JP2010241039A - Lyophilic pattern forming method, base material obtained by the method, intermediate transfer body and coating roller using the base material, method of manufacturing recording material and image recording device using the intermediate transfer body - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To highly accurately and easily form a pattern having a lyophilic portion and a liquid repellent portion for appropriately forming a reaction liquid reacting to ink on an intermediate transfer body, in image recording of an intermediate transfer system adopting inkjet recording. <P>SOLUTION: A liquid containing a surfactant is adhered in a state of a liquid droplet on a liquid-repellent treating object surface, a liquid droplet outside portion is made lyophilic, and after the liquid droplet diameter is increased thereby, a liquid droplet center portion on the liquid-repellent surface is removed by washing. A lyophilic pattern having a ring-like lyophilic portion is formed on a base material surface. The size of the ring such as an inner diameter, and a ring width (eventually, an outer diameter) are easily controlled by adjusting the amount of adhered liquid droplet, the imparted density, the kind and concentration of the surfactant, and conditions during plasma treatment. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a lyophilic pattern forming method, a substrate obtained by the method, an intermediate transfer member and a coating roller using the substrate, a method for producing a recorded matter using the intermediate transfer member, and an image recording apparatus. Is.

  As one application example of the ink jet recording technology, an ink image is formed on an intermediate transfer member, the ink image formed on the transfer member is transferred to a desired recording medium, and the ink image is recorded on the desired recording medium. There is a method. In this method, the ink ejected from the ink jet head is once adhered to the transfer body, and an ink image in a state where the fluidity of the ink is reduced to some extent is formed on the transfer body, and then the ink image is recorded from the transfer body. It is transferred to a medium.

  When the intermediate transfer method is employed, an ink image is once formed on the intermediate transfer member, so that an image can be formed without being affected by a recording medium such as paper. In this case, the intermediate transfer member uses a non-absorbing surface from the viewpoint of transferability and cleaning properties. However, when liquid ink is applied to the non-absorbing surface, the ink flows or is repelled, making it very difficult to form a high-quality image.

  Therefore, a method has been proposed in which a liquid (reaction liquid) that reacts with ink is applied onto the intermediate transfer member, and the fluidity of the ink is controlled by a two-liquid reaction that occurs when ink droplets come into contact therewith. However, in this case, since the ink droplets are applied to the intermediate transfer member through the reaction liquid layer, the image quality greatly depends on the application state of the reaction liquid. In other words, when the reaction liquid is not properly formed on the intermediate transfer member, for example, when it is not formed as a thin film having a uniform thickness, landing deviation of the ink droplets or deformation of the dot shape occurs, and the intermediate transfer member is transferred to the intermediate transfer member. High-quality image formation, and thus high-quality image recording on the recording medium is hindered.

  To solve this problem, the present applicant has found that it is effective to attach the reaction liquid only to the lyophilic part using an intermediate transfer body having a pattern comprising a lyophilic part and a lyophobic part on the surface. (Patent Document 1). That is, by using this method, the application state of the reaction liquid can be controlled by controlling the area for receiving the reaction liquid.

  However, it is not easy to form a fine lyophobic / lyophilic part pattern on a base material to be an intermediate transfer member. In this document, patterning by a lithography method using a photoresist is exemplified, but in order to obtain a desired pattern, a high-definition exposure mask corresponding to the pattern is required, and steps such as coating, exposure, and development are performed. Must be executed repeatedly. In addition, when it is necessary to change the pattern, it is necessary to produce an exposure mask corresponding to the pattern each time, produce a printing plate, or produce a resist pattern on the object. Furthermore, although the same document also exemplifies using a method of directly forming a pattern on an object using a laser or the like, it is difficult to obtain a required resolution or a long time is required for laser scanning. There were issues such as.

JP 2006-321350 A

  Therefore, the main object of the present invention is to make it possible to form a pattern having a lyophilic part and a liquid repellent part on the surface of an object with high accuracy and ease.

  For this purpose, the lyophilic pattern forming method of the present invention includes a step of applying a liquid containing a surfactant to the surface of a liquid-repellent object and adhering it in the form of droplets, and performing a plasma treatment after the application. And the step of lyophilizing the surface outside the adhered droplet, and the step of removing the liquid on the lyophobic surface after the lyophilicity. .

  The present invention also resides in a substrate obtained by this method, and an intermediate transfer member and a coating roller using the substrate.

  Further, the present invention is a method for producing a recorded matter in which an ink image is formed on a recording medium, the step of applying a reaction liquid that reacts with ink on the intermediate transfer member, and the reaction applied A step of ejecting ink from an inkjet head to an intermediate transfer member in which the liquid is present in the lyophilic portion to form an ink image on the intermediate transfer member; and an ink image formed on the intermediate transfer member. And transferring to the recording medium.

  In addition, the image recording apparatus of the present invention includes the intermediate transfer member, a coating device for applying a reaction solution that reacts with ink on the intermediate transfer member, and an intermediate transfer member to which the reaction solution is applied. An ink jet head for discharging ink and a transfer unit for transferring the ink discharged onto the intermediate transfer member to a recording medium are provided.

  According to the method of the present invention, a lyophilic pattern having a ring-like lyophilic part is formed on the surface of the substrate. Ring size such as inner diameter and ring width (and outer diameter) can be easily controlled by adjusting the amount of deposited droplets, applied density, surfactant type and concentration, plasma treatment conditions, etc. . As a result, it is possible to apply a liquid in a thin layer and uniformly with a fine lyophilic pattern formed on the substrate, which makes it possible to produce an intermediate transfer body that can apply the reaction liquid in a good state, and hence the quality. It is possible to contribute to high image recording.

(A)-(f) is explanatory drawing of this invention lyophilic pattern formation method. (A)-(c) is explanatory drawing of the state which apply | coated the liquid on the base material whose whole surface is lyophilic. It is explanatory drawing of the state which apply | coated the liquid on the base material in which the lyophilic pattern was formed by embodiment of this invention. (A) And (b) is explanatory drawing which shows the state which the liquid has adhered to the circular lyophilic part and the ring-shaped lyophilic part, respectively. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of the surface of an intermediate transfer member in which a plurality of ring-shaped lyophilic portions are arranged. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an outline of an embodiment of a method for producing a recorded matter and an image recording apparatus according to the present invention.

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

1. Embodiment of lyophilic pattern forming method When the surface of an object is made lyophilic by plasma irradiation and the surfactant is adsorbed, the lyophilic sustainability is remarkably improved. The present invention basically utilizes this phenomenon. The lyophilic pattern forming method of the present invention includes a step of applying a surfactant-containing liquid in droplets to an object (for example, the surface of a liquid repellent intermediate transfer member) on which a pattern is to be formed, and then energy such as plasma irradiation. And performing a surface modification by application. The following explains how the above phenomenon is utilized to realize the present invention, following each process.

Step of applying a surfactant-containing liquid to the surface of an object in the form of droplets First, an intermediate transfer body for an intermediate transfer ink jet recording, which is an object for which a lyophilic pattern is to be formed, and will be described as a specific application example to be described later It is preferable that a material suitable for the above has high releasability and rubber elasticity. High releasability generally means high liquid repellency. Specific examples include silicone rubber, fluorosilicone rubber, and fluororubber. In particular, silicone rubber has favorable characteristics.

  A liquid-repellent surface is also preferable for producing a fine pattern. As a measure of liquid repellency, a contact angle of 60 ° or more with respect to the surfactant-containing liquid is desirable.

  The application of the surfactant-containing liquid can be performed, for example, by printing dots using a plate-type method such as an ink jet method or flexographic printing, or by using a spray or the like. In particular, the inkjet method is preferable because a pattern can be freely formed and a surfactant-containing solution can be applied with high accuracy.

  The surfactant to be used is not particularly limited, and examples include cationic surfactants, anionic surfactants, nonionic surfactants, amphoteric surfactants, fluorine surfactants, and silicone surfactants. It is mentioned in. It is preferable to select an optimum material in accordance with the material of an object such as an intermediate transfer body to be patterned and the means for applying the surfactant-containing solution.

  FIGS. 1A to 1F are explanatory views of a method for forming a lyophilic pattern. In particular, FIGS. 1A to 1C show the behavior of droplets in the step of applying a surfactant-containing solution.

  It is applied to the surface of the patterning object 1 exhibiting liquid repellency by, for example, discharging an aqueous surfactant solution as droplets 2 with an inkjet head H (FIG. 1A). Then, at the moment of landing, the droplet spreads due to the influence of kinetic energy (FIG. 1B), but it is repelled within a short time and has a very small diameter (β) (FIG. 1C). )).

Plasma irradiation process When plasma is irradiated by the plasma irradiation apparatus P in this state, the lyophilic portion 3 is formed on the surface of the target 1, but the portion of the diameter β to which the droplet of the surfactant is attached is surface active. Since the agent acts as a mask, it is not lyophilic (FIG. 1 (d)). However, since the edge of the surfactant droplet is in contact with the lyophilic portion 3, the surface of the surface of the object 1 is lyophilicized by the effect of the plasma treatment, so that the surfactant droplet is automatically on the lyophilic portion 3. And has an enlarged diameter γ (FIG. 1 (e)).

  Only this ring-shaped portion (ring width α) of the surfactant droplet spread on the plasma processing unit 3 is in a state where the surfactant is applied after the plasma processing. When the surfactant comes into contact with the surface whose energy has been increased by the plasma treatment, the surfactant component adheres firmly, and does not fall off when washed with water.

  When a gas containing fluorine atoms is introduced in this state and plasma irradiation is performed again, the outside of the droplet immediately exhibits liquid repellency. On the other hand, the portion having the inner diameter β inside the ring-shaped portion having the width α has only the surfactant adhering to the surface that originally exhibits liquid repellency, so the surfactant is washed away with water, etc. Then, the original liquid-repellent surface appears through the process of removing this. On the other hand, since the surfactant masks the lyophilic surface of the ring-shaped portion having the width α, the lyophilic property is maintained. As described above, a pattern having a ring-shaped lyophilic portion and other lyophobic portions is formed on the surface of the object (FIG. 1 (f)).

  Note that the outer portion of the droplet in FIG. 1 (e) is in a state where only the plasma treatment has been performed, and the lyophilicity is lost over time. Therefore, it is possible to perform desired patterning after an appropriate period of time without performing a lyophobic treatment in which fluorine gas or the like is introduced and plasma irradiation is performed again. In addition, it is possible to promote liquid repellency by heating.

2. Controlling the size of the ring-shaped lyophilic portion The present invention can easily control the size of the ring-shaped lyophilic portion. When patterning is performed by applying an ink jet recording technique, the pattern size can be controlled by adjusting the discharge amount and application density of the surfactant from the ink jet head H. In addition, even with the same ejection amount and application density, it is possible to change the pattern to be created. This means that the pattern size can be freely controlled even when the inkjet head H or the apparatus having the same specification is used, which is a very significant feature.

  A method for controlling the size of the ring-shaped lyophilic part will be specifically described.

  Although the lyophilic portion formed by applying the present invention is ring-shaped, both the inner diameter and width (that is, the outer diameter) can be controlled. As is clear from the above description, the inner diameter of the lyophilic portion is the droplet diameter of the surfactant on the substrate immediately before the plasma treatment. The droplet diameter can be controlled by the droplet volume and wettability. Since the wettability mainly depends on the surface tension of the surfactant, the type and concentration may be adjusted. In order to control the droplet volume with the same application amount, it is possible to remove the moisture in the surfactant droplets by adding a drying step after applying the droplets, thereby reducing the volume.

  The ring width is determined by the spread of the surfactant during plasma processing. Therefore, the ring width can be controlled by adjusting the strength of lyophilicity by the plasma treatment, the treatment atmosphere (mainly humidity), the viscosity and surface tension of the surfactant during the plasma treatment.

  That is, for example, even when using an ink jet head with a large amount of liquid applied, if the volume is reduced by sufficiently drying after applying a liquid with a low surfactant concentration to the substrate, the volume is small and the viscosity is high. Surfactant droplets are formed on the substrate. Therefore, a lyophilic portion having a very small diameter and a small ring width can be obtained.

3. Advantages of Embodiment and Other Application Examples The surface of the pattern of the lyophilic part / liquid repellent part obtained by applying this embodiment is a liquid (reaction) to which a liquid amount that can be held in the ring-like lyophilic part is applied. It becomes constant due to the surface tension of the liquid. Therefore, when the reaction liquid is applied using a wide range and simple application means such as dip coating, squeegee, air knife application, roller application, etc., stable liquid amount control on the intermediate transfer member becomes possible.

  Further, if the patterning method of the present invention is used, a lyophilic portion / liquid repellent portion pattern can be formed in addition to the above-described liquid repellent rubber. For example, a liquid-repellent part / liquid-repellent part pattern with no irregularities can be formed on a liquid-repellent plastic such as silicone resin, fluororesin, polyethylene, etc., and even on a base material with a liquid-repellent material coated on the metal base surface. be able to.

  Therefore, the present invention can be applied to various base materials other than the intermediate transfer member. For example, if a patterned roller is used as an anilox roller for water-based flexographic printing, a stable ink pickup can be realized, which greatly contributes to shortening the start-up time and stabilizing printing quality. Moreover, since there is no unevenness | corrugation on the surface, a pick-up roller function and a coating roller function can also be implement | achieved with one roller.

  Furthermore, the present invention forms a pattern in which the substrate surface is partially lyophilic. Therefore, there is an advantage that the flow of the coating liquid is less than that of the substrate whose entire surface is lyophilic.

  The effect is demonstrated using FIG. 2 and FIG. FIGS. 2A and 2B are a plan view and a cross-sectional view schematically showing a state in which a liquid 5 such as a reaction liquid is applied to the surface of a base material 10 ′ whose entire surface is lyophilic, respectively. It is. In this way, even if the liquid 5 is applied in a uniform thickness in a stationary state, the base material is applied as a form of an intermediate transfer body, an application roller, etc., and is basically used while being rotated. External force such as acceleration works. Therefore, if the entire surface of the base material 10 ′ is lyophilic, the applied liquid 5 tends to be biased by the action of external force, as shown in FIG. In contrast, in FIGS. 3A and 3B, a liquid such as a reaction liquid is applied to the surface of the base material 10 in which the present invention is applied and the ring-shaped lyophilic part is partially formed. The state which is present is shown schematically. In the present invention, since the periphery of the lyophilic part 4 is surrounded by the liquid repellent part, the flow of the liquid 5 is suppressed as shown in FIG.

  Furthermore, the lyophilic portion obtained by the patterning method of the present case is ring-shaped, and the amount of liquid that can be received can be reduced as compared with a circular shape having the same outer diameter. As a result, the liquid can be applied in a thin film shape.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the concept. (A) shows the state where the liquid is attached to the circular lyophilic part 4 ′ having the outer diameter γ, and (b) shows the state where the liquid is attached to the ring-shaped lyophilic part 4. It is sectional drawing. Here, in order to consider the areas of the lyophilic portions 4 ′ and 4, the inner diameter β of the ring-shaped lyophilic portion 4 is minimized (substantially β = 0). In contrast to the circular lyophilic portion 4 ′, the ring-shaped lyophilic portion 4 has a smaller cross-sectional area, that is, a liquid receiving amount by the hatching shown in FIG. As an example, for a circular lyophilic portion having an outer diameter of 10 μm and a ring-shaped lyophilic portion having an outer diameter of 10 μm and an inner diameter of substantially 0 μm, it is assumed that the liquid adheres in a semicircular cross section as shown in FIG. Then, when the acceptance amount is calculated, the latter liquid acceptance (adhesion) amount is 58.9% with respect to the former.

4). Examples Next, more specific examples and comparative examples of the present invention will be described. In the following description, “parts” and “%” are based on mass unless otherwise specified.

(4.1) Example 1
An embodiment in which the present invention is applied to an intermediate transfer member of an intermediate transfer type ink jet recording apparatus and image recording is performed using the intermediate transfer member will be described. This includes (a) a step of applying a surfactant-containing liquid to the surface of an object in the form of droplets for preparing an intermediate transfer member, (b) a step of performing lyophilic treatment by plasma irradiation, and (c) a ring. A lyophilic part forming step. Further, it includes (d) a reaction liquid coating step for image recording, (e) a step of forming an ink image on the intermediate transfer member, and (f) a step of transferring the ink image to a recording medium. In addition, the process (a) of Example 1 respond | corresponds to (a)-(c) of FIG. 1, the process (b) of Example 1 respond | corresponds to (d)-(e) of FIG. Step 1 (c) corresponds to (f) in FIG.

(A) A step of applying a surfactant-containing liquid to the surface of an object in the form of droplets In this example, an object to be an intermediate transfer member surface layer base material has a rubber hardness of 40 on a 0.2 mm PET film surface. A material obtained by coating a silicone rubber (KE12 manufactured by Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.) at a thickness of 0.3 mm was used. On this surface, a surfactant aqueous solution having the following composition was uniformly applied in droplets at intervals of 1200 dpi by two-pass recording using an ink jet recording apparatus (nozzle arrangement density 1200 dpi, discharge amount 4.8 pl).
Surfactant aqueous solution surfactant (manufactured by Nippon Unicar Co., Ltd., silwet L-77): 2 parts Pure water: 98 parts

(B) Step of performing lyophilic treatment by plasma irradiation After drying with hot air until the droplet diameter on the intermediate transfer body becomes 6 μm, using a parallel plate type atmospheric pressure plasma processing apparatus (APT-203 manufactured by Sekisui Chemical Co., Ltd.) Plasma treatment was performed.
Gas used for plasma processing conditions ; flow rate: air; 1000 cc / min
N ₂ ; 6000 cc / min
Input voltage: 230V
Frequency: 10kHz
Processing speed: 200mm / min

(C) Ring-shaped lyophilic part forming step The intermediate transfer member after the plasma treatment is washed with water, and the excess surfactant is washed away, and then left for 12 hours in an environment of normal temperature and humidity (25 ° C, 60%). Then, the outside of the droplet was made liquid repellent. As a result, an intermediate transfer member having a pattern as shown in FIG. 5 in which ring-shaped lyophilic portions having an inner diameter β = 7 μm and an outer diameter γ = 14 μm were regularly formed at intervals of 1200 dpi was obtained.

(D) Reaction liquid application | coating process Then, the reaction liquid of the following composition was apply | coated on the intermediate transfer body using the self-made simple roll coater.
Reaction solution composition CaCl ₂ · 2H ₂ O: 10%
Surfactant (Acetylenol EH manufactured by Kawaken Fine Chemicals): 1%
Diethylene glycol: 30%
Pure water: 59%
At this time, the amount of the reaction solution applied on the intermediate transfer member is about 0.5 g / m ² on average, and when the coating surface is divided into 25 and the variation in coating amount is determined, the above average value (0.5 g) is obtained. / M ² ) in the range of 2.7%.

(E) Step of forming an ink image on the intermediate transfer body In an ink jet recording apparatus (nozzle arrangement density 1200 dpi, discharge amount 4.8 pl, drive frequency 12 kHz), mirror inversion is performed on the intermediate transfer body on which the reaction liquid is applied. A character image was formed. Here, inks having the following prescription (four color inks each containing a color pigment as a coloring material) were used.
Ink formulation Each of the following pigments: 3 parts Black: Carbon black (Mitsubishi Chemical: MCF88)
Cyan: Pigment Blue 15
Magenta: Pigment Red 7
Yellow: Pigment Yellow 74
Styrene-acrylic acid-ethyl acrylate copolymer: 1 part (acid value 240, weight average molecular weight 5000)
Glycerin: 10 parts Ethylene glycol: 5 parts Surfactant: 1 part (manufactured by Kawaken Fine Chemicals: Acetylenol EH)
Ion-exchanged water: 80 parts At this time, when the ink image was formed on the intermediate transfer member, beading and bleeding did not occur, and a high-quality ink image was formed. The diameter of the isolated ink dot formed on the intermediate transfer member was about 40 μm.

(F) Step of transferring the ink image to the recording medium After removing the water from the ink image on the intermediate transfer member and reducing the fluidity, the recording medium (Nippon Paper Aurora Coat 40.5) was applied to the pressure roller. The image was transferred by contact. As a result, it was confirmed that a high-quality image was recorded on the recording medium. Further, there was almost no residual ink on the surface of the intermediate transfer member after the transfer, and even if the next image was received as it was, no unfavorable effect was observed.

(4.2) Comparative Example 1
The same object as the intermediate transfer member surface layer base material as in Example 1 is prepared, and the entire surface thereof is subjected to the plasma treatment described in the step (b) to produce an intermediate transfer member, and then the same as in Example 1. The reaction solution was applied under the conditions (step (d)). At this time, the average amount of the reaction solution applied on the intermediate transfer member is about 10 g / m ^{2. When} the coating surface is divided into 25 and the variation in the coating amount is determined, the average value (10 g / m ² ) is obtained. It was in the range of 8.7%.

  Thereafter, an ink image was formed on the intermediate transfer member (step (e)) and the ink image was transferred onto the recording medium (step (f)) under the same conditions as in Example 1. Compared with Example 1, the image formed on the intermediate transfer member was confirmed to be distorted due to the displacement of the ink droplets.

(4.3) Example 2
As described above, the present invention can be applied to other than the intermediate transfer member. Therefore, an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to an application roller will be described.

Aluminum was used as the core, and an application roller was prepared by coating the surface of the core with a silicone rubber (KE12 manufactured by Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.) having a rubber hardness of 40 ° with a thickness of 0.2 mm. Then, under the same conditions as in Example 1, a surfactant-containing liquid having the following composition was applied to the surface of the application roller in the form of droplets (step (a)).
Surfactant aqueous solution surfactant (commercially available alkyl sulfate ester): 1 part Pure water: 99 parts

Next, after drying with warm air until the droplet diameter on the application roller reached 6 μm, plasma treatment was performed under the following conditions using a plasma treatment apparatus having a line electrode. The ground was the core of the application roller.
Gas used for plasma processing conditions ; flow rate: air; 1200 cc / min
N ₂ ; 6600cc / min
Input voltage: 230V
Frequency: 20kHz
Processing speed: 200mm / min

Next, in order to make the outer part of the ring liquid repellent, plasma treatment was performed under the following conditions.
Gas used for plasma processing conditions ; flow rate: air; 1200 cc / min
N ₂ ; 6600cc / min
CF ₄ ; 195 cc / min
Input voltage: 190V
Frequency: 20kHz
Processing speed: 200mm / min
Thereafter, the application roller after the treatment was washed in the same manner as in Example 1 to regularly form ring-shaped lyophilic portions having an inner diameter β = 6 μm and an outer diameter γ = 12 μm at 1200 dpi intervals. A coating roller with a pattern was obtained.

Subsequently, the reaction liquid of the same composition as Example 1 was apply | coated on lyophilic PET using this application roller. At this time, the amount of the reaction solution applied on the lyophilic PET was 0.45 g / m ^{2 on} average. Further, when the coating surface was divided into 25 and the variation in the coating amount was determined, it was within the range of 4.1% with respect to the average value (0.45 g / m ² ).

5). FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing an outline of an embodiment of a method for manufacturing a recorded matter and an image recording apparatus according to the present invention. The image recording apparatus of this embodiment basically includes a process for forming an ink image on an intermediate transfer member and a process for transferring an ink image formed on the transfer member to a desired recording medium. The recording process included in is performed.

  In FIG. 6, reference numeral 11 denotes a cylindrical intermediate transfer member that is driven to rotate in the direction of arrow F around an axis 11A, and a pattern composed of a lyophilic portion and a lyophobic portion is formed as described above. A surface layer 12 is provided. Transfer is applied to the outer periphery of the intermediate transfer body 11, that is, the portion facing the surface layer 12, a coating device 13 that applies a water-based reaction liquid 14, an inkjet head 15 that ejects ink to form an ink image, and a recording medium 19. A pressure roller 20 and the like are provided.

  That is, the intermediate transfer member 11 rotates in the direction of the arrow in the figure, and the reaction solution 14 is first applied to the surface by the coating device 13. Here, since the reaction solution is aqueous, the applied reaction solution is held in a lyophilic portion on the surface of the intermediate transfer member. As a result, a constant amount of the reaction solution can always be present uniformly on the transfer body. It is also possible to apply the application roller described in the second embodiment to the application device 13.

  Next, ink is ejected as, for example, droplets from the inkjet head 15, and an ink image (mirror inverted image) 16 is formed on the surface layer 12 of the intermediate transfer body 11. At this time, the ink undergoes an agglomeration reaction instantaneously upon contact with the reaction liquid, and the fluidity of the color material is reduced, so that the ink image is not disturbed. Then, the recording surface of the recording medium 19 is brought into contact with the image formed on the intermediate transfer body 11, and the image is transferred onto the recording medium 19 by applying pressure from the back side by the pressure roller 20 constituting the transfer unit. Is done.

  In the apparatus illustrated in FIG. 6, a water removal promoting device 17 in the form of a blower is disposed for the purpose of evaporating and removing water or solvent components in the ink constituting the image on the intermediate transfer body 11. Thereby, prior to the transfer, the water content of the ink is reduced to the allowable amount of the recording medium. In addition, in the apparatus of illustration, the heating roller 18 which heats in contact with the back surface side of the intermediate | middle transfer body 11 made into the hollow shape with this is used. However, any of these may be used.

  Further, in the apparatus illustrated in FIG. 6, the intermediate transfer member after the ink image is transferred to the recording medium 19 is washed by the next-stage cleaning unit 22 in preparation for receiving the next image for repeated use. Is done.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Patterning target object 2 Surfactant containing droplet 4 Lipophilic part 5 Coating liquid

Claims (11)

  A step of applying a liquid containing a surfactant to the surface of a liquid repellent object and adhering it in the form of droplets, and performing a plasma treatment after the application, the surface outside the adhering droplets A lyophilic pattern forming method comprising: a step of lyophilicity; and a step of removing the liquid on the lyophobic surface after lyophilicity.   The lyophilic pattern forming method according to claim 1, further comprising a step of reducing a volume of the attached liquid after the applying step and prior to the lyophilic step.   3. The method for forming a lyophilic pattern according to claim 1, further comprising a step of performing a lyophobic treatment on the surface after the lyophilic step.   4. The method for forming a lyophilic pattern according to claim 3, wherein the lyophobic treatment is any one of plasma treatment using fluorine gas, heating and leaving.   The lyophilic pattern forming method according to claim 1, wherein the material of the surface of the object is silicone rubber.   The lyophilic pattern forming method according to claim 1, wherein the liquid is applied by an ink jet method.   The base material which has the lyophilic pattern formed using the method in any one of Claim 1 thru | or 6 on the surface.   An intermediate transfer member having the substrate according to claim 7.   An application roller having the substrate according to claim 7. A method for producing a recorded matter in which an ink image is formed on a recording medium,
9. A step of applying a reaction liquid that reacts with ink onto the intermediate transfer member according to claim 8, and an ink from an inkjet head to the intermediate transfer member in which the applied reaction liquid is present in the lyophilic portion. A step of forming an ink image on the intermediate transfer member by discharging the ink, and a step of transferring the ink image formed on the intermediate transfer member to the recording medium. Method.   An intermediate transfer member according to claim 8, a coating device for applying a reaction liquid that reacts with ink on the intermediate transfer member, and an ink for discharging ink onto the intermediate transfer member to which the reaction liquid is applied. An image recording apparatus comprising: an ink jet head; and a transfer unit for transferring ink ejected onto the intermediate transfer member to a recording medium.

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