JP2012013870A - Gloss processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a gloss processor capable of continuously changing gloss on the surface of a sheet.SOLUTION: A gloss processor performs a gloss processing by moving together a sheet and a film 8 relative to a thermal head 6 in a nip part N, the sheet on which an image is formed, and heating/pressing a thermal plastic resin material carried on the image-forming surface of the sheet P to transfer a form of the film surface. The gloss processor comprises adjustment means for adjusting an amount of heat generation in the thermal head 6 in order to adjust a degree of transferring a form of the film surface.

Description

  The present invention relates to a gloss processing apparatus.

Conventionally, many printed materials have different glossiness depending on the printing rate because the recording material (sheet) and the color material have different glossiness. In order to make the overall gloss uniform for such a printed matter, various methods for creating a uniform glossy surface by various post-treatment processes such as overcoat have been proposed and implemented. Furthermore, in recent years, various techniques for controlling the gloss have been proposed and implemented.
For example, in offset printing, after printing with color material ink, a method that uses UV curable transparent ink, offset printing on a specific part, and fixing by UV irradiation on the whole is often used, and various gloss It enables expression. Thereby, it is possible to improve the gloss of a specific part (photograph, headline part, etc.) and to output a printed matter with a rich visual effect.
In electrophotographic recording, the present applicant has proposed a technique for improving the gloss of the entire printed material and recording a photographic tone, as in Patent Document 1, for example. Patent Documents 2 and 3 can be cited as examples of the entire gloss processing by the thermal recording method. In addition, Patent Documents 4 and 5 can be cited as a description regarding means for partially processing gloss.

JP 2007-086747 A JP 10-315515 A JP 2000-301749 A JP 2004-170548 A Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 07-068808

However, it is difficult to continuously change the gloss of the surface of the sheet even using the conventional technique. Although there are apparatuses that perform gloss processing by shape transfer for surface properties such as gloss, it is difficult to create an intermediate surface state by controlling the degree of transfer.
The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a gloss processing apparatus capable of continuously changing the gloss of the surface of a sheet.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides:
A heater,
A pressure member provided on the opposite side of the heater via a transfer film slidable on the heater;
With
In the nip portion between the transfer film and the pressure member, the sheet on which the image is formed is moved relative to the heater together with the transfer film and is carried on the image forming surface side of the sheet. In the gloss processing apparatus that applies gloss processing by transferring the shape of the transfer film surface by heating and pressurizing the thermoplastic resin material,
In order to adjust the degree of transfer of the shape of the transfer film surface, adjustment means for adjusting the amount of heat generated by the heater is provided.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a gloss processing apparatus capable of continuously changing the gloss of the surface of a sheet.

Sectional drawing which shows schematic structure of the gloss processing apparatus of embodiment. The figure which shows schematic structure of the drive circuit of a thermal head Schematic explaining the structure of the heating element of the thermal head Schematic sectional view for explaining the configuration of the main part of the gloss processing apparatus Image showing the deformation of toner on the sheet Model diagram showing how toner is deformed Diagram explaining the difference in gloss

  DETAILED DESCRIPTION Exemplary embodiments for carrying out the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. However, the dimensions, materials, shapes, and relative arrangements of the components described in this embodiment should be appropriately changed according to the configuration of the apparatus to which the invention is applied and various conditions. It is not intended to limit the scope to the following embodiments.

In the present embodiment, the thermal head constitutes a heater (heating source). A conventional gloss processing apparatus for transferring a smooth surface has a configuration in which a transfer film or a transfer belt is heated by a heat source having a large heat capacity to heat the entire film or sheet (processing medium). In such a case, it is possible to perform uniform heating throughout, but the sheet does not always reach a uniform temperature due to uniform heating throughout. Since the sheet has different heat capacities between the portion with the color material and the portion without the color material, the amount of heating to bring the entire sheet to the same temperature differs depending on the part.
On the other hand, in this embodiment, a thermal head is used, and each part is heated locally in a short time, thereby facilitating temperature management. That is, since the portion to be heated is narrow, it is difficult to receive the amount of recording material and the history of the film, and the surface temperature is determined according to the amount of heating applied to each portion. If the temperature is determined, the heating is performed accordingly, and the portion of the thermoplastic resin material (on the sheet) that is thermally deformed (on the sheet) is gradually deformed according to the unevenness of the sheet. The transfer condition of the transfer film can be controlled.

[Entire device configuration]
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing a schematic configuration of the gloss processing apparatus of the present embodiment. FIG. 4 is a schematic cross-sectional view for explaining the configuration of the main part of the gloss processing apparatus.
The gloss processing apparatus of this embodiment performs gloss processing by transferring the surface shape of the transfer film by softening the thermoplastic resin material on the sheet by heating and deforming it using the shape of the transfer film surface. is there. First, the overall configuration of the gloss processing apparatus will be described.
In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes an apparatus main body, 2 a cassette on which sheets (recording materials) P are stacked, and 3 a feeding roller for separating and feeding the sheets P from the cassette 2 one by one. Reference numeral 4 denotes a pair of sheet feed rollers that sandwich the sheet P fed from the feed roller 3 and convey the sheet P toward the processing unit (heating unit, nip unit). The sheet feed roller pair 4 is configured to reciprocate the sheet P. A sensor 14 detects the leading edge of the sheet P when the sheet P is conveyed in advance to the recording start position of P1.
Reference numeral 5 denotes a platen roller as a pressure member disposed across the sheet conveyance path, and 6 denotes a thermal head as a heater that selectively generates heat in accordance with recording information (surface treatment information). The platen roller 5 and the thermal head 6 are arranged facing each other.

Reference numeral 8 denotes a transfer film (hereinafter referred to as a film) that is pressed against the sheet P by the thermal head 6 and is selectively heated. Reference numeral 7 denotes a film cassette (storage portion, mounting portion) in which the film 8 is stored. Reference numerals 12 and 13 denote a film take-up shaft and a film supply shaft for the film 8 provided in the film cassette 7, respectively. Reference numeral 11 denotes a separating member that separates the film 8 and the sheet P that are heated and pressed by the thermal head 6. Reference numeral 9 denotes a discharge roller pair for discharging the sheet P out of the apparatus main body, and reference numeral 15 denotes a discharge tray.

(Thermal head)
The basic configuration and basic specifications of the thermal head 6 will be described below. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram for explaining the configuration of the heating element of the thermal head 6. In the thermal head 6, a common electrode 23a and a lead (individual) electrode 23b are formed on a glaze (hereinafter referred to as a heat insulating layer) 22 printed on a substrate 21 using alumina or the like via a heating element 25. It is constituted by. (The heating element 25 is formed on the lower surface of each electrode.)
Further, a protective film (overcoat layer) 24 is formed on the upper surface of the substrate 21, the heat retaining layer 22, the electrodes 23 a and 23 b, and the heating element 25. The thermal head 6 includes a driving circuit for selectively applying electric power to the heating element 25 to generate heat, and a component such as a heat radiating plate for radiating excess heat after the sheet P is heated. It is configured. Here, the gloss processing apparatus of the present embodiment is provided with an adjusting means (control means) that adjusts the amount of heat generated by the heating element 25 using this drive circuit. In the present embodiment, the amount of heat generated by the heating element 25 is adjusted by the adjusting means to adjust the degree of transfer for transferring the surface shape of the film 8 to the thermoplastic resin material on the sheet P, as will be described later. is there.
In this embodiment, the thermal head 6 having a heating element density of 300 dpi, a recording density of 300 dpi, a driving voltage of 30 V, and a heating element average resistance value of 5000Ω is used. However, the head configuration and specifications of the thermal head 6 are not limited to this.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a drive circuit of the thermal head 6.
A plurality of heating elements 25 are arranged on the substrate 21 so as to form one line, and electrodes are wired on both sides thereof. A driver IC including a register group for transferring and holding data for one line is provided on the same substrate or on a separate wiring substrate.
The thermal head 6 configured as described above is configured such that the heat generation amount of the plurality of heating elements 25 can be independently adjusted, and the heating area to the sheet P can be controlled. Thus, an intermediate gloss process can be performed on the surface of the sheet P, and a gloss process can be partially performed on the surface of the sheet P. Here, the thermal head 6 is configured to be able to heat a part of the region where the film 8 passes through the nip portion N together with the sheet P, so that a part of the region on the sheet P can be heated. Gloss processing is possible.

(Platen roller)
The platen roller 5 is formed by forming a member having a high coefficient of friction such as hard rubber in the form of a roller. For example, the platen roller 5 is made of a rubber roller using silicon rubber or the like, and is rotatably attached to the apparatus main body 1 by a shaft 5a. The platen roller 5 is provided on the opposite side of the thermal head 6 through the film 8.

(the film)
The film 8 is slidably provided on the thermal head 6 and has a surface shape for performing a gloss treatment on the sheet P having a thermoplastic resin material on the surface (image forming surface side). . Further, the film 8 is wound and stored on the film supply shaft 13 by a desired length, and is supplied to a processing unit including the thermal head 6 by being wound by the film winding shaft 12 as necessary. In the case where the film 8 has a replaceable specification in the gloss processing apparatus, the film 8 is detachably attached to the gloss processing apparatus main body.

The film 8 is made of a thin flexible material in order to locally heat the sheet surface. From this viewpoint, the thickness of the file 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. Furthermore, in order to obtain a surface property having excellent photographic image clarity in gloss processing, it is effective that the film 8 has a certain degree of rigidity, and in the following materials, 8 μm or more is preferable. However, in this example, from the viewpoint of ease of temperature control on the film surface and ease of adhesion to the recording material, the thinner one is better for controlling the transfer condition, so the image quality of the glossy surface is better than that. The following film prescription was selected giving priority to gloss gradation. In addition, the material needs to have heat resistance to the thermal head 6. A material having heat resistance exceeding 200 degrees such as polyimide is preferable. However, although a heating history remains, a general resin film such as PET (polyethylene terephthalate) can also be used.
In the present embodiment, any of the following film members is used as a specific transfer film.
(1) PET film + release coating Total thickness 5.0 μm
(2) PET film + single-sided blast treatment Total thickness 20 μm

  In the above (1), a release coating is applied to the surface layer (the surface in contact with the sheet P). This functional layer is a low surface energy coating layer, and is applied to improve the mold release property between the film 8 and the thermoplastic resin material on the surface of the sheet P. When the surface shape of the film 8 is transferred, the film 8 and the sheet P can be smoothly released (separated and separated) from the viewpoint of how accurately the shape of the film 8 is transferred to the sheet P. desirable. As these compositions, for example, a fluororesin or a silicone resin can be used. As for the forming method, coating is used in this example, but the forming method is not limited to coating, and it is important that the surface property to be transferred can be formed. In this example, the base film is formed by coating in order to create a smooth surface for photography. It is also possible to use, for example, a polypropylene film having a low surface energy for the base film alone. However, since the heat resistant temperature of the polypropylene-based resin is low, devising and spec reduction are required for preventing sticking on the back surface, reducing the amount of overheating, and recording at low speed. In this example, the film as described above was used because of these factors. Moreover, the contact angle with respect to the water of the same surface layer is 90 degree | times, and it has the outstanding mold release performance. The surface layer preferably has a contact angle (with respect to water) of 80 degrees or more in order to maintain the release performance. The contact angle with water on the surface layer of (1) was 75 degrees.

  Further, a stick prevention layer is provided on the back surface (the surface that slides with the thermal head 6) of either (1) or (2). This layer is applied to reduce mechanical friction with the thermal head 6. Since characteristics close to those of the release coating described above are required, specifically, coating with a fluororesin or other silicone resin similar to the release layer is effective.

  Since the film 8 in the present embodiment transfers the surface shape, the film 8 can be processed to a glossy surface having a high gloss photographic tone as long as it is a high gloss smooth film. Conversely, if a mat film by sandblasting is used or a film having a specific shape is used, the inverted shape of the shape can be transferred to the sheet P. For example, it is possible to transfer various texture shapes such as those in silk, Japanese paper, and embossed paper. In addition, a geometric pattern can be applied, and various textures such as a lattice can be transferred. Further, it is possible to transfer a surface exhibiting a hologram color by creating a geometric structure of the order of 1 μm to sub μm.

  In the present embodiment, since the surface of the sheet P can be partially glossed, a plurality of these films can be provided to process various shapes and hologram colors only at necessary places. .

(Separation member)
The separating member 11 will be described in detail below.
The separating member 11 has two roles of a film cooling function and a film separating function by curvature. As shown in FIG. 4, the separation member 11 is made of a metal such as SUS (stainless steel), and the separation curvature is set to a sufficiently small value (in this example, the curvature radius is 1 mm). It is configured so that the mold can be reliably released. Here, the separation member 11 separates the film 8 and the sheet P by contacting the film 8 and changing the moving direction of the film 8. Although not shown, it is desirable to have a cooling mechanism for suppressing the temperature rise of the separating member 11. For this purpose, it is effective to attach air cooling or cooling fins, for example.

Further, by monitoring the temperature of the separation member 11 with thermistor resistors provided at a plurality of locations, the fan and the printing operation may be controlled so that the temperature of the separation member 11 is equal to or lower than the cooling target temperature T1 ° C.
The cooling target temperature T1 is desirably adjusted to the Tg (glass transition point) of the surface layer resin such as the color material or the overcoat material on the sheet P. Considering the difference between Tg and the melting start point, the cooling target temperature T1 is preferably set to about Tg + 15 degrees, more preferably Tg or less. The color material layer also includes a surface layer material containing components such as Wax in addition to the resin and the colorant. In this case, it is preferable to set it below the melting point of Wax. If the recording material cannot be determined, it is preferable to set the temperature to a sufficiently low temperature of about room temperature. For example, about 30-50 degreeC is favorable.

(Sheet (cut paper))
In this embodiment, a recording material (printed material) output by an electrophotographic recording apparatus (electrophotographic image forming apparatus) is used as a sheet (material to be processed). As the recording material, art paper for printing (basis weight 157 g / m ² ) was used. In this embodiment, there are two types of recording materials, a recording image formed by a four-color toner (thermoplastic resin material) of CMYK and a recording material image-formed by a five-color process including a transparent toner mainly composed of a thermoplastic resin not including a coloring material. Using. For the transparent toner, after separation into CMYK, the transparent toner was supplemented to the portion with a low printing rate, and a printing pattern was determined and output so as to cover the entire recording material with the toner. As a result, it is possible to perform a gloss process on an arbitrary place of the recording material. Further, the toner fixing state in the electrophotographic recording apparatus was adjusted so that the gloss of the recording material by electrophotographic recording was about 10% at 60 ° gloss. In the embodiments to be described later, when different from this state, the details are described in each embodiment.

Further, in the present embodiment, the recording material is not limited to the above four-color and five-color processes, but also when the image is formed by a four-color process on a sheet coated with a thermoplastic resin material, Processing is possible. The same applies to sheets recorded by melt thermal transfer recording, sublimation thermal transfer recording, ink jet recording, and the like. Even in this case, by covering the sheet surface with the thermoplastic resin material, it is possible to perform the gloss treatment at an arbitrary position on the entire sheet surface.
As described above, in the sheet carrying the thermoplastic resin material according to the present embodiment, when the material for forming an image on the sheet is a thermoplastic resin material, the thermoplastic resin material is provided on the image forming surface. Including the case of coating.

[Description of operation]
In the apparatus main body 1 shown in FIG. 1, when the sheet P on which an image is recorded is separated and fed one by one from the cassette 2 by the feeding roller 3, the sheet P is directed to the processing unit by the sheet feeding roller pair 4. It is nipped and conveyed. When the sheet P is conveyed in advance to the processing start position of P1, the length of the sheet P is measured by counting the time that passes through the sensor 14 that detects the leading edge of the sheet P.
In the processing section, the platen roller 5 sandwiches the sheet conveyance path (via the film 8).
And the thermal head 6 are arranged to face each other, so that a nip portion N is formed between the film 8 and the platen roller 5. In a state where the film 8 is positioned on the sheet P (a state where the sheet P and the film 8 are overlapped), the sheet P and the film 8 move while being heated and pressurized in the nip portion N. Here, when the film 8 is positioned on the sheet P, the image forming surface of the sheet P is in contact with the film 8.
Further, while the film 8 and the sheet P moving together with the film 8 are pressed at the nip portion N, each heating element of the thermal head 6 is heated based on the gloss information for the gloss processing. Thereafter, the film 8 and the sheet P are separated by the separating member 11, whereby a desired gloss treatment is performed on the sheet P.

The platen roller 5 is rotatably attached to the apparatus main body 1 by a shaft 5a. As the feed roller 3 rotates, the film take-up shaft 12 and the film supply shaft 13 disposed in the film cassette 7 are driven to rotate, so that the film 8 has a length corresponding to the length of the sheet P and the length of the gloss processing area. Be transported.
The thermal head 6 heats the film 8 in accordance with the gloss information, and applies a gloss process to the sheet P that is nipped and conveyed together with the film 8. The thermal head 6 is configured to press the platen roller 5 through the film 8. Has been. Specifically, the platen roller 5 is rotatably attached to the apparatus main body 1 by a shaft 5a, and presses against the thermal head 6 when the sensor 14 detects that the sheet P has been conveyed to the gloss processing start position. It is configured as follows.

Therefore, when the platen roller 5 is rotated with the film 8 inserted between the platen roller 5 and the thermal head 6, the film supply shaft 13 and the film take-up shaft 12 having no drive source are driven, and the film 8 is desired. It is conveyed by the length of. The film 8 is wound up by the length of the sheet P, and after completion of the glossing process, the platen roller 5 is separated from the thermal head 6.
The sheet P nipped and conveyed by the nip portion N is guided to the discharge roller pair 9 and is discharged out of the casing, and the gloss processing is completed. As the sheet P, roll paper can also be used.

In the present embodiment, the sheet feeding roller pair 4 allows the gloss processing to be performed a plurality of times while reciprocating the sheet P. However, the present invention is not limited to such a configuration. For example, it is possible to use a platen drum and perform the glossing process while rotating the drum a plurality of times. Further, the platen roller can be directly driven to perform the gloss processing only once in one direction.
Further, the thermal head 6 may be configured to be movable, and the gloss processing may be performed by moving the thermal head 6 within a predetermined range of the nip portion N.
In other words, any glossy process may be performed as long as the sheet P and the film 8 in a superimposed state (contact state) move relative to the thermal head 6.
The movement (conveyance) speed of the sheet P during the gloss processing of this embodiment was controlled to 50 mm / s.

(Energization method)
The energization method is classified into a method of controlling the energization pulse width with a constant number of pulses for the input signal gradation and a method of controlling the number of pulses by preparing a constant pulse width train. The former can design a fine gradation-density characteristic, but on the other hand, the halftone control unit becomes complicated. In the latter case, it is only necessary to prepare a fixed pulse train and reassign the input gradations, and the burden of the halftone control unit is light.However, in order to achieve precise density characteristics, a considerably larger number of pulses than the actual number of gradations is required. It is necessary to prepare. In the present embodiment, the amount of heating applied to the film 8 is controlled by using the former and controlling the width and width with a constant number of pulses.

(Reproduction of intermediate gloss)
The feature of the present embodiment is that when the surface state of the sheet P before processing is different from the surface state of the film 8, the surface shape of the film 8 is changed to the toner (thermoplastic resin) by changing the heating amount. The transfer degree (transfer condition, transfer degree) to be transferred to the material is changed.
Thus, in the present embodiment, the gloss in a state where the transfer degree is changed is an intermediate gloss in the case where the surface shape of the film 8 is transferred as it is. Accordingly, the intermediate gloss includes a case where the entire gloss region is uniformly in the intermediate gloss state, and also includes a case where a part of the gloss region is partially in the intermediate gloss state.

FIG. 5 is an image diagram illustrating how the toner T on the sheet P is deformed. The surface of the toner T output from a copying machine as an electrophotographic image forming apparatus is affected by the shape of the toner particles and has a certain degree of roughness. By aligning the film 8 with such a surface and performing heating by the thermal head 6, melting starts from a toner portion in contact with the film 8, and the toner T is fused to the film surface. Since the portion fused to the film surface is then separated from the film 8 and has a locally smooth surface property, it becomes a microscopic high gloss state.
As shown in the figure, the entire processing region is a state in which a high gloss region Ta and a low gloss region Tb are mixed, and the ratio of the high gloss region Ta and the low gloss region Tb is adjusted by adjusting the heating amount. Can be changed. That is, in the processing region, the gloss can be continuously changed according to the heating amount.
The pulse width modulation described above is advantageous for controlling the heating amount. Since the change in the heating amount according to the pulse width is directly converted into the temperature on the back side of the film, the temperature at the contact portion between the toner and the film 8 can be easily modulated, and the ratio of the high gloss portion can be increased. Surface gloss can be realized.

[Evaluation methods]
(Evaluation method-gross (60 degrees, 20 degrees))
The gloss evaluation was performed by 60 degree and 20 degree gloss. The gloss was measured with a trigloss meter (manufactured by BYK Gardner). As an image used for the measurement, a recording material in which a total of 9 patches including a non-processed portion, CMYK colors, secondary colors, and tertiary colors in addition to a total of 9 colors are added to an A4 size recorded image is output. On the other hand, an image sample in which gross data of about 1 inch square was recorded was created. This image was evaluated by measuring the gloss with the above-mentioned gloss meter.
In the present embodiment, evaluation was performed according to the following criteria in order to evaluate a photo-like high gloss surface.
○: 60 degree gloss is 80% or more Δ: The gloss is less than 80%

(Evaluation method-gloss gradation)
The heating amount control of the thermal head 6 is performed by varying the pulse width under the constant number of pulses as described above. The voltage applied to the thermal head 6 is determined so that the glossiness of the processed image becomes maximum when the pulse width is maximum (100%). For the image data (gloss data) in the glossy image, sawtooth data that sweeps from 100% to 0% from the start of the gloss process to the end of the gloss process was created and used for the output test.
The gloss gradation was evaluated by subjective evaluation of the image processed by the above operation. As the image on the sheet P, a solid image of Bk toner was used.
A: Gloss changes continuously. Even within the gradation, there is no unevenness and changes uniformly.
○: Gloss changes continuously. There is some unevenness in the gradation.
Δ: Continuous gradation that is not binary, but there is little change in the vicinity of 100% and 0%, and gradation is poor.
X: Gloss suddenly appears from the middle of the gradation, and is a binary, discontinuous gradation.

(Evaluation method-sharpness of glossy image)
Even if complicated information such as characters is recorded on the gloss information, it is difficult to visually distinguish the information unlike the density information. For example, it is possible to express gloss effectively by recording a pattern such as a character or a figure with a difference in gloss on an image surface having a uniform density.However, as described above, it is difficult to distinguish information. Whether the intended effect can be exhibited is related to the sharpness of the recorded glossy image.
In the present embodiment, the sharpness of the glossy image was evaluated by the following method. Since minor differences in gloss are difficult for humans to recognize, the gloss information to be recorded was evaluated using a relatively large pattern. The image on the sheet P was formed using a solid image of Bk toner that can easily distinguish the difference in gloss.
As the gloss information pattern, characters such as 36-point Arial Black and Times were output as gloss information, and the sharpness of the characters was judged based on the following criteria by subjective evaluation.
○: Characters can be read and typeface type can be identified.
×: Characters can be read but the typeface cannot be identified.

(Evaluation method-Glossing on white background)
In the gloss processing, it is necessary to secure a certain amount of difference between the high gloss portion and the low gloss portion, and in order to obtain a sense of unity of the image of the high gloss portion, the gloss must be the same regardless of the image density. .
In this evaluation, the glossiness of the white background is evaluated. The sheet P was evaluated on the basis of the following criteria for glossiness differences between the secondary color blue (magenta and cyan solid) portion, the single color (solid Bk toner) portion, and the white background portion (according to the white background conditions of each example). .
◯: The difference in glossiness between secondary color, single color, and white background is 10% (60 ° glossiness) or less.
X: The difference in glossiness between secondary color, single color, and white background exceeds 10% (60 ° glossiness).

In addition, in this embodiment, the surface average roughness of the film surface or the image surface is described. Roughness is a numerical value measured and determined by the following method.
The surface roughness was measured by analyzing a shape profile obtained by optically measuring the surface shape with a surface shape measuring device SX520N (manufactured by Ryoka Systems).
Specifically, the height at each measurement point of 640 × 480 pixels was measured in a measurement area of about 0.4 mm × 0.3 mm. In addition, measurement data was measured with the interpolation processing (Fill) function enabled. The measurement was performed after confirming that there were 90% or more effective measurement points. For the shape data, average surface roughness was obtained by analysis software SX-Viewer (V3.6.8) manufactured by the same company.
More specifically, the shape data was obtained by removing the waviness of the system (cutoff 0.08 mm) and measuring the surface roughness Sa. When there was a defect site in the measured surface shape area, the roughness was determined as follows. Since the defect portion has a low correlation with the actual surface property (glossiness) index, an area avoiding the defect portion was selected to obtain the surface roughness.

  Next, conditions specific to each example will be described for each example and comparative example. The gloss processing apparatus of each example has basically the same configuration as that of the above-described gloss processing apparatus of the present embodiment, and therefore, for convenience of explanation, the same reference numerals are used for the same components.

[Example 1]
Example 1 is an example showing the basic configuration of the present embodiment.
The processed image is an electrophotographic image formed on art paper (SA Kinto + 157 g / m ² manufactured by Oji Paper Co., Ltd.), and image information is recorded on the paper with toner containing a color material. As the electrophotographic apparatus, an image was formed using a copying machine (imagePRESS C1 manufactured by Canon Inc.).
The surface roughness of the toner surface was 0.1 μm, and the 60 ° gloss before processing was 37%.

The film (1) described above was used as the film 8 of the gloss processing apparatus. The film (1) has a film surface roughness of 0.05 μm on the surface in contact with the toner, and can transfer a smooth gloss surface to the toner. Specifically, a transfer film in which a silicon resin coating was applied to a 4.5 μm PET base film was used as the film 8. Moreover, the stick prevention layer is given to the back.
The surface roughness of the toner surface is a large value with respect to the film surface, and approaches the surface property of the film 8 by heating. Surface treatment can be performed such that the portion with a large heating amount has higher glossiness.

  FIG. 6A shows such a state of toner deformation as a model diagram. The surface of the toner before processing has irregularities with various periods on the surface under the influence of irregularities of toner particles, irregularities due to a halftone structure, irregularities of paper, and the like. When such a toner surface is heated through the smooth film 8, the toner is melted in accordance with the heating amount, and the glossiness (gloss degree) is increased. In particular, since the heating and melting deformation proceed with respect to the convex portion, the glossiness gradually increases according to the heating amount. The thermal head 6 can accurately control the heating amount of the partial portion of the image, and the glossiness can be controlled by controlling the heating amount.

[Example 2]
In Example 2, in order to increase the gloss change range, surface treatment is performed by changing the temperature of the fixing device when outputting from the copying machine so that the surface roughness of the toner surface of the recorded image increases. This is an example.
The processed image is an electrophotographic image formed on high-quality paper (Npi quality 157 g / m ² manufactured by Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd.), and image information is recorded on the paper with toner containing a color material. As the electrophotographic apparatus, an image was formed using a copying machine (imagePRESS C1 manufactured by Canon Inc.).
The surface roughness of the toner surface was 0.31 μm, and the 60 ° gloss before processing was 12%.

  The film (1) described above was used as the film 8 of the gloss processing apparatus. The film (1) has a film surface roughness of 0.05 μm on the surface in contact with the toner, and can transfer a smooth gloss surface to the toner. Specifically, a transfer film in which a silicon resin coating was applied to a 4.5 μm PET base film was used as the film 8. Moreover, the stick prevention layer is given to the back.

[Example 3]
Example 3 is an example in which the sharpness of a glossy image, which is a problem when transferring intermediate glossiness partially, is improved. In this embodiment, when intermediate gloss is partially transferred, the heating amount at the edge portion of the heating region is controlled to be high in order to improve the sharpness of the gloss image. That is, near the boundary between the heating area on the sheet P (the area where the glossing process is performed) and the non-heating area, the amount of heat generation is controlled to be higher than the position away from the boundary.
The processed image is an electrophotographic image formed on art paper (SA Kinto + 157 g / m ² manufactured by Oji Paper Co., Ltd.), and image information is recorded on the paper with toner containing a color material. As the electrophotographic apparatus, an image was formed using a copying machine (imagePRESS C1 manufactured by Canon Inc.).
The surface roughness of the toner surface was 0.24 μm, and the 60 ° gloss before treatment was 9%.

  The above-mentioned film (1) was used for the transfer film of the gloss processing apparatus. The film (1) has a film surface roughness of 0.05 μm on the surface in contact with the toner, and can transfer a smooth gloss surface to the toner. Specifically, a transfer film in which the silicon resin coating of the embodiment was applied to a 4.5 μm PET base film was used as the film 8. Moreover, the stick prevention layer is given to the back.

Specifically, in this embodiment, unsharp mask processing was performed for the boundary processing. In the case of gloss processing, it is clear from experiments that edge enhancement at a lower resolution is preferable, unlike a density image. Since the change in gloss can be observed only from a limited angle with respect to the change in density, it is difficult to determine its shape and processing over a wide area is effective for boundary processing. Specifically, by performing processing with a size of about 0.3 mm to 2 mm, it is possible to obtain an effect of an emphasized image and to perform suitable processing that does not become a border image. In this embodiment, an unsharp mask is calculated from a Gaussian distribution to create a filter matrix. The variance σ ² was calculated as about 0.15 mm, and 2σ ² (0.3 mm in this example) was taken as the mask diameter. The above 0.3-2 mm means the size of this diameter. More specifically, an area of 11 × 11 dots (about □ 0.93 mm) was set to have a Gaussian distribution with respect to a writing density of 300 dpi.

  For the heat history process, a technique common to the conventional heat history process is effective. This is a method of changing the heating amount applied to the target pixel while taking into account the heating amount data heated several pixels before the target pixel and the heating amount data of several pixels in the vicinity of the target pixel.

[Example 4]
Example 4 shows a configuration in which the change in gloss is more smoothly reproduced by transferring the surface property of the matte film. As an outline of the present embodiment, a mat film is used as the film 8 and the gloss of the image surface before processing is set high.
In this embodiment, what is transferred by heating is the matte surface property of the film 8, and the glossiness decreases as the heating amount increases. FIG. 6B shows a model diagram of toner deformation in this embodiment.

Unlike a smooth film, the amount of heating is large and the melting of the toner proceeds. As a result, the toner surface captures the matte surface quality (surface shape) of the film 8 and the glossiness decreases.
The glossiness of the toner surface decreases as the heating amount increases according to the heating amount. Thus, by making the toner surface before processing highly glossy and making the film 8 a matte, it becomes possible to change the glossiness according to the heating amount.
By making the film 8 a mat, it is difficult to be affected by the low spatial frequency unevenness derived from paper or toner, and the change in gloss becomes smooth.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing such a difference.
FIG. 7A shows an example of a highly glossy film 8, which shows a situation in which a desired intermediate gloss is difficult to be formed due to the influence of the unevenness of the sheet P when a smooth surface is transferred. . On the other hand, FIG. 7B is a schematic view when the glossy image of the matte film 8 with low gloss is processed on the glossy image, and the matte surface is the film surface even when the sheet P has some irregularities. Since the toner can contact the toner, it is possible to transfer without unevenness according to the heating amount.
Also, with the previous embodiment, it is necessary to prepare inverted data for gloss image data at the time of recording.

The processed image is an electrophotographic image formed on art paper (SA Kinto + 157 g / m ² manufactured by Oji Paper Co., Ltd.), and image information is recorded on the paper with toner containing a color material. As the electrophotographic apparatus, an image was formed using a copying machine (imagePRESS C1 manufactured by Canon Inc.).
The surface roughness of the toner surface was 0.10 μm, and the 60 ° gloss before processing was 37%.
The film (2) described above is used as the film 8 of the gloss processing apparatus. Film (2) has a film surface roughness of 0.7 μm on the surface in contact with the toner, and transfers a matte surface with no gloss to the toner. Specifically, the film 8 is a 12 μm PET film, and one surface is blasted. Moreover, the stick prevention layer is given to the back.
In this example, since the film is a matte film, the film thickness is large, the temperature controllability of the film surface is low, and the heating amount itself is large. In this example, the voltage applied to the head is adjusted and the recording speed is set to 20 mm / Changed to s and recorded.

[Example 5]
Example 5 is an example using an electrophotographic apparatus in which clear toner is used so that the surface property of the film 8 can be transferred to the white background portion of the recording material.
The processed image is an electrophotographic image formed on art paper (SA Kinto + 157 g / m ² manufactured by Oji Paper Co., Ltd.), and image information is recorded on the paper with toner containing a color material. As an electrophotographic apparatus, an image was formed using a copying machine (imagePRESS C1 + manufactured by Canon Inc.).

The surface roughness of the toner surface was 0.24 μm, and the 60 ° gloss before treatment was 9%.
The film (1) described above was used as the film 8 of the gloss processing apparatus. The film (1) has a film surface roughness of 0.05 μm on the surface in contact with the toner, and can transfer a smooth gloss surface to the toner. Specifically, a transfer film in which a silicon resin coating was applied to a 4.5 μm PET base film was used as the film 8. Moreover, the stick prevention layer is given to the back.

  In this embodiment, image formation with clear toner is performed in order to allow glossiness of a white background portion. In addition to the density image, an image is output in which clear toner is overlaid on the entire printable area to obtain a processed image.

[Comparative Example 1]
The processed image of Comparative Example 1 is a recorded image by melt thermal transfer recording.
The processed image is a melt-type thermal transfer recording image formed on art paper (SA Kinto + 157 g / m ² manufactured by Oji Paper Co., Ltd.), and image information is recorded on the paper by a WAX layer containing a color material. As a recording apparatus, image formation was performed using a thermal transfer printer (MD-5500, manufactured by Alps Electric Co., Ltd.) and a melt transfer ribbon cartridge manufactured by the same company.

  The film (1) described above was used as the film 8 of the gloss processing apparatus. The film (1) has a film surface roughness of 0.05 μm on the surface in contact with the image, and transfers a smooth gloss surface to the color material layer surface. Specifically, a transfer film in which a silicon resin coating was applied to a 4.5 μm PET base film was used as the film 8. Moreover, the stick prevention layer is given to the back.

(Evaluation results)
Table 1 summarizes the main structures and image quality evaluation results of each example and comparative example.

As for Example 1, the gradation of gloss that is not seen in Comparative Example 1 is confirmed. In Comparative Example 1, the glossiness was changed by applying stepwise heating, but it was difficult to give an intermediate glossiness.
On the other hand, in Example 1, depending on the amount of heating, the surface property transfer condition changed, and there was a portion exhibiting intermediate surface property (glossiness) which is not in the comparative example. Therefore, with such a configuration, it is possible to impart intermediate surface properties (glossiness) by controlling (adjusting) the intermediate transfer state by changing the heating amount, so that various glossiness can be imparted. Is possible.

Further, in Example 2, the glossiness of the toner image on the sheet P was set to be low, and the glossiness was made richer by performing the glossing process.
Further, in Example 3, by performing gloss boundary processing, the sharpness of gloss such as glossy characters was improved while obtaining an intermediate glossiness, and a clearer and clearer gloss image could be obtained. .
Further, in Example 4, the surface property of the film 8 is lowered, and the surface property of the toner image is made high, so that a glossy gradation property with a richer texture can be obtained, and it occurs when the surface property is partially transferred. Defects (such as the effect of unevenness of the recording agent) are less likely to occur, and better results were obtained.
In Example 5, glossiness can be adjusted regardless of the image density by covering the white portion of the image on the sheet P with clear toner. As a result, it is possible to process the surface property of an invisible image in a multi-step manner, and various glossy expressions are possible, such as widening the use of gloss processing such as copy prevention.

Here, many systems have been proposed in the past that perform uniform gloss processing on the entire surface of a printed matter (recording material), but partial processing has not been possible. In particular, a system that processes different parts in units of one page has not been proposed. Furthermore, the conventional technique has a problem that sufficient gloss is not obtained. The transparent ink layer applied to the film can be easily transferred and processed partially, but when the material itself is transferred, the surface property can be transferred and the gloss can be sufficiently glossy. There was no problem. Further, there is a problem that the ink layer is consumed by transferring the transparent ink layer. Even with the gloss treatment, a transparent ink layer is consumed.
According to the gloss processing apparatus of the present embodiment, it is possible to solve such a problem. That is, in the present embodiment, the gloss treatment can be partially performed on the surface of the sheet using the thermal head. As a result, gloss processing can be performed for different parts on a page basis. Further, by glossing the sheet carrying the thermoplastic resin material with a thermal head, a sufficient gloss can be obtained as compared with the case where a conventional ink layer is used. In this embodiment, since the gloss processing is performed by softening the thermoplastic resin material by heating and deforming it using the surface shape of the film to transfer the surface shape of the film, the ink layer is consumed. Gloss processing can be performed without any problem.

In the present embodiment, by providing a plurality of heating elements, the thermal head 6 enables intermediate gloss processing and further partial gloss processing on the surface of the sheet P. It is not limited to. One heating element may be arranged on the substrate along the sheet width direction (axial direction of the platen roller 5) perpendicular to the moving direction of the sheet P.
In the present embodiment, the gloss processing of the image surface of the sheet output by the electrophotographic image forming apparatus has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the gloss processing apparatus of the present invention is not limited to the powder coating surface. It can also be applied to gloss processing.

5 Platen roller; 6 Thermal head; 8 Film; N Nip part;
P sheet; T toner

Claims (3)

A heater,
A pressure member provided on the opposite side of the heater via a transfer film slidable on the heater;
With
In the nip portion between the transfer film and the pressure member, the sheet on which the image is formed is moved relative to the heater together with the transfer film and is carried on the image forming surface side of the sheet. In the gloss processing apparatus that applies gloss processing by transferring the shape of the transfer film surface by heating and pressurizing the thermoplastic resin material,
A gloss processing apparatus comprising an adjusting means for adjusting a heat generation amount of the heater so as to adjust a transfer degree of the shape of the transfer film surface.   The heating area to the sheet by the heater is configured to be controllable, and the heat generation amount in the vicinity of the boundary between the heating area and the non-heating area can be controlled to be higher than the position away from the boundary. The gloss processing apparatus according to claim 1. The heater has a substrate and a plurality of heating elements arranged on the substrate,
The gloss processing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the adjustment means is capable of independently adjusting the heat generation amounts of the plurality of heating elements.

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