JP2012008455A - Image heating device and image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To perform the process of glossing a printed matter so as to selectively apply gloss to an arbitrary area by using a thermal head and a thin thermoplastic film and, at the same time, to reduce the running cost of the thin thermoplastic film which is a consumable article.SOLUTION: A pressure roller 7 is brought into contact with a thermal head 8, thereby heating the overlapping portion of a recording material P and transfer film 11, and transferring the glossy side of the transfer film 11 to a toner image. At an interval between recording materials P, the pressure roller 7 is separated from the thermal head 8, the transfer film 11 passed through the thermal head 8 is conveyed in a reverse direction toward a film supply section 12, and an unheated area of the transfer film 11 is used during the process of heating the subsequent recording material.

Description

  The present invention relates to an image heating apparatus that heats a film material that is thin and difficult to reuse on an image surface of a recording material and heats it integrally.

  2. Description of the Related Art Image forming apparatuses that transfer a toner image onto a recording material and form an image on the recording material by heating and pressing with a fixing device are widely used. An image heating apparatus that applies special surface properties such as specular gloss and satin to an image using a property of softening when the toner image is reheated has been put into practical use (Patent Document 1).

  In Patent Document 1, an endless belt member having a predetermined surface property is superimposed on an image surface of a recording material and heated and pressed while being conveyed, whereby the surface property of the belt member is added to the surface of the softened image. An image heating device is shown. Here, since uniform heating and pressing are performed in the width direction perpendicular to the conveying direction of the belt member, uniform surface properties are imparted to the entire surface or the entire width region of the recording material.

  However, in image formation, there is also a demand for imparting a specific surface property to a specific area on the image. This is an application in which specular gloss is imparted only to a metallic glossy portion reflected in a photographic image. For this reason, an image heating apparatus that employs a thermal head capable of heating only a part in the width direction according to image data instead of the heating roller disclosed in Patent Document 1 has been proposed.

  In this case, a thick opaque material (belt member) as shown in Patent Document 1 cannot be used. This is because the resolution of the heating area by the thermal head cannot be utilized if a thick material is used. This is because the thermal head has a small amount of heat generated by dots, and therefore, if a thick material is used, the image surface of the recording material cannot be heated to a sufficient temperature. This is because a transparent material is preferable in order to transmit infrared rays from the thermal head.

  Therefore, as shown in FIG. 2, a proposal has been made that an image surface of a recording material is superimposed on a thin film material drawn from a roll and passed through a heating nip between a thermal head and a pressure roller. Film is applied to a partially softened toner image by heating only a specific part in the width direction by driving the thermal head according to the image data while applying uniform pressure to the entire width of the recording material. Copy the surface properties of the material.

JP 2007-086747 A

  In an image heating apparatus using a thin transparent film material, the heating area heated by the thermal head is different from the surroundings due to changes in surface properties and infrared transmittance, so that it is difficult to reuse the film material.

  For this reason, there has been proposed a control in which recording materials are arranged without gaps in the conveying direction of a long film material drawn from a roll so as to perform image heating processing continuously.

  However, in this case, even if the heat treatment is performed in 5% of the conveyance direction of one image, the film material corresponding to the length of one recording material is consumed for one image. Further, even if they are arranged without gaps in the transport direction, the film material is fed in the first and last margins without any heat treatment, and unused areas are discarded.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an image heating apparatus capable of reducing the amount of film material consumed per recording material by effectively utilizing an unheated area generated in the cut direction in the transport direction of used film material. Yes.

  The image heating apparatus of the present invention includes a film material supply unit that is integrally heated on the image surface of the recording material, a heating unit that heats the image surface of the recording material via the film material, and A pressing means for pressing the recording material toward the film material so that the image surface of the recording material is in close contact with the film material; a separating means for separating the recording material that has passed through the heating means integrally with the film material; Reverse feeding means for feeding back the film material that has passed through the heating means to the supply means side at intervals of the recording material and using an unheated area of the film material.

  In the image heating apparatus of the present invention, the film material is reversely fed at intervals of the recording material, the unused areas of the film material are filled, and the next heating area starts at a position as close as possible to the end of the previous heating area. The unused area of material is fed back to stop positioning. Thereby, the space | interval of the heating area | region in the conveyance direction of a film material is closed, and the unheated length of the film material which generate | occur | produces at the space | interval of a recording material is shortened.

  Accordingly, it is possible to reduce the consumption of the film material per recording material by effectively utilizing the unused area generated in the cut direction in the transport direction of the film material.

1 is an explanatory diagram of a configuration of an image forming apparatus. 1 is an explanatory diagram of a configuration of a gloss processing apparatus according to Embodiment 1. FIG. It is explanatory drawing of the circuit structure of a thermal head. It is explanatory drawing of one structure of the heating resistor which comprises a thermal head. It is a block diagram of a control system of the gloss processing apparatus. It is explanatory drawing of control of a heating nip. It is explanatory drawing of the glossiness processing apparatus of Example 2. FIG. It is explanatory drawing of a processing mode. 6 is a flowchart of control according to the second embodiment.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. The present invention is also implemented in another embodiment in which part or all of the configuration of the embodiment is replaced with the alternative configuration as long as the film material is fed back to the supply means side at intervals of the recording material. it can.

  Therefore, the pressure member can be implemented without any distinction between a belt and a roller, and the heating method is not limited to a thermal head, and can be implemented without any distinction between resistance heating, a lamp heater, and other heating methods.

  As for the image forming apparatus, only the main part relating to the formation of the toner image will be described. However, the present invention includes a printer, various printing machines, a copier, a FAX, It can be implemented in various applications such as a multifunction machine.

  In addition, about the general matter of the image heating apparatus shown by patent document 1, illustration is abbreviate | omitted and the overlapping description is abbreviate | omitted.

<Image forming apparatus>
FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of the configuration of the image forming apparatus. As shown in FIG. 1, the image forming apparatus 100 is a one-drum full-color printer that transfers toner images of respective colors formed on a photosensitive drum 101 to an intermediate transfer belt 107 and superimposes them.

  The image forming apparatus 100 forms a toner image by an image forming unit (101, 107, 108) that is an example of an image forming unit, transfers the toner image to a recording material, and the toner image is transferred by a fixing device 114 that is an example of a fixing unit. Fix to recording material. The gloss processing apparatus 1 is disposed on the downstream side of the image forming apparatus 100. It is also possible to connect a post-processing device having functions such as bookbinding and sorting to the downstream side of the gloss processing device 1.

  A photosensitive drum 101 is disposed in contact with the intermediate transfer belt 107, and a charging device 102, an exposure device 103, a rotary developing device 104, a primary transfer roller 105, and a drum cleaning device 106 are disposed around the photosensitive drum 101. The photosensitive drum 101 has a photosensitive layer formed on the outer peripheral surface of an aluminum cylinder, and rotates in the direction of arrow R1 at a process speed of 120 mm / sec.

  The charging device 102 charges the surface of the photosensitive drum 101 to a uniform negative potential using a charging roller. The exposure apparatus 103 scans a laser beam obtained by ON-OFF modulating scanning line image data obtained by developing an input image, and writes an electrostatic image of the image on the photosensitive drum 101. The rotary developing device 104 positions each color developer to a position facing the photosensitive drum 101 and develops the electrostatic image on the photosensitive drum 101 into a toner image of each color. The rotary developing device 104 includes, in addition to the usual yellow, magenta, cyan, and black developing devices, a clear (transparent) toner developing device for gloss processing described later.

  The primary transfer roller 105 presses the inner surface of the intermediate transfer belt 107 to form a primary transfer portion T1 between the photosensitive drum 101 and the intermediate transfer belt 107. By applying a positive DC voltage to the primary transfer roller 105, the toner image on the photosensitive drum 101 is primarily transferred to the intermediate transfer belt 107. The drum cleaning device 106 rubs the photosensitive drum 101 with a cleaning blade and collects transfer residual toner from the photosensitive drum 101.

  Image formation is started with the secondary transfer roller 108 separated from the intermediate transfer belt 107. Yellow, magenta, cyan, black, and clear (transparent) toner images are sequentially formed on the photosensitive drum 101 and are primarily transferred to the intermediate transfer belt 107. The full color toner image formed on the intermediate transfer belt 107 is fed to the recording material P by feeding the recording material P to the secondary transfer portion T2 after the secondary transfer roller 108 is brought into contact with the intermediate transfer belt 107. Secondary transferred.

  The recording material P stored in the recording material cassette 110 is separated one by one by the separation roller 111 and sent to the registration roller 112. The registration roller 112 sends the recording material P to the secondary transfer portion T2 in synchronization with the toner image on the intermediate transfer belt 107. The toner image on the intermediate transfer belt 107 is secondarily transferred to the recording material P by applying a DC voltage having a polarity opposite to the charging polarity of the toner to the secondary transfer roller 108.

  The recording material P to which the full-color toner image has been transferred is separated in curvature from the intermediate transfer belt 107 and sent to the fixing device 114. The fixing device 114 receives heat and pressure to thermally fix the toner image on the surface. The recording material P on which the full-color image is fixed is fed to the gloss processing apparatus 1 through the discharge roller 115.

  A gloss processing apparatus 1, which is an example of an image heating apparatus, is connected to the downstream side of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus 100. The gloss processing apparatus 1 reheats and softens the toner image, and imparts partial gloss to the toner image by transferring the surface property of a transfer film, which is an example of a film material. The recording material P discharged from the discharge roller 115 is transported to the transport roller 4 of the gloss processing apparatus 1. By connecting the gloss processing apparatus 1 to the downstream side of the image forming apparatus 100, in-line gloss processing becomes possible, and productivity in producing a printed matter subjected to partial gloss processing is improved.

  When performing gloss processing in-line, it is desirable that the processing capability of the gloss processing device 1 is higher than the printing processing capability of the image forming apparatus 100. When the processing capability of the gloss processing apparatus 1 is lower than the printing capability of the image forming apparatus 100, the gloss processing apparatus is configured such that the printing speed of the image forming apparatus 100 is reduced or the feeding interval (paper interval) of the recording material P is opened. It is necessary to match the processing capacity of 1.

  In addition, in an image portion having a relatively small amount of toner such as a halftone image, it is difficult to impart sufficient gloss to the image because the exposed portion of the recording material is large. For this reason, a clear toner image is superimposed on an image portion or a margin portion where the amount of toner is relatively small, so that sufficient gloss processing can be performed on such a portion. Since it is a clear toner, it has little influence on the color of the original full color image.

  For transparent toner, after color separation into CMYK, the transparent toner is supplemented to the portion where the printing rate is low (the amount of applied toner is small), and the exposure image is determined and output so as to cover the entire recording material P with a uniform toner layer. is doing. As a result, it is possible to perform a gloss process at a predetermined level on an arbitrary place on the recording material P. In addition, the fixing condition of the fixing device 114 is set so that the gloss of the toner image after fixing is about 10% at 60 ° gloss.

<Conventional gloss processing>
As a conventional technique, a method of creating glossy photographic prints by giving gloss to the entire printed matter has been proposed as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-086747. In this method, the toner is remelted by reheating the surface of the printed material through a film having a high surface property. Thereafter, by cooling the toner in contact with the film, the toner surface is solidified in a state where the smoothness of the film is transferred, so that glossiness is imparted to the toner surface.

  Photographic high gloss refers to high gloss of reflectivity of 40% or more, and further 80% or more in 60 degree gloss evaluation in which specular reflection light is reflected when reflected at an angle of 60 degrees. However, in addition to the gloss process that imparts high gloss as described above, there is also a gloss process that lowers gloss and adjusts to a desired gloss.

  In the processing method of Patent Document 1, if a film having a textured surface such as satin is used, the textured surface can be transferred to the surface of the softened toner image, and the glossiness can be lowered.

  In the processing method of Patent Document 1, an endless endless film having a relatively large thickness is used for the heated toner image, and a heat roller or the like is used for the heating source. In this case, since the film is an endless film, it can be used repeatedly. On the other hand, many films are relatively thick to withstand repeated use. For this reason, in order to sufficiently remelt the toner image, it is necessary to apply a sufficient amount of heat using a heat roller or the like.

  For this reason, although the processing method of patent document 1 can be said to be suitable when giving glossiness to the whole surface of printed matter, it is not suitable when it is desired to give glossiness partially to printed matter.

  By the way, in the conventional offset printing technology, UV curable transparent ink is offset-printed, and UV is irradiated to fix the transparent ink, thereby partially giving gloss to the printed matter. Yes. According to this method, it is possible to print transparent ink only on a specific portion of the surface of the printed material, and it is possible to give gloss to a photograph portion or a character portion, thereby creating a printed material with a high visual effect.

  However, offset printing is not suitable for variable printing, in which the printing cost increases unless there is a certain amount of printing, and printing is performed with a small number of copies, and further, the printing contents differ for each sheet.

  For this reason, even in an electrophotographic printing apparatus (printer) suitable for small to medium printing including variable printing, it is desired to give gloss to the printed matter partially. Therefore, a method using a transparent toner and a thermal head has been proposed in order to partially impart gloss to a toner image obtained by an electrophotographic method. This is achieved by thinning the film to about several tens of microns, using a thermal head as a heat source, and selectively driving the heating elements of the thermal head to provide gloss in a desired shape at a desired position of the toner image. It is a method of granting.

  However, the thermal head can re-melt the toner image to a desired position and shape by selectively driving the heating element, but the heating element does not generate a large amount of heat. For this reason, the toner image cannot be remelted unless the film existing between the thermal head and the recording material is made sufficiently thin. If the film becomes thicker, heat diffuses and the toner image cannot be remelted to a desired position and shape. Therefore, unless the film is made sufficiently thin, the sharpness of the image is lost.

  If the film is thinned, these problems can be solved. However, if the film is thinned, it becomes weak against thermal deformation and the like, so that it becomes difficult to reuse it, and the film becomes disposable and the running cost increases. Therefore, in the method of giving glossiness using a thin film, the running cost of the film increases.

  Therefore, in the following embodiments, the running cost is reduced in an apparatus capable of partially imparting gloss to printed matter. The running cost when selectively giving gloss to printed matter is reduced.

<Glossy processing equipment>
FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of the configuration of the gloss processing apparatus according to the first embodiment. As shown in FIG. 2, the gloss processing apparatus 1 superimposes the recording material P conveyed to the conveying roller 4 on a transfer film 11 that is an example of a film material, and heat-records the thermal head 8 and the pressure roller 7. Pass part N through. The film supply unit 12, which is an example of a supply unit, supplies the transfer film 11 that is heated integrally with the image surface of the recording material P to the heating recording unit N. A thermal head 8, which is an example of a heating member, heats the image surface of the recording material P via the transfer film 11. A pressure roller 7, which is an example of a pressure unit, urges the recording material P toward the thermal head 8 to bring the recording material P into close contact with the transfer film 11. A separating member 15, which is an example of a separating unit, separates the recording material P, which is conveyed integrally with the transfer film 11 and passed through the thermal head 8, from the transfer film 11. The recording material P is subjected to a gloss treatment by receiving heat and pressure in the process of passing through the heat recording portion N.

  Here, the minimum size of the recording material P is assumed to be equivalent to the L version of the photograph. For this reason, the pitch of the conveyance roller 4-the registration roller 5 is 100 mm or less, and the pitch of the registration roller 5-the pressure roller 7 and the pressure roller 7-the conveyance roller 9 is also 100 mm or less. The conveyance speed of the recording material P in the heat treatment was controlled to 100 mm / sec.

  The conveyance roller 4 feeds the fed recording material P to the registration roller 5. The registration roller 5 corrects the skew of the recording material P, corrects the conveyance timing of the recording material P, and feeds the recording material P to the heating recording unit N formed between the thermal head 8 and the pressure roller 7. The recording material P is transported in advance to the position of the registration roller 5 and is temporarily stopped for skew correction. Thereafter, the registration roller 5 is driven to resume the conveyance of the recording material P, and the driving timing of the thermal head 8 is matched with the timing at which the recording material P passes the leading edge detection sensor 6 as a starting point. The leading edge detection sensor 6 detects the leading edge of the recording material P when the registration roller 5 conveys the recording material P to the heated recording unit N.

  In the heated recording unit N, the pressure roller 7 and the thermal head 8 face each other across the recording material conveyance path. The transfer film 11 is conveyed below the thermal head 8, and the recording material P is conveyed further below. The transfer film 11 is housed in a transfer film cassette 14 and is nipped and conveyed together with the recording material P by the thermal head 8 and the pressure roller 7.

  The thermal head 8 can selectively heat the heating resistor by a heating pattern determined according to the image data, and sandwich and convey the overlap of the transfer film 11 and the recording material P between the pressure roller 7. To do. The thermal head 8 re-melts the toner image on the recording material P and presses it against the surface of the transfer film 11 to copy the mirror-like surface state of the transfer film 11 onto the toner image on the recording material P.

  A separation member 15 is provided downstream of the thermal head 8 to separate the transfer film 11 from the recording material P. The separation member 15 separates the transfer film 11 and the recording paper P that are heat-welded by the thermal head 8. At this time, since the recording material P is sufficiently cooled, the toner image on the surface of the recording material P is solidified in a state where the surface state of the transfer film 11 is transferred, and a desired gloss is imparted to the recording material P. .

  The conveyance roller 9 sandwiches and conveys the recording material P that has passed through the heating recording unit N, and delivers it to the paper discharge roller 10. The paper discharge roller 10 discharges the recording material P to a paper discharge tray 16 outside the housing. Finally, the recording material P is guided to the paper discharge roller 10 and discharged out of the housing, and the recording is completed. The paper discharge tray 16 stacks the glossy recording material P.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the gloss processing apparatus 1 uses a printed matter output from the image forming apparatus 100 as a recording material P on which gloss processing is performed. The image forming apparatus 100 can output two types of recording materials, which are image-formed by a CMYK four-color process, and recording materials image-formed by a five-color process in which a transparent toner not containing a color material is added.

  The gloss processing apparatus 1 performs image formation of a four-color process on a recording material (so-called coated paper) having a resin coating layer formed on the surface thereof, not limited to the recording material P on which a four-color process or a five-color process is formed. Even in the case of glossing, gloss processing can be performed in the same manner. Gloss processing by the gloss processing apparatus 1 can be performed on a recording material on which an image is formed by melt thermal transfer recording, sublimation thermal transfer recording, ink jet recording, or the like by covering the surface with a thermoplastic resin such as a transparent toner or a resin coating layer. Become.

<Thermal head>
FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of the circuit configuration of the thermal head. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of one configuration of the heating resistor constituting the thermal head.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the thermal head 8 is configured by attaching to the thermal head element 84 a heat radiating plate 85 for radiating excess heat after applying heat to the print medium.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the thermal head element 84 includes a driver IC for selectively applying power to the many heating resistors of the heating element 80 to generate heat. The thermal head element 84 forms a heat generating element 80 and a driver IC on the same alumina substrate or on a separate wiring substrate. The driver IC includes a driver 81, a latch register 82, and a shift register 83.

  In the heating element 80, a large number of heating resistors for one line are arranged on an alumina substrate, and electrodes are wired on both sides of each heating resistor. The shift register 83 receives one line of data and causes the latch register 82 to hold it.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the thermal head element 84 has a glaze 52 (heat insulating layer) formed on an alumina substrate 51 by printing. On the glaze 52, a common (common) electrode 53a and an individual (lead) electrode 53b are formed by etching. A heating resistor 55 is printed on the upper surface of each electrode. A glass protective film 54 (overcoat layer) is formed on the top surfaces of the alumina substrate 51, the heat retaining layer 52, the individual electrodes 53a and 53b, and the heating resistor 55.

  The thermal head element 84 in this embodiment has a heating resistor density of 300 dPi, a recording density of 300 dPi, a driving voltage of 30 V, and an average resistance value of the heating resistor of 5000Ω. However, the head configuration and specifications are not limited to this.

<Pressure roller>
As shown in FIG. 2, the pressure roller 7 is formed as a rubber roller by disposing an elastic layer 7b having a high friction coefficient such as hard rubber around a metal shaft 7a. For example, silicon rubber or the like is used for the elastic layer 7b. The pressure roller 7 is rotatably attached to the apparatus main body of the gloss processing apparatus 1 by a metal shaft 7a, and is driven by a drive source (not shown) to convey the recording material P and the transfer film 11.

  The conveyance speed of the recording material P is determined by the pressure roller 7, and the image data signal sent to the thermal head 8 is formed based on the rotation speed of the pressure roller 7.

<Transfer film>
As shown in FIG. 2, the transfer film cassette 14 stores the transfer film 11 in a roll state, and supplies the transfer film 11 to the heating recording unit N formed by the thermal head 8 and the pressure roller 7. The film supply unit 12 holds the unused transfer film 11 in a roll state and sends it to the heating recording unit N. The film take-up collection unit 13 takes up the used transfer film 11 from which the recording material P has been separated after passing through the heating recording unit N.

  The film supply section 12 is provided with a driving device 12M, and the driving device 12M winds the transfer film 11 in the reverse direction to prevent sagging. The winding recovery unit 13 is provided with a driving device 13M, and the driving device 13M winds the transfer film 11 in the forward direction to prevent sagging.

  The driving device 13M winds the transfer film 11 conveyed together with the recording material P, and at the same time, generates a film tension necessary for separating the recording material P from the transfer film 11 by the separating member 15.

  The driving device 13M rotationally drives the take-up collecting unit 13 via a torque limiter, and the film winding speed by the driving device 13M is set slightly higher than the conveying speed of the recording material P. Thereby, a film tension necessary for separating the transfer film 11 from the recording material P is generated.

  The transfer film 11 is made of a thin flexible material in order to locally heat the image surface of the recording material P. From this viewpoint, the thickness of the transfer film 11 is desirably 40 μm or less. From the viewpoint of gloss treatment, a thickness of 2 μm is possible, but from the viewpoint of film strength, 4 μm or more is preferable.

  In addition, it is effective that the transfer film 11 has a certain degree of rigidity in order to obtain a surface property with excellent photographic image clarity in gloss processing, and it is preferably 8 μm or more in the following materials.

  Further, the transfer film 11 needs to have heat resistance to the thermal head 8. A material having heat resistance exceeding 200 ° C., such as polyimide, is preferable. However, in this embodiment, although a heating history remains, an inexpensive and general resin film such as PET resin is used.

  Further, a release coating layer is formed on the surface layer of the transfer film 11 (the surface in contact with the recording material P). The release coating layer is a low surface energy resin coating layer, and is applied to improve the release properties of the film material and the recording material surface layer resin. In this embodiment in which the micro shape on the surface of the transfer film 11 is transferred to the surface of the heat-softened toner image, the mold is smoothly released from the viewpoint of accurately transferring the surface shape of the transfer film 11. Is desirable.

  As the composition of the release coating layer, for example, a fluororesin or a silicone resin can be used. As for the formation method, in this embodiment, coating is used.

  However, the method for forming the release coating layer is not limited to coating, and it is important that the surface property to be transferred can be formed. In this embodiment, in order to produce a smooth surface for photography, a smooth surface is created by coating the base film.

  Further, a stick prevention layer is provided on the back surface of the transfer film 11 (the surface that slides with the thermal head 8). This is performed in order to reduce mechanical friction with the thermal head 8. Since characteristics close to those of the release coating described above are required, specifically, coating with a fluororesin or a silicone resin is effective similarly to the release layer.

  Since the transfer film 11 in this embodiment transfers its surface shape, it can be processed to a glossy surface with a high gloss photographic tone if it is a high gloss smooth film.

  Conversely, if a mat film made of sandblast or the like is used, or a film having a specific shape is used, the inverted shape of the shape can be transferred to the medium to be processed. For example, it is possible to transfer various texture shapes such as those in silk, Japanese paper, and embossed paper.

  Further, the geometric pattern formed on the transfer film 11 can be transferred to the surface of the toner image, and various textures such as a lattice pattern, hatching, and polka dot pattern can be transferred. It is also possible to transfer the surface exhibiting the hologram color onto the surface of the recording material by transferring the geometric structure of the order of 1 μm to sub-μm on the surface of the transparent toner image.

  As shown in FIG. 2, in this embodiment, the transfer film 11 can be replaced as a transfer film cassette 14 from the gloss processing apparatus 1 integrally. For this reason, it is possible to process various shapes and hologram colors by replacing a plurality of transfer film cassettes 14 of the transfer film 11 having a submicron surface structure. Then, a surface that is different from the surroundings from the transfer film 11 is provided by using the thermal head 8 so that a necessary contour is provided only at a necessary location on the toner image of the recording material P, such as partial gloss processing. Can transfer the structure.

<Separation member>
As shown in FIG. 5A, the separating member 15 has two roles, a film cooling function by metal heat conduction and a recording material separating function by curvature. The separating member 15 is made of a metal such as a SUS plate, and the recording material P can be reliably released from the transfer film 11 by setting the separating curvature to a sufficiently small value. Specifically, the separation curvature of the separation member 15 was set to 1 mm in curvature radius.

  The separation member 15 includes a cooling structure having an air cooling fan and cooling fins, and the temperature rise of the separation portion can be suppressed even during continuous heating of the recording material P. The temperature of the separation member 15 is monitored by thermistor resistance provided at a plurality of locations, and the air volume of the air cooling fan and the number of processed sheets per minute are controlled so that the separation member 15 is equal to or lower than the cooling target temperature T1.

  The cooling target temperature T1 is desirably matched with the glass transition temperature Tg of the surface resin layer such as the toner on the recording material P or the overcoat layer. Considering the difference between the glass transition temperature Tg and the melting start temperature, the cooling target temperature T1 is preferably set to Tg + 15 ° C. or less, and more preferably set to Tg or less.

  In addition, when the toner image contains a low melting point substance such as a Wax component in addition to the resin and the colorant, it is preferable to set the toner image to be equal to or lower than the melting point of the Wax component. If the recording material cannot be determined, it is preferable to set the temperature sufficiently low, such as about room temperature. For example, about 30-50 degreeC is favorable.

<Example 1>
FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a control system of the gloss processing apparatus. FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of the control of the heating nip. In FIG. 6, (a) is before the start of heating of the recording material, (b) is during heating of the recording material, and (c) is after the heating of the recording material is finished.

  As shown in FIG. 5 with reference to FIG. 1, various operations of the image forming apparatus 100 and the gloss processing apparatus 1 are controlled by a controller 500. The controller 500 starts the operations of the image forming apparatus 100 and the gloss processing apparatus 1 based on a print processing command sent from a personal computer or the like or a print processing command from the operation unit 200.

  When a print processing command is sent, the controller 500 starts the image forming apparatus 100 and starts conveying the recording material P. In parallel with this, the controller 500 also transmits the image data to the thermal head drive circuit 8M.

  In Example 1, the film supply unit 12 and the film take-up collection unit 13, which are examples of reverse feeding means, feed the transfer film 11 that has passed through the thermal head 8 back to the film supply unit 12 at intervals of the recording material P. Thus, the unheated area of the transfer film 11 is utilized. The transfer film 11 is mounted on the film supply unit 12 in a roll state, and the film supply unit 12 rewinds the transferred transfer film 11 to the original roll state.

  In the first embodiment, the thermal head 8 and the pressure roller 7 are arranged so as to be able to contact and separate, and the controller 500 causes the transfer film 11 in a state where the pressure roller 7 is separated from the thermal head 8 at the interval of the recording material P. To reverse.

  In the first embodiment, after the recording material P passes through the separating member 15, the controller 500 increases the reverse feed amount as the total length of the non-heated areas of the two recording materials P sandwiching the interval between the recording materials P increases. Used to reverse the film material.

  In the first embodiment, the thermal head 8 has a plurality of heat generating elements that can individually control the amount of heat generation, and the controller 500 controls the heat generation of the individual heat generating elements of the thermal head 8 so as to arbitrarily set the recording material P. This region can be heated. Based on the image data of the image formed on the recording material P, the controller 500 reversely feeds the transfer film so that the next heating start position is positioned at the previous heating end position of the transfer film 11 in the transport direction.

  The controller 500 sends a command to the thermal head attaching / detaching section 202 after the recording material P passes through the leading edge detection sensor 6 and passes the thermal head 8 to press the pressure roller 7. The thermal head 8 performs heating recording at a predetermined position of the recording material P based on the image data. After the recording material P passes through the separating member 15, a command is sent to the thermal head attaching / detaching portion 202 to raise the thermal head 8 and separate it from the pressure roller 7.

  As shown in FIG. 6A, the thermal head 8 normally rises integrally with the separating member 15 and stands by in a state of being separated from the pressure roller 7. At this time, the film take-up collection unit 13 is stopped, and the transfer film 11 is not conveyed.

  When the recording material P is conveyed to the glossy processing start position and detected by the recording material leading edge detection sensor 6, the separation member 15 and the thermal head 8 move downward as shown in FIG. A heating recording portion N is formed between the pressure roller 7. When the thermal head 8 is pressed against the pressure roller 7, the film take-up collection unit 13 is also driven at the same time. The film winding / recovery unit 13 winds the transfer film 11 conveyed together with the recording material P while generating a film tension for separating the transfer film 11 from the recording material P during the glossing process.

  After completion of the glossing process, as shown in FIG. 6C, the thermal head 8 is separated from the pressure roller 7, and at the same time, the rotation of the film take-up collection unit 13 is stopped.

  By the way, as described above, the transfer film 11 is transported integrally with the recording material P, so that the same length as the length of the recording material P is transported. As described above, the transfer film 11 uses a very thin heat-flexible PET resin film as its material. This is because, in order to selectively remelt the toner on the recording material with the thermal head 8, the power supplied to the thermal head 8 increases when the film material is thick, and the edge of the heating area when heat is applied. This is to avoid blurring the part.

  By using such a thin film material, reduction of electric energy and sharpness of a glossy image can be achieved. However, since the film material undergoes thermal deformation, it cannot be used repeatedly.

  Here, as the recording material P, a printed material printed by the image forming apparatus 100 is used. Normally, such a printed material is provided with margins at the front end portion and the rear end portion of the recording material P. Since no toner image is formed on the margin, the gloss processing apparatus 1 does not perform gloss processing. However, the transfer film that overlaps the recording material P is conveyed even in the margin.

  In the gloss processing apparatus 1, gloss processing can be performed partially. However, depending on the image data to be glossed, there is an area where there is no gloss processing data in the paper width direction. However, even if there is no gloss processing data, the transfer film overlapping the recording material P is conveyed.

  The pitch between the registration roller 5 and the pressure roller 7 and the pitch between the transport roller 9 and the pressure roller 7 are set to about 100 mm. For this reason, the transfer film 11 starts to be transported about 100 mm before the recording material P reaches the thermal head 8 and is transported without being heated. Even after the trailing edge of the recording material P passes through the thermal head 8, the transfer film 11 to which the recording material P is adhered is transported without being heated by about 100 mm.

  In these cases, the transfer film 11 is wound up to the film winding and collecting unit 13 while leaving a continuous unheated area in the transport direction, and is consumed only for transporting the recording material P.

  Further, when continuous paper is passed, if the thermal head 8 is repeatedly separated and pressed with respect to the pressure roller 7 at intervals of the recording material P (between sheets), productivity is often impaired. In order to improve productivity, the thermal head 8 may be always pressed against the pressure roller 7 for gloss treatment. In this case, however, the transfer film 11 is consumed even at intervals of the recording material P (between sheets).

  Therefore, in the first embodiment, the controller 500, which is an example of a control unit, controls the film supply unit 12 so that the film material is spaced at the interval of the recording material P within the range where the previous heating area and the next heating area of the film material do not overlap. The material is fed back to the film supply unit 12 side. As a result, the non-heated area of the film material that has passed through the thermal recording portion N of the thermal head 8 and the pressure roller 7 is used in the gloss processing of the next recording material.

  The controller 500 can know the position of the recording material from the timing at which the leading edge of the recording material P passes through the leading edge detection sensor 6 and the conveyance speed of the recording material P. The controller 500 can know in advance information about a full paper width area in the conveyance direction in which the gloss processing is not performed on the recording material P from the sent image data.

  From these two pieces of information, the controller 500 determines, for example, that gloss processing is not performed on the leading edge margin portion, trailing edge margin portion, and inter-paper portion. When the gloss processing is not performed, when the preceding recording material P passes through the heating recording portion N, the thermal head 8 is once separated, and the transfer film 11 is rewound until the position where the transfer film 11 is not yet used reaches the leading edge detection sensor 6.

  When the next recording material P is sent to the leading edge detection sensor 6, the thermal head 8 is pressed against the pressure roller 7 in accordance with the gloss processing position of the next recording material P, and the gloss processing is started. Similarly, even when there is no gloss processing data in the width direction perpendicular to the transport direction, when the previous recording material P is transported, the transfer film 11 is rewound until a portion that has not yet been used reaches the leading edge detection sensor 6. The transfer film 11 is used in accordance with the gloss processing position of the next recording material P. In this way, the amount of transfer film 11 used is reduced.

  In Example 1, the transfer film 11 was rewound to the film supply unit 12 and the entire free part from which the transfer film 11 was drawn was moved. However, another independent film reverse feeding mechanism may be provided so that only a part of the transfer film 11 positioned before and after the thermal head 8 is retracted to the upstream side. In this case, the mechanism is added and the cost is increased, but the mechanism can be moved faster than the film supply unit 12 is wound.

  In the first embodiment, the embodiment in which the transfer film 11 is reversely fed at the interval between the two recording materials P has been described. However, as a matter of course, even after the last recording material P in the continuous image formation passes through the separating member 15, the transfer film 11 is similarly pulled back to reuse the unheated portion at the next image formation. In other words, the transfer film 11 is controlled to be wound around the film supply unit 12 even at the interval (between sheets) between the last recording material P of the current image formation and the first recording material P of the next time.

<Example 2>
FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of the gloss processing apparatus according to the second embodiment. FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of the processing mode. FIG. 9 is a flowchart of control according to the second embodiment. In the first embodiment, the case where the image forming apparatus and the gloss processing apparatus are connected and the recording material is glossed inline has been described. In the second embodiment, an apparatus for performing gloss processing on a printed recording material offline will be described.

  As shown in FIG. 7, in the gloss processing apparatus 1 that is not connected to the downstream side of the image forming apparatus, a recording material cassette 2 is provided as a paper feed unit. The recording material cassette 2 is loaded with the recording material P. The paper feed roller 3 separates and feeds the recording material P from the recording material cassette 2 one by one. The conveying roller 4 sandwiches and conveys the recording material P received from the recording material cassette 2 and delivers it to the registration roller 5. The following heat treatment is performed in the same manner as in the first embodiment.

  In the gloss processing apparatus 1 according to the second embodiment, image data can be read from a storage medium (USB memory or the like) inserted into the operation unit 200, and glossiness having an arbitrary shape can be given to an arbitrary position of the toner image.

  Since the image forming apparatus (100: FIG. 1) according to the first exemplary embodiment is a one-drum type full-color printer, the print output is intermittent, and a print output in which intervals of recording materials are reduced as in a so-called tandem type full-color printer. Can not do. FIG. 1 of Patent Document 1 shows an example in which a gloss processing apparatus is connected to a tandem type full color printer.

  On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 8A, the gloss processing apparatus 1 according to the second embodiment is capable of feeding a recording material in which the interval between the recording materials is reduced as in a tandem type full color printer. . In this case, when a gloss process is performed on a portion K of the toner image G, intermittent unheated areas are formed on the transfer film 11 as shown in FIG. It will be wasted. For this reason, as shown in FIG. 8C, the gloss processing apparatus 1 according to the second embodiment can execute a mode that prioritizes the running cost that suppresses the consumption of the transfer film 11, as in the first embodiment. it can.

  As shown in FIG. 9 with reference to FIG. 7, in the running cost priority mode (the Lancos priority mode of S12), the controller 500 controls the film supply unit 12 to save the transfer film 11. The transfer film 11 is fed back to the film supply unit 12 side at intervals of the recording material P within a range where the previous heating area and the next heating area of the transfer film 11 do not overlap (S18). As a result, the non-heated area of the film material that has passed through the thermal recording portion N of the thermal head 8 and the pressure roller 7 is used in the gloss processing of the next recording material. As shown in FIG. 8C, the transfer film 11 is rewound to the film supply unit 12 at intervals of the image G, and the interval of the portion K on which the gloss processing has been performed is reduced to the limit.

  However, in this case, as shown in FIG. 7, it is necessary to wait for the subsequent recording material P by the registration roller 5 and to reversely transfer the transfer film 11 after the preceding recording material P passes through the separation member 15. . As shown in FIG. 8A, if the intervals between the recording materials (toner images G) are reduced, the subsequent recording materials are fed back to the film supply unit 12 side while sticking to the transfer film 11. It is.

  Therefore, as shown in FIG. 8B, assuming that the interval between the toner images G is widened, an image interval where no subsequent recording material is stuck is secured, and the image interval is supplied to the film. It is necessary to feed back to the part 12 side. As a result, the processing time per sheet is required by adding the rewinding time of the film feeding length for one recording material to the heating processing time for one sheet when the interval between the toner images G is widened. . As a result, the processing efficiency is greatly reduced as compared with the continuous forward feed processing shown in FIG.

  Therefore, as shown in FIG. 9 with reference to FIG. 7, in the second embodiment, after the gloss process is started (S11), priority is given to the mode in which the productivity of the gloss processing apparatus 1 is prioritized and the saving of the transfer film 11. The mode is selectively executed (S12). In the Lancos priority mode, which is an example of the first heating mode, the transfer film 11 is fed back to the film supply unit 12 side, which is an example of the supply means, for each interval of the recording material P. In the productivity priority mode, which is an example of the second heating mode, the recording material P is continuously heated without the transfer film 11 being fed backward.

  In the running cost priority mode (Lancos priority mode of S12), as shown in FIG. 8C, although the consumption of the transfer film 11 is reduced, an operation of rewinding the transfer film 11 (S18) occurs. Further, prior to the reverse transfer of the transfer film 11, a separation operation (S17) of the thermal head 8 is also required for each interval of the recording material P. For this reason, during the rewinding operation, the recording material P cannot be transported (S14), and the productivity is lowered.

  In Example 2, when it is desired to emphasize productivity, if the productivity priority mode (productivity priority mode of S12) is selected from the operation unit 200, the operation of rewinding the transfer film 11 can be eliminated (S24). To S27). In the productivity priority mode, the gloss processing apparatus 1 does not perform the separation operation (S17) of the thermal head 8 in order to rewind the transfer film 11, so that the recording material P is loaded as shown in FIG. Gloss processing can be performed at regular intervals. As a result, when the gloss processing is performed on the majority of the toner image G, the productivity indicated by the number of processed sheets per minute can be significantly improved without increasing the wasteful consumption of the transfer film 11. .

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Gloss processing apparatus, 2 Recording material cassette, 3 Paper feed roller 4 Conveyance roller, 5 Registration roller, 6 Tip detection sensor 7 Pressure roller, 8 Thermal head, 9 Conveyance roller 10 Paper discharge roller, 11 Transfer film, 12 Film supply Section 13 Film winding / recovery section, 14 Film cassette 15 Separating member, 16 Paper discharge tray, 100 Image forming apparatus

Claims (8)

A film material supply means that is integrally heated on the image surface of the recording material;
Heating means for heating the image surface of the recording material through the film material;
A pressurizing unit that presses the recording material toward the heating unit to bring the image surface of the recording material into close contact with the film material;
Separating means for separating the recording material that has passed through the heating means integrally with the film material from the film material;
An image heating apparatus, comprising: a reverse feed unit that feeds back the film material that has passed through the heating unit to the supply unit side at intervals of a recording material to use an unheated area of the film material. The heating means and the pressurizing means are arranged so as to be able to contact and separate,
2. The image heating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the reverse feeding means reversely feeds the film material at intervals of the recording material in a state where the pressurizing means is separated from the heating means.   The reverse feed means uses the reverse feed amount to increase the film material as the total length of the non-heated areas of the two recording materials sandwiching the interval between the recording materials increases after the recording material passes through the separating means. The image heating apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the image heating apparatus is reversely fed.   The reverse feeding means reversely feeds the film material so that the next heating start position is positioned at the previous heating end position of the film material in the transport direction based on the image data of the image formed on the recording material. The image heating apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the apparatus is an image heating apparatus.   The heating means is a thermal head having a plurality of heating elements capable of individually controlling the amount of heat generation, and can control heating of individual heating elements of the thermal head to heat an arbitrary area of the recording material. The image heating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image heating apparatus is an image heating apparatus. The film material is attached to the supply means in a roll state,
6. The image heating apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the reverse feeding means rewinds the fed film material to an original roll state.   A first heating mode in which the film material is fed back to the supply means at every interval of the recording material, and a second heating mode in which the recording material is heated continuously without being fed back to the supply means. The image heating apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a control unit that selectively executes the heating mode according to the setting.   An image forming unit that forms a toner image and transfers it to a recording material, a fixing unit that fixes the transferred toner image on the recording material, and an image heating apparatus according to claim 1. An image forming apparatus that waits for the image forming means to form a toner image while the reverse feeding means reversely feeds the film material.

Images