 FA03 FB02 HA60 2C057 AG46 AH15 AJ02 AN01 BA13 2H005 AA08 CA07 2H077 AD13 EA16 GA04 GA11 2H078 AA08 BB01 BB08 BB12 BB16 DD03 DD40 DD73 EE27 EE30

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A composite image forming apparatus comprising a first image forming unit of an inkjet type and a second image forming unit of an electrophotographic type, wherein the second image forming unit of the electrophotographic type is on an image carrier. A composite image forming apparatus, characterized in that it has a particle applying means for applying ink adsorbing particles. 2. The composite image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the particle coating means also serves as the developing means. 3. The composite image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first image forming means of the ink jet system is provided with an electrothermal converter for generating thermal energy for ejecting ink. 4. The first image forming means of the ink jet system ejects ink from an ejection port by utilizing film boiling generated in ink by thermal energy applied by the electrothermal converter. The composite image forming apparatus according to claim 4. 5. An electrophotographic image forming means comprises a process cartridge detachably attachable to an image forming apparatus main body by integrally forming at least one of a charging means, a developing means, a cleaning means and an ink removing means and an image carrier. The composite image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: